《The Toys of the Fool》 Series Setting Prologue - A Centurys Pass It has been a number of years since the God of War, Weed otherwise known as many things but the most famous to this day as Emperor of the Continent became.....well an Emperor. Since then there has been many new events that have captured the Hearts of the People. The Siege of the Dragons, the Wandering Giants, Birth of the Insects, the First Rebellion and the Twin Moon incident. These events were so big that Weed himself as Emperor could not personally stop them since he had other duties and as a result he has created a new decree that would deal with such things that he had no time for. Namely he took care of the big stuff in secret and let everyone else deal with the ''small'' incidents. With the still rising number of people playing Royal Road reaching a new time record of 10 billion and the declining number of large and small guilds, Weed set up a new system to order and control the new number of players into groups he could use. Independent Guilds were what they were called. Unlike other guilds they were not actually officially recognised as no one in the Ahreupen Empire besides the Emperor and a select few had any control over them in any shape or form whether it was in buildings or taxes. They only worked for the Empire as a whole to improve it and could act in any way to ensure its safety. But breaking the rules was still no allowed since they were all citizens of the Empire.....but its fine as long as they''re not caught. They were also forbidden to directly attack each other since that would be counter efficient and as a result often worked together instead to put to an end to the terrible events that threaten the newly born Empire. As such, they are often deployed to also deal with injustice around the Empire when they are not stopping a monster invasion or something similar. While they are not recognised by the public and nobles, they are given buildings and support in multiple cities which they use as bases free of charge. The building and support they get are dependent on their achievements in the field whether its repelling monsters or arresting a corrupt noble. Because of this, the residents of the continent don''t have a problem with them. They were just considered a bit different from other Guilds who directly rules over them. Because of this there were many of these Independent Guilds popping up over the place claiming they are the best and scamming people. However Weed was more evil then they thought and the Independent Guilds were given tasks they could not complete themselves which tinned their numbers greatly are they realised what they had to deal with. Those who failed where driven out by the residents and their reputation felled dramatically. This was the risk the came with being an Independent Guild. Not many could deal when their Fame decreased so much when they failed. Weed has also made it so that it was very hard for several Independent Guilds to each get credit when they worked together. As such many Independent Guilds joined together creating many sub-guilds in them while others disappeared. The Independent Guilds ''Lion of Heart'', ''Rising Tiger'' and ''Tower Giants'' are such guilds, made from a large number of other sub-guilds. However there are some abnormal guilds that manage not to stick together with other guilds and yet managed to maintain themselves. The ''Geomchi'' are widely known as the best swordsmen in the continent and yet rarely had an increase in numbers and yet completed many tasks even the big 3 guilds struggle with. The ''Wise-men'' were a support guild that did not directly take part in tasks but helped other guilds with information and in turn they help them giving them the achievements they needed to survive among other help. The ''Poisonous Frogs'' dealt in assassinations and other dirty jobs in exchange for achievements as well. There are some guilds like this in the world that are best not trifled with. But all Independent agree that it for the best that none of them would or ever will oppose or even touch one particular guild. The Independent Guild known simply as ''Sleeping Sheep'' or ''S.S centre''. They say the Sleeping Sheep will awake to become a Raging Dragon when attacked. This was merely rumours of course and many have taunted this said forbidden guild thinking they could gain some sort of credibility among those who don''t like such a guild existing. However all of these foolish Independent Guilds vanish after a while without a trace for some reason and the rumours spread even more of their tales. But the real reason unknown to many but the larger Independent Guilds and those who searched a bit in the past. Their situation was due to a Independent Guild called ''Ruler Might'' that once spanned all over the continent and with numbers that equalled to several armies with countless achievements to back them. One day or rather as usual they decided to ''bully'' other smaller guilds which unfortunately also included ''Sleeping Sheep'' this time round. They raided the smaller Independent Guilds'' bases which was against the rules and took and broke what they wanted. As a result the smaller Independent Guilds took revenge by attacking them instead of cowarding away. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. When the Guild ''Ruler Might'' realised they were attacked by several smaller Independent Guilds, they sent their entire army to demonstrate their power to the continent and that even the Emperor Weed could not touch them. Weed of course could kill them all by himself since by then he was the strongest player who had one of the highest level and battle-skills and so on, but he needed other means to control the crowd of Independent Guilds he created without him interfering time and time again. So he simply set the stage and let 3 players of a certain Guild to fight an army of over 10 million by themselves. When the leaders of ''Ruler Might'' knew of this, they laughed out loud and insulted their enemies in live televised footage for the world and history to remember. They talked of how they would build a new empire in their name and how everyone would worship them as the absolute power in the continent. But things didn''t go as planned for them at all. In the Beginning of the Battle, a large Dragon appeared and wiped out a large portion of the army by itself with golden radiances splitting the Heavens itself. The leaders of ''Ruler Might'' were seen frightened and clueless on what to do when their allies were slaughtered by the millions with the world watching and when the Dragon Disappeared they claimed to have slain it or made it run away. People knew this was a lie and ignored it as they were watching to see what happens next. With only half their army left, a number of only 5 million which was still one of the greatest forces in the world, they still claimed to have victory in their hands. Then a Warrior of Light appeared wiping out 2 million soldiers at once without a trace leaving a crater where they were. Then the army started panicking again. The leftover 3 million which they claimed was still a powerful force started to run away but they couldn''t. It was not due to loyalty or anything as good as that, they were simply trapped as a forest grew inwards to them as big as the battlefield at a quick pace that makes you think that someone was causing this to occur, with Golems appearing out of nowhere and killing anyone that was in it. Thus a forest was born from the Blood of 3 million and was dubbed Ruler''s Bane for the future. Such a power which surpassed even the greatest of heroes. It was a power that rivalled and matched even Gods. It the first time such being revealed themselves to the continent in plain sight. The world was on fright as such a thing could happen to a guild even more bigger than the Hermes Guild in the past that once almost conquered the continent. The 3 certain players disappeared without a trace, without anyone knowing who they were. The incident known as the Mystery of Ruler''s Bane was talked about for a long time and many have sought to learn the full truth. However the people of the continent and the people of the world knew only two things. The 3 players were sent by Weed and a message from them appeared mysteriously on the day of the battle. {The Sleeping Sheep awakes to become a Raging Dragon when attacked} Only one, one Guild had any relation to that message. And so the ''Sleeping Sheep'' guild who was once considered a push over guild was feared almost even more than Weed himself. However with time they were forgotten by the masses and considered a Legend but the other Independent Guilds who sought glory always remembered. Remembered that if they wanted to exist then they would never oppose that guild even if it means death or worse. This is a story about a certain 6 people that will join this Legendary Guild that stays in the shadows bidding their time to appear once more. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°What are you planning this time Weed?¡± ¡°The end of Royal Road.¡±
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - This is the beginning of the series! Yay, I can finally post this even though I wrote this last year! To the next....prologue! Series Prologue - The Prophecy of Misfortune When the clock ticks 1, Six new hatchings will arrive unknown to the world. When the clock ticks 2, A Legion will rise. When the clock ticks 3, Randomness will consume the world. When the clock ticks 4, The Warrior Appears. When the clock ticks 5, A Legend will Fall. When the clock ticks 6, Humanity will Fall. When the clock ticks 7, Divinity will be Stolen. When the clock ticks 8, You will be.....buried upside-down in dirt with your legs hanging as you are struggling to get yourself out with the upper half of your body buried tightly....and some people will gather. When the clock ticks 9, Seven Gods will descend. When the clock ticks 10, The Seal Begone. When the clock ticks 11, The Gods Begone. When the clock ticks 12, Darkness Falls When the clock ticks 13, The End will Begin ¡°...¡± Eden was frowning at these words as they came out of this fortune-teller that had somehow managed to track him down and contact him via communication magic calling him to his alleyway. However this alleyway in the middle of nowhere was at this point in time, the most important place in the continent as its future was being told and therefore decided. It was simply because this fortune-teller was also the very same person hundred or so years ago who predicted that freemen will to these lands. Of course back then she was known more as the Holy Seer than a minor fortune-teller. But this didn''t stop Eden was frowning at her behaviour towards him. ¡°Number 8 seemed very detailed for some reason....¡± muttered Eden annoyed at the words that the fortune teller used. The fortune teller, a old hag in her late forties in appearance, smoking at her age shrugged his attitude towards her off. ¡°Well, there wasn''t much there of interest so I just looked in your personal future. Surprisingly, that future is a fixed point in time¡± explained the Fortune teller to Eden. However Eden was left even more confused as he had little knowledge of how time worked except for the basics. ¡°Fixed....Point?¡± ¡°It is a point in time where that event will happen and must happen every single time no matter what. It cannot be changed but can be altered in any way. Say a person''s death was a fixed point in time. How many ways can that man die?¡± Eden thought about it and calculated in frightening speed unlike most people and himself. Only when it came to such evil and horrible things that his mind raced faster than any other. ¡°15315806 ways¡± Eden answered casually. ¡°...¡± The Fortune-teller gave Eden the look of ''Are you serious?'' while Eden gave back the look ''Yes I am serious.'' The fortune-teller sighed at the person in front of her which she dragged in here my force and threats. ¡°Anyway, there is a way you can avoid this future since it most likely will occur while in battle¡± said the fortune-teller. Eden gave the fortune-teller the look of ''I''m listening'', but she stretched out her hand and said, ¡°100 Gold.¡± ¡°...¡± Eden was momentary stunned by her actions of demanding money. However Eden thought back of all the time in which he was in all sorts of accidents that it went beyond the Gods toying with him. It was to such an extend that it seems like a force more powerful than Gods themselves were using him as a play thing for their amusement. As such Eden took out his money pouch and dropped 100 Gold on the table in which the Fortune-teller took with a smile on her greedy face. Such a face was not befitting for someone who was once known as the Holy Seer. ¡°Okay, now I can tell you the way¡± she said with a smile on her face. With this, she could pay for a few things once again which would last a while. Of course she could get money from the kingdom that united the continent together as the Holy Seer but what was the fun of life if she did that and more importantly would that money grabbing emperor allow her to? This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. While Eden has no love for money, he has a hatred of losing money in any way whether its from gambling due to Alexandra, theft die to Alexandra or dying due to Alexandra. Now that Eden thought about it, most of the bad things around happened due to Alexandra one way or another. ¡°Simply act the scenario out before it occurs. That way the action that must occur already happened.¡± ¡°...¡± With those words and no more business with the Fortune-teller, Eden left. He left but at the last step turned around and looked at the shadows with a threatening glance. For a brief moment his fighting spirit was let out, of course by a tiny bit to his standards but every creature within a 100 kilometre radius was scared stiff. ¡°...¡± Upon Eden leaving, the fortune-teller smiled to herself again and called out the person in the shadows. She smiled since the rumours were true indeed. To think that current him was able to detect one of the strongest forces in existence and even scare him at the same time. ¡°So that is the grown up Destroyer. A bit harmless don''t you think? Hey, don''t tell me that you were actually scared¡± the fortune-teller, no at this point it was more accurate to call her the Holy Seer; laughed at the sight of her companion in this dark alleyway. ¡°Harmless to you she may be, but I swear she knew I was there and the aura that was sent to me was enough to kill an ordinary person. Honestly to think that other Gods considered her somewhat tamed¡± complained the other person who was shot with the full force of a ''tiny'' bit of fighting spirit. ¡°But you are..what do they call you? A Heretic God I believed?¡± the Holy Seer now taking on the appearance of a young maiden no more than 20 years of age chuckled. Both the Holy Seer and the Heretic God in the shadow continued to talk about the young and yet old Destroyer that they met. It was something that most being that have a connection to Divinity or Gods could say. It was simply because they had a instinctual fear of Destroyers and this one didn''t even age one bit since he came to this world! ¡°Is it wise not to tell her the actual reason you called onto her?¡± asked the Heretic God. The Holy Seer let out one of the rare true smiles she has left in her, ¡°Of course, he knew for a very long time that this day was coming. It''s only natural since they are ''kin''.¡± The Holy Seer smiled sadly into the distant past. ¡°Wait a minute¡± said the Heretic God suddenly. ¡°What is it?¡± asked the Holy Seer. ¡°Why is it a ''him''? Isn''t the Destroyer a woman? I mean most Divine Beings watched her wedding....even though the husband looked similar to a woman and had Divine Aura in him....¡± The Holy Seer could only stare then a burst of laugher was let out startling the Heretic God. ¡°Hahaha, that''s only because he lost a bet and had to act as the bride to his own wedding!¡±
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Second Prologue down...two more to go Arc 1 Prologue - The Sleeping Sheep Centre The Sleeping Sleep Centre. A low ranking Independent Guild that serves under the Emperor and Ahreupen Kingdom. However it occupies a whole city while others, dozens occupies a single city at a time. It was a low ranking Independent Guild at all, but also something that was akin to a trump card. It was known as something else as well to very few. The First Independent Guild. Another thing that was even less known about it. That the System itself was created for this Guild to move anywhere at any time without restraints. The three leaders of the Guild are known as bringers of Death and Destruction to the battlefields. Where ever they went was not ''Victory'' or ''Failure'' but only ''Annihilation''. However they too remain hidden like the Guild they run. For the strong that prosecuted by the weak, especially those who have no ill will. However most don''t even know this guild even existed. They only have a few true members in the Guild. A dozen or so at most which allows it to remain weak and puny for others to see. Independent Guilds were measured by their numbers even if the system is based off merits. There were only a few beings in Royal Road that can completely overrule logic. But those types of people were gathered in a single Guild. It was the perfect disguise for fools to come This dozen or so are some of the strongest that have ever existed. Three that are akin to fear to the Gods themselves. Six that brought victory to the Kingdom in the light; the strongest of each role. Six that brought only death for the Kingdom in the night; monsters of the highest tier. All of them tells legends and myths of the distant past. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Even to the point that they rival the Emperor''s own legend but remain in the shadows. But all of them unexpectedly disappeared from sight. And so they remain as legends and myths of the distant past. As such they hold another name only to those who known true terror. The Strongest Independent Guild. Led by the three strongest players in Royal Road. Led by those who cannot be considered ''mortal'' anymore, they are true rulers in their powers. Led by those who have enough power to keep the highest power, the Emperor in check. However soon....they will gain extra members. Little Hatchings unknown to the world yet. And soon they will come out of the shadows. All others will fall before them and All others will run from them. Only when a true crisis will they appear. For they are the First and Strongest. For a certain person was unfortunate enough to deal with the numerous crisis that still plague the world.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Third Prologue....one more to go Vol.1 Prologue - Invitation to the New World On a particular day, a certain vehicle parked in 6 particular places and carried 6 particular people to a particular place that all 6 of them didn''t expect to be in. It was the mansion of a certain famous shareholder that literally made Billions off the success of Royal Road. Covering more land then even an airport these 6 ordinary people were sent here for no particular reason. One by one, they got off the vehicle to see this new place that they would or rather could call home for the rest of their lives. Guided by a butler they stood side by side in line in front a certain man who looked quite young compared to his true age. He held a cane in one hand supporting his thin body and had only some grey hair despite being over 70 now. This man observed each and every one of them with interest as if he had gotten new toys to play with. However such thoughts were dismissed as he needed them for much more important things. ¡°You 6 have been chosen for one reason and only one reason. Do you know why?¡± the man asked the 6. However the 6 did not answer as they did not know the reason. The man understood this and answered for them. ¡°The reason is that you are to find my granddaughter in Royal Road.¡± Some of the 6 stiffened while some relaxed but all of them knew that there was some sort of catch to this. ¡°The 6 of you do not know each other let alone saw each other before. Each of you have a common point that may or may not improve your cooperation. You are all Orphans and each of you house a certain Talent one way or another.¡± The man once more looked at each and every one of them. He then noticed that the seemingly average boy had a certain look in his eyes as if he knew what was going on. The timid short girl had a strong resolve despite her shivering, the gentle looking one had no expression at all while the other boy almost had not presence. Then there was the average looking girl that had a fiery look on her face while the other one had the look of intelligence. The man understood that each and every one of them would be someday great people in their own rights whether its in this world or the other world they were to enter. ¡°My Granddaughter is currently lost to us on this side and we do not know her location. Unicorn the company responsible for Royal Road refuses the give me her location because of security reasons¡± the man had a sad pitiful look on his face for a second and continued, ¡°and the Dark Gamers told me that this task was too big and time consuming for them to be considered profitable. So I have to send in a group of people who have one and only one job. Find my granddaughter. She has the same appearance as in real life. My Butler Simon will tell you the rest of the details.¡± Ending his speech the man walked away using cane while the Butler Simon guided the 6 to the place they would be spending a long time at. It was a large room with 6 capsules along with beds and other necessaries including showers and a open area to do things in. ¡°This room is called the Operation Room and will be your homes until you either succeed in your task or ultimately fail. First of all do you have any question that does not relate you this room¡± Simon asked the 6. The average looking boy asked, ¡°What happens if we succeed or fail? And how much time do we have?¡± Simon smiled. ''This boy is certainly going to be the centre of the group'' ¡°It is simple. You succeed, the Master will adopt all of you or let you stay here for however long you want if you prefer. If you fail however, you will be sent back into the Orphanage and we know that some of you don''t get alone with other¡± The butler eyed the gentle looking expressionless boy, the boy with no presence, the girl with a intelligence look and the timid girl. The average looking boy somehow realised this immediately and asked one more time, ¡°You still haven''t told us how much time we get.¡± Simon smiled again. ¡°The time limit is when the Master dies. That will be in approximately 5 years in real life or 20 years in Royal Road. Any more questions?¡± No one else answered and the Butler proceeded to explain all of the equipment and what they can do here. ¡°Besides what you see here, you can request certain information from us to help you. Naturally if we help you, you will be better able to find the Young Mistress. The chefs will provide you will food if you wish and they can cook almost anything you desire and I suspect that many of you will request of this near the beginning. Finally while you are all sleeping in the same room, you are all minors and any kind of inappropriate actions against each other will result in you being removed and replaced immediately. We do not wish this to happen since it will push back the task you have. Also there are other rooms you may visit including the Bathroom and Lounge Room where you may discuss, say who you are to the others.¡± Then Simon left the room that was bigger than they would ever expect. The 6 gathered around in the lounge area in a circle and started introducing themselves to the others. The girl with a fiery started first with a bang. ¡°I''m Maria! I''m 16 years old!¡± Next was the timid looking girl who was forced by Maria to speak next. ¡°I''m Grace....age 13¡± The intelligence looking one with a sigh was next. ¡°Hina, age 16¡± Then it was the expressionless gentle looking boy with little care. ¡°Mark, 15.¡± The boy with the lack of presence spoke before the last boy which shocked the Grace a bit. ¡°Ian, I am aged 17.¡± Finally it was the turn of the average looking one. All 5 of them looked at him with interest since he was the only one who spoke for the rest. ¡°My name is Peter aged 17 as well. Nice to meet you all.¡± With all of them introduced one way or another they then decided to discuss what class and role they would like to be on with the suggestion of Hina. ¡°As we are now a group now, we should first of all find out what kind of role we each would be later on to save some time and prevent accidents where we don''t have a particular role in the group that may harm us in the future. First of all we need a ''Healer'' of some kind. Something to increase health is the most important thing for any party. Next we need a ''Tank'' who can absorb damage and lure other monsters away from everyone else. A ''Scout'' would be nice since they have many functions such as locating and disarming traps and seeing hidden things. Those are the three most important things we will need. Also it is best that we all have races that are appropriate with the role we have and not attract too much attention.¡± Hina explained with restraint as if she had much more to say to the rest of them. ¡°Then what of the other 3 that will have no definite role?¡± asked Peter interested in her answer first. ¡°Yeah! Are we useless then?!¡± demanded Maria with determination to attack Hina if this was the case. With the sudden outburst from Maria, Grace moved away from her and towards Ian who she didn''t really noticed until she got close enough. Hina waited a bit to observe the reaction of the rest of the group to determine which role they were most suited to. Mark still had no expression which was a concern while Ian simply felt like he wasn''t there. Hina made up in her mind to make Mark the tank and Ian the Scout since they suited such roles. ¡°The other 3 can have any other role they want. You can be say a ''Damage Dealer'' which has high attack whether in magic or otherwise or even become a ''Support'' which can do things that can help the party. From what I saw in each of you I can say what kind of role you all will be suited to.¡± The others stiffened a bit seeing that Hina held the flow of the conversation. However Peter allowed her so since she was the one who started the conversation to begin with and did not want to be considered rude. ¡°Grace will be the Healer for starters.¡± she said and paused indicating that the others would discuss her choice. ¡°I can''t....be a Healer....I''ll be a burden...¡± Grace managed to say with great difficulty. A silences loomed over them as they did not want to either discuss or maybe reject that idea of Grace could be considered useless. ''This cannot go on any longer. They need a leader to look to and if I have to then I will be that leader'' though Peter getting the determination he needed from Grace''s frightened face. ¡°I think its a good idea.¡± said Peter. The other looked at him seeing what he would say next. ¡°Grace is the type of person who would be best suited to be a Healer type character. Can you imagine Grace using a weapon or magic to attack let alone kill another creature?¡± Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. The others nodded confirming that he was right. Hina smiled knowing her plan worked. ''This person is certainly the leader type. Though he has little ambition, he''s the type to cares for those he leads and that means he will never betray the rest of us'' ¡°Next is the Tank who will be Mark. I don''t believe you have any objections right?¡± ¡°Correct.¡± Mark simply responded and stayed silent. Peter and Hina knew immediately that something went wrong in his upbringing since he was so obedience to others. ''Most likely due to extreme bullying that was overlooked which resulted in his lack of emotions on his face'' was what the two thought. Hina continued with the next one. ¡°Ian will be the Scout who is the thief type character. They say that your real life skills will affect your in game experience. Your lack of presence is most suited to this role.¡± Ian simply nodded and all three main roles were taken now. ¡°Judging by how this works, I''ll be the Damage dealer right?¡± asked Maria in excitement. ¡°Correct.¡± Hina responded leaving only two people left for their roles. Herself and Peter. One of them had to be placed in the leader role while the other had to be in the support role. However Hina had no intention to be the leader since her opinion would not be the opinion of the group and besides, the conflict in the group would be her responsibility if she did accept the leader role. ¡°Peter you will be the Tactician and Leader of the group who will order this group around.¡± Hina bluntly said. ¡°What?¡± The person who said this was not Peter but Maria who was in a rage now. ¡°Why him?¡± Hina looked at her with little emotion. ¡°Because that''s the only role he''s suited to.¡± she answered. ¡°Why the leader role? Most Leaders of the a group are the ones who deals the most damage!¡± ¡°Namely you? Give me a reason why you should be the leader. From what I saw, there were only two people who could be the leader. Me and Peter and Peter is more suited to that role than me.¡± ¡°...¡± A more awkward silence came over the group as the argument between Maria and Hina started and will most likely continue for a long time. Grace was getting closer and closer to Ian without thinking by being next to Maria while Ian and Mark did not really care at all. Hina and Maria were staring at each other like a predator finding that another predator has its prey in its slight. ¡°Both of you, calm down. I can accept the Tactician role but not the leader role. From the beginning you were the one who were controlling the flow of the conversation Hina so you should be leader.¡± Peter expressed in deep discomfort with the current atmosphere. When Peter said those exact words Maria also turned on him. ¡°Why should she be leader then?!¡± Peter scratched his nose trying to think of a way to explain it. ''She doesn''t realise that Hina just baited her in perfectly and is using that against her yet?'' Certainly what Hina was doing was evil but the more evil one was Peter who just watched all of this happen and didn''t care at all. ¡°Explain!¡± With every word the others considered Maria to be the last person to take charge and then set their sights on Hina or Peter to be the leader. With this, Hina laughed for the first time in front of the group. ¡°Why are you laughing?!¡± demanded Maria. ¡°Now then everyone. Raise your hand if you want Maria to be leader.¡± she ordered. No one raised their hand. Not even with Maria here. The presence of two potentially better leaders and both not wanting the role was much better than one that thought themselves too highly of. ¡°Now who wants Peter to be leader.¡± she ordered again. Grace, Ian and Mark all raised their hand. ''If Hina doesn''t want it then she will never take the role to begin with.'' they all though at the same time though they only known her for a short time. Now knowing that she was outwitted, Maria resigned herself and hoped that she wasn''t permanently exiled form the group. At the same time Peter sighed that his fate was already sealed while Hina smiled knowing that Peter was to take the role. ¡°Why me then. Why did you guys choose me?¡± asked Peter one last time to check if he was to suffer in this role for the next couple of years. Surprisingly Grace was the first to speak this time. ¡°You...spoke...for me.¡± The other two guys nodded their heads to this. An act of kindness was an act of kindness. Both of them knew this from the bottom of their hearts and decided that Peter was the best person to entrust everything to. ¡°You three....¡± Peter did not have a look of gratitude but one of scorn. He looked at the main perpetrator Hina and the victim in this case Maria as well. Maria looked a bit depressed knowing that Peter was to be the leader while Hina simply smiled now not saying anything else. ''I need some way to stop Hina before she controls me in the shadows'' ¡°Then what kind of role will you take?¡± Peter asked. ''So he wants to stop me from controlling him, though I have no intentions in doing so. Might as well make my stand clear'' ¡°I''ll play the support role and will help everyone in battle.¡± she answered happily. However everyone else was not happy at all. ''This is really bad if she decides not to help me'' everyone else thought at the same time. Trying to fit into the role a leader now Peter decided to lead the group now and that means a lot of difficulty on his part since everyone was.....unique. ¡°What city do we start in and what name do we use? And where will we meet up.¡± asked Peter. To everyone''s further surprise Mark was the one who spoke up this time. ¡°Somewhere will less people.¡± ¡°Okay then, I''ll talk to Simon later about that.¡± assured Peter. Soon enough Simon came in and answered the question easily. The place they were to start off in had to fill several conditions. First was that it would have enough facilities that everyone could choose a class they were most suited to, the second was that there were to be less people there and the third was that it was a good place to start their search. ¡°The only place would match the requirements is in section 53.¡± ¡°Section 53?¡± asked Peter. The others were confused as well. When did Royal Road have such a thing as sections. ¡°A while back the Emperor, tired of remembering every last details assigned the entire continent sections where a person''s rule was made clear. In total there are 256 sections in total which do not include the outer 10 dangerous sections which each have their own code:names. Not many use this method though and only the higher ups in the Empire use them frequently. Anyway the place you all will start in is called Witchhelm whose characteristics are a large number of facilities for your needs and the home of not many due to housing only one Independent Guild. There is a large fountain near the where you all should start, so gather there. If you have any more questions please alert me immediately. Do know that you cannot communicate with me directly in game unless you find me and friend me. My user name is Inferna if you ever want to find me.¡± Simon left the room and the 6 decided to start. They all agreed that their heights and appearances should be similar since it would help them adapt to the game better and having similar appearances will help them know who each other are and being average keeps away certain people. ¡°Is everyone ready?¡± Peter asked one last time to confirm that no one was to be left out, even Maria. The 6 went in their capsule and started the game up and was all greeted the same message.
Connect to Royal Road Yes | No
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Last Prologue.....so far. Will probably post some of the volume tomorrow or something like that. TOC, Information and other stuff As a general update on things, click on the spoiler on what to happen later on Spoiler : Instead of the 15 volumes I planned out initially, I increased it to 30 volumes and a total of 9 Arcs for pacing reasons. Basically each Arch after the third will take around 2 years in in game time and the last volume will take place over a year in time. Because of this, it will look something like this. Arc 3: Year 4-5 (Level 200-300) Arc 4: Year 6-7 (Level 300-400) Arc 5: Year 8-9 (Level 400-450) Arc 6: Year 10-11(Level 450-500) Arc 7: Year 12-13 (Level 500-550) Arc 8: Year 14-15 (Level 550-600) Arc 9: Year 16 (Level 600-625) So according to all of this the group will change class at Arc 3, Arc 5 and Arc 8. Also I more or less know what will happen in each Arc but not so much in each volume individually. Well this is going to take a loooong time to finish. The Unfortunate Fool was only 7 volumes long...well 8 if you include that the last chapter was a volume long either way, but this is almost four times the size in sheer content. Which means I have a lot of time to develop my slow levelling characters (Yay) and explore some thing as well. I''ll update this bit by bit when I have the time to do so. Another interesting thing here...the original character design I made before I changed it Spoiler : Person 1 Gender: Female Role: Tactician Element: Light Class: Shaman Commander Personality: A cold kind-hearted leader that commands everyone else based on objectives only and wants everyone to get stronger together. Details: The leader of the group who stays in the centre of the formation attacking or supporting the party and giving out commands. Weapons: Spear Armour: Light Armour Skills: Person 2 Gender: Male Role: Tank Element: Earth Class: Shield Knight Personality: A kind hearted person that wants to protect others even if it means he dies Details: The Tank of the group who has the highest health and defence but lacks powerful offensive skills. However has a large range of support skills that draws the attention of enemies to himself. Weapons: Mace and Shield Armour: Heavy Armour Skills: Person 3 Gender: Female Role: Support Element: Wind Class: Bard Magician Personality: The average person in the group with a personality that doesn''t stand out. She is troubled by that fact and wants to improve herself to help her childhood friend in battle. Details: A Magician that uses the power of songs to empower and support allies in Bluffs. Possess no attack skills but has the largest amount of support skills that gives different effects. Weapons: Harp Armour: Combat Robes Skills: Person 4 Gender: Male Role: Healer Element: Nature Class: Enchanter Druid Personality: A timid person who just wants others to acknowledge him. Is very determined to grow stronger. Details: The Healer of the group which also doubles up as a Bluffer of the group. While the healing ability are less than of a priest, the power to temporary Enchant the abilities of allies is more than enough overcome that. Weapons: Spear-Staff Armour: Robes Skills: Person 5 Gender: Female Role: Assassin Element: Dark Class: Shadow Rogue Personality: A person who keeps to herself and does her job properly. Gets along with the leader due to this. Has some trouble believing that she is useless when the other improve dramatically. Details: The scout of the party and also at the same time one of two direct damage dealers of the party. With the unique ability to use shadows in attacks, attacking with both physical and magical abilities is possible. Weapons: Large number of hidden weapons and short sword Armour: Light Armour Skills: Person 6 Gender: Male Role: Damage Dealer Element: Fire Class: Magic Swordsman Personality: A hot headed cheerful person who is in love with the his childhood friend. He is outgoing and wants to fight strong monsters. Details: While using a sword, has the powers of a Magician to a lesser extent. Mainly using the sword to attack, is also able to use minor spells to bluff attacks and sometimes inflict minor curses to enemies. Weapons: Sword Armour: Medium Armour Skills: Seeing this, Sain and Shadow were originally designed to be female while Lyndis and Serena were meant to be male at first. Also their roles seemed more defined here...kinda got mixed and matched in the actual writing as I added more and more things on. This will be more or less the place for questions and answers. Naturally there will be a TOC here as well. Series Setting Prologue - A Century''s Pass Series Prologue - The Prophecy of Misfortune Arc 1: The Guild Known as the Sleeping Sleep Centre Arc 1 Prologue - The Sleeping Sheep Centre Volume 1: The Birth of New Gamers Vol.1 Prologue - Invitation to the New World Vol.1 Chapter 1 - The Tactician Vol.1 Chapter 2 - The Tank Vol.1 Chapter 3 - The Druid Vol.1 Chapter 4 - The Magician Vol.1 Chapter 5 - The Rogue Vol.1 Chapter 6 - The Sword Priest Vol.1 Chapter 7 - Defeat and Victory Vol.1 Chapter 8 - Kobolds and Goblins Vol.1 Chapter 9 - Goblin Chief Vol.1 Chapter 10 - The Wandering Zolerd Vol.1 Epilogue - Despair and New Hope Volume 2: The Sleeping Sleep Centre Vol.2 Prologue - Invitation to the Guild Vol.2 Chapter 1 - Show of Power Vol.2 Chapter 2 - The Super Easy Relaxing Training Vol.2 Chapter 3 - Explanations and Gifts Vol.2 Chapter 4 - Individual Training Vol.2 Chapter 5 - Guild Quest Vol.2 Chapter 6 - Dragon Crossing Mountains Vol.2 Chapter 7 - The Demon King Vol.2 Chapter 8 - The End of the Guild Quest Vol.2 Chapter 9 - The Eternal Dungeon Vol.2 Chapter 10 - Behemoth Vol.2 Epilogue - New Beginnings and Returns Volume 3: Side Stories of Foolishness Vol.3 Prologue - Empowerment Rejected Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.Vol.3 Chapter 1 - The Beginning of Things Vol.3 Chapter 2 - Conflict of Interests Vol.3 Chapter 3 - The Burning City Vol.3 Chapter 4 - A Day Off Vol.3 Chapter 5 - Return of Viv Vol.3 Chapter 6 - A Past Remembered(I) Vol.3 Chapter 7 - A Past Remembered(II) Vol.3 Chapter 8 - A Past Remembered(III) Vol.3 Chapter 9 - A Past Remembered(IV) Vol.3 Chapter 10 - A Past Remembered(V) Vol.3 Epilogue - New Trip and Goals Arc 1 Epilogue - Coming to Reality Arc 2: The Trial of the Emperor Arc 2 Prologue - The Tale of a lost Legend Volume 4: The Adventure of Travelling Vol.4 Prologue - Kidnapping Children Vol.4 Chapter 1 - Rules to Travelling #1: Preparations Vol.4 Chapter 2 - Rules to Travelling #2: Survival Skills Vol.4 Chapter 3 - Rules to Travelling #3: Train Basic Skills Vol.4 Chapter 4 - Rules to Travelling #4: Always be Alert Vol.4 Chapter 5 - Rules to Travelling #5: Explore Places Vol.4 Chapter 6 - Rules to Travelling #6: Do Not Trust Strangers Vol.4 Chapter 7 - Rules to Travelling #7: Find your way Vol.4 Chapter 8 - Rules to Travelling #8: Fight through Trouble Vol.4 Chapter 9 - Rules to Travelling #9: Learn about some Truths Vol.4 Chapter 10 - Rules to Travelling #10: Explore a Cave Vol.4 Epilogue - The End of a 6 Month Trip Volume 5: The City that Lives Vol.5 Prologue - Lily City Vol.5 Chapter 1 - The Laboratory (I) Vol.5 Chapter 2 - The Laboratory (II) Vol.5 Chapter 3 - The Laboratory (III) Vol.5 Chapter 4 - The Laboratory (IV) Vol.5 Chapter 5 - The Laboratory (Final) Vol.5 Intermission - School Life Start! Vol.5 Chapter 6 - Eden Academy Vol.5 Chapter 7 - Tournament (I) Vol.5 Chapter 8 - Tournament (II) Vol.5 Chapter 9 - Tournament (III) Vol.5 Chapter 10 - Tournament (Final) Vol.5 Epilogue - In the End Vol.5 Extra Chapter - Trying to change his gender Volume 6: The Three Fallen Warriors Vol.6 Prologue - To Stall for a Year Vol.6 Chapter 1 - Time Passing Vol.6 Chapter 2 - Moonight Town Siege Vol.6 Chapter 3 - The Mines Vol.6 Extra Chapter - The Day Christmas Froze Vol.6 Chapter 4 - Returning back to Training Vol.6 Chapter 5 - Whole Bunch of Stuff Vol.6 Chapter 6 - Hunting a Chimera Vol.6 Chapter 7 - Released from Training Vol.6 Chapter 8 - To Break the Limit Vol.6 Chapter 9 - A Side Effect Vol.6 Chapter 10 - Demon Worshippers Vol.6 Epilogue - A Bridge to the Next Stage Arc 2 Epilogue - The Coming of a King Arc 2 Extra Chapter - To try and learn proper magic Arc 2 Extra Chapter - I am a Magic King Arc 2 Extra Chapter - Marriage Consoling Arc 2 Monologue ¨C The Thoughts of Six People Arc 3: The Warrior King Arc 3 Prologue - The Appearance of a King Volume 7: The Transformation of Six Vol.7 Prologue - Their Meeting Once Again Vol.7 Chapter 1 - The Second Trial Vol.7 Chapter 2 - Repeating Deaths Vol.7 Chapter 3 - The Prize and Punishment Vol.7 Chapter 4 - Training is Endless Vol.7 Chapter 5 - Complicated Reasons Vol.7 Chapter 6 - Into the Night Vol.7 Chapter 7 - Towards a new City Vol.7 Chapter 8 - Boss Battles and Unique Drops Vol.7 Chapter 9 - Conflict among Friends Vol.7 Chapter 10 - Where Light and Dark Meet Vol.7 Epilogue - Where they Part Vol.1 Chapter 1 - The Tactician ¡°Yes!¡± With almost a shout Peter closed his eyes to the sudden bright light. No it wasn''t a bright light, the room, place he was in now was completely white. Also he wasn''t standing on anything. It was a strange feeling to not stand on anything. Such a thing was similar to being in water, only without the risk of drowning. ''I do hope that this progress of creating a character is smooth'' Peter had a slight fear that something may go wrong and the only time something goes wrong is when he doesn''t expect it. ¡ª The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? ¡°Yes I would like to.¡± Peter was being polite to the AI as it was integrated into him as a orphan. As an orphan, the best way to get along with other ''normal'' children and their parents was to act polite. Parents naturally feel pity for him while most other children copying their parents also act this way. Because of this school was quite a leisure activity for Peter. ¡ª Select the name of your avatar. ¡°...¡± ''Now I think about it, I''ve never thought of a new name for while I''m in game. What should it be....it has to be good or else I may end up deleting my character'' Again, as an orphan, Peter rarely had the chance to play video games let alone own a character in even the oldest games that have faded into history with the rise of Virtual Gaming. However it wasn''t like Peter never played some sort of game before. In his childhood the Dorm Manager for the orphanage as quite kind to Peter and he played a number of games like chess, shougi and the likes. Eventually they got into role playing card games that someone kindly donated for the orphanage. Over time Peter began to see more than other children, other adults at time and he used this as an advantage. This time, he would apply this into the game. With great hesitation, with great fear that this was a bad idea, Peter spoke. ¡°My name will be Sain.¡± Peter felt more nervous than he did when he wet his bed the day before he and the other children were to be visited by people who may want to adopt. Naturally Peter wasn''t picked over the weak looking and almost mentally disabled children whom Peter protected from bullies. ¡ª Select your gender from male, female or neutral. ¡°Male¡± Peter didn''t even blink an eye at this question. They have all agreed that choosing the same gender as they were was the best bet. One, it would be a lot less confusing and two, there may be some issues... ¡ª Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine. ''Should I choose another race besides human? No, if I want to lead everyone it''s best to be average and not have any advantages and most importantly no disadvantages'' ¡°Human¡± ¡ª You may alter your appearance ¡°May I view myself first?¡± With those words, an exact image of himself was created in front of him. As a male, a human being, he was also quite dissatisfied on his appearance. Hina did also say that we may alter our appearance a bit, just not enough that we are unrecognisable. Peter considered himself to be very average. As a 17 year old, he was at the end of his growth in height at a good 180 cm. There were a number of people taller than him and a number of people shorter than him. Why would he change that? As for his body, he wasn''t really fit and the game did not feature any kind of major advantage to having thick muscles only for it to disappear by being lazy. ''Height and Body are fine. What about my face and hair?'' He looked at himself carefully observing every fault he had. After a good minute he simply gave up on altering his face. He considered his hair fine as well. It was a short brown colour and didn''t stand out. ''So in the end I was fine with my appearance? No! For a chance like this, I have to change something!'' ¡°Change hair to colour dark blue! Instead hair length by 3 cm!¡± he ordered the AI with command. In an instant the body in front of him, his avatar changed and looked more like a side character in a cartoon rather than a protagonist. Satisfied and unwilling to go through that again Peter or Sain said, ¡°I am done.¡± ¡ª Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Please Select a city and kingdom you want to start. ¡°Witchhelm¡± Peter remembered the city Simon told them and decided it was best that was to meet up with the others instead of doing something stupid. ¡ª Welcome to Royal Road. With another bright light, his body was engulfed with light and his adventures began. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Peter, no Sain opened his eyes, he saw the majesty known as the greatest game. Everything looked so life-like and it literally felt like he was transported into a new world. He looked around to find himself in the middle of the road surrounded by people moving around, shops shouting to get customers and most importantly the fact that he would stay in this place from now on. Well at least until the entire group decides to level up by slaying monsters like in legends. ''Now I have to find that fountain....oh there it is. And there''s a person there already?'' He walked to the fountain to to find that the person named Mark in real life was there already. Sain was around 20 metres away from the fountain but he could see a small Mark there. Well he wasn''t going to call Mark, Mark until he tell his game name. ''Did he just skip the character creation and went in game already?'' By the time he got to the fountain which also housed a couple other players, there were another two people with Mark as well. They were to his understanding Grace and Hina. 10 metres in there was Ian mixed in with them....or was he there to begin with? When he did reach the fountain he said, ¡°Is everyone here yet?¡± Hina answered, ¡°Maria isn''t. She''s late!¡± with an irritated voice as if this was some kind of nuisance. A wry smile appeared on Sain''s face as he watched everyone. Ian and Mark were just standing there silent while Grace was looking around wildly as if a ghost was haunting her and Hina...Hina was getting mad at the late Maria. In appearances Ian had black hair and eyes now, Mark didn''t change his appearance while Grace and Hina were elves I think. Grace''s ears were a bit less pointy then Hina''s and Hina had golden eyes instead of her dark born eyes as well. All of them pretty much looked the same in real life as in game. ¡°So are we going to introduce ourselves while we wait for Maria?¡± Sain asked thinking that Maria was most likely changing her avatar''s appearance at her leisure. ¡°We might as well¡± sighed Hina, ¡°Anyway I''m called Miriel now so call me that. I''m a Night Elf.¡± ¡°Raven, Human¡± said the person named Mark. Grace somehow managed to speak out loud in front of us, ¡°I''m called....Serena...a Half-Elf...¡± Then it was Ian''s turn and all he said was, ¡°Shadow, also Human¡± Sain smiled knowing all of their new names now and introduced himself. ¡°I''m Sain also a Human. Anyway we should friend each other while we can. Um...how do I do this?¡± Sain said with confused on what to do. Miriel sighed and said quickly, ¡°Send Friend Request to Sain, Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡±
Miriel sent you a Friend Request. Accept?
Some sort of floating message appeared in front of Sain''s eyes. No matter where Sain turned his head the message still stayed there. He clicked what was the ''Yes'' button in the air and another message appeared.
You have accepted the Friend Request
''To think such a thing was in this game. Well it should be similar to the other games I''ve played except that I was the character instead. Anyway I should friend the others as well'' ¡°Send Friend Request to Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡± said Sain trying to imitate Miriel with her success in sending friend request. After a minute of trial and error on Serena''s part where the system couldn''t recognise her words and Mark not speaking at all. Eventually all 5 of them friended each other with the exception of Maria who has yet to turn up. Miriel was tapping her foot in anger while the rest of the group took the time to look around the place. Sain smiled at Miriel as she was being impatient. ''It seems like she didn''t want to start without Maria'' After a further minute where Miriel was considering killing Maria over and over again in game, she appeared with a smile. She looked the same except that she had slightly red hair and also pointed ears which meant she was also an Elf like the other two girls. ¡°I''m here~¡± she cheerfully said. She expecting everyone to greet her with a kind smile but reality wasn''t so kind. Miriel went up to her and whacked her head with her fist. ¡°Ow! Wait, what''s this message I''m seeing?¡± she cried in exclamation. ''Its most likely the game saying that you were hurt'', The four that were not in a two man comedy thought to themselves. ¡°Your late!¡± shouted Miriel in rage. Maria could do nothing but weep in the force known as Miriel that the others including himself quickly noted to not piss off. ¡°Anyway sent a friend request to everyone of us. No, tell us your name and we''ll friend you. It''ll be much quicker that way.¡± Miriel said with dominance over Maria. ¡°My name is Lyndis, a normal Elf.¡± said Lyndis the Elf in a quiet voice acting submissive. Knowing her name Sain sent her a friend request immediately, ¡°Send Friend request to Lyndis.¡± The others also did so as well and finally all 6 of the group were here. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°First of all you guys know how to open your inventory right? Just say open Inventory and a window saying what you have will appear which should be 10 pieces of Rye bread and a Canteen of Water. You can refill the Canteen using a Fountain like this but you have to buy Rye Bread for 3 Copper each. Try it out.¡± said Miriel instructing the group on how to play the game. ¡°Open Inventory Window.¡± said the 5 together.
Inventory - 10 Pieces of Rye Bread - I Canteen of Water - No Money
Another window appeared in front of Sain''s eyes like the one in video games. ''Well this was a game after all.'' Everyone looked and pointed at the window that was only visible to themselves. Sain tried taking out a Piece of Rye Bread and it appeared in Sain''s hand. ''This looks....very hard to chew'', everyone thought seeing the Rye Bread in Sain''s hand. ¡°Anyway next is the Status Window which you will see all of your stats and such. Same thing as the inventory, just say Open Status Window.¡± ¡°Open Status Window¡± said the 5 again.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Sain,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleNone
Health100
Mana100
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]10,10[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]10,10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
In front of Sain''s eyes was the window that would govern his life from now on. The most balanced race Humans had pretty much the same starting point with no advantages and disadvantages at all. The Elvish races were more towards the magic side and less on the physical side. ¡°Okay now that you know your status window, we have to talk about distributing stats. Know that it is better to be a master of one than a master of many. However don''t let it stop you since its your character and we don''t need to be something like the strongest. Now let''s go our separate ways and find a class in these 4 weeks we have. Don''t aim for the hidden classes since they may take too much time to get and don''t just resolve yourself on being one of those common classes people get. I''ll see you guys here in 4 weeks time.¡± said Miriel before running off to find whatever class she could get. Sain looked at the others and decided it was time to do some work to pass the time. [p=center]xXx[/p] As Sain was walking away from the others who all seemed unsure on where to go but still walked, he thought about what Miriel said and sighed. ''She is so much better suited to be leader than me. Why did she push this role on me?'' Sain looked around to find that there were parties of players in groups enjoying themselves. ''Will we be like that? Well we have to get to our starting points first before that.'' Without knowing it Sain reached the information guild where they give you a class based on your stats. The guild will never give a player a class on their first day since they would not have developed any stats at all. But Sain still entered the place that was filled with other players and NPCs alike. In there Sain stood out like a sore thumb. He looked around the main entrance place of the information guild. While messy it held a certain charm and people were exchanging information on various topics. Bounties, Prices, even the status of individuals were talked about freely in this place. ¡°Hey you there.¡± ¡°?¡± Sain looked around to find the voice that called to him. It was a man with a harden face like he had seen some battle....or just a farmer who worked really hard. Sain walked to him and he started a conversation with Sain. ¡°I can tell from glance that you are new here. New in the sense that you are new to this world. Why are you here?¡± asked the man. ''Why is he asking me this?'' thought Sain before he answered truthfully, ¡°I don''t really know. I was just wandering around and ended up here.¡± The man looked shocked and then burst into laugher. ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA. I never heard such an answer before! Usually your folk that come here want to get some class from over there¡±, The man pointed to the counter where the people worked, ¡°Whether they finished the 4 week requirement or not. I have seen dozens of people go there in their first day wanting a certain class they can''t have. Why they ask. Its simple, don''t think you can get everything you want, especially if you just arrive!¡± the man roared. Sain noticed that the whole place went quiet when the man started speaking and Sain could heard every word the man said clearly instead of having to strain his ears in hearing him. Everyone else in the room seemed to have looks of respect to the man for some reason. ¡°Who are you?¡± Sain asked without hesitation. Sain wanted to know who and what was this man who easily quieted a place with just talking. The man looked at Sain closely. ¡°Who...? Hmm....you have a good look on your eye. You see more than others think and a straightforward personality. I can fix that later though....right! I''m called Gen and I will be your teacher for now on. Come with me.¡± When Gen said those words Sain could''ve sworn that a couple of jaws fell to the ground. There was an immediately amount of gossip already circulating around the room and it increased when Gen dragged Sain out of the guild. ¡°Seriously who are you? For such a reaction to happen like that, you must be well known or famous around here.¡± said Sain struggling to keep up with Gen in his fast walking. ¡°We''re almost there¡± said Gen ignoring the words that were coming out of Sain''s mouth. ''Is he always like this?'' After a couple of hours of walking or running to Sain a certain message appeared in front of him that gave him mixed feelings.
Stamina is below 10%, it is recommended to rest
Hunger is below 30%
Stamina increased by 1
The stat increase made him happy since it would mean he could go 10% longer than before but on the other hand it took this much effect to increase the stat by just one. Also his body was tired and he was also hungry. Still he continued to follow the back of Gen that didn''t say a word at all and just continued to keep on going ahead. Sain didn''t even have time to look around because if he did, he felt that Gen might disappear. ¡°Are we there yet? My stamina can''t take more and my Hunger is low as well.¡± complained Sain to Gen. This time however Gen did respond by stopping in front of him suddenly which almost resulted in Sain tripping over trying to dodge him. ¡°It has been 8 hours and 34 minutes since the trial ran. I say that''s a good score. Much better than the others I tested,¡± Gen looked at Sain with a smile and said, ¡°Congratulation you are now my apprentice. Of course if you accept.¡±
Become Gen''s apprentice By clearing the hidden trial set by Gen, you can become his apprentice which will give you several options. - You will live with him until your apprenticeship finish - You will be fed food - You will be given training directly from him - Will gain the title ''Tactician Apprentice''
Sain looked at the box closely and even though the first three options were really good for a beginner what caught his eye was the title he would gain. ¡°Tactician? You''re a tactician?¡± Sain asked only to but responded by an even wider smile. ¡°Anyway I accept your offer.¡±
You have become the apprentice of Tactician Gen
You have gained the title ''Tactician Apprentice'' - Leadership will increase by 1 - Luck will increase by 1 - 5% more authority when commanding people
Sain smiled that his stats increased. Though Leadership and Luck do not have a visual effect, it does its work in small ways and it is said Leadership is one of the most hardest stats to increase since it requires you to command an army. ¡°Now that you''re my apprentice officially, I can tell you that the trial was following me for as long as possible. The reason is simply to test your stubborn nature. A tactician must always looks to see other ways of altering the fate of the battle. We do not accept death nor defeat we will use any method to get what we want!¡± Gen said pumped up, ¡°But on its core level its just seeing and knowing what to do. Anyway let me take you to my place and feed you first. You look like a starved wolf¡±, Gen laughed and led Sain to his home which was a two story building that looked perfectly normal. The inside was not so normal. There were books everywhere and some small figurines that were shattered around the room. Maps and notes were stuck everywhere as well. ''How many years did it take him to produce all of this?'' Sain sat down on a chair as Gen brought him what looked to be dinner. However when Sain was about to take the food Gen stopped him. ¡°You''re new in this world so you don''t know about the taste of Rye Bread. Until you meet my standards you will only eat Rye Bread. I will make sure of that. You freemen have been given some supplies right? Eat up.¡± Sain could only look in shock as the Dinner that looked like for at least 3 was eaten in less than a minute by Gen. Sain could not do anything as his stomach rumbled at the sight of the food that was quickly consumed by Gen. When Gen finished he said, ¡°I''ll meet you upstairs when you finish eating.¡± However Sain knew that you could starve to death in this game and he didn''t want his first death to be starvation at all. Because of this he took out a Rye Bread and started chewing on it. ''This is.....really hard, dry and almost tasteless....'' Sain did not expect the Rye Bread to taste like anything better but he had his hopes still. Sain almost cried at the fact that there was really good food in front of him but he couldn''t touch it. After two pieces of the Rye Bread his Hunger increased back to full and his stomach while still dissatisfied with the poor taste in food, stopped rumbling. Then Sain remembered what the Butler Simon said. ''The chefs will provide you will food if you wish and they can cook almost anything you desire and I suspect that many of you will request of this near the beginning.'' He was right, Sain did really want to log off immediately and get some good food. But he still had things to do and he believed the Gen would not appreciate that his new apprentice just disappeared out of nowhere. Sain also took out his canteen and drank some water out of it to offset the dry taste of the Rye Bread. Sain thought to himself, ''I better make sure that I meet his standard quickly'', before heading upstairs to start his first lesson. [p=center]xXx[/p] The room upstairs was much cleaner than the one downstairs. However it didn''t change the fact that it still had lots of books, small figurines and stuff pasted on the walls. ¡°Ah! Apprentice, I was just cleaning up. Now that I think about it, I don''t know your name. What is it?¡± he asked. Sain frowned and thought, ''That should be the first thing you should ask!'' ¡°Sain.¡± ¡°Ah, good! Sain, get over here. I''m going to explain what being a tactician is.¡± Sain went over to where Gen was and sat down on a chair that Gen gave him. ¡°A tactician is someone who holds the life of those he commands even more so than the Healers. You will learn how to analyse the battle perfectly in real time. Each choice you make, every order you give will affect the life of your comrades. So, did you come to this world with others?¡± Gen gave a look of concern at Sain. ''Why is he asking these types of questions?'' Sain answered, ¡°Yeah, 5 other people.¡± ¡°Then have you guys assigned roles yet?¡± he asked again. Sain frowned, ¡°You sound like Miriel.¡± and he sighed. ¡°Whose Miriel? Right, one of your companions I believe. Anyway tell me what kind of role they are taking. Then I can teach you or than the general stuff on how to lead them to victory.¡± ¡°Well...there''s a healer, tank, scout, support and most likely a damage dealer.¡± said Sain nervously. ¡°Boriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! But stable. That''s good! The roles are boring but the class they may get may be more than of one role. This part will get interesting later on. What kind of class would a tank have? Naturally they have high health but that is not always the case! They could have average health but an ability to negate damage or someone else has the power and cast it onto the tank. They could also have low heath but high evasion, average health or high health regeneration or life steal as well. Do you see Sain? Just because someone has a role, it doesn''t mean that others can support that person in his role. A tactician must see everything...and decide. That is all the tactician does. Decide. Directing the battle yes but are you really going to tell your comrades when to attack an enemy or when to heal? No! That''s their job. Anyway there are 6 of you and I presume you are splitting up to do whatever in 4 weeks and meet again? Yes? Good! That gives me time to polish you. Anyway this is the the first of three parts of your training. Do you accept?¡±
Complete Theory Training with Gen Requirement: Apprentice of Gen Reward: Stats
¡°I accept¡± said Sain
You have accepted the Quest
Gen took out 6 figurines and placed it on a large table that is on the centre of the room. He stopped and said, ¡°Come on then. Its nearly night and I want you to at least remember the basics before you sleep.¡± Sain moved to the opposite side of the large square table and Gen took out another 3 figurines out that were painted red. ¡°The 6 that are not painted are you and your friends. The ones painted red are enemies you must kill. Both of us will decide what class they are and what kind of basic skills they have.¡± Gen took out a piece of paper and threw it at Sain with a quill. ¡°Here, write down the names of the 6, preferinly you and your friends and their role and class.¡± he said while writing down on his own piece of paper. Sain looked at the piece of paper which had tables on them and numbers at the top. Then on the second row there was the label names then, role, class, skills and other characteristics. The figurines had numbers on them as well, 1 to 6. Sain quickly wrote down the names of his friends and their roles onto the paper but he could decide what kind of class they would be. ¡°Finished yet?¡± Gen asked, Sain answered, ¡°No.¡± Gen had a confused look on his face, ¡°No? You''re stuck in the class part aren''t you. Don''t worry about the skills and other characteristics part for now, put anything down for the class part. I''ll give you a hint. Think of what kind of class fits your friends.¡± Sain thought about it deeply. ''Serena is the healer so it makes sense she would be a cleric while Shadow who has a lack of presence would be a assassin. Mark could be a warrior while Lyndis would be same or a mage. Miriel....I have no idea, she seems to be the type to be a mage though she did say she was to be a support character.'' Sain wrote down the class that would best fit everyone except himself. He did not know what kind of class would fit him at all and left it blank. ''To be honest, what kind of class does a tactician have?'' When he put the quill down Gen snatched the piece of paper and read it to himself aloud. ¡°Let''s see.....the healer is a cleric, scout is assassin. There are other things they could be but its fine for now. Tank as a warrior! Isn''t that a bit too offensive? Well it still better than the damage dealer being both a warrior and mage at the same time! And the support as a mage as well? That''s a good joke!¡± Gen looked at Sain with a serious look. ¡°The most important thing you screwed up is what class you are!¡± ¡°But I don''t know what kind of class a tactician will have.¡± answered Sain as if Gen asked him a question. ¡°Sigh¡± Gen moved his face into his palm which had its elbow supported by the table. ¡°A tactician can literally be any class though it is better for you to be a support type class since they are usually at the back and can see the situation clearly though I know several tacticians that fight on the front lines. Honestly it goes down on not what you can do but what you want to do.¡± he explained. ''In that case....'' ¡°Is there a class that can do most things required in battle?¡± Sain asked honestly again. With that question Gen smiled again as if Sain''s question was perfect. ¡°The only class that can do that is the Shaman class. While they are not a master of anything they can do almost anything in general. Fighting with weapons of all kind and using Magic of all Kind as well. However as a result they are much weaker than their counterparts that specialise in one area. Have you heard of the phase, better to be a master of one than jack of all trades?¡± ''Yeah I have. It came out of Miriel''s mouth.'' ¡°Anyway I''ll give you a class later on when we start the second half of the training. The first half however will be all about the theory and trust me the theory doesn''t help that much alone. It helps when you can recall it immediately in the heat of battle and that is why I am going to pound into your head all kinds of information about classes and roles and tactics in battle that can either save your life or end it. Now look at the table closely.¡± Sain looked at the table which had a drawing of a forest on it. ''That''s strange....that drawing wasn''t there before.'' ¡°This table is a magic item that can project and simulate a live battle. The paper was made to give characteristics to the figurines. See those slots on the ends of the table? That where you place the figurines and you just place the paper you write on in the centre like so¡±, Gen took both pieces of paper and place them in the centre of the table which created some reaction from the table as the figurines was dragged into place in the holes on the side of the table. Then some image appeared over the table. It was a forest but there were 9 figures that looked like humans inside of it though they looked like cibi versions of normal people and kinda cute. Three of them were red while six of them were blue. Both Sain and Gen were looking over the battlefield. ¡°As you can see the table made the figurines into creatures on the table with the battlefield. Right now the figures you see are at their basics with just a role and class each. If you add in skills and characteristics they have then they will become more unique. You control the figures using your thoughts, what''s that look apprentice?¡± Sain was still stunned that such a thing exist in this world. He knew that this world was realistic but for it to have something similar to a game... ¡°Nothing at all Master. I never knew that such a thing existed in this world.¡± ¡°Of course not! I made it with great difficulty and I''m not giving it away! Anyway you press your hand on the slate at the end to control the figures with your thoughts. Try commanding one of to move.¡± Sain placed his right hand onto the slate and thought, ''Move forward.'' but nothing happened. ¡°You have to think of the figure''s name and then command them. They do have names you know.¡± Sain once more tried and thought, ''Raven move forward.'' then the figure in the warrior outfit moved forward stopping after a few steps. Sain then realised that each of the figures had a certain costume. The one who was made after Raven was a warrior which he wrote down while the one representing Serena was a Cleric. Shadow as an assassin, Lyndis was a swordsman and Miriel was a mage. The one representing Sain was a Shaman that had a staff and a sword. ¡°Okay now, first I need to pound a certain something into your head. But first let''s start.¡± Gen''s figures were a warrior, mage and archer. Three very basic classes but they moved much quicker than Sain thought. ''Raven and Lyndis block them!'' The Raven and Lyndis figure moved in front of the charging warrior and tried to block them but one of them was blasted away into pieces by a magic bolt and the other was shot by an arrow. The warrior kept running and killed the Serena figure. ''Shadow and Sain attack the warrior!'' he ordered but it was too late. Another magic bolt and arrow flew and killed the two. The projection faded away leaving the table blank again. ''What just.....happened?'' Sain thought as the battle ended. ¡°If that was a real battle you and your friends would''ve been dead. Of course this is a fake battle to prepare you for the real thing, but when you see your friends die then you will definitely lose your cool and make mistakes. Anyway think of this for tomorrow, there''s a room over there you can sleep in. Get some rest, I know you''re not in your best state since they have been running with me for over 8 hours straight.¡± Sain did what he was instructed and went into the room where he was going to sleep. The room was completely empty except there was a bed and window for air. Exhausted from the day Sain lied in the bed sleeping but not soundly. The last words Gen gave him still echoed in his head. ''If that was a real battle you and your friends would''ve been dead.'' [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Okay now, I''ll tell you a trick in using this thing. Don''t send precise thoughts into it. If you do at most you will only control one perfectly, two if you try hard. However you have to move all six at the same time. Another thing, I made sure each of the figures can have one skill each for starters. We will increase the number as we go along. Also a changed a couple of classes as well¡± Gen gave Sain a piece of paper which was the character sheet things for the table game.
Charcter Name: Sain, Raven, Shadow, Lyndis, Serena, Miriel Role: Tactician, Tank, Scout, Damage, Healer, Support Class:Shaman, Shield-Man, Assassin, Swordsman, Cleric, Mage Skills: Mana Bolt, Shield Bash, Back-Stab, Strike Heal, Magic Bolt
When Sain and Gen started the next simulation the figures appeared again thought a bit different. Raven''s figure had a shield now instead of a big sword and everyone''s figure looked a bit different in small ways though Sain couldn''t tell why. It was as if the figures had a life on their own. On the opposite side of the table Gen had his three figures that were now three warriors instead. ¡°I changed them so it makes it easier for you. Also it means I can''t one shot you immediately.¡± he smiled and said, ¡°Start!¡± moving all three warrior figures forward. ''Move Raven and Lyndis in, Miriel and Sain attack from behind, Shadow run around the side'' Both the Raven and Lyndis figure moved in but the warriors pushed back and the attacks from Sain and Miriel hit the two killing them. The third warrior move again for Serena. ''Shadow, Back-Stab!'' The Shadow figure moved in and back stabbed the warrior figure that was going to attack the Serena figure and killed it. However the other two warrior figures moved in and chopped the Shadow figure into pieces before finishing the rest off in no time. When the table reset itself Gen started scowling Sain. ¡°You are still thinking too much! Do you think that your friends and allies will move exactly like you want?! Each of them are individuals who will fight and defend by themselves. Its your job here to imagine properly how they react. However your use of the Shadow figure wasn''t so bad. It moved more naturally than the other two so I presume you sent it a single command.¡± Sain nodded and Gen smiled knowing that his apprentice was doing much better than the others he picked up. ¡°Let''s try again. We''re not going to stop today until you manage to beat me.¡± Gen reassured Sain. Once more the table lit up the image and the battle started exactly the same again. Once again Gen moved all of his warrior figures using two in front and one behind. ''Sain and Miriel attack, Raven and Lyndis on the side and Shadow protect Serena, Serena heal when needed'' Both the Sain and Miriel figures fired their magic bolts into the warriors and damaged them but it not destroy them. The two damaged warrior figures fell back and let the one undamaged warrior figure charge forward into the centre of Sain''s formation. ''Raven block!'' The Raven figure moved in front of the warrior figure and blocked the attack. However the two warrior figure from behind the attacking warrior figure move around its comrade and struck the Raven figure on the sides killing it in one go. ''Attack!'' The Lyndis figure moved in to attack but it was quickly killed off when the three warrior figures ganged up on it. The Sain and Lyndis figure fired and one of the injured warrior figures took the blow dying while the other two moved in to attack the Sain and Lyndis figures. ''Shadow Back-Stab!'' The Shadow figured moved in again and stabbed the injured warrior figure. Part of the figure cracked but it was still alive and it killed the Shadow figure before dying. The last remaining warrior figure quickly killed the Sain and Lyndis figure in a moment and killed Serena last again. ¡°Slightly better. Why aren''t you using your healer? It''s there for a reason you know. Also your figure has a sword as well you know. You can use it to defend Miriel if the others get through your line of defence. Also your assassin isn''t moving much until the critical point. And let''s try again.¡± Once again for the second time today, the simulation started again. Before Gen indicated the battle to start, Sain moved the Raven figure in front at the centre with the Shadow and Lyndis figure behind it on the side. The Serena figure was set on the very back next to the Miriel figure and finally the Sain figure at the centre. ¡°Hmm? It looks like you finally decided to make a proper formation. Any let''s start!¡± Once again Gen deployed the same strategy of using force to break through the figures Sain controlled and kill everyone as quickly as possible. ''If defending doesn''t work. Attack!'' With that thought the Raven and Lyndis moved forward to intercept the warrior figures that charging straight ahead. The Shadow figure moved to the right in a oval path to the warriors as well while the Miriel figure moved right as well and the Serena and Sain figures moved to the left at the back line. The three warrior figures moved to the left hand side away from the main attacking force Sain sent. However one of the warrior figures still attacked the Raven figure and were locked in a stand still battle. ''Raven Shield-Bash! Miriel, Sain attack the other two!'' With his command, both the Miriel and Sain figures fired their magic bolts to the Warriors and one of them was hit but still alive. While as the Raven figure was having a slight advantage over the warrior figure it was fighting now. The Lyndis figure which was forced to fight two warrior figures was in deep trouble and could at most take one on even though one was injured. ''Shadow Back-Stab the injured on! Lyndis Strike the other!'' The Shadow figure moved quickly and attacked the injured warrior figure killing it in one shot as it was facing the Lyndis figure. Whereas the Lyndis figure was being suppressed by the warrior figure. ''Serena Heal! Sain and Miriel help Raven!'' With a small light the Lyndis figure was healed by the Serena figure while the Sain and Miriel figure blast holes into the warrior figure that was locked with the Raven figure. Finally both the Lyndis and Shadow figure managed to kill the final Warrior figure. With that ended the first victory of the day for Sain. Gen clapped his hands for Sain who had tremendous potential in this kind of field and learning how to direct a battle in three simulations. Such a thing did not occur very often or rather it never happened before since it usual takes tens if not hundreds of battles to control the figures properly. ''I can train him to be something special though it will depend on how much his friends trust him.'' though Gen was also thinking on what to do next. ¡°In that case, Sain we will battle until you get more used to the simulations. Also I''m going to increase the number of enemies by one every time you beat me. After you reach 2 more victories then we will start on certain skills¡± said Gen confidently that it will take at least another 3 days until Sain would get to that point. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Master I have defeated you twice now. When will we start the next part of the training.¡± asked Sain concerned that he was not progressing fast enough. Gen on the other hand was concern about something else more important. His pride. In the very same day he had instructed Sain to defeat him twice in the simulation battles, upping the difficulty by a level each time, Sain did just that in a total of 14 battles 5 hours after Gen had confidently estimated that Sain would take another 3 days to do so. ''This boy has too much talent. He may become a monster like that trio in the future. Anyway I should stop for today. Progress too fast or slow is dangerous to the apprentice¡¯s confident and attitude. I must keep him challenged without stalling his progress until he sees ''that''. Maybe I should use the same strategy as last night to make him think about the skills I will tell him about. Yes, that will do for now'' On the other hand Sain was thinking the opposite to his master. ''Do I really lack that much talent that Master will intentionally stall his lessons to make sure I don''t fall behind? I need to get better fast!'' ¡°Sain, now that you have completed this step, it is time for you to learn about skills. After that will be certain characteristics you may find on your side or the enemy side and then it is the study of tactics. Are you ready for this?¡± ¡°Yes Master!¡± Sain replied hoping to learn more and more quickly. ¡°First of all you must learn that Magic is one of the most powerful force will have and will encounter. If not for the fact that Magic takes time to cast often too long, and the fact that there are many brute idiots in this world, I fear that magic may be the only occupation there is. Therefore I will teach you first on how to deal with spell casters and the like. As you know there are many different elements and many different types of spells. However thankfully most Magicians and Sorcerers chose one element or area to specialise in.¡± The words ''Better to be a master in one than a master in many'' once more echoed in Sain''s mind. It was the words both Miriel and his Master had said. ¡°However there are always exceptions. There are some that are strong enough to use multiple elements and types of magicks. These people are usually called Arch-Mages but they are very very few in numbers even in history. Also there are some magicks that are used more commonly than others. The use of Ice magic is more wide spread then say water magic as the element Water isn''t suited for battle.¡± Sain nodded. He thought that at most water magic would bring some rain or splash some water here and there. ¡°However if proficient enough again, it is still a very dangerous magic. I''ve known a man....or was a woman? Hmm...I better check on that later, that used Water Magic I never seen before completely wipe out creatures without struggle at all. The enemies who were aqua life of the sort were swept away without a trace.¡± ''Is that even possible?'' thought Sain in slight disbelief. He had never heard even in the rumours when some people talked about Royal Road about a skilled Water Mage before. ¡°Even creatures that live in the water cannot go against water magic of that scale. Do you understand apprentice, that it is not the Magicks that make a being dangerous, it is the power behind the being that allow the magic to take place.¡± Gen had a very serious tone right now as if he wanted Sain to remember this for the rest of his life due to a past mistake. ''Did something in the past cause him to hate himself?'' with a mixture of concern and curiously Sain asked very carefully, ¡°Master what happened for you to want to make sure I don''t repeat the same mistake?¡± Gen took a shock on how his apprentice could see into his heart. It was rare for such a person to process such insight on just a mere day or two on knowing a person. ''At least its better than seeing into the hearts of people he just met'' Gen thought both complimenting his apprentice for having such abilities beyond his age and contemning him for using it on him. ¡°It is simple. I tried to hit on a person and that person didn''t like it. ''She'' used various types of magicks I''ve never seen before and eventually just beat the shit out of me after her companion healed me. Then I forced to do various ridiculous things with my comrades for her. The incident I used was just the tip on the iceberg on how she demonstrated her skill or rather power in magic. Because of this I became quite good as a tactician.¡± ''I see, so he was whipped into shape by that person'' ¡°Mind you, that many other people faced fates worse than me. She was quite fond on the use of torture.¡± Gen said with some regret. The atmosphere between Master and Apprentice soon turned into a session on how to treat women. [p=center]xXx[/p] The following day Sain and Gen met up again to discuss what they ''forgot'' about yesterday. Gen made the excuse, ¡°This is also a very important skill as well.¡± However Sain had to say, ¡°What kind of skill is that?¡± and so Gen pounded in the attitude that Sain had to be respectful and submissive to all women which is unpounded soon after when he realised he made a grave mistake. To sum it up, there was no progress at the end of the day. ¡°Cough¡± Gen looked at Sain to see if there was some sort of respect left in him after what happened the previous day. Thankfully Sain wasn''t the type to judge people on one event. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°Anyway from where we left off yesterday. There are three things you must remember with the relation to skills. First is to be always wary of magic, second is to be wary of surprises and the third is to be wary of what your allies do.¡± explained Gen in a serious tone compared to yesterday. Sain on the other hand was confused on the third point. ¡°Master, why must you be wary on what your allies do?¡± he asked. Gen scratched his chin and said, ¡°Sometimes your allies aren''t your closest friend. Unless you know every kind of magic they can cast, you must be wary since they could do something you cannot expect and that can and will disrupt your view of the battle. Also if you don''t know what kind of magic they can cast, for all you know they are attacking you instead of the enemy.¡± ''In other words know your allies as much as your enemies'' ¡°Now to explain the types of magic you may face and see. First of all some magicks are split into different elements while others do not have an element to speak. We categories this was elemental magic and root magic. Elemental magic is what it sounds like and its just using the elements in different ways and effects. They are the most classic and most used ways on using magic because of its high destructive power and often low cost. The person I was talking about yesterday specialise in this kind of magic. Usually people will go for one main element and one sub element since like I said yesterday, better to be a master of one then many. However there are still those who can use multiple at once. As for Root magic....it is difficult to say. They can range from being more basic than elemental magic and much more advanced than elemental magic at the same time. Root magic affects reality, such as summoning magic where you summon a creature from somewhere and create a creature to summon. Another one are curses that dark mages use and buffs that certain mages and priests use. While they usually don''t have an element, some root magic can also be elemental magic as well. Anyway Root magic is much more difficult to handle and use per say. The only true way on dealing with Root magic is to be flexible in dealing with it. That''s it for the lecture for magic skills. Do you have any questions before we move onto weapons?¡± ¡°Are you going to give me details on what kind of magic I may face?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Yes and No. I will explain the ones you should know but most of the stuff you will be learning is from the books.¡± Gen answered, ¡°Anything else?¡± Sain shook his head. ¡°Okay then. There are many many different types of weapons. To name them all is too much of a hassle but in a general note they are the sword, axe, spear and bow. The sword category is the largest with short swords, long swords, bastard sword and so on. The length and size of the weapon decides the speed and power of the weapon. The shorter the sword, the lighter it is and the faster it is as well. The longer and larger the sword the more power it has. However there is also the aspect of range as well. A long sword can be either thin or thick. The thin version is much faster but weaker in strength while the thick version is slow but powerful. Both have good range but not many people use them due to the difficulty. Similarly the Axe is the same as the sword except that its power will be much higher than the sword''s but its range and speed will be low. However there are Axes with great lengths which require lots of power to use. The Spear is the opposite with the greatest range but lacks the power. Its speed can vary on its length as well but never oppose a spear with a short weapon unless you want to die. Finally there is the bow with is much different from the other weapons as the only long range one. There are three sizes a bow can be which are small, medium and large. The small size has the fastest firing speed and the least damage while the large bow has the most power but slowest firing speed.¡± Gen took a few breathers before talking again. ¡°Now weapons have many skills along with them. Most of them increase the power or speed of their attack while some give certain effects on the target like stun or paralyse. Then there are attacks that involve adding a element in them like making your sword burn with fire energy to deal fire damage alone with your normal damage. Then there are skills that affect the body itself. Back-Stab is an example of this. It moves your body to behind the back of the target to stab them. Its a basic skill but certainly effective if used correctly. Ok now I''m going to add skills on both sides for the simulation battles!¡± Gen started writing down a number of different skills for the simulation for both himself and Sain. [p=center]xXx[/p]
You have completed the Theory Training You have gained: + 5 Intelligence + 5 Wisdom
4 days later and 1 week since Sain started the game, Sain had completed the theory aspect of the training. However Gen had not started on the more practical aspect yet. There was something more important than that for Sain. ¡°Sain you have 3 more weeks to complete the training. However you have met my standard of the level you students should have. And because of that, you will be eating the same meal as me from now on!¡± Gen brought out what seemed to be a feast for Sain. To be honest it was plain meat that was either undercooked in some way and burnt at the edges. But it was still much better than the Rye bread. Sain cut a large portion for himself and started eating. He chewed the meat for a moment and then stopped. ''This is.....really bad.'' he thought but he kept on chewing after that, ''Still better than the Rye bread. I hope someone gets the cooking skill.'' Sain thought of Serena, Raven or Shadow being able to cook. For some reason he could not imagine either Miriel or Lyndis cooking. After the short meal that has improved his view of Gen if it wasn''t already full of respect, Gen took Sain outside. The light hurt his eyes and he had to wait for it to adjust painfully. ''Now I think about it, its been a week since I''ve been outside.'' Eventually Sain was taken to what seemed to be a barracks with other people there training. An old man wearing a knight outfit came up to Gen and said cheerfully, ¡°Oh, Gen I heard you have a new apprentice. So how long will this one last?¡± Gen smiled and said, ¡°This one may just finish. He''s up to the practical part after finishing the theory part yesterday. It''s been a week since he started.¡± With those words the old knight combed his beard as he looked at Sain with interest. Sain on the other hand was nervous that he was in a place with people staring at him like something interesting. ¡°Anyway Park, did you find one as well?¡± asked Gen. The old Knight named Park smiled at this question. ¡°The one I found also came up a week ago. He handles hits well. A bit of a pretty boy but can get quite...angry at times.¡± ''A pretty boy that''s going to be a tank....it can''t be.'' ¡°That person is called Raven right?¡± Sain asked cautiously. Park looked surprised and said, ¡°You know him? He''s not of a talker but he does his work. He''s the one with the large wood shield on his arm facing three attacks at once.¡± Sain looked over to see a lone figure taking hits from the other trainees. While most of the hits goes to the shield thanks to its large size the three trainees sometimes manage to hit Raven on the side when he blocks another attack. ¡°He said he wanted to be a tank so I''m giving him the best training for one. We have a Healer on standby just in case which I believe is another one of your friends. See the short one with the wooden staff on the side? She comes along for a couple of hours each day since 4 days ago to help with Raven''s training. She heals him when his health goes down too much. Apparently its for her training as well and it helps Raven''s training as well.¡± explained Park. Sain looked at the side where he found Serena and another person. A woman that looked young with her talking quickly and Serena nodding her head. ¡°Anyway I have to go now. If you want to meet your friends then wait 3 more hours. They just started.¡± Park walked away back to the other trainees. As Sain watched his friend get hit and not hitting back Sain asked, ¡°Master why are we here?¡± Gen grinned mockingly and said, ¡°You don''t know? To increase your physical abilities. Since you''ve ace the theory training in record time, you''ll have 2 weeks to finish the physical training. After that is actually teaching you skills. First of all join that group of new trainees and run with them. See you in a couple of hours.¡±
Complete the Physical Training for Gen Requirement: Apprentice of Gen and complete Theory Training Reward: Weapon of choice
No knowing what to do about this, Sain walked to the group of trainees and asked to join them which they readily agreed seeing that Gen as his Master. Sain made a mental note to find out who exactly was Gen since every question he threw about him wasn''t answered. The other trainees numbered 10 exactly and Sain was number 11 in the group. ¡°RUN!¡± With the sound of a shout from one of the instructors the group ran together at a steady pace. However this pace was not fast enough for the instructor at all. ¡°FASTER!¡± And so the group ran faster than before but not sprinting. 5 minutes in Sain knew why his Master told him to do this kind of training. In the simulation his figure could move quickly but in real life in the game, he could not. This training was so he could do the same thing as in the simulation. Sain was running out of breath quickly but he wasn''t the only one. A couple of other the trainees were slowing down without knowing and the overall speed of the group was lowered. ¡°WHY ARE YOU SLOWING?! FASTER!¡± shouted the instructor seeing this decrease in pace. Everyone groaned with the exception of Sain who knew that the instructor was making sure everyone was running at the same speed as before. It wasn''t that the instructor was increasing the pace but restoring it. Another hour passed as everyone ran and 2 people dropped out and was quickly beaten up by the instructor. Sain was also considering giving up but a certain notification kept him going.
Agility has increased by 1
In the next 2 hours a further 6 people dropped out exhausted to the point that they didn''t even react to the instructor beating them up. In the end there was only Sain and two other trainees running with him. Both of them looked really athletic compared to Sain and Sain knew he was the odd one out that was most likely to drop out next. However on the sidelines Gen, Park and the other woman who was most likely Serena''s Master had a hunch that Sain was going to be the last one standing. And they were right, after another 3 hours it was only Sain running alone around the barracks. The other two long retired to the beatings of the instructor while Sain pressed on alone.
Stamina is at 15%. It is recommended to rest now
Another 10 minutes passed as Sain ran at the same pace
Stamina is at 5%. You must rest!
His body became really heavy when that message popped up and Sain collapsed on the ground. In the end Sain ran for 6 hours straight and gained a total of 2 Agility and 1 Stamina from this run. ''Damn I ran for that much and it only increased by that much'' was the last thoughts Sain had before he blacked out. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Now Serena, there are three things we can heal. The first is the easiest of the three which is physical damage or health. The second is a bit more difficult which is healing stamina. However the hardest and nearly impossible is mental damage. You do not have the skills yet to heal even health yet but you can help the body in its process of naturally doing this. This kind of skill is called Regeneration. Use Stamina Regeneration on this friend of yours.¡± said a female voice that at times sounded hazy for some reason. ''What is this voice? Why do I feel so....tired?'' ¡°Yes Master. Minor Stamina Regeneration!¡± ''Is that voice Serena? I don''t remember being so....not timid'' For some reason it felt like Sain''s body was becoming less heavier faster than before. ¡°Good! Now remember that such skills have a cool down but they can be stacked. It takes 10 seconds no matter how skilled you are to cast this spell again. Skills are require no cool down are rare but often weak. But as the strength of the user increase, the strength of the spell does as well. Now keep on ''healing'' him until he wakes up.¡± ¡°Yes Master.¡± Several minutes or hours later Sain opened his eyes. He was in a room he did not know. It was most likely one of the barrack room but the thought of waking up somewhere unknown was still a slight fear he had. He looked around to find, ¡°Serena?¡±. There was a short girl that was most likely Serena since she looked exactly the same as her. No she was her and Sain was a bit confused since she seemed different from before. ''Perhaps she changed a lot in this past week.'' ¡°Oh, Sain your awake.¡± said Serena in surprise. She wasn''t shocked by all the things that happened without her knowing anymore. Perhaps the training with that woman helped her in the aspect. ¡°Yeah, what happened after I collapsed?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Both our Masters took you here and let you sleep. After that my Master used you to help me with my training¡± she replied looking straight into my eyes. ''She really changed. In the short amount of time I knew her she would be the shy and timid one and now...'' Sain tried to get up from the bed but he couldn''t. He could move his arms and legs properly but getting off the bed was something he could not do. It did not help that Serena was also pushing Sain down on the bed as he tried to get up. ¡°Don''t move!¡± she shouted pointing her staff at me most likely trying to threaten Sain. Not believing that Serena would hurt him Sain tried to push her aside. BANG
You took 30 damage
Sain was whacked back by some sort of blast coming from the staff. He hit the back of his had on the wall thanks to this. Serena took this opportunity to try and restrain him with ropes and started to tie him to the bed. ¡°What was that loud noise? Sain are you okay....¡± Gen and Serena''s Master were both at the door which was opened. Everyone stopped at that moment in shock. Sain and Serena were shocked that their masters were here and the masters were shocked at what their apprentices were doing. What was worse was that Miriel and another woman similar in age to his own master was there was well. However Gen smiled first and said, ¡°Do you two need some space?¡± Turning red Serena slapped Sain on the face and got off him saying in a fragmented sentence, ¡°It...it...it''s not...wha..what..it...look...likes.¡± before running off out of the room. Serena''s Master chased after her leaving Gen and Sain in the room. Miriel and her master followed as well but not before Miriel gave Sain a certain look of disgust. Before Gen could even comment on what just happened Sain said, ¡°Master¡±, Gen looked at his apprentice who was just slapped, ¡°Can I get some of those lessons on how to treat women?¡± Gen smiled that his apprentice was ''growing up''. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°So what happened was out of your control right?¡± asked Miriel once more who just happened to be there visiting with her Master. It seemed like their Masters knew each other for some reason and all of them were respected to a certain extent. ¡°Yes. I tried to get off the bed and Serena tried to prevent me which....led to ''that''.¡± Sain replied as many times as Miriel asked. Serena by this time already went back with her Master to continue with her training. ¡°Anyway how are you going for your training?¡± asked Miriel wanting to know what happened to him in the past week. ¡°Finished the Theory Part in a Week, up to the Physical Part.¡± answered Sain immediately. ¡°Hmm....I heard from my Master that your Master Gen is really tough on his apprentices. Apparently most of them drop out after spending several months on the Theory Part. What was the theory part about anyway?¡± she asked again more curious than before. ¡°It was mostly him talking and the Simulation battle things.¡± Miriel was deep in thought thinking on what this simulation battle thing was until a voice interrupted her thoughts. ¡°For someone to complete that in a week. Impressive.¡± It was the Master that was training Miriel. She was similar in age as Gen but still had her young looks with her. She was dressed in a dark blue mage outfit. She walked in the room where Sain was still on the bed and Miriel sitting next to him and gave a small grin to Miriel as if she knew something was up. Miriel stared at her Master for a moment but let it go and started the conversation. ¡°What exactly is this simulation thing Master?¡± asked Miriel. Her Master replied, ¡°The simulation thing is a sort of a game where you control small figures that move against enemies though your thoughts. I know this is difficult since I made the damn thing. Only Gen was able to perfectly use it until now. I suppose you were able to go 6 on 6 against him and win to get to this part of your training right? Gen was complimenting you all the way when we went drinking the other day. Even Park found you impressive because of yesterday.¡± Sain was becoming red behind the ears. He was not used to such straightforward compliments. However Miriel''s mood seemed to get worse for some reason as a result of this. Noticing this Miriel''s Master said quickly, ¡°I believe Park and Gen are looking for you now.¡± With that, Sain left Miriel and her Master behind in the room where there was a loud scream not long after he left. ''I see that Miriel didn''t change'' Sain thought to himself as he made his way to the open area where training was held. There Sain found that Gen and Park were talking about something while Raven was put through what Sain could only describe as ''Hell''. Trying to not notice the strange sounds that was coming out of the machine Raven was on, Sain made his way to Gen and Park. ¡°Oh Sain, you finally recovered. Do you prefer a sword or spear?¡± asked Gen almost not concern at all about his well being in the slightest. ¡°Spear.¡± Sain said immediately. He knew that swords were much more common but ever since a long time ago, he had been brought up on stories of Heroes using Spears to defeat their enemies. The most famous on being a certain Chinese hero that recruited talent no matter their status. Park looked like he lost a bet to Gen. No, he did lose a bet to Gen since he handed him some coins which were most likely gold coins. Park then handed what looked to be a wooden spear with the tip that wasn''t sharpened at all. ¡°Since you will often won''t be on the front-line unlike Raven over there whose getting a beating right now¡±, Raven was being forced in the same machine again for another run with several other people. All of them but Raven were screaming to have mercy, ¡°You don''t have to be skilled at fighting, only enough to protect yourself and possibly the Healer girl.¡± Park pointed Sain to what seemed to be a scarecrow used in the Beginner Training Centres he had been hearing about so often as a way to increase your basic physical stats. Sain started poking the scarecrow at different points and sometimes swung to whack it. At times Park would come over and give him some tips before going back to torture...train Raven. And so 2 Weeks passed by... [p=center]xXx[/p]
You have completed the Physical Training Stats generated during this time: - Fighting Spirit - Endurance Total Stats Gained during this time: - Strength +11 - Agility +13 - Stamina +15 - Vitality +14 - Fighting Spirit +15 - Endurance +5 Collect reward from Gen
When this message appeared Sain immediately checked his stats to see what it was compared to the beginning of his training.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Sain,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleTactician Apprentice
Health380
Mana125
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]21,23[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]15,15[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]24,26[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]25,15[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]1,1[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,13[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
5% more authority when commanding people
With that message Sain went to Gen who was relaxing in the shade and said, ¡°Master I finished the training.¡± When Sain said said those words Gen immediately got up and handed him a spear. It was light but was made of iron. It was ? of his height and Sain could swing it around fine. ¡°Okay now to finish the last part of you training, I''ll need you to accept this class. Don''t worry its a common one and if things goes right than you''ll get a better on later.¡± he said.
You have been offered the class ''Shaman''. Do you accept? The Shaman class is not the most powerful but it allows the user to use all kinds of combat and magic skills. While it does not have the bonus of double experience for skills at all, there is no penalty in any skills. Shamans are seen mostly as those who have contracts with creatures and summoning them into combat but can also use countless other types of magic.
¡°Yes.¡± replied Sain.
Class has been changed to ''Shaman'' Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom +10
Sain checked his new stats again.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Sain,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,Shaman[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleTactician Apprentice
Health380
Mana175
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]21 +10,23 +10[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]15 +10,15 +10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]24,26[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]25,15[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]1,1[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,13[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 5% more authority when commanding people - Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom +10
Sain got a moderate increase in his stats. However Sain did not have time to be impressed by his new stats or be depressed by it.
Complete the Skills Training with Gen Requirements: Apprentice of Gen Reward: Unknown
With that Sain got another quest and the finally part of his training. ¡°Okay then, come with me Sain.¡± said Gen and Sain followed him to a place that was not that far away from the Barracks where Raven and Park were. Like the Barracks it was a open place with targets around. However unlike the unmoving scarecrows, these ones did move though through some mechanics. Over there he thought he saw two familiar figures. One was dressed completely black and jumping over obstacles and the other was a red haired elf that was swinging her sword smashing the flying objects that were sent to her. They were Shadow and Lyndis whom Sain had not seen yet in the past 3 weeks. With them were what Sain presume were their Masters. One of a petite looking girl dressed in purple and black while the other was a young man that looked like a nice person if not for his intense gaze that keep people away. ¡°You already met Park. The Master of the Healer girl is called Mel while the Master of the other girl is called Jenny. The short one is called Anna while the other guy is called Ron.¡± Gen explained. When the two entered the place suddenly something was thrown at them. WHACK Gen immediately used the spear that was in the hands of Sain a moment ago to whack the objects away and continued walking to the other Masters. ¡°It has been a while you two. Again Anna, you don''t have to attack me every time I enter this place.¡± Gen sighed as Ron smiled and Anna was annoyed at the fact Gen didn''t even flinch at her attempt to kill him. ¡°So this is the new apprentice that you''re so proud of. Anyway the elf girl whose breaking those targets is my apprentice while the other one is the new apprentice of Anna whose do those jumps and such¡± Ron pointed at the two who seemed to be ignoring him and continuing their training. ''Might as well talk to them for a bit first'' thought Sain ignoring Ron. ¡°Hey you two!¡± shouted Sain. Both Shadow and Lyndis both stopped what they were doing and went to Sain smiling that they saw their friend again. ¡°It has been a while.¡± said Shadow who was still fading away in the background. ¡°Yo! How''s it been!¡± Lyndis hugged Sain and patted his back after letting him go. Sain blushed when Lyndis hugged him and Shadow merely smiled at the sight. Ron frown at the attitude Sain was getting instead of him while Anna smiled knowing that she would get along with Sain. ¡°It''s been a good 3 weeks. Although it seems like I''m the last one to make even some progress in skills.¡± said Sain mockingly. Gen whacked Sain in the head and said, ¡°I told you that learning skills was the last part of your training. Anyway let me give you some skills first before you start your reunion with another girl¡± Gen winked at Sain.
You have obtained the Skill Identify
You have obtained the Skill Mana Bolt
You have obtained the Skill Party Scan
Leaving Sain with 3 skills Gen went to Anna and Ron to wait for their apprentices to finish their talk. ¡°Anyway what have you two been doing for the last three weeks?¡± Sain asked. The first one to answer was Lyndis. ¡°Long story short I met Ron, became his apprentices like everyone else did with their Master and started my training as a Magic-Swordsman. Basically you combine both into one and my class is that. I''m training to bring both strength and intelligence up.¡± Then it was Shadow''s turn to talk, ¡°Like Lyndis, I met my Master and started my training after she saw that I had potential for it. She more or less made me into a rouge which is the middle ground between a thief and assassin. I''m currently training to improve my agility and such.¡± And finally it was Sain''s turn to talk. ¡°Well the first week I have been learning all about tactics and the other things I need to know. Then the following two weeks I drilled in the same place as Raven to improve my physical abilities and now I''m going to learn all about how to use my skills.¡± Sain said quickly. ¡°Sain! You finished yet?! I only have a week to teach you all you need to know now, so get here!¡± shouted Gen. Although a bit reluctant, Sain made his way to Gen who was setting up some target leaving Shadow and Lyndis back to his training. xXx As Gen was setting up the machine that would serve as Sain''s training, he was explaining the use of the skills he gave him. ¡°First of all the Identify skill is used to identify items that have not been identified before. Identify the spear I gave you. Just say Identify while holding the spear.¡± Sain took his new spear and said, ¡°Identify!¡±
Iron Spear Durability: 50/50 Damage: 6-7 A spear made from low-quality iron. While it processes low attack, it has a long range that''s useful in pushing enemies away Options: - Strength +5
In front of his eyes, a status window for the Iron spear he got. ¡°You done yet? Good! Okay now, the lesson for the use of Mana Bolt will be set up soon. Open your skill window to find the details of all the skills you have.¡± said Gen trying to put one part into another which did not make sense for Sain. ¡°Open Skill Window.¡±
Skill Window
- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 2 - Identify Beginner level 1(1/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 1 (0/100)
Sain had 4 skills right now of the maximum 10 number, but he has a class now so that restriction is lifted to an unknown number. Sain navigated the skill window that had been ungraded several times after the many years since Royal Road was released.
Spear Mastery Beginner Level 2 (34/100) Allows more power and speed when using a Spear. Spear Weapon Damage Increase: 6% Spear Weapon Speed Increase:20%
Identify Beginner Level 1 (1/100) Allows user to identify basic items
Party Scan Beginner Level 1 (0/100) A Passive skill to see the Health of Allies and other information of the party as well.
Mana Bolt Beginner level 1 (0/100) Gathers Mana into a Bolt and fires it Mana Cost: 5 Cool Down: 5 seconds
Sain looked at his skills carefully. Two of his skills were passive skills that would take effect without him doing anything. While he could be see the effects of the Party Scan currently, Sain suspected that the skill would be much useful later when he fights with the others. ¡°Ah! Finish at last!¡± exclaimed Gen. Sain looked to see what Gen had set up for him. It was one of those targets that Sain had seen Lyndis attack but it was set up on this mechanism to move them about. ¡°Okay now use a Mana Bolt to hit one of these things. Don''t worry, they''re magic resistant so they won''t break so easily. Now move back there and fire.¡± As Gen instructed, Sain moved back a couple of paces to be 5 metres away from the target that was not moving. ¡°Mana Bolt.¡± said Sain. Sain felt that his mana was being drained by the skill and a small ball that glowed a bit was formed in his hand and fired out where he was pointing it. Unfortunately his aim was off by a bit and it almost hit Gen instead. Gen flashed an angry look at Sain and said, ¡°Again!¡± Sain waited the 5 seconds and said, ¡°Mana Bolt¡± again. This time the Mana Bolt managed to hit the target making a nice ''bang'' sound when it hit. Sain tried another 3 times after that but only 1 of them actually hit the target. When Gen complained that Sain''s aim was off, he realised the problem. Gen soon gave Sain a wooden staff which he could keep.
Magic Wooden Staff Durability: 25/25 Damage: 3-5 A wooden staff made to be used for beginners in magic Option: - Wisdom +1
Sain equipped the staff and started his training again. ¡°Mana Bolt.¡± Instead from his hand, a Mana Bolt was fired from his staff which hit the target perfectly. Seeing the improved performance from Sain, Gen increased the difficulty of the training by a level and made the target move while he was setting up a second target for later. Sain continued his training with diligence but he was faced with another problem. He ran out of mana. ¡°Master I cannot continue the training as I run out of mana.¡± Gen looked confused. ¡°Out of mana? Don''t you have the Mediation skill?¡± Sain shook his head and Gen sighed saying, ¡°Let''s me give it to you then.¡± You have obtained the Skill Mediation Sain went back to where he was training and said, ¡°Open Skill Window.¡±
Skill Window
- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 2 - Identify Beginner level 1 (2/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 1 (15/100) - Mediation Beginner level 1 (0/100)
Sain navigated the window again and selected the details of Mediation.
Mediation Beginner Level 1 (0/100) Rest and concentrate to recover Mana Mana recovered per minute: 50 Cool Down: 1 Minute
While this skill was useful in the fact that it regenerated mana but the large cool down made it so that the user would recover a large amount of mana instead of bit by bit. Sain sat down and said, ¡°Mediation.¡± which made him close his eyes to sit there waiting for the skill to fully recover his mana. When he opened his eyes again, he had the full amount of mana back. Sain continued the same training for the rest of the day. xXx
Mana Bolt Beginner level 1 has been converted into Mana Bolt Beginner level 2 (0/300) Gathers Mana to fire 3 Mana Bolts at once Mana Cost: 10 Cool Down: 5 Seconds
When the Mana Bolt skill reached the maximum amount of use for its Beginner level 1, namely 100 times, it was converted into its beginner level 2 state which increased the number of Mana Bolts that could be fired out at the same time. By this time Gen had long finished making the third target for Sain to use. ¡°Mana Bolt.¡± Sain gathered his Mana into his staff and three Mana Bolts came out one by one in quick succession. Sain managed to hit two of three targets but missed the final one. ''Usually you would target one enemy when you use such a skill. Well Master probably wants me to be able to target multiple enemies at once.'' Noticing that his apprentice just fired three Mana Bolts are the same time, Gen went up to Sain and said, ¡°Now that you somewhat mastered the Mana Bolt, I''ll give you 3 free spells that you can use immediately from me. Do note that other spells you may want from me after the first three will cost a bit.¡± Gen made a money sign with his fingers. ''So I can get three free skills eh. Which ones should I choose. I rather not have too many offensive skills....maybe get a summoning spell. The second would be something that can defend myself and the others or something that makes the enemies weaker and the final skill would be a healing skill then.'' With his choice Sain said, ¡°Can I get a summoning spell, a healing spell and a debuff spell?¡± to Gen who immediately waved his hand and the skills popped up in front of him.
You have obtained Skill Summon Familiar
You have obtained the Skill Minor Heal
You have obtained the Skill Weaken
¡°Open Skill Window.¡±
Skill Window
- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 2 - Identify Beginner level 1 (2/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 2 (1/300) - Mediation Beginner level 1 (5/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Minor Heal Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Weaken Beginner level 1 (0/100)
Sain checked the skills he just got.
Summon Familiar Beginner level 1 (0/100) Summons a created Familiar at Random based on user''s level and skill. Mana Cost: 50 Cool Down: 5 Minutes
Minor Heal Beginner level 1 (0/100) Heals a Target for 50 Health. Mana Cost: 15 Cool Down: 10 Seconds
Weaken Beginner level 1 (0/100) Weakens the Target by 20% in Strength. Mana Cost: 15 Cool Down: 20 Seconds
¡°Okay now. Sain you will spend the rest of the week using these spells and increase your proficiency in them. I''ll give you a reward later.¡± xXx And so the rest of the week passed by and Sain was getting used to training and was meeting up with the others to see their progress on his own. When the week passed and he could leave the city now, Gen went to him and finished his apprenticeship.
You have finished the Skills training from Gen - All Skills effect +1%
¡°Sain you have finished all three training course from me and thus graduated from being my apprentice.¡±
You have Graduated from being the Apprentice of Gen the Tactician Fame +10 You have levelled up You have levelled up
You have lost the title ''Tactician Apprentice''. All Bonuses from the title will be removed
You have gained the title ''Tactician'' - All Stats increase by 1 - 10% more authority when commanding people
¡°Open Status Window.¡± Sain evenly distributed his 10 stats into Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Wisdom and Vitality.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Sain,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]3,Shaman[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleTactician
Health440
Mana200
[quart=Fame,Infamy]10,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]23 +11,25 +11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]17 +11,17 +11[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]26 +1,26 +1[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]25 +1,15 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]1 +1,1 +1[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,13[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 10% more authority when commanding people - Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom +10 - All Skills effect +1% - All Stats +1
Sain left waving to his Master to the where the others were to start his first fight. Unknown to him, Gen had planted something into him as an experiment.
Onwards?
PreviousExitNext
Vol.1 Chapter 2 - The Tank ¡°Yes.¡± Mark almost whispered his answer to the message that appeared when he went into the capsule. With a blink, he was transported, his mind not body was moved in a perfectly white room with nothing in it. ''So this is the character creation screen for this game'' wondered Mark with much interest. Just because he doesn''t show his emotions, it doesn''t mean that he didn''t have any to begin with. In his 15 years of experiences, 15 years of utter hopelessness, Mark learnt that it was better if he didn''t express anything even when he was beaten up. ¡ª The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? ¡°Yes.¡± Mark didn''t care about the AI at all. However what he did care about was the 5 people he would have to get along for a great number of years from now on. The task that was given to them was great enough that it would at take that amount of time. ¡ª Select the name of your avatar. ¡°Raven¡± Mark really didn''t give much thought into the name. ''Either way it will stick on me later.'' Raven were quite similar to crows except that Ravens were bigger. Mark would often confuse the two since they looked quite similar to him and in one case, he thought that Raves would puck his dead body clean when he was injured enough to be admitted into hospital and have the police and welfare services investigate the cause. That day, a group of other Orphans who ganged up on him again decided it would be fun to beat Mark on the brink of death. They were later sent away, deemed too dangerous for other children and never heard of again, but the damage was done and Mark closed his true feelings and emotions away from others. ¡ª Select your gender from male, female or neutral. ¡°Male.¡± ''Is there any point in choosing neutral at all? Well each to their own'' Unknown to Mark, Neutral was much more useful than he thought. While not gaining the gender buffs from allies, it also didn''t allow them to get the gender debuffs from enemies and other skills that affect a certain gender. The latter appeared more often than the former. ¡ª Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine. Mark remembered someone on the street talking on how he was an Orc and lead his party into victory with his mighty strength. Mark was more interested on the fact that others did not try to even threaten him directly as an Orc. Because of this, that particular race was attractive to him. But the words of Hina echoed in his mind. ''It is best that we all have races that are appropriate with the role we have and not attract too much attention'' As a result of this Mark also reluctantly said, ¡°Human.¡± ¡ª You may alter your appearance ''Should I change my appearance?'' he though to himself. There have been many cases where some lady came out and gave Mark a gift out of the blue when he went on a walk. They never seem to give Mark any more gifts but sometimes he could see them staring at him from afar on occasion. Mark had what people would call a pretty face and this was the main reason why he was picked on. The girls would love him while the boys wanted to rip his guts out. Even today there has been many cases of girls confessing their love to him and boys getting jealous about this. However Mark still stayed the same and ever expressed himself and acted almost like a robot programmed to reply a certain way. To hide his face, Mark grew his hair long and it covered most of his eyes. But the key details of his overall face still stayed and the mystery of what was hidden beneath his bangs stimulated that imagination. ''Its too much of a hassle to change it only to make me uncomfortable later on'' ¡°Done.¡± In the end he still had his blond hair and blue eyes and naturally pretty face. ¡ª Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Please Select a city and kingdom you want to start. ¡°Witchhelm¡± There was no need to choose any other city. If he did then he would be isolated from the others for at least 4 weeks. It would be better to just delete and restart his character than to fall in another city. ¡ª Welcome to Royal Road. Light merged him with his avatar and his journey began. [p=center]xXx[/p] Raven opened his eyes to find himself in the city of Witchhelm. Some people were staring at him but he ignored them making his way to where he believed the fountain was that the rest of the group as to meet up. ''This place has more people than I thought'' As Raven moved around the place searching for the fountain he spotted it and there were a few people already there but they weren''t any of the other 5. ''Did I come early?'' Raven made his way to the fountain and stood there waiting for the others to arrive. After a few seconds Grace and Hina arrived at the same time and waved at him saying, ¡°So you two got here early¡± indicating that someone was next to him. Raven almost screamed in shock when he found that Ian was standing next to him like it wasn''t unusual. Ian had black hair and eyes now which made him blend into the shadows even more. Both Grace and Hina seem to have chosen an Elf race each though there were differences. Hina for starters had golden eyes while Grace had more round ears compared to Hina. ''When did he get there?'' Raven thought while considering that Ian would be a very good assassin. Soon enough Peter came along a few seconds after Grace and Hina saying, ¡°Is everyone here yet?¡± casually looking around to find Maria who was late. Peter had a slightly more blue hair now that Raven looked more closely. With an angry cry it was Hina who answered, ¡°Maria isn''t She''s late!¡± with an irritated voice. Peter made a wry smile at her words while Grace was getting frightened by Hina''s bad mood moving closer to Ian almost by instinct. ''Those two and the other two will get along in the future.'' Raven thought with a smile in his heart. ¡°So are we going to introduce ourselves while we wait for Maria?¡± Sain asked the rest of the group. ''We might as well. There''s no point in delaying for one person'' ¡°We might as well¡± sighed Hina echoing Raven''s thoughts, ¡°Anyway I''m called Miriel now so call me that. I''m a Night Elf.¡± ¡°Raven, Human¡± said Raven after Hina. Grace somehow managed to speak out loud in front of us, ¡°I''m called....Serena...a Half-Elf...¡± Then it was Ian''s turn and all he said was, ¡°Shadow, also Human¡± Sain smiled knowing all of their new names now and introduced himself. ¡°I''m Sain also a Human. Anyway we should friend each other while we can. Um...how do I do this?¡± Sain said with confused on what to do. Miriel sighed and said quickly, ¡°Send Friend Request to Sain, Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡±
Miriel sent you a Friend Request. Accept?
Some sort of box appeared in front of Raven''s eyes. He wasn''t ready for it to appear so quickly and out of nowhere that he almost flicked it away by mistake. Then he looked at it more closely and the others to see that they also had the same thing pop out at them as well. Raven clicked the ''Yes'' answer and another box appeared.
You have accepted the Friend Request
About to send a friend request to the others, Sain cut in before he even finished half his thoughts, ¡°Send Friend Request to Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡± said Sain in a quick manner.
Sain sent you a Friend Request. Accept?
Clicking the ''Yes'' answer again the previous box appeared again.
You have accepted the Friend Request
Now he only needed to add Shadow and Serena. But both of them also cut Raven off before he could speak. ¡°Send Friend Request to Serena and Raven.¡± said Shadow. Serena got surprised the third time in a row now and was literally clinging on Shadow for support.
Shadow sent you a Friend Request. Accept?
Raven moved his finger quickly to the ''Yes'' Button again but another one appeared again with the words of Serena.
You have accepted the Friend Request
¡°Send....Friend request to Raven!¡±
Serena sent you a Friend Request. Accept?
Raven for the fourth time in a row Raven was cut off making a friend request and could only receive.
You have accepted the Friend Request
''This is getting annoying now...'' Now that everyone present had friended each other, all they had to wait for was Maria who was taking her time. He would try to chat with the others but Miriel was tapping her foot on the ground ever since 20 seconds ago and we did not dare to talk right now. After a further minute Miriel had the look of an abusive step-mother about to hit her step-daughter. ''Perhaps its better for Maria not to appear now in face of Miriel.'' Raven thought thinking of what Miriel could do to her without the rest of them interfering. Then just when Raven thought that things couldn''t get worse....for Maria that is, she appeared in front of everyone waving with a smile. ¡°I''m here~¡± she cheerfully said. She expecting everyone to greet her with a kind smile but reality wasn''t so kind. Miriel went up to her and whacked her head with her fist. ¡°Ow! Wait, what''s this message I''m seeing?¡± she cried in exclamation. ''Its most likely the game saying that you were hurt.'' Everyone thought to themselves. ¡°Your late!¡± shouted Miriel in rage. Maria could do nothing but weep in the force known as Miriel that the others including Raven quickly noted to not piss off. ¡°Anyway sent a friend request to everyone of us. No, tell us your name and we''ll friend you. It''ll be much quicker that way.¡± Miriel said with dominance over Maria. ¡°My name is Lyndis, a normal Elf.¡± said Lyndis the Elf in a quiet voice acting submissive. Finally given the chance of giving a friend request I smiled in my heart and said, ¡°Send Friend request to Lyndis.¡± The others also did so as well and finally all 6 of us were here. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°First of all you guys know how to open your inventory right? Just say open Inventory and a window saying what you have will appear which should be 10 pieces of Rye bread and a Canteen of Water. You can refill the Canteen using a Fountain like this but you have to buy Rye Bread for 3 Copper each. Try it out.¡± said Miriel instructing the group on how to play the game. ¡°Open Inventory Window.¡± said the 5 together
Inventory - 10 Pieces of Rye Bread - I Canteen of Water - No Money
Another window appeared in front of Raven''s eyes like the one in video games. ''I wonder if there is some sort of item limit besides with weight.'' Everyone looked and pointed at the window that was only visible to themselves. Sain then moved his hand and took out what was the Rye Bread for everyone to see. ''This looks....very hard to chew'', everyone thought seeing the Rye Bread in Sain''s hand. ¡°Anyway next is the Status Window which you will see all of your stats and such. Same thing as the inventory, just say Open Status Window.¡± ¡°Open Status Window¡± said the 5 of us again.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Raven,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleNone
Health100
Mana100
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]10,10[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]10,10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
In front of Raven''s eyes was another window which gave more details on what his game life would be like. As a human he had balance stats compared to other races. ¡°Okay now that you know your status window, we have to talk about distributing stats. Know that it is better to be a master of one than a master of many. However don''t let it stop you since its your character and we don''t need to be something like the strongest. Now let''s go our separate ways and find a class in these 4 weeks we have. Don''t aim for the hidden classes since they may take too much time to get and don''t just resolve yourself on being one of those common classes people get. I''ll see you guys here in 4 weeks time.¡± said Miriel before running off to find whatever class she could get. [p=center]xXx[/p] Raven started walking to what he thought to be a barrack where people fought with weapons and such. He wanted to start his training now since he didn''t have anything else to do and he did not consider to get a job to get money for food. He went into what looked to be a new group of trainees and slipped into them waiting to be directed to be trained. A tall bold man came up to this group that now included Raven and said in a loud voice, ¡°Right now. You lot are the new recruits that I''ve heard about a minute ago that you even exist! First of all start running!¡± the man ordered the group. Everyone including Raven started running together around the open area and kept running laps at the same pace. ¡°TOO SLOW. FASTER!¡± shouted the man. The group then picked up its pace and some of the group members started to complain. ''Is that person trying to tire people out faster to improve their abilities quicker?'' thought Raven as he ran near the centre of the group. After 10 minutes a number of people started to drop out one by one. The pace was too high for them and they stopped out of breath. ¡°WHAT IS THIS? ONLY 10 MINUTES AND YOUR TIRED?!¡± shouted the old man. He threw his fists at the people who dropped out and injured them enough that a priest was called to heal them. This motivated the rest of the group especially Raven who was tired of that kind of treatment when he was a child. ¡°FASTER!¡± Once more the group started to pick up the pace which again resulted in some people dropping out and getting beaten up. A few minutes later the old man shouted again making the entire group groan again. ¡°FASTER!¡± ¡°I swear, that man will kill us all if he could.¡± muttered one of the trainees near Raven. ¡°STOP!¡± Everyone stopped running as an angry old man stomped towards them. A couple of the trainees afraid almost ran away, but everyone just stood there silent as the old man went to find his victim...the person who insulted him. And the person who he grabbed was....Raven? The old man pulled Raven up into the air where he insulted and threatened him. Raven looked at the man who was the cause of this thinking, ''If he doesn''t do anything then I''ll make his life hell.'' However he didn''t have time for such thoughts as the old man noticed something wrong in Raven. ¡°You''re not a trainee are you. A Freeman, an outsider. Who said you can come here?¡± the old man sneered at Raven and the other trainees soon followed suit. Raven was considering that he would die here and try again somewhere else considering the old man looked like he had the intention of killing him. But fate smiled on him....for now. ¡°What the hell are you doing?!¡± shouted a voice with a commanding tone. The moment the old man heard it he immediately dropped Raven on the ground and saluted the person. The person was another old man but in full armour and a long white beard. He carried an aura of vitality with him despite his age. The old man and other trainees quickly moved aside when this man walked towards Raven. Unlike the old man, this person looked at Raven with interest. ¡°That old fool threatened you and you didn''t even blink a eye. Tell me, what do you want to be?¡± asked the man waiting for Raven''s response. ¡°Tank.¡± replied Raven. That was all he had to say since the person smiled. He rubbed his beard and said, ¡°So you want to be like me? Good! Let''s start your training then...but first you have to be my apprentice. Do you accept this? By the way my name is Park, an old retired knight.¡±
Become Park''s apprentice Park has fancy you and allowed you to become his apprentice. - You will live with him until your apprenticeship finish - You will be fed food - You will be given training directly from him - Will gain the title ''Shield Bearer Apprentice''
''If I''m trained by this man, will I get a good class?'' With that thought Raven nodded to this apprenticeship offer.
You have become the apprentice of Shield Bearer Park
You have gained the title ''Shield Bearer Apprentice'' - Vitality will increase by 1 - Strength will increase by 1 - 5% Less Damage taken when Blocking
Park smiled seeing that he has a new test subject....victim....apprentice. All of those things in one. He considered himself lucky to get someone willing to become his apprentice after what happened to the previous ones. But Park thought what if this one just came here and did not know all the rumours about himself, his comrades and ''them''. ¡°Did you just come to this world today freeman?¡± asked Park. Raven nodded his head again and Park smiled once more. He thought, ''This is going to be fun. They say most freeman are spineless but occasionally you find those who can and will endure more than any native.'' But Park almost forgot one thing. ¡°What is your name apprentice?¡± Raven replied in a single word again, ¡°Raven.¡± Park laughed out loud and said, ¡°Not much of a talker. Well people don''t usually talk when something is trying to smash their skulls in.¡± Park when to where the training weapons were and took a large wooden shield and a stick. He threw it at Raven which he caught and said, ¡°First of all, start running laps with the others with this one.¡± Raven held the wooden gear and found that it was heavier than it looked. Much heavier, it weighed at least 20 kg in total. However Raven did not want to disobey the orders of his new Master that will take care of him from now on. Still struggling to even carry wooden items Raven got back into the trainee group and old man which apparently was an instructor ordered them to start running again. This time Raven was hard press to keep up with the others. After a hour of running Raven noticed a certain stat increased.
Strength increased by 1
When the stat increased by 1, the very heavy load....became still heavy but Raven could''ve sworn that it had become slightly easier to hold onto while running....by a very small margin. By the end of 3 laps Raven was stumbling around as the other trainees pitied him and thanked the Gods that they were not chosen to become the apprentice of one of the harshest trainers in the continent. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Okay now Raven, since you''ve experienced the entrance of what is going to come I might as well explain to you what is expected for a shield bearer. For starters we don''t usually attack and let our allies finish the enemies off. However that doesn''t mean that we cannot attack or use weapons. But first I need you to learn how to use a shield.¡± Park took out a shield the same size as the one Raven was holding. The shield was of the larger sizes Raven had seen and it was used mostly to block large powerful attacks. The shield was strapped onto his left hand like Raven. He bent his knees and lifted the shield over his face. ¡°The most basic technique on using a shield, a large shield is to bend your knees to reduce the amount stress on your legs. For a larger shield this is more important since larger shields will be heavy, it will make it more likely that you will collapse from the weight from the attacks you take.¡± ''So its the same theory on bending your knees to prevent damage from falling on your legs'' Raven observed how Park seemed to be leaning over in order to take a hit from in front of him. ¡°Of course doing this will make you more vulnerable on the sides as you are focusing your centre of gravity to the front. The only way to counter this defect is to quickly shift your centre of gravity from the centre to the side as quickly as possible. Another way of course is to dodge. I''ll have to send a message to an old friend to borrow her powers so I can start the true training. For now we will prepare you for that training.¡± ¡°...¡± Park took out several bracelets that were large and dark in colour. ¡°These will help you train your wrists and ankles. They are 5 kg in weight each. Also you may need these.¡± Park took away the wooden gear raven got and replaced them with a metal shield and a Spear without the spikes on the end. ''So...training weights?'' Raven looked at them and took them. They weighed about the same as the wooden gear for some reason. He looked at Park to explain why. ¡°Oh, I gave you those since they weigh the same as the wooden stuff. In terms of value the things you have right now are less valuable and I don''t know if you''ll might break them accidentally. Anyway the first thing you need right now is to increase the abilities of your body enough to endure the hell...I mean future training.¡± ''I wonder if being this man''s apprentice was a good idea.'' ¡°...¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Several days later, or 3 days later, Raven had increased his stats a bit. His strength increased by 2, Agility by 3, Vitality by 4 and stamina by 2. Because of all this running Raven has been doing for the past three days, his physical stats has increased dramatically due to the weights and other things he had to carry that weighed up to 40 kg. However Raven was dissatisfied on his own progress. ''I spent three days running with weights and only this much stats increased?'' he thought. However increasing his stats that much in only 3 days was already enough to make people envy him. But Raven has a slight problem...he looked at where Park was constructing some sort of death machine. The Death machine in detail was a long line of those training things where you hit them and they spin to hit you back in old martial arts movies. Except Raven felt that this was more dangerous than what the original was. Until the normal ones where it only moved when you hit it, these ones moved on their own and sometimes suddenly spun out of nowhere, plus they had human shape and each had 6 arms which move around like they were alive like dolls in a sense. Raven almost had 3 black lines appear down his face when he thought of going through that. However it did appear when Park took an unlucky trainee to test try the machine. The unfortunate trainee looked frightened and looked to Raven and the others. ¡°Please, please help meeeeeeeeee!¡± he cried. However no one moved to help him since they might be the next one if they did. The trainee was pushed into the start where the the training logs with wooden ends at the sides spun and whacked the trainee on various places. The trainee tried not to move forward but when he stopped for a moment the dolls started hitting him forward....hard. When the trainee tried to lie down, the dolls kicked him up in the air and whacked him until he stood up. This happened many times and when the trainee finally got through one go which was only 20 metres long, he fainted and had various bruises on all parts of his body. ''Lucky I''m not his apprentice'' thought the trainees looking at Raven with pity. Someone patted Raven''s back as the trainees left Raven to his fate. ''Is it still possible to switch masters or at least do something less....hellish?'' thought Raven as Park called him over to also test drive his new invention. ¡°Okay now! I called my friend over and it seems she finally found an apprentice as well so she, the apprentice will help you by healing you for her own training. Anyway go through this once, I cranked up the power so its more useful for training.¡± Raven was distressed in his heart, ''I have a good feeling that I will die going through that. But I have to....is this the end?'' he thought as he dropped his training tools. But Park stopped him saying quickly, ¡°Hey hey hey, who said you can take them off. Also You''ll use the shield to block as many attacks as possible else you might die.¡± Raven nodded and started the first of many runs where he gets tortured....training from the best. Raven looked at the machine more closely. On both sides there were 20 of those dolls with six arms each. The length of their ''weapons'' where only a metre long but there were six of them on each which meant they were dangerous enough. Raven lifted his shield and walked through the beginning where the dolls were already attacking him. WHACK WHACK WHACK Raven continued to keep on moving but slowly taking the hits on the shield. But when he passed the first two dolls, they attacked from from behind. WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
''Shit! This is bad, I have to go quickly or I''m dead!'' screamed Raven inside. Then Raven started to pick up his pace and almost ran through the course while the dolls were hitting him harder and harder than before. WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
Raven only took 3 steps and there was still another 18 metres left but Raven still moved forward as the attacks from the front pushed his back and the attacks from the back pushed him forward. WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
In total, Raven only had 140 health which meant that he could only take 10 more hits and then he''ll be at critical health. WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
There was only 15 metres left. Raven was a quarter finished and he intended not to let his first death be due to his master''s device. Raven pushed forward with the shield in front taking a beating from the countless strikes against him.
You have taken 10 damage
WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
Raven was almost to the end now. It was just a few more steps until he made it through this hell. He only had 40 Health left but he was almost finished, ''Soon it will be over'' he thought hopeful. But fate was not so kind to him. A certain message appeared in front of him suddenly which surprised him.
Skill: Shield Mastery has been generated
WHACK Something hard hit him in the back making his vision blur as he stopped. Critical Hit!
You have taken 30 damage
Health is below 10%, you will bleed to death unless healed
''You got to be joking! Why now?!'' thought Raven in distress over then ever. His death of almost certain. However fate did not abandon him yet even though it put him though such a tough situation. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± shouted a female voice. Light surrounded Raven''s body and a message appeared that baffled him.
You will regenerate 1000 Health over 100 seconds.
This message pretty much told him that every second he would regenerate 10 Health. Such a thing was impossible for new players, ''Is this the power of a master healer?'' thought Raven as he remembered that his master brought his friend over to view his training. Raven in the next 10 seconds managed to get out of the Death machine and to safety. He checked the messages that appeared in front of him.
You have generated stat: Endurance
You have generated stat: Fighting Spirit
Raven remembered how many people have these stats but they are often low in the early game. However after it was known that these stats were very useful when high, more and more people started to train these stats but the majority of people still don''t as the number of new players still increased. Raven checked these stats to find them to start on 10 each and he could only increase Endurance but not Fighting Spirit. ¡°Park are you trying to kill your apprentice?! His health dropped down to critical levels just then!¡± shouted the same female voice to Park. Park looked startled that someone called out to him and with his best smile he greeted the woman , ¡°Mel! It has been a while....How nice for you to drop in¡± Raven could see the corners of his mouth twitching. Behind the person named Mel who just saved his life was someone very familiar. It was Serena but with new proper clothes unlike himself who was still in rags. Serena was dressed in Green like her master in some sort of dress with a staff in her hand. ''She seems.....different for some reason. I wonder what happened'' thought Raven as Serena didn''t seem nervous at all that a number of people were staring at her master and her. Speaking of her master, she was smiling at Park as well. However it seemed sinister for some reason and Raven felt frightened of her. ¡°If I remembered, a certain person was bowing down to me begging for me to help teach his new apprentice.¡± said Mel. Park had his eyes wide open when he heard that with the rest of the Barracks. ''I wish I saw that happened'' everyone thought. ¡°No no no, I didn''t beg at all!¡± retorted Park in order to restore his ''good'' image. ''So he didn''t do it?'' everyone thought again. Mel gave a short threatening, ¡°Huh?¡± to Park which he immediately corrected himself, ¡°Yes I did beg now please down hurt me¡± in a pleading voice to Mel. This situation was....weird, very weird to everyone watching. The veteran knight was bowing down to the young healer person who didn''t look like a priest at all. ''I never thought I would see that man like that in my life.'' Raven grinned in his heart knowing that at least someone was helping him out after he almost died from that death machine. At this sight the person named Mel smirked and started insulting Park starting with, ¡°To think an old man like you is able to bow down to the ''young'' me.¡± At these words, Park wasn''t insulted but confused asking to question that must never to asked, ¡°How old are you now? Weren''t you 10 years my senior?¡± he said without realising that everyone including Raven and Serena already backed away to avoid the danger that was in front of them. ''Run!'' And they were right to do so since everyone could see the shadow of a raging dragon from the killing intent that was coming out of Mel''s body. Mel started chanting a high levelled spell, ¡°The leaves of nature fall and reduce to ash-¡± Park tried to stop her from casting the spell, ¡°Stop! Are you trying to kill us all?!¡± However his words did not reach her ears as she finished the chanting and activated the spell, ¡°Crimson light reflect onto nature''s gaze. Type 5 Nature Magic: Nature''s Hell!¡± Then in the air there were a large number of leaves coming out of nowhere. They turned into green dust and floated around the place. At first everyone thought this to be a harmless spell....until the wind blew it into a building and it disappeared without a trace. ''Holy....better run now while we have the chance!'' everyone thought at the same time, running already from the green dust that would kill them if they were covered in it. But everyone did not get the chance to run as the Wind God seemed to hate everyone there for some reason and blew the green dust to them. ¡°No no NO¡± ¡°I don''t want to die yet!¡± ¡°Why is this happening to us?!¡± The trainee shouted their inner thoughts right before they were about to die. But instead of being covered by the green dust and dying, a shield of some sort appeared in front of them, saving their lives. ¡°Honestly why is it every time you two fight, the bystanders are almost always in danger of dying?¡± asked another ''young'' lady in purple robes. She too held a staff and created another layer of the same shield that protected them all. ¡°¡°Jenny?!¡±¡± said the one who was using a large scale destructive death sentence spell and the one who was cowering away said at the same time. ''Whose Jenny?'' thought both Raven and Serena at the same time. The person named Jenny simply smiled and said to Mel who was actually the person shivering now, ¡°Stop your spell or else.¡± The next second the spell disappeared immediately and everyone sighed in relief. However everything was not done just yet. Park was about to draw his sword out while Mel was about to cast another spell. But Jenny already got in between them and with a glare asked, ¡°Do you two want to experience my personal Dragon''s Bane move designed to take down dragons without harming them?¡± the two trouble makers were pale white now. ''I wonder what kind of spell can take down a dragon like that?'' thought Raven a bit curious. [p=center]xXx[/p] Raven, Serena, Park and Mel were together right now talking about the training that both Raven and Serena was to do together since it would help improve the skills and abilities of both of them at the same time. ¡°Basically while Raven goes in there again¡±, Park pointed at his prized machine, ¡°Serena will heal him when he gets close to dying.¡± ''You got to be joking.....your telling me to go to the point of near death several times?'' thought Raven in anger since the first time he almost died if not for Mel. Mel patted Raven''s shoulder and reassure him, ¡°If things don''t go well, I''ll help Serena help you and punish Park without killing everyone else as well, I promise!¡± While the words near the beginning of her sentence was reassuring, the part near the end worried him and everyone else who heard it greatly. ¡°Serena will wait over there until your health goes under a certain point and will heal you. Me and Park....needs to meet with Jenny for a talk.¡± some fear came out from her mouth when she mentioned Jenny and with that the two of them left scared out of their minds. ¡°...¡± Serena looked at Raven who was silent for the entire time though she thought she saw a hint of emotion when everyone was about to die. ¡°So how was your experiences so far?¡± asked Serena innocently not knowing what Raven had to endure. In that moment Raven re experienced the three days of torment plus the death machine again. Raven gripped his head to try to stop the memories from flooding in. Serena was immediately worried but could ''see'' no change in his health at all. Moreover the pain originated from when Raven blocked out the pain from those days and the days before when he was a child. It was only natural that his mind couldn''t decide whether to let Raven to remember or not because of the pain. ¡°What''s wrong? Try not to think!¡± ordered Serena and Raven did just that. He stopped thinking and was just there staring blankly and the pain was gone. After a few seconds he came back into the world. ¡°Anyway I have a couple of skills I can do but I''m here to train my healing abilities. My version of Minor Regeneration only heals 100 Health over 100 seconds which means its 1 health per second. Also I can recast the spell once every 20 seconds so you should be fine if I stack the skill over and over again. Are you....going to go through that again?¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Raven nodded and picked up his shield. He went at the start of the course again and waited for Serena to cast her spell. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± she shouted.
You will regenerate 100 Health over 100 seconds.
With this message Raven charged into the hell training device. Even now the dolls that were hitting him proved too much and his stamina was rapidly decreasing even with the new stats. WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
Once again it was the first 2 dolls that hit him in the back that caused the first amount of damage to him. WHACK
You have taken 10 damage
As Raven moved forward again his health decreased but Serena''s regeneration skill helped him last longer. By the time Raven reached the 4 metres mark, Serena shouted, ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± again which means the first healing effects has only 80 more seconds. So at most Raven can only get a 4 health for second healing effect on his body for 20 seconds.
Strength has increased by 1
Raven ignored the message since last time he got hit a couple more times than needed because of that and he just pressed forward. After another minute, Raven got through the run after Serena used Minor Regeneration two more times on him. [p=center]xXx[/p] It was the next day when Park called him out of bed with several other people who wouldn''t dare disobey Park even if it means their lives. ¡°First of all, show me your stats. I need to know if your ready for this kind of training.¡± Raven showed Park his stats which Park was a bit impressed comparing Raven to the others that he had taught before.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Raven,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleShield-Bearer Apprentice
Health340
Mana100
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]16,11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]17,15[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]12,13[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,12[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 5% Less Damage taken when Blocking
During the rest of the previous day Raven had increased his Strength by 1, Agility by 1, Vitality by 2, Stamina by 3, Fighting Spirit by 2 and his Endurance by 3. Park scratched his beard again while grinning thinking, ''It seems like my machine did its work. Buts its probably not going to be enough now. He needs better torture....training to improve!'' On the other hand everyone else including Raven was depressed right now. Namely they were all going to be used to test out some elaborate training method. The 3 trainees there were dragged out here were condemning Raven in their hearts for both being the apprentice of Park and being a pretty boy that has attracted the attention of women recently. ¡°Anyway this Training is one to make sure Raven can apply the fruits of his labour into live combat. Namely get hit over and over again by you three¡±, Park pointed at the trainees who had this pleasure, ¡°Also might as well get warmed up, we can''t start until we have a healer since there may be some ''accidents''¡± Park coughed at the fact that half the trainees wanted to kill Raven since the recent influx of women visiting that barracks was to see Raven in action. The 3 trainees looked at Raven with anticipation on ''hurting'' him. But Raven did not complain once even with the torture....training Park gave him. As a result his stats were a bit higher than all the other trainees. Because of the wait, Raven and the trainees decided to train a bit on the scarecrows. Raven took out the Spear like thing and started hitting the scarecrow in front of him while holding the heavy metal shield. After several minutes a message appeared indicating that he gained a new skill.
Skill: Spear Mastery has been generated
With this new skill Raven''s strikes were a bit faster and stronger than before. Eventually Serena appeared which meant the true training was just beginning. ¡°Right! Now we can finally begin!¡± shouted Park putting the trainees into action surrounding Raven on three sides. Park threw something to Raven. It was a wooden shield the same size as the one he had but much lighter. ¡°Raven! There''s no point in holding that dull heavy thing. Feel the force of the blows and counter it!¡± With those words Raven threw away the shield and Spear he had and put on the wooden shield which was all that protected him and the blows from the other trainees. Raven held his shield just below his eye level allowing him to see the person on front of him. He was continuously turning around to see which one of the three would attack first. ''I have to keep on looking at each of them else they''ll attack from behind'' Raven did this for a full minute not letting his guard down and the one of the right of him attacked first. Raven moved his shield to block it but another person attacked just after the first attack which Raven was barely able to block. But the third attack he did not. WHACK
You have taken 10 Damage
Raven was pushed a bit forward with that hit and the rest of the trainees continued to attack without end. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡±
You will regenerate 100 Health over 100 seconds.
Serena started her healing of raven early for some reason. Raven looked at her briefly before being attacked again and again and again. Raven looked at the trainees to find them happy to beat him, happy to bent out their frustration on him. Happy to blame everything on him. ''Ah...this feeling. I remember this. Why do I have to deal with this?'' The faces of the trainees were being replaced by a memory. A memory that Raven did not want to remember. Something that others did not know.... Raven''s body under the hits was becoming more and more weary. His health was dropping rapidly without him blocking. ¡°What''s wrong freeman?! Why don''t you just die!¡± shouted one of the trainees taunting him hitting the shield so many times that parts of it broke off. He and the other two started to taunt Raven more and more. ''Because I can come back, they will kill me? Death is unpleasant.'' ¡°Take this!¡± One of the trainees punched Raven in the stomach. Raven went to his knees grabbing his stomach in pain. The trainees started kicking him and insulting him even more. ''If that is the case then....'' ¡°Kill.....I''LL KILL YOU ALL!¡± The words that came out of Raven''s mouth was enough to force his body to move. Raven stood up kicking one of the trainees onto the ground. Lifting the half broken shield up he smashed it into the stomach of the trainee. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!¡± Blood came out like a fountain and covered the place in blood. Raven just killed a person. However he felt fine....no more than that he felt happy at last. ''Is this feeling called happiness? Joy?'' he thought as he looked into the eyes of the next prey. ¡°No....NO STOP!¡± the man shouted but it didn''t reach Raven at all. Raven took his shield which was covered in blood and started hitting the guy until he died. Then he did the same to the last one. Clap, clap, clap. Raven regained himself and immediately dropped the shield knowing what he did. He looked at Park who was restraining Serena and Serena who looked like she was about to faint. ''What did I just....'' ¡°Good job on venting your feelings. Don''t worry those guys are spoil rich brats that were kicked out of their house and handed to me to punish. You did not crime in killing them.¡± said Park trying to reassure Raven but it did not help. ''I killed....I killed....I killed....'' Raven was guilt trapped now. It was not the fact that he killed him that made him so afraid, it was that he was remembering the past and acting based on his emotions back then. He imagined himself back then killing ''them'' with joy. ''This is just a game....this is just a game...it is not reality'' Raven tried to get rid of these emotions quickly but Park prevented it. Park took the remains of the bodies and piled it in front of him letting him see his work. Eyes wide open with shock and fear, Raven tried running away but his legs did not budge. ¡°Raven you have to face the possibility that you will kill other humans even if you try to think this is a game. Trust me, I know many young people go insane from the act and try to consider killing a game. Every last one of them broke in the end....even me.¡± Park sighed and called out to Serena. ¡°Sorry Serena for showing you this. Mel requested me to as a sort of training. There are many things a healer will see and cannot prevent. Make sure your comrades don''t go too far and that is all you need to do.¡± With that the training for the day ended with Raven covered in blood. [p=center]xXx[/p] The next day there were various rumours about the sudden deaths of the three trainees with Raven under the training of Park. ¡°Their bodies were stacked on each other in front of Raven.¡± ¡°They say it was Raven who did that.¡± ¡°Are you an idiot, he''s traumatised. Such a person can''t do something so cruel.¡± ¡°However the only other people that was there was Park and Raven doesn''t speak all. But it feels like he is further away from speaking now for some reason.¡± As the rumours spread the suspicion on Raven surprisingly disappeared for the most parts and the blame was placed solely on Park. Why this happened? For starters Park had a certain reputation for killing new trainees out of nowhere without any good excuse if he decided to give one and the second was that Raven was in no condition to continue his training. Serena was also there but no one else knew she was at the scene of the crime. All except for the instructors that had been hand picked by Park himself. Raven at this time got up from bed and silenced the rest of the people in the room by being there. He went out and sat in the shade alone. Raven watched as the training continued. They were all still...alive. ¡°I see that you''re not that motivated to train right now...after what you seen yesterday.¡± Raven looked over to see that the old instructor that commanded everyone to run on his first day was here. He held a sympathetic look to Raven. There was no anger nor scorn directed to Raven at all, only the feeling that they were similar to each other. ¡°The thing that Park....did to you yesterday was something similar to a rite of passage. Unless you overcome it, you''ll be stuck with him until one of you decide to stop the apprenticeship. Park himself experienced something similar and it opened his eyes to all kinds of things.¡± ¡°...¡± Raven just looked on listening to the story the instructor told. ¡°I presume he had told you that the ones you killed were spoiled nobles right?¡± Raven nodded. ¡°Well he''s right. This place is not normal in the most sense. This is a place where those who wish to get stronger and those who are exiled from their families for their crimes stay. Often we will set a trial for them in the form of training. If they go out of line then then will die under the name of training for the rest of them. The three you killed were originally exiled from their families due to murder, thievery and rape. Park gave them a second chance like everyone else but they failed when told to train with you. They got too cocky since Park turned a blind eye temporary and as a result their fates were sealed. If you didn''t kill them Park would in front of you.¡± ¡°...¡± Raven looked in the sky thinking, ''The problem isn''t them. Its me enjoying such things...'' ¡°That look tells me that you enjoyed killing them and its a problem.¡± said the instructor. Raven stared in shock at the instructor. The instructor smiled knowing that Raven could express such things. During the 4 days he had been here, Raven rarely expressed any kind of emotion towards people or even by himself. ¡°Anyway I believe Park is looking for you. Meet him in his office.¡± Raven was confused, ''Park had an office?''. ¡°The office is to the right when you enter the main building. Its the third one to the left.¡± Raven entered the main building where all the important people go in first before attending their business. This was also the place where the instructors slept and worked as well. Raven went to the receptionist and she said, ¡°Park is in the room to the right, third door to the left. Make sure you knock and listen before entering. I don''t want to clean up again.¡± with a smile before attending to something else leaving Raven to walk to the room. Knock Knock Knock ¡°What what?! Let me clean up! Don''t enter!¡± shouted Park ''What''s going on in there?'' BANG! ¡°Damnit! Just have you push it away from sight!¡± ¡°...¡± BANG BANG BANG ¡°God damn it it hurts!¡± ''I wonder if he''s okay...'' And so Raven entered the room where his master was reading some things trying to be all serious. Raven looked around carefully to find where the mess was but only saw a couple of things were missing from some places such as books on the shelves, and cups and other such items gone from their place holders. Also Park was acting very nervous as well which never happened unless it involved....personal stuff. Raven could''ve sworn that Park who was sitting in front of him was hiding a pile of broken stuff behind his desk. ¡°...¡± Park''s eyebrow raised in the sight that Raven did not speak a word yet. He cough several times before Raven got the message. ¡°You....asked for....me?¡± said Raven in a detached way due to his unfamiliarity with speaking at all. Park got up from his desk making sure to not tip over whatever he got back there. ¡°Raven have you recovered yet from the shock? What the hell am I saying?! Of course you recovered, I can tell from your eyes! Anyway for now we should put off that particular type of training until the other trainees are discipline enough. That will take at most 3 days. Anyway due to some....complaints, I''ll personally train you for now.¡± Raven''s heart sank even more than when he killed those people a day ago. ''This can''t get worse.'' he continuously thought to himself. ¡°The training is sparing with me.¡± ''It just got worse....'' Raven considered if he was cursed by the Gods or something in his past life. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Hey Raven, do you know the guy that fainted after running for 6 hours straight?¡± asked one of the trainees that have been trained to help with Raven''s training. Raven haven''t remembered their names at all but they all seemed to have remembered his and they didn''t care if he didn''t know them well enough. ''If I know him, then I may as well be dragged into his training. But if I treat him badly then we will die a horrible death'' they all thought that and as a result they all treated him nicely enough that Raven had no ill intent against them. Raven nodded his head and said, ¡°Friend¡±, which did not shock the trainees. The most shocking thing they experienced throughout the week was since Raven came was that he was talking to other people though barely. When he said, ¡°Sorry for the trouble¡± in front of them, they all pinched themselves to find that they were no sleeping at all and Raven was in fact talking. ¡°Hmm.....I think Serena went with her Master to heal him or something.¡± said another trainee trying to relax sine he moved his body too much. Overall the four of them were exhausted in various ways. Naturally they were tired because of the harsh training that they started the previous day and continuing today but also the fact that Park had them do some random things that involved getting tired mentally and emotionally. Raven looked at the building that Sain was sleeping in. ''I hope he''s okay.'' [p=center]xXx[/p] Two Weeks since Raven started the game, Park cancelled all the training he had for the next week and brought him a corner of the training grounds where not many would stare. ¡°Raven, now is the time for you to start training skills. But first I need you to accept this class that I will give you. Will you accept?¡±
You have been offered the class ''Shield Footman'' Do you accept? The Shield Footman is a particular type of footman. Specialising in using a large shield as defence and offence, they are a moving tank that will crush their enemies without mercy. While often confused with other common classes, Shield Footmen have a much higher defence and offence than most other combat classes at the beginning.
Raven looked at the class description to find it a bit boring at most. But this was the class Park would give him and if he denied then....something will happen without warning. ¡°I accept¡± said Raven.
Class has been changed to ''Shield Footman'' - All Stats increase by 5 - Strength, Agility and Vitality increase by 5 - Wisdom increased by 5
You have gained the Skill ''Shield Bash''
You have gained the Skill ''Double Strike''
You have gained the Skill ''Footwork''
Raven opened his status window to see what changed in his stats and bonuses.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Raven,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,Shield Footman[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleShield-Bearer Apprentice
Health700
Mana120
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]17 +10,17 +10[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10 +5,15 +5[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]20 +10,19 +5[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]22 +5,15 +5[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +5,0 +5[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,14[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 5% Less Damage taken when Blocking - Shield Related Skills will level up twice as fast. - All Stats increase by 5 - Strength, Agility and Vitality increase by 5
Overall in the past week due to the training he had been though Raven had an increase of 5 Strength, 6 Agility, 3 Vitality, 4 Stamina, 10 Fighting Spirit and 2 Endurance. According to many this was a very good thing in various ways. Raven knew that you can increase stats without levelling up but he did not expect that such hard work was required to increase even one stat. Raven partly remembered one training device Park made which caused him to be on the verge of death and yet only increased his endurance by 1. Raven decided to check the skills he just obtained as well.
Skill Window - Spear Mastery Beginner Level 1 - Shield Mastery Beginner Level 3 - Shield Bash Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Double Strike Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Footwork Beginner level 1 (0/100)
He then navigated to the three new skills windows.
Shield Bash Beginner level 1 (0/100) Bashes the target to stun them for a second. Mana Cost: 10 Cool Down: 5 Seconds
Double Strike Beginner level 1 (0/100) Swings the weapon twice to at the target at 60% power Mana Cost: 10 Cool Down: 10 Seconds
Footwork Beginner level 1 (0/100) With great balance, move a short amount of distance in a burst of speed Mana Cost: 20 Cool Down: 20 Seconds
¡°Okay now that you''ve seen the skills you have, time to test them out. But before that, I should give you some proper armour and weapons.¡± Park took out several old pieces of armour and gave them to Raven to wear. One by one Raven put them on noticing that all of them were identified already. In total, there was the no helmet, one large chest piece that only protected some vital organs and left parts unprotected, some arm guards, leggings that did the same thing and some shoes.
Old Large Chest Piece Durability: 45/45 Defence: 13 An Old piece of armour that has reduced durability and defence Requirements: None
Old Arm Guards Durability: 36/36 Defence: 4 An Old piece of armour that has reduced durability and defence Requirements: None
Old Leggings Durability: 37/37 Defence: 4 An Old piece of armour that has reduced durability and defence Requirements: None
Old Leather Shoes Durability: 25/25 Defence: 1 An Old piece of armour that has reduced durability and defence Requirements: None
Raven looked at his Defence to find it increased by 22 which would dramatically decrease the amount of damage he would take. However the armour was pretty old and was rusted in several areas which looked like they were about to break when hit or in some cases touched. ¡°That reminds me, I need to give you the repair skill as well so your armour won''t break.¡±
You have gained the Skill ''Repair''
With that, Raven had learnt 4 new skills. Park continued with his explanation on what to do now. ¡°First of all, there are 3 main ranks of skills. Beginner, Intermediate and Advance. This is not the skill level but their rank itself. The skills you gained are in the Beginner level. When you mastered the skill then a new skill will appear in the next rank until you reach advance. Then there are secret ranked skills which are hidden with a condition to fulfil or from your master quest which is given by a person who is of that rank near the end and finally the grandmaster rank which is given by the Gods. Namely the higher the rank the more difficult it is to increase your skill level with them. There may be some random conditions that may not make sense but are required to increase your skill''s levels. Anyway first try to use the ''Footwork'' skill you got. There is only one condition to use the move, that is use the proper movements to indicate the skill. Watch closely.¡± Park walked forward and crossed his legs in high speed and moved to the left. Then he did the same and moved backwards, then forward and finally to the right leaving him back in his original position. ¡°The trick to this skill is to make sure you can move in all directions. Though my skills are much higher than yours the basics are still the same. It is essentially a burst of speed to charge or escape. The other skills which are ''Shield Bash'' and ''Double Strike'' are similar. You just bash the shield into the enemy or attack twice. You''ll figure it out somehow. Anyway here''s the Spear, don''t worry its new.¡±
Iron Spear Durability: 50/50 Damage: 12-15 An Spear made of Iron Requirements: None Options: Strength +5
Raven equipped the weapon and Park left him to practice all alone again to hone his skills. Raven was still dumb stroked when Park just left him alone to practice even though this was what he was doing most of the time. However just training the body and using skills are two different things. ''I heard that some accidents may happen when the level of skills are low.'' he thought worried but Raven still had the various healers that seem to want to help him train instead of going hunting or working for some reason. First of all Raven decided to practise the ''Footwork'' skill. With everything on he moved forward and then using his legs tried to burst away in another direction, ''Footwork!'', the effects were....unpleasant.
Skill activation failed
Raven tripped over his foot and rolled hitting the ground face first. Raven spat the dirt out of his mouth and tried again. And again. And again, but the same message still appeared.
Skill activation failed
Raven could not figure out why this kept on happening, ''Maybe I''m not activating the skill properly. I did try to copy Park....well I might as well train the other skills first then.'' Raven took out his shield to swung it forward like he was about to bash someone with it, ''Shield Bash!'', as a result his shield turned a faint yellow colour and his body moved really fast as he bashed the air in front of him. Raven stood there shocked when the skill finished, ''Was that the skill....?'' Next Raven tried using the ''Double Strike'' Skill and swung twice thinking, ''Double Strike!'', his attacks were dyed in a slight red colour and once again the system moved his body in order to reach the most effective attack Raven can do currently. ''Okay then....I can use both the Shield Bash and Double Strike skills but not the footwork skill for some reason....I better make sure I can use it before the day ends'' And so Raven started to train himself to use the skill. [p=center]xXx[/p]
Skill activation failed
Raven once again fell to the ground due to the failure of the skill activating. ''You got to be fucking kidding me! How many times has it been now?!'', Raven was getting very pissed off since he couldn''t even use the skill after 3 days now. Yes, it has been 3 days since Park gave him the skill and he is frankly failing at it. However on another note, he can use the other two skills perfectly. ¡°Sigh...¡± Raven got up again and tried to use the skill again. ¡°Footwork!¡± He started running in a direction but his feet twist together...
Skill activation failed
And he falls to the ground again.... Unknown to Raven a certain man was watching him in the shadows waiting for him to call out for some help.... [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Raven don''t you need any help?¡± asked Park that just appeared out of nowhere. It has been a full day since Park had been spying on Raven on his progress. By now Raven still haven''t figured out how to use the skill properly. Raven at first shook his head but then remembered the last 4 days of which he failed to even use the skill once. Therefore he nodded his head to the question. At this Park smile knowing that he was needed by his apprentice even though he had let him do whatever for the last 2 weeks already and only giving him a slight push at times. ¡°I believe the problem is when you try to move, your legs twist and as a result you trip over and fail activating the skill.¡± said Park. Raven was shocked, Park didn''t even see him practise at all (He did) and he immediately knew what his problem was in using the skill. Raven''s impression of Park improved because of that. ¡°Try using the skill again but this time widen the space between your legs and kinda crouch.¡± Raven did just that. His legs were wide open which was kinda uncomfortable to him as a guy since he''s vulnerable, and he kinda crouched. ¡°Footwork.¡± he said and let the skill activate hoping that it wouldn''t fail on him this time. Raven decided to move to the right and his body instantly moved there on its own and he didn''t fail to activate the skill. ¡°I see what the problem was now. I showed you the advance version where you can move instantly in any direction while walking. However your body doesn''t have that kind of skill yet.¡± he admitted to Raven. Raven in turn glared at him, ''Then why the hell did you show me the wrong method? I wasted 4 days thanks to you!'' And so....the rest of the month ended with Raven training his skills. [p=center]xXx[/p] Some time later... Raven was using his shield bash skill on other trainees as they helped him train. Park had ranked up the difficulty with the training by adding several more people with the training. ¡°Shield Bash!¡± Raven whacked the person in front on him and blocked several other attacks from the left and right of him while taking a bit of a hot from behind.
Shield Bash Beginner level 1 (100/100) has been converted to Shield Bash Beginner level 2 (0/300) Bashes the target to stun them for 3 second. Mana Cost: 10 Cool Down: 5 Seconds
And so some time pasted even more.... [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Well then, its about time you graduated from me.¡± said Park with the other behind him. In the last 2 weeks, Raven gained a total of 3 Strength, 2 Agility, 3 Vitality and 2 Stamina which....is not a lot compared to what he gained before.
You have Graduated from being the Apprentice of Park the Shield Bearer Fame +10 You have levelled up You have levelled up
You have lost the title ''Shield Bearer Apprentice''. All Bonuses from the title will be removed
You have gained the title ''Shield Bearer'' - All Stats increase by 1 - 10% less damage by blocking
Raven put his 10 points into Strength, Agility and Vitality in a 2:1:2 ratio.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Raven,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]3,Shield Footman[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleShield-Bearer Apprentice
Health880
Mana140
[quart=Fame,Infamy]10,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]24 +11,21 +11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10 +6,15 +6[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]27 +11,21 +6[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]22 +6,15 +6[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +6,0 +6[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]22,36[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 10% Less Damage taken when Blocking - Shield Related Skills will level up twice as fast. - All Stats increase by 6 - Strength, Agility and Vitality increase by 5
Raven then looked at his skills window which he had been focusing on quite a bit.
Skill Window
- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 2 - Shield Mastery Beginner Level 4 - Shield Bash Beginner level 2 (31/300) - Double Strike Beginner level 1 (53/100) - Footwork Beginner level 1 (49/100) - Repair Beginner level 1 (23/1000)
Overall Raven didn''t do so much that all of his skills were mastered. In fact only one of his active skills managed to go to the Beginner level 2 while the others were in Beginner level 1. The worse case was the Repair skill which after repairing his armour so many, it barely went up at all and it didn''t help that it took so much more to even get it to Beginner level 2. Raven frowned inside when he saw how little progress he made with his skills but managed to wave to the others at the barracks before leaving to his soon to be life-time companions with smiling colours in his heart. Unknown to him, Park had planted something into him as an experiment.
Onwards?
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Vol.1 Chapter 3 - The Druid ¡°Yes!¡± Grace replied immediately when the massage appeared in front of her scared that it may disappear if she waited any longer than a second. She was immediately transported to the white room where she would create her character but she didn''t realise than and panicked in her mind as usual. ''Where am I?! I see anything, I''m not standing on anything?!'' ¡ª The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? ¡°Hiiiii! Yes!¡± she screamed at the voice that appeared out of nowhere. Even as a child Grace was afraid of a lot of things. This and the fact that she was quite timid resulted in most of the boys teasing and picking on her. The other girls knowing that Grace had no way to preventing this and was naturally like this, tried to protect her. But this just stirred the boys to do more extreme things. Stealing shoes, throwing water, pulling hair, using insects, telling ghost stories were the few things that they did to her that the other girls were not able to prevent. ¡ª Select the name of your avatar. ''What do I do? What should I name myself? This is really hard....Serena then.¡± ¡°Serena....¡± Grace thought about the name over and over again but the AI decided it was her chosen name. ¡ª Select your gender from male, female or neutral. ''Wait wait wait! I didn''t choose it yet! Is there a way to go back? No....I have to stick with it then...'' ¡°Female...¡± As a girl at the very beginning of puberty, Grace had an interest in boys. However the torment that the other boys put her through....cancelled all of that completely and as such she didn''t even have thoughts on playing a male character. ¡ª Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine. ¡°Half-Elf!¡± Grace had heard somewhere that half-elves were kind short like her. Even among the other children she was quite short with only a height of 144 cm she was really really short. Also she needed to be a Healer so there was no point in having a character that can fight really well. But Grace was also thinking of other things as well. ''If I don''t make my character a Healer than Hina will.....'' ¡ª You may alter your appearance ¡°Can.....you....show....me....?¡± In front of her suddenly was a half elf character that was her. The same height, face and hair except for her ears which was slightly pointed. Her hair was actually not that long but it was compared to her short height. Her hair which went down to her thighs were actually the same length as hair that was only middle back length. Grace had light brown hair and didn''t intent to change anything, being completely satisfied with her appearance. ¡°I''m...done...¡± Over time she was teased by a large number of people. The boys naturally picked on her for no reason besides the fact that she was timid and wasn''t going to fight back. Some girls who believed that her reactions were just an act also picked on her. The adults not knowing of this just believe that Grace was just paranoid even though she told them over and over again that people were picking on her, bullying her but they never listened once. However one day there was a new female teacher in her school. Unlike the others, she immediately found that Grace was telling the truth and got certain people involved. The parents of those other children for starters were brought in with their children altogether with the police and other important people for the ministry of education as well. Almost immediately the parents complained that they had no right to bring them here but they were shut up with the glares of the threatening looking people that were here to talk to them about the behaviour of their children. Nervous the children could only look away when asked very direct questions on whether they were bullying and making Grace''s life miserable. Of course the parents tried to protect their children and started insulting Grace and her dead parents. However the teacher simply smiled as if this was what she wanted to hear. ''I believe this is enough proof that these children need to be....corrected in their view of the world with their parents. Take them away.'' The parents and children were taken into correction centres by the people the teacher brought in. Ever since that day Grace wanted to be like her teacher. Strong and resolved. With growing resolves when the AI asked the final question, Grace was no longer afraid. ¡ª Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Please Select a city and kingdom you want to start. ¡°Witchhelm!¡± The light are blinded Grace was the first stop on her journey to find herself anew. [p=center]xXx[/p] Serena opened her eyes to find herself in an unknown place with trees, buildings and other life. She looked around nervously trying to find this fountain the others talked about. Serena only hoped that she was placed near it. ''What if I get lost?'' With that lost she panicked a bit looking around even more nervously. However luck was on her side as she found someone that looked like Hina and Serena ran up to her tugging on Hina''s arm. ¡°Help...me...¡± Serena plead hoping that Hina wouldn''t just abandon her here. Hina smiled and said, ¡°I''m Miriel, what are you called?¡± ''This person isn''t Hina....?'' With that single thought Serena let go of this stranger''s arm and moved away several steps. Building up her courage to speak to others she said, ¡°Are.....you....Hina or not?.....¡± Miriel''s face almost glowed as she moved in quickly and started pinching Serena''s cheeks. ''Why is she pinching me? Is there something on my face?'' Serena thought while trying to get free from the arms of Miriel. However when Miriel said, ¡°Yes I am but I¡¯m called Miriel here so get used to it.¡± Serena did the opposite and started clinging on her trying to not let go. Serena then whispered to Miriel, ¡°I''m Serena here.¡± Feeling happy that she got a new friend, Serena walked with her to the fountain. Both Mark and Ian were already there but they were not talking to each other let alone looking at each other. Then Miriel said to the two standing there, ¡°So you two got here early¡± which shocked Mark enough that he showed a slight trace of emotion on his face. Serena laughed inside, ''They are funny.'' A few moments later Peter arrived with his dark blue hair and a smile and said to everyone here, ¡°Is everyone here yet?¡± Serena looked around next to Miriel and found that Maria wasn''t here. ''Maybe I should ask Miriel about....Miriel....?'' Serena looked at Miriel''s increasing pissed off face and when she almost shouted, ¡°Maria isn''t She''s late!¡± like a child, Serena immediately moved away from her and towards Ian who was just happened to be standing there. Peter gave a wry smile seeing this. ¡°So are we going to introduce ourselves while we wait for Maria?¡± Sain asked the rest of the group noting that it was best not to wait for now. ¡°We might as well¡± sighed Miriel saying her thoughts out loud, ¡°Anyway I''m called Miriel now so call me that. I''m a Night Elf.¡± ¡°Raven, Human¡± said Mark after her. Serena was still shy to the group but she managed to talk to them, ¡°I''m called....Serena...a Half-Elf...¡± Ian simply said the words, ¡°Shadow, also Human¡± Sain then introduced himself last. ¡°I''m Sain also a Human. Anyway we should friend each other while we can. Um...how do I do this?¡± Sain was trying to remember the command to friend other people. Miriel sighed and said quickly, ¡°Send Friend Request to Sain, Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡±
Miriel sent you a friend request. Accept?
''Eh?'' Serena was shocked that a box appeared in front of her so suddenly and almost panicked by the sight of it. No, she did panic and moved closer to Shadow. After a moment she moved her finger to accept the friend request.
You have accepted the Friend Request
When Serena was about to calm down from the sudden box appearing, another one appeared form the words from Sain, ¡°Send Friend Request to Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡±
Sain sent you a friend request. Accept?
Once more Serena was shocked at how it just appeared and yet still managed to accept it.
You have accepted the Friend Request
¡°Send Friend Request to Serena and Raven.¡± said Shadow out of nowhere.
Shadow sent you a friend request. Accept?
Serena immediately reacted the same way again and clang to Shadow''s shirt for support. Then Shadow tugged her and Serena thought, ''Are you telling me to go next?'', while looking at Shadow. ¡°Send....Friend request to Raven!¡± shouted Serena to the expectation of Shadow.
You have sent a Friend Request to Raven
After a few moments another box appeared.
Raven has accepted your friend request
¡°Tch!¡± Serena looked at the source of that sound. Miriel was becoming more and more irritated by the second and this frightened Serena. ''What happened to the Miriel from before?'' Then a slightly red haired woman ran up to us all cheerful and waving. It was Maria and she was going to get done in by Miriel. ¡°I''m here~¡± were the first words she said to the group. However the group was not reassure since there was a certain someone very pissed off right now. That certain person went up to Maria and hit her head, hard. ¡°Ow! Wait, what''s this message I''m seeing?¡± Maria cried then looked in interest. ''Its most likely the game saying that you were hurt.'' Everyone thought to themselves. ¡°Your late!¡± shouted Miriel in rage. Serena tugged Shadow''s shirt a bit more when she heard those words. ¡°Anyway sent a friend request to everyone of us. No, tell us your name and we''ll friend you. It''ll be much quicker that way.¡± demanded Miriel which was a 180 degree turn in attitude compared to how she treated Serena. ¡°My name is Lyndis, a normal Elf.¡± said Lyndis. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°First of all you guys know how to open your inventory right? Just say open Inventory and a window saying what you have will appear which should be 10 pieces of Rye bread and a Canteen of Water. You can refill the Canteen using a Fountain like this but you have to buy Rye Bread for 3 Copper each. Try it out.¡± said Miriel. ¡°Open Inventory Window.¡± said the 5 of us.
Inventory - 10 Pieces of Rye Bread - I Canteen of Water - No Money
Everyone looked and pointed at the window that was only visible to themselves. Sain then moved his hand and took out what was the Rye Bread for everyone to see. ''This looks....very hard to chew'', everyone thought seeing the Rye Bread in Sain''s hand. ¡°Anyway next is the Status Window which you will see all of your stats and such. Same thing as the inventory, just say Open Status Window.¡± ¡°Open Status Window¡± said the 5 again.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Serena,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHalf-Elf
TitleNone
Health80
Mana120
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9,11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]12,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]9,9[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 5% increase in Magic Skill Effect - Nature Affinity increase by 5
¡°Okay now that you know your status window, we have to talk about distributing stats. Know that it is better to be a master of one than a master of many. However don''t let it stop you since its your character and we don''t need to be something like the strongest. Now let''s go our separate ways and find a class in these 4 weeks we have. Don''t aim for the hidden classes since they may take too much time to get and don''t just resolve yourself on being one of those common classes people get. I''ll see you guys here in 4 weeks time.¡± said Miriel before leaving us to do whatever we want. [p=center]xXx[/p] When everyone else left on their own, Serena was....well still there alone. She did not know what to do at all. No sense of direction, no good luck and no knowledge to back her up. As a result she was wandering around for quite some time on her own. ''What should I do? What should I do?'' repeated in her mind as she walked and walked. Until a certain message appeared out of nowhere.
Hunger is at 50%
''I should get one of those Rye bread soon...'' From what she knew from the very, very brief knowledge she had with the game, she knew that if her hunger hit zero, she would starve to death which leads to her being banned from the game for a full day in real life and 4 days in game which would be very counter productive enough the Miriel would instantly kill her if not for the fact that that would be even more counter productive than letting her live. ''Wow...I thought they said this place was mostly deserted but there are so many people around. I hope that nothing bad will happen'' All around Serena were people, lots of people. People that knew what they were doing and people that she could not for the life of her tell apart from other players who may be a hidden motive or a NPC which may not have a hidden motive but was still scary to her. ''Where should I go?'' Serena thought. Just about when she decided to go to a shop and get some work a person appeared in front of her. ''Who?'' ¡°Are you lost?¡± asked a man of many years above the tender age of 15 of Serena. The man was met with other of his friends. All of them male and all of them staring at her like she was an insignificant being. ''I don''t like the look of this person, or his friends''. At this Serena backed off a bit and only managed to say with a timid voice, ¡°Umm¡± before one of the friends said in a loud arrogant voice, ¡°This person is definitely a NPC! Hurry up and get the quest!¡± which was almost a shout which drew the attention of other people. ''NPC? Quest? What is this person talking about...?'' was all that she thought before the man in question grabbed her and attempted to drag her away as if this was all planned. ¡°No!¡± she let out a cry. Serena attempted to escape immediately but the man was much stronger than he was and he had no intention of letting go of her. Those men were kidnapping....''helping'' her and looked like high levelled players that you would see in a typical ''How to be a dick and pedophile'' manual. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± For some reason they did not even say anything but surrounded her on all sides, trapping her. Serena looked around for help on the surrounding people that were watching, but no one came to help only to avoid the gaze of these 4 men that had literally trapped Serena. Each of the four were of a different class based upon their equipment. One was a warrior, one was a archer, one was a mage and one was a thief. All four of them had flashy armour, even the thief. ''This is bad, really bad for me. I wonder if someone will help me.....please let someone kind enough to help me'' Serena was screaming in the inside for someone to save her from this but no one still came. Wondering what was going on Serena started to hear what the people around had to say. Her sharper sense of hearing was developed as a child to avoid the bullies that want to torment her. A pair of a man and woman to the right was looking on with great concern but looked much weaker than the four and would be just killed. The female who looked like a priest said, ¡°We have to help her¡± but the man who looked like a swordsman stopped her saying, ¡°They''re part of ''that'' guild! They rule over this place. If we help the child then we....¡± he did not finish the sentence but the woman got the message. From this conversation, Serena could only think, ''What guild?'' not knowing who or what the guild did to allow these people to terrorise others. Another group of people that looked on had a frightened look on their face. They looked like high school friends that came on to play for a bit. ¡°Not again...¡± sighed a man with a funny hat on. Serena didn''t laugh since she was in quite a bad situation herself. ''This happened before?'' ¡°How many times has it been now? They''ve been saying they part of ''that'' guild and stealing all kinds of stuff already.¡± said a concern woman who was tightening her grip on her bag. ''What is this guild and what does it have to do with stealing? Is it a thief guild since they steal?'' ¡°I feel sorry for that kid. She''s the type that gets bullied and the type that attract trouble.¡± said what seemed to be the leader of the group who was wearing sightly better armour from the rest. ''Then help me you idiot! If it bothers you so much than do something about it!'' ¡°Yeah I know....and they only had to declare that they thought she was a NPC for them to not get punished by the lord.¡± said another woman. ''Oh, why would you know this? Is it because you just stand there and look on as they do whatever they want?'' At this point Serena was getting pissed off at the bystanders that did nothing at all more than the four that cause trouble. ¡°I hear they give him a lot of money to not report.¡± said someone else as well. So Serena knows that they are strong enough to flaunt whatever they want, they have money to bribe officials and most importantly they had useless bystanders looking on at them without doing anything. Also they were part of this guild. ''It looks like this may be the end already...'' Serena had a grim look on her face, it seemed this was the day that she was not going to get out of it more or less fine. In the game Royal Road, it was natural that those under 18, hell everyone female was protected from rape. However it did not stop some people on trying and traumatising the victims even though it has a lot of morale issues that this narrator will not list due to the fact that there are too many things that have to be said with such issues and may involve several long chapters to even describe what the victims feel. However this series is not going to talk about all of that since such a thing will never happen in this series. Why? Because a certain person appeared just then. ¡°Why does it seem like you four are about to kidnap this kid?¡± asked a feminine voice that turned the heads of all that heard. ''Who?'' Serena had a shocked face since there was no one that helped her before so why should there be someone who would now? The person who appeared was a woman with long black hair and what you call a beauty. She was wearing a plain white one piece dress which screamed NPC to everyone there. However she did have some odd tattoos on her which made her stand out even more but did not even dent her beauty. Such a person could not be a player at all. The sight of this person immediately caused the four to switch their target to this person and let go of Serena which took the chance to get away a couple of metres. Even for Serena''s perspective she could feel the utter disgust that came out of them as they stared at their new prey. Serena could only shiver in fear as a new player that just started the same day, ''Please....please let that person be all right...'' Serena plead to whatever God that could hear her. The warrior person using his power immediately tried to persuade the lady in front of him by grabbing her which in turn had no reaction from her at all. But the woman did just a smile at the attempt. And then started the four''s start with their talk on how ''great'' they were which almost made Serena want to just commit suicide since it was so clich¨¦. ¡°Hey girl why don''t you come with us for some fun¡± the man said gleaming with lust. The other three started chuckling at his words knowing the true meanings of his words. Then the archer guy then continued proving their attitude, ¡°We''re part of the guild ''Sleeping Sheep''. I believe you heard of them.¡± At that point several people already ran away. They were not players but the NPCs that were in the area. Why did they run...? The players will see that soon enough. The woman continued to smile at the four without any kind of ill intent from what Serena could see and replied, ¡°Yes I have.¡± Did this narrator also mention that these four read the book called ''Minor bad guys that make a speech and then get killed''? No? Now you know. Stab~ The woman''s smile did not even flinch as she stabbed her hand through his armour and chest in one go making it very apparent that her hand was through him literally. ¡°Cough¡± The warrior man collapsed onto the ground in front of everyone spurting blood everywhere. It happened so quickly that it was like magic was used to cause this. But the hand and the blood on it prove it did not. It was simply that the woman was that much stronger than everyone else here. Serena almost couldn''t believe her eyes as a high levelled player just died just like that. No the person with a hole in him was still alive even though common sense says that he should be dead. ¡°What the hell?¡± said the three immediately noticing that something was very wrong right now. They retreated back and drew their weapons and then immediately started to attack hoping for the best. ¡°Fire Wave!¡± shouted the mage sending a wave of fire to the woman. ''Look out!'' screamed Serena in the inside. The woman in a quick moment dodged the fire wave attack and moved in to kick the mage in the balls while the archer who just about to fire an arrow was suddenly met with a golden sword in his knee. ¡°Ahhhh!¡± The mage collapsed gasping his balls that were most likely broken and the archer who was screaming holding his knee in pain letting go of his bow. The only one left was the thief...who grabbed Serena''s neck from the back. And a certain sharp object was pointed at her neck as well like a hostage....no she was most definitely a hostage at this point. ''Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! Nooooooooooo!'' Serena at this point started panicking. Serena was frightened. More frightened then she was than the time a certain boy decided it would be a fun joke to hold her down and steal her underwear and graffiti it along with her desk at school. That time the person was definitely punished to the point that they were kicked out of the school and those around him were punished as well which in turn made everyone pretty much hate her for the rest of their time in school which was the very start of her long time being bullied until...a certain person came up to her and asked if she wanted to escape from her hell. That man was most likely the person who got her into the current group she was in right now and she could not let them down. ''I don''t want to be that helpless again! I want to change!'' were the words that Serena had engraved into her heart. Suppressing her fear Serena waited for the time where she could be something else than the princess that was always saved by the hero. ¡°Stand back or this one gets it!¡± the man behind Serena shouted at the seemingly scary figure in front of them. The woman arm drenched in blood didn''t even blink an eye as she walked towards them even though Serena was being taken as a hostage. Serena thought, ''Does this person know that I will do something to help her?'' As if in response to her thoughts the woman smiled and as a result the knife started to cut through Serena''s neck. The man using Serena was a hostage was definitely frightened since the blade was shaking and it was not cutting Serena''s skin properly. The woman walking towards them looked like she knew this. When the woman was quite close the man decided to act which was also the time Serena and the woman decided to act as well. ''Now!'' Serena opened her mouth and bit hard on the arm of the thief oozing blood through the bite. ¡°Damn you brat!¡± he said in contempt as he moved his knife to slit Serena''s throat. Serena had a slight flash back during this and thought, ''I don''t want it to end yet!'' with all her might. But Serena did not die. In fact she was not harmed at all besides the cuts she got when was was being taken as a hostage. ¡°Ahhhhhhhh!¡± the man behind her screamed holding his arm which the knife was on. His arms was drenched in blood. Splash~ Blood suddenly came out of the man''s body as if her was slashed. Serena looked behind her to find that the woman did not do anything as far as what Serena could see but there was no one else who could''ve done such a thing. Covered in blood now, Serena once again almost fainted but managed to keep it together enough for the woman to drag the four men together with an evil smile. ''Is there a point in grouping them together?'' though Serena while wiping off the blood. Years of being conditioned made Serena more....tolerant of blood and the gore. ¡°So do you four knew who you just pissed off?¡± the woman said devilishly. Serena could feel some sort of big feeling coming from the body of the woman. The four men, two of them barely conscious at this point shook their head as if they were children being lectured by an adult on their misbehaviour. They looked smaller and smaller compared to the woman that helped her in Serena''s eyes. They no longer looked frightening at all. ¡°Really you haven''t noticed? You guys have been using my guild''s name after all.¡± she said not smiling anymore. At those words the four went pale. Even the two that were bleeding to death slowly went even more pale at those words. Those words seemed like the declaration of Satan himself. Frightened to the point beyond reason the only one that was capable on moving more or less, the archer took the golden sword that was impaled into his knee and tried to slash at the woman who at this time, everyone knew was the guild leader of ''that'' guild. The sword didn''t even reach her.....literally. The golden sword stayed where it was just barely away from harming her and the archer could not even move it as if it had a will on it own. When the man let go the sword was still in the air as if it was floating or something similar. ''Impossible....how can....'' Serena thought as she watched this horror movie like scene. But that was not all that happened. As if the woman was not human at all, her eyes and tattoos glowed the same colour as she if she was having fun. Then a sudden shock wave appeared out of nowhere and Serena got several messages from the game at once.
You are in the presence of the Destroyer
You are in a state of Fear
You are in a state of Panic
You are in a state of confusion
All skills will be sealed
Stats will be reduced to half
All regeneration will cease
Movement will be heavily restricted
''What on Earth.....is....this.....?'' Serena thought on her knees due to the sudden pressure on her like there was something crusher her body and mind. The demon like woman touched the hand of the archer. It was a small touch but his hand got ripped off like pudding being scoped up by a spoon. The man let out a soundless scream. His tears poured out of his eyes like a flood and looked like he was begging to be forgiven. However the woman was not so forgiving. With a swift motion she ripped off the limbs of the man leaving him to drown in his own blood pool. With that sight or rather because of that pressure she was feeling all that time, Serena did faint this time with the last thing she saw was the woman running to catch her. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Serena woke up on a soft bed, she was in an unknown place. She looked around to find that she was in a house of some sort which had a number of plants and books which diagrams of the human body and other creatures on the wall. The place was so cramped with things that it seemed smaller than it really was. ''This place is....?'' ¡°So you''re finally awake. You slept for a full day, not that I blame you considering that you experience that person''s power¡± said a woman, a different woman than the one Serena saw before. Unlike the dark haired beauty Serena saw before, the on in front of her was more of a green haired person wearing green clothes. While not at the same level as the previous person, people would still think of this person as a beautiful person. Then Serena looked at herself. She was wearing a green robe that had a similar design to the one the woman was wearing. ¡°Oh, I changed your clothes since, the rags you had before were covered in blood...and blood stains are hard to get rid of.¡± she explained while flicking through a book quickly. Strangely enough, Serena was quite calm. Compared to what she felt before, it was like this was very insignificant to her. ''Is there something wrong with me? Normally I would be scared waking up like this....'' ¡°Where am I? And who are you?¡± asked Serena to the woman. ¡°I am called Mel, and this is my home which also doubles up as my workplace on discovering stuff to heal people and creatures around the world, well mainly those I like. Anyway a friend brought you here since you seem to have some potential to become my apprentice¡± said Mel. Mel moved around the large room with little space to move about quickly as if there was nothing in her way. ''Apprentice? What is she talking about?'' thought Serena confused about what happened recently. First she was about to be kidnapped then a person appeared saving her but also caused her to faint with blood everywhere and now she was going to be the apprentice of this other person whom she had woken up in the house of. ¡°If you wish to ask questions then you have to be my apprentice, just for you to know. If not, then I''ll knock you out and throw you at some random alleyway.¡± Mel said while collecting some more books and materials.
Become Mel''s apprentice Mel has fancy you and allowed you to become her apprentice. - You will live with her until your apprenticeship finish - You will be fed food - You will be given training directly from her - Will gain the title ''Nature Wielder Apprentice''
''So do I have a choice?'' With some reluctant and some expectation Serena said, ¡°Yes.¡±
You have become the apprentice of Nature Wielder Mel
You have gained the title ''Nature Wielder Apprentice'' - Intelligence will increase by 1 - Wisdom will increase by 1 - 5% Less Time to Cast Spells
When that message appeared to Serena Mel had finished gathering all the books and other stuff she needed to teach her new apprentice as if she knew Serena would accept. Mel looked at Serena and said, ¡°Now you can ask some questions. Its better to get these things done with before the training starts.¡± Prompted, Serena started asking questions one after the other, not wasting a breath on any unneeded questions. ¡°First, who was that person I saw back there. The one who helped me. I want to be like her!¡± Serena asked very curious with great expectations on her face. Mel hesitated to tell her the truth but managed to somehow alter it a bit in order to crush the young girl''s dream. ¡°The person is...well the guild leader of my guild. Actually one of three guild leaders. You can say she''s very strong in almost all areas besides anything that doesn''t involve not destroying stuff...¡± answered Mel making sure to alter as much of the truth as possible for Serena''s sake. Serena nodded and thought, ''So I may meet her in the near future.'' and shot off another question. ¡°What is this guild?¡± Mel looked a bit shocked than regained her calm, ¡°You don''t know? We are famous in the wrong ways...well you''ll find out later either way. Anyway don''t you want to know what I do? Or what I will teach you?¡± she asked. Serena thought about it for a bit and shook her head and said, ¡°I want to know about that person¡±. Mel sighed thinking, ''Are all girls like this these days?'' with great fear on what will happen in the future. After a moment of thought, Mel decided to use the old fashion bait in training a person, ¡°I''ll tell you everything if you can finish my training, deal? Also you can''t ask about that person anymore until then¡± to which Serena immediately nodded her head in agreement. Mel turned around picking up a book and thought, ''Good, she took the bait'' while smiling. [p=center]xXx[/p] A while back... Mel was reading a book on the ecosystem of Orcs which has been somewhat decreasing in numbers recently. One of the jobs she had was to investigate the increase and decrease in population of many species at once. By now, it had been Mel''s second nature to research about every kind of species she encountered. Knock Knock Knock ¡°I''m coming in Mel!¡± shouted a familiar voice. At this voice Mel immediately decided to run and hide but it was too late to do even one of these things. The person Mel was trying to run away from was already in. Mel turned and looked at this person with a half broken smile that looked more forced than trying to make a Orc act like a gentleman. ¡°It has been a while Eden. What have bring to me this time?¡± Mel asked making sure that Eden would not get offended in any way possible. Eden frown and said, ¡°You say that like I bring trouble to you every time I visit.¡± ''You do bring trouble with you! Every single time!'' Mel screamed in her heart. Ever since in the past when Mel was still travelling as an adventurer, they had the misfortune of meeting those three. However neither she nor her friends ever regretted meeting them. They were all....unique and powerful to boot. However for some reason they were always met with challenges greater than they can handle and by some series of miracles blast through them. Mel looked at Eden to find that she was covered in blood and a person was hung on her shoulder. Mel sighed and asked, ¡°Did you kill someone again? And what''s with this person?¡± ¡°Hey! They were the ones who attacked and took a hostage first! Besides they were using our name and were harassing the people knowing that they will not oppose us. Anyway I found you an apprentice. She''s one of my kind.¡± With those words Eden dropped the poor girl and went to one of the hidden closets in the house taking out new clothes, leaving the blooded ones behind. ¡°Mel make sure you teach her well enough. The others already have new apprentices from yesterday and I want some new members to play around with and use for some tasks.¡± Eden said while throwing a dress to Mel for her to dress the girl up. ¡°If its any task, then you can do it right? Even the Emperor likes you doing important tasks for him and that says a lot since he''s one of the few people with almost perfect records if not perfect.¡± complained Mel thinking of all the time that she would have to waste training someone to be someone else''s toy. Eden left the house leaving behind the words, ¡°I''m retired. Besides company is a good thing once in a while. You might actually get attached to this one.¡± ''On the other hand bad company is worse than no company at all like with you....what am I going to do....'' Mel looked worryingly at the young girl that was suddenly placed under her care. But before Eden could leave Mel shouted a question at him, ¡°Why are you wearing that dress?¡± with a large grin on her face. Red faced, Eden shouted back, ¡°Lost a bet with Alexandra!¡± before slamming the door. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°First of all a Druid is mainly a Healer who is affiliated with nature. While there are those who are born as Druids, namely those who have the race Druid, there are those like me and soon you who will become something similar in terms of class. Do you understand so far?¡± Serena nodded her head trying as much as possible to not think or ask questions about that person she desperately wants to know about. ¡°We are called Healers but we also manage the team we''re in. If there is a tactician in the group then our orders are secondary to his or her in who should heal and protect.¡± Serena made a confused look and asked, ¡°Why should we obey a tactician''s order to our own?¡± ¡°Because a tactician has to consider everything to ensure victory even if it means sacrificing allies. We only need to keep as many alive to prolong the survivability of the group. The main difference is the will to see friends and comrades fall and get killed before your eyes without doing anything about it. Can you stand to see one of your friends to get hurt and die without you doing anything even if it means danger to yourself and others around you?¡± Mel explained asking a question at the end. Serena thought about it thinking of her new friends dying and shook her head feverishly. With that Mel started to explain about the role of such a person. ¡°A Healer can be anyone who can recover the strength of a group. They do not need to be of a basic yet effective class such a cleric or priest. Shamans can also use healing spells as well as other certain classes as well. There are spells that can only affect one person, affect a group and affect the entire area, a nation and even those which can affect the continent as a whole and perhaps even the world. The magic I will teach you will be on the level of affect single persons and a group or two. Any more will be too much for you right now. Any questions?¡± ¡°Why are you only teaching me the first two levels? Isn''t it more effective to just use the magicks that can affect a larger area?¡± asked Serena. Mel smiled at this and answered, ¡°That''s because the effectiveness, the power of the spell will thin too much if spread too much. An example would be the curse of fire and curse of ice a long time ago.¡± ''Curse of fire and curse of ice? What is she talking about?'' thought Serena not knowing that Mel was talking about years ago when Royal Road was still considerably new. ¡°Once upon a time a certain King in the northern continent had his Kingdom invaded by countless monsters. To save his people he lured the monsters into an area and used the power of the Ice Witch Bead which cracked in this event which caused the northern continent to freeze in extreme cold. Years later a certain group in their greed caused the wrath of the King of Fire Scorpions and the whole continent heated up several degrees without exception. Despite the power of the Curse of Fire which affected the entire continent, the northern Continent though a bit warmer still had its frozen temperature. I difference is that the curse of ice only affected the northern continent while the curse of fire affected the whole continent. While the curse of fire had the same or higher power than the curse of ice, it still could not overcome it since the power was more focused at the north. Namely in context, if you had the power to heal a person completely in one go and used it on an entire army, it won''t do much.¡± ¡°So its better to use smaller spells over and over again? Or is it better to use one larger spell?¡± asked Serena. ¡°It depends on the situation. Now I am going to give you a class even though it is too early since you can''t learn my spells easily without it.¡±
You have been offered the class ''Druid''. Do you accepted? Druids are linked to nature more than elves and thus have powers that Elves cannot use. However the class will allow any and all to learn those secret skills. Besides the power of healing, Druids have the power of protection and also have the power to bless themselves or others with the power of nature.
This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Yes!¡± replied Serena immediately.
Class has been changed to ''Druid'' Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina increase by 10 Nature Affinity increase by 5 Nature resistance increase by 5%
You have gained the skill Mediation
You have gained the skill Mana Blast
Serena checked her Status window knowing that her stats have increased somewhat.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Serena,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,Druid[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHalf-Elf
TitleNone
Health80
Mana160
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9,11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]12 +10,10 +10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]9,9 +10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 5% increase in Magic Skill Effect - Nature Affinity increase by 5 - Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina increase by 10 - 5% Less Time to Cast Spells
Serena checked her stats again. Her mana was twice as big as her health now while her other stats did not increase at all. Serena was quite saddened by this fact even though it was only her second day in the game and getting a class in two days was already extremely good itself. ¡°Okay now that you have the class I should tell you that we can heal three kinds of things. That is Health, Mana and Stamina. Normally you can''t heal Mana but I can be done. The only thing you cannot heal is mental damage. That alone relies solely on the person''s own will and nothing but that person can do anything about it. Also we do not specialise in healing directly but letting the person recover quickly or regenerate. Here''s the first skill.¡±
You have gained the skill Minor Health Regeneration
Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 1 (0/100) Heals 100 Health over a total of 100 seconds or 1 Health per Second Mana Cost: 10 Mana Cool Down: 20 Seconds
¡°At first you can only heal 100 Health per 100 Seconds but when you reach Intermediate Level with it, it will increase to 500 and in Advance it will go to 1000. Likewise Moderate Health Regeneration will Heal 1000 Health over 100 Seconds, then to 5000 Health per second and eventually gets to 10000 Health per 100 seconds. Advance Health Regeneration will start off at 10000 Health per 100 seconds, then 15000 Health and finally 30000 Health per 100 seconds. Then there is Ultimate Health Regeneration which will heal even more than that. However normal Healing Spells can do this as well. Do you know the difference?¡± Serena answered, ¡°No.¡± ¡°The answer is simple. It is the amount of mana the spell relies on. Regeneration spells while taking a while to be fully realised on a person will cost much less than normal healing spells. The a Healing spell cost 100 mana than its equivalent in a regeneration spell will cost 30 or less. Its simply whether to focus on an immediate effect or not, the end results are the same. Also we can stack the effects which makes it more useful overall as well.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Mel held out a small cute hamster in her hands. Serena looked at it with interest as all girls at her age would since it was cute. However Serena sensed that something wrong was going to happen. ¡°Now its time to teach you the application of your spell.¡± said Mel taking out a knife and cutting the cute hamster. ''Noooooooooooooo!!! Why?! Its so cute!'' screamed Serena inside with her expression showing great grief at the sight. Mel held the injured hamster in front of Serena saying, ¡°Heal it.¡± Serena immediately shouted, ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± feeling her mana draining from her and into the spell. The hamster glowed a bit at the cut and it healed in a couple of seconds. ¡°Serena, healing spells are more difficult than normal destructive magicks since it requires some certain knowledge. Healing spells are only half of effective when you point the spell at someone at random. If someone is cut on their arm, then it is better to focus the spell onto their arm than their whole body which means you must learn the details of the human body, elven body, dwarfish body and Orc body among others things as well. Here are a couple of books you should read in your spare time.¡± Mel handed Serena a stack of books which had titles such as ''The Human body'', ''Bones and their functions'', ''Tissues are noobs'' and ''What not to break and why''. Serena decided to read them later but not now since Mel had other things to say. ¡°Also you would need a staff of course! Staffs are useful since they can amplify your magic and stabilise it as well. I think I have an old one for you to use....somewhere¡± Mel looked around the messy room that was almost covered in junk and other materials. Mel looked at Serena almost pleading, ¡°Help me find it.¡± ¡°...¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Several hours later Mel managed to find the staff under a pile of books....and this was the tall stack of books which numbered 30-40 and the small 4-5 book stacks. Mel handed over the wooden staff to Serena which she checked and equipped.
Old Wooden Staff Durability: 16-25 Damage: 2-5 An old wooden staff that is used by beginners in magic. Requirement: None Options: Intelligence +1
¡°Its a bit old and damaged a bit but its not like you''ll whack something with it right?¡± Mel said while packing up the numerous books that had fallen due to their search. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Oh its already night, better get some sleep Serena.¡± said Mel noticing that she was lecturing Serena on various things over the last couple of hours. She took out a glass and filled it with water and drank it to drench her dry throat. Serena went into her room and slept through the night. [p=center]xXx[/p] 2 days later Mel took Serena somewhere and they were on the process of walking there. Serena tried to keep up with Mel but was struggling to do so. On the way Mel was giving Serena some instructions. ¡°When we get there, you must address me as Master, okay?¡± ordered Mel with a glare. Serena could only say, ¡°Yes Master¡± timidly while running behind her. A bit worried, Serena thought, ''What has gotten into her? She wasn''t like this yesterday and the day before.'' After a hour or so they arrived at their destination. It was some sort of barracks and it was filled with soldiers and others training heavily for battle. Serena could hear the loud chanting of harsh words even outside the place. While Serena was hesitant on going in, Mel on the other hand immediately ran in dragging Serena in with her. Near the centre of a large field was some sort of....death training machine and there was a person who Serena recognised in there. ''Raven?!'' she thought with great distress. Although they did not know each other more than a couple of hours, Serena had grown quite friendly with the others as they considered her as a nice younger sister. However Raven was dying in front of her. The strange lines of dolls were beating him to death and a old man was standing nearby watching all of this calmly while the other people nearby were too frightened or did not care at all to help. Mel ran up and shouted, ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± healing Raven in one go. Although Mel has taught Serena this skill, Serena knew that her skills with it was far cry from the level of her master''s. In the next 10 seconds Raven managed to finish whatever the course was that nearly killed him. Serena sighed in relief but Mel had other ideas besides being calm. ¡°Park are you trying to kill your apprentice?! His health dropped down to critical levels just then!¡± she shouted at the old man. The old man named Park looked at Mel startled but then placed on a smile that looked kinda fake to Mel saying, ¡°Mel! It has been a while....How nice for you to drop in¡±, Serena could''ve sworn that his smile was twitching. Likewise Mel was smiling at this Park person with a fake smile as well but this one felt more frightening than Serena originally thought. ''She somehow seems more scary then I remember....'' ¡°If I remembered, a certain person was bowing down to me begging for me to help teach his new apprentice.¡± said Mel. Serena along with everyone else in the area who heard had their eyes popping from their eyes. For some reason the other people seemed to have the expression ,''I wish I saw that happen'' look on their face. Park on the other hand was very distressed by those words retorting, ¡°No no no, I didn''t beg at all!¡± as quickly as possible. Then everyone had the expression, ''So he didn''t do it?'''' on their face this time. ¡°Huh?¡±, Mel gave a threatening look to Park which he submitted with ¡°Yes I did beg now please down hurt me¡± in a pleading voice to Mel. At this sight Mel smiled and decided to throw salt in his wounds saying, ¡°To think an old man like you is able to bow down to the ''young'' me.¡± with great confidence. ''I have a good feeling that Mel is just making fun of this Park person now.'' But Park was confused and said almost unwittingly, ¡°How old are you now? Weren''t you 10 years my senior?¡± which was one of the forbidden questions in the world to be asked for a woman. Feeling great danger Serena ran to where the others were backing away from the soon to be scene of the crime. In the shadow of Mel''s now frozen smile Serena and the others could see the shadow of a raging dragon in their. Mel started chanting a high levelled spell, ¡°The leaves of nature fall and reduce to ash-¡± ''Eh? What is this spell?'' thought Serena half curious on what it was and half frightened to death since it may kill everyone here. Park tried to stop her from casting the spell, ¡°Stop! Are you trying to kill us all?!¡± Serena looked more distressed now since Park''s attitude was indeed making everyone think this spell was a really bad idea. However his words did not reach her ears as she finished the chanting and activated the spell, ¡°crimson light reflect onto nature''s gaze. Type 5 Nature Magic: Nature''s Hell!¡± Then in the air there were a large number of leaves coming out of nowhere. They turned into green dust and floated around the place. At first everyone thought this to be a harmless spell....until the wind blew it into a building and it disappeared without a trace. ''Holy....better run now while we have the chance!'' everyone thought at the same time, running already from the green dust that would kill them if they were covered in it. But everyone did not get the chance to run as the Wind God seemed to hate everyone there for some reason and blew the green dust to them. ¡°No no NO¡± ¡°I don''t want to die yet!¡± ¡°Why is this happening to us?!¡± The trainee shouted their inner thoughts right before they were about to die. But instead of being covered by the green dust and dying, a shield of some sort appeared in front of them, saving their lives. ''We''re.....saved?'' ¡°Honestly why is it every time you two fight, the bystanders are almost always in danger of dying?¡± asked another ''young'' lady in purple robes. She too held a staff and created another layer of the same shield that protected them all. ¡°¡°Jenny?!¡±¡± said the one who was using a large scale destructive death sentence spell and the one who was cowering away said at the same time. ''Whose Jenny?'' thought both Raven and Serena at the same time. The person named Jenny simply smiled and said to Mel who was actually the person shivering now, ¡°Stop your spell or else.¡± The next second the spell disappeared immediately and everyone sighed in relief. However everything was not done just yet. Park was about to draw his sword out while Mel was about to cast another spell. But Jenny already got in between them and with a glare asked, ¡°Do you two want to experience my personal Dragon''s Bane move designed to take down dragons without harming them?¡± the two trouble makers were pale white now. ''That person reminds me of Miriel for some reason...'' thought Serena bit frightened. [p=center]xXx[/p] Raven, Serena, Park and Mel were together right now talking about the training that both Raven and Serena was to do together since it would help improve the skills and abilities of both of them at the same time. ¡°Basically while Raven goes in there again¡±, Park pointed at his prized machine, ¡°Serena will heal him when he gets close to dying.¡± Serena nodded while Raven looked distressed even though it didn''t appear directly on his face, his body showed more than enough to know. Seeing this, Mel patted Raven''s shoulder and reassure him, ¡°If things don''t go well, I''ll help Serena help you and punish Park without killing everyone else as well, I promise!¡± however it only gave the opposite effect and Raven seemed more depressed than before. ¡°Serena will wait over there until your health goes under a certain point and will heal you. Me and Park....needs to meet with Jenny for a talk.¡± said Mel before leaving with pale faces. ¡°...¡± Serena looked at Raven who was silent for the entire time though she thought she saw a hint of emotion when everyone was about to die. ''I should try to talk to him...'' ¡°So how was your experiences so far?¡± asked Serena wanting to know what happened for him to be forced through all of that. Raven then suddenly looked worse than before as if he was trying not to remember what happened and was breathing irregularity. Seeing this, Serena ordered, ¡°What''s wrong? Try not to think!¡± while trying to think of a way to lessen his pain. After a few seconds Raven''s breathing was stable again. Serena decided to just speak since it was unlikely that Raven would any time soon, ¡°Anyway I have a couple of skills I can do but I''m here to train my healing abilities. My version of Minor Regeneration only heals 100 Health over 100 seconds which means its 1 health per second. Also I can recast the spell once every 20 seconds so you should be fine if I stack the skill over and over again. Are you....going to go through that again?¡± Raven nodded and picked up his shield. He went at the start of the course again and waited for Serena to cast her spell. ''Oh is he going to...I better start then'' ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± she shouted. After Raven looked at the space in front of him he immediately charged into the training device thing that almost killed him before. The dolls were hitting him where ever they could and the only thing Raven could do was endure it. Serena counted the remaining time for her to cast the spell again. ''5....4....3....2....1...now!'' ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡±
You have generated the Skill Magic Mastery
You have generated the Skill Nature Mastery
''Eh?, what are these?'' Serena quickly went into the skill window and opened their information to see.
Magic Mastery Beginner level 1 (0/100) The ability to manipulate and use magicks of all kinds. Increase Casting Speed: 3% Increase Magic Damage: 10%
Nature Mastery Beginner level 1 (0/100) The ability to manipulate and use Nature Magic. Nature Affinity Increase: 1 Nature Magic Strength Increase: 5%
Reading the texts quickly Serena went back to helping Raven with his training since he was going to die if Serena did not help him. After Serena had healed him a bit he continued through the course and Serena had enough time to cast the spell two more times on him. [p=center]xXx[/p] The next day Serena went over to the barracks again to help with Raven''s training since it was most likely that he was going to die if not for her or a priest on site. When Serena got there she saw that Raven and three other people were there training on scarecrows already. Serena looked at Park confused. ''Why did he call the others here as well?'' ¡°Right! Now we can finally begin!¡± shouted Park. Park took out a shield in front of Serena and threw it at Raven saying, ¡°Raven! There''s no point in holding that dull heavy thing. Feel the force of the blows and counter it!¡± And so the other three trainees surrounded Raven about to start the training. They begun but did not move at all, they were all just staring at each other. The one of the trainees attacked Raven and he blocked and then another attacked almost immediately after the first and the third attacked after the second which resulted in Raven getting hit hard on the side. Raising her staff at Raven, Serena shouted, ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± After this happened the trainees started to move faster and hit harder for some reason smiling all the way. Something was wrong and Serena was about to stop it but Park held her in place. After 20 seconds pasted, Serena was about to cast a healing spell on Raven but Park stopped her forcing her to just watch saying in a whisper, ¡°You stay put no matter what happens.¡± ''Eh? What is happening? Why is he stopping me from helping Raven?'' Then one of the trainees started hitting the wooden shield so many times that it started cracking, taunting Raven with, ¡°What''s wrong freeman?! Why don''t you just die!¡±, parts of the shield broke off and well to the ground leaving Raven more defenceless than before. Serena stood there frightened of what was going on. ''This wasn''t training at all. It was more like torture for Raven and the three were the torturers that liked harming others.'' ¡°Take this!¡± One of the trainees punched Raven in the stomach. Raven went to his knees grabbing his stomach in pain. The trainees started kicking him and insulting him even more. Serena saw anger in Raven''s eyes, anger that she could relate to. Anger of someone who endured and was suppressed by others. ¡°Kill.....I''LL KILL YOU ALL!¡± The words came out like a scream that deafened all other noise. Raven got up in a weird broken way and kicked the nearest trainee bully onto the ground while the other two stood there shocked of what just happened. Then Raven lifted the half broken shield and smashed it into the stomach of the downed trainee. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!¡± Blood poured out like a fountain and Raven smashed the shield into the trainee using the sharp end a couple more times before the person died. Then Raven turned to another trainee who knew that he was going to die and nothing was going to stop that. ¡°No....NO STOP!¡± Raven walked up to the man that pissed his pants from fear and started hitting the man so many times that he eventually died. The last person tried to escape. He really did but Park was there and threw him back in range of Raven who just finished with the second one. The man died screaming for help till the end. When the deed was done Raven just stood there blank until something woke him up. Clap, clap, clap. It was Park. Hearing the noise that pulled him back in reality he immediately dropped his half broken blood stained shield. At this time Serena was really really pale and was about to faint but restrained herself to at least faint anywhere but near Raven for his sake. ¡°Good job on venting your feelings. Don''t worry those guys are spoil rich brats that were kicked out of their house and handed to me to punish. You did not crime in killing them.¡± said Park trying to reassure Raven but it did not help. Raven was making faces of despair and hopelessness. ¡°Raven you have to face the possibility that you will kill other humans even if you try to think this is a game. Trust me, I know many young people go insane from the act and try to consider killing a game. Every last one of them broke in the end....even me.¡± Park sighed and called out to Serena. ¡°Sorry Serena for showing you this. Mel requested me to as a sort of training. There are many things a healer will see and cannot prevent. Make sure your comrades don''t go too far and that is all you need to do.¡± ''Damn you! I''ll make sure to tell Mel about this!'' Serena thought in order to take revenge for Raven against Park. With that the training for the day ended with Raven covered in blood. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°I see...so that happened....thanks for telling me Serena. I''ll make sure to ''talk'' to that idiot later¡± said Mel with an evil smile on her face. Then Mel looked at Serena with an almost innocent smile and said, ¡°Its time that I teach you how to restore stamina. It cost a bit more but it''ll help later on when you and your friends are going through dungeons.¡±
You have obtained the Skill Minor Stamina Regeneration
Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 1 (0/100) Heals 10 Stamina over a total of 100 seconds or 0.1 Stamina per Second Mana Cost: 30 Mana Cool Down: 20 Seconds
Serena looked at the message and noted that it would be better to use it when her mana was much higher than right now. ¡°Anyway I have to tell you about the other...skills I have up my selves. Being a Druid does not mean we are completely defenceless. We do have....certain skills that help us along the way. The skill that I kinda accidental used was one of the more powerful ones. Druids as you know have the power to use bits of nature itself. Not all of it, that only lies in the domain of Gods and those of similar powers, but even a bit of that power is enough to topple an army. Do you know why Druids and those who use such powers are now so feared?¡± asked Mel smiling all the way. As Mel was talking she had this feeling that she was describing something in the distant past. Serena didn''t know what it was but it sounded powerful...dangerous but powerful at the same time. To the question Serena said, ¡°No Master. I don''t see how using the power of nature is that dangerous. I mean how is using some power to boost your skills dangerous?¡± Mel shook her head at this. Mel did not expect that her apprentice would say that after seeing what she did some time ago. ''I even demonstrated it in front of her and everyone else in the barrack as well....'' Mel thought distressingly. ¡°Do you remember the spell I used in the barrack?¡± asked Mel a bit concern about the insides of her apprentice''s head. However her worries were not met since the moment Mel said those words Serena''s face pale to the point that you would think she was a ghost. Mel sighed in relief and explain further, ¡°Although you won''t be using such a spell for a long time, you have to understand how dangerous it is. Another example of the application of nature magic would be.....growing roots I suppose.¡± ¡°Root?¡± ¡°Yes, I remember that a certain person made a contract with a God and obtained the power to manipulate roots.¡± Serena''s eyebrow raised and she said, ¡°And this skill was extremely powerful as well right?¡± ¡°Yes it was. In terms of the number that person could control, it was in frightening numbers and the strength of each one was not to be joked about. I believe there was only one time which the world saw that skill. I believe you heard of the forest named ''Ruler''s bane'' right?¡± ''Isn''t that....? THAT place which was very famous since the biggest army got wiped out in a number of minutes'' Serena was shocked since even those who for some reason had little or none relation to the game knew what that place was since it was still widely talked about. Serena once heard a story where a large group of people wandered into the forest trying to find a dungeon to find countless corpse half stuck in trees as if the trees grew with the corpses that were still flesh. ¡°It looks like you have. Well that was created using that skill.¡± A bit more curious now Serena asked, ¡°What about the large Dragon and the flash of light?!¡± in a very quick manner. ¡°Oh those are different skills. One of them was part of a church and the other.....well let''s not talk about that person. She''s more frightening than Jenny......and Jenny got most of her skills from that person as well.....¡± near the end of the sentence Mel muttered to herself that she needed to bring some gifts to ''that'' person soon. Waking up from her fears after a few seconds Mel clapped her hands and said, ¡°Well then, I have a job for you which will be very useful in the future.¡± Mel dropped several thick books in front of Serena. ¡°Master.....?¡± ¡°These are books on the several languages including some runes, holy script and several more that you may need. Of course you can''t deny this request!¡± Mel''s eyes somehow had the money symbol on them when she said that. ¡°...¡± ¡°Also I''ll be giving you some quests in translating some stuff later. Don''t worry, I''ll give you a reward for your efforts.¡± ¡°...¡± Serena quietly weep inside knowing that she was going to get exploited. xXx Serena was reading a book leisurely at the barracks while Raven and the others took a break from their hours long training. Why she was doing this? It was because Raven wasn''t doing the Hell Training since it was apparently too difficult for him right now and he needed to becomes stronger in order to do it. ''Poor Raven....training to be tortured later on....'' the thought casually went into Serena''s mind as she was lazing around on the ground reading. After another couple of minutes she would have to cast some spells on them, recover her mana and continue reading. After a while when Serena finished reading a book on some ancient language, a notification appeared.
You have obtained the skill Language Comprehension Wisdom and Intelligence +5
Serena initially ignored the message but then noticed that she was actually understanding more and more of the words on the pages as she read. ''Is this the effects of the skill I just gained?'' she thought opening up the skill menu and selecting the new skill she gained.
Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100) The ability to naturally comprehend what you read no matter what language used. While the precise details of the meanings of the words are lost, their general meaning is known. Words that have been understood will automatically translate permanently later on to a certain extent. Reading Speed Increase: 10%
Serena read through the very not detailed explanation of the skill. ''So.....the more I read the more I understand and the more I remember in the future?'' Serena place this thought in the back of her mind and continued reading while casually healing the trainees in the barracks. xXx Several days later, one week since she started playing the game and while she was actively helping with Raven''s training, someone she did not expect appeared. It an almost average looking man that did not stand out but did not fade away from your sight. It was Sain. ''Oh! I can''t believe he''s here as well! Is he going to....yep he is.'' thought Serena. At this point Sain joined the most recent group of trainees in their first training exercise which is laps....until you drop. Serena wondered how long will it take for Sain to drop out since Raven lasted hours while at one point Serena tried and didn''t even last one hour. Serena silently prayed that Sain would not overdo it. xXx Several hours later, Sain was the last person running and he looked really bad. Not the bad when you''re wounded and can quickly recover from spells but the bad that you won''t get better any time soon bad. As such when Sain collapsed there were already a number of people rushing to help him including Serena and Mel who were the most qualified healers here in the barrack of soldiers and the other likes. ¡°Don''t move him yet!¡± shouted Mel pushing several people away from Sain in fear that these people would harm him unintentionally. Mel went and moved his body carefully onto his back and started examining him. ¡°....¡± Mel was silent for a few moments which made everyone sweat in fear that something was wrong with Sain. ¡°Don''t worry....its just exhaustion.¡± Everyone sighed in relief. ¡°But...it may take some time for him to wake up. He pushed himself too hard for too long and his body needs to recover on its own else his mind may take some damage....someone grab him and put him on a bed. Something not too hard or soft.¡± One of the instructors took the liberty on carrying Sain to one of the beds that was used as an infirmy and left Serena and Mel to do what they want there. Then Mel started one of her lessons again. ¡°Serena there are some things that can only be heal with time. This is one of them. However we can still help with the recovery process through our spells. An example would be recovering his stamina while in turn helps him recover a bit faster. Anyway we better leave to help with the other''s training.¡± xXx ¡°Serena how was your week?¡± Hearing the voice Serena turned around to find that Miriel was there in front of her. Feeling a bit happy, Serena ran up and hugged Miriel with a big smile. Miriel also smiled somewhat and said with some struggle, ¡°Serena you''re going to....¡± without being able to finish the sentence due to Serena. Noticing this a bit too late, Serena let go a bit embrassed by her sudden actions. Seeing this, Miriel almost hugged the cute doll like Serena. After this the two talked about....well girl stuff. xXx When Sain finally woke up, Serena was alone in the room with him. Sain looked around the room and said, ¡°Serena?¡± A bit surprised that he would wake up so suddenly and happy that he was fine, Serena said, ¡°Oh, Sain your awake.¡± Looking a bit confused Sain asked, ¡°What happened after I collapsed?¡± ''Is that really the first thing someone would ask? Don''t they usually ask where they were?'' ¡°Both our Masters took you here and let you sleep. After that my Master used you to help me with my training¡± After Serena answered, Sain tried to get out of bed which according to Mel was bad since it would strain his body too much if he moved too much. Remembering this, Serena immediately went to stop him from getting up with her staff. ¡°Don''t move!¡± she shouted while pointing her staff at Sain. While she had a serious expression on her face, inside she was thinking, ''Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, what am I doing?!'' Not believing Serena would do anything to him, Sain tried to get up where Serena blasted him back onto bed using one of her spells, Mana burst. BANG Sain was pushed back to the wall which he hit due to the spell. Serena took this opportunity to try and restrain him with ropes and started to tie him to the bed. Mana burst as its name was just a random burst of mana through a medium. Many mage characters have this spell but never use it since they always use all their mana in one go until they learn not to and control it. Another reason was that it had a low attack power and cost a lot of mana at the same time as well but it served well as a self defence spell. ¡°What was that loud noise? Sain are you okay....¡± Hearing the noise, both Gen and Mel ran into the room. Everyone stopped at that moment in shock. ¡°...¡± Sain and Serena were shocked that their masters were here and the masters were shocked at what their apprentices were doing. What was worse was that Miriel and Jenny was there as well witnessing this event. However Gen smiled first and said, ¡°Do you two need some space?¡± ''Wh-wha-wha-wha-what?!'' Turning red Serena slapped Sain on the face and got off him saying in a fragmented sentence, ¡°It...it...it''s not...wha..what..it...look...likes.¡± before running off out of the room with Mel running after her concerned. ¡°Wait up Serena!¡± called Mel catching up quickly to the fleeing Serena who was blushing heavily right now. A few seconds later Mel managed to catch up to Serena since she had more agility and stamina than her. ¡°Why are you running?!¡± asked Mel shaking Serena. ¡°...¡± ¡°Okay then, what don''t you want me to know?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°I know he''s just a friend. There will be no misunderstandings.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Anyway we still have a lot to cover today. Also have you handed in the translated texts yet?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°I take that as a no.¡± xXx And so 3 more weeks passed by. By this stage Serena levelled up once due to the numerous high difficulty, low gain quests that Mel kept on giving her. But on the other hand her stats rapidly increased and her skills as well gained a lot more experience than she thought she would. Due to Serena''s extensive reading throughout the four weeks, her wisdom somehow became higher than her intelligence at some point which was good in learning new spells and casting them. ¡°Serena you have now graduated from your apprenticeship with me. Be proud, not many have even gotten the chance to become one of my own and none except for you have graduated.¡±
You have Graduated from being the Apprentice of Mel the Nature Wielder Fame +10 You have levelled up You have levelled up
You have lost the title ''Nature Wielder Apprentice''. All Bonuses from the title will be removed
You have gained the title ''Nature Wielder'' - All Stats increase by 1 - 10% less time to cast spells
[quart=Name,Alignment]Serena,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]4,Druid[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHalf-Elf
TitleNature Wielder
Health120
Mana205
[quart=Fame,Infamy]30,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9 +1,14 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]20 +11,25 +11[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]10 +1,9 +10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +1,0 +1[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart][full- 5% increase in Magic Skill Effect - Nature Affinity increase by 10 - Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina increase by 10 - 10% Less Time to Cast Spells - All stats increase by 1[/full]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
¡°Also here''s a gift for you to threaten....I mean relieve your friends from the pain of a slow death.
You have gained the skill Quicken Death
Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) Kills any allies that you target. Mana Cost: 20 Mana Cool Down: 40 Seconds
¡°...¡± ''Why would I use this spell Master?'' thought Serena confused.
Skill Window - Magic Mastery Beginner 3 (15/100) - Nature Mastery Beginner 2 (38/100) - Mediation Beginner level 1 (23/100) - Mana Burst Beginner level 1 (4/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 2 (54/300) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 1 (79/100) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100)
Seeing that she was not completely useless to the others Serena went out to the gate where everyone was going to meet up. Serena gave her goodbyes to her Master and went out to fight for the first time. Unknown to her, Mel had planted something into her as an experiment.
Onwards?
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Vol.1 Chapter 4 - The Magician ¡°Yes.¡± Hina did not shout or whisper into the capsule like the others but spoke normally. Speaking normally and acting normal was the best way not to attract too much attention. But in this group there are several people that will stand out no matter what. Hina sighed as the capsule transfer her consciousness into the white space which was used to make a character to play. ¡ª The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? ¡°Yes.¡± Hina wanted to get this over as fast as she could be there may be some information that she may miss if she did. As a result of wanting to know everything she may need to know to help the others, she is forced to go through this normally. ¡ª Select the name of your avatar. Hina already thought out a name during the time she waited for the AI to finish its talking. This was simply a few seconds but that time was all she needed to think up of no less than a hundred different names she would not revolt being called. ¡°Miriel.¡± was all she needed to say for the AI to get to the next bit. Hina was feeling a bit annoyed that the AI for the character creation was dumbed down for the majority instead of being more precise and accurate like games in the past where they simply gave you all the options at once instead of this slow drag. ''This is like going to school all over again!'' she thought irritably. While Hina was 16 and was considered by normal standards to need at least one more year in school until she was ready to go into society, she already finished her studies in the high school level long ago. The Ministry of Education gave her a free scholarship into a much higher university level study at the age of 13 when she proved in front of her school that she was indeed what people would consider a genius. However Hina never thought of herself that way despite all the rumours she did. ''I am simply a slightly smarter person than you. At most a prodigy among people. A true genius transcends the understanding of humanity and can only but shunned. I am not completely shunned from humanity so I am not a genius.'' were the words Hina spoke when someone tried to link her to being a genius no matter what age. ¡ª Select your gender from male, female or neutral. ¡°Female.¡± Hina felt a slight disgust on anyone wanting or actually playing as the opposite gender but had no problem with the neutral gender since its the middle grounds and barely acceptable in her eyes. She has read many things about the neutral gender and it was honestly more useful than it looked at first. You may not have any advantages or disadvantages in terms of the stats that may increase or decrease at times but you would have the power to attract the attention of both males and females to your side which is one of the most important things as a person with ambition. But Hina did not any kind of ambition at all. She long lost hope for humanity as a whole but not as individuals. She knew that there was good among the mud known as the common folk. She knew that people at times were better than what they seem. But this thought repeated too many times and lost in the end. Trusting others was a foolish idea. However you can trust someone when their fate was tied with yours. This was the case with the other 5 right now. ''Perhaps I may enjoy being with them unlike the others'' ¡ª Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine. Hina had also thought about this as well. Hina wanted to have a character more focused on magic than physical aspect and what other choice was there than being an Elf. Naturally drawing attention was not a good idea when searching for a person but this choice would influence the rest of her life in game....until she is fed up with it and restart. Hina however already researched what kind of character she would want in game and decided her race based on the stats it gave. As a result she said, ¡°Night Elf¡± While they were a bit weaker in the physical and magic department overall, they gave a good bonus to others things that outstrip mere single bonuses that the other races had. ¡ª You may alter your appearance ¡°Show me my appearance.¡± Hina was still a girl and wanted to know and alter her appearance to not look ugly. In front of her was a dark skinned version of herself with pointed ears. Hina frown that her skin looked bad with her face. ¡°Change skin colour to same as mine.¡± The AI did its job and a almost perfect replica of herself was standing in front of her. The pointed ears surprisingly looked good with her black hair and eyes but she wanted to change it a bit. ¡°Change eyes to golden.¡± Her eyes now golden in colour looked well in contrast with her hair. Luckily she didn''t need to do anything with her hair which only went down couple of centimetres below her shoulder. She looked rather plain but the Elfish nature of looking good made her look better than she did. Satisfied with her look she said, ¡°Done.¡± ¡ª Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Please Select a city and kingdom you want to start. ¡°Witchhelm¡± ''I will hit the person who dares say that they almost forgot about the name of the city we will start in!'' she had such thoughts before the light took her into a new life. [p=center]xXx[/p] Miriel opened her eyes to see the city that would house her for the next 4 weeks and immediately made her way to where the fountain was to wait for the others. However on the way she saw a certain short young girl who looked quite lost. ''Is that Grace?'' Miriel looked closer and indeed it was Grace except that she was wearing the cheap looking clothes that all newbies wore. ''God am I wearing such a thing as well? Damn I can''t complain right now...'' thinking of ways that she may get new cloths as fast as possible she didn''t realise that Grace was tugging on her arm. ¡°Help...me...¡± Grace plead like a puppy that was just found starving and vulnerable. Miriel smiled and said, ¡°I''m Miriel, what are you called?¡± ''I need her name before anything else'' she thought but Grace had other ideas. Grace suddenly let go of her and moved a couple of steps away. ¡°Are.....you....Hina or not?.....¡± she muttered out. At this sight Miriel sigh and pinched Grace''s face causing her to make a funny noise while struggling to get free. ''What an entertaining person.'' she thought to herself. ¡°Yes I am but I¡¯m called Miriel here so get used to it.¡± replied Miriel. With those words Grace once more started clinging onto her saying, ¡°I''m Serena here.¡± in a whisper. With that the two walked to the fountain where they found both Mark and Ian were standing next to each other without saying a word. Mark had the same look while Ian changed his hair to black as well as his eyes. The two waved at the two at the fountain and Miriel said to Mark, ¡°So you two got here early¡± which shocked him for an unusual reason. Miriel laughed in the inside no showing it on her face, ''Did he really not realise that Ian was next to him?'' Then a couple of seconds later Peter came donning his slightly longer hair which was dark blue saying casually, ¡°Is everyone here yet?¡± looking around for traces of Maria. ''Now I think about it, that brat isn''t here yet. And I told her to meet here quickly as well!'' A bit pissed off on Maria, Miriel almost shouted ¡°Maria isn''t She''s late!¡± with an irritated voice. Peter made a wry smile at her words while Serena was getting frightened by her sudden bad mood moving closer to Ian almost by instinct. ¡°So are we going to introduce ourselves while we wait for Maria?¡± Sain asked the rest of the group. ¡°We might as well¡± sighed Miriel saying her thoughts out loud, ¡°Anyway I''m called Miriel now so call me that. I''m a Night Elf.¡± ¡°Raven, Human¡± said Raven after herself. Serena struggled but still managed to speak to the rest of the group, ¡°I''m called....Serena...a Half-Elf...¡± Ian simply said the words, ¡°Shadow, also Human¡± Sain smiled knowing all of their new names now and introduced himself. ¡°I''m Sain also a Human. Anyway we should friend each other while we can. Um...how do I do this?¡± Sain said with confused on what to do. ''He doesn''t know? I better demonstrate then.'' Miriel sighed and said quickly, ¡°Send Friend Request to Sain, Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡± The other four were a bit shocked of something that appeared in front of them. Then one by one a message appeared in front of her indicating that could see the friend request in front of them.
Sain has accepted your friend request
Raven has accepted your friend request
Serena has accepted your friend request
Shadow has accepted your friend request
Then the rest also had the pleasure of figuring out how to send it to the rest of them. ¡°Send Friend Request to Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡± said Sain quickly after Miriel did. ''At least he''s quick with his mouth.'' she thought seeing that he did not even know some of the basics. This took a minutes and judging by what Raven was doing with his finger and the fact that he did not say one word, the others sent him a friend request before he could even speak 3 times in a row. Miriel was amused on how helpless Raven seemed to be compared to the rest, even Serena. However her good mood did not last. Maria was still not here and she was unconsciously tapping her foot on the ground hard. Eventually a certain person appeared after what seemed to be hours with a smile and was waving at them. It was indeed Maria and she was also an Elf but not the same kind. ¡°I''m here~¡± she cheerfully said. Something cracked when she heard those words. Miriel moved in and immediately went up and hit Maria''s head with her fist. ¡°Ow! Wait, what''s this message I''m seeing?¡± she cried in exclamation. ''Even now you dare act....'' Miriel was almost certain that her mood would drop low whenever this person was near her doing something stupid. ¡°Your late!¡± shouted Miriel in rage. This was one of the few times she lost herself in anger and quickly recollected herself. ¡°Anyway sent a friend request to everyone of us. No, tell us your name and we''ll friend you. It''ll be much quicker that way.¡± said Miriel while leaning over Maria with force. Quickly, Maria turned her head and said in a quiet voice, ¡° My name is Lyndis, a normal Elf.¡± Soon enough everyone sent her a Friend Request and introduced themselves in front of her. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°First of all you guys know how to open your inventory right? Just say open Inventory and a window saying what you have will appear which should be 10 pieces of Rye bread and a Canteen of Water. You can refill the Canteen using a Fountain like this but you have to buy Rye Bread for 3 Copper each. Try it out.¡± she commanded. ¡°Open Inventory Window.¡± the rest of them said at the same time. Miriel also opened her inventory window to check if things are in order
Inventory - 10 Pieces of Rye Bread - I Canteen of Water - No Money
The rest of the group soon opened up their inventory pointing at things that everyone else did not see. Then Sain took out what was the most basic of foods, the infamous Rye Bread. It was essentially a hard dry piece of bread that everyone hated. ''This looks....very hard to chew'', everyone thought seeing the Rye Bread in Sain''s hand. ¡°Anyway next is the Status Window which you will see all of your stats and such. Same thing as the inventory, just say Open Status Window.¡± ¡°Open Status Window¡± said the 5 again. Once again Miriel also opened her Status Window which was a bit different from the others.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Miriel,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceNight Elf
TitleNone
Health80
Mana100
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9,11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]11,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]9,10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,5%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 10% Stat increase in the dark or in dungeon - 5% increase sight in the dark
The Dark Elf Race had the usual characteristics of being better in Agility and Intelligence than in strength or Vitality. However the Night Elves also have the bonus of having slightly better slight in the dark and more importantly an increase in stats when in a dungeon. This along encouraged Miriel to pick the class. ¡°Okay now that you know your status window, we have to talk about distributing stats. Know that it is better to be a master of one than a master of many. However don''t let it stop you since its your character and we don''t need to be something like the strongest. Now let''s go our separate ways and find a class in these 4 weeks we have. Don''t aim for the hidden classes since they may take too much time to get and don''t just resolve yourself on being one of those common classes people get. I''ll see you guys here in 4 weeks time.¡± said Miriel before running off. [p=center]xXx[/p] Miriel headed start to the library since it was the best place to study for what she wanted to be. The class Mage was one of the most common classes but one of the most effective ones as well. There was also sub classes among Mages, such as the Fire Mage, Ice Mage and so on. Miriel figured that there was some sort of support type mage class somewhere and intended to get it. If there wasn''t then she would make the class through the system. Another feature of Royal Road was the near infinite amount of classes you can choose. It was not that these classes all existed at once from the beginning, players who have done certain actions and learnt certain things unintentionally create new classes for themselves. Soon enough many people intentionally did this to get their preferred class. However these classes are often less balanced then the standard. ''If I remember correctly, the library was here somewhere....'' Miriel made a left, right, right again and headed straight for another couple of streets before going left once again. Miriel stared in awe in the sight. It was indeed a library but the scale that it put other national libraries in shame. It was not only multi-storied but it had a certain charm to it as well. The outline of it was made from high quality stone and marble and took up the most space in the entire city. You could say that this was the gem of the city and it represented the city. Moreover it spanned almost a hundred metres across the road. Miriel looked up to see the name of this library.
The Sleeping Sheep Centre
''Ah.....what a crappy name....but that would explain most things since it was owned by that guild. Still the name is pretty crappy'' Miriel could see the massive crowd going in the library being seemingly teleported to where they want to be. The teleporter was located near the entrance in the inside of the library. According to what Miriel knew, teleportation was really difficult to achieve and requires several high levelled mages at once. However Miriel could see no mages at all conducting the teleportation. This meant that it was done via a magical artefact. Such a thing was extremely expensive and would easily sell in the hundreds of thousands of Gold for one. ''I''m more surprised that no one decided to try and steal it'' thought Miriel still looking around at the great sight. ¡°Get out of my way!!!¡± Hearing some sort of commotion Miriel and everyone else in the area turned to look at source of the noise. It was some sort of robber in cheap clothes that was partly ripped apart. The man came out of one of the teleporter carrying some books. They were most likely something of value and the guy was trying to steal it. Or it was someone not of value and this guy was an idiot. [System Defence Activate] Some sort of mechanical voice resounded in the area. Miriel had no idea what it was but knew that something bad will happen to the man that was running away. And this showed in the man''s actions as well. The thief started panicking then and ran opposite to where Miriel was which had less people compared to the other side which was crowded with people. As the crowd dispersed something Miriel did not expect to happen did. Tree roots appeared and bind the man to the ground. The books he carried disappeared in a blue light. ''What just happened.....?'' thought Miriel pondering what was going on in this place. Soon enough some guards appeared and took the man who was screaming for some sort of help. Miriel immediately ignored the screaming and shouting of the man and headed inside of the library. The entrance of the library was also large and looked more like a large shopping mall considering the large amount of people combined with a large amount of stuff that are being sold including food and other items. At the top was three giant signs. The one to the left was labelled ''Magic Related Books.'' The one to the middle was labelled ''Common Books'' And the one to the right was labelled ''History/Rare Books'' Naturally to the nature of these books, the next entrances to the left and right each had a set of guards and mages on standby. The middle entrance had no guards and frankly no one was going there at all. At the end of each entrance was a teleporter and some stairs as well. Miriel presumed that the teleporter would be the faster option but would cost money to use. ''Why would no one go to that section? From what I know reading helps increase intelligence and wisdom which is the most important thing for magic related characters.'' Thinking this, Miriel did not go to the Common Books section but stood in line for the Magic Related Books section which was crowded. However it was not as crowded as the History/Rare Books section which even had people thrown out of the line due to their cutting in habits. Everyone here was patient. And there were still some annoying people around her. ¡°Hey, want to join my guild? We will make sure you''re geared and fed properly¡± said one annoying guy. ¡°Wait! I saw her first! Join my guild! We''re one of the best guilds in town!¡± said the second annoying person. ¡°Pfft. There are only so many guilds in this city and only one of them is an Independent Guild. Every other guild besides my one is trash.¡± said the third annoying person. ¡°Take that back!¡± shouted the first and second annoying person drawing their weapons. The third annoying person smiled and in an instant several knights came over and dragged the first two out of line and started beating them up saying, ¡°You know the rules and break them. So we''ll break your bones when you break our rules!¡± in rhyme with their hits. Then the knights looked over to the third annoying person and dragged him out as well. Miriel saw the shocked and confused expression he had and felt no pity for him. ¡°Wait! I can pay. Donnnnnnnn''t!¡± he plead. But the knights ignored him and started beating him up as well saying, ¡°Rule number 14, never be the cause of conflict and be caught.¡± When Miriel heard those words, she smiled for the first time in a while. She literally interpreted the words to mean, ''If you''re going to do something wrong, don''t get caught!'', As a result Miriel was feeling some sort of respect to the person who made these rules in the first place. Miriel then looked at the first two annoying people to see that they were healed by some priests. They were thanking them until they said, ¡°The fee for this service comes to 4 Gold, 17 Silver and 87 Copper.¡± which left the two in shock. They took out their money to find that their combine wealth lead to exactly 4 Gold, 17 Silver and 87 Copper. ''So rule breakers get beaten up and robbed of their money at the same time. What a nice system'' The two seeing this started to complain which drew the attention of the knights. ¡°Rule number 15, if caught complaining about medical fees, then you will be beaten up.¡± And so the two got beaten up again. Seeing this, the third annoying person immediately paid all his money to the priests and left this place immediately. After another couple of seconds of healing the priest healed them again and said, ¡°The fee for this service comes to 8 Gold, 35 Silver and 74 Copper¡± which was now double of their combined wealth. Miriel chuckled at this sight seeing that the system of scamming people was made well. Seeing that those two people started fighting in order to be the one to survive, the knights immediately said, ¡°Rule number 5, fighting will result in death.¡± and so the knights promptly killed the two, looted their money and whatever they dropped as well. It was an almost perfect system made to exploit the first wrong doing. As such seeing that she might as well see what was in the Common Books section since she could not be bothered to wait in line for a couple of hours as a beginner who has no money, Miriel went out of line and headed straight into the Common Books section. In there Miriel proceeded to read and learn as much as possible of this city. [p=center]xXx[/p]
Wisdom has increased by 1
Miriel just finished another book and this message appeared again. In the past 3 hours, Miriel has been speed reading several books at once which resulted in her gaining 2 Intelligence and now 3 Wisdom which was a really good amount of stat gain in just a mere few hours. Miriel checked her Hunger bar.
Hunger at 55%
According to what Miriel read, in most cases you would need to eat once every couple of hours each day in order to survive and not die from starvation. The hunger bar also decrease based on the amount of stamina you use. The more active based players who run a lot more naturally have to eat more as well, but a person who does not do this often such as magic characters don''t. ¡°That''s strange, who knew that a person who come in here. Its more than often abandoned since the other two sections are much more popular and overall more useful.¡± Miriel turned in shock to see a relatively young woman, that looked no more than 25 behind her in purple robes with some strange symbols on them carrying a short staff with a gem on it. ¡°Who...are you?¡± asked Miriel a bit shy since it has been a while since she needed to respect a complete stranger in order to not to piss them off...again. As such Miriel was trying to act out a nice character for this woman to like her in order to get something that she has no idea but would most likely be useful in the future. ¡°Me? I''m Jenny. The person who runs this section of the library.¡± she said with some confidences if not for the fact that she and Miriel were the only people in this section of the library in the first place. ''Perhaps she can answer a couple of questions I wouldn''t otherwise ask someone else for.'' ¡°In that case, can you answer a couple of my questions concerning this place?¡± asked Miriel as nicely as possible. ¡°Of course!¡± Miriel smiled. ¡°What''s with the really really bad name for this library. Sleeping Sheep Centre? Is that the best name for....¡± Miriel couldn''t say the last bit, however the person named Jenny took over as if she heard this question a million times. ¡°Such an impressive piece of work? Yeah...the person who funded the project named it and no one rejected it...at the time at least. Made and named in memory of an old friend that died during the Haven-Kallamore War. You should know it, its otherwise known as one of the climaxes of the guild wars. Millions died, often only defending their homes....even my....¡± Jenny seemed to be lost in her memories and Miriel felt that it was a bit disrespectable to interrupt her right now. A few seconds later when Jenny seemed to snap out of it, Miriel asked her second question. ¡°So is it true that, that infamous guild is in this city?¡± Jenny raised an eyebrow and said, ¡°Yes, it is true, though I recommend that you don''t get involve for your safety. Don''t ask why, its better if you don''t know that as well¡±, Jenny sighed near the end of her answer and waited for Miriel to ask another question. ¡°Who are you?¡± Miriel asked considering that this was the most important question so far and left it to last. ¡°Ah! That''s an easy one. I''m Jenny, and I am a Bard Magician. Think of the support abilities of a Bard and add in the concept that I''m a mage as well.¡± ¡°...¡± ''I never thought that such a class would just appear in front of me. And its a support class as well! This may be my lucky day'' With a scheme to get that class no matter what since it sounds perfect for her use, Miriel started sugar coating her words as the conversation continued. Eventually it got to the point where Miriel thought it was best for her to be taught by this Jenny person. ¡°Can I ask to become your apprentice?¡± asked Miriel looking a bit shy even though she was using all possible means to get what she wants. Jenny smiled care freely and said, ¡°Of course!¡±
You have become the apprentice of Sound Maiden Jenny - You will live with her until your apprenticeship finish - You will be fed food - You will be given training directly from her - Will gain the title ''Sound Maiden Apprentice''
You have gained the title ''Sound Maiden Apprentice'' - Intelligence will increase by 1 - Wisdom will increase by 1 - 5% more spell effect for Sound based Spells
Feeling a bit excited that she actually got an apprenticeship from what seemed to be a reputable person, Miriel smiled gleefully. ¡°Well that took longer for you to ask me about being my apprentice¡± said Jenny calmly looking away. Miriel saw a smile from the edge of Jenny''s face and immediately knew that she conned into the effort she had used to sugar coat all her words. ¡°Did you really need to lie through your teeth about everything you talked to me about? I mean, who likes the sound of nature or that crap these days? Anyway I intent to train you as much as possible in four weeks.¡± ''4 weeks?'' ¡°What happens in 4 weeks?¡± asked Miriel ignoring the fact that she was played quite skilfully as a new player in this game against an experienced person. Miriel knew this person was a NPC since she clearly had the intention of teaching Miriel and a player wouldn''t take the time to help someone for that long. ¡°Not telling. Anyway come with me, I''ll show you the true worth of this library.¡± Jenny got up and Miriel followed closely behind. Jenny headed for the back of the library where there was a door. It was an old rusty wooden door but....it felt off for some reason. ¡°A combination of illusion and sound based magic was used on this thing. Normal people and even the most skilled mages and thieves won''t even tell that this thing is here, let alone what''s behind it. Miriel took out an equally old key and unlocked the key and dragged Miriel through it. Inside was...a teleporter? No, there were several teleporters in this room and each of them had a sign above them like the ones at the entrance of the library. Both Miriel and Jenny went through one of them which teleported them to another room which was....another library with all the shelves and books and such. ¡°...¡± ¡°What''s with that look? These books are even more rare and powerful then the ones shown to certain individuals in the public! This is where I''ll teach you everything you need to know and plus, the teleporter is fitted all around the library as well so you can go anywhere you want in this place.¡± ¡°Won''t that take a lot of mana to sustain? The teleport devices.¡± ¡°Well...a while back someone invented a way for cheap short ranged teleportation but it wasn''t useful in combat so it was used for this. Most castles of major cities have the same system we have. Its useful and cheap to use but its really hard to install into buildings in the first place and expensive to boot.¡± ''A cheap service which also was really hard to install and expensive at the same time....that''s kinds contradicting the purpose of this thing right.....? Well I can''t complain that there''s a shorter way of getting about this place.'' ¡°Can''t this system be installed in a whole city at once?¡± Miriel asked a bit curious on whether it can be done or not. Jenny shook her head much to Miriel''s disappointment and said, ¡°In theory yes, but the practical sense hundreds of people getting off at certain points would just make traffic worse. Plus it already cost half a million gold to install this system into a major building, it would several tens of millions of gold to do the same city wide and you have to have people maintaining the device and making sure half a person is missing when they teleport. Lots of problems that can only be solved on the small scale of things. Any other questions?¡± ¡°Well, what exactly can you do?¡± Hearing that question, Jenny headed beyond the mini library she had and into a sort of open area. By open area, its more open compared to the mini library behind Miriel. It was a small 5 metre by 5 metre part of the room which was cleared out. ¡°As a Bard Magician, I have control over the domain of sound and other similar elements such as illusions. Naturally I can use other, more common magic but the key magic would be turning illusion magic to affect the real world.¡± Jenny pointed her staff to the small space and created some sort of transparent shield. ¡°Right now this is a mere illusion. But when I solidify it....¡± A small burst of mana went through the staff and into the fake shield and it....felt like it was there, not that it already did. ¡°Honestly this is the most you can do with this kind of magic. Its much easier to just learn or create the spells you want to use. However key part is that I can amplify spells using this.¡± Jenny pointed to her staff and the gem on the end glowed and let out a light that made Miriel think it was a light bulb for a second. ¡°You may not see it, but the shield just became a lot stronger. There are also spells that allow you to increase the speed of spells and even let out a second spell from the caster moments after they cast a spell or attack. Its all very useful if you know what you''re doing. I can try to teach you everything but we''re both smart enough to know that you need some of the basics first so start learning quickly. There should be some books on the basics of magic and how to sense mana properly.¡± With those words, Miriel almost ran to the mini library and pulled out books that didn''t seem to complicated for her to understand. Miriel knew that she was doing what Jenny wanted but she also knew that this was the fastest and more effective way on gaining that class she wants. After Jenny''s demonstration and explanation, the class seemed more and more perfect than before. Miriel opened the book labelled, ¡°Magic and how they work 101¡± and started reading making sure to note down the key points in her head. [p=center]xXx[/p] Sometime later on... ¡°Oh Jenny it seems like you finally got an apprentice at last~¡± said a person in a one piece white dress. However there was something wrong since that same person was covered in blood and had a person swung over his shoulder. At this voice, Jenny immediately paled and started heading towards the teleporter to escape immediately but a firm hand on her shoulder literally stopped her as he pushed her to sit back down. Jenny stared up at the pitch black eyes that said ''Don''t you dare escape'' which immediately glued her to her seat. ¡°It...been a while Eden....also, who is that person?¡± asked Jenny trying to look away. ¡°Ah, this person I saved a while back. I was going to give his one here to you as an apprentice but it seems like you already found one! I guess I have to give her to Mel then¡± said Eden in a humorous manner. If you look closely you could see 3 line going down Jenny''s face. She would never admit that it was due to her inability to properly face one of the most powerful force in the continent alone. It was not her alone, even her comrades would have similar or worse reactions on seeing this person. Perhaps it was only Mel and Anna and that pervert Ron who could handle him at all. Out of those Jenny knew, they were the most abnormal. Everyone else including herself who had a bit of common sense were scared shitless when meeting Eden. ¡°Anyway I''m thinking of joining her and her friends to the guild, what do you think as her master?¡± asked Eden kindly though there seems to be a spiral of hell awaiting them soon enough. ''Besides the fact that I fear for their immortal lives?'' Jenny was a native to the land and therefore could die. But freemen could come back even if they die which made ''certain'' methods more effective than you think. As such, Jenny swored in her heart that she would at least protect her apprentice from the worst that could happen. With a forced smile Jenny said, ¡°I think it would be lovely for them to join.¡± With that Eden disappeared from her sights. Jenny sighed out loud at what she ultimately did. She remembered the times when Eden ''trained'' her in the art of magic. ¡°Maybe I should tone down the training I have planned out for Miriel.....¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°There are two ways you can train someone. The first is the one I''m using, which is train the basics then give the extras later. And the second which some people may employ is give the extras first and train the basics later. Both in the end give the same results but the methods are very different. Tell me why I''m using the first method Miriel?¡± ¡°It is because you will make less mistakes if you have the basics down.¡± ¡°Yes and no.¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°Its true that if you have the basics down, you can possibly have a better start when using skills and spells. But experience does the same thing and often better. An old saying is that a single live battle is the equivalent to 100 days of training. Naturally if you battle too much, the effects will dim out and the chances of having injuries that will affect you later will increase, the benefits are best done when both training and battles take place. But...you have a 4 week restriction on you. So we have to focus on the basic use of skills and your stats which comes second.¡± ¡°I see Master.¡± Miriel nodded her head even though she knew all of this already. Miriel also had a feeling that Jenny was repeating this information to Miriel intentionally. ¡°Half the practise will be done on skills and the other half will be on you gaining stats. I believe you have enough knowledge to know what to do and what your role is. Now, its been 3 days, show me your stats.¡± Miriel opened her status window for Jenny to see.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Miriel,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceNight Elf
TitleSound Maiden Apprentice
Health80
Mana130
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9,11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]17 +1,15 +1[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]9,10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,5%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 10% Stat increase in the dark or in dungeon - 5% increase sight in the dark - 5% more spell effect for Sound based Spells
Over the last three days, Miriel had been reading so much that her intelligence increased by 7 and wisdom by 5. ¡°....¡± Jenny was silent. She had expected that Miriel would easily increase her stats by over 10 each in intelligence and wisdom. ¡°Show me your skill list,¡± ordered Jenny suspecting that Miriel was doing something else in her time.
Skill Window - Magic Mastery Beginner 1 (15/100) - Magic Bolt Beginner level 1 (35/100)
¡°...Miriel I did tell you to learn all you can right?¡± asked Jenny with her mouth twitching. ¡°Yes you did master, that is why I learned some basic skills.¡± replied Miriel calmly. ''This....brat. Not listening to me....well its fine since it saves the trouble of me teaching her that part.'' thought Jenny thinking next on what to do. ''Oh yeah....I would like some good food for once.'' ¡°Miriel, your next task is to cook for me.¡± said Jenny with sparkles in her eyes. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Eh?¡±
Obtain the Cooking Skill Jenny has requested for you to cook for her. Time Limit: 3 Hours Reward: Unknown
''What the hell is this?! Why am I getting this quest?! But at least I know how to cook.....where''s the kitchen?'' Jenny clicked her fingers and a room slide into view which was....a kitchen with tons of ingredients. Miriel almost ran into the kitchen to start but Jenny stopped her from doing so. ¡°I want to eat...something nice. Make something nice for me!¡± said Jenny confirming her intentions to use Miriel to cook food for her. ¡°Master what is the point of this?¡± asked Miriel who was very concern of what was wrong in the head of her so far respectable Master. Jenny looked at Miriel like she was crazy. ¡°Good Food is everything! Once you have good food, you''ll be sick of the horrible food is have! The cooking skill is one of the most respected skills you can have! Now cook!¡± With those words Miriel was forced to cook for the next 3 hours trying to get the cooking skill. [p=center]xXx[/p]
You have generated the Skill Cooking
Cooking Beginner Level 1 (0/100) Allows you to cook better. Dish Effectiveness: 1.1 Times Bonus to Vitality and Stamina: 5%
Quest: Obtain the Cooking Skill was completed Collect Reward from Jenny
Miriel looked at both messages as she was finishing off the food she was cooking. Funnily enough, Miriel was the type to be good at almost everything which included cooking. However Miriel noticed that she only gained 40% experience from this quest for some reason. Miriel was at level 1 which means all quests give tons of experience for her but this was so minor that she didn''t even gain a level. Miriel looked at Jenny who was consuming down all the food Miriel had made in quick succession like a starved dog. ¡°More food!¡± she shouted when she saw that Miriel wasn''t cooking. ''Does she have a black hole in her stomach where all the food goes?'' sighed Miriel as she got the remainder of the food and made some more dishes. ''It looks like I have to wait for my reward later then.'' [p=center]xXx[/p] Several moments later when Miriel finished using all of the ingredients to feed Jenny who had a very large....I mean delicate meal, Miriel asked what was the reward for finishing the quest. ¡°Oh, wait¡±, said Jenny as she took out something purple and handed it to Miriel. ¡°This is a robe I designed for you. I know how hard it is to wear...that.¡± Jenny pointed at Miriel''s beginner rags and Miriel agreed that the clothes that she was wearing was pretty bad. Miriel changed her clothes right there and found that the robes were really comfortable. She checked the stats of the robes. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Purple Mage Robes Durability: 20/20 Defence: 2 Unknown
However there was only the details of the durability and the defence and not anything else. Miriel looked at Jenny and said, ¡°Master can you give me the identify skill?¡± ¡°Hmm? Sure.¡±
You have gained the skill Identify
Miriel then identified the Purple Robes using the skill she just got.
Purple Mage Robes Durability: 20/20 Defence: 2 Made with fine materials that grants extra comfort. Options: Intelligence +1
The robes that Miriel were given were not that great but it granted the bonus of +1 Intelligence. While it was minor, if you stack several of these effects with similar items such as rings and necklaces, you can have the equivalent effect of a rare item. ¡°Master how come you can just give me skills and spells out of the blue?¡± asked Miriel who was a bit more concern that such a system was illogical. ¡°Oh....you don''t know about the teacher-apprentice system yet. Well I''ll explain it for you then. This system was made in the mind that the apprentice, namely you will quickly gain the skills from the Master, me. On one hand, you can''t gain any intermediate or advance skills and spells I have but you can gain some of the more basic skills. However this can only be done with skills I have learned and mastered so I can''t pass you skills that I have not mastered. The only exception are certain skills such as blacksmithing and tailoring which you can pass on when you reach the advance level. Also, most skills require you to be proficient in them or at least reach the minimum requirements to even learn them so it really just boils down to whether you''re fit to use them at all.¡± ¡°In that case, can I learn skills before I gain a class?¡± asked Miriel. ¡°Yes you can but you don''t get the bonuses from the class. Anyway since you''ve fed me enough¡± Jenny patted her stomach and continued, ¡°I''ll teach you some basic sound and illusion magic. Come with me.¡± Jenny led Miriel to the original space that had nothing there when Miriel saw it for the first time in 3 days. Now it had a table and a line of small weapons on it. Miriel was confused that a mage like Jenny would even use weapons. Jenny picked one of the small weapons that looked like a dagger and it disappeared in her hand and reappeared later. ¡°The basics of illusion magic is to disguise things or turn them into something else.¡± said Jenny before chanting another spell that caused her to turn into a young child and back to normal. ¡°Illusion spells are very weak in the beginning but are one of the deadliest type of magicks when a skilled person use them. Combined with Sound Magic, you can sneak in plain sight and even other mages won''t notice you. Of course this is only effective on humans since most animals and monsters have a good sense of smell. Also you can do this as well.¡± The space around Jenny distorted and another her appear next to her mirroring her exact movements. Miriel was a bit excited that she was going to learn this type of magic but Jenny stopped any thoughts of that. ¡°Unfortunately you won''t be able to do this since its very advance. However I can get you to the start where and will go down and learn more and more skills and spells that will eventually lead you to where I am and some place else. The purpose of the Master-Apprentice relationship is not to create carbon copies of yourself but to past down skills to let the younger generation to learn and evolve on their own. As such modern magic is much more different from ancient magic in its use and power. Let me tell you this early, when you face a ancient magic user, run. Don''t think, just run. They are so powerful that even veteran mages have trouble with them. Average and slightly gifted mages can''t match them at all.¡± Miriel smiled at this last bit. ¡°Then what happens if a genius face against them?¡± Miriel did not consider herself a genius but only a slightly gifted person. But she was curious how a genius would fare against these ancient magician. Jenny looked at Miriel with wide eyes and said, ¡°It''ll be still be difficult. There are many types of ancient magicians with skills you cannot imagine.¡± She emphasise the last bit to Miriel. ¡°In that case, are there any ancient magicians in this city?¡± ''Perhaps I could search for one to see what they''re made up. Of course I only want to see their spells and such and not fight them.'' ¡°Yes. One....maybe two if that person comes to visit again. Both are beyond me and any other magic user in this city....no continent. One controls nature and the other controls destruction....or at least brings destruction with her spells she creates.¡± shuttering on the thought of seeing such magic again. ¡°Spells she creates?¡± asked Miriel. Miriel heard that creating spells were only given to mages that were up to their second class advancement. There, they had the chance to try and learn an ancient spell or make one themselves. They only have one chance to do this as well since such a thing was so rare that most people just try to find an ancient spell to learn. ¡°Yes. She''s classified as one of the most ancient spell users by the fact that she can freely create spells of all variety to use. No restrictions else by only her imagination and mana. She also has a hobby of trashing other mages by copying their spells and improving them to perfection which is highly annoying when that happens to you!¡± said Jenny annoyed by the memories this person gave her. ¡°But what does that mean? Does that person have no weakness?¡± asked Miriel again. Honestly she did not understand how a person could learn and create spells almost endlessly like how Jenny described it. ¡°Well...the only weakness is that person has to create the spell again every time she uses it. Normally when a person uses Fireball they already learnt the spell and its show in their skill window, but she can easily use a Fireball but the spell doesn''t show up on her skill window. I believe she described at once point to giving commands to the spell including what element they were. Its very confusing at times but you can see the flexibly you have when you can do that and its limitation. She cannot cast spells rapidly in close combat.....no, she can''t cast high levelled spells in cost combat. Mid level and low level spells are fine for her no matter what the situation is....¡± In the depths of Jenny wondering off in her memories, Miriel decided to read a book about how to better her control over her spells. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Right....I suppose I do need to teach you some skills. But on the other hand I should give you the basic class at least.¡±
You have been offered the class ''Magician''. Do you accepted? Magicians are the most basic magic based class there is. They can learn almost any type of magic but often specialise in one or two branches. They then split into their specialisation type magic.
¡°I do.¡±
Class has been changed to ''Magician'' Intelligence and Wisdom increase by 10
You have gained the skill Mediation
With the change of her class, Miriel also got the skill Mediation which she believe all mage characters got when they gained a magic based class. Nevertheless, Miriel still checked the skill to see if she was right just in case she remembered wrong.
Mediation Beginner level 1 (0/100) Rest and concentrate to recover Mana Mana recovered per minute: 50 Cool Down: 1 Minute
Miriel looked at the skill carefully and found that her information was correct. According to the information, when using this skill you don''t feel anything that was happening around you but also increased the pain and damage you would take in this state. In other words, you need people protecting you in a dangerous place in order for you not to die from the sheer pain itself. ¡°Here¡± said Jenny giving Miriel a book. Miriel was confused, why did her master give her a book instead of giving her a skill? ¡°Its easier to use a skill if you directly learn it. Also you''ll find some more details on the more advance aspects if you read it as well.¡± Miriel looked at the title of the book which was ''Basic Illusion Magic'' Miriel thanked her master and went off to read the book. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Miriel finished reading the book, it disappeared into light particles and a message appeared for Miriel.
You have learnt spell Clairvoyance
You have gained the skill Illusion Magic Mastery
Miriel checked the two recently gained skills quickly to see what they did.
Clairvoyance Beginner level 1 (0/100) Shows the path you must take. Distance shown: 10 Metres Mana Cost: 10 Mana Cool Down: 1 Minute
Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner Level 1 (0/100) Powers the ability to create and manipulate illusions Illusion Magic Strength increase: 10% Decrease in cost of Illusion Magic Spells: 1%
''Clairvoyance seems a bit too useless right now but...it will be useful when doing a quest. I should use it as much as possible when I have the chance. Illusion Magic Mastery is the standard when you learn a new type of magic for the first time.'' Miriel went to Jenny who was relaxing on her own and said, ¡°Master, I''ve learnt the skill Clairvoyance from the book.¡± ¡°Ah good. Here''s the next one. Its for sound magic.¡± Jenny threw Miriel another book that was similar in size and colour of the previous one. However this one had the title ''Basic Sound Magic'' on it which was really similar to the previous book as well. ¡°But before that, make me something to eat.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°What? Why did you think I made you learn that skill. Don''t worry, everyone will love you later thanks to this.¡± And so Miriel made a couple of things for Jenny and herself and then started to read the next book that would give her a skill. Several hours later Miriel finished the book and go the next skill.
Melody of Sound Beginner level 1 (0/100) Creates a Melody that will increase certain stats of the party. Can only play one active song at a time. More songs will be available as the level of the spell increases. Melody of Strength: 10% Melody of Agility: 10% Melody of Vitality: 10% Melody of Stamina: 10% Mana Cost: 100 Duration: 10 Minutes Cool Down: 30 Minutes
Sound Magic Mastery Beginner Level 1 (0/100) Powers the ability to create and manipulate illusions Sound Magic Strength increase: 10% Decrease in cost of Sound Magic Spells: 1%
''So this is the so called support magic Jenny had been telling me about. I can see that its powerful itself....to powerful. Wasn''t there suppose to be some sort of basic spell that I should''ve learnt sometime before. Something like controlling sound or something like that.'' Miriel placed those thoughts behind her and told Jenny that she finished with the book as well. ¡°Right, there''s only one more spell I want you to learn, but that comes after you gain some proficiency in magic. And for that I need you to train your skills so I''m going to give you a quest.¡±
Find the Books Jenny in order to increase your skills in magic has requested you to find certain books all over the library. Requirements: Apprentice of Jenny Reward: Skill proficiency will increase at twice the rate during this quest.
¡°I recommend that you use Melody of sound to increase your speed since this library is really big. Also there are no books in this hidden place but there are at least once book each in each section. I made sure that you have full access to all areas. Finally, don''t go off reading during this time. I will give you the time later.¡± Miriel listening to all of that decided to start immediately but Jenny stopped her for some reason. ¡°Oh Miriel, you can only search after my lessons are done.¡± And so Miriel was forced to stay for the lessons from Jenny which more than often involved her own experience with her friends and some other people. [p=center]xXx[/p] Miriel was sitting with Jenny who was talking about...well her future. ¡°So you are with 5 other people in a group right?¡± asked Jenny. ¡°That is correct.¡± ¡°And I suppose you all have gone to each get a class on your own and they seem to somehow become the apprentice of my former comrades....¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°This is certainly a twist of fate. To think that you 6 are so similar to us to the point that you all become our apprentices. However I do hope that you don''t meet with those three?¡± ¡°Those three?¡± Jenny sighed at the thought of them and said, ¡°Those three and me and my comrades are part of the main combat branch of the guild. You heard of the term Independent guild right? Right now there are 2 dozen official members of our guild but we also have a information network that has thousands of people in it as well that doesn''t count so we''re a very small elite force. And I put the elite part forward to the point that it turns into the word monster. Anyway I can tell you that we intent to invite you and your friends into our guild which brings the number a bit more and a third sub section of the guild.¡± ¡°Sub section?¡± ¡°Well...sometimes guilds can make smaller groups in their guild. Some of the larger guilds that have smaller guilds serving them place entire guilds as a sub section. It really does nothing but allows better management of the guild overall. Anyway, as you know the guild I am in is a bit different since its normally quantity over quality in most guilds that want to thrive and we are managing this entire city, plus several more on our own. I can tell you that me and the other 5 which should be masters of your friends are in charge of this city and its safety. The other three are responsible for the rest on their own. The rest are spread out across the continent.¡± ¡°But how can three people manage an entire region on their own? And how do these regions work?¡± ¡°In this continent there are 256 sections for the safe areas and the 10 restricted zones have their own system and code names. We are in section 53 right now. The section works as a way for the royal courts to better see the state of the continent and the benefit of the region. The lower the number the more important the region is. This number is based on many many factors which include the military, culture, economic and the Independent Guilds that reside in each of them and their achievements. This region used to be section 1 at some point due to a certain event which we were no a part of. And when I say we, I mean the 6 of us not the other 3. Ever since then our ''rank'' had slowly decreased but sometimes jump a bit higher at times for reasons that many do not know.¡± ¡°Master, if if there is only one Independent Guild in a region, then why doesn''t another Independent guild invade?¡± ¡°They do try but they are repelled. According to the law, it is illegal to do such things as force someone out but it is also illegal to prevent someone to settle into an area. That is why some of the smaller insignificant guilds are popping up out of nowhere. They do eventually get kicked out by the system since they laze around doing nothing significant to their names.¡± ¡°But what happens if a large Independent guild tried to?¡± ¡°Well...for some reason none of the larger or medium size Independent guilds ever tried.¡± ¡°...¡± ''I think I know why but I rather not say it....'' [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Serena how was your week?¡± Those were the first words Miriel said to Serena after they had split up. Miriel was rather fond of Serena since she was similar to some of the younger children in the orphanage but it was mostly due to her kind nature that attracted Miriel to be close to her. ''She''s not like those people....she won''t betray me as well'' such a thought echoed in her mind as Serena proceeded to hug Miriel. Miriel tried to get rid of the thought but Serena did the job for her since Miriel was being hugged to death by Serena. ¡°Serena you''re going to....¡± Miriel was losing more and more air from her body and at this rate she was going to be killed by Serena. Miriel tapped Serena rapidly which caused Serena to wake up from her trance and blush from embarrassment. Moments later they were conversing on what happened to them and the others though they had no idea what Shadow and Lyndis were up to since they haven''t seen them yet. Miriel also told Serena that their masters were acquaintances and everyone was their apprentices one way or another. [p=center]xXx[/p] Miriel had followed Jenny to the barracks where apparently one of her friends had collapsed from exhaustion. Miriel was a bit worried since it was one of the people she was going to use....be friends with for a very long time due to the common goal they have. Miriel had hoped that it was not Sain since...well he was suppose to be the leader and nothing more and nothing less. Miriel had absolutely no other feelings than that. BANG Hearing a loud noise when they arrived, Jenny got an old man in a knight''s armour, one that looked like a middle aged man and another mage in green clothes to lead the way to where the sound was. ¡°...¡± There Miriel saw Serena on top of Sain who was being tied up to the bed. ''What in the world.....'' Miriel could feel some sort of emotion that she couldn''t describe. It was not love or anything associated with it such as jealousy but it was some sort of tingly feeling. Was this amusement? ¡°Do you two need some space?¡± said the middle aged man smiling at the two of them. Serena blushed heavily and managed to stutter out ¡°It...it...it''s not...wha..what..it...look...likes¡± before running out of the room where Miriel and the other two women chased after her however Serena was faster than they thought and only the woman who was Serena''s master ran further since Jenny stopped Miriel from following them. ¡°You should talk to the other one back there.¡± said Jenny leaving Miriel to follow her orders. When Miriel got back to the room, she found that Sain was all alone....confused on what happened. ¡°Oh, hey Miriel....what just happened?¡± asked Sain who was absolutely tense for these kinds of things. Miriel sighed and said, ¡°Figure it out on your own.¡± Miriel eyed Sain who really did not understand and asked, ¡°So what happened was out of your control right?¡± Sain nodded and said, ¡°Yes. I tried to get off the bed and Serena tried to prevent me which....led to ''that''.¡± ¡°Anyway how are you going for your training?¡± asked Miriel wanting to know what happened to him in the past week. It was up to Miriel to track what happened to everyone since Sain appeared to be too busy for this. ¡°Finished the Theory Part in a Week, up to the Physical Part.¡± answered Sain immediately. ¡°Hmm....I heard from my Master that your Master Gen is really tough on his apprentices. Apparently most of them drop out after spending several months on the Theory Part. What was the theory part about anyway?¡± she asked again more curious than before. ¡°It was mostly him talking and the Simulation battle things.¡± Miriel was deep in thought thinking on what this simulation battle thing was until a voice interrupted her thoughts. ¡°For someone to complete that in a week. Impressive.¡± It was Jenny. She walked in the room where Sain was still on the bed and Miriel sitting next to him and gave a small grin to Miriel as if she knew something was up. ''I know what you are thinking but you have it wrong master.'' thought Miriel staring back at her Master. ¡°What exactly is this simulation thing Master?¡± asked Miriel. Jenny replied, ¡°The simulation thing is a sort of a game where you control small figures that move against enemies though your thoughts. I know this is difficult since I made the damn thing. Only Gen was able to perfectly use it until now. I suppose you were able to go 6 on 6 against him and win to get to this part of your training right? Gen was complimenting you all the way when we went drinking the other day. Even Park found you impressive because of yesterday.¡± Sain was becoming red behind the ears. He was not used to such straightforward compliments. ''So he''s the type to act like that when complimented. Perhaps I should as well....'' Miriel for some reason was getting a bit more pissed than before. She did not know what this feeling was but she was sure to vent it on someone. Noticing this Jenny said quickly, ¡°I believe Park and Gen are looking for you now.¡± ''Why would you say that? There''s nothing wrong with me'' However Sain followed Jenny''s words and Miriel had no way to tell Sain to stop without Jenny''s misunderstanding to increase. When Sain finally left the room which seemed to be hours for Miriel, she immediately shot at her Master. ¡°What was that about?¡± said Miriel in a very irritated tone to someone she should respect. Jenny frowned and said, ¡°Well I thought I was doing you a favour and let you at least get some sort of start with that boy. As an elf, you have a small advantage against that half elf¡± in an equally irritated tone back to her apprentice. Both of them started into each others'' eyes for a few moments and then both sighed at the same time. ¡°Seriously, you really do remind me of myself when I was younger. Let me tell you that it gets harder later on when you truly know about your feelings¡± said Jenny grazing at the ceiling. ¡°I still have no idea what you''re talking about.¡± replied Miriel. [p=center]xXx[/p] Some time later, Jenny told Miriel to meet with Shadow and Lyndis whom where near the area which the barrack was. The instructions that Jenny gave her were good enough for her to find the place. Right now, it was around 2 and a half weeks since they have been in this game non stop except for the occasional good food that was waiting in the real world. Since then Miriel was trying to finish the quest that Jenny had given her which was mainly finding books. Miriel had found that when she used the spell and was holding the object or was near it, the object would glow a blue colour. However the problem was the range of this effect. The spell Clairvoyance to begin with only had a range of 10 metres in the distance from the target and could not narrow down which object was the target and instead gave a slight blue aura around the area which the object may be. When Miriel arrived it looked like Shadow wasn''t here but Lyndis was. She was wearing brown leather gear and had an iron sword. She looked like a slightly more experienced player compared to the various new players whom were running around in this city. Lyndis also saw Miriel come in and stare with hatred at her. Likewise Miriel did the same to her and they had a staring contest full of hatred. However both of them sighed at the same time seeing their actions. ''I don''t have the time nor the energy to spare for this fool'' ¡°So what kind of class have you obtained?¡± asked Miriel. ¡°Something similar to magic swordsman. According to my Master I can focus on one element to increase my power so I''ll choose fire since it has the most power and range. What about you?¡± ¡°Support type mage. I focus on illusion and sound based magic. I can enchant your stats among other things.¡± replied Miriel. Miriel looked around again to find that Lyndis was all alone. There were various training tools around and it looked like Lyndis destroyed more than a few judging by the large pile of burnt scrape on one corner of the place. ¡°Where''s Shadow?¡± asked Miriel. ¡°Right here.¡± he answered. ''AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! When did he get there?!'' Miriel turned around in fright to find Shadow who was wearing dark gear almost bended into the surroundings even though he was standing right in front of him. He also had a half mask that covered the bottom half of his face as well to prevent sound from coming out of his mouth easily. Miriel noticed that Shadow wasn''t carrying any weapons on him....or was it that she could not see the weapons. ¡°You.....don''t do that again.....¡± mumbled Miriel. ¡°Don''t bother. I''ve been telling him that for 2 weeks and nothing changed. Well at least he''s a good assassin.¡± complained Lyndis seeing that Shadow appeared out of nowhere again. ¡°I am a Rouge not an assassin.¡± said Shadow a bit annoyed that Lyndis is still making this mistake. ¡°An assassin specialise in killing people and have high damage along with some other skills to back them up. A thief specialise in stealing stuff and not battles and rather run away when confronted with enemies. A rouge is both of them, specialising in neither but both at the same time.¡± answered Miriel extracting her knowledge from the time spent researching on classes. ¡°Correct.¡± said Shadow confirming Miriel''s words. ¡°Anyway I wanted to know what you two could do but that''s Sain''s job not mine.¡± said Miriel. ¡°Then why are you here?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°I test out my spells.¡± Miriel raised her hands and said, ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± A soft sound echoed throughout the area and a gentle light surrounded Miriel, Lyndis and Shadow.
Melody of Speed is Active: - 10% more agility - Last 10 Minutes
Miriel looked at the skill window and it said that there was 30 more minutes before Miriel could cast the spell again. ¡°Wow! I can''t believe you got something like this up your sleeves!¡± exclaimed Lyndis in shock. She was thoroughly impressed that Miriel could do this. Shadow on the other hand remained silent and....disappeared. Miriel looked around and found Shadow jumping around on what seemed to be a training course to improve agility. Shadow moved smoothly around the various objects that moved to block his path. ''It seems their training is going well....though I haven''t seen what Lyndis could do yet. She probably can just combine magic with swordsmanship like those like her.'' Seeing that she could help them with their training and they can help her improve her skills, Miriel went to one of the target practised place and shot out Mana Bolts at them for the rest of the day before leaving to head back to the library. xXx ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± A blue path appeared in front of Miriel. Right now she was surrounded by other players and NPCs looking for books. With the help of her spell, Miriel could track down the remaining book she had to get to roughly a relatively small section of a bookshelf. Miriel headed left then straight for another 10 metres which the spell''s range ended. She would have to wait another minute before she could use the spell again but decided to head forward a bit more. If she pasted the book she needed to find then she could backtrack but otherwise she didn''t want to waste too much time over and over again using the spell for a mere 10 metres. The library was hundreds of metres long and it would take hours to just get into the general vicinity of the book if she did such a thing. A minute passed and Miriel said, ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± again bringing up another blue path for another 10 metres. Miriel was sure that she was at least close to using this spell for a hundred times now. It wouldn''t make sense that the skill wouldn''t level up. According to what she knows there are various types of skills that level up differently. There was the passive skills such as sword mastery which levels up by percentage bit by bit until it overall ranks up into intermediate or advance. Then there was some skills and or spells that level up via use over a certain amount of time. The stronger the spell or skill, the more times you have to use it over and over again. The final type was the condition type which almost all advance skills are which you must clear a certain condition to level the skill up. Frankly Miriel was lucky that the beginner skills were the easiest type to use and she was sure that Mastering Clairvoyance would unlock another more powerful version of it. Certain skills will unlock another skill when they reach a certain point. Whether these spells or skills will automatically give you the next stage was dependent on several factors. The skill Repair would not automatically give you the blacksmithing skill but sometimes other skills may. An hour later Miriel managed to track the book down to a large section and she would have to start grabbing books to check if they are the right one to take. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± The book she held did not glow so she placed it back and the section it was in de highlighted making the search radius smaller than before. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± It was a miss again. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± It was a miss again. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± It was a miss again. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± It was a miss again. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± It was a miss again. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± It was a miss again. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± The book she held was glowing a blue colour. Miriel knew that she got the right one now.
Quest, Collect the Books had been completed Give the books to Jenny. Collect reward from her.
You have levelled up
You have gained the title ''Bookworm in Training'' - Reading speed increase by 2% - Book searching speed increases by 3% - Intelligence and Wisdom +1
Miriel placed the book in her inventory which had the other books as well. In total there were 20 or so books she had collected as well. She surely must have used the spell Clairvoyance over a hundred times. Miriel then decided to check her skill window. Skill Window - Magic Mastery Beginner 2 (78/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 1 (38/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 1 (2/100) - Magic Control Mastery Beginner 1 (96/100) - Mediation Beginner level 1 (14/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 1 (13/100) - Identify Beginner level 1 (1/100) - Magic Bolt Beginner level 2 (2/300) - Clairvoyance Beginner level 1 (46/100) - Melody of Sound Beginner level 1 (13/100) ''What the....it looks like the Clairvoyance spell only increases when I find an item that I''m searching for. I have 23 books and the experience I gain is doubled so its 46 then.'' thought Miriel analysing the situation she was in right now. ''I levelled up as well didn''t I?'' Miriel opened up her status window and added the 5 points into Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom in a 1:3:1 ratio.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Miriel,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]2,Magician[/quart]
Status Window
RaceNight Elf
TitleSound Maiden Apprentice
Health110
Mana200
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9,13[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]23 +12,17 +12[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]10,11[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,5%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 10% Stat increase in the dark or in dungeon - 5% increase sight in the dark - 5% more spell effect for Sound based Spells - Intelligence and Wisdom +12 - Reading speed increase by 2% - Book searching speed increases by 3%
Miriel was slightly pleased with her progress and headed back to where Jenny was. There Jenny congratulated Miriel and collected the books she had gathered. ¡°Take this. Its the third spell I promised.¡± Miriel took what seemed to be another spell book and started reading it. When she finished a message popped up.
You have learnt the spell Cracked Barrier
Cracked Barrier Beginner level 1 (0/1000) Creates a Barrier on the target which will negate a certain amount of damage for the first two hits. Damage Negated: 30% Mana Cost: 50 Mana Cool Down: 10 Seconds
Miriel was surprised since this was a intermediate level spell that was designed for mages over level 100 at least. Such a spell would be useless to a low levelled player like Miriel since she could not use this spell too often without the risk of losing all of her mana in one go. ¡°Master this is....¡± ¡°A gift for the future when you really need it. Negating 30% of damage may one day save the lives of your comrades over and over again when facing powerful foes. Now I believe you have a meal to cook for me.¡± xXx And so a week and a half passed by. It was time for Miriel to graduate from Jenny. ¡°Congratulation for surviving the 4 weeks. Here''s a gift for you.¡± Jenny gave Miriel a staff that was the length of her arm. While it was not was fancy as Jenny''s own staff Miriel could feel that it processed some sort of power. ¡°Identify!¡±
Rod of Sound Durability: 30/30 Damage: 2-5 A rod made from wood with some enchantments to increase the power of sound based spells. Restrictions: None Options: - Sound Magic effect +3%
¡°And now for you to graduate.¡±
You have Graduated from being the Apprentice of Jenny the Sound Maiden Fame +10 You have levelled up You have levelled up
You have lost the title ''Sound Maiden Apprentice''. All Bonuses from the title will be removed
You have gained the title ''Sound Maiden'' - All Stats increase by 1 - 10% more spell effect for Sound based Spells
Miriel allocated her stats again.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Miriel,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]4,Magician[/quart]
Status Window
RaceNight Elf
TitleSound Maiden
Health140
Mana245
[quart=Fame,Infamy]10,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9 +1,15 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]29 +13,19 +13[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]10 +1,11 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +1,0 +1[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,5%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 10% Stat increase in the dark or in dungeon - 5% increase sight in the dark - 5% more spell effect for Sound based Spells - Intelligence and Wisdom +12 - Reading speed increase by 2% - Book searching speed increases by 3%
Miriel bowed to Jenny and said, ¡°Thank you for teaching me and goodbye.¡± Jenny smiled back and said, ¡°Its not goodbye. I will see you later for that event soon enough. Make sure you get stronger.¡± With those words Miriel set off to the true start of her journey. Unknown to her, Jenny had planted something into her as an experiment.
Onwards?
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Vol.1 Chapter 5 - The Rogue ¡°Yes.¡± Ian said only one word but it was like he just appeared out of nowhere and disappeared when he finished the one word. Ian observed how the capsule brought him from the real road to what was the start of a new life. While in the white room waiting for the AI to boot up he thought, ''This place is quite nice'', which surely is sarcasm. I do hope this is sarcasm. Ian merely thought such things until a female voice which was the AI started talking to him. ¡ª The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? ¡°Sure, why not.¡± Unlike the others that may try to be polite, Ian has no hint of politeness in his speech. Maybe its because of his lack of interactions with others, he has developed a rude style of talking. There has been many case where people were searching for him as if he was lost when he was standing next to them. People thinking he skipped class when he was just sitting on his seat like normal. And there was one unusual case where Ian just walked out of a bank robbery in progress without anyone noticing him and called the police on them. ¡ª Select the name of your avatar. ¡°Something cool.....like Shadow. Yeah Shadow will do.¡± ¡ª Select your gender from male, female or neutral. ¡°Male.¡± While answering Ian was thinking what could happen if he chose to be a short cute assassin in the service of her lord. ''Well it would be like that novel I read before but its best to make sure the others don''t think me as a pervert. Peter and Mark are fine but the girls....one is shy, one is loud and one is the devil. All of them bad choices to fall in love with.'' Ian thought back to the last words his parents left him before dying in front of his eyes. His mother rubbed his head in the car while almost crushing him to death with her bear hugs that almost literally felt like a bear was hugging him. ''Remember, when you grow up follow your heart in choosing your life long partner.'' Then his parents went out to buy something leaving Ian in the car which is a very bad thing to do for a 3 year old child at the time. But nothing happened to Ian the child at the time. It was what happened to his parents. A simple hit and run. The culprit was never found. Ian was seemingly saved because his parents ''forgot'' about him when they went out. That was how Ian thought about it and so his life then consisted of hiding in the corners of people''s eyes. Thinking about this, Ian thought, ''Hina was right that I should be a scout. People like me who have little presence are perfect for the role.'' ¡ª Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine. ¡°Human.¡± There was no need to decide on anything else since Ian never liked the idea that other races had certain advantages and disadvantages compared to the all rounder human and more importantly the human race was the most chosen race and this made will make it easier to blend into the crowd in cities. ¡ª You may alter your appearance ¡°Show me my appearance.¡± In front of him was an exact image of himself like a mirror except that it was real. Ian moved forward and ''touched himself'' using his hand and felt his arm. ''Am I that thin?'' In his mind Ian was considering making himself a bit more bulky but it was not a wise idea to play as a body builder in game. ''Maybe a bit more muscle will help'' And so Ian changed his body to be fitted with a bit more muscle that was not noticeable at all unless you looked really closely. ¡°What else should I changed?.....well make my hair completely black it''ll help me hide better in the night. Also make my eyes completely black as well. They say that darker eyes will see better in the dark as well.¡± From speaking his thoughts out, he had already changed his character from a slightly more muscular version of himself to someone who only resembled himself. Ian was almost as tall as Peter at 178 cm and his now black hair as he seen waved around. ¡°Hmm.....Nah. I''m done. Nothing else to do.¡± ¡ª Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Please Select a city and kingdom you want to start. ¡°It was called....Witchhelm right?¡± Ian had some difficulty remembering the name of the city because a certain someone was getting too close to him. However he almost hugged the AI if it had a physical form here when the city did exist. ¡ª Welcome to Royal Road. Seeing that he was going in the game very soon, he made sure that he did not stand out when he will first appear. [p=center]xXx[/p] One moment he was in the white room the next he was in a city full of life. Some people looked at him strangely but then ignored him as always. ''So my lack of presences transfer in this game as well?'' Shadow was a bit depressed but he did name himself Shadow in this place. However according to Hina and the others this was a good thing for a certain role. Shadow looked around and found that the fountain was nearby and Mark was already there standing there alone. Walking as usual Shadow moved next to him and stood next to her. ''Is he going to notice me or not?'' Shadow did not realise it but he was actually walking with little notice on his footprints which emitted almost no sound at all and was keeping out of the sight of Mark''s sight. Eventually Hina and Grace got here as well and Hina said to us, ¡°So you two got here early¡± which for some reason meant that Mark was to look at Shadow like he saw a ghost and freak out. After almost immediately calming himself down from my ''sudden'' presence, Peter got here as well. With a smile Peter said, ¡°Is everyone here yet?¡± looking at each and every one of us including me. However Hina was kinda angry of the lack of presence of Maria and as such with an irritated voice said, ¡°Maria isn''t She''s late!¡± like a child. ''That''s surprising, I never thought that she had that in her'' Peter made a Wry smile at this sight and Grace moved towards me without warning. She was tugging the edge of my shirt. ''Why is she tugging on me?'' Trying to stop Hina''s sudden rage Peter said, ¡°So are we going to introduce ourselves while we wait for Maria?¡± to the rest of us. ¡°We might as well¡± sighed Miriel saying, ¡°Anyway I''m called Miriel now so call me that. I''m a Night Elf.¡± ¡°Raven, Human¡± said Raven after her. Grace struggled but still managed to speak to the rest of the group, ¡°I''m called....Serena...a Half-Elf...¡± Ian simply said the words, ¡°Shadow, also Human¡± Sain smiled and introduced himself, ¡°I''m Sain also a Human. Anyway we should friend each other while we can. Um...how do I do this?¡± while being confused at the end. ''He doesn''t know? I better demonstrate then.'' Miriel sighed and said quickly, ¡°Send Friend Request to Sain, Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡±
Miriel sent you a friend request. Accept?
Shadow moved his finger to press ''Yes''. Unlike the others who were seemingly shocked by such a thing, I knew that such a thing would appear in this game.
You have accepted the Friend Request
¡°Send Friend Request to Serena, Raven and Shadow.¡± said Sain quickly.
Sain sent you a friend request. Accept?
Once again he moved his finger to accept the friend request.
You have accepted the Friend Request
¡°Send Friend Request to Serena and Raven.¡± said Shadow following through. Serena suddenly got surprised again and cling on his shirt again. Shadow tugged Serena indicating that she should go next. She looked at Shadow with her teary eyes and shouted, ¡°Send....Friend request to Raven!¡± Raven looked a bit irritated but it didn''t show on his face but Shadow could tell from the feeling he was giving off. After a minute and when Miriel turned for the worse and with Serena being was clingy on Shadow, someone finally appeared. ¡°I''m here~¡± With a smile this person wave and came to us....and to an angry Miriel. Miriel immediately went up to her and whacked Maria''s head with her fist. ¡°Ow! Wait, what''s this message I''m seeing?¡± she cried in exclamation. ''Its most likely the game saying that you were hurt.'' Everyone thought to themselves. ¡°Your late!¡± shouted Miriel in rage. Maria was completely dominated by the strength of will coming from Miriel. ¡°Anyway sent a friend request to everyone of us. No, tell us your name and we''ll friend you. It''ll be much quicker that way.¡± demanded Miriel like a bully. ¡°My name is Lyndis, a normal Elf.¡± said Lyndis after a few seconds. Feeling sorry for he Shadow quietly said, ¡°Send Friend request to Lyndis.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°First of all you guys know how to open your inventory right? Just say open Inventory and a window saying what you have will appear which should be 10 pieces of Rye bread and a Canteen of Water. You can refill the Canteen using a Fountain like this but you have to buy Rye Bread for 3 Copper each. Try it out.¡± said Miriel. All of this Shadow already knew but he suppose that it would do as some sort of review. ¡°Open Inventory Window.¡± said the 5 of us.
Inventory - 10 Pieces of Rye Bread - I Canteen of Water - No Money
This window showed the items Shadow had currently. It wasn''t much but everyone has to start somewhere. Everyone looked and pointed at the window that was only visible to themselves. Sain then moved his hand and took out what was the Rye Bread for everyone to see. ''This looks....very hard to chew'', everyone thought seeing the Rye Bread in Sain''s hand. ¡°Anyway next is the Status Window which you will see all of your stats and such. Same thing as the inventory, just say Open Status Window.¡± ¡°Open Status Window¡± said the 5 again.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Shadow,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleNone
Health100
Mana100
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]10,10[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]10,10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
¡°Okay now that you know your status window, we have to talk about distributing stats. Know that it is better to be a master of one than a master of many. However don''t let it stop you since its your character and we don''t need to be something like the strongest. Now let''s go our separate ways and find a class in these 4 weeks we have. Don''t aim for the hidden classes since they may take too much time to get and don''t just resolve yourself on being one of those common classes people get. I''ll see you guys here in 4 weeks time.¡± said Miriel before leaving us to do whatever we want. [p=center]xXx[/p] Shadow walked away from the others whom were doing the same. As Shadow had to be some sort of assassin or whatever type character, he headed for the most shady type of place since it would be a good place to start. As he walked to that place, more and more of the city''s clean bright streets were being turned into a dark, damp and overall unpleasant place. ''This seems to be the right place....now where do I go?'' Shadow thought to just go around and hope that he would ''fall'' into place that would teach him the skills he would need. Shadow looked around to find that no one was looking at him at all for some reason.
You have gained the skill Stealth
''What in the world...'' Shadow opened the skill window for the first time and saw that a skill called Stealth was there. It was only as mere hour since he started his journey and he already gained a skill relating to how small his presence was. ¡°...¡± Nevertheless Shadow opened the skill to see the information relating to it.
Stealth Beginner Level 1 (0/100) To hide in shadows and bend into the background. This skill allows you to naturally do this and more. It is not only the shadows you bend into, crowds of people and even nature itself is a safe hiding spot. Detectability Reduced by 10% Sound made Reduced by 3%
¡°Are you joking?!¡± retorted Shadow in anger. He had hoped that his lack of presence would not transfer into this game as well. He was tired of not being seen. Tired of people forgetting his very existence when he was standing right in front of him. However somewhere in his heart he knew that this was going to happen eventually since he was going to be the sneaky member of the group but...just not this fast. Shadow had read that it may take weeks, even months to gain the skill you want by clearing the conditions placed by the system to generate it for your character. ¡°Ho ho ho. Look what came here!¡± Noticing that something was wrong, Shadow looked around to find that the bums that were lying one the ground one by one stood up and surrounded him on all sides...well almost. There were still the alleyways and the roofs as well to escape with. However unlike in real life, Shadow''s body could not handle those kinds of activities just yet. ¡°Why don''t you give us everything you have!¡± said the dirty man that seemed to be the leader of the group. The others that numbered to be more than 10 according to what Shadow see, agreed with him. All Shadow had were the canteen of water and the 10 pieces of Rye Bread. If he lost them then he would be starving to death later on. Other than that were the crappy beginner armour he had. In total these items couldn''t even add up to even 1 silver. But losing these things would be problematic later on as well. So Shadow decided to run. ''Chances of me getting through here before they come are pretty slim. But these guys seem stupid enough'' Shadow burst into the small alleyway which barely fit his already thin body with great difficulty while the bums tried to get to him. ¡°Don''t go that way, the other side! Get him on the other side!¡± shouted the dirty bum pushing a couple of people to the side and running off himself to try and catch Shadow. ''Now all I have to do is go back...'' Shadow moved his thin body back the way he came from and got out before the bums got to the other side. Shadow decided it was better to head deeper in the slums of this city then to go back to where its more crowded. ¡°SHIT! GO BACK! GO BACK AND CATCH HIM!!!¡± Shadow smiled knowing that this person and the others were definitely stupid. Their intelligence and wisdom stats must have been pretty slow which made them easy to escape. Shadow slipped into the shadows where it was easier for him to hide and walk away but things were going to be so simple. Tap tap tap tap tap tap There was someone walking near Shadow and it was most likely someone who would tip off him to the bums. Shadow decided that he would hide in one of the dark corners that were blocked off by other objects, listening to what this group was saying. ¡°Where is he?!¡± ¡°I can''t find him!¡± ¡°Impossible! We have the entire area surrounded. If he decides to escape then we will find him!¡± ''Why do they want me so badly? There are other people in this world you can chase right?'' As Shadow was hiding with no visual ability to see them since the objects that were allowing him to hide from them also prevented him from seeing them, he was using his other senses to track them. To be more precise, Shadow was using his sense of hearing. After 10 minutes of this and other then the fact that his body was becoming stiff, a message appeared which also surprised him again but in a good way this time.
You have gained the skill Hearing
Hearing Beginner Level 1 (0/100) Allows you to hear from further distance and in more accurately. This skill is activated when you focus on hearing. Hearing Distance Increase: 5 Metres Hearing Quality Increase: 1.1 Times
''This seems useful. I can hear sound earlier than other people which means I can alert the others when monsters or other people are nearby in a dungeon.'' Unlike the Stealth skill, Shadow had a very good impression on this skill even though he was more natural at Stealth than any other thing. ¡°Find him! We need a hostage in case on of them appear!¡± ''Who is ''them''?'' thought Shadow as he was listening into their conversations. ¡°Damn it! We have to find another one before the sun sets. The purge is happening today! Just get any odd freeman here!¡± ¡°Are you an idiot! Most Freemen in this city are extremely strong. Its a rain drop in a desert that a new one just came! We need a weak one that we can use.¡± As Shadow hid in the corner, much to his annoyance, his stealth skill increased rapidly for some reason.
Stealth has levelled up Area which people can see you decrease when crouching
Stealth has levelled up Less sound is made when walking
Stealth has levelled up You are able to walk on solid ground without making noise when crouching
Stealth has levelled up Sound made when falling or rolling is decreased
Stealth has levelled up Weapon sounds are reduced
Stealth has levelled up It is more difficult to sense your presence
In the mere 10 minutes Shadow had somehow managed to level the Stealth skill up to Beginner Level 7. Shadow checked the skill and found that his presence was reduced by 70% and the amount of sound he made was reduced by 21%. ''Well it can''t be that bad to stay hidden in these kinds of situations'' thought Shadow trying to stay positive in this helpless situation. ¡°Why are you hiding there? Who are you?¡± asked young female voice. Shadow was shocked. No one bothered him at all and even the bums whom were searching for him soon gave up. But here a person found him in this hiding spot he just made and it was a child as well. Shadow got up and revealed himself to this person. Shadow got a good look on this person. She was a short most likely Asian descendent shady person who had a small figure. Her long hair was tied into a ponytail that was almost as long as her body. ¡°...¡± ¡°...: The two looked at each other without talking and when Shadow was about to speak, someone interrupted him. ¡°FOUND HIM!¡± shouted the bums. They soon sealed off all exits and more than 10 of them surrounded him and this child. Some of them even carried old rusty weapons that while would not kill them immediately, would hurt a lot which would allow them to capture Shadow. ¡°Who are you?¡± asked the child again ignoring the bums that surrounded them. Shadow decided it would be a good time to tell his name in case the child would be spared of this kidnapping and report it to someone. ¡°I am Shadow.¡± answered Shadow. ¡°Class?¡± the child asked again. ''Why would she want to know that? Would she want to know if I was useful?'' Shadow decided to answer truthfully to this child. ¡°None.¡± he answered ¡°Level?¡± the child ask again quickly. ¡°I just started today.¡± ¡°Skills?¡± ¡°Stealth Beginner Level 7 and Hearing Beginner Level 1¡± ¡°...¡± The child stared at Shadow with interest. A small smile came on her face when she heard Shadow report his skills. ¡°?¡± ¡°You''ll be my apprentice.¡± the child proclaimed. ¡°WHAT?! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU BRAT!!!¡± one of the bums screamed in anger, mainly due to the fact that they were ignored. The bums rallied and charged at the two. For some reason Shadow felt that they would get out of this situation without harm when looking at the child. ¡°I will protect my apprentice.¡± she said drawing out a small knife. Shadow observed her to find that it was getting more difficult to even sense her and that she looked like she was literally bending into the shadows. ¡°Assassinate.¡± The child disappeared and reappeared behind one of the bums stabbing him in the back, killing him in one shot. The child then proceeded to disappear and reappear quickly killing off all of the bums. They didn''t have the time to scream in pain. It all lasted for less than a second. ¡°Will you become my apprentice?¡± the child asked Shadow in a cute voice.
Become Anna''s apprentice - You will live with her until your apprenticeship finish - You will be fed food - You will be given training directly from him - Will gain the title ''Dark Walker Apprentice''
¡°....Sure.¡± Shadow was a bit hesitant on accepting since the child named Anna.....well looked like a child but had superior skills which Shadow could learn from.
You have become the apprentice of Dark Walker Anna
You have gained the title ''Dark Walker Apprentice'' - Strength will increase by 1 - Agility will increase by 1 - 5% more damage in the Dark
Shadow got an extra point in Strength and Agility and a bonus for his damage in the dark. Shadow felt some sort of happiness in the fact that he was a bit stronger than before thanks to this. ¡°Why did you kill all those people?¡± asked Shadow curious on the answer. Anna looked at him and said with a straight face, ¡°They were not contributing to the city and instead disrupting the city and therefore had to be eliminated. I do a sweep once a month on those who act like this.¡± Anna was grabbing the loot from the corpse of the bums she killed. ¡°...¡± Shadow could only stare in disbelief on this kind of action from a child. ¡°Come with me.¡± said Anna. ¡°Where are we going?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Training Home. I need to make you strong enough to survive in 4 weeks.¡± she replied. ''What''s going to happen in 4 weeks?'' thought Shadow grimly before following Anna to where he would stay for the next 4 weeks. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°We are here¡± In front of Shadow was....well a house. Though it kinda looked more like a death sentence for those aware of what it truly was. To start with, the house was rather small compared to what seems to be the training centre right next door. It was relatively new looking house that had several signs that either say ''Turn now to live'' or ''this is a death trap'' written on it. On the other hand the place looked.....normal. This was the main problem for Shadow since it could look better than it really was. While Shadow was thinking this, Anna went into the house which caused Shadow to follow....and fall into some sort of pitfall clinging to his life. ¡°What the hell?!¡± he muttered out loud with one leg hanging while his arms were supporting his body. To describe what is trap is, you can only think of a very deep hole right at the edge of the inside of the house. It was large enough to drop an entire person in it and at the bottom were what looked like spikes that would pierce through him if he dropped down. ''You got to be joking....'', Shadow looked at Anna who effortlessly passed over the trap without trouble, ''This may have been a bad idea....'' While Shadow was slowly falling into despair on what was going to happen, Anna came back from her short trip and saw Shadow half trapped in the pitfall. ¡°What are you doing? Why didn''t you step over the trap?¡± asked Anna. Shadow somehow managed to pull himself up from the pitfall that almost took his life with his 11 strength and said, ¡°I didn''t know there was a pitfall there.¡± ¡°Why didn''t you know? Couldn''t you see it?¡± asked Anna as if it was strange to not know that there was a pitfall at the entrance of the house. Shadow thought back on the applications of skills and deducted that there was most likely a skill to detect traps. ¡°I don''t have the Detect Trap skill.¡± said Shadow. With those words Anna nodded and led Shadow to a room which had a ladder down underground which was very strange since these kinds of things were really rare for a household. Shadow gulped when he climbed down the ladder to the seemingly dark room which had no light at all. ¡°Get to the end and you''ll get the skill.¡± said Anna. Shadow almost decided to run through but his better judgement stopped him. ''This can''t be that easy.'' he thought and therefore asked, ¡°Is there anything else in between?¡± Anna stared at Shadow and said, ¡°Traps. Lots of traps. You''ll gain the skill after this.¡± ¡°And if I die?¡± ¡°You can revive and try again later.¡± Shadow sighed and looked at what looked to be a long corridor. To the left, right and back of the ladder, there were rooms which were dimly lit but the corridor was completely dark preventing Shadow from seeing anything. ¡°I can''t see anything.¡± ¡°That''s part of the training. You have enough food for a couple of days. Here.¡± Anna handed Shadow a bag filled with a couple canteens filled with water, ¡°You''ll need it.¡± Anna climbed back up the ladder and pulled it up with her. ''It looks like I can''t get back up that way....'' Shadow looked at the dark corridor which he had to go through. Number of Traps: Unknown Length of Corridor: Unknown Possibility to Survive this: Very Low Shadow sighed once more on his bad luck in training. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Ah, Master¡± said Anna looking at a person who just came to the training area. The person revealed himself coated in dry blood with a person on his shoulder. The only particular thing that Anna noticed was that her master has blood on him which meant that he killed someone and he most likely saved the person on his shoulder. ¡°Anna, you just sent your new apprentice down the pit for training didn''t you?¡± asked the person named Eden. ¡°Yes I have. The pit will be useful to train his skills¡± replied Anna trying not to notice that Eden was actually in a one piece dress, ¡°Also why do you have someone on your shoulder?¡± ¡°This? Just made a round of cleaning up some trash and this one fainted though she has a strong will. I''m considering giving her to Mel since she doesn''t actively seek out apprentices.¡± Anna nodded and Eden disappeared soon enough but not before he left a message to her. ¡°Train your apprentice to the point that that person can enter the guild.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± With that, Anna decided to increase the difficulty of the training by another step. [p=center]xXx[/p] Shadow was crawling on the ground making sure to try and not trigger any kind of traps on the way. Prior to this event, Shadow waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness which actually did help. He could now see 10 cm in front of him which was better than being completely blind in this place. Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh For a while now, thanks to his Hearing Skill, Shadow could hear this Whoosh sound as he went forward. It was most likely some sort of trap and Shadow knew what it may be and immediately regretted thinking about it since it frightened him to the fact that he had to go through it. As Shadow inched forward he noticed that there was something in front of him. He could not exactly ''see'' it but his instincts as a invisible man told him that it was very dangerous. However the thing that he sensed was on the ground and he did not notice anything above him, or so he thought. So he stood up making sure not to fall forward where the first trap was. Then he stepped over the trap lightly and felt around the ground a bit to see if there were more traps around. Shadow really did try to see in the dark and as a result, another skill was generated.
You have gained the Skill Dark Vision
Dark Vision Beginner (0/100) A Skill that allows the user to see in the dark. Things that reflect light such as mirrors or water will glow as a result of this while the amount of colour you would see is limited. Also highlights certain objects of interest sometimes. Mana Cost Per Second: 5 Mana
Shadow smiled that this game did not forsaken him just yet. With this skill he would almost quite possibly see the traps there were ahead. ¡°Dark Vision!¡± Suddenly the surrounding area was lit up in his eyes. He looked behind him to find a simple wire trap which he luckily did not trigger during his blind walk to avoid it. Then he looked forward. ¡°...¡± The whole place was filled with various types of triggers and the traps that it triggered. Shadow saw spike traps, arrow traps, pitfalls, poison traps, and so on. There were so many that he couldn''t count them all and the corridor was far enough that he couldn''t see the end as well. Shadow presumed that the further down he went the more difficult it was to get through without triggering a trap which at his level and health, would kill him. ¡°I better start disarming these traps.¡± he commented. There were several ways of getting skills in game which almost all involve clearing a condition. The first was simply repeating the action to get the skill. This was the most time consuming and hardest way to get the skill and there was a chance not to get the skill you want. The second was to learn it off someone with the required skill. This can and most likely will cost money. However it is almost certain that you will get the skill you want under the guidance of the Master you are training under. The last method is the easiest but the rarest kind since it requires a skill book to begin with. You simply read the book and you get the skill if you above the minimum conditions. But even the most common skills cost a lot in a skill book form. Skill books are ranked like quests. The rarer and more powerful the skill is, the higher the rank and on the market, even B ranked skill books are a rare find and A and S rank skill books if they actually get on the market sell out in seconds. Shadow turned around and was just about to try and disarm the wire trap behind him but..... ¡°I don''t have a knife....¡± His sudden realisation made things even more difficult for him. He would need to use something sharp like his nails if he wanted to disarm traps. Then he remembered the bag. ''I hope Anna placed a knife in there.'' With the sudden hope, Shadow rampaged through his bag and searched around until he felt something that was not a canteen of water. Shadow pulled it out to find that it was a small knife that was most likely used to cut wire and other materials. Shadow immediately went to one end of the wire trigger and cut it. *Sound of a pitfall opening* ¡°Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!¡± Reacting immediately, Shadow clung to the edge of the pitfall and managed to pull himself up from it. ''Okay then.....time to not screw up on the next trap I try to dissemble....wait why is it dark again?'' The corridor went dark again all of a sudden that Shadow did not dare move just in case he somehow managed to trigger another trap and this time die from it. He checked his mana to see what happened to find that all of his mana disappeared. ''So I only have 20 seconds worth of Dark Vision.'' Shadow checked the skill to find that it increased by 1% overall. According to what he knew, Mana regenerated extremely slowly to the point that it would take a minute to regain a point of mana. As such it would take 5 minutes to even use the Dark Vision skill again for 1 second. As such Shadow was just sitting there, very uncomfortable waiting for his mana to regenerate enough for him to use Dark Vision again. Eventually after the 5 minutes, he managed to regain the 5 mana he needed to activated the skill. ''Hmm.....only one second to know what to do next. Its just easier to wait a bit longer to ensure my safety in moving around'' As a result of this thought, Raven sat there for another hour looking around in the dark which caused him to be surprised in the emergents of another skill he did not expect to appear.
Night Vision Beginner level 1 (0/100) Allows you to passively see better in the dark by reflecting more light into your eyes. You will see 30% better in the Dark
''I can see....well that part is obvious but I don''t have to spend mana to see better in the dark now. However its still relatively dark but I can kinda see the outline of stuff now. Well....at least I can try to disarm traps.'' Shadow held the knife in hand and went to the next trap which again was another wire trap. This time he made sure not to be in the vicinity of the trap and somehow managed to not set it off when he cut the wire. ''I wonder if its okay to go through....'' Testing his luck, Shadow moved forward cautiously as he disabled the traps one by one in a steady pace in the near dark. [p=center]xXx[/p] ''Now if I step over this pressure plate it''ll activate this trap which will in turn cut the wire which will trigger that trap and then that same trap will also cause arrows to fly......why is this so difficult?'' [p=center]xXx[/p] Several moments later... Pin pin pin pin pin pin pin pin Several small arrows flew to Shadow and hit his arms and legs causing him extreme pain.
You have lost 70 Health
You have generated the stat Fighting Spirit
You have generated the stat Endurance
''Ow ow ow ow ow ow that really hurt like hell!''
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. [p=center]xXx[/p] 5 days have passed since Shadow started his crawl through the dark corridor. His ''Night Vision'' skill went to the beginner level 2.
Night Vision Beginner level 2 (0/100) Allows you to passively see better in the dark by reflecting more light into your eyes. You will see 60% better in the Dark Able to adjust the amount of light which is reflected in your eyes Blindness will be less effective
¡°Just one more trap.....¡± In front of Shadow was what seemed to be the most difficult, dangerous and outright cruel trap he had seem so far. ¡°The red button or the blue button...¡± It was the notorious two switch trap where both of them will end something, it was just which one would not kill him and let him get out of here. ''In other words its either up to luck or....its a trap altogether and there is some other way to get out of here.'' Shadow pressed the red button on a whim.
Luck has increased
You have gained the skill Locate Trap
You have gained the skill Disarm Trap
Locate Trap Beginner level 1 (0/100) Able to see beginner traps passively. They are highlighted in blue
Disarm Trap Beginner level 1 (0/100) Increase the chance of disarming beginner traps.
Tick And a path appeared in front of him leading to a small room which had a ladder. ¡°I guess that''s the exit.¡± As Shadow walked through to the ladder and fresh air, he looked back to noticed that there were some parts which were highlighted in blue which meant that there were some traps he did not notice and trigger. ''And I thought I went through all of the traps in this place'' Shadow felt some disappointment since he didn''t completely clear this place but he put it off as he got out of the place via the ladder.
You have gained the title ''Dark Seeker'' Dark Magic Resistance +1%
When he got to the top he noticed that Anna was waiting for him there silently eating bread. ¡°Did you get the skill?¡± she asked. ¡°Yeah....I got a couple extras as well.¡± replied Shadow noticing that the sunlight stung a bit to his eyes almost immediately. Anna nodded and then said something surprising again. ¡°Class change.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Shadow looked in confusion as a message appeared.
You have been offered the class ''Rogue''. Do you accepted? An agility based class that can act as both Assassins and Thieves. Skills in both combat and sabotages, Rogues are able to traverse through the battlefield with ease and are often mistaken for one class or another due to their diverse skill se
t. Calming himself Shadow said, ¡°Yes¡± which prompted another message to appear before him.
Your Class has been changed to ¡°Rogue¡± Agility +10 Luck +10
You have gained the skill Backstab
Backstab Beginner level 1 (0/100) Move in high speeds behind your target to stab them in the back. Damage Bonus: 50% Mana Cost: 10 Cool Down: 10 Seconds
Shadow seeing this checked his stats and skill again.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Shadow,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,Rogue[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleDark Walker Apprentice
Health100
Mana100
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]10 +1,10 +11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]10,10[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]10,10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,5 +10[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,1%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 5% more damage in the Dark - Agility and Luck +10
Skill Window - Stealth Beginner Level 6 (66/100) - Hearing Beginner level 1 (7/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 1 (23/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 2 (2/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner (level 1 0/100) - Backstab Beginner level 1 (0/100)
With the inclusion of the Backstab skill, Shadow now had 7 skills in total. Shadow looked at Anna on what to do next. ¡°Show stats and skills.¡± she ordered. After he showed her his stats and skills she then took him to some sort of training area. It was similar in design of a playground but it had all kinds of objects that are suited to be used as targets and courses to run through. ¡°Pick one and train.¡± she pointed at one of the training dummies and said, ¡°Focus on Strength and Stamina first. Use the wooden dagger to hit it.¡± With that Anna disappeared again leaving Shadow to train on his own. Following her orders Shadow went up to one of the dummies and used a wooden dagger which was located near the dummy to slash at it. One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two....One....two.... Shadow continued to slash at the dummy using a one-two rhythm to keep his pace constant. Several hours later he got two new notifications from the game.
You have generated the skill Dagger Mastery
You have generated the skill Double Strike
In one go Shadow go two more skills which both are very useful. Dagger Mastery is something he would''ve gotten anyway but Double Strike is....well most likely due to the fact that he had been striking the dummy in twos. Shadow checked the two skills immediately.
Dagger Mastery Beginner Level 1 (0/100) Increases the speed and power of dagger blows Dagger Power Increase: 10% Dagger Speed Increase: 3%
Double Strike Beginner level 1 (0/100) Deals two strikes at once to a target Mana Cost: 15 Mana Cool Down: 15 Seconds
Along with these two skills, Shadow also managed to gain a total of 2 Strength, 1 Agility and 1 Stamina during this time as well. [p=center]xXx[/p] 2 days later while Shadow was doing one of the running course that required him to do some tricks here and there sometimes, he saw three people walk into the training area. One was Anna his master. One of the two whom weren''t her looked very familiar to Shadow. ¡°Hey! Its been a while!¡± shouted the person. Shadow took a closer look on the person to find it was Lyndis. Her character was easy to recognise due to the fact that she was pretty and she stood out compared the other two with her. Shadow in response dropped down from the running course he was in and walked up to them greeting them. Since the first week, it seems Lyndis got some new armour and a sword as well. Shadow noticed that the armour was unusually stylish which was most likely due to her trait as a young girl wanting better looking clothes. The sword as Shadow saw it was the standard iron sword you can get for a silver piece in a store. While it had relatively low damage, it had a high durability stat which made it popular with beginners and the fact that it was the cheapest decent sword you can get early on. Shadow looked at the man that was with these two. Unlike the other two (Mostly to the fact that Shadow can''t detect Anna''s presence), he had a massive presence which almost caused Shadow to run away in instinct. He had shoulder length brown hair and had various scars on his face leaving an impression that he was some sort of warrior. Likewise, he carried a sword with him that was most likely high levelled due to the design and wore light armour which Shadow couldn''t describe unless it was in extreme detail. ''It looks like this person is well off in terms of money....else he may have gotten it from a boss monster'' thought Shadow as he observed the man. ¡°Hey don''t stare to much~¡± the man laughed at the sight of Shadow concentrating on him. ¡°This person is named Ron. He''s a....magic swordsman?¡± said Anna though it was more like a question at the end of it. The man named Ron sighed and then said, ¡°How many times do I have to say it. I''m a Sword Priest.¡± ¡°Priest do not use elemental magic¡± ¡°Priests did use them before.¡± ¡°That was hundreds of years ago.¡± As the two argued on the whether priests can use elemental magic, Shadow and Lyndis entered their own conversation. ¡°So where have you been for the last week. According to Anna you''ll been somewhere in the first 5 days.¡± ¡°I was going through a dark corridor with no light and filled with traps that may kill me in one shot. It took me 5 days to get through it safely though I had a couple close calls.¡± ¡°...¡± Lyndis sighed and said, ¡°At least you were alone to do what you want. Ron here was disturbing all kinds of things and at one point we were running from his debtors. I got more done on my own then with him.¡± ¡°That''s not a nice thing to say to your Master.¡± Lyndis looked at Ron with puffed with cheeks and retorted, ¡°Its the truth though.¡± ¡°Anyway, why are you two here?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°To train and run away from the debtors among other things.¡± replied Anna. ¡°Other things?¡± Shadow was confused, ''There were other things he was running from?'' ¡°Nothing important¡± answered Ron immediately. ¡°Royal Knights for trying to flirt with a princess, Mercenaries for running naked in their guild, Tailor Guild for trying to model naked, Blacksmith Guild for stealing some weapons, Information Guild for putting in false information, Farmers for promising to marry their daughters and run during the wedding and so on.¡± said Anna nonchalantly. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± Shadow and Lyndis inched further away from Ron after this with him knowing as a tear fell from his eyes from sadness. ¡°This person is a criminal.¡± said Anna which was the nail on the tomb. Ron started sobbing on the ground as he muttered something about repenting and how women don''t go near him anymore. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°According to Ron, it is best that I choose one element to use along with my sword. Which one do you think is best for me?¡± asked Lyndis. Shadow didn''t even hesitate when he answered, ¡°Fire.¡± He couldn''t even stop to consider anything else. ¡°Why?¡± ''Because your personality is literally the same as fire and it annoys a large number of people like Miriel amongst others.'' ¡°Because it perfectly represents your outgoing personality that people get along with.¡± answered Shadow without revealing his true thoughts. Lyndis smiled brightly seeing that someone praised her and said, ¡°Thanks, I''ll tell Ron.¡± Moments later Ron gave Shadow a sympathetic look which told Shadow that Ron knew Shadow''s true thoughts about Lyndis and how he could not just tell her that since it may break her heart if he did. ¡°Shadow, come here.¡± said Anna appearing out of nowhere again. ''I swear, is this how other people feel about me when I just...appear?'' Shadow suddenly got a revelation on his true character seeing Anna. Shadow followed Anna to a corner of the training area away from Lyndis and Ron. There she took out a couple of tools out from the ground, she dug up a large box of some kind and opened it. There were several things in it from what Shadow could see. For starters there were a large range of weapons that he could only think of using as hidden weapons. The next most apparent thing was that there was a alchemy set. Alchemy was a very rare skill, not that people did not want to use it but on the fact that almost everyone who was a alchemist refuses to teach others their secrets. This caused, and most intentionally an influx of the price of potions. Potions acted in the same way as in other games where the most common effects were to increase Health or Mana, other uncommon ones also increased stats temporary and inflict status effects on the drinker while there are unsaid rare potions that are worth thousands of gold on the market just for a small amount. Even the most basic potions cost at least some gold to buy per vial or bottle. It was only natural that Shadow was confused then shocked that Anna had such a thing. Moreover it was more shocking that she was a Alchemist since it was the skills that people wanted. The set itself was cheap compared to the abilities of a skilled Alchemist. ¡°There are two more things I have to teach you. They are Alchemy and Hidden Weapons.¡± Anna took out a small Alchemy set and a some clothes and armour. Shadow on her instructions placed the Alchemy set in his inventory and looked at the clothes and armour she gave him. They were almost completely black in colour and had multiple pockets on them. ¡°The clothes are the standard ones you can just buy but tare dyed black. The armour increases your stealth skills and is fitted for storage of hidden weapons and potions on the go.¡± she explained as Shadow wore the new clothes and armour he got. He checked them as he wore them to find that he couldn''t see much information on them at all unlike the food he got in the beginning.
Black Dyed Set of Clothes Durability: 20/20 Defence: 1 Information Unknown
Black Set of Rogue Armour Durability: 50/50 Defence: 15 Information Unknown
Shadow frowned at this and asked Anna, ¡°Why can''t I see the information on the clothes?¡± Anna quickly took the items she gave him quickly stripping him and handing them back. ''Why does she have a stripping skill....?''
Black Dyed Set of Clothes Durability: 20/20 Defence: 1 Set of Black Dyed Set of Clothes that provide minimum protection but increase certain options Options: - Able to blend into the dark better - Stealth Skill +10% in Dark
Black Set of Rogue Armour Durability: 50/50 Defence: 15 Set of Black Rogue Armour designed on speed and flexibility rather than defence of the body. While it provides low defence, it allows you to carry hidden weapons and potions on the person to use quickly in battle. There is a soft metal arm guard used to parry blades. Restrictions: Rogue Class Options: - Carry Potions and Hidden Weapons - Movement Speed +5% - Stealth Skill +10% in Dark - Dagger Speed +5%
Shadow was amazed at the stats the armour brought him, and even the clothes had an effect on his Stealth skill. ''And she says this is one of the standard ones....'' Shadow looked at Anna with respect and in a new light seeing her generosity. ¡°....Hurry up and dress. Its improper to be half naked in front of a lady¡± Anna shifted her eyes away from Shadow blushing a light red. Shadow looked at himself. He was in his underwear in front of a person who looks like a child. If anyone saw this, he would immediately be known as a flasher. Shadow quickly put in his new clothes and Anna finally looked back at him though she sometimes averted her gaze for no particular reason. ¡°I can teach you the use of the Hidden Weapons I gave you first.¡± said Anna not really asking but rather commanding. Anna took Shadow''s left hand and pressed a certain point on the arm guard which fired out a small knife not more than 3 cm. She opened up the device and showed him that it had several similar sized knives in it. ¡°These are used to distract enemies. This can hold up to 10 at a time and his low durability and damage but it can be coated to inflict poison, paralysis or any other thing you put on it.¡± Anna gave Shadow a several more of the small ''container'' which was wrapped over his arm guard to give in a total of 100 of these small knives. ¡°These kinds of things are easy to make so show one to a blacksmith and that person will make it for a small price.¡± Then Anna took Shadow''s right hand and pulled a string which pulled out a large dagger on the end the length of his hand. It was light and flexible but thin at the same time. Shadow presumed it was similar to the small knives in design. ¡°This is the hidden knife that is the standard in assassination. Its much harder and more durable then the small knives and deals massive amount of damage to a vital point, but it cannot be coated. I advise you not to use this in public since its meant to be hidden.¡± Anna then showed Shadow how to use the small spikes in his boots. According to Anna they are not meant to be used in combat but rather to climb by stabbing it into the wall or tree. There are also spikes at the bottom but Shadow has to manually activate them and they are used to grip the ground. ¡°That''s all the hidden features of this armour. However the higher rank you go the better the gear, I''m sure you''ll be great in the guild.¡± Anna puffed her small chest up when saying this. ¡°Guild?¡± ¡°Ah...¡± Anna closed her mouth with her hands and quickly said, ¡°Don''t worry about it!¡± before telling Shadow what to do next while he waited. Shadow went to a large tree and used the climbing spikes on his shoes to slowly climb up it. It was a slow and very exhausting method of climbing. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several hours later Shadow managed to climb up the tree which seemed to be around 20 metres tall. If he fell down at this height then he would''ve died.
You have gained the Skill Climbing
Climbing Beginner Level 1 (0/100) Able to climb faster and take less stamina. Also negates fall damage as well to an extent. Climb Speed increase: 1.1 times Fall Damage Negation: 5%
''Cool....now how the hell do I get down?'' Shadow tried not to look down on the ground since he was 20 metres up in the air. If he dropped and was lucky he would have some broken bones and at worst he would die from it. Both options seemed horrible to Shadow and as such he decided to take the very slow path of climbing down with extreme care. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several hours later Shadow somehow managed to get down from the large tree. He was puffing in and out air due to the large amount of stress on his body and low stamina. However thanks to this his stamina increased by 1. ''Do stats increase rapidly when the body is under extreme stress? If so, the creator of this game is a sadist or likes to makes things more realistic to the point that most people won''t like it being this way.'' Shadow silently cursed the creator of Royal Road in his heart as he almost experienced several life death situations climbing down from the tree alone. ¡°Start running exercise. You need more stamina and agility.¡± said Anna appearing out of nowhere again. [p=center]xXx[/p] One and a half week later worth of training, a certain person in purple robes appeared. It was Miriel. Although she did not notice Shadow for some reason, she did however see Lyndis and Lyndis saw Miriel. ''Why are they staring at each other?'' thought Shadow confused on what exactly was going on. He knew that these two had a bad relationship from the beginning but that was only the first meeting and they should''ve at least forgotten the emotions from back then at least. Luckily they both sighed at the same time most likely thinking about the same thing else one of them might have taken offence against the other. ¡°So what kind of class have you obtained?¡± asked Miriel to Lyndis. ''It appears that she still did not notice me. I better come up close so she can see me then.'' As Shadowed walked towards the two, their conversation continued. ¡°Something similar to magic swordsman. According to my Master I can focus on one element to increase my power so I''ll choose fire since it has the most power and range. What about you?¡± ¡°Support type mage. I focus on illusion and sound based magic. I can enchant your stats among other things.¡± After this Miriel decided to look around confused. ¡°Where''s Shadow?¡± By the time she asked that question Shadow was behind her since....well she was looking the other direction when she asked the question. ¡°Right Here.¡± Shadow answered honestly. Shadow could''ve sworn that Miriel screamed inside her heart as she turned to answer him. ¡°You.....don''t do that again.....¡± Lyndis was trying not to fall on the ground laughing at this sight but Shadow saw that she too was shocked the Shadow appeared out of nowhere to them as well. ¡°Don''t bother. I''ve been telling him that for 2 weeks and nothing changed. Well at least he''s a good assassin.¡± complained Lyndis seeing that Shadow appeared out of nowhere again. It wasn''t his fault that people don''t notice him and the fact that his gear actually decrease the chance of him being spotted. ¡°I am a Rogue not an assassin.¡± said Shadow. There was a clear difference between a common assassin and a Rogue. The first was that a Rogue can also serve as an assassin but also has a number of other skills as well. ¡°An assassin specialise in killing people and have high damage along with some other skills to back them up. A thief specialise in stealing stuff and not battles and rather run away when confronted with enemies. A Rogue is both of them, specialising in neither but both at the same time.¡± said Miriel explaining the difference to Lyndis who nodded her head. ¡°Correct.¡± Shadow was pleased that at least one person knew the difference although Shadow himself did not know until Anna explained it to him. ¡°Anyway I wanted to know what you two could do but that''s Sain''s job not mine.¡± ''So she''s still look out for Sain then'' thought Shadow on the fact that she forced Sain to take the hardest role and yet does most of the work for him. ¡°Then why are you here?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°I test out my spells.¡± Miriel raised her hands and said, ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± A soft sound echoed throughout the area and a gentle light surrounded Miriel, Lyndis and Shadow.
Melody of Speed is Active: - 12% more agility - Last 10 Minutes
Shadow immediately noticed that his now relatively higher Agility was further increased by the song or Melody....or sound Miriel created using her magic. ''This kind of thing is certainly rare...'' Shadow remembered that most bluffs came from the a priest and other times certain classes may have some variant of their own but the most powerful bluffs came from priests alone. However there were rumours that the bluff power of Popes and some Saints were so extreme that everyone fought over them. ¡°Wow! I can''t believe you got something like this up your sleeves!¡± exclaimed Lyndis in shock. Miriel then went to one of the target practised place and shot out Mana Bolts at them leaving Shadow and Lyndis together though Shadow had a feeling that Miriel could not see Shadow for some reason which was very worrying.
Stealth has levelled up You will seem to disappear when people are not focusing on you
¡°...¡± Now his stealth skill was at Beginner Level 9. It levelled up once during his time with Lyndis but he had not expected that the skill would increase so much even though the only people he meet are Lyndis, Anna, Ron and now Miriel. ¡°Aren''t you a Sword Priest?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Wow! Where did you come from?!¡± she exclaimed in shock. ¡°...¡± ¡°That was a joke. I knew you were there. Anyway being a Sword Priest and Magic Swordsman is really similar so I just use the latter since its much easier than explaining what a Sword Priest is¡± she answered seriously. ¡°I see.¡± Shadow disappeared from Lyndis'' sight and continued his training with weapons since Anna hasn''t started his training with Alchemy yet. [p=center]xXx[/p] 3 weeks into the confinement the 4 week rule, another certain person appeared out of nowhere. It was Sain and he was with a person who was most likely to be his master. Both Shadow and Lyndis stopped their training seeing them while their Masters sat together waiting for some odd reason... ''It can''t be that important then.'' Shadow continued with his training before a loud sound was heard and he saw all of it from the corner of his eye. WHACK The man who was Sain''s master whacked several objects that suddenly flew to them using the spear that was in Sain''s hands a moment ago. Shadow could tell this man was skilled. Perhaps more skilled then Anna and Ron though they are different types of people so its meaninglessly to compare. ¡°It has been a while you two. Again Anna, you don''t have to attack me every time I enter this place.¡± said the man. Shadow recalled deep in his memories that Anna once took out a voodoo doll and started stabbing it saying the words ''I''ll kill you Gen'' over and over again. He had removed the memory from his head after the shock of the sight and moved on. ¡°So this is the new apprentice that you''re so proud of. Anyway the elf girl whose breaking those targets is my apprentice while the other one is the new apprentice of Anna whose do those jumps and such¡± said Ron introducing him and Lyndis. For some reason Shadow did not want to be recognised as someone who knows Ron even though it was clear that he was a powerful person with a long history. As such he and from what Lyndis was doing, ignored Ron and continued training. Shadow was currently doing a running course that involved him climbing over 3 metre high walls in quick succession while Lyndis was practising combining her skills with swordsmanship. ¡°Hey you two!¡± shouted Sain. When Shadow heard those words he immediately stopped what he was doing as if a great force was commanding him to do so. Well it was Sain the so called leader of the group that everyone seemed including Shadow trusted ever since their first meeting. ¡°Yo! How''s it been!¡± Lyndis hugged Sain and patted his back after letting him go. Sain blushed when Lyndis hugged him and Shadow merely smiled at the sight. Ron frown at the attitude Sain was getting instead of him while Anna smiled knowing that she would get along with Sain. ¡°It''s been a good 3 weeks. Although it seems like I''m the last one to make even some progress in skills.¡± said Sain mockingly. Gen whacked Sain in the head and said, ¡°I told you that learning skills was the last part of your training. Anyway let me give you some skills first before you start your reunion with another girl¡± Gen winked at Sain. ''Another girl? Has he met with Serena and Miriel already?'' The man named Gen left with the three to meet up with Anna and Ron who both had slightly different expressions. Anna was....angry while Ron was a bit tense around this Gen person. ''I wonder what happened in the past.'' ¡°Anyway what have you two been doing for the last three weeks?¡± Sain asked. The first one to answer was Lyndis. ¡°Long story short I met Ron, became his apprentices like everyone else did with their Master and started my training as a Magic-Swordsman. Basically you combine both into one and my class is that. I''m training to bring both strength and intelligence up.¡± ''So in the end you''ve decided not to explain what a Sword Priest is then.'' Then it was Shadow''s turn to talk, ¡°Like Lyndis, I met my Master and started my training after she saw that I had potential for it. She more or less made me into a Rogue which is the middle ground between a thief and assassin. I''m currently training to improve my agility and such.¡± And finally it was Sain''s turn to talk. ¡°Well the first week I have been learning all about tactics and the other things I need to know. Then the following two weeks I drilled in the same place as Raven to improve my physical abilities and now I''m going to learn all about how to use my skills.¡± Sain said quickly. ¡°Sain! You finished yet?! I only have a week to teach you all you need to know now, so get here!¡± shouted Gen. Although a bit reluctant, Sain made his way to Gen who was setting up some target leaving Shadow and Lyndis back to their training. ¡°I feel that Sain could be corrupted by that man¡± said Lyndis all of a sudden. ¡°I agree. The Gen person isn''t liked much isn''t he.....¡± ¡°I wonder what happened in the past.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] 1 Week later Shadow met with Anna to discuss the fact that she hasn''t taught Shadow Alchemy at all. ¡°I''m not going to teach you Alchemy yet.¡± said Anna bluntly. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because you have no need for it right now. Also you have other things to focus on right now. I can teach you later but not now.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± ¡°The training is finished. You have graduated from me right now.¡±
You have Graduated from being the Apprentice of Anna the Dark Walker Fame +10 You have levelled up You have levelled up
You have lost the title ''Dark Walker Apprentice''. All Bonuses from the title will be removed
You have gained the title ''Dark Walker'' - All Stats increase by 1 - 10% more damage in the dark.
¡°Open Status Window.¡± Shadow placed the 10 points into Strength, Agility and Vitality in a ratio of 1:3:1
[quart=Name,Alignment]Shadow,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]3,Rogue[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleDark Walker
Health280
Mana115
[quart=Fame,Infamy]10,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]16 +2,22 +11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]10 +1,10 +1[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]13 +1,17 +1[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]32 +1,13 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +1,24 +10[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,26[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,1%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 10% more damage in the Dark - Agility and Luck +10 - All Stats +1
¡°Show Skill Window¡± Shadow checked his skills next.
Skill Window - Dagger Mastery Beginner 2 (55/100) - Stealth Beginner Level 9 (86/100) - Hearing Beginner level 1 (22/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 1 (25/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 2 (9/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 1 (30/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 1 (12/100) - Backstab Beginner level 1 (45/100) - Double Strike Beginner level 1 (14/100) - Climbing Beginner Level 3 (22/100)
Overall he hadn''t gotten far in the skill progression at all since he had a large number of skills. The only thing that rapidly increased was the Stealth skill and the only reason that it was still in the Beginner Level was that there were not many people around him which hindered the skill growth. Checking these things and the supplies he got, Shadow left to the meeting place. Unknown to him, Anna had planted something into him as an experiment.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 11200~ - I had a bit more fun writing this chapter than the others you know. Shadow is more of the lone main character type. It''s too bad that I needed to lessen the character development for the rest of the volume to focus on events. Well I can fix that in volume 2 Vol.1 Chapter 6 - The Sword Priest ¡°Hell Yeah!¡± Maria shouted at the capsule like it had hearing difficulties. This was mainly due to two things. The first was to trick herself to be more positive and the other was to try and recover from what she would call the ''worse disaster ever''. Before she knew it she was in a perfectly white space with nothing in sight. ¡°Wow, I wonder what it would be like if it they made it so we were actually in space?¡± she said out of excitement to herself. ¡ª The scan on your iris and vein has determined that you are an unregistered user. Do you want to create a new account? ¡°What? Nothing to say about what I asked? Nothing? Then yes.¡± she said with a hint of irritation in her voice. She knew this was an AI and if it wasn''t for that fact then she would be ''all over them''. ¡ª Select the name of your avatar. When the AI said those words, Maria payed more attention since her name was to be known to the whole world after this. ''It needs to perfectly describe me and nothing else!'' she thought thinking of countless names already. She thought back on her life and how perfect it was.....except that she did not have parents. But that didn''t matter since everyone in the Orphanage was her family and she needed to protect her younger brothers and sisters. Growing up, many people have naturally come to rely on Maria even the caretakers on times when they needed someone to cook, take care of cleaning and looking after the other children. She was the popular type at school as well. The centre of all attention she liked to think. But there were always those ''extras'' that didn''t fit in. She ignored him mostly but there were also the smart-pants as well, always trying to get in her way like Hina. However Maria got to admit that she was played well and her words made sense. ''Perhaps its time to let someone else be burdened the most.'' She frown at that thought since it was so not her. ''I still want to be known and looked at, no matter what Hina says she can''t change my mind. Being an Elf would be perfect! I just need a Elfish name....Lyndis! That would do.'' She made a smile on how creative she was. ¡°Lyndis! I want to be known as Lyndis.¡± she repeated her name to get the feel of what she was to be called in this new world. ¡ª Select your gender from male, female or neutral. ''Female......or should I be Male? I often played as a male character in games since the other children never choose female at all and my turn is much later than most children. No no no, I want to be female....but a Male Elf would be nice as well'' Maria aged 16, the height of puberty. Struggling on deciding to play as a Beautiful Male Elf or a Beautiful Female Elf. ¡°Skip for now.¡± she said after some intense minutes on what she could do. ¡ª Royal Road has forty-nine races. You may select your race from the primary twenty-nine. ¡°I want to be an Elf!¡± She at least got that part right. ¡ª There are many different types of Elves. Please Pick one of the Following.
- Elf - Wood Elf - Dark Elf - Moon Elf - Light Elf - Grey Elf - High Elf - Shadow Elf - Night Elf - Half Elf
A whole list just appeared in front of Maria''s eyes. She was shocked at what Virtual Gaming brought. ''So this is will happen later in game...'' ¡°Show me the appearance of all of them in both male and female models!¡± she demanded with a grin. Then in front of her eyes, 20 models of the Elves she can pick appeared in front of her, all of them having pointed ears. The Wood Elves looked like they had more muscles than the others and she immediately disregarded it without a second thought. ''I rather die than choose that one'' The Dark Elves were....dark skinned. Nothing Racist or anything but Maria thought she didn''t look good in dark skin. ''Wouldn''t I stand out if I have Darker skin? But people would be staring not of my beauty but of my abnormalities'' By this reasoning the Grey Elves, Shadow Elves and Night Elves were also not an option. Maria looked at the Half-Elves thinking on why they were all so short. She also decided not to pick them as well. And so the three remaining options she had were Moon Elf, Light Elf , High Elf or just simply a common Elf. All of them looked beautiful except for the normal Elf which just looked normal to her. However with the exception of the normal Elf option, all of them looked too beautiful. ''People will stare not of my own beauty but of the beauty of the Elf race I choose.'' Maria looked at the 8 models in front of her and sighed when she said, ¡°I want to be an Elf.¡± With a flash all of the models in front of her disappeared. ¡ª You may alter your appearance ¡°Show me as a male and female Elf.¡± With another flash two new models appeared, made from her own facial appearance. The male Elf had short brown hair while the female Elf had long brown hair and they looked almost the same except that the male''s face was a bit sharper while the female''s was more curved. While she drooled on the Male version of herself, she still would rather play as a female from now on. With a tear in her eye she said with great regret, ¡°Take away the Male one. I''ll play as a female Elf.¡± With a flash and Maria on the verge of tears the Male Elf disappeared, probably not going to appear in front of Maria ever again. However now was not the time to be crying on such things. She had a avatar to make! First of all Maria considered her above average in appearance compared to the other girls in her class and frankly schools as well. Many times has she been confessed to and rejected the poor boy and occasionally girl much to her surprise and this gave her confidences. She kept her hair long but plain to save time and effort but her hair naturally curled which made for some bad hair days while her face was a bit pretty but not on the level of idols and the like. ''I am normal pretty but not idol pretty. They are different and often end of worse than me so it is fine for people to look better than me'' she though every time she saw boys and grown men look at those type of women with admiration and sometimes lust. Because of this thinking Maria had no trouble of deciding not to change her face at all. But there was something she wanted to try out. ¡°Change hair to bright red!¡± The hair on her body turned a bright red which really stand out compared to her body. ''That''s not right....perhaps a bit dark instead.'' ¡°Turn Hair to dark red.¡± she said experimenting on the colour that will satisfy her. Her avatar''s hair turned from the bright red and a darker red which was closer to the brown colour she was born with. ''It doesn''t stand out much but the others may notice the difference!'' she thought to herself. Unknown to herself, she chose to not change her appearance much as to try and regain the trust she immediately lost or rather failed to obtained in the first conversation. ¡ª Your account has been activated. Your stats and class shall be determined while you are playing Royal Road. Please Select a city and kingdom you want to start. ¡°Witchhelm¡± Maria was already aching to try out what is to be considered the best game in existence to date. ¡ª Welcome to Royal Road. She let out her usual smile that she gave in front of the children back at home while the game booted her into what would be the most important part of her current life. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Lyndis appeared in game with a flash of light she immediately looked around to find herself near the fountain where everyone else was meeting and everyone was already there for some reason. ''Did everyone spawn near this place? Well I hope they''re not mad since I''m a bit late'' With such a thought she ran to them with a smile and waved saying, ¡°I''m here~¡± with a cheerful tone. Lyndis expected everyone to at least smile or wave back but all of them except one had looks of concern for her. ''Why are they looking at me like that?'' Then she knew the reason when Hina walked up to her and hit her head hard with her fist. WHACK
You took 10 Damage
¡°Ow! Wait, what''s this message I''m seeing?¡± cried out before looking at the strange box that was floating in front of her eyes, not exactly in front blocking her view but on the side where she could see it and see everything else as well. More looks of concern were thrown at Lyndis. ¡°Your late!¡± shouted Hina in rage. Lyndis didn''t believe that someone could shout at her like that. Usually it was the other way around when she found one of the other children was doing or did something wrong and she had to lecture them. ''This kind of feeling....like a mother?'' ¡°Anyway sent a friend request to everyone of us. No, tell us your name and we''ll friend you. It''ll be much quicker that way.¡± Hina said with the tone that reminded her of someone she could never see again. ¡°My name is Lyndis, a normal Elf.¡± said Lyndis remembering this feeling. Then six more messages appeared in front of her eyes.
Sain has sent you a friend request. Accept?
Miriel has sent you a friend request. Accept?
Raven has sent you a friend request. Accept?
Shadow has sent you a friend request. Accept?
Serena has sent you a friend request. Accept?
She immediately clicked the ''Yes'' option for each of them. ''Now whose who....Shadow is probably Ian since it fits him. Miriel and Serena are female names so...Grace is most likely Serena and Hina is Miriel. Raven and Sain....no idea but I bet Sain is Peter and Raven is Mark.'' Lyndis despite how she looks and acts has surprisingly good instincts for this kind of thing. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°First of all you guys know how to open your inventory right? Just say open Inventory and a window saying what you have will appear which should be 10 pieces of Rye bread and a Canteen of Water. You can refill the Canteen using a Fountain like this but you have to buy Rye Bread for 3 Copper each. Try it out.¡± said Miriel instructing us the group how to play the game. ¡°Open Inventory Window.¡± said the 5 together.
Inventory - 10 Pieces of Rye Bread - I Canteen of Water - No Money
Another window appeared in front of Lyndis'' eyes. It was different from the one she saw before as it was a list compared to just a message. Everyone looked and pointed at the window that was only visible to themselves. Sain tried taking out a Piece of Rye Bread and it appeared in Sain''s hand. ''This looks....very hard to chew'', everyone thought seeing the Rye Bread in Sain''s hand. ¡°Anyway next is the Status Window which you will see all of your stats and such. Same thing as the inventory, just say Open Status Window.¡± ¡°Open Status Window¡± said the 5 again.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Lyndis,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceElf
TitleNone
Health100
Mana100
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]9,11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]11,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]9,10[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart]
Magic Resistance5%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- Magic Affinity increase by 5 - Magic Resistance increase by 5%
¡°Okay now that you know your status window, we have to talk about distributing stats. Know that it is better to be a master of one than a master of many. However don''t let it stop you since its your character and we don''t need to be something like the strongest. Now let''s go our separate ways and find a class in these 4 weeks we have. Don''t aim for the hidden classes since they may take too much time to get and don''t just resolve yourself on being one of those common classes people get. I''ll see you guys here in 4 weeks time.¡± said Miriel before leaving the rest of the group without any instructions on what to do. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Wow! That''s chick is hot!¡± ¡°Her face seems natural and not altered as well!¡± ¡°Time to get a new ''friend''¡± Lyndis was approached by three ''strange'' men in the middle of the street. They were stomping their feet and making loud noises. Lyndis immediately backed away when they were close since they smelled really really bad as if they were rolling in a barn. ''What the hell do these losers want with me! Wait....I have to stop thinking like that else the same thing will happen again.....'' While Lyndis was conflicted due to past events the men using their awful smell pushed Lyndis back to the wall of a building. Bump~ ¡°Eh?¡± Lyndis looked wildly on a way to escape this kind of situation however there were too many of them for her to escape especially since she just made this character. ¡°Hey want to hook up with us¡± the man had only lust in his eyes as Lyndis avoided his mouth in many ways. Lyndis looked to see if any kind soul would hopefully help her. And her wish was answered. ¡°What are you people doing to that fair maiden!¡± shouted a man. From his look, he was a knight and most likely a powerful one as well since knights are known to one of the greatest classes used in war. This one was a handsome young man that was Lyndis'' type of boyfriend.....not that it really mattered right now. ¡°What''s your problem?¡± ¡°Yeah! Why are you spoiling the fun!¡± Two of the men retorted back to the brave knight. However all this did was make the knight more angry. The knight drew his sword and pointed it at the men and said in a threatening voice, ¡°Leave the Maiden alone or I will slay you all!¡± ''Oh~ He''s the straightforward type. This game is more fun than I thought'' Lyndis openly mocked her situation in her mind trusting that such a scenario as the knight failing was impossible. These kinds of things happened commonly in books and a knight or hero will always come to save the heroine. In other words Lyndis was treating this as something that was meant to happen eventually. At these words the men only laughed. Lyndis stared at the men. ''Wait until he kills you to comes to me.'' she thought knowing that she was right. ¡°Pfft! IS this guy for real?¡± ¡°This guy is a NPC for sure.¡± One of the men threw something at the knight whom caught it immediately but still pointed his blade at them. He looked at the thing that was thrown at them and looked in horror. ¡°This is...¡± Disbelief was the only thing shown on the face of the young knight who was confident on his justice. ''What the hell is on that thing that made you cower like this?!'' screamed Lyndis in her heart loud. However young knight regained his emotions from disappointment and other negative feelings to just anger and rage. ¡°TO THINK SUCH PEOPLE COULD EVER THINK THEY COULD SERVE THE EMPRIRE!!!¡± The knight charged at the men with killing intent. ¡°What the hell?!¡± ¡°This dude is crazy!¡± The men tried to avoid the knight charging at them and drew their weapons to block and counter but the knight was too fast and too precise for them. The knight at least managed to cut several of the men during one charge at them which alone proved his skills. Puck Puck Puck Suddenly the knight stood there silent and motionless. ¡°You.....Cowards.....¡± the knight looked at Lyndis and his last words were, ¡°Run......¡± before becoming a grey flame in front of her eyes. ¡°Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!¡± ''Someone screamed. Who was it? This is.....it was me so screamed? This is a game. This is a game. This is a game. The knight died. Died. Died. Died.'' Lyndis stood there shivering. A person died right in front of her eyes. The story was not going where she thought. This had to be wrong. ¡°Geez, I wake up to a scream. What kind of place lets young girls scream like that?¡± A sleazy looking man came out of the building Lyndis was backed to. His faced filled with scars did not help hide the drunken look he had right now. He was wearing some very expensive looking armour and his sword at least pretty from just the hilt. ¡°Who the hell are you?!¡± ¡°Die!¡± Two of the three immediately charged in for the kill. ¡°Lightning Blade.¡± The sleazy looking man suddenly appeared in front of Lyndis from the entrance of what seemed to be a tavern and the two men behind him fell dead while emitting what could only be described as being a lightning rod in the middle of a lightning storm. ¡°Hmm....a bit young for my taste but its fine.¡± the sleazy man examined Lyndis which gave her an even worse feeling then the three men from before. ¡°What the hell is wrong with you!¡± Lyndis slapped the man in the face. There was a bright red mark where her hand was. ¡°Ow ow ow.....¡± the man turned to the last surviving person to my left and said, ¡°And you will...? Fight? Run? Beg?¡± to him. ¡°Tch!¡± Puck Puck Puck Swing~ The three arrows attack that killed the knight was immediately slashed down by the sleazy man. ''What in the world?'' ¡°Wind blade.¡± The sleazy man swung his sword and something large and fast flew from it. BANG ¡°That''s for your snipers. Now for your punishment for waking me.¡± said the sleazy man. ¡°Shit! Don''t you know who I am?!¡± the other man shouted. ¡°No idea.¡± ¡°I am part of-¡± ¡°I don''t care¡± The sleazy man moved in and cut the other man how that man did not die immediately but looked like he was bleeding to death. The sleazy man looked down at the dying person and said, ¡°By the way you throw something similar to this at the young knight right? I believe your one of the newcomers that recently came and fooled around.¡± ¡°What are you-¡± ¡°As one...no the only senior guild, its my guild''s job to teach you a lesson if you step out of line. Congratulation, your guild shall be exiled from this region permanently.¡± ¡°Impossible you can''t do that?!¡± ¡°Yes I can. We have permission from the highest power in this continent to clean up trash on occasion.¡± The sleazy man stabbed his sword into the man lying in his own blood and killed him in one go. Lyndis could only watch what seemed to be a horror show in front of her speechless. The sleazy man looked at her and said, ¡°I presume the reason why you screamed was that it was the first time you saw someone die in front of you. Judging by your footwork you are new in this world....very new. Well if you wish to stronger than you can train under me.¡± The sleazy man actually looked respectable to Lyndis right now. ¡°COME BACK YOU DINE AND DASH¡± A voice came from the tavern. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°RUN!¡± The dine and dash man took Lyndis by the hand and dashed away like the wind. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Why the hell did you grab me?! Now I''m involved as well!¡± The two were being chased by a couple of people, most likely new players that want to get some easy money and quests. ¡°Not my fault that I save your life!¡± Lyndis and the sleazy looking man was running together since.....well the people behind them that were chasing them got the impression that Lyndis was involved with the sleazy man who decided it was a good idea to dine and dash in the middle of the day where everyone could see. ¡°I didn''t ask you to save me!¡± The two cut the corner quickly and ran through the alleyway since....people who are running away always seem to be use alleyways to run through to lose the chasers. ¡°You bloody screamed and I woke up!¡± The sleazy man started kicking bins to the chasers in an attempt them to slow them down. Several of the chasers did trip thanks to this but most of them were still chasing them and some even got up and still was motivated enough to chase the two. ¡°Why the hell were you sleeping in a tavern drinking?!¡± Lyndis kicked the Sleazy man in the leg from behind. ¡°Ow! Wait, how did you know I was drinking?¡± ¡°You breath stinks.¡± ¡°...¡± Lyndis looked away from him but still followed. Minutes later they managed to get rid of those who were chasing them. ¡°Ha...ha....ha....ha¡± Lyndis was breathing heavily after running so fast for so long. Although she wasn''t that bad in sports, Lyndis still had the body of a new character which had the minimum amount of stamina a character could get. ¡°Well them who are you?¡± asked the sleazy man. ¡°That''s my question!¡± ¡°Fine fine. I''m Ron, a Sword Priest.¡± ¡°I''m Lyndis, what''s a sword priest?¡± ¡°A priest that battles in the front lines casting spells and such along with a weapon.¡± Ron placed his hand on his sword which cut down several people not long ago. It had a gold and blue hilt colour and had strange symbols engraved on it as well. Lyndis did not know what they were or what they stood for. ¡°So Lyndis will you be my apprentice?¡±
Become Ron''s apprentice Ron has fancy you and allowed you to become his apprentice. - You will live with him until your apprenticeship finish - You will be fed food - You will be given training directly from him - Will gain the title ''Blade Dancer Apprentice''
¡°Why?¡± ¡°Why? Do you really wish to always be the damsel in distress? You look the type to have others do things for you....and is unpopular with girls as well.¡± A memory of being surrounded by people and yet was more alone than ever appeared in her mind. Her friends disappeared and she was left with strangers she did not know. ''I don''t want to be alone. Why are you going? Don''t leave me!'' ¡°Shut that!¡± she shouted at both Ron and the voice from her memories when she was still weak. ¡°Fine, I''ll do it. You can make me become stronger right?¡±
You have become the apprentice of Blade Dancer Ron
You have gained the title ''Blade Dancer Apprentice'' - Strength will increase by 1 - Agility will increase by 1 - 5% more movement speed
Ron smiled and said, ¡°Of course. I am one of the strongest swordsman in this empire.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Where are we?¡± asked Lyndis in front of what can only be described as a dump. The whole place was filled with bottles of well....alcohol and weapons. Ron went in and grabbed a set of wooden swords and another sword that was made of iron from what Lyndis could see. ¡°This place is my home....or storage place. Same difference. There is a small training area in the backyard you can use to train with these.¡± Ron threw a wooden sword to Lyndis. With her relatively good reflects she caught it though almost missed or dropped it. ¡°I need to see how bad you are in using a sword so I can improve you.¡± ''Usually people don''t say how bad but rather how good. Is he expecting me to screw up or something?'' Anyway the two went to the backyard which was....clean. There was no scrap of any kind of bottle or broken piece of glass on the ground or anywhere. ''Why is this place so clean compared to the inside of the house?'' ¡°Hey worthless princess, hurry up.¡± ¡°WHO THE HELL IS A WORTHLESS PRINCESS?!!!!¡± ''I''m going to kill him. I''m going to kill him. I''m going to kill him. I''m going to kill him. I''m going to kill him.'' ¡°Ho....what a nice killing intent. Hurry up and strike me else I might get bored worthless princess.¡± Giving into her anger towards Ron, Lyndis charged straight to Ron to hit him. As she swung the wooden sword down... ¡°Wrong¡± Whack The wooden sword that was in her hands flew out in such a way that most people would think something invisible flicked it away. ''What in the world....'' Lyndis couldn''t even see the movement of Ron as he completely counter her. Not it wasn''t something like countering her strike but rather just flicking it away. Regaining some of her cool, Lyndis picked up the wooden sword and tried again. ¡°Wrong¡± Whack Again the wooden sword in her hand flew away without her knowing what Ron did. ''This is getting frustrating.'' This time Lyndis gripped the wooden sword as hard as she could and went to strike Ron. ¡°Finally.¡± SMASH Ron in one moment slammed the wooden sword in his hand into the one in Lyndis'' with such force that she was thrown back. Bang
You have taken 50 Damage
And with just the impact from hitting the wall behind her, she lost half her health. ¡°Good! First lesson is cleared after three tries. Never let go of your weapon. It is your lifeline from now on. Anyway the only thing I can teach you for now is how to fight but that comes after having the strength to fight.¡± Ron took out a scarecrow and placed it in front of Lyndis. ¡°You will strike this thing as hard as you can over and over again. Simple stat grow but it is effective overall though many people, especially your kind hate this kind of training.¡± Lyndis suddenly remembered some people talking about this exact situation where they kept on hitting the scarecrow until they only gained one stat over 10 hours. In theory you would gain 80 stats over 4 weeks which was the equivalent to 15 levels if you only gained one per 10 hours but the stat gain was random in strength, agility, stamina and vitality so it actually may be a lot higher. However who would want to gain that amount of stats by doing the same thing over and over again for most of the day and more? ¡°What stats do I need?¡± asked Lyndis hoping that it wasn''t something like 30 or 40 in strength or agility. ¡°Hmm.....I''ll say at least 5 points in strength and agility each would be the minimum. Its not much but the purpose of this training is to make sure you''re used to using a sword even if your skills are non-existence. Plus I''ll give you a sword and new armour as a gift.¡±
Training With Ron Increase Strength and Agility by 10 each Reward: Iron Sword and New Armour Restriction: Must be done in 1 week
¡°...¡± Lyndis immediately calculated that it would take 10 hours to that. ¡°How the hell am I going to endure for 100 hours?!¡± ¡°Who said it would take 100 hours? At most it would take 50 hours if you work hard.¡± ¡°50? Not 100? Why?¡± ¡°Strength and Agility are two separate stats that grows on their own. While you swing, it''ll increase both stats at once so it can''t be that hard. According to my calculations it would, including rest and my lectures, it would take you 1 week. Plus you would gain points in stamina and vitality as well so its all fine.¡± ''No it isn''t....I have to do at least 7 hours worth of swinging per day if I wanted to finish in time.'' Lyndis almost fell into despair until Ron said, ¡°Its about time for food.¡± ¡°Food?¡± Lyndis rose from the dead in the thought of food for some reason. Well there are many reasons actually. The first was that no matter how much she ate in this game, it wouldn''t affect her weight at all. The second was that she was actually hungry and wanted to eat something. ¡°Well its some simple food recipes that I picked up from the years.¡± Lyndis looked at Ron. He looked like he was in his early 40s. It was understandable that he would know a thing or two about cooking since he was that old but Lyndis still had to check. ¡°How old are you?¡± ¡°68¡± ''Holllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!'' In actually fact Ron looked 20-30 years younger than he really did. Another feature of this game was that the characters you play as age with you though it is set so that the characters grow older 4 times slower to match up with real life. So in 10 years in real life time, her character would be 40 years older but still look the same as if she only aged 10 years. The revelation that Ron looked younger than he really was, was shocking and provided some more hope to Lyndis. ¡°Do you look younger because of your class?¡± ¡°Yeah. Sword Priest need to have a younger body to battle so we age physically slower than most people.¡± Strike Lyndis immediately started her training on the scarecrow. ''I need that class. I need that class. I need that class.'' ¡°However most classes do that al......why are you starting now? Aren''t we going to eat?¡± Ron was very puzzled on the dramatic change in motivation from Lyndis. [p=center]xXx[/p] The next day.... ¡°I don''t want to move.....muscle aches.....¡± This pitiful voice came from Lyndis after she spent a total of 10 hours swinging her sword at the scarecrow in one go. Naturally when she got +1 in strength after 3 hours she was happy enough to do another couple of hours which increased agility and stamina by +1 as well. ¡°I did tell you to not pushed yourself. However if you trained at that pace everyday you would''ve finished the training I need you to complete in 3 days.¡± Ron sighed as he got out a couple of pieces of ingredients to cook with. ¡°At least I can explain some theory to you now that you''re paying attention to me?¡± ¡°Theory?¡± Lyndis didn''t know there was a such a thing called theory for using a sword. ''Don''t people just whack and get the results? I mean, everyone knows that swordsmen are mostly idiots.'' ¡°You just thought that most swordsmen are idiots didn''t you. I can easily say that those guys are the ones who die first leaving the smart ones alive to live until my age range.¡± ''Didn''t expect him to read my mind.'' ¡°Anyway you can''t just charge in all the time. The main reason is being flanked or ambushed on the sides if you do, the second is being counter-attacked when you do attack. Because of this you need to know when to act. Also knowing how to keep your distance is also key. Too close and you can''t dodge in time, too far and you can''t attack. However the key to this is your footwork.¡± ¡°Footwork?¡± ¡°Yes. You don''t need to be overall fast but to just move in quick succession for a very short distance. If you want to run far or fast you just need stamina and training to back you up. To dodge an attack, you''ll need quick footwork, good judgement and luck.¡± ¡°Why luck? I can understand having good footwork and judgement but why luck?¡± ¡°Because sometimes things don''t turn the way you want it to be. You predict an enemy attacking from the right but you are attacked from the left instead. You go to attack and there is an enemy you don''t expect to be there and so on. Luck is actually really handy. I suggest fishing if you want to increase it plus you get some food along the way.¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Ron finished whatever he was cooking and gave it to Lyndis who was lying on the ground in pain. From the smell of the food, Lyndis immediately got energised and started eating.
You have eaten good food! Vitality will increase by 25 Stamina will increase by 15
Lyndis was honestly surprised that such a thing could come from eating good food. The cooking skill seemed to be useful....very useful. ¡°Teach me how to cook!¡± demanded Lyndis with a determined gaze from her eyes. ¡°Maybe later. You still can''t move your body well even though you rested right? I don''t want you to lose a limb if you ever decide to use a sword as a kitchen knife. It would be a pain to reattach it and its really painful as well.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Have you ever tried to use a sword as a kitchen knife?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Not telling.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Wait, why do I have to help you get food?¡± demanded Lyndis. Moments ago Ron asked Lyndis to tag with him to get some ingredients for the next couple of days. ¡°Well usually I eat alone so the amount of ingredients I get is for one person. But you came here and all the food is gone! I still can''t believe how much food you can eat....¡± *Glare* ¡°Anyway....there''s a limit I can carry on hand at a time and plus we''re both hungry and you don''t want to miss out on some food when you can right? Plus this will help increase strength and agility as well so it will be a good experience for you.¡± With those words convincing her, Lyndis eventually tagged along with Ron in buying the ingredients for food. However Lyndis noticed that something was wrong. There were....people staring at them for some strange reason and it was not the look of curiosity. It was the look of observation. ¡°Ron...¡± ¡°Don''t look, keep on walking. I''ll signal you later.¡± And so they went into the shop and brought enough for the two of them to carry at once. And when they got out they were met by 5 men in dark clothes. ¡°This time you will give us back out money!¡± Ron turned to Lyndis and shouted, ¡°Run!¡± before sprinting away. Stunned for a second and then looking at the expressions of the men, Lyndis sprinted to Ron carrying the food that would last them a week on her. ¡°Who the hell are those guys?!¡± ¡°My Debt Collectors!¡± ¡°You collect debt?¡± ¡°No! They''re the ones who wants to collect debt from me!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Damn I met the wrong Master!¡± Eventually the two got away and Lyndis gained +1 agility and stamina during this chase. But she wasn''t that happy to get them. [p=center]xXx[/p] 1 Week later...
You gained 1 Agility
You have completed the Quest ¡°Training with Ron¡± Collect Reward from Ron
¡°Ron I''m done with this training!¡± shouted Lyndis, loud enough that Ron would hear her. Lyndis stopped hitting the scarecrow as Ron came to see what was happening since Lyndis called him. Seeing that Lyndis stopped her training again most likely due to the fact that she was tired again and didn''t want to go on, he sighed....again. ¡°Did you stop again? How many times have I told you that you must keep in going if you want to progress in my lessons¡± Lyndis was really annoyed hearing this. It wasn''t her fault that hitting a scarecrow everyday over a week was extremely boring to the point that she just wanted to lie on the ground resting. ''Does he know how bored I was during this week? Barely any explanation and the only worth thing I found was that he knew how to cooks some good food.'' Lyndis decided that she had enough and the great thing was that she actually finished, ¡°But I finished gaining the stats.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Ron was a bit shocked because gaining those stats in a week was hard enough. Even though stats may increase at a moderate rate in the beginning, it progressively gets harder as time passes since the stat growth dramatically decrease. ¡°Here, I''ll show you.¡±
[quart=Name,Alignment]Lyndis,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,None[/quart]
Status Window
RaceElf
TitleNone
Health140
Mana105
[quart=Fame,Infamy]0,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]19 +1,21 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]11,10[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]12,15[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0,0[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart]
Magic Resistance5%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- Magic Affinity increase by 5 - Magic Resistance increase by 5% - Strength and Agility +1 - 5% more movement speed
¡°....You actually did it. I''m surprised considering your personality.¡± ¡°Well I can''t always be powerless. Plus I know a couple of people who will be very sad if I didn''t amounted to something by a month''s time.¡± ¡°Anyway since you finished this, I''ll give you iron sword...and for the armour I think you would like this.¡± Ron handed over the iron sword that wasn''t anything special since it was ones you would see in weapon stores. Then he took out the new armour for Lyndis. While it was definitely leather armour, it had some strange design on them as if all the parts of the armour flowed in one direction all around it. Lyndis checked the armour before changing in the house away from the eyes of Ron whom said, ¡°Well I understand you are a girl but I''m not a paedophile!¡± on her remarks on how he was gazing at her.
Iron Sword Durability: 30/30 Damage: 5-7 Standard Iron sword
Stylish Leather Armour Set Durability: 50/50 Defence: 25 A Leather Armour set that had been modified to look better in style. While it looks better, some durability and defence were sacrificed in exchange. Options: - Agility +1 - Charm +5
''Charm? Isn''t that a stat for dancers and the likes? I think there was something about how stats don''t affect you if you don''t have them.....yeah it was something like that.'' While the charm stat was common enough that people knew about its effects, not many people had increased that stat high besides classes that require that stat. The charm stat had various effects but the most well known one was that it enchanted the person''s looks. Many people who had high leadership also had the charm stat which helped them order their troops. Not many people would want to be of service to a ugly person. When Lyndis came out the house dressed, Ron was already waiting for her and lead her to where the next step in training would be. ¡°Where are we going?¡± Lyndis looked around to find herself in an unknown part of town. It was more damped and had more trees than the rest of the city. ¡°To a larger place so I can teach you some techniques for being a sword priest.¡± Ron turned left of the street and passed by a couple of strange shops as he lead Lyndis. ¡°Then why don''t you give me the class first then?¡± Normally you would get some skills when you gain or transfer a class. However there were some rarer cases where you have to clear a condition or have a certain skill or complete a special quest in order to get the class. Those kind of classes were referred to as Hidden classes. ¡°I can''t. There are a couple of requirements first. I''ll tell you about them later.¡± From this conversation, Lyndis more or less knew that the Sword Priest class was most likely a hidden class. She wondered what kind of skill was required to get the class. As Lyndis was thinking this, she saw a small petite looking girl in dark clothes. She approached them and said, ¡°Its been a while Ron...this is?¡± ¡°?¡± Lyndis was confused of the words of this young girl. Was Ron a pedophile as she thought? ¡°My apprentice.¡± The young girl nodded and said, ¡°I got one as well a while ago.¡± ¡°Oh? Another one? So how long until this ones runs away as well?¡± taunted Ron. The girl frowned in a cute way and said, ¡°This one cleared the first test in 5 days and stayed!¡± in such a way that Lyndis endured the agony of not hugging her right now. But she also had another question. ¡°Who are you? And what''s your age?¡± asked Lyndis as if she was talking a child. ¡°? I''m Anna, age 26¡± ''You got to be fucking with me?! This isn''t a some sort of anime/manga/novel that have adults look like 10 year old kids!'' Lyndis was shocked. She knew that there were some rare cases of walking cuteness even when they''re an adult but she did not expect to see one right now though it is a NPC so someone in Unicorn had such a view. (Not that Lyndis was blaming that person) However Lyndis stayed put and endured when she and Anna would be alone and....*censor* Minutes later they were at the new training place which Lyndis would train at, it was a large area with a large amount of trees that were larger than some houses. There was also a lot of junk lying around as well for some strange reason. Lyndis looked up to find a certain person on pieces of junk. It was Shadow. It seemed like he was the apprentice of this walking piece of cute. ¡°Hey! Its been a while!¡± Lyndis shouted at him. Shadow responding to this got down and walked to the three while staring at Ron....a lot. ''Was he that kind of person...?'' ¡°Hey don''t stare to much~¡± in an odd fashion. The voice that came out was a lot higher pitch then it originally was and he was making some weird actions as well. Ignoring this horrible site, Anna introduced him, ¡°This person is named Ron. He''s a....magic swordsman?¡± Anna looked really cute as she turned the statement into a question. Sighing Ron said, ¡°How many times do I have to say it. I''m a Sword Priest.¡± ¡°Priest do not use elemental magic¡± argued Anna. ¡°Priests did use them before.¡± retorted Ron. ¡°That was hundreds of years ago.¡± As the two argued on the whether priests can use elemental magic, Shadow and Lyndis entered their own conversation. ¡°So where have you been for the last week. According to Anna you''ll been somewhere in the first 5 days.¡± Lyndis remembered the conversation that took place a couple of minutes ago. ¡°I was going through a dark corridor with no light and filled with traps that may kill me in one shot. It took me 5 days to get through it safely though I had a couple close calls.¡± ''That sounds horrible....no wonder why the rest ran away.'' ¡°...¡± ''But its still better than what I had to suffer through.'' Lyndis sighed and said, ¡°At least you were alone to do what you want. Ron here was disturbing all kinds of things and at one point we were running from his debtors. I got more done on my own then with him.¡± ¡°That''s not a nice thing to say to your Master.¡± Lyndis looked at Ron with puffed with cheeks and retorted, ¡°Its the truth though.¡± ¡°Anyway, why are you two here?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°To train and run away from the debtors among other things.¡± replied Anna. ¡°Other things?¡± Shadow was confused ¡°Nothing important¡± answered Ron immediately. ¡°Royal Knights for trying to flirt with a princess, Mercenaries for running naked in their guild, Tailor Guild for trying to model naked, Blacksmith Guild for stealing some weapons, Information Guild for putting in false information, Farmers for promising to marry their daughters and run during the wedding and so on.¡± said Anna nonchalantly. ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°...¡± ''I met the wrong master.'' Shadow and Lyndis inched further away from Ron after this with him knowing as a tear fell from his eyes from sadness. ¡°This person is a criminal.¡± said Anna which was the nail on the tomb. Ron started sobbing on the ground as he muttered something about repenting and how women don''t go near him anymore. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Okay now, the condition on becoming a Sword Priest is simple. Learn how to use an element. It can be any kind of element but make sure you use one since it would be better early on.¡± ¡°Then....you can use lightning and wind?¡± Lyndis remembered a week ago where he completely dominated a small group of people on his own without taking a hit. ¡°Yes I can.¡± Ron was a bit proud that Lyndis remembered that event, ¡°Okay decide which element you want and I''ll teach you it.¡± With those words Lyndis immediately ran to Shadow who wasn''t doing anything important right now, leaving Ron alone. When she reached Shadow she immediately asked, ¡°According to Ron, it is best that I choose one element to use along with my sword. Which one do you think is best for me?¡± ¡°Fire.¡± ''That was fast....I wonder what''s is reason is.'' ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because it perfectly represents your outgoing personality that people get along with.¡± he said with a straight face. Lyndis almost blushed when hearing these words though she a long time ago a number of people said such words to her. ¡°Thanks, I''ll tell Ron.¡± Lyndis ran off back to Ron who was with Anna for some reason. ¡°Shadow come here¡± said Anna whom just walked up to Shadow and dragged him away in a dark corner where she couldn''t see them at all. Ron looked at Lyndis and said, ¡°So you chose fire. Not exactly the most effective later on but it''ll do for now. Hold out your hand.¡± Lyndis held out her hand which Ron grabbed and stabbed something into. ¡°Ouch!¡±
Element of Fire has been REPLACEed - Fire Affinity increase by 5 - Fire Resistance increase by 10% - Ice Resistance decrease by 10% - Intelligence increases by 4 - Wisdom increases by 3
You have gained the Skill Fire Manipulation Mastery
Lyndis looked at the message in front of her with wonder. Something like this was unheard of or just rare enough that the common person in the world would not notice such a thing. ¡°Okay now...I can finally give you this class of mind.¡± You have been offered the class ''Sword Priest''. Do you accepted? An Ancient type of Priest that battled on the front-line and were skilled with Swordsmanship and Magic. While not processing the best defence, they make up for it with their overwhelming offensive power with speed and magic combined. ¡°Yes!¡± Lyndis said excitingly.
Your Class has been changed to ¡°Sword Priest¡± Strength +5 Agility +5 Intelligence +10
Lyndis didn''t have time to check her Status window when Ron said, ¡°Time for training. You should''ve gotten the skill Fire Manipulation Mastery.¡± Lyndis nodded. ¡°Good. Now create a bit of fire in your hand, just focus it....or imagine a small ball of fire in your hand.¡± Lyndis did just that and eventually after a hour of just standing there doing the same thing, a small fireball appeared in her hand. You have generated the skill Pocket Fireball ¡°Pocket.....Fireball? What the hell is that?¡± Lyndis checked the skill along with Fire Manipulation Mastery.
Fire Manipulation Mastery Beginner Level 1 (3/100) The ability to use fire and all shape and form. New methods of using fire will generate a new skill. Fire Damage Increase: 10% Fire Control Increase: 3%
Pocket Fireball Beginner level 1 (0/100) A small size fireball used for lighting or distraction due to its cheap use and low power Mana Cost: 5 Cool Down: 10 Seconds
¡°Oh! You finally managed to make one....I almost fell asleep a second there.¡± Ron looked around sheepishly since he had been sleeping though Lyndis did not want to admit that her slow progress caused him to fall asleep. ¡°Anyway try covering the sword with Fire. Don''t worry the sword won''t melt with your fire.¡± said Ron before going to sleep again. Lyndis created an image of the sword being on fire however like before it didn''t happen immediately. However this time there was some fire, it just didn''t sustain itself and was only a tiny bit before fading away. Lyndis spent hours on this one thing until suddenly fire burst from everywhere around her sword in a brilliant light. You have Generated the Skill Fire Blade
Fire Blade Beginner level 1 (0/100) Covers and Combines your sword with the Element Fire. At this stage your strikes will dealt as 30% Fire Damage Fire Fusion: 30% Mana Cost: 5 per Second
¡°Wow....¡± Just as she was admiring her skills, a person''s scream filled the area. ¡°Hot hot hot hot! Who the hell lit me on fire?!¡± Lyndis looked around her to find that the whole place around her was filled with fire. It was the middle of the night and it was apparent that there was a fire in this place. ¡°Lyndis! Is this your work?!¡± shouted Ron using the dirt on the ground to put the fire out from his body. After that he looked around sighing. ¡°Water Spring!¡± Ron plunged his sword into the ground and a great amount of water emerged out of nowhere putting the vast fire that Lyndis caused out. ¡°Lyndis....remember to restrain yourself. Your fire is a mirror image of yourself so it won''t hurt you. It will however hurt other people around you if your not careful and you will end up alone if that happens.¡± scolded Ron. Lyndis remembered how she was fine for the first portion of her school life then suddenly was alone after a short while. People did not speak to her. People ignored her. People denied her whole existence. Therefore they should be denied as well. On that day, the school burnt down and no one suspected her, the one that didn''t exist. The blame was quickly placed around everyone else and the matter was resolved as an accident and everyone''s ''friendship'' was permanently broken. ¡°...¡± Lyndis tried her best to forget that day as she restarted her life at a new school later that week. [p=center]xXx[/p] Another one and a half weeks passed by and another person appeared whom she knew. Although she didn''t like that person, she knew that she had to cooperate with her one day though it didn''t have to be today. ''Why do I have to see her?'' thought Lyndis staring at the purple robed person. That person of course was no other than Miriel whom openly humiliated Lyndis in the real world taking away her chance of leading the group. ¡°So what kind of class have you obtained?¡± asked Miriel to Lyndis. Lyndis ignored the fact that Miriel had no shred of respect in her tone and replied, ¡°Something similar to magic swordsman. According to my Master I can focus on one element to increase my power so I''ll choose fire since it has the most power and range. What about you?¡± replying in a similar fashion. ¡°Support type mage. I focus on illusion and sound based magic. I can enchant your stats among other things.¡± After this Miriel decided to look around confused. ¡°Where''s Shadow?¡± ¡°Right Here.¡± Shadow answered honestly. ''Holllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!!!'' Lyndis almost attacked Shadow since he appeared out of nowhere. However when she saw Miriel with an even more entertaining look, she almost broke down laughing on the ground. ¡°You.....don''t do that again.....¡± ¡°Don''t bother. I''ve been telling him that for 2 weeks and nothing changed. Well at least he''s a good assassin.¡± said Lyndis who finally regained her calm enough to talk over laughing at Miriel. ¡°I am a Rouge not an assassin.¡± ¡°An assassin specialise in killing people and have high damage along with some other skills to back them up. A thief specialise in stealing stuff and not battles and rather run away when confronted with enemies. A rouge is both of them, specialising in neither but both at the same time.¡± said Miriel. ''Ho...is that the difference? Well its still similar right?'' ¡°Correct.¡± Shadow for some reason looked pleased at the fact that Miriel knew what the difference was. However Lyndis remembered when Shadow actually asked Anna what the difference was a while back. ¡°Anyway I wanted to know what you two could do but that''s Sain''s job not mine.¡± said Miriel. ''Then why did you ask in the first place?'' ¡°Then why are you here?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°I test out my spells.¡± Miriel raised her hands and said, ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± A soft sound echoed throughout the area and a gentle light surrounded Miriel, Lyndis and Shadow.
Melody of Speed is Active: - 12% more agility - Last 10 Minutes
''Oh, this is kinda interesting. More speed for me....wait does this mean she''s supporting everyone at once with the spell? Awesome!'' ¡°Wow! I can''t believe you got something like this up your sleeves!¡± exclaimed Lyndis in shock. Miriel then went to one of the target practised place and shot out Mana Bolts at them leaving Shadow and Lyndis together though Lyndis had a feeling that Miriel could not see Shadow for some reason which was very worrying for him but not Lyndis. ¡°Aren''t you a Sword Priest?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Wow! Where did you come from?!¡± she exclaimed in shock. ¡°...¡± ¡°That was a joke. I knew you were there. Anyway being a Sword Priest and Magic Swordsman is really similar so I just use the latter since its much easier than explaining what a Sword Priest is¡± she answered seriously. ¡°I see.¡± Shadow disappeared from Lyndis'' sight and she went on with her own training. [p=center]xXx[/p] Some time later.... Lyndis was cutting up ingredients and cooking them in a big pot filled with water. She intended to make soup out of these ingredients under the guidance of Ron. Eventually a certain message appeared that made Lyndis a bit happy.
You have generated the skill Cooking
[p=center]xXx[/p] Another three days later another person Lyndis knew popped up at the training site. It was Sain and an unknown man that looked the same age as Ron but...looks are deceptive to this lot as Lyndis found. WHACK ''What was that?'' Lyndis heard a loud noise and something happened when she was not looking. She really wanted to look but the fact that they should be concentrating on their training in front of their masters is the most important thing right now. ¡°It has been a while you two. Again Anna, you don''t have to attack me every time I enter this place.¡± said the man. ¡°So this is the new apprentice that you''re so proud of. Anyway the elf girl whose breaking those targets is my apprentice while the other one is the new apprentice of Anna whose do those jumps and such¡± said Ron. Lyndis completely ignored him and continued trying to fuse her fire with her sword which proved really hard when you''re trying not to burn the whole place down! ¡°Hey you two!¡± shouted Sain. Lyndis immediately turned around when she heard his voice. She did not know why but his voice....made her feel weird. Feeling....happy? She ran up to Sain and said, ¡°Yo! How''s it been!¡± Lyndis hugged Sain. The sight of Sain blushing due to her hug was enjoyable to Lyndis at least. However it still did not compare to the sheer cuteness of Anna who was angry at the sight of the unknown man here. ¡°It''s been a good 3 weeks. Although it seems like I''m the last one to make even some progress in skills.¡± said Sain mockingly. Gen whacked Sain in the head and said, ¡°I told you that learning skills was the last part of your training. Anyway let me give you some skills first before you start your reunion with another girl¡± Gen winked at Sain. ''Another....girl? Wait....isn''t that just Serena and Miriel then? Meh...'' The man whom Lyndis soon found out as Gen left to talk with Anna and Ron on his own leaving Sain, Shadow and herself to talk amongst themselves for a while. ¡°Anyway what have you two been doing for the last three weeks?¡± Sain asked. Long story short I met Ron, became his apprentices like everyone else did with their Master and started my training as a Magic-Swordsman. Basically you combine both into one and my class is that. I''m training to bring both strength and intelligence up.¡± Lyndis answered kinda ignoring the fact that Shadow was there. ¡°Like Lyndis, I met my Master and started my training after she saw that I had potential for it. She more or less made me into a rouge which is the middle ground between a thief and assassin. I''m currently training to improve my agility and such.¡± answered Shadow making sure not to pour too much information into Sain''s head at once. ¡°Well the first week I have been learning all about tactics and the other things I need to know. Then the following two weeks I drilled in the same place as Raven to improve my physical abilities and now I''m going to learn all about how to use my skills.¡± Sain said quickly. ¡°Sain! You finished yet?! I only have a week to teach you all you need to know now, so get here!¡± shouted Gen. Although a bit reluctant, Sain made his way to Gen who was setting up some target leaving Shadow and Lyndis back to their training. ''I really don''t like the feeling that I get from that Gen man...'' ¡°I feel that Sain could be corrupted by that man¡± said Lyndis all of a sudden. ¡°I agree. The Gen person isn''t liked much isn''t he.....¡± ¡°I wonder what happened in the past.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Another week passed and it was finally time to graduate from being an apprentice to Ron. ¡°You have done...well in the last 4 weeks. I am glade that at least one person has inherited my skills, though a bit lacking at time...¡± Stare.... ¡°Right! You graduate, done!¡±
You have Graduated from being the Apprentice of Ron the Blade Dancer Fame +10 Due to the unwillingness of Ron to grant you more rewards than this, a total of 2 level ups have not been given to you
You have lost the title ''Blade Dancer Apprentice''. All Bonuses from the title will be removed
You have gained the title ''Blade Dancer'' - All Stats increase by 1 - 10% more movement speed.
¡°Open Status Window.¡±
[quart=Name,Alignment]Lyndis,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]1,Sword Priest[/quart]
Status Window
RaceElf
TitleBlade Dancer
Health200
Mana155
[quart=Fame,Infamy]10,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]21 +1,25 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]17 +4,12 +4[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]14 +1,18 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +1,2 +1[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,10[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]10%,-10%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,5%[/quart]
Magic Resistance5%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- Magic Affinity increase by 5 - Magic Resistance increase by 5% - All Stats +1 - 10% more movement speed - Fire Affinity increase by 5 - Intelligence increases by 4 - Wisdom increases by 3
Skill Window - Sword Mastery Beginner 2 (89/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 1 (66/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 1 (13/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 1 (91/100) - Fire Blade Beginner level 1 (73/100)
Lyndis made sure she had everything she needed and left as Ron was about to take a nap when Anna knee him while dropping from a tree. Unknown to her, Ron had planted something into her as an experiment.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 10200~ - The last of the six training chapters for all of the main characters. - To be honest, at first Lyndis was the least liked character in my mind then I continued to write and she somehow became similar to Eden in some ways. The same was with Ron as well since I made him look respectable at first and then immediately made him humorously disappointing which was fun to write. - Lyndis was originally suppose to by the typical swordsman but then I wanted to add in magic as well but didn''t want to call her a magic swordsman. So I created the Sword priest which is more or less the same thing but is stronger and weaker in certain ways. - As a warning, the next chapters may represent the characters in different ways compared to the first 6 chapters. This is because there was a large, several months break from working on this series and most of the things I wanted to do disappeared from my mind. Due to this, some of the characters may not be in ''character'' and seem emotionless or one dimensional side characters at times. I''m trying to work on this issue in volume 2 here... Vol.1 Chapter 7 - Defeat and Victory By the time Sain actually made it to the city gate, the others had already gathered before him. Sain smiled at this since it seems everyone was at least enthusiastic to actually start their journey. Of course Sain also thought about the task that they had been given as the condition. ''We can do that task after we level up a bit. I heard that the outside world is a lot worse than people normally think. I say a person is relatively safe while travelling when they reach the level 200 mark. But before that...I need to think about this current situation.'' ¡°So, how were you guys?¡± Sain asked. ¡°Good¡± ¡°No bad¡± Miriel and Lyndis answered immediately at the same time. Before Sain realised it, Miriel and Lyndis were already glaring at each other. Sain sighed at this sight once again. ''Can''t they get along? Well I hope they don''t try to kill each other out there.'' Unlike inside the city, the outside world had nearly no laws at all. It is said that you could ''kill'' a person and the guards would be bat an eye. With some more chatting, the 6 entered the first step of their journey. What they saw was not pretty. ¡°Ahhhhhh, help me!¡± ¡°No! Get the fuck away from me!¡± ¡°Its eating me! Eating meeeeeeee!¡± The 6 stood there silent in shock. ¡°....¡± Rabbits and foxes were dominating the players. Those fluffy harmless creatures in the real world was turned into killing machines in the game. In actual fact it was a known fact that rabbits and general the harmless creatures of this game was a lot stronger than of the real world and could easily take on new players that have not train their skills properly before going out. Naturally there was also the difference between those who have experienced any kind of training and those who have not. Those who trained are more likely not to be taken down so easily though even they will be killed when faced against wolves and the stronger monsters near the beginner area. However Sain was not focusing on those bits but looking at the higher levelled players that casually walked through the forest with the low level mobs backing away from them. ''So mobs will only attack those who are as strong or weaker than them'' he thought standing with the others. As expected the one who broke the silence was Lyndis who was always seeking action first then questions later. ¡°Let''s go hunt!¡± she said with lots of spirits. To this the others even Miriel could not help but to smile. But then Miriel decided to explain some things to the others as they seek their first prey in this game. Lyndis looked annoyed but still listened closely. ¡°The beginner area is the easily place to gain experience and levels. The weakest mobs are the rabbits, then the foxes and finally the wolves that are deeper into the forest. Rabbits are at most around level 1 or 2 while foxes are level 3 to 4. Wolves however vary in level and can come from level 5 to 20. Naturally seeking wolves immediately will be our deaths. Plus there are other things to consider as well when hunting together¡± Miriel looked particularly to Lyndis when she said this last line. To this Lyndis said, ¡°I got it! I won''t rush head on.¡± She at least learnt to not rush things else she might end up with no stamina and get eaten in the forest alone and helpless. Miriel nodded and continued, ¡°I don''t know how everyone can fight. From looks alone 4 of us can go into melee while me and Serena can''t. We need to know some basic details. I''ll start off first. I''m a support magician at level 4.¡± Next was Serena although Lyndis seemed nervous for some reason, ¡°I''m a Druid at level 4 as well.¡± With these words Lyndis really looked more nervous now. Sain wondered if she was feeling sick for some reason. Well considering what is happening on the other side of the gate right now...it''s normal to get sick in these situations. It was Raven''s turn now, ¡°Shield Footman, Level 3.¡± Then Shadow, ¡°Rogue, Level 3.¡± And it was Sain''s turn since Lyndis seems to want to go last for some reason, ¡°Shaman Level 3.¡± Everyone then looked to Lyndis since she was the last one. ¡°Sword Priest....Level 1¡± she said in a soft voice very reluctant to say them. No one spoke since they all knew what was going on in Lyndis''s mind. While everyone else gained levels through various means, only Lyndis was stuck at level 1. It was not someone that you could be ashamed from but not something you can praise at the same time. But unexpectedly it was Miriel who once again encourages Lyndis which was more like the Devil being kind before taking something important away. ¡°Sword Priest....never heard of that class so it''s a hidden class?¡± Miriel pondered in such a voice that it seems like she was amazed. Shadow and Raven immediately picked up her intentions but did not want to play along. Serena stood that silent since it was more likely she would screw something up and Sain....though Miriel was going doing this of good will. ''That''s strange...according to master, Lyndis should have studied under the same system as the rest of us and would have gained 2 levels at the end. Did something happen or did her master restrict something? Better not ask since it''s a private issue. Plus one or two levels difference will be gone soon anyway'' thought Miriel to this fact that Lyndis was still at level 1. ''Miriel is becoming friendlier to Lyndis now. Perhaps they can be good friends later!'' such were the innocent thoughts of Sain. But it could not be further from the truth. ''If I tame her now, things will be easier for me later'' thought Miriel who complimenting Lyndis. Naturally Lyndis being the same as Sain did not notice this and her thoughts and behaviour to Miriel whom she once thought as the enemy turned 180 degrees. At that moment when Lyndis was ''tamed'' by Miriel, three particular people thought to themselves, ''I better not get on her bad side from now on'' while two particular people thought, ''Miriel is really trying to be friends here.'' Nevertheless the group decided it was best that Lyndis would have to level up a bit more in order to be more useful for the benefit of the group which were Miriel''s words filled with thorns in them. As such they decided to hunt the most basic mob, the rabbit first as a safety measure. Walking to a more isolated area, there were a few rabbits here and there but there were also some foxes as well which was a nice surprise to the group. The reason being was that most beginner hunting grounds were filled with too many players and as such it was very difficult for beginners to level up even though they know what to do. Under Sain''s instructions, the group was split into 3 rows. Raven and Lyndis were the tanks and stood at the front line. Miriel and Serene who were support went to the back row. And Shadow and Sain himself were at the middle row and would change whichever place they want when the situation arose. Shadow didn''t have the highest agility of the group despite being the scout member but had the largest amount of skills to use in various situations which were more useful than stats alone. Sain on the other hand who actually had the highest agility of the group and was also a magic user as well only had magic spells to use in combat and was in fact the least useful person so far. While he could fight in close combat, he was not that suited to it and was more as a support like Miriel than anything else. ¡°Right, I''m going to lure a rabbit first then¡± said Sain chanting the spell to summon a weak familiar, ¡°Summon Familiar!¡± With those words, blue light shone in front of him as a magic circle was constructed using his magic and a transparent being was formed I front of him. As this was literally the first time Sain used this skill, he did not know what was going to be summoned. ¡°Croak Croak¡± ¡°....¡± Sain and the other did not expect the summon to be a frog of all things. Because of this, Sain lost a quarter of his full mana which would take several minutes with mediation to recharge. However the group was not going to wait until that happened. As such Sain ordered the frog immediately not expecting much from it. ¡°Lure in some rabbits¡± The frog looked at it''s master and hopped away doing that and no more than half a minute passed as 4 rabbits chased it back to the group. ¡°Battle Positions!¡± shouted Sain taking up his spear in his hand. Doing it''s duty the summoned frog disappeared without a trace as the rabbits killed it. The sharp fangs of the rabbits were frightening to beginners. However it was just bad luck that this group all experienced hardship one way or other in their first 4 weeks as well as in their past. ¡°Double Strike!¡± as the tank, Raven moved in first and stabbed one rabbit twice though barely missing with his second shot due to another rabbit attacking him. He moved back and allowed the others to attack as well. At the same time Sain and Miriel attacked using their magic at the injured rabbit. ¡°¡°Mana Bolt!¡±¡± A total of 6 bolts of mana went and pierced the wounded rabbit and killed it although it was almost dead due to Raven already. Not wanting to be left behind more than ever, Lyndis moved in to attack a rabbit by herself. Using her sword, she easily sliced one of the rabbits in half killing it instantly. The last two rabbits reacted and attack Lyndis at the same time and the others couldn''t cast spells in time to help her. ¡°Backstab.¡± From the beginning Shadow disappeared and then went around the group of rabbits to attack from behind. His dagger went into the rabbit''s back and killed it. However the last rabbit still remained and was about to hit Lyndis. ¡°Pocket Fireball!¡± From Lyndis'' hand, a small fireball appeared and burst in front of the rabbit about to attack her and it retreated. Raven took this chance to stab the rabbit killing it as well. Then as the battle finished, Sain noticed that several small messages that were much smaller than the normal windows that game had appeared at the bottom left of his sight. He moved his finger to check it and a large list of things appeared in his sight. While he could see the health of his comrades by looking at them, the messages that appeared involved the battle itself and had details on how much experience each person got as well as what they looted and if they took damage, how much they took. ''This is....quite useful isn''t it?'' thought Sain though he clearly did not understand the clear significance of such a skill which was called Party Scan. Royal Road was realistic and therefore didn''t allow people to see each other''s health or the monsters as well and any other thing such as stealing or looting normally. But with this, most of the ''restrictions'' placed by the game disappeared. From what Sain could tell, everyone but Lyndis gained around 5% worth of experience due to the rabbits low levels. Lyndis however gained a total of 15% instead and would level up in another few battles if they hunted foxes instead. The battle ability of the party was clearly higher than most beginners. Because of this, Sain suggested that they would hunt foxes. ¡°If we hunt foxes which are only a bit stronger than rabbits then we will make more progress in levelling up. Lyndis will get the most benefits here since she has the lowest level.¡± The other agreed quickly and went to find some foxes almost immediately since they went deeper into the forest area. [p=center]xXx[/p]
You took 30 damage
Raven just got that message in his face as the 3 foxes were hitting his shield as he moved backwards to reduce the damage he took. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡±
You will regenerate 125 Health over 100 seconds.
Immediately Serena healed Raven with her weak regeneration spell. Although it was not as powerful as the straight up healing methods of clerics, it was useful in the long run in the battle as it was low costs and had low power but in the end healed more than other spells at the same level in the end. From what Raven knew Sain''s minor heal which was still a level below a cleric''s ''healing hand'' only healed 50 health at a time. ¡°Shield Bash!¡± Raven smashed his shield into the faces of the foxes that were attacking him stunning them for a bit while pushing them back. There were only 5 foxes in total with 3 of them attacking Raven since he taunted them drawing aggravation to himself as the tank. Another fox was being taken care of my Lyndis who needed to learn how to tank as well while the last was being taken care of my Sain who had the most health after Raven though it was only half of which he had. After a few seconds, the foxes recovered from the effects of shield bash and started attacking him again. ¡°Double Strike.¡± Shadow appeared behind the foxed once again attacking them. He hit one fox and injured it before running away to help with Lyndis or Sain with their own foxes. This method was devised by Sain as Miriel would help Lyndis deal with her fox and then the three of them would take care of Sain''s fox while Shadow alternated helping each of the three in order to not draw aggravation towards himself. Finally when the rest was done, everyone would gang up on the three foxes Raven was taking care of. ''I can at least kill one of these foxes'' though Raven increasing his speed for a bit attacking the foxes once again. Raven alternated between defending and attacking in order to decrease the amount of damage he would take. Naturally the foxes may sometimes go behind him away from the shield to attack him there but he would often retreat back which made this difficult for the foxes. ¡°Footwork! Double Strike!¡± 30 mana was consumed out of his 140 mana as he sprinted forward and felt two hits to a fox.
Critical Hit!
You have levelled up!
While he levelled up just then, he did not focus on that at all but to retreat since the two foxes had him surrounded just now due to his sprint in to kill one of their comrades. But then... ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± 3 blue mana bolts hit one of the foxes. ¡°Fire Blade!¡± Lyndis appeared cutting down one of the foxes in a series of slashes. Raven moved against the last fox and killed it as well while Sain and Serena healed the party to full health at the end of the battle. During the series of multiple battles that increased in difficulties as the party ventured deeper in the forest area, they levelled up a few times. Raven was at level 5 now along with Sain and Shadow. Miriel and Serena levelled up to level 5 and was close to level 6. Lyndis on the other hand was already at level 4 due to everyone letting her have the final hit on enemies a few times intentionally. Because of this, the average level of the party increased to around 5. However it seems Lyndis level will be a bit lower than everyone''s elses unless she does individuals hunting afterwards which is too dangerous of beginners like the party right now no matter how good their stats are. [p=center]xXx[/p] At the next battle which was on the same level as the previous battle which was 5 foxes attacking the party after Sain gave orders to his familiar to lure in monsters, the party once again used the same strategy against them. Once more Raven took 3 foxes to himself while Lyndis and Sain took one each with everyone else supporting. It was at this point that Shadow was using stealth which unfortunately to him came naturally to sneak behind the foxes even during battle to deal critical damage to them. ''How is it that these foxes still not notice me even though I attacked them in so many ways like this?'' wondered Shadow in his thought. Due to his nature, even his party has some trouble even now on determining where he was. The only one who was the closest to spotting him was Sain who had to observe everyone evenly while fighting a fox at the same time. Due to the party levelling up from before, they had a lot easier time against the foxes now with most of the party having high enough agility to hit the foxes well enough and could retreat when they can. Naturally due to Shadow being the one sneaking around, he was somewhat proud to say that he was never hit once so far. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow leaped from the top of a branch from a tree he climbed just then and stabbed the fox in front of Lyndis using the force of the drop to increase damage.
Critical Hit!
Shadow dismissed this message since he was already bored of them with only half a day worth of hunting with the others. The majority of his attacks were critical hits since he was attacking small creature which meant hitting something important was easy enough as long as he hit. At time during the beginning of the hunt, he often missed which embrassed him greatly and through that he quickly learnt how to strike reacting to live movement. At this point, the others were just able ready to finish things off with Raven slaying a fox and the others teaming up on the other fox with Sain. Shadow sneaked his way to one of the foxes near Raven and attacked. ¡°Backstab!¡±
Critical Hit!
The fox flashed grey as it died. Raven quickly killed the last fox as well finishing this battle even more easily than the last. Because of this the party rested for a bit discussing what they were to do next. ¡°Right now Lyndis almost to level 5 while Miriel and Serena are almost at level 6. Hunting foxes is too slow right now even though we hunted for only half a day¡± said Sain plainly. If other players heard what he said, they would find it ridiculous since even at level 5, foxes were the main experience source since wolves were much more powerful and larger as well which gave the psychological fear in which decided whether players were able to fight or not in this game. Rabbits and foxes were small creatures and therefore as long as they weren''t ripping your face off, they were fine. However wolves were almost the same size as humans and in only got stronger as it grew. Their battle power increased with this and with great speed and power, many beginners even if they were level 10 would fall quickly to wolves even in parties. However this was all considering the equipment beginners had. Most of them left the safe city to hunt with a crude weak sword that barely did more damage then their fists. They would often form parties with strangers and lacked teamwork as well and would often rush in too fast or retreat when danger comes leaving other players behind to die. But considering the Sain, Shadow, Miriel, Raven, Serena and Lyndis knew each other somewhat in real life and had to cooperate, they were less likely than other beginners to make easy mistakes since it could lower their standing in the group. Another thing was that the group had proper equipment with weapons that suited them and armour as well except for Miriel and Serene who wore their beginner gear since they were ranged characters. With proper gear, the group''s power was much higher than any common beginner and only actual trained individuals from real life who were skilled with combat could surpassed them. ¡°I agree with Sain, these foxes are getting a bit too weak¡± said Lyndis agreeing with Sain''s words even though she was the one with the lowest level. If she said that the enemies were too weak then it was just that since she had to struggle the most to gain levels quickly. The other quickly agreed and they foolishly entered the deeper parts of the forest where wolves lied. In Royal Road monsters had territory in which they guards and they would attack anything that would enter then if they were a proud species like wolves. As such almost immediately the group found themselves against a single wolf that scouted the outsirks of the wolf territory. ¡°Grrrrrr!¡± The wolf was actually quite small compare to other wolves but it was still easily larger than Serena and had fangs long enough to completely got through someone''s army or even neck. The party felt a sight chill as the wolf attacked them. ¡°Shield Bash!¡± Raven was the first to react to this as the tank. He moved in a straight line to intercept the wolf and was about to stun it. ¡°Rar!¡± However the wolf moved around Raven quickly showing it''s high agility and took a bite out of Raven''s leg. ¡°Ahhh!¡± At this moment, not before the battle started, Serena already casted Minor Health Regeneration onto Raven but healing spells could not reduce pain. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± shouted Miriel casting a magic barrier which would reduce the amount of damage someone targeted would take. As her skill with this was at the lowest, it only negated 30% for two of the next hits. Lyndis tried to help Raven out since he was in pain and wasn''t reacting as fast as before and attacked the wolf head on. Shadow at this point was already behind the wolf and moved in to attack immediately seeing that Raven was injured. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow was about to hit the wolf with his dagger but the wolf suddenly leaped backwards and hit Shadow aside easily.
You took 20 damage
Due to the attack not being a proper one, Shadow took less damage compared to Raven who was bitten in the leg. Shadow landed on his back from the fall as the wolf quickly attacked Lyndis who had the highest of the wolf right now. ¡°Melody of Speed¡±
Agility increased by 12% for 10 minutes
Although it took a third of Miriel''s mana in one go, Shadow and the others could already feel the effects of the buff placed on them with a soft melody. Lyndis who could not keep up with the wolf before could now while Shadow moved a bit quicker than before. ¡°Minor Heal!¡± shouted Sain. A light embraced Raven as it healed him. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Sain shot mana bolts at the wolf while Shadow once again sneaked behind the wolf to attack. However this time Shadow used the moment that the wolf dodged to attack. ¡°Backstab!¡±
Critical Hit!
Shadow''s dagger went into the side of the wolf quickly and stayed there for a second before Shadow twisted and pulled out his dagger to deal the most damage in that one hit. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Making a come back from earlier, Raven let out his rage at the wolf killing it in a fury of strikes which honestly surprised everyone except Serena who saw worst with Raven. ¡°Ahooooooooooow!¡± the wolf let out a last cry as it died.
You have gained experience
Around 20% of Shadow''s experience bar went up. Even though he did not deal the finishing blow to the wolf, he did contribute to the battle. Normally only the person who killed the monster would get the experience alone. But in a party that person would only get up to 50% with the killing blow. The rest of the experience is split between to what amount did each person dealt damage to the monster. However those who supported the fight without fighting itself would a share of the experience more than those who did nothing. Namely there was a complex system in which everyone mostly an equal share of the experience except when someone intentionally gets the last kill over and over again to level up quickly like with Lyndis. However now, the party mostly got an equal share of the experience so they would level up at the same rate. The party was particularly exhausted mentally since they had hunted for half a day and the last enemy, the wolf was stronger than they thought they killed it in mere minutes. The added stress to battles made them more tired than usual. But they could not rest right now. ¡°Ahooooooooooow!¡± Several cries from wolves were heard by the party and they all became alert. Shadow immediately decided to get on a tree to take the most advantage of the situation by using gravity to increase the damage he deals. On a branch which he was balancing one, he saw the group surrounded by a total of 5 wolves. Everyone including Shadow who was safe so far on a branch was pale since they had trouble with one single wolf. There was no much to say here but facing multiple enemies at once was several times more difficult than facing individual enemies even as a group. BITE!
You took 80 damage
Suddenly something bit his leg and pulled him down from the branch of tree and onto the ground. Shadow looked as the battle started that it was a silver wolf who did this. Out of fear Shadow attacked the silver wolf with his dagger in his hand and his leg in his mouth in a fury. ¡°Double Strike! Double Strike!¡± Shadow landed some hits but the fur of the silver wolf blocked out most of the damage Shadow dealt. Eventually the silver wolf bit down on Shadow''s neck reducing his health to zero.
You have died
[p=center]xXx[/p]
Party member: Shadow has died
Such a notification appeared. Sain was partly shocked since he just saw Shadow there trapped under a silver wolf attacking it. But he didn''t have time to think about that. In fact he didn''t have much time to think about anything right now. ¡°Minor Heal!¡± Sain healed Lyndis who took a hit and then moved in to stab a wolf that was nearing Serene and Miriel who were next to each other. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± cried Miriel trying to take a wolf down before it killed her.
Party member: Miriel has died
However several wolves surrounded her and killed her before anything could be done. With this, the range offence supported lied on only Sain.
You took 107 damage
A wolf managed to pin him down and bite him several times with other wolves joining in as well. Serena used her staff to try and attack the wolves but this only caused her to be attacked sooner as well.
Party member: Serena has died
As a healer, she had less health than normal and died quicker as well. The same was with Miriel but Raven and Lyndis as well as Sain had more than average health at the moment though it was dropping quickly. ¡°Shield Bash!¡± ¡°Fire Blade!¡± The two ran to Sain''s help knocking away the wolves and even injuring them to some extent. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Seeing the chance, Sain scored a hit on one of the critical wounded wolves and killed it. With his spear he attacked the wolves with the other two but they were still outnumbered 5 to 3. With the silver wolf that was stronger than normal wolves, the three of them died soon after as well.
You have died
That notification appeared before Sain was ejected from the game [p=center]xXx[/p] Sain or rather Peter in real life awoke from the capsule since had died. Upon getting out of the capsule he soon found the others that had a gloom face on. Soon after, both Ian and Maria both exit their capsules as well since they most likely died. The group gathered in the lounge room since it was a place they can somewhat comfortably discuss things though everyone here had a look similar to a man being dumped by his woman. It was an unpleasant mood that needed to be changed else they would probably never pick up pace in the game. Dying in Royal Road which was realistic was horrifying even when the game reduced the pain to all players by 30% and the fact that the players themselves know that won''t actually ''die''. However this still left a mighty blow to anyone''s mind since dying was still frightening no matter how you look at it! Due to this, even though there were more players in Royal Road then ever before, most players did not pick of combat classes or did any sort of fighting at all. For those who did not fear death in Royal Road, there was something far worst when they came back. The lose of a level! The lose of skill proficiency! The two single things that determined a player''s abilities no matter what. Other than the stats that they worked hard to get, all other stats that came from levelling would disappear with the level until it could be regained. There was also the chance of losing valuable equipment as well if they did die. Because of this, all players feared dying the most else there was something worst. ¡°First of all....¡± started Peter since he was the leader of the group and therefore mostly responsible for everything that happened, ¡°We were too foolish to just jump in deep in just a half day of hunting.¡± The others nodded since this was true. From hunting rabbits then quickly switching to foxes and at the end to wolves which resulted in them dying. It was indeed foolish to the point that other players did not even do such a thing. However foolish behaviours and genius behaviours were just a thin line apart with only success and failure determining which one it was. The group''s decision to hunt wolves were not wrong. At that point, most players would be in a party and they would be able to handle a lone wolf at level 5. However it was due to bad luck that they met a wolf that called for it''s comrade just before it died and among the 6 wolves that came, one was a special monster, the silver wolf that was even stronger than normal wolves! ''But....we still died in the end'' thought Peter whom was filled with fear and torment as he saw the others died and himself die as well. He touched the place the wolf ripped out to kill him. Even though it was a game, even though pain was reduced to 30%, there was some lingering feeling that it was real. The group was in a crisis. They were slowly falling apart with just one failure. However the one who spoke up for everyone was also the most unexpected. ¡°I think we should go back and fight those wolves again!¡± said Grace, the youngest and most timid of the group. Her eyes shone with great will in order to get stronger. She felt it was her duty to get stronger in order to meet the person she had admired to worked towards. The ''woman'' that easily killed evildoers with ease. To this Hina, Ian and Mark smiled at once. Grace was right, it was something they couldn''t get too depressed over. There were beginners being killed by rabbits before their eyes when the day started and they died taking on a pack of wolves which was an admirable result for a party that only hunted for half a day. Half a day worth of experience and they were at that point already. ¡°Yos! Let''s get to it!¡± shouted Maria with just energy. It seems like she was spirited once again. At the beginning she was the biggest burden and she worked hard to catch up to the others quickly even with their help. As a result in the end they did kill almost a hundred foxes and a wolf before their end. It was something to be proud of. ¡°However we can''t get back in the game until tomorrow¡± said Hina pouring the water on Maria''s firery spirit. Shock filled Maria''s face as she realised this and everyone laughed at it. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°Hahaha, don''t worry. It''s just a day¡± said Peter comforting Maria, ¡°Besides there are a number of things we can still do while we''re here right?¡± Peter''s eyes shone with a light while his stomach grumbled. ¡°...¡± The others stared at Peter in disbelief that he was this kind of person. The type that can say that everyone should have a meal together like an idiot. ¡°People are more grumpy when they are hungry. First we must eat¡± said Peter acting like an old man. Hina sighed in defeat since she was also hungry either way while Grace looked embrassed to follow through with this all of a sudden. On the other hand Ian and Mark agreed wanting to eat some good food again while Maria was thinking of what to do later on in Royal Road. In the end the group ate quite a number of food stuffing themselves to the point that they almost fell asleep due to the feeling of being full. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Now we have some important things to talk about before we can get back in the game¡± said Hina all serious again even though she was enjoying a nice meal tens of minutes ago, ¡°I want to know everyone''s skills and abilities in more detail. We have moved individually for the most part and that worked well until we were completely outmatched. Even though it looks that way, we actually don''t have much teamwork between us.¡± The others including Peter looked at Hina following her words. ¡°The most important details are those who can use magic since the effects of our spells can vary a lot. For example another player could also use my Melody of Sound and yet have a different set of effects from me. Or someone may have an altered version of a skill that would be better used somehow else.¡± Everyone nodded their heads. ¡°But the skill of us who fight at the front are also important as well right?¡± said Maria in a friendly voice since in her mind she made up with Hina completely. A simple minded person that was easily liked. ¡°Correct, however we must know each other well enough to cover any weaknesses. Grace and I can''t fight in close combat at all since we never trained for it. However everyone else can¡± replied Hina. ¡°In that case, each person will say what skills or spell they first and then we talk about the other stuff later?¡± asked Peter which Hina nodded, ¡°In that case since I can alternate between roles, I should be last since it would be troublesome to explain multiple things at once.¡± The other nodded since they remembered that Sain had spells but also sometimes fought close up as well and was as good as Maria and Mark in fighting enemies though Mark with his shield could take multiple enemies at once. Therefore due to this, it was Mark and Ian''s turn to speak first since they were the only pure melee players in the group. ¡°I have three active skills that I can use which take up mana¡± started Mark though he was the quiet type, ¡°Shield Bash stuns enemies that are hit for around 2 seconds at it''s current level, Double strike allows me to attack twice at once with my spear and Footwork is used to charge in a straight line quickly. Shield Bash and Double strike both take 10 mana each to use while Footwork takes 20 mana. Other than that is my mastery skills. Also I have the repair skill so I somewhat repair equipment for you all though durability decreases quite a bit unless my skill level increases.¡± The others nodded since Mark actually gave quite the detailed report on his skills. Next was Ian though....somehow he disappeared! ¡°Ian?¡± said one of the other group members in a panic. ¡°I''m here¡± said Ian calmly sitting at the very same spot as he was before. He was used to these reactions since a long time ago. There was one case in which a teacher was sure that he was kidnapped even though he was right in front of his eyes. To Ian that was a very bad day for him since he was scolded even though multiple times he tried to alert the teacher to his presence but failed. The teacher naturally pinned all the fault in Ian in the end. ¡°Like Mark I have Double Strike as a skill. Other than that, my only combat skill is Backstab which is best used with stealth to deal critical damage. Other than that, I have a climbing skill as well as skills that allow me to detect and disarm traps as well as skills that improve my vision in the dark and one that increase my hearing capability¡± Ian said that in one breath which left no room for the others to question. Because he was often ignored to no fault of the other party, he was not used to conversations that well and spoke quickly and in one go. Next was Maria''s turn to speak. ¡°I only have my pocket fireball which is even weaker than a normal fireball and my fire blade skill which adds fire damage to my attacks as actual skills¡± said Maria a bit shamed compared to the others two. It was clear that she did the least work in total and her low strength was being shown easily now. However she brightened up as she said, ¡°But I have the cooking skill so you will don''t have to worry about food!¡± As no one tasted her cooked food before, they had no way to know how to react positively or negatively to this. Because of this they could only take a chance and eat it to see how it tasted. ¡°Thankfully for everyone, I also learned the cooking skill as well and AM quite a good cook as well¡± said Hina in a boastful manner. This this, Maria pouted since Hina once again stole her spotlight immediately. Suddenly there was a bit of hope as long as both of them didn''t suck at cooking at all. However while Maria seemed like the ''try before testing'' type, Hina was the ''calculate everything trying'' type though these have nothing to do with the innate cooking skills a person may have. Even if you have the proper skills, if your taste is horrible then everyone will suffer greatly. ¡°Anyway besides that I have the identify skill which will be very useful later on, with that I have the most basic mana bolt which shoots a small magic bolt to several to the enemy, Melody of Sound which increases several stats for around 10 minutes, cracked barrier which is a skill that reduces the amount of damage you would take for a certain amount of hits. At my level it''s only a 30% reduction for the next 2 attacks and finally I also have Clairvoyance which shows a path I should take but it''s almost completely useless at it''s low level. However when it''s level gets higher than it will be similar to similar to something that is invaluable in the future. Other than my mastery skills, that''s it for me¡± said Hina calmly though she didn''t explain everything at once. Grace then spoke up as it was her turn now, ¡°Umm....I have minor health regeneration and minor stamina regeneration which increases those two over time though it''s still weak. Other than that....I have mana burst which consumes a large part of my mana in exchange of doing damage and Language Comprehension which lets me read certain texts easier....and something called Quicken Death which let''s me kill someone in the party.¡± ¡°...¡± There was some silence in the room since the seemingly weakest and harmless person of the group suddenly got the power to kill anyone in the group in the game when she wants. Although they all believed that she would not do something like that by her own will as long as they had a chance, they all wondered what would happen if they make her angry. Would they all die at once? They would lost a level and skill proficiency once again if this happened. Who would give such a spell to such a person like the healer. Next was Peter''s turn since he was a combination of melee and magic due to being a shaman which was a jacks of all trade. ¡°First of all, I have two skills that are the same as the others. The identify skill which is always useful and the mana bolt spell which are the same as Hina there¡± Peter started to say, ¡°Other than that I have the summon familiar spell which everyone saw already for luring in mobs for us. Other than that I have the Minor Heal spell which only heals for 50 health at a time and the Weaken spell which currently only weakens the enemy''s strength by 20% right now though I haven''t got to use it just yet. The only other things I have is a skill called ''Party Scan'' which allows me to view everyone''s health above their head and the game gives me messages of what is happening with the group like if they took damage, died or looted something.¡± With this the discussion followed on until eventually everyone went to sleep to log back in the next day. Naturally they discussed several things during this time. Namely how their skills and spells worked as well as what position they would be in during battle. They had decided the original formation was fine already and was stable enough without changes as the new changes might cause their formation to crumble easily in certain cases. However it was not like there was no change at all. Now the group somewhat knows what to do in certain situations like when they are surrounded like before. In such a case, everyone should protect Hina and Grace since they are the support in order to prevent the group''s end that easily. Naturally Mark and Maria were the tanks of the group who took the most damage though Peter and even Ian has a high health pool than Maria. But Ian didn''t have proper combat skills to use when facing the enemy head on while Peter didn''t have any close range combat skills at all though he can use magic to attack and heal the others. Because of this Ian would be in charge of detecting enemies and to deal critical damage to them when the time comes while Peter was in charge of instructing everyone when things goes bad and to support the rest of the group whether is is with magic, healing or actual combat. [p=center]xXx[/p] A full day passed in real life and the group entered back into the game. Upon appearing the group were partly separated as they spawned at different points in the city area. Soon enough they grouped together near the city gates which they left the other day although 4 days have passed already. ¡°First of all, did we lose any equipment?¡± asked Miriel asking everyone to check their equipment and inventory. Thankfully the group found out they only lost a few pieces of bread and other cheap items which they gained from the previous failed hunt. ¡°Ah...good....losing equipment in this game is the worst thing that can happen. I''ve heard that many high levelled players buy a second set of equipment which they are fine with losing¡± commented Miriel extracting her knowledge of the game once again. What Miriel said was true, it was now common knowledge that higher levelled players especially rankers would at least have one spare set of equipment to use just in case they died. The reason was simple. The powerful and moreover expensive equipment they had might drop if they died! Such a thing was extremely horrible for any strong player since it directly decreased their strength. ¡°Anyway I want to propose a plan for everyone to follow¡± said Sain even though he still believes that Miriel is much more suited for the leader role than himself, ¡°Since we died and lose a level, we want to regain that level back right?¡± ¡°Yes, of course¡± said Lyndis who wondered why Sain pointed out the obvious. ¡°In that case, we should spend at least some time over the next couple of days hunting to go to around level 7 each before we start on wolves again. Levels are important in this stage more than any other since stats matter the most right now.¡± Sain looked at everyone''s faces and then said, ¡°Although I''m up for a challenge, it is better at least for the beginning that we do things a bit more safe than we are used to.¡± The other nodded to this. Since levels and stats at the early stage had more impact here than later on, they naturally would weaken more than ever if they died now though dying at a later level was even worse due to various reasons. Because of this the group set out to the place they hunted before but dared not venture too deep into the forest again. ¡°Another thing is that I want everyone to have higher skill proficiency at least. Other than that is actual skills in battle¡± said Sain on the way. He remembered his master''s words when he was a bit drunk and he said without no doubt along with never stick something into crazy, that skill proficiency was the most important thing. Miriel frowned a bit since according to the research she did into this game, skill proficiency wasn''t that much of a wide topic compared to how to level quicker and be stronger quicker than normal as well. This was a common mistake any beginner new to the game would have. Most people were not skilled at fighting at all since they lived a peaceful life. Of course they would be weaker than others who have even with a reasonable level gap. Whenever someone points out these things, the topic of Weed who was the emperor and strongest player in the game had the highest level of skill in combat even with his non-combat class. Weed was proof that actual combat skills were the most important things you can have. It was simply something that had to be earned and not everyone can earn it at the same time. Players felt much better thinking that they could get stronger more easily with better equipment and levels. Soon enough the group was fighting waves of foxes once again. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Miriel shot a fox that was in the middle of attacking Raven and at the same time Raven used his spear to kill the fox in one hit. Elsewhere at the same time, Ian kicked a fox to Lyndis as she slashed it into pieces. Sain and Serena quickly healed the group and Sain used his familiar to quickly draw more foxes to the group to quicken things up. Bit by bit the group fought foxes like their life was on the line, they throughout the day only had a few breaks in which resulted in most of the time they fought with little or no mana at times. ¡°Serena, Miriel! Help us break the attack patterns of the foxes¡± shouted Sain as he poked his spear at the foxes in front of him. There were 4 of them drawn to him at once and he had no mana left like the rest of the group. Serena and Miriel who were magic users and therefore had little actual combat skills aside from that had low damage, defence and health which made this order more dangerous to them. However they still obeyed. ¡°Right!¡± ¡°On my way!¡± Both of them went left Sain to the foxes and went to help the others who were facing just as many foxes or even more than Sain at the same time. The group got really unlucky or was lucky and drew a large pack of foxes. There were 20 in total and they were not even recovered fully yet. With his quick movement Raven immediately drew a total of 8 foxes onto him at once and was fighting while retreating backwards. Lyndis seeing this took on one fox and slain it before 6 more foxes went to attack her. Ian managed to kill a fox as well before they pursuit him as well. At this point Sain was going around taunting them reducing the number of foxes on his comrades by a total of 4. While Sain was running around the place he turned to speared one of the foxes that was chasing after Lyndis who was really concentrating on attacking and defending at the same time. She had a normal length sword and didn''t have the range Sain or raven had with their spears. However even though she had no mana left, she burst into flames and with it, burnt through the foxes easily. ¡°Haaaaaaaa!¡±
Party Member: Lyndis has generated the skill: Life Burn
Life Burn Beginner Level 1 A skill that in turn burns away one''s health and inflicts the burning status on oneself, creates flames that in a last ditch effort will burn the enemy into ashes Health Cost: 10 per second Damage: Equal to a Low Rank Fire Spell Cool Down: 30 Seconds
This window appeared in front of Lyndis and Sain at the same time though only Sain was paying attention to it. Lyndis continued to use the flames to attack the foxes until her health went critical where only 7 foxes remained. ''This is bad, she''s at critical and the foxes are now targeting her!'' thought Sain before he leaped into action to protect her. However someone else was already there protecting Lyndis. ¡°Shadow! Help me lure these guys away!¡± shouted Sain once he realised that it was Shadow that was standing in front of the exhausted Lyndis and not some blur he happened to see. Shadow immediately took action and sliced the foxes into pieces with Sain and the others who joined in.
Party has gained Experience
With this battle, they were closer to level 7 than before. While hunting for so much time that night was about to fall they were attacked by a pack of 20 foxes at once. ¡°Minor Heal!¡± chanted Sain as he regained enough mana to bring Lyndis out of critical health. At this time it was already night which meant things would be much harder for them. ¡°Man that was really close!¡± laughed Lyndis seeing that she was really about to die there. If she did die then she would be once again a level below everyone else. As such the party decided to at least rest before going back to the city. Thanks to this however they actually had full health and mana when Shadow hears something using his hearing skill which increases the amount of sounds he can take in at once. ¡°Grrrr....¡± ''What the...'' thought Shadow before he realised the truth, ''This is bad! Wolves again!'' Shadow dropped from the tree and quickly informed everyone what he heard, ¡°There are wolves around here now!¡± The other exclaimed and had pale faces. They had a bad time with wolves to begin with and now they had to face them again. ¡°How many are there?¡± asked Sain before anything else. He believed even with the wolves 50% stronger, they were at least now able to take on one since they were stronger than before. However Shadow shook his head and said, ¡°I don''t know, I just heard one nearby. There may be more though I couldn''t hear them since they were probably too far away¡± explained Shadow the most he could without the group losing sight of him in the dark. ¡°Hmm....¡± Sain though about it since they would most likely die once again if it were that very same group of wolves. However before he could make a decision there were several sounds in the direction Shadow pointed out. ¡°Grrr....¡± ¡°Tch¡± Sain looked at the direction of the sounds with displeasure, ''Either we run away now or we fight. Our agility isn''t as high as the wolves so we can''t escape unless we run now!'' However thinking this, Sain was already holding his spear with one hand pointing at the sounds while the others took up similar actions and did the same in the dark night. Night battles were difficult for multiple reasons other than the increased strength of monsters. In the night, vision was decreased and you were more likely to screw something up than in the day. Also flashy things like fire magic would attract the attention of other monsters nearby. Because of this, rarely did beginner hunt at the night unless they had very large numbers. ¡°Melody of Speed!¡±
Agility increased by 12% for 10 minutes
Miriel buffed the party up for the battle once again. She now did this every time whenever the group was about to fight since it would make it much easier to fight. She held her staff tight in her hands as she looked at the deep dark forest that changed all of a sudden in the night. Eventually the wolves started their attack with the group not running away at all. ¡°Raven, up front!¡± shouted Sain making Raven take the full frontal attack with his shield. Bang! Immediately a wolf appeared and head butted Raven''s shield not expecting that Raven with charge up when it leaped out instead of guarding. ¡°Attack! Mana Bolt! Weaken!¡± Sain immediately ordered everyone to take out this wolf quickly before the others came as well. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Raven pierced through the underbelly of the wolf while Lyndis attacked at the right side without using her bright fire magic. She clearly knew of the dangers of using it right now. ¡°Backstab!¡± The finishing blow came to Shadow as he easily hit the top of the head of the wolf in one blow killing it. Blending into the darkness he disappeared just when the next wave of wolves attacked. This time it was two wolves, something they could take. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± Miriel casted her barrier spell onto Raven who planned on at least taking on one wolf. Lyndis smiled as she took the other with her sword glowing bright red in colour, ¡°Fire Blade!¡± she shouted as she cut through the flesh of the wolf in high speed with her hot burning sword. Shadow helped with Lyndis since she didn''t have a shield and therefore less defence while both Sain and Miriel attacked from afar using mana bolts to distract or hit the wolves at the same time. Serena saved some and and casted her regenerative spells on both Raven and Lyndis to keep them going. Eventually both of the wolves died but just in time as the leader of this small pack appeared with 3 more wolves. ¡°That''s...¡± Everyone''s eyes flared up in hatred. If it weren''t for that silver wolf then they wouldn''t have died even when facing several wolves at the same time. Sain himself estimated the silver wolf to be over level 15 and maybe even level 20 in strength alone. It easily caught Shadow off guard when he was hiding and quickly killed him while it quickly led the other wolves to kill off the rest of the group one by one. ¡°Weaken!¡± shouted Sain aiming at the silver wolf. In an instant the wolf''s power decreased by 20% due to his spell as the others started to attack individual wolves at a time to lower their numbers. ¡°Life Burn!¡± Lyndis spared nothing and even burnt her health off to quickly take down one wolf leaving her at low health. ¡°Minor Heal!¡± Sain quickly got her health back up though she could not use that skill again in this battle. ¡°Cracked Barrier, Mana Bolt!¡± Miriel quickly casted these two spells, one on Raven who was no facing the silver wolf alone and the other one a wolf that was fighting Shadow head on. Shadow quickly used the darkness to confuse the wolf he was facing and got behind it with ease, it was so fluent that you would think Shadow was a high levelled player! ¡°Backstab, Double Strike!¡± Shadow started spamming his skills on the wolf which was taking critical damage constantly from Shadow until it died. Shadow then moved to Lyndis on suppressing the other wolf besides the silver wolf. Seeing that it;s comrades quickly died more than ever, the silver wolf let out a cry in anger. ¡°Rooooooar!¡±
Strength decrease by 15%
Agility decrease by 20%
Skills and spells have a higher chance of failing
The party suddenly got massive debuffs from the silver wolf! When you face a stronger monster, sometimes they have skills that decrease your stats! This was the main reason in which why parties at higher levels failed in dungeons. With their stats constantly lowered it is natural they cannot fight well against monsters that were 50% stronger than usual in dungeons as well. ¡°Shit...¡± muttered Sain feeling weak in his legs. However this didn''t stop him from casting a spell to help Lyndis and Shadow at the same time, ¡°Weaken!¡± The wolf that attacked Lyndis and Shadow quickly weakened just when it was about to attack which gave a opening in which Lyndis and Shadow used to kill it. Now there was only the silver wolf left. However things were bad with Raven. Bang! Raven was sent flying back hitting the ground with his back. His health was now at 20% while Lyndis and Shadow''s were at just over 60%. Sain and the other two had full health since they were supporting from a range. Serena quickly casted healing spells onto Raven but that just got him over 25% before the silver wolf leaped onto Raven about to kill him. ''I have to save him no matter what! I won''t let them die anymore!'' that cry resounded in Sain as he charged forward with a shout. ¡°Die!¡± Unknown to him, something changed in Sain as his body moved faster than he remembered and as his spear easily made it''s way into the eye of the silver wolf.
Critical Hit!
Fatal Blow!
Sain just dealt 4 times more damage than usual with a critical hit combining with a fatal blow against the silver wolf. To the pain, the silver wolf leaped off Raven as it directed it''s attention to Sain.
You have gained the skill: Bursting Will
Bursting Will Beginner Level 1 One''s will to do something even if it cost you your life. Increases all stats by a certain extent while in a deep crisis for some brief seconds All Stats increase by: 10%
Since it was injured now, the party went and struck hard at the silver wolf with it only having one eye to see from. Shadow used this chance to take his revenge as he took out the other eye of the silver wolf. ¡°Backstab.¡± ¡°Garrr?!¡± The silver wolf that was several times stronger than the group could only wail in fear as the group hunted it down slowly. A good 10 minutes passed with the group torturing it with their low damage as the wolf could no longer move and eventually committed suicide by biting it''s tongue. Several message than appeared in front of the group.
You have gained Experience
Hunted a Silvery Wolf, for this act you have gained: - 5 Fame - Fighting Spirit +1 - Strength +1 - Double experience for hunting it while being much weaker than it
You have levelled up
You have levelled up
You have levelled up
...
In the end the group gained a total of 5 levels from hunting a powerful wolf that was around level 20 and got double experience from it while being only level 6 about to level to level 7. The entire group was now at level 12 with Miriel and Serena nearing level 13 while Lyndis was in the early level 12 while the rest were in the middle of the experience bar. Everyone smiled at this and placed their points into their character. More importantly, some of their skills levelled up during this long day of hunting as well. Most of their combat skills increased by 1 level each while some skills like Shadow''s backstab increased by 2. Shadow''s stealth skill even went to the intermediate level as well which made it even harder to spot him in combat. These were Serena, Miriel and Lyndis'' skill windows in order [third=Skill Window,Skill Window]Skill Window[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Beginner 3 (45/100) - Nature Mastery Beginner 2 (58/100) - Mediation Beginner level 1 (43/100) - Mana Burst Beginner level 1 (6/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 3 (54/500) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 2 (79/300) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100),- Magic Mastery Beginner 2 (98/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 1 (68/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 1 (40/100) - Magic Control Mastery Beginner 1 (96/100) - Mediation Beginner level 1 (14/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 1 (13/100) - Identify Beginner level 1 (1/100) - Magic Bolt Beginner level 3 (122/500) - Clairvoyance Beginner level 1 (46/100) - Melody of Sound Beginner level 2 (20/300) - Cracked Barrier Beginner level 2 (4/1200)]- Sword Mastery Beginner 3 (10/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 1 (66/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 1 (13/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 2 (4/300) - Fire Blade Beginner level 2 (73/300) - Life Burn Beginner level 1 (5/100)[/third]
These were Raven, Shadow and Sain''s skill windows in order [third=Skill Window,Skill Window]Skill Window[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 2 (99/100) - Shield Mastery Beginner Level 4 (55/100) - Shield Bash Beginner level 3 (31/500) - Double Strike Beginner level 2 (53/300) - Footwork Beginner level 2 (49/300) - Repair Beginner level 1 (50/1000),- Dagger Mastery Beginner 3 (55/100) - Stealth Intermediate Level 1 (86/100) - Hearing Beginner level 1 (25/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 1 (75/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 2 (29/300) - Locate Trap Beginner level 1 (30/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 1 (12/100) - Backstab Beginner level 3 (45/500) - Double Strike Beginner level 2 (14/300) - Climbing Beginner Level 3 (82/100)]- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 2 (15/100) - Identify Beginner level 1 (2/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 1 (40/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 3 (155/500) - Mediation Beginner level 1 (15/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 2 (4/300) - Minor Heal Beginner level 2 (18/300) - Weaken Beginner level 1 (64/100) - Bursting Will Beginner level 1 (1/100)[/third]
Happy with the results the group went back in town and logged out to sleep out of the game since they didn''t have a proper place to sleep in game besides their masters'' place which they all course did not discuss with each other yet. They did not know yet of the terrors that awaited them when their masters would seek them out once again for a certain something.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 10800~ - This is a chapter I wrote sometime last month and there is a HUGE gap between the time I wrote this and wrote the last chapter. I was focusing more on the overall situation compared to the individual thoughts this time and for the rest of the volume to shorten it a bit. - As for the characters, Serena barely got any screen time....Lyndis and Miriel somehow managed to get along...I need to amend that part in the volume 2, and I think Raven, Shadow and Sain were fine this chapter as character... - Also you have no idea how difficult it is to manage 6 damn status windows and skill windows at the same time....does anyone know how to make 12 column tables? - The buttons only allow me up to 4 and I have to use large status windows instead of the compressed ones that I have been using. It basically is 2 rows of the status windows lumped together showing only the stats which allows me to edit them all together easily.....plus it doesn''t take too much space as well. Vol.1 Chapter 8 - Kobolds and Goblins Another day passed and the group was back in the game. They felt refresh since the previous day like a massive burden had been taken off their shoulders. The fear that they briefly had which was the fear of death and failure disappeared from their minds as they stepped back into the game. ¡°We''re level 12 now....it''ll take us another week in game to reach level 20¡± said Sain looking at his status window. It looked something like this now.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Sain,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]12,Shaman[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHuman
TitleTactician
Health782
Mana371
[quart=Fame,Infamy]15,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]32 +12,34 +11[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]26 +11,26 +11[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]35 +1,26 +1[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]25 +2,15 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]1 +1,1 +1[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]10,13[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance0%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- 10% more authority when commanding people - Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom +10 - All Skills effect +1% - All Stats +1 - Strength +1 - Fighting Spirit +1
Compared to Weed at level 13 who had 960 health by then with 50 Vitality, Sain had much less vitality and therefore health. However Sain''s health was still on the extreme high side compared to other players still. At this level, most players would have only 300 or so health whether they had tank classes or not. It simply show how proper training to increase various stats can result in a overall result for the player if they did this. The masters in which taught the group all knew this and with the exception of Miriel and Serena whom were ranged support characters, the rest had some form of basic training pounded in them to increase their survivability. If a normal player had a 50% chance of winning against a monster, this training would increase it to 90% instead. Sain contacted the others and they met at the gates once again wanting to take on wolves to further increase their levels. But something needed to be done first. ¡°We need to sell the loot¡± Sain plainly said. Loot and other items in this game worked strangely though very similar to old CRPGs that were things like Dungeon and Dragons and other games similar to that. First of all, a person''s weight capacity was determined mainly by a person''s strength stat. However movement speed, associated with agility often also affected this as well with the speed in which you can walk with items on you though this is also affected mainly by strength as well. Namely instead of the classic movement reduction when you are over the weight limit, this gradually piles of with the more items you have on you. Although they don''t appear next to you all the item or in bags, when they are in your inventory, they still affect your weight capacity. There are weight reducing bags in which loot and items in there will weight less but it was still wise to get rid of any and all excess items you had to the general store which will pretty much buy everything though possibly at a lower price then other specialist stores. It was a matter of saving time at this point and the general store rips a large profit thanks to it by reselling to other stores later on. The others simply agree since it was a natural thing to do. They walked into the general store and took out the items which they gained and didn''t need. While they could sell their items to a merchant there was a good chance things would get too complicated and they would be ripped off if they did. As such the general store is still the way to go. [p=center]xXx[/p] On a building far away from the city gate where the group was, a person sat and observed them with interest although it was not the good kind. Next to this person was a petite girl dressed in dark purple and black called Anna who was kneeling down to this person. This person was naturally Eden. A Eden which experienced a number of things and frankly retired from his endless adventures that tormented him every step of the way. However along with way he somehow became strong, too strong for this world. And as such he was bored out of his mind until something interesting happens such as now even though it was a small interest. ¡°Hmm...although they died once to it, they soon later killed a silver wolf with it''s small pack at only a third of it''s level. There''s a good chance that they will be interesting. Have you got the results from the ''fragment'' that were placed on them?¡± asked Eden using a skill called ''Heaven''s Sight'' that allows him to see everything in a kilometre radius. ¡°Yes Master, only two of them are reacting to it right now though it only has been 2 days since the ''fragment'' were active¡± replied Anna in a voice of deep respect. ¡°Ho~ So two of them already gained skills from just a mere 2 days of hunting? Impressive at least. Hmm...I''m going to give them 4 months in this world then make my decision whether they can take the trial or not¡± said Eden with some amusement. Anna could not help but to shiver when she remembered the Trial she and the other 5 took years ago. To this day, it still haunts her. It was something that non-talented people could do as well as get out properly sane when and if you finish it. Your view on the world twists to the point that you don''t recognise yourself. And the Guild-master is pushing this same trial to children not even 15 levels in when they struggled to near death constantly at level 200 during the trial? ¡°Don''t worry Anna, the trial scales to your actual skills so it will be as difficult as it was for you and the others from last time¡± said Eden reassuringly though this only made Anna silently pity the 6 that were being observed like this. ''Now....what should I do to relieve my boredom...?'' wondered Eden as he continued on keeping an eye on this new group. [p=center]xXx[/p] The group now ready to set out again, walked into the forest without much fear due to them slaying a creature that was much stronger than them. Thanks to this, they gained some stats as well when they killed it. ¡°It looks like stats and other bonuses are gained when you kill monsters that are stronger than you like boss monsters....the silver wolf was a semi-boss monster?¡± wondered Miriel as the group was walking forward, ¡°I have to research the true extent of this later.¡± Sain smiled since Miriel was the type to research everything to make things go perfectly in the first go. However if things goes wrong, she research what went wrong and any other possibilities before trying again. Miriel held such an impression to Sain. ¡°Um....¡± Serena was a bit hesitant on talking but Miriel and Lyndis noticed this immediately. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°Spit it out.¡± They both said at the same time. They glared at each other for a split second so it was like an illusion and went back to normal. ¡°Should I learn an attack spell?¡± asked Serena ¡°Why would you, your the ''cleric'' of the group¡± replied Lyndis. ¡°Most clerics don''t have a way to attack for a very long time. Besides you need to save mana for healing so having an attack spell is actually bad¡± replied Miriel. Sain sighed a bit since Lyndis'' answer was so simple and yet Miriel''s answer at the same time was much more detailed with a simple thought for both of them. ''Well Lyndis seems like the type to do things before she thinks while Miriel is the exact opposite'' thought Sain. Sain then looked at the others wanting to know more about them as well, ''Serena is the shy type definitely while Raven is the quiet type but both are hard working people from what I know'', Sain remembered what he heard from other people in which both of them worked hard to get where they are right now. Then Sain looked at Shadow very closely else he might miss him once again due to his lack of a presence, ''As for Shadow....hmm....I''m not too sure about him. He always seems like the type to go with the flow and not complain much even in battle....have to keep an eye on him.'' To Sain, Shadow was the enigma of the group in which he did not know much about him compared to the others. Of course he could''ve asked Lyndis or Shadow himself of what he was like but decided not to since it could make him seem too over-cautious and suspicious. Either way, the managed to get to the wolf area soon. ¡°Summon Familiar¡± chanted Sain summoning another familiar to use, this time it was a small rabbit. Before the spell took a third of his total mana but now it only took a sixth which shows how much more mana he had now compared to before at the start. Minutes later the rabbit lured a wolf to the group before being eaten and disappearing. ¡°Grrr¡± The wolf looked at the party like it was prey. It was simply only at the group''s current level that other normal players would start to hunt down wolves and there was a good chance that they would die in the process. However this group hunted them down when they were only half their current level, how would they fear a mere wolf now? ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Miriel started the battle off by shooting a Mana Bolt at the forehead of the wolf which knocked it back and startled it greatly. ¡°Take this!¡± Taking this chance, Lyndis rushed in and sliced the wolf into pieces with her sword. The wolf quickly turned grey without anyone else attacking. ¡°This is...¡± muttered Sain and as he thought, ''The group is much more powerful now that we are level 12 each including Lyndis. Is there that much of a difference between now and then?'' It could be said that a player at level 12 was roughly 4 times stronger than one at level 6. Moreover everyone in this group was more or less extensively trained and gained extra stats so they were actually as powerful as level 20 players now. ¡°Let''s find a pack of wolves this time. Summon Familiar!¡± Sain created another rabbit familiar which seems to be the extent of his summoning skills right now. Before it was a frog which wasn''t even as strong as a rabbit and now it got upgraded to this. Perhaps the next thing he could summon would be a fox and maybe later a wolf to use. The randomising nature of his summoning skill was very valuable to stronger players but were reasonably weak for normal players. Soon enough the group met and faced against 5 wolves which was their limit last time. [p=center]xXx[/p] Lyndis feeling more energy than before immediately charged alone at the wolves at once. ¡°Fire Blade!¡± Her sword glowing a bright red, even the wolves backed away a bit seeing this. Her speed was more or less a bit higher than a common wolf now and she easily caught one off guard. Lyndis slashed three times nearly at one and the wolf burst into grey light dying. Now there was only 4 more wolves left at the very start. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Lyndis looked to her left while also observing the wolves at the same time and she saw Raven aggressively attacking two wolves at the same time pushing them back easily. His high defence and health had this an option only Raven can do right now. ¡°Gar!¡± While she was paying too much attention to Raven, a wolf jumped on her.
You took 50 damage
Roughly only a small portion of Lyndis'' health was taken with that bite that hit her left arm. Something like Sain''s minor heal was more than enough to take care of it now that it increased in proficiency and could restore more health than before. Lyndis grinned and kicked the wolf away and then a dark shadow appeared and stabbed it''s back form above. ¡°Backstab¡± Shadow said when he leaped from the tree to do this. ''Why does it seem like Shadow always climbs trees when we''re fighting and yet makes a good contribution at the same time?'' though Lyndis remembering the Shadow did some training for climbing and should have the climbing skill right now. The wolf critically hurt was taken care of soon and when Lyndis looked the others had already taken care of the other wolves with ease as well with Sain and Miriel combining their mana bolts to weaken the wolves for Raven to finish off. Lyndis looked at Sain a bit curious, ''He has more health than me but still chooses to stay back and observe everything. Wouldn''t it be more efficient for the group to have Sain fight at the front as well? He''s even less likely than me to die!'' Although Lyndis knew Sain had reasons to stay further back from the battle than he needed to, she still could not think of any good way so far to do so. Many leaders were of the knight or other powerful close combat classes and had good group skills at the same time which were only a bit inferior to priests buffs. However the real reason on why Sain stayed back was due to his teaching from his master called Gen. He was taught to stay back from fighting and therefore he will even though it means hunting will be a bit more difficult at times. He trusted the group enough that they won''t die so easily now. He knew there were two types of leaders. One that inspire from the front and one that commands from the back. Sain wanted to be one that combines both wisdom and might of the two. Rarely had any have such abilities to do both. When one thinks about those who can do this, they naturally think of the current Emperor, The God of War Weed. [p=center]xXx[/p] Sain managed using his familiar to lure in another group of wolves while the group walked further deeper into the forest area. Now they were around 300 metres away from the city gates. The reason for this distance was due to the thick trees that blocked the way which slowed down people or monster which allowed for monsters to have much clearer territories. However this meant that people had more difficulties escaping when things goes bad and something that the group personally experienced before. However the person who worried about this the most, or to say the only person in the group to worry about this was Miriel who had the fear of being left behind by the group in any way. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± chanted Miriel making sure now that Lyndis did not take that much damage. Before this spell was more useful with Raven against the wolves but now that he had a lot more health, Lyndis was a better target for now. ¡°Thank you!¡± shouted Lyndis as she fought along side Raven and Shadow against the wolves at one. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± Miriel looked to her left and saw Serena casting these minor healing spells throughout battles not stopping at all until her mana is nearly gone. The only reason Miriel could see was that Serena was training her skills as well that her spells were much more effective this way. Sain noticed this and during the battle sent out a familiar to draw another group of wolves in which lead to the group having to finish things up quicker than they were used to. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Miriel used her only attack spell so far against the wolves as well aiming at certain spots in which will deal more damage or give a chance for the others to get hits in rapidly. Miriel was a classic example of a support type magician that did not lead the battle but altered it enough for others to succeed. ¡°Rah!¡± However things don''t always turn up well and a wolf appeared and attacked Miriel from the side. However... ¡°Hah!¡± Sain immediately went into action and hit the wolf back a couple times with his spear. His eyes and body focused as he hit the eyes and inner mouth area until he finally stabbed his spear hard in the head killing it in one blow. ¡°Few~¡± Sain breathed out and muttered something that Miriel didn''t hear. Before she knew it, the battle ended and she was staring at Sain who was checking something in his window, most likely his status window. Before Miriel knew it, she snapped out of it trying to get unnecessary thoughts out of her head. [p=center]xXx[/p] Eventually days passed and even a week where the group finally reached level 20. It was a fairly slower rate than before since they grind on only wolves even at night. However thanks to this their skill proficiency increased rapidly and then gained quite a bit of money altogether. Because of this, the total amount of money the group totalled up to a few gold pieces which was enough to buy a new good weapon for one person or a piece of armour. ¡°I don''t think we should buy new equipment yet¡± said Miriel plainly. Although equipment were important, having money was even more important in some cases. Money was used everywhere while equipment could only degrade in quality after use. They needed the money for supplies and such. However she could not reveal she ached for Sain who....well she could not think about it any more than she did. ¡°True, although we could buy some good gear, it''s better to wait a while until we have more gold to buy it in one go at least¡± said Sain agreeing, ¡°Plus only Raven, Shadow and Lyndis have proper defence with their armour.¡± Sain looked at those whom gifted them with proper equipment that was suited for them. Namely everyone but him! Serena and Miriel had robes, Raven and Lyndis had some basic armour while Shadow has some sort of leather armour as well dyed black. Each of them had proper weapons including himself that would last quite a while at least until level 50 but still, he wore the default armour the game gave you. Sain unconsciously looked at the armour store which sold some good leather armour that was on the level of Raven and Lyndis'' own for around the amount that they had but it was a foolish idea since they needed to spend that money on supplies for what they wanted to do next. With some regret, Sain turned to the group. ¡°Since we''re level 20 now, wolves aren''t that great for hunting. I heard from the general store clerk that there is a nearby dungeon filled with kobolds on the first level which are level 20. On the second and third floors however, there are goblins which should be around level 50.¡± Naturally going to a stronger hunting ground in order to become stronger through hunting! It was something that even the most clueless of people would do since it would benefit them greatly with monsters that give more experience on kills. Moreover, dungeons were a very useful place for hunting. Other than the fact that they are often filled with some sort of treasure if it had not been explored already, monster spawns are much higher which is great in some cases although they are 50% stronger as if it was night in dungeons. At the end of the dungeon there are often a boss monster that respawns at a slower rate than other monsters but there is a chance that it will drop a rare item! The only exception to this rule was respawning is of unique boss monsters that are much more powerful than normal boss monsters to the point that even if guilds unite, there is not a full chance of slaying it. In the past one particular player went around doing impossible quests that involved him often slaying these unique boss monsters that threaten the continent! ¡°All right, let''s go to that dungeon, we have enough supplies for at least a month of hunting right?¡± asked Sain to Miriel and Lyndis who are the cooks of the group and therefore managers of the supplies. ¡°Yep¡± ¡°Of course.¡± However before the group left, Sain checked the group''s status window using his party scan skill of course with their permission. It was a feature that he did not realise the skill had until later when it levelled up once more. Status Window [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Title: Tactician,Title: Dark Walker]Fame: 15,Fame: 15[/quart][quart=Health: 1030,Health: 748]Mana: 475,Mana: 203[/quart][quart=Strength: 40 +12,Strength: 33 +3]Agility: 42 +11,Agility: 73 +11[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 34 +11,Intelligence: 10 +1]Wisdom: 34+11,Wisdom: 10 +1[/quart][quart=Vitality: 43 +1,Vitality: 30 +1]Stamina: 30 +1,Stamina: 25 +1[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 25 +2,Fighting Spirit: 32 +2]Endurance: 15 +1,Endurance: 13 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership: 3 +1,Leadership: 0 +1]Luck: 1 +1,Luck: 24 +11[/quart][quart=Offense: 16,Offense: 12]Defence: 15,Defence: 26[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Title: Shield-Bearer,Title: Blade Dancer]Fame: 15,Fame: 15[/quart][quart=Health: 1592,Health: 802]Mana: 258,Mana: 358[/quart][quart=Strength: 58 +12,Strength: 57 +2]Agility: 38 +11,Agility: 43 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 10 +6,Intelligence: 35 +4]Wisdom: 15 +6,Wisdom: 12 +4[/quart][quart=Vitality: 59 +11,Vitality: 32 +1]Stamina: 33 +6,Stamina: 22 +1[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 22 +7,Fighting Spirit: 10 +1]Endurance: 18 +6,Endurance: 10 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +6,Leadership: 0 +1]Luck: 0 +6,Luck: 2 +1[/quart][quart=Offense: 22,Offense: 18]Defence: 36,Defence: 35[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Title: Sound Maiden,Title: Nature Wielder]Fame: 15,Fame: 35[/quart][quart=Health: 311,Health: 311]Mana: 709,Mana: 650[/quart][quart=Strength: 9 +2,Strength:9 +2]Agility: 31 +1,Agility: 30 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 77 +13,Intelligence: 54 +11]Wisdom: 35 +13,Wisdom: 59 +11[/quart][quart=Vitality: 10 +1,Vitality: 10 +1]Stamina: 12 +1,Stamina: 9 +11[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +1,Leadership: 0 +1]Luck: 0 +1,Luck: 1 +1[/quart][quart=Offense: 10,Offense: 10]Defence: 10,Defence: 10[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
Sain smiled at these numbers although they did not show say what the bonus stats are from nor what bonuses they had on their character, it was enough that you would be the overall view of the person. If it weren''t for the fact that the entire group knew that they had to spend years with each other, they probably wouldn''t even dare ask. Looking at the status windows as they walked to the dungeon which was only a few kilometres away from the city, Sain found that the group according to something that he had known after some minor research above average in stats compared to other players not at the top. Since a long time ago, when it was shown multiple times by Weed first, then the Gemochis and finally the countless other users, those who have done basic training before hunting were very strong to the point that you felt they were monsters. At level 1 they rivalled a level 30 with stats alone. With time they only get stronger as their advantage over other players stays the same while they collect equipment and all other things that other players do to increase stats as well. Once there were some famous people complaining about such an advantage in the game but he was shot down so fast that he became a hated person by the world. The fact that a person spending a month or more doing this alone stripped all sort of hatred towards finishing the basic training before going out. The simple fact was that no player right in their mind would do this unless they were obsessed and had a strong mind to endure the sheer boredom and intense strain on the body. Even though the group was not at that level, they were still quite strong in his eyes. Their teamwork was evolving quickly and they did not need words in battle to understand what needed to be done. This made it a lot easier for Sain since now he doesn''t need to remind Lyndis not to charged and get surrounded, Raven to stop pushing forward only a few enemies instead of a lot of them and so on. ''Before....my voice hurt quite a bit even after drinking lots of water but now it looks like my throat can endure it for a while unless something bad happens'' thought Sain as nearly a quarter of the day passed and they arrived at the entrance of the dungeon. The place was called Dunxix Dungeon and was a place in which a number of players came to hunt for until around level 50 where the place really did not give as much experience after that. The group looked at a tower of a rock the entrance was and the stairs that led into darkness. Dunxix Dungeon was a dungeon that descended rather than ascend and was the most common type of dungeon and was close to the city making this a heavily popular spot. However the numbers in this dungeon still only amounted to around 100 at a time due to the general low population of the city the group started in the first place. Cities with good rumours had lots of players in them, cities with bad rumours like Witchhelm had a much lower player population though it was still high compared to in the past when the game was really only getting started. Most the players in Witchhelm were of a higher average level due to be located in the frontier of the Western Continent where there had been many monster invasions and attacks of all sorts. In the past, the North was a freezing cold hell, the East was the wilderness which would eat you alive, the South was a burning desert with only the strongest lived and to the West was the Wild Frontier which was home to many powerful monsters and weird environments like constant raining areas, poison swamps and so on. And on the edge of the continents in these locations were the 10 restricted zones which were the most dangerous places in which normal players would never set foot in since even if you are a top player, there is a high chance you will die. The reason for this is that on the lowest scale, the average levels of the monsters are around 400 at least along with special characteristics such as giant monsters or flying monsters which are the hardest types to handle. ¡°Level 28 Cleric!¡± ¡°Right, we need someone who can tank kobolds at least!¡± ¡°I''m a level 30 fire mage waiting for a party to go hunt down goblins!¡± Getting near the entrance, there were a number of players that were seeking a party. None of them disturbed the group since they looked to be full either way. In the game, the normal number of players in a party would be 6, this would increase with higher leadership. It is possible to have more players in a party but there would be some side effects like a higher chance that the party will be inflicted with fear or confusion as well as the high difficulties in controlling a large number of players. Because of this, while some players looked at the group, they did not actively try to scout them since there was a high chance of causing bad feelings towards yourself if you try to take from another''s party. Sain looked at the numerous players and their gear and thought, ''Most of them have the same level of gear as us while there are some that have much better gear than us. I don''t think there are many that have worse things than us here at all. As expected from a place those from level 20-50 gather''. The group entered the dungeon and walked down the stairs to the first floor of this dungeon. ¡°First fight with kobolds!¡± said Lyndis excitingly. You could see the fighting spirit was being poured out of her body already. ¡°Just don''t run out too far and die¡± warned Miriel, a dungeon was extremely dangerous compared to normal hunting. Both Raven and Shadow kept their mouths shut since it was in their nature to and Serena simply looked around the dark stairs in fear of monsters that may pop out from the darkness. I too looked around for a bit but stopped since other players would notice if such things happened in this dungeon already. In another 2 minutes, the group arrived at the bottom to the stairs. ¡°That was quite a long walk down¡± Sain commented, at the group''s pace, the first floor would be more than a hundred metres deep alone. ¡°The air is kinda thick and dry down here as well¡± said Lyndis complaining. Miriel added in, ¡°Air circulations is really bad, no wonder why there aren''t that many players here in the first place. If it was further away from the city than no one in their right mind would come here¡± Sain nodded and lead the group forward to see what this dungeon looked like. This was their first dungeon so they at least wanted it to be a good experience. The underground dungeon was not that dusty at all which was a good thing and while there were some single corridors here and there, there were much more multi-corridor connections around the place. The walls were carved in and the place looked like some sort of mine though there was no precious ores here else the city would''ve already claimed it. After another 5 minutes the first sighting of the enemy was finally here. There were 3 kobolds straight in front though the view between the group and them was partly blocked by a wall. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Shadow, can you see if there are any more enemies around here?¡± asked Sain ordering him. Shadow nodded and disappeared for a while and then reappeared saying, ¡°None, at least in the range where they can come and attack us during the battle.¡± Sain nodded since Shadow had the highest agility of the group and therefore he had the highest speed as well. If Shadow said that there weren''t any enemies, then there wasn''t any enemies in a long run. ¡°Melody of Power!¡± chanted Miriel setting up the buff.
Strength increased by 14% for 10 minutes
Miriel''s ''Melody of Sound'' was at Beginner Level 4 now and it''s power increased to 14%. Although the time limit of the spell did not rise, it was a moderate gain with the increase in power and speed the group gains. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± Serena chanted the spell and placed it on Raven who was the tank. Minor Health Regeneration was something that lasted for a while and was useful in that the healing the constant throughout the period in which it is active. ''It''s only too bad it only last for a total of 100 seconds since it can be very useful if it can healing throughout a battle'' thought Sain getting ready to fight as well. At this point the Kobolds saw the flashes of light from the spells. ¡°Kekekeke Human!¡± ¡°Kill the human!¡± All three of the kobolds rushed at the group. While Raven and Lyndis were in the most danger as the front line fighters, more or less the entire group was nervous from this first battle. However the only exception was Sain who took out his staff and held it with one hand and the spear in another hand and chanted, ¡°Mana Bolt¡± calmly. Mana gathered in the staff as a ball appeared at the end and shot extremely fast at the leg of one of the kobolds. ¡°Ah! Magic human magic!¡± The other two kobolds didn''t even mind that their comrade was hit and was down. Sain smiled at this, ''If they were better in teamwork than this would be even harder but...'' ¡°What are you guys waiting for?! Attack!¡± shouted Sain beginning the start of the attack. ¡°Footwork! Shield Bash!¡± Raven spared no time and used ''Footwork'' to charge forward at a higher speed than the kobold to the left and used ''Shield Bash'' at the same time with the increased speed to hit the kobold back even more. Bang! The left kobld was stunned and sent flying. At the same time Lyndis charged up as well to the right kobold. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± chanted Miriel hitting the side of the kobold which allowed Lyndis to take the first attack. ¡°Fire Blade!¡± her sword turned red and burnt the place where she cut the kobold at. It''s arm and bits of it''s leg was sent flying off as she combo attacked it without rest. At this point, the third kobold got up from the ground and once more charged at the group. ¡°Backstab¡± said Shadow calmly sinking his blade into the back of the head of the third kobold killing it with one shot with a critical and fatal hit at the same time.
You have gained experience
The battle finished in another few minutes with the kobolds that Raven and Lyndis handling soon died running out of health although Shadow managed to kill one in one strike. Sain checked his stamina and it was still quite high although the others'' stamina dropped a bit more than you think with them fighting seriously all the way. Of all classes, those of the melee classes had the highest stamina due to them constantly using large amounts of stamina while fighting. It was due to this that they had more stamina than the usual ranged players. ¡°These Kobolds are stronger than they look¡± said Lyndis wiping off the sweat from her forehead due to her concentrating too much in battle. Raven the said, ¡°There''s health, speed and power are much higher than wolves.¡± It was one of the few cases in which Raven would talk. Usually he kept quiet but sometimes he talked adding into the conversation. Sain calculated at bit in his thoughts. ''The lowest level of kobolds are level 20 and they can increase to around level 30 and sometimes to level 40 in rare cases. Those kobolds were definitely the low ranked ones of around level 20 so we should be fine for at least a while. I believe we can at least take some that are around level 25 or so as well.'' Sain had confidence that the group could not die that easily in this dungeon! Plus there were many signs of other parties in this dungeon as well. Clang, Bang, Boom The sounds of battle were often nearby in this dungeon. The first floor was relatively small so this was the case but it immediately expanded much bigger from the second floor onwards. Goblins started to appear in the second floor while the third floor almost consisted of them with lots of variations in their ranks. While Kobolds were usually nothing special, goblins were more similar to humans that they have swordsmen, spearmen and mages as well. It was only fortunate that their clumsy fingers cannot use a bow. ¡°Okay, let''s find another group of enemies to fight¡± said Sain once more leading the group deeper into the dungeon. [p=center]xXx[/p] A week passed by in the dungeon and the group only levelled up a total of 3 times. But right now they were in another battle against Kobolds of around level 27 on Sain''s estimate. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Both Miriel and Sain''s skill proficiency with Mana Bolt was at Beginner Level 4 even though they used it quite a bit. Every time they levelled the skill up, another 2 mana bolts were added into the attack so now they can fire 7 of them at once. A total of 14 small mana bolts rapidly came out of their staves and directly hit the forehead of the Kobold over and over again which resulted in them dying from the attacks. ¡°Haaa!¡± Lyndis went and killed off the last remaining Kobold with Raven and Shadow while Serena kept the group''s health and stamina up. You have gained Experience Sain checked his experience bar and it was 40% filled from the mere 5% gain from this battle. Already Sain could feel the late game drag onto his levelling. Normally if you were lucky, gaining 3-4% in a battle was really good. Unless you fought monsters a large number of levels above you, only then would you be able to gain more. The more difficult the battle, the more experience you gain. The group now at level 23 was about to take care of most kobolds in small numbers. However they hesitate to take on those who were in larger grouping then them. The main reason why players were able to take down monsters was that they often outnumber it for the most part. The second reason was that they had better gear than the monsters. However if one of these advantages were gone then the chance of death was much higher. This time, the group battled against 4 kobolds at once so one kobold roughly gave you around 1% experience on the kill. In the past week, the group killed several hundred kobolds one by one until they reached this far. The rate would''ve been higher if not for the higher density of players in this dungeon as well as the group needing to take a break once in a while. The group kept their health, mana and stamina high for each battle which resulted in their slow pace in their mind. ''At this rate, we will need to take several months to a year in game to reach level 100'' thought Sain. He had not forgotten about the task the group was given in exchange for a place to stay, in fact none of the group members did. This game was only a result in the nature of the request. On average, a player would take around 2 and a half years in real life to reach around level 300. Reaching level 100 would only take a faction of this time of around a few months in real life which was around the rate the group was going at right now. Reaching level 200 would take around a full year in real life as well. However these numbers were only for the overall view of players. Many players that hunted constantly reach level 100 in half the time than other casual players while reaching level 200 in around a year. It could be said that Weed took only 9 months to reach level 300 which was an amazing rate of growth for a player. Other players would take at least double that amount. The reason why Sain was so distressed in their rate of growth was that it would take a year to reach the point in which they could go around the continent with some safety which was level 200. That would mean they would have another 4 years at best to finish the request in which they would probably reach level 400 if they constantly hunted. ¡°We need to pick up the pace a lot now¡± said Sain which honestly surprised the rest of the group. ¡°Umm...isn''t the current pace now good enough?¡± asked Serena. She was confused since they were making solid progress compared to other players at the same rate. ¡°True, the rate in which we were levelling decreased but that''s only because the experience we need to level up just increased¡± said Shadow wanting in to this conversation which will direct the group''s hunting from now on. ¡°Yes compared to before where we levelled up 8 times in a week, we only levelled up 3 times here even with the increased number of enemies¡± said Sain, ¡°But at this rate we will be nothing but average players. Our skills aren''t special, our equipment aren''t special and frankly we''re not special in fighting as well. We are more likely to finish things with the old man at the mansion if we at least become stronger than the average player.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel stared at Sain with several thoughts. Most of them was deciding on what stance we wanted the group to take and the other was the safety of the group to the increased levelling speed the group would have. Royal Road gave large benefits to those who take great risks. The greater the risk, the higher the reward if you succeed that this. Many fail with only a few succeeding in these dangers which is a think but heavy line between the top players and just strong players. ¡°Alright, we''ll head to the second floor and see how that takes us¡± said Miriel, ¡°If things are too bad then we just need to slow down later. Learning our limits is one why to be stronger as well.¡± Raven and Lyndis who were the ones breaking their limits as they go nodded. Lyndis'' health was catching up to Shadow and Sain''s which were around 900 and 1000 respectively. Raven''s health on the other hand was 1000 health more than the others as well at a sum of around 1900. On the other hand Miriel and Serena only had around 300 worth of health in exchange of having double in mana. In terms of mana alone, Sain was the only one closest to the two with 100 less mana than them with 440 mana while Lyndis was next at around 375. Shadow and Raven had the lowest mana of 215 and 241 respectively as well. Overall the group could only be called abnormal at any rate. With less than a full month in game and they were at this point already. It was only after level 30 that hunting really picked up with the basics of players being solidified. If another player saw these health and mana levels, they would be shocked since normal at the same level they would have only have half the mana at this point while Health was above average certainly but Raven''s one went to the extremes already. This was due to Raven pumping some of his level up points into Vitality which normal players did not do often since they prefer more damage than more health in battle which lead to the group having above average health pools in the first place. It was only Miriel and Serena who had typical health pools of magicians that made sense. But their mana pools were already on a level that it rivalled level 60s in the amount of mana they carried. No one in the group knew yet of this abnormality. It was only due to that something that their master placed on them before they left that resulted in this. [p=center]xXx[/p] The group fighting their way there, walked down to the second level where the lowest levelled Kobold was at level 30 and Goblins at level 50 sometimes appeared. At the stairs between the first and second floors, there were a total of 2 other parties already there. ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Ah¡± The two leaders of these parties were startled when they saw the group. Not many would come down to the second floor that often compared to the first floor. Sain took the moment to talk to them. ¡°I''m Sain, the leader of this group¡± Sain said greeting the other parties'' leaders. ¡°I''m Astre¡± ¡°Bob''s the name¡± Sain looked at them both. Astre was a female that was of the archer class while Bob was the classic warrior class. Behind them was a total of 4 players each making Sain''s party the one with the highest number by 1. ¡°Why are you guys staying here?¡± asked Sain curious on the reason. Both of them were about to speak at the same time but both stopped immediately as well. Then they thought for a few seconds and them spoke one at a time while giving each other a glance of mutual agreement. ¡°Recently there had been reports of a strong monster wondering in this dungeon. It''s level should be around 100 but most players only get a glimp of it as they hide from it while others that faced it all died.¡± said Bob. ¡°It sometimes goes to the second floor as well which makes things very difficult for those under level 50. This new monster that wondered in this dungeon only appeared since a week ago so there hasn''t been a strong group of players that killed it¡± added in Astre. Sain frowned at this. A monster around level 100 would be impossible for them to kill no matter what. Sain decided to question these two a bit more for the moment. ¡°Are you guys hiding from the monster or waiting for the chance to kill it?¡± asked Sain. However the two did not answer at all. Sain thought that they would not answer any more and just decided to see how things worked out later on. He directed the group to go forward. [p=center]xXx[/p] Eden was half lazing around as he waited for the report to come in. By now the ''thing'' that he placed in Dunxix Dungeon would''ve gained some attention from the players that were there. It was a small trick in placing a stronger monster there without anyone noticing with his teleport skills. ¡°Now...what will they do? Attack or avoid...¡± Eden watched the screen in front of him which was a birds eye view of the group via his skills ''Eagle Vision'' and ''Hell Stalker''. Eden at this point was really bored out of his mind waiting for things to happen now. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Sain charged up and shot 7 mana bolts at the chest of the Kobold in front of him stunning it for a split second in which he took to stab it once before retreating. When the Kobold regained it''s movement, it quickly caught up to Sain and swung down with it''s rusted sword with great power. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡±
Damage will be reduced by 35% for the next 2 hits
Sain blocked with the spear in his right hand but the force of the strike still went through. Bang!
You took 144 damage
If not for the ''Cracked Barrier'' spell casted on him by Miriel, he would''ve taken over 200 damage with that one hit event though he was blocking. ''As expected from a level 30+ monster'' thought Sain as he went back into the heat of the combat. Right now the group was taking on a mere 3 Kobolds but these ones were much more different compared to the ones on the first floor. First of all, their speed and power were much higher and their intelligence was as well which lead to them not getting flanked easily and backing off to draw out the battle. ¡°Life Burn!¡± shouted Lyndis spreading flames concentrated onto one Kobold but it soon ran out of the range of the skill causing Lyndis to waste precious life. Lyndis chased after the Kobold with a ''Tch'' deactivating the skill Bang! Bang! Raven on the other hand was having an one on one fight with what seems to be the strongest Kobold of the three. Even with his high health and defence, he was being pushed back slowly with sheer force. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Raven stabbed twice but all it did was hit the air. The Kobold he was facing was much faster than him and if he couldn''t hit it, then it was worthless. Just as Sain was looking to the other two whom were fighting, the Kobold he was facing attacked again when he was unprepared. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Double Strike!¡± Miriel''s mana bolts hit the Kobold from the front and Shadow hit twice at the back causing it to lose a great deal of it''s health at once. ¡°Thanks!¡± said Sain in a loud voice as he swung his spear with one hand while preparing ''Mana Bolt'' with the staff. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± 7 Mana Bolts was shot out and it hit the Kobold squarely in the chest area turning it into grey flames which disappeared due to it''s health reaching zero at least.
You have gained Experience
Sain turned and started to help out Raven next since Lyndis had the sort of help of Shadow once in a while with Miriel helping her as well. Serena already was casting healing spells for the whole group so she had little mana left. ''If we don''t finish this off now, then things will get ugly quick'' thought Sain as he attacked the Kobold that was attacking Raven from the side with his spear. ¡°Haa!¡± The spear hit the arm area of the Kobold though it wasn''t the weapon arm so it didn''t do that much damage to the Kobold in it''s combat ability. ¡°Garr! Kill Human!¡± Drawing it''s hatred now, the Kobold taken off guard went to attack Sain immediately when it kicked Raven back a few metres. Feeling the threatening situation, a certain skill automatically activated.
Bursting Will is now active, all stats +10%
With the slight increase in speed, Sain managed to somewhat dodge the first blow taking only a bit of damage, the second blow hit his spear arm which made things bad for him. He couldn''t cast at all since it would allow the Kobold to hit and probably kill him easily. The third attack was blocked by Sain''s wooden staff which caused it to take massive damage in durability. Sain was going to die if the next hit touches him. He only had a mere 200 health left. [p=center]xXx[/p] Raven saw that Sain was in trouble and immediately got up to attack the Kobold, but he didn''t have enough time at all to get there to protect Sain. ''Not enough time, have to go faster, going faster is impossible'' such thoughts quickly consumed his head. Raven was trying to find a solution but couldn''t find one in time. Therefore... ¡°Footwork!¡± Raven charged forward from where he fell straight at the Kobold without a decrease in speed. If thinking didn''t work then he just needed to charge without regard to his own safety. Normally when you attack, to get balance you slow down a bit even though it gives a split second for the enemy to attack. This was done to decrease the chance of counter attack and leaving a massive gap in defence. But disregarding this you would gain around 10-20% more speed. But Raven charged forward as Sain was easily being suppressed hitting the Kobold hard on the side with his shield. Bang! ¡°Garr!¡± The Kobold let out a sound in shock as Raven pushed it to the wall in one go. Bang! The Kobold cough up some blood due to the shock to it''s body from Raven''s charge.
You have gained the skill: Ram
Ram Beginner Level 1 Charge forward toppling down enemies as you run. The skill will disregard any sort of active attack or defence you use as you run forward. Mana Cost: 15 Damage Reduction: 10% Cool Down: 1 Minute
Raven gained a skill in the instant he performed the action in which he slammed the Kobold without regard to his safety but he wasn''t focusing on that right now. ¡°Ahhhhhhh!¡± Raven''s voice loudened as he slammed his shield into the Kobold stuck into the wall. Bang! Bang! Bang! Due to the long range of his spear, he threw it aside in his rage as he punched and slammed the Kobold until it died in a bloody way. There was no chance for the Kobold to even move as Raven attacked in a reckless way.
You have gained Experience
¡°Ha...Ha...ha...¡± Raven''s breathing was disturbed due to this as he tried to relax as much as possible. Raven turned and picked up his spear and watched as his group looked with amazement and somewhat fear at the same time. ''Why are they giving me that look like Serena did at that time?'' wondered Raven. [p=center]xXx[/p] Lyndis was shocked, very shocked at what she saw. Even though Raven''s DPS was lower than hers by a long mile, he easily soloed the strongest of the Kobolds by himself in a rage that was unlike him. Lyndis had the chance to observe since she, Shadow and Miriel managed to take out the Kobold that was sticking to her only to see that Sain was in deep trouble. Naturally they moved to protect Sain but Raven was one step faster immediately slamming the Kobold to the wall. Soon he bashed the Kobold, threw away his spear and continued to attack using his fist and shield to eventually kill the Kobold. What was not unusual was not the fighting style to Lyndis but the sheer blood-lust that went through Raven as he seemingly happily beat the Kobold to death. ''That level of fighting....seems natural to him though it feels very unnatural at the same time with the feeling that''s I''m getting from him....'' thought Lyndis still in shock. Soon Raven turned to the group and she needed to change her expression else she might hurt his feelings while thinking, ''Most people are the same that they rather stay with people whoa are comfortable with them. Begin shocked or afraid makes them very uncomfortable and can break down relationships easily. The most stable relationships are when both sides are equal.'' Lyndis looked at her battered sword that had lots of work done to it. It''s durability was just over a third and the damage was reduced a bit as well. It just shows how much this single battle took it''s toll on the sword. ''I need to get a new weapon soon...though I can''t spend too much money. Armour is fine for now though at level 50 I would like some new armour. A new sword...is a must. After this trip, I''ll take my savings and buy a new sword that has a slightly higher reach'' Lyndis looked at Sain''s staff as well and it was in a similar condition to her sword. They needed to repair it now else things will go downhill since they didn''t have any back up weapons at all. But before Lyndis could approach Raven for repairs, a short bulb of hair shot pass her. ¡°Are you all right?!¡± said Serena in a panic to the point that she didn''t realised her forceful actions. She immediately went around touching parts of Raven to see if there was some nasty injured before casting both ''Minor Health Regeneration'' and ''Minor Stamina Regeneration'' on him. ¡°...pff¡± Lyndis couldn''t help but let out a small laugh at this scene. The one that was least afraid of Raven was also the most timid one that didn''t do that much besides healing. However Lyndis felt that the two were similar in a way although she hoped it was not the blood-lust that frightened her in the first place. Soon Lyndis and Sain approached Raven since he had the very useful ''repair'' skill that not that many players had. In total only 1% of players had that skill while not even 1% of those players had it to at least the intermediate level. Because of this, many people would pay money to get their things repaired and would praise those who did it for free. Many of the players that had the ''repair'' skill were blacksmiths since becoming one generated the skill or having the skill to intermediate level would allow you to gain the blacksmithing skill without changing class. Soon enough the group was completely healed in all aspect and went to find more enemies to fight though not too many since some of them may actually die. [p=center]xXx[/p] Another week passed by with the much faster hunting against higher levelled Kobolds and sometimes even Goblins. The group managed to break through the level 30 point in the last few battles. Now they were at the level where the weakest of foes were at their level. Sain was very pleased with this rapid progress. The week before, they levelled up 3 times and now they levelled up 7 times in the same time period with the experience requirement increasing all the time as well. Since then, Sain, Shadow and Lyndis'' health broke through 1000 with an average of 1200 health between the three. Raven went through 2000 health and was standing at around 2300 health right now as well. The mana side of things, Miriel still has the most mana with Serena in second and Sain in third with 837, 659 and 517 mana respectively. Lyndis had 445 mana while the last two was in the middle of 200-300 mana each. Because of this rapid growth in which their respective stats were increasing at a much steadier rate, the group was becoming more powerful than the average player now. While normal players would often place a number of points in single stats to get the best boost in power or speed early now, this results in sometimes improper characters with some stats lacking resulting in a lack of balance. However the group all placed stats spread out across the core stats they need which allowed them to grow balanced in their roles. Though early on this only results in slight increase from levelling, this balance will help the group in the long run. Sain had a balance of all core stats which in the end will results in him being a jacks of all trade but a master of none, but for leading the group, it was the perfect allocation of stats since he could fight close range and from range with magic at the same time. Shadow has the highest agility that was now over 100 reaching level 30 which was befitting him as a person who could sneak behind enemies even in battle. He was as tough as Sain in terms of health and defence but had the speed to back him up though his overall power was still lower. Raven on the other hand was an extreme tank with the most health and defence due to his high vitality nearing 100 at this points as well. While processing low intelligence and wisdom which leads to low mana compared to his health, he is only a bit slower than Sain but has much higher attack. Lyndis who is a combination of swordsmanship and fire magic has the same amount of strength as Raven and only a bit more agility and therefore speed but can use magic at the same time to double or even triple her damage at times. If not for the fact that she was placing a point in intelligence each time to increase her mana, she would''ve easily pass 100 in strength by now. Miriel and Serena have the lowest health but the highest mana pools in the group to the point it is much higher than Sain and Lyndis''. Miriel''s own intelligence stat is over 100 while Serena''s is reaching there. In contrast, Serena''s wisdom is balanced with her intelligence as well and was near the 100 point while Miriel''s wisdom stat was only around 50. While Miriel had a number of spells to support and attack with, Serena can only heal at best and with no attack options can only constantly used her spells over and over again throughout the battles increasing their skill proficiency greatly. Such was the state of the group now. They were nearing the end of the second floor and was approaching the third floor stairs. They were even strong enough now as a group that they could take on some Goblins though it would be very difficult at times. BOOM BOOM But that confidence was broken immediately against the sound of this monster. ¡°What in the world...?¡± muttered Sain as he saw the monster approaching them. According to Astre and Bob from the stairs to the first floor, it was around level 100 and could be a boss monster. Sain believed it when he saw the creature in person. It''s face had the shape of a rabbit while it''s body was much much larger like a fat troll. It wore metal armour that was rusted and smelled while in it''s left hand was a large cleaver covered with blood that was taller than the already tall Shadow who was 185 cm tall with Sain only a bit shorter in height. ¡°ROOOOOOOOAR!!!¡± The creature shouted seeing the group. Sain could only give one order in this position and with the current strength of the group. ¡°Run!¡±
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 10300~ - This chapter pretty much is their first time hunting in a dungeon. Compared to the outside, there is a much higher density of monsters so experience and gained a lot quicker as long as you don''t die~ - btw, I''m going to use the compressed status window form, which is in this chapter when I want to show the entire group''s status windows at once so it doesn''t take 3 pages to do. On another note, be warned that some numbers in the text may be wrong compared to the status windows though in this chapter, it''ll only at the end of the chapter that I mentioned their health and mana....well it should be fine. Vol.1 Chapter 9 - Goblin Chief ¡°Run!¡± Sain shouted and dragged Miriel and Serena who were the most affected by the monster''s fight spirit and ran. Raven, Shadow and Lyndis were behind him as they all ran away immediately not even trying to face the monster that was 3 metres tall and head was hitting the ceiling of the dungeon floor. BOOM BOOM BOOM Naturally with prey running away from it, the creature ran chasing the group at great speed that was unlike it''s large body type to begin with. The only thing between it and the group that made up for this difference was only one thing. The level difference or rather the difference in strength. The difference in levels was so high that it was as fast as the group which was by no means slow even by normal standards. ¡°Why is it chasing us?!¡± shouted Lyndis in annoyance. Sweat appeared all over her body when she saw that creature. It was a feeling of helplessness in front of an unbeatable creature. Minutes passed and the group went and ran through different turns left and right and even double backed a couple of times but the creature in some strangeness kept on finding them and chasing them in the end. Soon enough it gain even more speed that it would soon catch up to the group. ¡°We have to at least slow it down!¡± shouted Sain turning around to run backwards now. He aimed his staff at the right leg of the creature that was no way light but very very heavy. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± 7 mana bolts flew out of his staff and immediately hit the knee area in a tight area to deal more damage. ¡°ROOOOOOAR!¡± The creature shouted in anger with smoke coming out of the point where Sain''s mana bolts hit. There was no effect at all since the damage was so low. ¡°Shit, Run!¡± Sain immediately reminded everyone again even though they were all running at full speed again. ''There has to be a way to get everyone out of this damn situation alive! What is it...what is it....wait...it may be cruel but it can work!'' thought Sain quickly on the move with the others. ¡°Everyone split into two groups! Shadow, Lyndis you two are with me! We''re going to lure it away from the others!¡± The group was running to an even split between paths and it seems that it won''t merge for a while at least enough for the others to escape safely. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± Sain aimed and hit the eye areas of the creature that was actually quite small. Most of his shouts hit the area around it but still managed to piss it off greatly as he attracted all the attention and hatred of the creature that was 3 metres tall. ¡°ROOAR!¡± Sain, Shadow and Lyndis immediately ran to the right path with Lyndis shouting, ¡°Pocket Fireball!¡± firing something that was even smaller than the usual fireballs other players have at the creature as well drawing it in this path completely. ¡°ROOAR!!¡± BOOM BOOM BOOM The creature immediately ran to chase the three and didn''t even noticed that the 6 turned into 3 after a certain point. ''Looks like it''s brain is much smaller than it''s already small head'' thought Sain with a smile as the creature ran and tried to kill him in particular. Tens of metres passed as the three ran for dear life and then Sain suddenly said to Shadow: ¡°You be bait so we can escape.¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow had a look of disbelief as Sain continued. ¡°Attract it''s attention as much as possible and then disappear from it leaving it to catch up to us and the others. If you of all people can''t escape it then no one can. The meeting place will be the fifth battle we fought on this floor!¡± reaffirmed Sain also the plan itself was a very cruel thing to do. After a while and when time was running out Shadow said, ¡°Alright¡± and went to a stop and dash in the direction to the creature filled with courage. [p=center]xXx[/p] Shadow dashed to the creature, with it''s speed and his own it did not even take a second for them to collide. But they didn''t as at the last moment Shadow took out his dagger and leaped into the air. Stab!
Critical Hit!
Fatal Hit!
Zolerd will from now be blinded in one eye since it cannot regenerate it These three messages appeared as the Zolerd as it was called looked at the ''sudden'' Shadow in disbelief and then rage; lots and lots of rage. ¡°ROOOOAR!!!¡± Bang! The force from the roar itself was enough to blow Shadow back away in the direction to Sain and Lyndis who were still escaping. For Shadow who was skilled at disappearing, it was a simple matter to push the rage towards those two and save himself but he didn''t. ¡°Bring it on!¡± Shadow shouted with rage like the Zolerd and like a hero in the moment. With it''s large clever, the Zolerd swung down with great force diagonally to Shadow who leaped up to the right wall. Bang! Shadow kicked off the wall and did a flying kick to the Zolerd''s other eye. With this he looked back and no longer saw Sain and Lyndis at all which meant they have escaped. Shadow sighed in relief for a split second but then sensed danger from everywhere. By some instinct or some force Shadow knew that this was the end. However as he saw the hand was immediately grabbed him about to crush into into pieces or the large clever that was about to slice him in half, he could help but feel that he could get out of here alive and without a scratch. Poff! His body slipped through the hands of the Zolerd and reappeared metres away from it. Enough distance that Shadow could escape in time. But he didn''t since he did not understand what just happened at all. Then a message from the game appeared
You have generated the skill: Become Mist
Become Mist Beginner Level 1 Shatter your mortal body for a few moments to escape even from the grip of Dragons. In this form you will take on the form of a small mist and will be able to slip through anything physical and will not take any damage from physical attacks. However doing so will have a heavy cost. Health will be halved for the next 24 hours per use (This effect stacks) Cool Down: None
¡°What the hell?!¡± shouted Shadow in shock. He did not expect this kind of skill to appear at this moment. He checked that his maximum health was indeed halved for a period which was going to be a full day in game. However shouting at this moment caused the Zolerd to see him who was just about to be killed by it''s hand. ¡°ROOOOAR!!¡± The Zolerd with it''s low intelligence charged at Shadow trying to kill him once again. It was about to kill Shadow for real this time. However Shadow then shouted, ¡°Become Mist!¡± Shadow''s body ''disappeared'' from the Zolerd''s sight and never appeared again leaving it in a fury which would be then vented on a certain two parties at the stairs to the first floor. [p=center]xXx[/p] An hour passed as Sain and Lyndis regrouped with the other three. Since while in a dungeon you are unable to contact other people at all, they had nothing to go on but hope that he survived. Sain did say where the meeting place was but there was still a chance that the creature killed Shadow or he died on the way here. There was no real way to know until he actually appeared in person and said so. ¡°I''m back....¡± said a Shadow that was tattered more than you think. Most of his equipment had rips and holes at certain places. To be precise at the knees and elbow areas. ¡°What happened?!¡± asked Sain who was shocked the most of his appearance. Last time he saw, Shadow was all fine before he literally ordered him to death or near death. The others were already on the verge of lecturing him on his orders, especially Miriel and Lyndis. He really did not understand why they were angry at him. Comments such as ''Cruel'' and ''Heartless'' for some reason poured out of their mouth even from Lyndis who was there when it happened and didn''t even stop him. To Sain it was very strange since he did the correct thing because if it was anyone else, then they would''ve died for certain. ¡°Long story short I escaped though not completely unharmed¡± said Shadow calmly even though Sain could see that his health was lower, much lower than it used to. To Sain''s stare above his head Shadow immediately said: ¡°I gained a skill that allowed me to escape properly in exchange of halving my health for a day.¡± Sain also despaired a bit seeing that Shadow''s health was only at a quarter right now and had no indication of increasing even though Serena casted her healing spell on him. ¡°Then....¡± muttered Sain. ¡°I used it twice, first time I didn''t know what happened when I escaped from certain death, second time I accidentally used it incorrectly and my equipment ended up like this and my health was halved again¡± explained Shadow calmly as if it was natural. Shadow had always been the patient type though could get a bit arrogant at times during doing something great. Sain thought about these words carefully and then asked Shadow, ¡°What are the chances that a normal monster can hit you?¡± ¡°Very low if everyone does their jobs right¡± Shadow looked at Lyndis and Raven for confirmation on this, ¡°My presence is quite low and with stealth it''s even lower. Most of them time monsters only notice me if I attack.¡± ¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°!¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± Although the entire group already knew this from the numerous fights that had together with Shadow immediately ''disappearing'' due to the others focusing on the enemies, it was still surprising to hear it from his mouth. It was like a short person admitting he was short even though he and everyone else avoided that subject. Sain and the others believed that Shadow had a number of mental scars due to his lack of presences. In that way the entire group was the same and grew up mostly isolated even if it didn''t show. ¡°Anyway the good thing is your alive¡± said Sain with a soft smile though he could still feel Miriel and Lyndis'' stare at him. ¡°....¡± ''When will they stop staring at me like I''m the villain here?'' thought Sain. [p=center]xXx[/p] Miriel was at the back of the group thinking about what to do now. To her, there was no clear solution on dealing with a creature that was 70 levels high than them right now. The easiest way was to get out of this dungeon and travel to another one to hunt but the next nearest dungeon was kilometres away and the average monster level there was too high for the group right now. ''We need to get to at least level 50. Until then we have to continue hunting in this dungeon...though we can go back one floor to increase our levels a bit before heading back down. But that will take too long and Sain wanted us to get stronger faster as well....damn I need a spell that alerts me to enemies...'' thought Miriel frantically. In actual fact, magicians and the likes do have a spell that will alert them and their allies to enemies but it is an intermediate spell that you can only learn after level 60 from the mage guild. In the end Miriel had to ask Sain on what to do even though his plans recently have been getting more and more demanding and wasn''t exactly considering lives. Even though Miriel was the calculating type, she wanted to make sure there was the least amount of danger to everyone while getting some results, but Sain is doing the exact opposite wanting to gain the most results with the most danger. As such Miriel and the others heard Sain''s answer to what they would do: ¡°It''s simple, fight until we get stronger than defeat that creature which was called...Zolerd right? If we kill it, then we will gain lots of experience at once but we need to get stronger...a lot stronger before we even have a chance against it. Being at level 40 or will do.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel was speechless on this. Even if they all gained 10 levels from level 30 to level 40, there would still be a 60 level difference between them and the creature known as Zolerd. Not to mention it was a boss monster as well! In Royal Road, monsters are classified into three types. Normal, named and Boss; normal monsters are the regular fodder players fight against most of the time with average difficulties and rewards. Named monsters are a tier higher than normal monsters with greater difficulties and rewards as a result. Sometime named monsters will drop rare items or materials when killed which makes them a clear target for stronger parties. However Boss monsters are a tier or more above that. Usually with abnormally high health and damage, only the truly prepared would face one of these types of monster. Boss monsters literally ruled the dungeon they lived in and even guilds have to use numbers to take them out. If there were any players that could solo them even in small numbers than they would be considered first-ranked players or monsters themselves due to the high difficulties. Not to mention most boss monsters have some characteristics that made them even more threatening. A Lich like Bar Khan in the past was literally immortal unless you cut off his power supply from Miriel read on the adventures of Weed. Even for the strongest player in this game, he had to use every mean to take them down. ''It''s impossible to defeat it now...and not to mention it IS strange that there isn''t a higher levelled party here taking care of that Zolerd that has been killing players left and right'' thought Miriel as they intentionally made their way to avoid the Zolerd and still fight against other monsters. ¡°I guess we have to fight goblins then¡± said Sain out loud enough for the others to heard it and pale at the suggestion. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± chanted Miriel as she shot them rapidly at one of the goblins. The goblin casually took the hit taking little damage due to it''s higher defence compared to her attack power. To this Miriel let out a ''Tch'' since it was harder to handle them with so little spells under her belt. ¡°Ram!¡± shouted Raven as he covered for Miriel smashing aside the goblin ignoring the one that still attacked him. Shadow appeared again and stabbed the goblin that was on tail on Raven and quickly disappeared again since he only had a quarter health left. It had been an hour since Sain made a horrible suggestion that almost killed them several times. Not to mention it was a stupid idea, it was borderline insane to even think about! Goblins were at least level 50 while they were level 30 with a 20 level difference plus they were not alone! Facing 3 goblins was like facing 10 Kobolds at once with their speed, power and defence even though they lacked a number of things like teamwork. ¡°Kill the humans!¡± ¡°Kill Kill!¡± ¡°Argggg!¡± At the start things went well with the goblins being split into individual battles with Raven, Lyndis and Sain taking the lead. However soon it was very apparent that the difference in skills and levels was too high. Raven was at half health, Lyndis on a third and Sain was casually going from critical to normal once in a while. ¡°Ha....Minor Heal!¡± Sain casted a healing spell on himself though it only increased his health by a bit to get him out of critical as he dodged the attack from the goblin with it''s machete. Jumping backwards he casted, ¡°Mana Bolt¡± with a shout aiming at the hand with the machete. Bang! The attack didn''t work and the goblin started to attack Sain again. ¡°Minor Stamina Regeneration!¡± chanted Serena was Sain. ''Oh, it wasn''t just Raven she cast her spells on'' thought Miriel humorously while in grave danger with the rest of the group. Most of the time as the main tank, Raven needed the most healing so Serena naturally focused more power there than the others. ''Mana Bolt can recast in another few seconds....need to recast defence buff'' ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± chanted Miriel aiming at Lyndis who was steadily getting to critical health like Sain. Lyndis blocked the attack taking a bit least damage than normal and counter attacked slicing off a bit of the shoulder of the goblin in return. ¡°Ahh! Kill Kill!¡± the goblin shouted going berserk at Lyndis. However Lyndis unlike her normal self was fully concentrating on this battle and simply dodged and parried attacks while occasionally attacking back. However Miriel noticed her health was going down too quick, more than the others. Miriel pointed her staff at the goblin attacking Lyndis just as Shadow appeared to help as well. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Back Stab!¡± Miriel''s mana bolts and Shadow''s back stab hit the goblins at the same time with Miriel''s attack stunning it while Shadow''s attack dealt 4 times more damage with just a critical hit since stunned enemies takes more damage than usual, about 2 times. Then.... Miriel felt something like a inspiration to a new spell to use seeing this happened before her eyes. ''If I can stun the enemies like this then....'' Miriel gathered mana in her staff with her Sound Magic Mastery that was still quite low since she didn''t actually have proper spells to use it with. She could only have some noise using mana from the mastery skill. Miriel gathered the sound in the staff and let it burst out at once letting out a huge shriek throughout the battlefield. Shhhhhhhrieeeeeeeeeek!!! For some odd reason, only the goblins were affected by this. It was like only Miriel and the goblins could hear this sound though it didn''t harm her at all as the caster.
You have gained the spell: Shriek
Shriek Beginner Level 1 Gather sound and blast it out to cause an insane outburst of noise that damages the enemy''s hearing and balance enough to stun them. This spell is more effective against those with good hearing and less effective with those who have poor hearing. The spell does not affect the caster nor the party members when used. Mana Cost: 30 Cool Down: 2 Minutes
¡°Ahhh! Poison sound!¡± ¡°Noo! Hearing Bad!¡± The goblins screamed in pain as the others took the quick chance to take them out. In a few minutes when the goblins were stunned then turned into a state similar to confusion, the group managed to take them out when Miriel used the ''Shriek'' skill again when the cool down finished. Naturally after the battle finished, the others immediately seek out what was that new spell. Therefore Miriel calmly told them: ¡°Seeing Shadow dealing more damage than usual even with a critical hit, I remembered that all living creatures will be stunned if they hear a sound loud enough in their ears or minds at least. So I think I formed a spell based off that and used it....the mana cost and cool down at acceptable as well¡± Miriel was quite pleased that she gained a new spell since everyone else besides Serena gained one during their trips. Hearing this, Sain smiled which lead to Miriel staring at him again and said: ¡°Good good, now we can face more goblins at once!¡± he was a bit too enthusiastic and it was like his personality changed after the danger passed him and the others. [p=center]xXx[/p] Seeing that Miriel also gained something new during this hunting trip that was still going, Serena was depressed since she was the only one standing still right now. Although she can heal, it was less effective immediately then Sain''s healing spell even if it heals more in the end nor can she attack the enemies at all which led to her healing spells becoming more powerful as time goes on. Serena''s Minor Health Regeneration spell was reaching the beginner level 5 mark now with a few more battles which would mean it would heal 160 health over 100 seconds which equates to 1.6 health healed per second and it could stacked up three times at once so later in the battle it was more like 6.4 health healed per second which was quite high at the early stage of the game under level 100. Serena sighed quietly to herself as the group moved on to find more goblins which were now the main source of experience to the party. ''When will I become more useful....?'' Serena could not help but to think like that since a long time ago. Even before she was called useless and always failed compared to others in results and progress. Even in this game, everyone else was slowing being stronger while she was standing still although her healing spells were indeed becoming stronger. Serena was feeling depressed since everyone else in one form or another were getting new skills and spells. Because all she did was heal, she didn''t have the chance to even try to attack at all. [p=center]xXx[/p] The next batch of enemies were Kobolds that numbered 5 this time. The group was roughly the same level as them but had the advantage in tactical skills. When the battle started, Miriel started things off immediately with her new spell. ¡°Shriek!¡± Shhhhhhhrieeeeeeeeeek!!! Immediately from her staff, some sound that Serena could hear but yet did not affect her covered the entire area they were in. The Kobolds in pain tried to cover their ears but it had little effect on the power of the spell and they were rendered stunned for a few moments. ¡°Ram!¡± ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Fire Blade!¡± ¡°Double Strike!¡± The other four getting into the battle as well, without mercy used their skills on the stunned Kobolds and dealt large amounts of damage at once. Raven took 2 down with his ''Ram'' and continued attacking without stop, Sain fired his ''Mana Bolts'' then stabbed them using his spear in the other hand, Lyndis cut them with her ''Fire Blade'' covered sword and finally Shadow didn''t bother sneaking and was just attacking without restraint. Seeing this, Serena couldn''t think that they needed a healer at all if the others were already this strong. Having a healer was important against strong foes but when they are weak, the healers have nothing to do. Such a situation was Serena in now. Along with Miriel''s minor after her first spell, the Kobolds were easily taken down without much difficulties which made Serena sort of sad since she didn''t do much at all.
You have gained Experience
This message appeared for Serena as well as the others. Serena was thinking of how much experience she really got compared to the others that did all of the work. Would she fall behind in levels sooner or later? Then.... ¡°Kill the humans!¡± ¡°Elvish Blood!¡± ¡°Die Die!¡± Then on both sides of this path the group was in, a total of 10 Kobolds appeared on both sides. They were surrounded and outnumbered as well. ¡°Shit! Were there 2 more Kobold groups around?!¡± said Sain under his breath. He then immediately called out orders to everyone else keeping his calm. ¡°Raven you''re alone with Shadow''s help! Lyndis with me on the other side!¡± he shouted leading Lyndis with him to block the charging Kobolds. From both sides, the Kobolds used their numbers to try and take down the others. Serena already knew what to do. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± Serena casted the spell on Lyndis first since she was one of the more likely to die without that great armour or defence. ¡°Melody of Health!¡± Miriel set up a buff for the group immediately while she can.
Vitality increased by 14% for 10 minutes
¡°Fire Blade! Life Burn!¡± Lyndis wanted to turn things around as fast as possible before it gets bad. Her body was set ablaze and her sword as well cutting down Kobolds. One..two...fell before her health was too low and she couldn''t use her most powerful skill anymore. By then Serena''s ''Minor Health Regeneration'' was finished cooling down but she did not cast it on Lyndis. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± The light that came from the spell fell on Raven this time. He was taking on 4 Kobolds at once while Shadow was keeping them away as much as possible taking great chances of being killed since his health was still at a quarter due to his skill''s side effects. ¡°Shield Bash!¡± Raven was being pushed back literally with the 4 Kobolds even though he stuns one or two at a time, the others still attack. But that was not the mos worrying thing on that side right now. ¡°Let the light burn, Fireball!¡± the Kobold at the back shouted, it was a Kobold Mage. A variation in the types of Kobolds you can face. Something that was very power and dangerous to fight against. Fire formed into a ball and was shot at Raven who blocked it with his shield. However the heat and the impact went through causing him to immediately lose half his health from that spell. On the other side, Sain and Lyndis were taking on 3 Kobolds while Shadow and Raven on the other side was taking on 5 including a mage type Kobold as well. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± shouted Miriel aiming at the Kobold mage. Bang! However the attack did little damage at all, only causing the Kobold mage to get pissed off. ¡°Ahhh! Attack Attack! Kill them all!¡± the Kobold mage shouted to it''s breathen. With this the attack against the group was getting even more intense with everyone''s health decreasing quite quickly that Serena''s healing was only stalling for death at this point. Eventually, a Kobold slips through via Raven and Shadow who were dealing with 5 at once and attacks Serena. ¡°Ahh!¡± Serena let out a cry as she managed to block the first attack though was sent flying back a bit by the sheer force. ¡°Shit!¡± shouted Sain as he looked behind while blocking an attack from another Kobold. The Kobold was about to land a second hit but Serena was a split second faster than it fortunately. ¡°Mana Burst!¡± A large amount of her mana, namely most of it was consumed to send out a flare of mana at the Kobold turning it into ashes. Until another ''Mana Burst'', this one can only consume part of the mana a person has and does not have the same power as the ''real'' one. It''s just this one didn''t need a chant to use and was something you could use multiple times in battle. However since they were immediately attacked before fully recovering from the previous fight, Serena''s mana dropped down to just 100 which was only enough for a few more healing spells, no just 10 more if she only heals. But she was not thinking of healing right now since she just experienced her first kill in this game. The feeling that gave her energy for some odd reason like something awakened. Serena felt this and wondered if the others experienced this feeling as well. It was a feeling of learning something new that can be used and be formed into a new spell. The remainder of her mana as well as part of her health mixed into one forming a blue and red colour as it flowed out of her and into her staff. The name automatically appeared in her head as she shout: ¡°Blood Burst!¡± The red and blue thing that came out of Serena turned a dark red and flew out as an orb hitting several of the Kobolds like it had a life of it''s own even though Serena was controlling it. The red orb flew around and also hit the Kobolds on the other side as well. Nothing happened for a few second then... BANG! All of the Kobolds exploded into pieces as their blood boiled to the extremes at once and their bodies burst like balloons.
You have gained Experience
You have levelled up
You have generated the skill: Blood Burst
Blood Burst Beginner Level 1 Using a mixture of forbidden magic and healing magic, you make contact with the blood inside of the targets and cause it to boil to the point that the body cannot take it and explode in pieces. You can target multiple things as long as it has liquid in it for the spell to work. Mana Cost: 100 Health Cost: 100 Cool Down: 5 Minutes
A powerful spell that was much stronger than the others'' appeared for Serena as the tide turned for the worse. The enemies didn''t even have a chance to attack her when she used that spell on them even though they thought it didn''t affect them at all. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The others stared at Serena who looked happy at the gain of a new spell to use, especially one that was very useful against enemies. They could only fear her more than before now that she gained such a ''evil'' spell. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Hahahahaha! To think such a skill would be form by THAT girl of all things!¡± laughed Eden watching the six fight against foes that gradually became stronger the more they went. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°Although I was very sad that they ran from such a good monster to fight at their level....¡± When they ran from the Zolerd that he delivered for them, he was a bit disappointed since he faced enemies that strong when he was their level though it was interesting enough when Shadow gained a new skill at the last moment to escape for his life. Before that Raven completely smashed a Kobold to pieces when things went wrong and Sain was about to die from a hit. ¡°The one with little presence is a bit interesting in his nature while the quiet one when he snaps is so like Alexandra¡± muttered Eden while remembering some things. Then there was Miriel gaining a sound based skill that stuns enemies, it would be very useful in lone parties but not in large scale operations since it would affect allies that were not in the same party as you. Because of this, it was not a very popular choice of spell even though it was powerful. Finally there was Serena who gained the most blood thirsty spell so far making it literally rain. ¡°Both magic users are slowly being shaped will determine how the group will form from now on. I wonder when I can drag them into my guild...the others wanted me to let them grow on their own for a while....don''t they understand that the Guild''s training will make them so much stronger compared to them learning thing bit by bit¡± complained Eden when he remembered a number of people who have been avoiding him for a past few years coming back and pleading with him. Naturally as their teacher in some things with Alexandra and Viv, he had trained them a bit more resulting in them being a bit stronger though all six of them, those masters of the other six were completely exhausted and near death when he was finished with them. The only way to become stronger after the mind and body was developed enough was to push the limit of both continuously. Facing someone much stronger was one way of doing this. ¡°Guildmaster....¡± muttered someone on the ground that had the courage to hide from him for a while getting drunk and playing games all day. ¡°What is it Gen?¡± Eden asked the man on the ground trying to rest while stepping on him with an evil smile on his face. ¡°Please....spare me, take the others instead..I need to teach that brat some more stuff later....¡± said Gen betraying the others for his ow goals. ¡°Damn you Gen! All of us need to teach them some things later as well! I don''t want to die because of you¡± shouted Mel on the ground as well. The others nodded and then suggested to Eden: ¡°Take Gen instead since it seems his apprentice knows what to do already while the others are still needing of some training¡± ¡°What?! Are you selling me to this demon?!¡± shouted Gen back at them like he was surprised at this outcome. ¡°Hmm....¡± Eden thought about it for a bit. From what he saw, their training was incomplete since they didn''t have all the core skills and spells but they were gaining some interesting ones instead which made up for it and more. Plus it mainly had to do with the ''fragments'' that Eden made these people put on them. These ''fragments'' were presto-mana fragments that only boosted their growth slightly. The only effects Eden noticed was that their mana gain by levelling or from stats doubled for some odd reason as well as the increased chance they may gain a new skill or spell when the time comes when they need it. Both of these effects would cause them to at least become top tier players in the end. Perhaps those six in time will become stronger than their masters in a decade or so. Of course this would only happen if Eden trained them leaving nothing spared. ¡°A healthy mind lives in a health body....I need to train them, especially the mage and druid later...yes I will use ''that'' method¡± muttered Eden while he was determining their ultimate fates in this game. ¡°....¡± Those six masters of their own fields could not help but pale when they think about ''that'' method Eden was going to use later on. They had all experienced it personally as well and it gave them nightmares. However they didn''t know that the version they experienced was toned down a lot and Eden had to go through the early versions which was something worse than torture itself! It was only through that his mind started to twist in weird ways when it comes to training. Only by experiencing an endless hell will people will become strong! Eden has always been in this kind of hell because of Alexandra, it was only natural he would become strong. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several Weeks passed and the supplies the group brought at the very start was near rock bottom. They would have to return to the city in order to sell the increasing amount of loot they had in order to later buy more supplies and possibly new gear since they were in need of it now. The group now all at level 43 went down to the third floor in order to face Goblins that were up to level 60 there! Because of this, the group''s stats were now like this: [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 43,Level: 43]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Tactician,Title: Dark Walker]Fame: 15,Fame: 15[/quart][quart=Health: 1759,Health: 1461]Mana: 779,Mana: 318[/quart][quart=Strength: 63 +12,Strength: 56 +3]Agility: 65 +11,Agility: 145 +11[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 58 +11,Intelligence: 10 +1]Wisdom: 57 +11,Wisdom: 10 +1[/quart][quart=Vitality: 66 +1,Vitality: 53 +1]Stamina: 41 +1,Stamina: 58 +1[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 26 +2,Fighting Spirit: 32 +2]Endurance: 17 +1,Endurance: 13 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership: 9 +1,Leadership: 0 +1]Luck: 4 +1,Luck: 29 +11[/quart][quart=Offense: 16,Offense: 12]Defence: 15,Defence: 26[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 43,Level: 43]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Shield-Bearer,Title: Blade Dancer]Fame: 15,Fame: 15[/quart][quart=Health: 2818,Health: 1547]Mana: 373,Mana: 588[/quart][quart=Strength: 107 +12,Strength: 103 +2]Agility: 61 +11,Agility: 68 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 10 +6,Intelligence: 58 +4]Wisdom: 15 +6,Wisdom: 12 +4[/quart][quart=Vitality: 105 +11,Vitality: 55 +1]Stamina: 65 +6,Stamina: 44 +1[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 28 +7,Fighting Spirit: 16 +1]Endurance: 27 +6,Endurance: 14 +1[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +6,Leadership: 0 +1]Luck: 0 +6,Luck: 2 +1[/quart][quart=Offense: 22,Offense: 18]Defence: 36,Defence: 35[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 43,Level: 43]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Sound Maiden,Title: Nature Wielder]Fame: 15,Fame: 35[/quart][quart=Health: 542,Health: 524]Mana: 1289,Mana: 1124[/quart][quart=Strength: 10 +2,Strength:9 +3]Agility: 54 +1,Agility: 53 +1[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 149 +13,Intelligence: 103 +11]Wisdom: 60 +13,Wisdom: 97 +11[/quart][quart=Vitality: 10 +1,Vitality: 10 +1]Stamina: 18 +1,Stamina: 15 +11[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +1,Leadership: 0 +1]Luck: 0 +1,Luck: 1 +1[/quart][quart=Offense: 10,Offense: 10]Defence: 10,Defence: 10[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
And their skills were like this: [third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Beginner 4 (45/100) - Nature Mastery Beginner 3 (58/100) - Mediation Beginner level 2 (43/100) - Mana Burst Beginner level 1 (6/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 5 (54/900) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 4 (79/700) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Blood Burst Beginner level 2 (18/300),- Magic Mastery Beginner 4 (15/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 2 (68/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 3 (70/100) - Magic Control Mastery Beginner 3 (96/100) - Mediation Beginner level 2 (14/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 2 (93/100) - Identify Beginner level 1 (70/100) - Magic Bolt Beginner level 4 (122/700) - Clairvoyance Beginner level 1 (46/100) - Melody of Sound Beginner level 4 (470/700) - Cracked Barrier Beginner level 2 (855/1200) - Shriek Beginner level 2 (5/300)]- Sword Mastery Beginner 5 (76/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 3 (33/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 2 (19/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 3 (4/500) - Fire Blade Beginner level 5 (73/900) - Life Burn Beginner level 2 (80/300)[/third]
Skill Window
[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 4 (75/100) - Shield Mastery Beginner Level 5 (95/100) - Shield Bash Beginner level 5 (31/900) - Double Strike Beginner level 4 (53/700) - Footwork Beginner level 4 (122/500) - Repair Beginner level 1 (988/1000) - Ram Beginner level 2 (20/100),- Dagger Mastery Beginner 5 (55/100) - Stealth Intermediate Level 3 (86/100) - Hearing Beginner level 4 (25/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 2 (15/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 2 (89/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 1 (30/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 1 (12/100) - Backstab Beginner level 4 (399/700) - Double Strike Beginner level 4 (14/500) - Climbing Beginner Level 4 (82/100) - Become Mist Beginner level 1 (2/100)]- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 4 (12/100) - Identify Beginner level 2 (20/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 3 (40/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 5 (155/900) - Mediation Beginner level 3 (15/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 3 (4/500) - Minor Heal Beginner level 4 (150/700) - Weaken Beginner level 3 (64/500) - Bursting Will Beginner level 2 (17/100)[/third]
Skill Window
While many of their skills and spells were like this, the group was certainly making slow and steady progress in becoming stronger as time went on. Right now they could face against level 60 goblin groups fine with some of their unique skills and spells that they only heard of since they gained them. [p=center]xXx[/p] Right now the group was facing the guards to the boss room to the Dunxix Dungeon. There were 6 of them which matched the group but they were a lot stronger than other goblins with proper armour and weapons. ¡°Kill Kill!¡± ¡°Cut them all!¡± The goblins, short in nature and only a bit shorter than Serena used their fury to immediately attack leaving the defence to their armour. There was a goblin shaman in the enemy group as well which made things more difficult without a cleric to buff their side as well. ¡°Let the blood drench and become strength! Strengthening!¡± shouted the goblin shaman as the damage the group took increased by 20%. ¡°Blood Burst!¡± shouted in the middle of the battle aiming at all of the goblins at once, the spell hit the goblins without them noticing that it was dangerous. BANG! However it was only their armour that broke into pieces at places and only dealt a low amount of damage to them instead of instant killing them like other monsters. Serena and Sain realised immediately that it was due to the armour that the spell targeted that instead of the bodies of the goblins. If this was the case then Serena would have to aim at the gaps between the armour in order for it to be effective enough. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Shriek!¡± Both Miriel and Sain at the back line activated their spells as well. Sain''s mana bolts hit the shaman preventing it from casting at spell while Miriel''s shriek spell stunned the goblins for a while. Some minutes later, the goblins including the goblin shaman all died leaving the way to the boss room free. ¡°That was too close¡± said Lyndis breathing heavily since she and the others almost got killed a few times during this battle. Even though the levels of the goblins were the same as the other ones they faced on the third floor of the dungeon, it was apparent that they were much stronger due to proper armour that were better than the group''s though lower quality and they also had a number of skills which they used to their advantage as well. ¡°True¡± said Sain in response, ¡°They were a lot stronger than the other goblins, as expected from the Goblin Guards.¡± ¡°Besides that we should check the loot we got from that battle¡± said Miriel as the rare and strong goblins they just faced actually dropped a number of things. Sain and the others went through the drops. In total there were around 20 Gold, some metal scraps that they can sell and a number of useless junk mixed in as well. However there were 3 pieces of equipment that were dropped. ¡°Identify!¡± said Sain on those items.
Violent Staff of Nature Durability: 30/30 Damage: 5-7 Made from the bones of other goblins in order to strength the effects on them, this staff process a violent nature that affects the user greatly. In the hands of non-goblins, they will become angered at the sight Restrictions: - Level 30 Options: - Increase effects of spells on goblins by 30% - Spell effects will last 20% longer - Healing and Buffing spells will cost 5% less - Intelligence +1
This was a rare item that was perfectly suited for Serena and was several times better than her current wooden staff that needed replacing either way. Serena gladly took the staff although it was a bit heavier than she thought and she almost dropped it. ¡°Identify!¡± Sain identified the second item.
Blood Cleaver of Cutting Durability: 50/50 Damage: 20-25 A clever that has high cutting power! It has a higher chance to cause enemies to bleed when cut and is light as well. Restrictions: - Level 32 - Sword Related Class Options: - Increase chance of inflicting bleed by 25% - Very light though made with low quality material, increase weapon speed
This weapon went to Lyndis immediately although she was not completely used to these types of weapons since she was using a regular iron sword. The Cleaver though the same length was much thicker in width as well and was actually a kilo heavier than her previous sword even though it was suppose to be ''light''. ¡°Identify!¡± finally it was the final equipment item that dropped.
Helmet of Great Sight Durability: 25/25 Defence: 8 Made of iron poorly mended together, it processes low durability and defence as a result of poor workmanship. However it has a special effect of greater insight of all things to a small extent. Restrictions: - None Options: - 1% chance of negating blindness debuff
This helmet was actually quite bad though no one in the group had a helmet yet. Eventually the helmet went to Sain who had the most pitiful gear of the group so far. With these extra points in defence he would not die that easily now. The next thing was to perhaps inherit armour from either Raven or Shadow if they get new and better armour. Sain was already showing signs of being cheap at this stage. The group after sorting a number of things looked at the boss room door where there would be a Goblin Chief in there. They opened the doors to face it. [p=center]xXx[/p] Opening the door to the boss room, they were faced against the Goblin Chief which was a large goblin that was the same height as Sain and had armour that had features stuck on them as well as a large feather hat that reminded him of the Native Americans he learnt in history. The Goblin Chief dual wielded a pair of cleavers that were the same size as Lyndis''s. ¡°Humans who have invaded Goblin home....¡± surprisingly enough, it seems the Goblin Chief has a high amount of intelligence, ¡°DIE!¡± Immediately after casting what seems to be a spell that increased it''s agility, the Goblin Chief charged at the group at the other side of the room at frightening speeds in a room that was 20 metres long. Within a second it was already in front of the group. ¡°Footwork! Ram!¡± shouted Raven as he headed towards the Goblin Chief immediately. Serena also prepared a healing spell but did not have enough time to cast it. Beforehand, Miriel casted ''Melody of Sound'' on the group so she didn''t need to at the start of the battle. In exchange she was preparing the ''Shriek'' spell to use against the Goblin Chief. BANG! Raven and the Goblin Chief collided resulting in Raven being thrown back across the room as the Goblin Chief''s charge stopped in front of Lyndis and Shadow. ¡°Double Strike!¡± using his agility Shadow moved in with a frontal attack against it. Clang! Both hits were blocked by two cleavers that were about to slice at Shadow. ¡°Pocket Fireball!¡± Lyndis swung her hand throwing a few small fireballs that hit the eye area of the Goblin Chief which left enough time for Shadow to disappear and go into stealth mode avoiding taking any damage which from what Sain saw would be fatal. ''Around level 60 at least...maybe level 70?'' though Sain evaluating the strength of the Goblin Chief. Usually in this dungeon, the Goblin Chief would be backed by other Goblin Guards which would require at least 2 or 3 parties in total to deal with at level 50-60. Fortunately, this time, the Goblin Chief did not have any guards and was just by himself so this battle wouldn''t be so bad. Seeing the battle through the helmet he just obtained, Sain started analysing the battle while giving out commands and support fire and healing while he can. Bang Bang! ''Goblin Chief seems to have a few skills that may be troublesome to handle. It''s better to make it waste all of it''s mana on Raven while we heal him to make things easier'' thought Sain shouting: ¡°Raven! Be the meat shield and make it use all of it''s mana!¡± Silently agreeing to this, Raven naturally did his best to provoke the Goblin Chief that was quite large for a goblin. Shorter foes were easier to handle since their weak spots, the head was much easier to hit. ¡°Shield Bash!¡± Raven went straight to the Goblin Shield swinging his shield in horizontal to the Goblin Chief hitting it at the edge of the shield instead of the flat side. Bang! ¡°Shriek!¡± chanted Miriel. Shhhhhhhrieeeeeeeeeek!!! With both ''attacks'' hitting the Goblin Chief at once, it blocked it''s ears and let out a shout as well. ¡°HAAAAA!¡±
Shriek had no effect
This message appeared for Sain as well as Miriel due to his party scan skill. It looks like the Goblin Chief''s fighting spirit was too high compared to the skill level of Miriel''s ''shriek'' spell. While ineffective it could still however be used as a distraction at least which was Sain thought immediately seeing the effects it had. ¡°Serena, focus healing on Raven¡± commanded Sain as he chanted, ¡°Minor Heal!¡± on Lyndis increasing her health by a bit. As ''Minor Heal'' was at Beginner Level 4, it could heal 95 health at once using up only a minor amount of mana. Combine this with Serena''s ''Minor Health Regeneration'' on a single person and they would rapidly gain lots of health at once even if it is Raven who has nearly 3000 health. However it still does not compare to the massive healing powers of a cleric that can easily heal half of Raven''s health at once. ¡°Miriel, we''re going to aim at the limbs using mana bolts¡± said Sain pointing his staff at the Goblin Chief: ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± A total of 18 mana bolts flew at the Goblin Chief at once hitting it at various places though most of them were aimed at the arms or legs. Although it did little damage, a total of a few percentage from what Sain believes, it is flashy and allows another person to attack. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow appeared behind the Goblin Chief using the mana bolts as a distractions and stabbed his dagger in the Goblin Chief''s back. ¡°Ahhh! Die!¡± However the Goblin Chief was very fast and managed to swing one of it''s sword hitting Shadow before he could escape in time. Bang! Even though he blocked, the blow knocked him to the other side of the room in one hit. ¡°Life Burn!¡± Seeing Shadow was in trouble, Lyndis used this skill and started drawing the attention of the Goblin Chief. Fire was thrown at the Goblin Chief which endured it taking some damage, most likely around 10% or so. ¡°Footwork! Ram!¡± Going at high speeds against the Goblin Chief again, Raven managed to get a decent hit in. Bang! The Goblin Chief though was not thrown away due to the skill, was hit back taking minor damage as Raven then with Lyndis attacked at once while they had the chance. The Goblin Chief recovering swing both his swords at them in a wild fashion with each blow taking large chunks of their health. ¡°Minor Health!¡± Sain aimed his spell at Raven this time since he was the one getting the most pounding between the two. Then Sain saw Serena was about to use ''that'' spell again. ¡°Raven, Lyndis! Get out of the way!¡± shouted Sain, he did not want them getting caught up in that spell no matter the cost. The two backed away immediately hearing this as Shadow just got up from the damage he took a few tens of seconds back. It looks like he took a serious amount of damage since he lost 60% of his health at once with a single hit. ¡°Blood Burst!¡± shouted Serena consuming a large amount of health and mana to use this skill. The red orb appeared and shot at extremely high speeds at the Goblin Chief. Sensing danger from the spell Serena used, the Goblin Chief tried to dodge but it hit him several times as the orb looped around and hit parts of his body. BANG! Then suddenly as the Goblin Chief thought the spell was a dud, various parts of it''s body and armour exploded into pieces. Blood soaked it completely as it lost one arm and an eye due to the spell. ''No matter how I look at it, this spell of hers is extremely powerful and dangerous. I think most players not matter the level would at least take serious damage against this spell'' thought Sain as the battle was about to conclude. A few minutes later with the Goblin Chief clinging to life with only at half strength with the lost of an arm and an eye leaving it at low health, the following messages appeared for the group and especially Sain.
You have killed the Goblin Chief Nubgone - You gained 20 Fame - All party members gain 3 Strength, 2 Agility and 1 Fighting Spirit - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up
Party Member Serena has gained the stat: Fighting Spirit Party Member Serena has gained the stat: Concentration Party Member Miriel has gained the stat: Fighting Spirit Party Member Miriel has gained the stat: Concentration
With this the entire group''s level increased from 43 to 48 which was very near to level 50. If they hunted for a few more days against the goblins of the same level, they would probably get to level 50 if they wanted to even if the hunting will have less gain than before. However... ¡°First of all, let''s see what we got from the Goblin Chief¡± said Miriel collecting some of the loot that was dropped from the ground. Unfortunately there was no pieces of equipment that were dropped when the Goblin Chief died which was very sad. However another 30 pieces of gold coins were collected in total along with a number of scrap metal and some feathers and string. ¡°This was actually quite bad in the loot department¡± said Lyndis a bit dissatisfied, ¡°The Goblin Guards from outside this room had much better drops although getting more Gold doesn''t hurt at all.¡± ¡°At best the Goblin chief would drop another one of those Cleavers or the feather hat which I doubt anyone here wants to wear¡± said Shadow popping up into the conversation. ¡°True, besides the weapons which only Lyndis would want to use, there wasn''t much to gain...except the armour though it was of poor quality compared to Raven''s one. We could''ve sold it for a few gold pieces if it dropped¡± commented Sain calculating the money they could''ve gained. The group quickly placed points in their status window to make sure they were stronger than before and the results was a lot smaller compared to before when they started out. Before 5 levels would mean they would be several times stronger than before but now it only partly makes them stronger. To get the same increase in power as before, they would need to gain 20 or so levels at once. But that was not the main issue right now. BOOM BOOM It had only been a few minutes and the group was still in the boss room that was in the deepest part of the dungeon. BOOM BOOM There was only one way out and a certain creature was blocking the way. ¡°Damn looks like we really have to defeat it now¡± said Sain with a grim face. Just now they struggled with a level 70 boss monster and now they had to face a level 100 boss monster after that? ¡°No choice¡± said Lyndis with a shrug. ¡°Let do our best...!¡± said Serena with some confidence now. ¡°Need to take it down¡± said Raven looking at the Zolerd with malice. ¡°Can''t escape this time...¡± said Shadow thinking back on what happened before. ¡°Looks like everyone is ready to fight¡± said Miriel sighing. She wanted to avoid this if possible, there was too much of a high chance that they would all wipe against this thing. The group drew their weapons and faced the Zolerd on the other side of the corridor to the Boss Room. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Ohhh! Finally! I was thinking of teleporting it near them and it goes to them by itself!¡± Eden was excited on the upcoming battle like he was watching a good T.V show. He was watching a screen that only he could see which was due to due to one of his skills. Eden looked over to various things and eventually said just before the actual fight began, ¡°Perhaps I need to set up that trial for them now....but....¡± He was still unsure that the group could beat the Zolerd as it was double their level and was also a boss monster as well. Eden estimated they would gain a lot of experience, akin to around 10 levels at once if they manage to kill it even with 6 people. He himself on many occasion had to face these kinds of situations alone and gained tons of experience in both levels and skill proficiency like this. ¡°It should be fine, there are 6 of them after all¡± Eden stopped watching them in order to set up the ''trial'' in which they had to later face to join his guild. ¡°If they failed then I have to train both master and apprentice. After all, the master''s teaching is the apprentice''s results. Both of them need to take responsibility if they manage to fail.¡± The fates of another six people have been added to the victory or defeat of the group against the Zolerd. ¡°Please at least spare us guildmaster....¡± muttered a person that heard this conversation. This person was one of the masters of the group. They all stood silent hoping that their apprentices lived with victory else they all would have to be trained by this ''Demon'' once again. Decades passed and the mental traumas they experienced by Eden has yet to heal.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9700~ - Volume is almost done! - This chapter was more or less the same as the last one with the group gaining levels. Well plot armour is relevant next chapter so.... Vol.1 Chapter 10 - The Wandering Zolerd Sain and the others were now faced once more against the Zolerd, a creature that was similar to Kobolds in some ways, had a head similar to a rabbit and the body of a fat troll but was 3 metres tall and had a very large body with a giant cleaver that was easily someone''s height in length alone. Trapped with nearly now way to escape this, the group decided quickly to fight rather than to just die. In fact, the only person who has a chance to escape is Shadow with his ''Become Mist'' skill that he obtained facing the Zolerd before. However that was when he was nearly 20 levels lower than he was right now. Plus now he had the help of the others as well that were intending to take it down. BOOM BOOM The Zolerd slowly walked to the group and looked at it with hungry eyes thinking that they were nothing but prey like everything else in this dungeon. It seems to not remember Shadow at all or just doesn''t notice him yet. ¡°Say....what are it''s weaknesses Shadow?¡± asked Sain a bit nervous. He knew that it was quite fast, faster than Miriel and Serena at least and was very powerful at the same time but nothing more than that. ¡°It''s heavy¡± Shadow merely replied. He really had no idea what else could be used as an advantage. ¡°....¡± Sain looked in disbelief that Shadow would joke with him at this moment but Shadow wasn''t the type to joke around to begin with. Sain took Shadow''s word as the cruel reality they had to face. In front of them was a creature that was definitely out of their league and they had to face it. ''A frontal attack won''t work and this location doesn''t give us a chance to use sneak attacks or the environment to our advantage as well. Running away from it is also impossible and there is a high chance that all of us will die as well. What can we do? Damn, is dying the only option here?!'' Sain''s thought took a dive as he quickly considered the most likely outcomes to this battle. ¡°Ahhh, damnit! We just have to fight and see what happens!¡± shouted Lyndis impatient on Sain. She held her Cleaver and rushed at the Zolerd without fear. ¡°Ah¡± was all that Sain could mutter before he picked himself up again commanding the others to help Lyndis out at least. ¡°Raven try not to block it directly, you''ll be crushed!¡± ¡°Shadow try to sneak pass it and attack from behind!¡± ¡°Miriel, you try to focus on protecting Lyndis okay?!¡± ¡°Serena, focus healing on Lyndis and Raven at once!¡± Sain gave out orders rapidly as he pointed his staff at the Zolerd in order to fire a spell to at least distract it at the right moment. ¡°Fire Blade!¡± shouted Lyndis covering her sword in flames as she charged without hesitation and warning to her allies, ¡°Take this!¡± she shouted as she swung her sword at the leg of the Zolerd. The Zolerd responded to Lyndis and was about to swing it''s Cleaver to separate Lyndis into pieces. ''Now!'' ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Sain fired 9 mana bolts at the eyes of the Zolerd when it started to swing. Bang! The Zolerd without vision missed Lyndis barely with her dodging it at the last second. ¡°Weaken!¡± shouted Sain intending to make it have lower strength. Weaken is not effective, enemy''s level is too high for your skill proficiency ''Damn, can''t use this spell against it'' thought Sain seeing this message in front of him. The Zolerd was too strong for him to weaken it with his spell. Slice Slice Slice! Lyndis did a triple attack on the Zolerd''s leg cutting it three times in a short amount of time. ¡°Damn, it''s harder than I thought¡± cried Lyndis as she retreated. Lyndis'' attacks were by no means weak, especially since the Cleaver has more damage than the Iron Sword she had before. It was just that there was a surprising amount of muscle on the legs making it have more defence compared to other parts it the Zolerd''s body. ''Legs and Arms are a no go this time without large amounts of power. The head and stomach area seems like the best place to cause bleeding'' ¡°Lyndis, aim at the stomach area from now on!¡± Sain shouted. By this time Raven and Shadow were near Lyndis in fighting the Zolerd head on. With it''s vision back, the Zolerd looked in anger at the group at once. ¡°ROOOOAR!!!¡± And let out a loud cry of hatred to those who injured it. ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± chanted Miriel.
Agility increased by 25% for 10 minutes
A pleasant sound was heard by the entire group as Miriel buffed them with her spell. ''Melody of Sound'' was at beginner level 4 now so it at default had a 14% effect. However combine this with her Magic Mastery and Sound Mastery skills, and this number increases to 25%. Shadow taking this chance went and did a sweeping kick at the leg that Lyndis hit earlier. The Zolerd moving quickly tried to hit Shadow with it''s cleaver but Shadow somewhat dodged though it was still a close call. BANG! The hit itself hit the ground and caused a large crack splitting it a bit. ''If Raven was to be hit by that, then his equipment would break into pieces. Raven''s role as the tank this time would end up killing him. Need to make sure he doesn''t die at least....'' ¡°Raven retreat a bit, Lyndis and Shadow, get on the other side and attack from there!¡± shouted Sain as he took out his spear to head to the front lines as well. Raven and Lyndis both attacked while dodging the attacks with Raven getting hit a few times though using his shield. Shadow disappeared as he ran. ¡°Backstab!¡± And he lodged his dagger into the back of the Zolerd at once. ¡°ROOOOAR!¡± Screaming at once to the attack, the Zolerd turned around to attack Shadow. Then Raven and Lyndis took that chance along with Sain. ¡°Double Strike!¡± ¡°Life Burn!¡± ¡°Take this!¡± All three of them attacked the now turned back of the Zolerd at once without warning to the Zolerd causing it to be pushed forward it a bit suddenly due to it''s naturally high health and defence. As the Zolerd turned back on the three, Serena activated her spell. ¡°Blood Burst!¡± A red orb appeared and flew quickly hitting mainly the arms and legs of the Zolerd before it''s affects.. BANG! The blood inside of the Zolerd exploded outwards in an instant! However it did not die but was only injured to a certain extent by the attack. It''s limbs and body was covered in it''s own blood as it slowly regenerated, healing the wounds. Stab! Shadow not letting this chance go again stabbed and continued attacking the Zolerd with his dagger alone with Raven and Lyndis whom were also doing the same. If Sain had the ability to see the health of the Zolerd, he would notice that it only decreased down to 90% with the spell Serena used, taking 9% of it''s health in one go. This overwhelming difference in strength was due to the level difference being doubled for the group. However they did not know this and simply continued to attack until the Zolerd would be slain. Their mana levels were still very high since only a few minutes passed since the battle started and health was a full since the Zolerd didn''t hit any of them yet. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Both Sain and Miriel attacked the head area of the Zolerd to give cover for the others who were attacking in close range. By now, the positions of everyone was like this. Lyndis and Shadow were taking care of the back area. Raven and Sain were at the front area and Miriel and Serena were a distance behind the front area giving support to the others. [p=center]xXx[/p] Lyndis slashed at the stomach area of the Zolerd which was mostly covered by it''s metal armour which her Cleaver could only be deflected off. However there was a space in which she could attack and she was aiming there as well a chipping away slowly the poor quality armour it had on. Lyndis checked her health and mana levels. Health was at 76% and mana was at 53% which was still fine so far. The battle continued for a full 10 minutes now with no signs of stopping any time soon. The wounds that were created from Serena''s ''Blood Destruction'' healed within a minute although it''s health stayed the same, the bleeding effects disappeared when the wounds closed. With just over 300 mana left, Lyndis needed to conserve as much mana as possible. She could only use ''Fire Blade'' for a full minute more and ''Life Burn'' for another 2 minutes at most on her own. Clang! Lyndis'' sword hit the armour again because the Zolerd moved to block the attack like that; after so many times hitting at that point even a stupid thing like this would learn. Lyndis frowned since now Sain''s instructions were more or less useless. ¡°Lyndis! Attack the legs for now!¡± Sain shouted immediately seeing this. Lyndis moved and dodged a swing from the Zolerd cutting the thick muscles of the leg a bit as she ran through. ¡°Life Burn!¡± Covering herself with flames that was formed via the consumption of her health, Lyndis threw some flames at the Zolerd, namely the leg areas and quickly deactivated the skill else she might lose too much health at once. ''How much more will have last?'' wondered Lyndis as she continued fighting with the others. [p=center]xXx[/p] Raven pushed forward enduring the get hits whenever they come for Raven. Swing~ Bang! The attack from the Zolerd with it''s giant Cleaver hit his shield squarely and easily pushed him back a few metres from the sheer force of the blow. ¡°Tch.¡± Raven was really getting pissed off right now since he hasn''t been able to properly block one of those attacks the Zolerd throws at him. Even with his skills, the attacks simply are too overpowering to block against at his current level. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Raven moved in once again to attack using the little mana he had left trying to at least hit the Zolerd at this point. Fuuush The Zolerd surprisingly with it''s giant body easily dodged the attacks that Raven threw at it. Using one hand, Raven used pure strength to continue attacking the Zolerd over and over again with one hand. Bang! The spear collided with the Cleaver the Zolerd was using and was deflected back easily due to the force. If it weren''t for the others distracting it enough that the Zolerd wouldn''t be completely overpowered Raven, he would be dead already. Lyndis and Shadow and even Sain were having a much easier time then Raven since they had much light gear on. From what Raven remembered, Sain and Lyndis had roughly the same amount of agility as him and should not be that much faster. ''If that''s the case.....the fact that I cannot block attacks against this thing then I have to do the next best thing!'' As the Zolerd swung it''s weapon at Raven again, he did not raise his shield at all and instead used his spear to attack at the same time, at the same direction and at the same speed and power. Bang! The blow smashed Raven back even though it was only his weapon that got hit. However he had a much lower health drop compared to when he attacked. ''It looks like this can work'' Raven thought getting up. The act was parrying an attack was much more difficult compared to just blocking but the rewards were much greater than simply blocking an attack. Raven ran to the Zolerd again to attack while testing out parrying. [p=center]xXx[/p] Shadow leaped from the wall to the right and jumped onto the body of the Zolerd with ease. Thanks to his naturally high agility, he was able to more or less move much more freely than the others with his skills helping out as well. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Shadow swung his dagger twice as he moved across the side of the Zolerd cutting the joint of the left arm before running away from the attacks that came with it. Shadow naturally used Stealth to make sure the Zolerd could not see him or feel his presence and this was only reinforced by the face that there were also others that attacked the Zolerd making it much easier for him to go about this battle. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Miriel and Sain both did another round of mana bolts, almost 20 in total at the head area of the Zolerd to help out Raven and Lyndis mainly who have not the capabilities of Shadow in attacking and running away quickly. More minutes passed as the battle continued and Shadow honestly believed that it would end in their victory. With some ups and downs, the Zolerd managed to keep everyone''s health at around half at this point with mana slowly, very slowly recovering during the battle as well. The three; Shadow, Raven and Lyndis more or less learnt how to not waste mana just like that in a burst and rather at least saved some for later to use even if it means the battle would be longer. Then.... ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!¡± The Zolerd''s roar filled the entire corridor with fighting spirit. The Zolerd itself turned into a bright red colour with some sort of aura coming from it''s body. At this point, the Zolerd finally reached critical health which at the 10% point in which it would lose it''s health until it died. Due to facing high fighting spirit of the enemy, strength and agility decrease by 15, intelligence and wisdom decrease by 20% The entire party, especially Miriel and Serena felt the effects of the Zolerd''s fighting spirit now. Only then they knew that it was ''holding back'' on them with this sudden change. BOOM BOOM The Zolerd ran forward to Raven and.. BANG! Smashed him away with a single hit with it''s fist. BOOM!!! Then it slammed it''s leg into the ground causing it to rumble and the group to lose their balance at once. The Zolerd then kicked Lyndis to the wall where her health went down to critical as well so easily. ¡°Cough!¡± Blood came out of her mouth with the hit. Shadow immediately moved in to attack almost literally flying to attack the Zolerd''s eyes once again. However the Zolerd immediately detected him and dropped the Cleaver to smash Shadow into pieces with it''s open hands like killing an insect. ¡°Become Mist!¡± Detecting danger, Shadow turned his physically body into mist where it quickly gathered once more in front of Sain. Used ''Become Mist'', health will be halved for 24 hours Shadow''s health dropped down though it didn''t change that much since his health before was at 52% and now only dropped to 50% exactly with the use of this skill once. Shadow quickly looked at Sain on what to do, the enemy was way too strong this time. [p=center]xXx[/p] BOOM BOOM There was literally no chance for Sain to give out commands right now. Raven and Lyndis were down....and now there was only Shadow who couldn''t block attacks and Sain who had no combat skills to use as the vanguard. Plus Miriel and Serena weren''t that well off unless someone was protecting them so they can cast spells. With no choice and nothing else to gain... ¡°Serena, Miriel, focus healing and your spells on me after you get those two up!¡± shouted Sain abandoning his staff completely to use the spear with two hands. Damage worked realistically in the game like in real life. Of course the speed and power of a weapon would increase if they used two hands to use it. Swing Sain dodged the first attack sent his way and the second as well since it lacked a follow up and was very easy to dodge to begin with. Both swings were horizontal attacks and all Sain needed to do was to duck at the right moment. ''Looks like in this berserk state, speed and power increase in exchange for a number of things'' though Sain as he approached the Zolerd fearlessly to fight it in close range.
Bursting Will is now active, all stats +10%
Due to the closeness to death several times in a row, this skill activated and cancelled out some of the debuffs that Sain got from the Zolerd''s fighting spirit suddenly rising. Bang! Bang! Sain and Shadow along with Miriel in support continued to attack the Zolerd with the ''Cracked Barrier'' spell being used often on Sain while he also regenerated more health with Serena''s ''Minor Health Regeneration''. Because of these two things, Sain managed on his own to take down around 2% of the Zolerd''s health bringing it down along with the help from Shadow and Miriel to around 5% now. BANG!
You took 1274 damage
However at the last moment Sain was smashed backwards to the Zolerd''s attack. The majority of Sain''s health was gone just like that. ''It seem....it''s a bit too early in facing such a strong monster for the moment....I leave the rest to you guys....'' Those were Sain''s last thoughts. Due to the large impact, he fell into unconsciousness although he somehow managed to stay awake a bit longer via sheer willpower alone. [p=center]xXx[/p] Seeing Sain being blown back like that and not getting up, Miriel lost it. ''No.......!'' ¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± Mana gathered quickly and were shot out in the form of wind. She did not know how she knew how to do this but she simply continued to send wave and wave of wind that were sharpened the more she used it at the Zolerd. Bang! Bang! Bang! Soon enough she used up the remainder of her mana with the bar staying at a stubborn zero percent. Due to the rapid depletion of mana, mental exhaustion will kick in This message cruelly appeared in front of her. As a magician, a simple magician, Miriel could not protect or support Sain or the others at all. Her spell list was incomplete and there were a large amount of things that she could not do at all. It was not just her actually, everyone in the group did not have a full skill or spell list at all. They were all missing something that could be filled in by another. When one piece breaks, the others will fall as well. This best described what Miriel was feeling. She unknowingly started to depend on Sain for her mental well being. As long as he was fine then so was she no matter the circumstance. But now... ''Alone.....alone.....again.....'' Her thoughts went to the dark side as she remembered, all the things that went wrong. But when she looked at Serena, only hope shone in her eyes. [p=center]xXx[/p] Raven, Lyndis and Sain were now down with still no signs of getting up again. This alone would be a miracle as they could''ve all died with one hit from the Zolerd. Miriel in her rage ran out of mana and Shadow had little health left and wasn''t about to take on the Zolerd alone. However Serena did not despair at all. If she did she would return back to how she was before and that was something she did not want to happen no matter what. She was no longer part of the ''weak'' and now was part of the ''strong''. She would no longer tear over the simple things and would only focus on what to do, no matter how hard it is. ''I want to change and this is the only chance I got....If I don''t then I feel that there is no going back here....'' Serena only had this and this alone to change herself. Reality damaged her too much that it could no longer change her. But in this game, this new world, Serena seen things that she hoped to be. Her comrades that too, want to change, her master that taught her so much and finally....that woman that lived free, without care to others as one of the ''strong''. Right now her health and mana were the highest in the group and only she could do something now. The Zolerd had only 3% health left. A mere 3% that even she can take down. But she only had one spell that could harm it and could only use it once...twice at most and the Zolerd had already seen her spell and now knew to dodge it. Serena looked to Miriel who despite being so strong was now so weak. She had depended on Sain too much and ended up this way. ''Then....I will only depend on myself as well as the others'' ¡°Shadow....please distract it as much as possible¡± said Serena as the creature that would be the death of them all approached slowly due to it''s heavy injuries. It was going to die either way but wanted to take everyone Serena knew with it. ''I won''t allow it!'' ¡°Blood Burst!¡± The cast time of this spell was quite short however the cool down of 5 minutes meant that Serena could usually only use it once per battle. But this fight went on much longer than the other battles the group had been in, even against the Goblin Chief. As such, she could use this skill again. The red orb flew out of her staff that was taken from some dead goblin guards and went to the Zolerd with get speed. Seeing the spell was in motion Shadow shouted: ¡°Become Mist!¡± And disappeared not wanting to die from her spell. This was the right choice since the sudden disappearance of Shadow made the Zolerd distracted from the red orb that hit and went through the Zolerd several times before it noticed. However when it did.... ¡°ROOOOAR!!!¡± BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM The Zolerd in rage and desperation ran to try and kill Serena before the spell could be completed. BANG! Just one step before the Zolerd could hit her, it exploded into pieces with blood flying everywhere. But it was still alive. Despite all of this, the Zolerd still lived but just barely and was about to fade away. ¡°Die!¡± Smash! Serena took this chance to smashed the bottom of her staff into the head of the Zolerd finally killing it.
You have killed the Wandering Zolerd, the eater of many Beasts - You gained 50 Fame - You have gained 10 Fighting Spirit - You have gained 5 Strength - You have gained 5 Stamina - All Party members will gain gain 3 points in all stats
- You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up - You have levelled up
With this, the battle really finished. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Sain awoke, everything was already finished with Serena, that Serena finishing off the Zolerd by herself. Sain noticed that he gained a number of stats and also a total of 8 levels from the battle with the Zolerd. However it seems that Serena gained the most benefits by killing the boss along with a total of 10 levels. From Sain knows, while Serena gained the most bonuses, everyone else did to some extent as well. The others beside Serena gained, 5 Fighting Spirit, 3 Strength and 3 Stamina as well as the 3 points in all stats as well. When Sain checked, everyone''s status windows were like this. [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 56,Level: 56]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Tactician,Title: Dark Walker]Fame: 80,Fame: 80[/quart][quart=Health: 2283,Health: 1902]Mana: 972,Mana: 407[/quart][quart=Strength: 76 +21,Strength: 69 +12]Agility: 78 +16,Agility: 184 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 71 +14,Intelligence: 10 +4]Wisdom: 70 +14,Wisdom: 10 +4[/quart][quart=Vitality: 79 +4,Vitality: 64 +4]Stamina: 41 +7,Stamina: 58 +7[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 26 +12,Fighting Spirit: 32 +12]Endurance: 17 +4,Endurance: 13 +4[/quart][quart=Leadership: 9 +4,Leadership: 0 +4]Luck: 4 +4,Luck: 29 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 16,Offense: 12]Defence: 23,Defence: 26[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 56,Level: 56]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Shield-Bearer,Title: Blade Dancer]Fame: 80,Fame: 80[/quart][quart=Health: 3574,Health: 2014]Mana: 462,Mana: 742[/quart][quart=Strength: 135 +21,Strength: 129 +11]Agility: 74 +16,Agility: 81 +6[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 10 +9,Intelligence: 71 +7]Wisdom: 15 +9,Wisdom: 12 +7[/quart][quart=Vitality: 131 +14,Vitality: 68 +4]Stamina: 65 +12,Stamina: 44 +7[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 28 +17,Fighting Spirit: 16 +10]Endurance: 27 +9,Endurance: 14 +3[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +9,Leadership: 0 +4]Luck: 0 +9,Luck: 2 +4[/quart][quart=Offense: 22,Offense: 18]Defence: 36,Defence: 35[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 56,Level: 58]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Sound Maiden,Title: Nature Wielder]Fame: 80,Fame: 100[/quart][quart=Health: 741,Health: 762]Mana: 1582,Mana: 1468[/quart][quart=Strength: 10 +11,Strength:9 +13]Agility: 67 +6,Agility: 68 +6[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 188 +16,Intelligence: 134 +14]Wisdom: 73 +16,Wisdom: 127 +14[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 10 +9,Fighting Spirit: 10 +15]Concentration: 10 +3,Concentration: 10 +4[/quart][quart=Vitality: 10 +4,Vitality: 10 +4]Stamina: 18 +7,Stamina: 15 +19[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +4,Leadership: 0 +4]Luck: 0 +4,Luck: 2 +4[/quart][quart=Offense: 10,Offense: 10]Defence: 10,Defence: 10[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
When looking at this, Sain thought, ''To be honest, we exceeded our expectations by defeating that Zolerd creature that gave us so many levels at once...I wonder if we kill more monsters of that level then could we level up even faster...? No...this time we were very lucky and just barely managed to kill it without any deaths. Normally we wouldn''t even find such a creature to begin with. Better play it safe from now on''. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. Sain clapped his hands to get the attention of the others. ¡°Right! Let''s see what this Zolerd dropped!¡± Sain said happily. Sain was beginning to enjoy seeing what kinds of loots they would get from killing monsters. They actually had a lot of loot to sell but the possibility of getting good equipment was even more exciting and would gain them even more gold then usual. The group went through the loot the Zolerd dropped, a few pieces of Gold and some other random items. There was nothing worthwhile in the pile of loot. ¡°....¡± ¡°Sigh.¡± Sain could only sigh at this since it would''ve been a great opportunity to gain a bit more to sell. However then Sain wondered aloud: ¡°Was this Zolerd not a boss monster but a named monster?¡± ¡°!¡± The others looked at him with shock. ''How can such a strong creature be simply a named monster?!'' They had such an expression on their faces right now. However there was some truth in it, if it really was a level 100 boss monster than it would instantly kill them all without a hassle but if it was a named monster than it was simply just a bit stronger than the normal type monsters it came from. This kind of theory was very likely in fact since they DID manage to defeat the Zolerd without them all dying in the process. ¡°Anyway, I think we should return to the city now. We need to sell some of the stuff we collected plus we''re low on supplies¡± said Sain leading the part out of the dungeon and in to the city. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°That will be a total of 22 Gold, 55 Silver and 13 Copper Coins for selling all of this¡± said the clerk at the general store. For a month''s worth of hunting, it was enough to cover the costs of the trip and pay for the next trip further down. To put things into perspective, the trip to Dunxix Dungeon and the month stay there costed them a total of around 10 Gold Coins for the supplies for an entire month. Due to that trip, they gained it all back and more than double the original amount. This amount of Gold was large for a level 60~ player but not to a group of six at the same level. The only problem was that too many people hunted at Dunxix Dungeon even though it was one of the more unpopulated ones leaving less drops in money or items which resulted in this ''low'' amount of Gold left to the party. ¡°Thank you very much¡± replied Sain as he took the money handing over the items to the clerk. Thanks to this, the weight that Sain had to carry was greatly lowered that it felt like he was twice as fast as before although most of which affected this was his increased agility as well as increased weight to carry was balanced during the hunting trip. Sain walked out and went to where the rest of the group was and said: ¡°Got 22 and half Gold from that transaction.¡± Most of the group smiled or brightened up due to this but then Miriel said, ¡°If we had a merchant then we could''ve gotten at least 20% more on the price....¡± Sain and Lyndis let out a sad laugh to this statement since it was so like Miriel to say that. Raven and Shadow looked on silent since it didn''t have anything to do with them and Serena looked as if she understood what Miriel said but not her intentions. ¡°Well then, what will we do?¡± asked Lyndis first. ¡°For now I don''t think we should immediately dive back into hunting....¡± said Miriel letting out a yawn at the end. It was the middle of the night and the group regularly logged out of the game during their stay in Dunxix Dungeon. However during the last week of the hunting trip, they didn''t at all and slept in the dungeon. ¡°We should log out¡± said Sain seeing these circumstances, ¡°We can meet our masters again after a good sleep.¡± The group then proceeded to log out one after the other going to their beds from the capsules. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Did they defeat it....?¡± asked Gen a bit worried. Mel was the one who answered, ¡°Yes they did, I saw them at the town just then but they went from this world and back to theirs to get some rest I think.¡± ¡°I see....so no hell training from Eden?¡± asked Ron who was very gloomy right now after a long time thinking of the torturous training they would be put into later on if they failed and died. ¡°I hope not, Eden''s the type to suddenly change his mind all of a sudden¡± said Gen making the mood of these masters quite gloomy indeed. ¡°Well then...I will be leaving to take care of the library them¡± said Jenny getting up from her sit. ¡°Oh no you don''t!¡± said Mel with get speeds as he dragged Jenny back to her sit. Jenny gave a glare at Mel but didn''t say anything at all. Gen sighed since those two never got along that well even from decades ago with so many adventures with each other. Given his current lifestyle, Gen actually wanted to go with the others on another adventure filled with danger again. At least it wouldn''t be as dangerous as the situation they were now placed into. Of these masters of the group, 2 of them were missing; namely Park and Anna who were with Eden preparing ''that'' which was their worse fears. ¡°Honestly when will those two come back¡± complained Gen with a mutter. It shouldn''t take that long to prepare ''that'' for their apprentices. Gen hoped that Eden wouldn''t fiddle with it too much and completely break those children''s minds. Without noticing it, he started to remember how he met the others and Eden. [p=center]xXx[/p] Gen at age 12 was a apprentice lumberjack who had needed someone to succeed him in his trade for the town. Despite being one of the few lumberjacks that worked alone, the man produced more lumber than a dozen people at a time. Because of this simple fact, Gen actually volunteered to work and train under this great man. Oh how he was so naive. On the first day of the job and apprenticeship, the man broke his spirit easily with physical activities alone. This continued for a month with his body being rapidly reshaped as fast as a freeman''s in ability. Without knowing it, Gen was trained in all kinds of weapons and tactics in a single month. That was how efficient the training was even though most people break down just after a few days worth of it. Soon enough his master said: ¡°Go down to the town and meet with some people and hunt some monsters and come back. You will be amazed.¡± Naturally Gen followed his master''s words to a point and went to town seeking a group of people to hunt with. Most of those who called for parties were freemen and didn''t accept him as their own in hunting. Frustrated Gen still continued for hours until he met another native that wanted to hunt. Soon enough they gathered more and more members that were all natives to the land but wanted the freedom that the freemen had. Months and years went by quickly and they were known as just adventurers quickly with some little acts they did once in a while when they all had the time. At this time, Gen and his group which didn''t exactly get along sometimes that well met with his master who looked at them with amusement. ¡°The freemen are weak and cannot be called true freemen!¡± he boasted to his master like that. ¡°I see, let me re-educate you then of how frightening some of them are¡± his master replied. ¡°How can you re educate me when you are native like me?¡± Gen actually got cocky there but his master didn''t repute him at all. His master pointed at the mountain that was on the opposite side of the mountain and told them to go there. Naturally as a stubborn person at that time, Gen and his group did just that. A few days later and he and the group made to the mountain where his master pointed. ¡°Nothing''s here? Did he send us to waste some time?¡± wondered Gen in some sort of stubborn pride. The others more or less his age and barely considered adults agreed to this even though one or two of them didn''t actually get along with him. Then... ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!!¡± This sound filled the mountains and went to even the town. The sheer power behind that roar only pointed to one thing. ¡°Dragon!¡± Gen had never seen a dragon before but there were many legends where a strong hero would slay it. Gen foolishly even though to kill the dragon that roared just them even though his legs were shaking with fear. The group heard with their entire body of a creature so large that came near from the skies. BOOOM!!! Even landing the Dragon caused such power. ¡°What...is this...?¡± muttered Gen and the others completely in fear. In front of them was a giant black Dragon that had golden red eyes and was almost as big as the mountain itself. Gen could only feel two things when seeing this. Fear and death. The Dragon looked at him and his companions with some sort of look and: ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!!¡± The roar itself blew them away cleanly almost killing them. There were no thoughts on defeating it, no thoughts of even escaping. Before this thing, Gen realised he was completely powerless. Then another thought appeared in his head. Freemen would be able to face this thing without fear because they were immortal. Always rising after death, that were how they were. That was their lone advantage over everything else in the world that made them so powerful; they could come back every time no matter what while Gen and his companions, friends and family could not. Gen literally fell to his knees giving up on life itself facing such a creature that was even beyond the freemen themselves. ¡°It''s over....¡± said Gen letting out a small sad life reflecting on his life. There wasn''t that much since he was barely over 17 years old and if anyone hears his tale then all they would think was that it was a pity to die so young. Then something unexplainable happened. First the Dragon disappeared without a trace of it and the second was that there was some woman in it''s place. ¡°?¡± The woman went up to Gen and the rest of the group and proceeded to beat them to the point of near death and then healed them and then beat them half to death and heal them once more before saying: ¡°Hey is that all you lot have? I heard from an old friend that you guys were quite courageous for natives, was he wrong? Did I just waste my time coming here to test you before the training?¡± ¡°....¡± Gen and the others were completely speechless. What was this person saying? ¡°Oh, I haven''t introduced myself, I''m Eden and I was asked by that master of yours to train you. Also I''m what you call a freeman and am a Dragon as well¡± the person called Eden said. There was a slight smirk on her face when she saw their reaction. ¡°So...what do you want to do? Rot here for years more worthless or come with me and become something stronger?¡± Naturally Gen and the others that only numbered 4 right now seeing Eden''s powers accepted the training and whatever came with it. Oh, if they only knew that what they had to face was enough that they wanted to return from this time and say no to everything Eden has to offer. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Gen...Gen! Wake up!¡± shouted Mel in his ear. Gen looked around startled as if he didn''t know where he was and said, ¡°I thought I was at the time where we made the wrong decision in our lives.¡± Jenny, Mel and Ron all sighed and said collectively, ¡°We all have that dream sometimes.¡± The simple fact that even now they want to go back in time and redo everything without the ''aid'' of Eden was enough to say what they had to face and endure. In fact they were quite kind to their apprentices in their training, kind enough to supply everything to them and explain things properly. All Eden did was push them to their limits constantly with all things. ¡°Hey, I did explain things to you and gave you tasks that you could complete fine.¡± An irritated voice resounded in the room reading the thoughts of Gen, Mel, Jenny and Ron. They all paled hearing this voice. They all thought, ''when the hell did he get the ability to read minds?!'' ¡°And no, I didn''t get that ability yet, it''s just that it''s so easy to read you from the expressions you guys are making¡± Eden sighed and further said, ¡°The preparations are done, when your brats meet you, guide to there.¡± With that Anna and Park were left with the others as Eden disappeared to do whatever he wanted again. ¡°I hope they don''t get too traumatised....¡± someone said when Eden left. [p=center]xXx[/p] Back in reality where the group of six were in a giant mansion, they wanted to know more about this place and more about the actual task since they were sort of there in getting stronger. ¡°Simon!¡± said Peter in a loud voice so he could hear, ¡°We have some questions for you!¡± A minute passed where the group looked around a bit nervous since this was not their home and they could possibly be kicked out at any time if they did something wrong. ¡°Yes, what is it?¡± Simon appeared and asked the group nicely. Naturally it was Peter who responded. ¡°First of all, we want to know more about this granddaughter as have to find. Being young and female literally means half the players in Royal Road you know!¡± complained Peter. After a discussion they realised that Simon, the butler didn''t even show them the picture of the granddaughter to begin with and they had no way to search even if they wanted to before getting stronger and levelling up. ¡°Of course¡± replied Simon as he took out a photo of the granddaughter; she was quite young, around 16 or so and had long brown chestnut hair. Her figure was quite average and she looked average as well and had freckles on her face. You would think this kind of person would be from a normal family and not from one that owns such a large mansion. ¡°The young lady is named Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia¡± said Simon with a smirk on his face. ¡°....¡± Peter and the other stared at him and said, ¡°This is no times for jokes.¡± Simon sighed and replied, ¡°Seems that you guys are too young to remember that series....it wasn''t that popular but was very interesting near the end. Anyway the young lady''s real name is called Rebecca de Francis otherwise known as Diven in Royal Road.¡± ¡°I see, is there anything else?¡± ¡°It is likely that the young lady is someone who has adventures and does not stay much in cities else we would''ve found her already. The circles of those who fight monsters these days are quite tight¡± replied Simon, ''The majority of them are one way or another connected to Independent Guilds and even though they don''t technically own anything, things get really territorial a number of times with numbers and power. Things haven''t really changed that much compared to before, it''s just now that the top and bottom of the chain isn''t as affected while the middle part is screwed over heavily.¡± Simon let out a sigh as if he had to deal with this but Peter ignored that for now. ¡°So we only have her appearance and name to use to search...are there any areas which we don''t have to search through?¡± asked Peter. ¡°The 10 restricted zones for starters....the capital city of the Kingdom and mostly the main cities with the most number of players. She is likely to be around the western continent area unless she moved elsewhere.¡± ''So that''s why he sent us to a city in the western continent...'' though Peter thinking of his previous words. ¡°....¡± The others dare not to speak right now so it was really just a conversation between Simon and Peter. The others were trying to suck up as much information as possible from this conversation since it affects their future greatly. Around 2 weeks pasted in real life since they were brought here and as such, 2 and a bit months in game. ¡°Anyway, how''s your progress in the game?¡± asked Simon all of a sudden. Peter collected himself and replied, ¡°We''re half way to level 60 from 50 and are around average in strength I believe for a player.¡± ''Well there''s no need to tell him that we killed the Goblin Chief boss monster in Dunxix Dungeon as well as took down a Zolerd, a level 100 named monster afterwards immediately''. While boasting of your strengths was a good way to advertise yourself, doing so too much even if it is the truth would result in you having a much harder time with more difficult tasks being pushed to you. Also Peter and the others only need information on the player called Diven and didn''t particularly want others to notice them. Simon smiled and with a poker face said, ¡°Oh, I thought you killed the boss monster of the Dunxix Dungeon 20 levels below it and soon later killed a Zolerd which was twice your level. Did I here the rumours falsely?¡± ¡°!¡± Peter was shocked that Simon could hear such rumours already. ¡°Looks like you guys haven''t investigated the fame system that well after all¡± Simon let out a laugh and said, ¡°No matter what you do, NPCs will notice your actions and it will spread amongst an area. I believe all you have 80 Fame each except for grace over there with 100 Fame because she did some work and was rewarded some fame during her first 3 weeks!¡± ''Hmm...that makes sense. Serena...no Grace must have done some work for a while to gain that Fame. It''s honest work so there''s nothing to complain about though...don''t our masters know each other quite well?'' thought Peter hearing that Grace worked for her Fame from most likely activities her master forced her to do. ¡°Another thing is that if you want to finish this task that the Master has given you all, it''s best to join an Independent Guild and after a while of accumulating contributions to both the Guild and Kingdom, use it to track down the Young lady. Even she cannot hide if you use this method since literally every person in the continent will be helping you in finding her then.¡± ¡°I see. Is there anything else you want to add? We still have some small business in the game¡± said Peter to Simon since it seems there was nothing more to discuss. ¡°Oh?¡± Simon seems a bit surprised, ¡°I thought you would want my help or know my identity in the game at least.¡± Peter recalled what Simon said 2 weeks ago. ¡°You were called Inferna right?¡± asked Peter. ¡°Yes and do you know who I am in the game?¡± asked Simon with a smile knowing what the answer will be. ¡°No...?¡± replied Peter even though he didn''t like being in this game Simon made with the conversation leaning to his flow. ¡°I am one of 13 advisors that the Kingdom has. Frankly I am a person who has the most power after the Emperor and other complicated stuff. Only the Emperor and Empress have more power than the council of thirteen.¡± ''Council of Thirteen....? I don''t think even Hina knows about this....it seems to be a secret or something that is not that well known compared to the authority of the Emperor and Empress that usually leaves the Kingdom to self manage with trust worthy people'' thought Peter hearing about this. He would later want to investigate this a bit more though not now since they had other things to do. ¡°Hmm....is that all?¡± asked Peter thinking about it. ¡°Yeah though there is one advise I want you to follow at least¡± said Simon suddenly when Peter and the others were about to leave. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Peter now a bit irritated. ¡°Don''t be interesting else you might catch the eye of Eden.¡± ''Eden? Who''s that....? Well I suppose that''s another thing to worry about then...'' With this very sound advice from Simon which the group didn''t care about, they left to enter the game again. [p=center]xXx[/p] Entering the game, the group noticed that it was night right now. It was most likely that around 2 days passed in the game since they logged off. Finding each other, the group pretty much went to one of their master''s place. Namely Gen''s since that was the closest once to their closest position. On the way, Lyndis asked: ¡°Why do we want to meet our masters again?¡± she still to this point really didn''t like Ron that much since he was the type of guy girls hated. ¡°For starters, it would be nice to meet them after a while since we DO owe them¡± replied Miriel, ¡°And the second reason is to gain new skills and spells without having to rely on buying them or randomly generating them. You don''t exactly plan on using that ''Life Burn'' skill of yours all the time right?¡± ¡°Of course not, it drains health quite quickly.¡± ¡°Precisely, plus it would be nice to pick up some more spells to use in battle. You may be able to swing a sword any time you want but spells are something you must have a lot of to be useful all the time.¡± ¡°That''s true but I rather have a few melee skills right now considering the surprising amount of fighting with a spear I needed to do in the last hunting trip¡± added in Sain, ¡°What about you Raven?¡± ¡°...a new attack method would be nice....also defence move as well....¡± replied Raven talking in pieces. ¡°A better healing option would be great! I already have a strong enough offence¡± said Serena remembering how her ''Blood Burst'' spell literally could clear out waves of enemies given the chance. ¡°Haha, I bet the only one who doesn''t need new skills or spells is Shadow!¡± laughed Lyndis seeing how everyone wanted something to cover what they lacked. ¡°That''s not true!¡± retorted Shadow getting informal all of a sudden, ¡°I need a speed boosting skill since I only relied on my own movement speed and almost got killed by several creatures before like that Zolerd.¡± He still remembered how that giant ''slow'' thing managed to catch him before he could escape. As a agility based player, that wounded his pride and he wanted a way to fix that immediately. The best and easily was to learn a technique that allowed him to escape easily from enemies. The group chattered on to Gen''s home which only Sain knew the location to and eventually, near the house itself, Gen stood there waiting for something. Noticing that something was wrong, Sain called out: ¡°Master!¡± while waving his hand to him. ¡°Sain!¡± Gen called back. Gen then suddenly rushed at Sain with such speeds that Sain and the others could only be shocked without time to react at all. ¡°Ah your with the others good¡± said Gen seeing the others as well, he took out some sort of device and said to it, ¡°I found them, meet up at that place.¡± ¡°?¡± Confused on what was happening Sain asked, ¡°Master...? What is going on?¡± Gen looked at him with pity and said, ¡°Long story short, you...no every one of you here will be taking part in a ritual...no a trial would be more accurate. I was ordered to take you there.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Sain had a bad feeling about this and didn''t really want part of it. ¡°You have no choice¡± said Gen with a cold voice void of emotion. Whack! Bang! Suddenly Sain and the others were hit several times and collapsed on each other. Then Gen took out a piece of paper with some writing on them...a talisman of some sort and stuck it on the group that was touching each other right now. ¡°Sorry....¡± muttered Gen as he activated the talisman. [p=center]xXx[/p] The whole group; Sain, Raven, Shadow, Miriel, Lyndis and Serena all felt a strange sensation and suddenly found themselves at some place that was underground and most likely outside the city that looked like a dungeon of some sort. There they saw 5 figures. They were Mel, Jenny, Park, Ron and Anna; the masters of the rest of the group. Like Gen they had a strange feeling around them for some reason. The group did not know what lied before them at all and did not to think to kill themselves when they had the chance. ¡°Master, what is going on?!¡± asked Miriel while getting out of the pile which everyone was stuck in first. Jenny looked at her apprentice, no it was better to call her a disciple now since Miriel and the others already went past the apprentice level; with sadness filled in her eyes as well as endless torment that happened in the past. ¡°Miriel....I sometimes regret making you my apprentice for the reasons today....¡± said Jenny with eyes that were void of emotions as if she was suppressing them right now for her own sanity. ¡°What?!¡± exclaimed Miriel not knowing what was going on. As the others also tried to question their masters except for Raven who kept quiet all this time, Sain took the time to look around. They were in some place underground and the rocks were rust coloured but at places it was pure white made of marble for some reason as well. There was in exit in sight but there was a large door with six symbols on there though they were erased like someone placed a knife there so Sain couldn''t tell what they were. Nothing else could be said except that their masters were acting strangely. ¡°This the trial through that door?¡± asked Sain while everyone else was chattering away with questions of their own. The room fell silent as Mel replied to Sain''s question, ¡°Yes, that is where you all go. There is no preparation needed, you just go in and.....¡± Mel could not speak what would happen next. Creeeeeeeak Then suddenly the stone door opened and on the other side was darkness... ¡°....¡± Everyone stood silent, not daring to speak. ¡°So...we have to go in there...?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Yes¡± replied Ron. ¡°Do we have to?¡± she asked again. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°....¡± The group now knew there was no going out on this even though they didn''t come here willingly in the first place. ¡°So...let''s go...?¡± said Serena not so confidence at her own words. Some minutes passed like this and the group entered the darkness with the stone door immediately shutting when they all went through. This was the trial Eden had prepared to separate the good from the trash in this world. Those who have not suffered have no place in his guild. Something that has been broken once could not be broken again.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9100~ - Just one more chapter...well the epilogue for this volume! Vol.1 Epilogue - Despair and New Hope ¡°What the hell?!¡± said Miriel to this sudden darkness all of a sudden. They were all in pitch darkness here with no source of light. To this Lyndis then suddenly thought, ''Wait, can''t I just use fire magic to make some light?'' ¡°Pocket Fireball!¡± said Lyndis. However nothing happened at all, her mana didn''t even decrease at all if the spell failed, she just didn''t even activate the spell in the first place. ¡°What the...¡± Lyndis muttered, ¡°I can''t use any of my skills¡±, Lyndis again tried with ''Fire Blade'' and even ''Life Burn'' but they didn''t even work at all. It was as if in here they couldn''t use skills or spells at all. ¡°Hey guys, what will we do now?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°....¡± ¡°Guys?¡± ¡°....¡± There was in unusual silence for some reason. Lyndis moved around for a bit trying to feel their presence at least but there was no one there at all. She was all alone.... However then Lyndis felt that there was someone there. ¡°Hello?¡± asked Lyndis in the general direction of the other person. ¡°Useless.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°You''re useless!¡± ¡°....¡± There was a sudden mental shock to Lyndis as her memories were opened up like a old door being smashed down without warning from an intruder. ¡°Can''t you do this right?!¡± the voice shouted at Lyndis from all directions. ¡°No...no...no....¡± muttered Lyndis no Maria, ¡°Not again....no....no....I don''t want this....¡± Maria did not want to be useless, did not want to be abandoned again....again. ''Please don''t abandon me again......'' There was only despair here. [p=center]xXx[/p] Miriel was now for some reason separated from the others and in a school classroom. She recognised this place. ¡°No....¡± Miriel muttered before she tried to escape from this immediately. However no matter how much she tried to pull open the door, it would not open. She then took a chair and tried to smash open the window to escape but even the chair would not move. ¡°No! No!¡± Miriel shouted in a frenzy. She punched the window but it did not break at all. Then the surroundings changed and she was standing in front of a desk that was covered with all kinds of things. Graffiti, garbage and insults were just the start of it. Miriel recognised it easily. It was her desk after all. ¡°Why.....?¡± ''Why would this game show me this?'' Then Miriel noticed that there were other people around her. Her ''classmates''. All of them stared at her with no feelings of wrong in their hearts. They were in the ''right'' while Miriel...no Hina was in the ''wrong''. It was ''natural'' after all since they were ''always right'' and Hina was ''always wrong''. ¡°Shut up!¡± shouted Hina as she picked up the chair that did not budge one bit before and threw it at ''them''. The chair hit some people and they disappeared but they were replaced by more people just like the others. ''I''m alone.....alone here.....alone......alone.....alone.....'' There was only despair here. [p=center]xXx[/p] Serena was in a dorm that she had lived in most of her life. There she found some small happiness but that soon changed. ¡°Isn''t this....?¡± said Serena looking around. She had fond memories of this after all so she was quite happy. She explored the place for a while and noticed that it was all nice and clean which made her quite happy indeed. She skipped around remembering things and eventually got to her room. When she opened it.... ¡°Wha...¡± She was suddenly kicked in without mercy into the filth filled place that was completely ruined. Every piece of furniture item were either destroyed or wrecked. The walls were covered in graffiti of insults reminding Serena....Grace of how small and weak she was. ¡°Bitch!¡± ¡°Loser!¡± ¡°Go Die!¡± Words filled everywhere Grace could think of. There was no escape to the words and the stare from the eyes that covered the walls like a horror film. Then the walls themselves spouted out mouths that were the source of the words. ¡°NOOOOOOOOO! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!¡± screamed Grace. She kicked and clawed at the doors and walls but no matter what she did, she could not get out, escape from this. ¡°Hic....No......please.....stop.....¡± Grace started sobbing on the ground on her knees to the wall. There was only despair here. [p=center]xXx[/p] Raven was in a dark alley way. Bang! He had no weapons or armour on here. Bang! He was not Raven here but Mark right now. Bang! And he was being beaten up to the point of near death by those he once ''knew''. They attacked him because he performed better than them, looked better than them and was liked by the girls better than them. That was all the reason they needed to turn on him. ¡°Die you trash!¡± Bang! Bang! A group of 5 people were beating him right now with no end to come. There were other people watching this play out. His other ''classmates'', who just looked on not helping at all. ¡°....¡± Mark stared at them. ¡°What?! You want some more?¡± said one of those 5 people with scorn before pouring some dirtied filth on him and kicking him some more. ¡°....¡± Mark did not talk but his thoughts were flaring out at each and every one of them. ''I will kill you....kill you all for this....will not.....will not forgive....no matter the time....will not forgive....'' Inside of Mark came about an unremovable darkness that will never fade. Towards those who attack him. Towards those who just watch on never to act, just to protect themselves. And to this horrible world that drags others down with them and stomp them below. Then Mark saw his teacher....someone who should help him right now. However... ¡°Look what we have here¡± the teacher''s face was filled with malice to the point it distorted, ¡°You trash! You bastard!¡± Bang! Bang! And so the one who should have protected him acted against him. No...he was the one who started this in the first place since Mark''s future would''ve been better and brighter than his own. ¡°..........why?¡± Mark could only mutter while he was still being attacked and beaten down. There was only despair here. [p=center]xXx[/p] Shadow was in a large room filled with people he knew who were talking away to each other for some reason. They all looked happy as they converse. He recognised each and every one of them and talked to most of them. Shadow walked to one of them, a boy in his early teens, a friend of Shadow as he called out to him. ¡°Hey!¡± However there was no response at all. Realising that something was wrong Shadow approached his friend and tapped him on the shoulder but again no response. ¡°Hey! Are you there!¡± said Shadow quite annoyed right now. Then his ''friend'' turned around with a look that Shadow....Ian knew. It was filled with void towards him like he wasn''t there at all. Like he never existed to this ''person'' to begin with. ¡°Who are you?¡± his ''friend'' asked. ¡°.....Ah....¡± Ian now remembered completely. He ran to another person and shook them, this person was someone who lived in the same place as him for a while. ''He should remember me!'' Ian thought. Again the void look was all that was there with a question. ¡°Who are you?¡± Ian tried again and again with more and more people. But the same look towards him and the same question. ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± ¡°No...NO! WHY CAN''T YOU REMEMBER ME?! WHY CAN''T YOU SEE ME?!¡± screamed Ian into the distance which was filled with people that did not acknowledge his existence itself. There was only despair here. [p=center]xXx[/p] Sain was in a school at one of the classrooms. There was a strange feeling about this place that Sain couldn''t place. It was as if he was here before. ¡°It.....¡± There was a voice on the other side of the room. For some reason the person was dressed in complete black and the classroom changed to a funeral place. ¡°It was your fault!¡± a person screamed at Sain not Peter. ¡°What...?¡± Peter looked on in disbelief. He slowly remembered this from before... ¡°Everything is your fault!¡± ¡°This is your fault!¡± ¡°You are the one responsible!¡± More and more people showed up in this place all cursing him. Peter remembered this incident. Some people from the orphanage did something reckless and someone died while Peter was not watching over them. He had no responsibility over them at all and was helping other kids out at the time. However... ¡°Go die!¡± ¡°If it weren''t for you, he would still be alive!¡± Peter was blamed for the entire things by those involved without warning. The adults believed the lies that were made and soon the ''truth'' went out and Peter was the one to ''blame''. He wasn''t even there at all, had no relation to those people at all. Not once did he even talk to them and just he was blamed. Those who told the truth were made into ''liars'' with all their so called ''lies''. The ''truth'' and ''lie'' was twisted to the point that even the police was involved. By the time to ''truth'' was removed and the ''lie'' was revealed, everyone already excepted the ''lie'' as the ''truth''. They were taught all about the ''truth'' that happened by those ''responsible''. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. He did not even have a chance at all. He was the one who had to be blamed just because he better than the others in teaching and leading them. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!¡± Peter let out a screamed filled with all of his emotions at once. There was only despair here. [p=center]xXx[/p] Gen appeared at the place outside the trial area where the other five were. He tried to ignore the screams from in the room and went to talk to the others who also tried to ignore the screams of despair that came within. It reminded them of what happened to them as well. ¡°So....how long has it been?¡± asked Gen. ¡°An hour¡± replied Park with a look of extreme displeasure though with acceptance to the current situation. The trial was in it''s essence, the breaking down of a person. From their deepest darkness, everything was exposed to them. Everything from the most relatively minor thing to the worst things that happened in your life. Every bit, even the ones you tried to forget comes back at you here. Many....no most people are completely broken afterwards with only those who came back in only a few pieces were permanently scared. ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!¡± The scream was heard by all of them. ¡°What the hell did that Eden do?!¡± asked Gen in anger to Anna and Park who were with Eden when he changed the trial. ¡°He made it so it only showed the worst over and over again¡± replied Anna without a care. Gen paled. This meant that for an hour, they were being shown their worst nightmare literally. Before Gen could speak another word however, the stone door opened signalling the completion of the Trial. [p=center]xXx[/p] Sain, Raven, Shadow, Miriel, Lyndis and Serena walked out of the room in which the trial was. Their eyes were void of emotions and they staggered to the slightest thing. On their right hands were glowing symbols that were engraved on due to the trial they faced. The shine itself was contradictory to the actual experience they went through to get the marks. ¡°....you guys¡± muttered Gen seeing them. The masters however could only look in shock and deep regret, well to be precise only half of them did. The other half simply accepted it in the end though a bit of emotion was stirred in even them due to their looks right now. They were shocked in what state they were in and regretted even forcing them to take the trial even if it was an order. However before they could do anything, a certain person appeared in between them. A person who suddenly teleported here just before. This person was Eden who was behind all of this. ¡°Well looks like you guys passed! Good job!¡± said Eden enthusiastically. There was only rage in the hearts of the masters now seeing their disciples like this. Why did they have to suffer like this? What purpose was having them, so young experience THAT trial of all things. ¡°What have you done?!¡± demanded Gen in rage. Eden looked and stared him and the others down easily while the others did not react at all. Then Eden let out a smile and said, ¡°Don''t worry, I''ll just use the same method as last time. Well you lot didn''t remember completely after this but decades down the effectiveness disappears and they will remember either way.¡± Eden snapped his fingers and a bright light shown there. A light that removed everything that the user desired, even memories itself. One of the 3 Ultimate Light skills that was directly taught by the Elemental Lord of Light...no it was better to say that Eden stole the technique. ¡°Fairy Law....¡± muttered Jenny recognising the spell even though it was only a faction of it''s true power. Then light came back in the eyes of Sain and the others with the power of the spell in place. Sealing the nightmares, the darkness in their hearts once more. ¡°Where....?¡± muttered Sain as he looked around confused. The others as well looked very confused on what happened. ¡°We just went in that room and now....?¡± said Lyndis. ¡°It feels like something is missing¡± said Miriel. Raven added in, ¡°Like something is being blocked out.¡± ¡°The memories from when we went in and till now...¡± said Shadow. ¡°What just happened...?¡± asked Serena. ¡°Whatever it was, it definitely left a bad taste in my mouth....a very very bad taste for some reason....¡± said Sain frowning very hard to the point that it could be mistaken as a look of disgust. ¡°Good good, you''re all back!¡± said Eden by excited now. ¡°Who are you?¡± asked Lyndis bluntly. ¡°I''m Eden¡± he replied without much care to the rudeness of her words with a smile. ¡°Why are you here? And what relationship do you have with our masters?¡± asked Miriel next with a slightly respectful tone seeing her master''s face towards this person. ¡°Oh, I''m their Guildmaster. A long time ago they referred to me as ''Master'' as you do to them now.¡± ¡°So....you are the Grandmaster....?¡± muttered Miriel in her thoughts as well now. Seeing that this was a great time to ask things now since this person seems to be want to answer the group''s questions, Sain asked: ¡°Why are you here?¡± Eden looked happy and then said with a serious tone, ¡°The reason I''m here....well there are a lot of reasons but the easiest way to say this is that I want you lot to join my Independent Guild!¡± A message appeared in front of the group collectively.
Guildmaster Eden has requested for you to join his Independent Guild ''The Sleeping Sheep Centre'' Do you accepted? Note that all of you have to join or refuse this offer.
¡°!¡± The group stared in disbelief. There was something wrong with this but... ¡°Ah! You''re that woman from before!¡± shouted Serena in realisation of the person who she didn''t see for a total of more than 2 months in game. Although Eden was now in a regular set of clothes that rid her(his) gender, Serena was still able to identify Eden was ''that woman''. ¡°Yep, you remembered me¡± replied Eden with a smile on his face seeing that one of the people her held an interest in and helped out before throwing her to Mel remembered him. There was no signs of malice or any other negative emotions that could harm the group. Seeing Serena''s reaction to this ''Eden'' person, Sain had quickly decided the answer since it was too good to pass. However there was something else that he was worried about. To be precise it was from the advice Simon the butler gave before. ¡°Don''t be interesting else you might catch the eye of Eden.¡± However Sain did not follow recognise the usefulness of such advice to him and the others. ''Joining an Independent Guild would help us a lot. There are so many benefits in joining one even a small one but most importantly, this person seems to be a nice person. Plus she has the approval of Serena...so she helped her before maybe? Either way, it''s better to accept than reject thus offer that''s too good to be true'' thought Sain quickly in his head. Sain looked to the others and immediately understood what their answer will be. ¡°We accept!¡±
You and your party have joined the Independent Guild ''The Sleeping Sheep Centre''
With this message saying that they accepted, Eden was the first to say something. ¡°Welcome to the Sleeping Sheep Centre otherwise known as the S.S Centre!¡± This was the beginning of their journey for better or worse.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Well this is the end...for the first volume that is. This was more enjoyable than I thought trying to write about regular players instead of a over powered monster Eden was...though he is a key part of this story as well but as a mentor and not as an actor....well not until a long time later on in this series. Writing this series takes much longer than the last since it is around 20+ pages each chapter though it only goes to around 10K words in the end, more likely to be less than that since battle scenes don''t take that many words. - On another note....Eden....always been a dick to people hasn''t he....well it has been 100 years to him and a lot of things changed. - Either way, I''m going to post the prologue for volume 2 tomorrow. Vol.2 Prologue - Invitation to the Guild ¡°Welcome to the Sleeping Sheep Centre otherwise known as the S.S Centre!¡± Shortly to when these words were spoken Gen and two other masters immediately went their way to complain to Eden about some matters. To be precise even though they knew from the beginning that they would train the group to become part of the guild, the methods that Eden used was too cruel to begin with. ¡°Wait a second! Are you trying to sweep the issue of what you did before with this happy ending?!¡± complained Gen in a loud voice that shocked Sain first. ¡°Precisely! Why the hell did you alter the content of the trial to make it worst than before?! It should be the other way around! You should''ve made it easier for them so they didn''t need to suffer so much!¡± shouted Mel which shocked Serena next. Eden looked at they annoyed at the fact they were complaining at this precise moment where he couldn''t really punish them in front of the new recruits. He wanted to be a respected Guildmaster to them at least after all considering what happened to the current lot which he trained before. ¡°They''re fine now¡± replied Eden, however this only angered them even more. ¡°That''s not the point you idiot!¡± shouted Jenny this time even though she still had a fear of Eden in general even with her long forgotten respect for him. Jenny actually cared for Miriel and the look on her face was enough to put her off for a long time. The only calm ones were Park, Anna; both whom accepted this result to begin with since it was Eden who was doing things now and also surprisingly Ron. ¡°Well at least Lyndis grew up a bit thanks to this¡± said Ron that was strangely detached to the well-being to Lyndis. ¡°Ron don''t you care about the well-being of Lyndis¡± asked Park to his words. ¡°Not really right now. Before I was quite happy to have her as an apprentice since she was similar to me but then I learnt that she was really similar to me in the past....¡± Ron replied with a sad smile. It was a smile that wasn''t perverted and insulting to others, one that Lyndis never saw before. ¡°...Logical result from what Eden did¡± said Anna all of a sudden not really caring about Shadow due to her loyalty to Eden for the most part. ¡°Why are you lot on his side?!¡± demanded Gen hearing this. He could not understand why they, masters of part of the group didn''t care at all of their well-being that was being twisted and stomped on by Eden. ¡°Simply because I expected this would happen to begin with¡± said Park to the question with a sigh to his old friend. ¡°That still doesn''t matter! In fact, you should have at least tried to stop him!¡± retorted Gen. ¡°Then why didn''t you Gen? Was it due to fear or a lack of power you didn''t act. The same with you two as well, Mel, Jenny¡± Park looked over at the two as well that seemed to have calmed down at least seeing that their disciple were now fine. ¡°More or less fear¡± ¡°Yep, it was due to fear and the lack of power to do anything¡± The two replied at the same time. They remembered how Eden and the other two did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted with them suffering in the end. However it seems to them that Eden truly wanted them to respect him at least to a certain extent for now. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Whack! Suddenly a knife was deflected away from Gen that was thrown by Anna all of a sudden. ¡°Tch.¡± Anna was annoyed that Gen didn''t get hit and die from the surprise attack. ¡°What the hell was that for?!¡± demanded Gen with his emotions still raving around inside him. Anna looked innocently at Gen and said, ¡°Hoped that you would die this time.¡± Whack! Then Eden moved and hit Anna on the head without noticing that he moved. He let out a small laugh and said: ¡°You''re not allow to attack Gen when he could die.¡± ¡°Then it''s all right for her to attack me any time beside that?!¡± retorted Gen. Eden looked at Gen with amusement and said, ¡°Gen, aren''t you suppose to be angry with me? Did your anger disappear already...? If not I can....play with you.¡± Eden''s black eyes glowed with a frightening colour was stood out in the dark underground room they were in. It was not enough to cause the new recruits to faint from it like when with Serena in the past but it was still very intimidating at least Gen which it was directed to. ¡°....damn¡± muttered Gen since he was easily defeated in many ways at once. Eden smiled since this issue was now over and then turned to the six new recruits and said immediately: ¡°From now on, your training will be dealt with by me.¡± ¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°Huh?¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± All of the masters including the three that weren''t angry with Eden were shocked. This was such an unreasonable demand all of a sudden. ¡°Also...you six over there¡± Eden pointed at the masters, ¡°Will be demoted to aids in their training.¡± ¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°What?!¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± The six new recruits to the S.S Centre....Sain, Raven, Shadow, Miriel, Lyndis and Serena could only stare at these scenes following through with disbelief. They had never expected anything like this at all and yet for some reason they expected this considering how the Guildmaster Eden acted to their masters...no former masters now. ¡°Did we make the right choice....?¡± wondered Sain aloud asking the same questions in everyone''s minds.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - The second volume now begin!!! - Also, release of this volume will be very slow since I''m still writing chapter 3....honestly the first chapter is 28 pages....second chapter 22 pages and the third chapter is reaching 22 pages as well and only a bit more to finish....if this was the last series, they would be 6 chapters already! Vol.2 Chapter 1 - Show of Power ¡°Well then, now that that''s all sorted out, I should get everyone out of here...well almost everyone. Some people are not grateful to me at all even after what I did for them¡± Eden said waving his finger around letting out a blue light that eventually was formed as a magic circle. Miriel looked at it in shock and muttered aloud, ¡°A 7 circle...no 8 circle spell constructed just like that..!¡± Hearing this, Eden was a bit happy, ¡°Ah, a mage in the group...there at least 3 of you that are involved in magic right? Good good...well I can teach you and the other two the same either way. Anyway don''t expect too much from me, I''m just normal; average in magic uses and a number of other things¡± he finished making the large teleport circle that was 10 metres long in diameter and ordered everyone to get on it. ¡°As usual using powerful like that without a care in the world...no voice incantation or preparation needed....a monster as always in the field of voiceless incantations,¡± muttered Jenny stepping on the teleport circle, ¡°If someone like you is considered a normal than everyone else can jump in the Dragon''s mouth!¡± Eden pointed out, ¡°I can actually make that happen you know.¡± ¡°That was a rhetorical statement!¡± replied Jenny frustrated. ¡°Then why did you say that?¡± asked Eden confused. Jenny sighed and said, ¡°Because if it''s you then you might actually do it.¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone was silent not wanting to disturb the conversation like this. Amongst the new recruits Miriel in particular thought, ''Master....seems to be more agitated than usual thanks to this Eden...no Guildmaster...I wonder why.'' However she didn''t want to appear rude in front the Guildmaster and decided to question her at a later date. First of all, she wanted to do what the Guildmaster wanted them to do which would be in the form of some sort of training. Soon enough the teleport circle flashed and everyone disappeared by it. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Lyndis and the others appeared once again, they were in front of a relatively normal building. It was two stories high and rather than big, it was long taking up three times more room than the other buildings near it. At the top, there was a clear sign placed on it. ''Headquarters of the Sleeping Sheep Center''. ''It looks like this will be our new base from now on. We still have a long time until the due time is near us...better go with the flow for now....must remember not to be rude to Eden....no the Guildmaster'' thought Lyndis wanting not for the incident at the beginning when she met the others to repeat itself. ¡°This is the Guild base, it''s at the east side of the city so you it''s kinda easy to find¡± said Eden opening the door and walking in before anyone else. The others also walked in but Lyndis stopped and heard her master say: ¡°What happened to those three?¡± Lyndis looked around and the ones called Gen, Mel and Jenny weren''t here at all. Was there some mistake or did they bolt off before anyone could notice. ''Well they''ll probably be fine since they are all strong'' thought Lyndis also entering the building. The inside of the building was quite simple. At the front was a receptionist desk, the right of that entering in was a place with a number of sofas for some reason while the left had a large board and a table with a number of seats around it. There were stairs to the left as well which led to the second story of this building and there were a total of three doors that Lyndis could see. One that was directly behind the receptionist desk, one that was to the right side and one to the left side. Lyndis had no idea where they went and immediately started to explore this place. But before that... Grab! ¡°I hope that you don''t go exploring yet, I haven''t disabled all of the traps yet for you¡± said Eden with a smile. ''Trap....?'' everyone thought at the same time. By then Ron entered the building after Lyndis. Craaaaaaaaaaack! There was a loud cracking sound under his foot for some reason. BOOOOM!!! And a large explosion as well. ¡°What the hell?!¡± shouted Lyndis in surprise. He did not expect to see Ron exploding like that. Strangely enough, the explosion was contained to outside the building and nothing inside the building except for the few burn marks on the door was harmed. ¡°....¡± Eden looked a bit confused and then said suddenly, ¡°Crap! Didn''t disable the Fire Hell Pit Trap!¡± before running to where the explosion was. ¡°Wait, did we all just go over that place a moment ago?!¡± retorted Miriel seeing what just happened. Ron was nowhere in sight and most likely... ¡°Daaaaaaaaaamnit Eden! If I wasn''t a part spirit!!!!!¡± Ron''s shout could be heard from below for some reason. Eden ran over to show the group that there was a large hole enough to drop a person at the entrance of the building and opened it. ¡°Hurry up and get out of the lava pool!¡± Eden shouted at Ron who was down at the bottom of the lava pool. ''Lava Pool?!'' Lyndis was already shocked to the point that she couldn''t even find the strength to retort anymore. Then from the hole came flames that flew out and reform to become Ron. ¡°Pant....pant...pant....that was close¡± muttered Ron with a pale face. For some reason Lyndis has a urge to kill Ron right now with the expression he has on his face. Lyndis just now realised why most women hated Ron in the first place. It wasn''t his attitude or behaviour but that damn face that wants to make you kick it into piece! In fact Eden did just that in front of Lyndis. Kick! Kick! ¡°What was that for?!¡± shouted Ron still recovering and yet was still taking damage from Eden''s kicks. Eden made a look of disgust and said, ¡°For that damn face that makes you want to break it into pieces!¡± ''It seems Eden thinks similar to me in some ways....'' wondered Lyndis a bit too innocently. [p=center]xXx[/p] After the ''incident'' with Ron and the trap that nearly killed him, Eden thoroughly disabled the rest of the traps that were placed around various places in the guild. Since Shadow had the ''detect traps'' skill, he actually tried to check the place for traps as well interested in where the traps would be. ¡°Why the hell is this entire place blue?!¡± he retorted loudly without knowing it. ¡°Blue?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Yeah! Any place that''s covered in blue for me means there are traps there! Everywhere, the floor, ceiling to the walls are completely blue! Even the tables and chairs are trapped as well!¡± The group had a shutter in the fact that their lives were in constant danger in this place. But then Eden came back and Shadow could not see the whole place in blue anymore. Ignoring the fact that the group was frightened beyond hell from the previous statement from Shadow, Eden started explaining where everything was. ¡°Anyway I think I should be the one to tell you guys where everything is. First of all, the place we''re in is called the front guard where the receptionist desk is, the place where people can wait is on the right, the place to the left is places where we discuss things that involve Guild Quests¡± explained Eden to the group. He then looked at the stairs and said, ¡°Upstairs is the living quarters where you may stay. There are rooms for you all....well there are only 3 rooms so you need to split that between yourselves¡± there was a slight chuckle from his mouth that everyone didn''t miss. He was definitely the one who caused this to happen! ¡°One the three doors leads to the kitchen, feel free to use it and not blow it up. That''s the one to the right mind you, the one to the left is the storage area where a number of things are kept; don''t go in there without me since something worse than death may happen~. You can store the excess loot you find as long as you organise it and keep it clean.¡± ''Wait, why did he covered the frightening statement with something quite casual?'' Unfortunately Eden ignored any words right now as he was thinking whether or not let the group see the last room in this building the solely belonged to him. Eden walked through the door behind the receptionist desk. ¡°And this is my office where I do thing.¡± He opened the door and a flood of paper came through collapsing all over the place. ¡°....¡± Sain''s mouth was open, no everyone''s were at the same time. ''How much paperwork is that to the point that it ends up like that?!'' ¡°Ah, don''t worry about this, I''m the one who has to deal with his insane amount of paperwork....well all of them are the same anyway. Burning Touch.¡± Eden''s hand turned into flames and he lightly tapped the piles of paper which quickly burned to ashes....no there weren''t even ashes left of the paper. ¡°....¡± ''Was it fine to burn them all like that?'' wondered someone. ¡°Umm....¡± Sain was about ask a question about that, but then saw the actual office that Eden used. It was made of sort of dark wood and had a glossy look to it. When you look at it you would first think of one of the old nobleman''s room in old T.V shows. Beside the fact that it was just completely filled with paper, it was quite clean. In the end Eden muttered to himself without anyone else noticing: ¡°You have no idea how many times this room was destroyed....¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Right, this is the most special part of the guild building....well it isn''t exactly part of the building....took me a lot of favours to be allow me to create such a space.¡± Eden lead the group along with the only 3 remaining masters underground through a hidden hatch that was located under the stairs.
You have entered the Vortex World - When Health reaches zero, you will faint and recover rather than die - Natural Mana Regeneration increases by 10 times - Injuries will heal rapidly - Other effects are not revealed due to low amount of wisdom
When they reached the room the group was completely surprised by the appearance completely ignoring this message that the game showed them immediately. ¡°Wow....!¡± muttered Lyndis in admiration. ¡°To think something like this was under the city¡± said Miriel. Serena looked around with shining eyes and said, ¡°It....so big!¡± ¡°Why does that last comment sound so dirty?¡± muttered Shadow a good distance away from the others so they won''t hear him. The underground room was in fact quite bright and was completely white in colour. To make sense of this, you can say that the underground room was at least hundreds of metres long and looked quite modern which was in great contrast to the actual setting of the game. However this underground space was in fact greater than the group expected. ¡°This place is called the Vortex World and is completely separate from the mortal world. The hatch was a door to this place in fact. Wait a second, need to change the settings.¡± Eden then proceeded to fiddle with some things with his finger in the air. And the ceiling disappeared revealing the blue sky. ¡°!¡± Everyone''s mouth was wide open at this scene. ¡°I have never heard of something like this....¡± said Sain loss on words to describe how he was feeling. ¡°It''s impossible....but yet...¡± muttered Raven who was also shocked seeing this scene play out before him. Shadow however took a darker approach, ¡°Does this mean she has enough power to create a world? If we get on her bad side...¡± To the words spoken in particular to Shadow''s, Eden replied, ¡°By the way, I''m a guy you know.¡± ¡°....¡± Another shock to the group especially the girls and even more so to Serena. ¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°A man?!¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± ¡°What is this, a damn Korean drama show? Despite how I look, I am a man.¡± ¡°Impossible!¡± ¡°A MAN is prettier than me?!¡± Both Miriel and Lyndis retorted at the same time. It seems that the could not endure the fact that it was a male that was standing in front of them. Perfectly kept hair that shone, pale skin that made men want to protect you and that perfect face that captured the hearts of everyone who saw. And this person was a man?! They just could not believe it. It hurt their pride too much. ¡°Well I was about to explain all about how this world exist in the first place but...oh well¡± sighed Eden since the new recruits were not paying attention at all while the three masters did nothing at all to help and were simply watching all of this play out. ¡°By the way, you three can leave now¡± said Eden looking at the 3 masters with them. Park that was an old man, Ron with countless scars on his body and Anna the petite assassin....rouge. Each of them were powerful, something that the group knew but they easily paled before Eden. ¡°As you wish¡± said Anna first leaving the space. Park and Ron soon followed her out without a word. It seems that in front of the Guildmaster, they were completely serious...unless something bad happens to them in which case they would complain like Ron did with the pit explosion trap at the entrance. With the masters gone now, all that were left were Eden and the group. Eden looked at the group and then muttered, ¡°Around level 50 I think...? Well....I guess I can give them some advantage...¡± The group was confused on what Eden was saying. ¡°Umm....what are we going to do now?¡± asked Serena shy towards Eden now. While she had only admiration towards the ''female'' Eden, she was not certain now since that ''female'' Eden was actually a ''male'' Eden. In fact Serena was quite shy to all males besides the one in the group and maybe some of the masters as well. It was her natural instincts since she always seemed to have a hard time around them. ¡°Ah, I''m just going to evaluate you lot the quickest way¡± replied Eden without hesitation. Many people would at least take a moment or so to think of what they would say but Eden didn''t even take that moment and simply told them the truth outright. It was a bad habit in which he would piss a number of people off due to it but at the same time, a number of people would place their trust in him as he wasn''t the type to tell lies....well at least when he didn''t want to screw them over. ¡°What way is that?¡± asked Shadow that reverted to his usual rude self even to someone like Eden. ¡°By fighting.¡± ¡°But aren''t you a lot stronger than us because of the level difference and such?¡± ¡°Well that depends on your perspective of strong but I am a lot higher than you in terms of levels. So much that even if I stand like this without doing anything, you six can''t even kill me no matter how you attack. My defence without armour is considered beyond top class that a number of people attacking before complained that my body was too sturdy.¡± ¡°Then what''s the point of fighting someone we can''t defeat no matter what?¡± ¡°To test your strength. Plus I''m not that cruel so I''m going to lower my level to 50 to give you six an advantage. That way you can''t complain if you all lose to me. Don''t worry, my skills proficiency will also decrease with this skill so most of my skills will be in the Beginner levels as well.¡± The conversation between Shadow and Eden was very surprising to the others. They did not realise that Shadow was this kind of person to speak lightly to someone extremely strong. Eden switched to some light leather armour from his casual clothes for the test. At this time the group also prepared against a level 50 Eden. ¡°Let''s say it''s your victory if you get one hit in¡± Eden gave the group a smile that told them that he was serious. [p=center]xXx[/p] Eden was standing a good 10 metres away from the group. They had no idea of what powers he had even at level 50. But before they actual began this test, Eden gave some pointers again. ¡°First of all, in this Vortex World of mine, you can''t die and wounds health extremely fast so don''t worry about those things. However if your health reaches zero, you will faint for a while. Another thing is that the skill I used to revert myself to level 50 also reverts my skills as well so I can only use the skills I had when I was level 50. Another advantage for you lot.¡± Eden gave a smile and then gestured for the group to attack him. ¡°Since we can''t die....¡± said Sain, ¡°Go for the full frontal attack! Mana Bolt!¡± Sain started the battle firing 9 mana bolts at Eden at extremely high speeds. Bang! Eden dodged by jumping to the left with a humoured smile on his face without a care of the attack. To this, Lyndis, Raven and Shadow all moved in to attack. ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± chanted Miriel
Agility will increase by 25% for 10 minutes
¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± chanted Serena placing the spell on Raven. ¡°Footwork, Ram!¡± Raven used these two skills together to increase the power of his attack heading in a straight line at Eden with his shield up. However Eden once more dodged by jumping to the side and then started to comment on Raven. ¡°A powerful skill for your level but it can only move in one direction, that means it''s weak at the side and back!¡± Eden moved extremely, faster than even Shadow who was further buffed wit Miriel''s ''Melody of Sound'' and got behind Raven as he was charging before the skill ended and before he could react to dodge. Kick! Eden kicked Raven from the back and he flew forward taking around 20% of his health in one go. ''What the hell is with this speed and power?! Isn''t he suppose to be only level 50?'' thought Sain seeing Eden''s battle power even though he should be lower levelled than them. ¡°Fire Blade!¡± Lyndis using Eden''s large attack to get close was about to hit him with her sword. ¡°Nice speed but it lacks power!¡± said Eden easily seeing through the attack in a glance. He dodged it in close range and smashed his palm into Lyndis'' body at the same time blasting it away with a single hit as well. Bang! Half of Lyndis'' health was taking in a moment. ¡°Minor Heal!¡± chanted Sain bringing her health up a bit as well. ¡°Miriel! Combine attack!¡± shouted Sain more nervous than ever. ¡°Right!¡± ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± A total of 18 Mana Bolts came from the two and were shot at Eden. However Eden smirked once again and simply smashed them with his fist while heading towards Sain, Miriel and Serena. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow appeared behind Eden but Eden reacted just before the blade hit him and did a sudden round-house kick to the head behind him knocking Shadow back easily like the other two as well. Bang! ¡°Quite scary seeing that even I lost his presence for a while there. But again, it lacks power!¡± said Eden continuing in his charge. Taking this time to think, Sain thought of several things from what he saw. ''Eden is a close combat type that has insane amount of skill. He must be some sort of martial arts class at least since there is no way those movements are normal!'' However Sain was wrong, very wrong indeed about where Eden''s true powers lied. ¡°Life Burn!¡± Lyndis taking her life in her own hands, got up and threw fires that were created through her own health at Eden that covered the area he was in. ¡°Blood Burst!¡± chanted Serena at the same time firing her spell at Eden as well. If it works out then even Eden would fall since he was now level 50 for this fight. The two spells hit Eden at the same time. BOOM! BANG! ''We won!'' thought Sain happy of their power and coordination together. However he noticed something was wrong when he saw the flames and the red orb from their spells being blocked a bit further away from Eden as if there was an invisible barrier in the way. ¡°Mana Shield¡± calmly said Eden, ¡°A very interesting spell combination you know. Quite flexible to use but at it''s current level, quite weak since the sight of the target is cut so you don''t know what they will do. That attack was quite nice. If you combined it with those mana bolts from earlier than it would be a lot more powerful giving less chances for the target to react to that orb.¡± In the mist of being attacked, Eden was lecturing the way the group attacked him. He stopped in his tracks but the group also stopped in their attack shocked. ¡°Why are you guys attacking me separately? At this rate you guys will lose without me getting serious you know¡± the words from Eden''s mouth sounded like taunts to the group as he was toying with them. While others may get angry and attack, Sain on the other hand calmed down and asked: ¡°Sorry, but can we get a break to talk things over?¡± ¡°....¡± Eden thought about for a second. ¡°Sure¡± replied Eden without a care. Sain knew that Eden wanted to know the true extent of their abilities and right now it wasn''t that. The group gathered together a distance away from Eden as he pretended not to hear them. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°What the hell was that?! Isn''t he too strong for a level 50?¡± complained Lyndis immediately, after all Eden dodged her attack in close range and used one punch to disable her easily. ¡°His speed is faster than mine as well¡± commented Shadow who was recovering from his kick to the head from Eden. Sain sigh and said, ¡°So his power is higher than Raven and Lyndis'' whose strength stats are around 130 and his speed is faster than Shadow''s whose agility is over than 180. He''s a complete monster and his level is currently lowers than ours as well!¡± ¡°That''s not the worst part. We don''t know completely of what abilities she....he has. That skill...mana shield is something involving magic isn''t it?¡± said Miriel. ¡°True but it can be just a one off skill he has and nothing more¡± replied Sain though he really didn''t believe it. It was a common thing that later on in the very late game that many players can use at least some basic magic due to their stats increasing enough for that. Even warriors can eventually use magic since it only requires 400 in intelligence which by the time you reach level 600 or so, you may have enough ways to increase it high enough although the majority still don''t to further sharpen their current skills instead of what they could get. However it still remains that around 5% of melee classes at that point learn one or two bits of magic. ¡°I doubt it, someone at that point can''t learn magic unless it''s related to their class¡± said Shadow bluntly. ¡°So...there''s a possibility that he can use more magic?¡± wondered Lyndis. ¡°No, I doubt he''ll use it since this is a test after all¡± said Sain. ¡°....¡± The group silently wondered how they were going to deal with this. They can''t die here which is a good thing but that means Eden doesn''t need to hold back at all when dealing with them. To be honest, at this point the group completely forgot about the respect they were suppose to have with Eden and now just call him ''Eden'' instead of ''Guildmaster''. ¡°Teamwork¡± said Raven. ¡°Right!¡± said Serena, ¡°Eden did say that we were attacking separately. We just need to take together.¡± ¡°That....¡± said Miriel, ¡°A bit easier said then done. We haven''t exactly trained in working together and till now only relied a bit on each other while fighting.¡± Sain remembered the month worth of hunting outside the city. From the beginning, since they were trained, they didn''t need to completely rely on each other like normal players. Even when facing boss monsters or the likes, they only attacked and backed each other up a bit and never thought of using a combination attack except in rare cases. The simple fact was that they were inefficient in fighting and only facing Eden made it more clearer for them. ¡°In that case.....¡± Sain started to explain what they were going to do. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Are you guys ready yet?¡± asked Eden still very patient with them, ¡°You can start any time. I won''t attack until you do.¡± Was it arrogance or pride that Eden said this? Not at all. While stats and levels determined many things, it still did not improve reaction speed and judgement at all. That came from the player''s individual''s efforts which was the true reason why top players out class everyone else so much. Call it Talent or the results of hard work, in the end being able to react to something and also being able to know what to do are the core reasons why casual players cannot compete with hardcore players. But the group did not think of this at all yet. It was time for their fight once again. ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± chanted Miriel.
Agility will increase by 25% for 10 minutes
In this place that they cannot die and injuries healed themselves quickly, having points in anything but speed was a waste of time. Plus power did not matter unless it connected. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration!¡± chanted Serena placing the spell effects on Raven once again. It was normal to give the greatest healing to the one that is certain to take damage and live. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± chanted Miriel placing the spell on Raven as well. The 35% damage reduction over 2 attack would also be useful here as well. But even so, the group did not attack yet or do anything. ¡°Summon Familiar!¡± chanted Sain. In front of him was a wolf that was as big as him and was a silvery blue colour due to the spell. When the spell was completed Sain shouted, ¡°Start plan A!¡± Everyone with the exceptions of Miriel and Serena who could not attack in melee rushed at Eden with weapons drawn to kill. ¡°A frontal attack with no restrains eh¡± said Eden as he also charged forward to the 5 beings that were able to attack him, ¡°First I''ll take you down first again.¡± Eden moved in and took aim at Raven about to hit him slipping through his defence. ¡°Plan B!¡± ¡°Footwork!¡± Suddenly Raven retreated rapidly backwards using his skill. Eden''s attack hit the air and now there were 3 people and one wolf surrounding him. ¡°Fire Blade!¡± ¡°Double Strike!¡± ¡°Ha!¡± Gar!¡± All 4 of them attacked at once at Eden who was in the centre of this formation. Plan B against Eden was to surround and trap him and attack from all directions. Plan A was just to rush in to attack which would be used to distract Eden. When Plan B was in motion, the person being attack would retreat immediately if it was Raven or Shadow. ¡°Mana Shield!¡± BANG! But even attacking on all side, Eden''s ''Mana Shield'' prevented all of them at once. ¡°An attack on all sides, not bad~¡± Seeing this Sain clenched his teeth since Eden was still not taking them seriously. ¡°Plan C!¡± Everyone retreated as well leaving Eden alone in the centre. Sain prepared his spell along with Miriel and Serena. Plan C was simply attacking using magic or range attacks. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± ¡°Blood Burst!¡± ¡°Life Burn!¡± 18 mana bolts and a red orb as well as flames flew in to strike at the mana shield. Bang Bang Bang Bang...! ¡°Hahaha, do you think I would stay in one place all the time?¡± The Mana Shield broke and the red orb was about to hit Eden but he dodged and retreated without a word quickly making the effects of the spell useless. But this wasn''t the end of the attack yet for the group. ¡°Plan A!¡± 4 people and a wolf went in to attack Eden once again. But Eden was getting a bit serious now. ¡°Fireball.¡± Eden calmly said that but something that was several times larger than a person''s body was produced and thrown at the group like a raging sun that just appeared in front of them. ''What kind of ridiculous thing is this?! What kind of power...what kind of skill proficiency do you need to make a simple fireball this large?!'' They expected Eden could use magic but not to this extent. ''Damnit! Take the blow!'' thought Sain commanding the wolf to die in their place. The wolf quicker than even Shadow, leaped into the fireball and made it exploded on itself. BOOM! The ground stained black from the blast where the explosion took place. The group was shocked but Eden did not give them time to rest at all. ¡°You let your guard down.¡± Bang! All of a sudden Raven''s was blasted back and Eden appeared above him in the air kicking him to the ground.
Party Member: Raven has fainted
Not even 2 seconds pasted since the fireball hit and killed the wolf familiar and Raven was already taken down. Eden lightly landed on the ground as the rest of the group realised that needed to attack. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Miriel was the first to react and moved to attack him from a range. ¡°That spell has a range of uses but using it alone will only waste mana.¡± Eden side stepped the attacks dodging them with ease. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow moved in as per the plan and attacked Eden without hesitation. But Eden predicted this. ¡°Ice Spike.¡± From the ground a spike made of ice rose and stabbed through Shadow leaving him there propelled in the air with a lump of sharp ice going through him.
Party Member: Shadow has fainted
¡°Using your allies attacks as a distraction is fine but make it less obvious that you are attacking. I could feel you the moment you moved behind me.¡± ''This is bad!'' thought Sain immediately running with Lyndis to attack Eden in close range together. ¡°A frontal charge will do nothing at this point.¡± Without even looking at them Eden said: ¡°Fireball.¡± And another fireball, the same size as before appeared and flew to Lyndis. ¡°Life Burn!¡± Reacting to the danger, Lyndis used fire to hit fire and to come extent cancelled the damage she would take. BOOM! However that blow still took her health down to critical without much issue since her flames were weaker than Eden''s that she took damage instead of going through the fireball. Sain now near Eden via charging at him tried to stab him with his spear while Miriel and Serena supported him. ¡°You are not that skilled in close combat. Why are you attacking like that? Always do thing in your advantage.¡± Eden moved in close and kicked his right arm breaking it, elbowed Sain''s face while grabbing his head and slamming it to the ground. BANG!
You took 1651 damage
¡°Arg!¡± That attack alone almost caused his health to drop to zero. ¡°Now to finish things off. Support without any guards are easy picking you know.¡± Eden looked at the two and flicked his fingers saying: ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Ice appeared in front of Eden and shot at Miriel and Serena hitting them without them being able to even dodge.
Party Member: Miriel has fainted
Party Member: Serena has fainted
Eden then pointed at Lyndis and she exploded into flames as well.
Party Member: Lyndis has fainted
And finally Eden looked down at Sain with only two words addressed to him. ¡°You lose.¡± Eden calmly smiled and pat his head while saying, ¡°It was a good effort though.¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Sain without much effort surrendered in defeat to Eden. They couldn''t even get a hit in against Eden who lowered his level to 50 and was outnumbered severely as well. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Well then, that was actually quite fun¡± said Eden with a smile on his face. He seems to be enjoying himself so far, ¡°However my body still has a lot of energy left in it....what to do....¡± He also seems to be laminating the fact that facing against weaker players didn''t even make him sweat at all. His body''s condition was still at it''s best even after all of that. ¡°EDDDDDDDDDDDDDEN!!!¡± Three people followed by another three people barged into the Vortex World via the Guild hatch. ¡°Ah, you''re alive¡± said Eden astonished. ¡°Like hell we are! Why the hell did you change the teleport location for us?!¡± shouted Gen in anger. Mel and Jenny were the next to complain as well. ¡°There were monsters everywhere!¡± ¡°And we were dropped under a lake as well!¡± ''Wait, what the hell happened to them?'' thought Sain seeing their current states. All three of them were soaking wet and more to the point, they were wounded all over their body. From what Sain saw, it wouldn''t be surprising if they dropped dead due to the blood lost. However the Vortex World kicked in and healed their wounds in mere seconds. ¡°Your alive right? Or are you ghosts that came to haunt me...?¡± muttered Eden serious thinking of whether they actually survived or not, ¡°Well I made you guys more durable than most things.¡± ¡°Damn you!¡± shouted Gen taking out a large spear from somewhere that Sain couldn''t see, ¡°Die!¡± throwing it at Eden with a shockwave when he did. BANG! The spear hit an invisible wall, most likely a mana shield and twisted into itself from the other colliding forces were too much for it. ¡°Hey, that was a rare spear you know¡± complained Eden for some reason, ¡°Don''t forget who gave you that spear to use.¡± ¡°Damnit! I''m going to-¡± WHACK! Anna kicked the back of the head of Gen and he fell forward motionless for a few seconds due to the power of the flying kick. Sain looked over and saw that Park restrained Mel and Ron restrained Jenny into place not allowing them to attack. ¡°Good work you lot¡± Eden praised them for stopping the fight. Eden then looked coldly at the three that attacked him, though only one did and said, ¡°Well then, are you angry about what I did before, angry about the fact I''m going to teach the new recruits or angry at the fact that I almost killed you by dumping you in a lake filled with monsters?¡± ¡°¡°¡°ALL OF THEM!!!¡±¡±¡± The three retorted at the same time to the unreasonable...no ridiculous sounding question. Then Eden thought up of an idea that would work well for him. ¡°In that case....what if we play a little game like I did with those six?¡± ¡°A game?¡± Gen frown getting all serious now since whenever Eden said ''game'', it often ended up as a life or death situation for all of them. However this was the Vortex World where you cannot die. The most that could happen is that they would be tortured for a bit and nothing more. The six masters looked at each other and nodded. Three of them were very enthusiastic about this while the other three sighed since it was going to be a pain. ¡°Fine¡± replied Gen as the representatives of his comrades. ¡°Okay then, I have to modify the rules a bit so we are on equal standings¡± said Eden, ¡°Unlike when I faced the new recruits, I''ll be keeping my actual level and strength, but I''m not allowed to use large scale destruction type magicks okay?¡± Gen smiled to these words. Eden was most prominent at using large scale destruction type magicks to the point he was no.1 in it. Without this, around 60, no 70% of his true power was sealed just like that. However he was still a being that transcended humanity. But the same could be said for the six masters as well. None of them were actually human anymore but looked the part at least for the well being of the minds of normal people they have to protect. ¡°In exchange, you guys can''t use ''that'' okay?¡± said Eden after Gen had thoughts of using his full power against Eden. With this, both sides can''t use their full power at all though Eden was at more of an disadvantage compared to the six masters. ¡°Fine¡± replied Mel, ¡°If both side used too much power, the new recruits will end of fainting immediately. The thing you wanted to show them was our powers since normally we wouldn''t be able to right?¡± Eden let out a small laugh with told her that she was very wrong, ¡°No, I just want to....play with you all.¡± His eyes gleamed with a light that looked at them all like they were toys; toys to this monster. Seeing this, all six of the masters backed away a bit and the group watching all of this moved back as well though several times more than the masters. Finally it was Park who agreed to this: ¡°Damn, we just have to fight against you until it ends right?¡± Park''s armour that was quite plain until now turned into a silver colour while in his hand was a silvery white spear that looked quite well with his white hair and beard. ¡°Honestly....¡± Mel was the next to change her appearance. Her green robes turned into a dress that looked like something that would be worn by elves or fairies and was transparent at some parts at the bottom while being shoulder less at the top. Her green staff had a large gem in the centre as well. Then Eden spoke to the group commenting on this fact. ¡°Just for you guys to know, those two have the greatest power amongst them. Jenny and Ron have the greatest ''defence'' in the group and Gen and Anna have the greatest ''speed''. It''s quite a balance party they have. I''ll tell you all about it later~¡± By the time Eden finished talking, the others changed their appearance as well. Ron was wearing a blazing red set of armour that looked like it came from some sort of Chinese based game while Jenny''s robes had strange white lines coursing though it with her bow at hand as well. Anna was wearing a dark purple mask on her face that had no holes and was completely blank and Gen took out several weapons at once with his normal clothes. Out of nowhere Eden started to apply several defences to the group in order to protect them. Eden made a final remark. ¡°By the way, I''m not going to hold back.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Fire Explosion! Chain Fire Blast!¡± Eden immediately started off the battle causing a large explosion that caught the masters immediately and adding onto the attack with more explosions that came from the first explosion itself though each one was smaller. ¡°Seriously, is there no concept of waiting in your mind?! Also, breaking the rules already?!¡± said Jenny complaining immediately as well. She created a large barrier that protected everyone in it just before Eden had the time to attack. The barrier was a large circular object that had 4 points to it with the lines of the magic connecting together to form 3 barriers as one. If one point broke, it would become a 3 point barrier and then a two point barrier in the end before completely breaking. However the group did not know how many points the barrier had to begin with but it now had 4 points left. ¡°You always were good at quick casting~ Time to get serious at last~¡± said Eden humming at bit, ¡°Hmm?¡± Then he noticed that Park and Anna were missing from the rest of the master. They were already attacking him just like he did without warning. Both of them appeared behind Eden without him knowing and activated their skills to take him down in one go. ¡°Assassinate!¡± ¡°Pierce him, Hoektand!¡± A black blade and silver spear went towards Eden on both sides. ¡°Shit!¡± Both attacks were extremely powerful with the amount of mana used in both attacks. One was the classic ''Assassinate'' that was quick and powerful to the point while the other a charged attack that held extreme power itself. Bang! Bang! Eden narrowly dodged the two attacks though was hit two times in that one exchange though it only scratched him a bit on the edge. ''Amazing...'' This act itself shocked the group since their masters...no former masters now managed to do what they couldn''t so quickly and Eden was taking them completely seriously from the start. ¡°Damn defence isn''t my forte...¡± ''Like hell it isn''t! Didn''t you survive after being stabbed multiple times at vital points, had a Dragon attack and fought against a legion of soldiers and eventually taking over their castle in one go and still had enough time to fight for the rest of the day?!'' Seeing that this was actually a bad situation to be in, Eden tried to at least stall for more time to change the favour in his tide once again. ¡°Mana Blast!¡± BANG! Eden sent out a shockwave that caused the two to retreat for a bit before attacking again. ¡°Keeping attacking!¡± called Park. ¡°Right¡± replied Anna. They were stalling for time as the others would take care of things involving taking out Eden. Namely, waiting for Mel to finish her spell that could be very useful against Eden right now. ¡°The crimson night falls and gracefully drops from the heavens!¡± Mel started chanting her spell while the battle continued. Eden fought Anna and Park while looking at the rest of the masters seeing what they were doing. ¡°Ron, Gen, get out there and attack¡± ordered Jenny really annoyed that those two didn''t move yet, ¡°Flashes of light that give wings of light, Wind of Might!¡± Jenny increased the speeds of both Gen and Ron at the same time through her spell. They were now 3 times faster than normal for an hour. ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡°Let''s do this.¡± Both of them were already quite fast but now they were even faster like wind itself! Both of them joined Park and Anna in attacking Eden. ¡°Ah damn, time to retreat~¡± said Eden in a humorous manner again even though he was quite in danger right now. ¡°Don''t you dare run!!!¡± shouted Gen in rage as Eden saw 4 people about to gang up on him and started retreating. ¡°Deadly Sprint!¡± Gen increased his speed even further and ran in a straight line at Eden. ¡°Tch, take this!¡± Eden created 20 or so magic attacks in the air and fired them all at once on several directions. ¡°Magic Cut!¡± shouted Ron cutting down a magic projectile that Eden fired randomly at Gen. Ron was backing him up cutting down the magic attacks that Eden fired at everyone with his sword covered in a blue white aura. ¡°Die! Lance Earth Combo!¡± Clang! Bang! Clang! Clang! Eden deflected several attacks from Gen at once with his bare hands and was on the retreat. The attack was something like a four chain attack that were three slashes with a stab in the middle of the attacks without a delay. It was certainly a powerful skill to use and something normal people can''t block nevertheless with only their bare hands! ¡°Hey, let me some room to breath here!¡± Eden complained at once seeing that Gen was not holding back at all. Gen was being too aggressive to which Eden could only point to the fact that he DID dump him and two others in an underwater lake filled with monsters. ¡°¡°¡°NEVER!¡±¡±¡± Three angry people replied at once. ¡°Thousand Shot!¡± Jenny drew her bow and shot out arrow after arrow rapidly at Eden to the point that she was like a machine gun. If any archer saw this, they would be shocked since she was firing several tens of arrows at a time which was proof of her skill although she still mainly a magician skilled at illusion and sound based magicks. ¡°Damn no choice...Illusional Retreating Steps!¡± Eden''s body disappeared and reappeared at several places while moving further and further away from Jenny and her arrows in the air aimed at him. Bang Bang Bang...! The places where the arrows hit turned into small holes as well. Eden with his inhuman reaction which was more likely to be due to some sort of cheat code rather than his actual abilities did not get hit even once by the arrows fired at him. Seeing this, Jenny switched to another strategy. ¡°Let light and dark twist and replicate! Illusional Bodies!¡± The bodies of the 4 people who were attacking Eden at once increased by 4 times to a total of 16. Only 4 of them were real but the illusional bodies felt real and had a presence. Think of shadow clones from a certain series... ¡°Damnnnnnnn!¡± screamed Eden has he struggled to keep up against all of them at once with his bare hands deflecting every attack away from his body. After a few clashes and Eden being injured more and more, he started to ignore certain attacks against him which were from the illusional bodies which by default had less power than the original and was controlled with simple movements. ¡°Let''s see...those four are the real ones then...¡± In some mere clashes, Eden figured out which bodies were real and which one were fake. Eden was about to begin his counter attack but was too late since their goal was done. At this time, Mel finished casting her spell that took a full minute of high speed chanting to cast. ¡°Judgement of Nature!¡± she cried pouring out a massive amount of mana that was inconceivably large to the group, especially Miriel and Serena. Mel as the centre, a tornado of leaves and green dust appeared out of no where and turned into waves of things that surrounded Mel to attack Eden. A giant made of leaves and other materials appeared. ¡°Tch¡± Eden''s hand turned dark as he shouted, ¡°Dark Claw!¡± sending out five waves of some dark things from his hand that was most likely some sort of dark magic but Mel''s spell that did the same thing though it only looked the same. ¡°Flame Kick!¡± Eden covered a leg and flames and kicked the air and fire was shot out at the arm of the giant that Mel controlled. Some parts were caught on fire but by discarding those bits, the giant continued to exist though slightly smaller. Seeing that Eden was being distracted right now, the other masters did not leave this chance to attack. BANG! Eden was suddenly kicked down to the ground. ¡°Heavenly Seven Slashes!¡± shouted Park moving in taking the chance as Eden landed on the ground. Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash! Park hit Eden seven times with his spear but Eden finally decided to get a bit more serious after taking the damage. As his body immediately recovered by healing the wound he said: ¡°Battle Aura.¡± BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! Golden radiance burst out of Eden literally pushing everyone back including the giant spell that Mel was using with ease. ¡°Damn what the hell is this?!¡± complained Park who was the nearest one to Eden when he activated his battle aura and therefore got the most of the blast in his face. The golden aura retracted and turned into a thin layer that protected him in a thick density. There was no smile on his face now, Eden finally got truly serious bringing out part of his full power. ¡°Golden Spear¡± he called as a Golden Spear appeared in front of him as if it descended from the Heavens. He held on it and swung it a few times to get a feel of it. ¡°Haaaa!¡± Gen threw one of his weapons, a large great sword at Eden at this moment. At the same time, Eden threw his spear at the great sword as well. Bang! Eden''s spear easily broke through the great sword and flew to Gen threatening to pierce through him. ¡°Makeshift: Legion of Weapons!¡± Gen managed to block the spear by grabbing several weapons he just created with his mana and sacrificing them to lower the power of the blow while dodging it barely. BANG! The spear narrowly missed going through Gen''s neck completely. At this moment, Anna who was around 6 metres away from Eden prepared her attack as well. ¡°Double Slash: Burst Edition¡± said Anna kicking from several points in the air at once and moving in to attack Eden at once at what seems to be several bodies at once though it was through all speed and no illusions this time. Bang! Bang! Bang! Anna was kicking the air to accelerate herself at Eden with terrifying speeds. Eden looked calmly and decided the best course of action to this. ¡°Fire Wave.¡± Eden easily countered Anna by covering his body in flames and having it burst out in one go. BOOOM! A crater appeared around Eden due to the force of the fire spell that covered the place all black. However Anna did not stop her attack at all simply using the force of the spell to further accelerate herself and charged in at Eden. ¡°Golden Spear!¡± He summoned another spear and hit Anna away. Bang! Anna was sent flying the other direction away from the others though Eden did not target her. His target right now as Gen. ¡°Burst Strike!¡± With great speeds, he pierced his spear into Gen in one go flying above the ground using the skill to push him forward. A great hole was made in Gen that could easily kill him several times over but, Gen smiled and said, ¡°Got you¡± holding onto Eden''s arms not letting him go. ¡°What?!¡± Eden was surprised that Gen had the strength to do this. Normally at the verge of death, a person''s strength becomes non-existent. ¡°Good work Gen! Song of Gravity!¡± Jenny used this spell and caused the gravity around Eden to increase 10 times over. BOOM! The ground cracked under the pressure and even gen was feeling a bit crushed right now but Eden took it on without a blink of the eye though he seems a bit strained right now. ¡°Damn, he''s a monster as always!¡± Jenny complained seeing that it didn''t affect Eden at all at a first glance and instead actually made it difficult for Gen. However when Eden tried to move away from this field of increased gravity, he found himself unable to. ¡°Chains that drag down angels, Gravity Trap¡± said Jenny redoubling her efforts in keeping Eden in one place causing the gravity around Eden to increase to 30 times the norm. With the gravity trap in place and Gen not letting go of Eden, the others continued their attack from long range now. ¡°Good job!¡± said Park taking out a few throwing knives. Anna did the same though her ones were black while Park''s were silver. Both Mel and Jenny were able to prepare more magic to use even though Mel was sustaining the giant and Jenny was controlling the gravity trap Eden was in. Ron on the other hand was increasing the amount of flames he had and condensing them in his sword for an attack at Eden. ¡°Now!¡± Weapons and Magic both flew at Eden without regard to the well being of Gen at all. ¡°Wa-wait a moment!¡± cried Gen realising what his comrades were doing. At this rate he would really die...mentally that is. BANG! ¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± Gen let out a death cry...no he was still alive but barely. Eden kicked him a few times to spare his mind from the trauma, a rare act of kindness and broke his arms in one go when Gen let his guard down seeing that he was being attacked by his allies. ¡°Ultimate Health Regeneration! Major Wound Treatment!¡± Mel casted those two spells on Gen out of pity rather than concern and drew her attention back to Eden again. Her ''Judgement of Nature'' spell was still ongoing even after all of that time with the giant slowly decreasing in size as time went on. ¡°Honestly you guys are too strong for your own good, that attack could take down a Dragon you know...¡± muttered Eden. Eden leaped back a good 20 metres from the masters while being attacked as if they were pushing him back. However before the masters could realise what he was about to do, it was too late. ¡°Dragonic Release.¡± The aura around Eden increased several times in both power and intensity. His presence overwhelmed everything else in the space. His eyes changed colour and his hair started to turn silver at the end. The marks on his whole body started to shine. ¡°Golden Bow.¡± A golden bow appeared in his hands. Without a word, Eden drew it and fired it once. Then....hundreds if not thousands of arrows made from pure mana fell onto the masters after splitting so many time from one arrow. ¡°Grand Barrier!¡± shouted Jenny blocking the path of most of the mana arrows that Eden fired at once with the most powerful barrier she could use in an instance. However around a quarter of them still made it through her barrier that was forced thin. She did this since the arrows were also homing arrows and would twist and turn unnaturally if not completely blocked. ¡°Air Slash!¡± said Park deflecting a large number of mana arrows as he retreated to the others. The master eventually moved closer together to deal with the buffed up Eden firing arrows at time since they would need to cut down less arrows this way per person. ¡°Is he a battalion of archers or something?!¡± Jenny complained. If you compare how Jenny used her bow, she would be the equivalent to an anti-personal unit while Eden would be an anti-army unit. The sheer difference in fire power was astonishing indeed at a different scale. ¡°Since your cuddling together means you want me to take you all out in one go right?¡± said Eden with actual malice in his words. When people tried to defend themselves from harm, it just gives a chance for Eden to use a more powerful attack as well. He started gathering mana for his next spell. Unlike the earlier attack, this one was much more frightening. Lightning and Fire gathered in his hand and combined into one chaotic spell that would be the envy of all magicians that saw it if not for the fact that it had an extremely high mana cost compared to the damage it caused. ¡°Crimson Nebula!¡± The spell was shot out at the masters in one go as a giant beam several metres wide that would instantly kill them if not for the barriers that Jenny set up before rapidly appeared in front of them. ¡°Transcendent triple Barrier! Guard Point Barrier! Flow Diverting Barrier!¡± Jenny created three different types of barriers at once to block this attack. The reason was simple, she did not have the raw power until certain people to stop it head on. BOOM! However this attack alone drained all of Jenny''s mana in one go as she collapsed on one knee due to exhaustion of mana. Eden immediately took this chance to take her out. Those who are strong are not strong due to having many opportunities but taking advantage of every opportunity. ¡°Lava Tower!¡± A small part of the ground under Jenny broke and she was consumed in the pillar of lava that appeared out of nowhere. Jenny was the first to fall from Eden''s attack. The other masters reacted and dodged the attack before they could think of what happened. ¡°Jenny¡± Mel was shocked that it happened so fast. ¡°Damn, we have to attack!¡± said Gen getting cold sweat from just looking at Eden who was in semi-serious mode now. ¡°Makeshift: Giant Cannon!¡± he shouted creating a large metal cannon in front of him. Bang! The cannon ball was shot at Eden but with his hand that looked darker than normal easily sliced it into two. ¡°That all?¡± asked Eden. Gen was getting very nervous now since Eden was acting as if he was being very serious in this fight. That would mean a lot of pain later on as well in the fight since Eden was the type to make people suffer while fighting. ¡°Makeshift: Gatling Guns!¡± Then several Gatling Guns appeared around Gen as well. Gen''s skill was one that he used to recreate any weapon he has seen or thought up. It was quite limited in the fact that the creations itself had low durability but their power was the real deal. Bang Bang Bang Bang...! With a single giant cannon and several Gatling guns, Gen started his attack on Eden. ¡°Too Weak!¡± However before his Battle Aura, none of that affected him at all but Eden didn''t take that chance at all, for all he knew, Gen had something up his sleeves. Eden started to move in high speeds left and right dodging the rapid fire of weapons that really shouldn''t be in the game. Seeing that Gen was rapidly relying on his mana to attack, Eden simply said, ¡°Mana Absorption¡± while running and firing magic back at them to stop their attack and force them on the defence. ¡°What the hell?¡± muttered Lyndis seeing her mana quickly disappearing. The others also noticed this as well and was quite shocked that such an overpowered skill existed in the first place in this game. It didn''t even take a minute for the group''s mana to be completely taken while the mana the masters had was decreasing rapidly. Gen could not use his makeshift weapons if he didn''t have mana. ¡°Damn, he sealed my Makeshift skill just like that¡± complained Gen without mana to sustain the Makeshift weapons anymore. The cannons and Gatling guns disappeared. But before his mana completely disappeared, he used the skill one last time. ¡°Makeshift: Legion of Weapons!¡± A hundred weapons all of sizes and kinds appeared around Gen as they were fired at Eden at once. ¡°Dark Claw!¡± Eden''s hand was covered some dark force and sliced through the hundred weapons with one sweep. Seeing this Gen despaired a bit. As such, he took out two swords that weren''t made with his skill and dual wield them together. ¡°Mel, distract him!¡± Gen said using the remainder of his mana to increase his power and speed at the last moment to strike down Eden. ¡°The leaves of nature fall and reduce to ash, crimson light reflect onto nature''s gaze. Type 5 Nature Magic: Nature''s Hell!¡± Mel used one of her most powerful spells that reduced anything to dust and fired it at Eden. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush With the giant for defence and the colourless offence, Mel''s danger levels to Eden shot up high. But Eden didn''t mind this at all since he faced way worse situations in the past. At this level, Eden could break Mel with pure power alone. ¡°That all?¡± asked Eden as he took out a certain sword that glowed in Divine Light. No it was simply a copy of the real thing with modifications. Changed from a hundred years ago, the Divine Sword Kotoko was several times stronger than before with all the upgrades Eden had on it. As such it gained many more effects and became more cost efficient in use. However Eden found that using copies were much more useful since while their attack power was lowered, their mana and stamina costs decreased down to a suitable level as well to spam. ¡°Heavenly Slash.¡± Slash. The spell that Mel used was completely cut in half even though it shouldn''t have a form and disappeared. Heavenly Slash was a downgraded version of Heaven and Earth Separation, something that Eden could use multiple times at least and was still extremely powerful in it''s own rights against single foes but could not create a city wide level of destruction like Heaven and Earth Separation. ¡°Heavenly Slash. Heavenly Slash. Heavenly Slash¡± Eden flicked his sword once again three times and Mel was cut in half by the sword skill. But Mel completed her role and stalled for time, enough for the rest of the masters to concentrate all they have on one final series of attacks. ¡°Heavenly Steps¡± shouted Park charging along with Ron and Anna at Eden. Most of their mana were consumed and was still being consumed by Eden but they could still fight with their weapons alone. Plus there were many skills that relied on other things besides mana like stamina or even health to use. Park was the first one to try and attack Eden among the three. ¡°Haaaa!¡± Park used his spear to attack Eden 15 times in a moment. ¡°Full Counter!¡± But Eden countered them using his ''Full Counter'' skill. Eden beautifully counter-attacked Park 15 times in a row leaving him in almost pieces as he fell...fainted in this Vortex World due to the complete lose of health. Full Counter was something that completely redirected the attack back to the person as well as adding in the damage you would normally deal as well in there. Because of this, no matter how small or weak the attack, you would be able to counter attack at an extremely powerful amount of power. Ron was the next to attack Eden. ¡°Flame Sword¡± Ron covered his sword in fire as his armour also glowed a vicious light as he strike holding his sword with two hands letting out flashes of light as he swung his sword at Eden. ¡°Ice Crystal!¡± But with force alone, Eden placed his hand on Ron and froze him in a giant ice cube taking him out. Now all that were left were Gen and Anna. ¡°Enchant Dual Delax!¡± The dark purple mask that was Anna''s face had a face made from light glow on it as it moved across her body as something similar to a tattoo though on her clothes. Using something other than mana to power, it was something that increased the body''s performance several times in exchange for massive strain on the body. ¡°Enchant Dual Swords!¡± The same marks appeared on the swords that Gen now used as well as his arms. It was not complete like the full body one Anna used but was still powerful. ¡°Strike together!¡± shouted Gen as he charged straight at Eden kinda ignoring his own advice. The two moved in perfect harmony to Eden and attacked him at the same time which was very surprising since they were on bad terms to begin with. Gen was half thinking that Anna would betray him in this fight to be spared from Eden''s torment since Anna was the most loyal to Eden after all. Bang! ¡°Full Counter!¡± Eden countered the blows naturally but the two continued to attack with great speeds that were too fast for the group to see ignoring their own wounds that should have made them collapse already. Eventually the battle went faster and faster and their bodies now turned into mere flashes here and there as they collide. Then.... BANG! At the same time, Gen and Anna''s bodies flew in opposite directions with very apparent hand marks on their vitals. Eden had in that kind of high speed battles, attacked both of them with his hand techniques and took them out. Surrounding him were 20 Golden Swords hovering around him that blocked the attacks of both Gen and Anna at the same time and allowing him to quickly strike them down at the same time. ¡°Golden Swords~¡± Eden dealt the finishing blows on all of the masters by moving Golden Swords around him to rain down on them even though they all fainted due to the special feature of this world instead of dying. Eden created more weapons and started to attack the ''corpses'' of the master. The group did not know but after a certain level of familiarity in this Vortex world, you can stay conscious after you faint though you can''t move or speak. The masters were fully experiencing torturous pains from Eden right now. Several minutes later.... ¡°Ah~ That was a nice workout though it was still not my full power hahahaha!!!¡± Eden laughed out loud being refreshed with a ''moderate'' battle. ¡°....¡± The group could only stare in awe of that kind of power. Power that they most likely will never achieve. A power that was beyond any other even in legends. It was something that you could not help but to want.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 11100~ - Eden is more or less a powerful house even though he didn''t even use his full power in this chapter...well either did the other side. I''m more or less giving a preview of what they can all do to expand on later; well if you think about the fact that they were taught by Eden in the first place it is reasonable to say that they are much more powerful than a usual level 700 person. - Oh yeah, next 2-3 chapter will be training chapters for the group mostly by Eden....you will see tomorrow on the bits that I had too much fun writing Vol.2 Chapter 2 - The Super Easy Relaxing Training When the masters recovered from the ''spar'', Eden started the lecture to the group once again explaining several things they needed to consider for the future. But before that, he fixed the damage he caused in the Vortex World. ¡°Let''s see....revert to default state¡± muttered Eden changing the format of the world once again to what it used to be. The damaged ground was immediately restored. Seeing this, Eden went to the group, removed the defences he placed on them and said: ¡°I have three things to talk about to you guys right now. One is your performance, the second is about your former masters and the third and what to do later on. Let''s keep this in order okay?¡± The group nodded obediently to Eden seeing his awesome power that completely outmatched their former masters. ¡°Damn do you have to rub it in their we are not their masters anymore? Isn''t that a bit wordy plus aren''t you going to make us teach them later on either way?¡± complained Park in his old age patting his stomach where a spear was just impaled into it just a while ago. ¡°True....I DO plan on making you help them later on even though technically you guys already trained and graduated them....and saying former master is too troublesome to say....might as well let you be called their masters for now¡± replied Eden not really caring for all the trouble he called. ''Why is that everything goes to the flow in which the Grandmaster wants?'' thought Miriel now reverting back to her formal impression of Eden. ¡°Eden would it kill you to actually follow through in anything you say?¡± said Jenny criticising Eden heavily. Eden sighed and said, ¡°What happened to the innocent little girl that would call me ''master'' all the time sob¡± Eden faked tears and then let out a grin. He was completely toying with Jenny that was completely red by now. ¡°Because of that complaint, I''m going to talk about your performance¡± a twisted smile was let out as Jenny and Park shivered. The other four; Mel, Ron, Anna and Gen haven''t recovered just and were still motionless on the ground. Eden went to them and gathered a bright light that covered his hands and said, ¡°Phoenix Down!¡± completely reviving them with a shock. ¡°Ahh! Cough!¡± Ron sprang back to life even though he just fainted due to the effects of this world they were in. ¡°Phoenix Down!¡± ¡°Cough! Damn that hurts!¡± said Mel who was revived next. ¡°Phoenix Down!¡± ¡°....cough¡± muttered Anna spitting out blood from her mouth. ¡°Phoenix Down! Burning Touch!¡± Gen was the next to be revived and then immediately set on fire, ¡°Ahhhhhhhhh!¡± His screams attracted pity from everyone. Eden still had a grudge on Gen opposing him openly like that. Gen suffering like this would act as a deterrent for the others to not oppose him later on in the future. ¡°....¡± ''For some reason...the Guildmaster seems to have revealed his true nature early to us...'' everyone in the group thought at the same time remarkably. A few minutes later when Eden was done dealing with Gen and making sure Mel and Jenny wouldn''t complain later on, he started his talk to the group with the masters, except one that was still unconscious listening in. ¡°First of all....I have to compliment those guys since they made me go a bit serious even though both sides haven''t actually used everything up in that fight. If we did, you guys wouldn''t even be alive even with the effects of this world preventing you from dying hahaha¡± Eden started things off in a light note. ¡°I can say this, their power is the real deal. At the top of the crop in this world though it was due to my training that such a talentless bunch managed to live this far! Don''t worry, you guys have some talent somewhere, more than these guys when I first met them¡± Eden then started to sort of compliment them and insult them at the same time. Sain looked at his former....no, it''s master now and thought, ''Master was considered talentless even though he''s that strong?'' The scene in which he created and wield countless weapons against Eden still stuck to his mind. Gen and the other master''s evaluation in Sain''s mind went straight up. However more than that, Sain''s evaluation of Eden who trained them to that point was even higher. He innocently wondered, ''I wonder what kind of amazing training they went through?'' Yes the training in which Eden put the masters through was indeed amazing. Even Anna who was youngest of the group, only 10 years older than the group was that strong already. ¡°Oh wait, the only talentless ones were Gen, Park, Mel and Jenny. I found Ron and Anna a while after I met those four. Unlike them, those two had a bit more talent compared to those four and only took a little while, a few years to catch up to them in terms of strength¡± said Eden stating the facts he forgot to give. ¡°Well there isn''t much to talk about since you guys wouldn''t get it even if I explain it to you. After a certain point, whether you have talent or not, strength is all that matters and those masters of your do have strength. Plus there are a number other factors that added up to make them what you see today. That''s all I have to say about them. A mostly talentless bunch that gained strength thanks to my training.¡± ¡°Wait? That''s all?! Don''t you have more to say?!¡± said Gen who reawakened near the end to heard Eden''s words. ¡°More or less¡± replied Eden without looking at Gen only observing the group, ¡°Power, speed and techniques were all at a high level that it''s hard to find a more balanced party out there. The only problem I have with you lot is that you don''t have a true finishing move...no, all of your finishing moves are on the same level so you use them all and don''t prefer one to the other.¡± ¡°What kind of ridiculous thing are you talking about now?¡± Mel sighed hearing Eden. ¡°Who''s fault is it that we were rounded out in stats¡± said Park adding in his opinion. ¡°Right, I remember whenever there was something we couldn''t do as well as the other, he would make us train until we could do both at the same level¡± said Ron. ¡°Hey hey, I did that so you guys wouldn''t die so easily later on. It was for your benefit¡± said Eden complaining about people who are complaining about his teaching methods, ¡°Besides, I plan on using a different method of teaching for the new recruits.¡± ''Why does it seem that Eden forgot about us....?'' thought Sain and Lyndis to all of this. Miriel and Serena thought, ''So....a different teaching method. I wonder what it will be.'' ''I hope I don''t turn out like that...'' thought Raven. ''I''m bored....'' thought Shadow to himself which was completely different to everyone else''s thoughts. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several minutes later of complaining.... ¡°Cough...¡± Eden looked a bit embarrassed that he forgot about what he was going to do and argued with the masters for a while on his teaching methods in the past. As such to make sure the group doesn''t remember the scene too well, he decided to give them a bit of a harsh shock. ¡°I''ll put it very bluntly, you guys are no good.¡± ¡°?!¡± Yes it was a large shock to the group since they at least considered themselves average and even a bit better compared to other players at their level. But even though, Eden stated that they were no good. ¡°You guys despite me lowering my level and skills to your level, couldn''t manage to get one hit in¡± said Eden. ¡°....¡± What Eden said was true, the six of them even cooperating didn''t even get a hit in. Eden was toying with them till the end and defeated them all easily barely using magic as well only a few times. Compared to the spells Eden used against the masters, they only experienced the weakest of spells. ¡°Well it''s understandable since you guys barely have any battle experience compared to me. Which one do you think will win, your 2 months or my 100 years?¡± ¡°?¡± The group was now confused, what Eden said was confusing enough and now he made it even more confusing? ¡°How long you think I fought in this world? How many battles have I overcome? Compared to facing some brats, I can easily take on an army without much difficulties.¡± ¡°I see...¡± muttered Sain. It was due to their inexperience that they couldn''t even land a hit in. The thoughts of it couldn''t be helped wondered in his mind. ¡°However it was six against one so you guys are still no good. You didn''t even need to consider it like a real battle, it could''ve been something like a game of tag at least. The rules said you needed to get a hit in and nothing else. You should''ve then fought for that goal and nothing more. That was where you failed.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°There are many tasks that Independent Guilds get that are similar in nature to what I just said. Don''t bother to do more than you are asked, it''ll save a lot of time if you do.¡± There was an awkward silence in the room now. Naturally as a person who couldn''t read the mood, Eden asked: ¡°What''s wrong with them?¡± to the masters. The masters then collectively sighed at Eden. ¡°You just kicked them down where it hurts you know¡± said Jenny. ¡°How cruel¡± muttered Anna. ¡°This is why we can''t deal with you¡± commented Ron as well. ¡°What? I have to call out all the faults first before I can train them up from that. Another thing is that they are stuck between being an individual fighting alone and a group fighting together¡± said Eden astonished that the group was down from just this. ¡°What kind of nonsense are you talking about now?¡± asked Jenny sort of defending the group while trying to put down Eden. ¡°There are two types of people. Those who can fight alone and those who can only fight together with others. They are stuck in between and this is hindering them¡± explained Eden. ¡°Oh and what reason would they be like that?¡± asked Jenny. ¡°Mainly your fault along with those guys¡± Eden pointed at the other masters, ¡°With the exception of Shadow, Lyndis and Raven who can essentially fight alone, the others are dependent on fighting with others.¡± ¡°Wait a second! Miriel and Serena are magic users so of course they have to fight with others protecting them! Sain can also fight alone as well!¡± said Gen quickly. ¡°But his skill set was incomplete as well as the other two as well. They lack a number of spells you should''ve taught them. You slacked off in training them leaving it to themselves for a long time before you gave them proper training¡± replied Eden. ¡°....¡± ¡°But don''t worry, I''m going to fill in the gaps that you guys left out. Of course I can''t really teach Raven and Shadow so Anna and Park will have to help me there. Teaching 4 people at once will be very difficult so I would need Ron to help out teaching Lyndis as well. As for the others....I can deal with them....well Mel can join in as well before Viv comes to help out.¡± ¡°That means we''re left out in teaching them!¡± shouted Gen in anger again along with Jenny. ¡°Don''t worry, I''m just going to make them train up their basics for a while at least. After that will be their own choice on how they will grow.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Okay back on track again....this time don''t talk so I can actually finish explaining things¡± said Eden with a frown to the masters. ¡°Right.¡± ¡°Got it.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± The masters more or less replied with little interest since they already let out everything they wanted to say and couldn''t be bothered to retort Eden any more. ¡°First of all from what I said before. What is the difference between someone who fights alone and someone who fights with others?¡± Eden gave the group this question immediately. ¡°One fights alone while the other fights with others. Isn''t there little differences besides having to cooperate with others?¡± said Lyndis without much thought. ¡°Not really. When you fight with other people, sure you need to work together with them to some level but it is still a lot more difference than fighting alone. In a group you don''t need to work as hard as others can compensate any weaknesses you may have. The moment you are fighting alone, all you have is yourself and you need skills and experience in dealing a large range of things. One mistake when fighting alone often results in you dying.¡± ¡°I see but what is the point of this explanation?¡± asked Lyndis once again. It seems she was the only one in the group brave enough to be this rude to him. ¡°Hmm....well it heavily relates to you guys. You were trained by this lot on your own which means you have some experience on relying on yourself and fighting alone but immediately after the training you met up and fought together from there on and never fighting alone from there on. The balance between being able to fight alone and relying on other people is very stiff and you guys are on the crossroad of going on only one path instead of both.¡± Sain was the next to talk to Eden, ¡°But isn''t it fine that we can rely on each other to fight?¡± Eden then smiled to these words and said, ¡°And then what happens when one of you dies? Didn''t you fall apart quite quickly when one of your support dies? The thing I want to point out is that you need to rely on yourself enough that even if one of you dies, say Serena there who is the healer, the others can still fight and win even without her. ¡°....¡± The group considered Eden''s words to heart since he was actually correct. But then... ¡°Wait...how did you know what happened when we died?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Oh I have a skill that let''s me see anything around the city in a few kilometre radius¡± replied Eden without a care. ¡°Isn''t that....an invasion of privacy...?¡± muttered Serena concerned about a number of things. ¡°Nah, I can only use it to see the parts outside the city. I have an entirely different skill to observe things in the city and another one to observe things in dungeons.¡± ''So you can pretty much see anywhere....'' thought everyone at once. Eden easily avoided the question and went to the next point. ¡°After a certain point, as long as you know how to not get in someone''s way, you can pretty much hunt together with other people fine so those who have hunted alone for a while can easily adjust to party hunting while the opposite is not the same. Because of this, plus the fact that it seems some of your training is still unfinished, I''m going to have you to train for a while on your individual skills.¡± ¡°But won''t that stop us from levelling?¡± asked Miriel since one of their main goals was levelling fast to 200 and explore the continent quickly. Joining an Independent Guild was only for the information they can provide for their search in the end. She did not expect that they needed to train even more when joining as well. ¡°In terms of ranks. Skills comes first, then stats and finally levels. All levels does is give you a very rough estimate of your battle level.¡± ¡°Battle Level?¡± ¡°Some term I made up. It''s just a separate way to estimate things like how a person has a battle level of 100 means they are of the average strength of a level 100.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°If you complete the Basic Training Centre, you would gain enough stats to be considered of a battle level of 30 at level 1. And if you have proper skills then this battle level can be increased even more. As such levels aren''t that accurate after a certain point. The difference between a level 50 and level 100 is indeed large but the difference between a level 300 and a level 350 isn''t that much compared to the first example¡± explained Eden like a proper person. ¡°....Is it me or is he actually explaining things properly...?¡± whispered Mel to her comrades, the other masters. ¡°Yeah...usually with us he just tell us that we needed to do something and never explained the purpose¡± whispered Jenny back. ¡°Increased teaching ability¡± muttered Anna. ¡°One time he threw me in lava telling me to survive and only later on I learnt that it was to train my fire form....I thought he was trying to kill me!¡± whispered Ron as well of his bad experience. ¡°You think you have it bad, he made me drink several potions with unknown effects and I was in agonising pain for a week without end¡± whispered Park. ¡°....¡± Gen was the only one who kept quite even listening through all of this. The main reason was he was the one who suffered under the hands of Eden the most and he was beaten...no tortured for a bit just earlier so he dared not to badmouth Eden right now. ''Didn''t Eden say once the most extreme training are the best training to improve himself and that he was taught that way....? If so, I can only blame those monsters that trained Eden since we suffered because of that....'' thought Gen thinking back on when Eden told him of the roots of his training methods. ¡°Ignoring those five people who are badmouthing me....¡± Eden sent them a glared and continued, ¡°Skills are something that will stay with you throughout the game. Stats and Levels may decrease but your actual ''skills'' won''t.¡± Eden then took a breath in and out and let out a sinister aura to the group which frightened them. ¡°Now tell me the level of training you want? The super easy relaxing training will take over a year at most and will ensure you lot will reach level 200 at least by the end of it but not much in the skills department. The so-so moderate training will last for 6 months and you will get to around level 150 and will be above average in terms of skill among players. The hardcore difficult training will take 3 months and you will get to level 100 quite easily and will be considered experts at your classes.¡± Eden continued to release more and more of his sinister aura out at the when he said the last sentence: ¡°Or will you take Hell Training that will last for a month with non stop training and become something on the level like your masters? I can assure you after that training, you will be at least 3 times stronger than you are now.¡± There was a dangerous smile on his face right now that said that he would enjoy using the ''Hell Training'' on the group very much. ¡°....¡± The group was feeling like they were about to faint by just being near Eden right now. ¡°Tell me the choice and I will pound every skill and spell you would ever need to slay even the most power monsters and even Gods!¡± Eden was becoming more and more twisted by the second of the thought of ''training'' the group. ¡°He-hey!¡± ¡°Damn, he''s in a trance!¡± ¡°We have to stop him else they will suffer through ''Hell Training'' like us!¡± The masters quickly got in an agreement that Eden had to be stopped but they currently lacked the power to. They who were above level 700 and considered some of the finest and strongest forces in the continent believed they didn''t have enough power to take down one person with six of them. This only supported the fact that Eden was extremely strong on the broken scale. Perhaps roughly 2-5 people in the whole continent had the power to stop him at this moment. ¡°Damnit, do we have to bring the Emperor or something to stop him?!¡± one of the masters shouted. Luckily for them and the group and not so for Eden, a person who was able to stop him appeared. ¡°Yaaaahoooooooooooo!!!¡± That person literally flew in as if she was falling side ways and kicked Eden in the head at speeds that was invisible to the eyes of the group and only a blur to the eyes of the master. BANG! Eden''s body was sent flying away twisting in the air and flipping over as he bounced on the ground several tens of metres away. ¡°....¡± ''WHAT?!'' Everyone was very confused at that moment since some blur came invading into this Vortex World that Eden had control over and sent him flying with a kick instantly. The figure that kicked Eden got up from the ground laughing at the trouble she caused and said: ¡°Yo Eden, I heard that you managed to finally get new recruits!¡± said this person excitingly. The person approached the group who were sitting on the ground with a bright smile. She had long golden blonde hair, clear blue eyes and a face that could match Eden and was wearing a plain shirt and a dress that reached her ankles. However her beauty was very apparent to the point that even these plain and simple clothes made her look better. ¡°Nice to meet you all, I''m Alexandra another Guildmaster of this guild!¡± said Alexandra with a smile not taunted with malice like Eden. ¡°Alexandraaaaaaaaaaaaaa!¡± a voice was fast approaching and a fist was thrown. Bang! Alexandra caught the fist on her side instantly as well with ease. ¡°Damn you''re a brute beast in terms of strength as always!¡± complained Eden with a swollen head. ¡°And your was interesting as always with your schemes. Let me heal that for you¡± Alexandra then created a large amount of Holy Light and send it at Eden''s head for she kicked it. Eden no longer having a large bump on his head calmed down now. However the other masters were already gossiping about Eden. ¡°My god, if I was to get hit by that, I would die!¡± ¡°Eden''s head must be extremely thick.¡± ¡°Yes indeed for it it''s thickness took away any signs of compassion to his fellow being.¡± Alexandra and Eden both heard all of this though they had completely different reactions. ¡°Hahaha, it seems that you still haven''t disciplined those brats you took in so long ago enough!¡± said Alexandra in a humorous smile. Eden sighed and replied complaining, ¡°I trained them to the utmost limits and even made them widely recognised as some of the greatest beings in this Empire and let them do whatever they wanted later and this is how they treat me?¡± ¡°Isn''t that because you threw them into too many dangerous situations?¡± ¡°Those ''dangerous'' situations were nothing compared to the ones you caused me and Viv to experience in the past!¡± ¡°Still dangerous to the common person. And the ones you forced onto us were much more dangerous to begin with. Remember when you pissed off a tribe of Dragons?¡± ¡°I even held back compared to llyfr and Warlic from back then as well....¡± he said ignoring the last bit completely. Eden''s eyes told everyone he was remembering something from a very distance past and showed his long age. In the end Eden told Alexandra, ¡°Now that I think about it, you''re a lot more calm compared to in the past. Usually by now, half the city would be destroyed in your ''fun''.¡± ¡°The same could be said for you you know~¡± ¡°...True....we may have caused too much trouble back then exploring every corner of the continent and killing everything in sight.¡± For some odd reason the group and the masters shivered hearing the last words that Eden said as if it wasn''t as pleasant to those on the other end of their journey. ¡°Anyway, we''re getting distracted again¡± said Eden cutting off the conversation with Alexandra, ¡°Although I have MANY things to talk to all about, I can summarise it as you all need training to get stronger. Ah Alexandra, since your here, why don''t you help me train them for a bit. I know a few of them use melee weapons and they need all the help to improve.¡± ¡°Sure why not. It''ll be an interesting experience hahaha!¡± ¡°Geez....when did you pick up that habit of laughing at every moment now?¡± ¡°Oh, it was the time when we faced that immortal Demon Lord remember?¡± ¡°You mean Badigadi? Didn''t I erase most of his body and killed him ending his immortal life?¡± ¡°Nah, he managed to stick together the rest of his body and regenerated it after a few years.¡± Eden and Alexandra once again immediately got off course in their conversation. Every time Eden tried to say something important to the group about their future, he somehow manages to get into another conversation with Alexandra about the past which to the ears of the group sounded ridiculous! ''Demon Lord? Dragons? What kind of things are they talking about?!'' someone thought. [p=center]xXx[/p] After a while with everyone leaving the vortex world; the masters went their separate way waiting to be called on to train the group later; Alexandra disappeared to do something and all that was left was Eden and the group sitting at the meeting place, which was located next to the stairs and the hatch to the Vortex World. ¡°Right now that all the other distractions are gone....¡± Eden was quite cross since every sentence or so, he was forced to side track in talking to the group, ¡°Now I can talk about what is happening right now rather than the future.¡± The group sat on the table together on two sides while Eden was sitting at the front of the table looking at the group from the left and right. ¡°First of all, the reward you guys got from clearing the trial to enter the guild. Hold out your right hands, I''m going to permanently engrave it on your body.¡± ¡°....¡± The group held out their right hands to Eden. The first person Eden went to was Sain. Eden lightly tapped the skin on Sain''s right hand and it shone with a bright light and then burnt in. ¡°Ahhh!¡± Sain let out a light scream to the sudden pain in his hand. In Sain''s eyes, a message appeared before his mind.
Mark of the Serpent has been engraved - Agility and Wisdom +10 - Other effects will appear as you level up
A black coiled up serpent appeared on Sain''s right hand that took up most of the space on his skin there. It was a pure black colour though they all thought it was due to it being burnt on. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. The group wondered what this mark meant. ¡°Hmm...interesting, your the opposite type to Gen¡± muttered Eden while he moved onto the next person. This time it was Raven''s turn. ¡°....¡± While silence, it was clear that Raven felt a sharp pain on his hand that was clear on his face. There, a mark that looked like a cross or diamond appeared. In front of Sain, the same message as Raven''s appeared.
Mark of the Star has been engraved onto Party Member: Raven - Strength and Vitality +10 - Other effects will appear as you level up
The Star mark was of a yellow or gold colour quite different from Sain''s one. Then it was Shadow''s turn. ¡°Ah.¡± Shadow only let out a small cry compared to Sain and Raven.
Mark of the Ripper has been engraved onto Party Member: Shadow - Strength and Agility +10 - Other effects will appear as you level up
On Shadow''s right hand was a figure that had two scythes crossed it''s body. It was quite a unique looking mark compared to Raven and Sain''s though Sain''s one was also quite unique as well. For some reason it was a dual colour of black and white. ¡°Wow! Me next!¡± said Lyndis excitingly. Eden let out a small smile and proceeded to make the mark on Lyndis'' hand shine and burn onto her skin.
Mark of the Lion has been engraved onto Party Member: Lyndis - Strength and Intelligence +10 - Other effects will appear as you level up
The face of a Lion Beast creature appeared on Lyndis'' hand. It was a burning red colour. To this Eden commented: ¡°Oh, something that is similar to Alexandra''s....¡± before cutting off in the middle of his sentence. Then it was Miriel''s turn. ¡°This better not hurt to much...¡± muttered Miriel, she had a poor tolerance of pain compared to the other. ¡°Don''t worry...¡± Eden lightly tapped her hand and while making it shine, ¡°It won''t hurt a bit¡± he immediately burnt it onto her skin while she wasn''t expecting it. ¡°Ow!¡± Eden snickered seeing this reaction.
Mark of the Fairy has been engraved onto Party Member: Miriel - Intelligence and Agility +10 - Other effects will appear as you level up
The body of a small fairy appeared on he r hand. It was a light pink colour. Finally it was Serena''s turn who was looking quite hesitant. However Eden ignored this and immediately made her mark shine and burn onto her right hand as well ignoring her small cry in pain.
Marl of the Warrior has been engraved onto Party Member: Serena - Strength and Wisdom +10 - Other effects will appear as you level up
For some odd reason that was even beyond Eden''s knowledge, a warrior appeared on Serena''s hand and was of a green colour. ¡°Interesting...¡± muttered Eden looking at it more closely, ¡°How unusual for the warrior mark to appear on a non-melee person....I suppose it has to do with the nature of the person to begin with....¡± ¡°I''m sorry but what are you talking about?¡± asked Miriel not being about to endure her curiosity of Eden''s words anymore. ¡°Ah right!¡± Eden reacted to Miriel''s words and came back from his mind, ¡°Those marks are something that every member of the guild save a few have. Even your masters have them.¡± Eden then took out several gloves and threw them at the group. ¡°Wear these, they have no defence but have high durability so you can hide those marks. I rather not have people questioning you lot on how you got those marks¡± explained Eden. ¡°Why would that be a problem?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Mainly because a number of people, a small number of powerful players learnt that these marks grants you benefits that would make anyone envy you. Well, you guys are around level 60~ so the bonuses aren''t as apparent but you can think of those marks on your right hands as a growing type equipment.¡± Growing type equipment! The most rarest and most powerful type of equipment you could have. Not only do you gain the benefit of not switching equipment as you level up, the weapons are also capable of growing stronger as well and with the majority of the time being top grade equipment in the end. ¡°Well don''t think about it too much, I''ll tell you some of the features of those marks later on¡± said Eden going onto the next topic. ¡°You guys are around level 60 but have a battle level of around 70-80 considering you defeated that Zolerd I threw at you from before.¡± ¡°!¡± The group was shocked in many ways again. Eden, this person sent a level 100 named monster at them without a care. ¡°YOU did that?!¡± screamed Lyndis remembering how difficult they struggled facing it. ¡°More or less.¡± ¡°Didn''t you think we would die facing it?¡± asked Shadow in a serious tone. ¡°If you died, then you wouldn''t be here since I wouldn''t have let you take the trial to enter my guild.¡± There was some bad air between Eden and part of the group now. The Zolerd was something that the group feared and still do since they were lucky in defeating one last time. ¡°Be glad that I didn''t bring in something impossible for you to beat like a death knight. I DO know your strength and weaknesses so I chose carefully on what kind of foe you needed to beat.¡± Those were the only words Eden gave to the group not letting them complain. ¡°The next thing we going to talk about is your mana.¡± ¡°Our mana?¡± The group was once again confused. Why is it that whenever Eden speaks, the group is more or less confused about a number of things. ¡°Haven''t you noticed that your mana pools are much higher than it should be? Shadow and Raven''s mana pools are around 400 which is the average mana pools of mages while Miriel and Serena''s mana pools are tripe that amount and Sain''s one is almost at 1000 mana while Lyndis has around 750 mana which is higher than normal magic users to begin with.¡± The group thought about it. ''Now that you think about it....'' ''It was unusually high to begin with and only grew higher as we went on....'' ''I took the rapid increase of mana as the game helping out new players...to think I didn''t notice it in the end.'' They mostly had thoughts of unexpected realisation since they took any benefits are granted and something that other players had as well. They did not know that many players would kill to get some of that increased mana growth. Mana after Fame was the hardest thing to increase for normal players. Items that increased mana recovery, mana costs and even increase in mana were the top priced items that easily costed thousands if not tens of thousands of gold per item. The even rarer permanent mana increase items sold for several hundreds of thousands of gold. That was hold valuable mana was in this game. The more mana you had, the more skill you could use and the more skills you could use, the more effective you are in battle being able to deal more damage or heal more. ¡°To be honest, that was my fault as well. I wanted to see what would happen if a ''certain something'' was planted on a person and you guys having at least double the mana growth rate is the result.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Hey don''t look at me like that, in the end it indeed is something invaluable. Your masters got the alternate versions decades ago with their health growth rates at least doubling as well. Because of their insane health now, they won''t die so easily.¡± Eden continued to say: ¡°Well it''s still nothing compared to the power of the original....though it''s too dangerous to have something of that level in this world....¡± Once more Eden went into his memories completely ignoring the group who were looking at him curious of what''s happening in his mind. ¡°Right!¡± Eden clapped his hands once. ¡°I''m going make sure all of you have some basic training pounded in you. First thing''s first you for you all to complete the Basic Training that''s in this city!¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Don''t complain, most of you already started on it so it shouldn''t take that long. Ah, Miriel and Serena don''t have to complete it but it is highly recommended that you get through at least half of it for now. Also, I''m going to teach you some skills in which you can train while doing the basic training as well.¡± Miriel raised her hand and asked, ¡°Why do me and Serena need to do the training as well? Don''t magic users usually train to increase their intelligence and wisdom as much as possible?¡± ¡°That is correct for normal players. I''m not training you all as normal players am I? The most important thing for any player is the ability to run away.¡± ¡°Run away?¡± This conversation is getting more and more weird. ¡°Think about it, if you face something you can''t beat then the first thing you have to do is run away. That way, you won''t die and have to grind up levels and skill proficiencies again. The second thing is actual power to face those creatures since in many circumstances you won''t be able to run.¡± ¡°Isn''t that actually quite cowardly?¡± Lyndis pointed out. ¡°Of course not! With my luck, I had 0% of escaping against the foes I had to face so I was forced to kill them all in the end. It''s a good thing if you want to train but horrible if you don''t. I walked down a road once and for some reason I still had to face a strong boss monster that was over level 500 once hahahahaha.¡± ''Is this person for real....?'' The group simply could not take Eden that seriously anymore with his tone. While they know of his power, thing seems to switch quickly from being serious and not serious depending on when he wants to. [p=center]xXx[/p] Moving along, Eden brought the group to the training area where Anna was. It was the place that seems deserted for the most part but most of the things in this place was removed like the various pieces of equipment used for training. ¡°Master¡± nodded Anna seeing the group. Eden took out a small crystal from his pocket and crushed it in his hand saying, ¡°Land Reshape!¡± The entire training grounds glowed in a faint light and immediately changed to an appearance that would only be hell for the group. Think of a normal running course that has various layers to it. At the middle is the normal, perfectly normal stripe with nothing on it. The second layer has bumps up and down to make it harder to run along with some obsoletes to go through. And the third and final layer was up in the air where you had to run while balancing on a thin beam and dodge various objects that are sent flying at you. Underneath was boiling water as well to save you from your death from falling but it would be extremely dangerous itself. Not to mention the track did not end there alone. There were walls, pit traps and other various things along this whole course even in the normal track. ¡°Miriel and Serena will start at the inner most course to build up mainly stamina, Raven and Sain will take on the middle course to grow your agility and stamina stats at the same time. Finally Lyndis and Shadow will take on the air bone course which will allow you to freely move around the battlefield later on.¡± ¡°....¡± The group was non responsive seeing that Hell literally appeared in front of them. ¡°Guildmaster....¡± Sain started to say. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I don''t recall wanting to do the Hell Training you mentioned before...¡± ¡°What? This is the super easy relaxing training course you know! Alexandra told be to go easy on you so you won''t break so quickly¡± Eden ''reassured'' the group. ''This is the easy one?! Also, we''re already determined to break from the beginning?!'' ¡°The main goal here is to improve stamina which is frankly the most important stat for fighting for a long time. Those on the outer course will need to get to 100 by the end, the middle course will need to get to 75 and the inner course needs to get to 50 by the end. Also, other stats will be more or less trained while we''re at it as well.¡± ¡°Umm....won''t our training be hinder if we do this all day?¡± asked Miriel. ¡°Well I''m not going to make you do this the entire time if you mean. At most you guys will be doing this around 2-3 hours a day. Another 4-5 hours will be personal training and the rest of the day you can do whatever you want¡± Eden explained. With this schedule, the group would be training for 6-8 hours a day and will have half a day doing something else of their own will like hunting outside the city. It was actually very relaxing compared to the other training methods Eden could use to train them. The higher the difficulty in the training, the less and less time you would have in free time. ¡°Just as a reference, what would happen to us if you decided to give us ''Hell Training''?¡± asked Miriel. ¡°Hmm...¡± Eden thought about it deeply. ¡°First all off, since your basics aren''t finished yet, you would still need to do the training courses except the outer course will be the easily one and there will be two more that are much more difficult. This will be done for half the day, 12 hours while the other 12 hours will be used to train your individual skills. For skills, you will learn around 4 or 5 and bring them along with every other skill or spell you have to the advance levels. You will keep on doing this with no end and no breaks for a month in one go. If you do this, even that Zolerd you had trouble with will be easy to deal with.¡± ¡°....¡± ''Somehow I feel grateful to be doing this level of training now.....'' ¡°Anyway, since most of the day is gone, I''ll just have you guys run for an hour and stop there as a warm up for tomorrow. Anna, please watch over them and make sure they don''t stop no matter what¡± said Eden leaving the group under the care of Anna now. ¡°Understood¡± replied Anna. Eden also left the following words for Anna, ¡°Make sure they run with their armour on~¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] At the Beginning of the one hour run with Miriel and Serena... Both Miriel and Serena chose a relatively moderate pace to begin with, with the intention of running this way for an hour in order to lower the amount of stress on them. However Anna had other plans for them. ¡°Too slow.¡± For some reason there was a killer machine behind them now. ¡°What in the world is that?!¡± Miriel screamed seeing it. ¡°Training device....too slow and you die¡± Anna replied leaving the 2 metre tall machine with blades and other nasty stuff coming at the front to run behind the two. ¡°I thought this was suppose to be the relaxing one!¡± ¡°It is....relaxing run for your life course.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel had no energy to spare arguing with Anna right now and ran froward trying to get as much distance away from the killer machine that was moving behind the two. Serena did not complain at all but was having wild thoughts right now only wanting to survive. ¡°Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!¡± Serena ran with all her might not even caring for Miriel at this stage. One hour later.... ¡°Huff.....huff.....huff....¡± Serena was literally exhausted with no stamina left to spare. It was only a bit more until this ''training'' finished. ¡°Damn, Serena run! It''s near you!¡± shouted Miriel though she had no intention of even trying to save Serena for many reasons. There was simply no strength left in her as well to even try to save Serena even if she wanted to. If she did try, the likely outcome was that both of them would die at the same time to the killer machine. Thud. Serena collapsed on the ground not moving as the killer machine was about to chop her into pieces. ¡°Time''s up.¡± Whack! Anna kicked away the killer machine saving Serena in time although the only reason was that the one hour was done. Both Miriel and Serena sprint for a full hour and gained some stats as a result in exchange for some of their sanity and mental well being. [p=center]xXx[/p] At the Beginning of the one hour run with Sain and Raven.... ¡°Do you like frilly or Gothic?¡± asked Anna. ¡°What?¡± Sain blurted out hearing this strange question. ¡°The loser will be forced in one of these dresses¡± said Anna holding up something that only the girls would want to wear. It would be completely humiliating if Raven and Sain had to wear it. ¡°Master said something about a photo shoot at the end after training...the loser gets it.¡± ¡°....¡± Both Sain and Raven burst with great speeds through the middle course not even caring for what happened next. Their entire focus was to win no matter what and no matter what methods they would have to use. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Sain fired attacks at Raven all of a sudden while running. Raven blocked the attacks with his shield taking little damage but was slowed down along with the fact that he was wearing heavy armour as well. ¡°Sorry!¡± shouted Sain at Raven without looking back. The thought of being forced to wear either that frilly dress or Gothic style dress made Sain forget all about the minor friendship he had with Raven. This of course is natural since they were forced together and such a friendship was very shallow. ¡°Footwork! Ram!¡± Raven in turn sped up faster than Sain and hit him from behind which made Sain fall over rolling on the ground taking some damage.
You took 631 damage
Thankfully, Raven had no intentions of killing Sain so he lowered the power in which he hit Sain. Getting up, Sain chanted: ¡°Minor Heal¡± And healed himself before running after Raven. Neither Anna nor Eden had said when this race would end but it would most likely be at the end of the hour. That means either Sain or Raven needed to be ahead of one another by that time when it ended. After a hundred metres straight ahead...mind you that this training area was very big being hundreds of metres in total size in all direction at the edge of the city; Raven and Sain met their first challenge. ¡°A giant wall...?¡± muttered Sain. There was a giant wall, 4 metres in height and had only a few bumps in which they could climb on. The problem was that those bumps were very bad and very few in number. Both of them looked at what was next after that... ¡°Running across beams over hot water, leaping over hurdles, sliding down and climbing over hills...what the hell, isn''t this overdoing it?!¡± complained Sain. He dared not look at what Lyndis and Shadow had to deal with to his right and he tried to ignore the screams from his left. For some reason, this course was the safest of all... However Anna destroyed even that feeling. ¡°Too slow....punishment.¡± Sissssssssssssssss A hot burning feeling was felt on his ass. ¡°AHHHHHHH!¡± Sain screamed in pain as something hot and pointy hit his behind. He looked back and saw Anna with two burning hot rods in her small hands. ¡°Too slow and....¡± she blushed cutting off her words at the end. Both Raven and Sain paled not wanting to know what would happen if they were too slow. ¡°No attacking each other okay....¡± muttered Sain. ¡°Yeah....¡± Raven replied. The two would grow a strange friendship after this. At the end of the hour ''run''... ¡°Ha....ha....ha....¡± Both Sain and Raven were utterly exhausted to the brink that it would be normal for them to fall unconscious from the strain both their mind and body had to go through. Anna had disappeared to save Miriel and Serena from what seemed to be some sort of killer machine and as such she had to determine that they tied in the race they were forced into. [p=center]xXx[/p] At the Beginning of the one hour run with Lyndis and Shadow... They were both balancing on top of logs that were suspended into the air. The logs themselves were quite thin and really only was wide enough for a third of their foot to touch not to mention there was no way to support themselves if their balance is off. Shadow with his experience in climbing and balancing from before helped a lot while standing still on the logs. Lyndis also surprisingly managed to stand straight and still on the logs. This was due to her natural skills with physical activities in which she has a talent for much to the dismay to others are hate her. More than that Lyndis was said to have a near perfect balance all the time. ¡°Start...¡± Anna commanded pushing both of them forward at the same time. ¡°Wha?¡± ¡°Shit!¡± Both of them did not expect to start like this at all, they both lose their balance due to the sudden push and fell down from 7 metres from the ground and into the boiling water below them. Sizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz The sound of them being boiled was heard. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhh!¡± screamed Lyndis in pain from the boiling water. Shadow was the same panicking due to the pain. Then someone helped them along with way a bit. ¡°Move that way...¡± Anna once again pushed them to the direction in which they needed to go. The got out of the water quickly and stream was still rising from their bodies. In front of them was a ladder back up in the air where the next part would be. And under the part was also boiling water as well. Lyndis looked at Anna and asked seriously: ¡°Why does there have to be boiling water?!¡± Anna looked back at Lyndis and asked with a tilt of her head: ¡°You want lava instead?¡± A shiver was felt by both Lyndis and Shadow since this person would actually do it. For some reason they could only think that Eden was responsible for all of this in the end and they cursed him inside their hearts. Then Anna reassured them. ¡°Don''t worry....you were suppose to fall in the first part to get used to the water. The next parts are easier but the water will be hotter.¡± ¡°....¡± Both of them felt like things would be very easy if they would commit suicide right now. But then Shadow asked: ¡°How come my health didn''t decrease at all when I fell into the water, doesn''t it usually decrease with damage?¡± Shadow was very confident in knowing whether something would deal damage or not and the water should certainly do so. ¡°Healing water will heal all damage taken....don''t worry....¡± Anna gave a thumbs up to the two. ¡°....¡± ''I can''t escape this at all can I....?'' At the end of the hour.... ¡°No more....¡± ¡°I can''t endure this much more....¡± Both of them were completely red cooked in the boiling water and every part of their body hurt like hell. Their limbs were numb but they could still feel pain if the slightest pressure was placed on them. Not to mention that Anna forced them to go forward all the time during this hour once in a while meaning they would fall into the boiling water every so often by force. However that only accounted for half the falls they had in this hour. The other half was due to the sheer difficulties of this ''running course'' alone. Tricky conceptions were placed all over the place. Sometimes they would even have to dive into the boiling water to go forward in the course. It was a living hell. They didn''t even notice that Anna stopped them from doing more since they were already down for the count. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Well how did you like the taste of the leisurely training I devised?¡± after the hour was up, Eden returned to the training grounds wanting to check up on the group. What he saw was....two people utterly exhausted from running....two people with burn marks on their behinds and....two people who were as red as lobsters. ¡°Hmm...did you guys get pushed too far? I mean this is the lowest level of training I can give...¡± ¡°....¡± The group thrown together by Anna after the hour could not even speak a word since they lacked the energy to do so. ¡°I even lowered the difficulty quite a bit to warm you up later as well....¡± ¡°....¡± There was only hell in front of the group at this moment. Even in death, they cannot escape from this mad man known as Eden.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8900~ - I really had too much fun on this chapter...Eden''s true nature even slipped out while writing... - While writing I was thinking of how to introduce Alexandra into the story....this was the only way I could think of. Vol.2 Chapter 3 - Explanations and Gifts Some weeks...a whole month passed in game as they were being trained by Eden. Due to the sheer fact that the group could not even move after an hour run with Eden''s training courses; Eden had to modify the training itself with the group being not allowed to go personal training since their base stats were way too low for Eden''s standards. As such the entire day was delicates to the training courses that they were forced into. For a whole month, the group slowly increased their stats and became stronger with each session bit by bit. For a whole month, they learnt to mentally accept the cruel reality in front of them and keep on moving forward. If this was a movie, it would be very moving, but Eden is the kind of person that shatters such feelings with ease. ¡°From the start you guys barely made it through one hour on this thing....one month later you can somewhat manage up to 5 hours now. Not bad indeed....¡± said Eden in praise of the group. They were wearing gear that would act to help them on their training. Their normal equipment in the middle actually broke into pieces and could not be repaired. As such Eden said that the Guild would give them new equipment when they needed it since the equipment they had was at best cheap. ¡°First of all, let''s see how you guys improved in the stats department.¡± Eden opened up the group''s status window; one of the privileges of a Independent Guild Master that many would want to have. Of course you need permission to perform this act without the consent of the other side from the Emperor himself, but Eden was one of these trusted people. ¡°Open Status Windows!¡± [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 56,Level: 56]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Tactician,Title: Dark Walker]Fame: 80,Fame: 80[/quart][quart=Health: 2550,Health: 2232]Mana: 972,Mana: 407[/quart][quart=Strength: 81 +21,Strength: 74 +22]Agility: 98 +26,Agility: 224 +26[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 71 +14,Intelligence: 10 +4]Wisdom: 70 +24,Wisdom: 10 +4[/quart][quart=Vitality: 94 +4,Vitality: 79 +4]Stamina: 81 +7,Stamina: 98 +7[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 26 +12,Fighting Spirit: 32 +12]Endurance: 22 +4,Endurance: 18 +4[/quart][quart=Leadership: 9 +4,Leadership: 0 +4]Luck: 4 +4,Luck: 29 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 16,Offense: 12]Defence: 23,Defence: 26[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 56,Level: 56]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Shield-Bearer,Title: Blade Dancer]Fame: 80,Fame: 80[/quart][quart=Health: 4104,Health: 2371]Mana: 462,Mana: 742[/quart][quart=Strength: 140 +31,Strength: 134 +21]Agility: 94 +16,Agility: 121 +6[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 10 +9,Intelligence: 71 +17]Wisdom: 15 +9,Wisdom: 12 +7[/quart][quart=Vitality: 146 +24,Vitality: 83 +4]Stamina: 105 +12,Stamina: 84 +7[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 28 +17,Fighting Spirit: 16 +10]Endurance: 32 +9,Endurance: 19 +3[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +9,Leadership: 0 +4]Luck: 0 +9,Luck: 2 +4[/quart][quart=Offense: 22,Offense: 18]Defence: 36,Defence: 35[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 56,Level: 58]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Sound Maiden,Title: Nature Wielder]Fame: 80,Fame: 100[/quart][quart=Health: 1073,Health: 1104]Mana: 1582,Mana: 1468[/quart][quart=Strength: 15 +11,Strength: 14 +23]Agility: 77 +16,Agility: 78 +6[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 188 +16,Intelligence: 134 +14]Wisdom: 73 +16,Wisdom: 127 +24[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 10 +9,Fighting Spirit: 10 +15]Endurance: 15 +4,Endurance: 15 +4[/quart][quart=Vitality: 25 +4,Vitality: 25 +4]Stamina: 58 +7,Stamina: 55 +19[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +4,Leadership: 0 +4]Luck: 0 +4,Luck: 2 +4[/quart][quart=Offense: 10,Offense: 10]Defence: 10,Defence: 10[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
Concentration: 10 +3Concentration: 10 +4
¡°Oh~¡± Eden looked a bit impressed, ¡°In only a month, all of your health increased by 300. Too bad that the max amount of stamina you can gain through this is only 40 overall while the agility gain is based on the course you did with the inner one with only 10, middle with 20 and outer with 40! Of course Vitality gain is limited to a total of 15 and Strength and Endurance gain is limited to 5 is also a real shame! Hahaha, the fact that you guys max these points out means you guys suffered quite a bit!¡± ''And who''s fault this that?!'' the group screamed in their hearts. ¡°Well I think this is the limits of this kind of training. If you want to properly increase the strength stat a bit more along with vitality and the rest, it would do good to take a sword and hit scarecrows and finish the proper Basic Training. Well what you guys did was an altered version of that so you all have the qualifications to do the intermediate training centre if you want.¡±
Eden has deemed that you have cleared his Altered Basic Training - Fame increased by 30 - Able to challenge the Intermediate Training Centre
The group got that message in front of them with Eden''s words. While they had no intentions of challenging something harder than what they had to suffer though any time soon, the Fame was a nice reward itself. With this, at least everyone''s fame now is over 100. However the biggest harvest of this kind of training was that the group gained a number of skills. Running skills that reduce stamina consumption and increased speeds, balancing skills that made it harder to fall off a log and so on were gained during this one month and the group were actually quite excited to train it up a bit more while they can in order to make the run afterwards more useful. It was a nice feeling to think that your character was slowly getting stronger like this. But Eden was something like a demon; no worst than one. ¡°Right, I should erase those useless skills then.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± The group could not comprehend Eden''s words.
Under the Power of Eden, all skills that have been gained and trained during this one month of training will be deleted.
¡°What?¡± Sain quickly opened his skill window to check his skills. ¡°....¡± All of the usual skills he had before the training started were there but....the rest from that time onwards was gone. ¡°Why the hell did you do that?!¡± asked Lyndis in anger. Skills were something that were gained painstakingly and trained and could not be deleted so easily. ¡°Oh I used a skill called ''All Fiction'' to remove them¡± Eden explained. ¡°That''s not the point!¡± retorted Miriel as well losing her calm at Eden. Eden sighed and them let out some pressure on the group to calm them down. Even Raven the quiet one and Serena the timid on was looking quite angry at him. ¡°No choice...¡± muttered Eden apologising to the group in his heart. A sudden pressure that was something that the group save one has experienced before. It was like their hearts with their body...no even their souls were being crushed in front of them. There was no emotion left beside fear to this being in front of them.
You are in the presence of the Destroyer
You are in a state of Fear
You are in a state of Panic
You are in a state of confusion
All skills will be sealed
Stats will be reduced to half
All regeneration will cease
Movement will be heavily restricted
When the group was about to faint, the pressure that was crushing them disappeared. ¡°Ha...ha....ha....¡± The group was left more exhausted then their last running session in the training course. This was a pressure that stopped Dragons and even Gods in their tracks, a mere group of weak players could not resist it at all. ¡°First....let me clear the space for now.¡± Eden did what he did a month ago and changed the layout of the training grounds. It was now the same as before, as if the devices from hell did not exist at all. It was a power that could only be called a miracle if not for the fact that Eden was using it to torment the group with his ''training''. ¡°Anyway, let''s go to the vortex world where I can explain everything to you lot....though I suppose I need to wait until you guys can move again....¡± Eden looked at the group with eyes of pity; pity that they were so weak. [p=center]xXx[/p] In the vortex world, Eden started his explanation of deleting their hard earn skills without warning. ¡°The simple reason is that they will get in the way of learning your other skills which are much more powerful and useful. If you have a skill that allows you to run a bit faster already, you aren''t as encouraged to get a skill that allows you to run much faster.¡± Eden took out a long iron sword that was as tall as Serena and stabbed it in the ground with a smile. ¡°If there''s no questions then, I''ll begin the individual training. Who wants to be first.¡± ¡°....¡± The group was completely silent since they do not want to suffer under the hands of Eden. After that month of hell itself, the group didn''t believe a word that Eden said and was very cautious in allowing him to do things to them. ¡°I''ll be the first then¡± said Lyndis with confidence, ¡°You won''t let me go in a vegetable state right Guildmaster?¡± ¡°Wha-what the hell do you think I am?¡± Eden retorted seeing that the group now had similar thoughts to the masters that he trained a long time ago in just a month. Eden sighed at this fact and then said to the rest of the group. ¡°Just stay there and watch, if you ask questions then Lyndis'' training will be interrupted. Well this won''t take more than a few minutes since we''re at the start.¡± Eden walked quite a distance away from the group and Lyndis followed him. They were now around 10 metres away from the group, a safe distance by any measure. ¡°First of all, you only have the basic sword mastery along with some minor powers of fire right?¡± asked Eden when they began. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden started at Lyndis for a while and then said, ¡°Does Ron dislike you that much...? Well you are similar to him in a way before he became like that. Well that just means I can being you up in a different path than him much more easily.¡± ¡°Don''t worry, I don''t like Ron as well¡± Lyndis said plainly. Hearing this, Eden''s eyes shone for a split second before going back to normal. ¡°Good, in that case you will have no trouble in being the polar opposite of Ron right?¡± ¡°Polar opposite?¡± Lyndis looked confused at this question and statement. ¡°Yep, Ron is the super defensive type that won''t even leave it to chance. Long story short, I made him into a half spirit or a pseudo spirit being that can freely turn into any element. Quite powerful mind you and nigh impossible to kill. Think as Ron like a Phoenix which recovers health every time it gets hit by fire and expand that to all elements at once.¡± ¡°Wow....how do you take down something like that?¡± Lyndis asked with her impression on Ron slightly higher now. ¡°Well...there are many ways like bombarding him with multiple elements and try to take that chance since he can only align to one element at a time. Another way is to use something that is non-elemental which in all honestly doesn''t have as much power as elemental weapons. The final way is....something that can destroy the root of his power¡± Eden had a serious look on his face when he said that final sentence but Lyndis decided to to ask on it. ¡°Anyway first, let''s explain what a Sword Priest is.¡± Eden pulled out a whiteboard out of nowhere in an age where everything would be done from a digital screen that could be interacted by a person by hand. It is another thing that shows the age of Eden who lived in the previous ''era''. Eden using the marker quickly drew a mini version of both Ron and Lyndis. They actually looked quite cute with their small size and large head to body proportion. The strange thing was that the armour and face details were amazingly detailed. ¡°Cute!¡± said Lyndis amazed by the pictures Eden just drawn, ¡°Can you make dolls of them later?¡± ¡°Sure why not¡± Eden laughed at the simple request. Usually people would request unreasonable things like an A rank skill book, or unique grade weapon from him or even his service in fighting a relatively weak monster compared to him for their own convenience. Because of this, Eden carefully selected the requests he does. ¡°Anyway...¡± Eden quickly drew some circles and words on the board connecting them together with lines. ¡°A Sword Priest is a hidden class that you can get by normally clearing the trial of false idols which is a level 200 quest. Otherwise you can get the class by learning some of the core skills directly by a Master Sword Priest.¡± Eden pointed with a thin rod in his hand at the words ''Trial of False Priests'' and ''Sword Priest'' which were connected to each other by a line. ¡°Some powers of the class is to use the elements of the world in a different way from mages which use their mana and magic circles to control them. A sword priest however is more similar to ancient magic in it''s nature since you do not need complicated incarnations and it is much more powerful than normal magic in the long run.¡± The words ''Magic'', ''Ancient Magic'' and ''Elements'' were the next to be pointed at. ¡°A lot of theory aside, a sword priest can use something similar to divinity by controlling an element. Basically there is some similarity between how Ron can use ''fire'' and I can use ''fire'' which is also similar to how mages normally use ''fire'' as well.¡± ¡°What do you mean similar to you?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Right....well that''s another lecture itself which you don''t need to know right now¡± explained Eden. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Since you asked...simply because some idiots might want to learn how to use the same method as me which is extremely bad in many ways. I directly convert my mana into magic via certain commands which in it''s core nature is similar....no exactly the same as constructing tens to perhaps hundreds of magic circles in my head to cast a spell. Frankly, it''s impossible for normal humans to replicate. The only reason I can seem to do this is because I was taught the correct method and the fact that it seems I am good at that kind of thing.¡± ¡°So....how do you compare to normal magic users?¡± ¡°Hmm....well certain spells require you to be able to use a certain amount of ''circles'' in order to cast it. Flight magic which is a highly difficult magic to cast by normal standards, would be I think....7 circles. A regular fireball would be a 1 circle spell, fire blitz is a 2 circle and so on.....I rather not tell you on what level I can cast at the moment.¡± ¡°Okay then¡± Lyndis said hearing this, ¡°If you rather not tell, I rather not ask.¡± Eden let out a small smile, ¡°Definitely the opposite of Alexandra.....¡± ¡°Basically a sword priest is similar to a magic-swordsman but instead of a variety of spells to use, a sword priest can normally only use one element.¡± ¡°Huh? I saw Ron use multiple elements even when the first time I met him.¡± ¡°Oh, that''s because Ron isn''t a complete human anymore so that restriction doesn''t apply to him. It was quite the pain to modify him to make it so he can do that.¡± ¡°Is....the same thing going to happen to me?¡± ¡°No no, I already have a near immortal being as a sla-servant. I don''t need another one, plus you can come back when you die while Ron cannot. Anyway it''s time to explain some of the skill you will need to know for now.¡± ¡°So what am I to do?¡± asked Lyndis wanting to hurry this up a bit. Eden was acting like an old geezer with a number of things to explain before the main point. An act of wisdom for the aged and wise but sheer boredom to the younger generation especially since Royal Road had you experience it 4 times the normal speed. The mental age of people increased dramatically as a result. Ignoring this act of disrespect to him a bit Eden said, ¡°For starters, get some basic sword skills like ''Power Strike'' and ''Speed Strike'' and some foot skills like Raven''s ''Footwork'' or perhaps something more elegant since you are taking after Ron....well I suppose I can figure that part out later. First let''s focus on the sword skills that you are very lacking.¡± ¡°Right!¡± Lyndis was enthusiastic in learning new skills especially from someone as powerful as Eden who seems to have an unlimited supply of them. ¡°Since we are behind on schedule I will have you learn the skill via a skill book first then train on using them. Of course I''m going to let you use this method every time since it is straining to do even with low tier skills like this¡± Eden sighed bringing out a total of 5 skill books for Lyndis. From their appearance alone, they were at best E ranked skill books or F ranked skill books. They were something very common and could be found easily in certain places and would only cost a few silver coins since they are mass produced to help out new, weaker people in this world. However Lyndis did not know that and accepted them gracefully. ¡°Ah~ Thank you Guildmaster!¡± taking the book out of Eden''s hands. But before she started to learn them rapidly, Eden stopped her and said: ¡°By the way, what''s your wisdom?¡± ¡°19 with bonuses why?¡± Eden sighed in relief and said, ¡°On average it''s good to have around 50 wisdom for normal players. For magic users, the higher the better since it increases the chance that they will learn new skill and therefore many places where you learn new skills and spells will rent out items that increases wisdom and such. Having around 100 wisdom and the best point until you reach around level 300. Don''t worry, learning skills will also increase wisdom and doing new actions will as well. The only problem is if you do the same action too many times that wisdom decreases since you are becoming too narrow minded.¡± Lyndis took a bit to take all of that in, ¡°....Got that!¡± before learning all 5 skills at once.
You have learnt the skill: Power Strike
You have learnt the skill: Speed Strike
You have learnt the skill: Power Stance
You have learnt the skill: Speed Stance
You have learnt the skill: Precision Stance
Wisdom increased by 5
Power Strike Beginner Level 1 Deals 50% more damage on the next blow. Will also increase the power of attacks by 1% passively Mana Cost: 10 Cool Down: 1 Second
Speed Strike Beginner Level 1 Next attack will be 50% faster. Will also increase the speed of attacks by 1% passively Mana Cost: 10 Cool Down: 1 Second
Power Stance Beginner Level 1 Leaning forward aggressively will increase the power of attacks in exchange for more danger to the user as they charge head first into battle knowing they will be hit. A stance that will increase the power of attacks by 50% and defence by 10%
Speed Stance Beginner Level 1 Moving side to side will cause enemies to be confused about the directions of the attacks to them and may seem to look like the blade is as fast as always but is actually faster than normal. A stance that will increase the speed of attacks by 50% and evasion by 10%
Precision Stance Beginner Level 1 Staying back and observing the flow of the battle without being in the heat of it, blows will be more likely to be precise and critically damaging to enemies. A stance that will increase the accuracy of attacks by 50% and critical hit chance by 10%
Eden started explaining the skill one by one already just when Lyndis started to look through the new skills she gained. ¡°Both ''Power Strike'' and ''Speed Strike'' are skill that are the basic of the basic that people forget about them. However they are very useful since besides being active skills, they also have a slight passive effect on you as well so training it is good for foundations reasons. The three stances are also very useful as well though active skills, act like passive skills instead. They are activated naturally in the way you fight and do not cost mana to use. They are quite powerful to use initially but you will and many others have found that these skills will only increase in power when they reach intermediate and advance levels. Of course the secondary effects these skills have will increase bit by bit as they level up so there isn''t that much to lose to levelling these skills up. It''s just that many people are too impatient to train these skills enough for it to fully be useful compared to other skills.¡± ¡°I see...¡± ¡°Other than that, I nor Ron can teach you how to use those fire abilities of yours. They are something completely unique to you and you have to learn how to use them. Ah, I forgot to mention that the Fire Manipulation skill basically serves the same role as Fire Mastery which means you can''t learn the latter so don''t bother with that.¡± Lyndis nodded to Eden''s words. ¡°Now...for equipment....yes. If I recall, everyone''s things were broken up into pieces one way or another right? Well everyone''s except for Miriel and Serena which got out fine since their run was the easiest.¡± Eden took out an exact copy of the armour Lyndis wore before and gave it to her who was in rags right now. ¡°Thank you¡± said Lyndis to this. She quite liked the armour she wore from Ron since it was easy to move in and yet wasn''t ugly as hell to be seen in. ¡°Another thing is that you need a new sword...between the iron sword and that cleaver, which one felt better?¡± asked Eden. ¡°The iron sword though it would be better if it was a bit longer by a few centimetres¡± replied Lyndis. ¡°I see....¡± Eden took out an iron sword that was around 5 centimetres longer than a normal one. It also looked much better as well with the sword being designed fairly well like a sword you would see in stories with the edge crooked a bit and the hilt being a crimson red with a red gem in the centre. Eden gave this sword to Lyndis. ¡°This might be too much bit it will last a while, at least until level 100 I think. It was originally designed for Ron to use in the past but I think you can use it as well.¡± Lyndis took the sword and examined it. The details of the sword was already unlocked.
Flame Iron Sword Durability: 70/70 Damage: 25-30 Designed by a master ranked designers with the intention of boosting the power of sword priests, this sword will enhance the abilities of one that walks with the element fire. The blade was designed in such a way that it deals more than average damage and the gem at the hilt of the sword will increase the power of flames Restrictions: - Level 50 - Sword Priest class Options: - Increase Sword Priest skills by 5% - Deals 8% more damage on armoured foes - Sword is perfectly balanced in all ways giving it higher durability, weapon speed and damage
Though Lyndis was honestly shocked on such a good sword falling in her hands, she kept those emotions to herself. There were other things to deal with now. ¡°Anyway since you were the first one to come up....chose the next person for me to give stuff to. Choose between Raven or Shadow since I''m going to do the rest together.¡± Lyndis looked at the group and said, ¡°Raven.¡± ¡°Hmm...why?¡± ¡°Simply because if he doesn''t come up now, he will probably won''t talk that much. I have that kind of hunch.¡± ¡°Well he seems like the type to not talk....all well, Raven come up so I can evaluate Park''s training!¡± ordered Eden. Raven and Lyndis switched places as rubbed the whiteboard clean for the next explanation. ¡°If I recall, you''re a shield footman right? A truly balanced class to have for tanking damage. Also quite good at soloing as well if you feel to restricted by the group your in and want to go alone for a while.¡± Eden drew the mini figures of Park and Raven on the whiteboard. ¡°First of all a shield footman is basically any unit that uses a shield as well. Think of Roman soldiers as a reference in what role they take. While alone they are quite strong, they truly shine in large groups. Just imagine 20 or so more people like you lined up in a row charging forward, it''ll be a slaughter if not for the fact that magic and monsters exist in this world!¡± More imagines appeared on the board as Eden drew, there were was a mini army there as well and monsters and mages on one side as they fought the mini army. ¡°Shield Footman is actually a common class among NPCs you know but players rarely have that class since it requires some basic training to obtain and besides it''s one of the lower tier classes you can get via training at a military place. However because of that, they branch out quite far and after a while you can turn into a special type of knight instead of a normal type depending on which route you can chose. Even being a Dragon Knight, a legendary figure is possible with this common class!¡± ¡°As for tactics, Park has another class which I have no intention of tell you since it''s a secret class, the higher tier of one that is that is impossible to get either way by normal and abnormal means. While Park does not use a shield, he is very skilled in using a spear which you also use. Of course 2 hands and one hand methods of using a spear is universes apart so don''t even bother trying to copy Park in that department unless you want to lose the use of your shield.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Why does it seem like I''m talking to a wall here....?¡± Eden asked stopping his explanations. ¡°Then...what should I do from now on?¡± asked Raven being forced to talk part way by Eden. ¡°Oh, that;s up to you but you seem good using the shield and spear in a combination. You do have a tendency to charge forward as much as Lyndis over there as well but when you block you move backwards instead. Basically, what you know and act are dragging you down.¡± Raven nodded. ¡°But Park''s training truly covered all of the basics without a doubt. You can ask him later on what kinds of training you should do. But for now, I want to fix the problem you are currently having. I believe you recently also got into the habit of parrying other than blocking right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°In that case....¡± Eden like with Lyndis took out some skill books for Raven as well. This time there was only 3 books instead of 5. ¡°Reason for the less skill books is because you have a much better foundation compared to Lyndis over there.¡± Raven nodded silently and used the books to learn new skills immediately.
You have learnt the skill: Shield Parry
You have learnt the skill: Spear Parry
You have learnt the skill: Body Reinforcement
Wisdom increased by 3
Shield Parry Beginner Level 1 Parry with the shield to knock back attacks thrown at you. Enemies rhythm will be interrupted if successful and has a chance to be stunned and higher critical chance. However if failed, damage taken will increase. Increase Critical Hit Chance: 1% Stun Chance: 1%
Spear Parry Beginner Level 1 Parry with the spear to knock back attacks thrown at you. Enemies rhythm will be interrupted if successful and has a chance to be stunned and higher critical damage. If failed, you will be stunned momentarily and will not be able to dodge the next attack or block it. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Increase Critical Hit Damage: 3% Stun Chance: 1%
Body Reinforcement Beginner Level 1 Forge the body to endure the most dangerous attacks from all kinds of foes. This skill focuses on increasing the body''s performance to the limits as to reduce the amount of damage you would take when hit. Defence Increase: 1% Agility Increase: 1%
¡°You have the one of the least mana of everyone so it''s better to have skills that don''t require mana to use. Both ''Parry'' skills will be very powerful when you level them up properly. I gave you those two skills in order for you to have a much larger range of attacks. Body Reinforcement is kinda a rare skill that no one really wants since training it is only possible by being hit over and over again, similar to how endurance works. I think to get the skill to Intermediate Level, you need to gain around 400 endurance which is also the time to get the toughness stat. Don''t focus too much on training it since it''s a bonus since Park trained you quite well.¡± Eden took out a few items for Raven. The first was a set of new armour that looked similar to the ones Park gave Raven all that time ago. However it seemed new and more intact as well this time. There were also more metal related defence on this set of armour as well. ¡°Since Park was being cheap....¡± muttered Eden under his breath.
Soldier Set of Fine Armour Durability: 50/50 Defence 40 Includes; a helmet, chest piece, arm guards, leggings and shoes. Made from mostly leather to reduce restrictions on movement and some iron parts at key points to protect vitals, this armour set is something that is a standard for all soldiers to have in their early days. Restrictions: - Level 50 - Melee Class Options: - Vitality +5 - Impact of blows will be decreased by a small bit
¡°I think you will fine that you will have a much easier time with this armour set since it was made for your body size unlike the one Park gave you on a whim. Now for your shield and spear....you were the more offence type right?¡± Eden pulled out a relatively smaller shield compared to the one Raven had before which was more like a tower but had spikes on the end and a spear that was as long as the last one but has dual tips at the end.
Spiked Edged Iron Shield of Attacking Durability: 45/45 Defence: 15 Damage: 3-5 Spikes were placed in the design of this shield that will deal a small amount damage to foes that are hit by this shield. However because of this, the max durability of the shield was decreased by a bit as well as the defence as well. Restrictions: - Melee Class - Level 55 Options: - Strength +4 - Enemies will tend to avoid the side in which the shield is held due to it''s frightening look.
Dual Tip Iron Spear Durability: 50/50 Damage: 20-23 A spear with dual tips in order to make it more difficult for foes to mend their wounds after being cut by it. The chance of foes bleeding will increase because of this. Restrictions: - Level 50 Options: - Chance to Inflict Bleed will increase by 12% - Strength +5 - Due to the masterful hands of making this, the balance of the spear is perfect
Raven nodded and went back to sit down with the other without a word hiding his emotions. ¡°Okay, Shadow come up~¡± Things happened again with Eden cleaning and drawing new things on the whiteboard. ¡°Shadow, I''ll be frank; I don''t know what to teach you at all....well almost don''t know since agility stealth type characters are something I can deal with but something that I cannot teach. To be honest, most of Anna''s training was done on her own with some external help of course and I taught her some of her more powerful combat skills like the full body enchantment.¡± Eden then looked as if he was relief, ¡°HOWEVER! You are a natural, a genius of hiding your presence so you don''t need to learn most of the stealth type skills. But I still don''t know how to train you so I ask, do you rather go the stealth route or the combat route.¡± Eden drew up two columns in which there were various words and pictures on them. He pointed at the first column with the words ''Stealth Route''. ¡°The full stealth route is as you expect and more aligned to the thief path where you focus on hiding your presence as much as possible and avoid combat. This route fully utilise your natural talent of hiding in plain sight! I expect later on you will become a master thief or something similar on this path.¡± Eden then pointed to the other column which had the words ''Combat Route''. ¡°The other route; the other path you could take is the combat route which is much more dangerous for your development since that talent of yours might be wasted completely by this choice. The reason is that attacking something will inadvertently draw their attention especially later on with much more stronger creatures. However if you manage to keep your stealth abilities intact, then you will be much more frightening then the rest of the group since even they cannot sense you. Think of Anna''s fighting style and add in the fact that it is very difficult to find her even in her onslaught of attacks.¡± Shadow thought about the scene where Anna was shooting around the battlefield attacking Eden on all side. ¡°Guildmaster...didn''t you completely beat down Anna like that?¡± ¡°Oh, that''s because I''m much stronger than her. She''s only around level 600 while the others are over level 700 in fact. Quite impressive for someone I trained for only 20 years¡± Eden added in. ''So she was trained from age 4 then...'' ¡°In that case....can''t I do both?¡± asked Shadow. Eden pondered on this for a few seconds before saying, ¡°Perhaps....but to do both is like telling a Barbarian who has no power over mana and a Mage who has a weak physical body to do each other''s jobs while doing their own at the same time. Very difficult....but....¡± Eden took out a silvery skill Book for Shadow. It was a B ranked skill book that would cost a few hundred gold to buy. ¡°It''s up to you to learn most of your skills, well you can ask Anna as well. I think she would be happy to know that someone will inherit her original skills...well Gen managed to copy it partly but seeing it a few times. For you who is an agility based character, this would be a valuable gift.¡± Shadow accepted the skill book and learnt what was in it by reading it.
You have learnt the skill: Burst Speed
Wisdom increased by 3
Burst Speed Beginner Level 1 Kicked off the ground and skies with get speeds that will surprise even the fastest of beings. This skills allows you to double your movement speed for a brief amount of time in exchange for rapid consumption of stamina. Speed Increase: 2X (Where X is the original movement speed) Mana Cost: 100 Mana Time Limit: 2 Seconds Cool Down: 5 Seconds
''This is....'' Shadow only thought of how much more he could do with this skill. It was an amazing skill that would further make him useful in all areas even if it only lasted for 2 seconds in total. ¡°This skill might be too much for you since you do have the lowest amount of intelligence and wisdom of the group. You, Raven and Lyndis should read some books to bring them up a bit slowly later on. Also from what I saw you were the type to want to escape immediately away from enemies after you attack...a longer blade weapon would be best.¡± Eden took out the exact same set of armour Shadow had before and a new blade. It was twice as long as his dagger from before but it seems to fit naturally in his hands. Shadow checked the description of the new weapon.
Short Sword of Backstabbing Durability: 40/40 Damage: 10-14 Made with the intention of stabbing the weak points of foes while also allowing to block and attack normally as well. Due to the design of the weapon, it can be counted as either a short sword or a dagger. Restrictions: - Level 50 - Melee Class Options: - Backstabbing will have a 30% higher chance of dealing a critical hit - Backstabbing skill +2 Rank - Damage dealt at weak points of enemies will increase by 13%
Before Shadow could say anything to thank Eden, he already started to move onto the next thing saying: ¡°Anyway, I''ll create some things in this Vortex World for you guys to train on while I talk to the other three.¡± With that, in a distance, a large building; similar to an ancient Asian training ground appeared. ¡°Something to get you in the mood~¡± said Eden before teleporting them over there immediately without warning. Then he looked at Sain, Miriel and Serena who were the magic users of the group. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Anyway now to the group in which I can actually teach since I''m a magic user¡± Eden sighed a bit in relief and distress at the same time thinking about it. ¡°I''ll be blunt with you lot again since this part has been worrying me too much here. You guys are too passive! All the damage are being dealt by the other three! All you guys have are support spells and are very lacking in offence spells!¡± ¡°....¡± The three did not say anything to the criticism from Eden since it was a valid point. Magicians and another magic users had some of the strongest offensive powers in the game even early on dealing the most damage in all forms with their magic but theses three did not take advantage of that and settled into a lower role of leaving it mostly to the others. As such they had the least survival rates of the group. Raven could tank damage, Shadow could disappear in battle and Lyndis could attack and dodge attacks using her high stats in those areas. On the other hand, Sain was a all general use person with even stats in all areas while Miriel and Serena only had high intelligence and wisdom than the rest of the group and but still needed people to protect them while casting. Even with their higher agility stats, in the end speed doesn''t matter if you can''t escape to begin with. ¡°First of all, from what I know, all of you process at least some attack magic but at a very minor level except for Serena....also Serena...why do you have a powerful blood magic spell? That''s something that not many people would have since it''s gory and most people seem to frown on using such magic....¡± Eden sighed again and continued the explanation. ¡°Basically I''m going to teach you guys the spells that you are lacking right now. Sain, a Shaman can also buff their allies and attack using a variety of spells not just what you are doing right now. Miriel, your method of buffing is unique to bards and as such you should take advantage of that skill. You lack the many buff variation of your skill and cannot bring out the full potential of what Jenny taught you. Serena, A druid is similar to a shaman in a way but is heavily aligned with using nature magic, summoning magic and so on. It''s very powerful when you train it right.¡± Eden took a deep breath in and out before turning to Sain first. ¡°I''m going to address you all individually but do pay attention since it may relate to you as well. Sain...why the hell do you have the useless ''summon familiar'' skill that can only summon weaker monsters? Unless you max it out, you can only summon monsters that are tens of levels below you most of the time. For summoning, you should be a specific type one to ensure you know what you will get out of it. You were quite good at using the wolf familiar right?¡± ¡°Yes...¡± replied Sain. ¡°In that case, I''m going to give you a sort of rare summoning skill for wolves. The number and power of these wolves depend on you in the end....well good luck not getting eaten before making the contract....¡± ¡°...eh?¡± Sain thought he misheard what Eden said. What was going to happen about him being eaten? ¡°Ah! Don''t worry about it yet, the next thing is that you lack a proper range attack magic...magic bolt is useful in distracting enemies since it has little power and a mild knock back effect...but that''s it. A spell like Magic Arrow which does piercing damage is much more useful in the end.¡± ¡°I see....¡± Sain was quite depressed since he took training that ''mana bolt'' skill quite seriously and Eden just said that it was quite useless. ¡°But continue training it.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°When facing weaker monsters, it''s a good skill to wipe out a bunch of enemies at once. I believe you can cast over a hundred of those mana bolts in one go when you master the skill. It''s very powerful as long as you have the proper power to back it up though I think it would be more useful in Miriel''s hands in the end either way....¡± Eden took out two spell books and passed them to Eden. They titled ''Wolf Summoning'' and ''Magic Arrow''. Sain learnt them both immediately.
You have learnt the spell: Wolf Summoning
You have learnt the spell: Magic Arrow
You have gained 3 Wisdom
Wolf Summoning Beginner Level 1 A spell to summon a wolf to make a contract with. The level of the summoned wolf depends on your skill proficiency and level. In order to make a contract with the wolf, you must prove that you are stronger than it and dominate it as wolves will not follow those who are weaker than it. Mana Cost: 200 Number of Contracted Wolves possible: 1
Magic Arrow Beginner Level 1 Fire a piercing arrow made of mana at high speeds! Number of arrows made and power behind each arrows depends on skill proficiency Mana Cost: 20 Arrow Number: 1 Cool Down: 5 Seconds
The main difference between skill books and spell books in which you can learn new skills or spell from is that skill books don''t have a wisdom requirement and can be learnt as long as you meet the other requirements it has. Spell books on the other hand do have wisdom restrictions and that is why many mage guild stock on wisdom increasing items to rent out to players learning spells. ¡°They are a bit more mana costly compared to the other two skills you have but they are much more powerful. Ah, I forgot to mention but the Wolf Summoning contract is similar to a normal contract with a monster where it will share some experience from you and it can grow and can be resummoned after dying. The only difference is that you need to use mana to summon it into battle each time though there is no time limit on the stay and resummoning.¡± Eden was about to go to Miriel on her lecture as well but Sain then asked: ¡°What about buffing and my healing spells? And my melee skills as well?¡± ¡°Oh, buffing can be left to Miriel and Serena, having more than 2 people buff you at the same time instead of attacking is a waste of time later on. As for healing...as you are, healing is fine if you combine it with Serena''s spells as well. As for melee....you are the type of person to stay back and watch other fight while supporting them right? ¡°Yes¡± Sain recalled that most of the time he was supporting the others at the front with magic attacks and heals. It was only when they were overwhelmed that he was forced to fight at the front as well. It wasn''t that he was weak at melee but that he didn''t have any skills to back him up unlike the others. ¡°Well then you don''t need to learn any melee skills then. Having a spare spear at time is more than enough. Most shamans either main melee or magic and sub the other. It''s very rare that you find someone who does both since it usually means their skill proficiency is much lower than other people. Pick the magic side first but train the melee side as well just in case.¡± When your skill proficiency is high, it is very apparent to other people since you will be praised and such for training your skills. If your skill proficiency was low, then chances are that the power of your skills and spells are weak and there is a good chance that you will fail to cast the spell or skill and get stunned for a while in battle which is fatal. Because Sain knew this, he nodded to Eden''s suggestion. ¡°Hmm...since there is a good chance that you will have to go melee out of nowhere having a staff is quite annoying in those situations....in that case.¡± Eden threw a ring at Sain. ¡°This ring will give you the same effect as a low quality staff like the one you were using before....well before it was destroyed. It''s a freebie since I don''t cast magic using staves or the likes either way.¡± Sain looked carefully at the ring before putting it on.
Ring of poor casting Durability: 30/30 Defence: 0 Gives the effects of casting with a low quality staff Restrictions: - None Options: - Intelligence +1 - Wisdom +1
¡°Mind you that this effect can''t be stacked with a staff as well. Also....here. Armour and a new spear as well.¡±
Leather Armour Set Durability: 50/50 Defence: 25 A Leather Armour set that is quite plain and has no extra effects
Iron Spear of Reach Durability: 60/60 Attack: 15-20 An Iron Spear that seems to have a higher reach than normal even though it looks the same length as other spears. Options: - Extra reach of 3 cm
¡°That spear is quite useful against weaker foes, the stronger ones like death knight will immediately see through the trick on this spear. Also useful in making surprise attack as well. Anyway go train with the others as well but don''t make a contract with a wolf just....imagine a Cerberus coming out....¡± Eden flicked his wrist and Sain was covered in blue light and immediately teleported to the other instantly. ¡°....¡± Miriel and Serena could only stare at Eden astonished at his free like actions that has no restrictions at all. If Eden would ever be the enemy of the Empire, the it would be likely that the Empire would fall. That was the kind of impression he was giving. ¡°Say Guildmaster....¡± said Miriel, ¡°What level are you? You said our masters were level 600-700 but it looked like you were toying with even them.¡± Eden once again sighed and explained, ¡°Didn''t I say that both sides wasn¡¯t using their full strength? If it''s them they could possibly match a level 800 as well....well I might tell you later after this training and I show you the ropes of being in this guild.¡± ¡°First of all since I am honestly lacking in knowledge of how Druids do things, I''ll only teach you; Serena some basic spells that I know a Druid will have. Second; Miriel you have to choose to either get attack spells or continue with your unusual buffing spells.¡± Eden took out a spell book for Serena and she learnt the spell immediately.
You have learnt the spell: Root Bind
Root Bind Beginner Level 1 Creates Roots around the legs of enemies to restrict them. Mana Cost: 30 Casting: 3 Seconds Cool Down: 20 Seconds
¡°Right....a powerful group healing spell would do good as well....I hope Mel doesn''t mind that much...¡± Eden gave Serena another spell book which she also learnt.
You have learnt the spell: Heartbeat Healing
Heartbeat Healing Beginner Level 1 A spell which heals a bit of heal over time with the flow of energy in the body in a wide area. Heals a health point per second for the party passively for 10 minutes when you cast this spell. Mana Cost: 100 Casting: 10 Seconds Coo Down: 5 Minutes
¡°Although I would like to teach you some other spells like summoning or powerful nature buffing spells, I think I would be best for Mel to teach you that. Plus I don''t want her to hassle me of teaching you useless things. Anyway focus on training your healing spells first since they are in fact very powerful later on. When you appear at the training area I made, there should be a space for you to practise in along with other training equipment.¡± With this Eden teleported Serena to the training area where the others were. He turned to Miriel and asked: ¡°Have you made your choice yet?¡± Miriel then immediately answered, ¡°Yes, I want to learn attack spells from you¡± with a firm resolution in her eyes. ¡°I would be happy to but it''s also good to bring up your support spell as well. It''s actually quite powerful and broken in some ways. After reaching intermediate level, you can add two effects at once and at Advance level you can add four effects at once. The boost in stats is also quite large when you combine it with magic and sound mastery as well!¡± Miriel nodded noticing that the spell was increasingly becoming more powerful as she trained it up. In fact even though it was only in the beginner levels with the other mastery skills, it could increase everyone''s stat in one area by a quarter and it wasn''t even halfway there to intermediate yet. ¡°Well the true power of that spell isn''t in increasing stats alone. You can also increase resistance as well, immunity to certain debuffs and even double health and mana regen as well. Quite overpowered when you think about it. The only problem is it takes way too long to train it to that point and many people give it up for more immediate effect spells that are easier to train. Anyway what kind of spells are you looking at?¡± ¡°Ice Magic.¡± ¡°Ho~ Wouldn''t that counter Lyndis'' element though?¡± ¡°That''s the point, against a fire strong foe, she is more or less useless with her fire. Therefore I need to learn how to use Ice Magic to counter that possibility.¡± ¡°Hmm....sure. Although normally I would want you to learn wind magic which is useful in many ways and water magic which can double up for healing as well later on but you already have sound and illusion magic under your belt.¡± ¡°Why would you say that I would need to learn water and wind magic?¡± asked Miriel. It was known that to use Ice Magic, all you needed was to learn the Ice Magic Mastery skill. ¡°Oh, with both of them, you could combo and increase the power of your ice magic by several times. Normally Ice Magic uses the water particles in the air to form and it is actually quite powerful right?¡± ¡°Yes¡± Miriel nodded since powerful Ice mages could create a giant ice spear in the air to attack even with little water around them. ¡°Basically with water, the power of these spells increase in strength as well and is especially useful in trapping enemies in ice on land. I used this tactic quite a number of times in the past. Anyway with this basic ''Ice Bolt'' spell, you''ll be able to learn ''Ice Magic Mastery'' as well¡± Eden handed over a spell book to Miriel to learn.
You have learnt the spell: Ice Bolt
You have gained the skill: Ice Magic Mastery
Ice Bolt Beginner Level 1 Create a small sized bolt of ice to fire at enemies. Mana Cost: 15 Number of Ice Bolts: 1 Cast Time: 2 Seconds Cool Down: 5 Seconds
Ice Bolt is one of the most basic Ice Magic skills. Due to it''s low costs, cast time and cool down, many ice mages train this spell up since it has a moderate amount of power later on and can be used in between other spells to deal more damage. Plus it also deals physical damage as well so it''s more useful in some ways compared to ''fireball''. ¡°Anyway I think when you reach Beginner Level 5 in ''Melody of Sound'' some new options of which buff you can have will increase by 4. Every 5 levels you will get a new set of 4 buffs to play with. Make sure you train it a lot since that is one of the core spells you will use later on. If your worried about not having enough choice, go speak to Jenny about it.¡± ¡°Right now you can train with the others.....oh yeah, it''ll be great if you can produce some new spells on your own as well. Tell this to the others that they can create new skills and spells as long as they repeat it enough on their own.¡± With that, Eden also teleported Miriel to the training area with the others. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Sigh....teaching people properly is more of a pain than I thought it would be....especially since they are all brats....¡± muttered Eden on his own. However he wasn''t really alone and there was another person watching him from afar. Soon enough the bland and colourless white floor turned into ground and grass of a simple plains. Alexandra was another person who had control over this Vortex World. The sky soon turned into night as the two talked. ¡°What do you expect Eden¡± said Alexandra walking to him hearing what he just said, ¡°llyfr had a time trying to teach you and you were the type to learn things extremely fast.¡± ¡°...True it was mostly him forcing me to learn skills left and right....most of the theory was taken up by Warlic along with my readings in ''that'' place¡± replied Eden thinking back as he stared into the night sky. ¡°Hmm...~ Anyway you think they will become strong enough to be of use?¡± Alexandra sat next to Eden without much concern. They have been together since a long time ago and they both grew out of the stage where they would attack each other at this point. ¡°Who know....anyway you finished researching of their circumstances?¡± asked Eden. ¡°More or less, as long as we give them what they want, they can focus completely on our matter. Orphans taken in by a rich man wanting them to do an impossible task...well almost impossible. If we used our authority, we can find that girl quite quickly.¡± ¡°Don''t. Only do that when they prove themselves useful enough¡± replied Eden coldly. ¡°Oh~ Even though you were quite motivated to teach them, in the end you''re always the same; not caring for almost anyone¡± teased Alexandra. ¡°If I did care then there would be too many people to protect. To many situations where they will be taken hostage against me. Remember why we decided to hide our influence from this world in the first place? There are too many possible enemies and it''s too much of a pain to deal with all of them!¡± ¡°Haha, even though you could simply turn into Dragon form and scare the shit out of them you rather have the citizens have a peace of mind.¡± ¡°Naturally, they''re all in the end pawns of a grand game.¡± ¡°Then what about the seal of that ''thing''? Judging by the fact that this continent isn''t plunged into chaos, the seal is still working right?¡± ¡°Yeah....but I can feel that the time is coming...slowly but surely....I don''t know until the time comes on which side I will be on. Supposedly ''that'' has a higher rank than me even now and has the right and power to command the ''others'' as well.¡± Eden sighed....he did not know what will happen and if everything he did would be wasted in the end. ¡°Isn''t that possibility the reason why I abandoned the power of Divinity and took on the ''Sun Authority'' in the first place? I''m sure I have enough power to take half of you down with me¡± Eden chuckled, ¡°The who will take care of the other half then?¡± ¡°Viv of course!¡± Alexandra said with utter confidence, ¡°You do know he upgraded his powers recently right? Though that was a few years ago...¡± Alexandra and Eden stared at the stars in this Vortex World. In the end they had no power over the future and what it will become no matter how strong they become. ¡°I can only hope those brats will become strong enough to be of use by then¡± muttered Eden. Alexandra looked a but depressed and said, ¡°Yeah...the reason for this Guild is to destroy you in the first place....¡± ¡°Well....¡± Eden replied slowly, ¡°It would be nice if things goes well and they are not used against me and rather towards ''it'' in the first place...¡±
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9800~ - Yay...writing for six characters in a row is extremely painful to do.... - I finished chapter 4 yesterday so I''ll be able to post it tomorrow but....did not start on chapter 5 yet...well this may be the end of daily posting for me... Vol.2 Chapter 4 - Individual Training Along with Shadow and Raven, Lyndis was teleported without warning to a Asian styled training ground. The place actually had quite a large open space at the font and there was a large building at the centre of it. Inside were rooms for all of them individually. The three could hear Eden''s voice as if it was recorded. [This place doesn''t have a name so you call it the ''training grounds'' I suppose. Well in this building, there are 6 rooms that are of a separate space. Use these places to train your more destructive skills and spells. I don''t want this place burning down in the end. Oh there''s also a place to sleep and a kitchen as well with basic ingredients so help your self. I expect you guys to train here for another month so your skill proficiencies will rise] With that, the message cut off and the three were left to their own devices. ¡°Say...what are we going to do now?¡± asked Shadow mostly confused on the whole idea of things. They were given skills and were told to train immediately on using them but they were not given instructions beyond that. ¡°Oh well~ Might as well explore this place then~¡± said Lyndis with eyes shining on the building. It felt like it was special due to it''s design and feel from just looking at it. However before they could get exploring the place, someone dropped in being teleported by Eden and landed at the centre of the ground outside of the building. ¡°Ow, damn to think being roughly teleported would hurt this much¡± complained Sain on his ass getting up. [This place doesn''t have a name so you call it the ''training grounds'' I suppose. Well in this building, there are 6 rooms that are of a separate space. Use these places to train your more destructive skills and spells. I don''t want this place burning down in the end. Oh there''s also a place to sleep and a kitchen as well with basic ingredients so help your self. I expect you guys to train here for another month so your skill proficiencies will rise] The message played again when Sain appeared, Sain listened in to this while the other waited for it to finish before talking. ¡°Sain? Done with Eden already?¡± asked Lyndis since it should have taken a bit longer for Eden to finish explanation some more. ¡°Ah, it seems he skipped most of the explanation since my class is quite common and gave me some spells to train up while I''m here. Serena and Miriel should be here soon as well. What are you guys doing ?¡± asked Sain at the end of his explanation. ¡°Oh, we''re going to explore this place. From what I can see, it has two floors and maybe even a basement level as well!¡± said Lyndis excitingly. Both Sain and Shadow chuckled a bit since Lyndis was acting like a child. However Raven did not even change his expression at all. ¡°Say....¡± muttered Raven which took the attention of the other three immediately, ¡°Don''t you think something is missing from our memories?¡± The other three thought about it. Now that they thought about it... ¡°I don''t....think so?¡± replied Lyndis first uncertain. ¡°Perhaps but it feels like something is blocking it out¡± answered Shadow as well. ¡°I think it had something to do with that trial to get in the guild...after we went in, I can''t remember anything after besides Eden appearing in front of us saying that we cleared it¡± said Sain as well. ¡°....¡± These four people from the group was very suspicious of Eden from the moment they saw him. Sure he actually made things a lot easier for them, letting them join his guild, training them and even giving out free skills and spell for them to learn and train. It was TOO good of an offer to get. ¡°I wonder what''s Eden''s goal in using us?¡± wondered Sain before another person appeared via teleportation from Eden. This time it was Serena who seems a bit more chippy from conversation with Eden. If you talked to the person who saved you, then you would feel great. The others had to thank Eden for taking care of Serena, they did not expect for people to try to harm her the day the group split up to train individually. It was a mistake on that part which couldn''t be resolved so easily. However that just made it easier for Eden to manipulate Serena though it seems Eden doesn''t have any ill intention so far. [This place doesn''t have a name so you call it the ''training grounds'' I suppose. Well in this building, there are 6 rooms that are of a separate space. Use these places to train your more destructive skills and spells. I don''t want this place burning down in the end. Oh there''s also a place to sleep and a kitchen as well with basic ingredients so help your self. I expect you guys to train here for another month so your skill proficiencies will rise] Once again the message was played out. It seems that it was designed to play over and over again whenever a new person appeared in this place though most likely limited to the group themselves. ¡°Huh? Why are you....still here...?¡± asked Serena confused since the group should be training right now. ¡°Oh we''re talking about a couple of things. We''re going to wait until Miriel comes till going to explore this place fully¡± explained Lyndis on the matter. Soon enough Miriel also appeared and followed by it was the same message again. After the message from Eden to her, identical to the rest of the group''s she too asked, ¡°Why aren''t you guys training?¡± ¡°Waiting for you to appear before exploring the place, plus we need to talk a bit about Eden¡± explained Lyndis. ¡°I see¡± said Miriel immediately understanding what she was talking, ¡°We what do you want to talk about? The fact that we''re missing part of our memories or the shady part where Eden completely accepted us in the guild?¡± ¡°Both.¡± ¡°Well we can''t do anything about the first unless Eden tells us but the second....I tried asking what level he was and he responded that we would know when the time was right. That can''t get any more suspicious plus this whole place is suspicious as well. I doubt this is any small Independent Guild...plus our master whom are a part of it are too strong. To understand this point, bring out the guild information.¡± The group did just that by Miriel''s words and opened up the window in which they can examine the overall situation with the Guild.
Independent Guild Information Guild Name: Sleeping Sheep Centre Rank: Unknown (Rank too low to see) Guildmaster: Eden, Alexandra and Viv Size: Small Members: Roughly 2 dozen Guild Vault: Unknown (Rank too low to see) Current Ranking of Guild: Unknown (Rank too low to see) Description: When this Guild appeared is unknown as the information is restricted for new recruits of the Independent Guild. A number of things are restricted for new recruits that have yet to complete a Independent Guild Quest. However the Independent Guild is said to very old and powerful in several ways. In order to gain more information on the Guild, ask one of the Guildmasters.
The group was somewhat shocked since all of the crucial information that they would want wasn''t there at all such as the Rank of the Guild which determined what kind of quests they could do or the actual ranking of the guild compared to other Independent Guild. ¡°Well....¡± Sain started to think of reasons why the information was blocked off for them, ¡°I think this is a safety feature so spies don''t get information from Guilds that easily. I think we''re recorded as ''New Recruits'' in the guild and cannot be promoted to ''Junior Members'' which is kinda understandable.¡± Miriel nodded and said, ¡°True, judging by the fact that all of the members we''ve seen, 8 in total are all powerful, the rank of this guild must be pretty high...A or B class....though I don''t know how these ranks work. I wasn''t exactly planning for us to end up in an independent guild, I heard they were especially hard to get into since one person''s blunder was the whole Guild''s blunder as well. Only the strongest and more useful people were allowed in one.¡± Aside from the Guildmasters which accounted for three, their masters were six more along with themselves as well which accounted for a total of 15 so far. There would be around nine more members in this guild as well but there were literally no signs of them at all. ¡°Anyway I think we should start exploring this place and then start training, I don''t Eden to find us slacking off like this¡± said Sain with the soon agreement of the rest of the group as well. [p=center]xXx[/p] Some time later, the group completely explored this training building that Eden created. Namely it had 2 floors as he said and there was literally nothing out of the normal at all besides that the training rooms that Eden created for them were stronger than normal. Plus there was the fact that Eden created those training rooms for them individually as well. As such all of the rooms had golems the size of a person in them which they could command to do whatever they want. Each room had three of them which totalled in 18 at the end. There were slight differences between the structure of each room as well. For example Lyndis'' training room was heavily resistant to fire and flames so she wouldn''t burn down the place while those who used magic had walls and floors that were resistant to magic as well. Due to this the group could do individual training for a few hours before going to eat via the cooking of Lyndis and Miriel together. The following is a scene from the first day when they had to eat. ¡°The only way to go is with Western style Food! It fills you up the most!¡± shouted Lyndis. ¡°Fool! Eastern style food does the same thing and besides, this is an eastern style building so it''s natural for you to eat eastern style food in the first place!¡± shouted back Miriel. ¡°....¡± Those who did not have the cooking skill, even though they could cook in real life were immediately denied access to the kitchen by these two who were arguing to each other right now. As such, those four had no power in what they will eat later on. However they all did not mind what they would eat since they were all hungry right now. Why don''t they get out food to eat on their own you might ask? The reason is simply that all their food, since it has been a month since they went hunting are managed by these two people. These two people who are still arguing right now. After a few minutes.... ¡°Fine! Let''s have a cook out then!¡± shouted Lyndis wanting to show off her cooking skills even though it was still at Beginner level 2. ¡°So be it!¡± replied Miriel in utter confidence since her cooking skill was about to reach beginner level 3 soon enough. She would have the advantage of she won this and Lyndis would never be able to catch up in training the skill this way. WHACK! The suddenly two fists descended down on those two''s heads. ¡°Ow!¡± ¡°Ow!¡± Both of them looked immediately to who hit them. Eden and Alexandra appeared after being teleported here. ¡°Seriously....¡± sighed Eden, ¡°I look away for a few hours and you guys haven''t even started training and yet are fooling around like this?¡± Eden looked distressed seeing the group like this. ¡°Well that sounds like something you would do in the past. Didn''t you slack off to the point I had to force you to get stronger?¡± said Alexandra commenting in while healing the slight injury on Lyndis and Miriel''s heads which were swelling up. ¡°Please don''t say such things of things that happened such a long time ago. You''ll sound like an old hag you know¡± commented Eden backlashing Alexandra without a moment to spare. Alexandra sent a glare at Eden. However then she let out a smile saying, ¡°Eden~ Do you wish for me to distribute photos of you in carious costume~?¡± Eden immediately paled and quickly said, ¡°wait didn''t I delete those already?¡± ¡°Not at all~ I had some spare here and there¡± said Alexandra taking out a photo in her hand. ¡°BURN!¡± Eden immediately sent out flames to burn down the photo but Alexandra blocked it using some sort of shield around her. The flames were quickly absorbed into her without much effort which made Eden quite pissed off. ¡°Tch.¡± Eden was ticked off by this, ¡°Don''t forget Alexandra, that I have dirt on you as well!¡± Alexandra put up a dominating look to Eden and said, ¡°Oh, and what may that be?¡± Several PMs later between the two which are completely private for only them, Alexandra turned completely red from head to toe. ¡°Eden....you wouldn''t...that stuff should stay private!¡± she shouted. Seeing this kind of reaction, Eden''s sadist nature appeared once again at the worst moment. Eden took his hand and held Alexandra''s chin and said, ¡°Oh, what''s this? You''re the one who brought up these private matters in the first place Honey. Don''t think I will stop now just because you beg.¡± ¡°....In that case, I''ll reveal every last secret you have!¡± threatened Alexandra, ¡°I know so much about you that I literally have unlimited ammo against you!¡± Her fight spirit increased so much that a golden lion appeared behind her. ¡°So be it, I''m prepare to burn down this entire city if I have to, and don''t think every last secret you have as well won''t be revealed!¡± Eden threatened back. His fighting spirit increased and the illusion of a Dragon appeared behind him. ¡°....¡± The group was utterly speechless since one thing led to another and now these two Guildmasters of this Guild they have joined recently are fighting already. ¡°Hey....¡± said Lyndis, ¡°Doesn''t this sound like a lover spat?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Yep, it makes our fight completely minor¡± replied Miriel. Both Alexandra and Eden scratched their cheeks replying: ¡°Well we are married to begin with.¡± ¡°More or less been with this thing for a long time now.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The two looked at each other a bit shocked or each other statements. ¡°Why the hell did you tell them that we were married?!¡± shouted Eden. ¡°Why would you care?! Do you take interest in these brats you pedophile?!¡± shouted back Alexandra. ¡°Who the hell is a pedophile?!¡± ¡°You are!¡± ¡°Damn you idiotic beast!¡± Eden and Alexandra started to wrestle each other there and made a mess of the place in the next 10 seconds completely causing more damage than the group would hope to in those moments than in the amount they could make over a month if they tried to. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Right! You guys were hungry to begin with right? I might as well cook for you guys as a gift for joining the guild¡± said Alexandra while smiling completely ignoring an annoyed Eden sitting on the side waiting for the food to be served. Alexandra took a few minutes to make a simple set of dishes that were a blend of western and eastern style food. ¡°Right, time to dig in~¡± said Alexandra sitting next to Eden as he ate silently without a moment''s due. A few moments later and without the group even taking a bite yet, Eden finished the meal that Alexandra made. ¡°That was quick my bride~¡± said Alexandra with a mocking smile. ¡°Who the hell is your wife?! If I recall the female one is the wife!¡± retorted Eden. ¡°But your so pretty....and you were the one who wore the dress at our wedding~¡± In an instant, three pairs of eyes glowed wanting to know the details of those events. Eden tried to get angry but them stopped himself and said, ¡°Thanks for the meal¡± and left the place without a word. ¡°....¡± The group could only stare trying not to be rude since these are things are a private matters between Eden and Alexandra. ¡°Geez....completely changing your character since your embarrassed¡± said Alexandra when Eden disappeared from the Vortex World, ¡°Well, I guess I can play with you kids now then~¡± She had a smile on her face but her eyes were glimmering the same way as Eden''s. ¡°Well? Aren''t you going to eat the meal I made?¡± asked Alexandra, ¡°I''m very confident in my cooking skills.¡± On that signal the group had no choice but I eat the food Alexandra prepared. Upon the first bite...
You have tasted one of the Grand Master of cooking''s dishes - Health and Mana will double for the next 5 hours - Stamina will increase by 70 - Strength and Agility will increase by 160 - Chance of getting a status debuff will dramatically decrease - Due to the very low level of the ingredients, permanent stats will not be gained
¡°Delicious!¡± ¡°Incredible!¡± The group collectively was amazed by the taste that was in their mouths. It was a heaven sent taste that literally melted their senses to the point that they forgot themselves and continued eating until there was nothing left. ¡°Ah...that''s the reaction I''ve been wanting from Eden from a while now. These days he doesn''t give a genuine smile anymore you know. Plus he doesn''t appreciate how wonderful it is to be married to be person who is a Grand Master of Cooking!¡±said Alexandra chuckling at the sight of the group literally trying to consume the bowl itself for more content of the food. ¡°Well...it seems you guys can''t hear me right now...better cook some more before you turn on me~¡± With that, the group suffered the next day of eating too much and stay sicked for a full day. ¡°What the hell are you doing feeding to the point that they would burst?!¡± Eden whacked Alexandra''s head that day and didn''t use a spell to heal their symptoms as punishment for them as well. [p=center]xXx[/p] Approximately a week after the incident where the group collectively got sick getting too much food in game, Lyndis was in her training room mediating on what to do next. ¡°So far...I have used these skills Eden gave me and I have gotten used to them....they are more or less at Beginner Level 3 each now since I solely trained them for a week without end....¡± she muttered thinking some more. Over the last week, Lyndis more or less was swinging her sword over and over again using the skills when she had enough mana. Because of this kind of training, her sword mastery also increased by 1 to beginner level 6 as well. Using the three golems that she had in her room, she at least had some company with the others training on their own as well. ¡°Power Strike does more impact then I expect and it doesn''t feel like there''s that much impact but....¡± Lyndis looked over to the wall which were unexpectedly cracked since Lyndis accidentally hit it using her skill while thinking it would bound off like normal. It can be said that the durability of the whole building was nothing to laugh about and yet there were cracked here and there due to Lyndis losing control of her skills. ¡°The worse one to use is the Speed Strike...¡± Speed Strike increased the speed of her attacks by quite a bit. Think of it was an invisible force forcing your body to move faster all of a sudden. Unless you''re used to it and expect it, you would quickly panic that you could move so fast. It was giving a beginner driver a high powered sport car. While nearly impossible to drive at full speed at the beginning without crashing, the body would eventually get used to it in the end. ¡°At least these stance skills are easy enough to master...I just need to take a second to set them up now but....a second...I need to somehow use the skill while moving without delay as well....¡± Lyndis while being able to use the stance skills properly was troubled by the fact that she did not have enough time to actually attack if she used these stances. A whole second would pass and enemies will take this chance to attack in that time. ¡°I either have to shorten the time setting up or....going faster even with the delay....the speed stance seems to be the best bet here. Precision stance can be used for counter attacks I think if I can predict the movements of the enemy but....power stance won''t be useful unless against slow enemies...¡± Lyndis was scratching her head trying to think of a series of methods which would allow her to fight properly. Before with only fire ''spells'' to use, Lyndis would fight with only her own ''skill'' with the sword which wasn''t that much but was at least stable in her eyes. But now that she needed to use ''skills'', she suddenly found it difficult for her to fight using them at the same time. A top player could combine body movements with skills naturally as if it was a part of the body itself. It takes months of practice to combine the two without one dragging the other down with it but Lyndis didn''t want to disappoint the others. ¡°Meh, I can figure thing out when it comes to that! Now...Eden said something of making new fire skills with this Fire Manipulation skill of mine....¡± Finally she had enough of thinking of this problem. She moved onto the next thing she wanted to do in this month with three quarter of the session left. Currently she had ''Pocket Fireball'' which was a mini and weaker version of the normal fireball which could be used to set small things on fire, ''Fire Blade'' which blended her sword to deal fire damage on hit though not that much more in the end since it also seals their wounds with the heat of the blade as well and ''Life Burn'' which was a powerful skill that burnt her health in order to deal above average fire damage to the enemy. ¡°I would like something powerful and yet not that costly....¡± Lyndis was thinking of setting the enemy on fire from afar without taking damage herself. Of all the things she needed, a long range attack would be perfect even if it was weak. The first thing Lyndis thought of was that spell Eden used that combined Lightning and Fire together into a large beam. ¡°No no no, that is way out of my league...something more simple....I could use regular fireballs but they would be pretty weak compare to other mages''....ahhhhhh! Why is thinking of a new skill so hard?!¡± Lyndis unexpectedly hit a wall at the very beginning of making new fire based skills on her own. ¡°Damn I just have to set enemies afar ablaze right? Let''s do that!¡± said Lyndis just wanting to act instead of think at this point. Lyndis gathered her mana and focused on converting it into flames from far away from her body. However the mana turned into flames did not do that at all. Instead it seems that she used her ''Life Burn'' skill without knowing it. ¡°Wait, do I even know how to set thing son fire without touching them?¡± said Lyndis all of a sudden, she had ''Pocket Fireball'' but that really had a short range and little power, even less so the further it got from her. ¡°Then....first thing is make a burning skill with touch?¡± Lyndis wondered aloud. Lyndis focused her mana in one hand and wanted to make a strong blaze that only lasted a short amount of time. Any longer than that and the power would decrease too much. As such she focused and gathered her mana into flames and let it burst out of her left hand in one go. Booom! Her left hand was completely covered in fire bit it didn''t even hurt or feel that warm at all.
You have generated the skill: Burning Touch
Burning Touch Beginner Level 1 Create an intense flame over your hands or other body parts as it compresses at a single point to deal massive damage to enemies that get too close Mana Cost: 30 Cool Down: 10 Seconds
The mana cost was quite high compared to her other skills for certain but Lyndis had almost 800 mana which would allow her to use it a couple dozen times in a row if she feels. She was fortunate that it didn''t end up costing 100 mana else it would be too costly to use to begin with. ¡°Right~ Now I have a powerful close range weapon as well¡± Lyndis was quite happy with the results at least since it lowered the chance of enemies getting too close when least expected. ¡°But these details...this means I can use this on any part of my body?¡± Lyndis tested that theory with her gathering mana at her legs and said, ¡°Burning Touch¡± her feet here also set ablaze as well just like how her hand was before. ¡°Doesn''t seem to work at the legs or arms....does it only work with my hands and feet? Maybe my head as well?¡± Lyndis tried gathering mana there and activating the skill to set her head and hair on fire which is a stupid thing to do mind you in real life but this is a game so deal with it. ¡°Burning Touch!¡± In an instant, her vision was completely covered with flames and it felt like something was burning. ¡°Ow ow ow ow this is NOT how the skill should be used then!¡± shouted Lyndis quickly turning off the skill before she burnt herself to death. She quickly checked her hair and some parts were a bit black being burnt a bit. ¡°Bits of my hair was burnt....¡± Lyndis realised that the skill did not completely protect her and parts of her body that had low resistance to fire such as her hair would still burn. That was the source of the warm feeling when she used the skill to begin with. Until her fire resistance increased, her skills could in the end be the end of her. Lyndis sighed and went back to the other issue she had. ¡°I need a long range attack as well....¡± Lyndis spent the next hour thinking about it and then realised how simple it could be. ¡°Right! That could work!¡± She was quite excited since it could end up more powerful than the skill she just made in the right circumstances. Lyndis gathered mana once again but did not convert it into flames at all around or in her body. She calmly gathered it and then in one go sent it bursting in front of her while simultaneously turning it into mana at the same time as well. Booooooom! A large explosion of flames roughly 5 metres away from Lyndis occurred and quickly died out. However the idea was a success and the game responded to that.
You have generated the skill: Flame Strike
Flame Strike Beginner Level 1 Cause an area that you choose to burst into flames causing whatever inside that area to take massive amount of fire damage at the same time with condensed flames. Mana Cost: 20 Cool Down: 10 Seconds
While having the same amount of cool down, it had a lower amount of mana cost and at the same time had an almost instantaneous casting and low mana cost of mana per use! Although other fire mages could do the same with less mana or more with the same amount of mana due to their high intelligence stats, Lyndis primary was always going to be the sword first and this fire magic was a secondary thing to her. As a sub skill, it was highly powerful and most likely more powerful than her sword skills although Eden assured that they were powerful if trained as well. ¡°Yes! Let''s train these skills up as well!¡± said Lyndis motivated once again though she reminded herself in the end to remember to train her other skills as well since they were important as well. Later on she was able to increase the skill level of all of her previous fire skills by one and the two new fire skills by 3 levels in total. It was a good gain from a total of one month worth of training. Her skill window looked like this in the end of the training.
Skill Window - Sword Mastery Beginner 6 (76/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 3 (33/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 2 (19/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (4/700) - Fire Blade Beginner level 6 (73/1100) - Life Burn Beginner level 3 (80/500) - Power Strike Beginner level 3 (0/500) - Speed Strike Beginner level 3 (0/500) - Power Stance Beginner level 3 (0/500) - Speed Stance Beginner level 3 (0/500) - Precision Stance Beginner level 3 (0/500) - Burning Touch Beginner Level 4 (0/700) - Flame Strike Beginner Level 4 (0/700)
[p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Shield Parry.¡± Bang! Raven barely countered the blow and smashed his spear into the stone Golem in front of him pushing it back with raw strength as his right hand numbed due to the impact of the strike rebounding on him. ''I need to time the parry earlier since it seems at that time, the power of the attack is lowered by a bit, enough for me to push it away'' thought Raven as he ordered one of the stone Golems to attack him again. The Golem, the same height as him and having an arm that was similar to a large blade, swung it at Raven at moderate speeds. ¡°Spear Parry.¡± This time Raven moved his spear in his right hand at the arm blade that was coming at him hitting and sliding off the edge of the attack. Bang! Raven was sent flying back since the parry missed it''s mark and as a result the attack got a clean hit in on him. In order to parry properly, you need to hit the centre of the attack in order to deflect it. Having a higher strength and agility stats will help by forcing the parry though by force alone but a perfect parry is something very difficult to do since you need to time it as well. Thinking of the correct method to do this, Raven thought back to Eden''s ''Full Counter'' which completely and perfectly deflected back any attacks and allowed him to hit the moment he deflected the attack back as well. It was different from parrying but countering attacks had the same basic principle with countering going a step further than parrying by actively attacking as well. ¡°So...instead of defending using parries, I should attack instead?¡± said Raven to himself. While he was a quiet person by nature, he actually didn''t mind talking at all. It''s just that its much easier to get things done with he didn''t talk and voice his opinion. Getting up, he noticed that his health barely decreased from the blow and literally recovered in no time without him noticing at all. There were no traces of injuries by the time he got up and commanded one of the golems to attack him again. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. A different Golem with a hammer like arm this time attacked Raven with a slower attack but something much more powerful in force. ¡°Spear Parry.¡± Raven once again moved his spear in but his spear was once again deflected from the attack that seemed to be impossible to stop and was hit cleanly by it. Bang! Raven was sent flying back once again. He hit the wall this time and recovered after a minute of rest due to the effects of being in this world where things are made easy for a person to practise in. ¡°My attack is too slow....so I use Footwork maybe?¡± thought Raven aloud. Raven tested that theory going against the hammer Golem once again since that one is the slowest attacker of all of them but with the highest attack power. ¡°Footwork!¡± Raven sped up his body and went and immediately stopped in front of the Golem forcing it to attack. ¡°Spear Parry!¡± Raven moved his spear and perfectly deflected the hammer from his body and then proceeded to hit the Golem with his spiked shield at the same time. The Golem was sent flying back a metre falling on it''s back. ¡°It looks like having a faster approach gives me more time to parry? Or is there something else I''m missing?¡± wondered Raven. While his experiment was a success, he wasn''t so sure of this was the correct way to do this. He decided then to test out parrying with his other skills to see if it worked well with each other or not. While some skills were easy to connect together in a string of attacks, certain skills of the same nature would not work together at all. You were simply not capable on using two shield skills at once that forced it to do two different things. Weeks later, Raven got his result and more or less learnt how to combine some of his skills in a row in order to get a certain desired effect. Due to this, his spear mastery increased to beginner level 5 and his shield mastery increased to beginner level 6. Footwork also gained a level to beginner level 5, Repair increased to beginner level 2 due to Raven repairing all of the damaged geared the group''s training resulted in, Ram also increased by 2 levels to beginner level 4. The biggest results were the three skills Eden gave him with both parry skills increasing to beginner level 5 each while Body Reinforcement increased to Beginner level 3 due to the multiple times that Raven failed using his skill and getting hit as a result. Raven''s skill window looked like this in the end.
Skill Window - Spear Mastery Beginner Level 5 (27/100) - Shield Mastery Beginner Level 6 (55/100) - Shield Bash Beginner level 5 (31/900) - Double Strike Beginner level 4 (53/700) - Footwork Beginner level 5 (122/900) - Repair Beginner level 2 (988/1000) - Ram Beginner level 4 (20/100) - Shield Parry Beginner level 5 (111/900) - Spear Parry Beginner level 5 (98/900) - Body Reinforcement Beginner level 3 (10/500)
[p=center]xXx[/p] Shadow had only one new skill to train since Eden only gave him one skill to use to begin with. This was mainly due to the fact that the skills Shadow would need to use were several levels more difficult to learn compared to other skills. Having a low presence and yet running around the battlefield while actively attacking seemed to be a contradiction but according to what Shadow knew, there were in fact a number of people who did just that. It was a matter of directing attention away from yourself and hiding in plain sight. Something that Shadow was a natural at but not proud of. Inside Shadow''s training room, unlike the other rooms with simple designs for training skills, Shadow''s training required him to run around anywhere without failing. As such, Shadow''s room was a lot taller than everyone elses, twice was tall to be precise. There were small platforms that moved around in the air and one the walls at random directions and a button on the ceiling which would allow him to fall down slowly to the ground without risk and taking damage. This was the training room Eden designed for Shadow. ¡°Burst Speed.¡± Shadow''s body now doubled in speed for a total of 2 seconds moved quickly, to the point that he could run up walls to a certain extent and leap onto the floating platforms in the air. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow fell to the ground using gravity to speed him up and teleported with great speeds behind the golem that was designed to be fast and reactive to attacks for Shadow''s training. The slight confusion between the place Shadow should be allowed a split second delay for Shadow to attack. Bang! However Shadow was clearly not fast enough since the golem that looked like a human deflected his attack easily. ¡°Tch...how many more times do I have to do this before I can get a hit in?¡± complained Shadow. He had been doing this kind of training for a few days now with little results to show for it. The only skills that increased in level at this time were his climbing skill to beginner level 5 and the Burst Speed skill at Beginner level 3. The reasons for this was that Shadow was climbing the walls while running and using Burst speed which has a short cool down as well at the same time for a while now. On the other hand, his other skills were lacking in proficiency due to him training to run around the battlefield instead of just simply being able to attack while hiding once in a while. The thought of sprinting around the place and attacking everything in sight is something that Shadow wanted to achieve. Anna''s style of fighting left a great deal of influence on Shadow as well since even Eden has some trouble against it. ¡°Damn...this is going nowhere...¡± muttered Shadow seeing that his move was deflected like that, ¡°Does the effectiveness of backstab increase with stealth? No, my stealth skill is in the intermediate levels now so it shouldn''t affect it that much....I guess it has to do with the skill''s own proficiency that I need to train...? Plus this may be a great time to train up the ''Become Mist'' skill as well...¡± With those thoughts in line, Shadow wanted to test something out which he normally wouldn''t do at all before. ¡°Become Mist.¡± Shadow turned his body into a non physical state and gathered around the room checking if the Golems could sense him. They didn''t so he moved to the next stage while he had the chance. ¡°Backstab.¡± Shadow''s body materialised once again behind the Golem as he sank his short sword which was quite useful with his backstabbing skill as it increased the level of the skill by 2 which means that his backstabbing skill had the power of a beginner level 6 one instead of a beginner level 4. Because of this sole fact, Shadow decided to focus on using that skill more than something like ''Double Strike'' which is more useful against foes head on. Stab! The short sword went deep into the Golem with that one hit. Due to the change in weapon, his range and damage was further increased as a result. However the blade was a bit heavier than he was used to and was like swinging a hammer after using a knife for so long to him. Bang. The Golem fell to the ground and was recovering it''s health due to how it was made and due to the effects of this world they were all in. Shadow wasn''t worried at all since there were two more Golems for him to use for training though their reaction times were a level below the one he just took out. ¡°I need to be faster and react faster as well...else I''ll have to rely on the ¡°Become Mist'' skill....¡± Shadow decided then to further increase all of his skills at once besides the trap related ones. Because of this, when the time was up, all of his skills increased by one once again. And because of that, his skill window looked like this in the end.
Skill Window - Dagger Mastery Beginner 6 (55/100) - Stealth Intermediate Level 4 (86/100) - Hearing Beginner level 5 (25/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 3 (15/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 3 (89/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 1 (30/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 1 (12/100) - Backstab Beginner level 5 (399/900) - Double Strike Beginner level 5 (14/700) - Climbing Beginner Level 6 (82/100) - Become Mist Beginner level 2 (19/100) - Burst Speed Beginner level 4 (100/700)
[p=center]xXx[/p] Miriel was on her own with three golems to play with. She had just finished regenerating her mana and started to follow up on training all of her magic spells at once. ¡°Melody of Vitality!¡± chanted Miriel placing the effects of the spell on one of the Golems. ¡°Cracked Barrier¡± chanted Miriel once again placing the effects on the same Golem. Then she got the other two Golems to standby while she attacked this lone one which was buffed up. ¡°Shriek! Mana Bolt! Ice Bolt!¡± Miriel fired both these spells at the same time and hit the Golem with multiple shots at once hitting the buffed Golem. Bang Bang Bang... The Golem fell onto the ground being unable to move since it was too damaged at certain parts. Using these three spells at once drained a total of 55 mana and along with the other two spells which costed 150 mana in total, she would use just over 200 mana per cycle. Miriel had over 1500 mana in total and could do this 7 more times before running out of mana. However Melody of Sound has a long cool down while cracked barrier only had a cool down of 10 seconds while the Shriek had a cool down of 2 minutes and the only two attack spells she had did not have a cool down or the cool down was extremely short only in a matter of seconds. After using up all of her mana in one go like this, Miriel would once again use mediation to increase her mana up again even though her mana regenerates at a ridiculous 10 times the norm rate in this Vortex World. ¡°If the effects of 10 times the mana regeneration is already with much...with mediation, the effects will be even higher¡± were the words in which Miriel said to herself when she realised that this place could be used like that. The main reason why Eden had them train in this place, other than sheltering them from others since they only started this game recently and joined them as well was due to the increased mana regeneration which would allow the group to use their skills and spells over and over again quickly increasing the amount of skill proficiency they could have. It could be said that with this in place, the group''s one month of training skills in this place would be equal to 10 months if they did the same outside this place. After a week of this kind of training, Ice Bolt increased by 2 levels, and all of the other spells she used increased by 1 easily even with her taking regular breaks and not straining herself. Magic, Sound and Ice Magi Mastery also increased by 1 level at this time as well along with Magic Control Mastery which was on the verge of levelling to begin with. With a single week of training, this was the result; if she continued with this, her spells would increased to around the mid point of the beginner levels. However this was not her complete focus. ¡°I need another Ice spell...something for close range....¡± Miriel thought about her weakness in the fact that she was undoubtedly useless in close combat. ¡°A shield? No....I already have Cracked Barrier for that though it can only negate damage...so maybe something that will deal a massive amount of damage at close range for starter....with ice magic at it''s core as well...¡± Miriel thought about in between the breaks she took when her mana almost ran out and made sure to leave a bit to use for her experiments. ¡°A shotgun is one of the most lethod weapons at close range...so a scatter shot of ice?¡± Miriel gathered mana and turned it into a cluster of ice in front of her hand and fired it. Bang! It turned into a messed up Ice Bolt with little power behind it disappearing after only a bit of distance losing much of it''s size and speed almost immediately. But for what Miriel wanted, this was fine since the power and speed of the attack was already higher than a normal Ice Bolt at close range. Miriel once more over her breaks of training using her other spells gathered ice in a cluster and shot them randomly in front of her until the game recognised it as a spell to use. It was only then that the spell was completely fixed to her character and was permanent to use. ¡°Haa!¡± The blast from the new spell she was making broke off a large chunk of the Golem before it started to repair itself. Normally most damage was repaired fairly quickly even before it hit the ground bit now Miriel was looking at the insides of the Golems on the ground fixing itself rapidly. This new spell in the making already had 5 times the power of a normal Ice Bolt. Several weeks later, near the end of the training period and with her patient wearing thin, the game finally accepted the ''spell'' as a ''spell'' when the damage of the attack was 10 times higher than a normal Ice Bolt she could fire.
You have generated the spell: Ice Burst
Ice Burst Beginner Level 1 A blast of concentrated ice that deals massive amount of damage at point blank to close range. In exchange however, the spell will dramatically lose power and speed as the range increases more than that. Mana Cost: 30 Cool Down: 3 Seconds
¡°Yes!¡± Miriel had finally made the spell her own with this. Miriel tested the spell a couple of times on the Golems and the results were shocking. The Golems, creature of stone, were half blown into pieces when Miriel used this spell on them. From these tests, Miriel figured out that the reasonable range to damage was to 1 metre away from her. Something extremely close but served as a good defence measure just in case. In the end of the month, her skill window looked like this.
Skill Window - Magic Mastery Beginner 6 (18/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 2 (68/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 4 (70/100) - Ice Magic Mastery Beginner Level 3 (19/100) - Magic Control Mastery Beginner 4 (20/100) - Mediation Beginner level 6 (14/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 2 (93/100) - Identify Beginner level 1 (70/100) - Magic Bolt Beginner level 6 (132/1100) - Clairvoyance Beginner level 1 (46/100) - Melody of Sound Beginner level 6 (480/1100) - Cracked Barrier Beginner level 4 (855/1600) - Shriek Beginner level 3 (517/500) - Ice Bolt Beginner Level 5 (0/900) - Ice Burst Beginner Level 1 (5/100)
[p=cemter]xXx[/p] Similarity to Miriel, Serena continued her training in an exact method to train her spell up quickly as well. Due to the lack of motivation of rewriting something like this a second time, the month of training my Serena will be summarised to make it easy on everyone. The first week was mainly Serena training her spells. Most of them increased by 1 level. This was done by casting Heartbeat Healing for a start, then casting both Minor Health and Stamina Regeneration on a Golem as well and using Root Bind to Restrict it and finally Blood Burst to take it down in one go. By the end of the 4 weeks, her skill window looked something like this.
Skill Window - Magic Mastery Beginner 5 (775/100) - Nature Mastery Beginner 5 (88/100) - Mediation Beginner level 3 (19/100) - Mana Burst Beginner level 1 (6/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 7 (1254/1300) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 6 (1079/1100) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Blood Burst Beginner level 4 (177/700) - Root Bind Beginner level 3 (366/500) - Heartbeat Healing Beginner level 3 (55/100)
Now onto something more interesting. [p=center]xXx[/p] At the time of his own training as well, Sain was trying to increase the skill proficiency of his magic related skills mostly against the three golems at once. It was training to go against multiple foes at once. ¡°Weaken! Magic Arrow!¡± Sain took the impact of one of the Golems with his increased armour and fired 2 magic arrows at the Golem. His Magic Arrow skill level was at Beginner level 3. It seems for every two levels he gains with the skill, the number of Magic Arrows increases by 1. This is the opposite of ''Mana Bolt'' where for each level the number you can fire at once increases by 2. Anyway one of the Golems were hit while the other two advanced on Sain. Thanks to the effects of the ring Eden gave him, he was able to cast spells without it being half baked. ¡°Mana Bolt!¡± Sain fired a total of 11 Mana Bolts at one of the remaining Golems still active and used his spear to hit the other one piercing it through the eye socket which seems to be the weak spot for these Golems. After all three Golems were rendered disabled, Sain took a break. ¡°Spear Mastery needs to increase still....Mana Bolt and Magic Arrow seems to be developing fine as well with Weaken... the problem is with Minor Heal....¡± Sain looked at his health which was at 70% due to the fight with the Golems just then. ¡°Minor Heal...¡± A light shone on himself increasing his health to 75% now. Minor Health currently only healed for a total of 110 health in one go with 50 health being the base and the amount increasing by 15 health per skill level up. ¡°Damn this spell doesn''t even heal for a tenth of my health anymore...and it has a cool down of 10 seconds as well....¡± Sain was distressed since his healing powers were quickly falling behind everything else compared to before. Yes, Sain had just realised the lack of ability that a shaman will have due to their low rank skills and spells. He looked at his skill window.
Skill Window - Spear Mastery Beginner Level 4 (12/100) - Identify Beginner level 2 (20/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 3 (40/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 6 (155/1100) - Mediation Beginner level 4 (15/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 3 (4/500) - Minor Heal Beginner level 5 (150/900) - Weaken Beginner level 4 (64/700) - Bursting Will Beginner level 2 (17/100) - Wolf Summoning Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Magic Arrow Beginner level 3 (133/500)
In order to compensate against that; they are usually required to have a very high skill proficiency in all of their skills to be as or more effective then their counterparts. However such a thing was literally impossible for a level 50 and besides, by the time Sain achieves a high skill proficiency, the others will most like gain stronger and stronger skills before him. ¡°The only good thing is that my health ranks second to Raven...though Lyndis and Shadow''s health are very near my one and I have a reasonable amount of mana to play with as well...Eden did say not to use the summoning spell without him....¡± ¡°Oh, you finally decided to select your familiar?¡± asked Eden standing next to him. ¡°Ah!¡± Sain let out a small scream and quickly backed away from Eden that appeared all of a sudden without warning or consideration to him. ¡°Why are you so surprised? You do know that I am the MASTER of this place which means I can literally do anything in this place if I wanted to. Anyway hurry up and summon a wolf to make a contract with¡± ordered Eden. Sain raised his hand to stop Eden from talking and asked, ¡°Wait a second, first I want to know the details of this summoning. What will I have to do?¡± ¡°Well the summoning will get you a creature that is roughly the same level of you else something of the high potential but weak if your lucky. The next thing is to subdue it with force or make a contract with it. Simple right?¡± ¡°....Is there anything else that might be trouble to deal with?¡± asked Sain suspicious. Eden gave a shrug and said, ¡°Well when it comes to that, I will help you. Not many creatures would want to fight me to begin with.¡± Sain looked at Eden and then turned to his hands and gathered mana for the spell to work. His mana turned into a magic circle on the floor in which was similar to the one from his ''Summon Familiar'' spell. ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± As Sain called the spell name, power gushed out of the magic circle and the wolf creature in which he would have a contract with appeared. ¡°Arf.¡± There was a cute cry on the other side. ¡°Huh?¡± wondered Sain in confusion. He looked at Eden who was struggling to stop himself from laughing on the floor as if this was ridiculous. The smoke from the summoning cleared and what was in front of Sain was... ¡°A puppy?!¡± There was a black and white puppy....no....very young wolf pup in front of him. The small and cute creature immediately sensed Sain and ran and cuddled with him. ¡°....¡± Sain looked at the creature holding it up as it excitingly looked at him with pure eyes. ¡°This is the summoned wolf?¡± asked Sain before looking at Eden who all of a sudden had glasses on with a serious feeling around him. ¡°Yes...this is quite the rare creature to summon. Hmm....looks like it likes you. Keep it¡± Eden said with a thumbs up. ¡°Wa-wait! Doesn''t my summon need to be a wolf?¡± ¡°It is a wolf.¡± ¡°I means something that can battle!¡± ¡°It will...one day. For now it''s more of a cute mascot for you. The girls will love....hmm....¡± Eden took a closer look at the cute creature. ¡°Oh~ Sain you should definitely keep this one; you struck rich here.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°A rare hybrid of equally rare wolves from both sides. One side is the wolf of the white moon and the other side is the wolf of the black sun. I can only explain that the parents of this one are both extremely powerful that could give your masters a run for their money on their own. And now you have two for on with this one....well you''ll see when it grows up. First make a contract with it.¡± Sain looked at the wolf pup and asked, ¡°Will you make a contract with me?¡± With those words, the wolf pup licked Sain on his cheek and the message from the appeared for him.
You have successfully made a contract with the Hybrid Wolf Bright Luna - You will be able to summon Bright Luna with the Wolf Summoning spell from now on - Bright Luna will be become a creature that cannot die and will have it''s soul bound to you - You can break the contract with Bright Luna any time you want but be warned that Bright Luna may hunt you down later if you do - A total of 10% of your experience will be used to level Bright Luna up when summoned; this can be split to your party if they accept
¡°I made the contract¡± said Sain. ¡°Good, Bright Luna is it? This little guy will increase in size and power as it levels up. I think from level 10 it can fight along side you and will have further forms and powers later on. Anyway tell the others of this little one¡± said Eden with a smirk on his face disappearing before Sain''s eyes. Sain looked at the wolf pup that was in his arms and sighed. ¡°Arf.¡± Bright Luna looked at Sain with it''s innocent eyes that shone too bright for him. The name of this wolf pup was perfect since Sain could literally not feel any ill intent for it at all. As the child of two very powerful wolves according to Eden, this feature must have been a God sent for the parents who by then must have many enemies. Given that the month of training was almost over, Sain carried Bright Luna to the dining area where they would eat. ¡°What do young wolves eat...?¡± wondered Sain without much of a care in the air. [p=center]xXx[/p] In the Guild building where the hatch was connected to the Vortex World, a lone person walked into the building. It was a knight with shining white and red armour and a helmet which literally concealed the knight''s gender in question. No, the body type of this knight was the thing that made it impossible to tell the gender from. ¡°Are thou the Guildmaster of this place?¡± asked the knight that had a gender neutral voice. It was too high for a male but too low for a female. It could go either way. At the receptionist desk sat Alexandra bored out of her mind until now. She looked at the knight with interest and replied, ¡°More or less, though there are two more in this Guild.¡± The Knight looked a bit shocked since no matter what, Guilds had a one leader system but the knight could only expect such a thing to this Guild...Independent Guild that it came to. ¡°I can only ask thou one thing¡± the knight said to Alexandra who to the knight looked like a monster in the flesh of a human. The amount of power condensed in a single body was so high that the knight being a powerful being itself could only bear the burden of being in the presence of such a more powerful being to the point it wouldn''t be unusual for the knight''s body to be shattered into pieces of Alexandra willed it. However Alexandra ignored this fact and said, ¡°Sure why not¡± with a casual approach. Others that met the knight in it''s journey here could only be respectful to the knight due to the strength it carried and the opposite was happening here. To the knight, it was a feeling of helplessness to be compared to such a being in front of it. But this was what the Knight wanted, someone to aid it in it''s ultimate quest for a knight. ¡°I ask thee for-¡± ¡°Hmm? Who are you?¡± asked Eden cutting off the knight''s words as he came from the Vortex World just talking to Sain moments ago. ¡°Ack!¡± The knight feeling the presence of Eden immediately went on one knee and couldn''t get up from the sheer presence that Eden was creating from merely standing there. Eden looked with great interest since only beings with a certain amount of power could feel this. ¡°Ho~ To think such a powerful knight...though weaker than one of those senior brats would come here. You feeling like this from seeing me means you are quite powerful I your own rights.¡± Eden approached the knight that was suffocating in his presence and lightly tapped the knight''s shoulder removing the feeling completely. ¡°What was...¡± the knight could only mutter. Eden smiled at the knight and said, ¡°Don''t worry about it. You have a Guild request for us right?¡± The knight realising if it were with these people...no monster than it could be possible for his order''s long wish to be fulfilled. However things needed to go in order for no mistakes to be made. On the knight¡¯s shoulder was the emblem of the order that the knight belonged to. It was a phoenix crossed in twin blades of gold and silver. ¡°Yes, I ask thee to help with the slaying of a vile Demon King!¡± the knight responded with great energy now. Then to everyone in the Independent Guild, a message appeared in front of them all alerting them of a quest being requested to them.
Help the Knight from the Order of True Knights to slay the Vile Demon King One of the Knights of this order has formally requested the Independent Guild Sleeping Sheep Centre to help slay a Demon King that has captured and imprisoned the Princess of a long lost Kingdom for hundreds of years. Many centuries have passed and yet their devotion to their loyalty still continues. The Kingdom will reward greatly for helping this knight. Guild Rank Quest: B+ Restrictions: - The Knight must live at least until the quest is done - The Demon King must be slain - Must come with the Knight to battle the Demon King
A B+ ranked Guild quest appeared! It was something that would affect a large portion of the Kingdom and was difficult enough that it would require the ability of several tens of B rank or higher Independent Guilds to complete. But... ¡°Sure, why not¡± said Eden casually as well, ¡°This would be a pretty good experience for the new brats.¡±
Guildmaster Eden has accepted the Guild Quest on behalf of the Independent Guild
Eden looked at the knight that was about to explain the details of the quest to him and stopped the knight was even speaking. ¡°Oh yeah, who said that I was the one who was helping you?¡± his smiled destroyed the expectation of the knight immediately, ¡°I have another set of people I would like to present this challenge to.¡± His gaze at the hatch to the Vortex World could only means one thing.... ¡°I think this would do fine for a entrance test for those brats to become regulars in this guild.¡±
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 10400~ - Finally....finished with all these training things. And now onto a proper quest..which is totally out of the league of the group. - btw, I''m not even close to finishing chapter 5 so see you guys when it''s done. Vol.2 Chapter 5 - Guild Quest Before Sain could meet with the others, a window appeared in front of him suddenly.
Help the Knight from the Order of True Knights to slay the Vile Demon King One of the Knights of this order has formally requested the Independent Guild Sleeping Sheep Centre to help slay a Demon King that has captured and imprisoned the Princess of a long lost Kingdom for hundreds of years. Many centuries have passed and yet their devotion to their loyalty still continues. The Kingdom will reward greatly for helping this knight. Guild Rank Quest: B+ Restrictions: - The Knight must live at least until the quest is done - The Demon King must be slain - Must come with the Knight to battle the Demon King
¡°What?!¡± Sain could only stare at it in disbelief. A B+ ranked Guild quest that would require a large amount of people to gather to complete. That was the raw difficulty of doing a B+ ranked guild quest, it would be nil impossible for a small guild like this to complete it. In fact even a large guild would have difficulties completing it as well requiring the help of other Independent Guilds as well. ¡°Yes...he will probably deny it since it would be too difficult to complete¡± muttered Sain carrying Bright Luna. Surely someone like Eden would know how difficult a B ranked quest was and how much more difficult was a B ranked Guild quest not to mention a B+ ranked Guild quest. You could say that it was at least equal to a normal S ranked quest. However once again Eden, destroyed that expectation.
Guildmaster Eden has accepted the Guild Quest on behalf of the Independent Guild
¡°....¡± Sain simply sighed considering the amount of knowledge Eden had and his power. If it was him, then he may be able to complete it. He knew that Eden is one of the strongest players in the game since there wasn''t many that could fight like that to begin with, but how strong was the question. Eden was hiding quite a bit from the group including his true strength. Nevertheless, Sain walked to dining room where the others were already there discussing what Eden just done. ¡°A B+ quest! I bet it will be impressive to see!¡± said Lyndis not fully comprehending how bad this was to them. Miriel sighed and said while leaning her head on the table, ¡°A quest like that...we won''t be doing it or get near it to begin with. We''re too weak for a quest like that....¡± It seems that she was disappointed on not being a part of it. ¡°Yeah, it would be a miracle itself if the Guildmasters let us tag along as well¡± said Shadow. Raven and Serena were missing from these lot so it was most likely that they were still in their training room as well. That means Sain was the forth person here from the group. Then Lyndis and Miriel saw Sain and the wolf pup known as Bright Luna in his arms. ¡°WHAT IS THAT CUTE THING?!¡± shouted Lyndis trying to grab Bright Luna. ''I have a feeling...that this one will be cuddled to death if Lyndis gets her hands on it'' Sain immediately retreated and kicked Lyndis away without knowing it or even thinking of it to protect Bright Luna in his hands. Shadow stared at what Sain just did with wide eyes while Miriel was focusing on the wolf pup in his arms like Lyndis. However it looked like the kick wasn''t strong enough since Lyndis, bloody nosed came running back at Sain with Bright Luna in mind. Sain wasn''t able to escape due to a number of factors, the main being Lyndis was faster than him. ¡°Root Bind.¡± Bang! Then a saviour appeared with Serena restraining Lyndis onto the floor with her spell. Roots tangled up around Lyndis making her unable to move at all. It was only then that she calmed down. ¡°Sorry....I get like that sometimes....¡± muttered Lyndis red in the face while facing the floor. Serena sighed and said, ¡°Please don''t try to attack...¡± Serena then saw Bright Luna in Sain''s arms as well and immediately went to try and grab it completely focused on it. Chop! Miriel unexpectedly chopped Serena''s head snapping her out of the trance. Then she looked at Sain with a strange look in her eyes and asked, ¡°So...when did you get....¡± the charm of this creature completely tamed the girls on first sight. ¡°....¡± ''I definitely summoned a dangerous creature here....only a few seconds in and the group is already breaking apart'' thought Sain sadly. ¡°Is that your summoned wolf Sain?¡± asked Raven politely patting the head of Bright Luna causing it to lick his hand in response. ¡°It''s more like a pet puppy though...¡± said Shadow looking at Bright Luna closely. Sain let out a small laugh and replied, ¡°Yeah it does...but Eden said to immediately make a contract since it seems to be a powerful breed.¡± Sain took Bright Luna to the table and sat down waiting for the girls to completely snap out of the trance they were in. Minutes later, they still didn''t snap out of it for some reason. ¡°Let me hug it!¡± ¡°Cute creature get!¡± ¡°What a cute puppy!¡± The girls were completely in a charmed stance and the guys had no choice but to fight them in order to stop them and try to return to to sanity. ¡°What the hell happened?!¡± shouted Shadow trying to literally knock some senses to the girls. [p=center]xXx[/p] Eden entered the building with Alexandra and the knights at his side. ¡°Hey guy~ I have a-what the hell happened?¡± Eden immediately went from his carefree mood to a completely serious tone in a split second seeing the chaos that occurred in this place. First of all, the dining room, nay more of the building was wrecked. The second thing was that the girls were tied up with rope. The third thing was that the guys were the ones tying them up restricting their movements. ¡°....¡± Eden stared with dull eyes and said: ¡°Sorry for intruding¡± in a monotone voice before slamming the door shut. He turned to Alexandra and the Knight and then said, ¡°It seems that they are having a bit of difficulties here.¡± Alexandra laughed it off while the Knight was silent the entire way. For some reason, it''s mood was rapidly decreasing. Before long a shout came from inside the building. ¡°Wait! Guildmaster, help! Something is wrong with the girl-ahhhh!¡± such a scream came out from one of the guys mouth before something unspeakable happened to him and the other two. ¡°Damn...why the hell does this kind of thing happen right when...¡± muttered Eden entering the building and not letting the other two in. Alexandra simply hummed a tune while the Knight still stood there silent of the entire event happening in front of it. ¡°Was it really right to ask this place for help....?¡± the knight could not help to sigh since everything seemed to have gone out of expectation from the very beginning. [p=center]xXx[/p] Everyone was at the Guild Building at the area where discussions were made. Before that, Eden sealed the ''rare'' charm inducing power that Bright Luna had. Apparently while females being able to charm male beings wasn''t so rare, the opposite was extremely rare and not many people have immunities to it. Because of this, literally half the beings on this continent will not attack Bright Luna and will protect it instead. ¡°What an interesting creature¡± muttered Alexandra looking at Bright Luna without being affected by the charm powers. ¡°It''s name is a little to long to pronounce...so just shorten it to Luna then¡± said Eden after placing a ''minor'' seal on Luna rapping up the situation perfectly. Now back to the current situation the group...no Guild was dragged into. ¡°This is a person from the Order of Knights, a group that is very old and powerful¡± said Eden introducing the Knight in white and red with a helmet and armour that perfectly hid it''s gender. ¡°I am noth but a lowly one in the order¡± said the Knight introducing itself to the group. The Knight then started to explain the quest that it had given the guild. ¡°The order of knights have for centuries had to vanquest the vile demon lord with each time being a narrow failure. Each time the demon lord had captured a princess and trapped her in it''s castle guarded by many evils of this world. Therefore, this lowly one request that you all help me in hopes that this will be the last time.¡± ¡°Well, that''s more or less the situation. Now for the personal that''s going....¡± Eden looked at the group and the masters that were also summoned here due to the appearance of the quest. ¡°First, the new brats will be part of the group going.¡± ¡°WHAT?!¡± The group and masters both said aloud immediately with the words coming out of Eden''s mouth. The shock was certainly there. ¡°And the other that will go as well....hmm....say, is there a limit on the number of people that can go?¡± asked Eden to the knight. ¡°Not at all, the more the better since there will surely be hundreds of powerful foes to slay.¡± Eden smiled and then said, ¡°In that case me and Alexandra will go as well since this is the new brats'' first mission as part of this guild. The rest of you will protect this city while we''re gone right?¡± There was a threatening feeling coming from Eden for some reason as he said this. The masters immediately saluted in fear and replied, ¡°Yes Sir!¡± like a band of military units in the orders of the commander. ¡°Good good~¡± Eden said humorously seeing this. But Alexandra was the one surprisingly to repute Eden, ¡°Wait, is it a good idea for one of us not protecting this place? You DO know that there were reports of....¡± ¡°There''s no problem, a mere month or so won''t do anything. Plus during this time, the barrier will be a full power due to the alignment of stars. Not even a God can easily break through that before I''m called back to this place.¡± Alexandra thought about for a bit and then said, ¡°Okay then~¡± lightening up the mood from the very serious one just then. Then Alexandra looked at the knight and asked, ¡°By the way, where''s this Demon King Castle?¡± ¡°North to the mountains home to Dragons¡± the Knight replied without much care. The group gulped their saliva since they knew of that place. At the northern parts of the western continent known to be home to hundreds of rampaging Dragons that can easily wipe part of the continent off the maps. It''s only due to their pride of superior creatures that they haven''t attacked humans though they do defend their homes with great viciousness. ¡°Good, lucky Eden''s coming with us then¡± said Alexandra with a sigh. Eden made an irritated face and said, ¡°Alexandra...you DO know what happened last time right...?¡± ¡°Hmm? Let''s see....long story short the three of us had a nice fight to the death with hundreds of the Dragons at once?¡± ¡°No the reason for that event.¡± ¡°Umm....I think some prideful white Dragon proposed to you thinking you were a female and when you said that you were already married and a guy....¡± ¡°Yep....that white dragon brat is the current ruler of that place. Which means, it''ll be a pain to deal with even with I''m a supposed ally of theirs. It''s better for me NOT to go this time.¡± ¡°But if you don''t do, hundreds of Dragons will attack us you know. Even in the presence of me, most of them believe themselves to be stronger than me even if I show them my power.¡± The knight cut in here, ¡°Passing through the rampage of one hundred dragons is a part of the trial the knights must take to reach the Demon King''s castle. It would save a number of energy if someone could prevent such a large waste of stamina before the Legion of Darkness.¡± ¡°Legion of Darkness?¡± asked Alexandra. ¡°Yes...¡± the knight started to explain it in more detail, ¡°There is a Legion of Darkness defending the outer area of the castle while a Legion of Light defends the inner area. The fact that both sides of opposite points are under the Demon King confirms it''s massive power. Not many beings can do that even if you include Gods.¡± Both Alexandra and Eden sighed at the same time hearing this. ¡°That just means the Demon King has a very rare dual affinity with both light and darkness¡± said Eden calmly. ¡°Yep...how many Gods can you find with a dual affinity like that? However having such a dual affinity has risks on its own you know. You can''t actually combine those two elements at once in battle; if you can then your a monster on Eden''s level. I mean this wife of mine is pretty much one of the few beings that can manage to combine the two; a true monster in human skin¡± said Alexandra with distress trying to frighten the group for fun. WHACK! ¡°How many times do I have to tell you that I''m suppose to be the husband, not the wife?¡± scolded Eden to Alexandra. Everyone in the room more or less thought that the main problem wasn''t that statement but the one after it. Thought it seems like Eden didn''t mind either way so there was no chance of a rampage happening right now. Several minutes later of nothing productive going on.... ¡°Okay then! Me and Alexandra will go with the new brats along to complete this quest from the order of knights; Dismiss!¡± The masters more or less disappeared completely while the group had to stay with two guildmasters and a knight. ''Why does it seem that several minutes were wasted in the middle of this meeting and it could be completed in a matter of second...?'' The group could not help but to collectively sigh at the sheer amount of randomness that this guild that they joined had. Being productive itself was something that now came to a surprise to the group which originally had many things planned out. A number of those plans were immediately destroyed by them joining an Independent Guild though.... [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Guildmaster.....please explain to me why you just didn''t teleport us to that Demon King Castle?¡± asked Miriel holding a large backpack on her back like the others. The group plus Eden, Alexandra and the Knight were walking north from the city to the mountains where Dragons lived and to the Demon King Castle from there. Frankly this entire trip will last for at least 3 months of actual travelling and more time added from all the battles that may happen. ¡°Simply because that if I do, then you guys won''t be able to feel the tension of this quest. Plus it''ll do some good for you to fight some monsters that may attack us along the way¡± replied Eden not wearing anything on his back. Out of everyone, only the group of six had these large backpacks filled with supplies. ¡°But since you three are so strong, doesn''t that mean only really strong monsters will come to fight us on the road?¡± asked Sain steadying his breathing so he won''t be exhausted from the heavy load in the long run. ¡°Ah, I have a skill that basically makes it appear that we are a lot weaker than we are....in fact the skill basically makes it so it seems that there''s only you lot travelling. So...I believe monsters will come out to fight which are at least on your level.¡± ¡°....¡± The group said nothing at all since it was the decision of one of the guildmasters of the guild. Eden literally had the authority to torture them in whatever way he wanted under the pretence of training. However the fact remains that the group''s growth was extremely high when these events happened. Although they were not even level 60 yet, their stats were at level 70 or perhaps even on the same level as a level 80 player. Because of this, the group could perhaps like Eden said before, be able to take down a strong level 100 foe like the Zolerd from 2 months ago. ¡°Anyway while we have the time...Alexandra and the Knight are scouting ahead taking care of the really strong monsters that you don''t want to meet right now, why don''t I explain how Independent Guilds work and how they differ from normal guilds.¡± ¡°....¡± The group nodded since the topic of Independent Guilds were something that they did not study and also something that only a small percentage, at most 0.05% of players related to. That was around 500 million players; a large number of players itself but drowned out compared to the 10 billion that were in the game at any time. ¡°First of all, there are very little differences with Independent Guilds and normal Guilds. A Guild is basically a collection of players and NPCs which numbered enough to be called that. Normal Guilds collect money, buys locations as bases and eventually try to expand their influences for their own gain. The most famous case of a normal Guild is the once Hermes Guild that almost conquered the continent with force alone. Of course by doing so, NPCs and players alike won''t like it and eventually they were defeated with a combine force giving way to the current Kingdom...or Empire if you like.¡± Eden took out a badge which had a Dragon wrapped around the sun with stars falling around it. ¡°This badge is basically proof of me being a Guildmaster of an Independent Guild. The main difference that Independent Guilds have is that we are directly in service to the Kingdom itself. You can call us the government employees of Royal Road, we have even get a salary from the Kingdom itself.¡± Eden placed the badge back into his inventory. ¡°In exchange for this, we are not allowed to directly own buildings and locations that are associated with the Guild. Personal owned things are allowed though since there are people who leave Independent Guilds for others. Another thing is that our influence as a Guild also reflects back to the Kingdom management as well which means every success goes back to the Kingdom''s influence and every failure as well. Because of this, Guild ranking exist to filter out Guilds that will definitely fail a quest which in turn make things bad for the Kingdom. Basically the ranks goes from F to A with higher ranked Guilds getting more benefits from the Kingdom like a bigger base, more supplies and request for troops will be forwarded more likely.¡± Eden paused for a bit to collect his thoughts. ¡°Every Independent Guild starts from rank F in which you can only do C ranked Guild Quests. Guild Quests are another thing that came with Independent Guilds. These quests were designed for while Independent Guilds to work for. A C ranked Guild quest is basically the equivalent of a B ranked quest normally. Think of one of the early quests that Weed, the current Emperor did which was to eliminate the True Blood Vampires from Morata and Collect the Crown of Freya that was stolen by them. That was a B ranked quest and would be considered a C ranked Guild Quest if it gets forwarded to the Kingdom to be taken care of. A B ranked Guild Quest would be considered an A ranked quest and an A ranked Guild Quest would be considered a S ranked Quest. Basically the level of difficulties between these ranks that much larger than normal quests and because of that, it is important to have a lot of members working on a single Guild quest.¡± ¡°However because of that, the rewards from these Guild quests are so much more rewarding. Not only do you gain a large amount of experience, you also get a large amount of gold or a rare item from the Kingdom as well as Fame and Contribution points to the Kingdom itself. But if you fail, and many people fail doing these quests; then fame and contribution points both drop dramatically. If you fail a C ranked Guild quest than you will lose on average 500-1000 fame while the higher the guild quest rank, the worse these effects get. Besides that, there are also what you call plus quests like this one. Basically when a quest has this sign on it, you would need an average of 10 times more guilds to complete it due to the difficulties and the quest yet does not go up another rank due to lack of impact on the continent if failed.¡± ¡°Now back to actual ranks that an Independent Guild can have. Basically from rank F to A you need to complete 10 Guild quests of a certain level to rank up. A rank F guild needs to do 10 C ranked Guild quest or 1 C+ ranked Guild quest in order to get to E rank. The same is with E rank but you need to complete at least 1 B ranked guild quest to rank up to D rank. D and C rank are the same as before but it focuses on B rank guild quests instead. Another thing to know is a B rank guild quest is equal to 5 or so C rank quests so you can actually do 50 C rank guild quests and still rank up that way as long as you do at least 1 B rank guild quests. The same things happens with B and A rank with A rank Guild quests. Also, 1 A rank guild quest is more or less equal to 10 B rank guild quests as well so you need do 500 C rank guild quests to rank up to A along with the required quests. There is also S rank as well but you need to complete 10 S ranked guild quest or 1 S+ guild quest to get there.¡± ¡°Finally there are also another type of ranking an Independent Guild goes through. Namely ranks between other Independent Guilds. Basically, there are a few thousand Independent Guilds due to the high difficulties and Kingdom restrictions on making one. Out of those Independent Guilds, most or at E or F rank. Around 10% are of C or D rank and 1% are of A or B rank. You can literally count the number of Independent Guilds that are S ranked. Generally these rankings are determined by two factors. Overall contribution and yearly contribution to the Kingdom. Each part takes half of the consideration on the ranks so retired Independent Guilds can get back into the action if they want after a while hahaha.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] At the vanguard of the group several kilometres ahead of the others.... ¡°Miss Alexandra...is it fine to leave those monsters?¡± asked the knight. ¡°Of course of course~ Who said this would be a pleasant trip?¡± ¡°....I see....let us take care of this then¡± responded the knight drawing a red and white sword that had a mechanical feel. Alexandra looked at the monster in front of them. It was a demon that was hundred metres long and 10 metres tall. A giant centipede if you will call it that with hundreds of legs...hundreds of weapons to use. Light gathered around Alexandra in a burning white flame as her ''aura''. ¡°Well time to test out this new power I got from sacrificing my divinity¡± said Alexandra drawing out a pure white blade from the white flames that surrounds her. ¡°Flames of Judgement¡± BANG! The clash between the two and the demon centipede began! [p=center]xXx[/p] After the laugh, Eden looked at the front in the distance and said with a calm smile, ¡°Monsters are coming at us....time for you lot to show the worth of your training.¡± The group a bit nervous put down their backpacks and drew their weapons for the upcoming fight. ¡°Stay calm since I won''t let you guys die if it comes to that.¡± A day passed on their trip to the Demon King Castle and their first battle since 2 months was starting out of nowhere although the group believed partly that Eden was the one who summoned it here to begin with judging by his past record....even though it was only one time. ¡°Melody of Vitality!¡± chanted Miriel starting things off.
Vitality increased by 32% for 10 minutes
Miriel started things off before the battle started with ''Melody of Sound'' which due to the effects of magic and sound mastery, is double the effects to 32% from 16% that spell originally had. The effects of the training was already showing to begin with. ¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡± chanted Serena as well giving the group a second buff.
Heal will regenerate for 6 points every second for 10 minutes
Like Miriel''s spell, ''Heartbeat Healing'' was also under the effects of Magic and Nature Mastery which at this point also doubled it''s effects to 6 health regenerated per second from 3 health per second. It can be seen that other than the actual skill proficiencies of the spells, the next most important thing would be to increase the mastery skills to an extremely high level to further boost the spells'' power multiple times passively. ¡°Gaaaaar!¡± The enemy appeared. It was a group of 3 black wolves....no they looked more like Demons to begin with. Black aura covered their bodies and their fur looked ragged and hard like scales at the same time. It could not be described as a ''living'' creature. ¡°Serena, bind them!¡± ordered Sain immediately when he saw them. ¡°Right! Root Bind!¡± replied Serena as well. Roots came from the ground in front of them and covered one of the black wolves completely stopping it in track. ¡°This can only bind them for so long and I can''t use other spells at the moment, please defeat the others before that happens!¡± shouted Serena to the group. ¡°Right!¡± ¡°Got it!¡± Both Lyndis and Raven replied to Serena and charged forward acting as the vanguard of the group taking on the black wolves head on. The black wolves were the size of the usual wolves but for some reason their power was much higher; it was no common monster to face. ¡°Footwork! Ram!¡± Raven moved ahead of Lyndis and took on the black wolf to the right slamming his shield into it and still charging froward with the wolf stuck to the shield. ¡°Haaaaaaaaa!¡± The other black wolf seeing this, turned to attack Raven from behind; it;s agility was higher than Raven''s that was just over 100 after all. However there was someone with double the agility amount in the group as well. ¡°Burst Speed.¡± Bang! Shadow kicked off the ground and headed in a straight line to the wolf that was going to attack Raven and slashed it''s back stopping it while continuing for a few more metres so he could turn around without getting attacked. ¡°Weaken! Mana Bolt!¡± chanted Sain both at once. The black wolf that was targeted, the one Shadow attacked just then got it''s strength reduced by 45% like that and 11 mana bolts flew and hit it doing minor damage completely preventing from paying attention to Raven. ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± Miriel fired he spell a split second after Sain and it hit the black wolf head on smashing part of the black wolf''s body in the process, it looked like it only gave a moderate amount of damage to the black wolf. ¡°Fire Blade! Speed Strike!¡± Lyndis seeing this chance moved in quickly and slashed through the black wolf killing it in a move.
Critical Hit!
You have gained experience
This message appeared for Lyndis as she cut through the black wolf telling her that she dealt double damage there. At that moment the black wolf that was being restrained by Serena broke free seeing it''s breathen killed. ¡°Awoooooooooo!!!¡± The black wolf cried along with the other one with Raven as well pouring out some black aura from their body. Contact with Black Aura deals damage ¡°Ahh!¡± Raven screamed a bit retreating using ''footwork'' again a few tens of metres away from the wolf he hit. Raven''s health dropped by around 5% which was a lot to the group due to the black aura. ¡°Raven, retreat. Long range attacks!¡± ordered Sain seeing the effects of the black aura on Raven. ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± ¡°Fire Strike!¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Miriel, Lyndis and Sain; the ones with long ranged attacks fired their spells and skills at the same time at the two black wolves. Naturally the attack from Miriel and Lyndis head to different wolves while Sain''s one went to both of them at the same time, more to the one that was already damaged before. Bang Bang Bang... The black wolves were damaged but it was not much compared to before. Part of the damage was negated by the black aura that wrapped around them. Both wolves moved at the same time at Lyndis and Raven respectively since they were the closest to them. To this Lyndis readied her sword as Raven to his sword. ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± Miriel casted another ice bolt at the wolf that was attacking Raven but it dodged the attack with high agility. It looked like the black aura also increased the combat abilities of the wolves as well. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Bang! Bang! Bang! Raven hit the black wolf with his shield not minding the damage he took and continued to bash it using his shield at the same time using ''Shield Bash'' over and over again to get the stun effect on it and eventually killed it.
You have gained experience
Lyndis on the other hand dodged the first strike of the black wolf on her and then used ''Precision Stance'' naturally to hit one of the legs in a quick slash that did not involve any game skills. After the black wolf hit the ground due to the hit she turned around being near it and said, ¡°Burning Touch¡± before burning it using her hand tapping on the black wolf lightly.
You have gained experience
The battle ended in around a minute or so but the group felt like it was a lot longer than that. Clap Clap Clap Eden to the side that was watching all of this smiled and said, ¡°Congratulations, you just fought against Demon Wolves that were level 80 each.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The group was quite surprised since they had trouble with a level 100 once upon a time but facing a level 80 would still be difficult no matter what. They all checked their status windows to find that their experience bar increased quite a bit. A few more battles like that and they would level up. Although stated before, fighting monsters stronger than you will let you gain more experience at once. At the group''s current level, it was not unusual for them to gain several levels in a day facing against foes that are 10 levels above them if they continuously fought them one after another. This experience gain at least doubled for foes 20 levels above them from 10 levels above them. It was quite a gain to see. ¡°Well this is only proof that my training worked to a certain extent. If only you could withstand my ''Hell Training''....then each of you would be able to one shot kill these weaklings alone.¡± ¡°....¡± It seems that Eden was still disappointed that he wasn''t able to do Hell Training one the group. Soon after Alexandra and the knight returned saying that all Demons and other monsters from this path on for a few kilometres have been wiped out. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Well that was a good stress reliever~¡± said Alexandra stretching her arms coming back to the group and Eden with the Knight. ¡°As expected from such a powerful person Miss Alexandra, to think that your power surpassed what I initially thought of¡± commented the Knight as well. ¡°....Why do I feel that several ecosystems in the area are endangered now?¡± asked Eden seeing how Alexandra is relieved after fighting. Normally it would take a hell of a dangerous fight for that to happen...say whenever she and Eden fought. ¡°Don''t worry¡± Alexandra patted Eden''s shoulder, ¡°Only a bit of land was destroyed.¡± Eden didn''t buy it. ¡°How much?¡± ¡°Around a forest amount¡± replied Alexandra immediately. Eden sighed and almost face palmed since this would go back to bite him later with all the Kingdom inquires and such. The only good thing was that Eden could lie his mouth off with the excuse of Demons being there. That was certainly shut up those who believed it while completing this quest would shut those who didn''t believe him to begin with. Results were everything no matter the world after all. Eden looked around and it was getting dark and then looked at the group which wasn''t that experienced with night travelling at all. Well Eden could only think that Shadow was the only one who could cope with it considering the training that Anna did on him. ¡°I think we should take a break now¡± echoed Alexandra who was reading his mind and concerns. The Knight also agreed with this. ¡°It''s not like the Demon King will be moving a bit further away if we set camp¡± added the Knight. With that, the first day passed and the party set to bring down the Demon King set camp. [p=center]xXx[/p] While the camp was running, Eden and the knight had some discussing to do. Naturally Alexandra and the group also listened in. ¡°So...is there a relation to the sudden Demon appearance and you?¡± ¡°Yes, the Demon King wishes to stop me from slaying thy in it''s castle.¡± ¡°I see...how many more battles like that should we expect? I do hope they don''t come each day to attack us.¡± ¡°Of course not, thy are simply scouts. Perhaps once a week, a new batch will be sent to combat us.¡± ¡°Hmm....¡± Eden scratched his cheek thinking of a number of things at once. He was mostly thinking of the measure of a pain this would be in the end in his head. A total of three months were required to reach the mountain area on foot. The attacks of Demons would only slow them a bit and the next problem would be the Dragons. Well Eden thought he could figure all of that out when it came to it. ¡°Wait....¡± muttered Eden suddenly realising it, ¡°Isn''t it usually a Demon Lord awakening not a Demon King?¡± The knight chuckled a bit as if the remark was humorous. ¡°Ay, if it was a mere Demon Lord then I would not have requested thy for help. A Demon King is much more powerful and frightening I power. It leads an army of Demons after all.¡± ¡°Meh.¡± Eden really didn''t care at all at what level this Demon King was. The only problem was that something worse would inevitably happen; namely facing a white Dragon which was considered the Royalty of Dragons. Eden sighed and then looked at the group. They weren''t even strong yet so this quest would literally be a suicide mission without him and Alexandra along. ¡°Alexandra, if I recall even though you never use it anyway; have a damage resilience buff?¡± he asked to Alexandra. ¡°Hmm? Yeah I do but it''s better to just dodge if you don''t want to die¡± she answered back. ¡°Not everyone is like you with inhuman senses you know!¡± retorted Eden, ¡°Anyway Demons are one of the stronger monsters in this world and that means the new brats will certainly die unless we babysit them. Just make it so they can survive a few hits to make our work easier.¡± ¡°Roger~¡± Alexandra seemed to have gotten what Eden wanted to do. They weren''t parent in any case that would take care of their children but rather guildmasters and had the job of raising new members up to scratch. Naturally if they died then it was their own fault to begin with. It would be a miracle if even one of them survived this quest. ¡°Anyway, I want us to pick up the pace from now on. Don''t wear those ridiculous backpacks from now on, we will more or less be sprinting unless we find a carriage along the way¡± said Eden with the other nodding their heads. This was going to be a long trip indeed. [p=center]xXx[/p] A week later, like the Knight said; more Demons appeared and this time the two didn''t exactly scout out ahead to clear them out for the sake of the group. There was a giant Demon once again leading a bunch of other Demons with it that were gradually smaller in size and power. ¡°A bull? Why a bull?¡± asked Eden questioning the taste of whoever sent this lot of a Demon here. Other than that, there were the black wolves the group faced before in much greater numbers as well as bears and trolls like creatures in the mix as well. The demon bull which was 5 times larger than a normal let out a roar that was unlike any bull. ¡°Gaaaaaaaaaar!¡± Several black things came out of it''s body and formed two great large wings on it''s back. It seems like this was the leader of this pack of demons since the other ones didn''t attack yet. ¡°Alexandra!¡± shouted Eden feeling that the Demons were about to attack. ¡°Let the light protect and shield you from eternal darkness! Shield of Light!¡± chanted Alexandra casting the spell on the group all at once. Light appeared and faintly covered the six as this message appeared in front of them at the same time.
Shield of Light is now active - Damage taken will be reduced by 80% - Strength and Agility increase by 50% - Stamina consumption will be minimum - Effects will last for 5 Hours
The sheer effects of this spell made it impossible to recognise it as anything but a first class spell of the highest level. Although there are other spells and skills that may do more than this, a spell that can be casted onto other people on mass was rare. ¡°Get ready to fight! I''ll leave the small fries to you guys!¡± shouted Eden unleashing his presence to the demons. There was a small shockwave around Eden, Alexandra and the Knight at the same time. Was such a thing common for strong people? The group didn''t know but they knew that they were no longer going to protect them from simple attacks anymore. ¡°Let''s go!¡± said Sain brimming with a will to battle. ¡°Yeah!¡± the other responded with the three at the front charging straight into the crowd of Demons. There were only around a hundred Demons to face but for the group, it was a terrifying number since they at most faced 10 enemies at once. Plus these enemies were at least stronger than them at the very least. Sain counted that there were only around 10 foes that they could actually face while all the other ones were too strong to fight even with ''Shield of Light'' casted on them. ¡°Aim for the wolves again! Magic Arrows!¡± Sain shot out three magic arrows at the wolves and drew their attention immediately. All of a sudden, ten black wolves of the demon species were attacking them now. ¡°Heartbeat Healing! Minor Health Regeneration!¡± Serena casted two healing spells one after the other; one for the entire group and the second for Raven who was about to clash head on against the black wolves.
Heal will regenerate for 6 points every second for 10 minutes
¡°Melody of Speed!¡± chanted Miriel at the same time.
Agility increased by 32% for 10 minutes
Another thing to say about buffing spells, is that the strength of buffs are usually proportional to the length that they last. Something that will last for a battle, like Melody of Sound will last longer than something that spans over several battles at once. More to the point, people would rather than long lasting spells than short lasting ones even if it sacrifices some power behind the spells. That is one of the main reasons why priests and clerics, who can use both kinds of buffing spells are so popular. You layer the weak long lasting spell onto a group and then layer another stronger spell over that as well. You more or less get great benefits thanks to this. But back to the battle at hand. Miriel wasn''t finished yet. ¡°Shriek!¡± chanted Miriel immediately to stop the charge of the wolves. Shrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriek! The black wolves that were the weakest of the enemies here were the only ones affected by Miriel''s spell and were stunned for a few seconds at most. But this was enough time for the others to attack immediately. ¡°Flame Strike! Lyndis shot at one of the wolves closest to her and then proceeded to slash that wolf down to pieces easily with her ''Fire Blade''. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± chanted Miriel placing another damage negating spell on Raven lowering the amount of damage he would take to another level. ¡°Ram.¡± Raven seeing that he would take a lot less damage went to three wolves at once hitting them all with his shield and them afterwards stabbing at them quickly with his spear before retreating. Those three wolves that were attacking Raven were then stopped by Miriel. ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± Miriel shout out three ice bolts, all of them hitting a single black wolf killing it. The other wolves more or less got their priorities set and aimed to take down Serena, Miriel and Lyndis who seemed to be the core of the group. Sain casted ''Magic Arrow'' and ''Mana Bolt'' at the same time at the wolves to at least distract them with his pitiful magic attack power. There were 8 more black wolves left after all. That means they still outnumbered the group and gradually surrounded them as well after a minute or so of fighting here and there not getting too deep into it in case they might be met with a powerful attacking that could kill them in an instant. ¡°Shadow, please distract them¡± asked Sain seeing that things were going to be bad if this kept up. Even with taking less damage, a strike that normally would kill them in one hit may still be dangerous. ¡°Right¡± responsed Shadow taking his short sword in his hand. ¡°Burst Speed.¡± Shadow kicked off the ground letting out a small after-image where he stood a moment ago. Slash Slash Slash! Shadow hit three of the wolves at once in a moment appeared on the other side of their formation to surround the group. Getting hit, those three wolves naturally went to attack Shadow which was a big mistake. ¡°Attack now!¡± shouted Sain. The formation of the wolves fell apart so they should take advantage of that. ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Blood Burst!¡± All three of them unleashed their spells at the wolves at once. Lyndis and Raven who were in close combat with multiple of them immediately retreated since they didn''t want to die at any rate. Bang Bang Bang Bang....! In an instant, several wolves....no 5 of them in total all died from the magic attacks. It was there and then that the group really felt that magic was really powerful, even Sain who had literally the lowest magic attack of the group had powerful attacks that surpassed his damage he could deal with his spear. ¡°Backstab.¡± ¡°Speed Strike!¡± ¡°Double Strike!¡± The other three not wanting to be outdone killed the other two black wolves with ease and in no time.
You have gained experience
You have levelled up
The group all levelled up more or less at the same time since the experience gain from this battle was enough for them all to jump to the next level. With this, they were all level 57 except for Serena who was level 59 now and the one with the highest level, wisdom and fame in the group. ¡°Ah, you guys are done?¡± asked Eden who was standing on a large pile of Demon Corpses that he killed. His armour was covered in black blood which was a characteristic of the Demon Race along with Alexandra and the Knight. All three of them more or less dealt with the Demons quite well in this case and were simply watching the group take down the demon wolves after they were done. ''How long....were they watching...?'' The group had that thought seeing that even the large demon bull was slain before they were able to take down 10 mere small fry demon wolves that were coloured black. ¡°It really looks like that fear of you guys dying so easily was a false alarm~¡± said Eden cheerful. He did not expect them to be able to take down those demon wolves which outnumbered and out levelled them so easily. His expectation of them at least increased a bit. [p=center]xXx[/p] At the beginning of the battle, leaving the new recruits to defend themselves, Eden and the other two charged straight into the Demon crowd to attack them. ¡°Dark Claw!¡± Eden''s hands turned dark like the demons and he slashed at them once producing 5 distinct waves of power like an energy blast at the Demons. Bang! The Demons were knocked back easily from this but were not so easily killed. There was something wrong since even with this Dark Element move, even Demons would be killed instantly by it. ¡°Holy Bolt!¡± Alexandra struck the Demon Bull with her Holy Spell but for some reason, it was not effective on it at all. The Holy Element was one of the greatest weaknesses that a Demon may have but yet... ¡°In that case!¡± Alexandra was not that overly suspicious of things and took out a so-so sword to use and slashed multiple times at the demons around her into pieces like beams of light were coming out of her hands. Demon Bears, Deers and other mutations of these variants that surrounded Alexandra were chopped into pieces without mercy. After the chopping, the three of them fell back onto each other. ¡°Dark Element stuff doesn''t work for some reason even with my power¡± said Eden. ¡°Is that strange?¡± asked the knight since Demons were normal of the dark element so it was natural for them to be strong against it. ¡°Yeah...usually something of a Demon Lord level can be completely immune to it but these guys are certainly not Demon Lords at all. Were they produced directly from the Demon King and therefore carry it''s characteristics?¡± ¡°Perhaps, Holy spells don''t seem to work but chopping them works fine as normal¡± added Alexandra. ¡°In that case....¡± Eden looked around and the Demons completely surrounded them on all sides. But they were not afraid at all since all three of them including the knight went through worst and lived through them. ¡°We just have to do this the old fashion way.¡± The three moved and attacked the Demons in three different directions at once. ¡°Lightning Strike!¡± Shouted Eden sending out a shockwave of lightning from his body into a Demon near him overcharging it to the point that it exploded into pieces. He dodged several attacks immediately like he was using short range teleportation and took out his replica Divine Sword since the original was too strong to use normally at this point. ¡°Heaven Slash!¡± Eden slashed and a bunch of Demons were killed. On the other hand, Alexandra didn''t even bother to use skills or spells and was simply using pure swordplay to completely dominate her enemies to the point that her sword that was actually a good quality one for level 400s to use broke into pieces in her hands. ¡°Damn, that was a good sword!¡± complained Alexandra kicking the Demons and throwing punches instead still taking them down rapidly. The knight too used it''s powers to deal with demons around it in it''s own way. ¡°Sword #5: Light Slasher!¡± The knight drew a sword from another dimension and slashed at the Demons spitting them into pieces. Some Demons tried to attack from behind but the knight immediately noticed and reacted in kind. ¡°Sword #15 Sword #53¡± Two more swords appeared in which the knight grabbed and cut down the demons with ease. A mere minute passed and the three more or less cleared out the demons except for the large Demon Bull that watched from afar. ¡°Another coward type commander eh?¡± said Alexandra looking at it weaponless right now. She drew her hands with light and white flames. ¡°Arrow of Judgement.¡± And the arrow of white flame flew piercing both wings that allowed it to fly in the air causing it to fall to the ground. Seeing this, Eden moved under it and simply stabbed it using his sword from beneath. ¡°You''re not allowed to die in such a loud way; you''ll disturb the new brats in their own fight¡± said Eden gently as he sent his energy into the Demon Bull literally cooking it from the inside out while it was still alive before killing it just before it could scream. ¡°Hmp!¡± Eden threw the body onto the pile of the other Demons and looked with disinterest. That was more or less what happened on the other side of things. [p=center]xXx[/p] Later that day...when it became night....once again; the party went ahead and set up camp for the night. Of course this was for the benefit of the new recruits that Eden even suggested this to begin with and also so he could get some shut eye for a little while longer. As always...Alexandra was in charge of cooking the food that they had. Two weeks into the trip and for some reason over half the food that they had brought as supplies disappeared. ¡°At this rate, we will starve to death. We better collect some food from the area soon¡± muttered Eden grabbing onto the large piece of meat that Alexandra just cooked. For some reason the meat was pure black and had black dripping from it.... ¡°Yuck! What the hell is....don''t tell me...YOU COOKED DEMON MEAT?!¡± shouted Eden in anger at Alexandra who only made a ''tee hee'' face back at him. Eden frantically looked at the group whom were about to eat and immediately snatched away the food from their hands. ¡°NEVER ever eat Demons meat okay. Trust me, you would rather die a hundred times than to taste it¡± Eden said very serious. Whack! He then hit Alexandra in the head and said in anger, ¡°Feeding them demon meat....this can''t even be considered a joke anymore.¡± His killing intent spilled out without end towards Alexandra. ¡°If you eat Demon Meat without proper strength then it will kill you...over and over again to the point that it would be the same as deleting your avatar. At this point you all have a 100% chance of losing your avatars thanks to this.¡± ¡°....¡± The group could only thank Eden for his act of saving them since it allowed them to keep their characters and not waste another few months getting back to this point once again. ¡°Honestly....please try to restrain yourself when your bored....¡± plead Eden since he can''t always keep an eye on Alexandra to protect everyone around her. ¡°Don''t worry so much, I already used detoxification on the meat so even if they ate it, it wouldn''t do anything at all¡± replied Alexandra reassuring Eden. ¡°....¡± Eden stared at Alexandra. ¡°That doesn''t change the fact that it taste horrible.¡± Alexandra smiled and said, ¡°And that is why it actually boosts the effects of the food you eat later. Quite useful for a cook to increase her abilities using this method though many people won''t even eat anything you make afterwards if you use this method so...¡± she looked away a bit embarrassed at the end. Eden went over and pulled her cheeks saying, ¡°So you decided to use me as an experiment since it was really disgusting?!¡± in an annoyed voice rather than an angry one. It seems that Eden developed a reaction to calm down quickly over the years else his temper would always be bad. He sighed and said, ¡°Next time...tell me when you do these kinds of things. That way I can at least prepare myself.¡± ¡°Okay honey~¡± replied Alexandra cheerfully. Those listening did not know whether she was happy to have a willing test subject to her Demon Cooking skills or because Eden accepted that role. [p=center]xXx[/p] Weeks and months passed with a total of 10 different battles occurring. The group gained a total of 3 levels thanks to these 10 battles and were all now over level 60. They were more or less a bit stronger than before even if their skill proficiencies did not increase that much in those 10 battles along the way which gradually got harder and harder. First it was simply the Demon Wolves that were left to them, then there were Demon Bears, Demon Ants and so on that were adding onto their plate. At the end they alone faced a total of 20 enemies at once; all of which were strong and made it out alive. However the most pressing thing was right in front of them. Mountains lined up next to get other from the left to right. ¡°This is the Dragon Crossing Mountains¡± explained Eden, ¡°A fair chunk of the Western Continent is taken up by these mountains. However not many live here since....well Dragons. It is also here that the Demon King we need to kill made his home.¡± The Knight looked at the mountains and simply went ahead without a word. The group seeing that it was their duty to go with the knight immediately followed. Eden and Alexandra on the other hand stayed near the back talking to each other without the group knowing. ¡°Hey....you seem a bit off since a while back even back to when we were still at the city¡± said Eden looking a tiny bit concern of Alexandra. ¡°What? Don''t worry about it¡± Alexandra tried to give a cheerful smile but it came up sad looking. ¡°Just tell me already. Haven''t we literally been through several Hells and back? I more or less get what you are feeling either way.¡± Alexandra let out a small laugh and replied, ¡°Then why don''t you tell me what I''m thinking?¡± taunting him. Eden without a care said, ¡°Don''t know, don''t really care. A woman''s mind you something a guy cannot understand no matter how long.¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra stared in disbelief for a while and then let out a small grin nudging Eden. ¡°Those words means nothing when you are prettier than most women in the first place.¡± Eden raised his eyebrow a bit annoyed by that statement. It was something that he would never get used to no matter how long he lived. ¡°Does that include you?¡± ¡°Of course not.¡± She let out a small ''hmp'' telling him that such a thing will never happen as long as she was alive and well. ¡°Then tell me already, I can''t read your deepest thoughts you know¡± Eden sighed since the conversation was going in circles again. The two silently walked together for a while and Alexandra let out her thoughts to him just this once in all their time together. ¡°It''s....so close to the end now¡± she finally said. Hearing this, Eden sighed in almost relief since she seems a bit more normal now. They who had no past besides of this game called Royal Road could not be anything but normal to other people. This was their home, their whole world in fact for already so long. ¡°You do know that we have a few more years....several decades more here?¡± asked Eden thinking that Alexandra forgot about this fact. ¡°Compared to what happened before in the past....what''s to come is only a small part of the whole journey.¡± ¡°Of course, a journey must have an end someday. And it happens that our...my one came a bit earlier than most....although it is long compared to the NPCs in this game.¡± Alexandra looked at Eden sadly and said, ¡°In that case me and Viv are coming with you at the end since things will go wrong without one of us to keep the others in check. We''ll always be together¡± with a smile that only Eden saw a few times before. Eden laughed it off since he was still a guy and Alexandra was a girl and such a thing would definitely embarrass him in the end. His final words till he and Alexandra caught up to the others sounded like a small prayer. ¡°It''s not like you guys had a choice you know.¡±
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9700~ - Yay...actually finished this chapter just 5 mins ago. Don''t expect a new chapter anytime soon. - This was more or less the group getting to the damn place in 3 months. Of course they could level up more in a dungeon with the same amount of time but....this is a Guild Quest so the reward will be worth it in the end. - So...they have spent 7 months in same right now at the end of this chapter. Planning this series out, I put a time limit of 5 years; 20 years in RR so the group are more or less still at the very beginning and have a lot to do....well I''m making this a long series either way. Vol.2 Chapter 6 - Dragon Crossing Mountains Dragon Crossing Mountains, A region in which there are several dozen large mountains next to each other in a row or cluster. It is a place that many races save few would want to live on. However of those races that do, they are almost exclusively flying type monsters and among those are some of the most powerful creatures on the continent. As such it got it''s name fairly easily as it is a gathering spot for Dragons and where no kingdom no matter how large would dare to attack. It was a paradise for Dragons in that their own ''Kingdom'' was formed thought seemingly primitive to others but highly competitive and prideful to the point that it was ''clean''. Yes, Dragons were extremely prideful and as such they would not dare willingly attack those who were weaker than them unless provoked or enraged. They have a set hierarchy in which the type of Dragon Species you were born in more or less determined your future power and potential. At the bottom would be the common mixed bred of numerous impure colours. At the middle would be the clean colour Dragons had hold a great amount of purity in their scales and powers. And at the top would be the pure colour Dragons. The colour of the Dragon would often determine what powers they process as well. Say a Red Dragon had dominants over flames while a deep blue dragon would the same with water. As such Dragons usually had three ranks among themselves; The low Impure Dragons, Middle Clean Dragons and High Pure Dragons. However there were also variations amongst the pure colour Dragons. Some may have multiple colours while others lacked colours. This was simply accepted since power was everything here, the strongest no matter what colour, what purity they had at the beginning did not matter in the end as long as they come up as stronger than the others. Though few, there were Dragons that were originally considered impure on birth became something of the pure colour rank at the end. To determine the ranks of the Dragons in this region, every 12 years, there is a tournament where Dragons fight each other to prove their power called the ''Dragon King Festival''. Whether it is one on one or hundreds on one; it did not matter since ''strength'' is the most important thing. The Dragon that stood on top no matter what was deemed to be called a ''Dragon King'' ruler over Dragons. Naturally with this kind of system, you would think that there would be many many Dragon Kings. But the fact remain that usually you would need to kill the previous Dragon King to gain that title in a one on one match. Because of this, there were often fewer Dragon Kings in the very long history of these Mountains. The Red Dragon King of Destruction, The Blue Dragon King of the Sea, The Golden Dragon King of Treasures, The Rainbow Dragon King of Illusions and The Transparent Dragon King of Hollow were the only Dragon Kings to be born in these Mountains for a very long time. Most of them already died to begin with. However recently...there was a Dragon King Festival that gave birth to two Dragon Kings at once. The White Dragon King of Purity and The Black Chaos Dragon King of Golden Despair. One of them currently ruled these Mountains while the other just returned.... [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Knight, how deep is the Demon King castle?¡± asked Eden. He did not want to go too deep in this place since bad things will happen if he did. ¡°We need to pass three mountains to get to it¡± replied the Knight. Eden sighed in relief and said, ¡°Good....thank God that Demon King didn''t plant his castle deeper than that.¡± ¡°Yep! That Demon King would be ripped into pieces if he lived too close to the Dragon Nest~¡± commented Alexandra. ¡°Dragon Nest?¡± asked Sain not knowing what this term meant here. ¡°The place that Dragons have all their babies and such~ Never go there unless you want to be used as food~¡± explained Alexandra in a light hearted tune. Eden added in, ¡°She''s not kidding you know...it was a real pain to save her without harming any of the baby Dragons...that would have definitely made things difficult if I managed to screw up.¡± ¡°Hahaha didn''t think that Dragons used paralyse to feed live food their young.¡± ¡°It''s not Dragons but THAT particular one that you had to screw up on. Honestly your luck was horrible that day¡± Eden sighed thinking about it. ¡°Yeah....it was like our luck levels were reversed since you had good luck on that day....¡± Alexandra shrugged thinking about it as well. ¡°Anyway, I''ll leave the protection of the new brats to you Alexandra. Just make sure they''re not carried off as food like you¡± said Eden. ¡°Yes yes~¡± The conversation was pretty much one that none of the group could interfere with since they didn''t want to be rude them those two at least. If it was one of their masters, Miriel or Shadow would already commented on something in the middle of them speaking, but with these two; it was like everything revolved around them no matter what. ¡°Umm....what are you two talking about?¡± asked Serena since it seems it would affect what would happen next and Serena was polite to begin with and reminded those two of Viv so it was fine. ¡°Ah, just discussing what will happen after I''m dragged into an everlasting battle pretty soon¡± said Eden rubbing Serena''s head like she was a child. Actually Serena was a teenager barely 13 and to Eden and Alexandra, every last one of the group were children and they were treated as such. Because of this they were slightly kinder to them since they were really old by any standard. ¡°So you won''t come with us to the Demon King Castle?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Unfortunately not, I have a date with someone else¡± replied Eden with a smile. Alexandra snicker and added in, ¡°And all of them are males as well.¡± Whack! Eden hit Alexandra on the head again though she dodged the first three swings until the fourth one hit her squarely on the head. Even with such a simple interaction between these two, it was at a high level battle already! ¡°Is this because of the Dragons that are living there?¡± asked Sain understanding part of the reason why Eden has to leave. It would be a disaster if everyone was attacked by Dragons at once. ¡°More or less...though it''s more of a personal vengeance kind of thing¡± replied Eden once again in a light toned voice. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!¡± That sound echoed throughout the mountains and even reached the group here that was on the edge of the Dragon Crossing Mountains. It was simply how powerful that roar was. In a large radius near the mountains; numerous monsters have already escaped due to fear of the owner of the roar Eden looked to the north where the roar came from with a ''tch'' saying, ¡°Damn looks like my welcoming party is already here.¡± From the edge of the mountain came tens of large Dragons being lead by a pure white one that was only a mere 10 metres large Dragon. Eden sighed once again and said, ¡°Flight Magic!¡± producing 6 golden wings on his back and disappeared to the skies to the Dragons without fear. ¡°....¡± The group and the knight stared in disbelief that Eden would just face them head on without considering to escape. Dragons were all extremely strong to the point that even if an entire guild fought one, it was more likely that they would die instead. ¡°Okay~ Let''s all go to the Demon King Castle then¡± said Alexandra not even concern of Eden. ¡°Wait¡± Someone grabbed Alexandra to stop her. It was the knight who at this point was fearing for Eden''s life, ¡°Aren''t thou going to help Eden?¡± the knight asked. ¡°He can take care of himself¡± replied Alexandra no longer smiling. ¡°But against a flock of Dragons that can rip an Kingdom apart with ease!¡± retorted the knight. The Knight believed Eden to be much more powerful than it but not powerful enough that he could face an army of Dragons trying to rip him apart. It was simply something that humans cannot face. But the Knight didn''t know that none of the Guildmasters of this Guild was anything normal nor human kind a long time ago. Their strength was simply too high for the Knight to measure. An ant cannot measure the power behind a Elephant''s power. But as someone who knew the level of power Eden had, Alexandra knew perfectly that something of this level cannot simply threaten him anymore. ¡°Like I said, he can take care of it¡± replied Alexandra getting a bit angry now. The ground shook a bit and it was like a giant pressure was crushing down on them. The Knight immediately shut up with those words and didn''t press the issue anymore. Bang.....Bang.....Bang.... The whole group and those two could hear the fighting from afar even though it was likely that the battle was taking part very far away. ¡°Humans....¡± ¡°Humans are here....¡± ¡°The Cursed Knight appeared!¡± Without them knowing that much, a black fog surrounded the whole group of 8 as they were a bit distracted with the issues of Dragons raining down on them. From the black fog came to what seems to be a legion of demons. Most of them were shapeless due to the black fog that even covered the skies in these mountains but most of them were at least sort of humanoid while others were beast shaped. None of them were in the shape of a Dragon naturally since Dragons don''t like others copying their form and will seek to destroy them. ¡°Anyway....you said that you knew of the location of the castle right? Lead on and I''ll take care of the big ones. The rest of you will group closely and try not to die. Shield of Light won''t do much for a one shot kill from these guys that are mostly level 300s at this point¡± said Alexandra taking like a guildmaster for once since Eden was gone. It was a funny thing how the trio determined who was in charge. Whenever another person is related to an issue, they were the one who was in charge so the others could slack off casually. Because of this, Alexandra could toy with Eden as much as she wanted until now since she''s in charge of protecting the new recruits from extremely strong monsters that can easily one shot them even with the best buffs. ¡°Kill them!¡± ¡°Slaughter every last one of them!¡± ¡°Consume their flesh!¡± The Demons materialising from the black fog gathered enough numbers, around 300 to attack the group at once. But then Alexandra immediately stopped them before the Knight could start attacking. ¡°Light Barrier of Extreme Blight!¡± she chanted raising her arm up in the air. Light shot out of her hand and split from a point into a barrier made of countless lights in a semi-sphere shape. ¡°Ahhh! This Barrier is made of Holy Energy!¡± one Demon cried out touching the barrier with it''s large hand, losing that arm in the same instance. Seeing that one of them lost an army that easily from a barrier, a defensive spell; the Demons backed away waiting since such a powerful barrier must have a low limit of use. ¡°Open up you bitch!¡± ¡°Let me rip you apart!¡± Ignoring the Demons that were now swearing and cursing at her, Alexandra turned to the group and said, ¡°Right, this barrier should last for a few days if I don''t deactivate it.¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone and everything that hear those words were speechless. Miriel''s cracked barrier was a low to mid tier barrier spell already and it could only last for a few hits due to it''s high power. Barriers in the high and legendary rank could at most last for a few hours....but for this one with such a high output to last days?! The group could not believe it. ¡°Guildmaster....¡± muttered Miriel wanting to ask if she was telling a joke. ¡°Call me Alexandra. Guildmaster this and that is too formal. I don''t know why Eden wanted you guys to call him that since he hates the formal stuff as well.¡± ¡°Right¡± nodded Miriel , ¡°Can I ask at what level is this barrier and how it works?¡± Alexandra thought about a bit and said, ¡°I think it was a low rank spell originally that could only send out a beam of light that deals a bit of knock back damage but....I modified it so there are now thousands of beams and called it sort of a barrier spell since it''s like one. Oh and it costs around a dozen high level spells per each while.¡± ¡°....¡± Once again the group was reminded on how powerful each of the other members of the guild were especially the Guildmasters which were several levels higher in a ridiculous scale. Next was Shadow to question Alexandra, ¡°Alexandra....can I ask how we are going to move forward? There are even more Demons now and probably number to around 500 by now.¡± Shadow looked at the mist of black fog in which Demons were gathering quickly at. ¡°Naturally, I''m going to deactivate the barrier so we can go forward while cutting down everything in sight¡± she replied. The knight cut in there, ¡°Might I add that Demons are not being created by the black fog but are being transported by it. If the time comes can thy enemy numbers are too much, just need to find an area with no vile Demons.¡± The Knight looked as if it was itching to kill some demons but held back since it would do no good if the guild that it requested to lose some members. The whole reason why the knight came to them was because it had went through this path many times and was repelled each time. Because of this, it needed the help of either Alexandra or Eden to break through to the Demon King. ¡°Okay~ Let''s get everything sorted out now. I''m going to cast ''Shield of Light'' on you all....well the limit on this spell is six people either way and they have to be under level 100 so I usually never use this spell...¡± Yes, ''Shield of Light'' would be considered one of those cheat abilities that everyone would want to have. However because of this, the spell had high mana cost, a person limit and a level limit on who this spell could be casted on. Imagine if a level 500 could be blessed with this spell; you would be able to slay a Dragon single handedly with it. Because of this, only those who want to help low levelled players would want this spell plus you need to do several difficult tasks to get it so most people don''t even know of this spell. ¡°Another thing is that 99% of the enemies will be taken out by me and Knight-san over there~¡± said Alexandra in a teasing voice. ¡°Please don''t add such things to my title¡± commented the Knight. ¡°Right right, the second thing is that you guys don''t need to attack those Demons but rather just survive while we get the Demons off your back¡± Alexandra explained it quite clearly that they needn''t to attack the Demons that now literally numbered over 1000 now. ¡°Umm....why do we need to do this if you are capable on using barrier like spells quickly?¡± asked Miriel confused on this fact. ¡°Ah, that''s because I''m not an unlimited mana generator like Eden¡± said Alexandra, ¡°Also I can''t really let you guys have a safe trip.¡± ¡°....¡± A few minutes later the group would go through something that made their ''Super Relaxing Easy Training'' seem easy...and it was easy in this narrator''s honest opinion. [p=center]xXx[/p] Elsewhere....with Eden when he flew off from the others. ¡°Just a few more seconds.....¡± Bang! Eden stopped in mid air in front of this horde of Dragons of various sizes and colours. Most of them were of the pure colour rank of Dragons. However leading them was a Dragon King rank creature that coloured pure white. That one looked particularly pissed. [Die!] That voice was projected in Eden''s head as the white Dragon charged straight at him head butting him. Bang! Eden in that moment grabbed the white dragon''s head and pushed forward to cancel the force behind the head butt. Eden''s six golden wings grew larger to increase the force that we behind him. In that end Eden was pushed back in the air several tens of metres. With the force pushing him back cancelled out, Eden did a flip and kicked the white dragon away. Bang! The white dragon gathered it''s balance immediately and moved away in the air in front of the other dragons that dared not to do anything right now at any rate. Two Dragon Kings fighting each other was out of their leagues. One was their leader The White Dragon King of Purity which ruled over them boasting of the purity of it''s colour and power in exchange for it''s small size for a dragon (Not that any Dragon would dare mention it to it) while the other was a respected (feared) addition to their numbers from a humanoid race by an Elder Dragon; The Black Chaos Dragon King of Golden Despair. ¡°Honestly do you really need to attack me after so long White?¡± asked Eden cleaning his hands on his pants. [YOU DARE COME BACK TO MY TERRORITY!] Eden tried to block the noise out of instincts but since it was projected in his mind, he couldn''t do anything about it. ¡°Hey turn into your humanoid form; that way you can talk without shouting things in my mind!¡± Eden''s words were filled with aura energy at the end of it like a shout with a whole bunch of shockwaves with it. {DIE!] Lightning gathered in a ball in the white dragon''s mouth as it fired it at Eden. While small, it processed one of the most powerful attacks in the game itself being one the same level as a Dragon Breath but compressed heavily. Eden moved quickly to dodge around it. The lightning ball attack hit the mountain behind it and made a moderate size hole in it though not exploding it into pieces. However it completely went through the mountain and made a clear hole through it. ¡°I really rather not get hit by that....¡± muttered Eden seeing the great long hole that was created just then. Eden looked at the white dragon with a why smile saying, ¡°Hey don''t you remember what happened during that Dragon King festival?¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] A long time ago...when Eden wasn''t as strong as he was now.....when he was merely at level 673. ¡°Oh~ What a sight with so many dragons around~¡± said Eden looking at perhaps hundreds of different dragons each with their own characteristics flying around or crawling on the ground. Some of them were even swimming in the seas. There were almost no other creatures besides dragons here since it was that time of year again with most of the dragons around the continent gathering in a single place for a single purpose. The birth of a new Dragon King. Namely, you must prove to the other dragons, hundreds of strong dragons that you were much stronger than all of them. Eden remembered fighting a Dragon King before and he literally had his ass handed to them. That was many years ago and Eden could probably put up a better fight now. The place Eden was at was on a mountain near the seas to the north. Because it was a place where the tall mountains, long plains and endless seas met, it was used as a common meeting point for this event. The Dragon King festival. A competition between Dragons. Naturally the Dragon population would lower quite a bit due to this event but immediately after this was mating season for Dragons....which Eden did not want to be around any time soon. Despite the numerous dragons around, some that were....strange, Eden was an even bigger abnormally to these Dragons. The fact was the Eden was not born into the Dragon race but was changed due to the power of an Elder Dragon. Because of this, the other Dragons avoided him due to their pride. Plus to them, it felt like Eden was quite weak so they didn''t even bother with them. Another thing that caused them to avoid Eden who couldn''t care less was that he was in a humanoid form right now. Some Dragons capable of transformation could do this but often don''t due to pride. Why would they, the respected and feared dragon race fall to take on another lower form? However much to his surprise there was actually another humanoid dragon here as well. It was a ''young boy'' that looked no more than 15 with a short and slender type build and was mostly white with some scales on his arms and face here and there that were a slightly lighter colour than his already light skin colour. ¡°Hey~¡± Eden called out to this boy since he was bored and had nothing else to do. Besides Eden took a small interest in this one since the other dragons were naturally avoiding him as well. The young boy looked at Eden with surprised eyes. [Who are you?] Those words came into his head as if the young boy was speaking to him. Eden remembered his feeling due to llyfr but that was not the point right now. ¡°Hmm? This is....¡± muttered Eden looking around. At the time he did not suspect that the young boy was capable of talking using his mind. [Who are you?] Those words came into Eden''s mind again. It was only then that he realised that it was this young boy that was talking using his mind. His mouth didn''t move at all so Eden couldn''t actually tell who was ''speaking'' to him. ¡°Oh I''m Eden nice to meet you.¡± Eden decided to go with the polite route since being like Alexandra will get him nowhere. Plus if he was rude then he could draw attention to himself to these powerful dragons around him. [I...I...I am....] Those words appeared in his head once again. Eden immediately realised that this young boy did not have a name at all. ¡°No name eh? In that case might as well call you ''White'' since you look like one...at least to me that is¡± Eden smirked and casually gave out that name that really wasn''t a name but rather a characteristic. [I am...''White''?] ¡°Yep, well you choose whatever name you want later though. This is just a place holder until then.¡± Eden lied down next to White and started casually talking since he didn''t have anything else to do. The Dragon Festival would take place the next day and this was the time where many Dragons would come in order not to waste too much time. As such these mountains were more cramped with Dragons than normal even in the Dragon Festival. ¡°Anyway are you competing as well?¡± asked Eden. [Yes...] ¡°Hmm....¡± Eden analysed White carefully and didn''t feel the same overwhelming presence of the other Dragons in him....or could White be a girl? No....Dragons usually change shape rarely but take on a proper gender form so White is a guy and looked the part as well. ¡°Since you seem like you know more than me, can you explain the rules of this festival? Also want to know what happened usually as well.¡± [Yes....it is a prideful dance where each attack another to show dominants. Dragon ranks will be determined through this from the lowest impure to the highest pure and even though rare a Dragon King to be born....] ¡°I see.¡± [Usually each tribe group together to attack others. Rarely does a single lone dragon face a tribe of them. There are around 6 or 7 tribes of Dragons are group together for the festival. However most Dragons go alone though they usually group up near the beginning to avoid death from the tribes] ¡°How many Dragons in a tribe?¡± [Around 30 or so each] ¡°Damn that''s a lot....¡± muttered thinking about it. One Dragon was a hassle to take care of even now but 30 or more was almost impossible to deal with at once. However he did not know the general strength of each Dragon; all he had to go on was the fact that he faced a few Dragons in the past including a certain Dragon King as well. ¡°Hmm....¡± Eden thought about it a bit more and then concluded what could be the best plan to get through this in one piece. ¡°Say White, want to group together?¡± [Eh?] White was shocked since doing such a thing so suddenly was unheard of. Only those who have known the other for a long time would even considering doing that. Of course this was also due to pride as well. ¡°You don''t want to? I won''t force you if you don''t though....¡± Eden looked a bit sadden to which White misunderstood. Eden was sadden that he might not have a information source in this Dragon Festival. White thought Eden was sadden on not joining with him in this Dragon Festival. Though the misunderstanding was slight, it would soon cause a giant misunderstanding later on. [p=center]xXx[/p] [May this Dragon Festival give our race prosperity!] That voice echoed in the minds of every last being in the mountain region without exceptions. It was the beginning of the Dragon Festival. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOAR!¡± ¡°GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!¡± ¡°RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROAR!¡± Possibly thousands of Dragons roared out at the same time. However there were two particular beings that did not take place with this. These two were Eden and his new comrade for the festival White. Eden looked at the sight and sighed since it was possible that he might need to face all of them at once. ¡°Well then, should we wait until things die down or charge straight into hell?¡± asked Eden in a sarcastic tone. Next to him in the air was a small white Dragon that was no more than 10 metres large. It was quite small compared to the other Dragons that on average at least triple his size. [It doesn''t matter...the tribes will attack each other while the rest will duel one one one though there are some that may gang up on a single powerful one or one may face many others at will] White was unlike other dragons in the case that this was his full form. He was from a small breed of dragons that focused on pure power and speed. But without much stamina and defence they were in actually weaker than other Dragons if you can draw out the fight. But before the two could decide anything, two dragons that were both double the size of White here appeared challenging them immediately. ¡°Prepare to die for the dragon festival!¡± ¡°Small fry should get lost!¡± Both of them were quite arrogant even though they were classified as the lowest impure rank amongst dragons. They considered White who was born a pure rank but only had the strength of an impure rank lower than them. What use is talent and linage if you are not strong. Eden looked at them and evaluated their strength instantly saying. ¡°Only at the level 400 range eh...quite weaker than I expected. Remind me White, is there any benefits on keeping them alive?¡± This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. [Not at all. If you die then it''s your fault. Naturally you don''t finish off the injured since that is dishonourable but it''s fine if you kill them in one shot if their in good conditions. It''s their fault for facing someone that much stronger than them in the first place] ¡°Okay then~¡± Eden was quite amused since now he won''t suffer if he killed to many though he wasn''t allowed to attack the injured. ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Die small fry!¡± The two Dragons that were coloured a dull mix of bronze attacked with their Dragon Breaths at the same time. Most dragons could use dragon breath and it was a form of their characteristics. It was also their pride and joy as well; the larger it was the stronger. These two Dragons were strong enough to immediately cover the area Eden and White was. ¡°Mana Shield.¡± However Eden to his surprise blocked it quite easily. With a confused face he only confirmed that these two Dragons were indeed small fry. ¡°Sigh....this is a bit disappointing¡± muttered Eden while the two Dragons were shocked that their attacks were blocked so easily. ¡°Disappear, Lightning Spear!¡± Eden form two Lightning Spears that were much larger than him and impaled it quickly at the heart of the two Dragons while moving too quickly for them to react. You have killed two Impure Ranked Dragons [¡­.] White shook there in the air in shock. Eden was way too powerful taking out two Dragons at once. Dragons were known for their extremely high stats which only grew higher the stronger they were but the most apparent characteristics a dragon had were a strong life force and defence against all physical and magical attacks. This was the main reasons why Dragons were so difficult to hunt. And Eden just killed them like that even though two level 400 dragons were about a match for a bone dragon. [What exactly are you Eden?] That question popped up in my head. ¡°Well....I suppose a human turned into something then a Dragon and then Dragon mixed with something else....not really sure anymore¡± Eden scratched his cheeked embarrassingly. He really did not know what he was now. His body changed so much compared to when he was a mere human race character that he didn''t bother to check anymore. Bang Bang Bang! Eden listened in and heard lots and lots of battles around him. If he were Alexandra, he would be very excited and would run in and attack everything in sight. But Eden preferred not to fight since things would end of troublesome later on. ¡°Let''s avoid attracting too much attention right now. I rather not fight with an inch of my life anymore. You know your way around these places right? Lead us somewhere with not too much fighting around.¡± [R-right!] After that, for several days the two fought only a bit with Eden doing most of the work between the two and he was still using his humanoid form and was not using a speck of Dragon power at all. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°You dare challenge us?! The Imperial Red Dragons?!¡± one overly large Dragon shouted at Eden and White at the same time backed up by over 40 other red dragons at the same time. ¡°I never intended to challenge you lot but seeing that you want to....Dragonic Release!¡± This was the first time Eden used this skill in these mountains and the dragon festival. A force that was the power of a dragon was unleashed from Eden''s body. The markings on his body glowed and the tip of his hair turned silver. The most prominent thing however was that his eyes glowed a golden red colour. 20 or so of the red dragons backed off a bit through instincts even though they outnumbered their enemies greatly. These were the weaker ones that were only of around the level 500 range. The rest were above level 600 and the leader was at level 800 at least did not even phase at this sight. ¡°Hmp! So you can use a bit of power. Perish with that brat!¡± The leader red dragon gathered power and shot out a burning red dragon breath at the two. ¡°Dragon Transformation!¡± Eden shouted turning his arms with pure black scales marked with golden light. BANG! Eden hit the Dragon breath head on and it exploded on him but soon enough Eden appeared only a bit injured. ¡°Damn didn''t have enough time to defend properly....well then this is quite the situation we have here White hahaha¡± [This is not a laughing matter. We have just challenged one of the tribes and the Red Dragon Tribe as well! They won''t stop until they kill us all!] White was quite frightened since he knew the power of a tribe of Dragons since he was all alone. ¡°It''s no problem since half of them are pretty weak while the others only have a moderate amount of strength...also this time I need your help making sure they don''t gang up on me¡± Eden had a serious tone but White didn''t know what he was going to do. ¡°I really have no choice but to go all out once again.¡± Eden leaned back and stretched his body. The prideful Red Dragons didn''t attacking seeing that Eden said he could go stronger than before. They wanted to face and crush his pride into pieces. ¡°Well then....Dragonic Overload!¡± The aura that was produced by Eden from his Dragonic Release expanded and increased several fold. All of the Dragons in the red dragon tribe...nay most of the dragons in the dragon festival felt this overwhelming power from Eden. It was like a vortex of power just suddenly appeared. But Eden just stood there gathering mana into his hands forming spears of mana from them. ¡°Taaaaaaaaaake This!¡± Eden threw the spears at some of the red Dragons instantly killing them making large holes in their bodies were the vital points were. Seeing this, the Red Dragons in rage charged in to attack. There were still over 40 dragons and even Eden would fall eventually. ¡°White! Attack! Pick off them from the side!¡± ordered Eden in a loud voice with such power that White immediately acted just as he commanded. BANG! In an instant, White''s body was covered in some power that was formed at his top speeds that was easily higher than any other dragons. Like a comet or meteor in the sky, White moved and broke through the red dragons'' defence easily though couldn''t kill them in one shot like Eden could despite his high power and speed. Bang Bang Bang! Some of the red dragons turned their attention to White as well. However Eden was still a force they could not ignore. ¡°Ice Nova!¡± Eden smashed his hand covered in ice magic into a red dragon and made it explode into red spikes from it''s insides. The two, Eden and White fought like berserkers against the red dragon tribe which numbered over 40 for several hours with each move being critical destructive. Both of them were covered in injuries. Several hours later.... There was only Eden and the leader of the Red Dragons left. White was injured though still alive but was forced to turn back into his humanoid form to recover. Eden lost an arm and the red dragon leader was mostly unscratched though his entire tribe died as the cost. ¡°Ha.....ha.....ha.....¡± Eden breathed heavily since his vision was blurred, he lacked blood in his body and he was generally in bad shape. But that oppressive feeling he had still did not disappear at all. The Red Dragon Leader had no choice but to fight him in this state since Eden would not leave him alone. Dragons never deny a challenge even from the injured and weak. It was an honour to die against a much stronger foe; that was what the Red Dragon Leader was thinking Eden was doing. But it was the exact opposite. Eden was planning to kill this Red Dragon that was over a hundred metres long in size alone. ¡°Perish!¡± the red dragon letting out his most powerful dragon breath at Eden. He did not hold anything back at all. ¡°Crystal Palace of Reflection!¡± shouted Eden creating some sort of fortress. The red dragon continued his attack no matter what believing that such a thing will be instantly destroyed. BANG! The attack was perfectly blocked, something that had never happened before for the red dragon leader. ¡°Garden of Eden!¡± Eden shouted for a second time. The Crystal fortress that was produced disappeared....and in turn hundreds....no thousands of magic attack appeared around Eden all aiming at the Red Dragon just then. ¡°DIE!¡± All of those magic attacks....all of them lethod to any normal creature were shot at the Red Dragon Leader at once. Bang Bang Boom Bang Boom.....! The echoes of the explosions that occurred completely drowned out everything else in the mountains. ¡°....¡± Eden looked at the remains of the Red Dragon Leader and threw it with the rest of his tribe. He was planning to sell it to the Kingdom later on since some people...mostly cooks would love to get their hands on it. Then he looked at his missing arm. ¡°Hmp!¡± A new one grew out instantly as if it was there all along. Eden flew down to White who was still injured since he could not regenerate as fast as Eden who looked perfectly fine right now. ¡°You okay?¡± he asked. White smiled and nodded. [It looks like we had quite the audience] Eden looked around and there were many Dragons hiding in plain sight watching the entire battle that occurred before their eyes. The entire Red Dragon Tribe were a faction that processed the most aggressive stance with the greatest power in a large range of attacks. And two beings just slaughtered them all. The other Dragons considered White a monster among their race as well since he was capable to fight against so many other Dragons at the same time with his unusual speed and power. ¡°You think they will attack us while we rest?¡± asked Eden. [No....but soon the other tribes will seek us out and attack together due to today] White looked worried. ¡°Hmm....that''s fine as well. I still have more strength I''ve been hiding since the beginning¡± muttered Eden talking to himself mostly. [p=center]xXx[/p] A day passed with the two completely healed from the injuries from the last battle. However now they were once again surrounded but by several tribes at once. There were 6 of them in total and numbers to around 100. There were only the strong ones here, each at least level 600 and their leaders that are over level 800 each. Eden looked at all of these Dragons, all from different backgrounds and gathered with one goal. To exterminate the two strong ones that managed to take out the Red Dragon Tribe. ¡°Honestly....ganging up on two of us just because we managed to take down a few enemies¡± said Eden in a mocking voice to all the Dragons around him. ¡°White, if things get too bad then run away.¡± White looked at Eden with displeasure and replied. [I don''t intend to. I''m beginning to see how to use my powers and this will only serve to help me grow] It seems that White from the experience from last time allowed him to gain some strength. Well all weapons depend on how they are used in the end. ¡°Let''s go!¡± shouted Eden starting the battle with a burst of power. Bang! Bang! Bang! Eden kicked down several Dragons while firing magic attacks of all kinds at the other ones. They moved quickly to dodge them but since there were too many of them in an area, they would often knock into each other and cause more chaos. [Burst Stream!] White covered his body with his dragon breath that was pure white as well. White had become a beam of white death to the other dragons considering his Dragon breath''s power was on the high scale and it was being compressed around his body right now. ¡°Lightning Shower!¡± Eden lifted his hand and produced lightning that dropped like rain onto the dragons around him. Most of them neutralised the attack with their high magic resistance which caused Eden to let out a ''tch''. There were still a large number of dragons left that even Eden could not know how this would end. He would soon need to play his greatest and most dangerous card yet. ¡°Dragonic Release!¡± Eden''s speed increased several times with this release of Dragon power from his body. His speed though much slower than White was still fast in the eyes of the Dragons. With them being unable to use Dragon Breath due to too many of them crowding together to attack the two; they held a massive disadvantage. The 6 leaders of these Dragons immediately knew this and thus ordered most of them to spread out. ¡°Move out of the way!¡± one of them would cry. ¡°Spread out and cover more distance!¡± ¡°Retreat and attack from long range!¡± And so the hundred group of dragons spread out to cover most of the mountain area in a 100 kilometre radius. ¡°White! Stick with me else they might gang up on us!¡± Eden shouted while flying to White while attacking everything sight around him. [Got it!] White accelerated even more and stopped gathering lightning in his mouth for a Dragon breath. Compared to the other Dragons, his one was much smaller but processed the same amount of power as an average dragon. Why would they fear it? [Dragon Breath!] White shot the lightning ball out which instantly travelled and pierced through several dragons critically injuring them at once. Bang! The attack also left a large cater in the ground due to the large amount of power exploding at once. While it used up an average amount of energy as a Dragon Breath, it was much smaller and compressed giving it easily 10 times more power than a Dragon Breath. ¡°Hahaha what a sight!¡± Eden laughed at the scared Dragons that backed away a bit more seeing White''s power. However he had no pity on them at all. ¡°Dragonic Overload! Dragon Transformation!¡± Eden activated these two skills at once. Soon enough, along with the release of power; his arms and limbs and most of his body were covered in scales and he grew wings from his back and a tail as well. Eden turned into his Humanoid Dragon form. ¡°Let''s do this! Claw!¡± Eden''s right hand exploded out and produced a claw that was several times larger than normal while he gripped the head of a Dragon crushing it in one go while kicking the corpse at another Dragon to distract it to get away. Bang Bang Bang Bang! White was shooting through Dragons like they were flies easily now. It seems that White''s potential was very high but he never got to use it with other Dragons scorning him all the time due to his small size and generally weaker power. Some minutes passed and a large number of Dragons died, in fact around 20 of them died. However there was strangely less Dragons around them then they remembered. Then Eden sensed very large energies gathering around them. They were about to use Dragon Breath of all once at them. ¡°White to me!¡± shouted Eden now panicking. Something of this level and range could not be dodged at all. At this rate, White would die. ¡°Hurry up else you will die!¡± [Y-yes!] White moved in to Eden since it was the first time he saw Eden so serious and panicking about something. ¡°Crystal Palace of Reflection. Multi-layer Mana Shields!¡± Eden used these two very overpowered protection spells at once. In an instant, Crystal mirrors appeared layering on each other and surrounding them in a sphere shape. Then a set layer of around 20 mana shields were formed around in between the crystal mirrors as well in a diamond pattern as well. One of spells was the ultimate reflection type barrier while the other was the ultimate overall protection type barrier. ¡°Disappear!!!¡± A total of 80 Dragons shout their Dragon Breaths at the two at once. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!¡± Eden poured as much mana as he could into the defences but it wasn''t enough. Something of this level would easily destroy part of the continent....around several mountains in the total amount. Eden''s mana levels dropped down to critical with him merely having a few hundred left while critically injured as well. White was also in the same state though in a much better condition than Eden. His scales while weak were at least thicker than Eden''s which led to him taking less damage. The Crystal Palace of Reflection and Multi-layer Mana Shields collapsed into pieces from the Dragon Breaths but the good thing was that those 80 or so Dragons used up most of their energy in that attack and would at least take a while until they have enough power to do the same with that amount of power again. ¡°Damn I''m really going to die at this rate¡± Eden let out a sad laugh since this situation was much worse than he thought. ¡°No choice but to use that prototype.¡± Eden took out a small glowing object in which he crushed.
Mana has been refilled to max
The small glowing object was a mana shard that could contain mana. Eden poured in loads of mana in several of them that could take it just in case he was about to die. He had just used one of those precious mana shards of the highest purity. ¡°White get back a bit. I don''t want you to get too close and die because of me.¡± There was a sudden heavy pressure from Eden. The one before made it feel like something was pushing them away but this one was like something was crushing them in both mind and spirit. Golden Aura spilled out of Eden endlessly and disappeared after going out too far. However it continued to spill more and more out like there was a flood coming out. Eden in that kind of state charged straight to the Dragons at full speed. A strange chant came out of his mouth. [I to awaken am the Tyrant whom stole the throne of God] [I devour the wisdom and rip apart the Knowledge] [I will become the Magic King that rules over all Creation] [And I will show you true Despair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] [Magic King Drive!!!!!!!!] With this chant the horrid feeling that everyone felt increased and increased to the point that the Golden Aura exploded several tens of metres around Eden covering his entire body to the point that they could not see them. ¡°Dam attack attack!¡± ¡°Kill that fool now!¡± With the orders of some of the dragon leaders, the other dragons snapped out of it and attacked Eden who was flying at them in anger and fear at the same time. Fear due to Eden and Anger due to them feeling fear against such a being. [Full Dragon Transformation!] That voice echoed around the area and was heard by everyone. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!!¡± Something came out of the golden aura. It was pure black and larger than most dragons. With pure black scales lined with Golden markings. This creature gave true fear to the dragons for the first time in a long time. ¡°Those black scales!¡± ¡°Chaos Dragon?!¡± ¡°No way! Only the Dragon God had that colour!¡± The Dragons scattered in fear of the appearance of such an opponent. All of them knew what was happening now. It was no longer a battle. It was simply a massacre to welcome the birth of a new Dragon King. Scaled in Black and Gold. Something that was beyond any of them. ¡°Dragon Breath!¡± shouted Eden gathering mana in his mouth to the point that it went critical in size and power and shot it at a group of Dragons. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! Most of them escaped but those who did not...disappeared with the mountain. Not much could be said after that. Many dragons were killed by Eden but most of them at least lived since they barely survived one hit from Eden. He followed the words of what White said and didn''t kill those who were critically injured although all of the Dragon Leaders were killed without too much effort. The mountains turned into lava and an ice age during this battle. The Dragons all knew that a Dragon King was born in this festival. They remembered the old fear of Dragon Kings now and what kind of existence they were. It was not something that normal Dragons could even match. [p=center]xXx[/p] Eden while in full Dragon form more or less defeated most of the Dragons with his absolute power although he still considered himself a tad weaker than a true Dragon King. Now there were only two Dragons left before the festival would end. Apparently the Dragon King Festival would take place over a week. There were only a few more hours until sun set and the Dragon King Festival would end. ¡°So it''s only you left....seeing that form you want to fight me don''t you?¡± Eden who was hundred metres big now looked down on White who was only 10 metres large. White changed his form. He was much more sharper and his speed and power were much higher than before. It was a prime example of a speed type Dragon. Yes only him and White were left in this Dragon King Festival, all the others were either dead, injured and withdrawn from the festival. [I will fight you who is more powerful than anyone else! Then if I win.....you and I will.....] White didn''t finish his words at the end and attacked Eden. Bang! White had hit part of the shoulder area and ripped off the scales there in an instant. Eden could not even see White move at all. With his size, his speed would naturally but lower which would give him a massive disadvantage against White at this point. ¡°Hmp!¡± Eden seeing this immediately changed to the same size as White which was only a tenth of his size before. [What?!] White could not believe what he was seeing, Eden just took on the same form as him. Bang! Eden chipped part of White''s wing flying at them with White dodging at the last second. Eden perfectly copied the speed and power that White had honed in an instant of just looking at it. [Take thissssss!] White gathered Lightning in his mouth again and fired it as a Dragon breath at Eden. [p=center]xXx[/p] The sun had set and the two were still fighting. [The Dragon King Festival has ended!] Those were appeared in the minds of everyone telling them up the end. Eden and White both stopped attacking each other by now since there was no point. There was no winner between them though Eden was holding back on power to gain more speed in the fight. [Today is a very special day, a very special Dragon King Festival!] Every dragon that was still alive listened in carefully. They all wanted to know what would happen next. [Today, two Dragon Kings were born! The White Dragon King of Purity and the Black Chaos Dragon King of Golden Despair! These two proved they were above from every other dragon in this festival, proved dominants over all other save each other] It was natural but to think that two dragons that would take on humanoid forms would be crowned as Dragon Kings. Some feared those two while other condemned them for their pride and vowed to kill them later though never stated when. [Everyone else will know of their rank when they talk to the elder one] The message cut there. Both Eden and White turned back into their humanoid forms now with Eden yawning lazily. In front of him was a message from the game that he wanted for a while now.
Dragon Transformation changed to Dragon King Transformation
The whole purpose of him going to this Dragon Festival was so he could get a stronger version of his Dragon Transformation. ¡°Well then, I have no plans of being pampered by other Dragons into mating season....I rather not go there at all....I leave the rest to you oh White Dragon King~ ¡± [You...won''t stay?] White looked at Eden quite sad. ¡°Hmm? What''s with that look? I can easily meet you any time thanks to teleportation. Just send me a call and I''ll come over. Next time I''ll bring my friends with me as well~¡± Eden waved goodbye and said, ¡°Teleportation.¡± With that Eden immediately left White without any words. Several weeks later...where White refused to have children with other Dragons, Eden returned with Alexandra and Viv. Although happy to see each other again, Eden made a certain mistake that would cause him to be ''Banished'' from the Dragon Crossing Mountains. Well....that''s another story. [p=center]xXx[/p] Elsewhere at the current time... The group plus Alexandra and the Knight looked up onto the giant castle that was coloured pure white in massive irony. ¡°So this is the Demon King Castle eh?¡± said Alexandra chopping down the last of the enemies that attacked them. Behind the group, there was a trail of corpses which were the remains of countless demons.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9000~ - This chapter is mostly a flashback of what Eden did in the past when he was ''much weaker'' than now. Plus I get to introduce more about Dragons and how one (understandable) misunderstanding caused so much grief later on. Vol.2 Chapter 7 - The Demon King A couple of hours passed since the group and the other two babysitting them went out of the barrier of light that Alexandra made and went with a rush to the Demon King Castle. Normally this kind of trip would take weeks or months to get through due to the high swarm of Demons in the way. However due to Alexandra and the Knight''s efforts, it was like there weren''t any Demons attacking them and slowing the group down at all. However this cause a large pile of corpses to pile up behind them as they ran. Due to the group not being in a party with Alexandra, they got none of the experience from her kills. However the group did not stand by when there were enemies and possible experience to get. Because of this, they attacked mostly from range when they could and gained at most some small percentage of experience; not enough to level up but enough to say that it was a waste by running by not attacking anything. Right now the eight of them were in front of the gates of a pure white castle. ¡°Th-this is a Demon King Castle?¡± asked Serena confused since it looked the exact opposite. The Knight confirmed it, ¡°Yes, this is the recorded location. Don''t be fooled, the appearance is just a disguise to let your guard down.¡± ¡°Strange how this looks like it came from a fairy tale...¡± muttered Miriel looking at the pure white castle closely. ¡°Complete opposite from behind us¡± said Lyndis as well. ¡°Hahaha¡± Alexandra let out a hearty laugh and then said, ¡°Soon enough this place would be dyed in red though.¡± ¡°....¡± Although blunt in her statement, one could not simply be shocked at her words no matter how strong she was. There was a limit to strength and it was likely that she would be brought down with force at this rate. The only problem was when that would happen. ¡°You DARE attack us?!¡± screamed a creature in a high pitch voice. That creature flew out and floated in the air with it''s large wings that were pure white. One description would be that they were angels...even though they had a bird face. Alexandra looked pleasantly surprised and blurted out, ¡°Ah! A bird-freak!¡± Hearing this the bird creature in anger shot out a beam of light at Alexandra shouting, ¡°Die! Lowly insect!¡± The beam of light was easily deflected away from Alexandra without her even doing anything. ¡°This may actually be easier than that horde of demons...¡± commented Alexandra seeing the level of attack. Seeing that it''s beam of light attack which it pride itself with did not work at all on Alexandra, it simply chose to go in close range to rip her apart. It was a powerful creature so why would it be scared of humans of all things. Bang! Alexandra shot up in the air by jumping in front of the bird creature and grabbed it''s neck and slammed it to the ground in one go. With a evil smile on her face, Alexandra asked, ¡°Now where is that Demon King we need to kill?¡± ¡°A villain....¡± muttered Serena. ¡°Yep, can only see a villain there¡± said Shadow as well. Sain looked confused and asked, ¡°What are you talking about? She''s getting information off that creature. Plus it was self defence after it attacked her.¡± Sain unexpectedly look Alexandra''s side for this case. Miriel was about to try to lecture Sain on what could be done and what could not be but then several more white winged creatures appeared around the castle. All of them seemed angry as well. ¡°Enemies¡± commented Raven lifting his shield and spear at them prepared to fight. Alexandra and the Knight looked at them identifying them as enemies as well. ¡°Ho~ How many more of you are there?¡± asked Alexandra to the one that she pinned down. ¡°Damn Insect! Disappear!¡± the pinned down bird creature shouted letting out a beam of light from it''s mouth at close range at Alexandra. BOOM! However it did not have the change to even attack as Alexandra slammed her other hand down on it''s face killing it in a single hit. Alexandra sighed seeing that her informative was now dead so soon but there were others that she could use around her. ¡°Miss Alexandra¡± said the Knight readying it''s swords, ¡°I suggest we take care of them now so they won''t interfere with the slaying of the Demon King.¡± Two mechanical swords appeared in the Knight''s hands and several more around the Knight. ¡°I have to ask but are those swords stored in a sub-dimension based around you?¡± asked Alexandra a bit curious since she knows two people who can create weapons at mass but never one that uses pre created weapons from another dimension. ¡°Yes this technique is used by master swordsmen in my order¡± replied the Knight letting out a sharp grey and red aura around his body. ¡°I see...I might take a liking to it and copy it¡± said Alexandra. ¡°Eh?¡± the knight was confused by her words but then for some reason, in Alexandra''s hand was a mechanical sword exactly like the Knight as well. ¡°Meh, sword quality is on so-so¡± Alexandra threw away the sword without a hassle seeing that it wasn''t up to her expectations. ¡°Miss Alexandra....did you just....¡± ¡°Oh such a technique like using different dimensions is something quite simple when you think about it. The only problem is that you don''t really have the time to learn how to create personal ones so everyone more or less takes a big space and some old ones some people made a long time ago though they are sectioned off¡± Alexandra explained taking out a sword from her inventory. It was sky blue, a great-sword that was curved at the end. It was as long as Alexandra''s body in terms of height and it let out a frightening feeling from the blade. ¡°Anyway, I rather use this kind of sword compared to the weaker swords with no life in them¡± said Alexandra gathering aura in the sword which shone bright as if it was responding to Alexandra. ¡°Do you think mere insects can do anything?!¡± shouted one of the bird creatures in the air. There were now perhaps 30 of them over the castle now. Alexandra smirked and used her most prized skill since early one. ¡°SWORD WAVE!¡± The blue sword exploded in aura and let out a scream of power into the air in a single swing my Alexandra. Bang! It was as if the sky and heaven itself was split into two from the slash. That was how powerful this skill Alexandra used was. Plus a fair chunk of the top of the castle was taken out as well and simply looked like it disappeared along with the bird creatures. ¡°Ah, used too much power again¡± said Alexandra realising her mistake, ¡°Damn almost killed the final boss in this trip accidentally.¡± ¡°....¡± ''Too much power? Also wouldn''t it be very fine if you killed the final boss?'' thought someone in the group. ¡°Well that takes care of that lot...¡± just as Alexandra said that, another group of 30 bird creatures appeared quite furriest at Alexandra. ¡°You DARE attack us insect?!¡± one of them shouted. ¡°More of them?¡± sighed Alexandra. She really didn''t feel like taking down all of them over and over again but since they would probably harm the others... ¡°Knight-san~¡± Alexandra said with a smile, ¡°Please take the new recruits inside the castle to face the Demon King.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± The group and the Knight blurted out at once. What was this woman saying. There was also a strange light in her eyes that looked at everything was troublesome and minor. ¡°I understand¡± said Lyndis who was the first to more or less realise that Alexandra wanted to fight along not protecting anything right now. Raven was the next to realise Alexandra''s intention and nodded to Lyndis'' words. The Knight scratched his helmet and said, ¡°I understand Miss Alexandra, please come after us as soon as possible.¡± The Knight then sliced down the entrance to the castle and then lead the group of six in with him. ¡°Wait!¡± shouted one of the bird creatures as he flew down to attack them. Bang! Alexandra blocked the creature and kicked it back. ¡°How many are there now? A hundred, two hundred? Perhaps you can relieve my boredom a bit....?¡± The aura around Alexandra sharpened by several times as she went to serious mode. ¡°Divine Beast...ah I forgot I changed it.....right....forgot what I just said, need to redo that scene now!¡± Alexandra took a breather. ¡°Sun Beast Mode!¡± Alexandra''s hair turned to a black colour along with the markings that appeared all over her body. The marks on her hands, were pure black as well and were symbols of the sun. This was a change that happened with Alexandra when she gave up her Divinity for the power of Sun Authorities. Alexandra looked at her body with interest saying, ¡°Hmm...so I can use this mode with 3 Sun Authorities. Still far cry from my former strength but for mere birds....¡± Light gathered in her sword as she swung it once at the swarm of enemies around her. ¡°Light of Judgement!¡± Despite being creatures of the light affinity, Alexandra''s affinity to light was so much higher than theirs that it dealt a massive amount of damage to them all. However some of them were stronger than the rest and survived with little damage. Seeing this, Alexandra changed tactics to simply use her sword skills to take them all down since her light and holy skills weren''t as effective. ¡°Sun Aura!¡± A pure white aura that resembled flames appeared around Alexandra. This was one of the skill that were changed when we switched her Divinity to Sun Authorities. There were several other skills changed but still, Alexandra could still use Holy Spells though they weren''t as effective as before due to Divinity literally increasing the power of Holy Spells by several times. Bang Bang Bang! Alexandra fought alone from the ground against flying creatures that made her have a severe disadvantage. Usually it was Eden''s job to deal with these kinds of things. But she still had some anti-air skills that she could use. ¡°Holy Cage!¡± Light was shot out of Alexandra''s hands and bend around several of the bird creatures at once that were firing light beams back at Alexandra. Her Light beams however were much stronger than theirs and formed a cage around them preventing them from moving before... ¡°Sword Wave!¡± Bang! Alexandra killed most of the bird creatures that continued to come out from somewhere like this. Tens of minutes passed and the number of enemies still did not change. Then.... ¡°Die!¡± From directly above her, a beam of intense light that was abnormal in power shout down from the Heavens. BOOOOM! Alexandra using her foot skills quickly dodged it in time and only took some of the shockwave damage from whatever just landed. She was completely focused now on this creature since she felt a very familiar feeling from it. Yes...it was the power of Divinity coming out of it. It was a Divine Beast. The light disappeared around it to reveal it''s body. It was a very large hybrid of a griffon and several other creatures that Alexandra could not describe. ¡°Honestly...I would think you would look better with all that power¡± commented Alexandra on it''s looks immediately. ¡°A mere mortal challenge me?! Such an insult disappear!¡± the creature shouted. It was 15 metres tall and was a multicoloured creature with wings that looked like something you could make with play do. Alexandra tightened her grip on her sword as she prepared to take this creature down. It''s power was at least level 800 or even more so she couldn''t hold back on it like the other bird creatures around her. ¡°Get out of the Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Alexandra surprised dodged whatever came like a beam of light at them leaving the giant creature that she was able to face get hit. BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! ¡°....¡± Alexandra was quite shocked that this Divine Beast just died like that. From the wreckage came a person she recognised immediately. It was a beauty despite being a guy with long black hair and a slim body. He looked at Alexandra clumsily with a slight apologetic smile. This person was Eden. [p=center]xXx[/p] A while back....a few minutes back in fact. [This and that do not matter right now, disappear and die!] ¡°Honesty....the angry ones are always to worst to logic!¡± Eden immediately started to run away from White since he would really rather not clash with a Dragon King foe right now. [Don''t you dare run away!] White covered his body in the pure white aura and charged straight at Eden who had his back to White right now. I very bad idea. Bang! ¡°Ow!¡± Eden took major damage with that hit and slammed to the mountain side. He groaned in pain as he turned back to White in annoyance. At that moment, he decided that he would kick his ass no matter what now. Everything else was secondary. ¡°Hey....remember what we got from that Dragon King Festival? You never actually saw my prize for becoming a Dragon King back then right?¡± Eden had a smile on his face but for some reason all the other Dragons other than White had a very bad feeling about this. Some of them were in that very Dragon Festival while most did not know what Eden was capable of. Still, they had a feeling that it was best to run away now. ¡°Dragon King Transformation!¡± Eden''s body was consumed by Dragon scales. His body transformed naturally with scales appearing on his body but then another layer, a much more powerful layer of scales appeared and wrapped around his body tightly like it was body armour. If Dragon Transformation made Eden seem bulky in size then Dragon King Transformation would be the exact opposite though much more powerful. Eden''s face was then covered by a mask of pure black and there were no wings or a tail on Eden at all. Those features would only slow him down in this state so they weren''t included at all in the transformation. With his six golden wings of light behind him, he looked like a hidden boss character right now. Yes, this was Eden''s new ''battle mode'' that condensed all of his power into this form. But he didn''t stop there at all. ¡°Dragonic Release!¡± Eden immediately then activated the skill that powered him with the power of a dragon. The marking appeared even on his armoured state and covered his body as well more apparent than before. The glowing marks covered the mark as well forming a general image of a Dragon''s face on the mask. Bang Bang Bang! Three hits were heard and White was slammed into the opposite mountain without him nor anyone else noticing. Eden in this state was too fast....and too strong. He was on a totally different level of strength from what White and some of the other Dragons remembered. However White also had a trump card from the Dragon King Festival as well from being crowned a Dragon King. [Deadlock of Purity!] White used his aura and condensed it down like what Eden did with his Dragon King Transformation. However unlike Eden''s one, it was pure white and simply added an extra layer of scales onto White''s body...in fact it was very similar to Eden''s. ¡°Golden Bow!¡± said Eden taking up a bow that the other dragons haven''t seen at all. Why would they when Eden hid a number of skills he had from them. You don''t always use all the cards you have in every battle. Eden drew the bow and fired it using mana quickly. The single mana arrow multiplied in a frightening rate and soon numbered several hundreds before 20 metres. And all of them went to White as if those arrows were lured to him. With his speed, White could probably dodge them all since in his state, Eden was even faster than these arrows. But he didn''t and took all of the arrows at once. [Hmp!] The arrows were immediately deflected off him like they didn''t affect him at all. As a comparison, Eden''s arrow each had 3 or 4 times more power than a normal arrow attack from an ranger who has the higher pure arrow damage and multiple it hundreds of times. And none of them even damaged White at all. ¡°....¡± Seeing this, Eden immediately made the bow in his hands disappear and replaced it with a spear. ¡°Extend.¡± Using the special property of the spear, Eden shot the end at White in which White refused to dodge once again completely blocking the attack. A bit of the spear however broke compared to the density and defence of White''s scales. ¡°So while my one increases attack and speed to the extremes your one increases defence and endurance to the extremes instead¡± commented Eden. [So you know that victory is impossible right? Hurry up and submit so I can kill you] Eden hearing this let out a laugh. ¡°What? Don''t you remember what my speciality was? It was not simply pure power or magic. It was utter destruction in all ways that made even broke through the ultimate defence of Gods! Do you think mere Dragon Scales can stop me?! Dragonic Overload!¡± Eden unleashed his power even more with his long hair turning silver-white in colour. The oppressive feeling that he let out of also increased because of this. ¡°Ice Spear!¡± Eden quickly created a giant ice spear that was shot out at White at extremely high speeds as he kicked off the mountain to attack as well. Being the speed type originally, White easily dodged the ice spear coming at him and only focused on Eden. Bang Bang Bang! The two collided and hit each other several times. [Ahhh!] White went back in pain as part of his scales were pierced through while Eden''s hand was bloodied with his own blood since he broke trying to pierce through White''s scales. ¡°Tch.¡± Eden immediately recovered his hand that was broken just then but White had no such ability. If the fight goes on, Eden would win in the end. Therefore he had to use that all or nothing move right now while he had the strength. [Burst Stream!] White picked up speed that gradually got faster and faster while fighting in mid air with Eden and eventually surpassed Eden in speed as well. Eden noticed this and went his way to increase the power and speed of his attacks as well since he had a naturally...no abnormally and disgustingly high regeneration and defence. After a whole minute of these exchange in attacks that eventually became just blurs to the eyes of the other Dragons; both side went for one final attack. ¡°Burst Strike!¡± Eden used his arm as a weapon and went forward as fast as White at him. White did the same while using his head as the weapon instead since his claws were too short for such a frontal attack. But at the end just before the clash, White used a certain technique. [Limit Break!] White''s power and speed increased several times taking Eden in surprise all of a sudden. Bang! The two flew in a single direction stuck to each other since White used his full speed plus this move that increased power and speed to the extremes of the extremes causing damage to the body in the process and could not even stop. Eventually after around 5 seconds they were headed to a white castle in the distance just as some creature descended from the skies. Eden then noticed Alexandra was there as well. ¡°Get out of the Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!¡± BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! The two slammed into the strange creature that Eden barely got a look at and killed it in one shot unintentionally. ¡°....¡± Due to the impact, Eden''s transformation was cancelled and broke into pieces. The same was with White as well though Eden somehow managed to cushion on White by turning them around at the last second. ¡°Ow ow ow, damn that hurt like hell. You okay White? You better not die from just that¡± said Eden ignoring what was happening around him right now. Checking on White, he was alive and Eden let out a sigh of relief due to this. He then looked around and found Alexandra alone with these strange bird creatures. ¡°....What happened?¡± asked Eden. Alexandra really did not want to answer since Eden seemed to be oddly excited for a battle right now which was kinda rare for him and his hermit lifestyle. [p=center]xXx[/p] After some slight explaining from Alexandra of what happened and how she was just about to get serious... ¡°By the way, why did you literally shoot out from the sky? Is this a new trend I''m not aware of?¡± asked Alexandra remembering the scream and luck in which he dodged getting exploded into pieces from that. ¡°Ah, White here used something called ''Limit Break'' and really went around 5 times faster and stronger all of a sudden with his full speed. It''s should be something similar to your ''Blood Destruction'' in nature though...it seems that it deals more damage to the person when they use it¡± said Eden. ¡°White? Oh that Dragon that wanted to marry you!¡± said Alexandra excitingly. ¡°Yes....that one¡± Eden had a bad feeling from the how light hearted her words were. ¡°So this was the boyfriend you were hiding from me.¡± ¡°Eh...what?¡± ¡°To think you would cheat on me like this sob sob¡± Alexandra to Eden was definitely faking crying but still it was a shock to Eden. Plus there wasn''t any tears at all....actually scratch that, Alexandra was now fake tearing. ¡°Damnit! Stop trying to guilt trap me! I know what your trying to do here!¡± shouted Eden in rage. ¡°Tch.¡± Alexandra looked disappointed at Eden seeing that he didn''t play it out. Eden sighed and looked at the sky where there where the bird creatures were still flying around for some reason. ¡°By the way, what are those?¡± asked Eden pointing at the bird creatures. ¡°Oh just some enemies¡± replied Alexandra not concern of them at all. ¡°In that case....¡± Eden raised his hand and said, ¡°Lightning Shower¡±, dropping down countless bolts of lightning from the sky onto the bird creatures killing them all in now time. ¡°Sometimes I forget however ridiculously powerful you are in causing genocide.¡± ¡°Well I AM a mage of the highest level¡± replied Eden. [What...] The two turned to look at the White Dragon that just regain consciousness. ¡°White turn to human form¡± ordered Eden. Hearing his voice, White suddenly snapped out of his confusion from the blow he took. [What?! You dare...!] Eden and Alexandra both pointed their swords at White at this. They would not let something was powerful as White wondering about when they had a job to do. [¡­.Fine...] Though very redundant in turning into a humanoid form due to his pride as a Dragon which continued to increase ever since he became a Dragon King, White turned back to the form that Eden remembered. It was the form of a small boy in white clothes. ¡°CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!¡± Alexandra immediately started rubbing her cheek on White as he struggled to escape from her. While Eden sighed at this, Alexandra''s eyes shone with a weird light. Yes, Alexandra liked to hug small cute creatures as if it was a programmed response for girls. [Eden...help!] White cried for help reached Eden''s mind. ¡°Didn''t you try to kill me a few minutes ago?¡± asked Eden in a cynical voice. [This and that are different! I feel like my bones and organs are being crushed! What is this ridiculous strength?!] ¡°Yeah....that happens sometimes with her strength...in the pure strength stat, she is actually ranked 1 in the continent so there''s literally no escape¡± replied Eden giving up on White, ¡°Anyway we better go in to catch up with the others.¡± Thus the three, two of which are actually Dragon Kings went into the white Demon King Castle. [p=center]xXx[/p] Inside the Demon King Castle... ¡°There''s nothing in here at all....¡± muttered Sain, ¡°No enemies at all...is there something wrong with this place? I thought a Demon King Castle would at least have....¡± ¡°Monsters of every kind guarding this place right?¡± added Miriel on the same line of thought. The atmosphere of the group was very bad right now since this castle was unexpectedly too peaceful, even more so compared to the outside world where they had to pass through demons and then bird creatures of light. What was even more disturbing was that actual design of the castle. There was no corpses and other disgusting things in a dark light you would expect. In fact it was the polar opposite with the place being brightly lit and the place being mainly white in colour. In fact it was easier to try to find any other colour besides white in this castle. ¡°Why does this place....¡± muttered Lyndis. ¡°Feel very disgusting?¡± added Shadow understanding Lyndis in how she felt. In fact the entire group had this kind of feeling eve Serena whom initially thought this place was similar to a fairy tale castle that young girls would like. The lack of...many things made this castle feel really off. ¡°Please pay attention, there may be traps¡± reminded the Knight. It was quite a hassle to take care of the young ones from the guild that he requested to help in this quest. The group nodded once again but could not help but to be wary in another way. This place was too perfect. It was like an illusion of some sort that would vanish to relieve the hell that they were truly in at any moment. Yes, it was like a person cast a spell on them all to see this. ¡°We should move forward...there may be traps but I don''t think any of them even exist in this place. It would be too obvious or too hidden if there are traps either way¡± said Sain on his opinion on this place. The Knight took his words into account. It is not wise to just have on perspective a subject. The previous Demon King Castles had traps of all kinds in their castle but this one didn''t. Another thing to consider was that the previous Demon King Castles were the typical type and this one was a first. Yes, the Order of Knights have fought against Demon Kings for a long time now and have raided countless castles that popped up all over the continent for the sake of peace. Peace that they brought without any words or graduate for a true knight would not boost of his achievements or actions for all to see. A Knight must remain in the shadows to protect and serve of his lord. The Knight must only be seen as a weapon or shield of the lord and nothing more. Stolen story; please report. Those were the teachings of the Order of Knights. While they were few, they were all powerful knights of all kinds. This was the main and only reason that others dare not fight them at all along side that Demon Kings often were enemies of Kingdoms. In the past, the Knights of the order would always fight against Demon Kings. Often alone, there were times where others may come with the knights to fight the Demon Kings. Heroes, Merchants and even civilians that were wronged by the Demon Kings in the past came along. However all of them were powerful to a certain extent. Never once did the Order of Knights faced such a Demon King like now now did it have requested for help. It could be said that never did the Order of Knights allied itself with such powerful allies as well and such weak allies as well. This was a first to the order and the actions in the future would depend on this...that is if the Demon King would escape once again. But the Knight did not worry about the six weak ones that it had to protect. After all, all Demon Kings had a certain special characteristic that made it very powerful and very weak at the same time. ¡°We''re here¡± said the knight in front of a pure white giant door that was easily 10 metres tall and 6 metres wide. You would see this kind of door in castles of powerful cities but the group never saw something like this before. ¡°How much money did his castle take to make this?¡± wondered Shadow. The group nor the knight did not know. However the Knight thought that the servants probably constructed this castle with their own resources so the cost would be near zero. Before they entered and faced the Demon King however, the Knight needed to explain some things first. ¡°The Demon King has a certain power that will ultimately scale in the enemies that it face in certain ways¡± explained the Knight. ¡°So...we could face it as well?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Yes, however this depends on what level the Demon King is in rank. There are 10 ranks a Demon King can have. Anything from rank 5 and below will allow you to face it fine as it''s power will dramatically drop when you face it. However if it is rank 6 or up then do not face it since it will be much more powerful than you.¡± Sain thought about it and then said, ¡°So facing a Demon King does not depend on level or stats but rather experience and battle ability in the end right?¡± ¡°Correct, this power allows the Demon King with extremely high experience and battle ability to easily slay those fools with only stats and levels to make you stronger rather than their own pure ability¡± replied the Knight. ¡°How much stronger would the Demon King be with the ranks?¡± asked Sain once again. ¡°A Rank 1 is a standard type that can easily be defeated as long as you are good enough. With each rank to 5, the Demon Lord will get a bit stronger than you each time. After Rank 6 however, this increases dramatically to the point at Rank 10 where the Demon King may be twice as strong as you or the entire group combined.¡± ¡°....¡± Somehow the group found that a Demon King was a very unreasonable creature to the point of cheating. ¡°However the power of the ''Knight'' is to negate the power of the Demon King so it''s actually a lot easier as long as a ''Knight'' like me is with you. I am a Rank 8 Knight which can turn a Rank 8 Demon King into a Rank 5 Demon King in terms of power. With this power I can only turn a Rank 9 Demon King to a Rank 7 and a Rank 10 to a Rank 9 one.¡± To sum things up, the power of a ''Knight'' can negate power of the ''Demon King'' by directly reducing the power of one. Each side has it''s own rank from 1 to 10 with each side increasing in power. For a Knight to negate the power of a Demon King, of equal rank, the Demon King''s power will be directly reduced by 3 ranks. If the rank of the Knight is lower than the Demon King, then the negation rank is decreased by 1 until it doesn''t affect it at all. If the rank of the Knight is higher than the Demon King, then the negation rank is increased by 1 until if forces the Demon King to go down to rank 1. ¡°Get your weapons out and prepare...on the other side is something unknown after all¡± said the Knight drawing a mechanical sword out as well. It was at that moment that the fight against the Demon King started. [p=center]xXx[/p] The doors opened and revealed what was on the other side.
You have entered the Demon King Cambers
Curse of the Demon King has activated - Level and stats will be adjusted to give the Demon King an advantage over you - The Level and strength of the Demon King and all other entities in this room will scale to the average level of it''s enemies
Protection of the Knight has activated - Part of the Curse of the Demon King will be negated
The place was also pure white as well, even the paintings and furnitures in the room like the rest of the castle. However there was a ''black stain'' standing right in the centre of the room sitting on a throne. It was the Demon King. Behind him was a beautiful person dressed in white trapped in a crystal bound to the wall that looked like it was partly made of crystal. It by any stretch of the means, that person should be the princess that was kidnapped by the Demon King which led to the group heading here. The Demon King was dressed in a ragged black with a skull mask on his head with horns at the end. His armour was greyish in colour and was quite thick though it also gives the impression that the Demon King was quite thin like the knight. The princess on the other hand was the polar opposite with even her hair being pure white as well with her thin body and a pure white one piece dress that looked like snow flakes, many males would immediately fall for her. This was partly the case for Sain, Raven and Shadow and even the girls to a certain extent. But this effect from the princess was completely negated by the presence of the Demon King in front of them staring at them...no the Knight. ¡°So you come to take my life¡± said the Demon King in a solemn voice. The Knight pointed his sword at the Demon King saying, ¡°It is the duty of the Knight to kill the Demon King that threaten these lands.¡± Bang Bang Two heavy footsteps were heard. To the left and right of the room came in two very large and disgusting looking creatures that were each 3 metres tall. They looked like ogres in appearance with little armour, bald head and generally like a Orc but bigger and dumber. Each of them held a giant spiked club in their hands. ¡°Tch.¡± The Knight looked at both these ogres and them looked at the group. Sain then spoke up for the group to the knight, ¡°Don''t worry about us, we can just run around to survive while distracting one of them for a while.¡± The Knight nodded and ran at one of the ogres and slashed it''s legs through and then stabbed it''s head killing it. He then moved quickly flying in the air to the other one striking and killing the other one as well in one shot. ¡°....¡± Sain was quite surprised since the Knight was that strong. But more surprised since the Knight considered their well being as well. ¡°Die Demon King!¡± shouted the Knight summoning a mechanical dagger and throwing it at the Demon King who was sitting down. Clang! The Demon King deflected the attack with a mechanical sword as well which looked similar to the Knight''s one except there was a twin snake wrapped around the handle. ¡°You oppose me...so be it¡± the Demon King started to say, ¡°Disappear from my sight! Demon Rule!¡± A black aura surrounded the Demon King similar to the ''Death Aura'' that a lich may have. The Demon King got up and swung his sword at the Knight who did the same. Clang! The Knight was instantly knocked back with pure force to the group whom while battle ready wasn''t fighting at all since the Demon King did not recognise them to be there since they were too weak. The Knight slid on the ground using his sword to stop. ¡°This one...his a rank 10 Demon King! Run away now!¡± shouted the Knight now knowing the strength of the Demon King in person from that one hit. ¡°Hahahaha, don''t think you all will escape from me!¡± the Demon King shouted mad. BANG! The doors behind them shut tight with no sign of opening. The group looked shocked at this sudden event while the Knight was still calm. It looks like something like this happened often with Demon Kings. ¡°Damn....spread out and don''t take any hits!¡± shouted the Knight taking out another mechanical sword from his dimension storage skill. Clang Clang Clang The Knight and Demon Kind started to fight each other once again. After a few seconds, the Knight was wounded in multiple places while the Demon King still remained unharmed. ¡°Weak! Too Weak!¡± shouted the Demon King in madness. It was at this moment that the group decided to fight. At this rate all of them were going to die and as a result, fail the quest. They have heard from Eden what happened when you failed such a quest and it was very damaging to the point that the six of them would not recover from it for a long time. They trusted too much in the fact that Eden and Alexandra would more or less complete the quest. ¡°We''re going to help finish this quest¡± said Sain determined no matter what, ¡°Please follow my instructions carefully to help the Knight.¡± They while much weaker than the Knight normally could actually fight in this place. Due to the power of this room, the level of the Knight and Demon King scaled down by a few hundred levels while the six of them scaled up by that amount at the same time. It could be said that they were now at the strength of a level 200 while the Knight and Demon King were around that level as well though a bit higher due to their natures. ¡°Serena, Miriel; please focus on protecting us from attacks. Raven and Shadow will try to distract the Demon King while trying not to get into the fight too much. Lyndis, you and I will attack from long range when we can and support Raven and Shadow¡± said Sain quickly. The group moved in while the Knight and Demon King continued to clash. Shadow naturally was the quickest to move in. ¡°Burst Speed! Backstab!¡± Shadow instantly moved behind the Demon King about to hit. Clang! The Demon King twisted around quickly and blocked the attack. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± Both Sain and Miriel fired magic attacks at the Demon King at the same time to prevent Shadow was being counter-attacked like that. The Demon King dodged it swiftly moving back away from the group and the Knight. ¡°So you oppose me as well....DIE!¡± The black aura around the Demon King increased and thickened greatly. Now more focused on ever, the Knight did not even comment on the group helping him and just accepted it since these things usually happen. ¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡± chanted Serena finished casting the spell.
Health will regenerate for 6 points every second for 10 minutes
¡°Ram!¡± said Raven as he charged in ignoring the fact that the Demon King was powered up. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± chanted Miriel casting it on Raven just in time. Bang! Luckily Raven guarded with his shield in time but the hit from the Demon King was frighteningly so high that Raven was sent flying a bit in the air before landing on his feet. ¡°Attack and speed are up!¡± shouted Raven feeling it in his bones that the Demon King really got stronger. The most disturbing fact about the Demon King power up was that the twin snake on the hilt seemed alive...yes as if it was alive. And their fear of this was confirmed. ¡°Awaken and consume! Serpent of Lost Paradise!¡± The snakes eyes glowed red as they slid off the hilt of the sword and grew in great size to be a creature that was twice the size of a person. ¡°Serena, Miriel attack!¡± ordered Sain snapping out of the shock from seeing the two snakes about to attack. ¡°Strike that is faster than sound!¡± Bang! Both Snakes went to attack Raven who was the closest to them. However the Knight quickly moved in to protect him using his two swords that were both glowing in power to block both of the attacks. Sain analysed the general feel that the snakes gave off and it was most likely that they couldn''t see well like real snakes. ¡°In that case....Miriel, focus on using Ice Bolt at the head area! Serena, please start using your healing spells already....Serena?¡± Sain looked back and saw that both Miriel and Serena were frozen....no they were petrified to stone.
Party Member: Miriel has been Petrified, unable to fight until effects are healed
Party Member: Serena has been Petrified, unable to fight until effects are healed
¡°What?!¡± It was only then that Sain realised that the snakes were no common ones but in fact....basilisks. Creatures that could turn other creatures into stone with a look with their eyes. The two must have looked directly into the basilisks eyes when they appeared. ¡°Don''t look at the eyes!¡± shouted Sain while firing ''Mana Bolts'' at the eye area of the basilisks to prevent it from using it''s ability to petrify anymore. ¡°Right! Burning Touch!¡± called Lyndis as she moved to the middle of the body of one of the basilisks and tried to burn it. Booooom! The area which she used the skill on burst into flames and melted off part of the scales that protected it''s body. In terms of scale density, snakes were rank number 2 after dragons naturally. ¡°KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKya!¡± The Basilisk that was hit with the skill screamed pain and wildly moved it''s body around the room hitting Lyndis and Raven several times in the process. Sain saw their health decrease quite a bit due to this and Serena was out for healing now. ¡°No choice...Minor Healing!¡± Sain started to heal the two even though the amount he could heal at a time was a lot less than Serena''s own spells. The amount was a mere 110 health each time after all. Stab! ¡°KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKya!¡± On the other basilisk that Shadow and Raven were taking on at the same time; Shadow managed to stab one of the eyes the creature had causing it to scream in extreme pain as well. It was a double critical and fatal hit at the same time dealing 4 times more damage than normal. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Sain shot some magic attacks at the head area as well just for good measures. Lyndis and Raven were both tanking the basilisks while Shadow and Sain were supporting them. It was going good so far. Sain then look a peak at the battle between the Demon King and the Knight in which both sides were injured but the Knight was taking a worse beating for sure. Parts of the armour the Knight wore was cracked at places and he was replaced swords more often than the Demon King. As much as he wanted to help the Knight, the two basilisks were already taken both of Sain and the others'' hands to deal with. Plus they were dangerous enough with the fact that they could petrify people on sight as well which was quite nasty with both support members of the group taken out like that. There was no more manpower left to help the Knight individually. Several minutes passed by with a high speed intense battle went way with the four and the two basilisks. Eventually they were able to slay one of the basilisks but the other one hit and stunned Raven to the wall. Bang!
Party Member: Raven has been stunned
That message flashed in front of Sain''s eyes. And then a light shone from the eyes of the remaining basilisks which turned Raven to stone as well.
Party Member: Raven has been Petrified, unable to fight until effects are healed
¡°Shit!¡± Now their main tank was taken out as well. Lyndis as the sub-tank had to endure alone with Sain healing her as much as possible. Sain''s mana levels were dropping quickly as well so they could not fight that much longer. ¡°Mana at 20%¡± said Sain firing some ''Mana Bolts'' which were the least mana demanding of his spells. Sain looked at Shadow and Lyndis'' health. Lyndis just had over 30% while Shadow was only a bit better with 34%. Sain''s own health was at 55% due to being further away from the basilisk. Bang Bang Bang! The Basilisk going berserk now that it was about to die, went on a rampage with it hitting off three of them at the same time reducing their health levels to or near critical point. It was only thanks to their higher than usual agility that they managed to get through it alive. ¡°Agh¡± Shadow let out a groan of pain and fell to one knee. Lyndis was literally face down on the floor not moving at all though her being there means she had some health left. Sain on the other hand was using his spear to keep his body up. Health is below 5%, you will lose health until you are healed ¡°Damn....¡± Sain''s consciousness felt like it was slipping away slowly as his health was decreasing. He looked and the Knight was in a very bad shape as well. ''Is this the end.....?'' That thought was the only thing that remained. They have in the end failed. They were not good enough at all. It was laughable how their cockiness gets destroy each and every time like this. From the forest on the first day hunting to the training Eden gave them. This world only showed them despair in the end for those who are not blessed. ¡°Hey, why is this door locked?!¡± ¡°Wait, don''t break it!!¡± BANG! The door that sealed them in was completely destroyed by a foot. Yes it was just like them to show up like this. Three people entered the room. Two of them, Sain recognised as Eden and Alexandra his guildmasters. The third...was a young boy with white hair? Sain did not know who he was but since he was with those two... The three looked around and saw the room. Saw that three people were turned to stone, a giant basilisk and the Demon King and Knight fighting. ¡°I can get what happened here....¡± sighed Eden. He looked at the Basilisk without fear and said with killing intent. ¡°Disappear!¡± The Basilisk was torn into pieces just like that. ¡°Hmp! This kind of cheap trick...Break!¡± Eden then raised his hand and clenched causing something that surrounded and covered the room....the thing that caused the strength of the Demon King to increase above others to break into pieces. ¡°What are you?!¡± demanded the Demon King shocked at this sight. ¡°Alexandra...heal the brats while I take care of this¡± said Eden in a very serious voice. ¡°Yes sir~¡± Alexandra walked dragging the young boy with white hair with her in her arms like he was a doll to play with. ¡°Cure Petrify!¡± chanted Alexandra immediately causing Miriel, Serena and Raven to turn back to normal from stone. ¡°What just...¡± ¡°Where....¡± Both Miriel and Serena were confused since they were instantly turned to stone when the battle just started against the basilisks. However Raven more or less knew what was going on even though he was turned to stone for a while now. ¡°Let the guidance of light protect the weak sheep that walk these lands. Blessing of Healing!¡± Health will regenerate quickly for a total of 100 000 health in 1 minute - All Injuries will also be healed in this time period as well Alexandra used this second spell to heal everyone back to full health in one go just like that casually. It was proof of how much stronger she was compared to them. ¡°Now, let''s watch the show~¡± said Alexandra making sure that the group does not interfere with Eden from now on and until this quest ends. [p=center]xXx[/p] Eden was quite pissed off right now. There were a number of things on his plate right now. In fact this was the perfect time for him to let loose....however there was a high chance that he would destroy most of this castle on one go along with everyone else besides Alexandra and perhaps White. ¡°You are the Demon King right?¡± asked Eden with an attitude with an enormous amount of presence. ¡°What are you?!¡± shouted the Demon King backing away. In fact the Knight was also backing away from Eden as well. ¡°Someone pissed off!¡± Eden used his hand to slice the space where the Demon King was. Sensing this, the Demon King jumped away barely dodging to safety. But this was the wrong choice. ¡°Sever!¡± The same thing happened with the basilisk happened again. The space around the Demon King was ripped into pieces with the Demon King unlike the basilisk being heavily wounded instead of dying instantly. ¡°Guhh!¡± The Demon King was on one knee so easily now. That was so much more power Eden had compared to the strongest rank of Demon Lord. ¡°How disappointing....say you there¡± Eden looked at the Knight who was frozen on sight...though it was for a totally different reason than the three that were turned to stone. ¡°Y-yes!¡± the Knight immediately responded to Eden who was completely superior in strength. Knights and other martial art related people tend to respect those who were stronger than them deeply and wish to learn from them. Naturally this means they are submissive to those stronger than them as long as their relation isn''t bad. This was especially the case if the other person was that much stronger than them. ¡°Hurry up and finish this damn quest. If I remember, there should be a hidden condition in the quest for you to kill the Demon King else something bad will happen right?¡± ¡°That is correct...other than those from my order, no other are able to properly vanquest a Demon King. They will revive after a few days if not for this ''power'' I hold¡± replied the Knight walking to the Demon King who was critically injured now. ¡°Holy Sword!¡± The Knight took out a blade that was pure white in colour though still had that mechanical design to it and lifted it above the head of the Demon King stabbing it down. ¡°This is the end¡± the Knight said as he stabbed down beheading the Demon King. With this the crystal that captured the princess broke into pieces and the quest was finally finished. ¡°Die!¡± The Knight looked at the princess that was captured and unsheathed a blade from the ''Holy Sword'' and threw it at the heart of the princess in that moment to kill her. Stab! ¡°Eh?¡± Even Eden was surprised at this action. The small blade sunk into the heart of the princess staining her white skin and dress in red.....no that colour that was coming out of her was not red. ¡°Black....blood?¡± muttered Eden seeing this. He finally knew the true identity of the Demon King. The Knight fully covered himself with aura and killing intent towards the ''princess'' of the castle. Several swords dropped and stabbed into the ground around him. The ''princess'' opened her eyes looking at everyone especially the knight that ''betrayed'' her. With pure hatred in her face, she let out a cry. ¡°GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!¡± The black blood poured out of the ''princess'' covering herself completely in something that looked like ''black mud'' staining the white castle in her influence. The white dress turned into black armour that covered her body tightly and her hair and eyes turned completely white as well with her iris disappearing as she awakened. The ''Holy Sword'' disappeared revealing that the ''Demon King'' still lived. The Sword itself was an illusion and was only used to trick the true ''Demon King'' to reveal herself defenceless. Yes, the final tale of the ''Princess, Knight and Demon King'' will soon end...
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: Exactly 8900~ - Just finished this chapter and in the end I decided to extend this quest to another chapter...or at least it goes to chapter 8 as well.... - Yes...recently I felt that having less and less tables made writing much easier for some reason...ah the wishes of a lazy person here. Well another concern is that for some reason Eden became the ''main character'' again.....I mean the moment I reintroduced him in this story things revolved around him and not those six new main characters that I made [th_096_K.gif] Vol.2 Chapter 8 - The End of the Guild Quest
The Origins of Demon Kings has awakened To complete the quest, the true Demon King must be slain no matter the cost. Restriction on the death of the Knight has been lifted. Restriction on killing the ''Demon King'' has been lifted.
The ''Princess Demon King'' awakened. The ''Demon King Princess'' lied there on the ground unconsciousness due to the effects of the ''Holy Sword''. And the ''Knight'' that finally revealed all his cards pointed his sword at the being that he was ''suppose'' to protect. ¡°The Order of Knights shall Slay the Origin of Demon Kings. The ''Demon King'' that creates other ''Demon Kings'' as the ''Princess''! The Curse of the ''Princess Demon King'' will end now. Your tale shall never harm another being ever again!¡± the Knight shouted grasping swords and throwing them at the ''Princess Demon Lord''. Several of the swords were blocked by the black mud that came from the body of the ''Princess'' as if the liquid was alive. ¡°This is....¡± Eden looked at the black mud recognising that it was similar to something that he had experience before. It was quite the unpleasant experience so he rather not remember it but he still knew that the black mud was dangerous. ¡°DIE DIE DIE DISAPPEAR TRAITOR TO THE LEGEND!!!¡± the ''Princess'' shouted at the ''Knight''. The black mud continued to spread all across the room at an alarming rate. Seeing this Eden said quickly, ¡°Alexandra! Get the brats out of here now!¡± Alexandra also seeing that the current situation was getting extremely bad quickly grabbed the group and ran....no dragged them out of the castle as fast as she could without killing them leaving White, Eden and the ''Knight'' to face the ''Princess''. White looked at the ''Princess'' with disgust since it used ''his colour'' to disguise herself as something pure when she was in fact impure in all ways. ¡°What exactly is that disgusting thing?¡± asked White to Eden and the ''Knight''. ¡°Hmm....who knows....though I recognise this power from a long time ago¡± replied Eden. ¡°A creature that must be kill no matter what¡± replied the ''Knight''. White sighed since it seems one person had no idea what it was while the other was too in rage for him to answer properly. However seeing that this black mud already surrounded them and there was no escape now, White used his Dragon power to increase his abilities in this form. [Dragon Awakening] said White causing him to part way transform back into Dragon Form. Eden looked at White and said, ¡°Dragon Transformation¡± doing the same as well. After a few seconds, it seems that the ''Princess'' finally stabilised with the black mud gushing back into her with not one bit left out. Of course this included the power that the ''Princess'' inflected the ''Demon King'' with. The Demon King was left bare on the ground with only the armour on and nothing else. ¡°....¡± ¡°Get ready...she is finally at full power¡± said the ''Knight''. ¡°Might I ask what I should call you know since you are definitely not a knight in any respect¡± asked Eden. ¡°This is not the time!¡± retorted the ''Knight'' wanting to fully focus on killing the ''Princess''....no it''s better to call her the Demon King now. ¡°Answer the quest¡± said Eden with a firm voice that made the ''Knight'' fill terror from his own ''ally'' right now. Soon enough the ''Knight'' sighed and said, ¡°Just call me ''Knight'' since things will be less confusing that way. Also...¡± Knight pointed at the ''Demon King'' on the ground, ¡°should be referred as the princess from now on as well.¡± ¡°Got it¡± White shook his head and asked, ¡°Was this actually necessary to ask Eden?¡± ¡°Of course not. Just giving time for her to power up¡± replied Eden a bit bored. ¡°Huh?¡± [Huh?] Both the Knight and White were a bit confused on the reasoning. However it was very clear in the next moment. ¡°HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!¡± The density of the black aura around the Demon King increased several times and her eyes went completely black as well. ¡°Damn!¡± [This is bad!] Both Knight and White felt that the situation was turning to the bad quickly. Even though both of them were powerful and one of them was a Dragon King; fighting against a Demon King was always difficult since they had a number of skills that were difficult to deal with. For example... ¡°Let the light fall and the darkness rise...Dark Rule!¡± chanted the Demon King. This was a spell that was based off a certain necromancer''s own spell that increased the power of undead under their command. However this was only based on it and as a result, it''s effects were a bit worse than usual. From the black aura spawned two creatures that formed into human form and had the appearance of a ''Demon Knight and a Holy Knight''. The Demon Knight had the same appearance as the Demon King...well the one that was made and the Holy Knight had the appearance similar to the Knight. Covered in black aura and body made of that black mud, they were golems but had their power increased by 3 times than the norm due to the spell. ¡°Space Rip!!!¡± The Knight seeing this, immediately spun into action and went to attack the Demon King with his sword cutting through even space. BANG! However the two other Knights blocked the attack with their swords and repelled Knight quite easily. ¡°Fireball, Flame Strike, Fire Tower¡± said Eden casually at the enemies. Several fireballs, fire formed into arrows and flames coming up from the ground and walls appeared and went to them at once with every single attack of a high level! Bang Bang Bang...! ¡°Tch¡± muttered Eden seeing that these attacks had no effect on them. Instead of their pure black look, they were now pure white instead. It was a sudden change that shouldn''t be possible but was possible since the Demon King has a dual affinity with both light and dark. [Lightning Ball!] shouted White throwing a ball of condensed lightning at the golem knights that were made. Bang! The Holy Knight took the hit and wasn''t even damage one bit. Seeing this, the Knight ran across the wall and leaped through the air and cut down at the Holy Knight moments later. Clang! The attack was blocked perfectly and the Knight was repelled away with a counter attack. Knight landed on his feet and slid back a bit to reduce damage to his legs. Bits of his armour cracked a bit more where he was hit as well. ¡°So the white form can negate magical attack while the black form can negate physical attacks¡± said Knight. Eden nodded and added in, ¡°Since there''s two of them plus another Demon King, this is way more difficult than fighting them alone. But....¡± Eden moved in quickly and went to attack the Demon Knight. Seeing that Eden was most likely going to use magic, the Demon Knight shifted to it''s white form to block the magical attack. But Eden was more than a simple person who could use magic. ¡°Claw Rip!¡± Eden pierced through the arm of the Demon Knight easily seeing that it did not expect a physical attack from Eden. With a kick, he sent the Demon Knight flying to the Holy Knight on the other side of the room. Bang. The Demon Knight landed on the Holy Knight who took a hit from that attack since it was focusing on attacking Knight and White at the same time. Eden looked worryingly at the Demon King since it didn''t do anything for a while now. As such Eden took a peek at her. The Demon King was gathering more and more power; most likely for one final attack that would be certain to wipe them out. ¡°Lightning Strike!¡± seeing this, Eden could not help but to attack the Demon King. As such, the two ''Knights'' immediately moved in to block the attack and counter at Eden at a frightening speed. Bang Bang!
You took 62 525 damage
¡°Ah!¡± Eden coughed up some blood from the sudden damage. He did not expect an attack to come from that direction since those two golems were in the middle of a battle with White and Knight. However the damage recovered almost instantly thanks to his various passive skills that regenerated mana and healed wounds. ¡°Bastard...!¡± Seeing that he was attacked like that all of a sudden, Eden grabbed the head of one of the golems which turned black immediately when Eden touched it and slammed it to the ground in a single burst. BANG! Cracks appeared on the ground that didn''t even have a scratch on it when the group fought the basilisks and when the Knight fought the ''Demon King''. ''This is....'' thought Eden seeing this reaction. He wanted to test out a small theory just now. ¡°Pressure Strike!¡± shouted Eden increasing the power in his arm several fold like it was under the effects of a gravity spell.
Force from strike will triple in power
BANG! Another set of large cracks appeared on the ground the moment Eden did this and the head of the golem despite being a creature that was immune to physical damage was made into paste. ¡°Pew~¡± Eden let out a relieved breath since he managed to vent out some stress a bit more just then. The other knight that broke off from White and Knight charged at Eden since he was considered a more dangerous foe that needed to be taken care of. Seeing this Eden simply sighed since he figured out how these golems worked and was now bored of them. ¡°Full Counter¡± Eden slashed the other Knight into two destroying it using his arm that was now as strong as a blade or even stronger. ¡°Basically...those golems have the power to match any attacks. All you have to do is overwhelm such a system with force since technique and speed won''t do anything to them¡± explained Eden walking to the others. Hearing this the Demon King that was not active for a while let out a laugh since this was the first time anyone figured out the ''trick'' and perfectly demonstrate it with ease. ¡°To think I would meet such an interesting creature so soon after I awakened!¡± the Demon King had looked down on the three that opposed her so far even though all three of them didn''t even use their full power yet. She did not know that besides the Knight, there were two other creatures she should not face. And both of them were Dragon Kings. Creatures that ruled over the proud Dragons that would not accept anything that were weaker than them or even stronger than them to a certain degree. Perhaps even Gods would not be able to bend their will. [Eden this bitch is getting annoying isn''t she] said White in a 180 degree in his ''normal'' personality. He was quite angry that this kind of battle was happening in his territory to begin with. ¡°Yep I agree, let''s kill her¡± replied Eden. But the Knight was one step faster than them. Already were there several tens of swords surrounding the Knight as he leaped into the air and slashed at the Demon King. A strange light came out of his blades as he attacked. ¡°Take this!¡± BANG! ¡°Pitiful!¡± said the Demon King using her aura to block the attacks easily. That level of power was considerably low for the Demon King. In her mind, she crossed out the Knight as threatening. Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash! After several slashes, the swords in the Knight''s hand broke into piece in which he stopped the attack and took two new swords and continued in his attack. Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash! The same thing happened again. Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash! And again. Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash! And again. Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash! ¡°Hey....why don''t we support that Knight?¡± wondered Eden though he had no intentions of doing so. Rather than for pride, it was more like if things could be handled without him, he would not even lift a finger. White shrugged and said, [He should be able to deal with something of this level] ¡°True but seeing her in the air smirking like that pisses me off. Hmm....I should help him this time only....Gravity Hell.¡± Eden raised his hand and casted a certain spell that was once used against him. The pressure...no gravity around the Demon King increased several tens of times all of a sudden when the Knight was about to start another round in attacking which caused her body to be dragged down to the ground leaving a crater in the middle due to the heavy weight on it. ¡°Damn you!¡± the Demon King''s expression distorted a bit seeing that Eden was attacking her....and it was actually working. Eden sighed, ¡°Seriously....I bet this one had an easy time since her aura is pretty strong...auras along a worthless in battle against foes that are at least on the same level as you.¡± Eden continued the spell for a while longer and waited for the Knight to start attacking again. In that moment, when the Knight was about to cross the space where gravity was increased several tens of time, Eden released the spell. ¡°Dual Space Rip!¡± The Knight accelerated and slashed twice at the Demon King. ¡°Aghhhhhhh!¡± The Demon King screamed in pain since the attack went through due to her aura decreasing in power. It looks like the Demon King only fought when victory was certain when her aura was at maximum power. ¡°Fool that defiles me.....DIE!¡± However this was not the end since the form of the Demon King changed. [What the...] muttered White seeing this. The generally human like Demon King abandoned that formed and turned into a monster that had 8 arms and 6 legs and looked like a mix of different species. She was now several times larger and had sharp claws and teeth as well. Seeing this Eden could only say, ¡°At least she looks more like a Demon King now....though pretty disgusting in appearance.¡± This only further enraged the Demon King. ¡°How much more do you wish to insult me before I kill you all?!¡± The Demon King screamed in no longer a female voice. It was now more like the voice of a beast that could speak. ¡°This is the end Demon King!¡± shouted the Knight bravely charging straight in as always. However this was a big mistake. BAAAANG! All 8 arms slammed down at the Knight crushing him in one go. The Knight was OHKO just like that.
The ''Knight'' has been killed
¡°....¡± [....] White and Eden stood there a bit speechless. ¡°That was....anti climactic...and a bit quick¡± muttered Eden seeing this. [Yeah...] that was the only words White could put out since it was so sudden and it seemed like the Knight was on a victory roll over the Demon King. Eden thought about it a bit and then said, ¡°Now that I think about it, that Knight had trouble with that Demon King lying on the ground there....against the Origins of Demon Kings...yep, this was actually expected and he did quite well considering his level of strength...though that was only due to that Demon King taking it easy on him.¡± White looked at the monster that no longer resembled anything he saw before and asked, [So...we have to deal with that now right?] Eden looked confused at White''s words. ¡°We? This is your territory and your mountains right? This is certainly your job¡± [What?!] retorted White, [This is your quest so why should I do the work for you?!] These two Dragon Kings started arguing on who was to do the grunt work all of a sudden. Naturally if they worked together, things would work out well but remember, both of them have been on bad terms for a long time now and working together all of a sudden is something impossible. ¡°Dark Arrows!¡± shouted the Demon King. Arrows made of dark magic appeared and were shot at the two which using their part Dragon forms dodged easily. The Demon King continued to fire these Dark Arrows at the two like a slow machine gun. Much slower in rate of fire but fast enough that it was a pain. ¡°Mana Shield¡± said Eden casting some defences just in case. Jumping around the place some more, Eden pointed his finger at the Demon King and said, ¡°Ice Coffin.¡± Bang! Ice immediately appeared and crushed together with the Demon King in the centre. The ice was so compressed that it looked like a thin layer over the Demon King. Break! However a spell of this level was unable to seal the Demon King. ¡°This is going to be a pain....¡± muttered Eden who was really redundant to go full power right now. [p=center]xXx[/p] Boom Boom Bang Boom! Those were the sounds that could be heard from outside the castle. Being one of the large sized castles and was similar to a palace in size, such ''minor'' damage to the place would not completely destroy the place. ¡°What in the world is happening in there?¡± wondered Miriel hearing these sounds. Shadow who had the ''hearing'' skill though not trained that much answered her. ¡°Sounds like both sides are using powerful attacks and the result is those sounds we''re hearing¡± he replied. ¡°But WHAT kind of attacks is what I''m wondering. They say that you can learn a lot from seeing a live battle between powerful people. I was hoping that we could get some tips from seeing this battle. Running away won''t do anything to help us¡± said Miriel hearing the answer. Alexandra laughed off Miriel''s rude comment and said, ¡°If you guys were there, you would all be instantly killed. That Demon King must be more powerful than it appeared since they''re taking so long.¡± Sain and the other nodded since they have seen Eden''s power that literally could be considered higher than ''first-class'' in terms of power, speed and variety. It was more like a cheat key than anything else. ¡°Now that I think about it....¡± Sain started to say, ¡°How does Eden''s magic work? I heard no chant nor does he use a staff to control the spells? Plus the casting is too fast as well....as well as the power from each of the spells¡± All of those points were true. No chant which results in insane cast times, no staff but can control spells effortlessly and the power that was off the charts Hearing this, Miriel and Serena who were also magic users were interested in this as well. Shadow and Raven who could not use magic at all did not care that much but listened in. Lyndis who could be considered a magic user but is classified as a fire user really didn''t care that much but still listened in since there was nothing else to do right now. Alexandra scratched her chin seeing that there was some expectations for her to answer this. Usually it was impolite to tell of other people''s abilities without their permission but it was really a lot harder than normal to explain how Eden works. ¡°Well....¡± Alexandra thought back on some explanations that Eden gave about his magic use, ¡°I think Eden once said that as long as he had the mana; he could use any spell. There was something about the mana consumption being ridiculous the more complex the spell is. Basically in exchange of being literally a cheat character, Eden exclusively uses several times more mana than even a high consumption mage.¡± ¡°Think about it this way. A normal fireball would take around 10 mana to cast and fire. Eden needs 100 mana to do the same thing on the same level. That would mean a normal mage can use 10 fireballs and therefore deal 10 times more damage than Eden at that point. But if you increase the amount of mana to cast the fireball for Eden to 200 mana, it would have the power of 10 fireballs which is still bad. If you increase it to 300 mana, the fireball damage increases to the power of 50 fireballs at once and this difference gets larger and larger than more mana Eden pours into his spells. Early on this is an issue of mana but later on, Eden could literally spam as many spells as he wanted.¡± ¡°How does that work? Doesn''t it defy the energy conversion theory?¡± asked Miriel. This really did not make sense for her as well. ¡°Umm...I think it''s similar to winding a gear that takes a while to start up...¡± said Serena giving her impression of how it worked. ¡°So...it takes a while to start but gets really on after that? Doesn''t that mean if Eden poured 1000 mana into a fireball, it would be powerful enough to explode a mountain into pieces?¡± wondered Miriel. Alexandra hearing this could not help but laugh. ¡°Hahaha, Eden could really do that but he needs to use a more powerful spell. Think of his mana consumption and power behind his spells as a bell curve where the increase in power slows down to a halt after a certain point. If Eden wanted to explode a mountain with a fireball, he would need to make the spell more complex which makes the fireball into something that looks like a fireball but not a fireball and something more dangerous.¡± Miriel nodded hearing this. Even though it still sounded like a cheat key in this game, it still had it''s limits that sort of balance it out. She proceeded to her next question. ¡°How difficult was training for Eden in the past? Hearing that he used such a powerful thing, wouldn''t the failure rate be extremely high?¡± ¡°Failure to use spells for Eden? Never happened¡± Alexandra crossed her arms to show that it was impossible for such a thing like that to happen. ¡°Huh?¡± Miriel was confused now. With skills and spells, with low skill proficiencies like what they had right now in the beginner levels; it was not that uncommon for the skills or spells to fail sometimes though it never happened in a critical situation that would lead to someone''s death. ¡°I have never seen Eden failed a spell...ever. No matter the situation, unless something directly disrupted his ''casting'' and even then, Eden would still be able to cast the spell as long as it was at least half complete.¡± ¡°Isn''t that....impossible?¡± ¡°Not at all since Eden also explained it simply as well when I acted those decades ago. Basically he just consumes a bit more mana than normal.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel and the others all thought that this kind of ability was also a cheat key as well. Being able to use all spells was one thing but to not ever fail in the casting of any spells was an even more of a cheat key combined with this first cheat key. ¡°Anyway enough of that unlucky idiot! Why haven''t you asked about me?! You do know that I will not lose against him right?!¡± Alexandra complained shamelessly. While this lot had respect for Eden, there was a significantly less amount of respect for her for some reason. ¡°....¡± The group stared in disbelief in their senior in every way acting like a child in front of them like this. ¡°Then...what can you do?¡± asked Shadow since it seems to be the question she wanted to hear. Alexandra grinned and immediately said, ¡°I am a person who is able to kill Eden.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Back at the castle, the battle was steadily becoming worse by the minute. The Knight was dead...though it was his fault for underestimating the Demon King, and that very same Demon King was growing rapidly as a monster. Already did the number of arms increased by 2 and the body size increased by a considerable amount compared to the start of this ''form''. The contradicting nature of this Demon King, of light and dark immediately showed in it''s form with strips of black and white making it look like a zebra If not for the fact that it was anything but zebra. Along with now 10 arms that came out on random parts of it''s body, it now also had 4 wings and the mouth area increased to the point that it could shallow several people with ease. In other words...it was a monster that no one wanted to face due to the sheer absurdness of it''s appearance and powers. ¡°White! Attack to the right at the same time as me!¡± shouted Eden slowly being forced to use his full power more and more. [Right!] White in his pure white body and clothes instantly moved and surrounded his body with white lightning and attacked to the right. Meanwhile, Eden did something similar and covered his body in flames attacking from the left. BANG! BANG! Two exploding sounds echoed in the room which was more or less completely destroyed right now. It couldn''t be helped since the Demon King was now 20 metres long and the height of 5 metres. It was only due to the fact that the Demon King transformed in such a way that prevented it from moving too much that only a part of the castle was destroyed so far. The smoke cleared from the attack and the Demon King was unharmed once again. ¡°Shit! This is going to take forever¡± complained Eden seeing this happen once again. On the rare case where they were able to deal damage, the Demon King would heal immediately and the same level of damage would no longer affect it. It could be said that the Demon King was slowly evolving it''s body to be invincible. ¡°Fireball Barrage!¡± shouted Eden creating and throwing 20 fireballs that each had 4 times more power than normal fireballs at the Demon King. ¡°GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!¡± The Demon King screamed as the fireballs burst into flames on her body and rolled over immediately putting out the flames. ¡°Damn, it lost her speech but seems to be smart enough to try to stop status defects¡± muttered Eden running around dodging narrowly the arms that went around rapidly to try and crush him. White moved directly above the Demon King by expanding out his white wings and attacked from above using a hand stabbed filled with lightning. [Haaaaa!] White stabbing down poured more and more lightning in his attack to the point that it went through the seemingly invincible defence of the Demon King and made it pour blood from the wound area. ¡°GAGAGAGAGAAAAAAAAAA!¡± The Demon King let out a strange laugh and healed the wound once again with it''s ''hide'' becoming stronger in the area where it was wounded. ¡°....¡± [....] Both Eden and White stared at this sight once again. They wanted to see any kind of weakness of this kind of power. In terms of abilities and use, this kind of skill would be considered one of the rarest and a cheat ability without limit. But all powerful things comes with a cost if it is like that. Similar to Eden''s own high mana consumption with magic, there must be a weakness with this kind of ever growing defence. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. If not, then this Demon King would be too strong even without considering the ''curse'' that would originally affected them to cause the Demon King to grow stronger. If this was the case then you would need a move that killed the Demon King in one shot....though there was a possibility that ''Knight'' had a move exclusively to kill Demon Kings who were these cheat like creatures. But he was dead now...though honestly, Eden could just revive him like that. However doing so had many many risks and requirements. The first was the mana costs, 300K mana was needed which was a tall sum that only a small few managed to get to. The second was that the revived person would be ''useless'' for a few hours so doing so in battle would make things worse. The third and worse thing was that you would be a number of debuffs from several Gods that didn''t like you reviving the dead and included sealed regeneration, stats reductions, skills being sealed or made weaker and so on. Frankly it was not worth reviving people who are dead in this game. In fact the only times he would even consider doing so was in his ''Vortex World'' where the rules of Gods did not apply there no matter how pissed they were when Eden made it. But right now seeing the Demon King in that kind of state where it was growing ever stronger as time passed on rapidly, Eden could not afford to take any chances anymore. He would need to get more serious now to the point that he would most likely destroy this white castle. ¡°Dragonic Release!¡± shouted Eden powering up instantly. The aura around Eden from his ''battle aura'' also increased several times as well. Bang Bang Bang! In an instant, using his dragon claws, Eden ripped out chunks of the Demon King like that. ¡°GAAAAAAAAAAR!!!¡± Naturally coming with this, the Demon King screamed in pain as well due to this sudden attack that came out of nowhere. Seeing that Eden was now a threat even with it''s ever growing defences, the Demon King stretched out its 10 arms like firing rockets at Eden one after the other. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang! 10 attack came from the Demon King like that. White took the chance seeing that the Demon King was distracted by Eden right now. [Lightning Strike!!!] White moved in close to the Demon King and slammed his fist into it''s body unleashing a full power lightning attack that instantly spread to the rest of the Demon King''s body. ¡°GAR?!¡± The Demon King though injured could not let out a loud and long scream since the lightning stopped it''s mouth from functioning. Then it noticed that it could not move anymore as well and then....felt fear. ¡°Finally....this poor game can finally end here¡± said Eden bored since a while ago since the Demon King only relied on it''s defence to fight. White appeared next to Eden as well and added in, [There isn''t much to say about this thing''s strength. A typical piece of trash that got lucky so far] Hearing these words that literally considered it as trash...no lower than trash; the Demon King was more enraged then ever before. ¡°GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!¡± The Demon King breaking through the paralyse effects of the lightning let out it''s black aura to the max more and more that it''s body was being damaged and healed rapidly by it. ¡°This is...¡± Eden was the first between the two to notice that something was wrong here. The pure black aura....had bits of white aura in there? ¡°This is a dual affinity aura?¡± wondered Eden since he never seen one at all. When an aura had multiple colours, it was usually due to one aura have multiple colours and nothing more. Here, two auras, black and white were being forced into one. Booooooooooooooooooom!!! The impure mix of auras exploded with the Demon King. ¡°Ahh.....yes, this form....yes I finally made it now....¡± a soft female voice was heard where the Demon King was. From where the monster like Demon King was, a young woman with black and white hair appeared clothed by nothing but a piece of cloth. ¡°Take a good look....since this will be the last thing you all will see¡± the Demon King now back in a humanoid form grinned arrogantly as if victory was certain. Let''s put this in perspectives. The Knight was about level 600 while the ''Demon King'' that''s still on the ground unconscious was level 700 which was why the Knight could not kill the ''Demon King'' and lost to it in the end. Now this Demon King was a step higher and was level 800 to start with and now with two transformations later was most like around level 900 which was enough to slay most creatures and even threaten the lives of Gods. But....it''s opponents were two Dragon Kings whom achieve dominants over all other Dragons. Creatures that could not simply be measured in levels. ¡°White...this person is getting too cocky. Turn to Dragon form and one shot this thing¡± ordered Eden immediately. White frowned and asked, [Why can''t you do it?] ¡°Because I will most likely blow everything up along with you when I try...¡± replied Eden though a bit sad that even now, he could not ''hold back'' on his power at all after a certain point. He had always in the end against powerful foes, fought at full power breaking through his limit many times. Seeing Eden''s somewhat sad expression, White finally said, [Fine...] obeying Eden ''this once''. White shifted his form and transformed into a 10 metre long Dragon that could still fit in this room since it was quite large. Seeing that White was in fact a dragon...a small dragon; the Demon King''s confidence rose even more. ¡°Such a small dragon...facing me is a death wish small fry¡± she giggled as if she knew her victory was unquestionable even now. Pissed off, White immediately smashed through the ceiling and soared straight in the air and turned away from the castle hovering to gain power to one shot this cocky bitch. [Burst Stream!] White''s Dragon body was completely covered in a pure white aura with added white lightning as well which increased his power and speed even more. Moving like a beam of light, White easily pierced through the castle wall where Eden and the Demon King was and hit the Demon King without it knowing. BANG! A large chunk of her flesh gone, the Demon King could only stare in disbelief. BANG! Another chunk of her disappeared as well. BANG! Once again the same thing happened. The Demon King covered her body thickly with her aura now but the attacks still damaged her rapidly. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! ¡°Imp....Impossible! I AM THE DEMON KING THAT DEFIED THE GODS THEMSELVES!!!¡± she shouted as if this was not what it was suppose to happen. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! The barrage of attacks from White did not even leave time to even counter attack or defend. Seeing this kind of thing, Eden naturally and casually poured salt on the Demon King''s wounds. ¡°A mere Demon King that had only did a little bit to defy the Gods and hid away for so long thinks she can compared to us? Both of us are Dragon Kings....creatures that even Gods will not mess with in a frontal battle. The difference in power in clear; Demons who merely hide from the power of Gods and Dragon who bravely face the power of Gods directly with their bodies and wills. Who do you think will win? Why do you think Dragons are considered one of the strongest creatures in existence and Demons are not? Disappear small fry.¡± The Demon King''s face twitched. It had messed with the wrong people for the last time. Even if the Gods somehow forgave her and protected her at this moment, it would all be useless. ¡°YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU!!!¡± The Demon King could only do a desperate final attack on Eden whom she only could attack right now. BANG! The moment she took a step to Eden, her body completely disappeared without a trace by White''s attack. [p=center]xXx[/p]
The Origins of Demon Kings has been slain
The Guild Quest: Help the Knight from the Order of True Knights to slay the Vile Demon King has been completed Collect reward from member of Order of Knights
Due to the completion of a B+ ranked quest - Fame increased by 500 - All stats +10 - Contribution to Kingdom +500 - Level ups x 5 - Due to the overall low contribution to the quest, most personal rewards from this quest will not be given. However rewards from being part of a guild that completed this Guild quest still apply as long as a minor contribution was met.
Guild Rank has increased from ''New Recruit'' to ''Recruit'' - Several pieces of informations can now be revealed on the Guild Menu - Contribution to Guild +100 - Relationship to Guild increased
Several windows appeared in front of Sain and the other five. It was a message that the quest that was beyond their abilities was completed. But what caught their eyes was not exactly that the quest was completed but the rewards that suddenly showed up. ¡°...¡± It was quite the sight to see six people with their jaws dropped. Because of this sight, Alexandra had a hearty laugh and then said seeing the same windows appeared in front of her, ¡°Only a small amount of fame and stat increase...below average if you ask me.¡± ''This is below average?!'' The group could not help be retort in their hearts. The amount of gain they got in this quest was still enough for a high levelled player to feel satisfied. It was not common for someone to gain this amount of experience, fame and increased stats from a quest even if it is a B+ ranked guild quest. Plus the most important thing was the +10 to all stats bonus as well. This was literally more important than mere levels since which 5 level ups increases stats by 25, this 10+ bonus to all stats easily increased it by 100 or more depending on how many stats you got. Plus this bonus stats would not disappear like with stats from levels so easily. The group quickly allocated their stats from the 5 level ups they gained from this quest. Their status windows more or less looked like this now. [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 65,Level: 65]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Tactician,Title: Dark Walker]Fame: 610,Fame: 610[/quart][quart=Health: 3069,Health: 2751]Mana: 1213,Mana: 532[/quart][quart=Strength: 90 +31,Strength: 83 +32]Agility: 107 +36,Agility: 251 +36[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 80 +25,Intelligence: 10 +14]Wisdom: 82 +34,Wisdom: 10 +14[/quart][quart=Vitality: 103 +14,Vitality: 88 +14]Stamina: 81 +17,Stamina: 98 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 26 +22,Fighting Spirit: 32 +22]Endurance: 22 +14,Endurance: 18 +14[/quart][quart=Leadership: 9 +14,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 4 +14,Luck: 29 +24[/quart][quart=Offense: 16,Offense: 12]Defence: 23,Defence: 26[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race:: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 65,Level: 65]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Shield-Bearer,Title: Blade Dancer]Fame: 610,Fame: 610[/quart][quart=Health: 4816,Health: 2919]Mana: 587,Mana: 962[/quart][quart=Strength: 158 +45,Strength: 152 +31]Agility: 103 +26,Agility: 130 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 10 +19,Intelligence: 80 +27]Wisdom: 15 +19,Wisdom: 12 +17[/quart][quart=Vitality: 164 +34,Vitality: 93 +14]Stamina: 105 +22,Stamina: 84 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 28 +27,Fighting Spirit: 16 +20]Endurance: 32 +19,Endurance: 19 +13[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +19,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 0 +19,Luck: 2 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 22,Offense: 18]Defence: 36,Defence: 35[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 65,Level: 67]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Sound Maiden,Title: Nature Wielder]Fame: 610,Fame: 630[/quart][quart=Health: 1403,Health: 1344]Mana: 18692,Mana: 1767[/quart][quart=Strength: 15 +21,Strength: 14 +33]Agility: 86 +26,Agility: 87 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 215 +26,Intelligence: 152 +24]Wisdom: 82 +26,Wisdom: 145 +34[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 10 +19,Fighting Spirit: 10 +25]Endurance: 15 +14,Endurance: 15 +14[/quart][quart=Vitality: 25 +14,Vitality: 25 +14]Stamina: 58 +17,Stamina: 55 +29[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +14,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 0 +14,Luck: 2 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 10,Offense: 10]Defence: 10,Defence: 10[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
Concentration: 10 +13Concentration: 10 +14
There was really a large change with the level ups and +10 stat bonus. Health and mana increased quite a bit due to this with health increasing by 300 overall for everyone and mana increasing around 100 more as well. Plus now due to their builds, their stats were becoming more and more clear on what direction they would take. Raven''s health increased some more, Shadow''s speed increased and so on. They were slowly carving their own paths with their status windows here. Each and every one of them had a particular stat or stats that was a tier higher than the rest with the exception of Sain who was an all rounder in the group. No weaknesses but no true strength at all. It was a path harder than all others in this kind of game for Sain who saw the others who could focus on a single goal unlike him who had to spread out his skills and talents in all directions. Sain sighed seeing this since at this rate...no perhaps it had already happened...that he was being a burden to the others. His mastery in his skills and spells were on the same level as the others and without the stat advantage, his attacks were weaker than the others as well. ¡°Anyway where IS Eden?¡± complained Alexandra, ¡°I rather not stick around in this wasteland and would like to eat some good food from the city soon....¡± ''Why are you thinking of food all of a sudden?'' wondered Sain hearing Alexandra. Hit~ ¡°Why are you thinking of food all of a sudden¡± said a person completely in sync with Sain right now. This person who could hit Alexandra was naturally Eden. On his shoulder was the Knight that they did the quest with though he was not moving....on his other shoulder was the Demon King that was suppose to be dead but unconscious. ¡°What...happened?¡± wondered Sain seeing this. Sain looked closer at the Knight and it seemed like he was crushed by something and was no moving at all like he was.... ¡°Dead?¡± asked Sain. Eden gave a wry smile and said, ¡°Yep, got crushed under a giant hand....long story and I rather revive him then explain it all at once.¡± Before Sain or the others could question anymore, a blue light surrounded them all including that boy with white hair that Sain didn''t recognise at all. ¡°Teleport!¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] The next moment, they were in the guild building back at Witchelm city where they started off 3 months ago on this journey. Sain shook his head seeing such an impossible thing happen so casually. ¡°I can''t be used to this...¡± muttered Sain following Eden and the others into the hatch located under the stairs which led to another world. In the pure white world where not even the laws of the Gods could affect it; Eden started to revive the dead Knight...no it wasn''t who was doing the reviving but Alexandra. ¡°Let the light gain speed and transform into the infinite hope that gently covers the world in strict law. The snowflake that forms and disappears in the gentle breeze burns to become the small candle light that lives through the harsh wind of life. Complete Resurrection!¡± Golden light covered the Knight''s body as Alexandra used an extremely rare spell, one to revive the dead on the Knight. ¡°Cough!¡± The Knight awoken suddenly and violently at once. Blood came out of the helmet near the mouth opening. ¡°Ah, forgot to heal his wounds while I had the chance....Alexandra; heal else you''ll need to revive him again¡± said Eden. Alexandra sighed and reminded Eden, ¡°He can''t die here but can only faint in this place remember? I can''t believe your going senile right now.¡± Eden made a light fist and tapped the side of his hand into the palm of his other hand and said, ¡°Ah, forgot about that. But that doesn''t change that you need to heal him else he''ll faint this time.¡± ¡°Right right. Healing Hand.¡± Light came out of Alexandra''s hand as the Knight recovered back to full health as everyone else observed. Touching various places around his body, the Knight thanked the two before woke up the ''Demon King''...no ''Princess'' from her sleep as well. But they didn''t and simply looked at each other with an amused smile and then said: ¡°Knight you do it~¡± ¡°This is the duty of the Knight right? To awaken the princess~¡± As if they understood what was happening immediately, the three girls sparkled in expectations. Just because they couldn''t experience this kind of thing nor talk about it with others in real life, it doesn''t mean they couldn''t in this game where no one was hating on them intentionally. The boys on the other hand took a while more to understand the two''s words but didn''t act much on it and simply looked on to see what was going to happen. On one side, there was a battered Knight with half broken armour and one the other side there was a battered half dead ''Demon King'' that was now the ''Princess'' apparently. The Knight was still quite shocked that he was being forced to do this but since this guild in the end helped him and his order, he could not refuse. ¡°I understand¡± The Knight surrendered to the pressure at that moment. He walked over to the ''Princess'' and took off the skull helmet. ¡°This is...intense....¡± said Lyndis blushing while seeing this. Serena completely red did not say anything but was creeping closer to get a better look. ¡°I need to...observe this for....future reference....yes....¡± said Miriel doing the same. While Eden and Alexandra ignored these three since there was something more entertaining in front of them; White and the other three guys did notice. ¡°Are....girls always like that?¡± asked Sain honestly not knowing why they acted like that. It was like a switch was hit in their head all of a sudden. Raven shook his head saying that he didn''t know either. Girls were....in the end part of the problem he had to deal with all his life but he didn''t particularly hated them but tried to avoid them to prevent ''future conflict''. Shadow on the other hand didn''t care at all, ¡°They can do what they want. Just watch the show¡± he said critically. White watched the group''s individual reaction and then muttered under his breath, [Are human children like this these days?] wondering what went wrong in their upbringing. Usually children were not allowed to go into danger like that else was it a custom of freemen to allow this or was it something Eden decided on his own. Either way White also watched the interaction between the ''Knight'' and ''Princess''. After taking off the Demon....I mean princess''s skull helmet in an angle that prevented everyone expect Eden and Alexandra from seeing his reaction and her face. He suddenly smacked her face several times as if it was natural. ¡°Wake up!¡± Slap Slap Slap! ¡°....¡± The dreams of three young girls were broken while two ''monsters'' started laughing hysterically at the sight. Everyone else was only a bit shocked at these reactions all of a sudden. This was becoming more and more like a comedy route now. ¡°What what? Waht hapend?¡± asked the Demon King/Princess in a sleepy sluggish voice getting up all of a sudden. With pure red and white hair, she looked around and saw the Knight and said, ¡°5 more minutes...¡± and immediately fell back asleep. ¡°Don''t Sleep!¡± WHACK! The Knight kicked his person immediately seeing this. The Demon King/Princess rolled around holding her head where she was kicked in pain. ¡°This isn''t at the Order you idiot! Plus you were turned into a Demon King as well! What the hell were you doing you for that to happen you fool?!¡± shouted the Knight lecturing this person without restraint. ¡°Eh?~ I was sleeping after walking a bit from home and then woke up here¡± replied the ''princess''. ¡°....¡± The Knight then proceeded to kick this person several more times and then introduced her to everyone. ¡°This idiot is an apprentice at the Order of Knights and also something I happened to know by chance which is my greatest regret. Her name is Lielm.¡± ¡°And this person is an actual Knight from the same order and also someone I knew from an early age which is my greatest pride~ His name is Summer~¡± Both of them introduced each other in a humorous manner...well at least one of them did. Seeing this Alexandra could not help but to ask: ¡°Would you like to join the guild? You''ll fit right in, I''m sure.¡± ¡°Su-¡± ¡°No¡± ¡°No¡± Two people rejected that idea before Lielm could accept. These two people were Summer and Eden. On one hand Summer didn''t want to let Lielm go wild else something may go wrong and be the cause of a war and on the other hand Eden didn''t want to deal with another troublesome person. ¡°Aww.....in that case, I''ll make this one join the guild instead~¡± Alexandra went over in a flash and hugged White from behind like a doll. [S-stop!] White let out a cry for help while trying to get out but neither worked. [What is this ridiculous strength?! This is enough to strangle a dragon to death!] White was getting blue faced due to the lack of air in his lungs right now. At this rate, Alexandra would really chock him to death....no hug him to death. Eden let a silent prayer for White who ''died in vain'' against the hugging monster. ¡°Things really got out of hand when she reached 5000 strength....¡± muttered Eden remembering the torture he and Viv went through when she felt like hugging something. It was a habit that they could endure for a while but got out of hand later on with no end. Alexandra grinned while still holding onto White saying, ¡°Either die being hugged by me or join the guild so I can hug you some more!¡± while rubbing her cheek on his like an obsessed person. [Why does it seem like you are telling me when to die?! Never-mind that, a Dragon will never bow down to anyone or anything!] Alexandra''s iron grip on White increased in strength. Seeing this, Eden could not help to shiver and add in: ¡°You know that she not at full strength yet.....¡± Only pity was in his tone towards White. [What?! This person is a monster!] ¡°Yep....I noticed for a long time now...¡± ¡°Hurry up and chose to join or else~¡± [I don''t even have a choice now?! Damn......fine!]
NPC ¡°White¡± has joined the guild
In the end, White joined the guild. ¡°Yay~ I have a maid now~¡± [What?!]
Guild Member ¡°White¡± has been allocated the role ¡°Maid¡±
¡°....¡± White could only stare in disbelief that he was reduced to this. A mere servant to these people. A Dragon King reduced to this....then he remembered that Eden was dressed like a maid when he visited him for the first time after the Dragon King festival with tears in his eyes. For some strange reason, White could no longer feel any hate for Eden despite what happened before. Seeing all of this and as the guildmaster of this guild....Eden introduced White to the group. ¡°This is the White Dragon King of Purity known as White and....the guild''s new maid....¡± he voice seemed extremely force along with the smile as well. This was how White joined the guild as a maid.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8700~ - Another chapter done and this part of the story done as well~ Now I can introduce the next ridiculous thing from Eden...well haven''t even started on chapter 9 yet...well I can figure it out later while I''m drowning in work from assignments of all kinds. - In the end I decided to make White join the guild....as a maid. Yes, this is a thing now and will be entertaining to write about... - Next chapter I will....perhaps reveal Eden''s true level....and along with it another thing as well... Vol.2 Chapter 9 - The Eternal Dungeon ¡°Well then time to dress you up~¡± [Wait....Noooooooooooooooo!!!] Alexandra dragged White away with force. It was such a pity to Eden that there was another victim to the whims of Alexandra....but in this case it meant that he would be teased a lot less....at least for a while before she becomes bored with White. When that happens Eden would make a deal with White in exchange for freedom....if Alexandra doesn''t get bored of White....then Eden only had pity for him. ¡°....¡± Eden turned to the others ignoring that sight for now and said, ¡°Anyway...let''s get back to business here. First of all...the reward from the Order of Knights...Summer was it?¡± Summer with Lielm next to him nodded and replied with, ¡°Yes, I will tell the order of thee achievement slaying a formidable Demon King so near to the origin.¡± ¡°Wait...why the hell are you trying to speak like that again and also, what do you mean ''origin''?¡± questioned Eden. Lielm giggled and teased Summer, ¡°Looks like you won''t be able to use that fake knight accent now~¡± ¡°Shut it you...¡± Summer sighed and then started explaining things, ¡°Demon Kings are....creatures that lead the demons who have defied the will of the gods. All of them are exceptionally powerful and are able to increase their strengths to outmatch their enemies in certain area...like pure attack, defence or speed. There are two types of Demon Kings....the possessed ones like this idiot here who are the weaker ones and the origins one that are capable of creating other Demon Kings at will.¡± Eden frowned since there would be more of those annoying things running around. ¡°Does that mean there was a source to these Demon Kings....?¡± ¡°Yes though we do not know what it is. All we know is that sometimes there are Demon Kings that are capable of creating other Demon Kings and we call them origins of Demon Kings. How these origin Demon Kings are created....we do not know. Perhaps sometimes when one is possessed they could also become an origin Demon King or after enough time and power...the possessed Demon Kings would....¡± ¡°I see¡± said Eden while thinking aloud now, ¡°I think I recognise that power...that black mud from somewhere.....just don''t know where I faced it before....¡± ¡°You have?¡± Summer was more confused than ever now. The ''black mud'' was something all Demon Kings could use and only Demon Kings could use. ¡°Well, I can think about it later. First I would need you two to go off on your honeymoon...I mean back to where ever your base is and return telling me of your marr-I mean reward¡± said Eden correcting himself mid sentence a few times. ¡°....¡± Summer stared at Eden with disbelief that he would fine this kind of things entertaining as Lielm was rubbing her body on Summer''s. ¡°This person knows what''s going on~ Let''s go get marr-I mean their reward!¡± said Leilm enthusiastically. ¡°Wait why did I feel there were some dangerous words in there?¡± asked Summer begin dragged away similar to how White was being dragged away by Alexandra. With all these distractions gone...Eden turned to the group which were promoted to regular ''recruits'' of the guild and said, ¡°Now...to take a break for a while....do what you wish...¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Following Eden''s words and the fact that they stayed in the game for a while now...to be precise, a few days in a row. The group immediately logged out in order to get back to real life. Following getting out of the capsules, their bodies were a bit stiff to the point that it took a while to get used to walking around. ¡°Haha, to think walking would get so difficult after a while in this body¡± said Maria holding part of the wall to support herself as her legs were numb. Ian also added in with a sarcastic voice, ¡°I''m surprised that we can move at all considering the time spent not moving in real life.¡± ¡°The capsules have a in build feature there maintains the muscles of all players in the game to make sure people don''t get paralysed due to the game. What''s we''re feeling right now is just us not used to these bodies like when we started the game¡± explained Hina. ¡°So we just have to get used to these bodies again?¡± asked Maria. ¡°More or less...it''s better to get some exercise with these bodies to make sure we don''t completely fall under the dependant route where we can''t move well. That in built feature for the muscles isn''t perfect and only deteriorates the muscles much slower so a few days won''t be that bad¡± replied Hina. ¡°It''s been a few days and we''re like this!¡± ¡°I think it''s because this is the first time so we are having a bad reaction to this feeling.¡± The group took heed of her words and asked for Simon, the butler that also supervises them from time to time to give them some exercise since they needed to move freely with these bodies as well. After a few minutes of exercise which more or less allowed them to regain all feelings in their body; they gathered up in the lounge room to talk once again. ¡°First of all...¡± started Peter since he was the ''leader'', ¡°I feel like we are being swept up with the eye of the storm known as Eden. The moment we joined the guild it felt like everything was going as he planned and we could only move by his will...like a puppet.¡± These words made the group a bit depressed since there were some truth in them. The moment Eden appeared and took charge of them were they really doing what they wanted for was Eden manipulating everything for his own amusement? ¡°Anyway it''s been a little more than 6 months since we started the game in game time that is¡± continued Peter, ¡°So far we gained an average of 65 levels and some good skills...although the 3 month trip with Eden caused us to lose out on a number of levels; we gained fame and contributions as well as more information on the guild.¡± Peter took out a terminal which could display things from the game and expanded it out larger for everyone to see. Basically technology progressed so much that these terminals that was once considered the work of science fiction became part of the reality they lived in.
Independent Guild Information Guild Name: Sleeping Sheep Centre Rank: S (Highest) Guildmaster: Eden, Alexandra and Viv Size: Small Members: Roughly 2 dozen with the majority extremely powerful Guild Vault: Unknown (Rank too low to see) Current Ranking of Guild: 11th Influence: Extremely high, connection with majority of high ranking personals in kingdom Base Location: Witchelm City, also several towns and villages surrounding it Description: Known as the once most powerful guild in the continent; many legends have been made by this guild and it''s members. In particular they have resolved many crisis that have helped the newly formed kingdom that spanned over the whole continent to stabilise through their actions. It is also known as the oldest of Independent Guilds and the first Independent Guild among a small number of people in the higher echelons of the Kingdom. Recently for the last few decades, this guild has remained in the Shadows for unknown reasons and recently they have accepted new members.
This window appeared in front of the group as they read it. There was a lot more information compared to before where only the name and member numbers of the guild was shown. Now there was even the influence and base locations listed in the information as well not to mention that several things were now listed. ¡°Rank....S?¡± muttered Serena confused on the rank the guild has since Eden explained it as only the strongest guilds having that rank. ¡°Also ranked 11th as well¡± commented Mark pointing a bit lower. Maria could not help but to exclaim, ¡°What the hell kind of guild have we joined? Wasn''t the first 10 ranked guilds all the major powerhouses?¡± Hina nodded in surprise as well, ¡°Yes all the top 10 Independent Guilds are some of the major large guilds that have perhaps several hundreds of thousands members each and have a large number of connections with other guilds as well. The only thing is that only the top 10 guilds have their names shown publically as a way to competition but anything from rank 11 and down are not....¡± Peter understood Hina''s words as the guild intentionally made their rank go down to the 11th place in order to get off the eyes of the rest of the world. If they were not in the top 10 then no one would know their rank at all. However then Ian asked: ¡°How many guilds have the rank ''S''?¡± Everyone turned to Hina since she was most likely have the answer to this. To this she immediately criticised them saying, ¡°What?! Do I look like a walking encyclopaedia to you? Go find out things for once!¡± before actually telling them: ¡°From what I know, only the top three guilds have that rank and that was only due to massive disasters happening that they luckily managed to get through. Eden said ranks did not consider size at all so...how could a small guild like this resolve a large disaster without anyone knowing....? Unless they did it in the past and everyone forgot about it....like when the Independent Guild system was only just introduced.....¡± Hina went into her thoughts but her words stuck a chord with the rest of the group as well. They looked further down in the guild information and it did say that this guild was the first one...and the oldest one....as well as once the most powerful one as well. ¡°If it was the only one then it is natural that they were considered the strongest since there was no one else to compete with!¡± said Ian trying to find faults of the words that he sees. He couldn''t have possibly landed himself in some legendary guild....right? This wasn''t like some sort of story like you would often read right....? ¡°I doubt it since...considering Eden and Alexandra....you would think they would be able to do those extremely difficult quests on their own with their unlimited strength¡± said Peter, ¡°Plus we have another problem....namely what we are to do now.¡± ¡°I say wing it¡± replied Maria immediately. Hina sighed to this and said, ¡°Winging it won''t work since we''ll be dragged around by the guild. Getting stronger should still be the main goal though I''m not sure when we start the search now. Perhaps we can ask Eden later to help.¡± ¡°So...how do we do that? I don''t think Eden is the type to take up time consuming tasks like this¡± said Ian. The group thought about it for a bit but could not think of a good way of making Eden helping them willingly or not. How could you get someone like Eden to help you other than begging since that''s more or less sets you up to be used by him completely. ¡°Trade in contributions¡± said Mark giving the solution. The others immediately thought about it and then... ¡°That would work thanks Mark.¡± ¡°Looks like this discussing is over~¡± ¡°Time to get some rest before getting back into the game.¡± With this the meeting was over since they found their goal. Peter reminded the group, ¡°Remember, we need as much contribution points to the guild to order to trade them in. That means we need to complete quests and more over, get much stronger as well.¡± Time passed with the group eating food more calmly than before in this mansion due to Alexandra''s excellent cooking skills and as they slept resting their minds rather than bodies. [p=center]xXx[/p] Eden was lying on one of the sofas in the guild building trying to get some sleep. He really didn''t like beds for reasons that were in the past. One time he was forced into the Underworld and forced to take on the highest difficultly quest involving killing a certain major God in his own turf. Because of that, Beds were a big no to Eden now even decades or even a full century after that event. While trying to sleep...no while he was sleeping; he felt that something lifted his head and was placed on something soft. ¡°Didn''t think you were the type to like these things¡± said Eden to this person named Alexandra. Only she would do something like this at this moment to him. ¡°Weren''t you just asleep just then?¡± asked Alexandra as if she planned all of this beforehand. ¡°I was....then you came.¡± ¡°Aw~ Still attentive to me?¡± ¡°Not at all¡± Eden opened his eyes to see Alexandra and then immediately shut them since he thought he saw something scary like Alexandra in make-up that makes her look like something from a horror movie. Pure artificial white face, thick red lipstick and purple stuff around her eyes to the point that it was several times larger than her eyes. ¡°....¡± ¡°Why don''t you look at me?~¡± she asked as if she knew about Eden looking and trying not to see her in this state. ¡°Get that off your face else I will burn it off¡± threatened Eden even while resting his head on Alexandra''s thighs. Although he could not see it, Eden felt that Alexandra was pouting saying, ¡°What a boring reaction.¡± Eden sighed hearing this and got up now sitting next to Alexandra who wiped off that horror like make-up from her face. ¡°Why are you here anyway?¡± Eden asked a bit annoyed since he likes to sleep most of the time at night. The days where he had to stay awake and fight were long gone now. ¡°It''s about the kids.¡± ¡°Kids? You mean the brats? Are you going to call them kids now? I think two of them are almost adults already.¡± ¡°And what about you calling wither brats or recruits. Decide on one and stick to it.¡± ¡°...Brats it is then.¡± The two of them stayed silent for a while before Eden asked: ¡°So...what about them?¡± he asked. ¡°What do you think of them?¡± ¡°Weak¡± Eden immediately replied with hesitation at all. Alexandra frowned and then said, ¡°Not about that; but their future possibilities. Back then, we literally had no choice but to go down this path we''re on but they have the choice to become strong or remain a part of the weak. What do you think will happen later on.¡± ¡°You''ve suddenly become talkative...do you like them that much?¡± ¡°Hmm....I think so. Answer my question or I''ll hug you to death~¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°I''ll take that as a yes~¡± Alexandra moved in to wrap her arms around Eden tightly to the point that he couldn''t escape at all even with all he got. ¡°No stop!¡± Eden cried trying to break out but like White earlier in the day, it was no use against this inhuman strength that could take down Dragons with punches alone. After some moments of struggling for his life...literally; Eden answered her question with: ¡°I don''t know! I''ll just drop them down to the Eternal Dungeon to see where they get to!¡± With that; the fates of six people were exchanged for Eden''s life being hugged away. [p=center]xXx[/p] Logging back into the game, the group was greeted once more by Eden who had an evil smile on his face. The group immediately paled seeing this. Right now they were all in the guild building which meant that there was no escape from Eden at all since he controlled everything here. Next to him; Alexandra was humming a light tune which was also quite strange since usually this combination.... ¡°You guys will get a new form of training.¡± A lever appeared next to Eden and when he pulled it, he gave some advice. ¡°Don''t die.¡± (Sound of lever being pulled~) ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!¡± Six screams were accounted for as they fell down this bottomless pit of darkness. [p=center]xXx[/p] THUD!
You have entered the Eternal Dungeon - To escape you must reach floor 10 and activate the teleport device guarded by a boss monster - A set amount of monster will spawn every once in a while on each floor - Once you move down a floor, you cannot go up again - Food ans supplies as well as equipment are shattered around each floor. There are generally 2-3 areas where food and water is accessible - Monsters will scale up a bit higher than current level
¡°What the hell is this....?¡± muttered Sain getting up from the ground where they all fell down to. He looked up and the hole that appeared suddenly by the whims of Eden already disappeared which meant they were really stuck here for a while. Sain looked around and found that the others were somewhat okay. Surprised, shock but still okay. Miriel and Lyndis in particular were already scouting the area around them while Serena was checking everyone''s health and status. ''The girls in this group are awfully dependable'' thought Sain seeing them. ¡°Right...¡± Sain looked around as well and they were in a labyrinth style place....no dungeon with brick walls that looked sturdy enough. Examining the paths where they landed from; each path led somewhere though he did not know where exactly and were evenly spaced out so there was a 5 metre gap between each wall. ''This means the battles in general will be quite tight. Raven and Lyndis won''t have much room to dodge powerful attacks. Better to have only one of them tank enemies here'' Sain and the others looked around some more. The place they were dropped to was a large space of around 20 by 20 metres of just nothing surrounded by the walls with a ceiling that was a good 3 metres tall. ''Air circulation in this place seems good enough plus there are 4 paths which we can take from here. 6 if we include the ones that immediately leads to dead ends from sight alone.'' While thinking about this; Lyndis suddenly called out to the others: ¡°Enemies! Lizards!¡± This immediately alerted the others as they rushed to Lyndis who was at one of the paths that they could go through. At the end of the corner which was 20 or so metres away, there was a humanoid lizard...called a lizardman and next to it was a overgrown lizard that you could see in real life that was twice the lizardman''s size. ¡°Raven! You head to the front, Lyndis and me will form the second line, Miriel and Serena will form the third line! Shadow; you make sure to tell us if enemies were coming from the other paths!¡± shouted Sain immediately since he already thought of a general plan to take care of things...at least for now. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± chanted Miriel casting the spell on Raven who was the sole tank right now. Serena also casted healing spells on the group as well as usual. Raven stood a total of 3 metres in front of the second line with Lyndis and Sain while the third line was another 3 metres behind the second line. At the very back; Shadow was guarding the back line ready to fight any time soon. ¡°Which one do you think is harder to fight? The human like one or beast like one?¡± asked Lyndis who was next to Sain. He thought about it quickly and replied, ¡°The beast one since there''s a lot of room to fight here.¡± Lyndis nodded and replied, ¡°Right, Flame Strike!¡± Fire burst out of Lyndis like an arrow of flames that was half the size of a person and flew to hit the large lizard on the head. It screamed in pain when the flames hit it and charged straight ahead aiming for the group being attacked. Seeing that it''s comrade was attacked, the lizardman charged straight behind the giant lizard as well. Seeing that when Raven dodges the first attack the second attack from the lizardman will come with the giant lizard''s one to himself and Lyndis and dangerously close to the third line, Sain ordered: ¡°Raven take the hit!¡± Not questioning the order, Raven held his spiked shield and slammed it into the burning lizard''s face the moment it got close. At the same moment, Sain prepared the ''Magic Arrow'' spell when the lizardman attacked. ¡°Garararara!¡± The lizardman let out a strange laugh as he moved to the right and went straight to Sain. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± said Sain immediately firing them at the lizardman''s body hitting him twice. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± A further three ice bolts which came from Miriel also hit the lizardman''s body a moment later as well. Finally Lyndis moved in and sliced at the lizardman shouting, ¡°Power Strike!¡± forcefully cutting it into two and killing it. ¡°Root Bind!¡± next was Serena creating the roots that came from the ground and restrained the giant lizard that finally was put out of fire via Raven exchanging hits with it. Sain quickly checked Raven''s health and it was about 80% even with blocking and acting defensively. ¡°Focus ranged attacks, Raven retreat a bit¡± said Sain preparing another set of ''Magic Arrows''. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Three sets of attacks rained down on the giant lizard and killed it in one go.
You have gained experience
From this battle, the group gained a bit more experience than they expected. It was roughly around 5% in total which meant that the enemies they just faced were around level 70 or 80 due to inflated experience points when you fight stronger foes in terms of levels. ¡°That was easier than I thought¡± commented Lyndis seeing that they were about to die in one shot or something along those lines. Miriel sighed and added in, ¡°True though it was mainly due to Eden''s ''training''...compared to that, this is easy even without Shadow supporting.¡± Shadow nodded and said, ¡°As long as the enemies don''t reach more than 4 or 5, things should go well enough that we won''t die¡± adding himself in future battles as well when things would get too difficult without him. Just as the others were discussing how much stronger they were, Serena pointed out, ¡°Umm....how do we get out?¡± Raven immediately replied, ¡°By finding the exit on the 10th floor.¡± ¡°And....how do we do that?¡± ¡°By going down the floors one by one.¡± ¡°But...how do we find the stairs down...? We can easily get lost here....and we don''t have much food left as well....¡± Serena reminded the rest of the group of their current situation. The group immediately checked their inventory to see how much food they had. Adding up, they had around 60 pieces of barely bread as a safety line, some canteens of water that can last for a couple of days and a few pieces of meet that is uncooked. Sain sighed and relief and said, ¡°We can at least last a while until we find a place with food. The message did say there are 2 or 3 places with supplies....though I''m worried about where they are and how large each floor is....¡± The others could almost literally feel the worry on Sain''s forehead. He was rapidly aging to the status of an old man after all. Seeing no way of getting out of this any time soon, Sain needed some comfort and therefore chanted: ¡°Wolf Summon...¡± The dimension barrier between space broke and Luna popped out. ¡°Arf!¡± And then immediately ran into Sain''s arms being petted by him almost instinctively. As Sain looked at Luna, for some reason he felt like things will be all right. However when Sain thought about Luna more, he frowned saying: ¡°Eden said you would grow up....but when? And also....ah we can make it so you level up as well!¡± Sain turned from gloomy, confused and then excited in mere moments. It was like a comedy route that the others looked with interest. Sain turned to the others and asked, ¡°Will you share some experience with Luna here? So he can grow up a bit quicker and help out?¡±
Option to share 10% of experience gained to Wolf Summon: Bright Luna
Seeing Luna''s puppy eyes that are an instant kill for all living creatures; the group immediately pressed the ''yes'' option without thinking too much about it and this message appeared in front of them.
From now on, when Bright Luna is summoned; 10% of experience will be transferred to Bright Luna
With this, Luna would grow at a steady rate until it could take part in level. Knowing this, Sain checked Luna''s status window wanting to know at what point it could fight. ¡°Open Bright Luna Status Window.¡±
Status Window Name: Bright Luna Species: Hybrid Wolf Level: 1 Other Notes: - Very cute - Likes hugs - Can battle when it grow to adult size (Level 30)
¡°30 levels until we have another member of the team eh....¡± muttered Sain seeing this status window. Meanwhile Miriel seeing that they were in a maze now could finally use one of her spells that she hasn''t used for months. ¡°I knew picking up this spell was a good idea...even though training it was a pain and it never reached beyond beginner level 1.... Clairvoyance!¡± A bright light in the form of a line appeared in front of Miriel point at the direction they had to go. The light curved the corner and continued until it disappeared after a few seconds. Seeing this, Miriel then explained how her spell worked. ¡°Basically the light only goes for 10 metres but it is in the right direction so we don''t need to doubt where the light goes combined with the minute cool down and the low mana cost, I can spam this giving us an easy time through this place.¡± Including Sain, Raven, Serena....basically the rest of the group; they were amazed such an convenient thing existed and Miriel had it. They clapped while Miriel was blushing from the sudden attention and praise she was getting. But then Lyndis asked: ¡°What happens when there are two correct paths?¡± ¡°Then the light will split into two and we have two ways of going. Plus I can target things as long as I know it is there else the spell will fail. Say....if I want water and use the spell; the light will direct me there as well. I can probably find the equipment as well though I need a more precise idea on what to look for.¡± With this the group had a way through and a steady supply of monster to fight against. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°So all the paths at the beginning leads here....¡± muttered Sain seeing that there were a total of 4 entrances behind them and 4 new exits in front of them in this generally wide open space similar to where they started off at. A few minutes passed and there were no enemies at all through the path as they made their way here to this open space. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± chanted Miriel using the spell once again. When she did the light split into four at each of the exits that the group could see. ¡°Looks like in the end they all lead the same way¡± she commented at this situation. While the spell was useful; it didn''t mean much if the end result was the same either way. Because of this; Miriel was pouting a bit knowing that her efforts were in vain. However she did gain a bit more skill proficiency with ''Clairvoyance'' to the point she was now more than halfway there to Beginner level 2 with the spell. ¡°So...which way to go?¡± asked Sain not knowing which path would be the best one. When you think of dungeon, you think of a challenge with monsters....though sometimes they also included traps as well. Lyndis not being the one to think about these things too deeply immediately walked through the exit to the far left. The other quietly followed her since they really didn''t care on which path to take as long as they were safe. [p=center]xXx[/p] As the one responsible for scouting, Shadow played his role and returned to the others reporting in what lied ahead. ¡°There were a few traps but I managed to disable them. There were also no monsters on the way...at least for the next hundred metres or so¡± he reported in. ¡°Good, we can on go on with ease¡± replied Sain thanking that Shadow could detect and better yet disable traps. There have been many stories where parties of players have died in dungeon due to traps. Unlike monsters, when you fell into a trap; you are likely to die if your health and defence isn''t high. With Shadow leading the way just in case, the group progressed forward to the next open space with more paths. ¡°Five paths this time...¡± muttered Sain seeing that there were one more path than normal. The group all looked at Miriel who was already chanting the spell to be used. ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± From Miriel came 4 lights that went into the paths except for the central one. It seems that the middle one either led nowhere or worse, at the same time trapped which would at least deal major damage to the group. ¡°Well then, let''s take the left most path this time¡± said Sain leading the way before telling Shadow to scout ahead once again. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Some time passed with the group walking forward and Shadow returning with a report that there were no monsters or traps on this path. Eventually the group came to the end of this floor with a quite literally hole which lead to the next floor down in front of them. ¡°I think...this is why you can''t get up a floor once you go now...¡±muttered Sain seeing this plain obvious way down. Like the time when Eden triggered the lever, the gap will most likely close when they dropped down. There was only one question now. ¡°Will the hole close when we all jump down at once or when all of us are down there...?¡± he asked. Raven simply picked up a rock from the side and threw it down the hole immediately to check how deep it was. ¡­. ¡°....¡± There was no sound at all. Did this mean that the hole was infinitely long or was it just that there was something that cushioned the fall at the end. Lyndis then pointed out, ¡°Either way, we have to get down there. See you guys in a bit¡± before jumping. Next to jump in were Shadow and Raven as if they didn''t care at all what could be down there. ¡°....¡± Sain, Miriel and Serena looked at each other and each jumped down as well. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Sain reawakened again due to the impact of dropping so far....actually there was a slight problem with that theory since they would be several tens of metres underground by now and yet.... ¡°The air level seems a same?¡± The further up or down you go in the world; the thinner the air is. In the thin atmosphere this is natural but for underground, it''s mainly due to the lack of flesh air being circulated with other gases being more prominent and thus makes you feel like there is a pressure when breathing naturally. But Sain did not feel any of those at all. In fact he could breath the same as if he was on the surface. Sain looked around and the other members of the group were more or less waking up or exploring the place now. Sain also looked around and found that they were in another labyrinth maze. However this time the place feel....ominous like there was something out to get them, the sort of feeling you would find in horror movies or stories. Sain quickly checked if any new messages from the game appeared and in fact one new message appeared.
You are on floor 1 Conditions to clear - Find the exit - Slay the monster that hunts you down
¡°....¡± The first condition was fine....it was natural but the second was most likely the source of the bad feeling. Before Sain could think more about it, Shadow shouted: ¡°Hey, I found something!¡± With that, the group gathered where Shadow was which was near the edge of the space. There was some sort of transparent ''thing'' that strangely look like a map in front of them. When Sain and the others touched it, the following message appeared in front of them as well.
Obtained Ever Growing Map of Eternity - Map will only work in Eternal Dungeon - Will auto-map area explored - Can be taken and stored in inventory at will
''Interesting...this would definitely make things much more easier for us though...I suspect there is a catch like it won''t show hidden areas or something like that. Such an convenient thing related to Eden could not possibility be good.'' Sain had that thought but still decided to let the group use it. It was TOO good to not use after all. After that the group found that there were a dozen paths to take and with Miriel''s ''Clairvoyance'', all the paths lit up which made things very difficult. It was most likely that if you walk around in certain directions you would eventually get to the exit but it was a matter of when you get there and how many monsters and traps you will encounter until then. But ''Clairvoyance'' could also be used to avoid dead ends as well plus the auto-mapping helps a lot as well. From what Sain could see the paths were the same size as before in the floor above and the general style of it was the same as well. Picking a path, the group went into the labyrinth. [p=center]xXx[/p] Some minutes later and the ominous feeling growing a bit stronger, the group encountered the first set of enemies in this floor. It was a group of lizardmen that numbered 4. A tall total but they were unable to rush all at once since the gap only let 2 or maybe 3 at once. ¡°Take Formation!¡± shouted Sain to the others prompting them to move quickly with Raven already blocking the first attacks. Shadow slipped by from around the lizardmen without them noticing and attacked from their flank aggravating one of them to himself. Meanwhile Lyndis took another lizardman while Raven took on 2 at once with Sain, Miriel and Serena supporting. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Sain fired his spell at the second lizardman that Raven was taking on hitting the leg and arm stopping an attack from striking Raven. ¡°Shriek!¡± Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! A high pitch sound came from Miriel''s staff that didn''t affect the group at all. The lizardmen covered their ears to this sound which let the others to attack more and more with each of the taking one down in a matter of seconds with lightning fast attacks to critical and vital areas over and over again. ¡°Root Bind!¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Serena immediately restrained the last one and Sain and Miriel both in a combination attack hit the lizardman squarely in the body killing it in one go.
You have gained Experience
Magic was indeed a powerful thing though Sain''s magic was a level lower than Miriel''s and even Lyndis'' which kinda saddened him a bit. ''The true worth of a Shaman is not the power of his spells but the variety and combination of spells that he can use.'' Sain repeated those words in his mind whenever he had such depressing thoughts. After all, he was capable on learning spear skills as well later on as well as more and more spells as well. Sain considered getting a buffing spell to increase weapon damage after this dungeon to help with the offence some more.
Bright Luna levelled up to Level 2
Sain nodded to this message since Luna who was staying near the back line was gaining experience as well and would be in another 28 be able to fight with them. The group walked on further with Miriel using her ''Clairvoyance'' to make sure that they are not led into a dead end. Sain through all of this could still feel that something was following them and from the looks of the others, so did they. Even Luna was not was cheerful due to this feeling. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Flame Strike!¡± An arrow of blazing fire came from Lyndis and burnt the last enemy into ashes.
You have gained Experience
Bright Luna levelled up to Level 5
It had been a day since they have arrived on this floor and food was slowly becoming an issue. This was the 4th battle they had been through and it was still early in the ''day''. Since yesterday there were some level ups as well as skill level ups as well. Miriel gained a level in ''Illusion magic mastery'' to Beginner Level 3 as well as ''Clairvoyance'' to Beginner Level 2 due to her rapid use of it. ''Shriek'' which was another common spell Miriel would use also levelled up. Although no other spells levelled up they all increased greatly in experience and would sooner or later level up as well. Serena levelled up both ''Magic Mastery'' and ''Nature mastery'' at the same time since they were about to level up either way to both Beginner Level 6. Both ''Minor Health Regeneration'' and ''Minor Stamina Regeneration'' increased by a level for the same reason to Beginner Level 8 and 7 respectively. However both ''Root Bind'' and ''Heartbeat Healing'' increased by 2 levels each to Beginner Level 5 as well due to her rapid use of these spells. On the other hand in the complete opposite side, Raven did not gain as much skill level ups as the first two. Only ''Repair'' reached Beginner Level 3 with the equipment repairing by Raven while no other skills levelled up at all. On the other hand most of his spells...no all of his skills increased by around 40% due to the experience gained from the fights and were mostly about to level up soon as well. Shadow was in a better position with a number of skills levelling up during this time as well. ''Stealth'' naturally went to Intermediate Level 5 with his talents even in battle whether he liked it or not and ''Dagger Mastery'' also increased to Beginner Level 7 as well. Both ''Hearing'' and ''Backstab; increased to Beginner Level 6 as well do to the constant use of them at the same time. However the greatest jump was ''Locate Trap'' and ''Disarm Trap'' which went straight to Beginner Level 4 ever since he learnt it and never used it at all. All other skills increased fairly well since he was using them as well. Lyndis was a massive power user in her skills to the point that her mana was often low by the end of it. Due to her constant attacking and more attacking ''Sword Mastery'' increased to Beginner Level 7 with little issue and ''Fire Manipulation Mastery'' to beginner Level 4 and on the verge of levelling up as well. ''Fire Blade'' along with the three ''Strike'' sword skills as well as ''Flame Strike'' were skills that she would commonly use often and as a result all increased by one level with ''Fire Blade'' to Beginner Level 7, the ''Strike'' skills each to Beginner Level 4 and ''Flame Strike'' to Beginner Level 5. Sain on the other hand had some progress at least as the middle man in everything. ''Spear Mastery'' increased a bit but not enough to level up. Since he didn''t have ''Magic Mastery'' he couldn''t gain the advantage of using magic more and more to increase the power of other weaker spells like that. As a result, ''Minor Heal'' and ''Weaken'' increased to Beginner Level 6 with ''Weaken'' increasing by 2 levels. ''Bursting Will'' by some surprise also increased to Beginner Level 3 and ''Magic Arrows'' also increased to Beginner Level 5, a total of two level ups there. Unfortunately Sain hasn''t been able to use ''Mana Bolts'' that much since the area of battle was quite tight and there was a high chance of him hitting other people as a result. Due to the presence of Luna as well Sain was unable to use ''Summon Familiar'' due to his summon limit and since he only used ''Wolf Summoning'' once, that spell didn''t increase in experience as well. Seeing this level of progress of the others compared to him, Sain sighed once again. Miriel was fitting into her role was support in both buffing and attacks, Serena was getting more powerful in healing, Raven was slowly but gradually increasing in strength as a tank, Shadow as becoming more useful in all ways and Lyndis was getting much more powerful in attacking. Compared to that, Sain''s spells only got a but more powerful with ''Magic Arrows'' increasing to three attack instead of 2 now. It was a small gain but a good one for Sain but was still minor compared to the rest of the group. ''Nevermind that...we all gained 3 levels from yesterday alone...this level of progress is quite high already.'' The group was slowly increasing their level and was nearing level 70 now with Serena at level 69 while the others were at level 67 each. Compared to when they got the +10 to all stats bonus from that Guild Quest, this amount of progress wasn''t much....well not much can compare to +10 to all stats. ¡°Let''s go¡± said Sain leading the group once again ahead. A few more hours passed until they settled down to eat and rest. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Why is it that the food quality seems to have dropped?¡± asked Miriel in a cynical tone to Lyndis. ¡°That''s because someone had to use all the good quality ingredients yesterday and left nothing much for now!¡± retorted Lyndis back at her, ¡°Plus our cooking is nothing compared to Alexandra''s....her food was heavenly even with the same common ingredient.¡± Miriel gulped her saliva thinking about it as well. Alexandra was one of the few grand masters of cooking. Total there were only a small number of grand masters in the game which didn''t even reach a dozen despite the game 25 year long history and Alexandra was one of them. If you tallied up the number of grand masters they would look like this. 1 Sculptor Grand Master 3 Blacksmith Grand Masters 2 Tailoring Grand Masters 2 Cooking Grand Masters 1 Fishing Grand Master 1 Architector Grand Master 1 Enchanter Grand Master 1 Bard Grand Master Basically none of them were of the combat class at all but all of them were on the same level as them and all had special unique skills along with them. The Sculptor could manipulate time itself. One Blacksmith could make the best armour that was twice as strong as normal and had four times more durability with the right materials and method. One Blacksmith could make the best weapons that had a soul in them quite literally. One Blacksmith could make the change the space of already finished products at will increasing and modifying their stats. One Tailor could produce some of the best clothes on the market being able to stitch together rare materials with boosted effects. One Tailor could enchant clothing using certain methods and double their effects for a while. One Cook could make permanent stat increasing food with common to rare ingredients. One Cook could increase the effects of foods to more than double the usual and increase the time they last as well. One Fisher could lure in and dragged and hook even a Dragon and any other creature with a single rod at hand. One Architector could design the most complex buildings and make it last longer and stronger than all others while using ordinary materials. One Enchanter could enchant all things with anything he wanted including spells and other skills into common items as rocks or sticks to use. One Bard had such an heavenly voice that all allies would have a massive amount of buffs set on them as if the Gods were blessing them. They were the eleven Grand Masters that were produced after so long. Of course many others ''mastered'' their skills but weren''t able to get or finish the secret quest that comes with it leaving them incomplete and not a Grand Master but a simple Master instead with above average skills. Talking about this something said: ¡°I wonder if Eden is a Grand Master of something...¡± ¡°Highly doubt it, everyone literally knows when a Grand Master is born after a while and there hasn''t been on in years¡± someone else replied. ¡°But what if Eden was still hiding a special skills unknown to the world...?¡± someone asked. ¡°What? The Grand Master of blowing things up?¡± someone else replied cynically to the question. The group chatted away and eventually got to hunting and exploring the floor once again. [p=center]xXx[/p] Meanwhile.... ¡°Achoo!¡± Eden sneezed all of a sudden since he felt someone was talking about him. ¡°Are you sick?¡± asked Alexandra in an almost laughing tone. Never once did Eden get sick when he wanted to and not get sick when he didn''t want to. This almost seems like the latter case once again. ¡°No....someone was talking about me and about stuff about Grand Masters....¡± replied Eden in an annoyed tone. He could just tell those kinds of things for some reason. ¡°Hahaha¡± ¡°This is no laughing matter...¡± Alexandra still laughed despite that and said, ¡°Speaking of Grand Masters...didn''t Viv gain that title a while back as the ''Grand Master of Torture''?¡± ¡°....Don''t speak of that event....we agreed never to speak of it ever again¡± replied Eden shivering from that day. There was so many screams that he drowned the heavens itself. ¡°Well I''m a ''Grand Master of Cooking'' since I''m the most normal of our lot and you''re literally the only being with a Dual Grand Master Title.¡± ¡°So?¡± asked Eden not getting her point and especially not getting when she said she was the ''most normal''. None of them were normal at all and in fact it was better to say ''least abnormal'' compared to her wording. ¡°You are the ''Grand Master of Creation and Destruction''. A being who has the same power of creation as Gods and the power as a Destroyer to take that all away as well.¡± Eden started remembering that day...but stopped asking: ¡°And what is that point of this?¡± Alexandra fiddled with her hair and said, ¡°The world knows including me there are 11 Grand Masters in the world but in fact there was 13 in total with the last two too powerful and frankly frightening to the point that no one wants to acknowledge you two.¡± Yes...Viv and Eden were both ''Grand Masters'' but in a different way to the rest. While their skills were recognised, Viv and Eden''s were either too revolting or too heretic to even mention. Who would want to meet someone was great in torture or destroying things in normal circumstances? [p=center]xXx[/p] At the end of the first floor... ¡°Enemy boss monster!¡± cried Lyndis blocking the sudden attack. Bang! She flew a good distance away from where she was a second ago and hit the wall behind her with a solid thud. She was alive but her health was immediately decreased to 40% with that one hit. ¡°Minor Heal!¡± Even though his healing spell was nothing compared to Serena''s at this point, Sain could still heal a good bit of health...actually it the amount healed was less than 200 health which was very minor. Sain cursed under his breath once again and figure to get ''Moderate Heal'' which should have a base healing range of 1000 health at least. ¡°Shadow distract the thing quickly!¡± shouted Sain seeing that the boss monster which was a giant lizardman that was twice was large and four times more powerful than a regular one was about to attack with it''s sword once again. On it''s right hand was a large sword and one it''s left was a shield to block attacks. It was truly a powerful creature to reckon with. ¡°Shriek!¡± Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! The high pitch sound came out of Miriel''s staff but the giant lizardman was not at all affected by it. Did it have a status immunity to these kinds of things? Bang Bang! The giant lizardman sliced twice at Shadow who was jumping around the place with the second attack almost hitting him if not for him using ''Become Mist'' at the last second and escaping. By this time Raven moved up in the front lines as well and Serena was about finished casting her group healing spell. ¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡±
Health will regenerate for 11 points every second for 10 minutes
Due to her increased skill levels in various places, the effects of the group healing spell increased dramatically as well to almost doubled from before during the trip with Eden a few months ago. It was truly a rapid growth the power of the spell. As a reference, ''Minor Health Regeneration'' at Beginner level 8 has a base heal power of 275/100 sec and with the bonus from the mastery skills it increases to 605 Health/100 sec or 6 health per second which is only half of the ''Heartbeat Healing'' but has only 1/10 of the costs at 10 mana per use compared to 100 mana and you can stack the spell over itself. Raven who was small compared to the giant lizardman as well as using a small shield was getting his health reduced a bit faster than the health regeneration could heal him. The giant lizardman was only using it''s sword against Raven from a range where he couldn''t even counter. His spiked shield with lowered durability could only slowly break against this foe. ¡°Backstab!¡± Clang! Shadow tried to hit the head area but the giant lizardman was heavily armoured with most of it''s body covered in metal with the exception to the sides and some areas to allow freedom of movement. Shadow simply did not have the power to pierce through metal like that at the moment. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Getting up from her earlier setback at the beginning, Lyndis fired off her spell straight at the giant lizardman. Bannnng! The attack which was an arrow of flames was blocked by the shield on the left hand but spread around that area giving it the ''burn'' status defect though it won''t last long. Seeing that it was hurt, the giant lizardman let out a loud shout at the group. ¡°Gaaaaaaaaaaaar!!!! Die Humans!¡± The giant lizardman charged forward easily pulling Raven back with brute strength as it was heading to Lyndis who damaged it. ¡°Root Bind!¡± ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± The three magic users at the back, namely Serena, Miriel and Sain himself fired spells at the giant lizardman at once seeing that it was recklessly charging. Several parts of it''s armour were blown off due to these magic attacks. ¡°Miriel, us mana bolts with me!¡± said Sain quickly thinking of something cleaver. ¡°Right!¡± Both of them look a second to charge up the spell before chanting at the same time: ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± A total of 26 mana bolts flew out and hit the giant lizardman like it was fireworks dealing minor but enough damage to knock some armour off of it. The armour of the giant lizardman was surprisingly weak! ¡°Raven, Lyndis and Shadow! Continue distracting it while attacking parts of it''s armour at times. We''re going to finish this in one go soon!¡± said Sain seeing the victory before them. ¡°Right!¡± All three of them moved in while Serena bound the giant lizardman in place though just barely. It''s strength was that much higher and took a lot of concentration from Serena to maintain the spell properly. ¡°Double Strike!¡± ¡°Precision Strike!¡± ¡°Burst Speed!¡± All three of them went into melee and started slashing and stabbing at every place they could hit with the armour on the legs and lower bits of the body suffering the most. After a few seconds of this, the giant lizardman finally broke out of the roots but it''s armour was in wreckage right now. But before it could attack, Lyndis said: ¡°Burning Touch!¡± Setting it''s legs ablaze just like that before retreating from the other side with Shadow leaving Raven to maintain the defence for the other three. Sain looked at Serena who was by the time the giant lizardman broke out, chanting another spell that was still much more powerful than what the others could deal. ¡°Blood Burst!¡± A red orb appeared and burst through the air hitting various places of the giant lizardman though mainly the legs and the parts where there wasn''t that much armour for a few seconds while it was being distracted by the flames. By the time it regain concentration to fight the group, the spell was already finished. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang! The giant lizardman suddenly burst out with blood spaying everywhere and quickly died from blood lost. ¡°No matter how many times I see it....¡± Sain felt like he was being to vomit due to the extreme scene played in front of him but another things look priority right now.
You have killed the floor 1 hidden boss - Able to advance to floor 2 now - You have levelled up
While the giant lizardman was quite strong it seems that it wasn''t that much stronger since they only gained a level from it. It could be on the level of a mini-boss or named monster however. The group quickly gathered their supplies and went to the next floor. [p=center]xXx[/p] Later on...at floor 4 where they were suddenly facing the boss monster already.... SMASH! Raven was immediately flattened like paste into the ground.
Party Member: Raven has been killed
BANG! The giant fist hit Lyndis and smashed her into the wall with ease
Party Member: Lyndis has been killed
¡°Burst Speed!¡± Shadow tried to escape but the creature was too powerful in both power and speed. It easily caught up due to the small space in which Shadow could run to and body slammed him as well.
Party Member: Shadow has been killed
¡°Serena attack with Blood Burst NOW!¡± shouted Sain already trying to figure a way out of this. The creature was already next to Miriel about to kill her as well. ¡°Noo!¡± screamed Sain seeing that another comrade was going to die. After all they went through at this point. ¡°Ice Burst!¡± From Miriel sprayed a large amount of ice at once at the creature. However it blocked and only it''s large arm was bleeding. Miriel was quickly crushed seeing that she couldn''t escape, defend or even use another spell like that.
Party Member: Miriel has been killed
¡°Blood Burst!¡± The most powerful spell came out of Serena flying at the creature hitting it several times at once. Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang! The creature burst into blood but it didn''t die....in fact it only had surface wounds at best and even that was healing at a fair rate. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOAR!¡± Charging forward with that, in an instant before Sain or Serena could even react, Serena was pierced by the giant horns on it''s head and was killed just like that.
Party Member: Serena has been killed
¡°What the hell?!¡± cursed Sain seeing that they were easily wiped. Before the creature turned to him and kill him, Sain remembered that he had seen this type of creature before. Creature of Labyrinths with great size and thick muscles and fur as defence. It''s arms were particularly thick and it had large horns as well. A monster that was rare but equally as powerful A Behemoth. Something that was definitely out of their league right now appeared. ¡°Damn it....¡± BANG!
You have died
With that, their exploration of the dungeon ended. They have lost against it.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9500~ - Well this was a bit easier to write compared to the other recent chapters since I mainly focused on Sain this time round. I have been adjusting the writing style a bit to be similar to the early chapters a bit more. Well this chapter was mainly on them in a dungeon growing...not much to say on character development besides Sain - On another note...I just realised that ''mana bolt'' in the skill window for Miriel for the longest time was ''magic bolt'' instead....yeah.....not going to go back and fix that.... [th_093.gif] - If I have time, the next chapter may be up in a few days...otherwise there are RL stuff to take care of including several assignments at once...I want to try and finish this volume before that though.... Vol.2 Chapter 10 - Behemoth ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!¡± Sain no Peter let out a scream as he was ejected from the capsule. The sheer presence of the behemoth was so large and so frightening that Peter felt like it was truly real and was really going to kill him. ''This game....Royal Road is too realistic. It''s the reason why everyone is captured by it but....'' Peter was having some slight problems of how the game handles strong monsters and dying. Even if the pain sensors are decreased down to 30%, getting smashed into paste or being pierced by giant horns still hurt like hell. ¡°Peter you fine?¡± asked Hina who heard Peter scream like that. It was an extreme reaction that even surpassed the scream that Grace let out when she died as well. ¡°Yeah....¡± Peter could still feel the chills from in the game even now although it was quickly fading as his body was realising that he was not in mortal danger. After a while as his nerves finally calmed down Peter prompted to have a meeting with the others about what just happened. ¡°To sum it up.....we got completely smashed¡± he said putting it out there immediately with a sigh. While he had no idea at what level the behemoth was, it was a lot stronger than they were to the point that they were unable to even match it at all. ¡°Was made into paste....¡± muttered Mark remembering what happened to him. ¡°....¡± The others were silent hearing this since Mark seemed to have gotten the worse of things. To literally die like that no matter how low the pain sensors was, it would still hurt like hell. ¡°Well at least we can finally get out of that dungeon now¡± finally said Maria seeing that they died and should respawn back into the city though under the eyes of Eden once again. However Peter remembered some words in which appeared when they ''entered'' the dungeon and said, ¡°Actually....I don''t think we''ll spawn back at the city....¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°What?!¡± Both Maria and Hina retorted at the same time. The main point of respawning back at the city was to regain supplies and set off once again from there. If players spawned where they died then PK which is player killing would be overrunning the place. ¡°I think we need to get to the floor 10 before we can escape...though this might not be the case and we would spawn back in the city to....Eden....¡± ¡°....¡± The group was now comparing the experience with the dungeon to Eden now. Unfortunately they felt that the dungeon filled with monsters was more peaceful compared to the guild they have joined with Eden and Alexandra who were ''humans''. ¡°Ether way, we''ll have to deal with it when we can log back into the game.¡± With that the group split up inside this large mansion to wait for the time to pass. [p=center]xXx[/p] Hina had greatly underestimated the game known as ''Royal Road''. Rather than a game, it was better to say it was an entire new world and she lacked a large amount of information on it. Although she knew some basic information like the city names, some item names and what to do here and there; it was only a drop of the vast ocean of information that existed in the game. ''I believe that this place has some books on the game....'' Hina walked to one of the computers in the room and brought up the information that was collected from ''Royal Road''. There was quite a large collection of information that was stored and sorted in the computer. ''Looks like they spent quite the time researching the game....good, this means I can use this as well...'' Hina browsed through the vast amount of information that was now in her hands. First of all, she wanted to research what kinds of paths that she could take personally. She now had three types of magicks to use; sound, illusion and ice. From what she found, only ice magic was the true offence type one while sound and illusion worked better as support. First of all, Hina looked up on details on ice magic since it was widely used even now. ''Let''s see....ice magic has a good balance between offence and defence due to it''s solid nature where it allows you to create defences as well as attack at the same time. Spells such as ''Ice Wall'' is popular in dungeons since it can block monsters away from the party. Most variations of attacks are of the firing type....so I guess they are similar to ''Ice Bolt''? ''Ice Spear'' and ''Ice Hammer'' are another two types of attacks that I can learn. ''Ice Spear'' has a stab effect while ''Ice Hammer'' has a blunt effect on foes. There''s also AOE ice spells as well here....but all of them require at least intermediate level in Ice Magic Mastery and Magic Mastery.....well let''s see what Sound Magic has then...'' Hina changed the information in front of her to the details that were available for Sound Magic. ''Sound Magic....not much is here....I guess it''s isn''t as common as I thought.....it says here that it is a magic that is commonly used by Bards....interesting. I think Jenny said she was a magician bard or something like that before. Applications of sound magic....can be used to buff allies...I know that. Can also debuff enemies as well...interesting....and here it says that sound magic can be used to cause status deflects or remove them as well....how interesting. I think that''s similar to how ''shriek'' is being used to stun enemies. So....theoretically I can cause an enemy to light up into flames if I have the proper skills? I guess that''s going to be a long way ahead...probably in the intermediate stage at least.'' Hina closed the information on Sound magic getting out the info on it she wanted. Next was illusion magic which she had the least use on. With sound magic she had, ''Melody of Sound'', ''Cracked Barrier'' and ''Shriek'' but for illusion based magic she only had ''Clairvoyance'' which isn''t that useful aside for exploration. ''Illusion magic....there''s even less here than for sound magic! Damn...and this was the one I wanted the most information out of. Well....it says here that you can go invisible with illusion magic....obviously.....I wonder if they slacked off on this. Other than that is control over light....to make it seem that something is there when it''s not and something is not there when it is.....so...blending like can possibly make doubles of a person. I suppose if there is two Marias running around she will an easier time with the enemies not targeting her as much or two Ians....I don''t think they will even catch him if that''s the case....it could also be used as defence....other can making clones of people I suppose I can use it on a smaller scale or something like that....or cause the enemy to think there is a strong creature in front of them or even make enemies attack each other....the possibilities are interesting. But I currently lack the skills to do that. I would like to train my masterys up to intermediate stage before I try...'' Hina closed the information in front of her again and thought about it a bit more. In order for her to be the most effective as possible, she needed to increase her magic skills. Other than that is the inherit problem of all magicians which is poor close combat skills. With Hina and even Grace, they have higher agility and vitality compared to other magic users but it still pales compared to the others. Even Peter who is a combination of both has a pretty good physical side...though as a result his magic lacks power behind them. Hina knew that her magic attack outclasses Peter''s and Grace''s healing too. The main problem was that Peter did not have the Magic Mastery skill which greatly boosted the effects of magic. She did not know if this was because of having the ''Shaman'' class or something else. Sooner or later he would get the skill or something similar to it. ''Since Eden didn''t tell him that it was a problem I suppose he has other plans for him....'' Moving along her thoughts she increased the knowledge she had on monsters and locations of them as well. Information on how to clear a dungeon was actually quite common and even had specific guides on certain popular dungeons. Hina also searched and found that labyrinths types dungeons were particularly difficult to clear since you could get lost in them. The trick was to either have a method to not get lost or simply use a map....both of which the group had thanks to the auto-mapping and Hina''s spells. Since the beginning of this search of information Hina realised it had been a number of hours already. It was time to eat but... ¡°I suppose I can search for information on Eden and the guild....I wonder who that other guildmaster Alexandra is as well and the one we didn''t she yet. Hina typed in the search parameters on Eden, Alexandra and the Guild. The first time that appeared was on the Guild. ¡°Sleeping Sheep Centre....do not search for information on them....? Guild is highly secretive and has connections to the highest powers....all attempts to investigate were stopped before they started....major guilds avoid clashing with them and has a history of ''removing people'' when necessary...what the hell kinds of guild are we in? Never mind that...what about Info on Eden and Alexandra?¡± Several more windows popped up as she read them. ¡°Eden....age unknown, been in the game since the early days....gender...unknown...? Well he says he''s a guy but looks like a woman...to the point it makes me sad....¡± Hina''s pride as a woman was still damaged by Eden.... ¡°Anyway....more information involves abilities and actions....complete magic monster machine...??? What the hell kind of description is this? Past actions include the complete destruction of several cities and valuable historical buildings??? Once held the highest bounties recorded in the game and has several wide known hidden achievements which include the unification war of the Western Continent and later on war of the underworld where a major God rebelled? This is so ridiculous....but seems to be true...I wonder what Alexandra was like...she seems more normal than Eden at least.¡± Hina looked at the information on Alexandra as well. ¡°This is....¡± What Hina saw were abilities and actions that were on the same level as Eden...sometimes worse. Even more so, she had a deep connection to EVERY church in the game that people would want to join as well as connections to powerful knight groups as well. ¡°Even the power of Divinity....wait didn''t she say that she threw that aside and took on something else...? Close connection to Gods and the first Holy Templar in centuries and later the first Dictator of Light as well....she''s a complete monster that rivals Eden as well!¡± Hina was feeling a bit faint that she talked so casually and even disrespectively to these two beings that had powers that rivalled the Emperor himself. However she still continued searching for information on the third Guildmaster who she didn''t know. ¡°The third guildmaster is....a person named....Viv? A witch?¡± Hina was a bit confused since the witch class was rare but was a lot more common compared to what Eden and Alexandra had. Then she looked further down where the more interesting information was.... ¡°My God....what the hell is this?!¡± She felt sick just by reading the actions that this ''Viv'' took. She couldn''t even imagine what it must have felt like for those who saw it in person. Compared to this person, it was quite fine to cross Eden and Alexandra both at the same time.... Feeling the lack of energy to continue, Hina went to get something to eat. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Peter, so in the end you joined the guild and Eden has taken an interest in you all¡± said Simon. Peter nodded and said, ¡°Yes though I believe this is the right choice.¡± Simon pondered for a bit and then replied, ¡°Yes...I suppose it is with the massive network that guild has. I believe finding the young lady is matter of time when you make enough contributions to the guild or beg Eden...or both.¡± Peter raised his eyebrow hearing those words. It seems that Simon knew Eden in the game and could have easily done what the group have planned to do much more easily then them. What was the point of them if Simon held quite the power in the game already. Peter remembered that Simon in game was a high ranking official in the Kingdom. He could easily order the Kingdom to search for the missing grand-daughter. ¡°Why didn''t you use your powers to solve the master''s request?¡± Peter asked. To this, Simon was a bit shocked but then replied, ¡°I cannot since my position does not allow me to. The matters in the game and in real life are kept separate and if I do not, my position will be stripped from me.¡± ¡°Then what about with Eden? Couldn''t you request for help from him?¡± Simon gave a wry smile and said, ¡°And give him a reason to make me owe him? There are only a few things so frightening that can compared to when Eden requests for your help...with the Emperor Weed...you at least get something from it but with Eden...there is nothing and you are used up until you run dry where the next one takes your place as the slave...¡±, Simon had hollow eyes saying that, ¡°But it is very uncommon for Eden to ask for any help if he can.¡± Simon left these words for Peter and the others as he went back to his duties. ¡°Remember...you cannot escape from Eden. All you can do you get stronger and fast to endure what is to come with staying with him and that guild. ¡°....¡± Seeing the time, Peter went to get something to eat with the others. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Ahhhhhh!!!¡± screamed someone on the image being played. Eden was watching the group get destroyed by the behemoth one by one and eventually they all died. ¡°....¡± ''A level 250...no level 200 creature and quite a powerful one for that level as well....at least that dungeon didn''t put an impossible task like that....could be on the level of a named monster but not of a boss monster....'' he thought seeing the strength of the behemoth. At the end he sighed since they in the end died without that much resistance. All that training on increasing their agility and vitality was for nothing if they themselves froze up against a more powerful foe. While the group may not have seen it, Eden saw that their bodies froze for a split second whenever the behemoth attacked. It was a fatal flaw that most players had for a while against much stronger foes. If such a flaw did not exist then many people would be able to at least try to escape from battles that had no victory or even achieve it in an impossible way for normal people to replicate. A good example of this were the Gemichi group where they cared not for death in the game and in the end continued to attack the enemies fearlessly. ¡°What ye doing?¡± asked Alexandra leaning on him from behind. Since she was wearing casual clothing instead of her armour, Eden did not feel uncomfortable around her. The soft feeling was definitely superior to the hard cold metal in the end. Without him even answering, Alexandra continued to say, ¡°Ah! Your spying on them again!¡± with a tone like Eden was a dangerous person. ¡°Just checking on how they died to be precise. And I only spy on you to make sure your not doing anything dangerous¡± said Eden rejecting the notion that he was spying on them or anyone by any chance besides Alexandra for obvious reasons. ¡°Aw~ You care about me that much?¡± Alexandra hugged from from behind. ¡°No, I care about the people around you since you''re too dangerous to not monitor. Unlike you, I know restraint and that is why I am the one to keep you in check.¡± (Sound of arms tightening around one''s neck) ¡°Can''t.....breath......¡± Eden tried to looked behind him but the arms were forcing him in a deadlock where he couldn''t even move the rest of his body. It was like the reaction of a puppy being lifted up in the air not daring to move even my instinct. From the edge of his eye, Eden thought he saw White and called to him via the same method he used since White couldn''t speak. [White! Help me!] [¡­.] [White?] Eden was getting worried now. [I...have been defiled....] [¡­.] Those words were not the ones that he wanted to hear right now. But it seems Alexandra noticed White and let go of Eden and used him as a hugging toy. ¡°Come here~¡± Eden coughed several times seeing that he could finally breath now. He took a few seconds to turn and look at Alexandra who was hugging a white haired girl in a maid outfit. [White? Where are you? All I see is Alexandra hugging someone who looks like she could be your sister] Eden looked around and even used his sensing skills but White wasn''t anywhere at all though he knew he was somewhere in the building. [Over here....] The voice directed Eden to turn his head to where Alexandra and the white haired girl was again. Confused he continued to try and search for White. If something were to happen to him then....several thousands dragons will come to attack him even though he was a Dragon King as well. [I''m the....] White directed Eden''s vision once again to Alexandra and the white haired girl once again till Eden realised what happened. ¡°Don''t tell me....¡± muttered Eden a bit paled face. Hearing him, Alexandra responded with a, ¡°Yep, I did~¡± Eden almost face palmed himself seeing what Alexandra just did. She had just sexually assaulted a young boy....and a Dragon King to boot. It wouldn''t be funny if Eden was forced into this kind of trouble when things were so far stable. [Don''t worry....I''ll make sure you can escape sooner or later] Eden gave those reassuring words to White. [But....what about you?] asked White timidly since he was not used to being hugged so much like this. Eden shook his head and replied, [It''s too late for me, the beast has me in her hands completely] When Eden was about to help White in any way he could, Alexandra at the same moment knew of these plans....and said: ¡°Eden...do you want to dress up as well~?¡± she asked looking at him with hungry eyes. With that, Eden felt a giant cold chill come down his spine. ¡°NO NO NO no no....never again.....¡± Alexandra smiled to this reaction and then said a bit curious, ¡°So where are those recruits when they died?¡± while dragged White along seeing the image hovering above the desk. ¡°The Eternal Dungeon.¡± Alexandra looked surprised and immediately said letting go of White in shock, ¡°Isn''t that the one we couldn''t complete no matter what? I mean the first floor along was ridiculous enough.¡± ¡°Please don''t remind me....¡± [Wait, what happened? What is this Eternal Dungeon?] asked White now curious since both these two were unable to clear it as well. ¡°Basically as the name says, it''s a dungeon that goes on infinitely with an infinite number of ways of being formed¡± explained Eden. Alexandra continued with, ¡°The worse or best thing depending on who goes in it is that it forces you to fight stronger monster than you though not that much stronger.¡± ¡°And sometimes it throws in a random death trap that is certain for you to die most of the time.¡± ¡°Plus the place considers how many people are there with you and their strengths and weaknesses as well making it overall difficult to even go through later on though the first floors are there for the dungeon to find your weaknesses. When me, Eden and Viv went through it, fighting Dragons were actually quite common along with other rare and powerful creatures...there weren''t that many liches on my runs though...¡± Alexandra at the end looked a bit disappointed. ¡°That because you are a living light producing machine. It''s natural that you won''t face any at all. Plus your runs were better than my ones¡± replied Eden brushing off taking care of liches. [What happened?] ¡°....¡± Eden looked away not wanting to remember that event as much as possible. Instead Alexandra told White about it. ¡°When Eden entered the first floor, he was met with 5 Heretic Gods at once and almost died in an instant. If he didn''t use his ''Destroyer'' powers, which is super effective against Gods and other Divine creatures, he would have lost. The next floor consisted of hundreds of chained traps, the one after that was-¡± ¡°Enough! Don''t remind me!¡± shouted Eden really not wanting to remember it at all. The dungeons picks up what you REALLY don''t want to face and forces you to face it. Because of that, he regained his fear of mechanical things for a while after that event. Eden looked at the image again with the Behemoth leaving the place where it killed the group and sighed. ¡°Basically...think of that dungeon which is actually under this city as a big dick to people. The person who made this dungeon must have had a thing of making people frustrated.¡± ¡°Rather than frustrated it was more like he didn''t like really strong people like us and rather watch weaker people struggle until one of those random death traps appears to clear them out at once¡± added Alexandra. ''Plus for players...they can''t escape unless they reach the teleporter on floor 10..they will have to continue grinding and training in the place until they do reach it...by then however...perhaps that flaw they have will be gone....'' thought Eden hoping that they do not break so easily. [p=center]xXx[/p] Much later on...Lyndis was the first one to log back into the game when they were literally slaughter by that creature that Sain later on pointed out as a Behemoth. It was 5 metres tall which wasn''t that bad but alternated from walking on two legs and four legs depending on when it was charging. Fortunately, it seems that it was gone....or just a bit away that it wouldn''t come here to kill them. The first time Lyndis checked was the equipment that was dropped. It was a pair of boots and some pieces of food. Looking around, she quickly found them since the Behemoth did not loot their dropped items and left them behind. ¡°Ah good~¡± she said while equipping them back on. Next she gathered the rest of the stuff that was dropped which were some armour and even a spear into one pile waiting for the rest of the group to log back in. Lyndis believed that most of them were sleeping after all at this time and would sooner or later wake up and come into the game. ¡°Might as well check to see what was reduced...¡± Lyndis opened her status window and skill window at the same time.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Lyndis,Neutral[/quart][quart=Level,Profession]73,Sword Priest[/quart]
Status Window
RaceElf
TitleBlade Dancer
Health3203
Mana1047
[quart=Fame,Infamy]610,0[/quart][quart=Strength,Agility]170 +31,139 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]89 +27,12 +17[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]102 +14,84 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Endurance]16 +20,21+13[/quart][quart=Leadership,Luck]0 +14,2 +14[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]40,35[/quart]
[quart=Light,Dark]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Fire,Ice]10%,-10%[/quart][quart=Earth,Lightning]0%,0%[/quart][quart=Wind,Nature]0%,0%[/quart]
Magic Resistance5%
Elemental Resistance
Bonus
- Magic Affinity increase by 5 - Magic Resistance increase by 5% - 10% more movement speed - Fire Affinity increase by 5 - Intelligence increases by 14 - Wisdom increases by 3 - All Stats +14 - Strength +17 - Agility +2 - Fighting Spirit +7 - Stamina +3
It had been 2 weeks in game since they entered floor 2 and made their way down to floor 4 where they were all killed at once. Before, Lyndis was at level 74 but now it dropped down to level 73. When she checked, her skill proficiencies of her skill decreased of around 25% each.
Skill Window
- Sword Mastery Beginner 7 (52/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 5 (0/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 2 (59/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (14/700) - Fire Blade Beginner level 8 (573/1500) - Life Burn Beginner level 3 (180/500) - Power Strike Beginner level 5 (40/900) - Speed Strike Beginner level 5 (70/900) - Power Stance Beginner level 5 (60/900) - Speed Stance Beginner level 4 (10/700) - Precision Stance Beginner level 4 (55/700) - Burning Touch Beginner Level 4 (122/700) - Flame Strike Beginner Level 6 (23/1100)
To get the experience that was lost from these skill, she would need to repeatedly used them for several hundreds of times in order to get back where she was before. ¡°Damn...! And they say that craftsmen have it worse when they die...¡± Lyndis let out a shout with her frustration. It would take a few days for her to regain the skill proficiencies lost but a few weeks for the same craftsman. Her sword mastery skill was progressing fine with a good supply of monsters in this place, Fire Manipulation is increasing bit by bit with her use of fire skills but her cooking skill.... ¡°Miriel reached beginner level 3 before she died as well didn''t she? Damn...now I''m even further behind then her!¡± Lyndis'' own cooking skill was at beginner level 2 and was three quarters way to beginner level 3 with a few more days or weeks until she would reach there. But now she was pushed back to halfway which made things a lot more difficult. Besides that were her most of her combat skills which were just over a quarter full to begin with before she died and as such they reverted back near the beginning and not completely back to 0. Lyndis kicked her legs while sitting on some stone bench waiting for the others... Soon enough a bright light shone at the centre of the place and....Miriel appeared. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The two looked at each other. From what Lyndis knew, they had a nice relationship with lots of fights involving food at least. Other than that, they don''t click that well but could stand each other well enough to help one another. Or at least that was Lyndis thought. ¡°Pile of equipment and other stuff we dropped is over there¡± said Lyndis pointing at the pile she made. It was neatly arranged at least instead of a messy pile thrown together at the last moment. Miriel nodded and collected the stuff she dropped from the pile and sat on the opposite stone bench on the other side of the place. ¡°So...what happened to that Behemoth?¡± asked Miriel. Lyndis replied with, ¡°No idea. Wasn''t here when I logged back in. Probably wandering around so it''s better for the others to log in soon. Are they awake yet?¡± ¡°I think so, Peter said he wanted to get some breaksfast before logging in and Grace and the others joined him so it may be another....5 minutes I suppose.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± A minute passed. ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± Lyndis let out a loud scream piercing the air. Miriel shocked asked, ¡°What-What the hell happened to you?!¡± ¡°This damn mood! Why is it that we''re staying silent together and not even fighting?! This is too depressing for me! Hurry up and insult me or something at else!¡± ¡°There''s nothing to complain about right now since your not doing anything wrong¡± replied Miriel calmly. ¡°And that''s the problem! At least try to pick a fight with me! This awkward mood with nothing said is killing me! Tell me about yourself at least! We don''t even know what happened to each other in the past!¡± Miriel''s eyes sharpened with those words and she mockingly said, ¡°Then why don''t you tell me all about yourself. I''m sure it was all bright smiles and clear roads to you.¡± Lyndis was silent for a second when those words left Miriel''s mouth and was seriously considering whether to beat her up or not. She knew that as a melee fighter, she had an advantage over Miriel. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°In that case I might as well tell you¡± said Lyndis calming down feeling that Miriel intentionally said those rude words to her. ¡°It was actually all smiles...at least at the beginning. I was actually popular with most people I knew and generally had a good time...then the boys started acting up and the girls seeing the attention I was getting was becoming less and less friendly. This chained up later on with the boys not wanting to be hated by the girls started hating on me as well and so on. Basically people were a bitch and essentially blocked all paths that I could get. Haha, even the teachers didn''t do anything to stop the bullying...if you can call it that. It was much worse than you think; there were many cases where I was assaulted at night. Naturally I wanted my safety and called the police where they ''investigated''. Yes...in the end everyone I knew was an enemy and was isolated from everyone as a result. Things continued to spiral out of control and one attack succeeded at last and even that was blamed on me! Just because I have no parents or ''backings'' doesn''t mean I''m worth less than other people. There''s actually a scar on my back in real life though technology and make-up improved a lot to cover it up...so there. That''s my story. Laugh at me all you want.¡± Lyndis was fully prepared for Miriel to criticise her and ''bring her down'' like everyone else she met with. But that never came. Miriel was simply thinking about it and then after another minutes replied with: ¡°That''s...actually not too far from my story...instead of bright smiles at the beginning. I was alone from the very start...then things went well....made ''friends'' and had ''fun''....yes. Then...something went wrong where it could affect their future....how quickly did they turn on me instead. I was alone so I was perfect ''bait''....but in the end I turned it all on them. All their ''facts'' were flawed to begin with so it wasn''t too difficult to to turn everyone on them. Well in the end I ended up all alone again....not daring to trust another person in that place....to have something and have it stripped away from you all of a sudden...not exactly the ''fall from grace'' you had but still....¡± Miriel stopped with this and it was Lyndis'' time to think and respond. She knew immediately that this was a serious question and there was no joking around here....not like she intended to joke around to begin with. ¡°Well...it seems that our past are similar in some ways that other people are just awful in the end.¡± ¡°That''s true....¡± ¡°Honestly I wonder what happened to the others as well. I doubt that they don''t have anything they don''t want to talk about. From the start, gathering 6 kids together for such a vague goal that is uncertain to be complete is strange right?¡± Lyndis let those thoughts out for Miriel to hear. ¡°....¡± Lyndis looked over and found that Miriel was in deep thought. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Quiet!¡± When Lyndis tried to respond to this, she was immediately told to shut up. Lyndis sighed and thought: ''Looks like Miriel figured something out and is thinking about it....although it IS strange that all of us are similar in some way to begin with....if it were other ''normal'' people than we wouldn''t even get along. Plus we all went and train ourselves to be useful....I know why I did it and Miriel as well now but the others as well...?'' Several more minutes passed and the others logged in as well. ¡°Ah you guys are quite early¡± said Sain looking at the two. By his side were Serena, Shadow and Raven as well whom were looking around. Seeing this, Sain sighed saying, ¡°Looks like we''re trapped until we escape this place....¡± The thoughts of why they were gathered will have to be saved for later. The time for dungeon exploring began again. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Shadow can you scout the area around this place for a while? I want to know the types of monsters and their strengths and weaknesses as well....also watch out for that Behemoth. Do not engage and tell me where it is roughly located. We''re avoiding it as much as possible¡± said Sain to Shadow who confirmed the order and set off to scout for the group. Shadow leap through one of the paths that the place that they logged in had leaving behind the group as he scouted out. After running through a couple of twists and turns, Shadow encountered a monster almost immediately. ''Need to hide now....'' Even though his ''stealth'' skill was unnaturally high for his level at Intermediate level 5; he still needed to properly use his hiding skills in ordered to not be detected. Hiding is basically a matter of avoiding the attention of enemies. While in a group battle, Shadow used the others to draw the attention of the enemies and as such could almost literally move freely around without anyone knowing where he was since for some reason ''stealth'' was active most of the time whether he wanted or not. Crouching low and masking the sound of his footsteps as much as possible, Shadow peered through the corner when he felt that they weren''t looking and saw what the type of enemy was on this floor. ''That appearance...an ape? No...I looks more human than that and could be called a furry human...they don''t seem to be wearing any armour or weapons....I think they are a bit stronger than us...there are 4..no 5 of them in a group. This would be quite a pain to deal with when it comes to that.'' Seeing the type of monster they had to face, Shadow followed from from afar for a while seeing where they were going and how they moved. By looking at those things, you could sense how they could fight. ''They seem to have some difficulty walking normally....but they have that long tail like a monkey but look like apes instead...are they the type to jump while chasing?'' Shadow thought he had enough to go for, at least as a early analysis of the enemy type. Moving along, he went on a different direction from the ape like creatures and followed that path as well. As he moved, the place was becoming a but darker the further he got from the place the rest of the group was. As a result, his skill ''Night Vision'' which was a good passive skill activated making it brighter than what it actually was. Shadow touched the edge of the wall and felt that it was a bit wet as well. ''Is there a water source near here?'' He continued forward heading straight as the path only allowed him to. This was a dangerous stage since he wouldn''t be able to avoid traps or monster ambushes as well as he liked in such a straight path. However his worries were false since nothing happened on the way. ¡°A lake...¡± muttered Shadow after confirming that there weren''t any enemy monsters here. The lake in front of him was quite small and could also be considered a small pool but it also had some plant life on the edge that made it look quite colourful compared to the dull grey walls that surround them. Shadow walked to the lake and took a small scoope in his hands and drank a bit of it. He was testing whether it was no a trap and poisoned. Although very dangerous, Shadow believe he could escape in time if this was a trap before something bad happened to him. Once again, his worries were false since this was a pure and clean water source. ¡°....¡± Taking the chance, believe that this is not a long delay trap, he scooped some water in his canteen and filled up a total of 3 of them which he carried at all times. With this, he returned back to the rest of the dungeon and explored for a further hour mapping out the area around where the rest of the group were and confirmed that the Behemoth wasn''t in the area right now. He returned after doing all of that. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Shadow returned and told the others of the water source, Sain decided that it was a good time to refill on water since they were half full either way. They followed the path Shadow look and ended up at the small lake that Shadow found. ¡°This is actually quite the nice sight¡± muttered Sain looking at the place that would fit into the frames of a painting rather than this dungeon. While the others were generally relaxing for now since it was a rare chance to do so, Sain looked up the conditions to clear this floor.
You are on floor 4 Conditions to advance to next floor: - Find exit to next floor - Slay the boss monster that guards the exit Extra Event - Slay the Behemoth that walks on this floor (If this is complete then you can be teleported out of the dungeon without reaching floor 10 and clearing it)
¡°So the behemoth was not originally part of this floor eh....but if managed to slay it then....we could cut back several weeks in here...but....¡± Sain remembered how they were completely destroyed by it. It was not something they could currently beat even they it took them by surprise immediately. ¡°What are you thinking up?¡± asked Miriel who noticed that Sain was having a serious look on his face. ¡°Whether or not to fight that Behemoth again¡± he replied. ¡°....¡± Miriel looked at Sain as if he was crazy and asked, ¡°Are you serious?¡± in a sarcastic tone though it seems Sain didn''t pick that up. ¡°If we can beat it then we can escape from this place much much earlier. Else it might take a few more weeks until we actually reach floor 10 and finish that as well. The monsters are slowly becoming harder to deal with...usually in large numbers as well more often now...and enemies that are harder for us to beat than normal¡± Sain explained his reasoning. If they did manage to beat it then they would be able to get back to the surface...but that is honestly dependent if they can beat it to begin it. ¡°You have a plan...right?¡± asked Miriel wanting to know we''re going blind here against a monster that was that much more powerful than they were. ¡°Well....I suppose we can level up for a while here....probably to level 80 I would think would be fine....after that I''ll think about it later.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel was a bit speechless to the laid back thoughts of Sain. Did he really think that things will go well or was he a dimwit at these important moments. When Miriel was about to ask about it, there were several loud sounds coming from behind them. ¡°HUMANS!¡± one of them shouted in a loud shriek. ¡°This is bad¡± said Shadow immediately hearing those sounds, ¡°There are at least 10 of them in this area and.....¡± The group looked and turned around to see that the single path out of this section of the dungeon was blocked off by ape like creatures that were shorter than the average person but had longer arms and quite sharp claws at the end. ¡°AOOGOGOHHOOH!!¡± their beast like shouted came out as 3 of them at once jumped around on the walls charging at them. ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Miriel, Sain and Lyndis all attacked quickly casting their long range attacks at them as fast as they could. Bang Bang Bang! However just before the attacks hit...not a bit before that, the ape like creatures dodged the attacks using their tails to latch onto the walls and move their air bone bodies away to safety. ¡°RAVEN TO THE FRONT!¡± shouted Sain as he also took out his spear preparing for close combat. Raven responded charging forward as well to the ape creatures that also had tails for some reason. The reason on calling on ape like creatures was that their faces where like the apes you would see in real life but their bodies were similar to monkeys that they had a tail as well. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Raven tried to strike at the apes with his long spear but they spun around the place voiding the attack and continued past him. ¡°What?!¡± said Sain seeing this ridiculously high mobility. ¡°Burst Speed!¡± Shadow moved along the walls like the apes as well and attacked the three of them at the same time with speed that was superior to theirs causing some wounds to appear all of a sudden. They did not ''feel'' Shadow was naturally they didn''t try to defend or dodge when he attacked. ''Since precise spells don''t work....'' ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± Sain fired 13 mana bolt at once since his proficiency with it increased to Beginner Level 7 since weeks ago when they were still on floor 1. Bang Bang Bang....! Although several of the attacks were dodged, some of the mana bolts did hit the apes. With that, he said quickly to Miriel: ¡°Use mana bolts to pin them down!¡± Miriel responded adding her own mana bolts to the mix as Raven and Lyndis tried to take them down from close range and Shadow attacking once in a while. ¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡± chanted Serena finished chanting the group heal on the group.
Health will regenerate for 12 points every second for 10 minutes
With the increase in her mastery skills, the strength of the heal per second increased as well. Now Serena started to chant for her support spells. 3 seconds later... ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena casted that spell on one of the apes that were attacking Raven and pinned it down to the ground easily. However it''s long arms weren''t completely restrained and it could still attack from that position in unusual ways. ¡°Raven stay back for a bit¡± said Sain seeing that Raven couldn''t get close to it easily. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± 3 Magic Arrows came from Sain and pierced the arms of the ape. ¡°Hmp!¡± Next Sain stabbed his spear into the head of the ape and killed it in one go making turn into grey light immediately. Seeing that it''s comrade died while being suppressed by a combination of Lyndis, Shadow and Miriel, the other two apes attacked even harder. But the group was too slow in dealing with them. ¡°HUMANS!¡± ¡°HUMANS!!¡± ¡°KILL THEM ALL!!¡± From the end of the path came another 7 of those apes. With great rage, they charged at the group together. ''At this rate, we''re going to die again!'' Sain quickly thought of a way to get out of this alive...though barely. ¡°Raven! Charge in and continued to run straight at full power and then attack from behind!¡± ordered Sain while attacking one of the apes on Lyndis and injuring it enough for Lyndis and Shadow to finish it off. Raven looked stunned for a second since charging in there was a suicidal act...but he still followed it since Sain seemed confident that this would work. ¡°Footwork! Ram!¡± Raven used these two skills together and ran at the apes with his shield up blocking any attacks that came to him. Bang Bang! Raven hit two of the apes head on but kept on charging using ''Footwork'' to continue his charge even while getting hit on the back, some of the apes even turned around to attack him. Before he reached the end and turned back to attack, however, Sain was already preparing for the next stage of the attack. ''Two are down....5 more charging at us....'' ¡°Miriel with me! Mana Bolt!¡± said Sain quickly. 24 mana bolts flew out to strike the apes head on. 3 of the apes fell on the ground sliding due to being hit too much by the magic attacks even if it didn''t kill them. ''2 more left....until we''re in the clear.'' ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena casted her spell again since it had been 20 seconds since the cool down started and one of the remaining apes that recently came was stuck to the ground as roots grabbed it''s legs and tripped it over. The last ape with little intelligence still came charging at them though. The ape went to attack Miriel but that was a big mistake on it''s part. ¡°Ice Burst!¡± BANG! Ice exploded in the ape''s face killing it in one shot.
You have gained experience
¡°....¡± ''That attack seems really overpowered if you ask me...though it''s a good thing since we have a uber close range measure now'' Sain thought seeing how that spell instantly killed the ape in one go. Again, Sain realised how powerful magic could be. ¡°Backstab, Double strike.¡± ¡°Double Strike!¡± ¡°Power Strike!¡± When Sain looked over, he saw that the others had already gotten rid of the other apes with ease killing them with one or two hits each. ''Scratch that....all of them are quite powerful in their own rights...in combat I can switch between long range and close range but I only have enough power to become a support for them all....fine then, I''ll become a good support for them all then....'' Sain seeing that his comrades were becoming stronger and stronger as time went on with speeds that made his progress insignificant, vowed to become someone good enough that he would be able to support them. ''That means....I need to learn some better spells as well....first would be some spear skills I suppose then a better healing spell and perhaps buffing and debuffing spells as well....yes...I will ask Eden later about those....or maybe Gen would be a better idea...'' While Sain was stuck in his thoughts, the others were already cleaning up with looting the bodies and gathering their spoils. They looked at Sain not knowing what to do since he seemed to be thinking of something important. ¡°Right! We need to grind up our levels right now¡± said Sain all of a sudden, ¡°Let''s find another pack of those monsters, we need their experience points!¡± For some reason, Sain''s eyes shone with a strange light that told the others that there will be more life and death situations. With this battle, Raven almost went to critical health, Lyndis lost half her health and Shadow as well being hit a couple of times with his thin armour. ''However since it''s Sain, he wouldn''t let us die.....right....?'' [p=center]xXx[/p] Some weeks later....
You have gained experience
You have levelled up
¡°Puha! Finally! We finally reached level 80!¡± said Lyndis in relief dead tired. Sain looked around and saw that the others were strangely tired as well. ¡°Is there something wrong with them?¡± asked Sain to the black and white wolf that was next to him called Luna. Since a while back, Sain summoned Luna into battle in order to level it up as well in order to make it gain experience to level 30 until it could also fight along side with them. At this point Luna was level 35 while at everyone else was at level 80 or above. Because it turned into a ''adult'', Luna now had the ability to talk to Sain directly through thoughts alone. When Sain first realised this and happily chatted away with Luna, the others thought he snapped and went crazy. ¡°Damnit Sain....¡± Shadow who had quite the stamina level on par with Sain was puffing air, ¡°How long do you think you made us hunt for?¡± ¡°Umm....a few weeks. Isn''t that amount fine?¡± asked Sain innocently. ¡°Of course not! We barely got any breaks in that time period!¡± retorted Shadow angrily. ¡°Then why didn''t ask for a break?¡± asked Sain once again in the same tone. ¡°Because when we did you would give us a death glare and forced us into absurd situations!¡± Shadow remembered when he asked for a break since he was mentally tired that Sain immediately forced another few battles in which Shadow almost died a few times in a row. Plus Sain was working on his skills actively during this time as well and had less sleep than anyone else. Then why the hell was he was the only one fine right now were the thoughts Shadow had. Luna seeing how the rest of the group fared, gave pity to them and said to Sain: [Master since we have achieve our goal for now, I suggest we take a break in order to get ready for the next goal] Sain thoughts about and then said, ¡°Yeah, that would be fine.¡± ¡°....¡± The others sighed in relief. Ever since that battle at the water source small lake, Sain had been acting strange for some reason. Was there something in the water? No one knew since they drank it as well but they were fine. ''It''s been 2 months since we have been stuck here....plus the 3 months with Eden on that Guild Quest, another 2 months of training from Eden and then that month of hunting and finally the month where we started off....a total of 9 months passed in game which means a bit over 2 months passed in real life. This amount of progress....it''s too slow.....but thanks to that, I managed to get something good in the end....'' Sain brought up the skill window of the new skill he managed to create while down in this dungeon.
Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 2 An alternative, more dangerous version of the normal magic mastery skill. With this skill, the power of your magic attacks will not increase passively at all but the leftover mana from your spells will gather and can be unleashed to rapidly increase the power of your spells temporary. Magic Strength when unleashed: 40+% Casting Speed: 6%
While this skill only increased his casting speed a bit, the other effect was massive even if he had to actively use it in the end like a normal skill. Sain was already used to the feeling that his magic attacks were quite weak but now he had a chance to turn it all over with this skill. One a day he could use this skill in it''s max power. After waiting an entire day not using this skill and using only normal magic attacks without it, the effects of the skill essentially tripled to 120% extra damage instead. If he used it 2 times a day the effects only double the normal value and if he used it 5 times a day then the skill would only go at it''s minimum value of 40%. Any more than that and the skill won''t work due to the lack of mana stored inside him. Seeing that the preparations were done...as in his skills proficiencies increased greatly to the point that several of his skills were about to get to the intermediate level; Sain checked everyone''s skill level rather than their status windows since he knew they were all over level 80 mark now. [third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Beginner 7 (62/100) - Nature Mastery Beginner 7 (42/100) - Mediation Beginner level 5 (19/100) - Mana Burst Beginner level 2 (2/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 9 (120/1700) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 8 (101/1500) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Blood Burst Beginner level 5 (77/900) - Root Bind Beginner level 6 (322/1100) - Heartbeat Healing Beginner level 6 (12/100),- Magic Mastery Beginner 7 (59/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 4 (32/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 5 (22/100) - Ice Magic Mastery Beginner Level 3 (25/100) - Magic Control Mastery Beginner 5 (78/100) - Mediation Beginner level 5 (76/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 3 (3/100) - Identify Beginner level 2 (12/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 6 (252/1100) - Clairvoyance Beginner level 4 (156/700) - Melody of Sound Beginner level 7 (130/1300) - Cracked Barrier Beginner level 5 (120/1800) - Shriek Beginner level 5 (99/900) - Ice Bolt Beginner Level 6 (450/1100) - Ice Burst Beginner Level 2 (15/300)]- Sword Mastery Beginner 7 (72/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 5 (18/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 2 (65/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (54/700) - Fire Blade Beginner level 8 (873/1500) - Life Burn Beginner level 3 (380/500) - Power Strike Beginner level 5 (240/900) - Speed Strike Beginner level 5 (270/900) - Power Stance Beginner level 5 (260/900) - Speed Stance Beginner level 4 (210/700) - Precision Stance Beginner level 4 (255/700) - Burning Touch Beginner Level 4 (322/700) - Flame Strike Beginner Level 6 (223/1100)[/third]
Skill Window
[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 6 (24/100) - Shield Mastery Beginner Level 7 (27/100) - Shield Bash Beginner level 6 (821/1100) - Double Strike Beginner level 5 (453/1100) - Footwork Beginner level 6 (622/1100) - Repair Beginner level 3 (67/1200) - Ram Beginner level 5 (36/100) - Shield Parry Beginner level 6 (25/1100) - Spear Parry Beginner level 6 (7/1100) - Body Reinforcement Beginner level 4 (389/700),- Dagger Mastery Beginner 7 (75/100) - Stealth Intermediate Level 5 (94/100) - Hearing Beginner level 6 (45/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 3 (15/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 3 (49/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 5 (25/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 5 (42/100) - Backstab Beginner level 6 (711/1100) - Double Strike Beginner level 5 (274/700) - Climbing Beginner Level 7 (16/100) - Become Mist Beginner level 3 (16/100) - Burst Speed Beginner level 5 (425/900)]- Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 2 (15/100) - Spear Mastery Beginner Level 5 (12/100) - Identify Beginner level 2 (50/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 4 (60/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 8 (555/1500) - Mediation Beginner level 7 (88/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 4 (4/700) - Minor Heal Beginner level 8 (22/1500) - Weaken Beginner level 8 (146/1500) - Bursting Will Beginner level 5 (45/100) - Wolf Summoning Beginner level 1 (65/100) - Magic Arrow Beginner level 7 (123/1300)[/third]
Skill Window
Everyone else more or less made some progress though not as much as he liked. Compared to that, most of his own skills increased by a level each. Sain was a bit happy with himself and wondered if he should practise alone some more in order to get his skill proficiencies up some more. With a smile to the currently resting comrades he had, he said in a kind voice, ¡°Okay~ Time to hunt down that Behemoth.¡± ¡°....¡± The rest of the group made a utterly distorted look at Sain without exception. No matter how kind they were or how obedient they were, fighting that Behemoth was asking for death. Seeing that his comrades wouldn''t obey him... ¡°Looks like this won''t work after all...just watch out for attacks from behind.¡± Sain had a smile on his face still though unknown to him, he changed from the kind smile to the evil smile that forced the others to act on his whim no matter what. A tyrant in the group was born in this dungeon! ¡°....¡± Sain looked confused and then asked once again with a ''smile'', ¡°Still want to not go fight?¡± The others shook their heads immediately to this ''new'' Sain that was in front of them. It was like something pulled a trigger and he changed completely.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9400~ - Well....I''ll post the epilogue tomorrow since I just finished this and it an hour ago. There might be some mistakes since I didn''t check it properly. Hopefully there isn''t that much.... - All yeah...there was some more backstory to both Lyndis and Miriel though not that much...I intent to take this part of the story slowly....very slowly since these things can''t be rushed since I''m bad with these kinds of things. Characters like Eden and Alexandra with no care in the world are easy...other characters with motives, backstory and complicated ''emotions'' aren''t. - This IS the end of the second volume essentially with a ''sudden'' change in Sain. I always imagined Sain as a two faced commander, one being the kind caring one while the other being the cruel ruthless one. Basically this change will be explained in the next volume along with a who bunch of things. - The part with Eden, Alexandra and White....was a bit too entertaining to write...it naturally flowed out as well. Vol.2 Epilogue - New Beginnings and Returns BANG! A man dressed in light armour that was a guard to the city came bursting into the office where Eden was while being served by White who was dressed as a maid. ¡°Master Eden there seems to be a monster invasion that is heading straight to the city! Ah....sorry I intruded in the wrong time...¡± the guard tried to leave seeing that Eden was ''busy'' with that beauty of a maid. Angry, Eden immediately threw the cup plus the hot drink at the guard soaking him in hot tea. ¡°Ahhhh!¡± ¡°Stop screaming and report already! Besides I do NOT have ''that'' kind of hobby! Alexandra was the damn one who forced this on me!¡± shouted Eden still annoyed like hell that such a misunderstanding could happen like that. With his luck, rumours of Eden taking a maid that was a beauty hostage would spread and then some idiots would.... Eden remembered the times the ''heroes'' barged into his office and attacked him without warning. Naturally his defences kicked up and he slaughtered them into pieces immediately. Only later he found that those idiots came to attack him on false rumours that could not be true. Who the hell would kidnap a young child and torture her?! ''Although that was around the same period when I was training Anna now that I think about it....'' Letting though thoughts go, Eden focused on the words the guard was spilling out though he didn''t even catch half the words coming out since he was talking too fast. ¡°Summarise the situation in 20 words or less or.....else....¡± said Eden in a threatening tone. The guard feeling that his life was suddenly in peril immediately reworded his thoughts into: ¡°Monsters are attacking. They will come in later today. They are mostly demon like creatures that came from the north.¡± With no words left to spare, the guard explained the situation like that. Eden hearing those words however immediately understood what happened and then proceeded to blame the maid next to him. ¡°White...isn''t this your fault? I mean you left your mountains to have a nice vacation here.¡± [Vacation my ass! You teleported me without warning and then that other one forced me into this costume that makes men and women alike stare at me! Isn''t this your fault that you didn''t finish them all off?] ¡°Well it isn''t my fault that I didn''t stomp each and every insect in my way is it? That would be too cruel.¡± The guard was listening in to this ''one way'' conversation between Eden and the maid. Only after a while that Eden noticed the guard that he ordered, ¡°Send a message to the other caption guards that residents are to evacuate away from the north wall....there is no need to flee the city either way. Also gather those brats for me as well since I may need their ''help''.¡± ¡°Yes sir!¡± The guard saluted to Eden and immediately left for his job. However Eden did not know that later on, rumours of how he kept a beauty of a maid captive and took away her voice as well as taunt her by talking to her even though she couldn''t respond at all. That was how bad of a reputation he still had to the city resident to begin with. [What are you going to do now?] White asked with a puzzled face on. Eden thought about it....and then responded with: ¡°I''ll deal with that invasion later...there shouldn''t be too many deaths as a result...plus since they''re this close, those up north are already dead either way so there''s no point thinking about it...also it might be a good time to show those new brats the strength of the guild.¡± [Aren''t they still in that Eternal Dungeon?] ¡°I made a spell before that can bypass that restriction and summon them back.¡± [Also I believe they are now going to face that Behemoth creature. Won''t most of them die without you saving them?] Eden remembered how they were completely wiped last time but this time it seems that Sain had ''awakened'' something interesting... ¡°Sain is making more progress than I thought so they might actually win....but unlikely since the enemy is over twice their level in all ways including and especially their experience fighting and killing others.¡± At that moment, Eden felt like something was ''wrong in the force'', like a ''great evil'' appeared and immediately made way to escape as fast as he could. ¡°EDEN~ I finished modifying that maid outfit for you as well~!¡± ¡°FUCK! I need to escape now!¡± BANG! From behind White made a sneak attack on Eden at that moment and forced him down when Alexandra appeared. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°....Why?¡± Eden asked to White though he suspected the reason already. Currently White was in a low cut maid outfit that was mostly black but had white frills at the skirt with a garter belt and was also wearing that head gear you see on maids often as well. In Alexandra''s hands were an even lower cut one and was also completely pink and white....and had even more frills as well. [I don''t want to forced in that frilly pink maid costume....this one was bad enough....] Eden''s thoughts were correct and he immediately tried to call for help but it was useless since Alexandra was here. Between Eden who was pinned down and defenceless or Alexandra with that frightening glow in her eyes....100 of 100 people who side with Alexandra instead of him. ¡°DAMNIT! Why at this moment.....!¡± Eden could only curse at the Gods once again for Alexandra as he experienced once again one of the most traumatic events of his life. [p=center]xXx[/p] Elsewhere....at a dark place where no living creature existed except for the dark hunters that prey on shadows.... ¡°Twisted Wonderland....¡± muttered a ''young'' witch dressed in dark brown with a large witch hat that sparkled like the night sky. This person was a witch that travelled along side the representative of the Gods and the enemy of Gods and fought along side them. From the feet of this person, came a spell that rewrote reality itself. A ''Marble Reality'' that corrodes the real world and creates a new one in it''s place temporary. [Kill that THING!] The dark hunters, numbered in hundreds came from the shadows and as the shadows used their dark arts to try and kill this being. With no form but as a shadow they were almost literally invincible against all livings, but it was still not enough in front of this power. The dead land where they stood was transformed into a bright flower field. [What in the world....what is this?!] The Dark Hunters were exposed in this strange land that suddenly appeared. Viv let out a small smile and said to these confused Dark Hunters, ¡°This is a peaceful place....yes peaceful....now disappear.¡± Suddenly the flower field that spread across a large distance of land withered away turning black and red as the sound of music came from far away. The march of an army appeared to these Dark Hunters that could not escape back into the shadows. It was an army of twisted creatures like they never seen before. The fairy tale of countless stories appeared deranged and twisted beyond all recognition. Little Red Riding Hood turned into a half wolf monster with giant eyes and a wolf body and human head, The Bunny from Alice in Wonderland turned into a ragged large doll with teeth that was half the size of it''s head and Snow White and Cinderella was riding on a carriage being pulled forward by 7 dwarves that were enslaved and whipped as evil witches. [Ah....AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!] In a matter of a minute, the Dark Hunters all disappeared, but not dead while Viv was surrounded by the screams that came from the heart. Soon enough...''Twisted Wonderland'' disappeared leaving Viv all alone in this dead land with nothing but him in it....except the last screams of the Dark Hunters that lived in the Shadows and would never leave the shadows ever again. ¡°I wonder what Al and Eden are doing....I should visit them....¡± With that line of thought, this witch started heading back to the continent where his friends were leaving behind a trail of not death but screams of horror that seemed to follow him wherever he went.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - End of Vol 2~ - On another note...getting super duper lag here with what seems to be someone changing the site a bit....delayed 4 hours because of that since I couldn''t access the site properly during that time... Vol.3 Prologue - Empowerment Rejected ¡°Right time to kill you big brute!¡± said Sain with utter and complete confidence that they would win. ¡°Sain are you crazy?! This is literally suicide!¡± complained Shadow even though he knew he would be forced to... ¡°Shadow...draw it''s aggro for me¡± ordered Sain immediately. Shadow let out a sigh and immediately did that even though there was a very high chance that he would die just like that. However dying early meant that he could escape from what Sain was planning next at least. Sain looked at Serena and said, ¡°Don''t bother healing since it can easily one shot us. Focus on binding it as much as possible and sometimes attack it using ''Blood Burst''. But before the fight starts, do cast ''Heartbeat Healing for some safety.¡± ¡°...Right...¡± timidly replied Serena, she was not used to this ''new'' Sain at all. It was like someone else was wearing his skin and talking to them instead of the usual Sain that really didn''t get with the role of being a leader. ¡°Next is....Raven and Lyndis will take turns drawing it''s hate and make sure that I don''t die. Raven will be the main with Lyndis supporting with her fire skills and when Lyndis subs in....try not to die¡± Sain said with a smile void of any and all sympathy to them. ¡°....¡± ¡°Okay...?¡± ¡°Finally...¡± Sain looked at Miriel and then said, ¡°Buff us with a speed increase and focus on attacking rather than defending. Just try to draw some aggro to yourself from the others.¡± Miriel nodded since she decided to follow whatever Sain had in plan to begin with....even if it had a low rate of success and they would most likely die. [Master, what about me?] asked Luna who wished to do the best he could for Sain since he was his master who raised him from a small pup. ¡°Right...you''ll be at the front with Raven and Lyndis as well. Make sure they don''t die before you even if it kills you. If they seem to be almost hit which will result in them dying, then take that blow for them and die instead.¡± [Right....?] Luna was a bit taken back that his order included on how to die as well. With this, the preparations were done...and Shadow had just lured the Behemoth to them just now. ¡°It''s coming!¡± shouted Shadow from a fair distance away giving them time to prepare a bit more at least. ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± chanted Miriel.
Agility will be increased by 37% for 10 minutes
¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡± chanted Serena as well.
Health will regenerate for 12 points every second for 10 minutes
Bang Bang Bang! The group could clearly hear the Behemoth coming closer and closer becoming more and more nervous as it got near. Eventually a certain Shadow leaped towards them and slide to a stop just behind them panting like crazy. Seeing the Behemoth, Sain said, ¡°Battle Start!¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Tens of minutes later... ¡°Speed Strike!¡± Lyndis slashed one of the legs of the Behemoth causing a moderate cut on it before rushing away so she wouldn''t die. BANG! The Behemoth caused a great impact by jumping and slamming as hard as it could on the ground but no one was near enough to be affected that much. [Take this!] Luna along with Raven moved in quickly and stabbed and clawed at the face of the Behemoth which was lower to the ground now trying to blind it on orders from Sain. However the horns of the Behemoth glowed a bright purple and suddenly...lightning came out of it. ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!!
Party Member: Raven has been killed
Wolf Summon: Bright Luna has been killed and was recalled, unable to resummon for 24 hours
With that one move, both Raven and Luna died...but the Behemoth also lost an eye thanks to that as well. It''s accurately would decrease and the number of hits it could cause individual as well fall. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ''But that would mean that it would use more AOE attacks instead....long range seems better now'' thought Sain ignoring the fact that both Raven and Luna died just then, ''It''s not like they can''t come back....time to focus on the right time to use this...'' Several minutes later even Lyndis and Shadow died from the AOE type attacks the Behemoth caused that often involved lightning or using a great force to hit everything around it with no way to dodge. Now there was only Miriel and Serena left along with Sain who were all ranged users. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena used this spell for what seemed to be the hundredth time on the Behemoth trying to restrain it''s movements as much as possible but it would only last for a few seconds each time. ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± Miriel continued on firing her ice magic attack at the Behemoth trying to deal some damage to it. She did not want to use ''Ice Burst'' no matter how high the damage was since the chance to die was too high. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOARRR!!!¡± With great strength, the Behemoth ripped through the ''Root Bind'' spell and charged at Serena who was stunned by the sudden development. Sain naturally dodged it with Miriel as well but Serena could not react in time. Bang!
Party Member: Serena has been killed
And now it was just Sain and Miriel left.... ¡°There''s still a chance of victory¡± said Sain calmly seeing the whole situation they were in. The Behemoth was at around 20% health at most now. If they managed to deal consecutive critical damage to it for around a minute, it would die. Now was the time to use that trump card. ¡°Magic Release!¡± Mana burst from Sain''s body refilling his mana up and increasing the power of his magic attacks as well. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± From his hand came mana bolts that numbered 13 but each had the power of a ''Magic Arrow'' instead. That was the power of a 140% magic attack increase. Bang Bang Bang...! ¡°Mana Bolts! Mana Bolts! Mana Bolts! Why aren''t you attacking Miriel?!¡± Sain was now simply spamming attack after attack on the Behemoth which was now really low on health. ¡°ROOOOAR!!¡± The Behemoth finally let out it''s last scream before death as Sain prepared to kill it in one go... [Sorry about this but I really need everyone back at the guild building] BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! Following the message, the Behemoth exploded into pieces just like that without Sain even dealing the final blow at all.
You have levelled up x4
The extra bonuses that he would get by killing the Behemoth which was a lot stronger than him suddenly disappeared all of a sudden. ¡°Eh?¡± Sain was speechless of this sudden event as he and Miriel both appeared at the guild building with Eden, Alexandra and the other masters as well, ¡°Eh?¡± was the only thing he could mutter again. Then Sain realised slowly that he was KSed by Eden just then.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Third Volume start! - This will mainly be more about short stories rather than the main plot though it exist.Still didn''t finish the first chapter yet....12 and a bit pages in so far. Vol.3 Chapter 1 - The Beginning of Things Snapping out of his shocked state, Sain suddenly asked, ¡°What the hell just happened?! I was just...¡± ¡°Taking down a Behemoth after several of your friends died and not caring about it¡± interrupted Eden. ¡°But before I got the final blow-¡± ¡°Lightning fell down on it all of a sudden which relieved you of your kill though you still managed to level up quite a bit¡± interrupted Eden once again. ¡°Yeah but then I was suddenly-¡± ¡°Teleported here where you are now asking me those questions, yes I get it, you''re about to complain on why I did that right?¡± interrupted Eden for a third times in a row. ¡°....¡± Sain frowned at Eden who seemed to know what he was thinking. ¡°It''s not like I know what you''re thinking but I generally know what people want to know when these things happens¡± replied Eden to Sain''s thoughts without any consideration to Sain''s mental stability. ¡°Also the reason why I stole that kill was to make sure it doesn''t get to your head. I still remember when Gen, Mel and Jenny were full in their head...took too long to ''correct'' their thinking.¡± ''Plus I kinda forgot about you guys since Alexandra was sending out massive amounts of killing intent at me and then next thing I knew, 4 of you guys died while I wasn''t watching...damn...! Don''t kill them so fast you damn Behemoth...not that it matters now since your dead. I want my entertainment! A quick one sided fight is no fun to watch'' thought Eden at that moment as well. ''Why do I have a feeling that Eden is having evil thoughts right now?'' though Sain at the same time, ''Also....'' ¡°Why did you teleported us out so suddenly? You could have done it before or after the battle¡± asked Sain obviously annoyed that Eden stole his kill. Eden scratched his cheek, ¡°Actually, a certain Alexandra was about to kill me and then....well I was forced to teleport you out and didn''t exactly have the luxury to think whether you were about to win or not.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain looked behind Alexandra who had a face mixed with concern and killing intent towards Eden. But that wasn''t the most important thing to Sain right now. He looked to the left and right and found Miriel was knocked cold out of it for some reason. He quickly went to her and checked if she was all right calling out to her: ¡°Miriel! Miriel, are you all right?!¡± he said frantically trying to see if there was something wrong since she was not responding to him. Seeing this, Alexandra gave a few glared at Eden before going to tell Sain, ¡°She''s fine...we just knocked her out since this is something that only you should know.¡± ''Only me?'' Sain looked around and found that their masters were here as well looking with concern faces. For some reason that made him concern as well knowing that something was truly wrong. Alexandra held his right hand covered by the glove Eden gave him and the others and took it off examining what was underneath it. ¡°What the...¡± Sain was astonished that the snake marking on his hand called ''Mark of the Serpent'' was glowing a deep red and looked like it was alive on him right now. He really had no idea what was going on but the others seemed to know. ¡°I knew it....¡± With her sword at hand and anger clearly on her face, Alexandra faced Eden and pointed her sword at him with rage. Eden was mildly shocked but still calm about all of this. You could see that there; for a brief second was a cluster of mana in his hand about to attack though he withdrew it to allow Alexandra to threaten him instead of fighting each other. ¡°How could you do this?!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°You know what will happen in the end don''t you?! Are you planning to make them monsters like us that can never fit in with other people.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Why have you hidden this from me?! Do you not care for the children?¡± Eden was completely silent except for the comment, ¡°When were you the type that liked children?¡± Alexandra did not even bother stabbing him since there was no point in doing that. Instead she want right at him and slapped him at once. Eden took it without moving those glaring at Alexandra all the time. Alexandra could only next mutter in a soft voice, ¡°Weren''t you the type to like them as well? They were the only ones that weren''t afraid of us at all. Truly innocent creatures....no matter the age.¡± ¡°What I want are not children but tools to use at the end. You know that sooner or later these children will have no ''future'' unless these measures are taken.¡± SLAP! Alexandra gave him another slap in the face for that comment. ¡°Do you really regard other people as mere tools now? What of the days when we were younger and were exploring the corners of the continent freely causing all sorts of mayhem? Did you only feel that they were worthless in the end?!¡± there were tears in her eyes now seeing that Eden had reverted back to his ''cold'' self that would occasionally appear but never once did he cause harm to others in this way. ¡°Those days....were truly troublesome. Whether I wanted or not, trouble would always follow usually by someone screwing up and resulting in a massive battle. Other times legendary creatures would appear and we would fight them to the death...usually barely winning in the end. But....while annoyed, I never felt they were worthless since they were the happiest days of my life and in the end they were the times I spend most with you and Viv.¡± Eden let out a sigh and then proceeded to say, ¡°You know, you should actually let me explain things to begin with before you go ranting off in an emotion rampage that might destroy this city before that Demon Monster Army does¡± intentionally taunting her with a bit of humour mixed into his tone. ¡°Why the hell should I when you do this kind of shit behind my back¡± complained Alexandra clearly more calmed down than before. ¡°I didn''t, you just weren''t there at all when I did it¡± explained Eden, ¡°Plus I would have told you sooner or later when I had the chance but Sain here ''awakened'' a lot earlier than I thought. In fact, it had only been 7 months since the mark went on him. Usual case with those brats over there indicated that it would take a year or two to start acting up at first.¡± ¡°...Heh....so you''re saying that I overreacted right?¡± with a fist clenched just for him. ¡°...¡± Eden looked a bit stunned, ¡°Either way you''re going to hit me aren''t you?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°Then I will say you greatly overreacted this time.¡± ¡°Good for you.¡± BANG! Eden was hit squarely in the stomach and was showing signs of great pain being hit by Alexandra. No one knows whether it was due to the physical pain or emotion one. ¡°Alexandra...you might kill our baby like that¡± commented Eden. BANG BANG BANG! That joke was taken badly even though usually Alexandra would go along with it to tease other people. Eden was hit three more times in the same location just like that. Eden fell to the floor powerless as the others watched this damn love comedy scene that got real serious. It was only when Sain uttered, ¡°So....isn''t there some sort of invasion happening?¡±, that things went back on track. Hearing those words, Eden immediately got up as if he wasn''t hit with a total of four punches that could each take out a Dragon in one go and then said, ¡°Right! Monster invasion to repel, but first, I need to explain some things that I should have said beforehand before Alexandra tried to beat me up just then.¡± Sain nodded still next to the unconscious Miriel lying helpless on the ground. ¡°Basically-¡± ¡°Master Eden! The demons are VERY close to the city right now! Not even a hundred metres till they hit the walls!¡± shouted a guard coming into the building all of a sudden. Eden muttered, ¡°Damn why does this always happen at the wrong time¡± and then along with Sain and Alexandra, teleported to the north city walls were the front lines of the battle was. ¡°Eh? What do we do now?¡± asked one of the masters that was left behind. The others did not know what to do since they were left with no instructions on what to do. In the mist of this, White slipped away to try and find ''normal'' clothes to wear instead of this maid outfit he was forced into by Alexandra. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Stock up on arrows! All warriors or otherwise that do not have a range method of attacking shou-ah! Master Eden, your here at last! We were just preparing just in case you wished to abandon us¡± said to what seemed to be the captain guard of this city that worked to preserve peace and order in this city. Eden gave him an irritated look filled with the message, ''Would I really do that?'' without saying it. The captain guard naturally said, ¡°Sir, with your reputation, I would not be surprised if you declared yourself to be the bringer of death and destruction and wage war against the Kingdom.¡± While Eden was conversing with the captain guard, Sain look the time to look around. They were certainly on the north wall of the city which was a standard 7 metre tall for all cities of a certain size. The walls were around 5 metres thick so it was actually quite a thin wall for a city this big but it seems budget and safety cuts were happening even in this world. ''Also...why the hell was I teleported here as well?! Wouldn''t any other person do besides me?'' wondered Sain in his thoughts. ¡°Put this glove back on...¡± said Alexandra all of a sudden to Sain. Seeing her from afar was one thing but being so close to her was another things as well. Sain suddenly felt that his heart was beating much faster than it should in her presence. ¡°Hmm? Increased heart rate....I''m surprised that you don''t have the same reaction to Eden¡± wondered Alexandra aloud adding much to the embarrassment to Sain. Seeing that Sain was quickly turning bright red Alexandra comforted him with: ¡°Don''t worry! This is a natural reaction of teenage boys...and sometimes teenage girls which are a lot more frightening than you think....compared to me, Eden had been hit on by all sorts of people much more! Hahahaha, it''s still a good laugh to remember those times. In the end he casted an anti-charm spell on himself so other people would have ''normal'' reactions to him. Well this doesn''t affect stronger people or those with high resistance to magic though like me.¡± ¡°I''m more surprised on how quickly your reaction to Eden changed in such a short period of time¡± said Sain trying to steer off the topic which was currently making him very uncomfortable. ¡°Oh that? A good tip....women can quickly change their impression on things in a blink of an eye. Mortal enemies will become best friends and best friends will become mortal enemies for the tiniest thing. This is even more profound in those girls with you. As for me....those things never interested me that much so I''m pretty much the same for everything. ¡°Except for Eden.¡± ¡°Yes...except for him....he''s the only thing I''m worried about¡± Alexandra let out a sad voice thinking of the past and present Eden. Back then...he was much more free and lazy which made it comfortable to hang around. Now he was still the same but lacked that feel that made you want to laze around as well around him. While others may not know, Alexandra knew it was probably that ''Destroyer'' factor in him that was causing this change. He would slowly become colder when fighting, using much more advance and cruel tactics against people and would slowly lack the hesitation to kill others or cause them great pains when he needed to. The goofing off Eden that would always complain about things that Alexandra originally knew and this slightly more serious Eden was worlds apart to her. ¡°You really are married to him aren''t you¡± said Sain seeing a bit into what Alexandra was worrying about, ¡°As the person closest to him, you know him the best and would worry about him the most.¡± ¡°Eh what? Yes, we''re married though it was more like a spur of the moment thing. We were both drunk as hell with some dwarves and then Eden proposed when things came to another and I accepted and....lots of things happened after that. Mind you that dwarves have the best beer in the land¡± replied Alexandra blushing a bit to his words and responding without knowing to that much. ¡°Why is it that when I take my eyes off you, you start to talk about things I don''t want others to know!¡± Eden lightly knocked some sense into Alexandra''s head with a tap before heading to the edge of the very thin wall where there were a line of black fog and demons a hundred metres away. They numbered around a hundred thousand but were all strong; at least level 300 monster for the weakest. ¡°I suppose I should take care of this¡± said Eden with a sigh jumping off the wall heading to the monster army all alone. [p=center]xXx[/p] When Miriel woke up, Sain wasn''t there. She wasn''t asking herself that of concern but rather on why he wasn''t there at all. Did he abandoned her? Did he decide that the others were worthless? Those thoughts filled Miriel''s mind due to her fear. ¡°Ah Miriel, you''re finally awake at last...that subduing spell was too strong after all¡± said Jenny when she saw that Miriel was wide and awaken. ¡°Master....?¡± ¡°Yes, I am your master and I am here. What is it that your wondering now?¡± asked Jenny a bit happy to see that Miriel still recognised her as her master instead of Eden since....anyone else would be fine but Eden for her safety. ¡°Where''s Sain?¡± Jenny let out a face with the words, ''As I thought'' on them and said to Miriel, ¡°Do you like that boy that much? You are at that age...¡± ¡°Not at all! Something is strange with him...like there is someone else controlling him and...and...!¡± ¡°You are extremely worried about him right? Don''t worry about that, it has been dealt with...or will when those two guildmasters decide to stop being distracted and get to the main point already¡± said Jenny in a tone dissing Eden and Alexandra a bit while they weren''t here. ¡°Wait a second. What exactly happened to Sain?¡± asked Miriel confused on the information she was getting now. There were a lot of gaps in when Jenny was saying to her. Jenny sighed thinking of something and then muttering, ''I better not get killed over this'' and removed her right glove that was the same as the one Miriel had on her hand. There, as if it was burn on, the Mark of a Bird was on her hand. ¡°Eden told you that we had these marks as well right? Well let me explain how these ''marks'' work.¡± The other 5 masters in the room were a bit surprised but did not stop her or say a word or even bother interfering at all, doing their own thing. It was a rule that you don''t interfere with someone else''s choice on what they want to do. ¡°These ''marks'' are basically a tool that allows us to draw out the inner strength that our mind and body are suppressing. You have heard of people unleashing great strength or speed at times when their lives are in danger right? This is simply the same...however the difference is that we can do that at will.¡± ¡°I see....¡± Such a concept wasn''t that rare at all. Miriel knew that there were players that had lifted the limits on their bodies in game and were powerful thanks to that. ¡°With our ''marks'' however, there is another feature. It does not simply draw out inner strength but personalities with it was well that are hidden inside....¡± ¡°What?¡± Miriel could not believe her ears at all. Such a thing was fundamentally impossible to do. Things like inner personalities are things of fiction or scams that certain religious people say to trick people in the end. ¡°Not everyone have a hidden personalities that they are unconsciously suppressing. That is why Eden actually seek out people like us in the first place. We are all people who have lost something too important to recover. The Inner Personalities are a result of our hatred and despair or something that was replaced by something new after said event. In exchange for even greater power, what was being hidden inside begins to slip out bit by bit until it corrodes your mind and personality itself.¡± Jenny looked sadly at her own mark as well. ¡°Don''t get me won''t, the power that comes with this is enough that it compensates of what happens afterwards. But what is the most troublesome thing is that things get really out of hand when you can''t control that ''other'' personality in you. Usually these things appear after a year or so but that Sain....in a mere 7 months managed to unleash it.¡± Miriel frowned, what Jenny said might have some significant but it mostly did not make sense at all, so she asked: ¡°So...what exactly is happening to Sain again?¡± ¡°His other personality appeared out of nowhere and Eden needs to suppress it or let it loose from there.¡± ¡°And these gloves are...?¡± ¡°A way to suppress them until the time is right to use them though our ones are much more powerful while your ones only have a small amount of power to begin with.¡± ¡°So...what happened to Sain won''t happen again right?¡± asked Miriel really hoping that that kind of Sain would not appear again. Jenny shook her head and said, ¡°That depends on him in the end.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°And that is more or less what happened to you¡± said Alexandra concluding her side of things as well to Sain. ¡°....¡± Sain thought about it. When he was in this ''trance'', he didn''t feel like that there was something wrong at all. In fact, he felt that everything was finally fine and he was ''complete''. Like something that was being pressed down was finally released. In the end, Sain asked, ¡°Can this be controlled?¡± Alexandra replied with a smile, ¡°Of course! That''s the whole point of the glove!¡± ¡°And the others?¡± ¡°The same will happen to them as well. It only depends on when though. Of course by then, we will actually have things sorted so the same thing won''t happen like with you.¡± With this, the matter of things was resolved fine and the two watched as Eden was about to face off the monster army on his own. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°I''ll give you guys one final warning since I have other things to do. Scam or die¡± said Eden all alone in this mass of monsters that were all powerful demons. The moment those words left Eden''s mouth, it seemed that the Demons started to laugh as if this was a joke. Eden sighed and then muttered, ¡°Your death....¡± Space distorted around Eden as if there was something there covering him like armour. Eden would not have mercy for fools that didn''t consider his warning. ¡°Chains of Heaven!¡± Several chains came bursting out of the distorted space. Nothing much, but there were only 5 golden chains that came out hitting several of the Demons at once and dragging some of them to the ground easily. [Rooooooar!!!] It was at this moment that the Demon Army finally recognised Eden as an enemy. ¡°Lightning Spear.¡± A spear made of lightning that was twice his size appeared along side his arm as he moved in close to one of the demons that looked like a troll and smashed his fist into it along with the lightning spear. Bang! Lightning was sent to the surrounding area as well as part of Eden''s spell as he continued to use ''Chains of Heaven'' to keep the other Demons quite a distance away from him in check. Various kicks, punches and magic spells of all kinds later, Eden made a gaping hole in the Demon Army in a matter of 10 seconds. ¡°Lightning Shower!¡± Eden raised his hands using ''Chains of Heaven'' as a defence to knock back Demons on all sides as he casted this massive AOE spell that covered the entire army at once. The Demons could only watch as lightning from above fell on them. Bang Bang Bang Bang....! Several thousand weaker Demons died in that one onslaught of a spell. The other Demons now only focused on killing Eden as it seemed that he was the greatest danger that they could ever face. ¡°Ice Nova!¡± After leaping from place to place dodging attacks from Demons that would not even affect their comrades due to the effect of this dark fog, Eden slammed his fist into the ground causing ice to burst out of the ground like spikes for several tens of metres in front of him. Next using his leg, he casted the next spell as if he was kicking it out. ¡°Flame Burst!¡± From his simply kick, came flying out a wave of fire that covered and burnt the nearby Demons into ashes like they were paper. Normally Demons had high resistance to all things, especially physical attacks but their magic resistance wasn''t something to joke about. It was just that, the amount of power in these spells were simply too much for any creature that was bound to common sense could endure. ¡°This is taking too long...time to finish this now¡± said Eden ignoring the screams of the Demons around him as he swiftly moved his hand across the space in front of him making small balls that were no bigger than tennis balls each with different colours. Red, Blue, Purple, White, Yellow and so on until there were a total of 12 of them around him. ¡°Catalyst Demolition!!!¡± From each of these small coloured balls were a high level spell of each element. And what came out of them when Eden casted them all were all powerful high level spells of each element. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! Like a ''rainbow'' of some sort...not a better way to explain this was a coloured wheel each with a different colour on each part came an attack. The red one was a fire spell, the blue one was a water spell, purple one was a lightning spell, white was a light spell and so on. In the end the Demon Army was wiped out like that without mercy causing a large cater with nothing else in there except Eden to be formed immediately like it was a natural thing. However looking around, Eden let out a sigh saying, ¡°Now....how to clean this up....most of the loot from these guys are gone as well.¡± Management from the Kingdom would soon complain that he had ''wasted'' valuable materials that would ''greatly'' benefit the Kingdom even though the Kingdom had no use for Demon Remains except if they wanted to experiment on using them later which the churches all oppose. [p=center]xXx[/p] On the north wall, Sain watched all of this happening with mouth wide open in shock. To his left and right were also shocked guards that had never seen Eden battle before. For those who have, they were only mildly shocked but then continued their work. ¡°Okay! Monster Army has been repelled! Send word to the citizens that everything is all right now!¡± ¡°Reallocate the arrows and bows back to the armoury!¡± ¡°Clean up the cannons on the walls as well! Make sure you don''t slack off on guard duty because of this!¡± There were several people trying to get to work cleaning up on their side but there were much more unresponsive people who were thinking whether or not what they saw was real at all. Even when the Kingdom with the help of Dwarves and Gnomes presented the first mechanised soldier, they weren''t as shock as now. Magic is powerful but there is a limit. The sword is better than magic since it is more reliable. The age of Magic is ending were conceit thoughts that these mindless guards had and supported as they could not use magic freely at all. They have seem mages being supported by others all the time and could not do anything at all besides that. They were simply useful tools with greater power than normal people in the end. It had been many many years since a major war appeared in which mages were one of the most important factor to consider. Now people just consider them mostly as those with a little too much firepower in their hands. But what Eden had shown was something that could not have happened, should not have happened. For the guards who have lived only a short 20 or so years, this was too much for them. ''Magic'' should not have that kind of power. But the ''Magic'' they have just seen could easily destroy cities and Kingdoms at will. Something that they, the ''bottom'' could not fully understand and fear. ¡°Is that person a Demon? The church should go ahead and execute that thing.¡± ¡°Nothing to see here....just a damn act in the end.¡± ¡°Things should have it''s limits. Monsters should all die for us.¡± The guards started dissing Eden who essentially saved them in the end. Sain felt a lot of disgust to the guards that never seemed to have done their job at all. Feeling this kind of thing, he looked to Alexandra who was giving off her cold smile. ¡°....¡± Sain immediately backed away from her fleeing for his own safety in the end. He ran to where the captain guard was who also looked in shock at Alexandra. Seeing Sain, the captain guard simply said, ¡°Looks like we''re going to get new guards soon...this batch was a failure¡± with a sigh. Though Sain did not want to, he understood what was going to happen next. The Aura around Alexandra quickly materialised and expanded outwards completely pressing down on the north wall including where Sain and the Captain Guard was standing. It was like a white demon just awakened there. Everyone there felt ''death'' itself was approaching fast at them. ¡°Judgement Sword of-¡± ¡°Stop.¡± Eden appeared, probably with a teleport and tapped Alexandra on the shoulder. ¡°I''m used to this kind of treatment plus...with that amount of power, half the city will be destroyed in one go.¡± The white aura decreased in size and Alexandra appeared to be normal now. The Captain Guard next to Sain sighed in relief and muttered, ''Thank God that things didn''t head to that direction...'' before leaving to his work. As Sain walked towards the two guildmasters, he observed the reaction of the guards that were badmouthing Eden just then. They were all collapsed on the ground shivering like crazy and most of them wet themselves due to Alexandra. Sain could hear the slight prayers to the Gods that they worshipped as he walked by. ''It''s ironic that the person that saved them was the ''demon'' they were badmouthing and the person that nearly killed them all was probably closely connected to the Gods that they are praying to right now.'' ¡°Right, crisis avoided and got some more contribution from the Kingdom. Time to head back¡± Eden grabbed Sain who was just by and teleported back to the Guild Building. [p=center]xXx[/p] Appearing back at the guild building, Miriel saw Sain, Eden and Alexandra and sent killing intent to Eden. It was like a slight pressure appeared in the building though it paled compared to the one that Alexandra sent out just then against the guards. ¡°Right where were we?¡± asked Eden ignoring the clear killing intent against him. ¡°What we''re going to do with the ''marks'' now¡± replied Alexandra also ignoring the killing intent against Eden. ¡°I suppose I can give him a higher powered one to cancel it but...isn''t that kinda disappointing. I''ve seen the progress that was made thanks to the ''other'' Sain. A few weeks and they gained 7 levels so easily. There was no room left for mistakes but the hunting sped up rapidly.¡± ¡°So...you want him to be a lunatic?¡± asked Alexandra quite sceptic. ¡°That said from a fellow lunatic isn''t very persuasive at all¡± replied Eden with a sigh, ¡°Well....I think it''s fine to keep him as he is right now since it seems that he''s not affected by it out of combat at least.¡± With that, the decision to keep the ''commander'' Sain was approved and pushed through at the same time. [p=center]xXx[/p] Later on that night...when Sain and Miriel logged off since there was no point staying on when the others were banned from logging back in due to dying for another few days in game. In the vortex world that could only be accessed by those of the guild by the permission of the guildmasters and as a place that will not affect the outside world at all. A total of two people were here right now inside a certain building that was largely inspired by eastern temples or monk training grounds. ¡°Stop it...I can''t last anymore¡± said a certain ''man'' named Eden. ¡°Quiet! I want to go at least another 5 rounds!¡± ordered a certain woman named Alexandra. ¡°Damnit are you trying to kill me through exhaustion?!¡± ¡°As long as that lower body of yours can move. I don''t mind if you can''t move down there either way. It has been a while since I¡¯ve been able to dominate you like this.¡± What they were doing? They were sparing of course! What the hell else could they be doing? Without magic nor aura and skills, the two were simply fighting using swords training their movements. While the above things were very powerful and could be easily used to blast your way to victory, against a truly powerful foe that can counter ''power'' with ''skill'' alone, these kinds of things were indeed useless in the end unless you have proper skills. As such, even now, the two were trying to hone their skills just in case that they would once again face enemies that had such skills. Normally they could just blow them up from long range if it came to that but that hurt their pride greatly when they did. ¡°Ha!¡± Eden swung his sword horizontally at Alexandra while Alexandra blocked it swinging the same way. Clang~! The two swords vibrated due to the large impact even with these simple exchanges. Then they started to speed up once again attacking each other over and over again faster than the previous strike. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Punches and Kicked were also thrown in as well and the swords blurred to the point that they that the after-effects of attacks looked like the space in which they cut through and clashed suddenly exploded with no reason at all. Clang Clang Clang....~! Another few seconds passed but in between the two, they have tried to strike each other several dozen times with great focus and concentration. Clang Clang Bang...~! The two jumped away from each other and sweat immediately then poured down Eden''s skin due to his body keeping him from having accidents in battle.
A total of 42 parries and a row has been made!
Register to Game of this achievement?
¡°Nope¡± said Eden as he rejected whatever this was in front of him. Whenever he did something a number of times in a row that was over 10 times, this message always appeared. It was quite annoying and it seems that there was no way of turning it off....well it would more or less get buried under all the other messages that could spam his face once in a while so it wasn''t that bad. Eden checked his stamina and it was quite low. He was panting right now since they have been at it for around several dozen times now. When Eden looked at Alexandra, she did not even have a sweat on her. ¡°What kind of stamina do you have you damn beast¡± muttered Eden. Alexandra let out a smirk but then changed to a slightly worried face and said, ¡°That''s because I don''t slack off in training at all. Compared to before...did your stamina get lower? Near the beginning....players'' stamina only increased but then a while afterwards, they noticed that the stat actually lowered when they weren''t doing anything for a while. Perhaps that''s what happened to you since the last true serious battle you had was a couple of years ago.¡± Eden thought back on that particular incident. It forced him to even use ''Magic King Drive'' to it''s limits and even then he barely won. ¡°Yeah..those giants were a real pain to deal with. High resistance to everything....plus surprising speed for their size.¡± ¡°Though fun to fight¡± added Alexandra. Eden frowned, ¡°Fun to you, not me. I had to run around clinging to my life as a ''weak'' mage.¡± In a sarcastic tone, Alexandra replied with, ¡°If you were a weak mage then all other mages are crippled or worse.¡± ¡°Not my fault that they are so weak¡± replied Eden nonchalantly. ¡°And not my fault that you have no stamina at all....do I have to use that ''stamina increasing'' drug on you...?¡± muttered Alexandra in a low tone though Eden still heard most of it. ¡°What?¡± Eden had a bad feeling for some reason. ¡°Nothing! Nothing at all...¡± replied Alexandra frantic that Eden actually heard that. ''Curse his falcon hearing'' thought Alexandra really regretting not stopping him from creation a whole range of skills in his spare time. ¡°Anyway let''s continue¡± said Eden holding his sword in hand once again. ¡°Right.¡± The two continued to spar against each other throughout the night once again. [p=center]xXx[/p] Back in real life....both Peter and Hina logged off at the same time and were immediately besieged by the others who have died during the battle against the behemoth. ¡°What happened? Did you die as well?!¡± ¡°Was that Behemoth killed?! I don''t want to fight it again!¡± ¡°Uh....please be alright!¡± Such comments flew to the two from the others. With a sigh, Peter dismissed any more barrage of words since he couldn''t understand what one person said since several other people were trying to talk over one another. ¡°Long story short, the Behemoth is death and both me and Hina there gained 4 levels...¡± The other nodded as if this was expected. Since it died and was pretty strong, it gave lots of experience right? But the next thing shocked them. ¡°But Eden stole the kill from me and immediately teleported us out of the dungeon to do some things involving a monster invasion to the city.¡± ¡°....?¡± The others were confused. Grace was not at all understanding what was happening, Maria with her nature felt that something was wrong but couldn''t put her finger on it, Mark simply did not care at this point and Ian thought that Peter was cutting something out with his instincts as an ''observer''. ¡°Don''t worry...everything is fine¡± said Peter trying to relieve the others though they had nothing to be scared of to be relieved of. This added suspicion from Ian who asked, ¡°Are you hiding something from us oh commander?¡± Peter blushed a bit since during the hunting spree that he forced on them, it slipped out of his mouth to call him ''commander'' which sounded natural at the time and everyone accepted it. Now it was being used to blackmail or threaten him. Peter immediately regretted the decision back them though it was mostly in the heat of things that caused him to slip those words out in the first place. ''Shut up! Call me Commander and I will lead you even though hell itself!'' Those were the precise words that Peter spoke during that time though he really did not want to remember them. Though a bit entertained partly since this was a bit of revenge for forcing her and the others on several week long hunting spree, Hina watched on as Peter suffered a bit though in the end ''helped'' in. ¡°What this ''Commander'' that will lead us through hell is wanting to say is that Eden place a tight seal on our mouths on some matters. If even a word slips out of what he doesn''t want too many to know about even you guys, we learnt this by accident; we''ll all be forced into eternal ''Hell Training'' from him.¡± ¡°....¡± The others though only Ian was questioning them to begin with shut up. Hina inside her thoughts giggled since Eden and Alexandra weren''t the type to even care about these things though Alexandra was on the side of extreme worry like a mother while Eden was the uncaring type....definitely not a father....but more like a stressed mother instead. Another thing to note was that they just ''preferred'' for the others not to know for now and probably had no intentions of punishing them at all if this was leaked. However, Hina wanted to torment Peter a bit once again and this was a good chance to tighten her grip on the others. ¡°Anyway, I intend to spend some more time in the game trying to gain new skills¡± said Peter. Hina likewise said, ¡°I want to try out a new weapon just in case in the worse circumstances....I think that man called Park could help me.¡± Later one through a discussion, it was decided that Peter and Hina would go back into the game to see what was happening there while the others researched from various places on what is happening around the continent in order to get a better grip on things. Hina researched most of the things they needed but 9 months passed in the game and her information was now outdated. She did not have the time at all to look at forums or T.V channels that broadcast about Royal Road. [p=center]xXx[/p] Back in the game before Sain and Miriel logged back in...a certain group of three was cleaning up the remains of the battle that Eden single handedly took part in. ¡°WHY THE HELL ARE WE THE ONE WHO HAS TO CLEAN THIS UP?!!!!¡± shouted an irritated man that looked around 30-40 years old on the later side. This man was a master tactician that had once commanded a small army of 3000 against a large army of 30 000 and won with only a thousand dead in the end even in what was told to be the most disadvantaged battle to be recorded. Other than that, he was the Master of Sain and was called Gen. ¡°I don''t know about you but I expected to be forced into this kind of work...considering my skills¡± replied a woman in green that looked around the age of 20 years old but was much much older. Mel, the druid was known as the hell bringer of the battlefield summoning nature magic of all kinds that literally destroyed the enemies into pieces. She was also the Master of the timid Serena who was just starting to open her heart to other people properly. ¡°Well I think this can be considered revenge on us for defying Eden in the end....sigh...why did I join you two in your rage against him...that was a really bad idea that caused to almost die several times already¡± muttered a woman in purple and blue that looked of similar age of Mel but actual age was also similar as well. Unlike that certain person, she was known as a master barrier user and would often save the lives of others on the battlefield...else she also used on for her experiments as well. This person was Jenny and also the Master of Miriel. The three once again looked at the wreckage known as the battlefield that Eden stepped into and sighed collectively. What was once a good forest area was completely flattened with all the threes gone and a massive crater in the centre. It was only fortunate that this didn''t extend all the way north to the mountains else Eden would still command them to fix this up. As they were doing work, Gen filling the hole, Mel regrowing the trees and Jenny moving a massive amount of dirt and other stuff, they actually conversed together since they had been in the same whacked up group for so long. ¡°Sain managed to get into that state.....¡± said Gen looking a bit worried, ¡°I hope that other personality isn''t too bad.¡± Jenny and Mel looked at each other and nodded with a smug look on their faces. ¡°Of course his personality is better...compared to you.¡± ¡°I don''t believe he became a backstabbing bastard whenever he changes.¡± ¡°Ack!¡± Gen took a hit since they were intentionally digging out his worried from the inside with a poisoned knife with their words. ¡°It''s not my fault that I become like that when I change!¡± retorted Gen in his defence. ¡°Doesn''t change what you did. I remember how many times you left us in a mob of monsters to escape on your own. You also become a coward when you change as well¡± said Mel already getting annoyed even when thinking about it. ¡°Yep, the increase in power is worthless with you running away all the time, why do you think Eden suggested that you NEVER use it again unless it was in a situation where you couldn''t escape and had to cooperate with the rest of us¡± said Jenny as well remembering that Gen in that state actually willingly helped them since there was no other way. She only wanted for Gen to be more useful in the end without the backstabbing part. Then Jenny remembered and muttered out, ¡°Wasn''t it because of that state that Anna now hates Gen the most. Before it was actually Ron I think who talked about her size.¡± ¡°Please don''t rub it in like that....she still attacks me all the time when everyone else isn''t looking....though she still does even when there are other people around as well....¡± Gen sighed. ¡°Anyway, what do you think the effects of the other 5 will be like?¡±asked Gen trying very obviously to steer things away from the topic of himself. ¡°I''m worried about Serena.¡± ¡°Not worried at all with Miriel.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The two looked at each other a bit surprised. Mel was the first to speak. ¡°Why aren''t you worried about Miriel? Don''t you think the other personality that comes out will be...extreme?¡± asked Mel. Jenny without worried shook it off saying, ¡°Don''t worry, Miriel is surprisingly honest in the inside. Plus that red haired elf is the same as well...I believe her name was Lyndis? I think they will have a good relationship sooner or later since they are similar in how they are in the inside.¡± Mel sighed hearing these words since unlike those two, Serena isn''t exactly completely honest, ¡°I don''t know where Serena''s true colours lie.....though she hasn''t realised yet, she placed a wall around her heart completely that even if she wanted, she would still be unable to express her true emotions to others...I fear that the other personality that comes out of her will be....¡± ¡°Like the backstabbing coward Gen?¡± ¡°Yeah that.¡± ¡°HEY! Don''t refer to me like that....¡± With auras of superiority Mel asked in an arrogant voice, ¡°And what are you going to do about it?¡± ¡°Yeah, what about it?¡± asked Jenny in the same tone as well. Gen sighed and muttered under his breath, ¡°Why is it when it comes to insulting me you two stop fighting and cooperate so well....?¡± Gen remembered the countless times that the two got into fights. Well to be precise, when Mel got in another fight with Park and Jenny trying to stop them while he, Ron and Anna watched on though Anna sometimes attacks him in the middle of that and Ron simply laughed it off trying to flirt with women that he sees. ¡°....¡± ''Now that I think about it, we''re not exactly the best role models to have...'' Gen thought looking on his and the others behaviour in the past. Gen shrugged it off and then continued to fill of the land to level with the rest of the place around them along with recreating the part of the forest that was completely cleaned out just recently as well. Later on with several more arguments, they fought each other to the near death until Eden forcefully stopped them and once again forced them to clean up...after themselves this time. They were all in a bad mood that day. [p=center]xXx[/p] The next day... Eden was relaxing at the time lying face down on the sofa in the guild building...the previous night exhausted him since Alexandra didn''t want to stop at all. ''Why is it that she always seem infinite stamina when I face her...?'' Eden was complaining in his heart all about Alexandra. How she wanted to fight him so much; how she complained when Eden didn''t tell her everything he did and how she would drag him inside with no stamina and force ''stamina increasing'' drinks in him for another dozen rounds. ''I don''t want to move.....'' Eden was experiencing muscle pains...though at this point it was surprising that Eden would have muscle pains or even forgot to use a skill to remove that muscle pain. ''So...tired....it hurts.....'' Another thing was that he was mentally exhausted as well. Proof was that he was lazing around like this and not doing work...though that happens half the time but this was suppose to be his active state where he actually did work. ¡°Umm...Eden?¡± ''Who''s that....I recognise that voice. Probably one of the new brats....Sain was his name? Can''t remember properly right now....'' ¡°Are you all right....?¡± he asked to the Eden lying face down with no energy what so ever. ¡°No......¡± Eden had barely enough energy to even talk right now. The following window explains his situation quite nicely.
You are exhausted to the point that Infinite Stamina would not help you! Due to the constant strain on both body and mind, you are incapable of even moving or thinking too hard on matters. Due to the consumption of multiple stamina increasing potions that forcefully increases stamina back to maximum, the effects on your body is increased several fold. This state is similar to a drunken state except that you cannot heal this or recover quickly. It is highly suggested that you rest for a few days without doing anything to allow you to recover - Stamina will be set to the lowest value for a few days - Mana Regeneration due to extreme mental fatigue will stop. - Unable to use skills - Movement speed will dramatically reduce to near zero - Moving the body will be extremely difficult
''Damn that Alexandra....forcing me to drink several of those.....and now my body is in this state and I can''t use skills at all.....'' ¡°Is it possible for you to teach me some new spells in that state?¡± asked Sain who seemed to know that me in this state was mostly useless. ¡°Can''t use skills right now....unable to teach....go to Gen or Jenny.....¡± Eden muttered barely being able to even move his lips to talk. ¡°Ah okay.¡± With that, Sain left Eden like this. ''Now that I think about it....those brats don''t even call me Guildmaster anymore....don''t care anymore.....need to sleep.....zzzz.....'' It would later be known that Eden slept for a whole week in a row with no signs of waking up until a certain someone came by. [p=center]xXx[/p] Following Eden''s advice...though it was when he was not in the right state due to whatever Alexandra forced him to do, Sain seeked out Gen or Jenny to train up his magic skills a bit. ''A better healing spell, a offence buffing spell and a spear skill as well. These are the three things that I want. I can probably get the healing spell from Gen, buffing spell from Jenny and the spear skill from Park..that means I need to visit three people.'' First of all, Sain went to visit his master which he hadn''t actually had a proper conversation with in months. ''Well that was because Eden was forcing all of us to do things and things led to another and we never actually talked after graduation....'' Taking several tens of minutes to get to, Sain entered the house that his master was. ¡°Master! I''m back!¡± Sain shouted while opening the door to the house without warning. Gen was doing something with his pants down and had a face of ecstasy looking at a picture of someone in an inappropriate position though did not know who nor did not want to know. Bang! Sain immediately slammed the door shut without hesitation. After a few moments, he heard Gen say, ¡°Enter.¡± ¡°Master! I''m back!¡± Sain shouted once again completely ignoring what happened before...which actually did not happen at all. ¡°Oh Sain! So you finally come back after leaving for so long!¡± said Gen in bliss since his own apprentice came back from Eden with his own will and also completely ignored what happened just then.... ¡°Eden said to come to you or Jenny to learn some spells¡± clarified Sain. ¡°....¡± For some reason Gen had a face that was a bit disappointed and worried about what was up with this. Normally, Eden had the ability and capability to teach anyone anything they wanted though he did not always do so since it was along the lines of cheating by getting his complete help. The ability to freely create skill books is a highly crave over skill that only Eden had after all. ¡°So what kind of spell do you want? I can only teach you and nothing else at this point. We are not really master and apprentice anymore and are simply comrades through the guild.¡± ¡°Yes, I want a stronger healing spell¡± requested Sain. Gen confused asked and clarified, ¡°Healing? Doesn''t that Serena girl have some perfectly fine healing spells? Why would you want to learn some healing spells as well?¡± ¡°Oh that...¡± Sain proceeded to explain on how his healing spell was much weaker compared to Serena''s and his attack spells are much weaker than Miriel''s as well. He also emphasised on how he felt that he was being left behind by the others that were sharpening their skills while his ones were still blunt. ¡°I see....that IS the core problem with jack of all trades. You need to have extremely high skill proficiencies as well as a large range of skills and spells to use. But don''t you have that wolf summoning skill Eden gave you? Is there a need to gain a spear skill?¡± ¡°If Luna dies then I''m a bit screwed in close combat¡± replied Sain. Gen pondered about it for a while and then started an explanation on what Sain could do. ¡°There are many types of shaman. Those who are closely connected to close combat and use spells to support themselves, those who use magic was a main and combat skills as a backup, those who specialise in light and dark magic and so on....however you cannot become all of them else it would take too long to get stronger. From what I know, you are the extreme support type so you don''t actually need combat skills at all. Spells that increase the power of allies and spells that decrease the power of foes seems to be something that you are interested in...¡± ¡°But wouldn''t having more powerful healing spell be important as well?¡± ¡°Yes...but compared to causing the enemy to not be able to attack your allies and making it easier for them to kill them faster to not get hurt....healing spells aren''t that important if you don''t take damage. They are a safety line against enemies in which you get hit by. ¡°....¡± Gen stared at Sain for a bit and laughed. ¡°Hahahaha! What''s with that look? Don''t worry, I''m not going to interfere with your path. I myself am an extremely close combat type of shaman and many people told me I was doing it wrong! You don''t need to look for that Jenny for the support spells you are looking for! I can provide them myself along with a stronger healing spell!¡± Sain looked happy since now he didn''t really need to waste time to talk to someone that he really didn''t know and only knew from another person. His respect of Gen shot up just then. ¡°However....¡± And suddenly Sain felt that this was a bad idea. ¡°You need to do me a favour.¡±
Favour from Gen Gen has a favour for you to do. Content will be revealed when you accept the quest. Restrictions: Unknown Reward: Several spells
¡°....¡± ¡°You do know that Eden is out of commission for a few days or weeks right? At this rate you will fall back compared to the others. Plus I doubt Jenny will be kind enough to teach you as well. She is a stubborn person after all.¡± Sain had to accept this quest no matter what. He needed those spells to grow stronger. ¡°I....accept.¡±
You have accepted the quest
[p=center]xXx[/p] Several minutes when Sain left, Eden was still lying face down on the sofa which would be his bed and home for a few days at least. ¡°Ah Guildmaster!¡± said Miriel seeing him, ¡°What''s wrong?¡± Eden managed to get out the words, ¡°Alexandra.....¡± Hearing that word, Miriel thought that Eden was sleep talking and tried to shake his body to wake him up. Several groans later and a glare from Eden who could not move his body, Miriel misunderstood the intentions of Eden''s words. It was not that he was dreaming of her and answering her question. ''That was a bit embarrassing....'' thought Miriel thankful that Eden could not see her red face right now. ¡°What do you want? First Sain and now you....?¡± ¡°Ah, I want to know how to use weapons¡± replied Miriel. ¡°Weapons...?¡± wondered Eden confused. ''Why is she asked about that? Isn''t she a mage? Well I can definitely pin this on someone else...'' ¡°Go to Park. He''s the expert on a number of weapons¡± said Eden. ¡°Why not Alexandra?¡± asked Miriel confused now as well. Realising on what Miriel was thinking about, he replied, ¡°Only go to Alexandra if you want some experience in getting beaten up. She can''t even teach someone how to use the sword since he does it all naturally as breathing. Park on the other hand is an expert on many different weapons though still a master with the spear. But first talk to Jenny about this since she may become moody if you don''t tell her beforehand and go to Park directly.¡± With that, Miriel left Eden. ''I do hope when the other brats when they can get back into this game; they don''t ask me the same bloody thing each time....learn to depend of your masters not your guildmaster for Gods sake!'' [p=center]xXx[/p] Miriel made her way to the library where her Master in magic; Jenny was. Ignoring the other people who gathered there to take advantage of the place for rare books and skills; Miriel walked into the ''common books'' section which was understandably empty except for some rare people. Looking around the place, she didn''t seem to be able to find her master at all though according to Eden she was here. ''Oh...I suppose I can use that spell to find people I as....'' ¡°Clairvoyance!¡± A thin strain of light appeared in front of Miriel and quickly guided her to where Jenny was. ¡°Damn.........die.....take.........¡± For some reason, Miriel could hear whispers of something...probably her master was doing something. Either way, Miriel walked to Jenny concentrating on doing something. ¡°Die Die Die!!!!¡± said Jenny in a frantic voice that sounded like the words of a crazed woman. ¡°Master...?¡± What Miriel saw could only be described in one way, a black magic ritual. Jenny with her clothes in tattered was holding two things. One was a large nail that was the size of a knife and the other was a doll covered in red substance and was dripping the floor and the wall with it. Strangely enough, Miriel thought she recognised who the doll looked liked. ¡°....¡± Miriel was so shocked that she could not even mutter a single word in response to what she was seeing. ¡°Ah...¡± That was the first word Jenny let out when she saw Miriel standing there shocked. Quickly enough, while holding the large nail and doll in her hands, Jenny smiled as if nothing was wrong and said, ¡°Oh Miriel, you took the time to visit me.¡± ¡°Yes....Eden directed me here to tell you that I wish to train to use a weapon from Park....¡± Her smile unchanged like he was a poker face, Jenny said, ¡°I see...so it was Eden....nevertheless I have some things to pick about on someone else this time....you WILL help me right? Of course this will be a favour from me¡±
Favour from Jenny Jenny has a favour for you to do. Content will be revealed when you accept the quest. Restrictions: Unknown Reward: Unknown
¡°....¡± Miriel could not help but to be shocked of what was happening. ''Did I do something wrong in my past life to deserve this....?'' wondered Miriel really wanting to deny this quest. But then Miriel looked at the ''blood-soaked'' Jenny with a weapon in one hand and a doll in the other. Observing the doll, it repaired itself after a while but for some reason...which Miriel did not want to know, whenever it was damaged or stabbed, it let out some red liquid that was very similar in colour to blood which made Jenny look very scary. ¡°Yes.....?¡±
You have accepted the quest
[p=center]xXx[/p] At the same time... Eden was still lying on the sofa...this has been said three times so you get the picture. ¡°Ah...!¡± exclaimed Eden as if he remembered something important. ''Damn...I forgot to tell those two that this was a very bad time to be involved with their masters...along with Mel. They are all in bad moods thanks to me forcing them to clean up after me....well what''s the force that could happen?'' With that, Eden left those thoughts away as he slept peacefully as others were about to suffer.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 10000~ - Finally finished this chapter...was planning on doing it all yesterday but then Ninnin challenged me to Pokemon Showdown where I found out my rusted skills in pokemon led to horrible team building skills....did well in random battles though - Anyway this may be a bit (very) unpolished chapter since I had little idea on what to write getting into this...need to make those volume plans again...but I think it turned out a bit better than I thought it would go not forcing me to re edit several times. Vol.3 Chapter 2 - Conflict of Interests ¡°Now my request is simple....very simple¡± said Gen assuring Sain that this would not be too difficult at all. After all, Sain was a weak player who had less than a year of experience while Gen lived for decades with countless experiences. ¡°You will help me on a prank against that damn Jenny!¡±
Quest Update: Help Gen prank Jenny due to petty reasons Gen requests you as a favour since you are of the same guild to help him prank Jenny, another member of the guild due to very petty reasons. Note that relations with Gen and Jenny will be altered based on the results of the quest in question. Rank: C Restrictions: - Part of same guild as Gen - High Intimacy with Gen Reward: Being Taught new Spells
¡°....¡± ¡°What''s with that disappointed look Sain? This is a very simple and yet dangerous request from me. Look at that quest rank of ''C''. This quest is on the same level as taking out a small army of monsters!¡± said Gen affirming that Sain did not read the quest rank wrong and this was indeed a ''C'' ranked quest. ''A quest like this....this rank.....for a prank...? How much of a monster are these masters that the quest rank gets increased from F to C? But why is this limited to only Jenny? Wasn''t Master on bad terms with Mel and Anna as well?'' ¡°Umm...can I ask the reason why you are planning a prank on Jenny? I don''t want to be dragged into....¡± Gen made a hateful face remembering the event and explained it clearly, ¡°Get this, Eden orders us to clean up after him...a natural thing to do in this guild sooner or later and forces me to group up with Mel and Jenny! That I can endure at least.¡± ''I see...so something serious must have happened then.'' ¡°Things were going all right but then Jenny decided it was a fun idea to cast magic which dumped a whole lot of dirt onto me while Mel watched on laughing! For that I will get my payback on her, then it will be Mel''s turn!¡± ¡°What did Mel do?¡± asked Sain feeling that there is something missing from that explanation. ¡°Oh her, she did something to Mel but that''s not the problem here! She watched and laughed and didn''t help me as I was dying from lack of air in my lungs! Both of them are guilty of this crime of nearly killing me and they will pay! First Jenny for the act and then Mel for watching!¡± ¡°....¡± ''This is....quite minor isn''t it? Didn''t Eden drop you three into a lake filled with monsters before which was a lot worse than this? I better ask.'' ¡°What about the time Eden dropped you three into a lake filled with monsters? Aren''t you going to get payback against Eden for that?¡± Gen gave Sain was serious look and said, ¡°Are you crazy? There are literally five people you do NOT mess with no matter what. Two of them are the rulers of this Kingdom and the last three happen to be the guildmasters of our guild! Pissing Eden off is worse then stepping on the Dragon''s tail since it is stepping on a Dragon King''s tail instead. Not to mention there is that other Dragon King with Eden as well not that I know where that one is now.¡± ''I see...though I know already, never mess with Eden, Alexandra and that other Guildmaster along with the two rulers of this Kingdom....good to know.'' Gen got closer to Sain and then whispered, ¡°Now here is the plan....¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Miriel, now that your in this boat with me, you can help me out¡± said Jenny with a smile on her face though she was still covered in blood and holding a large nail in one hand and a red stained doll in the other. ''I don''t even know what to do anymore....'' ¡°I''ll make the explanation very simple since you are a smart girl and don''t need much to be of use to me. I want to humiliate Mel for what she did to me. How dare that wrench attack me out of nowhere and....and....¡± Jenny''s face was blood red with rage at Mel. ¡°....¡± ¡°And this is where you come in. Since I can take care of Mel by myself, I however cannot take care of the other people around her at the same time. Mainly it''s just Park though....I need you to distract him so he doesn''t interfere with my plan. He has this bad habit on getting in my way.¡± ¡°So...why couldn''t you get someone else to do this Master?¡± asked Miriel, she did not know why she had to be dragged into this as well. ¡°Because I am your Master and you will have to listen to me right? Plus you''re a freeman so when you die you come back either way¡± replied Jenny pushing the issue aside.
Quest Update: Help Jenny out with dealing with Mel Jenny has requested for your small help in her revenge due to reasons unknown to you. The act of helping Jenny is a simple one but may prove fatal to Mel in the end. However you have given your word to help Jenny and as such will help her by distracting Park from whatever schemes she may have Rank: C Restrictions: - Part of same guild as Jenny - High Intimacy with Jenny Reward: Experience
¡°....¡± ''Isn''t this quest rank to high for something like this or is it because whatever Master wants to do is too dangerous to be compared to normal revenge?'' However despite this, Miriel decided this was a good thing since she was going to find Park either way and with this, her relationship with Jenny would improve and the one with Mel...probably will be fine as long as she doesn''t find out that she helped Jenny in the end. ''I don''t plan on having enemies....especially one from the same guild and especially one as powerful as Mel.'' With that thought, Miriel asked, ¡°So how will I distract Park?¡± ¡°How would I know? Ask him to train you or something. He''s a training maniac so ask him to to teach you how to use a weapon or something. He''ll be glad since most of the time he''s teaching snobbish brats!¡± ¡°Right¡± Miriel nodded to this statement. She remembered that Park was a bit irritated whenever he wasn''t with Raven teaching him months ago. ¡°In that case, I''ll go to Park today and start my training with him¡± said Miriel about to leave. ¡°Wait!¡± shouted Jenny stopping Miriel. ''What is it now?'' wondered Miriel figuring that Jenny wanted Miriel to do something....probably delay things until tomorrow perhaps? ¡°Take this with you.¡± ¡°?¡± Jenny gave some sort of small device that strangely looked like one of those listening devices that you would see in old spy movies. It was the size of one of those mini-phones that were 10 cm long and could easily fit into one of her pockets. ¡°Please this button here when you think Park is distracted enough.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Because it will allow me to more accurately attack Mel when he''s not watching out for her¡± explained Jenny. ¡°I was on the impression that Park and Mel did not get along that well from what I saw back then.¡± ¡°Well they may be like that but in the end they do get along well enough that Park defends her and Mel supports him without attacking each other. It''s only when you mention age in front of Mel that she goes crazy which is where I have to step in.¡± Miriel nodded, she also didn''t really like it when people mentioned her age intentionally though it was fine if it was in context. For some reason Miriel also got the impression that woman over a certain age was very sensitive of their age. ''I rather not be that kind of person later on...though according to Eden and Alexandra, they''ve been playing since near the beginning of this game so are they over a hundred years old each....? But I heard that the game auto age your character so it''s more realistic though it''s at 4 times slower than NPCs.......but seeing those two....why is it that they look young....as old as us or a bit older? Probably due to a skill or effect or something we don''t know about....'' As Miriel was thinking about these things, Jenny was preparing all sorts of things. Disguised, scented potions that gave certain effects and...the core of her plan. A scroll that when ripped would allow you to cast the spell inscribed to it. On this scroll however was a super forbidden spell that''s existence was hastily erased by the Kingdom itself by the orders of the Queen. It was....a strip beam. The ultimate spell in disarming enemies from their armour and everything else....if this spell was to fall under the hands of an evil person and replicated, all womankind would be in danger. As such Jenny had to be careful but yet this was the perfect chance. ¡°Muhahahhaha, this will be the perfect revenge!¡± said Jenny ignoring that Miriel was watching her the entire time as she looked like a madman planning an evil plan. [p=center]xXx[/p] Meanwhile at the same time.... ¡°Park don''t push people too hard to the point that it wouldn''t be abnormal that they''ll break!¡± complained Mel after healing another set of recruits that was brought into this training centre to be brought up as guards. Unlike the other training centres in the rest of the continent, this one was exclusive to a particular type of people. Namely troublemakers and outcasts due to past actions that made them the enemy of the people though not enough to make them criminals to be eliminated. Their sins were not that large on the levels of pranks but had dramatic effects on those around them often harming innocent people as a ''joke''. It didn''t help that the majority of those who come here are dishonoured nobles who have bad attitudes. ¡°Not my fault. I need to hit it in that they are no longer who they are anymore¡± replied Park holding a training spear that he used to beat down 20 or so people together. ¡°This training is to show that numbers are useless against vastly more powerful foes. Also it''s useful for me to relieve my stress.¡± ¡°....¡± Mel sighed since this was probably the real reason in which he actually did this kind of training though it was part of his stress to begin with. ''A never ending cycle of stress gaining and stress relieving....'' thought Mel as the next batch of 20 or so people came to be ''trained''. ¡°Just make sure that none of them are critically injured just in case I can''t save them...I rather not get hassled by their families after all¡± reminded Mel to Park who already started to beat the new set of recruits that walked in with a wooden spear. Mel sighed and remembered what happened only yesterday with Gen and Jenny. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Help Me!!!¡± shouted Gen from under a pile of dirt which was crushing him to death. ¡°That''s for trying to play it cool when you are in the wrong~¡± said Jenny now cheerful since she relieved her stress from being insulted by Gen on him as well as the stress from the order Eden gave them. (Sound of muffled words) Mel looked on laughing but then realised quickly that at this rate, Gen will really die from the lack of air under that dirt pile and when Eden asks who killed him, the blame will also fall on Jenny as well as her. She needed to do something to save Gen...hopefully though it would be a good thing if he still died. ¡°Let the blessing of nature allow greater vitality in cursed lands....¡± whispered Mel under her breath chanting a spell to allow Gen to breath and survive even under that dirt pile which was stacked on him. To place emphasis on the situation, the crater is roughly 300 metres wide and Gen was lying under enough dirt will half fill it up. It was a situation where you would normally died if not for his high level and even higher vitality and endurance stats. With Gen''s life now safe, Mel could rest easy that she will not be punished by Eden for an act that she did not do... ¡°Hey Mel, I wonder what will happen if I drop another stack of dirt on him¡± Jenny said already preparing the next stack to drop on him. ''Damn at this rate he will really die from the pressure alone! Need to make sure Jenny doesn''t finish that spell!'' Without thinking about it much, Mel kicked Jenny into the hole as well which caused her concentration to drop and as a result also dropped a half finished stack of dirt she created on her as well. Thud! There was a clear solid sound as the dirt landed on her. ¡°....¡± Mel stared hopelessly on what she now has to deal with. First was Gen that was dying slowly under a thick layer of dirt and second was Jenny who was under a fairly large amount of dirt about to kill her the moment she gets free. ''Well....not my problem now. Might as well regrow the plants in this area to recreate that portion of the forest'' thought Mel completely avoiding the problem on hand. It was only a few hours later that a certain maid dug them up after sensing their call of help via the vast amount of killing intent coming out of the ground which scared every living creature away in a hundred metre radius. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Since that Miriel girl is here as well and Jenny is certain to drag her into this as well, the most important thing you can do is to make her uninvolved in all of this¡± said Gen calmly to Sain. ¡°Umm....why do I have to do that?¡± asked Sain really confused on what was happening. Moments ago, Gen found out via some unknown method that Jenny had pulled Miriel into this as well. For some reason, Sain could hear the conversation that those two had as well.... ¡°This device here is an advance listening device. I planted it on that doll that Jenny made as a voodoo doll that can repair itself. Great for knowing what Jenny will do next at these times since she would always relieve her stress on it alone in that library¡± Gen explained to Sain. ''Isn''t this an invasion of privacy....?'' thought Sain hearing about this listening device that Gen used. ¡°So...what is the reason you want me to get Miriel away from all of this?¡± asked Sain once again. ¡°Weren''t you listening?! Jenny plans on doing something to Mel and though I have a bone to pick with her later, I want to interfere with Jenny as much as possible right now! That means I have to help Mel out on getting Jenny off her back...then I''ll take her out as well in one go. Sometimes I''m surprised with my own brilliance! Hahahahhahha!¡± ''Why is that everyone in this guild is strange or crazy....? Eden and Alexandra are.....sort of fine(?) but my Master here as well as Jenny and so I heard Mel are these types of people....Park is somewhat normal while Ron is a pervert and Anna is strange in her own way according to the others....'' ¡°Anyway go to tell that Miriel that you want to meet her¡± ordered Gen. Feeling that something was left out in the details Sain asked, ¡°Ask to meet for what? I don''t think she''s the type to talk about strategies we can use in battle since she left it up to me.¡± Gen face palmed at that moment thinking that Sain was quite slow for his age and almost shouted, ¡°A Date! For Gods Sake, ask her out on a Date!!!!¡± ¡°Eh???¡± Sain was really confused now. Of course he knew the term of dates as in taking someone else out to hang out of the opposite gender but never seen anyone do it at all. He was too preoccupied on helping the other children out to do that. Plus there was no one close enough to do dates with though he had many outings with other children buying food and supplies every week or so. However Sain was not going to question Gen right now since he had blood shot eyes and simply PMed Miriel saying: ¡°Miriel can we meet up for a bit?¡± he asked. A few seconds later he got a response. - Meet up for what? ¡°I want to go on a date with you¡± said Sain to the question since Gen wanted this outcome. Sain looked and saw Gen face palming once again for unknown reasons. - A d-d-d-d-date?! What the hell are you asking me you idiot?! ¡°Umm....so is this a yes or no on the date?¡± asked Sain much to his ignorance. - NO! The PM ended like that. Sain looked over at Gen and said, ¡°She rejected me¡± with a slightly sad face. Gen sighed and then said, ¡°Of course she would....you were too straightforward.....my god to think that in my long life I would meet such an idiot on these matters.....I thought you could only find them in stories catered to young boys....¡± Ignoring those insulting words to him, Sain then said, ¡°In that case, shouldn''t I just go where she is?¡± ¡°Yes, go to her. You know where the training centre is since you went there once on my orders right?¡± ¡°Yep.¡± With that, Sain went to find Miriel in order to distract her and possibly drag her out of the ''kill zone'' which would destroy anything in it including dignity and perhaps when the worse comes, people''s lives as well. [p=center]xXx[/p] On the other side of the talk between Sain and Miriel was a Miriel which was completely red in colour and Jenny who was humorously watching her apprentice try and find herself after all of that. ¡°....¡± Thoughts swirled around her had as she remembered Sain''s words. ''He was so straightforward! I had to reject him else.................he might think of me less. Yes this is his fault. His fault for being so straightforward to me....'' Miriel started to blame Sain in her mind over and over again to calm her nerves down. Unknown to her though that from an outsider''s view, she was extremely happy to get such words and was smiling gleefully on the matter. ¡°Miriel.¡± That one word from her Master, Jenny snapped her out of it and also caused her to be completely red once again for an entirely different reason. ¡°Master....¡± ¡°Don''t worry, I won''t tell anyone that you were extremely happy to be asked out for a date but somehow still rejected the boy.¡± ¡°Master!¡± ¡°Right right, I''ll leave out the rejecting part when I tell it. Also don''t think I will stop now even if I saw something entertaining from you. Mel is still getting it in the end.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel stared unhappily at her master as she continued to talk. ¡°While I would love to take my revenge with this time....first I need you to still distract Park and probably that Sain boy¡± she said while also encasing the doll which was in her hand in some sort of barrier. ¡°This is a sound proof barrier....I had a feeling for a long time that Gen was listening in on me to be the one upper on me while he could...unfortunately I haven''t been able to find a doll this...fine. My stress is relieved so quickly using this compared to other methods that I can''t bring myself to throw it away. I intentionally let Gen hear the conversation we had until now.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°What''s with that look? So what with that Sain boy know that you were happy when he asked you out on a date.¡± ¡°Th-this and that are extremely different issues!¡± shouted Miriel trying not to fluster so much on the issue. Sure Sain was a nice person who helped people when he could, he was also a demonic commander the last time they hunted as well and yet had the selfishness on whether she was all right or not. Miriel couldn''t pain where Sain''s true colours lied even with the explanation of the ''mark'' distorting his personality like that. ¡°Anyway, I also want you to distract Sain as well at the same time. He will be heading to you as well and you need to make sure he doesn''t get in the way as well as distract Park at the same time. Got that?¡± ¡°Yes...¡± Miriel could only weakly reply to her master since she seemed too headstrong to stop what she was planning on doing. ''This will....not end up well.....right?'' [p=center]xXx[/p] Later on, Miriel went to the training area where Park was to see a line of corpses...no they were still alive though their beaten up faces and bodies would say differ if you ask. And in the centre was an intimidating Park that looked like he came out of a serious and bloody battle. ¡°Group Healing! Ranged Injury Reversal!¡± chanted Mel quickly which reverted the bodies of those lines of corpses back into people quickly enough that they all live though they were still unconscious for most matters. ¡°....¡± ''What the hell just happened here? I feel like I''m missing something important in the chain of events.'' Wanting to ignore the sight and yet eyes still drawn to the massive number of people on the ground like that beaten up by Park, Miriel shouted. ¡°Hey!¡± from the gates of the place to which both Mel and Park looked over to. ¡°Miriel?¡± asked Mel confused on why she was here. It couldn''t be that Miriel was sent to assassinate her? ''No...that''s impossible even if she tried...'' thought Mel removing any thoughts that Miriel was here for any bad for now. Miriel walked over to the two and then immediately went straight to the point asking, ¡°I want to learn how to use a weapon¡± to Park. Mel smiled wryly hearing this and said, ¡°I believe in most cases you can think of magic as a weapon.¡± ¡°That''s not what I meant. I need another method in case magic doesn''t work¡± replied Miriel a bit irritated at Mel almost immediately from her comment. However it seems Park was a bit more serious than Mel in this since he immediately named a few suggestions. ¡°Close, Mid or Long range?¡± he asked. Miriel hadn''t actually thought about it but then she thought of bows for some reason. An Ice Archer was something that she imagined herself as. ''The pretty Ice Archer...no wait! Why the hell am I having those kinds of delusions?!'' Miriel immediately cut back on the thoughts and said firmly, ¡°A Bow would be nice.¡± ¡°Long Range eh....good since unless your a quick caster, going close or mid is suicidal¡± replied Park going back to the barrack to grab the bow and some arrows as well. A minute passed and he returned with a fine looking bow and a stack of arrows to use. ¡°This bow isn''t exactly for beginners but it''s requirements are for level 50s. It is a good bow with good aim.¡± Miriel happily took the bow as Park directed her to a shooting range which was not exactly in use in the barracks. It was also at this moment that Sain came to the training area as well. ¡°A bow?¡± he asked to Miriel seeing as she was about to fire it though she could not hear him. Miriel used all her strength which was on the low side for her level and fired the arrow straight at the target which was only 20 metres away from her. ¡°AHHHHHH!!!¡± A scream was heard. ¡°....¡± Miriel, Sain, Mel and Park all looked at the direction of the scream and it was a recruit with an arrow in him though thankfully not dead. ¡°....¡± Mel immediately ran over healed the person taking the arrow out of him and returned. Seeing this, Miriel felt a bit pissed off since she knew that she needed to do better and fired a few more times. ¡°AHHHHHH!!!¡± Several more screams were heard unfortunately as the arrows all missed their targets and by some unknown force either from the Gods or the Devil himself, they managed to hit people who were several tens of metres away from the target as Miriel was properly aiming at the targets opposite to her. ¡°This ability of firing...it''s like a miracle happening but still quite horrifying¡± commented Park on Miriel''s firing skills that would be the abilities of a saint to enemies while the power of the devil for allies. ¡°Sh-shut up!¡± shouted Miriel firing the bow once again. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush!!
Burst Will is now active
''Wha?'' thought Sain seeing this message all of a sudden. Miriel fired another arrow and Sain''s body almost reacted instinctively and dodged to the side as an arrow was about to hit his head and kill him instantly. Sain could feel the cold sweat down his spine as he narrowly escaped death from Miriel nevertheless. Several more arrows shot and several more screams later, Mel was running around healing people rapidly while Sain using his enhanced senses and Park using his enormous skill dodged them as arrows were flying to them. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°This is ridiculous! We''re behind you, why are we dodging for our lives here?!¡± retorted Park to this impossible situation. Both him and Sain were standing BEHIND Miriel as she was firing. Not to the side but directly behind her which should be the best position to not get shot by a novice archer. ¡°Miriel Stop! You''ll kill me at this rate!¡± shouted Sain pulling out an arrow that managed to hit him unfortunately. However Miriel did not listen at all and continued to fire rapidly arrows until she ran out. It took her several tens of minutes but the entire place was filled with arrows. Sain''s health was reduced down to 30% and he didn''t even have the time to heal himself else a couple more arrows might fly at him. ¡°Minor Heal...¡± Sain started to increase his health up slowly while Miriel looked around confused. Seeing this chance, Park immediately grabbed the bow off her and immediately said, ¡°Never hold a bow ever again¡± coldly to her. As a result she pouted and said, ¡°I wasn''t that bad.¡± ''WASN''T THAT BAD?!'' Everyone there even the ones hidden away (Gen and Jenny) retorted in their hearts at the same time. Miriel managed to somehow hit almost everyone around her several times. You could say that it was an extreme skill with the bow even though she only hit those who were not actually enemies but you could also say that it was a sad skill since it was too dangerous. ¡°Other than a bow, you can use a sickle and chain as well though it''s a mid range weapon¡± said Park handing over the weapon to Miriel once again. This time, he knew that he was standing out of range of the weapon she was holding as he moved next to Sain who was 10 or so metres away from her. ¡°Hmm~¡± Miriel swung the weight on the other end of the chain in a circle and it immediately broke off firing in Sain and Park''s direction immediately. ¡°¡°SHIT!¡±¡± Both of them ducked down to dodge the ''attack''. Immediately after that Park grabbed the sickle and chain and said to Miriel: ¡°No weapons that can somehow become projectiles for you¡± said Park regretting even trying to let Miriel test out some weapons now. [p=center]xXx[/p] Watching all of this, Jenny who managed to sneak her way into the barrack without knowing was grinning at how effect Miriel was. ''To think that she could act so well and could not only distract Park alone but everyone else as well...'' she thought praising her apprentice in her heart. Jenny continued to move to an ideal location to use the scroll in her hand against Mel. She moved from floor to floor and eventually decided on one of the upper floors in the barracks since it would be more well hidden compared to the roof after all. ''Now to just wait for the perfect timing....though Miriel created on before already...but Park took away the bow so that level of distraction is no longer viable for Miriel to create...hmm what to do?'' ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Ekk!!!¡± Jenny let out a small shriek hearing a voice out of nowhere when she clearly did not want to. She quickly looked over and determined that it was better to ''silence'' them rather than take any chances with this since it involved Mel. ¡°Oh, it''s you¡± said Jenny calming down quickly seeing who it actual was. Next to Jenny was Anna, the petite assassin that followed Eden''s orders to the letter. ''Though I have seen her do what Alexandra wanted all the time as well....I wonder what''s up with that?'' Jenny thought she Anna peered out looking at what Jenny was doing. ¡°Harming other guild members is forbidden¡± reminded Anna though a bit too coldly. ¡°This spell won''t harm even a single health point...though not mentally later on...¡± replied Jenny assuring Anna was wasn''t doing anything ''wrong'' at all. Anna nodded and then said: ¡°Gen knows what you are doing.¡± ¡°I know.¡± After all, she knew that Gen was listening in at times like this just in case. ¡°Sain over there is working for Gen.¡± ¡°I know, that''s why I have Miriel on the case as well.¡± The two looked down as Miriel was holding a weapon and trying it out. It was a staff and she was trying to spin it around as instructed by Park as a basic defence that a staff user would use. Bang.. The staff flew away from her and managed to hit Sain who blocked it with his arms. He took a bit of damage from that but thanks to his health being higher than a beginner, this could be considered a minor injury. ¡°That Miriel...¡± muttered Jenny praising her acting skills so much now. ¡°She isn''t acting you know.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Jenny was a bit shocked on this statement. Unless it was really an act, how does one manage to really screw up that much on these kinds of things? Perhaps it was a good thing that Miriel came to her and was train in the use of magic instead of other weapons. ¡°She has very bad motor skills, Lyndis is a natural at those things but Miriel is the opposite. They somewhat suit each other¡± said Anna who was very talkative currently. Anna had watched Lyndis train after all for a while and immediately knew that she had an almost genius level of control over how her body moved. But it was only on the level of almost genius since she still made mistakes here and there until she corrected them with the help of Ron before. ¡°That reminds me, why are you still here?¡± asked Jenny really wanting to know since normally Anna didn''t stick to anyone or anything even if it was interesting except for Eden who raised her. ¡°Helping.¡± ¡°Helping?¡± Why would Jenny need help on this. ¡°Gen is involved.¡± ''Of course'' Jenny thought. The only times that Anna was like this was when it involved Gen. They had one of the worst relationships she had seen due to the many events that led to Anna hating Gen to the point that she wanted to kill him. If it weren''t for Eden saying that Gen was useful for him, he would have died a long time ago no matter his skills. ''Anna is one of the few assassins that can even threaten Eden after all...someone on Gen''s level can''t even react if she was truly serious.'' Yes, when Anna attacks Gen, she isn''t even that serious at all. Her ''mark'' would allow her to become extremely frightening indeed even as Jenny thought about it. ''A trained assassin becoming even more frightening as an assassin is something that doesn''t normally happen....'' thought Jenny thinking of how each of them changed using the ''marks'' they had granted by Eden out of Whim. ¡°Right¡± said Jenny, ¡°Can you keep tabs on him. Make sure whatever he''s trying to do fails and what I do succeeds. I''ll need your help later on dealing with him as well.¡± ¡°Right.¡± The two hiding on the higher floors of the barracks peered down at the training Miriel was getting in order to use a weapon....though she still hasn''t been able to use one without causing an accident yet. [p=center]xXx[/p] In contrast to Jenny taking the higher grounds in order to make her plans effective, Gen took the opposite route in contrast since it would allow him to react faster than if he did the same. The closer you are to the target, the faster you can react to anything that may happen to them. ''What the hell is that crazy bitch planning up there?'' wondered Gen already knowing that Jenny was set somewhere up in the barracks. It was the perfect location to do things with so why would anyone not go there when planning a plan like that? ''The only thing is that I don''t know what kind of spell she is planing on using. Against Mel however, there isn''t many normal spells that could be used to begin with. I have to be careful not to be caught into it.'' The last thing that Gen wanted was to be dragged into whatever Jenny was planning since she took some of her twisted personality from Eden after all. ¡°Hey what''s going on here?¡± asked Ron not knowing that Gen and Jenny was watching as he walked up to where Sain, Miriel, Mel and Park were. Suddenly something came flying at him and he immediately cut it down using his sword in a flash. When he looked, it was a spear that came flying his way. ¡°How does one managed to throw a spear at me at this direction so accurately?!¡± shouted Ron knowing that his life was in danger at that moment. ¡°Not going to say sorry, it was an accident and I couldn''t control it¡± replied Miriel being stubborn. Park sighed and added, ¡°And you couldn''t ''control'' all the other weapons that were placed into your hands as well. That''s it, no mid or long range weapon for you...ever.¡± Park took away the majority of weapons that he had originally planned on letting Miriel test out but he did not expect her to be so bad at using any weapon at will to the point that several people were at risk due to her. ¡°Then what kind of weapon can I have then? Did you say that close range weapons are no good for me since I need to use quick casting spells?¡± complained Miriel since they couldn''t find a proper weapon for her. ¡°That''s only the case when you actually charge in to attack them directly. For self defence, a close range weapon is recommended though you insist on having a weapon with good range when you don''t¡± explained Park taking out some smaller weapons. ¡°Daggers for example are a good last measure you can have. Another thing are these¡± Park took out a small....stick? ¡°This is a baton which isn''t exactly lethod though very useful in knocking people out. Naturally if you hit hard enough at the right places then a person will really die even with this...but as a defence measure, it''s quite good.¡± The baton itself was only at most 30 cm long and had a hilt to block blades that come sliding down at you as well. Being black, it was easy to hide on your person or at night to use later. However... ¡°I don''t want it! It looks horrible! I don''t want to be known as someone who carries a large black stick with me all the time!¡± ¡°....¡± Ron let out a small laugh hearing those words but Miriel immediately glared at him shutting him up while Park placed the perfectly good baton back with the other weapons. ¡°What do you think Sain? You think she can ever use any weapon?¡± Park asked. Sain who was completely silent until now only watching Miriel while dodging for the life of him could not fund any words to say ''No, she is horrible with weapons that the world is better off without her doing so''. ¡°Ummm-huh?¡± just as Sain was trying to make up an answer, something took Miriel''s eyes and she immediately went over to grab it. Coiled up into a circle, if extended straight it would be at least 3 metres in length and looked quite elegant on her hands. What she held was a whip. ¡°Oh~ This feels nice¡± said Miriel touching the grip of the whip in her hand. The moment she uncoiled it to use it, everyone immediately backed away a few metres at least to get out of range of the incoming attacks. Snap~! The whip strangely hit the location in front of Miriel where she aimed. With this, she smiled and get close enough to the target, around 2 metres away and swung the whip again. Snap~! Once again, Miriel was about to hit where she wanted with the whip. Snap~! Snap~! Snap~! Three more times she demonstrated her skills with the whip hitting the target three times with three swings that had little time between attacks. With this her smile grew even larger for some reason and she started to rapid fire attacks at the target like she was in a frenzy. After a few minutes of this she stopped and looked at Sain with eyes of lust. ''What is going on....?'' thought Sain as Miriel approached him. Snap~! Immediately, Sain felt a sharp pain on his knees forcing him on the ground as if he was kneeling in front of Miriel. Sain had no idea on what was happening but a few hits from the invisible whip attacks moved his body for him. Snap~! Snap~! Snap~! Snap~!Snap~! Sain''s face was now near Miriel''s feet. A position that Sain never thought he would be in let alone be forced into. ¡°Lick it~¡± ordered Miriel in a seductive voice that was clearly the opposite of her usual attitude. ¡°....¡± Snap~! ¡°Lick it or else~ Give me some pleasure Sain~ I like that look on you~¡± The hit on his back hurt enough that Sain really wanted to lick her feet but pride amongst other things prevented him from doing so. ¡°....¡± As Sain was not compiling on what she wanted him to do, Miriel frown and was about to attack Sain once again but a combination of three people grabbed her immediately and stopped her. These people were of course Park, Mel and Ron who were pretty much the only people who weren''t not completely shocked on what happened to Miriel all of a sudden. ¡°Mel, remove the glove¡± asked Park. ¡°Right.¡± ¡°I''ll make sure she doesn''t resist too much¡± said Ron as well gripping her right arm causing enough paint that numbness came over that part of her body. As Mel removed the glove and Sain got up to see what was happened, all of them were shocked. The ''Mark of the Fairy'' which really only looked like some wings on her hand glowed a bright red like when Sain was in his ''Commander'' mode. ¡°....¡± The four...no five of them stared at the mark which eventually after a few seconds of Miriel letting go of the whip by force turned back to normal. Miriel losing most of her strength on her body dropped onto the ground was bright red. The first was how she acted on that state and the other thing was what she did to Sain of all people. ¡°I..I...I..I¡± she repeated like a broken record to herself. For some reason, Sain felt that jokes were needed here since it took Sain out of his depressed state before from what he did to the others in his other state as well. ¡°Empress. Yes, the way you acted was like a Sadist Empress forcing others to submit to you...to think you had such feelings inside you....¡± said Sain trying to sound a bit disappointed at Miriel. ¡°What...?¡± muttered Miriel not believing that what Sain is doing is in good intention. ¡°Yes ''Empress''?¡± asked Sain a bit humoured by her reaction just then. ¡°Don''t call me ''Empress''!!!¡± shouted Miriel about to burst into tears. The sheer thought of her doing something so shameless was bad enough and now Sain was teasing her like this. There was something she liked to think of how a gentleman should act and one of those rules was to not tease her at times like this. Miriel swore in her heart that Sain will one day pay for this. But for now... ¡°I had enough....I''m taking this whip okay...Sain¡± Miriel grabbed Sain by the collar and dragged him away with her out of this place. She could feel several snickers behind her but restrained herself to not blasting them away as well using magic. [p=center]xXx[/p] Sain was being dragged away by Miriel. ''This is fine since this was my job to begin with...though I have a feeling that something bad will happen to me later...'' ¡°Miriel what are yo-¡± ¡°Shut it!¡± Sain could feel the clear killing intent coming out of her. It seems that the choice of teasing her backfired and he had to suffer from it now. He could not believe that this was the same girl that was in that ''Empress'' state and then that depressed state and now in her current state which was extremely angry at him in a matter of a single minute. ¡°....¡± As such to not incur more wrath of her, Sain shut his mouth leaving with her though partly due to her forcing him even with her much lower strength stat value... ¡°Hey Sain!¡± called Park jogging a bit catch up to him. ''What is it now?'' ¡°That reminds me, you came here to learn something like a spear skill right?¡± ¡°Yeah...?¡± replied Sain as if he was asking a question. ¡°In that case, I''m more than happy to teach you a simple but effective move that Eden once upon a time used quite a bit¡± grinned Park. It was at that moment Miriel pressed that button Jenny gave her. [p=center]xXx[/p] At that moment, with Park with Sain and not with Mel with a far enough distance away that he couldn''t even help her, Jenny started her plan now. ¡°Anna now!¡± she cried causing Anna to leap from the barrack from the sky and to Ron who was the next nearest person to Mel. IN a single motion, Ron was hit several times while he blocked using his sword to defend himself from this sudden attack. ¡°Anna?!¡± cried Ron truly surprised. Mel look at the two in shock, now even more distracted then ever. ''Now!'' It was at that time that Jenny ripped the scroll with the spell in it and aimed at Mel. A beam shot out heading for her with no way for her to even dodge. The timing was that good. The end of Mel''s social life was here. [p=center]xXx[/p] Gen made his move then and there. Moving at extremely fast speeds that rivalled Anna''s own, he too leaped at Ron with malice intent. ''Sorry Ron...this is for the greater good and to stop Jenny...'' Gen grabbed Ron who was still defending himself from Anna who was also shocked in Gen acting at this exact moment as well and threw him into the beam that Jenny fired at Mel. Ron being the trained person naturally flipped his body in mid air rebalancing himself and happened to land right in front of Mel facing her. ¡°What the-¡± (Sound of Beam hitting Ron) ¡°Ahhhh!¡± Ron let out a short beam as it stripped him of everything that he had on his body though not destroyed, only relocated to where the caster in this case, Jenny was. ¡°....¡± (Sound of utter silence) Mel just had to look down to see ''that''. Her face paled and so did Ron''s since he knew what was going to happen next. As such he accepted such a fate at this moment. ¡°KYYYYYYYYA NOOOOOOOO!!!¡± SLAP!!! Ron was immediately slapped and sent flying to the direction where Sain, Miriel and Park were. The only fortunate thing right now was that both Sain and Park were further ahead then Miriel which would lead to another result. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Don''t turn away! Don''t look!¡± shouted Sain immediately though extremely disgusted right now on how Ron looked and much to how much he wanted to vomit, he couldn''t let Miriel experience that since she was a young girl. ¡°What ju-¡± ¡°I said don''t look!¡± Sain immediately grabbed Miriel''s face and held it so that it only looked at him. Miriel as a result blushed completely red not knowing besides Sain was being very aggressive towards her. ¡°Wh-what are you doing?¡± asked Miriel who was now becoming more and more confused as seconds passed by. ¡°Only look at me¡± replied Sain as he stared back at her at close range. In any other case, Sain would never do this but for the sake of not destroying the ''purity'' of Miriel right now, it had to be done in Sain''s mind. Through much struggle on his part, he managed to escape with Miriel from the scene of carnage as Park ran back with the words, ¡°I''ll teach you that skill later!¡± That day, as ''punishment'' Sain was forced to stay with Miriel looking around the city in something that he knew as a ''Date''. Naturally through some unknown means, Miriel had some spare gold to spend which was on clothes to wear on the game and other things that Sain was forced to carry for the rest of the day. It was only later they found out the quests that they were on failed at the same time...due to ''certain'' circumstances involving who they managed to piss off. [p=center]xXx[/p] Back at the barracks, completely naked since he was forcefully stripped of his armour and sword, Ron got up laughing. While he was laughing, his eyes were dead cold and literally froze everyone in place, even Mel who slapped him. ¡°Who was it?¡± asked Ron in anger. ¡°Jenny fired the beam and Gen threw you. I was only told to distract you. Jenny is up there in the barracks, second to top floor, 12th window from the right¡± replied Anna immediately. ¡°Anna you traitor!¡± shouted Jenny from the near top of the barracks. Only then that she realised that it was a bad mistake to reveal her location to Ron in his state. Due to everything being stripped off him including the glove that held back his power; the ''Mark of the Hydra'', a snake figure with 8 heads appeared on his right hand glowing a bright golden colour. ¡°Hydra Mode!¡± chanted Ron as if he was using a spell. At that moment, his body completely changed to one of the elements. Due to his rage, only the power of fire and lightning appeared turning him into a hybrid fire-lightning high ranking spirit as his body blurred with flames. ¡°Disappear!!!!¡± Several hundred shots of fire and lightning appeared from Ron''s body aimed at those two. ¡°Wait wait wait, at this rate, I''m really going to die!!!¡± complained Gen who was running away from Ron. Soon enough Ron caught up and nearly burnt him to cinders. Next Ron moved at extremely high speeds to cut off Jenny who was also running away from her. ¡°Ron...it wasn''t my fault that Gen threw you into the strip beam....at least it wasn''t a lethod spell that I would use instead....right?¡± ¡°Punishment time¡± replied Ron like the terminator. ¡°AHHHHHHHHHH!!!¡± Jenny was also put near death as well. Just as the others were feeling that things would now end, Ron appeared in front of Mel. She took a few steps back since he was a swordsman and she was a magic user and the element they were using; Ron with Fire outmatched Mel''s Nature in comparability. ¡°Ron.....?¡± asked Mel afraid of the goofing off Ron who turned into a scaring machine that would precisely finish orders with no emotions. ¡°All parties involved will be punished¡± said Ron plainly. ¡°Then what about Anna? If it weren''t for her then Gen wouldn''t be able to throw you into that beam....¡± plead Mel with her eyes more than her words. ¡°She gave me information on one of the parties involved. Contributions then and before allowed her to escape from punishment¡± Ron replied in the same tone as well. ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!¡± Park sighed seeing what just happened. The barracks was...half destroyed. The training area in which they were also standing on was almost completely destroyed and a large number of people was injured just then. ¡°What am I going to report....?¡± wondered Park. It would take a lot of word to undo what happened here even if Eden helped. So many noble families will start to complain at once which will increase the stress on Eden which will consequently increase the workload of himself and the others... Even though he had nothing to do with this even to the end... [p=center]xXx[/p] Meanwhile.... ¡°Zzz....zzz.....zzz....¡± Eden was sleeping due to no one disturbing him now. ¡°No....don''t.....¡± Some vague words slipped out of his mouth due to him having some nightmares of the past. ¡°Alexandra....don''t....I''m not a hugging pillow.¡± And sometimes these vague words form sentences as well.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8500~ - As I was planning this, I feared that there was too much to write on and this would extend over 2 chapters. I was wrong...just barely made it this far without stretching it too far. - It''s funny how planned out chapters are so much more easier to right and are of a higher quality compared to the random writing spree ones. Vol.3 Chapter 3 - The Burning City ¡°Haa!¡± Using a spare sword that she picked up on a whim back at the guild''s storage, Alexandra cut through a large bear as if it was paper.
You have dealt a fatal blow
The large bear otherwise known as a King Bear or Ruler Bear was one of the more powerful creatures in this forest with a level of at least 300. This is incredibly high for an area that is right next to a newbie area.
You have eliminated a King Bear, other animals in this area will try to claim rulership in this area when you leave, else they will either hide or flee from you
Both Alexandra and White were here while the events of the previous chapter was taking place. [Is there any point of this?] asked White who was walking behind Alexandra as she slay monster after monster as she went ahead. Naturally with Alexandra here, White was still forced into the maid outfit and was getting used to wearing it now which scared him a lot. ¡°Hmm? Yeah there is¡± she replied without paying much attention. Alexandra while killing powerful monster in this particular area that was quite far from Witchelm City was also unleashing a powerful aura outwards like a wave of energy in which other creatures with greater senses could feel. As a result, a number of creatures except for plants which couldn''t move at all most of the time escaped already. ¡°This is disappointing, I''m even using 1% of my power dealing with these guys at all¡± she said while finding and slashing down a Alpha Wolf which was around level 150 with one blow killing it instantly. ¡°Arf!¡± The other wolves that were following the alpha wolf seeing that their leader was slain in one go immediately fled from Alexandra. [Are you intentionally letting them run away?] ¡°Yeah, I rather not have to deal with the sudden lost of lives because of me. After a while...in my case a long time, you notice these kinds of things and do the extra measure to minimise the damage you cause by fighting especially in a large scale battle¡± she explained now almost completely alone with White in this forest that has no name. [Hmm?] White looked around since he sensed a large amount of power coming from several directions. There was clearly something going on and he wanted to know what was happening. [Answer me, why am I here with you?] ¡°To be by back-up just in case¡± Alexandra replied with almost a sigh. [Back-up? A being with your power needs back-up?] ¡°Hey! I''m not an invincible monster with an infinite amount of ways to deal with things like Eden! Long story short I am currently unable to use 30% of my full power. Heck trying to go to 20% in my current state is difficult enough!¡± White looked around some more since the power was increasing in power as it got closer quickly. There was a rare sense of fear in White that never appeared before ever since the Dragon King Festival in which he was crowned the ''White Dragon King of Purity''. [Answer me, does this have to do with these powers coming at us....or rather you?] White gave a scornful look at Alexandra since she dragged him into this. It was one thing to fight your own battles with others but completely another to push a battle to someone else to endure as well. ¡°Well.....have you ever heard of a power called ''Sun Authority''?¡± Alexandra asked shyly scratching her cheek. [No.....yes I have though only in the mentioning and nothing more. It is something that was deemed too threatening to be let free after the Gods ascended from this mortal plane] ¡°Correct! To be precise there are 12 of them in total and are guarded and used by 12 Sun Guardians for all eternity!¡± she said excitingly explaining it to White. [¡­.Don''t tell me...] ¡°Yep~ I currently have 3 of them in my possession to use¡± she replied with cheekiness as if this wasn''t her problem at all. [Are you an idiot...? No....with the power you process you did this intentionally didn''t you. I''ve heard that you have abandoned your Divinity from Eden and gained a new power in it''s place. Are the ''Sun Authorities'' this new power?] ¡°Yep and I intent to collect all 12 of them....well that''s another problem itself. My current problem is the aftermath of collecting one of them. Besides the 12 Sun Guardians there are also other...Sun Creatures as well that crave the power but could never steal of from them. What do you think happened when they found out one of those Guardians were slain and the Sun Authority taken?¡± [They decided to hunt you down...?] ¡°Yep though that wasn''t the real problem I had. Killing small weak thieves is easy, controlling this new power is not. That''s why I searched and found out that killing these Sun Creatures makes it much easier for me to control these ''Sun Authorities'' I have!¡± [And that is why you are intentionally releasing your aura like that as a signal....] ¡°Of course, insects are attracted to bright flames after all...it''s just they don''t realise they will be burnt to death when they get close¡± There was a devilish smile on Alexandra''s face knowing that her plan was going well and true right now. White seeing this sighed and thought that Eden had to deal with this kind of person all the time. ¡°Perhaps I should commit NTR to protect Eden from this person...¡± muttered White feeling that he should steal away Eden from this woman at all costs though the next moment he regretted saying that. GRAB! Alexandra''s hand held onto White''s head easily as she lifted his body up in the air. This was easily done for two reasons. The first was that White was only at a 160 cm height while Alexandra was at a 170 cm height. The other reason was that Alexandra''s strength was literally high enough to crush a Dragon to pieces with her bare hands. [Agkjwngknwgkubngkb!] White sent out some incomprehensible words out seeing that his head was being crushed. A few seconds passed and Alexandra dropped White onto the ground as the Sun Creatures that Alexandra mentioned was getting close now. But before they arrived, White sent out some words to Alexandra. [Is this what people call a jealous and prosessive wife?] Alexandra almost hit White then but then the powers of the Sun Creatures that came appeared. C-crack! First was the ground. It turned pure white and it''s substance was immediately transformed into metal as well. Next was the trees and other lifeforms other than Alexandra and White. They turned into pure white crystals in an instant as well. Finally it was the clear blue sky. It turned into a greyish but still white colour as if the world turned into black and white. ¡°....¡± Alexandra stood her ground as three creatures appeared before her. The first was a Sun Metal Bear, a fairly large bear that was a living metal lifeforms around level 830 and could not be killed in normal methods. The second was a Sun Crystal Lion the size of a normal grown lion made of transparent and otherwise white crystals at a high purity. Like the Sun Metal Bear, it was not killable in normal ways and was around level 790. The last from the sky was a Sun blaze Eagle that was several times larger than a normal eagle that was made up white flames similar to a phoenix and was around level 800. [These are.....] White frowned sensing the amount of power that each of them processed. White himself was at a good level that was in the 900s but these Sun Creatures gave off feelings that they were stronger than they looked and all had powerful resistance to dying. ¡°Don''t worry. I''ll take care of them and besides, a Sun Guardian'' level is over 900 either way and has a much more powerful defence than these guy¡± Alexandra said casually to White that was letting out a frightening aura that showed that he was hostile to him. ¡°You are the one whom slain three of the guardians¡± said the Crystal Lion to the right of Alexandra. Alexandra smiled and said, ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°Then you are prepared to die for us to obtain a Sun Authority?¡± ¡°Not at all.¡± ¡°Foolish...you cannot go against all of us even with that minor thing over there helping you¡± said the Metal Bear as well. White''s anger spiked with that comment and he unleashed his Dragon Aura out. [Say that again and I will wipe you all out!] However the Sun Creatures did not even budge one bit with White''s threat. ¡°White calm down. Normal methods won''t be able to kill them....permanently. All Sun Creatures have immunity to death as long as there is light. But...there is a way to stop that from happening¡± said Alexandra holding back White. She then looked at the three opponents that she needed to fight against and said, ¡°Mine if I equip myself properly? I know you Sun Creature lot have more pride than even Dragons!¡± White glared at Alexandra at that comment and then lowered his aura to the Sun Creatures. He sighed and simply but still stayed where he was. [I suppose me being your back-up involves when you fail to slay them and they steal your Sun Authorities from you right?] ¡°More or less since I can''t use my full strength after all compared to when I was the height of my power with Divinity.¡± [And how many Sun Authorities would it take to reach that level again? I know there are different levels of Divinity you can process] ¡°Hmm....having all 12 of them will put me at a level a bit lower than I used to be.¡± [¡­.] ¡°Also one Sun Authority grants you the power equal to one large ancient Dragon. Quite powerful right?¡± [¡­.] An Ancient Dragon was one that lived a great long life. They were often more powerful than regular Dragons, but below the power of Dragon Kings and Elder Dragons. However no normal Dragon would dare mess with them as well. ''So she once had enough power to rival 12 ancient dragons....isn''t that higher than a Dragon King? Higher than me...or perhaps Eden...? No, Eden was already something stronger than a Dragon King to begin with and he only got that title as an extra....'' ¡°Right, don''t peek while I change~¡± [¡­.] In an instant, Alexandra changed from her plain shirt and skirt gear and into something more appropriate for battle. First of all, she now wore a long battle dress that was pure white and had gold lacing on the side. On her chest was a thick metal piece which protected her vitals there, on her wrists were guards as well and on her feet were large and yet light boots. All of this was colour coded to be white and gold with the primary being white and the secondary being gold. Another thing to notice was that there were various rings and she also wore a small helmet that resembled the ones knights used but was open at the back to let her hair flow out. In her hands was also a pure white sword as well that was a but taller than her at a 190 cm length and quite a wide blade that was more than 30 cm long. The actual blade itself looked like it was carved out of a giant tooth. ¡°This baby here is one of the greatest works of a Grand Master in blacksmithing. He was quite glad that I gave him the materials to forge this. The base is a Dragon''s tooth complimentary from Eden...while he wasn''t looking, and there are several tens of rare metals pounded on the outer edge as well which further enchants it¡± she explained to no one in particular. They were all staring at Alexandra to do something besides talk. Seeing that the Sun Creatures did not even attack her she sighed and said, ¡°You guys really have too much pride. White get away from here for now. Holy Sun Aura!¡±
Holy Sun Aura is now active
A pure white aura appeared around Alexandra but it looked like white flames instead of the usual aura that people had. Seeing this Aura, the Sun Creatures immediately became hostile and attacked Alexandra at once without regard for each other at the same time. ¡°Blaze!¡± shouted the Flame Eagle spilling out enough flames from it''s body that it covered several metres around Alexandra. She used her sword to block the main impact from the attack and her Sun Aura to block the rest of the flames. Seeing that Alexandra was defending right now, the other two Sun Creatures attacked Alexandra at once as well in melee. The Metal Bear slashed using it''s claws and the Crystal Lion did the same with a leap while Alexandra was covered in the white flames attack. ¡°Call down the inferno Rays of Ra, the bountiful let be become lifeless deserts. The Phoenix rises and call down the rain of fire. Inferno Sun!¡± From the centre of the flames that was the centre of the battlefield currently, another set of flames came out from the middle of it and completely pushed the original flames aside easily. This flame expanded and burst out like a rage sun from the centre of things burning everything around it. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! Both the Metal Bear and Crystal Lion were blown back due to the force of the skill used but were relatively unharmed due to their high resistance to attacks from the same element. ¡°Damn most of my long range skills are of the ''light'' element. This will take too long like I use them...right?¡± asked Alexandra almost completely unharmed from the initial attack. She had her sword on her shoulder as if she was completely relaxing in this kind of situation. ¡°Sword Wave!¡± From a ''light'' swing, Alexandra let out a giant wave of pure white destruction that passed by the Metal Bear and Crystal Lion to hit the nearby mountain that was a hundred metres away completely clearing away the space in between her and the mountain. Reacting to this large amount of power used under the impression that she would not be able to use it again for a while, all three Sun Creatures blitz rushed her. ¡°Die!¡± ¡°Disappear!¡± ¡°Perish!¡± ¡°Sword Wave!¡± In close range to her now, the three Sun Creatures were unable to dodge in time and were consumed by the blast that was equal to the one before. BANG! Three figures could be seen flying away from the blast. From the three Alexandra picked one to fight against. ¡°The bird is the most troublesome one in the long run. Crusader Sprint!¡±
Agility will be doubled for 10 seconds
10 seconds wasn''t that much for most beginners but in the long run, 10 seconds was enough to kill or at least critically injured something even if it had higher health or defence especially for Alexandra who boasted of extreme strength with using the sword or fighting in any case. ¡°Flowing Sword!¡± Alexandra activated another skill that increased her sword speed as well on top of her already extreme agility that was several thousand in total. Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap Tap... Alexandra in a mere 3 seconds caught up with the Blaze Eagle that was just blown back from her attack. ¡°Crushing Blow!¡± Without mercy, Alexandra stuck down at the Blaze Eagle intending to at least cripple it''s ability to fly. Bang! However her attack went through it and hit the ground instead. ¡°Tch.¡± Losing this chance to completely finish it off, Alexandra had no choice but to at least spend another second or so to enchant herself to deal with it. ¡°Holy Blade.¡±
Holy Blade is now active - Holy Element is added to damage - Able to damage creatures without physical form - Purifying effect now applies as well.
Alexandra selected from all the skills she had with the one that was clearly most effective against these types of opponents. If it was Eden, he could just go into ''Magic King Drive'' to erase it''s existence while Viv could use his Soul Magic to completely wipe them out as well by targeting their spiritual core. But Alexandra had one advantage over them, and it was her overwhelming offence against single foes. ¡°Consecutive 24 Slash!¡± Alexandra''s blade once more glowed brighter than ever as she attacked the Blaze Eagle a total of 24 times in an instant thanks to her skills. ¡°Kiaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!¡± The Blaze Eagle screamed in pain as it was fundamentally hurt from the attacks. While it processed powerful regenerative abilities, it could still be hurt with the right methods and ultimately killed that way as well. Knowing that Alexandra was not something to take on alone like this, the Blaze Eagle tried to flee for now. ¡°You are not getting away! Light Warrior!¡±
Light Warrior is now active
A giant hand that resembled light that was gathered together and was condensed appeared and grabbed the Blaze Eagle in one go with it being large enough that it was a person was holding onto a small harmless bird. ¡°Burn!¡± shouted the Blaze Eagle intending to erase the ''hand'' that was grabbing onto it with it''s white flames that was not inferior to a Phoenix. However in response, the hand''s power increased more and more until the Blaze Eagle was crushed into pieces. ¡°Hmp.¡± Walking to it''s remains, Alexandra took her hand and absorbed the remaining pieces that the Blaze Eagle left behind when it ''died''. If she didn''t do this, it could revive later on though greatly weakened. ¡°You guys didn''t help this one....were you planning to try and obtain another Sun Authority while you could?¡± Alexandra looked to her left and right. There, both the Metal Bear and Crystal Lion simply watched her kill the Blaze Eagle before their eyes. Seeing this, she sighed since no matter where she went and when; there would always to those who abandon others to get ahead of their own plans. Increasing the power of the ''Light Warrior'' into it''s full form as a massive giant that was a hundred metres tall, Alexandra said: ¡°Do not underestimate me. Something of your levels...I don''t even need to use my Sun Authorities against you two.¡± Light appeared in the two hands of the ''Light Warrior'' and turned into giant blades of light. ¡°Disappear trash. You have no right to even try to steal from me.¡± Alexandra''s mood turned sour at that moment and she decided to let out some frustration on them. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several hundred metres away from where Alexandra was... [She is quite powerful....at least on the same level as me in my Dragon Form....and yet she has yet to use her full power...what kind of monster is she? Those foes though weaker than myself are still some of the stronger beings on this continent] White was observing Alexandra, to be precise the flow of power that was coming out of the direction Alexandra was in. There, two small sparks were running about trying to avoid being consumed by the massive light that was at the centre. If you look close, you could barely see a giant white figure in the middle of it through sight alone. It was something that was considerably rare to see on the continent even with it''s long history. At least it was something that White who was considerably young for a Dragon King never seen before. [Back then...yes those three were focused on running away from me...] White remembered back when Eden first brought Alexandra and that other one named Viv with him to meet at the Dragon Crossing Mountains. There, enraged White attacked all three of them and drove them out from the mountains. [I wonder who was truly spared back then...] White let out a sad laugh at the sheer ignorance that he had before as well as the shame thinking back on his actions. [Anyway....she will take care of things here easily....me being her back-up was pointless....better return back to the city then...at least before Eden wakes up] From his back spouted white dragon wings as the rest of his body slowly transformed from human form to his dragon form. His body eventually after a few seconds changed to the point that he was forced to stand on four legs instead of two. In that form, he flapped his wings and immediately with great speed, like a beam of light headed back to the city. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Ca-captain! A mo-monster appeared!!!¡± shouted one of the lower ranked guards that suddenly barged into the ''secondary'' barrack of the city. The Captain Guard that had a relationship with the S.S Centre Guild as well as one to Eden as well as relaxing sharpening his sword for use later on. One must always keep the sword sharp, it does not matter if the armour is rusted or broken, the sword comes first. This was one of the lessons that he had learnt from a wandering freeman that fought like the wind and raged like fire. ¡°A simple monster and your already like this? I can''t say I''m a bit disappointed¡± replied the Captain Guard with a sigh. ¡°Send out some more gu-¡± ¡°Captain! The city is on fire!¡± Another guard, one that was more higher ranked than the other also ran into the room as well cutting off what the Captain Guard was about to say. Confused on these two reports and yet knew that they were connected, went out of the barrack that he was in to look north. ¡°....¡± What he saw could be said to come out of a story of the end of the world. The sky was blazed a deep red and that part of the city was completely covered in flames. And in the centre of a red giant made of flames. ¡°You got to be kidding....¡± muttered the Captain Guard knowing that this somehow involved ''that'' guild. He involuntary let out a deep sigh before addressing the rest of the guards that looked onto him for advice and what to do. ¡°First....avoid the red giant over there. That thing is a death trap if you get near and is it....firing fireballs around? No wonder why the city is in flames...second is get all of the citizens out of the city or at least as far away from that red giant as possible without endangering them. Head South since it''s at the north side of the city. Also, have some guards as well as those freeman that aren''t doing anything to pick up a bucket and try to put out the fires. Everything else is on your own discretion! If I hear that you lot are looting the place....''they'' will deal with you.¡± ¡°YES SIR!!!¡± A whole group of around 200 guards shouted those words at once and started running to complete their task at hand. There was another 300 guards at the city though most of them were shattered about, the Captain Guard at least trusted them enough to not do anything stupid in ''their'' city. Taking out his armour, the Captain Guard went to one place alone. To the Red Giant to confront it. ¡°I have a duty to protect this city...I made a promise to something worse than the devil to do so...and I will not back down now.¡± In his hand, a sword of pure red shone. Before it, all flames were useless; one of the rare and powerful ego swords that had a sword was the weapon that the Captain Guard wield. But before he got into action, he saw a pure white beam of lightning hit the Red Giant square on. BANG! The Red Giant was pushed back a bit by the blast. The Captain Guard could only stare stunned at what he saw next. [p=center]xXx[/p] A bit before in time... White was speeding ahead though not at his top speed back to the city. [What it that...?] From the distance view of the city, it looked strangely....red. In fact it looked like the city or at least a good portion of it was on fire. [Seriously???] What White saw strangely looked like the end of the world. There was a giant flame giant that was red...yes a red giant at the centre of things that was attacking everything around it. White knew in fact that he would have to deal with it now that he saw it. [Eden is still asleep I suppose...] White remembered that during Alexandra dragging him away, she explained that Eden would sleep for a week due to his stamina dropping too low and the need to recover like that. If it was anyone else, they wouldn''t died already or at least broken down badly. [First of all....Dragon Breath!] White charged up his Dragon Breath in his mouth and then fired it as a beam of lightning at the Red Giant. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Bang! The attack hit the Red Giant and yet did not deal a massive amount of damage to it. [Tch, if I could use water element attacks..] Most Dragons could only use one element though there were some rare ones that could use multiple ones due to mutation. White was not one of them and could only use Lightning which to be honest, isn''t that effective against fire. [In that case, Burst Stream!] White''s body glowed a bright white as he charged into the Red Giant with great speed. Bang! [What?!] White went straight through the Red Giant made of flames completely and shot to the ground taking out a whole house in the process. A bit embarrassed White shot once again hitting the Red Giant a couple of times in a row. Bang Bang Bang...! [Damn this isn''t working at all...at this rate I''m going lose....wait...this thing is kinda similar to that Sun Creature that Alexandra fought just then...that bird creature that was made of flames....if I use purifying effects....] White retreated back a bit as the Red Giant noticed him and shot several fireballs that were the size of a large ball taller than a human at him. Dodging these, White shouted and fired: [Holy Lightning!] Pure white lightning was once more shot out of his mouth. However this one was different from the one from before as it was in the form of a ball instead of a beam and it also related to Holy Magic in a sense. Bang! The attack hit the shoulder of the Red Giant and cleanly ripped through it easily. ¡°Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!¡± The Red Giant let out a scream seeing that White''s attack dealt a good amount of damage to it. The place where White hit although not to the point of not regenerating but slowly healed compared to the other parts of it''s body. [Not completely effective against that thing but....!] Bang Bang Bang...! White sent out several more of those Holy Lightning Attacks and continued his barrage of attacks even if his attacks were powerful enough to go through the Red Giant and then hit the city every single time... Eventually after an hour of attacks from White who had to stop to recharge on mana to use more Holy Lightning attacks, the Red Giant disappeared. [This is....] In place of the Red Giant, it transformed into an eight headed creature that each was a different colour. It was a Hydra, a legendary creature in any sense and this one had eight heads which made it considerably strong. The more heads a hydra had, the stronger it was, it is said that there is a hundred head hydra somewhere hidden away on a distant land. ¡°ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!¡± All eight heads roared at once and moved at White who was in the air slight higher than the total height of the hydra which was 40 metres tall. [Tch] Using his high mobility in the air, White dodged the heads that came to bite him into pieces. The hydra rampaged without concern of what was happening on the ground only focusing on White which had the power to damage it. However turning into this form was a mistake by White''s standards. [Burst Stream!] White covered his body in white light once again and burst through the Hydra with great speed and power pinpointed in a small area. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!!! In rapid succession, White hit the hydra a total of 18 times in a row before it could even react. White''s speed was comparable to lightning that struck the ground in thunderstorms and was one of the few beings with speed that fast. [Dragon Breath!] White moving rapidly around the hydra that spat out several different elemental attacks at it such as water, ice and even lightning, White used the beam like attack in the form of his Dragon Breath to circle around and rip apart the Hydra''s body like a knife cutting through butter. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRR!!!¡± The Hydra let out one last scream as it fell into pieces and disappeared though not before it destroyed a couple more houses in the process. [This is....impossible right? What has Eden done....?] White was more than ever honestly surprised that the being that was the ''core'' of the Hydra was one of his now fellow guild mates by the name of Ron. The shameless lackey like person that was pushed around by the others and someone that White did not particularly pay attention much to. Reverting back to human form since his Dragon Form attracted too much attention, White wondered what happened in order to lead to this result of the city burning and a monster rampaging about. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Did it end...?¡± asked Sain who was one of wise people to get away as far as possible from the ''incident'' while he could. Next to him was another person who had this same thought as well. ¡°Probably....did that Ron person turn into an eight headed creature that looked exactly like a Hydra at the end?¡± wondered Miriel as well. ¡°No, it wasn''t that he turned into something that looked like one but rather turned ''into one'' completely....quite frightening¡± replied Sain correcting Miriel''s view, ¡°To think he had that much power....¡± Sain sighed when saying this. Miriel sighed as well and added in, ¡°All of our masters in the guild are monsters...though I didn''t think Ron would be the biggest one of the group. I wonder what other secrets they are hiding from us...it looked like that power has some relation to these ''marks'' that we have.¡± ¡°I certainly hope not....I rather not turn into something like that and be hunted down by the city just like that.¡± ¡°I doubt that any of us will turn out like Ron in the end....except maybe Lyndis since she is his apprentice after all...¡± ¡°By the way, how do we get out of this situation?¡± asked Sain blushing a bit red now that he was on that topic. ¡°How would I know?! Move away a bit more! I look like I''m glued onto you!¡± Right now both of them were stuck in a certain position under the rubble of what used to be a house. To be precise, they were in a shop and it suddenly collapsed on them. It would have been more likely to die there than be in this situation where they are literally stuck like that for at least till someone saves them. ¡°I can''t. There''s no more room to move from.¡± ¡°Are you calling me fat?!¡± ¡°How the hell did the topic lead there?!¡± retorted Sain, he knew that that was a bad topic to be on but to get from there from....well not having enough room was beyond him. It was only a couple more hours later that they were saved from this situation and result in them trying to never mention it again. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Situation resolved.¡± Those were the only words that left Anna''s mouth as the Hydra fell in battle. On her side was Park and to her other side were a group of 3 people that nearly died this time round due to their own stupidity. ¡°What do you mean resolved? Nothing has been resolved here...if Eden finds out of this...¡± muttered Park cursing that he really couldn''t stop this in time. He sighed and looked at Gen, Mel and Jenny who were pretty burnt up by Ron when he was on his rampage. ¡°Too bad that neither me nor Anna can heal you two...just suffer a bit more in this state....still it''ll be better than when Eden realises that the city is in this state and we are the main cause here...¡± said Park depressed on facing an enraged Eden as well. As if they were still awake, the three that were injured groaned at the same time as if their body knew what was going to happen to them sooner or later. ¡°Now...how to deal with the aftermath?¡± wondered Park. [p=center]xXx[/p] Meanwhile in the real world... ¡°Hey~ I found some interesting here!¡± shouted Maria calling over the other three to her as she put up what was being aired on the large T.V on the wall. The show immediately started as they sat down watching it. ¡°This is Hyun-li Yun here from KMC Studios, reporting on a sudden monster attack at one of the cities in the western continent. The city in question named Witchelm was attacked by a Red Giant made of flames according to players there and while fighting against a mysterious being in the air, turned into an Eight Headed Hydra and fell soon after taking out the majority of the city with it.¡± The woman who spoke on the screen was one of the newer broadcaster on the network and was one of the more popular ones due to her looks and attitude to the game. Next to her was a relatively young man as well with a model face and charming voice. ¡°Yes, it is indeed unfortunate that such an attack suddenly happen. However reports comes in that players and NPCs alike from the city worked together in kindred spirits to put out the flames that destroyed most of the city as well. Hyun-li Yun, I cannot help but to speculate that this attack is related to a bigger picture.¡± ¡°Yes Oh-gum Wo; such an attack is unprecedented even in the long history of the game. Royal Road still remains after 26 years of release to be the most popular VRMMORPG on the market with the majority share in gaming today. There are a few other games that tries to break from the influence Royal Road has with improved technology and ideas but Royal Road still remains strong.¡± ¡°I just have to wonder when Royal Road will lose it''s massive popularity in the end. With more and more VRMMORPG in the market, Royal Road isn''t as unique as before.¡± ¡°What? Royal Road still remains as the top since not only it was the first but also because the quality of the other VRMMORPG still pales compared to it. Hundreds or thousands or lesser copies will not stop people from using superior products!¡± And so started once again the dispute between both hosts to the show. At this moment, Maria turned off the screen and then addressed the others. ¡°It seems that we missed some interesting events while still stuck here¡± she said with great regret. She would have wanted to see the Red Giant or Hydra if she could. However Grace silently sighed in relief since she wasn''t there to suffer in it''s presence. ¡°Most likely thing would be us dying again if we were there though¡± said Ian a bit critical but then he added, ¡°Peter and Hina aren''t out of the game...so they survived that incident then?¡± ¡°Most likely¡± replied Mark as well which actually added some credibility to Ian''s words even though they knew that if they died then they would be ejected from the capsules. ¡°Anyway, what have you guys found so far?¡± asked Maria all of a sudden cutting the conversation like that and moving onto the next topic. ¡°The prices of metals are decreasing.¡± ¡°The prices of weapons in particular are increasing rapidly. Magic item prices are decreasing though.¡± ¡°Umm...there are a lot more people spreading out from the centre of the continent.¡± Maria pondered for a while and then said, ¡°Right, let''s do a little research on other cities on the continent. I would like to see some of them one day with everyone else!¡± in a cheerful voice that lightened the mood quickly as well. [p=center]xXx[/p] As Alexandra was cleaning up the are she fought in...to be precise, the place was turned into metal and crystal; Alexandra decided to just smash everything into pieces so the economics of the game itself if such rare and powerful raw materials were to drop into someone''s hands. ¡°Should I just take these materials to the guild....? It would make Eden after all in the end...¡± Alexandra wondered on that point as she saw lots of smoke and flames in the sky in the direction of the city. ¡°The City...?¡± Alexandra had a bad feeling that the city and everyone else in it was wrapped into something bad. Considering the luck Eden had, the city by the time that Alexandra went back would be in ruins. ¡°Better harvest these materials then to pay for the expense of the repairs....this might be....enough?¡± Alexandra hoped that the possibly thousands of gold worth of materials would be enough to cover the costs of the repairs and most likely rebuild of the city in the end. ¡°Better not tell Eden about this then...¡± muttered Alexandra taking out a large bag to put the metal and crystal in to sell later. [p=center]xXx[/p] Leaving most of the work to command the other guards to put out the remaining flames, move the rubble and generally cleaning up the city, the Captain Guard immediately went to the Guild Building of a certain guild that he knew in particular. ¡°Eden you in?¡± he shouted while entering the building without as much of a knock. ¡°Ah, Captain Guard. You''re here at last¡± replied someone who was not Eden. He was a man that looked to be in his 60s and yet as still donned in armour to the point that it wouldn''t be strange for him to go out to war. He as an imposing aura around him with his spear at hand all the time. ¡°Park¡± the Captain Guard said seeing him instead of Eden, ¡°What happened to Eden?¡± he asked in the end. ¡°Over there sleeping.¡± Park pointed to the right and there on the sofa, was a sleeping Eden that looked like something that came out of a painting. In fact it looked like a sleeping beauty was bewitched to eternal sleep to the point that the Captain Guard wanted to at that moment to go to him and give Eden a kiss to wake up. ''Wait, what the hell am I thinking?!'' The Captain Guard shook that idea out of his mind quickly. If he did something like that...several people including Eden and Alexandra....his wife would kill him or probably worst. However he did go over to Eden and immediately grabbed him and shook him like he was mugging him. ¡°Eden! Wake up!¡± he shouted at Eden but there was no sign of him waking up at all. ¡°Don''t bother. If something like that can wake him up then we would have done so already¡± said Park with a sigh. Dropping Eden back down, the Captain Guard looked around and only found the small- ¡°Don''t call me small.¡± KICK! The Captain Guard was promptly kicked at the knee by this sh-I mean perfectly balanced girl in dark purple and black like a ninja. Anyway, there was only the girl that he knew to be called Anna here and no one else. ¡°Where are the others? I would think they would''ve fought against that creature¡± the Captain Guard inquired. ¡°Out of commission¡± said Anna which could only be made sense with context. Park shook his head and then said, ¡°They were the first victims....of Ron''s rampage.¡± ¡°Ron? You mean that man who looks like a lackey and a pervert that all women hate?¡± The Captain Guard raised his eyebrow since that Ron looked harmless enough even with his armour on. ¡°Yes, didn''t you know that everyone and everything in this guild is a monster in some way?¡± asked Park sarcastically. The Captain Guard frowned and then proceeded to say, ¡°If Ron is responsible then I need to take him in. He has caused so much damage to the city that it is not funny at all.¡± The Captain Guard immediately started to walk to where Ron was...though he did not know exactly; he had a feeling that he was located upstairs. However Park and Anna blocked the way. ¡°Can''t let you do that¡± said Park firmly holding onto his spear and letting out a frightening aura even for the Captain Guard. The Captain Guard back away a bit and then grabbed the hilt of his sword and asked, ¡°Are you stopping me?¡± prepared to fight even if it means his death. Park let out a smile at that point and then said, ¡°No no no, I just can''t let non-guild members upstairs due to the rules....or anywhere else in this building for the matter.¡± The Captain Guard and Park both calmed their auras down and let go of their weapons. However this still did not stop the Captain Guard wanting to get Ron who was responsible for this incident. ¡°That reminds me...where are the other three then? You said they were victims....?¡± To this both Park and Anna let out a sigh. ¡°Foolishness.¡± ¡°You can say that again. They managed to piss off that easy going and super calm Ron....and what you saw was the result of that. They are still alive...barely so we threw them into the Vortex World to recover slowly....Ron is in the same place as well recovering from the damage he took when White fought him.¡± ¡°White?¡± The Captain Guard had never heard of this person nor knew that this person was part of the guild as well. His impression was that there was only Eden, Alexandra, Viv plus a handful of other people, at most a dozen more. ¡°The maid that Alexandra brought in.¡± ¡°Maid?!¡± From the corner of his eye he could have sworn that he saw a silvery white haired beautiful girl in a short maid outfit with frills at the end. He had heard rumours of Eden kidnapping a girl to be his maid...something that was ridiculous due to too many reasons but it seems there was indeed a maid and it was powerful enough to take out that monster known as Ron. ¡°Anyway, your distracting me. Give me Ron so I can imprison him till his sentence that will be made later.¡± ¡°Imprisonment for what?¡± asked Park in an almost mocking tone. ¡°For the crime of harming the city...several lives were lost today.¡± ¡°I''m sorry for that but he will be punished later.....along with the rest of us by.....Eden. Unless you want to get involved with Eden''s punishment as well of course, in that case you are more than welcome to punish us first and leave Eden out of it.¡± ¡°I''m sorry to disturb you, I need to help clean up and restore the city¡± replied the Captain Guard immediately backing out and almost running away from this. ¡°That was quick¡± said Anna watching the Captain Guard become busy. ¡°Well Eden''s name does wonder to people considering that he caused worst damage than this on his worst days¡± replied Park leaving the building as well, ¡°Time to start cleaning up this mess. Make sure you look around and save people who are trapped under rubble.¡± ¡°Right.¡± [In that case, I will watch over this bui-] ¡°Need to help¡± said Anna grabbing onto White dragging him out of the building to help in the rescue efforts. [Stop! At least not in this maid outfit!] White''s screams were unheard as he was once more dragged into this. [p=center]xXx[/p] Dragging White with her, Anna started to run around the place often jumping over knocked down houses while looking for people who were in trouble. Behind her was White who was strangely grabbing the helm of the skirt he was wearing. ¡°Why?¡± asked Anna without context of what she was asking for. [Because this skirt is too short!] shouted White using his mental abilities understanding her question without much to work on. ¡°Why?¡± [Again? Umm....] White wondered what Anna was asking about this time. Seeing that White didn''t respond in around 5 seconds, Anna asked again with a bit more: ¡°Why the skirt?¡± That time, White fully understood her question. [Because Alexandra forced me into it!] ¡°Why?¡± [Again? Please extend your questions a bit more!] begged White not wanting to work like this in these clothes and with a person that barely had proper communication skills. ¡°Change clothes?¡± [Huh? I couldn''t find any at all] Anna went through a bag that she pulled out and took out some dark clothes that seemed a bit small but was the right size for White. Seeing this act, White also tear up and grabbed Anna''s hands and the clothes she took out and said: [Thank yo-] ¡°No changing from those clothes¡± said to what seemed to be the devil himself to White. White looked in horror to the source of voice. ¡°Master Al¡± said Anna seeing her. [Alexandra.....] Still in the armour that she used against the Sun Creatures that were bothering her, Alexandra stood next to White restraining him from changing clothes. ¡°What''s with that gloomy face? It''s like you met someone you didn''t like¡± said Alexandra with a amused smile on her face. [No..um...why are you here?] ¡°Why? Naturally because I found out that the city was in ruins while I wasn''t looking. More to the point, I felt like White was making a mistake here as well.¡± ''Me changing from this maid outfit to something more normal is a mistake...?'' ¡°Anyway, I''m getting some cries all around the city. We better help them out to relieve some of the tension they have with our guild¡± said Alexandra now leading both Anna and White in the rescue effort. ''How much longer do I have to wear this embarrassing outfit...?'' thought White as he sighed and followed behind Alexandra who was already moving faster than a normal human could as if she was using flash step. ''At this rate...am I really going to be stuck as the maid character?'' [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Captain, did you find out who was the cause of this incident?¡± asked one of the other guards when the Captain Guard started to order people around the place to make sure that no one was hurt or worst. ¡°Yes¡± he simply replied without much energy. ¡°Then...where is that person then?¡± asked the same guard. This question peaked the interest of the other guards around as well as they listened in. ¡°Don''t worry about it. It wasn''t an act of malice or anything like that...just don''t go looking in it.¡± ¡°Captain! What are you saying?! We need to bring the one responsible to justice!¡± ¡°Even if we are punished with them?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The other guards were now completely confused of the words that their Captain Guard were spouting out. Some of them were considering that he was in fact bewitched or at least controlled by some sort of magic. ¡°Listen here. There are three forces that you must never piss off in this Kingdom. The first is our petty Emperor, next is that Senate of 13 that has power over all nobles and finally....them. That Guild that has connections to both of those powers as well as enough power on their own to cause the downfall of this Kingdom. This incident is connected to them and that is why we, as lowly guards cannot interfere at all.¡± ¡°....¡± The other guards stood silent to those words. Never once did the Captain Guard actually say those words before and he was mostly all about bringing justice down to evil. However there was something that is straightforward and somewhat narrow minded person fear? ¡°And don''t worry about the punishment bit...when that person wakes up to see the sorry state this city is in, they will wished they have died later on¡± said the Captain Guard with a bit of satisfaction in his voice. That person''s punishment was one of the worst things you could go through and he knew it. Many of those who were punished by him never dared do anything wrong in their lives ever again...if he spared them. ¡°If the Emperor is the trunk of the tree...then the Senate would be the branches that connect to the nobles and people while the Guild would be hidden away as the roots supporting everything without anyone knowing....¡± The Captain Guard sighed as he continued ordering people to work faster in removing all the rubble in the city and help put out the lasts of the fires.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8300~ - This took a while to write...mostly due to me working on other things and starting a new 1.8 world in minecraft. - Well this chapter is more or less the results of the last chapter...where Ron gets seriously pissed off and goes berserk. Other than that, sorting out several characters at once is kinda difficult to do...well I can deal with it to this extent. I more or less know what will go on in chapter 4 and somewhat in chapter 5 as well...either way, it''s going to take a while to write especially with an exam coming soon next week as well... Vol.3 Chapter 4 - A Day Off ¡°Wow! What the hell happened here?!¡± shouted Lyndis seeing that the city was completely in ruins. Actually she knew that the city was in ruins but wanted to shouted that out. Also she contacted both Sain and Miriel while they were in game as well to inquire what was happening so she more or less knew what was happening.
Lyndis: Sain, Miriel! Are you two there? I logged in the game with the others. Sain: Yeah, we in the city helping out. Miriel: Get your butt here as well. You get contribution and a bit of fame as they help clean the city in this state. Lyndis: Wait what?! Why the hell didn''t you tell me earlier?! Miriel: Because there was no point since you couldn''t get into the game at all until now. Shadow: That makes sense. Where are you two, we''ll go to you first then. Sain: ¡­. Miriel: ¡­. Shadow: Guys? Lyndis: Are you still there? Sain: Yep. Miriel :Yeah... Lyndis: Where are you two....unless.....you''re doing something fun aren''t you! Let me into it as well! Sain: A-anyway I think we should at least relax for today since it''s a rare chance since Eden is out of commission for another 4 days. Lyndis: What are you two hiding from me?! Miriel: I agree, do whatever you want today and then we can talk about what to do tomorrow. Shadow: In that case, I''m going to look around to see what''s happening on a small scale. Raven: I''ll go to the Guild Building. Serena: In that case...I''ll w-wait! Where are you dragging me?! Lyndis: Guys....? Are you still there...? Lyndis: ¡­. Lyndis: I''m SO going to find you two. Just you wait!
With that, the group chat cut off and Lyndis sped away running in a random direction trying to find Sain and Miriel since they seem to be doing something interesting. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Looks like Lyndis is trying to find us....¡± muttered Sain seeing the last words that Lyndis left them on the group chat. Miriel sighed and then said, ¡°Well it''s not like she can find us since this city is pretty big...though I worry that she might ask people about us.¡± ¡°We''re not exactly invisible though we kinda do blend into the background people a bit...¡± said Sain a bit depressed that he pointed that out. Sain was wearing a common leather armour set while Miriel was wearing a plain purple robe for magicians that was also common. They quite literally had no unique features other than what they looked like and the guild they were in. ¡°This is actually a good thing since when people don''t notice you, they don''t bother you¡± assured Miriel patting Sain on the shoulder. ¡°You Two! Stop talking and more moving! We need to clear this area before reconstruction can begin!¡± shouted a overly large man that was made of more muscle than brains. Miriel clenched her teeth just by the thought that she needed to take order by such a brute while Sain sighed seeing Miriel like this. ¡°Deal with it for a bit...we are at least partly responsible for what happened three days ago you know¡± said Sain lifting and carrying a large piece of wood from the ground moving it away to a pile. ¡°Then what about Gen and Master then? Aren''t they the main cause to this?¡± asked Miriel since she was still pissed off that those two got them involved in a personal matter. ¡°They are currently still healing...plus from what Park told me before, they will be personally punished by Eden himself and that is more than enough to what happened according to him.¡± ¡°Anyway this is actually a good thing as well you know.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Miriel put up a face that said ''Are you joking'' at Sain. ¡°For each plot we clear, we get 10 contribution points to the Kingdom and 1 Fame. Considering the size of the city it is possible for us to obtain 100 fame in total like we work harder than anyone else.¡± ¡°You know how unlikely that is? There are hundreds, thousands of other players who are thinking the same thing in the end. We''ll be lucky if we can even get 10 Fame through this¡± scowled Miriel adding in, ¡°The only good thing is that we can increase our relationship with the NPCs this way.¡± ¡°Yeah...ever since we joined the guild it felt like that they gave us a bit of the cold shoulder or are fearing us a bit...¡± muttered Sain sighing due to the changes that he only noticed recently. Due to the actions of Eden, 7 months went by in game with them all extremely busy with no time to waste and because of that; it was only now due to the recent events that he was able to talk to other NPCs in general. ''The Guild name....Sleeping Sheep Centre is quite a notorious one indeed...with a mention it to another player, they rushed to leave me alone...I guess I better not mention it to anyone else I might meet later on...better tell the others not to as well later....'' ¡°Sain! Stop daydreaming and lift it up already! My arms feel like they are holding up something that twice my weight!¡± shouted Miriel red in anger. ¡°Right right¡± replied Sain with a casual smile helping Miriel move a large boulder that used to be part of a wall. The two spend a great day of the rest of the day helping out and being ordered to the bone cleaning up by smashing large rubble and other materials into pieces and then moving them. [p=center]xXx[/p] Flashback to the day before... ¡°Guildmaster is that you?!¡± said Sain hoping that it really was Eden or Alexandra since it was certain that they would help them now. ¡°Which one are you talking about~?¡± asked a womanly voice since Sain could not exactly see anything outside the remains of the building since it was literally on him and Miriel. ¡°Don''t joke right now! We are slowly being CRUSHED here! Our health points are barely being sustained by Sain healing us once in a while!¡± shouted Miriel in such a loud voice that Sain really regretted not being able to use his hands to block his ears from the sound. ¡°Enough of that and get us out of here Alexandra!!!¡± shouted Miriel in a rampage to Sain''s ears. ¡°Right right, too bad I can''t see you right now cuddling with Sain over there as well¡± said Alexandra in a humoured voice. ¡°W-what are you talking about?! I can only feel disgust here!¡± retorted Miriel. ¡°You know that actually makes me really sad when I hear that right?¡± muttered Sain under his voice for Miriel to hear. Unfortunately, there were three people nearby who could pick up on his voice and words. ¡°Ho Ho Ho, looks like something is steaming up~¡± [Should we come back later...? It looks like this will take a while] ¡°Under-age Bad.¡± ¡°What the hell are you three talking about?! Hurry up and get us out of here!!!!¡± retorted Miriel even more much to the dismay of Sain''s ears once again. ¡°Fine fine....let''s see....too is too much trouble. Why don''t we just blow this up and them get them out¡± said Alexandra not even bothering to trying to get them out safely. ¡°....¡± Both Sain and Miriel felt a sudden chill then as if they were about to die. They both looked at each other frightened of the death to come crashing down on them literally. ¡°I''m sorry Sain. Cracked Barrier can only be casted on one of us¡± said Miriel with a tear in her eye. Sain shook his head gently at Miriel and said, ¡°Don''t worry....your spell will probably be unable to stop your death either way as well.¡± ¡°Oi! Why are you talking as if I''m going to kill you? You do remember I have a couple of skills that can buff your defence and regenerative abilities right? Don''t go all drama like on me.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Let''s see.....this damn chant is too damn long to speak! Screw this, Blah blah blah, Holy Protection!¡±
Holy Protection has been casted on you - Health increases by 15% - Health Regeneration increases by 4% - Damage resistance increases by 12% - Due to not chanting the words to the spell, the effects of Holy Protection has dramatically decreased Time Limit: 3 Hours
¡°....¡± ''Is....this fine....?'' wondered Sain seeing the effects of the spell already being on the mid tier level even with it''s power reduced. ¡°Anyway time for me to do the more interesting parts. Sw-¡± ¡°Wait wait wait! With these effects, we will still die if you use whatever your about to do!¡± shouted Sain noticing that Alexandra was the same as Eden as in she didn''t know when to hold back at the right times. At this rate, he and Miriel will actually die from her hands. ¡°...Fine...I''ll cast a couple more on you just in case then. Several moments later...
Holy Shield has been casted on you - Damage will be reduced by 8% - Holy and Dark Damage will decrease by 15% - Defence will increase by 6% - Due to not chanting the words to the spell, the effects of Holy Shield has dramatically decreased Time Limit: 2 Hours
Warrior Protection has been casted on you - Able to endure attacks that would normally kill you - Damage resistance will double - Damage negation by 3% - Due to not chanting the words to the spell, the effects of Warrior Protection has dramatically decreased Time Limit: 10 Minutes
Steel Body has been casted on you - Body will harden like steel when attacked - Defence increase by 5% - Agility decreases by 15% - Due to not chanting the words to the spell, the effects of Steel Body has dramatically decreased Time Limit: 15 Minutes
Mighty Hidden Strength has been casted on you - 1% chance of surviving with 1% health on fatal attacks - Strength increases by 3% - Agility increases by 3% - Due to not chanting the words to the spell, the effects of Mighty Hidden Strength has dramatically decreased Time Limit: 1 Hour
¡°....Was there a need to cast several of them like that quickly instead of chanting one single strong spell for us...?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Couldn''t be bothered to use their damn long chanting. It would''ve taken me 10 minutes to chant through all of those spell at once even if I hurried it up.¡± ¡°Like I said, couldn''t you just have used on powerful spell like the last time?¡± ¡°Time''s up, Sword Wave!¡± BANG! Moments later.... ¡°Cough Cough Cough...! Damn there''s dust in my cough lungs. You okay Miriel? Miriel?¡± Sain unfortunately looked down and then realised what kind of position he was in. To be precise, he was on top of Miriel and looked like he was either hugging her or pushing her down. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°How long are you going be on me!? This isn''t some damn love comedy story!¡± Whack! ¡°Ow!¡±
You took 10 damage
After several apologies and several favours to Miriel, Sain finally found forgiveness while a certain guildmaster made ''ho ho ho'' sounds in the background spying on them for her own entertainment. [p=center]xXx[/p] Meanwhile at current time.... Raven walked through the rubble that was strangely ordered in such a way that it made it really difficult to go through. There were in fact other ways to go through the rubble but those paths were filled with people who when seeing Raven would stare at him for some reason. ''Better avoid people since they may drag me into something...'' he thought and therefore with the intention of avoiding attention and more to the point people, he climbed over large rocks and wood that were shattered around the place as if he was a rat that was scurrying away from the harmful cats that hunt them down. However unknown to Raven, doing this actually attracted more attention to him. ¡°Who is that idiot? Walking like that can only attract attention,,,,¡± ¡°Who cares! Blond hair and ocean blue eyes! Me get!¡± ¡°Wait! I was the one who saw that cute boy first!¡± ¡°....¡± Raven completely ignored those conversations about him as much as he could as he reached the guild building. ¡°Unharmed?¡± wondered Raven seeing that all of the buildings surrounding it was damaged but strangely enough, the guild building didn''t even have a scratch on it. To the distance, he could barely see that the giant library that the city had with top of the notch magic technology was unharmed as well. It was as if whatever caused all of this intentionally avoided those two places. ''A bit suspicious but since the person resulting in this kind of damage is from the guild....'' Raven put aside the fact that this building was unharmed and entered it casually. Inside he looked left and right and eventually found that one of the guildmasters of this guild was sleeping peacefully on the sofa in plain view. ''Shouldn''t someone have moved Eden somewhere else to sleep? I mean for a girl....wait seeing him like this makes me think Eden is a girl....better get a closer look.'' Raven walked over to where Eden was and looked closely at his face. Both his nose and mouth were small while his eyes and eyebrows balanced out with the rest of his face. His face was naturally thin and looked like a perfect person. Adding his long black hair to the mix, for certain most men will fall for him....even if there is a lack of breasts. For some odd reason, Raven had the urge to poke at Eden''s cheek and his finger unknowingly moved to that direction by itself. ¡°Hmm...? What are you doing little Raven~?¡± asked someone behind him. At that moment, Raven felt like there was a demon behind him that could potentially ruin his life if she could. Pale from the thought and panicking a bit, Raven turned back with some tears in his eyes...which would happen if he could make expressions or could produce tears. However all Raven did was blankly stare at the person behind him with his emotionless face with no signs of changing while inside is a torrent of emotion. ¡°Haha, you are super embarrassed inside aren''t you? That stoned looked on your face can''t hide everything you know~¡± said Alexandra blending over to pinch Raven''s cheek with a soft smile. ''Huh? What is going on? My face is normal as always....right?'' Raven started to unconsciously touch his face here and there to feel if there was any change in them. He more or less had this expression for years and nothing changed with it even when and if he tried. ¡°Wah, don''t bother checking if anything changed. Nothing did...I''m just good at reading people''s faces especially Eden''s over there though that doesn''t stop us from arguing all the time!¡± Alexandra moved her hand across from Raven and lightly touched Eden''s cheek. And then immediately squeezed it tightly as if she was pulling off a large chink of his flesh. Raven could not help but to panic a bit since it really looked like Alexandra was about to kill Eden there. ¡°Don''t worry so much, Eden has even more defence than me who is suppose to be the tank in our little trio....honestly I''m having some bad memories of Eden complaining that I wasn''t killing him fast enough back at a certain Holy Trial.¡± ''Why would someone...complain of not dying fast enough...isn''t it the other way around?'' ¡°Even if I use my strongest attack here...which will probably kill everyone in the city in one go, I bet that Eden would still live through it! He''s even more stubborn on living then the petty Emperor himself!¡± Raven could not help but to blurt out, ¡°You know the Emperor?¡± ¡°Yes of course I do. Practically anyone who is over level 800 knows him personally. Ah did you know that Weed is actually reaching the level 900 point? It''s damn ridiculous on how much harder it is to get there from level 800 then to get to level 800 from 700! Just know that your levelling speed will dramatically decrease after level 200 and once again from level 400 and 600 and finally level 800 to the point that the previous point looked like you were levelling quite quickly.¡± Raven nodded to this even though that even level 200 was a far distance away from him and the others right now. They haven''t even gotten to the level 100 point yet and it is 9 month game time and 3 volumes into the series. ¡°Anyway where was I? Right! Talking about the petty Emperor Weed....as a little something for you since I have the time here''s how we....¡± Several hours later, Alexandra finished her story. As for the actual content....perhaps later. [p=center]xXx[/p] Shadow leaped from building to building in quick succession and speed as if he was like a flying monkey in the air. After taking a 5 minute breather due to his stamina running out unexpectedly while only running for 20 some minutes, Shadow looked around to find where he was. ''It''s damn hard to find where I am in this city when most of the city is wrecked?! Who the hell was responsible in our guild that caused this mess?!'' Shadow cursed the person that he probably knew who caused this incident which made things hard for him. ''Looking at this place....I can quite literally see the rest of the city as long as I go as high as 2 stories. That was how bad this incident was...most of the roads are covered in rubble as well which players and NPCs are working to clear out....other than that is the removal of all the rubble and then reconstruction of the whole city...I wonder how many months this will take...else the lord of this city could just spend money to fix it immediately....speaking up which, who is the Lord of this city? There was no mention of said person at all.'' As Shadow was in deep thought over this matter, he did not notice that a couple of people approached him. ¡°Umm....mister in black!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Shadow looked to the direction of the voice and found himself staring into the face of a young girl. ¡°Wa!¡± Shocked, Shadow accidental tumbled back a few times, falling off the large rock that he was sitting on while thinking. Thud!
You took 15 damage
¡°....¡± Shadow could only stare blankly at the message in front of him as people gathered around him. ¡°He''s no good! Impaired in the mind¡± said one child critically. ¡°Wait, the other adults couldn''t even see him! He''s the perfect person for us to use!¡± said another child not even hiding the fact that they were about to use him. ¡°Mister, are you okay?¡± asked the first child that caused him to fall to begin with. ¡°More or less¡± said Shadow as he got up pretending that nothing happened a few seconds ago. However Shadow was more curious in another matter. ¡°I''m pretty sure that my hiding skill was active....how did you lot find me¡± asked Shadow to the three children in front of him. ¡°Easy! We are masters of hide and seek!¡± said one child with dark brown hair and a large smile boasting of himself and his friends. The next to answer was another boy with a lighter shade of brown, ¡°We just looked in the place that other people didn''t. It was like there was a strange gap in the place you were in like there was nothing there.¡± ¡°Yeah, after we looked a bit, you appeared!¡± said the young girl with chestnut hair as well as if she saw something amazing, ¡°Say, mister did you use magic to do that?¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow shyly scratched his cheek and simply said, ¡°No, it''s just something I was born with, not being noticed by anyone¡± with a sad smile on his face. ¡°....¡± The three children stared at him and immediately looked impressed and excited at the same time. ¡°Cool! That''s like a superpower right?!¡± ¡°Yep yep, it isn''t something as common as the other stuff you hear about!¡± ¡°Mister, you''re amazing!¡± Shadow could feel that he was blushing right now and to the comments of children to boot! He could not help but to feel happy as he was complimented like that so easily and through the eyes of innocent children with nothing more than their true intent on their faces. It was the first time Shadow felt happy of his unique ''nature''. However that did not even stop Shadow from remembering of all the pain he went through thanks to it. ¡°This....''ability'' is nothing to be happy of. It''s something I want to get rid of if I can¡± said Shadow bluntly silencing the praising children in front of him. It looked like they saw something scary or shocking from Shadow then as well. ¡°....¡± The silence continued for another 5 seconds until Shadow stopped it seeing that this situation would not do good for these children''s memories. ¡°What did you want me for again?¡± he asked to the children. ¡°Ah, we need another person to group hide and seek with!¡± said the girl. ¡°Group....hide and seek?¡± asked Shadow as if he was kinda forced to given the lack of information he had on such thing. ¡°Hide and Seek, but with more people seeking! That way, things are much more interesting! Don''t you know what hide and seek is mister?¡± asked the girl innocently. Memories...memories that Shadow did not want to remember pop up one after another. One of the time the teacher forgot he existed. Another where it looked like he was abandoned by those he knew and talked with seconds ago. Then...one of hide and seek...where he hid for three days and no one came to find him which caused him to almost starve to death. ¡°Uh....I do know, not great memories of it though...didn''t play it much. You know with me being super good at hiding and such¡± said Shadow awkwardly. ¡°Wow...¡± exclaimed one of the boys, ¡°You must have been super good at it! Amazing!¡± ''These ones don''t know of what traumas I went through by being super good at it...'' Shadow smiled wryly to himself then. ¡°Anyway, I have time to spare for today so I might as well join you guys. How many more of you are there?¡± Shadow asked. The three children thoughts about it hard as if they were doing some hard calculation and then said: ¡°Around 30...?¡± ¡°A class full of people?¡± ¡°A large amount!¡± ''What are these different answers...? I guess 30 is roughly the number...in total I hope.'' ¡°Right! We have to hurry or else we''ll be late for the game!¡± shouted one of the boys checking the time with the sun in the sky. ¡°Ah, mister hurry up!¡± said the girl quickly grabbing onto his hand dragging him along. ''Ah...this hand is small....fragile.....'' Shadow left those thoughts alone in his head as he continued to follow along with the children that dragged him into their playing. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. [p=center]xXx[/p] Serena was currently in an awkward situation. ¡°Hey, big sis! Let''s do this!¡± shouted one overly enthusiastic child that could not be more than 10 years old. Of course to them, Serena who was only 13 years old looked like an adult to them or at least a older figure. ¡°With you, we can definitely win!¡± another child shouted into the air trying to encourage her. ¡°Haha¡± Serena could only awkwardly laugh it off since she was completely overwhelmed by their spirit. To this, Serena sighed since she was somehow dragged into this all of a sudden. She remembered what happened only a few hours ago... ''How did I get dragged into this again...? I think it was some child coming up to me and the pulling me somewhere saying something like a game....I wonder what the others are doing right now...?'' Serena simply waited while being quiet as more and more children, all of them averaged around 10 years or younger in age until there was roughly 30 people gathered; there was also another ''adult'' amongst them aside from her. ¡°Shadow...?¡± muttered Serena recognising the person that the other team dragged in as well. With this, there were now 32 people here including Serena and Shadow. Shadow looked over at Serena seeing her and then took a moment and sighed giving a sad smile as if he knew that Serena was dragged into this as well. ¡°Let''s begin the game!¡± shouted to what presumed to be the leader of this group of children. The game started and naturally came out as Shadow''s victory as the sole person to not be caught by the team Serena was in...not that she was trying to find him either way. [p=center]xXx[/p] The next day in game, the group gathered again. ¡°Gained a total of 15 fame and 150 contributions~¡± said Miriel happily seeing that a whole several days'' work was paying off finely. It was needless to say that fame was something extremely hard to get. Players that had over 1000 fame were still in the very low percentage while players with more than 10 000 fame was even lower. Those who had more than 100 000 fame were already considered legends and top players as well. Next to Miriel was Sain who looked exhausted and was rubbing his arm where he hurt since he strained himself while lifting up too many things for too long. The the opposite side was Lyndis who was in a bad mood. ¡°So where on earth were you two anyway? I searched most of the city and you were anywhere!¡± she demanded. To this Miriel gave her a smile of superiority and said in a somewhat cocky voice, ¡°Naturally somewhere you couldn''t find us of course! Don''t want you to interfere with what was going on after all¡± she licked her finger as if she ate something delicious after that giving Sain a slight shiver. ¡°W-what the hell?! Such S-shameless behaviour!¡± said Lyndis completely red imagining what Miriel and Sain were doing the previous day. Sain sighed and then explained things since he did not want to be caught up in a big misunderstanding, ¡°We were helping out, moving out rubble and moving in materials to rebuild the city. Plus we were doing this three days straight and only now, the builders and such are starting the reconstruction since the city is huge and so much needed to be cleared before anything started.¡± ¡°Really.....disappointing...¡± muttered Lyndis looking as if a good show was just cancelled. ''Why are you disappointed when you were the one who was flustered just then?'' wondered Sain to the extreme change in attitude that Lyndis and while he''s at it, Miriel can display. Sain looked over to Shadow and asked, ¡°So what did you do?¡± ¡°Playing with children. Serena was also dragged in as well¡± he replied calmly with some happiness in his voice as if he experienced something pleasant. ¡°Hmm...what about you Raven?¡± ¡°Was in the guild building. Alexandra was talking a lot.¡± As usual, there was no hint of his expression even changing even after 9 months of knowing him. ''Well it''s not like that''s something bad...right?'' ¡°Right, we''re all accounted for now. Now what were we called here for?¡± wondered Sain aloud. The group was in the guild building, that alone was not strange at all. Most of the time they slept here so this place would be considered a second home to them. But the problem was that they were called here which made them nervous. Last time something happened, the city was destroyed...and they were still in the beginning process of rebuilding it. Before that was a 3 month trip to mountains that was mainly then gaining some stamina from walking for so long and nothing much aside from the quest reward. Click. The door opened and Alexandra walked in with a serious expression on her face unlike most of the time that the group saw her. ¡°To put it bluntly, I need you guys to take care of some monsters. With....recent events, and the city more or less out of the count, monsters have been seen gathering in large numbers, probably to attack. Because of this, the city officials have put up a notice and a quest to protect the city by clearing out as many monsters as possible. As the guild who is responsible for both the current state of the city and protecting the city, we won''t get any rewards for this...but on the other hand, it is a good chance to improve your relation to the residents of this city. Go for it~!¡±
Protect the City Due to recent events where the city was mostly destroyed, monster have taken this chance to gather and attack the city. Protect the city by clearing out the monsters before their numbers gather up too much. There are reports of 4 main branches of monsters attacking the city. Rank: C Restrictions: City must not fall and Monsters must be eliminated Reward: As part of the guild that is responsible for the current state of the city, you will not get any rewards aside form experience from this quest Guild has accepted this quest, you cannot deny this quest
You have accepted this quest
¡°....¡± ''Why is it that the last couple of quests that we did...yes why is it that we were more or less forced to accept them whether it said that we can deny the quest or not...'' thought Sain seeing that one of three quest slots were filled in again. ¡°Now I have the job to explain this quest in more details....¡± sighed Alexandra was if this was really a bother to do. ¡°Basically, the monsters can''t breach the walls since they don''t have enough power so they have to go through the four entrances that this city has. Since Ron, Gen, etc are out of commission, they are unable to help with things so therefore, Park, Anna and me will take three of the entrances while everyone else, mostly low levelled players like you will take the last remaining one....well you will focus on that sole entrance while other fools will try to get some kills with the rest of us. Monster that may come include wolves, bears, boars, goblins, kobolds and lizardmen. Nothing to fear but their level can go up to 150 in this quest I would think. I except each entrance will get around 300 mobs to deal with as well so you need to cooperate with other parties as well. That''s all, the quest begins in an hour. Get to the east entrance while you can.¡± With those words Alexandra disappeared from sight, probably to go to one of the other entrances in the city other than the east one. ¡°So...at least now we have a good way to gain some experience right?¡± said Lyndis trying to change the current mood of ''we were forced into something troublesome again''. ¡°Other people will be there....they will try to hog all of the kills and experience¡± said Shadow with a dark shadow above his head. ¡°People....people....¡± muttered Serena in an endless loop. ¡°....¡± While Raven had the same expression as always....there was a dark feeling around him now. ¡°Wait wait wait! You guys talked to other people right?! Why the hell are you guys like this now?!¡± retorted Lyndis seeing that those three were acting like this. ¡°Last time was Sain talking to them¡± replied Shadow bluntly with Serena and Raven nodding as well. ¡°Didn''t you and Serena play with kids yesterday?!¡± ¡°This and that are different.¡± ¡°What of the people from the guild then?!¡± ¡°We have to get along with them so we forced ourselves.¡± As Lyndis and Shadow argued over....not exactly argue but were talking rapidly, Miriel muttered: ¡°Other people....it will be hard to not insult them...Sain, take care of talking to people with Lyndis.¡± Sain hearing this let out a sad laugh considering that the group that he was leading was a bunch of anti-social people. Shadow plainly didn''t want to get along with other people, Serena was too shy for that. Raven practically didn''t talk unless he had to and Miriel didn''t care for other people. Add in Lyndis'' skills with talking and take into account that she might say something insulting to them, Sain was really the only person who could talk to other people....no players fine. For some strange reason, this group was more than fine with NPCs. Actually the group wasn''t sure whether Eden and Alexandra were players but NPCs instead...except for Miriel who did her research on the group and found them to be players from the early days. Either way, they got along with them good enough for a professional relationship in the guild. ¡°Either way...we just have to be there and fight right? No need for cooperation with other group, we just need to make sure no monsters get into the city right?¡± said Shadow at the end of his long conversation which was omitted due to space reasons. With that, the group went to the eastern gate. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°This is worse than I thought....¡± muttered Miriel seeing the large crowd of players lined up. There were around 100 people in total at the gate with eyes that said for other people to not get into their way. ¡°With this we don''t need to work right?¡± asked Shadow seeing that this large group of players was enough to take care of a mere monster invasion. ¡°Doubt it, most of those people are lower levelled than us....and look like they''re only here to be carried for the rest of the quest...¡± said Sain seeing that many, not most of the players were in beginner gear and don''t even have weapons. Examining the numbers of players that had proper gear and weapons, at most there were 5 other parties. ¡°So only 30% of the players here are able to fight....¡± muttered Sain not liking the numbers already and was expecting for many of these players to run away immediately when things went bad. At most, Sain expected them to gang up on a single foe and take it down bit by bit. But this quest isn''t going to release single monsters for players to kill outnumbering them. It''s going to be the opposite with the players outnumbered and ganged up. ¡°This is going to be a massacre...¡± muttered Miriel on line with Sain''s thoughts on the situation. ¡°Well might as well enjoy it then¡± said Lyndis irresponsibly as if this had nothing with her. Sain sighed trying to think of a way to not draw too much attention while making sure that they complete this quest as well. Of course he could just take command of everyone here and force them to sacrifice themselves for the city...but that was unlikely to happen and they might turn on him when he did not expect it. ¡°Do we at least have a safety line...?¡± wondered Sain aloud seeing that this quest will fail with this immediately. ¡°Oh your....¡± muttered a voice behind Sain. Sain turned around to find that he recognised this man in armour and was a guard. ¡°Captain..Guard...?¡± muttered Sain not actually knowing his name. ¡°Yep, I heard from that Alexandra that she sent you guys here as well. She''s taking the north gate, Park is at the south gate and Anna is at the west gate. There are a few guards over there but the majority of those we can spare is concentrated here¡± he explained. He then looked at Sain and the other curious and said, ¡°Now that I think about it. I actually don''t know the majority of your names...Alexandra explained you guys as, invisible man, little green girl, elf ponytail, elf mage, silent blonde and super average man.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain and the others could not believe their ears of what Alexandra just used to describe them...and the fact that this man standing in front of them knew them from just that. ''Guildmaster.....can you not remember us like that? We do have names you know....'' ¡°To be precise, we are not exactly here to help. Just to make sure that you freemen don''t completely fail and cause many deaths in the city. There are 20 of us here at the actual gates to defend it while you lot will have to deal with them in the forest.¡± ¡°....¡± ''Doesn''t that mean they''re using us as a damper to reduce the amount of monsters attacking them and possibly overwhelming them?'' Sain tried to evaluate the strength of the Captain Guard standing in front of him to determine how useful he truly was...but all he felt was the seemingly unlimited strength that the others in the guild had like his master, the guildmasters as well. A wall that was so high that he couldn''t even see the top of. ¡°In that case, are you taking over command then?¡± asked Sain. ¡°What? Of course not. You lot can do whatever you want since you can just die and come back like nothing happened at all!¡± ¡°....¡± Sain felt that there was now a high chance of them dying due to this quest. ¡°Of course those who run away will be let back into the city though their intimacy with the rest of the city will decrease quite a bit.¡± The Captain Guard looked at the forest with keen eyes and then said to Sain, ¡°Now then, go bunch up with the others. I''m going to send you lot out now.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] The quest event had started, monsters started pouring out of the forest to attack the city. As the players, they were split into three factions. The first was the ''I must defend the city with my life'' group which had 20 or so people in them. The second was the ''I am armed and can probably do well enough'' group which had 30-40 people in them including the group. The third and last group was the ''I am going to leech off the efforts of other people'' group which made up 40 people. It was needless to say that this group was useless and were at the far back ready to run away when they the chance. Naturally due to this, the 20 guards at the city gate were glaring at them, looking down at them since they were so weak and wanted to exploit other people''s efforts due to that. Now right back to the actions of the group. ¡°Three wolves coming our way!¡± said Shadow coming back from scouting and luring monsters to the group was that almost running around the place taking care of monsters. ¡°Right!¡± Sain nodded to this message and then, ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± In front of Sain, a magic circle was rapidly being constructed and the wolf summoning known as Bright Luna or Luna for short appeared in front of them. [Master, what enemies do you wish for me to slay?] ¡°There are some wolves coming to us so support us in the battle. This will be a long battle as well...¡± said Sain to Luna hoping that it didn''t have hesitation on killing other wolves. [Of course master, lowly common wolves are nothing to me] Luna bared it''s fangs and walked next to Lyndis and Raven who served as the front guard of the group as usual. This was the first battle since the time in the eternal dungeon. Sain touched the glove on his right hand in the area which had the ''mark''. ¡°Sain...you okay? Asked Miriel next to him worried. ¡°Yeah, it doesn''t seem to be reacting at all¡± replied Sain with a smile. That ''Commander'' or Alt personality doesn''t seem to be coming out at all, ¡°Anyway you should start buffing everyone then.¡± Miriel nodded and then started her 30 seconds chant ending it with, ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± Agility will increase by 35% for 10 minutes Just as she said those words, three wolves did jump out hitting, Lyndis, Raven and Luna all at once. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± ¡°Shield Bash!¡± [Take this!] All three of them counter-attacked immediately without retreating killing them all at once in one go. You have gained experience ¡°....¡± ¡°That was rather quick....well they were at most level 20 I think¡± said Miriel confirming the drops and grabbing them into her bag. [Master did you summon me for weaklings?] asked Luna in a disappointed voice. ¡°No...it''s just that I was expecting something strong to appear that could put us in danger...well I just from here we just run away killing everything we see as much as we can¡± said Sain explaining things to Luna and at the same time suggesting what they were to do now. Sain looked at the others and it looked like they had the same feelings as well. ¡°In that case, we should split up into two groups. Shadow, Lyndis and Raven will be one group which will actively seek out monsters in an area around the rest of us. When you need healing or buffs, come back to us and make sure you contact us every time anything happens. I rather not contact you when you''re concentrating on fighting and distract you.¡± ¡°Right¡± ¡°Roger~¡± Raven nodded to those words and then left with Lyndis and Shadow in finding and killing as many enemies as possible. Taking a breather, Sain looked at the quest details again.
Protect the City Monsters have started to attack the gates of the city in hopes of trying to get in and destroy it. Protect the gates at all costs. Enemies remaining: Approximately 3000 Enemies Slain in total: Approximately 1000 Enemies Slain by party: 17 Contribution to Quest: 17 Note that more powerful monsters will give more contribution to the quest
Since the event started, it had been an hour and already 1000 monsters had been slain in total. At this rate, the quest would finish up in another 3 hours. However Sain had a bad feeling about it. So far there weren''t that many monsters at all coming at the east gate and most of them were weak monsters as well. The amount of monsters that attacked the east side was less than 100 while there were in total 10 times the amount slain already... ''Are the monsters not spiting their forces evenly....? Considering that they will probably not get through from the other gates....I fear that more monsters will come this way and stronger ones as well....'' Sain thought about most of the weaker players that had little to no combat skills to their name or body. He was partly confused on why other players...higher levelled players weren''t on this quest as well. Contribution and fame were the two things that all players no matter what level wanted no matter the level. ''Did....Alexandra or someone else stop them or gave them something with a better reward than this?'' Sain wondered but now was not the time to be thinking of those things.
Enemy Slain counter increased to 18
Enemy Slain counter increased to 19
Enemy Slain counter increased to 20
Enemy Slain counter increased to 21
...
The counter continued to increase while he wasn''t paying much attention to it. It was only when Miriel reminded him that they should look for enemies, that Sain snapped out of it. ¡°Okay, Luna can you find some enemies?¡± [Of course master. There are some to the north of us. Your comrades are a bit further to the east so you should not collide with them] ¡°Right, let''s go get some more kills¡± said Sain leading 2 people and a wolf along. [p=center]xXx[/p] At the same time, further east, a few kilometres east from the gate and where the group was. There was a group of people in black cloaks that quite literally screamed ''bad guys here'' on them hiding away in the shadows. ¡°Is it ready yet?¡± ¡°No it will take another hour or so to completely awaken.¡± ¡°Good, I want it on them as soon as possible. Having this rampaging inside the city will cause a lot of trust issues later on if things goes well.¡± One of the figures pat the large object that was covered in shadows with a smile. ¡°Soon...you can let out all your hate okay? For everyone''s sake.¡± ¡°Stand back, I''m activating the device that will force awaken it.¡± ¡°Right.¡± The figure stepped back while another placed a particular object onto it. This device let out and covered the object that was the size of a large boulder in golden light. ¡°This will be the first experiment.¡± ¡°I hope this works.¡± ¡°Whether it works or not is not the point. It''s whether we were right or not.¡± ¡°Are you sure this is fine?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± ¡°But...¡± ¡°I know we are committing the worse taboo...but to end everything....this is needed to draw ''that'' out after all for our revenge.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Yes we need to have a God ready to lure it out and kill it...everything else doesn''t matter.¡± ¡°Bu-but what if someone else destroys it first?¡± ¡°Then we will retry improving it. Something that will lose to normal people won''t be enough for our plans.¡± ¡°Right...¡± The two figures waited until the golden light pierced further into the body of the object that they were standing in front of. Ba-dum! With a single heartbeat from the object, the two knew that they were succeeded at least in part. ¡°It doesn''t matter how many times it takes, we will in the end kill you. This is how far our hatred goes for you...if only you didn''t exist then....¡± With hatred spilling out of him, the figure said the one word of the creature that he wanted dead more than anything else. ¡°Eden. You will die by my hands no matter what.¡±
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7800~ Vol.3 Chapter 5 - Return of Viv An hour passed since last time...
Protect the City Monsters have started to attack the gates of the city in hopes of trying to get in and destroy it. Protect the gates at all costs. Enemies remaining: Approximately 1700 Enemies Slain in total: Approximately 2300 Enemies Slain by party: 145 Contribution to Quest: 182 Note that more powerful monsters will give more contribution to the quest
And this was the results for the efforts that the group and the other players put in in this hour. ¡°At this rate, we might finish this off in another hour or so¡± muttered Sain seeing these numbers. Since the hour; Shadow, Lyndis and Raven rejoined the rest of the group since more stronger monsters were coming out more quickly now, Now there were less wolves and more bears and lizardmen out there which made the death rate rocket up instantly before all of the players that couldn''t fight ran away back into the city. It couldn''t be helped since the majority level of those kinds of players did not exceed more than 5 after all. Another thing to note that the average level of the rest of the players was about 50 putting the group in a position where they were one of the higher levelled players in this bunch of players with the highest levelled players was of 150~ and of a warrior. ¡°More lizardmen are coming our way¡± said Shadow once again coming back from scouting ahead of the group. ¡°How many?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Around 5 or 6 and armed with some armour and weapons. Most of them have armour that barely protects them and are partly broken though. Not much of a threat.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Sain checked the buffs on the group. They currently had ''Melody of Speed'' on as always since more agility helped everyone in the group overall and ''Heartbeat Healing'' was also on as well giving everyone a steady supply of health. Another thing that Sain had to consider was the amount of points that they would get in the end. Wolves and Boars, the weaker monster only gave 1 point per kill with some exceptions like the Alpha Wolf that would net you 5 points in one go. Bears gives you 3 points on average, goblins are the same and lizardmen, the ones with the highest average level of the enemies give 4 points on average. It is needless to say that for at least the first half of the quest, there had only been mostly wolves and boars running around and now it is when bears, goblins and lizardmen are swarming the place. ¡°Kill the humans!¡± ¡°Rip apart their land!¡± ¡°Slaughter them!¡± Three lizardmen appeared in front of them doing a frontal charge. Raven, Lyndis and Luna moved in to block them while Shadow attacked from behind and a combination of Sain and Miriel fired from afar with Serena supporting everyone. ''There are only three...Shadow said there were 5 or 6. Where the other ones...? Probably trying to flank us or running somewhere else...though the former is more likely.'' Just as the group was taking care of three of the lizardmen that charged in straight at them, another three appeared to the side where Sain was not so taking him for surprise. ''A wide spread spell should stop them a bit'' ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± Sain fired his mana bolts at the three lizardmen that appeared hitting them a couple of times, making them flinch for a split second as well as causing their vision of the group to wane with the large number of lights flashing at them. ¡°Serena, bind one to my side!¡± ¡°Right! Root Bind!¡± One of three lizardmen was completely pinned down to the ground with roots climbing up it''s legs and pulling it down as it tried slashing it''s way out of it using it''s sword. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Both Sain and Miriel focused fire on one of the two remaining lizardmen that were heading their way and managed to critically injure it enough that it lagged behind the other one. The last remaining lizardman on route to them was one that only used a rather large sword that was curved at the end. ¡°Haaaa!¡± The lizardman struck down at Sain to which he blocked using his spear. Clang! The clash of metal could be heard as Sain was kicked by the lizardman causing him to fall back. The lizardman immediately went to strike down at Sain but Miriel moved in taking out her whip and attacked the lizardman rapidly until it died.
Enemy Slain counter increased to 147
Snap~! Miriel then finished off the other lizardman which was critically injured with a single strike with her whip when it got close.
Enemy Slain counter increased to 148
Sain got up as the others finished off the remaining lizardmen.
Enemy Slain counter increased to 151
Seeing this number he let out a sigh. ''Not only we are not getting enough kills on our end...I find myself more useless than ever now with enemies coming on all sides most of the time. My stats and more to the point skills aren''t good enough for close combat....it feels like I''m a sand bag on line whenever I fight against something which has better combat skills than me.'' ¡°A bear is approaching us¡± warned Shadow as Sain was in his thoughts. He quickly discarded the thoughts of himself being so useless and immediately prepared for the fight checking everything again. ¡°Me, Miriel and Lyndis will attack with our range attacks first, then Shadow and Raven will finish it off quickly hitting the legs first then the head¡± said Sain quickly making up a solid strategy against a large bear. Not wanting to wait for the bear to come to them, Sain told everyone that they were going offensive against the bear and practically marched up to it which most likely saw the group as prey. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± ¡°Flame Strike!¡± All three of them fired their attacks at the bear which was 3 metres tall standing up on two legs. Bang Bang Bang...! Bits of the large bear had solid wounds on it, while other parts were either frozen a bit or burnt. The bear was turned from looking as a fearsome creature to one that looked like it had a bad night. ''That amount of damage....I suppose we took 60% of it''s health out with that'' thought Sain evaluating the amount of damage the three of them caused. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow flew in a air and jumped directly behind the bear digging his short sword into the back of it''s head as much as possible. Raven moved in the front and stabbed the bear a couple of times here and there generally at the leg area. Within moments, the bear dropped dead and turned into grey light ending the battle.
Enemy Slain counter increased to 152
¡°Ahh....I starting to get a bit tired of these kinds of battles repeating itself over and over again¡± said Lyndis, ¡°They''re too easy and finish within seconds!¡± ¡°Well that generally happens when you fight weaker mobs¡± replied Miriel as if it was not her problem, ¡°We can go back to the eternal dungeon when Eden wakes up.¡± ¡°I kinda wish that he doesn''t wake up though...considering all the crap that we were put through thanks to him¡± said Shadow cutting in. The a video played in front of the group and all other players part of the quest. [p=center]xXx[/p] Elsewhere.... ¡°ROAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!¡± A large creature covered in golden light appeared breaking down and through trees rapidly went straight to the east gate. All monsters and players were being killed by it as it saw them. BANG! The creature swung it''s large arm and flattened a lizardman which was not paying enough attention onto the side of the tree with ease. It then moved and kicked another one which blew away the centre of it''s body like something large was shot through it. ¡°What the hell is this thing?!¡± shouted one player noticing that this creature was not at all friendly. ¡°Damnit ATTACK! ATTACK THAT THING!!!¡± Two parties of 6, numbering 12 in total fired their spells, arrows and swung their swords and axes at the creature. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang....! However the creature ignored the attacks and smashed the first player nearest to it with it''s fist that was as big as a person''s body. Standing at over 4 metres tall, this creature was pale in colour with skin that looked sort of like a human though stretched out and had muscles bulging out from it. It had no hair on it''s body and looked like one of those human models you would see in science labs. However the most disturbing feature of this creature was that on it''s face, it had no eyes. To add to this, while it had a normal nose, it''s mouth was extra large and extended from one side to the other on it''s face and looked large enough to fit someone in to eat. This appearance caused instinctive fear in the players as some ran while other tried to log out. BANG BANG BANG! A minute later, the two player parties were wiped out completely with no survivors. The corpses of both players and monsters were shattered around this creature as it consumed their flesh and grew slightly bigger and stronger each time. Yes, this creature was slowly getting stronger as it feasted on the flesh of it''s prey and it set it''s sight on the city filled with so much ''food''. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°What the hell is this thing?!¡± muttered Shadow not able to describe in words what he was feeling at the moment. The others felt the same way and could not feel the appearance of such a creature was a good thing. ¡°I think we need to kill this thing to complete the quest¡± said Sain considering that this creature just happened to appear when the quest was about to end peacefully. ¡°....¡± ¡°What? Does my words sound so unbelievable?¡± ¡°No...it''s just that I have a good feeling that you will force us to fight it....¡± said Miriel after choosing her words carefully. ¡°Huh? Isn''t it natural that we would want to fight it?¡± said Sain confused on why the others did not share the same feeling as him. ''Damnit! Now we really have to fight it...'' the others cursed in their hearts. ¡°I''ll put it bluntly for you Sain...that thing looks disgusting and would he horrible to fight¡± said Miriel. ¡°Second, that thing just slaughtered two parties that were fairly strong ignoring their attacks and was completely unharmed!¡± said Lyndis. ¡°The mouth...¡± muttered Raven as well. ¡°Yes the mouth....I have a good...no bad feeling that I will end up in there if we fought against it¡± said Shadow as well. ¡°Umm..that thing.....umm.....¡± muttered Serena trying to say another point though everyone else exhausted the reasons not to already. ¡°So....we don''t fight it?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°...But at this rate, the quest really will fail and we will be forced to fight at the end¡± said Sain telling the others of his prediction of what will happen in the end, ¡°It''s better to group up all of the players and attack it together in one last battle against it.¡± ¡°Didn''t it kill two parties like nothing?¡± asked Lyndis reminding Sain of what the video showed. ¡°Plus magic and physical attacks did not affect it at all¡± said Miriel as well. ¡°That may not be the case you know. It might be that it has a skill to temporary negate attacks on it¡± replied Sain. Sain thought back on the video and then said, ¡°But then again, it does have a massive amount of strength...perhaps on the same level as that Minotaur. Maybe it''s best to let the guards take care of it....¡± ¡°Actually, we....no I better speak to that Captain Guard about this.¡± With those words Sain walked back with the group following him to the gates where there were 10 guards standing by just in case monsters may come and slip into the city. Included in these numbers was the Captain Guard standing by with his clearly superior armour and red sword. Noticing Sain, the Captain Guard cried out, ¡°Ah!....um super average one!¡± ¡°....I do have a name you know¡± muttered Sain cursing the Captain Guard slightly. ¡°But I don''t even know your name or..the other ones over there as well.¡± ¡°You never asked.¡± ¡°You never gave it as well. The fault lies on both sides. Anyway what do you want? Are the monsters becoming too much for even you lot?¡± ¡°Aside from not wanting to know our names, you ask if we''re scared? That''s kinda impolite isn''t it?¡± ¡°I don''t want to know your names.....getting close to your guild is a bad idea and I know from experience. Beside I''m your senior considering that Eden trained me a bit as well....¡± ¡°Right didn''t need to know that but you know of how two parties were wiped out due to a new monster right?¡± asked Sain wanting to know if the NPCs knew of this part of the quest. ¡°That thing? It may be troublesome enough that I have to step in but it shouldn''t be too bad. Hmm...I believe some freemen are gathering up against that thing as well. With you joining in, they would hit 30 in total. I might tag along if you join the battle. I want to see what kind of results the training Eden put you all through had.¡± ¡°....¡± Behind Sain, he could feel that there were several people cursing him for in the end making them fight against that creature. However this was not the time to consider their feelings since for one, Sain was curious of the strength the Captain Guard had. ¡°Okay then, you lead since I don''t know where that creature¡± replied Sain trying not to feel the piercing glared behind him once again. ¡°Right then¡± the Captain Guard looked at the other 19 guards with him and said, ¡°I''m depending on you lot to make sure that no monster gets through this gate. Protect it with your life.¡± ¡°¡°¡°Yes Sir!!!¡±¡±¡± The other guards saluted the Captain Guard as he walked away followed by Sain and the others. ''I''m sorry okay?! I knew you guys didn''t want to fight it but at this rate the quest will...!'' Sain silently cried inside with the piercing glare hitting his back as they walked. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several minutes later, they arrived to the gathering of the large group of players. They numbered around 25~ but with the group added in, they numbered now 30~ ¡°Split into parties!¡± ¡°Form separate lines to fight from!¡± ¡°Priests buff the warriors and others!¡± All of them were running around doing something to prepare for the next battle against the creature that they saw clearly destroying 2 parties with ease. With these numbers, there were including the group 5 or at most 6. It was also a group of players that were much stronger than those who were killed in the video individually as well. ¡°Quite disorganised but I am wondering whether they will be victorious or not¡± muttered the Captain Guard seeing all these people trying to work together. ¡°The chances are you will not which is why I wanted you here¡± said Sain to him while watching the other players. Some minutes passed and the tension increased. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRR!!!¡± That single roar made things worse. They knew that the battle was near but their shaking did not stop at all. Yes, the creature that looked like an oversized human with no eyes and a giant mouth appeared with drool pouring down it''s mouth at them. It had already considered them as nothing more than prey. But even so... ¡°Charrrrrrrrrge!¡± ¡°Let the flames of destruction burn and consume! Flame Torrent!¡± ¡°Blessing of the light of God, protect the innocent from evil! Holy Blessing!¡± The players started their attack on the creature which activated that golden light from it''s body immediately. Sain and the other could feel a tingling feeling coming from their right hands but it was slight and disappeared immediately after a split second. ¡°My strength is unrivalled, Double Strike!¡± A barbarian wielding two axes in both hands, ran up and slashed twice at the creature with large iron axes that usually could be wielded in two hands with one each. Bang Bang! However like striking metal, the axes were deflected back causing slight cracks to appear on the axes while BANG! The barbarian in question, with his attack failing against the creature was counter attacked by it smashing a fist at him causing him to be sent flying back and hitting a tree before he died and turned into grey light. ¡°Don''t falter, continue attacking!¡± shouted another player. ¡°The immunity cannot last forever!¡± shouted a mage as well firing a fireball at the creature. The creature however looked as if it was laughing and ran faster than anyone could relax and bit off the top half of someone in one go. ¡°....¡± ¡°Ahhhhhhh!!!¡± There was scream coming form the inside of the mouth as the creature started to chew and eventually that player was turned into grey light as well dying. Next what came was utter chaos. Players not wanting to die in such a way stepped back from their forward approach while others considered running away. Needless to say, the creature happily went around attacking and killing the players with ease. ¡°This is...worse than I thought¡± said Miriel covering her mouth as if she was about to vomit. ¡°A massacre¡± said Raven seeing all of this as well. Sain looked at the Captain Guard and asked, ¡°So what are you going to do now? Leave them to death or fight?¡± The Captain Guard sighed and said to Sain, ¡°You planned this didn''t you? Making me come here to force me to fight.¡± ¡°We can''t defeat that thing as well.¡± ¡°And what do you think I can? I have lived a long time and seen many things but never once have I seen such a creature. You can feel it right? The more it consumes, the stronger it gets. It''s already at a level where knights will be difficulty fighting it let alone mere guards. Plus I really have a bad feeling from that golden light that it''s giving out.¡± ¡°Reminds you of Eden right?¡±'' ¡°Nah....Eden''s true aura is a lot different than you think. It is cold, cruel and has no mercy at all like everyone and everything are insects before it. That thing''s one reminds me of something else.¡± ¡°Something else..?¡± ¡°Yeah...if my gut feeling is right then I can''t beat it as well.¡± The Captain Guard drew his sword and sped at the creature blocking it''s last attack that would''ve hit a player and killed him. The player thanking the Captain Guard ran away in almost tears though it was understandable. ¡°This level of strength...normal knights can''t compare to you already. For the sake of the Kingdom and more importantly the city and it''s residents....die.¡± Slash! With flaming red aura, the right arm of the creature was cleanly cut off instantly even though the other players even with their weapons and spells could not. ''Is this the power of someone who has a high level?'' wondered Sain if this was the case or there was something else that he didn''t factor in as well. ¡°GOOOOOOOOARRRR!!!¡± Seeing that it''s arm was cut off, the creature let out a scream and punched at the Captain Guard using it''s left arm. ¡°Too slow!¡± The Captain Guard moved in quickly and cut off the other arm with his sword as well. ¡°Hmm?¡± Sensing something was wrong, the Captain Guard leaped back just in time as a giant long and thick tongue shot out from the creature''s mouth trying to grab him. The tongue moved strangely and eventually shot and pierced through the cut off arms and dragged it inside it''s mouth. Like bubbles being blown, it''s two arms regenerated like that. ¡°Eww....gross¡± muttered Lyndis seeing this. Sain was thankful that the creature did not even recognise that they existed currently as it was only focused on the Captain Guard. The battle continued more for a whole minute with the Captain Guard slicing off bits of the creature while it continuously regenerated and continued to fight him. Eventually the Captain Guard sighed and stopped fighting the creature and simply backed off when he dealt a large blow onto the creature which would take a while to regenerate back. ¡°You guys fight it.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The group was utterly shocked. It looked like things were going fine for the Captain Guard against the creature. ¡°Hurry up, it''s about to finish regenerating. A tip is that it doesn''t move when it regenerates.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain looked at the creature which was glaring at them as well now. It seems that they can''t get past fighting it in the end. Sain apologised to the others in his heart as he took out his spear. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°No choice, we have to fight it¡± said Sain sighing. ¡°Damn...this always happen somehow...¡± complained Shadow cursing under his breath. ¡°L-Let''s do our best!¡± said Serena shivering from the sight of the creature and the thought of being eaten alive. ¡°Miriel buff our agility, we''ll need it since it can one shot any of us...except maybe Raven¡± ordered Sain. ¡°Right!¡± Miriel started her chanting of her spell just when the creature finished regenerating. ¡°Root Bind!¡± chanted Serena quickly creating roots from the ground that covered the creature''s legs dragging it onto the ground. ¡°Gorr!¡± The creature dragged it''s feet forward ripping the roots that bound it and with it the ground with it as it charged forward. ¡°Aim for the legs!¡± shouted Sain preparing his spells. ¡°Right, Power Strike!¡± Lyndis ran up to the right of the creature and used her sword and slash a heavy hit onto the leg. There a large cut was made but the leg was not cut off completely.
Unknown Creature''s leg damage, agility decreased
''Compared to other monsters....it''s flesh is quite weak. It''s only that golden light that makes it seem invincible...plus it explains how it''s so fast as well....fast and power but has low defence and density.'' ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Sain fired his magic arrows at the same leg that Lyndis cut making slight holes in them.
Unknown Creature''s leg damage, agility decreased
¡°Bust Speed. Double Strike!¡± Shadow ran from behind and slashed twice at that same leg as he ran pass.
Unknown Creature''s leg damage, agility decreased
The creature''s leg was almost literally hanging on right now with Serena''s roots holding down the other leg down as well, the creature on two hands, clawed it''s way forward to the group. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Raven moved up and stabbed the creature''s eyes since it was low enough to hit and it would blind it for a while.
Critical Hit!
Unknown Creature''s eyes damaged, blindness will be in effect ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!¡± The creature screamed in pain as he ripped off it''s own legs and ran forward using it''s arms as it swung randomly in the vague direction where the group was. ¡°Melody of Speed!¡±
Agility increased for 34% for 10 minutes
Just in time, Miriel activated ''Melody of Speed'' and increased everyone''s agility enough that they were able to dodge the attacks of the arms that seemed to stretch out further than they really were due to their length. ''Need to use all methods to decrease damage on us....'' ¡°Weaken!¡± Sain chanted aiming at the creature.
Enemy strength decreased by 50%
The vitality of the creature seemed to decrease with it''s sudden lose of strength. Sain''s ''Weaken'' spell was at Beginner Level 8 now but since the last level, the strength of the spell didn''t increase over 50%. In exchange however, it seems that the probability of the spell working increased slightly. The main reason why Sain didn''t depend on this spell much was that stronger monsters, above level 50 have a really low chance of being affected by this kind of spell and it decreases even more the higher their level. ¡°Aim for the head!¡± shouted Sain seeing that they had it more or less trapped now. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± Both fire and ice hit the creature''s head head on causing cracks to appear all over the place at that location. The creature didn''t move after that attack. ¡°....¡± ¡°Did we win...?¡± BANG! The tongue shot out again from the creature''s mouth and grabbed onto Serena. ¡°Kyaaaaaaa?!¡± ¡°Shit! Attack the tongue!¡± Sain moved in with his spear and stabbed the long and large tongue that was holding onto Serena. ¡°Precision Stance....Power Strike!¡± Lyndis made a chop almost leaping into the air cutting a bit of the tongue off. ¡°Double Strike! Double Strike!¡± Raven was frantically spamming his skills over and over again attacking the tongue as well. ¡°Ice Burst!¡± Miriel sprayed ice bullets all over the tongue freezing parts of it. ¡°This isn''t working...Serena, use blood burst on the tongue! Everyone else, attack the core quickly! Miriel, set up a ''cracked barrier'' on Serena just in case!¡± Sain was hoping that by attacking the main body, the creature would be distracted from Serena casting her spell for a while. The entire group minus Serena and Miriel focused their attack on the other parts of the creature''s body. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± Then Miriel casted her damage negating barrier onto Serena. ¡°Blood Burst! Ge-t out of the w-ayyyyy!¡± screamed Serena letting loose her spell while being swung around the place by the creature''s tongue. A blood red ball appeared in front of Serena and fired off rebounding off trees and hitting various parts of the creature''s tongue. ''Huh? It can rebound as well?'' wondered Sain in shock seeing the red ball bouncing over places. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang! Several places burst into pieces. First was the tongue that looked like it was ripped onto pieces. Second was the other parts of the creature''s body where it looked like there were giant holes in them that could fit a hand in. Last was in fact the trees that the red ball rebounded off. For some reason they also burst into pieces were they were hit even though the skill was called ''Blood Burst''. ¡°Don''t tell me...it affects all liquid and not just blood...?¡± wondered Sain aloud. To inquire more about this, Sain walked over to Serena who was lying on the ground trying to get the blood and gore off of her body and asked seriously, ¡°Did anything change with the skill when it levelled up?!¡± Sain had his hands on her shoulder and was shaking her back and forth. ¡°Sain now is not the time for that! That creature is regenerating quickly again!¡± shouted Miriel holding back her urge to slap Sain right there and then. ¡°What?!¡± Sain looked over and saw that the creature had bubble like things popping out as it''s legs reattached back and it''s tongue was restored back to normal. However the worse but was that there was a slight golden light surrounding it now. ¡°This is bad....invincibility....Serena....try to hold it down as much as possible.¡± ¡°R-right....Root Bind!¡± Serena casted her spell once again at the creature making roots cover the creature''s body. Sain thought about it a bit and then decided that her ''Root Bind'' spell also increased in strength as it levelled up as well extending from the legs to whole body. ¡°Mana Bolts.¡± Sain aimed and fired his mana bolts at the creature hitting it a bit less than twenty times. However the golden light perfectly negated the attack. ¡°Miriel do you have a spell that can freeze parts of it''s body?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Not at all...though I don''t expect the spell to have any effect on it either way...¡± replied Miriel looking horrified that she had to fight that thing again. Shadow looked over at the creature and said, ¡°Is it me or does it seem a bit stronger than before..¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Shadow I really hope you are wrong...¡± muttered Lyndis standing guard with her sword. ¡°That reminds me what do you think Ca-huh? Where did he go?¡± Sain looked around and did not find the Captain Guard at all. Looking back, Sain noticed that the moment that the Captain Guard pushed the job of fighting the creature, he didn''t appear again. ''Damnit! Did he just leave us here against that THING?!'' screamed Sain in his thoughts. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Hey why the hell is it struggling against enemies of that level? That Guard before was pretty strong so it was understandable but these brats aren''t even more level 100 yet.¡± ¡°No idea, there may be some glitch or that it was still recovering from that guard. You saw how many times it was forced to regenerate before he left.¡± ¡°Still....to force it in a corner when it is around 30% complete....this at full strength would be on the level of a Divine Beast right?¡± ¡°It should be though our estimate seems to be off a bit.¡± ¡°Then this experiment is a failure...sorry that you had to suffer....¡± ¡°Stop that, it doesn''t feel pain nor has any emotion. At best it''s a golem of some sort.¡± ¡°But it has a soul! A living soul inside of it!¡± ¡°Not our problem. We have our orders and plus this helps with our research as well doesn''t it considering that soul magic is fundamentally banned from the start.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°I just hope that it can give us some more data before it dies...it''s almost at it''s limits. Just a few more regeneration until it dies...or.¡± ¡°Or?¡± ¡°Something interesting may happen outside our prediction. Later...I want to investigate those brats...they seem a lot stronger than they look. Too much stronger that it couldn''t be a coincidence that they were gathered like that. ''That'' may have something to do with it.¡± ¡°And...what if they are?¡± ¡°Then they die as well.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ''I hope that one day his anger may disappear....oh Eden if only you didn''t exist in the first place....or did ''that'' on that day.....how much more blood are you willing to spill for nothing?'' [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°We can either fight it until we die or run away until it catches us and kills us in the end....I''m leaning on the first choice having the highest chance of survival¡± said Sain reading his spear just in case another tongue flies out to capture someone. ¡°Argggh, it finished regenerating already....¡± complained Miriel applying, ''Cracked Barriers'' on everyone which at Beginner Level 5 reduces all damage by 50% for the next two hits. Judging by the numbers and the fact that the spell isn''t an overpowered one, Sain guessed that the increase in power of the spell ended at that point and now the spell would steadily increase in the number of hits it can take. ''From what I know...it uses that tongue attack as a last resort when all other options are exhausted, which means that it will primary be attacking via punching or kicking. But with it''s size and speed, that alone is lethal enough. Raven may be able to take a few hits at best but he needs Miriel to continue casting ''Cracked Barrier'' on him.'' ¡°Miriel focus on casting ''Cracked Barrier'' on Raven. Raven you will try to tank the creature on your own for a while.¡± ¡°Right.¡± ¡°....¡± Raven seeing that the golden light that made the creature seemingly invincible charged at the creature. ¡°Footwork!¡± BANG! Raven twisted his charge in another direction as the creature tried to punch him and instead hit the ground causing large cracks to appear. ¡°Footwork!¡± BANG! ¡°Footwork!¡± BANG! Two more times did Raven had to dodge before he got close enough to the creature. ¡°Lyndis, supporting fire from afar. Serena, bind the creature and starting using healing spells.¡± ¡°Right, Flame Strike!¡± Lyndis let out a blazing flame attack that hit the body of the creature but did little damage to it at all. ¡°Minor Health Regeneration! Root Bind!¡± Serena casted her spell onto Raven and the creature respectively as well. Raising his hand at the creature, Sain chanted, ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± firing several of them at once at the creature''s mouth with only one hitting on location while the other ones missed. ''Can it sense magic attacks as well?'' The battle continued with Raven mostly dodging attacks from the creature, occasionally feeling brave enough to parry a few of them while Miriel and Serena made sure that he didn''t get one hit killed. Sain and Lyndis on the other hand focused on ranged attacks as their mana slowly depleted with time and Shadow was occasionally appearing either backstabbing or helping deter attacks to Raven. This cycle continued for another two more times with a total of 4 times the group managed to take down the creature. Their current status were as followed. Sain: Health(95%) Mana(32%) Raven: Health(34%) Mana(78%) Shadow: Health(80%) Mana(52%) Miriel: Health(100%) Mana(27%) Serena: Health(100%) Mana(15%) Lyndis: Health(45%) Mana(8%) ''How much more this thing going to regenerate? Our mana levels are getting smaller each time and at this rate, we can''t avoid someone dying'' bitterly thought Sain as he saw the numbers and the fact that this never-ending cycle of fighting and killing the creature repeats itself. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Oi oi oi, why is it having so much trouble? A ''died'' a couple of times already as well!¡± ¡°I really have no idea? It seems like that group is learning how to deal with it though they are running our of time with fatigue taking them.¡± ¡°Tch, at least the data will be useful later on.¡± ¡°True enough we can collect the corpse later as long as the core does not disappear. What are the chances that some brats will be able to completely destroy it?¡± ¡°Beyond low to the point near zero. It''s impossible with their level of power.¡± (Massive amount of pressure in area) ¡°What the hell was that?!¡± ¡°I don''t know! We have to get out of here!¡± ¡°What of the data?¡± ¡°Screw that! The data is lost now. Whatever that was, is too dangerous. RUN!¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] BANG BANG BANG!
Party Member: Raven is in Critical Health
¡°Shit Raven! Minor Heal!¡± Sain restored barely enough health for Raven to get out of critical health as the creature charged at him. ''Damnit, what do I do? There is no victory here...not even a chance.'' ¡°Burning Touch!¡± Lyndis swept under the creature and touched a part of it''s body causing it to burst into flames there. Rolling out of the way, even Lyndis was caught between life and death with one hit. Just then, it seemed that Lyndis ran out of mana. ''Including me....there are four people out of mana and Raven and Shadow the last two barely have enough to hold on...or run away.'' Sain was extremely worried of what to do next. He had no plan and frankly things were going as bad as it could. ''At least everyone is still alive.'' ¡°GOOOOOOOOARRR!!!¡± ¡°Damn, it''s using that tongue attack again! Run!¡± shouted Sain sort of recognising it''s attack patterns now that he had to deal with them so much. ''This this the end...?'' [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°There is no need¡± said a voice. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Dark Arrows.¡± Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang! Several arrows that were pitch black flew from behind the creature and pierced it creating massive hole in it which Sain, Miriel and the others were unable to easily. A dozen holes just appeared in th enemy that they were fighting all of a sudden. ¡°What the hell?!¡± screamed Lyndis shocked on the sight. It was as if the creature could get even more unsightly. ¡°Damn...it''s still regenerating after all of that?¡± said Miriel astonished that the creature was that persistent. ¡°Hmm....what to do...?¡± wondered the voice loud enough that the group could hear it. Tap Tap. ¡°Evil begone from the world. Eternity bleeds to the end of the world. Hell Curse of Mortality.¡± From the ground came black flames that moved and formed into a magic circle with a pentagon in the centre. The ones that you see in dark magic and such. From the magic circle came a dark light in which drained the golden light that was coming out of the creature. ¡°The skies and heavens fall to death. Hell Gravity!¡± Another tap was heard and from the area where the creature was lying at, the space around there was crushed down to the ground. A hole that was several metres deep was created due to the spell. ¡°What......was....that....?¡± asked Lyndis eyes opened. She did not expect that magic was THAT powerful to easily take care of a foe that many including them could not. ¡°Extremely powerful dark magic...¡± muttered Miriel answering her answer. ¡°Is it....gone....?¡± asked Serena which was the most important question yet. If it revive even with that, then that creature was truly immortal to the end. ¡°More or less. I stopped that light that was causing it to regenerate constantly. Without it, it''s an average monster that is only slightly faster than normal.¡± The person behind the voice appeared before the group. That person was wrapped under the cloak which hid most of the equipment on the person. This person was a bit taller than Serena who was quite short but from what the group saw, the hat and staff alone were rare magical equipment of the highest quality...something that normal people won''t have. On the person''s head was a large witch hat that resembled the night sky in the game. And under that large witch hat was....a young girl....? ¡°Nice to meet you all. I am Viv, a male by the way¡± he said. ¡°....¡± ''Lots of guys that look like girls these days....'' thought someone in their mind. ¡°Anyway who are you?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Umm....I''m Sain, the leader of this group¡± answered Sain seeing that the others clearly did not want to interact with other people. ¡°I see, so you are those new people Eden dragged in. Also what happened to the city?¡± asked Viv looking at the ruined city behind the group. ¡°...Umm.....¡± ¡°I suspected this would happen since I was unable to use a teleport station to get here. Plus Eden didn''t respond to the messages I was giving him since a few days ago. Was he knocked out? Or Did Al....force him to drink several ''Stamina Increasing'' potions again?¡± ''This Viv is surprisingly good at knowing what happened....Hmm? Why is Miriel shivering at the sight of this Viv?'' ¡°Hey Miriel, are you alright?¡± asked Sain concern that something was wrong with her. ¡°H-he''s.....¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°He''s the other guildmaster.....along with Eden and Alexandra....the only one they feared.....¡± she muttered as if she saw her worst trauma recently. ¡°Wait what?! He looks as old as Serena!¡± retorted Lyndis as if this was unbelievable. ¡°Well Eden and Alexandra are both old players and yet they retained that young look. It''s not surprising if the third guildmaster was the same as well if not younger. Other than that, why are you so scared Miriel? It''s not like he''s worst then Eden¡± commented Shadow on the matter. ¡°....¡± Everyone including Viv was silent on the matter which made it super awkward to continue the conversation. Clap! Viv gave the group a gentle smile and then said in a kind voice, ¡°Let''s not go there....and let''s go see Eden. I have a lot to talk about with him and with Al as well.¡± ¡°....¡± The group silently followed Viv feeling that this course of action will not lead to something bad.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 6800~ - Double Release! Yayyyyyyyyyy....! - Finally on a short break which means I can focus on writing...or playing SAO:HF all week.....hmm.... Vol.3 Chapter 6 - A Past Remembered(I) [p=center]In days of past, there were many things I have regretted. However there were days in which I did not. And days that I would not give back even if the worst would happen once again. Days of new beginnings and new hope. Where there could be a brighter day.[/p] [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Hey I heard that a large group was muscular men are searching for us called the Geomchi which were a part of the unification war¡± Eden carelessly said to his companion to the side that wasn''t really paying attention at all as well. ¡°Really now. It seems that you''ll be popular with those kinds of people¡± replied Alexandra swinging her sword as part of ''training''. Frankly it was more like there was no one to slay so she needed a good way to relieve her near infinite stamina. ¡°What the hell does that mean?¡± Eden raised his eyebrow and questioned the thoughts of Alexandra. ¡°It means what it means.¡± ¡°Which is?¡± ¡°You''ll be popular with men that have no women in their lives.¡± ¡°Gak!¡± Eden took a blow to those words. Now that he thought about it, it''s been a while since he took mental damage due to words like that. How many years had it been since the last time it happened? Besides that, Eden was sitting lazily on a chair watching Alexandra swing her sword. Another thing to note was that Viv was nowhere in sight. Mainly due to some quest that he took which led him away from the two. As a result, there was no buffer zone between the two and fighting could come at any moment. ¡°Anyway, they are searching for you as well as me you know.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Alexandra was really disinterested in these kinds of things. Due to her high fame and position amongst the churches, many have wanted her to do trivial things for them which mostly included actions that would put their own over others. As such Alexandra refused any cooperation to churches for a while until they learn how to do things on their own without her. As such, she was with Eden who after another long struggle had nothing to do. ¡°I''m not sure. The rumours stopped there since no one dared to ask 500 large muscular men with a determined look in their eyes as they rushed to location to location killing all monsters in their way. It''s either trying to pick us up or trying to fight us.¡± ¡°Hmm....¡± ¡°There are a lot of things being said to them including on how strong they are with the sword. There are a number of them who fully mastered ''Sword Mastery'' after all. Both I heard that the person that leads them is on a completely different level to the others where even on the continent, he is called the best with the sword.¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra stopped swinging her sword to listen more about it. Eden knew that she really wanted to fight them now. Well he wasn''t going to stop her but he feared that more things will come and go and he will be forced to run away from a town....again. ¡°Anyway, since they haven''t got our location, they have been doing all sorts of things while are mostly getting rid of evildoers and such. There have been a lot of corrupt nobles and criminals to clean up after the unification war finished.¡± Yes, at this point of times, the entire continent was united into one. A single Kingdom once more rules over all land. Because of this and the relative corrupt free reign of the Kingdom, many people have been revealed and their sins as well. Because of this, there had been as a result a large number of former nobles turned bandit and such around the place. The safety of the people were in danger and as such, there had been some focus on increasing military forces to fix this. Several churches have cooperated with the new Kingdom as well to relieve this problem as well. But the most important thing to players is that there are many more quests being made due to this. In place of joining a kingdom''s country and raiding another, they have joined the kingdom''s voluntary forces to clear out bandits. ¡°Where is this strongest person anyway?¡± asked Alexandra with a certain glim in her eyes. Eden thought that this was bad since Alexandra would rip cities apart to get what she wanted....and it was up to him to stop her. ¡°No idea but he has the username Geomchi which is kinda famous you know.¡± ¡°Hmm....wasn''t that the name of that large group of swordsmen that were one of the main forces of the Kingdom during the unification war that we somehow manage to avoid?¡± ¡°That was what I was saying you....¡± Eden sighed and then gave Alexandra a couple pieces of information on them which he managed to gather at inns and such where drunk people spill all of their secrets. ¡°Let''s see here...¡± Alexandra started reading out some basic information on them, ¡°They are a large group which are known to many high levelled players. For some time they were known as teachers since they taught many of the beginners starting from Morata and later on as undying sword demons to the Haven Empire due to their persistent to combat. All of them are swordsmen with primary the class martial artist and many of them cleared the intermediate training centre some of which also passed the advance training centre as well. There are a few with some special skills and abilities as well which include one having the title ''Invincible Superman'' after surviving so many times with critical wounds which is said to be a miracle. I REALLY want to fight them now. Let''s go~!¡± ¡°Wait, why the am I coming with you? YOU''RE the one who wants to fight them. I''m the one who wants to not do anything for a while longer.¡± ¡°I''m not that good at gathering information using my body¡± replied Alexandra. ¡°Yeah that''s true...WAIT! Who the hell gathers information like that?! I don''t sell myself you know!¡± Eden immediately retorted understanding the words. ¡°Hahaha, it''s just a joke. Besides all we need to do you find bandits and then they will be there right? How hard would it be to find them?¡± Alexandra grabbed Eden by the collar and dragged him as she ran out of the town and to a place where they would probably appear. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several days later... ¡°Where the hell are they?! Aren''t they suppose to be active in these kinds of things?!¡± shouted Alexandra in extreme frustration. ¡°No idea...you know that finding a group of 500 is harder than you think. Since they run around so much, we can''t get a proper location for them, plus you insist on killing these bandits all the time as well!¡± replied Eden cleaning his sword of blood. ¡°M-monsters.¡± Eden looked at the direction of the voice which was down. There was a man...well half a man there bleeding to death. Eden kinda remembered that he was one of the high ranking bandits. They were quite an annoying bunch saying benefits and privileges all the time while not actually doing anything at all. They using their mouths, tricked others to join them and then immediately pushed all the work onto them as well. It didn''t even take 10 minutes for Eden and Alexandra to clear them out of their make shift base. Alexandra simply charged in with her sword blazing around taking all of the hits with her armour which reduced all the damage to near zero while her health regeneration made her health to be full most of the time either way. Plus her sword skills literally blew away a couple of bandits at a time. Plus Eden helped a bit with using a ''tiny'' bit of magic to set the entire place on fire and prevented anyone from escaping. Completely cleared Bandit Base, Infamy decrease by 100 This message appeared in front of Eden after the place was completely trashed by the two. It was a minor thing which Eden would not try to do over and over again. ¡°Even if I use this method...there''s probably isn''t enough bandit bases to reduce my infamy by half!¡± ¡°How much infamy do you have now?¡± asked Alexandra a bit sceptical of the numbers. ¡°Around as much as your fame levels¡± Eden replied. ¡°Wow...that''s a lot of infamy then.¡± Alexandra looked around and the place they were in, the bandit place located deep in the forest, at the mountain''s edge was completely burnt down. There was a large hole in the mountain where there was nothing there now since it all burnt down since the buildings in the bandit base were all made of wood. It was unfortunate that they were unable to build using stone since their building skills were too low. ¡°Anyway what are we going to do now?¡± asked Eden, ¡°At this rate, we have to search around some more until we meet them by luck.¡± ¡°....Yeah...and with you, our luck will always be bad and will be more likely to be pulled into something troublesome like facing another legendary monster or something like that.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°It isn''t that bad right...?¡± asked Eden in self denial. ¡°Trying to get to Morata, had to face a God, on a ship to Morata, had to face a Kraken. After Holy Trial, a Phoenix appeared, I have no idea what happened after we split for a while but when we reunited for the second time with the mana fragment stuff done, there was a old ancient golem that came to attack us. After that a hydra appeared when we walked down the road. Another time, Griffins appeared when we were gathering some food. Even the damn Loch Ness monster appeared when we went out to eat! I can''t even remember the other countless times this kind of thing happened and these are only encounters with the known monsters! There was also a time where we actually intentionally seeked them out for their materials!¡± ¡°....¡± Eden thought was that really the case? He remembered there was a lot more relaxing somewhere in there but that must have been him beautifying the memories. ¡°In that case, how do we find them? Even if they split up individually, it can''t be that hard to find one of them¡± said Eden. Alexandra sighed and gripped his shoulder saying, ¡°When you say that, it''ll take another year to even find one.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°I like to think about it as strong creatures attract to each other¡± said Eden in response instead. ¡°That might be true but with you, it''s more like extremely strong creatures are dragged to you!¡± retorted Alexandra once again. ¡°Anyway moving on, how do we find them? When we ask around, we get pointed in their direction but then when we go there, they moved onto another location¡± wondered Eden. ¡°Well we can always make them come to us¡± pointed out Alexandra. ¡°But who can play the....don''t tell me¡± muttered Eden in disbelief that Alexandra wanted him to do ''that''. ¡°Well you do have the highest infamy recorded in the game though no Kingdom in history would dare try to piss you off in the end. Taking village hostage would be fine until I manage to find them. That much is easy to you in the end right? Right..~?¡± said Alexandra leaning in one Eden grabbing onto his long black hair to prevent him from escaping. You could see that there were three black lines going down his face as he responded to this crisis. He silently grabbed Alexandra hand that was holding onto him. One would mistaken this scene as lovers trying to get close to each other. In reality it was Eden trying to make Alexandra let go so he could run away. ¡°My infamy will increase again.¡± ¡°Doesn''t matter, your infamy is too high to reduce now.¡± ¡°My relationship with other people will decrease.¡± ¡°You were always going to have a bad relationship with them. Doesn''t matter either way.¡± ¡°I''ll be the enemy of the current Kingdom and people will hunt me down.¡± ¡°With your power, is that even possible?¡± ¡°I don''t want to.¡± ¡°I won''t let you go then.¡± Alexandra gave Eden a smile which clearly said what she wanted. At that moment, Eden regretted it a lot but had to give in. If he didn''t then she would attack him and that would be even more trouble than obeying her. ¡°I just need to take a village hostage right....? Isn''t it fine if I take a few women and children instead? I mean I heard that they were weak against women in general¡± replied Eden now thinking of ways to reduce his load as much as possible. ¡°Yeah yeah, do what you want. I''ll be watching from afar then. Don''t want to associate with you when you gain more infamy.¡± ¡°....It''s not like you have any trouble with infamy. It naturally decreases with time for you and restore all the fame you lost as well.¡± ¡°Buuut, my relationship with the churches will decrease. That''s a bad thing.¡± ¡°And me with my relationship with this newly formed Kingdom crashing down isn''t?¡± ¡°Of course. You don''t plan on being that active later on are you?¡± ¡°True.....I''ll tell you the location later.¡± Eden activated his teleportation skill and went to a generally isolated village since he didn''t want hordes of knights to charge at him at once. That would be too troublesome. A small place with little people around was perfect to this plan. As he teleported, Eden thought, ''Why the hell am I being dragged into this again...? Right I mentioned them to her....of all things...damn. Well at least it''s better than fighting her again. Wait a minute...need to do some minor details. Need to teleport back to Alexandra!'' ¡°Teleport!¡± ¡°Eeek!¡± Eden immediately teleported back to Alexandra who let out a small screech seeing him suddenly. ¡°Why the hell did you appeared like that?!¡± demanded Alexandra blushing a deep red for reasons unknown to Eden. ¡°Huh what were you-¡± PUNCH!
You took 34 241 damage
¡°Ow! Why the hell is your punch stronger than the serious attacks of grim reapers?!¡± ¡°Why the hell are you back here?!¡± ¡°Hmm? What were you ju-¡± PUNCH!
You took 135 468 damage
¡°Damn, stop! At this rate, you are really going to kill me, also why are you using aura filled attacks on me?!¡± (Alexandra holding up a fist filled with all her aura in it) (Eden sweats seeing this) ¡°Anyway if you want the all hostage thing to work even though it''s a large waste of time...when I tell you, contact a church, a major one if possible and ask for some of the Geomchis to appear in front of you dressed as a busty priest.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Trust me...it''ll work....also here are the clothes for that act.¡± Eden handed over the clothes that he created a second ago. ¡°Okay.....?¡± ¡°Seeya. Remember, this can only work if your dressed like that. Teleport!¡± Seeing that Eden was gone again, Alexandra looked at the clothes that he just gave her. ¡°This is.....!¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Approximately 5 minutes later. With a skull mask on and a general evil look, Eden walked into a village that was quite far away from everything else but not too far away that other people can ignore them. There were some curious eyes on him as he moved to the centre of the village. Eden looked around and found that there were only around 20 or so houses in this village. They had a population aside from players of around 150. Most of which were women and children. This was a good place for Eden to kidnap most of them. ''Now for a spell...a giant fire wall surrounding the place would do....hmm....I think I saw someone use one a while back.....maybe I could just copy that soul devouring one that Hades used.....'' ¡°The chant was like this....¡± Eden thought of the chant inside his head and converted it into commands in which he could use when activating his spell. Unknown to him, blue flames were already surrounding his body as he prepared the spell. ¡°Ya ya ya etc, Soul Devouring Flames!¡± Eden kneeled down to touch the ground where the blue flames moved immediately to surround the entire village in one go. The flames were a dozen metres high and while quite thin, were extremely powerful and dangerous to even be near. In a loud voice, thanks to a skill he created just before coming in the village, Eden made his voice heard from everyone in the village. ¡°OBEY ME OR BE CONSUMED BY THESE SOUL DEVOURING FLAMES FROM THE UNDERWORLD!!!¡± His voice was heard by all and then immediately afterwards, the 100+ people from the village went into a panic. The small amount of players in the village which numbered to only 50 immediately went to Eden to attack him. ¡°Die!¡± ¡°Experience points get!¡± ¡°For the Kingdom!¡± ''Hmm? Why are the blue flames still active on my body? Is it because of the spell, it give this kind of side effect...no wonder why Hades was constantly covered by these annoying flame.'' As if he didn''t care at all, Eden took the first couple of blows in which his blue soul devouring flames took while causing massive durability damage to the weapons that hit it. ¡°Wha? Weapons are breaking!¡± someone shouted seeing that their priced sword looked like a rusted sword now compare to it''s glossy look from before. ¡°Use Magic!¡± ''That''s actually the worse thing you could use against me. 99% magic resistance here.'' Eden calmly looked on to see what would happen since he was at a point that regular players and even top players would struggle to even put a scratch on him. ''Back when I was forcefully transported to the Underword....I was around level 470~. After lots of things happened and when I finally finished that quest as well, I was at around level 550~. It''s been a few years since that and now I''m over level 650. Well there are a number of other players ear my level though...they don''t have cheat abilities like me. If you sum up my abilities they would be closer to a level 700 if anything....these guys are at best level 300...to face up against a level 700 player in ability is impossible.'' ¡°Rage against the enemy and strike, Mana burn!¡± ¡°Ho...¡± Eden watched as several mages after seeing that their ''basic'' elementary magic didn''t work against him use their last resort. Burning all of their mana and firing it at Eden at once. BAAAANG! The magic collided with the blue flames that surrounded his body and were immediately consumed by it. ¡°Is...that all?¡± asked Eden mocking the 50 players that didn''t even put a scratch on him yet. ¡°DAMN YOU DIE!¡± And so began a quick slaughter. ¡°Fireball.¡± Eden spoke one simple word but what was produced was a giant fireball that hit and exploded killing the majority of the players at once in a single hit causing a great crater in the middle of it. He actually put a ''bit'' more mana into it than usual. It normally was only half this size when he wasn''t paying attention to output. ¡°....¡± The remaining players and NPCs that saw this, they immediately gathered in silences and kneeled before Eden. ¡°Please spare our lives¡± said an old man that seemed to be the village elder. ¡°I had no intention of killing anyone you know. I was simply asked you all to obey since it would be dangerous to run into these flames since even the Gods cannot save you when you''re caught up in them. Look.¡± Eden manipulated the flames and sent them to a critically injured player near death and burnt him to death. ¡°ARRRRRRGHHHHH!!!¡± The person continued to scream even as the flames consumed him completely. Even when his body disappeared. ¡°Well for players all it does is increase the ban time to 3 days instead of one. But for NPCs, they can''t be revived when hit with this. These ARE flames from the underworld you know...which I kinda took when I killed Hades and became something like their King for a while till the other Gods could sort thing out.¡± ¡°....¡± The people in front of Eden listened in but dared not to talk or interrupt him at all. Eden had the look of an evil person after all with his skull mask and generally bone related equipment here. Plus his ungodly high infamy forced them to also heed to his words since Infamy also gives a side effect of leadership as well. ¡°Let''s see....I need half the people in this village, the women and children to come with me. The other half will send a request to the kingdom to send for help. That''s all I request.¡± The people in the village didn''t particularly take this well. Seeing that he was not going to slaughter them all, some whispers among themselves. There was one particular young man which looked like he had a rash temper who looked like he wanted to kill Eden then and there. ¡°You sinner! The Gods will punish you! Heaven will decree your death!¡± he shouted. Eden sighed hearing this and walked up to this man letting out a bit of his ''pressure'' for safety. When one is feeling really intimidated, they will not do anything at all even if it means they could survive if they did. As such, it was one of the few perfect defences as well. ¡°Funny how people seem to say that to me all the time....considering that they don''t really care for a few lives here and there. Trust me, they have their own issues so they can''t be bothered to babysit you all. There is a reason why they have temples and churches instead of just merging all of that with Kingdoms. Plus these flames are from the God of the Dead...so that means I also have the temp job of taking care of the dead.¡± ¡°....¡± The man that talked up to Eden couldn''t endure the pressure anymore and simply fell to the ground shivering in fear. ''Annnnnnnd, people seem to lose their will after a while whenever I try to explain some things to them. Though the exception is really just Alexandra who doesn''t bother to listen in the first place.'' ¡°Anyway....¡± I walked over to a young woman with a child in her arms completely scared looking at me and gently touched her shoulder. ¡°Teleport~¡± With a flash, both the woman and child disappeared to the location in which I decided to put them in. With a slight smile on his face, Eden went and touched more and more people teleporting them as well. For some reason,Eden found that there were mostly only young beautiful women here and children that would make your heart ache in bliss when looking at them. Eden thought that this was shameless for the developers to include such things. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. On another note, all of the men were the handsome type or the type that makes women want to take care of them as well. Naturally Eden ignored this and wanted to rip apart their heads but held back that feeling as a fellow man. ¡°Anyway, make sure you tell the Kingdom of this event. I''m at the cave to the south west of this village from about 3.45 kilometres away. The others are there as well~ Note that I will kill them if they don''t come within a week. Good luck~¡± With that Eden activated his teleportation spell as well and moved to the cave. Looking around to see that he was in the right place...Eden sighed and took off the mask taking a good breath. ¡°This skull mask makes it kinda difficult to breath through....should''ve chosen a better one...with a better breather hole.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Several minutes later.... ¡°I better check on those people first....¡± Eden walked to the corner of the cave which he located a while back and cleared completely of monsters to make space to fit people in there. He refitted the entire cave using Earth Magic and made some sort of underground evil base though there were no servants at all. As he walked over, he heard lots and lots of screams. ¡°Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!¡± ¡°Waaa!¡± ¡°Noooooooo!!¡± Eden panicked a bit feeling that he screwed something up and immediately ran to where they all were. He thought that there was a monster he missed or he didn''t take into account of monsters respawning into the cave as well. Soon enough he was in front of the ''exit'' that he had created. A thick piece of heavy stone that only an Earth mage can manipulate and control to move away. ¡°Wall....move!¡± Using his finger as a beacon to the wall, Eden shifted it to the right making it disappear. ¡°What''s going-what the hell is this?!¡± muttered Eden seeing what was in front of him. It was a large group of children playing tag in these kinds of circumstances. Lots of laughing children and those young women which should actually a lot older than they look looking on warming. ¡°....¡± Eden resisted the urge to face palm and when he was about to leave, there was a slight tug on his leg. ¡°Huh?¡± Eden looked down to see a child no more than 5 years old holding his leg and looking up at him with his big round eyes. Eden also completely fell for the urge to hug this creature that screamed cute. ¡°....¡± ¡°Who are you¡± asked a woman with long green hair and a greatly proportional body was leaned towards extremely busty with great hips. She looked behind him and realised quickly that there was an exit now. ¡°Did you come here to save us? Ah, make sure you don''t catch the attention of the monster that trapped us here. Did it capture you from your village as well?¡± the woman questioned more worried about Eden than herself even though he was the one who put her here. ''Doesn''t seem like she knows....is it because of the mask?'' Eden took out the mask from his inventory and placed it on his face. ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!¡± the woman screamed. ¡°Wall close.¡± Eden not taking a chance here locked them all into the room once more...with him in it. The child that was on his leg promptly let go and ran away to the other children on the other side of the room gathered in a corner. ¡°....¡± Everyone was moving away from Eden right now as he stood there silent. He took off the mask and their tension seemed to be relieved for a bit. Was it because he looked like a woman? Most likely since he did capture only women and children and left all of the men, one could think of the ulterior motives a man could have doing this. However Eden had no intentions of correcting their impression on the current him. Even his voice was feminine sounding though most just believe that he was a tom boy type character. ¡°There was so much sound and I came to check¡± he said simply, ¡°You''ll be here for about a week I would think so I''ll have to collect food for you all. No ventilations might kill you....I have to modify this cave later on as well....ah, don''t worry. I''m not going to harm any of you...¡± With that, Eden left them alone from there on until he was bored enough to go in and soy on what they were doing. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°We are the Marius Guild and will slay the evil within this cave!!!¡± ''Wa what? Isn''t this too quick? Where is that damn mask?!'' Eden quickly put on his villain costume and walked out to meet the intruders that are definitely not the Geomchis. For starters, they were a guild that Eden had never heard up. Probably some small time guild that recently formed. ¡°Evil, you will fall before my blade!¡± shouted to what seemed like the guild leader of this particular guild. This one had blue hair....who the hell has blue hair in this game. It''s like he wants to be a target. Eden sighed and as the player who had the class of knight charged at him, he put his hand out and caught the blade using his aura covered hand. ¡°What?! Impossible! My invincible blade!¡± Behind the knight that was clearly shocked of Eden catching his frankly slow blade, there were mages and priests chanting their spells. It would be troublesome that they finished. ¡°Lightning Bolt.¡± A large bolt of lightning fired from the side of Eden smashing into a couple of players either killing them and injuring them if they were lucky. The blast the strong enough that it disrupted the chanting. Figuring the he needed to deal with this knight in front of him quickly, Eden covered his other hand in aura and stabbed.
You dealt a fatal blow
Eden''s hand went and crushed the player''s heart in one go killing him. As their leader faded into grey light, Eden gathered several fireballs in his hand and shot them at the remainder players. Bang Bang Bang Bang...! Some flames and ashes remained as the players and probably whatever loot they dropped disappeared with the continuous magic attack from Eden which was clearly one sided to the extreme. ¡°Really? Only that amount of firepower was enough to kill them all? It''s as if they were only around level 200....meh. Better contact Alexandra later to tell her what''s going on.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] On Alexandra''s end... ''There are so many eyes on me......damn you Eden! Why the hell did I even wear this stupid dress?!'' Alexandra was in one of the churches that she had good connection to. Well she had a positive relationship with piratically almost all churches but this one would do her large favours due to previous events where she helped them out greatly. As such they allowed her to hang out at their church on the request of the incident that Eden caused via her instructions. ¡°Ah high priest, thanks for letting me stay for a while¡± Alexandra said to a old man in high quality priest gear. This high priest was particularly laid back in proceedings and also her current appearance. ¡°Yes it would be dangerous for even you to be dressed like that outside¡± the high priest moved his sight a bit downwards at Alexandra. ¡°....My eyes of up here.¡± Alexandra never knew that she would one day say those words. Well it was the fault of this dress and therefore also the fault of Eden as well...who would have known that he had this kind of fetish. ¡°Not my fault Alexandra. You''re wearing a low silk grown that leaves very little to the imagination. The young are having trouble holding themselves back in sight of you...plus your appearance to many would be of a goddess. Did you finally find yourself a boyfriend then?¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra noticed that his eyes were still leaning downwards. ¡°Flattery won''t change the fact that my eyes are up here. Keep doing that and I will take down everyone here.¡± The high priest immediately straightened his gaze the moment Alexandra said those words. Though sometimes joking on particular matters, Alexandra most of the time was completely serious which in this case was bad news for the high priest as he could not gaze and admire... ¡°Anyway for what reason did you come here today?¡± the high priest asked. ¡°Ah, reporting that a village was taken hostage and such in a cave.¡± ¡°Hmm? Couldn''t you just take care of that on your own?¡± ¡°Umm...is it okay that I leave it to someone else. I don''t to deal with it this time. The high priest stood there jaw on the group almost literally. ¡°You are spending too much time with that Eden. She had rubbed off you even though she had a nice body.¡± ¡°....¡± ''How many years has it been and yet people still think of you as a girl Eden? Well this would be amusing after I beat the hell out of him for doing this to me...though why did I wear this in the first place. Right, need to act as a weak priest with relation to said village and go with them there. That was the plan Eden made.'' ¡°Anyway, tell me if there are any Geomchis coming to take the quest. To be precise I want you to spread the word to them to come to me. Otherwise, I''ll take some rest readying up my act¡± said Alexandra leaving the conversation on a weird note. As she walked, Alexandra took a look at herself in a mirror. ¡°Hmm....it really doesn''t leave anything to the imagination.....though the style isn''t bad. I''ll leave my new clothes to Eden then.¡± Alexandra hummed a small tune as she waited relaxing for once since she was in a good mood. She found a new tailor for all the clothes in the world that she wanted. Who would''ve thought that Eden could be used in this way? Elsewhere, Eden suddenly sneezed due to having a bad feeling. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several days had already passed since Eden kidnapped and took hostage a large number of people. During this time, there were only mostly players that came to fight him. Eden thought this was extremely strange since the Kingdom would normally send out several high levelled knights to deal with this or strong players. But they had been a large disappointment since they were too weak. It was like throwing an egg at a hard wall here. No matter how much they tried, they would practically never defeat Eden due to the extreme level difference of more than 200 and often 300 as well as the automatic defence skills Eden trained up for a long time as well. ¡°Is there someone manipulating the information to prevent the Kingdom from finding out?¡± After contacting Alexandra, he found that while the quest was out there....no one seemed to want to take it even though the rewards was extremely good. As such Eden''s suspicion grew even more. ¡°A guild...or a couple of guilds together are suppressing anyone who takes the quest to me....sigh.¡± Eden could not deal with the fact that his plan even though it was a poor one and made so Eden could relax the most, was stopped due to something as minor as this. He would have to wipe them out then. ¡°Why is this getting so troublesome? I just wanted to make it so Alexandra was busy so she couldn''t bother me....¡± Eden let out another sigh and created a large pile of food and water for the hostages to feed on. Since the first day, their relationship went in a strange way and they were now friendly to him when he had the mask off ignoring the fact that he was the one who brought them here in the first place. Plus for some reason the cave became a day care centre as well.... ¡°Well better take some alive to find out what they know.¡± With that, Eden waited once more for a group of players to appear. [p=center]xXx[/p] Approximately 2 hours later. ¡°We of the Lunid Guild will take the head of the evil that lives in this cave!!!¡± someone shouted. Eden had a sudden thought that perhaps that all of these guilds were actually the same one but dismissed it. It had to be that there were many idiots into role play these days. Acting like a knight and getting praised left and right would make one''s self esteem increase a lot which was why many would dream to become a knight. However many left that class due to the difficulties it holds with the honour stat and the fact you couldn''t even act to commit a crime as well else you will be dishonoured and stripped of your class. Eden looked and there were around 30 of them in the cave now with no more reinforcement. Their level seems to be in the 400 range at least. They could be considered part of the 5% of all players with those levels. It didn''t change the fact that most players had an average level of 100. The only thing that changed was that the top percentage of players with higher levels than anyone else decreased slowly. In fact Eden was considered part of the top 0.00001% of players with his extremely high level of over 650. The difference between a level 100 and 200 was large. The difference between a level 200 and 300 was also large. However even when you thought that the higher the level the smaller the difference would be, the reality was different. Due to the level penalty and the fact that levelling was extremely difficult, it was natural that high levelled players were all skilled in combat. The curve was around level 400 where everyone at that point was more or less used to their class and could fight well. At best, a person who was bad at fighting could be at the level 300 mark. After that the skills between players increased quite a bit. Of course for some, the increase in level simply meant they dealt more damage and could take more hits as their character grew stronger to adapt to their skills. Eden heard that the Geomchis were one extreme example of this where since a long time ago, they had been fighting stronger monsters. ¡°Anyway time to deal with this....Ice Prison!¡± With the wave of his hand, the world in the cave seemed to changed to ice. The place was glowing in a blue white colour with ice spreading so fast that the Lunid Guild could not even react to it. The ice completely froze and trapped everyone besides who seemed to be the leader where only up to his neck was frozen. Putting on the mask since it makes people more scared of him and was useful in questioning, Eden walked slowly to the leader. The slow walk was intentional as well as it forced fear into a person''s mind via their own imagination. ¡°Now....you will tell me everything¡± Eden said to the half frozen man with an evil smile that was clearly seem through the mask. ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!¡± That day, there were many screams in the area. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°I thought these guys are suppose to be minor so why am I facing a group of large guilds at once?¡± wondered Eden completely surrounded with swords and other weapons as well as magic spells pointed at him. Just a few minutes ago, he teleported to the location that was ''voluntary'' given to him by that guild leader person. However Eden did not expect to end up in a situation like this at all. ¡°That flag....hmm....remains of the Haven Empire right? Well that explains why the clean up back then was so easy to complete. You guys discarded the bits that were seen and hide away the rest to arise later on as a rebel state. ¡°We are not rebels! We are the true single empire on this continent! We shall be victorious in the end!¡± shouted a man who was in his late thirties it seems. Eden had immediately recognise this person since he was famous after all as one of the strongest players. ¡°Ray Bard....hmm....what''s a former king doing here?¡± asked Eden in a sarcastic voice. ¡°I am not a mere King! I am the true Emperor!¡± he shouted back. There was the look of madness in his eyes. This probably happened when Weed completely crushed him in single combat without any advantages at all. In fact Weed was completely surrounded during that fight and yet he won making Ray Bard look like a complete incompetent player along with the rest of the remains of the Haven Empire. Eden using ''Soul Sense'' counted the number of life forms in this place. ¡°Hmm...around 3000 people I guess. There are around 300 or so horses as well....quite a sum you have but you do know that this is nothing compared to what the Kingdom has now right?¡± ¡°Shut up! Intruders will die!¡± With that the battle between Eden and the remains of the forces Ray Bard had lasted for a few hours. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Impossible...I am the strongest....the invincible....¡± ¡°Ya ya ya, you were just defeated by me even with these forces right?¡± Ray Bard in critical health and no hope of surviving looked up at Eden as if he was a monster. Well Eden did take out 3000 elite units that Ray Bard had which were all level 400 and some over level 500 as well. They were not something a lone person could take on. ¡°You....monster....you are stronger....than Weed.....¡± ¡°Weed?¡± Eden remembered that was the shabby looking Emperor which was the polar opposite of himself. Someone who never stopped moving his hands and continued to polish his trade. Quite a person to look up to with little talent and almost all hard work to the point it could be called a talent. ¡°That guy....haven''t fought him yet. Well I might even lose if I fight him head on unlike you. From what I''ve seen. That Weed has something stubborn about him which makes it special to watch him....but even that is nothing before pure power.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°I have fought against so many strong foes...Legendary Creatures frequently...and even Gods. Can something that have fought against all odds like that be considered normal? Tell me, until what extent does admiration turn into fear?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Oh, you''re dead aren''t you. Well I''ll just use this to levy my current crimes then.¡± Eden picked up the emblem which was Ray Bard''s and took it with him to the current Kingdom that ruled over the entire Continent. It would fetch a good reward since Eden took care of a rebel force before they acted. ¡°Hmm....what''s this?¡±
You have slain Ray Bard, former Emperor of the Haven Empire and current Rebel Leader to the Ahreupen Kingdom - Fame increased by 20 000 - Infamy decreased by 30 000 - All stats increased by 25 - Against all odd, you have defeated an overwhelming force on your own, Endurance will increase by 76 - All sword damage will be reduced by 3% - When surrounded, chance of getting critical hit by an enemy will decrease by 10% - There is a 1% chance of time slowing down as you cut down foes continuously - Take the Emblem of the former Haven Empire to the Kingdom and you will rewarded - Seek out the other rebel forces hidden in the darkness and a greater reward will be prepared
¡°Oh! There are some really good effects here! But...considering that I have so many on this level and stronger....it really isn''t much.¡± Eden remembered back when he slain Hades, he got several massive rewards. The first of his blue soul devouring flames which he used recently. The second was a massive boost to his stats. Third was bonuses against all undead and ghost types monsters to the point he could be called an undead hunter. And finally....a certain mask that he also recently used as well that belonged to Hades when he still had a face and was not a skeleton. All of which surpassed the current reward he got right now. ¡°Either way...better make a put stop to someone important in the new unified Kingdom then....¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Master we have heard many rumours of how there is a strong foe in an area near here!¡± said Geomchi16. Geomchi315 hearing this also added in, ¡°Yes, it was said that a man in a skull mask, capture many of the women and children of a village and moved into a cave. Many of the women were beautiful as well.¡± Hearing those words the still single Geomchi immediately got up and declared to the other 504 Geomchis: ¡°Right! We will use this as training to pick up wom-I mean increase our skills and slay the evil with our swords! Our sword is invincible!¡± ¡°Our sword is invincible! Our sword is invincible! Our sword is invincible! Our sword is invincible! Our sword is invincible! Our sword is invincible! Our sword is invincible! Our sword is invincible! Our sword is invincible!¡± It could be said that the Geomchis had a clear ulterior motive behind this. Many of them were still single after all.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7600~ - This the first of 5 chapters that I planned to be all about bits of Eden''s past. This is also the first time I used the Geomchis in my story as well as actually characters...I hope I don''t screw this up. - The current level of Eden at this point of the story is around 650~. Really have no idea what level Ray Bard would be so I omitted all of that with the actual battle since it would be just Eden blowing things up all the time since 3000 enemies isn''t that much for Eden at this point of time (looks at story where Eden easily wipes out 100K demons in one go....) Vol.3 Chapter 7 - A Past Remembered(II) [p=center]There were many battles. Battles were common. But each time it would leave me less human. What is a human? What am I?[/p] [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Mater we cannot find this cave at all!¡± said Geomchi331 in a loud voice coming back from being lost for 3 days. ¡°I see...¡± Geomchi pondered for a second and then said, ¡°If a few of us cannot find it, then all of us will search at once!¡± ¡°Yes Master!!!¡± The group of 505 Geomchis were really bad at scouting out information. They did not realise if they asked they would be directed to Alexandra and then from there to the cave where Eden was. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Are there any signs of those Geomchis?¡± asked Alexandra in an unknown amount of time after she had the church send information to them about the incident including the fact there were many beautiful women captured as well and to talk to her if they wanted to know more about it. ¡°It seems that they took the liberty of searching for the cave on their own.¡± ¡°Do they have a source of information then?¡± asked Alexandra surprised that someone was willing to tell them about the cave. From what Eden told her, the only ones who attacked were from player guilds which meant a tight lid on information in a way. ¡°No.¡± Alexandra was confused, if they didn''t know where it was, how could they find it. ¡°Then do they have trackers?¡± ¡°From what we know, no.¡± Once again Alexandra was confused. Other than the reliable source of information of other people, the next best way to get somewhere you heard of was to use a tracker to trace the location based on many things that only certain people can do due to their class, skills and instincts. ¡°Then why the hell didn''t they come here then??? Won''t they be lost this way?¡± asked Alexandra once again. ¡°It appears that they are trying to search but their efforts are eluded by the fact that they are all searching at once with no signs of cooperation for some reason. It looks like they are trying to get a one up from each other in saving the women first.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°ARGGGGGGGGGG!!! Why is it so hard to make them come here?! Didn''t you get someone to get them here as well?!¡± ¡°Yes but they refused the offer saying that they can manage on their own.¡± Alexandra in a bad mood was letting out her aura unintentionally all over the place. She was seriously pissed off at the fact that there was so many thing that could go wrong and did go wrong at the same time. She also did not expect the Geomchis to be this thick and controlled by their lower body. ¡°Send a couple of people to tell them that a priest which is a woman....well basically describe me and tell them that I want to meet them.¡± ¡°That action will cost contribution point from you¡± said the priest that Alexandra was talking.
Send out a search party - Action will include finding the group known as the Geomchis and informing them of the information they you want them to know - This action will cost 17 531 contribution points Current Contribution Points: 135 851
¡°Fine! I don''t know why you ask when I have so much contribution points to begin with.¡± The priest bowed to Alexandra and moved quickly and proceed with what Alexandra wanted. Alexandra sighed seeing that this was becoming more of a hassle then ever. If she had Eden directly teleport her to them this would be so simple... But then Eden would had to track them down and then put in efforts that made it unlikely for him to even find them in a reasonable amount of time. Now Alexandra thought that was fine for what was happening now. ¡°Speaking of Eden....I wonder what he''s up to.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] At the same moment Alexandra said those words... ¡°Battle Aura! Crystal Palace of Reflection!¡±
Battle Aura is now active
Crystal Palace of Reflection is now active, mana will be drained as long this is skill is active
¡°Let the cries of Heaven fall as flames of purgatory. Hell Flames!¡± BOOOOOOOOOM!!! A large series of flames appeared like a tsunami pouring around Eden and rushing into him as the centre. Eden''s spell and skill moved in and protected him completely from the large red blackish flames that poured out of the mage that used that spell. His Crystal Palace spell auto reflected part of the flames back continuously essentially reducing it''s power to a quarter while his battle aura negated the rest of the damage into nothing compared to his mana regeneration. Due to him stacking up so many different skills that increased his regeneration skills for both mana and stamina as his mana also served as health as well; Eden was a living, moving fortress that could not be fell by any normal means. You could say that only power on the level of a natural disaster was enough to damage him for a while until his ''Recovery Burst'' skill auto repairs any damage he took. Anyway while charging into the hell flames like a mad man to the enemy, he activated the blue flame that he got from Hades when he killed that God since it seemed like a top level flame that no one besides a few can face off at. ¡°Soul Devouring Flames!¡± Eden shouted pouring the flames over his aura and expanding it rapidly consuming the hell flames itself. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!!! His own flames consumed the hell flames and turned the torrent that faced off at him as the new centre of his own attack causing the enemy to panic. ¡°What the hell is that?! Hell Flames are one of the top ranking flames you can get in this game!¡± ''Well this flame was used by the God of the Dead. A God level flame versus something that Demons made. Which one did you think would win?'' Eden smirked though hidden away by the massive amount of flames that continued to decreased in size until it was a set of small blue fireballs floating around him. ¡°I could get used to this. Though it does drain quite a bit of mana....no soul power which I need to convert my mana to which has a stupidly bad conversion rate. Definitely not useful enough. Sigh...and I thought this could be useful to me.¡± Disappointed seeing that using soul power to use the soul devouring flames was a waste since the amount of mana Eden needed to maintain the flames like Hades surpassed the rate he could regenerate his mana even with all his buffs on. ¡°Well might as well use it until the end of this quest I got...¡± Looking around he was underground. An underground base where Rebel forces lied. Unlike the ones with Ray Bard which he took our earlier and I really mean just earlier, they only had 300 people, a tenth compared to the other forces. With these numbers, Eden didn''t even need to use some of his more serious skills like the time with Ray Bard who actually forced him to use his ''Dragonic Release'' skill though he didn''t know that Eden had two skills that are a tier higher the last. ¡°Knights, charge in now! That amount spells cannot be maintained for long!¡± someone on the enemy side shouted. Then, a group of 50 knights which was a sixth of the total forces came from all side from the holes that this underground base had and charged at Eden. With his ''Crystal Palace of Reflection'' spell active, all attacks would reflect by them the enemy even ranged attacks, At it''s fully mastered state, it looked something like this.
Crystal Palace of Reflection (Mastered) Creates small mirrors of crystal that is magical charged to move about in space and deflect all attacks that are coming towards the user. With this skill, the small crystal mirrors can only take a certain amount of damage before being destroyed however you can create several of these plates at once and will continue to be created as this skill is active. Mana will be drained as the mirrors are continued to be created. Mirror Cost: 100 mana each Number of times it can deflect attacks each: 5 Number that can be created at a time: 50 Other Effects: - Chance of Mirror regenerating without cost when destroyed (5%) - Critical Hit and Damage increase (15%) - Can Set Debuff of Strength, Agility and Vitality (1%) on enemies - Can Set Debuff of Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina (1%) on enemies - Curses can be reflected back as well - Able to chain up mirrors to create a sturdy defence (Doubles deflect rate when active) - Able to chain up with another defensive spell as well - Mirrors can be used offensively and deals 1% of weapon damage each
Naturally as a skill that Warlic gave him on request, it was something extremely overpowered when used. If another player had this skill and mastered it, they would be one of the most powerful mages in the game. As for a spell for Eden however, it ranked along with his ''Battle Aura'' and ''Mana Shield'' as one of his primary defensive skills and spells. ¡°Knight Charge!¡± ¡°Offensive Charge!¡± ¡°Flame Sword!¡± The knights all activated their skills not even caring of the defensive spell that Eden set up. It looked extremely fragile to them. This was one of their biggest mistakes. ¡°Chain!¡± When Eden shouted those words, the mirrors which were shattered about not doing anything all moved and stacked together line on line creating massive walls that flew and slammed in front of the knights causing most of them to hit and take massive amount of damage thanks. Those who were unlucky enough to not get hit immediately, used their skills against the mirrors now walls to break though had the force of their blow plus a bit extra hit them back often killing themselves due to this. Seeing this mayhem, Eden could not let out an evil smile thinking of all the things he could do to them later on. ¡°Multi Shot!¡± ¡°Arrow Rain!¡± ¡°Piercing Blow!¡± The archers on the higher levels did not leave everything to the knights charging at him below. They did not seem so shocked that the knights failed. Was this some kind of rift between archers and knights going on here. Either way it did not have anything to do with Eden with none of them leaving here alive. ¡°Golden Swords.¡± With a wave of his hand, Eden rapidly created golden swords that floated in the air and shot him like bullets at the archers, often making a large enough hole in them that it looked like a cannon hit them and shattered their remains on the walls behind them. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG....! Eden''s rapid fire attack on all enemies not just archers now since they kinda ran out continued for a minute. ¡°Anyone alive~? Well I can just check using ''Soul Scan'' after all...¡± Eden scanned the area and found that there were some hidden forces somewhere far away from here. They only numbered around 10. ¡°Hmm....¡± Eden walked to the location of these 10 souls and opened the door which was made from heavy steel. The kind that you would use for a vault to protect something. Was this the enemy general or something? Eden did not know. But he still opened up the door my force my bending it so whoever inside would not get hurt. ¡°Please don''t hurt us!¡± cried a child from inside when he entered. He looked around and found that this looked more like a child''s room than anything else. Eden looked and there were 10 children here, all of them were dressed finely so they must have been the children of nobles. ''The children of the nobles that did not accept the new kingdom eh. Now should I send them somewhere to be raised, send them to the kingdom for them to handle or.....kill them all now?'' Eden''s thoughts became dark and it showed on his face. He after all had the look of a seasoned fighter and children were generally sensitive to these kinds of things. One of them figured that they were about to die now based on how he felt about Eden and the fact that the ones who visited usually did not appear and there were sounds of battles just recently.
Quest: Eliminate Rebel Forces (II) has been updated Children of the rebel forces were safely hidden away...till you found them. Decide their fate.
¡°You guys...¡± muttered Eden reaching out to them with his blood stained hands...literally. The children backed away even more even though there were no more distance to back away. Then he patted one of them on the head gently. ¡°I''ll put you guys at the church of Freya so they can raise you...I am on friendly terms on them thanks to Alexandra after all....that damn old man still owes me a few favours.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°What? You little brats expected me to do something bad to you? I never once attacked any children no matter what....something I am slightly proud of considering what I did all my life.¡± Eden made a slightly sad face and then picked up all 10 children at once easily with a smile ignoring their struggle. ¡°Morata is a nice place you know...teleport!¡± Later on, a certain high priest of Freya wondered if Eden kidnapped 10 children out of whim...though persuading more information of the circumstances, he thanked Eden in his heart since of the ultimate fate of the children if Eden did not decide to send them to him.
Quest: Eliminate Rebel Forces (II) has been completed - Fame Increase by 2500 - Infamy decrease by 1000 - Contribution to Kingdom increased by 3000 - Intimacy to children related to quest increases - Relationship to Church of Freya improved - You have gained experience - Unlocked Eliminate Rebel Forces (III)
Eliminate Rebel Forces (III) Several of the main rebel forces have been destroyed. However there still remains some nobles and other rebel forces that were further hidden due to this incident. The Kingdom would like you to get rid of them as well. Do you accept?
Veins were popping out of Eden''s head right now. How much did this kingdom want to exploit him for all he got? ¡°Hell no! I have other things to do you know!¡± Eden shouted at the quest window in front of him. The he had to hear other people talking about him behind his back. ¡°Wow....anger issues.¡± ¡°A beauty...but insane. Too bad.¡± ¡°Still would like her to step on me.¡± ¡°....¡± Even more irritated than before, Eden decided to cool off at the cave where there was literally nothing going on. ¡°Teleport!¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Master! There are several forces approaching us? What do we do?¡± asked Geomchi2 who after the first Geomchi was the oldest of all of them. Geomchi2 got some messages from his fellow brothers as something flew by them quickly as they were busy hunting. They did not know if it was a monster or something else to hunt. The first five Geomchis gathered and waited for these forces to appear. They while masters of the sword hunted evil monsters throughout the continent did not attack those that did not do any harm to them or anyone else. They were blunt in saying that they only live for the sword but also have the mind to not foolishly kill everything in sight. Unless it relates to food since their fear of starving to death is still stronger than their fear of dying in battle. Eventually several people with light armour which was coloured gold and blue appeared in front of them. They also numbered five as well. They could sense that there were other Geomchis hiding to see what would happen and whether they would fight them. ¡°Who are you? We don''t take meaningless request¡± said Geomchi in a harsh tone to the people that appeared. He knew their type well enough and hated them. The leader of the other side stepped forward and introduced himself clearly to the Geomchis. ¡°I am an envoy from the church of-¡± ¡°Get on with it!¡± demanded Geomchi. At this rate the words that this man would let out would be sugar coated with lies and trickeries. The type that Weed warned him about not that the Geomchis realised how Weed used them many times as well. ¡°A benefactor of our church wishes to see you¡± the envoy bluntly said seeing that any other response would only make him even more angry. ¡°We refuse¡± replied Geomchi immediately. He and the others did not have time for petty things like that at all. ¡°Looks around 20 years old. Long blonde hair and was last seen in a low cut dress made of thin silk. Naturally this person is a female as well and is quite beautiful.¡± ¡°¡°¡°¡°Where is this person?!¡±¡±¡±¡± demanded Geomchi immediately along with Geomchi3, Geomchi4 and Geomchi5. The only one to not do this was Geomchi2 because he already had somebody and could only sigh to this act. The envoy smiled seeing this response. They would finally be able to do more useful things for the church that they belonged to besides searching for muscle filled men. ¡°Follow us and we will lead you to her.¡± Already imagining the appearance of the woman in question, Geomchi shouted to the other Geomchis hidden away: ¡°RIGHT! FOLLOW THIS MAN TO THE BEAUTY!!!¡± ¡°YES MASTER!!!¡± There was an extremely positive reaction to the request now. A group of 505 large muscular men ran across the forest as a group causing a minor earthquake as they ran. [p=center]xXx[/p] Later on that day...Alexandra was waiting near the entrance to the church that she was staying at for a while. Rumble Rumble Rumble... ¡°An earthquake?¡± wondered Alexandra not really caring that much since the Geomchis should be coming in a few days time. After all, it was only this morning since she sent those people to contact them. ¡°There''s a large horde of something heading this way!¡± shouted a player running from the gate to inside the city. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Impossible.¡± Other players shook their head since such a thing would be impossible to happen. However the same player pointed at the rising dust cloud that was quickly coming this way and shouted: ¡°Look!¡± All people including players and NPCs watched the dust cloud come closer and closer. ¡°AHHHHHHH WE ARE YOU BEAUTY?!¡± ¡°Master, the city and church is that way!¡± ¡°Then we will go there no matter what! Even through hell and back!!!¡± ¡°YES MASTER! FOR YOU WE WILL GO ANYWHERE!!!¡± Alexandra looked at the group of people rushing into the city at great speed. Equipped with crappy armour and yet good quality swords, the guards at the gate all rushed to get out of their way in fright. ¡°What the hell is this?! Weren''t they suppose to come in a few days?¡± wondered Alexandra since her estimate should be right. The only way they could''ve come here in this amount of time was to rush at full speed without any sleep at all while enduring their bodies breaking down. Alexandra did not realise that for a woman, the Geomchis would do that and more. Looking at herself, she realised that she was still in that dress that Eden gave her. Figuring that this kind of appearance was not really the best thing to wear when meeting a group of large muscular men, she prompted to change into her usual armour but it was too late. ¡°Excuse us! We are here to meet the woman who requested for us!!!¡± Geomchi shouted in a loud voice that could be heard from a fair distance away. ''Does this man know not up an inside voice?'' With that thought and the fact that Alexandra felt that they would disrupt other people with their voices and generally large presence, Alexandra quickly got rid of the idea of changing and just went out with her current clothes. However the moment she appeared before these Geomchi people, they all cheered for some reason. ¡°OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!¡± ¡°My eyes are blessed!¡± ¡°I can now endure even a month of personal training from the masters!¡± ¡°....¡± While Alexandra smiled in her outside appearance, she immediately sighed inside. She now met them and could fight them at last....though it seems that that idea was kinda pushed back a bit. She immediately sent some PMs to Eden about the current situation.
Alexandra: Eden you there? Eden: Yes yes, damn you die!!!! Alexandra: Huh? Eden: Don''t worry...taking care of a monster that....that keeps on regenerating! Screw this! I to awaken- Alexandra: Wait, what the hell are you getting into again?! Eden: Long story short, took care of some rebel forces for a while then when I returned, the cave was attacked by some tentacle monster. This isn''t some Japanese H game! Plus it''s the super regenerative type-ahhh where the hell are you touching?! Soul Devouring Flame! Alexandra: ¡­.. Alexandra: Need any help? I have 505 large muscular men for you here. We should be able to get there in a few hours if we rush. Eden: Yeah, that will be a huge help. Alexandra: Was that sarcasm? I really can''t tell when I''m not looking at your face. Eden: No! Hurry up and get here now! Damnit, it started to multiple now!
With that, the chat with Eden ended on a weird note. It seems that Alexandra needed to change the plan from saving people from a villain to saving Eden from a tentacle monster. Looking at the Geomchis who were still staring at her, Alexandra said: ¡°Thank you for coming here on such a short notice...though I remember saying that to reach that cave you had to come to me for the information¡± Alexandra was clearly pissed off at this fact since it wasted a few days'' worth of her time. ¡°However there seems to be something worse that occurred at the same time at the same location. A friend..yes friend should work; was attacked by a monster there with the other hostages after bravely defeating the villain that captured so many women and children. I will lead you there, so will you help my friend defeat this monster? There isn''t much time left!¡± ¡°We all accept! No swordsman...No man could deny such a quest! Do you all agree?!¡± Geomchi shouted to the other Geomchis. ¡°YES MASTER!!¡± ''They are quite the spirited group....'' While thinking of this, Geomchi approached Alexandra and asked in a low voice: ¡°Is your friend a female as well?¡± hoping for the answer to be yes. ¡°Long black hair, thin body and has a face that is known as an Asian Beauty¡± Alexandra responded automatically. It had been a habit to introduce Eden to people who ask of anyone that she was close to. It was easy since people would flock to Eden instead of her and she would be entertained as Eden got rid of them in a rampage. ¡°Yes...maybe this time....¡± muttered Geomchi under his breath. ¡°Lead the way miss and we will follow!¡± said Geomchi with his eyes blazing with determination. ¡°In that case, I better get a horse. You guys need one each as well?¡± asked Alexandra to not be rude to them and force them to run quite a distance back as well. The Geomchi all shook their heads saying: ¡°We can run on our own.¡± ¡°Such a trivial thing is merely training.¡± ¡°We can easily run for days if you want.¡± ¡°In that case, I''ll case some stamina recovering spell on you all when you are too tired to continue. Now let us run there¡± said Alexandra with a smile. Since the Geomchi said that, she had no reason to hold back right now Bang! Like an explosion, Alexandra ran ahead and was already out of the gate in a mere few seconds and entered the forest in the next. Some of the Geomchis realised this and immediately ran to follow using all of their speed and strength to dash following whatever trail Alexandra left behind. [p=center]xXx[/p] Moments before Eden was contacted by Alexandra... ¡°What the hell is this?¡± wondered Eden seeing a large shadow approach the cave...well to be precise a particularly large soul coming nearer. There seemed to be something...different about it. Something that made him not want to fight it. For this reason, not wanting to risk lives and make him gain even more infamy since he only recently made it drop a bit compared to the massive amounts he still had, Eden went to where he captured those people and prepared to teleport them out of here immediately. ¡°Wall move!¡± He commanded the stone wall he created and it slid away easily. Opening up, the women and children inside were kinda curious on what Eden was here to do now since the last couple of times were quite light hearted and even Eden felt that they were getting along...despite being the captives and the other the kidnapper. Eden remembered there was some sort of effect that these kinds of thing had when you show kindness to people captured but couldn''t remember the precise name. Either way, he needed to get them out. He was quite sick of people dying because of him at this point. So many innocents...towns....cities....friends and those he fought with and.... Risene. A name that he did not want to remember much due to the memories. At that time he was....quite void of most emotions since he had to act with all knowing intentions of the consequences and how evil they were. But when he started to be ''normal'' again, he slowly realised the tragedy he caused in the end. But in the end he still decided it was a good idea to block those emotions as much as possible. It was a long road that he walked on and will continue to be long the longer he lived. He had only stayed in this world for seven years when the mana fragment incident ended and he was pushed into the underworld god slaying business immediately afterwards. That event took him 6 more years to resolve. It had been 2 years since then in which he relaxed for quite a while he must admit with a total of 15 years in game right now. (Note that in the non-flashback story, Eden had been in the game for over a century.) ¡°What''s going on?¡± asked one of the women clearly seeing the concern and somewhat fear on Eden''s face not that he knew he had a face that could be filled with fear. ¡°Danger is coming and I don''t want to risk anything. I''ll teleport you all back to your village and our relationship ends there till we meet again. Gather in a group¡± Eden said with haste. Though a bit disturbed by the rush that Eden was going through, everyone cooperated and gathered quickly a bit excited to see their other family again while a bit sad that the ''entertaining'' Eden was going to be gone. He had created quite a lot of things for them while he took them captive. ¡°Teleport!¡± chanted Eden activating the spell. Zaaaazi! There was a small set of sparks made of mana flying around as the spell did not activate at all. ¡°?¡±
Due to the unstable influx of mana, unable to use teleportation spell. All spells which require precise handling will be too unstable to use and will fail
¡°....¡± ¡°The hell?¡± Eden had never seem this message...often that is. He remembered this kind of thing happening before but never expected for this to happen at this precise moment of all things. ¡°Bad news....can''t teleport you out. Plus there''s a strong monster outside the cave....and I have to fight it now that we can''t escape....wait a bit.¡± Eden wanted to know of what spells he could not use anymore. Testing some basic attack magic, he realised that most of his attack spells require almost none or little precision in use. That or his precision of such magic is a lot higher than all his other spells. ¡°Flight magic.¡± Eden tried to create the 6 golden wings on his back but when they kinda formed, they immediately shattered with the spell disappearing due to being too unstable. ¡°Okay...my other method of travelling quickly is gone as well....great. You guys stay here while I...deal with the issue.¡± With that, Eden left them and closed to wall to make sure nothing gets in so easily. Using his ''Soul Scan'' skill, Eden found that whatever creature was nearby...probably the same creature that prevented him from teleporting or use flight magic at the same time. ¡°What kind of creature could cause such a thing...? Even legendary creatures rarely have such abilities...¡± Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. As Eden walked out of the cave in confront the enemy, what he saw shocked him. ¡°Tentacle....monster? The fuck?¡± Several hours later he would be forced in a situation he rarely had even in his ridiculous past. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Lightning Bolt! Chain Lightning! Lightning Overdrive!¡± Eden shot out a single lightning bolt from his hand, then proceeded to cause that lightning bolt to into several tens of smaller lightning bolts and finally caused those weaker lightning bolts to be charged back to the strength of several lightning bolt at once. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! Squiggle Squiggle Squiggle Squiggle~ ¡°Damnit, stop regenerating already?! I''m already in Magic King Drive and yet I can''t erase you at all!¡± Eden sent his aura out and caused the nearby tentacle monsters to explode into pieces with brute force. For some reason Eden felt like this was a never-ending battle where he will be stripped completely and violated in the end. And that thought frightened him. Never once did he feel this level of fear. It was different from the ''fear'' he got before having to face against the near invincible Gods in battle. It was something like he will lose something important if he lost right now. Squiggle Squiggle Squiggle Squiggle~ ¡°Are they forming into one large one?¡± In front of Eden''s eyes, the near countless tentacle monsters which each individually resembled vines with a thickness of a fist, gathered together into one large, no massive creature which was ten metres large and was made of countless strings of those tentacles. ¡°This must be hell here....¡± muttered Eden shaking his head at facing this kind of creature. Several hours passed since Eden...well Alexandra contacted him of meeting those Geomchi people. Surely they have done whatever fight they wanted and are now running this way to help him. The only problem was this thing in front of him. Anti-magic as well as super regenerative type. Eden only realised when he decided to teleport away to get some help that he couldn''t use fine tuned magic anymore. Only the rough and cruel attack magicks were the things that he could do. It wasn''t much of a problem but combined with the fact that he really didn''t want a large number of people; entirely women and children to fall prey to this creature, Eden would''ve escaped already. Another problem was that this tentacle monster shoots out acid that only eats away clothes and armour. Thankfully Eden was in his spare armour so it wasn''t that much of a cost in facing this creature. ¡°How much longer can I endure....?¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Just a few more minutes until we get there!¡± shouted Alexandra back to the Geomchis that were running behind her, ¡°Are you guys fine?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± ¡°This is nothing!¡± ¡°Just a simple jog.¡± While they say that to Alexandra, it feels like they are on a long extensive training run with no end. Each and every one of the Geomchis were mentally strained due to running for days straight now. Their legs were breaking under them due to strain as they ran but was immediately recovered when Alexandra healed them. ¡°Hmm?¡± From the distances, Alexandra saw that Eden was fighting some sort of large monster and was actually being pushed back. Taking out her prised ''Twin Beast Hollowed-Point Great-Breaker'' sword which really has a long name, she leaped and swung it in the general direction of those two. ¡°Sword-¡± Mana gathered in her sword in the extremes. ¡°Wave!¡± Like a stream of light, her sword gave out a giant wave of power. BANNNNNG!! And everything including Eden and that monster was blown away by the force. ¡°....¡± Alexandra slid down on the ground using her sword to stop herself from being fling forward. As she looked back, she saw that the Geomchis also stopped in their tracks as well. She ignored them for the moment and then went to search for Eden. ¡°Eden~! You there?¡± she shouted, with no worry in her voice. Something of this level wouldn''t hurt Eden that much....right? Bang! A loud sound was heard as someone kicked off a lot of rubble from over them in one go. Of those Alexandra knew, only Eden would dare use such a rough way of doing things. ¡°Oh your alive¡± said Alexandra disappointed. For once she wanted for Eden to die in a ''natural'' way instead of being stabbed and pierced by so many powerful weapons at once that he was more closer to an immortal zombie than anything else to die. ¡°Of course I''m alive! Why the hell did you attack me as well?!¡± screamed Eden in anger. ¡°Well...for starters you do have the defence to take a few of them head on since a long time ago.¡± ¡°Doesn''t mean it doesn''t hurt like hell!¡± ¡°Right, besides, what the hell is up with your appearance and what is that thing¡± wondered seeing a half naked Eden and a large tentacle monster appearing now as well though Alexandra piece together some things she knew and expected that this was the cause of all the trouble Eden had. ¡°Ah, that thing spits out acid that can melt clothes and armour.¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra looked at the tentacle creature. Why did she feel that this was the ultimate enemy of women that needs to be killed. However she did not want to get near that thing no matter what. Being stripped right now was a bad thing. She looked back at the Geomachis who were standing there confused on what to do. On one hand, they were staring at Alexandra naturally with her looks and otherwise strong power she just demonstrated. They also started at the tentacle monster in which they believed to be a strong enemy and was itching to fight it immediately. Annnnnd, they were particularly staring at Eden who was half naked with his clothes ripped and dissolved in many areas to the point you didn''t know what to look at. Alexandra saw that those who looked at Eden were kinda red in the face. ¡°Why are you guys standing there tightening your tights?¡± asked Alexandra not knowing what that notion meant. ¡°DON''T WORRY ABOUT IT!¡± they all shouted back at once. Seeing that she didn''t need to pry into it some more, Alexandra then looked at the tentacle monster which more or less regenerated completely now. ¡°So...what to do with that thing?¡± asked Alexandra to Eden now. He sighed and said, ¡°That thing is an extreme anti-magic super regenerative type. Otherwise known as my worse nightmare. Tell those guys to deal with it. I''m pretty sure it has a core somewhere...just need to cut it lots of times.¡± Eden pointed to the Geomchi who seem to be rather excited to fight an unusual and rare creature such as the one they see now. ¡°You lot!¡± shouted Alexandra in a commanding voice that did not let one bit of disobedience to exist. ¡°Deal with that thing!¡± The Geomchi under the glare of Alexandra could only follow her words. Though many of them wanted to fight the creature to begin with even though it seems quite unusual while the other, minor...no major thoughts of the group was to want to be stepped on by Alexandra. ¡°Let''s go!¡± shouted Geomchi leading the group into battle. ¡°YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!¡± They screamed as they all charged in at once. It was like a wave of destruction that you could not block at all. There were simply too many of them and even individually they were quite powerful in their own rights. ¡°Hmm...how strong are they?¡± asked Eden curious. ¡°Fine though I still haven''t fought them yet.¡± ¡°What? Then why were you so late?¡± asked Eden astonished. ¡°It''s usual a 3 day walk here. We got here within 7 hours. That''s fast no matter how you see it. You with your teleportation magic is screwing up your sense of distance.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden nodded and then proceeded with another question. ¡°Why are you still wearing that? It''s quite low cut you know.¡± Alexandra looked down to only realise that she ran in this dress for over 6 hours straight. Her sweat caused it to be transparent at bits...and those Geomchi fellows saw everything...if not for the game mechanic to filter those things out for women automatically. Kick! Alexandra started trampling on Eden in sheer embarrassment. ¡°Ow ow ow, stop that! It hurts like hell!¡± shouted Eden trying to block her kicks with his hands. But the force behind each stomp was enough to deal a lethod blow to a normal person which made it extremely difficult for Eden. An hour later, the Geomchi managed to slay the tentacle creature while most of their cruel armour was melted off. To this day they did not understand why the acid could melt armour and clothing but not weapons. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°What?! You wanted to fight us?¡± said Geomchi3 in a shocked voice. He did not expect for this outcome to be present like this. Currently, the Geomchi group minus the 237 that were slain in battle against the tentacle monster all wore older patched up clothes while Alexandra while they were distracted and knocked out by the kicks changed back into her usual armour. ¡°Of course, why did you think I made Eden kidnap so many people to lure you out?¡± said Alexandra proudly at using Eden like that. To this, Eden sighed but Alexandra ignored that. ¡°Ah.¡± Eden realising that the ''hostages'' at this point was still trapped in the cave with no way out. It would be bad if they all died in there. He immediately left and returned with a bunch of women and children with them that numbered around 50. ¡°OHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!¡± The Geomchis were extremely happy with the sight of a large number of women in front of them. Perhaps they could get ''close'' with them as well. Of course seeing that they haven''t changed on bit at all with dealing with women, they would fail if they tried. Simply because most of these women were also mothers as well with husbands. ¡°Ho~ Why were there so many women in that group Eden?¡± asked Alexandra in a threatening tone. ¡°Less likely to rebel and cause trouble¡± replied Eden immediately now ignoring that demon behind Alexandra''s back. ¡°....¡± ¡°I didn''t touch them at all you know.¡± ¡°I know~¡± Alexandra smiled but her eyes were completely void which scared Eden greatly. Rarely did this happen and every time he would get chills down his back. ¡°Anyway you get that duel while I bring these guys back to their homes. Teleport!¡± Flash! With that, Eden with 50 people disappeared in a bright blue light leaving Alexandra with the Geomchis. Looking over, Alexandra asked, ¡°So which one of you is the strongest?¡± in a sort of arrogant tone to them with a fierce amount of fighting spirit behind her. The first Geomchi, stepped forward. He was an old man...even compared to the other Geomchis as well but Alexandra sensed that he was stronger than the rest of them and grinned seeing that she would have a good fight. ¡°As a swordsman, I will fight you to the best of my abilities¡± Geomchi said with no distractions in his eyes. Thanks to Alexandra wearing her armour, her attractiveness decreased a bit to the Geomchis and they were not completely distracted by the clothes that she was wearing though how little she did wear. Right now, Geomchi was only thinking of the battle. As a proud swordsman, no other thought existed in his mind then and there. Both of them took their swords and waited. The other Geomchis seeing this paused and stared not wanting to miss a single second. A second passed... Two... Three.... Wuuuuuuuuss! Alexandra was the one who attacked first. She simply charged in straight using her extreme speed and swung vertically in a simple straight line with all her power backed into it. Seeing this, Geomchi was calm but was shocked in the speed that Alexandra had. But it was still within his abilities. Moving forward, not letting a step back, Geomchi met Alexandra''s sword that was twice, no trice his own in size and motioned the blade to slide off to the side missing Geomchi narrowly. BANG! Alexandra''s strike hit the ground and cracked it easily. But her attack was not over yet. Using her skills from all the battles she had throughout the years without end, Alexandra twisted her sword and swung a second time in mid air at Geomchi again. Once again, Geomchi reacted though not perfectly this time and deflected the sword away. Clang~! Geomchi was blown away with the force along but took no damage at all landing safely while Alexandra''s arm which she used to swing was slightly numb now due to the shock of the attack. However this only made Alexandra more excited. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhh!¡± Alexandra continued to attack without end while defending using her armour to block the weak attacks that Geomchi would give once in a while. She thought this was easy, too easy. And she was right. Suddenly she felt danger as Geomchi''s sword burst in speed aiming for several of her vital spots at once ignoring her defence. Alexandra moved left and right rapidly as she dodged most of the blows barely. Geomchi went on the offensive and was easily pushing her back with pure skill and nothing else like how he was defending from her attacks earlier. The difference in skill could be clearly seen. However pure swordplay was not the only strength Alexandra had. She had gathered and trained many skills to grow this strong and was holding back on them to use her sword skills to test out the waters a bit. Now she realised that she was extremely outmatched in terms of swordsmanship. It wasn''t that Alexandra''s sword skill alone was weak, in fact she was one of the stronger one. It was simply because even among the swordsman in this world and the real world, Geomchi was someone who stood at the top in both. His skill and talent was off the charts combined with endless training to hone it all. But Alexandra was also something similar as well. With Eden and Viv, she challenged so many strong creatures over time that she became something like a broken character like Eden with little that could face them. Finding someone like Geomchi was a happiness to Alexandra as with her raw strength and speed, she was able to defeat most foes easily. It is only when there is such a large difference in skill that strength and speed does not matter like now. With blood covering her cheek where Geomchi scratched it using his sword, Alexandra grinned even more letting out a ''aura'' telling everyone that she wanted to do more, fight more. Seeing this, Geomchi was astonished and laughed out loud. ¡°Hahaha, you are happy to fight right? You want to go all out and fight to your content right? Go ahead! We have long learnt a long time ago to use everything in battle while still holding onto our swords! There is no shame in using your full power! Fight, to prove that you are strong!¡± Hearing those words, Alexandra wished that Eden and Viv were here to heard those words as well. Those words were....something that she did not believe someone to say to someone of her strength. Even now, Alexandra had the power and skill to match Eden as well as Viv. But in the process, they became too strong and was isolated and feared since they had the power to level cities at will. The days of simple adventuring were over. But here was a man who said it was all right to let it all right and fight to the end leaving nothing else out. With a shout filled with joy Alexandra activated her skills at once with her sword raised high in the sky: ¡°Holy Aura! Crusader Sprint!¡±
Holy Aura is now active
Agility will be doubled for 10 seconds
Her pure white aura was unleashed around her in a torrent of power. Her legs glowed bright due to the power temporary infused in them. With a shout, she attacked Geomchi who welcomed the attack with open arms. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! Five time did Alexandra attack in a moment. Geomchi with his skill along blocked and diverted three of them while barely dodging the fourth and fifth with minor wounds that decreased his health more than he thought. He had lose 20% of his health with two scratches. The difference in level and pure stats were immediately shown with this. However Geomchi did not complain at all; if that was the case then he would need to not get hit at all! ¡°Sword Dance!¡± Her sword glowed and let out slight after images as she moved it along with her body as well. Alexandra attacked while Geomchi defended and counter attacked for the next 10 seconds in a fury of attacks on both sides. ¡°Incredible...Master is going all out and yet the other side is not falling behind at all¡± muttered one of the Geomchis. Another Geomchi shook his head, ¡°But those movements are part of a skill.¡± Hearing this, Geomchi2 interjected saying, ¡°Skills like that can only increase the movements of the body. The mind of the person however needs to be able to catch up to such movements in order to be effective. The fact that Master did not slay her immediately and her own precise movements to our eyes proves of her ability alone.¡± The other Geomchis hearing this stood silent absorbing the words into their minds to not underestimate those who use such skills now. Trouble would come if they did not further polish their skills since there is a rising number of players that are strong with skills and also strong with swords. ¡°Incredible! So many exchanges and yet you still didn''t die and better yet not even a scratch since that last one! To think I could find someone besides Eden who can fight on this level!¡± said Alexandra filled with adrenaline. ¡°I must also praise your skill as well. It is the result of fighting strong foes right?¡± ¡°Naturally! With Eden you are bound to fight one legendary creature like a Hydra or Phoenix and even Dragons often!¡± she replied with excitement to share a bit of her story at least. Crusader Sprint wore off and her agility was back to normal, but that did not mean she did not have anything else up her sleeve. ¡°Divine Beast Shift!¡± she shouted transforming her body into one that was even stronger and faster than before. Her appearance went wild with black lines tracing down her entire body being formed with the face of a great beast being formed on her forehead as well. Her Holy Aura was also increased in size as well due to the Divinity effect. Seeing this Geomchi had a shiver of fear. Fear that he liked since this was going to be a good battle to the death. A battle with a monster that was stronger than anything he encountered to push his skills to the limit. Geomchi did not use one skill in the battle so far but by observing Weed, he had learnt the use of powerful skills at moments like this that was enhance your own ability without dragging you down. ¡°Battle Frenzy!¡± Geomchi used on the few skill he knew that increased his body''s power and speed for a short while. Along with some basic sword skills like ''Thunder Strike'' or ''Flame Sword'', and some of the more advance ones like ''Heraim Fencing'' or ''Stone Skin'', he did not have many skills at all unlike Alexandra. However he did have a skill that negated enemy defences no matter how thick that can negate the defence that Alexandra''s Holy Aura and other skills gave thanks to mastering ''Sword Mastery'' which was extremely powerful. Because of this, Geomchi was calm knowing that victory was still in reach. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang....! The two without talking anymore shot blows and attacks from all directions at each other. The land in which they stood on cracked and was slowly being ruined as they fought. The range of their fight increased so much that the other Geomchis had to retreat a bit to not get caught up in it. Geomchi had the advantage still. With Alexandra waving around her large sword even with her great power and speed, there were only so many motions and actions she could take to attack. Geomchi predicted these and acted in accord. This was the great disadvantage of using a large sword in battle. While you had more power to deal with, it was useless if you could not hit which was what Geomchi was demonstrating right now though it was barely being able to do it since Alexandra was truly that fast for anyone normal to predict. Even if it was Weed, Alexandra''s pure speed would outmatch him instantly killing him with a strong unexpected blow. However even Weed admits that Geomchi was a better swordsman with a life time of experience in battle. Combine this with a proper battle class and he was a first class player. Clang Clang Bang Clang Clang...! Eventually...though slowly Geomchi was predicting what Alexandra would do with her actions and was slowly starting to parry her blows instead of simply dodging them. This naturally irritated Alexandra since her speed was suppose to be something that no many could keep up with let alone countered like this. She had to step it up one more once again. Leaping away quickly and taking distance to prepare in a split second, she called upon one of her most powerful skills. ¡°Compressed Light Warrior!¡± Her aura expanded several times forming a giant made of light which slowly but yet quickly compressed into an extra layer of armour for Alexandra making it look like ghost armour. Even her sword was extended with the aura now and was 10 cm longer in range due to that. However before she could attack, Geomchi moved in with speed...no outside her reaction time and attacked with a risky stab. Thinking that her defence will hold out, Alexandra did not dodge that much letting the attack hit her since ''Compressed Light Warrior'' was literally a thick layer of defence that blocked all but the most powerful attacks. B-break! Much to her surprise, Geomchi''s blade was something like that. For reasons unknown to her but known to him, her sword broke through the extra layer of defence and pierced through her armour and into her shoulder. ¡°Ah!¡± Letting out that sound not due to pain since she was used to pain now, but of surprise; Alexandra realised how much she was looking down on Geomchi just then. ''Just because I have so many strong skills does not give me the right to look down on people. I can only turn this shame into power to rewrite that with full force. The strongest state! The strongest skill!'' With Geomchi''s sword still in her shoulder Alexandra let her rage and anger burst with the skill that even she didn''t like to use often. ¡°Blood Destruction!!!!¡± BANG! Her aura turned violent and red, the force of the change blew away Geomchi and his sword out of her immediately. Her hair changed colour to blood red. Her aura turned to the same colour as well. And finally the markings on her body due to ''Divine Beast Shift'' also glowed red as well. Even the armour from the ''Compressed Light Warrior'' turned into a shade of red as well. The descent of the berserk beast appeared! But before she attacked... ¡°I''m sorry. I have to admit I looked down on you a bit there....that is why I will use my full strength without holding back with my most powerful skill!¡± Alexandra''s aura increased several fold in her sword. It grew and grew to a size that made it look like the weapon of a giant instead of a person. Spanning tens of metres in the air...even people from afar could see it. And the person who was wielding that power was Alexandra at her strongest right now. ¡°Blade of Judgement!¡± The sword that was coloured red due to her current state descended down on Geomchi threatening to kill everyone and everything else in the area as well. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!! The sound of the end was calling. But even so, Geomchi with a smile challenged this power directly without fear even if the other Geomchis were kinda scared of this giant blade coming down on them quickly. Flash! Eden appeared and was then immediately hit by the skill. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!! And was sent flying across Geomchi and smashed into a large rock digging deep a couple of metres. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Alexandra was confused on what just happened. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°What the hell was that for?! I just came back and immediately I''m near life and death here!!!¡± shouted Eden complaining at Alexandra while coming out of the rock with his wounds healing right in front of everyone. It had been a quiet and awkward minute where Eden was knocked out for a whole minute stuck in that rock. Alexandra already deactivated all of her skills as well and was back to normal. Geomchi had his wounds healed by Alexandra as well. Naturally she did not even offer an apology to Eden nor healed his wounds as well. Especially to the one to his heart on being sent flying so suddenly like that. In fact Alexandra was outright pissed at Eden right now. ¡°Who the hell said you could teleport right in front of me! Because of you my duel was stopped like that!¡± she screamed back at Eden in rage. Not backing down at all; Eden retorted, ¡°I can''t know where the hell you were going to fight. That''s why I chose a location that was reasonably far away from the damn open space you were fighting on! When and why the hell did this duel reach out so far away from where it started then?!¡± ¡°Then you should''ve teleported further away then!¡± ¡°How would I know that?!¡± ¡°Don''t you have some peeping skills?¡± ¡°You..! That just makes me sound like a pervert there!¡± ¡°And you are not?! Last time I saw you, you were half naked for Gods sake and you changed in front of so many men!¡± ¡°Wha? I bloody changed clothes since they were ruined and plus you changed in front of them as well!¡± ¡°They were distracted with that tentacle monster!¡± ¡°I changed at the same time as you!¡± ¡°That makes you a pervert!¡± ¡°How does that make me a pervert if you changed at the same time as me?!¡± ¡°....¡± The Geomchis watching this was very silent and afraid. Eventually Geomchi178 asked Geomchi2, ¡°What should we do?¡± Geomchi thought about it and replied, ¡°A woman''s anger is terrifying. Two women arguing is...even more so. Master, I suggest to leave before we are caught up in this as well. Master?¡± ¡°....¡± Geomchi looked at Eden and Alexandra bickering. Eventually Alexandra attacked Eden in which he responded on using magic that blew away a large portion of trees instantly. Seeing this, he made up his mind quickly. ¡°Right, we are leaving before we die like those trees.¡± ¡°Yes master!¡± the rest of the Geomchi shouted in a more quiet voice not wanting to attract the attention of the two. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°So....¡± ¡°What?¡± said Eden sharply with a glare. ¡°You know back then...when you got along with Risene well right? When she died....did you feel sad?¡± ¡°....¡± Eden made a complicated face. ¡°At that time, I don''t think I had any proper emotions. It''s only after that....recently¡± ¡°Yeah, you were dragged into another ridiculous quest immediately afterwards.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°You know, I was quite scared when I logged in and I couldn''t find you anywhere...it was like you were completely gone. Did you ever had that feeling with me?¡± ¡°Sometimes.....like the time when I killed you....though there were a bunch of a lot of different things mixed in then...and even now. I feel that....I don''t want you to disappear as well. I...probably won''t be able to handle that in the end.¡± ¡°Good!¡± Alexandra patted Eden on the back with a smack. She was smiling with a bit of joy. Happy that Eden thought of her like that. That she was important to him.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9700~ - The first half of this chapter was kinda hard to write though the duel at the end was really easy to write. I fear that I couldn''t get the personality of the Geomchi group in that well into the chapter.... - Well time to think of content for the next 3 chapters. Vol.3 Chapter 8 - A Past Remembered(III) [p=center]Through many battles, I was able to save lives. At the same time, I took so many lives. Each time my emotions dulled. Each time my humanity waned. The one who awoke after all of that, was that really me?[/p] [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Please help us get these supplies to the village nearby!¡± A man in his late thirties or early forties bowed and begged Eden, Alexandra and Viv to accept the quest. While these quests were normally done by other players and usually were flooded due to the good pay and the chance it would have no combat which means free experience and money; there weren''t any players that were trying to get the quest. In fact it seemed that it was the sheer opposite with players trying to avoid the quest instead. Eden looked unsettled since this place was near one of the restricted zones and high a number of high levelled players in this small town. However even these battle veterans were scared of this quest. On the other hand, Alexandra not feeling the mood here and the fact that the quest would be more troublesome than ever, accepted the quest. ¡°Of course! A simple protection quest is perfectly fine for us!¡± she exclaimed in confidences. ¡°Wait a min-¡±
Party leader Alexandra has accepted the quest ''Guard the Merchant and Supplies''
Party leader Alexandra has accepted the quest on your behalf as well
¡°God dammit! I should never let her be the party leader...¡± Eden sighed since this was going to bring something horrible to them later on. ¡°Don''t worry. We''re strong¡± said Viv patting his back. ¡°That''s not the problem...we came here for sightseeing so why are we accepting such a quest. Speaking of which, where is this village?¡± asked Eden. The old man, who was also a merchant said grimly: ¡°In the Restricted Zone called the Cursed Forest.¡± (Note that I have no idea what the other 8 restricted zones are besides the two that are mentioned in the LN. Makings things up here...) Eden''s face fell hearing this. The ''Cursed Forest'' was a horrible place that was completely covered in trees in which for each step you walk closer to the core, the stronger than curses that would be placed on you get. Needless to say that all the monsters in that place are cursed creatures capable of spreading their curse onto you whether via a skill, attack or even dying. It was a place that you would not want to go into even with a couple of priests. It was said that an army with a hundred priests died in a single day stepping into that place due to the ridiculous number of curses thrown their way. But Alexandra did mind and besides the three of them have some curse resistant effects on them as well as Alexandra who was the combination of a strong paladin and priest combined. Eden recalled that she learnt some curse resistance and curse removal spells before heading here with them. The occupation relating to Gods were quite powerful especially for Alexandra. She with so little effort managed to get skills and spell that others struggled to get for months or years. ¡°Anyway, where are the stuff you want us to bring?¡± Seeing that they were going into the Cursed Forest, taking small amounts of supplies was about as much as they could do with. The merchant scurried and called out to his fellow merchants. ¡°Oi! Bring out the carriages!¡± he shouted. Click Click Click The sound of something being dragged could be heard and as Eden saw what he would be protecting, he face palmed. ¡°Three whole carriages of supplies?! Are you kidding me?! Is there even a path for us to move those on?¡± shouted Eden in frustration. While he could wipe out an army with several large spells, protecting was not something he specialised in. In fact, other than himself, he was quite bad at protecting others besides using a simple mana shield to block any blows that may come to them. However Eden calmed down and thought about it. Aside from him was Alexandra who was a super tank capable of blowing away enemies and protecting allies at the same time. Then there was Viv. His roots could easily protect everyone without anything bad happening to them. That was how much power he processed to begin with and plus he has that giant golem of his and other spells to back him out as well. This couldn''t be that bad with those two. ¡°Ah by the way Eden. Due to the effects of the Cursed Forest, all light based and nature based skills and spells are rendered a lot weaker than they usually are. This means-¡± Eden thought that she had to be kidding. ¡°-We will be relying on you to pull us through.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°You got to be kidding¡± muttered Eden. ¡°I am not kidding at all. Why do you think we are using you right now?¡± replied Alexandra. ''As a meat shield more or less.'' ¡°Anyway there should be a proper path that we can take since this quest is only B rank after all.¡± ¡°B rank...¡± Something of that rank was surely difficult as it is. Most people often fail C rank quests and the failure rate increases several fold for B rank quests. A rank and above are nearly impossible to beat on your own or even with a large guild to back you up. Though this was coming from a person who completed a SSS rank quest. Eden pressed his finger on the rim of his nose and asked, ¡°Please tell me that there are other people coming as well....I don''t want to face a restricted zone alone....¡± The merchant who was the quest giver came into the conversation at this point, ¡°Of course! There will be a couple of bards coming along as well.¡± ¡°Bards....¡± ''You mean that class that can''t directly block attacks and can only support the party?'' Eden sighed hearing that he would really be forced as the primary defence on this quest that he didn''t even want to be on right now. Eventually things were going and they were introduced to five bards. Three girls, two guys. ¡°This is Alina, Robe, Minra, Saku and Haku¡± the merchant introduced. The person who seemed to be the most leader like, Alina introduced their levels as well: ¡°I''m level 461, Robe is level 455, Minra is level 305, Saku and Haku are both level 375.¡± Alina was a short blonde petite person. Robe was a tall red haired muscle man. Minra was a brown haired girl with nothing much on her appearance. Saku was a girl with black hair and looked asian. Haku was the same but a guy with short hair. As for their instruments....Eden did not even check since he really didn''t want to bother with that. ¡°I''m the current leader of this group, Alexandra, level 654. Viv is this one here at level 640 and that grumpy one over there is Eden at level 666~¡± she said in a pleasant tune on her own as she spoke. Right there, Eden cut in kinda impatient to find out about things when they got into the actual Cursed Forest itself. ¡°So high¡± exclaimed Minra hearing of our level. The merchant laughed hearing our level as well saying, ¡°If it''s you guys then this will definitely succeed.¡± Alexandra faked her shy look and replied, ¡°No no, my and Viv''s abilities are reduced in the forest and Eden over there is the lazy type. This will be more difficult than you think¡± ''Since Eden is on this quest, there''s bound to be trouble.'' Glaring a bit at Alexandra due to reading her mind on the words she didn''t say, Eden gave an opposing presence and said: ¡°First of all, I want to know how effective your skills are in that forest? I don''t want to expect you to buff me a certain way and it not working.¡± The one called Alina smiled and said, ¡°Of course. Two of us specialise in stat boosting while the other three are of status boosting or status debuff removal. All of us can lift the curses of the forest to a certain extent.¡± ¡°Okay then.¡± Eden nodded and looked at Alexandra and Viv. ¡°How much of your abilities are reduced in there?¡± ¡°About 50%¡± ¡°Around 70%¡± They both answered at the same time but Alexandra''s holy spells were now half as effective and Viv''s nature magic was even worse off. Eden at least knew that they were capable of doing things and now were not able to dumb everything on him now. Even with their powers reduced by that much, they were still pretty powerful nevertheless. With this the merchant clapped his hands and said, ¡°Right, let us embark now. The one who ordered this is very important after all.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden wondered who could it be since they are in the Cursed Forest after all. A place filled with monster at least level 500 as the general mobs. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°More Cursed Wolves coming this way!¡± shouted Saku to everyone else as the lookout. Saku was an interesting Bard with her primary skill, ''Sonic Sensing'' serving as a sensor to all enemies coming near. It was such an interesting ability that Eden would want to later copy it into his own skill. As it seemed, there was an actual path that they could drive the carriages through. However it was thin to the point that the carriages barely fit on them resulting in everyone else riding on top or walking through the trees to the side. Naturally the group; Eden, Alexandra, Viv as well as the five bards and 6 merchants and drivers chose the first option. With two drivers each, Alexandra was the front guard, Viv was the middle guard and Eden was the back guard. There was three bards on the middle carriage and one each on the front and back one. Eden was stuck with the bard called Minra with the brown hair. Eden could hear Viv ask, ¡°Which direction¡± in which Saku responsed to, ¡°The back again.¡± ¡°....¡± Hearing this, Eden sighed and got ready to fire at them again. Using ''Soul Scan'' which was actually a more effective way of sensing living creatures though not as when it came to mechanical creatures like Golems and the such, Eden found that there were six of them this time. A fairly medium sized pack. Cursed Wolves were as their name. Wolves that were cursed. While the same size as normal wolves, they are large patches of black stuff on them which was the cursed bits. It usually took up half their body and black stuff which could curse you on contact spilled out from there. Other than that, their bites caused curses as well which was something to watch out with. From what Minra told him, they generally gave three effects. Blindness, Fatigue and rarely though dangerously paralyse. Eden waited a bit for them to appear and then set up some spells to deal with them. ¡°Wind Cutter.¡± Several blades of wind flew from Eden cutting off the wolves that just appeared into pieces. They were all killed just like that. ¡°As expected from such a high levelled player!¡± exclaimed Minra, ¡°Though...isn''t there another spell you could use?¡± she asked. Eden looked at Minra which caused her to shyly look away a bit and said, ¡°In this place unless you want to attract more monster than you want, less flashy and smaller attacks are better. If I used fire, lightning or ice magic; it would leave a trace for more monster to track us down via the explosions or loud noises or even the movement of the trees. Plus this place as a debuff for earth magic as well so I can''t use that. Other than that, it''s a pain to use serious attacks on them as well when they''re only level 500 at most.¡± ¡°R-right.¡± With that done, Eden leaned back on the crates that the carriage he was currently on had. However Minra decided to want to talk to him some more. ¡°Say...why don''t you use a staff when you''re a mage?¡± ¡°....¡± Responding to that question since he really had nothing else to do; it was a three day trip for the quest and he wanted to relax as much as possible, Eden lifted his left hand showing his rings. TO be precise the one on his left pinky. ¡°This ring is called...I think it was ''Ring of Absolute Domination; or something like that. It gives more or less the same effect as using a staff without breaking when I try to use more mana in my spells.¡± ¡°More mana?¡± ¡°Ah, you haven''t heard of the concept of overcharging spells to make it more powerful?¡± ¡°Yes...but isn''t that inefficient to use? I haven''t heard of anyone using it like that...though there are some priests and even bards that do the same with their spells to increase the effect or duration sometimes.¡± ¡°Well the only ones who use such a method are the ones with mana to spare...and lots of spare mana to use like me. By the way, what kind of ''songs'' can you use?¡± asked Eden. Minra looked flustered and said in a fragmented voice: ¡°Umm...ah...I actually am the attack type. I use my ''songs'' to deal damage or status effects on enemies. Not very useful....so that''s why my level is....¡± Eden watched as Minra descended into depression within seconds and sighed. Eden felt that it was a good idea to at least encourage her since her style of fighting seemed interesting at least. ¡°You know...classes and generally unique ways of fighting are weaker than most at the beginning...but later on, as your abilities expand even more, they will become extremely powerful in the end. My magic you see...while costing more mana in general, I can actually blow a large area with little mana compared to other mages. Because of this, along with Alexandra and Viv; we can face pretty powerful creatures on our own without a strong guild behind us.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°I can imagine that when you get some good mana regenerative skills as well as quick casting ones, you could stack multiple debuffs like blindness, weaken and slow on rapidly on enemies to the point that they are extremely weak to face. Naturally you would have to focus on skill proficiency no matter what but being a generic character might ensure safety to a certain extend but will limit what you can do in the end.¡± ¡°So...¡± Minra looked at Eden. ¡°I could become as strong as you then?¡± Eden saw that her eyes were quite innocent...unlike himself in the end. His innocent died a long time ago with any hope of becoming normal again. He was truly a monster that his level could not capture. A cheat character you could say. But...how to explain that to Minra? ¡°Hmm....¡± Eden gave her a wry smile in the end and said, ¡°You would have to suffer as much as me though....and I don''t think many people could endure that.¡± ¡°How so?¡± pouted Minra feeling that Eden was insulting her. Eden still smiling took out a knife and cut his arm in front of Minra. ¡°What are yo-¡± ¡°Watch.¡± Within a second, the wound disappeared and all that was left was the blood that was spilt out. He then made a bigger wound then before and even that healed within the same time. ¡°This skill which causes this is called ''Recovery Burst'', probably one of the most powerful wound healing skills out there though it doesn''t restore lost health at all¡± Eden gave a sad smile since this was one of the gifts llyfr left him. ¡°Of course this kinda of effect only appears when you are in the advance level of the skill. Beginner and Intermediate with simply make your wounds disappear faster. With the advance level, it will look like the wound heals instantaneously. How long did you think it took me to get the skill to this level? Mind you that I need to be hurt quite bad for the skill to rapidly gain experience.¡± ¡°Umm....few years...?¡± Minra thought along the lines of how much Eden probably fought and his level. ¡°One week.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Minra was not pleasantly surprise but rather insulted now. ¡°But for every second of that week, I was awake and wounds would constantly appear all over my body like it was ripping me apart. The faster the skill grew, the shorter time it took to heal and the shorter the time of the wounds appearing at the same time. The pain caused me to go insane and sane over and over again until it finally ended and was like this. Even if my limbs are cut off, I can grow a new one. If my body is torn to pieces, I''ll recover easily. That is what I mean by the suffering I endured.¡± ¡°....¡± Minra looked down a bit disappointed on her own selfishness. She had expected that Eden had some skill that allowed him to quickly gain and master other skills to get where he was now. In reality, Eden endured so many things that it led to him being strong. However she was indeed right that Eden had a method to decrease the time it took to master skills though only Alexandra and Viv knew of it. ¡°Don''t worry...that was one of the more extreme examples. There were also loads of times when I stayed up too late practising magic. You should when you can practise as much as possible all the time. Your skills will level up steadily even if you aren''t using them that much.¡± ¡°I see...can we talk more on other things as well? While we''re on rear guard duty?¡± Minra looked quite enthusiastic now. Eden continued to talk to her for the remainder of the day. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Ah, Eden light the fire.¡± ¡°Right....spark?¡± From Eden''s hands a large number of sparks came out of it. The wood that he touched went up in flames immediately as well as Eden pulled his hand away quickly. Seeing this, he sighed since he really needed to get a proper fire starting skill. There was a 50% chance that he would burn down this forest while trying to lit a small fire. Eden must admit that he had....control issue in using small magicks. But he couldn''t fail now nor complain in front of other people. Moving along to sit leaning on a tree a bit further away from the fire, Alexandra approached him with a small bit of mischief on her smile. ¡°Looks like you were getting on really well with that Minra girl~¡± ¡°What about it? She wouldn''t shut up and I had nothing else to do...¡± ¡°But it''s still rare for you to put up with it and actually talk about yourself.¡± ¡°You were listening in?¡± ¡°Well the forest is quiet so someone with good hearing can earsdrop.¡± ¡°....That isn''t a good habit you know. Plus how come there were only small fries attacking us today? I mean they were level 500 creatures but were weak in general for this area...¡± ¡°I guess we will find out tomorrow.¡± ¡°Great, a giant monster will come and kill us then¡± sighed Eden making Alexandra giggle a bit. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°You got to be fucking kidding me.¡± ¡°GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!¡± A large monster made of the roots and other stuff like the cursed trees gathered and turned into the shape of a 20 metre large dragon. Well in the shape since it wasn''t actually a dragon. ¡°Dragon Dragon!¡± cried Minra in fear. Eden comforted her and said, ¡°Don''t worry, that thing really isn''t a dragon. It just took on the form to boost it''s power.¡± Yes, constantly shaping itself using anything in this cursed land, that creature that Eden was staring at was turning closer into the form of a true dragon. If it finished then could it fly or even use ''Dragon Breath'' as well? Eden really didn''t want to find out. ¡°Hey, speed up! At this rate, we have to fight that thing!¡± shouted Eden to the front carriage. The old merchant shouted back, ¡°The bulls cannot go that fast with this amount of luggage! You will have to deal with it someway or another!¡± ¡°Tch.¡± Eden shot a dissatisfied look. Even now, facing a Dragon was something extremely difficult. The common fodder ones were around level 300 at least while the ones that most people struggle to face were around level 400 at least. The truly strong ones were above level 600 however and should not be messed with. Even if this was a fake one, it was still formed in this Cursed Forest. Even if it is not real, it could have powers on the same level as a real one. Because of this and he was the rear guard, he had to deal with it now. ¡°No choice....Minra, get on the carriage that has Viv and the others on it and tell one or more of them to come here¡± ordered Eden looking serious. ¡°Huh? Why?¡± asked Minra in a surprised tone. ¡°Simply because I will catch up later. I can more or less tell where Alexandra and Viv are most of the time so....¡± With those last words, Eden jumped off the carriage without hesitation. With his one foot on the ground, he pushed off it and sped up to the creature that was now 21 metres large. It was slowly gaining power from this cursed place and quickly as well. Eden had to take it down quickly. ¡°Dragonic Release!¡±
Dragonic Release is now active, time remaining 12 hours
With this, Eden''s body became stronger and faster as he leaped and swung off branches and into the sky freely. ¡°Flight Magic!¡± Six golden wings immediately erupted from Eden''s back and sustained him in the air as he quickly approached the monster that was taking on the form of a dragon to merely face against a bunch of carriages and the supplies that they carry. ¡°Is what they have so important that something of your level has to attack?¡± asked Eden even though he would not get an answer. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!!!¡± The monster opened it''s mouth and imitated what a Dragon would do and roared at Eden. ¡°Honestly at this point I rather not turn into Dragon Form as well...well I can just bombard you with spells in the end, Lightning Shower!¡± Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang...! Lightning fell from the sky and hit the monster at several places. At this point it would be better to call it a fake dragon monster. The Fake Dragon Monster quickly regenerated it''s wounds by replacing it with other parts from the forest and used some sort of variation of Viv''s ''Grow Roots'' spell to make vines fly into the air to attack Eden. ¡°Too slow!¡± Eden dodged and flew past the vines that numbered in hundreds but were pretty thin and weak. ¡°Wind Cutter!¡± Eden swung his arm rapidly in several directions and destroyed as many vines that were coming up as possible. He then took his sight onto the Fake Dragon Monster and charged up mana to use in one big spell. ¡°Flame Tower!¡± BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURN!!! From underneath the Fake Dragon Monster, a massive column of flames appeared and ripped off part of it''s body as it moved to dodge it as fast as it could. It lost an arm and a large chunk of it''s main body as well. Charging even more mana than before Eden said in a soft calm voice: ¡°I''m not letting you go that easy....¡± Blue flames appeared around Eden''s body as his spell was near completion. ¡°Soul Devouring Flames!¡± The blue flames shot from Eden like a flame-thrower and drenched the Fake Dragon Monster and burnt every part of it at once. Trying to survive, the Fake Dragon Monster tried to discard the parts that were burning but the flames were spreading all over too quickly. ¡°....¡± (Glitter~) Eden looked at one of the rings on his hand. It was one of the rings of the ''8 Ring Set of Elemental Chaos.'' It was reacting to this Fake Dragon Monster in the end. ¡°This means that I can capture it right?¡± Eden pointed the ring that had the power of ''nature'' at the burning monster which was trying to escape with dear life and said: ¡°Your choice. Live as my servant for life or die now in my flames.¡± ¡°....¡± The Fake Dragon Monster stopped moving and eventually the light on the ring increased to such a size that it consumed the Fake Dragon Monster...well at least it''s core into it leaving the shell behind to burn with Eden''s Soul Devouring Flames.
You have captured the mythical creature ''Kodama'' in the Nature Ring of the 8 Ring Set of Elemental Chaos
You are able to summon ''Kodama'' into the world once again by calling for it''s name
8 Ring Set of Elemental Chaos Servants Fire: None Ice: None Water: None Wind: None Lightning: None Nature: Kodama Light: None Dark: None
¡°Well that''s one mythical creature down...I don''t even know what kind of creature lives in this ring now......I think I watched a movie that called them spirits living in trees? I guess I have a tree living servant now....¡± Eden using ''Soul Scan'' realised that there were a large number of monsters, even flying ones coming his way now due to the battle. Sighing, he figured that it was going to take a while to get back to the others now.... [p=center]xXx[/p] Several hours later.... ¡°I''m back...¡± said Eden with a battered set of equipment due to the constant fighting for so long. ¡°Nh.....ah you''re back¡± replied Alexandra being the one who first saw him and didn''t have much of a reaction. The same was with Viv as well. However everyone else reacted quite prominently. ¡°Are you all right? You''re not a ghost to haunt us right?!¡± ¡°How did you just out of that situation?!¡± ¡°Your clothes are all battered! You need to change now else you poison Haku''s eyes!¡± All of them were surprised that Eden alone, even though he practically had the highest level in the group could survive one of the 10 restricted zones in the end. It was even more surprising since there was a massive monster chasing them until Eden went to fight it where it was the last they heard of him. ¡°Ah....¡± Eden was trying to calm them down and only could after a while and then said, ¡°The reason why I wasn''t in contact was because a lot of monsters came out to attack me after I dealt with that monster we all saw. Well not exactly dealt but whatever.¡± ¡°....¡± The five bards plus the 6 merchants and drivers were silent at the words Eden let out. As one of the restricted zones, even if it''s at the edge, it was still a field of death. After Eden left to deal with the Fake Dragon Monster, there were a number of times they were immediately attacked at mass for some reason. Was it due to the appearance of the Fake Dragon Monster or Eden leaving them to deal with the former, they did not know. However only after today they felt the full force of the Cursed Forest will hundreds of cursed wolves attacking. Cursed Trees moving to block the way and trap them and numerous, numerous curses being placed on them. If it weren''t for Alexandra tanking the enemies while Viv blew them away with his magic, they would have all died easily in the first attack. It was really quite strange for all of this to happen when Eden left. Hearing this.... ¡°Hmm....looks like they figured that me leaving would let them have a higher chance of killing you guys.¡± ¡°Why would they think that?¡± asked Haku. ¡°Remember my level?¡± said Eden with a smile. The bards realised it then though the merchants and drivers already knew from the beginning. ¡°My level is the highest one and should be equal to the monsters in dungeons. Since we''re in the general area, there are only weaker foes running around. Seeing that I was gone, even though there were two others with levels on the same scale as me, their abilities were ultimately restricted in the end so they took a chance and died.¡± ¡°I see. However usually monsters attack anyone that comes through here no matter what level they are or how large of a group they are in¡± said Robe. ¡°Well that just means they see me as more dangerous than a large group of high levelled players.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°But then how did you get here?¡± asked Robe once again. ¡°Flight magic.¡± ¡°Isn''t that something only few mages can use? Levitation shouldn''t allow you to catch up to us.¡± ¡°Robe. Stop questioning Eden. It should have been a hard trip to get back here right?¡± said Alina scolding Robe and smiling at Eden. Alina hit Robe on the head with her wood staff at hand and Robe glared at her though there was no ill intent at all at her. Well they seem to be friendly enough. Though Eden really didn''t like the full questioning type that Robe seemed to be. He was someone who wanted to know all the secrets without any efforts. On the other hand Alina was more conservative and checked Robe in not doing something that would get him hunted by a large guild...or Eden if he wished. Eden then looked at Haku and Saku who looked and admired Eden for being so powerful that he could come back fine. He also saw that look towards Alexandra and Viv as well, probably due to them doing actual work instead of Eden being the heavy lifter this time. Finally there was Minra who had no large change in attitude to Eden, most likely due to all the talking he went through with her that she''s no longer completely surprised with him. Either way, that was the end of the second day of the trip and into the third. [p=center]xXx[/p] The third day was kinda uneventful. With Eden back, the other monsters more or less did not attack that much; at least in large numbers like before. Eden had several theories on this in his mind. The first was that his level was high enough to deter them even though this WAS one of the restricted zone. The second was something was commanding the lower monsters and did not want to mess with Eden. The third was that someone or someone else was killing enough of the monsters to lure them away or simply reduce their numbers enough... All of these were unknown and Eden had no intentions of testing it out. Anyway a few hours later, they managed to reach a small village place that only had a couple of buildings mixed in well with the forest and a large cave opening in the middle of a large cliff that extended down into darkness. ¡°This place is quite small¡± muttered Alexandra looking around the place. Eden agreed with her in his heart since there doesn''t seem to be a lot of space to do anything at all besides go inside that cave in front of them. A basic blacksmith building, a basic tavern and a basic set of buildings for storage. That more or less summed up the place. The old merchant that gave the group the quest gathered everyone and said: ¡°Good work everyone! We were able to get supplies to this remote area. This will be largely rewarded thanks to your efforts.¡±
''Guard the Merchant and Supplies'' has been completed'' - Fame increased by 500 - Infamy decreased by 100 - 5% increase in damage while defending merchants and carriages
You have gained experience
¡°Hmm....¡± Eden looked at his experience bar and it only increased by a few percentage. It looks like something of this level was not enough for him to even gain that much experience now. Hunting monsters on the same level as him would have given a better effect. ¡°Gained 5 levels at once!¡± said Alina excited on the sheer amounts of level ups she got. Minra even more excited said, ¡°I got 37 levels at once! This quest gives as much experience as an A rank quest!¡± Saku added in, ¡°Of course! This would normally be something higher than a B rank quest but it''s not on the level of an A rank quest. Lots of experience from this is normal! Also I gained 15 levels at once as well!¡± Alina turned to Eden, Alexandra and Viv and asked, ¡°How much experience did you three gained¡± with sparkling eyes. ¡°Not even 10%¡± Viv said, ¡°7% for me which is baaaaaad!¡± Alexandra said, ¡°Around 2%¡± and finally Eden said. We all replied at once of the amount we got each. Eden wondered why he got the least experience even though his level was only a ''bit'' higher than the other two. His time in the underworld was bad enough that his experience gain was even higher than Alexandra''s and Viv''s when they were hunting seriously while he was gone. ¡°Oh...¡± Alina seemed a bit disappointed since the amount that they got seemed to be a lot more. Alexandra explained it as such: ¡°Don''t worry, it''s like when you reach level 200 or level 400 and things gets really slow compared to before. It''s the same when you reach level 600 as well. Well by then you would probably get something like a 4th job advancement which I heard is extremely powerful, like on the same level as an unique hidden class on average.¡± ¡°Well a 4th job advancement IS changing into an unique hidden class you know. It''s something that only 1% of players over level 600 gets. Even Weed''s level is still in the 500s and there are at most 1000 players over level 600 at this point¡± Eden added in so Alexandra doesn''t spread false hopeful information. ¡°Also at our level, decent experience from quests can only come from A or higher rank quests.¡± Reality wasn''t that kind to people. An A rank quest means dealing with a powerful boss monster while a S rank quest would probably require you to beat multiple powerful bosses or their equivalent otherwise in difficulty. ¡°Anyway let''s get the other reward from the quest¡± said Viv prompting things to go forward. The others nodded and let the merchant finish. ¡°As a result for helping with this grand quest, you all will get a pass to go in that cave for free with this permit. You can sell it if you wish and this only lasts for a month as well.¡± The old merchant handed out 8 permits which were like cards with the colour blue and gold and the symbol of a dragon on it. ¡°....¡± ¡°Well good luck from here on out. I pray that someone of your capabilities are able to get me back from this place to the main continent.¡± With that the old merchant moved the 3 carriages through the small town and docked them at the storage place talking to what seems to be a guard from the Kingdom where they were placed in there. With that, Eden looked on back to the five bards group in front of them. Due to the fact that there were five of them, nearly no small group would accept them. Also he only knew the abilities of two of them which were Minra the debuff damage dealer and Saku the sensor. ¡°Hey you guys want to party up and go into that cave place?¡± asked Alexandra. Hearing this, Alina immediately replied, ¡°Yes!¡± since this was an extremely rare chance to do things. ¡°In that case, let''s merge out parties.¡± ¡°Yep!¡±
5 players have joined the party
¡°Let''s go~!¡± said Alexandra enthusiastically. Grab. Eden stopped Alexandra from moving and said, ¡°Before that I rather see what this place has to offer¡± cutting in. He did not want to go in and discover that the place had a hidden feature that made things troublesome and yet there was a counter to it in this town no matter how small it is. Alina looked disappointed, Robe looked pissed off and the other three really didn''t care as long as they got in eventually. It was very rare for an especially higher level group to offer to join a weaker group. Anyway, the group plus five bards walked through the small town looking at the supplies that were being sold. The weapons and armours that were being sold a well. They were quite pricey compared to other stuff but where of higher quality than usual. Eden thought it was a good price since the materials needed would add onto the costs as well. ¡°On this much more damage and triple the price?¡± said Robe shaking his head as if he was insult by the weapon he was holding. The shopkeeper glared at him telling him to leave. On the other hand, the sight of Alexandra glittering on looking through the weapons countered his mood enough that they weren''t kicked out immediately. ¡°Waaa! This is made from combining troll bones will iron right? It has the special property of healing it''s durability while fighting! Something that is extremely useful on the long run when fighting a lot¡± said Alexandra in awe of the sword that was ash coloured in her hands. The shopkeeper ignoring Robe who was still commenting on his own looked at Alexandra and said with a laugh, ¡°It IS a good weapon. However it seems that he pales compared to the one on your back!¡± ¡°This thing? Ah, the design was made my a late friend of ours....the actual sword was customised and forged by several master blacksmiths¡± explained Alexandra taking out her ''Twin Beast Hollowed-Point Great-Breaker'' to show the shopkeeper. ¡°Must have costed a fortune not to mention the material used here....my god are these engraved runes and even some that never been seen before?¡± ¡°To be precise....umm....how much did it cost again? This was years ago and I still to yet find a better overall weapon. Eden?¡± Eden sighed and remembered the numbers. He was the one who had to pay for all the costs and such in the end. ¡°Hmm....the overall costs we had back then including most of the stuff we''re still using was about 2 million gold I think? Your weapon alone costed around 350 thousand gold to forge minus the materials since we got on on our own. If you add that in...then the costs would be easily over a million gold since if I recall, there were several dozen rare metals and even more rare materials from monsters that we needed to find which took months.¡± The shopkeeper laughed happily and said, ¡°It''s rare for someone to be that dedicated on a weapon. One can easily see how much you used it. This weapon can be further improved you know. This rune here....I know of it as the growth rune. Extremely weak initially but as time passes it turns into the most powerful rune. Find the one who engraved this and that person will be extremely pleased by the progress that this weapon has.¡± ¡°Wait, it can be upgraded?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°For free?¡± Eden hit Alexandra in the head, ¡°Of course not!¡± However the shopkeeper said, ¡°Perhaps. It''s rare for one to use a weapon for a very long time. Especially when one grows much stronger than before and seeks more powerful weapons.¡± A couple of minutes later and the showing off of her equipment, Alexandra usually wore her golden armour from the church since that stood less out than her ''Valkyrie Armour'' but took it out at this moment. There were lots of laughs and such which amused Eden a bit since rarely did Alexandra get along with another person, especially when the other looks for profit. ¡°I have no plans on buying anything from you! It''s too damn expensive. Every last piece of equipment on you are unique or higher grade. I''ll be damn if anyone could steal them off you¡± the shopkeeper said as his last words before the group headed elsewhere. From this, Eden found out there was a good chance of their gear being upgraded if they could find those who made them in the first place...he made a mental note to find them later to talk about it. [p=center]xXx[/p] A couple more hours passed since there were a surprising amount of things to do in this small towns. However the most attentive thing that was happening was this: ¡°Come Come! We have all the supplies you need to get into the cave and through it safely here! Cheap Cheap prices! Only 10 Gold for the Basic set! 20 Gold for the Intermediate Set! A bargain of 50 Gold for the Advance set for all the things you need to get through the cave safely!¡± With those series of words, a mass of players rushed in and tried to buy of all the things this particularly merchant had. Seeing this, Alina also tried to rush in but Eden grabbed and stopped her getting another glare from Robe again. ¡°I have a good feeling that this is a scam for the price¡± said Eden certain about it. He was a bit stingy with money but not that much that he didn''t live without luxury. ¡°Why?¡± asked Robe, ¡°Why couldn''t it be that a person is helping others?¡± ¡°Because we already have brought those supplies that that merchant is selling for half the price even with the mark up prices that this area has.¡± Eden pointed and what that merchant was selling were ropes, torches and such that were quite rare in this place but not that uncommon. The only thing was that prices varied greatly and this one was in a bundle as well. Plus Eden had a feeling that he had a good reputation for people to rush in at him and not feel that they were being scammed at all. ¡°Besides, we already have enough things for one trip.¡± A few minutes passed and the merchant was sold clean. While looking kinda sad with a tear in his eyes he said: ¡°I am sorry but my resources amount to only this much. If only I had more skills and contacts then...sniff...I have made no profit so the costs will....sniff...¡± The other players were moved by this act. They then immediately started donating a small amount of change, usually a gold piece to the merchant. It was quite the act since Eden recognised this kind of thing from Alexandra. The five bards started tearing up and took out their wallets. ¡°If you ''donate'' we will leave the party¡± said Viv threateningly, surprising everyone else since Eden was about to say ''I will break your bones'' to this. Thinking about it, this was a lot more effective then simply breaking ones'' bones. ¡°....¡± The bards immediately stopped and then followed Viv''s lead. Eventually then all the ''donations'', the merchant got ended with the players moving into the cave. The merchant in question saw the group, he let out a greedy smile and approached them. Eden had a bad feeling about this. ''Oh great....more trouble.'' ¡°Hello I am the merchant Mapan. I was wondering if you would make a small contract with me for at least a little while as you go through the cave. I am in need of guards so I can meet a friend on the other side¡± he said with a smile hiding all sorts of other emotions in there. ¡°....¡± ¡°Contract details¡± replied Eden. He personally had no problem on accepting things as long as it benefited greatly him as well. ¡°Of course. All I want is to hold your loot and sell it for a profit. The profit itself will be split 8:2 with you getting 80% of it while I get only 20%. At my current skill I am able to sell for a 4% mark-up price on skill alone.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden thought about it. Usually with their skills merchants could get higher prices compared to other players. As such, they are often asked by players to sell loot for them. A mark-up price is the extra amount added onto the original selling point plus the amount that you would get with the skills the merchants had. A 2% mark-up price was considered really good for a merchant while 4% was someone at this point in the game as legendary and near god like. ¡°Is this a scam?¡± wondered Eden aloud. There was little chance to meet someone like this at all in the game. ¡°Haha, if it bothers you that much, I can easily sell for the 2% mark-up price instead. Only those who really trust me would prefer the 4% option.¡± ¡°In that case, the 2% one then. Also what kind of skills do you have that could help us?¡± asked Eden not at all trusting this person. He smells like Robe, someone to not be trusted but not as bad. At least this person is a merchant and for a merchant reputation along with money is everything. Eden could trust money at least. ¡°There are a couple. The most useful are the one that allows me to carry more japtem then before and the one that increases the amount of japtem that drops.¡± ''This...isn''t that bad. In fact it was kinda perfect for a merchant inside a dungeon. Hmm...might as well see where this is going'' thought Eden accepting the contract. ¡°Right, may I ask your name fair maiden?¡± asked Mapan. Eden''s face twitched a bit as Alexandra was holding back on laughing again. It has been a while since this happened. ¡°Eden.¡± ¡°Eden-nim. I am looking forward on working with you¡± said Mapan. The auto-translations of this game were perfect and imperfect at the same time. When someone intentionally speaks in a certain way, it doesn''t get changed at all. As such dialect will not change. For example if you call someone an idiot with the word frog, it would normally end up as frog. But if you intentionally use it that way, it will stay as idiot but does not end up being translated. Mapan''s use of this makes it known that he was Korean and is giving respect to them right now. ¡°....¡± ¡°And you two are?¡± Mapan looked at Alexandra and Viv. ¡°Alexandra.¡± ¡°Viv.¡± Mapan smiled, bowed and said, ¡°Alexandra-nim and Viv-nim eh. Well then, let us go into the cave. I have a friend working on a quest in there which is the reason of so many being here right now.¡± With that; Eden, Alexandra, Viv and Mapan headed into the cave. ¡°Well a minute! Why the hell are we being ignored?!¡± shouted Robe causing the four to stop. Mapan looked confused and asked, ¡°Are those five with you?¡± pointing at them. ¡°More or less¡± replied Eden. ¡°Yep¡± replied Alexandra more reliably. Mapan frowned and said, ¡°Their levels a bit too low for this area. However my combat abilities are non-existence as well. May I know your names?¡± ¡°Alina.¡± ¡°Robe.¡± ¡°Minra.¡± ¡°Saku.¡± ¡°Haku.¡± ¡°I see, nice to meet you all as well¡± Mapan respectedly bowed down to them lightly as well, ¡°Though a bit disrespectful, is there a reason for them to be in the same group as you three. You don''t seem that close to them.¡± ¡°Some idiot with muscles for her head took them in for a carriage guarding trip. Though I don''t mind most of them to begin with. Their skills may be useful sooner or later.¡± ¡°Ah...that means you have those free permits to go through the cave right? Good, this will save a lot of money.¡± ¡°Is there a reason why you seeked us then?¡± asked Alexandra. Mapan shrugged his shoulders saying, ¡°I know the strength of people when I see them. The only reason why I approached you three is that I believe you can get me where I want without letting anyone dying even in this cave. Listen.¡± The group more or less followed what Mapan said and allowed the voices coming from the cave to be heard. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!¡± ¡°Let me go! Noo!¡± ¡°Help! Help!¡± Eden wondered if those screams were live or something that echoed and was left behind. ¡°Too many people underestimated this place. The surface area is easy compared to what''s inside there. There are foes that reach level 600 and above in there. Well then you people first¡± warned Mapan moving back to let others take the lead. ¡°....¡± Eden suddenly thought that Mapan was quite the honest person now. Not many would shamelessly tell others to take a blow for them. It almost reminded him of...well Alexandra grabbing onto Eden and throwing him into an attack once... [p=center]xXx[/p] Bang Bang Bang...! ¡°Grand Impact!¡± Alexandra smashed her sword into the enemy and one shot it instantly. ¡°Let the stars fall into dust and nothingness. Starfall Series Spell #3: Meteor Stream!¡± Viv created a small black ball in which burst out a stream of black light killing everything in front of it. There were only ashes left of the enemies that dared attacked them in the end. Eden didn''t even have a chance to attack at all let alone the others. The group of now 9 walked deeper into the cave using torches to light up the place. Both Alexandra and Viv seemed happy enough on taking on a constant stream of enemies that everyone else didn''t have anything to do but to talk. Mapan was talking to the siblings Saku and Haku who wished to hear about some of the stories he had. Alina and Robe were talking about something as well. Finally there was Minra being his talking partner again. ¡°Those two are extremely strong...¡± ¡°Yep, I knew that for a looong time now¡± replied Eden with a wry smile. He knew better than anyone else of how strong those two were. ¡°Hey you two! Don''t use strong attack here! We might have a cave in and you know what will probably happen next!¡± shouted Eden seeing those two getting on with fighting too much that they were using some of their more destructive attacks. ¡°What will happen?¡± asked Minra not knowing what Eden was going on about. Eden looked at Minra and smiled saying, ¡°Just something that happened in the past. Long story...it was a stressful day that time.¡± ¡°That reminds me, I don''t know much of the other four, care to describe them and their abilities? Most people either exaggerate their abilities or downplay themselves most of the time.¡± ¡°Of course. You heard of Saku''s ability to sense things right? That ability like most bards are based around sound but her ones also cause other effects like making a goblin burst into flames or be frozen after hearing her songs for a while. Haku is the exact opposite with his songs focusing on allies instead. He can make people''s skin turn into stone to increase defence, cover them in oil to make them harder to hit and so on as well. Too bad their personalities are polar opposites to what they can do.¡± ¡°Saku is the extreme conservative type while Haku is the extreme aggressive type. But that''s a good thing since if they had each others'' skills then they would instantly waste all their mana at once so it''s kinda a good match.¡± ¡°Alina and Robe are the stat boosting type. Alina can stack multiple songs over and over again to give a good effect on a group while Robe can only play one song at a time but they are pretty powerful. Alina gets along with people while Robe....Robe isn''t that trustworthy. To begin with, it''s only because he stuck with Alina that he got to this point and all he does is cause trouble since Alina doesn''t mind him!¡± Eden nodded. Robe even managed to piss him off which was surprising since only Alexandra managed to do so after so long. ¡°And with you, the one who gets along with weirdos, the five bard group is complete!¡± said Eden humorously. ¡°Wa-don''t call yourself a weirdo. You''re normal, perfectly normal.¡± Eden let out a small sad smile. ¡°I am not normal at all...if I''m not a weirdo then the only alternative would to call me a monster...which many people do.¡± ¡°Eden you...¡± Minra made a sad face at Eden. For some reason she got along with him fine enough though it couldn''t compare to him, Alexandra and Viv reading each others'' intentions before they talked. ¡°Ah, we''re about to leave this cave. I wonder what''s on the other side¡± muttered Eden seeing a bright light at the end of the cave. ¡°Eden-nim, on the other side is an underground carven. It''s quite open spaced so there is little chance of a cave in¡± assured Mapan appearing into the conversation. ¡°Hmm....that reminds me, who is this friend of yours?¡± Eden asked. Mapan scratched his cheek and said, ¡°You''ll find out soon enough. He''s the person giving out quests this time for a price.¡± ¡°So the person responsible for people coming all the way here to one of the restricted zones...though it seems quite safe to me.¡± ¡°Eden-im you misunderstand. The area we passed through isn''t the restricted zone yet. The ''Cursed Forest'' is just the gate way to the real restricted zone ''Underworld Maze'' though many just call the ''Cursed Forest'' the restricted zone while consider the place we''re going to as a large dungeon or the harder part of the restricted zone.¡± ¡°Hmm....¡± ¡°However considering that the ''Cursed Forest'' is still quite dangerous to the point that many deaths occurred, it is correct to say that the ''Cursed Forest'' is one of the restricted zones.¡± ¡°So it doesn''t matter either way.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Eden thought it was kinda a waste of a conversation since no new information was obtained at all. Even for a cheat character like Eden, he would like to actually have information on areas before going to them. Too many times occurred when he was forced to discover things on his own much to his own peril especially since this is one of the restricted zones even if it was so far going ''easy'' on them. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°We here~!¡± Alexandra let out a happy cry seeing this new scenery after travelling for so long in a dark cave with enemies on all sides. Eden also looked around and found that other than them, there were only around 50 people here along with a large bull, some birds and a creature made of gold. In the centre of this was a shabby looking man that was wearing beginner gear...no something that looks like that since this is one of the 10 restricted zones. Mapan seemingly recognising the person called out to him: ¡°Weed-nim!¡± ¡°Weed?!¡± The bards were all shocked hearing that name. Wasn''t Weed a common name in this game? Eden wasn''t sure of this point since such a untasteful name was quite popular. Well he wasn''t the type to talk about others on their choices...unlike Alexandra. The person named Weed, who looked to be an average Korean player as well looked at Mapan and immediately started talking quickly about something like japtem and gold. Mapan responded in kind and they rapidly talking about revenue, costs and such on a large scale that everyone else couldn''t follow. In the end, the conversation ended and Weed spoke in a loud voice that everyone could hear on the quest. ¡°The quest I have received requires us to defeat the boss monster in his place! It is located at the bottom most area where the strongest and most dangerous monster lie! However all of you are strong! With you all, we can conquer this place!¡± ¡°OHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± A mass of 50+ people including the bards shouted at the same time. Mapan smiled greedy at the other players while Alexandra was also caught up in the atmosphere. Viv was calm throughout this speech and Eden was thinking of how much of a pain this would be in the end. ¡°But getting this far was difficult to me...¡± Weed made an impressive sad face which moved the hearts of everyone who saw it. ¡°Is it...to much to ask for some compensation for this great quest which will give massive experience and rewards from it...?¡± Everyone shook their heads and started getting out their wallets to pay. Seeing this, an evil smile for a split second appeared on Weed''s face. ¡°The cost to accept this quest will amount to 14 500 gold each.¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone was silent then. Meanwhile Alexandra exclaimed, ¡°That isn''t much at all!¡± Eden sighed seeing her twisted sense of money. He would have to ''remind'' her the true worth of money.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9700~ - Chapter 8 done~ Two more to go. This time, Weed and Mapan are introduced into the story. - Not much content like battles and such but I think there are a lot of small things that are important in this chapter like the Kodama creature. That one will be appearing in the series later on. - Now...to write up chapter 9... Vol.3 Chapter 9 - A Past Remembered(IV) [p=center]There was so much death. So much blood on my hands. As I walk, I spread chaos. As I fight, I spread death. At this point, do I deserve salvation from it all.[/p] [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°That much?! We don''t have enough gold and yet the legendary Weed is....¡± cried Haku checking the amount of money he had and counting it rapidly. The other four were also rapidly checking their pockets as well. All they had at mass were the loot that came from Alexandra and Viv killing monsters from the cave. At this moment, Mapan appeared with a smile and said, ¡°If you are scrapped for cash, I can help by buying some things from you.¡± Eden felt this was too precise to be a coincidental. ¡°Really?! Thank you! Thank you!¡± said Saku excitedly. The five bards took out all they got. Old gear and loot and other rare items that they had obtained over the years. Mapan looked at this with greedy eyes but said: ¡°This much is a bit short for the amount you need...what about I have you a loan that you can pay off later on?¡± The five bards looked at Mapan like he was a saviour. Eden completely ignored them since it wasn''t his problem if they were scammed for all they got. Plus whatever they will get from this trip would be worth more than they had either way. Alexandra looked at Eden and asked, ¡°Do we have enough gold to pay?¡± With a sigh Eden replied, ¡°You really want on this quest don''t you.¡± Alexandra nodded like a small child. ¡°Don''t worry, we have lots to spare that we could pay for everyone at once.¡± ¡°Hmm...that much. Never realised how much gold we had¡± muttered Alexandra. ¡°Al, that''s because we don''t let you even see the money. Me and Eden together takes care of our finances. Have you forgotten when you spent all our money on some crap you found and was worthless?¡± said Viv. There seemed to be a monster behind his back though that was an illusion. It was still quite scary to the point that Eden was having cold sweat. ¡°....¡± Alexandra moved her gaze away from Viv remembering the incident and sweating a lot. ¡°That''s....well I haven''t fo-forgotten....¡± muttered Alexandra trying to avoid direct confrontation against Viv. ''If I recall...wasn''t that the same day where Viv wanted to buy something limited and couldn''t in the end? Also that day...Viv was quite scary. Very scary....'' thought Eden remembering that he had thought that a demon possessed Viv and was about to kill everything. ¡°Anyway, let''s pay to get the quest¡± said Eden interfering with the execution of Alexandra taking out a large stack of gold coins that amounted to 43 500 gold in total. Even to Eden, this amount felt ''heavy'' to him considering that he spent most of the time not using much gold even though he had so much. Eden lined up with Alexandra and Viv and eventually got to Weed. ¡°Here is the money¡± said Eden handing over the stack of gold coins. Weed gave Eden and the others a business smile and said in a kind voice as if this was perfectly fine, ¡°Thank you. Will you embark on this quest with me?¡±
Help Emperor Weed on eliminating the treat from one of the 10 restricted zones the Cursed Forest There had been many saying that a great beast lies low in the cursed forest that is finally awakening. If such a creature would leave it''s home to the main continent, there would be massive tragedies. As such, Emperor Weed had accepted this quest to slay the monster. Help Weed on this quest and you will be rewarded as well. Rank: A Reward: Experience, Blessing from Nature Restrictions: The creature attacks the main continent.
¡°Of course¡± said Eden, why wouldn''t he want to considering he just handed out a lot of gold for this.
You have accepted this quest
Several seconds later and Alexandra and Viv also accepted the quest as well. Several more minutes, the rest of the players got the quest as well whether they had enough cash at hand; didn''t have enough to sold some stuff to Mapan at a ''fair'' price or simply traded in something of the same value to Weed like equipment or rare items. There were now 50+ players that were with Weed in this quest though he didn''t really care. Mapan seeing that the contract ended between them, partied up with Weed. Along side Weed in a party was also a archer, mage, priest, monk, dancer and fisherman. It was quite an unique party with a dancer and fisherman mixed in though he couldn''t really say much when he was a ''Mage'' , Alexandra was a ''Paladin'', Viv was a ''witch'' and there were five bards with them. Eden looked around and found that there was a large quantity of paladins and priests here. Over half of the players here were of those class who everyone else had holy enchanted weapons at hand. ¡°Hmm...why are there so many who are church related here?¡± asked Eden to Minra. She looked surprised and said, ¡°Huh? You didn''t know?¡± Eden shook his head. ¡°That''s because the Holy Element is the most useful here even with their abilities being reduced quite a bit. In this place, there are lots of ghost related creatures like Ghost Warriors or Ghost Knights and you need Holy spells else otherwise to defeat them.¡± ¡°Hmm....¡± Eden thought that this was literally the perfect hunting ground for Alexandra. ¡°How strong are these creatures?¡± he asked again. ¡°Around the level 600 margin at least, I heard from other players that they reach level 700 for named monsters.¡± ''Not a bad hunting place then. Well I and those two now have to resort to these kinds of places to increase our level even more now since there aren''t that many good places to hunt in now.'' ¡°Anyway, let''s talk to the others of our formation. We''re just following Weed at this point to the boss but we will be attacked quite often so we''re more or less alone on getting there. The other parties will try to form alliances of larger groups as well but I rather just go with us eight.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Ho...so those are the ghost warriors. They looks quite solid for ghosts¡± said Alexandra seeing into the distance several tens of enemies. Right now, the group plus five bards were with the other players since they haven''t actually entered the dungeon yet. There was only a simple battle to gain entrance to the start of it and it was guarded by the most simple of enemies. ¡°Paladins will be the front line! Priests will be the last line and will primary support the paladins! Everyone else, move into the place that you feel that your role will be most effective!¡± shouted Weed immediately taking charge of so many players at once easily. You could say this was the result of his charisma, leadership and reputation that no one dared to oppose him. ¡°Well, then looks like I''m going to have some fun~¡± said Alexandra leaving to fight at the front as well. Eden stayed behind with Viv and the other support players. In total there were around 20 close range related players while there were around 30 ranged related players. Next to Weed however, he also had some of those ''sculptures of life'' that looked like monsters that obeyed his commands. Getting onto the 5 metre tall black bull, with the flying ones hovering next to him and the golden man and priest one staying behind to support him there, Weed charged first and alone. ¡°Wait what?!¡± one player exclaimed seeing Weed suddenly attacking. ¡°Damn, charge charge!¡± As a result, the safe formation of the players immediately broke down as they chased after Weed. ¡°Enemies! Kill the enemies!¡± shouted the ghost warriors seeing Weed alone attacking them. All 20 ghost warriors charged at Weed trying to kill him with their weapons. The large black bull easily moved around them letting Weed slice and dice them from the side before retreating a bit then charge in the centre of the ghost warriors and cutting them inside a rain of swords. The other sculptures of life did not stay idle as well. The bird related ones, the gold looking one and silver looking one turned into swords of the same colour and deflected and otherwise attacked the ghost warriors as well. The gold man shot arrows rapidly from his bow while the priest maintained and healed Weed when he was hit though she immediately switched to simply buffing him when Weed glared at her for some reason. By the time the other players got to Weed, all of the enemies were already slain and Weed along with his sculptures of life and his party which were all players that seemed strong entered the dungeon already. The other players hastily tried to follow Weed as well. ¡°....¡± ¡°Well that was kinda unexpected. Weed is quite the good fighter....to the point that I hope Alexandra doesn''t attack him....¡± said Eden. The five bards immediately thought of who the hell would want to attack Weed and that appeared on their faces. ¡°Ah, Alexandra is the battle freak type. You don''t know her that well but she would drag me into so many things when she finds that something is powerful. Examples including hunting a silver griffon king, white hydra and several death knights. There was even a case of fighting an abyss knight as well.¡± ¡°....¡± They stared blankly at Eden, ¡°What? Three players with levels that makes them some of the top players and you think that we haven''t gotten lots of times where we faced strong foes?¡± ¡°No no, but hearing you fought against those kinds of foes is....well quite assuring for us¡± said Alina knowing having strong protectors are the way to survive with their level of strength. ¡°Let''s go, Al is getting impatient waiting for us here¡± reminded Viv causing everyone to go to Alexandra and into the dungeon. The entrance of the dungeon was quite plain in fact. It was actually more like a large wall that separates one side of this place to another with both sides being quite open in fact. Naturally there were places where they had to cramp in together which was quite dangerous against ambushes but otherwise there was quite a lot of room to fight. Think of a dark desert and then put it underground as a large cave and then add in walls that are really far apart and you get this dungeon. The moment that Eden and the others walked through the entrance, they got this message
You have entered the ''Dungeon of Seeking Curses'' - Fame increase by 5000 - Double exp and items is in effect (13 days, 23 hours...)
¡°F-fame increased by 5000!¡± cried Saku in surprise. The other bards were also seriously surprised to the point that they could get heart attacks as well. Even now, gaining this amount of fame at once was almost unheard of unless you were a top player on a difficult quest. For ''normal'' players like the five bards, this was something that was akin to getting a rare item each. However it was quite small to the other three that had gained so much that it didn''t matter much...except for Eden who had the highest infamy in the game and had the least fame between the three. ¡°Only 5000? That isn''t that much¡± commented Alexandra much to the shock of the five bards. Viv contributed to this with, ¡°We reached 300 000 a while back so it''s natural that it isn''t much to us. On the other hand our fame level is the same as Eden''s infamy level.¡± Alexandra gave an amused smile to Eden and asked, ¡°Last time your infamy was finally reaching down to 200k. How did it rise so fast back up?¡± Eden remembered such incidents....and said: ¡°Gods are quite petty you know and don''t like fixing their mistakes.¡± ¡°Ah so you pissed a God off intentionally?¡± Eden shook his head. ¡°Not intentionally. The other Gods practically forced me to kill on of their kin and that one not exactly pleased till the last moment raised my infamy up high while the other Gods didn''t bother to fix this before sending me back. Hades was a real bitch while ruling the spirits of the dead as well. His ''Soul Devouring Flames'' was also troublesome to handle as well.¡± ¡°Sounded like a fun trip.¡± ¡°Not at all. There were so many underworld grim reapers that make horror stories seem tame. Ah....how many time did I almost die...and then actually die in that place. Speaking of which I''m surprised that you haven''t brought this topic up once even though it happened years ago.¡± ¡°Well...after you appeared again, you looked like haggled and had this ''don''t ask and don''t bother me'' look on your face for the next month so there was no time to ask¡± Alexandra replied shyly. Viv butted in with, ¡°Eden, Al are you sure you want to discuss this in front of them?¡± Viv pointed at the five bards that seemed very keen in listening in. Alexandra waved her hand and said, ¡°Let them be. It''s not like a group of people can make others believe that there is a person who slain a God though I believe the Emperor over there did a while back in a quest. Anyway, I want to see this ''Soul Devouring Flame'' that you got.¡± Eden sighed and looked around. There were some ghost warriors around but looked like they were doing nothing at all. At the front was Weed bursting through the main defence while everyone else took care of the scraps left behind. Soon enough as they walked, one of the ghost warriors noticed them, a small group with lots of weak bards in them. That ghost warrior let out a battle scream and immediately charged to attack. ¡°Epp!¡± ¡°Shit! Run!¡± The five bards immediately went to panic mode since they were non combat types as well as in a place that was higher level than them as well by at least 100 levels. Looking at Alexandra who more or less said with her eyes that she wanted to see the flames, Eden quickly processed all the commands to use the spell in his head. Blue flames wrapped around himself as he chanted: ¡°Soul Devouring Flames!¡± The blue flames extended from his whole body and flew and bathed the ghost warrior causing it''s very soul to burn and disappear in seconds without leaving a trace left. ¡°....¡± The five bards were shocked while Alexandra and Viv looked a bit impressed. Usually Eden using fire had to use a large ''bang'' attack to get rid of an enemy of that level. For a flame to do the same silently means it was really powerful. ¡°The only problem is that these flames are God rank which means super drain on my mana which is saying a lot with all my mana regenerative skills.¡± Still looking at the blue flames on Eden''s body, Alexandra asked, ¡°How long can you sustain them then?¡± ¡°Around 3 hours continuously.¡± ¡°Wow that is a huge mana drain. I bet the strongest mages wouldn''t be able to use it for 10 seconds.¡± ¡°Yep, plus this is due to the power source of the flames being soul power. I have to convert mana into soul power to use these flames. I think the underworld was practically made of that stuff so Hades could use it constantly. Otherwise I could extract some souls and use it like a battery but that won''t last too long. In the end, I found that using my mana as the source is quicker and easier to manage.¡± ¡°So...there isn''t much possibility of using it too much then?¡± ¡°Not at all. Unless there is an enemy that is quite durable I don''t think I need these flames that much.¡± Eden, Alexandra and Viv walked on with the five bards stared at Eden covered in blue flames in both awe and fear though one gritted his teeth seeing the difference in power. [p=center]xXx[/p] Several hours passed and the large group of players led by Weed was almost to the end of this dungeon. Mid way, they had to go further underground and into a large cave system. There, there were more powerful monsters that were troublesome to deal with such as ghost bats and ghost knights. Since they didn''t really stick to the other groups, Eden was forced to often use long range magic in order to deal with enemies before they got near since he had to protect five more people now. ¡°Burn!¡± shouted Eden grabbing onto an enemy with his ''Soul Devouring Flames'' and burning it to death. ¡°Kaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!¡± The ghost knight screamed as it sent out waves of spiritual power as a last resort attack to Eden. Eden took the hit and it didn''t actually damage him due to his high defence. The ghost knight disappeared and the group proceeded ahead some more. While walking, he could hear the conversation of the five bards behind him. ¡°I gained another level...¡± ¡°How many times has it been now?¡± ¡°I don''t know. I gained 10 level so far.¡± What they were doing was bus riding on the efforts that Eden made. Well it couldn''t be helped since they were too weak to even help Eden deal with enemies and Eden himself was only getting a bit of experience for each kill even though the level difference between him and his enemies wasn''t too far apart. Once again Eden used ''Soul Scan'' to keep track on Weed since it seems that he knew where he was going and there were two other groups following him close behind as well. It was quite shameless how there were so many people following someone else ''feeding'' off the remains that may appear. However Eden also searched ahead as well and more or less found the location of the boss monster that needed to be killed. Due to this, he and the others were taking another path to the boss unlike the others. One reason was that he didn''t really like other players. Another was that Alexandra wanted to fight and this could not be done sticking to other players as well. ¡°Let''s speed up a bit¡± said Eden chasing down several enemies using his magic to finish them off. [p=center]xXx[/p] Another few hours passed and eventually using a different route to the other players, they ended up at the room before the boss monster. Immediately when they got here, Weed took out some armour and polished it. He then sharpened his weapon as well and did the same to the rest of his party in under a minute. Taking out some bottles of what seemed to be alcohol, he drank one and gave a bottle each to the rest of his party as well. ¡°What is he doing?¡± asked Eden. Another player which he did not know answered. ¡°Oh, Weed is using the skills he gained from intermediate skills to raise his weapon, armour and stats before fighting. I think you can possibly double your attack or defence when doing this.¡± Eden was quite surprised that there was such an option besides from using powerful buffs on oneself to get stronger. Thinking about it, his Divine Sword never dulled so he never had a need to sharpen it and he really didn''t need to polish his armour as well since it was quite durable. Perhaps this was the reason of not knowing. At the same time, several other parties formed and prepared for the battle. Eden could see that the five bards were playing several buffs onto them to increase their stats even further aiding the buffs of the priests. Even if it was small and weak, every buff is good at times like this and these high levelled players knew that it may save their lives. ¡°I''m opening the boss door¡± said Weed in a commanding voice that was completely different from the ''pitiful'' one he had when asking(scamming) for money when giving out the quest. The other players were silent and waited for Weed to act. The door opened and inside the boss monster was revealed. Standing at 5 metres tall, it was a giant by all means and carried two large axes that glowed with dark light. It was a ghost warrior by all means but was a lot more powerful than the one that were faced at the beginning of the dungeon. ¡°CHAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!!!¡± shouted Weed making everyone run straight at the ghost warrior. 10 close combat players charged up immediately while the other 10 stayed a bit behind to protect the other players and see what would happen. The eyelids of the ghost warrior opened and let out a bright hazy flame from each of them. It opened it''s mouth and breathed out hazy fire at the charging players! ¡°Let the goddess protect from all flames of evil! Fire Protection!¡± The priests immediately started to buff the players with fire resistance buffs that caused the flames on them to be reduced substantially and cause small burns inside of turning them into charcoal. Seeing this, Alexandra''s eyes brightened and she was about to head out as well. ¡°Stop.¡± Viv was the one to stop her. He looked around and frowned. ¡°There is something wrong. That thing is not the most powerful thing here.¡± Hearing this, both Eden and Alexandra felt around as well using the countless battles they had to determine the greatest threats. They could feel that there was something powerful but was not sure where it was. ¡°It...shouldn''t be a problem as long as it is not disturbed¡± said Eden, ¡°Besides, it''s that thing over there that needs to be killed to finish the quest. After that we can run away.¡± ¡°Highly doubt it from past attempts¡± replied Viv with a sigh grasping his staff even more, ¡°We should help as well.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Alexandra turned to the five bards and said, ¡°Can you keep the buffs on the other players active?¡± Hearing this, Alina smiled and said, ¡°Yes! All of us have buff extending songs to use! Leeet''s go!¡± before starting singing in a loud gentle voice together with the other four. With that done, the trio turned to the ghost warrior which was handling being attacked like this fine. In fact it was going too fine to be true. ¡°Accursed humans! You dare attack the land where those who were exiled from heaven and earth gather?! Fine then....rise my breathen!¡± the ghost warrior shouted drawing power into the battlefield. From the sides of the walls....came more enemies! All sorts of enemies appeared from ghost warriors, ghost knights, ghost mages, ghost bats, ghost horses, ghost wolves and so on! It was like a B+ horror film coming alive. However besides a minor few, the players weren''t that affected by the appearance of such foes. ¡°Support players gather in a group! Paladins circle and protect them!¡± The players moved unnaturally quick and changed their formation to deal with his new event in the battle while Weed and the other few players focused on the boss alone. ¡°Agggggh!¡± One ghost warrior got near Eden in which he quickly flashed his hand and chopped it in half without thinking much on it. He was watching Weed battle. Seeing this, he could only think that it was a highly skilled battle. He either defended with all his might or attacked with all his might in an instant. It was the polar opposite of Alexandra who could attack and defend at the same time. Alexandra was fearsome because she could switch between both styles and take you off guard like facing an animal or beast but with Weed, all there was a burst of one thing that didn''t even leave you time to react. It was quite fascinating to watch and Eden believed he could learn some pointers like he watched, but he was still in a danger zone right now. Before he knew it, he was completely surrounded and a couple of enemies blocked his view of Weed fighting. A bit pissed off, Eden charged up an insane amount of mana to normal standards and burst out several magic spells at once. ¡°Geeeet out of my way!¡± Eden shouted shooting flames, ice, lightning and wind at the same time everywhere. To describe what happened, think of an explosion and add in several elements in it and Eden as the core of it. The ghost creatures that were around Eden all turned into grey light immediately like there was no resistance at all. Seeing this, Alexandra laughed out loud battling against several ghost knights at once while the other high levelled players only took a quick glance at Eden before focusing on their own battle. None of them were stupid enough to ask or stare in this situation. Their lives came first naturally. ¡°GAAAAAA!¡± There was a loud scream where the ghost warrior boss was. Weed had chopped off one of it''s arms and was now proceeding to take down a leg as well with the other players there. A minute later and the ghost warrior was taken down. The monster was slain...but the quest was not complete. It just might mean the actually boss was somewhere else. However the presence of a powerful foe in this area did not disappear...instead it increased rapidly. Noticing this...the other ghost creatures immediately escaped leaving the players confused. Weed frowned feeling this as well. However, more importantly Eden felt something strange. ¡°This feeling....¡± was some familiar... It was the same feeling got from llyfr and ''that'' from long ago. Something he didn''t not expect to feel...like he was just reunited with long lost family. ¡°Hello Eden-chan~¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°!¡± Instinctively, Eden sliced the air where the voice came from in a panic. Bang! A large sound from the attack that Eden used alerted everyone to where he was and what was there. ¡°Agh...¡± Eden held his limp arm that he used to attack and immediately retreated nearer to where the other players were. Blood was dripping from his arm and he noticed that it was broken. Furthermore his healing speed was extremely slow for some reason. ¡°....¡± Feeling that a new enemy appeared the players did not let their guard down at all. In fact things went even more tense with the appearance of this new enemy that completely bypassed their sensed and managed to attack someone without them noticing at all. A few seconds passed and his arm snapped into place completely healed as he glared at the enemy as well. ¡°Hello Hello~! It''s soooooo nice to meeet you all~!¡± the ''person'' said. Dressed in full Gothic pink in a frilly dress that was cut from just over the knees, this ''person'' was completely pale like an undead but had black hair in pigtails and most prominently, a third eye on her forehead that was completely black. Another thing was that her mouth was extremely large as well covering from one cheek to another. Since no one was willing to speak...since there was a suffocating feeling coming from her...even though Eden had to admit that he felt quite comfortable in it...he asked: ¡°Who are you?¡± Hearing these words, the ''person'' made a look of complete and utter despair at Eden and cried from all three eyes saying: ¡°You''re soooooooo mean! How could you forget about Onee-chan here? Or....do you prefer an imouto...~?¡± ¡°I''m sorry but I don''t have an older sister nor do I want a younger sister¡± said Eden plainly ignoring the straining mood right now. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Once again the ''person'' started to act out some sort of play and said, ¡°Buuuuuuuut you know Eden-chan, we aaaaaaaall know about you~! Since we are aaaaaaaaaall family~¡± With those words, Eden sensed that he was going to die.....literally as something was heading this way. Leaping like an animal, Eden dodged to the left moving faster than anyone could expect as the place he was standing at twisted as a dark bubble appeared where he was. Bang! Then the bubble burst and a large hole remain where he was. Looking around blushing, the ''person'' said to Eden: ¡°This is innnnnndeed quite embarrassing to onee-chan you know~! I guess I have to introduce myself then. I am the ''Destroyer of Curses'' Endo. Your onee-chan as a fellow Destroyer!¡± With that, the space around her twisted into black light as a weapon appeared in her hands. It was a completely pink scythe. ¡°There are sooooooo many bugs here~! I have to clear them out before onee-chan can talk to you Eden-chan~¡± Eden found Endo...a fellow destroyer grinning madly. Danger! That was Eden felt to his core. ¡°Mana Shields!¡± he screamed trying to cast even a little bit faster. Several tens mana shields appeared around everyone instantly and was continuously stacking up, layering over each other as Endo swung her scythe at them. ¡°Taaaaaaaaake this~!¡± There was no sound. No flashy explosion. Splash~ In an instant, several people were cut in half and died immediately, others large large wounds or were missing limbs now. The mana shields he casted could only deflect so much before breaking and it looked like it was sliced opened instead of breaking. Eden sighed in relief seeing Alexandra blocking the attack with her sword in front of the five bards. Those at the other end of the area, like Weed and his sculptures were unaffected since the attack did not reach them at all. As for himself? ¡°Cough....¡± Eden fell to his knees holding his cut open stomach. ¡°Heeeey, why didn''t you dodge or block with a strong defence~? Onee-chan''s attack hurt you knoooow~¡± Endo looked almost concern of Eden but he knew that that was just an act. She didn''t care about anything let alone him of all things. It was just that they were similar that she acted like this and wanting to test him that she intentionally reduced the power of her attack that Eden could barely see as something that must not be hit with. ¡°Weeeeeell, I suppose I can try again~¡± she said in a cheerful manner. She swung her scythe once again and this time Eden couldn''t even move. His wounds were still open and his ''burst recovery'' wasn''t working properly. ¡°Eden!¡± Alexandra leaped in front of Eden and took the attack head on causing large cracks to appear on her golden flashy armour. There was clean straight line where it looked like she was slashed by Endo. Splash~ Behind Eden, at least 30 players all died immediately. They had no chance at all and they turned into grey flames and dropped some loot as well. Eden could have sworn he saw Weed''s eyes flash for a moment there... All that there left were Weed, his sculptures, some players and...the five bards that immediately retreated next to Weed in the commotion. ¡°Heeeeeey! Don''t block my attack! I want to make Eden-chan into my toy~¡± Endo said such a terrifying thing in front of Eden. He wanted to escape right now. However Alexandra retorted with, ¡°Nooo! He''s my toy!¡± ¡°Who the hell is a toy?!¡± he retorted without thinking about it causing the wound on his stomach to reopen again. Eden cringed in pain. There was something wrong since even in extreme cases, wounds wouldn''t hurt this much...moreover, they didn''t heal this slowly as well. Eden believed he saw some priests trying to heal others but it not working at all... ¡°Hey....you''re the ''Destroyer of Curses'' right? That more or less means you have a strong connection to curses...even your attack carries curses right? Wound Regeneration prevention and Pain amplifier are the things you just used right?¡± Endo let out a small smile as from the wounds that were sustained, his skin turned completely pink there. ¡°Oh great....death by pink. Dragonic Release!¡± sighed Eden...he knew that this was another form of a cures he couldn''t get rid up so...he just needs to increase his regenerative abilities seeing that his mana levels were already at 30%
Dragonic Release is now active
With ''Dragonic Release'' now active, Eden could feel that his body was recovering at a slightly faster rate than before. However it was still a huge danger to even get hit once. Endo clapped her hands in an exaggerated manner and said, ¡°Little Eden-chan can power up! However before that...you, the ''Destroyer of Sovereigns'' should get rid of thaaaaat thing over there~! An Emperor that rules over all people~! Eden-chan are you resisting the instincts inssssside you~?¡± ¡°....¡± Eden nor anyone else spoke a word. Certainly Weed could be considered a target by Eden in a certain stand point but he vowed to never get to that point ever again. Last time he was almost consumed...he wondered if he would become like this if he allowed it to happen. However Eden also preferred that a whole United Kingdom to not hunt him down as well....even if he was not completely responsible to his death. As such, Eden warned: ¡°Weed! Get out of here! This is not your battle!¡± A quick glance between the two and Weed said in a calm fashion, ¡°I do not intent to steal other people''s prey.¡± Endo stared at them as Weed, his sculptures of life and the five bards as well as what''s left of the other players tried to leave. She even let out a small wave as well as they cautiously left to the exit. However... ¡°Onee-chan givvvvvvves up~! I''ll kill the fake puppet of the Gods at leasttttttttttttttttt!¡± With a burst of speed, Endo charged at the priest which was the one who was made to be the priest of Lou or something like that and swung her scythe down at her. ¡°Summon death knight!¡± A death knight appeared. ¡°Master!¡± ¡°Be meat shield!¡± And was grabbed and thrown at the attack that was heading to the priest. Bang! The death knight was one shot with a single blow and disappeared. The other players and sculptures of life used ranged attacks at Endo which caused her to retreat a bit. ¡°....¡± Eden stood there a bit shocked and pitying the death knight that was summoned since he was once treated like that by Alexandra and Viv. However this was a chance for an attack as well seeing that Endo was distracted right now. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Eden fired an arrow of blazing fire at Endo at high speed. Bang! It was deflected easily by the scythe. Endo looked at Eden disparagingly saying, ¡°Edddden-chan~, something of that level cannot even scratch a full born destroyer youuuu know~!¡± ¡°Tch.¡± Normal levels of magic did not work. It seems that all destroyers based upon the ones he knew had a shocking level of magic resistance like himself.... ¡°Sword Wave!¡± Alexandra at that moment also attacked Endo which she tried to deflect as well but blew up when her scythe. Bang! Endo was left with some minor wounds. She gently looked at the arm that was harmed as well as her ruined clothing and looked at Alexandra. The pressure around both of them increased. ¡°Holy Aura! Divine Beast Shift!¡± Alexandra covered herself with white aura and increased her body''s ability at the same time instantly. ¡°Hoooooooo~ Another puppet of the Gods ehhhhhhhhh? I guess I can play a bit then~¡± While saying that in a light tone, the pressure and aura around Endo completely changed to one that made one to only think of death when seeing and feeling it on your skin. Feeling that he would be drawn into this battle as well... ¡°Battle Aura! Dragonic Overload!¡±
Battle Aura is now active
Dragonic Overload is now active
Eden too increased his power level as well like Alexandra. ¡°Spirit Mode!¡± Eden looked over to see that Viv was entering the battle as well turning into his ''Spirit Mode'' that increased his spirit magic power as well as causing physical attack to often slip through him. Now that he thought about it, a number of ''creatures'' were missing...to be precise, all of Weed''s sculptures of life were gone from this place. ¡°....Did Weed just made his minions run away?¡± wondered Eden as Weed returned in full armour and a sword that was shining with Divine Power in one hand with blood shot eyes. ¡°You trash! You dare cost me an investment! That one still hasn''t payed back it''s debt to me! She needs to be my tool around for a few more decades! Die!¡± Weed shouted in a fury seeing that one of his comrades was almost...wait, what was this talk of debt and tools? With a swung of his sword, thunder birds came flying out at Endo which she happily took on. Alexandra as well as several of the few remaining players also charged in as well hoping to kill this ''hidden boss'' at least. The five bards were for some reason also here as well. Not minding all of that...Eden prepared several spells to use against Endo. If he couldn''t damage her then... ¡°Water Turret!¡± A large gush of water came flying at Endo which she easily split into pieces. ¡°Ice Prison!¡± The water seemingly turned into ice and wrapped around Endo at the same time making her unable to move as well. However Eden did not stop there. ¡°Gravity Hell! Dark Shackles! Dark Prison!¡± Even casted these three spells over the ''ice prison'' spell as well chaining up the Endo even more and causing the space around her to distort with the sheer pressure that Eden placed on her. ¡°WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!¡± And in an instant, all of that was broken with Endo stretching her arms. Eden could hear that one player commented that Endo was a complete monster. ¡°Onee-chan is happy Eden-chan! You are stronger than an inseccccct~!¡± she cried cheerfully swinging her scythe several times causing several cuts to appear on everyone around her. Alexandra was even forced to switch to her ''Valkyrie Armour'' since her usual one was broken into pieces now. ¡°Crimson Spear that rejects the heavens! Starfall Series Spell #7 Longinus Strike!¡± Viv started his attack then and there seeing that his usual magic attacks were useless against Endo. A great black spear appeared with a golden core and shot at Endo in a straight line. She gleefully took on the attack creating a simple barrier on front of her using her scythe as a base and negated the attack like that. ¡°Moonlight Sculpturing Blade! Heraim Fencing!¡± Weed shot around Endo taking advantage of her careless manner and managed to wound her several times bypassing through her defences with his skills and speed. ¡°Hahaha, the littttle insect can bite~! Legion of Curses!¡± Endo leaped back and began to produce those bubbles with curses in them at random places rapidly. Eden and the others literally had a hard enough time finding a place that did not have a curse on it. As a result, some of the few remaining players died. Seeing this, Eden had not choice but to go full force with the intentional of taking her down even if he died in the process. [p=center][I to awaken am the Tyrant whom stole the throne of God] [I devour the wisdom and rip apart the Knowledge] [I will become the Magic King that rules over all Creation] [And I will show you true Despair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] [Magic King Drive!!!!!!!!][/p]
Magic King Drive has been Activated
Eden''s golden aura increased several times and turned different in nature itself. Eden could feel the movement of Endo and what she was probably doing now. It was a strange feeling when countless experiences are pouring through your mind. ¡°Golden Sword!¡± Eden created one golden sword from his skill and threw it at Endo. ¡°Golden Spear!¡± As Endo deflected and easily cut through the golden sword, Eden extended the spear to stretch out and stabbed it at Endo, extending and extracting it over and over again as he battled with her while he was several metres away. However Endo''s skill with her scythe was beyond what Eden imagined and she proceeded closer to him for every attack he made. ¡°Tch.¡± Wielding the with one hand now, he summoned his ''Divine Sword Kotoko'' in his other hand. When Endo was really close, he let go of the spear and blocked several attacks that went his way in a fashion similar to a furry. Of course the other players did not do nothing. They also attacked often but their attack were often blocked or deflected leading to Endo counter attacking them and killing them instantly as well. After a few minutes of battle, all that was left was Eden, Alexandra, Viv and Weed as well as the five bards since they haven''t attacked Endo yet ad was seemingly spare for now. All of them panting with stamina levels on the low levels, Eden was barely maintaining his ''Magic King Drive'' even though he only activated for a little while. ¡°Disappointing! Verrrrrrrrrry disappointing Eden-chan!¡± said Endo in a serious tone now though her exaggerated speech was still there. ¡°Even if you are the youngest in our ''family'', llyfr-nii was far stronger than you! Not only you are suppressing your nature as a destroyer, you evvvvvvven threw away the power of the ''Magic King Armour''!¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone was silent, they did not want to piss her off and get killed at this point. ¡°You know Aniki always said that llyfr-nii''s power can be split into three parts. The first was llyfr-nii''s power to oppose gods, the power that was opposite to divinity and creation. The second was his Magic King Armour that bathed in the blood of countless gods. And the third was the power he got from consuming the Devourer to become the ultimate destroyer of all creation!¡± ¡°And what it have to do with me?¡± asked Eden still healing his wounds that almost stopped regenerating at this point. ¡°Everythinnnnnnnnnng! Llyfr-nii awakened your Destroyer nature. While he was in you, his powers aided you and even gave you the power of the ''Magic King Armour'', something that was born parallel to the ultimate ''God Armour'' as well!¡± lectured Edon with her cheek pouting for some reason. It was like she was scolding Eden like a child now. ¡°Nooooooow! Since llyfr-nii left, you no longer have access to llyfr-nii''s aid but should still be able to use the ''Magic King Armour'' but all I feel is the scent and power of a lowly dragon! Moreover you are not trying to be yoursssssssssself, restricting yourself like a child in puberty!¡± ¡°I don''t think that last part has-¡± ¡°Quieeeeeeeet!!!!¡± ¡°Yes ma¡¯am.....¡± For some reason Eden could not help but to obey her words.... ¡°Now onee-chan will give Eden-chan a chance heeeeeeeeere~! That is if you survive this~¡± [p=center][I too awaken am the sinner that cursed the throne of god][/p] ¡°You got to be fucking kidding here.¡± The aura around Endo increased several times. [p=center][I devour blessings and give curses] [The light of all Creation will succumb in agony to my curse] [And I will show you true face of hell!!!!] [Curse Heathen Drive!!!!!!!!][/p] The presence around Endo was increased several fold and all Eden could see was death itself. There was nothing he could do. Strength, speed and powers; all of those factors he was completely outmatched. He had only now realised how much of a monster a true ''Destroyer'' was unlike him who held everything back for sanity and peace of mind. [Curse Eruption!] Black waves came from Endo quickly. They caused several symptoms of rare and powerful curses to appear on his body as well as the others. There were too many to simply list here. It made the black plague look like a cute puppy. However not everyone succumb to these curses. ¡°Blood Destruction!¡± cried Alexandra pressing on her body even though it was bleeding heavily due to her forcing herself right now. All this time, Endo was more or less focusing on Eden but for a split second, she looked at Alexandra with a bit of interest. [Ho....] ¡°Sword Wave!¡± Alexandra attacked and Endo deflected the attack away perfectly and countered her by slamming her into the wall after throwing her off balance with a wave of pure power that was similar to ''sword wave'' but on a different scale and range. BANG! ¡°Cough...¡± Alexandra fell flat on the ground lying in a pool of her blood like that. ¡°Bastard....Dragon Transformation!¡±
Dragon Transformation is now active
Eden turned into his humanoid dragon form. [Yes~! That''s the feeling you need Eden-chan!] Emitting killing intent from his whole body ignoring the curses that want to pull him into a deep endless sleep, Eden stood up and took a stance and gathered a massive amount of aura in his divine sword. [Give me your looooooooooooove~!] ¡°Heaven and Earth Separation!!!¡± Eden slice space itself at Endo. The pressure from the sheer amount of aura that he let loose caused damage to his own body as well as it looked like an above average split in space formed and was shot at Endo. However with her hand covered in black curses dripping from it, Endo smiled and blocked the attack. His most powerful attack. [Now have it baaaaaaaaaack~!] And deflected his own ultimate attack back on him. ¡°Shit!¡± He used a combination of several different magicks to move the earth, wind, lightning, ice, fire and even light and dark to block the attack that was coming at him. Of course while these random spells he throw without a thought were all high powered spells, they paled against a cheat level ultimate attack. And by almost instinct....he used ''Chains of Heaven'' to grab onto Robe and threw him in front of the attack. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!¡± BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!! The explosion due to the attack splitting space at random directions broke through his defences anyway and pushed him to the wall like he was tossed there. [Ahhhhhh...Eden-chan is soo bad~ Onee-chan approves!] For some reason once again, Endo now gave Eden a thumbs up. Slice! In that instant, that same arm that was giving a thumbs up was slice off with a sword that was pure black and reflected the night sky. And the person wielding that blade was an undead creature. However Eden could see souls and could tell immediately... ¡°Weed?¡± he muttered shocked seeing that he died and turned into an undead knight of some sorts. Endo looked at her arm on the ground as what seemed to be liquid curses poured out of it and reattached itself to her body. With a simple flick of her hand, Weed as an undead was chained onto the ground without being able to do anything. [Baad Undead-chan! Attacking me while I was talking to Eden-chan! I should make it so that my curse haunt you for the rest of your dayyyys! But seeing Eden-chan being the bod boy there...Onee-chan here is happy you know! Eden-chan might one day fight with Onee-chan and the other Oni-sans and Onee-sans that we have!] ¡°Others?¡± growled Weed wanting to attack Endo but not being able to. [Yeeeeeep Undead-chan! In each of the 10 Restricted Zones....do you know why they are called the Restricted Zones by the Gods? It''s because at the heart of eaaaaaach of them is a ''Destroyer'' like Onee-chan here. Onee-chan was verrry sad that wandering ''destroyers'' like Eden became extinct but when he appeared....I could feel everrrryone being supppppper happy you know~ We finally had new family and Eden-chan even faced off against Aniki as well with llyfr-nii!] At that moment, Eden could feel that a massive amount of mana was converging around Viv as he was using a spell. It seems like he was on the breaking point of snapping now... ¡°Wait wait wait Viv! You''ll kill us all!¡± shouted Eden feeling that this amount of mana meant... But Viv ignored Eden and chanted: ¡°The stars fall one by one as the witch laughed with mercy as the Gods fell and the Demons rose. Starfall Series Spell #13: Heaven''s Fall!¡± The hold room turned black as the spell covered everyone not caring for the safety of anyone. [Not baaaaad chibi-chan but against a ''Destroyer'' like me...haaaaa~!] The black sky shattered into pieces like glass and fell to the ground. ¡°....¡± Eden wondered how overpowered this thing was. Literally smashing spell of that scale into pieces screamed monster (Yes and as the narrator, I will intend to make you do that often as well). He wondered if all the other ''Destroyers'' were like this as well...and despaired a bit seeing that her personality wasn''t normal. Like Alexandra but without brakes and only an accelerator. Seeing the despaired Viv who had his most powerful spell rendered useless, Endo was about to attack him... Bang! A golden chain that was similar to the ones that bound llyfr and the ones that he could use appeared and bound itself to Endo''s arm from an unknown place. Bang Bang Bang Bang..! Chains continued to appear and restrain Endo. Seeing this, she pouted and shouted: [Ahhhhhhh, I wanted to play a bitttttttt more you knowwwwww! Bah, Gods are no fun. Eden-chan~] Endo looked at Eden with an amused look on her face as she said: [You must become stronger. In order to ''protect'' instead of ''destroy'' with or against all the Oni-sand and Onee-sans that you got! Onee-chan here will play with you when you get stronger okay~!] With that, the chains completely pulled Endo into the ground and into the heart of the ''Cursed Forest''. The battle ended...with their complete defeat. [p=center]xXx[/p] Still in his undead form, Weed approached Eden with a smile on his face. For some reason, this smile was more frightening then Endo which they just fought. ¡°I died you know¡± he said. ¡°I know¡± replied Eden not getting his point. ¡°Levelling at this stage is quite difficult even for me. Because of you, ''that'' appeared and it ended up with me being killed and ending like this.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°And beyond this place is a completely new section of the dungeon! We still have a quest to do you know¡± said Weed grabbing onto Eden''s shoulder. Eden shiver with a bit of fear there and then. ¡°And you will help me right? As good ''friends''. I have taken an interest with the power you process.¡± Cold sweat was pouring down his spine as he tried to find a way out of this. Alexandra was down for the count and Viv was super depressed right now as well. ¡°Damn! Need to abandon them!¡± he shouted making a way to one of the exits. However immediately, Weed''s sculptures of life appeared and blocked all of the ways like their lives depended on it. The large bull then said: ¡°Moooooo, if we let you go, Master will torment us too.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden was outnumbered and exhausted as well seeing that he fought with full strength for a while. If he fought now he would definitely lose to these dozens of creatures that were on Weed''s side. The gold man walked over to Eden and patted his shoulder. ¡°Gololololo. Give it up. We can''t escape as well.¡± In the next two weeks, the dungeon was completely cleared and the monsters in them were all hunted to extinction. Alexandra and Viv happily accepted the friend requests from everyone since they got along with them quite a bit since Alexandra liked fighting and Viv like managing money and resources. Also for some reason Mapan and the four bards tagged along as well and was simply exhausted even though they did not hunting. The exception was when money fell in front of Mapan where he and Weed battled for every last coin. Eden friended those five and promised to meet them again later. However when Eden was looking through his stuff, a frighteningly powerful glare came from Mapan for a while seeing all the rare loot he had. Also, Eden never felt that his overwhelming life force; to survive no matter what could cause him this much grief. Later on even Alexandra felt slightly exhausted from this kind of hunting. That time Weed managed to gain 5 levels from this hunt which made him very happy. When Weed asked to friend Eden, he ran away not wanting to be used like that ever again.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8900~ - Well much to my disappointment, I found it hard to focus on Weed fighting things considering that he is quite weak in defence compared to Eden or Alexandra. Against Endo the ''Destroyer of Curses'', it was quite difficult to add him into the battle with significant since I don''t have a good idea of his abilities. But be assured, he was doing stuff in the background since this is from Eden''s point of view. - Also writing 17 pages in a day is a lot more difficult than I remembered...kinda expected me to take a few more days to complete this chapter. Well battle scenes ARE a lot easier to write than anything else. No talking...no chatting...just simply fighting and moving about. - Finally, Endo was a bit too fun to write. Think of Kurumi Tokisaki from Data a Live in pink and add a third eye on her forehead as well as a double than usual mouth. Vol.3 Chapter 10 - A Past Remembered(V) [p=center]The world is screaming for my death. The world is dying by my hands. Yet I can feel nothing. Everyone is dead. I killed them all.[/p] [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°I want to start drinking.¡± Those were the words that started it all. Break! Eden stared blankly at Alexandra dropping the glass of juice that he was holding completely ignoring the complaints of the waitress next to him. He quickly threw a gold coin at her to shut her up immediately. Eden gulped his saliva seeing that Alexandra was completely serious and said: ¡°Alexandra...you trying drinking is like playing Russian roulette where 99 of 100 shots are fatal.¡± Alexandra frowned and said, ¡°It can''t be that bad....we don''t know how much I can take.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden thought about it and it might end up as Alexandra being an invincible drinker or something like that....however if that was the case then he would be forced to go drinking with her and will likely be smashed dead drunk every time...either way, it doesn''t bold well for him. ¡°Still no. I rather not take that risk.¡± Alexandra pleaded with her eyes and said, ¡°Come ooooon. Life is all about risks.¡± ¡°And you know every time we take a risk, it somehow gets worst. I don''t even know how many times we fallen in some dungeon or be caught up in some scheme that we were forced to fight our way out of it¡± sighed Eden. ¡°But I heard rumours of this super top quality stuff that some hidden tribe of dwarves made. Isn''t it interesting enough to find?¡± Hearing this, Eden now clearly heard what Alexandra wanted to do. ¡°So...you want the first drink you have to be the very best? Doesn''t that make it kinda depressing later on when you always think of other stuff as lower quality?¡± ¡°Hey! I''m not...that picky.¡± ¡°Says that one who has cooking into the advance level. You can''t stand bad food and things that are ''under'' your tastes. Well that just means I get to taste good stuff everyday.¡± ¡°In that case, I''ll cut off the supply of good food from you!¡± threatened Alexandra. ¡°Hmp! Who do you think manages the money to buy ingredients? If I''m going down, I''m taking you down with me. Besides, I''m used to eating bad food to survive.¡± Eden remembered the time in the underworld. There was literally no food to be eaten there that did not give him some horrible side effect. Then how could he survive there you ask? Simple, eat the monsters living in the underworld. They were surprisingly edible in the end after all the poison, curse and so on effects were ignored. Hearing that her threat was not that big of a deal to Eden, she pouted and then said, ¡°What do you think Viv? If you side with me, we can all go drinking!¡± ¡°Is Viv even of age....?¡± Both of them looked at Viv who watched all of this before him. With a cup of tea in his hands, which he got into a habit of drinking recently, he said, ¡°There shouldn''t be a problem going. Besides...we have nothing to do which is why Al brought it up to begin with.¡± ¡°Yeaaaaaaaaaaah!¡± Alexandra let out an excited scream while Eden sighed trying to ignore the glances that the other people in this tavern is giving them. For some reason, Eden felt it wasn''t just because they were causing lots of noise... ¡°However, we need to make sure that Al isn''t the complete destructive drunk type of person else....that place not exist after we visit. Of course if we are the cause of the damage, we would be forced to pay for it...in the end. I rather not lose money like that....¡± ¡°....¡± Both Eden and Alexandra nodded to Viv''s warning. It looks like Viv was growing up to be a strict mother. [p=center]xXx[/p] Approximately 20 minutes after the trio packed up and began to move through the forest to get to the next town. Why would they walk instead of using Eden''s ultra useful teleportation spells you ask? The reason is simple. ¡°Since I''m not exactly the one to want to do this, I''ll be restricting some skill and spells from now on to make my point clear. First, I won''t be using teleportation magic at all unless the distance between places are super long.¡± ¡°Ehhh?¡± Alexandra made a voice as if she could not believe him on doing this. She too was, too used to Eden being a convenient travel tool. Teleportation was extremely powerful in many ways but has a restriction known as mana. Even for Eden, he would be extremely hard press to teleport more than a dozen people at once and there was also a weight and mass limit as well. But unlike most teleporters that can only go short distances or to teleportation stations, Eden had free control of the location of his teleport...if he had been there before due to calculation limits. He did not want to teleport into a rock after all. Why was Eden not afraid of things being in him after he teleported you also ask? The reason is simple. There are two types of teleports. The first is the dangerous type where you literally move into the location you please. This is quick and simple to use but have high risks like teleporting into open fire causing it to burn inside you or rocks and other small external objects being in you as well. The second was the type that switches your body with another thing at the location. With this, even if you teleport into a wall, the part of the wall will also be teleported to where you were and you can survive generally. However this takes a while to calculate and cannot be used in battle due to the long length of casting. But it was super useful for long distance travel, compressing months of walking into seconds of teleporting. Because of this, even if he wanted to, they couldn''t exactly escape from this current situation. ¡°He he he he¡± ¡°These young ones look nice to eat up.¡± ¡°I''ll take the black haired one for myself!¡± The trio looked around and they were surrounded by what seems to be bandits...or slave traders. Most likely the former. Seeing this, Alexandra looked at me and asked, ¡°Eden, why didn''t you tell us enemies were coming?¡± in a spiteful voice. Eden shrugged and said, ¡°Didn''t want to.¡± VI sighed hearing these words as well but Eden continued saying, ¡°Plus these guys are quite weak. I didn''t think they would pick on three level 600+ players. I think they''re all players since NPCs usually can tell.¡± ¡°Ew...so they are those types of people...¡± Alexandra looked a bit disgusted knowing that people would have this kind of preference playing the villain and making others miserable. ¡°If you don''t like them that much, why don''t you get rid of them¡± asked Eden who had no intention of even moving a finger here. Even if they tried, they couldn''t even block them walking. ¡°No way! They''re too weak to play with!¡± complained Alexandra hitting a rough spot on the enemies that Eden noticed numbered around 100. ¡°Fuck you bitch!¡± ¡°Imma gonna rip ya!¡± ¡°Fucking charge now!!¡± It looks like the bandit players were completely insulted by Alexandra''s words and came charging in just like that waving their swords. Sensing around, Eden could not find even one mage in this group at all nor archers. It looks like this game had a cruel abundance of sword users to the point that these players were forced to be bandits...else it might be that no archer or mage wanted to join them. Thinking about this, neither Eden or Alexandra did anything in order to combat the bandits. Seeing this, Viv sighed once again and used his staff to cast a spell. ¡°Grow Roots...¡± BANG BANG BANG BANG! From the ground, giant roots ripped through and whacked a couple of bandits away while Viv manipulated smaller roots to grab onto them and cut off their escape route. Viv didn''t even give them much time to scream until he manipulated roots to a scale that made it look like the forest was attacking them and drag them into the ground and killing them. Eden was quite impressed on Viv''s skills on using this spell. This ''Grow Root'' spell was to Viv as Alexandra''s ''Sword Wave'' and his own ''Mana Shield'' in which they were REALLY good at using them. ¡°Not bad~¡± complimenting Eden, ¡°If I or Alexandra had to deal with them, we would''ve had to destroy a fair chunk of the forest to do it quickly. You even killed them in a clean fashion where no one would notice that there was a battle here.¡± Alexandra nodded and added in, ¡°Plus the range of your spell increased a lot compared to when we started off. Before you barely managed 10 metres on sight and now you can use it at all range.¡± ¡°It''s not like....well I trained it properly along with the rest of my spells.¡± Viv was properly red in the face due to the compliments. Seeing this, Alexandra leaped in joy and rubbing her cheek on Viv''s own in a happy manner which left Viv even more red. Eden could only sigh seeing how they were acting. ¡°Hmm?¡± Eden looked over to where there seemed to be a half buried man and said, ¡°Viv, you missed one¡± before creating a fireball to kill him. ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± screamed Viv, ¡°I was going to practise my interrogation skills with him! I told you before to not kill them off like that!¡± in the disbelief that Eden killed him without much of a warning. ¡°....¡± Eden and Alexandra could only wonder what he meant by ''interrogation''? Recalling some unpleasant memories in the past.... ¡°Right....really didn''t want to remember what happened then¡± said Eden apologising to Viv. Alexandra let go of Viv trying to hold her stomach though her armour was in the way. The memory alone was enough to cause her stomach to....well almost. Eden was only disturbed while Viv was perfectly fine with the ''interrogation'' that he would perform. In this sense and in a strange way, Alexandra was the most normal in relation to the pain and torment of others. Plus Viv was the most scary when he is tormenting other... ¡°Eden.¡± ¡°Y-yes!¡± As such, Eden wanted to extremely careful around Viv when he was easily inclined to torment others to make sure ''others'' didn''t mean him. ¡°Since this was your fault to begin with, teleport us to the rough location of that place.¡± ¡°S-sure...¡± Eden without thinking much on it, immediately started his teleportation spell but in the middle of it asked, ¡°Alexandra, where exactly is this place?¡± Flustered being put on the spot, especially since her sanity was on the line to be ''tormented'' Alexandra replied quickly and clearly, ¡°A few kilometres off the town next to that place where a wandering skeleton knight appeared when we fought it.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Eden tried recalling that place and roughly knew of the place within a few hundred kilometres. Well it would had to do for him since he couldn''t exactly fail that badly right...? [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Right, now we need to find out more of these rumours of these dwarves¡± said Viv seeing that they were in the right place, which made Eden sigh in relief. Right now, they were in a moderately large town that was a frontier for a couple of dungeons. It really didn''t stand out that much compared to other places but it was still a good spot to gain some hunting when you needed. Plus the dungeons weren''t that great so it mostly served for players that were not part of a powerful guild to train in. Since it seems that Viv was taking control of this search, Eden could relax a bit since Alexandra was horrible at those kind of things; even worse than when they started off somehow... To illustrate this point some more, Viv then said to Alexandra, ¡°Al, make sure you don''t try to do something when we''re not looking. I rather not fight another group of people for no real reason again.¡± ¡°Yes sir¡± said Alexandra a bit gloomy. It looked like she actually enjoyed taunting others when she''s bored and fighting them. ¡°Eden, you help with the search as well. Just don''t talk to people since they run away from you. Earsdrop on them.¡± ¡°Yep¡± replied Eden kinda sad that Viv pointed out due to his insanely high infamy, normal NPCs won''t even talk to him anymore unless when they had to and would often run away from him. Thankfully they would not do this when Alexandra or Viv was around due to their fame cancelling out the effects of his infamy. As such, the three split up searching for information in the town. What could go wrong? [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Alexanddddddddddddddddddddddra!!!!!!¡± screamed Eden in rage while fending off several enemies at once. Even though he was a couple hundred levels above them, it was still quite difficult to defend one self from dozens of blades when you are bare handed like Eden is right now. Fortunately, he was quite good at using hand to hand combat to at least defend himself. ¡°Why the hell did you have to attack the damn mayor of this town?!!!!!¡± shouted Eden once again as he leaped from the ground to on top of one of the houses near Viv. Kinda pissed as well, Viv added in, ¡°Al....did you really not learn your lesson? Should I have to teach you proper manners?¡± Hearing this, Alexandra panicked and said rapidly in her defence, ¡°Hey! That old creep was sexually harassing me!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°What?¡± The two could not believe what Alexandra was spouting. That Alexandra who was known to be part of all major churches and minor ones as well. A being that was hailed as the bringer of light and justice to the world. And someone would dare to touch her? With all the powerful churches in this continent backing her up? ¡°Well not me but another girl!¡± realising the falsehood of her words, Alexandra immediately corrected herself. Eden and Viv sighed in kinda relief if the churches found out about this then...this town would not even exist anymore even in history. It would be unknown place was raided due to evil and cleansed by the combine force of light. That was how much power the religions of this continent had. Each major one literally rivalled the power of a Kingdom and it could be said that they along with the Kingdom''s Knights were some of the most powerful forces consecutively in history. Pissing any of them them off was a bad idea especially since those knights were now united and the churches influence had never been higher. ¡°However....¡± muttered Eden before shouting, ¡°Why the hell am I dragged into this again?!¡± in a fury like every other time Alexandra dragged him into something. ¡°Not my fault. Everyone practically associates you with me¡± replied Alexandra not caring much of the attacks that were being thrown at her. Unlike Eden and Viv, she was actually and willingly fighting the enemies that she picked a fight with. Seeing them now, they were mostly lowly guards that had little training overall in Eden''s eyes. In actual fact, they were all reasonably powerful guards of at least level 200 each. It was just that a level 600+ person was too much for them. Even so, they outnumbered her by about 30 to 1 since Eden and Viv really didn''t want to be involved with this. But fate was not so kind. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush! An arrow flew and truck Eden on the shoulder. ¡°Damn it, archers!¡± complained Eden under his breath pulling out the arrow that only managed to pierce through a bit of his armour and set up a mana shield around him and Viv. Several more arrows flew to the two but his mana shields pretty much blocked them all in which, they stopped firing at them and focused on Alexandra. But Alexandra''s armour was way better than theirs in terms of defence especially to all physical attacks. It''s only due to Eden and Viv being heavily magic related where their defences were better in that department. ¡°Light Binding!¡± shouted Alexandra focusing holy light into her hands and causing beams of light to appear and restrain her attackers all at once. A few more arrows flew at her once that happened but they were deflected by a half-assed Holy Aura coming from her body. She wasn''t even being serious here which was kinda sad seeing the resentment and hatred in the guards'' eyes....though for some reason, some of them were directed to him. ¡°Damn...don''t direct your hate to me....I''m not involved in this....¡± muttered Eden hoping that his reputation doesn''t go that low that guards would openly attack him after this. However things always didn''t go as Eden wanted to begin with. ¡°There it is! Kill the monster!¡± ''Monster? What monster? Oh...me. I guess I can classify as one....'' thought Eden now also dodging even more attacks than before. ¡°Viv....¡± said Eden pleading for some help here. Eden didn''t have any attack that could ''stun'' or ''knock out'' since all his magic spells were usually lethal even the ones that shouldn''t be lethal. He once killed someone with ''Ice Prison'' due to the spell being too powerful and it crushed the person to death while he screamed. ¡°Right. ¡°Hatred of the Besieged flows through the air, in the rivers and in the depths of the tainted grounds. Curse of Chains!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Eden was confused on why ''that'' spell was used at this moment. Then....numerous hands that were countless in numbers came from the ground and started grabbing people by the leg and pulling them down on the ground and them grabbing the rest of their bodies. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!¡± ¡°Help!¡± ¡°No...NO NOT THE HANDS!¡± Eden could only stare dumbstruck at the scene. Who would''ve known asking for help in relation to defending himself from attack could result in....this. The screams were bad even to Eden''s ears who sometimes but not lately turned into some sort of extreme sadist in killing. Though he wished that he did at this moment since ''normal'' Eden was quite bad with this kind of scene...though not as bad as Alexandra. ¡°Vivvvvvvvvvvvvv!¡± shouted Alexandra with a stiff smile on her face, ¡°Didn''t we tell you to NEVER use that spell ever again?¡± Viv pointed at Eden and replied, ¡°He told me to.¡± ¡°Edeeeeeeeeeen!¡± Alexandra was now cross with Eden. Flustered on the accusation, Eden said quickly, ¡°I was asking for help in defending from attacks! I didn''t want to...cause this scene again!¡± Eden looked over and saw that the 30 or so guards were now on the ground sobbing for dear life. To cause this brave group...who even dared to face a level 600+ person to break down like this...Viv''s ability to ''torment'' people was increasing again. At some point, Eden would not dare go against Viv at all. ''I think....I should contribute to the search from now on....'' thought Eden seeing so many people suffering before him....and he wasn''t the cause of. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°The dwarves are more or less below us...around here¡± said Eden bluntly after a mere few hours of searching. ¡°How did you know?¡± asked Alexandra. Eden let out a wry smile and then said, ¡°Simple. There aren''t that many souls that would live underground and have such affinity to both fire and earth.¡± ¡°Affinity?¡± ¡°Yep. Fire mage has a good affinity to fire and bad to water. A person with holy affinity will have a hard time learning dark element stuff. Dwarves in general have affinities polarising towards fire and earth and sometimes in rare cases wind. They have a particularly bad affinity to water however.¡± ¡°I see....so when could you see this?¡± ¡°See what?¡± Eden looked away trying to avoid the question. ¡°You know...if I recall you said you could only see souls and not recognise them at all, just the number and you your telling me you can tell what race or class they have based on their souls as well?¡± Alexandra leaned forward closer to Eden''s face causing him to back away. ¡°W-well....when the skill grew, it gained new abilities. It actually took me a while to tell that there was a difference between how people''s souls are constructed.¡± ¡°Knowing you, it only took a month at most to master¡± added Viv sighing for some reason. ¡°Actually it took me a week.¡± ¡°....¡± A full three seconds passed when Alexandra realised something. ¡°Wait, you can also track people by looking at their souls right? That''s how you managed to avoid me more easily then before isn''t it?!¡± she was in an outrage since Eden would use his skills to avoid her like that. ¡°Oh that''s impossible for me to do you know. You must be a monster to tell people based off their souls. Souls are just made up elements which outlines what kinds of skills and spells they can use either way. My skill filters out all the other stuff besides the ''stuff'' that living beings have.¡± ¡°So....if you trained it enough then you could still see even if you''re blind?¡± wondered Viv. It seems that he found the topic at least interesting enough. ¡°What? No! Didn''t I tell you my skill filters out all other ''stuff'' besides the ones that are in living beings?! The reason is that if it didn''t then my mind would be overloaded with too much information!¡± Alexandra looked a bit disappointed and said, ¡°Oh so you can''t exactly track other people then.¡± ¡°More or less unless they''re alone or in small groups.¡± ¡°I see.¡± With that, Alexandra and Viv began searching for an entrance to go in to get to the tribe of hidden dwarves. ''Of course....the only exceptions are you two....no, only you Alexandra. Your soul is so bright that I can''t help but to see it all the time....'' Eden let a small smile out before changing his expression back to normal to help the two in searching. [p=center]xXx[/p] Approximately 5 minutes later... ¡°Hey did you guys have any-ahhhhhhhhh!!!¡± THUD
You took 10 damage
''Damn this message seems to always appear no matter how strong I get!'' The ground under Eden broke and he well a good 5 metres before hitting the floor with his butt. He rubbed it with his hand as he looked around. It was a dark place with tunnels and seemed to lead deeper. ¡°Eden?¡± He could hear a small shout from above. ¡°Down here! I found it!¡± he shouted back. It would take them around 10 seconds to get down here as well. He moved away from the hole above him to not let Viv let alone Alexandra fall for him...literally. But then he felt that something was wrong and his instincts involving this was frightenally accurate. ¡°Hmm? He felt that the air around him changed a bit just in time to dodge. Bang! The wall cracked as a large arm made of rock and stone slammed into it just where Eden was standing. ''Although I believe my defences and life force is strong enough to survive that hit....it would probably still hurt like hell to be hit!'' With that thought, he dodged the next two hits with ease running around it. Seeing that he didn''t want to suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning, Eden did not use fire magic though this creature in front of him was resistance to it in the first place. ¡°Earth Golem?¡± There was a strange creature that was made quite roughly in the form that sightly resembled a person....a fate person that this. The arms and legs were too large. The golems that Viv makes are of much higher quality and taste compared to this one. But before Eden could dispatch it.. ¡°Look out beloooooooooow!!!¡± THUD!
You took 1537 damage
¡°....¡± Eden realised dodging those attacks made him move to where the hole was and... ¡°How long are you planning to sit on me?! You''re heavy!¡± he shouted flinging Alexandra off him with great strength. Next to him, he saw that Viv landed safety and not on him looking at the rock golem intensely. ¡°Viv....?¡± Viv was still in a trance as the rock golem moved in to attack them again. He was worried since Viv''s defences might be high for his class and build, he was still a magic user with generally low defence and speed...compared to Eden and Alexandra that is. Bang! Viv sent mana into his staff to directly block the attack and muttered a few things under his breath as he continued to look at the rock golem with a glare. Then after a few seconds, for some unknown reason to Eden, the rock golem shattered into pieces and in the remains was a ''core'' otherwise known as a metal sphere to Eden due to it''s appearance. ¡°Viv? Why are you holding and staring at that intensely?¡± asked Eden a bit frightened if he would retort back at him. But after thinking about it for a second, it''s Viv who rarely raised his voice. ¡°This is....¡± Viv muttered back to Eden, ¡°Very interesting. This magical core sustains the golem. Look, without me cutting off the mana supply to it, it auto repairs itself indefinitely!¡± Viv threw the ''core'' onto the ground and instantly, rocks and other materials surrounded it tightly recreating the golem that it was before. Seeing this, Eden was also interested. Golems were not a unique thing in this world. In fact it was quite common in ancient tombs for them to guarding places. As long as they have enough ''power'', they can last for centuries or more. However when broken, they cannot repair themselves without the ''power'' of the caster. As such, any of Viv''s own golems needs him to repair them if injured. But here, there was a golem that auto repairs itself as long as the ''core'' remains safe. ¡°Hmm...I wonder what kind of things we can do with it¡± said Eden wanting it a bit more to have some ''fun'' with it. ¡°I agree¡± Viv nodded his head, ¡°With this, I can continue my golem experiments and perhaps be able to make an army of them to use. There is a limit on how golems I can make and sustain at once but with this...the limit will be lifted.¡± Both Eden and Viv wanted to ''core'' to play with. However there was still one person who remained unimpressed with it. ¡°Umm....remember what we were here for?¡± asked Alexandra while Eden and Viv sealed the core and collected it. ¡°Of course¡± ¡°Yep.¡± The two carelessly replied without thinking much on it. Alexandra sighed seeing their attitude. ¡°Why are these two magic freaks....? Why can''t I have a normal conversation with a fellow sword lover...?¡± she muttered under her breath low enough that the two couldn''t hear her. ¡°Well then, let''s continue to explore~ There may be some more golems to find and keep!¡± said Eden now enthusiastic on the trip. Viv agreed and they led the way with Alexandra following behind them. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°Somehow....I think we are getting really distracted....¡± whispered Alexandra once again letting out another sigh. For reasons unknown to her, they always seemed to be dragged into something else when they decided to do something else. All she wanted to take her first drink....was that too much to ask? [p=center]xXx[/p] The trio went deeper into the underground network of tunnels, more and more golems with the strange cores continued to appear. As such, two people were extremely happy to see this unknown magical device for completely different reasons. ''I want to use this tool to make a device that can make it comfortable to sleep anywhere!'' one person thought. ''With this....I can finally make an army of golems from my dreams!'' another person thought. ''This is so....boring....I want to fight but those two won''t let me....'' the third person thought. Eventually without realising it themselves....or just Eden not realising it since he was the only one able to sense souls, they made it to the centre of the underground network. To be precise, they were just outside it with a thick metal wall in the way. ¡°Hmm....¡± ¡°What is it Eden?¡± asked Alexandra wondering why he was staring at the metal wall. ¡°Those dwarves you wanted to see are on the other side of this wall.¡± ¡°What?¡± Alexandra looked excited and licked her lips. ¡°But seeing that there are these auto-repairing golems around, it''s best not to-¡± ¡°Sword Wave!¡± Bang! The metal wall was broken down instantly before Eden could finish. ¡°Hey!¡± shouted Eden at the action. Alexandra looked confused and asked, ¡°What? It was in the way¡± not knowing why he was angry. Eden sighed and explained clearly this time since he didn''t exactly have the chance before. ¡°The reason there is a damn wall here is because the golems are probably attacking them with no end since they can repair themselves indefinitely. By blowing a hole in it, you just caused their safety to be jeopardised.¡± ¡°So? We can just destroy those golems easily.¡± ¡°But I....no we want to preserve the cores to experiment with them. Destroying them completely is a waste of time¡± said Eden not pleased of the option of getting rid of such good ''toys'' in the end. ¡°YOU THERE WHAT ARE-THE WALL! THE WALL HAS BEEN BREACHED!!!!¡± There was a large shouted. The trio looked and it was a short man with a long beard and generally was wider than the normal person as well being extremely muscular in the end. He was wearing light armour and was holding a hammer that was as tall as, no taller than him. ¡°This is bad...¡± muttered Eden sighing as a large number of dwarves, all armed came at them and surround them looking at them and the broken wall, alternating between the two. Eventually, one of the older dwarves since he had white and grey hair and looked stronger than the rest glared at the three and asked, ¡°Who are you and what do you want to destroy our wall?¡± ¡°I want to drink!¡± ¡°Shut it you!¡± Whack! Eden hit Alexandra in the head and then took over, ¡°Long story short, this one wants to drink the so called ''best liquor'' on the continent and we came here. We found golems that continues to repair itself and somehow got here from clearing them out. This idiot hearing that you guys were on the other side decided to blow up the wall before thinking about the consequence. Did I leave anything out?¡± Eden looked over to Viv who smiled and shook his head while Alexandra was rubbing her head while glaring at Eden. However the old dwarf looked like there were veins about to pop on his forehead. ¡°You think we would-¡± ¡°Chief! Golems! Golems are attacking!¡± another dwarf interrupted him and pointed. The trio looked back and there were around 20 golems there. All of which were the self repairing type as well which are near invincible in battle. ¡°More ''cores''!¡± shouted Eden happily. More was better than few after all. ¡°Viv, make sure they don''t harm the dwarves. Alexandra wants them later.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Viv started forming a defence line using his nature magic. Roots appeared and obstructed the way of the golems forcing them to rip them apart. Meanwhile Eden charged in alone and chanted: ¡°Negate Mana!¡± The area around Eden was completely devoid of mana using that skill. It wasn''t that the mana disappeared...it was just being sucked into his body beyond rapidly. Being in the area where Eden was, the golems'' ''cores'' which were only active using mana stopped and the golems fell apart one after another. ¡°Got one!¡±
Obtained ''Golem Core'' x 1
Eden grabbed the core before running to the next one and so on. It didn''t even take a full minute before Eden held in his arms, 20 ''Golem Cores'' which were the size of a small ball. This was probably the main reason why it was so hard to destroy a golem without extreme power even if you can cut them in half with a single swing. As long as you don''t hit the core, the golems will be fine and can attack you later in a matter of seconds. After clearing things up and sealing up the wall again using some magic, the old dwarf finally wanted to talk. ¡°So...why are you here?¡± he asked again now not as angry since the trio shown that they can take care of the golems but he was still giving some glances at the cores that were in Eden''s arms. ¡°I told you before. Alexandra wants to drink alcohol.¡± ¡°There are other places to drink...too many to count¡± he replied. ¡°Buuuuuuuuuuut I heard that the best ones are from here!¡± said Alexandra excited cutting into the conversation as well. ¡°....¡± All of the dwarves looked at Alexandra silent. And then... ¡°HAHAHAHAHA!!!¡± The old dwarf''s laugh boomed all over the place causing some ache even to the other dwarves. He had a happy face and said with utter and complete confidence: ¡°Well you''re right! This place does have the best alcohol, wine and liquor in the whole continent! Come! There will be a drinking party for 3 days and 3 nights from today as a thank you for a visit! Bring out the booze!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Eden was completely confused. Was they angry at them or happy about them appearing. The old dwarf explained it to Eden. ¡°Missy, let me tell you something. How long ago have we had visitors?¡± ¡°I don''t know...umm....a few months?¡± ¡°12 years.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°12 years since the last people came here to this underground village of ours. Those golems you see out there; those were made by our ancestors with another short race....umm....they wer called Gnomes I believe. They were used to be miners at dangerous places where cave ins were common. Too bad that they ran out of control and trapped us all here!¡± ¡°That was a slight oversight.¡± ¡°Yes! We dwarves never forsake the hard works of others but did we do so when we realised our genius made it impossible to escape from this place! We would escape but....centuries of drinks are trapped down here! It''s such a waste, plus the blessing of earth is strong here making the wine even better! Now drink!¡± The old dwarf took a few drinks and gave them to the trio who stared blankly at the scene around them. The group of dwarves started to drink rapidly and fallen into a trance of drinking and drinking until they faint. [p=center]xXx[/p] A few hours later with most of the dwarves out of the count due to fainting after drinking so much, the only people left were the trio and the old dwarf that had a surprising amount of tolerance to drinking. However the same could not be the same for Alexandra. ¡°He he....give me another!¡± she said in a drunken voice hitting the table with the bottom of the empty bottle she held. Eden sighed and gave her another bottle to drink. While he knew that it was best to not let her drink anymore, it was better to make her faint due to drinking too much than trying to stop her now that her reasoning was gone. But it could also be that Eden was kinda drunk as well. Even though he really didn''t drink that much, his body was warm and had a tingling feeling going through it. For some reason he couldn''t help but to stare at Alexandra with a red face. ¡°Whas is it?¡± asked Alexandra red faced as well though due to being drunk. ¡°Well...how does all the alcohol taste?¡± he asked with a surprisingly unbroken voice unlike Alexandra. ¡°Greeeeeeat!¡± Alexandra waved her hand and accidentally dropped the bottle in her hand. ¡°My drinky....¡± she said disappointed in a cute voice. Eden sighed again at the sight though also recording it into his memories for later and threw her another bottle to drink from. She drink it down in one go. ¡°....¡± Eden looked over to the other table and saw that Viv and the old dwarf were catting about things. Probably about the ''Golem Cores'' that they collected. The main reason why Eden wanted to study them was due to the potential of their use. According to what he saw, the auto repair feature was a spell being recast over and over again in a loop. If they applied this to other things, then perhaps you could use magic via an item infinitely say teleportation which takes the most mana to use. Such an item could at least reduce the strain of mana supply needed to use teleportation stations at least. Plus it would at least make this world more interesting with magic items being more common and useful as well. Eden was not at least worried about mages complaining that their roles or jobs were being taken. Mages were more or less short supplied everywhere anyway, no useful mages were being short supplied everywhere. If some magic items out performed them than it was their fault to begin with. ¡°Whas ye thinking uf?¡± asked Alexandra that sounded even more drunk than before. ¡°About how to use the golem cores later on. If I can modify it so that another spell can be lopped around then-¡± ¡°Shus it!¡± Alexandra banged her bottle on the table stopping Eden from speaking. She took out something from her inventory and placed it on the table. It was some sort of statue of a scale. ¡°?¡± For some reason, he could feel some powerful magical force coming from it. ¡°Thus is Divene Contactor. Mak a bet wit mee!¡± she said in a way that made it quite difficult for Eden to translate to proper speech. Eden looked at the statue and still felt that it was somewhat dangerous to him.... ¡°This thing is call a ''Divine Contractor'' right?¡± he asked not wanting to get the name wrong. He would need to search on what it actually is later on. ¡°Luts mae a bet!¡± she shouted. ¡°S-sure...¡± When Eden replied, the statue glowed and took some blood from both of them and held them on each scale. ¡°Hey what is going on?!¡± ¡°Ca''t brek bet nows~¡± she said sluggishly. Eden thought this was extremely bad news. If he was forced to do something unreasonable then what would happen to him? ¡°Winer of bet makes other obey! One commond!¡± The scale glowed once again confirming the content of the results of the bet. ¡°Bet is.....umm....have to mak mue sai ''no'' and noooooo lying!¡± The scale glowed once again.
Content of Bet has been confirmed. You will need to make player ''Alexandra'' say no to something you say to her. This can be a question or a command in which she has to obey unless she says ''No'' and loses the bet. The winner of the bet will have the power to make the other obey one command no matter what at a later date.
''So....judging from this...either way, I can make Alexandra do something in the end. The only thing to think about is when....well I would prefer I can make her do something later on though....'' As Eden was thinking, Alexandra walked over with several bottles at hand and forced lots and lots of alcohol down his throat which is extremely dangerous and should never be done. ¡°gufewpypupupupp¡± Eden''s muffled words were quite literally drowned out. [p=center]xXx[/p] An hour passed and now even Eden was completely drunk. His head felt like it was fading in and out whenever he moved a bit. As such, all he could do was sit as still as he could and even that made it harder for him to to feel well. But there was one person who was laughing at the current Eden. A person even more drunk than Eden who was forced to drink almost a large barrel of pure alcohol. This person was Alexandra and she had drunk at least three times more than he and yet she was still concious despite Eden feeling that he would black out any second. ¡°Ha ha ha! Yo lok bad!¡± She was unable to structure her speech properly now....not that Eden could as well. ¡°Ye too.....¡± said Eden struggling to not make it seem that he was dead drunk. Soon after this, the two simple dazed around not doing much while drinking a bit more once in a while. Eventually, Alexandra said: ¡°Edennnnnn!¡± ¡°Whaa?¡± ¡°Hurri!¡± ¡°Ehh...?¡± Eden was confused on what Alexandra wanted from him and with his current state, he really didn''t care at all. ¡°The beeeeeeeeeeeeeeti!¡± she said in a stretched out tone with arms waving. Not in his right mind, Eden thought of the one thing that he would want to say. ¡°Marry Me!¡± he drunkenly proposed to her. ¡°Yeeeesh!¡± she responded without much of a hint opposing him.
The bet has finished under the decree of the ''Divine Contractor'' The bet consisted of Eden asking Alexandra to ''Marry Me'' and Alexandra responded with ''Yes''. Under the divine rule of the Gods, the two will have to get married within a month to finish the content of the bet. Alexandra will also have the privilege to give one command to Eden which he cannot oppose no matter what.
¡°Huuuuh?¡± Eden stared at the message but didn''t comprehend what it meant at all seeing that light gathered from the statue of the scale and bound the two in complete contract now as rings...for their marriage, not that both of them realised this yet. ¡°Aaaaaaaaa.....¡± With that, the two dunk some more and both collapsed on the table at the same time sleeping peacefully. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Hey did those two just...¡± muttered an old dwarf with white and grey hair who was watching the two with some amusement for some time now. ¡°Yep¡± replied a young witch who was actually a male despite his class. The old dwarf looked over and then saw what the two were drinking and actually started laughing. With a puzzled face Viv had to ask, ¡°What''s so funny?¡± ¡°What they were drinking...one of them made it so that you would speak your deepest desire that you would never say while the other would make you speak the opposite of your deepest desire.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Both of them drink both of each...but the question here is that which one took effect. I bet that both of them will be shocked seeing that they did just now. What do you think lad?¡± ¡°I think....¡± Viv looked over to the wall that was broken and then repaired by Eden. It seems that the Golems were attacking now and would break in without anyone defending. He sighed and took his staff at hand. ¡°Lad, what are you doing?¡± asked the old dwarf. Viv replied, ¡°The golems are attacking and everyone besides us are dead drunk. I have to clean up then.¡± The old dwarf that was kinda drunk but not to the point that he was unreasonable said, ¡°The wall is so strong and thick that they won''t get in!¡± ¡°But Al broke through and Eden made a simple repair. They can get in that hole by breaking through now.¡± ¡°....¡± The old dwarf was shocked but did not know what to do, at this rate they would all be slaughtered. ¡°Don''t worry¡± reassured Viv, ¡°I can take care of them....also as for the question you asked....¡± Viv thought back on their relationship and answered simply. ¡°I''m surprised that they haven''t confessed before. Watching them wanted me to hit them both and tell them to love each other already.¡± The old dwarf looked at Viv with a curious eye and said, ¡°Don''t you have a thing for the blonde one?¡± Viv smile and shook his head, ¡°I only think of Al as a elder sister at most. For Eden...a comrade or perhaps an elder brother....or sister depending.¡± With that, Viv walked alone for a while taking down all of the golems in the underground system allowing players and NPCs alike in the future to come to this small dwarves village that was known to have the best alcohol of all kinds around! [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± a loud scream resounded at the table Eden was at and woken him up. Then a sudden force held him and shook him forward and backwards several times before he was completely awake. ¡°Alexandra? What are you do-¡± ¡°Shut up husband!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Eden wondered what the hell Alexandra was saying. Husband? That word usually did not come out often...no never came out Alexandra mouth before. ¡°Alexandra, what are you talking-¡± ¡°Shut up and let me think!¡± she shouted interrupting Eden again. Not knowing what the hell was happening, Eden looked through the recent messages from the game....and saw hell. ¡°....¡± ¡°Husband?¡± asked Alexandra. ¡°Yes wife?¡± replied Eden in despair. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The two stared at each other intensely....wanting to hit each other to death. Looking through the messages, they figured out that Eden proposed and Alexandra accepted. ¡°Why did you propose?!¡± ¡°Why did you accept?!¡± ¡°I was drunk!¡± ¡°So was I when you shoved beer down my throat!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ''Well thankfully she still has that one command which can probably cancel this marriage...or at least divorce us later on....'' Both of them were gripping each other''s collars now with killing intent in their eyes. Eventually both of them sighed and sat down lifelessly not knowing what to do now. Eden looked over and found that Alexandra was staring intensely at something in front of her; probably a message from this game. She then looked wickedly at Eden which caused him to have a chill down his spine. ¡°Eden, I command you to wear a wedding dress on our wedding!¡± she commanded much to the extreme shock from Eden.
Command: Wear Wedding Dress to Wedding is now in effect - You are unable to oppose this command. - If you fail to heed to this command than you will be punished until you do.
¡°....¡± ¡°Hahahaha, now you have to suffer more than me!¡± proclaimed Alexandra. HIT HIT HIT Eden started beating Alexandra up seeing that message from the game. ¡°Ow ow! Domestic Violence already?!¡± cried Alexandra. ¡°You....IDIOT! You could''ve used that command to cancel this marriage! Or at least let us divorce! Without it, now we are under absolute contract to stay married for life!¡± shouted Eden. ¡°Sorry! Sorry! I wanted to see you in a wedding dress!¡± Hearing that and looking at Alexandra''s face...Eden could only sigh and accept the situation as it is. He thought about it and marriage to Alexandra couldn''t be that bad....though he really had no clear idea what marriage was in the first place. Besides...Alexandra was an extremely beautiful woman. ¡°....¡± ¡°What?¡± Alexandra seemed to sparkle to Eden for some unknown reason that he hit his head and eyes trying to ''correct'' his vision. [p=center]xXx[/p] Approximately a month later.... Walking down the aisle with all eyes on him...Eden tried to ignore the glances that were on him...that everyone he knew was watching him with eyes open and muttering how beautiful he was. Those who knew his gender was MALE let out a small chuckle. At the end of the aisle, there stood a person who he was marrying....in a pure white suit. Walking and standing next to Alexandra, he asked in a low voice: ¡°Why are you in a suit? I thought you were going to be in a dress as well.¡± ¡°There needs to be a husband and wife. It would be awkward if it was known that the husband wore a wedding dress to his wedding.¡± ¡°So you decided the wife should wear the suit instead?!¡± ¡°Yep~¡± Looking at Alexandra closely, she really look like a handsome man...considering that she was cross-dressing right now. Eden let his countless retorts stay in his heart until he had the chance to scream. ¡°Beneath the loving gaze of Freya....¡± The priest that was in charge of their wedding was someone taken from a high position from the church of Freya after he volunteered seeing that Alexandra was getting married. This priest was actually the current pope of the church of Freya named Alveron who was actually in his 30s and nearing 40s now though retained the look of a 20 year old. Seeing that Alexandra was in a suit and quite handsome while Eden was in a wedding dress which was also pure white and he really looked like a beautiful woman in the happiest day of her life; Alveron raised his eyebrow for a split second before ignoring it. Both of them were considered beautiful so he considered it fine at least if that was how these two wanted it to be. He also gave some strange glances to both of them the entire time though. ¡°You may now kiss the bride¡± he ended his long speech on something about the blessing of Freya and such. As such both Eden and Alexandra moved in to kiss each other and bumped their foreheads. ¡°Wait, why are you the one leaning in?¡± ¡°I''m the husband of course!¡± ¡°Says the one with the dress. I''m the one with the pants!¡± ¡°That''s because you''re forcing me to wear this dress, this would definitely look better on you! Give me that suit!¡± ¡°No way! It wouldn''t be entertaining if that happened.¡± ¡°Grrrrr.¡± ¡°Did you just growl at me?¡± ¡°Who knows, it seems like the kind of things you would do you damn beast!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The whole church which was extremely large and currently housed a few hundred people were silent. They were completely silent on the fact that the couple were fighting each other right before they were officially married and in front of a pope as well. Thankfully Alveron was silent and still smiling...though his smile was quite stiff. Eventually, a person called Viv spoke coldly which caused the entire place to be colder by a few degrees immediately. ¡°Kiss or be punished by me¡± he said in which case the two passionateally kissed each other not wanting any time to be spared with eyes on Viv the entire time in fear.
Players Eden and Alexandra are now married
That message appeared and everyone cheered as the two walked together to spend time alone. [p=center]xXx[/p] Later that day... In a private room that they reserved for the two.... Eden was lying on the double sized bed still in his wedding dress. He was exhausted to the point that he couldn''t be bothered to even change. All he wanted to do was sleep and hope that all of this was a dream and never happened. ¡°Eden, you''re sleeping already? Not a good attitude to your wife¡± said Alexandra scolding him now. ¡°Don''t care...too tired right now. Had to keep appearances to seem happy about this and this dress is heavier than my armour!¡± he replied lazily back to her. Alexandra sighed and went through the things in this room. Since they reserved it, they would at least explore it since it was usually booked for recently married couples. ¡°Hmm?¡± Alexandra looked puzzled at something. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Eden. ¡°It says here ''Use when in trouble of getting drive on''...what does that mean? Hmm? The label here says ''Aphrodisiac''. What is this ''Aphrodisiac''?¡± ¡°I don''t know but don''t-hey!¡± Alexandra immediately drank the bottle in which there were several lined up.... ¡°Hey Alexandra....?¡± muttered Eden seeing that she was completely silent. She turned around red faced and looked dazed for some reason. Eden had a bad feeling about this.... ¡°Eden¡± she said while getting closer to him. Seeing this state of her, Eden backed away as far as he could but she only creped closer to him. ¡°You are mine right?¡± she asked. ¡°Umm...¡± ¡°You''re mine right?!¡± she asked again but more forceful now. She immediately restrained him by grabbing his arms with great strength that he couldn''t break free. ¡°Y-yes...we are married.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Alexandra....?¡± She started at him for a few seconds and then ''dug in''. ¡°Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!¡± That night, Eden lose his ''innocent'' and ''chastity'' to her that night.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9000~ - Yes! Final chapter of this volume done! - And this is how the two got married...though not exactly in the most romantic way. Muhahahaha, Viv is the third wheel in this relationship which makes it super interesting to write about. Now to write the epilogue for this volume and arc. Vol.3 Epilogue - New Trip and Goals Viv walked forward into the city that was slowly being reconstructed slowly by the efforts of it''s citizens and others that came to help. Behind him was a group of six that just recently escaped once again from death by an extremely powerful foe. They continued to move, ignoring the stares of the people looking at them...no at Viv and his outfit. He was wearing a simple set of equipment that really didn''t stand out that much; but his hat and staff inevitably drew lots of attention and those with him. Viv could be heard humming a small tune as he walked to the guild building which was perfectly unharmed from whatever chaos that destroyed most of the city. Opening the door of the guild building, Viv looked around and find that there was no one there at all....except for a person sleeping peacefully. ¡°Eden?¡± Viv walked over and found that Eden would not wake up no matter what he did. It also looked like he was having some sort of strange nightmare as well muttering, ''No more...'' ''Alexandra stop...'' ''I can''t go on...'' and ''You''ll break me''. It was quite erotic in fact that the six behind Viv could not help blushing to the actions that Eden was having even though he was fast asleep right now. ¡°Eden wake up.¡± Viv whacked his staff at Eden causing a bump to appear on his forehead. ¡°zzzzz.¡± But Eden continued to sleep despite this. ¡°How long has he been asleep?¡± asked Viv. The one called Sain answered, ¡°Around a week I think....¡± Viv sighed and then looked at the six and said, ¡°Go out of the building and don''t come in when you hear a scream.¡± ¡°?¡± The six were confused now. Why did they have to leave the building? And why would they come in after they hear a scream? Those questions were on their mind as Viv forced them to leave. Seeing that they have all left....Viv chanted a few words and used... ¡°Nightmare awakening...¡± ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± Immediately the spell took effect where Eden literally leap up with eyes very much wide open for all to see. He struggled to breath properly and only when he saw Viv he immediately calmed down with a scowl on his face. ¡°What the hell was that for?!¡± demanded Eden. ¡°You were asleep for a week¡± answered Viv immediately back. ¡°Oh...¡± Eden looked around and then asked, ¡°Where''s Alexandra?¡± ¡°Don''t know where Al is. Also...you may want to call in the other guild members as well....¡± ¡°Why.....?¡± asked Eden with a seriously bad feeling now. He looked outside and saw that the city was in ruins....during the time he was asleep...for a week. ¡°Right....I believe you guys are hiding back there...come out. Also you brats outside the building as well...get in here right now¡± said Eden in an extremely cold voice that was colder than anything anyone knew before. ¡°....¡± As such, 12 people walked from outside the guild building or from the hiding place inside the guild building and lined up in front of Eden without a word trying to avoid looking at him directly. The atmosphere around Eden was so bad that the group of six, being the youngest and as such, the weakest people here were all shivering with no stop. Gen was about to open his mouth to explain things but then Eden cut in. ¡°How....exactly this happened?¡± he asked with a cold glare at everyone. ¡°It''s all Gen, Mel, Jenny and Ron''s fault!¡± said Park rapidly, ¡°Anna and I had nothing to do with it at all.¡± ¡°Park you bastard!¡± ¡°Damn, are you saving your own hide here?!¡± ¡°Die traitor!¡± Hearing that the blame was pushed to them; Gen, Mel and Jenny were quite to curse him. However Ron shamefully had his head down the entire time. Eden saw this and then asked, ¡°Ron, seeing this amount of destruction only you could cause this and you were suppose to be the most laid back one as well.....What do you have to say to yourself?¡± Ron bowed and said, ¡°I am deeply sorry about this! Please punish me in any way!¡± ¡°Any way...eh?¡± muttered Eden with a grin on his face which inadvertently caused everyone else to feel even more fear. ¡°Actually please hold back on me...this body can''t take too much of your punishment....¡± corrected Ron. ¡°Anyway, tell me what happened. I''ll decide what to do after that¡± ordered Eden. A couple of minutes later... ¡°I see....I guess all round punishment is at order then¡± said Eden. ¡°¡°¡°¡°What?!¡±¡±¡±¡± Four people seemed to have rejected such a thing. Namely it was Gen, Mel, Jenny and Park who all wanted out on this. The only ones who didn''t complain are Ron and Anna; both who already stopped resisting at this point and was simply waiting for the end. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Before those four could start ''explaining'' themselves and why the others are at fault here, Eden said: ¡°Besides Ron who will be punished either way...you three¡± Eden pointed at Gen, Mel and Jenny. ¡°Are the main culprits. If you didn''t act the way you did, Ron would never have gotten angry in the first place. Other than that, Anna is also responsible but she''s not complaining here.¡± Eden patted her head softly though Anna was strangely stiff as well. ¡°....¡± Anna did not even dare move to make Eden''s mood worse than it is. ¡°Plus Park, as the one who is the seemingly oldest and most responsible of the group, why did you fail to stop them?¡± ¡°Umm...ah...¡± Park tried to speak but nothing came out and in the end he just shut his mouth and stood still like Anna. ¡°Well of course Sain and Miriel over there were also there¡± added Gen. Mel and Jenny nodded as well as Sain and Miriel paled and glared at their masters. ''Why the hell are you dragging me down with you?'' were their thoughts. ¡°Yes...how could I forget....¡± Eden took a glance at the two which caused them to become still like the rest. Gen, Mel and Jenny expected for them to be punished as well and as a result, they would be punished less; even if it''s only by a bit. ¡°This only adds onto your sins. You would even drag them into your mess?¡± Eden sighed and then said, ¡°Honestly if you think you can be let off easy because of this, your wrong...Gen.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Gen made a startled face. ¡°If I recall, this more or less started with you in the end.¡± ¡°W-wait a second-¡± ¡°Therefore you will be punished first...along with Mel and Jenny.¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°As members of this guild, you also hold responsibility to protect the city and yet remain as the main cause of it''s destruction. More over you try to push the blame onto others and even to your younger peers as well. I am very disappointed in all of you. Go to the Vortex World and wait for punishment...¡± ¡°Moreover....¡± Eden paused for a second and gathered his anger in one go. ¡°THREE DAYS?! IT TOOK THREE DAYS OF SLEEPING TO CAUSE THIS CITY TO FALL?! WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK WERE YOU ALL THINKING?!!!¡± ¡°....¡± With that, Eden let out a brilliant smile and pointed to the hatch under the stairs with cold emotionless void eyes... In the end, they were all going to be punished. The young group of six which consisted of; Sain, Miriel, Shadow, Serena, Lyndis and Raven silently waited as their seniors and masters walked dejectedly to what seemed to them to be hell. ¡°As for you lot....¡± Eden turned now to address the group. They were all afraid that they would be also be punished by him. This fear made them want to run away but the fear of even greater punishment prevented them from even moving an inch. ¡°You guys will be going to another city for now at a branch building of this guild. Sorry but can you escort them there Viv? It''s the place where Alice is.¡± Viv nodded and agreed. ¡°Now I have to find that Alexandra...she has a LOT of explaining to do for me....¡± muttered Eden walking out but stopping suddenly. ¡°What? Why are you guys frozen there? Pack up and get ready to move cities. Viv is more strict then me you know. Also I''ll be looking for you all soon enough either way.¡± Leaving those words, the six moved their gaze onto Viv, their new ''caretaker'' from now on. Viv bowed slightly to them and introduced himself again. ¡°Nice to meet you all again. Let us all get along. Don''t worry, I''m not worse than Eden or Al in teaching you all¡± he said with a gentle smile. At that moment...the group thought that this might not have been that bad...except for Miriel who knew better. Ignorance is indeed bliss in the end.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Posting Arc Epilogue as well...no posting here unfortunately. Arc 1 Epilogue - Coming to Reality Leaving the new recruits to Viv from now on...at least until the city was restored, Eden looked around using his ''Soul Scan'' skill and almost immediately found where Alexandra was. She was only a couple of blocks away from the guild building. ¡°Husband.¡± ¡°Wife.¡± Both of them said while glancing at each other. At this point, Eden sighed and banged his head on the broken wall that Alexandra was sitting on. ¡°What the hell....and how the hell am I going to explain this to Weed? He probably knows that this city is already....and god what the hell is he going to make me do?¡± muttered Eden shivering at being used by that monster. Alexandra jumped down off the broken wall and patted him on the shoulder, while saying at the same time, ¡°Don''t drag me into this as well¡± before trying to leave quickly. However in turn Eden grabbed her preventing her from escaping and said: ¡°Don''t you dare try to escape from this. What the hell were you doing at the time when Ron was rampaging.¡± ¡°Dealing with my own stuff. Trust me when I say that you are lucky only half the city was destroyed in this incident. If I had dragged my problems here as well there wouldn''t be a city in the end!¡± ¡°....¡± Eden thought about it and remembered Alexandra mentioning about some powerful monsters looking for her and nodded. ¡°Anyway did you manage to track down their real identities in real life?¡± asked Alexandra. ¡°I did¡± replied Eden with another sigh. Recently...no ever since he came to this world he had been sighing a lot to the point he believed he sighed more than anyone else ever. ¡°And what did you find?¡± ¡°All orphans, recently adopted by a rich old man. Doesn''t seem to be out of generosity however. Inferna is actually the butler to that old man.¡± ¡°Oh really? That damn shady man is actually something as respectable as a butler?¡± Alexandra almost laughed at the irony, ¡°Doesn''t that mean they are safe then?¡± ¡°Not at all. That old man plans on using them and throwing them away in the end no matter the result. He knows that it is near impossible to find that damn granddaughter of his. Plus Weed had more than enough headaches to deal with with that one. ¡°In that case I''ll leave it to you to deal with it. You''re better at these kinds of schemes to begin with.¡± ¡°Damn...in that case we need to make sure that old man can''t do anything he wants in the end. I guess we will owe another favour to that damn Goddess AI in the end....¡± ¡°Once again, I''ll leave it to you.¡± With that, the conversation between them ended. Eden had logged out of the game. [p=center]xXx[/p] Prompted by Viv, the group logged out and met with Simon, the butler immediately. Peter was no sure on what was happening at all. Maria was curious but did not care enough to ask while the rest really didn''t care at all and kept silent the entire time. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. For some reason they were at the entrance to this large mansion and was also with the old man that had taken them in. He gave a glance at them and then Simon and at the door and sighed. ¡°Master, ''he'' will be arriving soon¡± said Simon checking the terminal on his arm. Hearing this, the old man sighed once again and said, ¡°How exactly and more to the point, why is that person coming here personally? For a representative for Unicorn to-¡± BANG! With a kick, the door that was taller than a person by several times was slammed open revealing a person in normal clothing. She was wearing a plain white shirt and jeans but if you look closely you would see that it was all brand clothing that were all expensive to own. She had a relatively thin figure and long black hair with a face that one could mistake for a goddess or statue depicting the ideal woman. The group wondering with they if still in the game gasped at once while the old man looked confused on this action and Simon let out a chuckle. It was evident enough that except for one person here, they all knew that ''she'' was actually a ''he''. ¡°Eden?¡± asked Peter in a low voice. Eden turned and smiled at him causing his heart to beat rapidly for some reason. It was one think to see him in game where many people were beautified but in reality where there was filter for looking at people... ¡°Yo, I''m here to take you all to school!¡± exclaimed Eden in a loud voice. ¡°Huh?¡± Peter, no everyone stood there speechless on the proclamation that Eden just made, in this place that was far from a mere game.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - End of the first arc of this series....finally. - Well I just had to make this series go into school life...didn''t I.....well I can just spend a bit of the beginning of each chapter to write about what happens there from now on...not a big deal....damn why did I have to take this route. Arc 2 Prologue - The Tale of a lost Legend The sky split where swords clashed. The eternal battle that never ended, only postponed in the end. The great Warrior king in the past that never were to memory. A legend that was forgotten in the passage of time, erase by the Gods. A legend that was only preceded by one ''King'', one ''Hero''. All that came later were mere falsehood else proven. The Warrior King in time passing trusted three other warriors, from times ago. The first was a Sword King that led the knights with his Holy Sword, only to fall by a betrayal. One that wandered the wastelands of his fallen kingdom. The second was a Ghost God that came from the clan of Gods that were, puppets to the very end. One that wandered into the cursed forest where his clan was created. The third was not a king but one that helped another great King to awaken and lead into battle. One that wandered the endless deserts in wait for his king to come back. When one who unites the continent appeared, these three warriors shall follow. When one takes the crown of a true Emperor, they must bear the burden of one to the very end. Three great fallen warriors shall appear and test the Emperor. This is a tale dictated by the Gods of old. Twice the warriors failed to appear. Twice the Emperor failed to truly unite the continent. The third time...the warriors shall appear. People of all species and of all pass nations and kingdoms united as one, under one flag, one rule. Only then shall the warriors appear to test. The three shall break the united and the united shall fight back. Many will die. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!Many will tear. However, only when the three fallen warriors fall shall peace come. However peace is only the grounds where tides of chaos clash. When all other conditions form and come; he shall come. The Warrior King that came before all other expect one. In his glory and power shall the heavens shake. For one wish and only one wish from eons ago shall this King that once ruled the world appear before the Emperor. For a single wish that was born on that day. Yes, when the young warrior before he became King. When he witnessed a ''Hero'' and ''King'' in a person. When the time pass....he shall ask one thing. A duel to determine the strongest. With the lives of all subject as the prize. This was the Trial of the Emperor. The Trial dictated by the Gods of old.
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - The intro to this series is finally done! Time to....wait, the MCs are still pretty weak....need to write about them getting stronger.... - Well this prologue more or less spells out what will happen in the next three volumes. Vol.4 Prologue - Kidnapping Children ¡°Huh?¡± That was the only word that could be muttered now. The place was dead silent as Peter, the one deemed to be most responsible for his own actions rubbed his eyes to see if he was imagining things. However no matter how much he tried, Eden still stood there in front of him....as a real person. ¡°How...?¡± ¡°Ah Sain, there can be questions later. Right now I have a lot of things to deal with. First, I shouldn''t ignore the owner of this place too much¡± Eden smiled at took a glance at the old man who had a discontent look on his face. ¡°What does someone from Unicorn wanted from me?¡± he asked. ¡°Ah what indeed?¡± ¡°I have no times to joke with someone so young.¡± ¡°Young? You flatter me though I''m actually almost 40 here in age and spent over a century in Royal Road. I''m far form young and very used to the dirty and dark side of reality¡± Eden let out a sad smile though it still look provoking to others. ¡°Quiet, you still haven''t said why you are here.¡± ¡°Right¡±, Eden pointed at the six which he knew and said, ¡°I''m here for them. Turns out you can''t adopt children to use and then try to throw them away later old man. The oldest ones are 17 while the youngest is 12. A little too high of age to adopt at these times where support to orphans are quite good.¡± ¡°These children were all-¡± ¡°Outcasted by society? Yep, know about that. Which is a fine reason to adopt them you knew in the end. But there is one slight problem you see. You know what it is...brat?¡± ¡°....¡± The old man, the master of this household looked like he was about to burst into anger. It was understandable after all. Due to Royal Road, there had been less and less people respecting others who looked older and were older. The four times increased speed in game meant that people aged mentally faster than before. But more to the point, Eden was treating him like a fool in a play. ¡°Speak or get out¡± he said with great restrain in his near outburst of anger. ¡°Well...I can''t get out since that won''t solve the problem here you know. Ask Simon there on the details. He''s the one who tipped Unicorn...and more to the point, the government about this you know. They don''t like rich old people using the younger generations in their schemes as tools¡± there was a spark in Eden''s eyes as like he was looking at prey right now. Everyone in the room shivered for a second to this. And then looked to Simon who mockingly looked like he was blushing to the attention. ¡°Simon you....¡± ¡°Master please understand that I am obligated to reports any activities that may and will harm the future of these children. I am under law here especially since these children may become important assets to this countries.¡± ¡°....¡± The two stared at each other for a few seconds, one who was grumbling and the other staying perfectly emotionless at this moment. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Fine. Do what you wish, in the end I know the task at hand will take a long time to complete.¡± Eden smiled and said, ¡°Yep especially with your granddaughter being ''that'' person who had to be famous in a bad way to certain people and yet very hard to find even for me...well unless I put my mind to it in game.¡± Hina spoke up then seeing that this was useful information to them, ¡°Eden yo-¡± ¡°Miriel and others over there, didn''t I tell you to call me guildmaster? Well seeing that the other two don''t really care, I don''t see the need but ''guildmaster'' does have a nice ring doesn''t it.¡± ¡°Guildmaster?! You joined this person''s guild?!¡± shouted the old man, ¡°Is this why you are here?! Not some other accusation but this?¡± Eden shrugged and replied with, ¡°More or less.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway, I''ll take them even if I have to drag them with me, which I will do now¡± for some reason, Eden was smiling strangely while looking at the six and held his hand. Pop~ ¡°Huh?¡± Suddenly, Eden''s right hand was removed using his other hand.... ¡°This feature is quite useful you know~¡± And then several tens of wires that could be controlled perfectly like an arm came out of the hole where his hand was and flew to restrain the six completely and easily in a second. ¡°What the hell?!¡± ¡°Damn, this isn''t some T.V show!¡± Some people like Ian or Maria let out some remarks on the current situation before being dragged by Eden out of the mansion and into the car while humming a light tune while he was doing it. Sain on the other hand could only be silent and keep reminding himself that this is not normal at all and reality was not so cruel. Thud! Eden threw the six into a large car and got in as well and drove off with them. The old man and Simon could only stay silent to all of this. ¡°Master would you like some tea?¡± asked Simon trying to cut the tension. The old man sighed amongst muttering a lot of curses under his breath and said, ¡°Yes.¡±
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Well, prologue of this volume...chapter writing is kinda slow, might take a bit longer to write the first chapter. Vol.4 Chapter 1 - Rules to Travelling #1: Preparations With the strange wires unwrapped from their bodies and movement possible once again; the group got up from the floor of the car which was quite long and wide and went to sit on the seats on the sides of of the car. In front of them was Eden who was calmly smiling at them, looking amused at their real life self. He had some thoughts on how similar they were in game to reality which was a rare thing these days with people modifying their appearances to improve themselves. Eden would have been greatly disappointed if this was the case with them as well. However the most surprising thing to him was that they all knew each other out of game and all ended up in his guild at the same time. This...should not have happened but due to the ''special'' circumstances behind each of them, Eden could only smile wryly on the fact that those six choose these six immediately when they started off. ¡°So...any questions yet?¡± asked Eden. The group looked at Eden. ¡°Yeah...just one. Why do we have to go to school?¡± asked Hina in a bad mood. It seems that she finds that going to school isn''t exactly the best thing to happen. ¡°Lots of reasons though the main reason has to do with you lot¡± he replied. ¡°Us?¡± ¡°Yep, tell me; aside from Sain...no Peter over there and Maria, have you ever interacted with other people that much? No...to other players to be precise?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°You all lack social skills to interact with others and that worries a lot. Not that I can say much since for all I care, I can live a lone for the rest of my life in peace¡± Eden let out a small laugh and then proceeded to talk some more. ¡°Well there are other reasons you don''t need to concern yourself with but the main one is that you need to talk to other people. To talk to other means that you will come to understand them and them to you. Do you fear of how others see you in the end?¡± he asked. ¡°....¡± ¡°No response eh. Did I hit the nail?¡± ¡°No....¡± Grace muttered, ¡°I-it''s just that....¡± she pointed at Eden''s hand, ¡°Your missing hand is...¡± Eden looked to find that he forgot to put the hand back in place. ¡°Anyway, to prevent all of you becoming social outcasts as well...I''m enrolling you to a school.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] The group followed Viv to the East Gate where they will start their journey. It would according to Eden take 6 month of travelling to get to where Eden wants them to go. This trip would serve as training and a way for the group to leave the city and from the safety of Eden''s ''hands''. Of course by then the city would be fully restored and they could return immediately but they did not mention a word of that. It was simply due to Eden being in a bad mood and extremely scary recently which caused them to not say a word about this. If they said such a selfish thing then they could be punished as well and considering his anger, they were lucky Eden was considerate enough to throw his rage at them as well. The city they were going to was located at the central continent which was east to where they were. As such, it was natural that they went to the East Gate for starters. ¡°First lesson....preparations....¡± Sain could hear Viv mutter those words to himself as they were walking. Getting to the East Gate, Viv stopped and turned around to the group to say: ¡°Now...buy some supplies for the travel. I''ll make it very clear right now that I don''t intend to babysit you all like Eden does¡± he said with a firm grip on what he wants from the group. Compared to Eden and Alexandra who did things by the flow, Viv was always serious on training and increasing his skills. Feeling happy they had a proper trainer now that would really increase their skills, Sain nodded to this and then turned to Miriel and asked the first thing he needed to know: ¡°Miriel how much money do we have?¡± It was the issue of money. The world revolved around money. Thankfully Miriel was pretty sharp relating to money like a household mother of old so she understood that Sain wanted to know how much food and other essentials they could buy at once. Of course they would not buy too much since it would be a waste unless you could store them for a long amount of time. Another thankful thing was that Miriel knew how much money they had since she was the one who managed the money in the group. With someone like Lyndis in the group who could and would seemingly waste money with ''useless'' things as a girl, she had to be strict. But other than that, she immediately calculated how much they could buy minus how much they could not carry and didn''t need. ¡°We can get around 3 months worth of food and other essentials within a reasonable amount of expiry. If we buy 6 months worth, it would be cheaper overall but the weight would slow us don''t. After that, it leaves us with a little over 100 gold since Eden gave us new gear so we really didn''t need to buy anything new for us right now at least¡± she replied to Sain. Smiling a bit since they somehow managed to save that much due to Miriel nitpicking on what they spend money on in the past, he said ¡°In that case buy-¡± ¡°A week''s worth¡± interrupted Viv suddenly in a commanding voice. ¡°Eh?¡± Sain was quite shocked to see that Viv would only want a week worth''s of food and other essentials. ¡°Also buy some bandages and some basic herbs in that as well since we will be needing them. Especially buy some antidote herbs for later as well¡± added Viv in the silent. The group looked at Viv who explained himself clearly with, ¡°I am in charge of you guys so follow my instructions. At most, you will have a week of supplies which means a week of me explaining things to you before you put it in practise.¡± The space where the group was became cold like a team being trained by a popular coach was suddenly taken over by someone else they didn''t know. Basically they weren''t exactly friendly to Viv at the moment. Sain had to ask, ¡°Put....what in practise?¡± with a questioning look. From experience with Eden and Alexandra, he could tell that their methods were...extreme. While Viv looked...reasonable for now, who knew what he would make them do later. ¡°Survival skills¡± said Viv who said it in simple and board terms. This left Sain not knowing what kind of survival skills they would be taught. More to the point, survival skills weren''t that popular and were seen as something that you only need the basic level of to make it through. Anyway higher than that could be learnt later and Sain was sure that he and the rest of the group could survive the night quite well now to not get eaten by wolves while sleeping. ¡°Why?¡± he had to ask with that thought at mind. ¡°Because it is useful; more useful than learning a hundred new skills or spells that you will barely use. Anyway, send someone to buy supplies first. You''re the leader of this group right? Command the rest of them¡± Viv tilted his head to looked at Sain. He had a confused look as if wondering on whether Sain was really leading the group or the group making him leader for appearance sake. Hearing it this way, Sain had to comply and said, ¡°Miriel...Raven, can you two buy a week''s worth of supply along with the stuff Viv said to buy as well?¡± Miriel frowned since getting a lot of supplies for a trip instead of intentionally having a shortage was a fundamental rule in travelling. It was not wise to not have enough supplies at hand since you can starve to death in this game amongst many other kinds of deaths. It would honestly be better to buy a month''s worth to get it cheaper. However Sain seemed to want to follow Viv''s instructions and...she had no intentions of getting onto Viv''s bad side no matter what so she followed his words. Plus during the 9 or so months in game time she spent with Sain, Miriel grew a small amount of trust in him on these matters. He was after all, better at her when it came to socialising. ¡°Okay¡± she said while going forth with Raven who had the most strength of them all to the general store to buy some long lasting stable food. The higher one''s strength was, the more they could carry. The only reason Sain and Miriel wanted Raven to go was that the next highest person in terms of strength was Lyndis. And for one, Miriel didn''t like Lyndis that much even knowing her more and two, she would be more useful here with Viv. Walking away, the two didn''t even turn around with Miriel almost sprinting and Raven trying to catch up with her. Seeing that they were gone, Viv went to the next issue. He had looked at the group''s current gear and it was....acceptable though barely. ¡°Next thing is whether you all are equipped well enough or not¡± he said summarising it in the end to Sain. ¡°What...do you mean by that?¡± Sain had to ask again. He was unable to determine what Viv was thinking in the end. ¡°Whether to buy new, better gear for the trip. Your current gear are several tens of levels below what your actual level is. This will reduce combat abilities and could get you all killed in the end. Plus stronger gear have higher durability¡± replied Viv thinking about it for a second and making up a more longer explanation. He kinda missed Eden and Alexandra reading into what he wanted immediately and doing it. Sain nodded and then evaluated everyone''s gear. He, Lyndis and Shadow had leather gear with more or less the same defence. Miriel and Serena had robes with almost no defence and Raven had some metal gear on which gave him the highest defence of everyone. As for weapons they more or less set though most of their level restrictions were around the level 50 point while they were averaging around level 80. They would need to buy some near weapons at a later point as the next big level restriction point was at level 100. ¡°We''ll get new gear at around level 100 from stores else if drops happen. As for durability...It should be fine since Raven has the ''repair'' skill¡± replied Sain. However Viv then asked, ¡°What''s the level of his ''repair'' skill?¡± ¡°Umm...¡±, Sain had to recall it from the top of his head, ¡°Beginner Level 3?¡± ¡°Too low. Durability decrease every time he has to repair your gear. Send somebody to buy some spare weapons. Even if you have a spare weapon already, it''s a good thing to buy some expendable weapons to use just in case your other weapons break. Eden has no problem with this since he....while Al is good at managing her gear.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain thought about it. ''Well...I still have the spare spear....Raven has one as well. Lyndis and Shadow also has a spare weapon as well but....Miriel would kill me if I wasted money on useless things....more than crossing Viv here....plus what he said was true after all....I should really get some spare gear...but Miriel....'' In the end, Sain shook his head and said, ¡°We already have a few spare weapons in case. I don''t believe that there will be a time where we will be forced to use them. Plus as long as we don''t get hit, the durability of our gear won''t be reduced right?¡± ¡°....¡± Viv stared at Sain which made him very uncomfortable. It was like Viv was piercing into his soul...of course metaphorically but it still felt very uncomfortable in the end. Viv was thinking that both Eden and Alexandra said the same thing to him before...though Alexandra added in that if she asked then someone would actually take care of it. ¡°If that is the case, then it is fine. I will not force you to do something you don''t want to do since I''m not like Eden who drags everyone in his pace. Don''t blame me if you fall into a crisis because of this¡± he said abandoning the idea of the group buying more weapons. It was easier to learn from mistakes than learning from someone telling you to not make that mistake. ¡°However, you have to be extra careful since it is a 6 month trip and you don''t know what will happen¡± Viv added in as well as a caution. ¡°But won''t you help us?¡± asked Lyndis hearing this. She kept quiet until now but it seemed that Viv had no intention of actually helping them at all when they are in a crisis. Viv shook his head and said, ¡°I won''t since if I do then you will not grow. I won''t spoil you all like how Eden does. If you want something then get it yourself. All I will teach you are the fundamental basics you should know already.¡± His tone was almost arrogant and did not acknowledge what Eden did. ¡°You...¡± And this picked a nerve of someone who didn''t like his efforts not being recognised. Eden rewarded them with new gear and skill after his training which was actually beneficial even though it was very similar to torture. Sain looked over and saw that there was a vein about to burst from Shadow''s forehead. Feeling something bad was about to happen, he was about to stop him but... ¡°Aren''t those words too cocky? Eden was very kind to us...perhaps too kind but kind nevertheless. I will not let someone to forsake what he did!¡± Shadow said trembling with rage. He moved his body in a motion about to grab Viv by the collar. Sain was quite surprised. He did not know that Shadow had held Eden up quite so high. Actually Sain knew that all of them did since he unconditionally accepted them and trained them while helping them though with questionable methods, Eden had no ill intent towards them....at least for now. But on the other hand, here was also Viv who was also a guildmaster along with Eden and Alexandra in the guild; someone they should not mess with. This was especially the case since it seems that this Viv was about to deal with even Eden. As such Sain stopped Shadow by grabbing his arm said to Shadow, ¡°Shadow you should take that tone to someone. It''s rude....and will probably get us all killed or worse even if he looks like a child younger than us¡± he added at the end now thinking about it. ¡°....¡± Lyndis who listened in as well as Serena paled looking at Viv....and then Sain in that order. Since Sain turned his back to Viv to talk Shadow and was not looking at Viv right now, he did not see what was wrong behind him but even Shadow was paling right now as well. ¡°Shadow....what is happening behind me?¡± asked Sain not daring to turn around. He really did not want to turn around as if that would cause the problem to not exist. ¡°Sain...as someone I can trust...don''t turn around¡± replied Shadow resisting the urge to run away immediately. His anger was replaced by an extreme amount of fear as well. Looking around, there was a number of people who ran away or looked from the corner, hiding quite well to see what was happening. Much to how much Sain wanted to follow that advise, he felt that unless he turned around right now and face something terrible, something worse will appear later on...no soon; especially if he tried to run away. It doesn''t help that the source of the terrible feeling said one word which he couldn''t disobey. ¡°Turn around.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± Sain immediately turn around and gave up with surprising speed that made his face blur as he turned. He did not know that he could turn around this fast...however Shadow, Lyndis and Serena could see certain fear on it even with the blur at that moment. Like the face of a man to his execution. ¡°Now....¡± muttered Viv while determining what to do with Sain. ¡°...Please have mercy....¡± shivered Sain towards Viv. ¡°No.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Roughly 5 minutes later, Miriel along with Raven got back to the others with the week worth of supplies along with the things that Viv wanted them to buy as well. This consisted with rye bread that could last for months...namely 100 pieces which costed 30 silver in total, some tens pieces of dried meat otherwise known as jerky which costed gold coin and a good amount of water which was sorted in canteens that numbered by the dozen and costed only a few silver coins. Then there were bandages which costed a few silver as well and the herbs that costed the most at a few gold coins. Since she was not that sure on the amount, she brought a reasonable amount though even that was expensive so she cut back and managed to reduce the costs of the herbs to a few gold coins instead. Remembering now, Miriel realised that the herb price around the kingdom increased due to shortages and it was a bad time to be buying them. ¡°Well...at least I don''t need to carry any of it!¡± she said to herself trying to cheer herself up. ¡°....¡± Seeing that Raven was not at least hindered by the large amount of things that he had to carry which she struggled to do the same, she was quite happy that she had a good tool that could at least carry things. In fact Miriel considered that since Lyndis'' strength was almost at the same level as Raven''s that she could also use her to carry things as well. However Miriel must admit that Raven was actually quite the looker...though his emotionless face is a total turn off. However right now she had a bigger problem other than how Raven was disappointing for the heart of a fair maiden. Sain was on the ground lifeless. ¡°Sain?! What happened?!¡± cried Miriel running up to hold Sain who was lying on the ground lifeless....no, he still had a heart beat and was alive...though his eyes was rolled back and he was foaming from his mouth.... She gently lifted his limb body and then remembered that this was a game and if he died then his body wouldn''t be here to begin with. As such she also immediately dropped his body with a thud and went straight to busines. ¡°You three!¡± Miriel glared at the other three, namely Shadow, Serena and Lyndis who was here with him and demanded, ¡°Who did this?!¡± ¡°....¡± All three of them were silent but were strangely stiff and had straight backs...Miriel thought this was strange and that something bad was about to appear. ¡°I did¡± replied a voice she did not want to hear. Of course this voice belonged to Viv who was literally saying that he was the culprit. This same person that had a history of doing even more terrible things than Eden and Alexandra combined. Someone that Kingdom could not touch. Miriel started to cold sweat and turn rigidly to see....Viv who was pleasantly smiling as if nothing was wrong at all. She thought that this smile was fake immediately and she was dead meat. ¡°V-Viv....for what reason did Sain end up like this?¡± she asked trying to be as respectful as possible. She kinda failed due to her stuttering but was still better than her usual tone to people. ¡°Sain was rude¡± Viv answered. Miriel almost let out a ''huh'' and a dumbfound look on her face but managed not to. Her pride as a cool beauty would not let her. ¡°....¡± Miriel could not understand what happened. What did Sain do who was actually the more kinder than you need to be type of person to end up like this? No....Miriel did not want to find out else she would be more likely to make the same mistake. ''Rest in peace Sain....I will make sure to not make the same mistake as you....'' thought Miriel before slapping Sain awake ignoring Viv who didn''t seem to care what Miriel did. Slap Slap Slap! ¡°Wake up! We have things to do!¡± said Miriel in a cold voice demanding him to to follow her words. When Sain didn''t immediately respond, he was slapped another couple of times and so on like a combo machine. After a couple of slaps in which Sain''s HP was slowly being reduced by 10% with weak slaps alone.... Sain opened his eyes with swollen cheeks and asked,¡°Miriel...what happened? I only remember that there was something cold and frightening and....¡± Sain who was still looking pale got up not remembering what Viv did to him. Meanwhile three certain people thought: ''He was actually traumatised to the point he blocked out the memories....actually I hoped that happened to me as well since even seeing it....'' ''Please....let nothing bad happen to Sain anymore....'' ''O-oh god....Viv is scary...scary....scary....scary....'' However no one besides four people knew what happened and they will never speak of it for the sake of the three that could only watch. Looking around wandering what was going on, Sain saw that Raven had the supplies and they were good to go now. ¡°Ah, Viv we have the supplies now¡± he said to Viv without knowing what was this chill he was feeling when he was looking at him. Seeing this Viv smiled even more and looked satisfied much to the confusion of Sain. Viv nodded his head and said, ¡°Let''s go, I rather not stay here to explain the commotion.¡± ¡°Commotion?¡± wondered Sain. He did not know what Viv was talking about but felt that a number of people...including some of his comrades were thinking that it was best for him to not know. [p=center]xXx[/p] After half a day of walking, the group plus Viv were out of the inner forest area where there were really not many enemies to deal with. They had to only face wolves once in a while and were easily dealt with with a combination of powerful ranged attacks and powerful physical attacks from everyone that the battle lasted no more than 10 seconds each which was a fast rate of battle for players their level. The time right now was a few hours before dusk and Viv had them stop for now. He had them line up in a row next to the edge of the road. There was a feeling that they were soldiers under a commander. ¡°Okay, right now we travelled enough and I have seen what you guys can do for the most part¡± said Viv in an almost monotone voice. ¡°To put it extremely blunt and to the point; you guys suck.¡± ¡°....¡± There was a cold breeze coming in. ¡°First of all, why couldn''t you guys obliterate those weak enemies instantly? A combination of Raven charging in with everyone firing attacks and Shadow finishing off any survivors would be enough to take care of simple wolves.¡± Viv pointed at Sain. ¡°Why are you giving orders? Everyone should know what to do already without you speaking.¡± Viv then pointed at Shadow. ¡°Why aren''t you immediately attacking when you have the chance. Do you need to wait for the others to attack first?¡± Next was Lyndis. ¡°Frankly the only real firepower you have is with fire attacks and yet you use a sword to mainly attack. Moreover you even stop moving while using your fire attacks, are you trying to get killed?¡± Then it was Raven''s turn. ¡°Staying back and enjoying the breeze is not your job. You belong at the very front being beaten up. That is your role so don''t let other people take it from you.¡± Serena was the next ''victim''. ¡°You are a druid. A druid has many spells to use and yet you have so few...so your healing abilities are useless in short and dangerous battles. Regenerative spells are fine but lack pure power when you need it! Train some more else your friends will die before you know it!¡± Then it was finally Miriel''s turn. ¡°As for you...¡± Miriel shuttered, ¡°You lack too much for a magician. Also you are making the mistake of learning multiple magicks at once though it is good if you can train them at a fast pace. Decide whether to be someone supporting or someone attacking since you cannot do both. Also why use a whip when you are a mage!¡± ¡°....¡± The group could only stare at Viv who held nothing back. ¡°During these 6 months I will fix you all up¡± sighed Viv, ¡°Eden really did a number of your progress....he made you gain stats and skill proficiency along with unique fighting styles but never taught you how other people normally fight. You do know that it is not the unique fighting styles that are the most powerful from the beginning but the most simple ones that are pushed to it''s limits and turn into your own unique fighting style over time right?¡± The group looked at each other. There were some thoughts on fixing those things that Viv pointed out but most of the thoughts were that their fighting style were fine enough so why improve it. It was not like some monster will come in and suddenly destroy them in battle, their formation was actually quite stable to go against monsters over level 100 as well. ¡°Anyway I want to see your skill proficiency. According to Eden who actually has a skill to spy on your skill list and their proficiency; most of your skills are in the high beginner level and are nearing the intermediate level which is actually not bad considering that many players would get that far 50 levels ahead of you.¡± The group almost reluctantly allowed Viv to see their skill and their levels. He browsed through them not caring that he was essentially invading their privacy in the game. ¡°Hmm...you are missing a number of skills....this will take longer than I thought¡± muttered Viv under his breath sighing. Viv took out a few books that the group recognised as skill books. ¡°I made Eden make these and are all basic skills but it''s more likely that you all will be in trouble if you try to learn it the slow way. For this trip you will be assigned into three roles. Those who hunt animals for food, those who gather herbs and other types of food and those who cook. Thankfully two of you have the cooking skill so those two can alternate on roles.¡± Viv took the skill books and placed them back in his inventory. ¡°Naturally I don''t want to waste these books so I will only give them out if I have to. If you manage to learn these skills before this trip ends, I''ll give any spare books to you for free...which can fetch around 50 gold per book in total.¡± Sparkle~ Hearing the words of ''gold'' and the amount, Miriel''s eyes glittered at Viv instead of shying away. Sain could only let out a small cough to snap her out of it. ''Does Miriel love money that much? She didn''t seem like the kind to....'' ¡°Ah, more wolves. Make sure you take in account of what I said¡± said Viv interrupting Sain''s thoughts and also seemingly disappearing from sight again. Sain now got used to Viv disappearing and letting them deal with things since earlier and was happy that he did since they would grow stronger that way. ¡°Also Sain...you''re not allowed to talk unless it involves spells.¡± ¡°....¡± ''That....would be slightly difficult to do....'' thought Sain smiling a bit to the change. He was actually glad of this since he needed to talk so much that his throat hurt. He feared that if he had to talk some more, he would tape his mouth shut to stop talking. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. A few seconds later, the group automatically moved into position from where the wolves would charge in at. Another 10 seconds passed in tension until the wolves burst out. ¡°Garrr!¡± the wolves let out a small roar showing off their fighting spirit observing the group before... ¡°Ram!¡± Immediately, Raven did not let a second pass before he ran into the wolves that numbered 5 to what Sain saw. Bang!
Killed Wolves with Critical surprise hit!
You have gained Experience
Raven smashed through one...no two wolves at once causing them to fly away due to the large impact. The level difference and strength difference between the Raven and the wolves were clear which led to this result. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡±
You have gained Experience
Sain fired his spell into one of the other wolves which killed it easily while at the same time Shadow seemed to appear and stab his short sword into another wolf while Lyndis followed up with a second charge taking down the last remaining two wolves.
You have gained Experience
Group of wolves have been killed in an extremely short amount of time! Experience gain increase
The battle ended so quickly that Miriel and Serena had nothing to do. To be precise Sain counted that the battle only took 3 seconds this time which was a great improvement compared to before. He could hear some clapping near to the side to which Viv appeared there. ¡°Looks like you know what to do now. Try to fiddle around with how you all fight to figure the best way to fight during this trip¡± Viv looked at the sun which was still a few hours before dusk and said, ¡°Let''s go, I want to cover some more ground before setting up camp.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Another few hours passed... Eventually it was the middle of night now and it was also the first night the group actually spent time making camp. Before they would either go back into the city, continue hunting at night or would be in a dungeon. As such the group was a bit nervous since they have heard stories about the nights in Royal Road. However Viv reassured them. ¡°Your strength is something that normal monsters in this area cannot compete with. Even with the 50% bonus from night time, they should be still in your range of things that you can deal with¡± he said taking into account of their abilities and strengths. Plus after what Eden did to them, wolves were something easy to deal with. With those words from a veteran in which had immeasurable strength, the group was actually relieved to a great extent. They secretly hoped that Viv would save them if things went back. But...fate was the kind of things that wanted to screw with people. ¡°More wolves¡± muttered Viv while the group was gathering some wood for a camp fire and were setting up their make shift beds. When the group heard those words, they immediately sprung to action. They all took their weapons out and waited for the enemy to come. ¡°Can''t see...¡± muttered Lyndis annoyed. ¡°I can, I''ll draw them in front of you then¡± said Shadow who had night vision or something that was similar to it while disappearing into the darkness. A few seconds passed and the group heard some strange noise that was from battle and 4 large wolves leaped out in front of them a bit injured. ¡°Mana Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Seeing enemies, the three otherwise known as Sain, Miriel and Lyndis casted their ranged attacks at once hitting all of the wolves at once and instantly killing them. ¡°That battle...was also quick¡± muttered Sain. ¡°Yeah...didn''t think battles were this dull before¡± added Lyndis. ¡°This only proves that we are stronger than when we started off¡± said Miriel as well. They found that it was too easy especially since they were higher levelled than the wolves. They due to Eden often faced monsters stronger than them so this was strange to the group in fighting weaker foes instead. ¡°Don''t get used to it since there are countless creatures in this world that can easily kill you all. It''s only when you reach the very top that you can complain that there aren''t any strong foes around¡± said Viv also adding into the conversation from his experiences. ¡°I see.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Picking around the place, Raven gathered pieces of wood and was either placing it in a circle fashion at the camp sight or placing them in his inventory to use later on. He knew from experience that there were times when you can''t find good fire wood all the time.
Obtained item: Firewood Stick x 1
''I have....almost a hundred pieces now. This should last for a week or so....'' he thought going back to camp. Looking around there was Viv who was giving an explanation on some things that didn''t relate to him to Serena with Sain and Miriel also listening in and generally not doing anything. Lyndis was moving rocks around the place and was testing them out to sleep on. Raven however could not find Shadow at all even though he looked for him. Eventually he gave up looking from him and took out a flint and started rubbing two of them together to generate sparks. Tap Tap... Eventually the small sparks along with Raven adding in dried grass lit on fire and the camp fire was complete. (Sound of soft burning) With the camp fire lit up, the group and Viv gathered around to wait out the night. Raven took out some of the food supply that Miriel had him carry and gave it to the others to eat. However Viv refused kindly and ate his own food that was several times more higher in quality than theirs. ¡°....¡± Some tens of minutes passed with the group not being able to talk each other with Viv here. But Viv didn''t seem to mind it at all and continued to look at the group one by one individually...and then sighed. ¡°Why the hell did you sigh just then?!¡± shouted Shadow not being able to take it anymore. Raven thought that out of everyone, Shadow had the worst temper and only hid it since his role involved being silent. After a while and opening up, he was actually quite rude to others. He actually got up to try and attack Viv. Raven silent praised him in his heart as he was that courageous compared to everyone else. ¡°Hey Shadow stop!¡± shouted Sain grabbing onto Shadow and trying to restrain him. ¡°Damnit Shadow, are you trying to get us all killed?!¡± cried Miriel as she did the same in a panic which was unlike her. Raven observed the rest of the group on his own as Sain and Miriel tried to calm Shadow down. From what he saw, Sain was the type to generally care for others without know, wanting to butt into other people''s business while Miriel was the cautious type whom doesn''t like conflict that much and would restrain others who do. ¡°Ahahaha, let him fight! You shouldn''t store things up until it bursts like that!¡± said Lyndis encouraging Shadow to fight Viv. ¡°Ah...umm....please....don''t....¡± muttered Serena looking around panicky not knowing what to do like a lost child. On the other hand, Lyndis was the polar opposite who liked conflict and battles seeing she was the only one who wanted to fight for just fighting and nothing else though has good enough sense to not do so at a bad time. Then Raven took a glance at Serena. To him, she seemed like the type of person that needed to be protected but could actually hold her own when pushed into it. Seeing this....Raven thought of himself. What was he? What role did he play in this group who seemed so bright to him? However that thought had to stop since Sain was calling for help to stop Shadow who was not acting straight. ¡°....¡± Raven walked over and with the help with Sain and Miriel restrained him on the ground. ¡°Raven what the hell?!¡± cried Shadow. ¡°....¡± Raven could only stare back at him. Seeing this, Shadow sighed and then gave up. ¡°If you want me to not fight or anything, just say it Raven! Speak for once Raven! I know you can so do so!¡± said Shadow mouthing out at him now. Raven thought it was confusing on how he was going against Viv a second ago and now was going against him now for no reason. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Don''t fight¡± said Raven seeing that Shadow would stop if he did say something. Shadow and the others stared at him and then Shadow said, ¡°Good, you can speak¡± before asking, ¡°Now can you get off me.¡± Raven let Shadow go along with Sain who was also on him with Raven as well. Patting himself, Shadow walked for a second and then froze. ¡°More wolves...¡± he said looking into the distance. Hearing that, Raven prepared his spear and shield to use immediately. It seems that it will be a long night. [p=center]xXx[/p] The next day...
You have gained Experience
You have killed a hundred wolves throughout the night without sleep. Due to this action, stamina will decrease by 30% for the next 24 hours.
You have gained 3 Endurance You have gained 5 Fighting Spirit
Due to lack of sleep, all stats will decrease by 50% until you have a good rest. You will feel sluggish until then
¡°That''s....a hundred wolves now? Are there any more....?¡± asked Sain extremely tired and leaning on his spear for support. He looked like a ragged man that had everything robbed from him recently. ¡°I....don''t think so....¡± replied Miriel looking around using Sain as the support instead making him use up extra strength to keep her up as well. She too looked similarly with extremely dark bags under her eyes. Shadow looked extremely annoyed by the sight and said, ¡°Damn....Miriel, stop flirting with Sain and help pack up....Viv said we''re leaving soon¡± after returning from the camp. Because of this he missed out on the latest attack of wolves that were attracted to the bright camp fire which was somehow never put out and lasted throughout the night. It was morning now. ¡°Who the hell is flirting?! There is a good pole here and I can''t lean on it?!¡± retorted Miriel. Sain looked depressed and said, ¡°Miriel...I am not a pole....¡± After those words, a refreshed Lyndis came through the bushes and with a bright smile said, ¡°We finished packing~! Now we can go on.¡± Still with a smile, she looked at the three and with eyes that said that this was highly amusing said, ¡°What''s wrong? Didn''t have enough sleep?¡± in a seemingly innocent voice with a poisonous tongue. ¡°Ice...Bolt!¡± Waving her staff at Lyndis she fired off an ''Ice Bolt'' at her due to the annoyance she felt at that moment combined with the fact that she was extremely tired and was unable to think properly. Even Sain and Shadow didn''t move an inch to stop her attack. Bang! ¡°Wow!¡± However fortunately for Lyndis, she had seemingly almost animal instincts against attacks which allowed her to dodge it last moment before it shot through her head! Seeing the tree next to her with a giant hole in it and glaring at Miriel, she shouted, ¡°What the hell was that for?!¡± in anger. On the other end, Miriel could not care less about Lyndis wanting to only sleep. She losing all focus after using that spell slid off Sain''s body and onto the ground where she fell asleep. Losing the pressure on his body, Sain went off balance and also fell to the ground and due to the shock, fell asleep immediately as well. The only one of the three still awake, Shadow said, ¡°You and Raven need to carry these two while walking....I can probably still manage so you can wake one of them up when I fall asleep later¡± looking at Lyndis who was in disbelief to what Shadow was suggesting. ¡°No way am I going to carry someone! It''s hard enough to walk on my own two legs with the amount of travelling we''re doing!¡± she said pointing at her thin and slender legs that made many boys fall for her while also similarly making many girls hate her figure. Shadow raised his eyebrow to such a comment and yet left it as it is. He was too tired to even retort or complain now. Plus he, Sain and Miriel were all on shift defending the camp while the others slept. This was the main reason these three were lacking sleep since they were not asleep at all! Leaving Lyndis to deal with the sleeping Sain and Miriel, he called over Raven to help out, ¡°Raven! Go over to where Lyndis is and carry Sain....¡± with a yawn. While tired, he had no intention of dragging other down while he slept though the real reason is that he did the least amount of word against the night wolves besides attacking them from behind. Soon after he went to see what Serena was doing since there was nothing else to do but to check on her now. ¡°Serena, you must remember that your true skills lie not in simply healing or even attacking but a large number of support spells that are as flexible as you. Your ''Root Bind'' spell is useful on it''s own but if you combine it with another spell, say a spell that makes flowers that blown to give certain powerful effects to those around it but has a low chance of success, what do you think will happen?¡± ¡°Then...the effects would be certain to stick?¡± ¡°Correct. By combining spells together in a string or chain, new effects can easily be made. Even a spell made for wide area healing can be altered this way to spread poison massively to enemies.¡± ''Actually...I might as well go back to wait with the others...'' thought Shadow not wanting to listen to a lecture involving magic at all turning around to walk back to the others no matter how annoying them were to him. [p=center]xXx[/p] An hour later, they packed everything and was ready to leave...though two people were still asleep. Seeing this, Viv said, ¡°You can either wake them up or carry them with you¡± giving them a choice on the matter. As such, Serena, Lyndis, Raven and Shadow needed to make a vote on things. ¡°I personally don''t want to carry Miriel. I''m fine with Sain though....not that I want to carry them in the first place!¡± said Lyndis first expressing her opinion on the matter. ¡°Ah....we shouldn''t wake them....yet...¡± said Serena as well wanting to let them sleep at least a little bit longer. With a slight yawn Shadow agreed, ¡°Yeah...I feel like I''m about to fall asleep right now...¡± He was sluggishly moving about without the usual sharpness of his movements like someone drunk. Kinda pitying the three, Lyndis had to give up and said, ¡°Fine fine, we just have to carry them for a while right? I shouldn''t be that hard compared to the training Eden had us do.¡± Curious, Viv asked the four that were awake, ¡°What kind of training did Eden have you do?¡± ¡°Ah...the running course thing¡± replied Lyndis since Raven didn''t talk much either way, Shadow was sleepy and Serena wasn''t that great at talking as well. ¡°You mean the one with the giant killer machine chasing you and infinite path for a month?¡± wondered Viv aloud. He had bad memories thanks to that but due to that training, along with Eden; Alexandra and Viv were able to endure extremely mentally exhausting tasks for a long time...even go without sleep for a month or longer if they wished. ¡°No...just running while...actually there was a robot but it was human sized and we were running around this path Eden made for us for a few hours a day¡± replied Lyndis not knowing what the hell Viv was talking about. Surely there wasn''t such a stupidly dangerous training in this game. ¡°Hmm...that''s kinda tame considering....well running away from ''that'' for a whole month without end might be too much for new players...¡± muttered Viv reminiscing of the past. ¡°Wait wait wait, what the hell are you talking about? I''m not getting what you''re trying to say here¡± said Lyndis still not understanding what Viv meant and yet wanted to know for her own sanity sake even if it was bad for her mind to know. ¡°Oh, you want to know?¡± asked Viv seeing that Lyndis seemed to be at least curious. Well they weren''t going to make much progress with Sain and Miriel still asleep dragging them down. A few minutes of talking won''t hinder them much at this point. ¡°Yep yep!¡± Lyndis nodded her head excited. Serena moved in closer to hear while Shadow said, ¡°In that case....wake up when you''re done. Need some sleep....¡± moving away from the others and leaning on a tree and closing his eyes. ¡°....¡± Raven stood there silent carrying both Sain and Miriel and putting them down near Shadow and walked over to listen to Viv as well. Following what Viv said, the three sat down to listen to what seemed to be a story from the past. ¡°Long long time ago...Eden joined a guild which was different from the one that we founded. Basically he somehow got dragged into this one way or another and me and Al went along with the flow. The guild was basically a hidden one that was in decline but still were kinda powerful in their own way since they were basically assassins of the highest class.¡± ¡°Huh? Eden was an assassin?¡± exclaimed Eden not seeing that flashy person as someone sneaky. ¡°Not at all....well kinda since he ace all the things you needed to be an assassin. You know...being stealthy....when he wants to, killing silently....when he wants to and being patient...when he wants to¡± said Viv with a slight sigh considering that Eden losing all patient would give up killing silently and being stealthy to blow things up....with magic. ¡°Soooo....what does Eden not ace in?¡± asked Lyndis. Serena and Raven stared at Lyndis who was being rude, interrupting people''s stories. But it looked like Viv didn''t mind as he was seriously considering it. ¡°Let''s see.....anything involving helping others and luck. Yes...those are the two things that Eden will definitely fail in.¡± ¡°....¡± All three of them thought about it and then decided to not believe it since that Eden seemed to be perfect in what he did...even if it went to the extremes most of the time. ¡°Anyway back to the story...well long story short, the magic monster Eden was almost defeated at magic against an Archmage which led to llyfr forcefully training him for a month. Basically after bringing his skills up, he was then dropped into a pit which transported him to a special area where it was an infinite tunnel with no end until a month where it ends.¡± ¡°That...sound....interesting?¡± wondered Serena hearing it''s description and thought of an endless corridor that she saw in an image once. It made her mind hurt a bit. ¡°Well he quickly found that a giant killer robot was chasing after him and as he progressed, the place placed things in a way to try and make him slip up and get crushed or otherwise by the killer robot. Plus he had to do this constantly for a month or so with little to no sleep in the end. It makes the training you did from Eden to seem extremely simple to do though 90% of players wouldn''t be able to do what you did either way. But the thing we did...there would be no more than a few, less than the number of fingers on your hand to be able to complete it even if you were to increase everyone''s stats to max. Staying up for a month straight is quite difficult you know¡± said Viv in one go with an innocent expression on his face. ¡°....¡± The three could only stare blankly at Viv and his words. This was not simply difficult. If it was considered simply difficult without several ''super'' in front of it, everything else in life could be considered easy mode with infinite cheats! ¡°What? Is there any problems? This game only rewards those who do hard work to their limits even if it is utterly ridiculous to begin with. As long as you work harder than anyone else you will reach a point where people will differentiate you from others in abilities and as their own¡± said Viv following up to the silent. Why did he feel that he was talking to a wall right now? ¡°Anyway, get those three, we''re starting our walk for today.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Several hours....to be precise from dawn to dusk, the group plus Viv actually did not stop to rest this time. At the moment, he was lecturing the group some several times about wolves and other monsters through this forest that was a week''s distance long in terms of walking. ¡°Wolves and generally most monsters have better senses than humans. This means that they will often detect you before you detect them unless you have skills that are better than theirs. Basically things like food or light will attract them easily like some of you experienced last night¡± said Viv looked at Sain, Miriel and Shadow. All three of them were still tired but had enough strength to silently retort in their hearts with: ''Then why the hell did you make us stay up last night?!'' However Viv ignored them and continued. ¡°Even without those two things, they will still attack you either way. It''s just that the frequency that they will attack will increase with those factors in. However the biggest factor is simply because they believe they can take you guys down. In the open or generally easily accessible areas of the continent aside from dungeons, the level 200 point is where small fries won''t attack you willingly. That is why it is said the level 200 point is needed to travel with safety.¡± Miriel then asked a question following this statement, ¡°Why is it the level 200 point? I heard that monsters don''t like attacking others when you are around 10 levels over you.¡± ¡°Ah, that''s because the main reason doesn''t lie with levels but fighting spirit. At the lowest point of the fighting spirit stat, even if you don''t have the actual stat, monsters won''t attack you at that point. The amount of fighting spirit you need to deter monsters from attacking you would be...around equal to your level though that may rise or fall depending on the monster that you face especially later on where you need a much higher fighting spirit to deter monsters. It''s really complicated but in the end, when you attack the monster, they will fight back at the end of the day.¡± ¡°Because of this, you need to fight stronger monsters all the time to prevent the small fry from interfering later on¡± Viv confidently said with to the group that was utterly silent. This meant that in order to not get attacked by weaker monsters all the time, they would need to fearlessly face stronger monsters all the time which would put them at more risk than fighting those weaker monsters. It was a contradiction...that the group realised did not apply on Viv at all. ¡°Anyway, we''re going to walk throughout the night and rest every odd day since this forest isn''t exactly the friendliness place you could be in¡± he said walking ahead forcing the group to follow him. [p=center]xXx[/p] Another 5 days passed.... There were many things that happened. Wolves and other animals attacked when they got near and at some point, some parasite creature was controlling plant life to attack them as well. They somehow managed to get through without dying. During this time....they managed to level up 1 or two times each. It was really not much compared to the experience you could gain in a dungeon but it was good progress considering that they were travelling at the same time. But right now, there was another thing they had to worry about. ¡°No more food....¡± muttered Sain in distress. Viv had prevented them from buying more supplies when they passed by a village on the way. The reason was only made due now. ¡°Right, now for the second lesson. Survival Skills¡± he said happily eating while the group seemed to starve in front of him. Meanwhile...Shadow muttered, ¡°Damn...why does this seems as bad as Eden?¡± Hearing this, Viv rebutted with, ¡°How rude! If it was Eden, a legendary monster would come out to fight him on the first day!¡± ¡°....¡± The group could only stay silent as they waited on what Viv wanted to do. Their lives were in his hands right now...
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9000~ - First chapter finally done! Had to get a cold which I spent most of the day combating to delay me finishing this chapter by several hours! - Well if you haven''t figured it out, this volume will focus on the 6 month trip the group is taking. This will be kinda slow but adds a lot more than random power up X at a certain moment...though that may happen either way. I will make my characters crawl from the bottom up in this series! And I WILL enjoy it! Vol.4 Chapter 2 - Rules to Travelling #2: Survival Skills ¡°I sorry what?¡± asked Hina in shock, ¡°Why do we of all people have to go to school! If you did any research on us, you know that school is the worst place we can go!¡± near the end, she was almost screaming at Eden. Ian added in, ¡°I rather not go back there...too many traumas for me.¡± Maria raised her hand and said, ¡°Me too...¡± ¡°You three have problems due to yourself...well not exactly. It can''t be helped that one of you were bullied due to your cold actions towards your classmate, another was ignored almost completely due to a lack of presence no matter what you did and the last one was bullied by classmates due to being...''better'' than them in every way. Well I have to say such things are quite sad but it has nothing to do with what is happening now¡± said Eden with almost a sigh having to explain it to them. What was then has nothing to do with now. Ian raised his voice at Eden said said, ¡°Then you should-¡± ¡°Know of how you feel? Of course not¡± interrupted Eden cutting in, ¡°However I know that this is a flesh start for you all. This private school....is a bit different than the usual things you can expect. You might feel at home there...well not really I know that there will be people out to get you buuut there is a good chance you all will fit in.¡± ¡°....¡± The group stared at Eden who was not making sense again. Finally Peter asked, ¡°What kind of place is this school?¡± to Eden which looked liked he wanted someone to ask that question. ¡°Ah finally! I was waiting quite patiently for that question you know! Basically that school is made for the rich or and talented. Basically one of those extremely prestigious schools that parents want their children to get in.¡± Eden took out some fliers from...somewhere, it was best not to ask about that, and handed them to the group which read it. On the front cover was a large image of what seemed to be a modern school. However the technology that was seen here was at least a decade above what the other schools had and even to the public. ¡°This place is special you know and it''s natural for you all to be placed here since I have connections to the ones that built it in the first place. A place where the talented or gifted in many ways whether it is in ability, ideas or even connections gather!¡± ¡°Yes, this ''school'' was built by the most powerful cooperation in the world. Unicorn.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] It was roughly early in the morning and was quite frosty. The current state of things was as followed. They were located in the middle of a large forest that would take them another week to get out of. They were literally surrounded by enemies that lived in this forest. They had no food and little water left to survive on, the village before was a few days back and they can''t get there in time. And most importantly their lives were now completely in the hands of Viv. It was not the time to be trying to defy him right now. Those were the thoughts that Shadow had who really had a bad feeling about Viv and wanted less to do with him as much as possible. After years of experience in observing people, Viv had a presence to him that was worst than even Eden and Alexandra; like there was....something off about him. Like how you discover he was the killer at the end or the mastermind that manipulated everything from the shadows. That was the kind of bad feeling Shadow had with Viv...but that was not the main problem here. The fact remained that they cannot defy him either way. He would had to work hard enough...in order to make sure they all don''t die. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°The first thing you need to learn as for survival skills is how to gather food. There are generally two types of food you can consume. The first is fruits or nuts and otherwise vegetables which is actually an unpopular choice for most players as you have to manually identify and pick it. The second is meat which you get from hunting animals like rabbits or deer.¡± ¡°The type for now I will be discussing is with that former type.¡± Viv took out two identical books which were actually skill books. ¡°To speed things up, I''ll give these books to Serena who is a druid and needs this knowledge and the second who will be Shadow is due to the need of a person with high mobility having this advantage. Learn these quickly.¡± Viv handed those two books to Serena and Shadow in which he leant them immediately by activating the skill books. When they did, two messages appeared before Sain.
Party Member: Serena has learnt the skill ''Plant Botany''
Party Member: Shadow has learnt the skill ''Plant Botany''
Thanks to his party scan skill levelling up to beginner level 5, it gave him the ability to observe the skills in which the others gained right now...not that he needed it since he could ask either way. Also, Sain had already told them the details of this skill would make it easier to communicate what they could do since Sain also knew the details of what they could do.
Plant Botany Beginner Level 1 The ability to identify all plant types and what they can do based on the knowledge you know. This skill will increase in proficiency as you identify more plants. As this skill level up, details of plants observed will increase
This was the skill window for ''Plant Botany'' which really didn''t do much at all. ¡°This skill is highly useful since when you identify once, you know forever thanks to this skill. Another thing is that the skill is quite slow only at the start but the further down you go, the skill will reveal details of plants even if you only seen it once based on previous knowledge you have. It is one of the best skills to have when exploring unknown places. Of course getting them identified by an alchemist is the best way to not die eating something bad¡± explained Viv on the details of this skill. ¡°There are a couple other skills and things you need to know, it''s take a while in order to learn those skills. The other skill you need to know is how to gather water since that is the most important thing you need to have to survive.¡± Viv then said to the group, ¡°Right, I''m going to teach you two¡± looking at Shadow and Serena, ¡°while we continue walking else it might take another month to get out of this forest. I want to get out by the end of this month and this place is perfect for teaching you right now.¡± With that, the group continued to walk as Viv was explaining the applications of the ''Plant Botany'' skill he had just given them. ¡°I wonder when he will teach us something like combat skills...¡± muttered Miriel under her breath so that only Sain could hear. Sain had a feeling that she was impatient seeing that they were ''wasting'' time not on training themselves and just...doing nothing. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°This plant is one of the vine type but also can release a certain scent that causes you to be tracked via smell to other animals.¡±
Knowledge on observed Vine Type plant increased and recorded
¡°This small plant down here grows some berries that are poison to certain animals. Mostly tree eaters so they live off what the nearby trees spare. It''s a parasite type due to this.¡±
Knowledge on observed Parasite Type plant increased and recorded
¡°This tree here might seem to grow fruit to eat and actually is quite delicious to eat but soon after you will find out that it has a laxative effect...Eden ate this and almost caused this species to be extinct soon after...it''s a tree type unless you''re blind.¡±
Knowledge on observed Tree Type plant increased and recorded
¡°This-¡± Just when Viv was going to describe another type of plant to the two, Serena spoke up and asked, ¡°Do you....know the names of these plants? Are we just going to identify them based on shape and effect?¡± ¡°Well, we could but there are hundreds...no thousands and tens of thousands of different names to remember. It''s just easier to remember based on shape and effect¡± Viv explained to Serena, ¡°Also the skill helps you out by giving you a window when you want to observe something as well. Unless you combine using this skill with say, ''Plant Identifier'' you won''t know the name until someone tells you. This forest has a number of rare plants so getting a name off them is not likely.¡± ¡°Yes...but don''t all plants have a name?¡± she asked again. The teachings that came from Mel said that all things have a name whether you know it or not. It was quite a waste then in Serena''s mind on not even bothering to learn that. ¡°I don''t know what you mean...there are too many species really most things to name them all. Therefore there are general names for many different plants. Is that what you mean?¡± asked Viv trying to tell the intentions of Serena. Serena shook her head making both Viv and Shadow confused. ¡°Master...said that all things have a name.¡± At that point, Viv understood what Serena was getting about. ¡°Serena, that topic is too advance for you right now. If I remember, it was the research target that Mel was taking on but to thing...that she would push part of that to you. She must trust you a lot to know about that. Not many people bother about the power of names¡± said Viv. ¡°Powers...of names?¡± asked Shadow now a bit more curious. ¡°It''s a theory that all things have a true name and by uttering that name, you hold complete control of that object by knowing that name. Humans, Dwarves and Orcs are unable to know these names by instinct but I heard that certain Elves know of this and are slowly researching from countless generations ago. It''s a powerful thing but equally dangerous.¡± ¡°D-dangerous?!¡± Serena was now a bit more frightened of this. What if her master was hurt or even killed?! ¡°Don''t worry, Mel is strong...however what she seeks is something that was considered dangerous by the Gods...I guess in the end, Eden influenced her to take up that research....anyway back to the growth of that skill. What level is it now?¡± ¡°Beginner Level 3¡± replied Shadow. Viv smiled and nodded his head, ¡°In that case, it''ll take the rest of the day to reach beginner level 5 then which at that point will allow you to not die a awful death from picking something from the ground.¡± He then looked around noticing that the other four were not here at all and asked, ¡°Where are the others?¡± Shadow again was the one to respond with, ¡°They are hunting monsters since we are walking quite slowly here. They''re a bit further ahead from us.¡± ¡°I see....if that''s the case then I have to teach the next part the next day....¡± ¡°Umm...what is the....next part?¡± asked Serena. ¡°Collecting water.¡± ¡°Yes...but...how...?¡± ¡°Find a river or something is one way. Another is from towns and when you have neither, you have to get it yourself. Miriel is an ice mage right?¡± asked Viv confirming whether it was true or not. ¡°Amongst other things¡± replied Shadow. Before that, Miriel could only use Sound or Illusion based magic which was part of the support set of magic in this game. Now that she had ice magic as well, she could attack...and actually had one of the most powerful offence in the group. ¡°In that case, she can probably learn water and also to some extent, wind magic well enough as well¡± muttered Viv. Later on, Viv continued to help the two train up their ''Plant Botany'' skill to Beginner level 5 where it allowed them to see some details of unknown plants to them as well depending on how much they knew. According to Viv, to fully master this skill, they needed to perfectly analyse several tens of thousands of plants throughout the continent. And as such, another day passed [p=center]xXx[/p] Around mid day, the group guided by Viv moved to an area where there was a small lake to refill with water. Raven and Lyndis were doing the job of filling everybody''s canteens which in total numbered several dozens with water from there. Meanwhile, Viv was explaining the importance of knowing the locations of such places. ¡°There are three ways of getting water while travelling in this world. The first is to know the locations of water sources such as this. The second though available to a smaller amount of people is to conjure it up using water or ice magic. And the final method is via the various wells that are placed on the road.¡± ¡°Wells?¡± asked Sain. He had not heard of such things before. ¡°Yeah, the kingdom to make things slightly easier for travellers particularly on foot made it so that there are various wells so people don''t die from thirst. However at the same time, since people go to those points, bandit attacks are high in the areas around the wells. Kinda ironic isn''t it.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain could literally feel that there was something wrong with this. Something that happened to be made to benefit normal people become a target for bandits...actually there was a lot of things right with this when he thought more about. Bandits break laws and would target people...and people gathered at those wells which made them great targets...but it still made him feel...off since good will somehow became something bad. ¡°Sain? Your face looks super scary right now¡± said Lyndis waving her hand in front of his face as he snapped out of it. ¡°Are you all right? I rather not have that other you come out of sheer randomness right now¡± said Miriel as well. ¡°Ah...yeah, I''m all right¡± muttered Sain back. The bad feeling in his chest started disappearing quickly. ¡°And with those words, it''s better to stay away from him in case he snaps and change again. Going against a super commander will make our day hell¡± said Shadow smiling with a wry smile and backing away from Sain. ¡°Shadow...I think I liked you better when you didn''t talk¡± said Sain almost sighing in regret that in the end, Shadow had this kind of personality which he managed to hide for so long. ¡°You mean like silent bob over there¡± Shadow pointed at Raven with his thumb in a gesture, ¡°I''m simply tired....or was tired during that time of expressing myself that much. Now, I''m all rested up and back to normal.¡± ¡°I don''t like it¡± said Miriel plainly to this. Shadow sneered and said, ¡°You mean you like it when you could use me all you want without a word? I rather not, I''m not a tool to be used all you want, when you want. Sain is much better since he takes our will into consideration but mostly lacks the initiatives to do things to the point. The most you could''ve been in a small time dictator before we all leave you.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel shot a sharp glare at Shadow. However Lyndis looked like she was about to laugh. ¡°Damn..! I like this new Shadow¡± she said, ¡°So much humour in his words!¡± A couple of people including Shadow wondered the words ''humour?'' just then. ¡°Like I said, this is the old me not the new...needed a stronger personality to help stop people from forgetting me....¡± he muttered quietly though everyone could hear those words. Raven patted his shoulder and nodded in agreement to which Shadow looked a bit displeased and then sad and then happy in that order. ¡°Back to the actual topic which is important, you all well really only two of you have the option to learn some water magic to produce water when you need else you can depend on finding water sources which are quite plentiful as long as it''s not a barren wasteland¡± said Viv cutting this ''touching'' interaction between the group to a stop. ¡°Umm...¡± Serena raised her hand up. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Doesn''t the effects of most magic disappear after you use it with few exception?¡± she asked. ¡°Not at all. It gives the illusion of disappearing since the magic that sustains them is gone after the spell ends and it reverts to it''s neutral state. Fire will disappear when there is no fuel left to burn right? In this way, water can remain from ice magic or water magic which is useful. However light or dark magic do not leave a clear trace while neutral element magic never leave a proper trace of the spell afterwards unless it''s very apparent.¡± ¡°I see...¡± ¡°The reason I''m pointing out the use of water magic is that it can occur either using a water source was a catalysis to amplify it''s effects or directly use mana as a source to create water to use. This way, even if there is no water you can still get water.¡± ¡°In that case, wouldn''t it be fine for Miriel to learn it since she already has ice magic?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°I rather not pick up another element to learn¡± denied Miriel waving her hand, ¡°It takes a really long time to even train one element in magic, having three is my limit on training them all. Sain should pick it up instead.¡± The group looked at Sain from Miriel. ¡°I...wouldn''t mind learning some new magic since I am lacking.¡± ¡°Oh I know you are lacking in magic¡± remarked Viv, ¡°Don''t worry, you won''t need to learn all the tricks on water magic to use this spell. It''s one of those basic one that won''t get you the ''Water Magic Mastery'' skill in the end. Take out your hand.¡± Sain did that and extended his hand to Viv to which he placed his finger at the centre of his hand. Then there was a small amount of mana gathering at that point as Viv explained. ¡°This is one of the ''old'' way of teaching magic by making you remember how the flow of the spell works. Highly inefficient in the end but it is faster than explaining it to you. Now, remember this flow of mana and the type of mana flowing through.¡± Sain could feel that there was...some sort of mana that felt slightly different than the mana he normally used. It didn''t ''feel'' different but it ''felt'' different from the mana he normally used. ¡°Type of mana?¡± asked Sain. Viv nodded and then furthered explained, ¡°Each element is slightly different even in how it''s mana works. Those who are used to using fire element mana can use fire magic better and so on. It takes the form of the element''s Magic Mastery.¡± Eventually Viv stopped moving the mana in his hand and said, ¡°Now, try to replicate it. If it works then a skill should appear.¡± Sain nodded and started to replicate what Viv did to his hand. However he soon found out that his control over his mana was extremely rough compared to his but he continued. Eventually the mana flowed in the same way as Viv did and a bit of water appeared in his hand and spilled out.
You have gained the skill: Mana Control
You have gained the skill: Water Fill
''Huh? What is this mana control skill?'' Sain opened up both windows and inspected them.
Mana Control Beginner Level 1 The control of mana is one of the most basic skills a mage can have but one that is rarely trained. As such, mana is wasted and used incorrectly often until the mage can control it properly. This skill however allows you to properly control pure mana from an earlier point. Effects: - Allows you to control mana to an small extent
Water Fill Beginner Level 1 A basic magic that fills an object with water. The higher the skill level, the more water that can be produced at the same time. Mana Cost: 100
¡°Did you get the skill?¡± asked Viv not sure what was going on with the expression on Sain''s face. ¡°Well....I got a skill called ''Water Fill'' which should be the one you gave me but I got another skill called ''Mana Control'' for some reason as well.¡± ¡°Ah, that skill. If you have it then you can control small bits of mana at a time. It''s really useless unless you train it properly.¡± ¡°What happens when you train it.¡± ¡°Well...eventually you can halve the cost of mana for spells and alterate spells to have higher or lower outputs as well. It''s something that many players want trained at the end but don''t bother to train early on. It''s really different from ''Magic Control'' where it only helps you control spells, it does things on a more basic level.¡± ¡°I see....so I should train it¡± Sain looked at the skill with high potential due to what Viv said what it could do later on. If he lowered his mana consumption then...it would only be good for him. Viv nodded and said, ¡°Yes when you have the time.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] With that, another week passed by with the group on the second day on the second week. ¡°How much did you manage to gather today?¡± asked Sain to Shadow. ¡°Enough for a single meal...there isn''t much to collect here without you becoming paralysed, poisoned or worse¡± he replied. ¡°Just...how much is there that we can''t eat because....¡± ¡°Because it looks like there is a lot to eat? Don''t be fooled? Those fruits that look like apples there, are actually super poisonousness and will make you vomit after a few minutes giving out a certain scent which tells a man eater plant to come and consume you.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Isn''t that a bit extreme?¡± asked Sain. Shadow shrugged and said, ¡°According to Viv, this is only kinda dangerous compared to one of the restricted zones. Anyway the strange thing is that I...no we haven''t even seem a rabbit here at all! They are literally everywhere else in the continent but in this forest....¡± ¡°Perhaps they don''t come to this area of the forest.¡± ¡°Or something is eating them....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Perhaps there''s a strong monster in this area then¡± said Sain thinking of the possibility. ¡°What is this talk of strong monster?¡± asked Lyndis appearing out of nowhere. ¡°Why is it that every time we talk about anything strong and to fight you always appear?¡± wondered Shadow. Throughout the week, he and Sain were talking about some things to get to know each other better since Shadow before really didn''t say much...or do much by any means but now he did. Because of this, Sain spent less time with Miriel who was spending more time with Viv on topics of magic which Viv seemed to enjoy quite a bit. Serena and Raven however remained the same communicating when they had to, the group while closer now due to the many months together, were still not close at all. ¡°Don''t worry¡± said Viv appearing with Miriel, ¡°There shouldn''t be any monsters that can take you all down at once.¡± If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Right, now should be a good time to train up your skills in fighting. First of all, while you are slightly better than average, when you''re in this guild, that will get you killed....a lot. Missions are always harder than what other players do and there are no room for mistakes. Because of this...I need you all to be able to good at fighting which you all are not¡± said Viv. He quickly moved, at least twice the speed of what Shadow could do at his top speed and took...no stole Raven''s spear which was in his hands a moment ago. ¡°Raven as a tank, why do you need to attack the enemy? Your allies have enough power without you. Learn how to fight with only a shield.¡± ¡°....¡± Next he quickly chanted a spell onto Lyndis in the form of a vine which moved and tightly wounded itself onto her wrists. ¡°Wait what?!¡± Lyndis tried to get the vines that glowed with a faint glow before turning into a black mark on her wrist. ¡°Lyndis, you are lacking in sword skills. You learning fire skills only made you weaker in the end as you further depend on it. Learn how to fight with only a sword from the start again.¡± Next, Viv did the same with Serena and left the words, ¡°Serena, as a druid you don''t need to use such...unpolished magic you made up on your own. I''m sealing your blood magic for now. Also, your ''root bind'' spell is actually quite flexible. Learn how to fully control it.¡± ¡°I....understand¡± said Serena with resolve. With this, her only attack spell was sealed but she really didn''t like using it in the first place. ¡°Next up is Miriel¡±, Viv did the same thing to Miriel and said, ¡°There aren''t many issues with you but I feel that you are trying to stay as a attacker and supporter. Because you have a personality that tends to attack, your sound and illusion magic is sealed until I let you.¡± ¡°Ah...¡± muttered Miriel in surprise, ¡°Is that a good thing? This means we don''t have any buffs with work with.¡± ¡°Buffs are fine but if you depend on it too much then without it, you''ll end up dead¡± replied Viv. He looked at Sain and said, ¡°Also, Sain seems to be better in such a role to begin with. I''ll teach him some basic buffing spells after this. Speaking of which...¡± Viv moved his hand closer to Sain but decided not to in the end and looked at Shadow as well, ¡°You two more or less are good enough but lack the experience and skills to do more. Your growth is correct but it''s a bit slow. Continue to train.¡± With that, Viv left Sain and Shadow without lacking in any skills or abilities and moved ahead as the group followed him from behind. [p=center]xXx[/p] A bit later.... ¡°Enemies!¡± shouted Shadow looking around at the trees. Sain noticed that he was looking up on the branches instead of the bushes, as such he looked up as well. What he saw was bad. ¡°Monkeys?!¡± he muttered aloud by mistake due to shock. These monkeys had silver fur and three eyes. They were half the size of a person but they had sharp claws and tails that had spikes on them. It looked like they would really hurt if they attacked you. Sain immediately looked at Raven who moved automatically to gave his spear but Viv had it. As such, he just held the shield that was made to parry not block attacks with two hands instead of one now. Miriel was about to cast buffs on everyone but remembered that she couldn''t do that as well. And finally Lyndis was about to use ranged fire attacks but nothing happened. All of them were more stiff than usual since their skills and abilities were sealed to a certain extent. However in turn, Sain gained several new spells at the same time. ¡°Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!¡± ¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡± ¡°Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury!¡± Sain placed the first spell on Raven, the second on Shadow and the third on Lyndis. They increased vitality, agility and strength in that order by 20 points each. They were the spells that Viv had taught Sain before this battle. And these were their skill windows.
Iron Skin Beginner Level 1 Cause the target to have his skin harden and increase defence by 20 points. This amount will increase as the spell levels up. Mana Cost: 150 Time Limit: 5 Minutes
Swift Legs Beginner Level 1 Cause wind to gather and allow the target to move faster than ever before by 20 points. This amount will increase as the spell levels up. Mana Cost: 150 Time Limit: 5 Minutes
Berserk Fury Beginner Level 1 Cause the target to gather strength in their body and allow attacks to increase in power via strength by 20 points. This amount will increase as the spell levels up. Mana Cost: 150 Time Limit: 5 Minutes
¡°Sain, this buff sucks!¡± complained Lyndis immediately seeing that there was no large difference in her attack as she deflected an attack and attacked back at the monkeys, ¡°Look, even Raven is complaining in his own way!¡± Sain looked over to Raven who was struggling to keep up with the agile monkeys even with increased defence. Meanwhile Shadow could not hit the critical points of the monkeys while leaping in the trees with them. ¡°Health Restoration!¡± chanted Serena using her new healing spell as well. While Viv was teaching Sain, Serena approached and wanted to learn a new spell as well. Namely it was the direct restoration type healing spell. The spell hit Raven and increased his health by 10% immediately instead of steadily increasing this time.
Health Restoration Beginner Level 1 Heals 500 health in one go Mana Cost: 300 Cool Down: 30 Seconds
Looking at this skill window, while it was powerful in it''s own rights, the mana cost was off the charts compared to her regenerative healing spells. However it was still more powerful than Sain''s own ''Minor Heal'' at the very start so it was at least an intermediate rank spell. Looking around, Miriel was rapidly firing ice bolts all over the place to keep them off the others; Shadow was still doing his own thing, Raven was struggling to block and not attack and Lyndis was charging in alone. ¡°....¡± ''How the hell did we revert back to this...?'' wondered Sain in his thoughts. The moment they lost part of their fighting abilities, they come back to this beginner level party? Sain at this point had no choice but to scream orders even though he liked not speaking much in battle. But at this rate, they were going to lose. ¡°Raven! Lyndis! Shadow! Get back here and stop spreading out!¡± Sain shouted loudly enough to make everyone stunned for a second including the enemies. ¡°Right!¡± The three immediately did so and retreated while defending and attacking. Meanwhile Sain chanted and used, ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± to call on Luna into the battle as well. [You called master?] Luna looked at Sain but Sain only said, ¡°Wait a bit¡± and looked at the others. ¡°Raven, attack using your shield to draw all of their hate on you! Serena, keep Raven''s health up at all times and concentrate on restricting those who follow him! Shadow, attack as many monkeys to make them fall from the trees!¡± Raven moved in a circle and used ''Shield Bash'' several times moving onto the next enemy quickly and at the same time took the hate of all 20 enemy monkeys at once. At the same time Serena chanted, ¡°Root Bind!¡± creating several tens small vines around the place. Meanwhile Sain felt that Shadow disappeared somewhere but his works were very apparent. ¡°Haaa!¡± Serena focused her mana in her spell and manipulated the spell, each individual set of vines to at least hold down a monkey a bit by the leg, arm or other places on their body to stop them for a split second which caused them to drop from the trees and onto the ground. ¡°Lyndis! Miriel! Clean up the enemies on the ground now!¡± ¡°Right, Ice Bolt!¡± Miriel shot several ice bolts at random at the monkeys quickly while Lyndis ran ahead into the crowd fearless enough and sliced them into pieces, taking three to four hits each to kill one. ¡°Magi Arrows!¡± Sain also added his own firepower into the mix as well and ordered to Luna, ¡°Help Raven take care of the monkeys that are attacking him.¡± [Of course] With that, Luna ran and leaped on one of the monkeys that was attacking Raven who was blocking using his shield and constantly retreating. [Die meat!] With that, one top of one of the monkeys, Luna ripped it''s throat out and moved onto the next one that was stuck at Raven. He cooperated with Luna to lure in monkeys only to let Luna moved in quickly and take the kill over and over again. Meanwhile the others took care of the other monkeys are quickly lowered in numbers and eventually after another 5 minutes, all of them were taken care of. After the battle ended, Viv appeared almost immediately saying: ¡°That wasn''t too bad.¡± Hearing these words and not understanding what Viv was trying to do, Sain asked, ¡°What is the point of this?¡± ¡°The point?¡± ¡°Yes, the point of not being able to use all of our abilities. Normally, this wouldn''t even take a minute to clean up but...with so many options sealed off, we can''t even fight properly.¡± ¡°But you won in the end.¡± ¡°But not in the way I wanted.¡± Both Sain and Viv looked at each other. ¡°There are times where you cannot win the way you want and have to make use of what you got. There are...many enemies in this world that can seal lower abilities like that. Those who can make it seem like it is impossible to win or even turn you against each other.¡± Bang Bang..! Just as Viv as saying that, the group heard loud noises coming from somewhere. It sounded like...footsteps and it was close. ¡°What the hell is that?!¡± screamed Lyndis moving back immediately not even trying to attack it. ¡°That is called a mud beast¡± said Viv looking at the thing that appeared. The thing that appeared was 5 metres tall and was...really just a bob of mud mixed in with countless other things. It was almost like a living moving swamp. And from the feeling it gave off, something that they couldn''t defeat. ¡°Tell me Sain, in this situation is there a way for you to win here?¡± Viv asked. Sain sweated looking at this mud beast and replied with a solemn face, ¡°Not at all.¡± ¡°And?¡± ¡°And what?! There is nothing we can do to defeat it...with our group''s true strength gone....there is no chance of winning here¡± said Sain feeling that they should really run away. This thing had a presence that was worse than even that Behemoth from the Eternal Dungeon from before which meant it was stronger than it... ¡°It is your job to find a way to win no matter what¡± said Viv walking in front of the group and towards the mud beast. (GOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRR) The mud beast let out a scream that could not be described to be even...alive. The bob of mud extended it''s ''body'' and formed arms that shot at Viv at once. However Viv didn''t even move and pointed his staff at the mud beast. ¡°Black Hole Point.¡± Black sparks appeared in front of his staff and a small ball...no hole appeared. A second later, the mud beast disappeared in that hole that was as small as a spark. ¡°....¡± The group could only stare at Viv who....went beyond their understanding. ¡°Answer me Sain, what was the most logical to do before when that creature appeared?¡± asked Viv once again. ¡°....¡± Sain thought about it while the group stared at the two not knowing what to do. Miriel was about to speak but stopped at the end. ¡°To ask you for help¡± answered Sain. To this, Viv smiled which only happened a few times during this week so far which was less than 10 times. ¡°If it were your masters....in your shoes, they would''ve answered ''To run away'' while if it was us...me, Eden and Al, we would''ve answered ''To kill it''. How interesting...that is one way to ''win'' in the end as well.¡± With that, Viv moved ahead as the group followed him once again. [p=center]xXx[/p] Later on... ¡°What the hell was that about?!¡± said Miriel in a hateful tone. Lyndis agreed and said, ¡°That act...it was like he was looking down on us.¡± Shadow corrected her, ¡°He was looking down on us though that was only because we''re weaker than him.¡± ¡°Umm....¡± Serena tried defending Viv, ¡°He''s...not that bad.¡± Shadow shot back and said quickly, ¡°That''s because he was giving you pointers to your class! We didn''t learn much at all and some of us can''t even train our skills now as well!¡± ¡°Calm down Shadow, there is a reason for this¡± said Sain speaking up no as well. ¡°And what is that?¡± asked Lyndis taking Shadow''s side as well. ¡°To focus our training on a certain area.¡± Though she really did not want to in this situation, Miriel nodded as well and said, ¡°With a large number of skills to use, we try to train them all leaving all of them weak. Training a few certain skills at the same time can only lead them to be much stronger compared to before.¡± ¡°Yep, we have really gained a lot of skills and spells to use recently. I think Viv was cutting back on how much we can train¡± said Sain. ¡°No spear¡± said Raven to this. ¡°Yeah! Raven''s spear is gone and now he can''t attack well enough!¡± said Shadow pointing out that Raven had a large amount of trouble dealing with the enemies this time. Serena then spoke up, ¡°But...tanks aren''t....suppose to attack....much?¡± as if asking a question. Miriel answered her question with, ¡°A tank''s role is to take damage from the party to himself. It doesn''t matter if he can attack or not, his role is all the same. Another thing is to draw hate to himself from everyone else...I hope that you get a skill that allows you to do that without individually smashing your shield in them this time.¡± Raven sadly nodded to this as well. It looked like he was thinking of how he could do that. If he couldn''t then...they had to ask Viv later on and would have one less skill book to get to sell as well....50 gold gone was probably what Miriel was thinking right now and everyone could tell. Snapping out of those thoughts, Miriel then said, ¡°Anyway...it is true that recently you''ve been using your fire skills more than your sword to defeat enemies.¡± ¡°That''s because it''s quicker to do that!¡± retorted Lyndis. ¡°Then become a fire mage instead you fool!¡± retorted Miriel at the same time, ¡°What''s the point of you having a sword if you''re not going to use it! Is your sword simply a decoration?¡± ¡°N-not at all! It''s just that there had been many enemies where attacking from range is quicker than running up and slicing them in pieces¡± replied Lyndis a bit flustered now. ¡°In that case, do that. Viv seems to want you to do that¡± commented Shadow. ¡°Buuut it''s so slow! The super fast battles are gone!¡± complained Lyndis waving her arms about like a child. ¡°You mean the life and death battles that we had due to Eden are gone right now. Viv had always reminded us that it is unlikely for any of us to die on this trip...however that doesn''t mean the battles are dull though¡± said Miriel. ¡°Yeah yeah, I know. I know we can still die while fighting but...it seems like we can power through everything now...¡± Lyndis looked down a bit. To this Sain sighed and then stabbed her with words, ¡°If I recall...a certain three people were struggling with mere monkeys. And amongst them was an idiot which charged in alone¡± in a cold voice that seemed to impale into Lyndis. ¡°S-Sain....you are really not holding back are you...?¡± ¡°Of course not. Not to say that you actually FORGOT to use skills and remained to slash at things like an idiot, you also managed to do a BASIC mistake of not being careful. It you not notice that you were surrounded completely in seconds and could not retreat?¡± ¡°Th-that was-¡± ¡°Because you got too cocky in the mist of it didn''t you?¡± Sain was smiling but his eyes wasn''t. It was one thing to make this mistake for the first time...but to train, amend that mistake and commit it again? Such a thing was not forgiven. ¡°Sain you sound like Miriel now¡± said Shadow with a chuckle. ¡°Do I? That just means Miriel is honest¡± replied Sain with a slight surprise on his face as he looked at Miriel who was grinning at Lyndis right now. ¡°Miriel please don''t get off by looking at Lyndis like that¡± said Sain taking the same tone to Miriel as well. GRAB CRACK! ¡°AHH-¡± ¡°Use that tone at me again and you will regret it Sain.¡± There seemed to be a black aura around Miriel which made her look like a demon. Her black hair swayed around slightly due to it''s short length and her eyes were completely dead serious on killing him. Sain could only think of where the hell she was getting this strength. She was smiling but under that smile was a completely different face that made Sain feel that Miriel was more scary than Viv or even Eden at this point. ¡°Do I need to repeat myself?¡± Seeing that he couldn''t talk wit her hand covering his mouth, he tried to shake his head but instead shook his body. Miriel got the message though and let him got where he coughed a few times and shivered before Miriel. ¡°Sain¡± Miriel called. ¡°Y-yes?¡± Sain looked up at Miriel with black lines coming down his head. ¡°Now what will you do to make me happy?¡± ''Happy?!'' ¡°Wh-what do you mean?¡± asked Sain who had a really bad feeling. ¡°Yes unless...¡± Miriel took out her whip in which Sain knew very well on how good she was with it. ¡°Can we do this later since we really need to catch up with Viv here¡± begged Sain. Miriel smiled though slightly better than the one before, it was still the smile of the devil and said to this, ¡°In that case, you will come with me shopping at that city we''ll get to for a whole day¡± as if that will certainly happen no matter what.¡± ¡°Waaaaaaaaaaait!!!¡± Lyndis moved in at lightning speed and grabbed onto Miriel. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Mirie, ¡°That day....you two were on a date while hiding from me weren''t you?!¡± she shouted shaking Miriel back and forth. ¡°Actually we were working together of help moving the rubble from inside the city¡± replied Miriel while Lyndis looked over to see that Sain was nodding as well. ¡°Hmm....sounds like a lie though. Why did only you two get to do something so fun?!¡± said Lyndis furious that she missed something that great out. ¡°It wasn''t fun for me though....¡± muttered Sain silently reflecting on the day Miriel dragged him throughout the city for no good reason. [p=center]xXx[/p] And so weeks passed marking it as a month since the trip began... ¡°We''re finally ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuut!!!!¡± screamed Lyndis into the air. The others looked at Lyndis slightly embarrassed since she still had so much energy even though they mostly survived on the food that Shadow and Serena brought in. Mid way in the trip, they started hunting down monsters for food rather than experience and often they would have monkey leg or monkey...other for a meal which was a nice change in palate as long as you don''t think about what it was before.... Annoyed by the noise, Miriel said while having her hand on her ear to Lyndis, ¡°Be quiet. You''re more annoying then the monkeys we cooked and that''s saying something.¡± ¡°Why-¡± Sain could only look warmly at the two...their bickering never actually stopped with Shadow adding fuel to the flames and him having to stop them all later on. As always, Serena tried to stop the conflict but usually failed and Raven...rarely made comments but all of them were significant in the end. However to Sain, this was fine. ¡°It''s like...we are truly together....¡± muttered Sain to himself not intending on anyone to listen. ¡°Of course you guys are¡± answered Viv. ¡°V-Viv!¡± shuttered Sain in surprise. He did not know when or how Viv got behind him at all. ¡°Even if you wanted to not be like this, we as in me, Eden and Al won''t let you to not be together¡± proclaimed Viv all of a sudden. ¡°Anyway, we got out of that forest....and now since we''re out of the forest, we need to head south to where a major road is to follow it to the east¡± he added, ¡°Which should take us another 4 months to walk through if we get a ride.¡± ¡°And finally there won''t be many attacks from monster....the bigger problem on roads is that other people will attack you such as bandits or player killers. Those are the things I want you to be able to deal with when we reach our destination¡± said Viv in one final go before heading south. While Viv was walking further away... ¡°Viv seemed to be happy to get out of the forest as well¡± said Lyndis. ¡°Huh?¡± exclaimed Sain, he could not tell any difference in Viv. However Serena nodded as well to Lyndis'' statement. Miriel even added, ¡°He must have not liked the place much....¡± Sain could only ask to these three, ¡°How did you tell?¡± The three looked at him and answered at the same time. ¡°Woman''s intuition.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain could only stare blankly before following where Viv was going in haste with the others. Even though he was quite short and young looking like a child, he was quite fast...though for some reason, those thoughts made Sain feel afraid of Viv....like he was forgetting something.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7800~ - Second chapter of this volume...taking it very slow to try to grow these characters...slowly. By the end of the volume I want their ''basic'' skill sets which I envisioned to be complete. The group in my eyes, is super incomplete compared to the trio from before where it seemed like they could survive anywhere. I''m going to use this volume to make it so they can at least take care of themselves. Vol.4 Chapter 3 - Rules to Travelling #3: Train Basic Skills ¡°Unicorn? You mean ''that'' Unicorn which created Royal Road and since then became the biggest and greatest cooperation in human history?¡± asked Hina hearing the name. ¡°Yep, and that Unicorn in which I am...well kinda employed at or at least work with¡± replied Eden. ¡°And...Unicorn ordered us to school?¡± wondered Ian. ¡°No no¡± Eden shook his hands denying that, ¡°I''m the one who wants to. I just used Unicorn to get you somewhere where I can at least see you safe. They...don''t dare want to make me as an enemy.¡± Eden made a smile with complete and utter confidence in his words. It was like he knew a lot more than he let on to make it so that even Unicorn would not want him as an enemy. ¡°Anyway, there were many many different proceedings on getting you in..there is an extremely long waiting list and I actually needed to ''talk'' and ''persuade'' a couple of people to be pushed back a bit to move you lot in¡± explained Eden. ''Why does it feel like that Eden threatened them....?'' thought the group. ¡°Another thing was that I needed to find you lot first¡± Eden smiled a bit shyly seeing that he didn''t even know where they were without Unicorn helping him again on this case. ¡°Find us? When did you start searching?¡± asked Peter wanting to know. ¡°Hmm...it was just after you guys met your masters, those apprentices of mine. Therefore another name you can call me as is ''Grand Master!'' hahahaha!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Right...never going to say that again¡± said Eden awkwardly. In the end, Maria asked, ¡°So it took...2 and a half months to find us?¡± to Eden. ¡°Yep, searching through all those logs was a pain in the ass...though even getting access to those logs were trouble enough. I had to push most of the work to Unicorn in the end to find you guys and even with most minimum amount completely filled up my office like you saw when you first came to the guild building all those months in game ago.¡± ¡°....¡± The group all thought about when Eden guided them around the place at the guild. His office DID spill out of paper then...though he burnt them all in the end. They could not believe there wasn''t a negative impact on Eden due to that careless act...though it was all digital in the end and he could easily get it back later. Peter than went to ask, ¡°Why did you find us?¡± to Eden. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Buy a carriage and bull right lad? That will come to a total of 150 gold¡± said an energetic old man with a tank top on and with a towel wrapped on his forhead. Viv handed over the gold coins to the old man without a smile and then thanked him with his service. The old man led out a young and yet powerful bull with lots of muscles on the legs. It was pure black and had a noble look as it stood there ready to pull the carriage behind it. ¡°For paying full price without trying to bargain, I''ll give you my best bull! This one may be young but has the most strength and vigour of all of them!¡± ¡°Thank you. I''ll take care of him for the rest of my trip¡± replied Viv politely. ¡°Haha I know you will. You''re heading for Freelily City right? That place that connects the central and western continent together?¡± ¡°That''s right.¡± ¡°In that case, give old Bobby a shout from me to let him know I''m not dead yet!¡± Sain felt that Viv got a quest then. ¡°If I can, then I will¡± Viv smiled in return and took the bull to the group where he ordered, ¡°Get on, we''re leaving¡± with a completely different attitude to with the old man. ¡°....¡± The group nodded and one by one got on the carriage that was kinda cramped since it was too small to handle six people. The carriage was the type that didn''t have a top on it and was the cheap kind which had two wheels and had to be lifted and dragged by the bull. The only good thing was that it could fit 10 people on it so the group had a lot of room to sit on even with the extra stuff being placed around. Viv sat at the front and led the bull forward and went straight to the road south where they would come to the main road that went a bit further south and then finally east. An hour later when they were clear of anything and everything except for this road with nothing around it, Viv spoke up. ¡°The first stage of your training with me has been completed¡± he said. Sain thought it had to do with the survival skills that Viv pounded in them off screen from the eyes of the viewers while this narrator enjoyed thinking about it. To sum it up, there were days where you had a high chance to die from poisoning from what you eat and other days where what you want to eat tries to eat you instead. Because of this and other reasons...Sain and Serena both learnt the skill ''Poison Removal'' which while technically a spell for a cleric can be used by Druids and Shamans as well. As such, this skill below was now in the hands of the group as well.
Poison Removal Beginner Level 1 Extracts the poison from the body and expels it out. This method is slow but does the job done and can be more effective and quicker with training. This skill only requires a proportionate amount of mana to be used against the amount and lethally of the poison.
Basically what this spell does is directly counters the poison from the body by using mana to repel the poison from without and take it out of the body. If the poison does 5 health damage per second than you needed to pump at least 5 mana per second using this spell to counter it and more to remove it. It was quite inefficient but like all skills and spells, it would become much stronger as it levelled up and especially when it moved to the intermediate and advance levels. Another thing to note was that the group in total gained roughly 5 levels each with vary with certain people getting more kills and some with less kills. Miriel and Shadow gained 7 levels each while Raven and Lyndis only gained 4 levels while Sain and Serena stood at a steady 5 levels each as well. They were on their way to the level 90 and soon the level 100 point as well. Next Viv, explained what was going to happen next in the future, ¡°The second part of your training will be directly related to your skills. During these next 5 months...I will make sure that most of your skills are in the intermediate level.¡± ¡°But you sealed some of our skills from before¡± said Lyndis. ¡°When the time comes, I''ll switch the skills you can use so you can train them as well¡± replied Viv. ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Any other questions? I want to start this skill training as fast as possible to give you as much time to screw up and redo things¡± asked Viv with a soft gentle tone though his words were anything but that. ¡°Actually, how are me, Raven and Lyndis going to train? I mean, we can''t exactly do stuff while riding this¡± asked Shadow. Viv grinned and said, ¡°That''s simple. You''ll be doing all of that while running along side us.¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow was speechless but so was Lyndis and even more so for Raven. To run and train...it was like killing two birds with one stone...but.... ¡°That''s near impossible isn''t it?!¡± said Shadow shocked that anyone would even suggest such a method. ¡°Well Al did this kind of sword training back when we were only flesh in the game as well and Eden did the same with his magic training at the same time¡± replied Viv, ¡°It''s not that hard. Rather than directly train your attack skills, this kind of training will help level up your other passive skills. Your stance skills will improve greatly with this. Shadow, your stealth skills as well and Raven depending might get a good passive foot skill from this as well. Now off you go.¡± ¡°But-¡± Shadow and Lyndis tried to make Viv reconsider since this kind of thing was going to be hell for them but suddenly from the side came tree roots...no they were small enough to be called vines; and grabbed onto the three and threw them off. Thud! All three of them landed on their backs a bit dizzy from the throw. They looked at the carriage that was slowly getting further and further away from them.... ¡°Hurry up and keep up! I won''t wait for you!¡± shouted Viv actually leaving them behind. ¡°....¡± The three looked at each other and them immediately thought together that the first thing was to be lose them and started running after them while thinking on what to do. [p=center]xXx[/p] Lyndis was on her own now since Raven decided to jump into the side of the road while Raven was on the other side as well doing his own thing. This meant that Lyndis could do her own training without interference from the others as well. She was still running and could see the carriage with the others into the distance as well. First of all she checked the skill that she wanted to train.
Power Stance Beginner Level 5 Leaning forward aggressively will increase the power of attacks in exchange for more danger to the user as they charge head first into battle knowing they will be hit. A stance that will increase the power of attacks by 50% and defence by 14%
Speed Stance Beginner Level 4 Moving side to side will cause enemies to be confused about the directions of the attacks to them and may seem to look like the blade is as fast as always but is actually faster than normal. A stance that will increase the speed of attacks by 50% and evasion by 13%
Precision Stance Beginner Level 4 Staying back and observing the flow of the battle without being in the heat of it, blows will be more likely to be precise and critically damaging to enemies. A stance that will increase the accuracy of attacks by 50% and critical hit chance by 13%
These skills were by far some of the most useful ones she had besides her fire skills which edged on the level of being overpowered a bit. The first thing was that the main effect would not change until she reached the intermediate level for this skill. This meant that she would always get this level of boost for now. However the other sub effect which were defence, evasion and critical hit chance would increase every time she levelled this skill up. All of these were important as well and hard to get besides defence which also came with armour. But like the main effects, these sub effects would only come when the skill was ''active''; namely when she set up the stance. ''Power Stance'' mainly focused the power of the body to the sword. This meant that she took strength from other parts of her body to her arms and wrist mostly and keeping some in the legs to increase power as well. Because of this, it made escaping or evading attacks more difficult when using this stance. ''Speed Stance'' was the exact opposite focusing on leaning the body and strength to the legs and lower half to the body instead especially the ankles and knees. Leaning forward was only there to make it harder for foes to hit her but also boosted her speed and range as well. Using this stance meant that she no longer could completely focus on attacking. Finally ''Precision Stance'' was...unusual. Unlike the other two stances, Lyndis had to remove all strength and focus on observing the enemy instead. Out of the three stances, this was far the most passive one yet leaving her with little power to attack or evade. Because of this, she had the most difficult time with this stance. However she felt that her sword moved better and more like the way she wanted and envisioned it to be. Because of this, she trained it as much as the other two stances as well. ¡°Now....which one to focus on...¡± muttered Lyndis to herself. During the few minutes she had to think to herself, she decided to train so she could auto use these stances which were actually really powerful if you could use them properly. Think about it, you suddenly could move 50% faster or have 50% more powerful blows or even have 50% more accurate blows as well. While Lyndis knew she could use them, it takes for around a second even with training to reduce the amount of time to use one of these stances. That is fatal to her. She needed to do it as short as time as possible. However she wanted to do something else with this as well. Namely to use it while moving. The stances worked as Lyndis stopped, paused and then attacked with the stance set up. She wanted to remove the first two steps, the stopping and pause to set up the attack and move directly to the attack motion. But doing so meant that her body needed to be in battle mode completely which was harder than you think. It''s not standing there that is hard but to perceive everything that might attack or hurt you constantly that tires your mind. ¡°Right! Need to be able to use at least one of these stances while running till tonight!¡± Lyndis was not worried in the slightest and was extremely patient concerning these kinds of things. Like communicating with other people...you need to take it slow else something may break in the process. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Time to get started at last...¡± said Shadow to himself removing himself from Lyndis and Raven. If they were here, then his training would be half as effective. As a rogue which is definitely not an assassin or thief but a job that required both skill sets; acting alone was the best choice. He was fast and has strength to fight one on one against enemies directly as well. This was the strongest point for a rogue. However many other classes could do this and better. So really, his speed and ability to suddenly attack was the most important thing to him. As such the combination of the skills ''Stealth'', ''Climbing'' and ''Burst Speed'' were the core of his skills. He needed them as strong as possible... ¡°Stealth reduces the noise I make...but getting an actual skill for that would be best as well...I should try to reduce the amount of noise I make from now on....¡± he said with resolve. If he also got a sound reducing skill, the chances of enemies sensing where he was drastically decreased and combined this with his quick pace and lack of a presence to begin with, he would be a silent killer on the battlefield. ¡°But speed should be the first priority.¡± Stealth was useless if the enemy saw you. Therefore you needed to be fast and to be fast means the enemy can''t see you. As such you need to be fast to be stealthy as well and was the most important thing. Shadow looked ahead and saw the carriage that was slowly getting further away from him. He decided to use ''Burst Speed'' at least a large number of time...but along with a skill to reduce the sound he made, he also wanted a passive speed increase skill as well and therefore shouldn''t use ''Burst Speed'' that much. ¡°Or...I can continuously use it and perhaps that may....¡± Shadow had an idea on what could work. If he randomly increased his speed once in a while, his body would be adapt well enough to the speed which was the sense of slowness after each time he used ''Burst Speed''. Therefore he should use it until his body ''normal'' state is the speed in which he travels with using ''Burst Speed''. The cool down of the skill was fine...the only problem was the mana cost. It was 100 mana per use so he could only use it 6 time max each time. ¡°Looks like I need to increase my mana to make training more efficient. But that means I can train my stealth and climbing skills otherwise¡± he said optimality. Shadow looked around and there were a couple of trees around the place. While not as dense as a forest, there were sometime lines...no a bunch of trees together as if someone forgot about chopping them down. He could use that for a bit of training at least. ¡°Right, let''s do this.¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] With Lyndis and Shadow doing their own thing, Raven was left alone with only his own training to do. It was something that was good and bad at the same time for Raven. For starters, he could improve in an area if he pleased but at the same time he had no advise at all. ''What should I do now....?'' he thought to himself. While not speaking a lot, he often spoke to himself inside his head which made things much easier for him at least. There was really only one direction he could take with training right now. He needed to increase his skills with the shield and also his dodging skills as well. However his dodging skills weren''t completely required per say but with his current shield...one that specialise in parrying rather than blocking direct blows, he really had no choice. He had two shield skills; ''Shield Bash'' and ''Shield Parry'', no three if you include ''Ram'' which can be used with a shield or rather has to be used with a shield in order to be effective as well. Other than that, right now he also had ''Footwork'' which increased his mobility by a bit and ''Body Reinforcement'' which was a defence increase based on how much damage he took overall. ''Body Reinforcement'' was impossible to train effectively without another to attack him so he wrote that skill off that list to train right now. The same was with ''Shield Parry'' as well. This meant that he could train ''Shield Bash'', ''Ram'' or ''Footwork'' right now. But he decided not to. The reason was simply out of everyone, he had the least skills to use and therefore the least options in doing things. He could charge, block and attack but nothing else but that. The others had options that made Raven envy them. As such he thought of two things he wanted to use as well that would make things easier for him. The first was a ''Taunt'' skill and the second was a passive ''Marching'' skill. The first, a taunt skill was something that made enemies come to attack you. Literally impractical unless you are a tanky person. However it was a bonfire of all tanks since it allowed their jobs to be much easier with less time thinking on protecting comrades and more time enduring attacks. The second was something he would like to go around a fight. While he had ''Footwork'' it was in the end an active skill that would require mana to use and could fail him when he couldn''t active it. Because of this, Raven wanted another skill that could compliment it and amplify his movements in the end. The most frightening being was not one that was invincible and did not move but one that was seemed invincible and could move quickly. ''If I recall...there were things like breathing techniques right? I have to focus on my breathing to synch with my body in order to release more power....if I recall correctly...'' With this, Raven started his training as well focusing on breathing in a certain manner which allows him to be stronger this way. [p=center]xXx[/p] At the same time on the carriage... ¡°Since those three have started their own training, we should start your magic training as well¡± said Viv not looking at them since he was currently driving. ¡°....¡± The three sat there silent waiting on Viv to continue. ¡°I''m not going to help you a lot during this since you need to do things on your own. But I will give you tips on how to gain greater control over your magic which in turn accelerates the rate in which your magic can improve. First Sain...¡± Viv took one hand off the lease that was tied to the bull that was pulling the carriage. In it a small ball of light appeared and floated there. ¡°This will be your training¡± he said. ¡°Huh?¡± Unexpectedly, Sain let out a confused voice and asked, ¡°What does that have to do with magic training?¡± ¡°This is one of the most basic spells in the game that is actually extremely useful in dark areas. A light element spell that cost little mana to cast and can be controlled easily. It is so simple that it doesn''t even count as a spell if you train correctly¡± explained Viv. ¡°Plus I examined the skills you had and more or less know that you focus more on control than anything else. Because of this you need to improve your ''Mana Control'' skill as fast as possible. Your ''Compressed Magic Mastery'' skill is interesting in how it is normally useless unless you time when to use it. What''s the length of time you need to spend to fully charge it?¡± ¡°Around a day worth of fighting¡± replied Sain. ¡°And how much is the bonus to your magic attack?¡± Viv asked again. ¡°Currently...40% at a minimum and up to 120% per day. If I only use it once a day, it''s at it''s maximum value, two times will lower it to 80% and any more than that to 5 times a day will reduce it down to 40%.¡± ¡°Hmm...your power can go at least double what normal mages can use but you can only use it a few times a day. Is it possible to store more for the next day?¡± Sain shook his head, ¡°There is a limit on the skill and it will only stay to it''s maximum value until I use it.¡± ¡°....¡± Viv was silent for a few seconds thinking about something that Sain did not know of but in the end he said, ¡°What if I told you there was a method to use it as many times as you want?¡± ¡°Then I would take it depending¡± replied Sain honestly wanting to know this method now that Viv mentioned it. ¡°Well it''s impossible for you to use right now. You need to get both ¡°Compressed Magic Mastery'' and ''Mana Control'' to at least intermediate level each before you start. As such-¡± Viv raised his hand for Sain to see and produced the ball of light in his hand again. ¡°Train using this method. Eden used it during his early days as well and even being highly skilled in the practise, his magic leaned towards power than anything else...well having any kind of control while using that amount of mana at the time was a miracle enough. Remember to use more powerful magic, you need to learn how to control it first. Power is something that can be easily gotten quickly but control is something that is slow to grow.¡± Viv made the ball of light disappear and focused back the driving leaving Sain to do whatever he wanted. ¡°R-right¡± said Sain immediately starting on the training now. He opened his hand and tried to produce the ball of light to begin with. Meanwhile while Sain was beginning his training, Viv moved onto Miriel who was next on his list. ¡°Miriel, on one hand you''ve learnt some of the skills that Jenny had but on the other hand, Eden taught you how to use Ice Magic which is the opposite of what Jenny does.¡± ¡°Basically I''m stuck with either having an attacking role or a support role.¡± ¡°Precisely. You already have Sain and Serena for all your support roles so why do you need to continue supporting while you can attack and make a larger contribution in the end?¡± ¡°Because my support spells are more powerful than Sain''s. And while I''m at it, my attack spells are more powerful than his as well¡± replied Miriel not caring that Sain was hearing all of this. ¡°Miriel...¡± muttered Sain distracted. ¡°It is the truth though¡± pointed out Miriel. ¡°Yes while that is the truth, there is merit on Sain continuing his training since he can be stronger than you if you don''t do things right. You got your first support spells from Jenny and Jenny was also trained by Eden which means...¡± ¡°Her spells are extremely powerful?¡± Viv nodded to this. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.¡°The spells Jenny use are percentage increases types. They increased based on percentage rather than actual numbers like the buffs I taught Sain recently. The stronger you get the stronger the effects of such spells.¡± ¡°Is there a problem with this?¡± ¡°Kinda...since Eden didn''t like saving people, he made your masters as strong as he could meaning that all of their skills and spells were extremely powerful. Your ''Melody of Sound'' spell increases in power by several percentage each time while normal similar spells only increase by a fraction of that.¡± Miriel thought; was her spells really that powerful? It seemed to be in the normal levels though from what she knew. It was not on a level where everyone thought that it was too extreme or similar to a cheat in the game. Just to make sure on this feeling, Miriel asked, ¡°What''s the normal increase for percentage based buff spells?¡± ¡°Around a tenth of the strength of your ''Melody of Sound'' with the other strength buffs from ''Magic Mastery'' and ''Sound Mastery'' as well.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Honestly for Jenny to say that this kind of spell is basic means....people are being infected by the Eden disease¡± sighed Viv. ¡°Eden disease?¡± ¡°Yep, where people believe something that is extremely powerful is normal while something normal is weak. I fear that with Eden teaching more people means more people are believing that his level of power is only ''slightly'' higher than normal.¡± Viv had this profound look on his face as if the world became twisted due to this fact. ¡°Anyway¡± Viv snapped out of it, ¡°Right now I want you to focus on your offence since Sain is focusing on support. Your training is also simple.¡± Viv took out a bucket. ¡°Sain, full this up¡± he ordered giving the bucket to Sain. ¡°Right. Water Fill!¡± chanted Sain filling the bucket full of water. Next the bucket was passed to Miriel who was confused on what to do. ¡°Freeze this without using any spell and defrost it back to water. Keep on doing this and your ''Ice Magic Mastery'' will increase quite well. Ice Magic does not simply mean freezing things and water to use but also the ability to reverse that as well. If you learn how to do that, you can take down other ice mages as well.¡± ¡°Okay.¡± Miriel raised her hands over the water and started her training as well. Meanwhile, Viv moved onto Serena now. ¡°Serena.¡± ¡°Y-yes!¡± ¡°....¡± Viv paused for a bit making Serena feel like she did something wrong and was about to apologise to Viv immediately. ¡°You sound like me early on...when I began as well¡± said Viv which actually managed to caused Sain and Miriel at the same time to almost blurt out ''What?!'' and also made the ball of light Sain was sustaining to disappear and Miriel to almost knock over the bucket of water. ¡°That slowly changed over the years....yes and I found a new way of ''expressing'' myself due to those events.¡± To the side, Sain and Miriel could see a smile on Viv''s face. Both of them were frightened of this face; Miriel who knew of the ''expression'' and Sain who experienced these ''expressions'' with his body though not remembering them. Ignoring Sain and Miriel, Viv continued. ¡°Serena, there are many things you are lacking now but that also gives you the potential to improve. So far you only have the skills to heal and use some nature magic as a druid. You still need to learn about taming, shape shifting and many other nature magic that includes blessings, status debuffs and even spirit contracts.¡± ¡°I see...¡± Serena looked down. She knew she had a lot to learn but didn''t know there was that much that she was lacking. ¡°Don''t worry¡± said Viv as if he was trying to cheer her up, ¡°Sain is lacking even more than you in all sorts of magic, Miriel is trying out something idiotic by trying to master three types of magic at once, Lyndis was in the process of switching to a fire mage, Raven was acting like a warrior rather than a shield-man and Shadow...I have no idea what the hell he is trying to do with all those flashy acts.¡± ¡°....¡± Once again, Sain and Miriel were shocked on the method that Viv was using to encourage Serena. It felt like they would take mental damage each time. ¡°Besides all of that, teaching you about shape shifting and spirit contracts are too early for you. However I can teach you about blessings which are important for druids to know about. Other than that, you need to learn how to use your vine attack better and improve your healing abilities as well. First I''ll teach you about the blessings since you can train whenever you want.¡± Viv took out a few books which were not skill books but rather something for Serena to read. ¡°These are some books on the subject. They outline what kind of blessing you can get but I recommend for you to get something that doesn''t directly increase attack, defence or speed. You have Miriel and Sain for that. For example, a blessing with purifying effects is useful since you don''t have a holy element user.¡± Viv quickly flipped through the book to a page with a strange magic circle on it. ¡°Use this to obtain the blessing spell. It depends on whether the other side wants to allow you to use the blessing but since you''re in this guild, no one will reject you learning their blessings...else I, Eden and Al have some ''blessings'' to give them as well. Choose three and learn them later. For now, practise using ''Root Bind'' since it is a weaker version of my ''Grow Roots'' spell. There are actually many different ways to use it instead of simply binding someone to the ground.¡± Serena nodded not fully understanding what Viv just said. For now, she knew that she could be spells that were ''blessings'' and up to three of them via the books he gave her. Another thing was to not do this right now and practise using her ''Root Bind'' skill instead. As such, all three of them started their magic training on the carriage while Viv simply sat there driving the entire time. [p=center]xXx[/p] Three days had passed and there had been some progress. To be precise, there was only a bit of progress in skill level in which everyone gained around 1 level in their mastery or otherwise. Compared to learning a new skill or spell, this was minor but would slowly build up later on. The group knew this and continued with their repetitive training. As always; Shadow, Lyndis and Raven did their own thing running just behind the carriage to further back to improve their skills while running and the other three; Miriel, Sain and Serena did their magic training that could be said to be basic but difficult for new players like them. During this time, Sain could somewhat control one ball of light made from his mana and moved onto to try and produce two at once. Miriel was still on the bucket of water but was steadily decreasing the amount of time to freeze and defrost it. Finally Serena was manipulating a small vine around the place and had it try to lift a small rock from the ground in mid air. Because they were quite focused on their training and nothing happened, no monster attacks, the group was quite shocked when the carriage suddenly stopped. (Crrrrrrrecccccck!) The sudden stop knocked over the bucket that was half frozen while Sain and Serena''s magic were dispelled due to the shock. ¡°What''s going on?¡± asked Miriel picking up the bucket ignoring the amounts of water spilled. Sain looked around and saw nothing. However Viv said, ¡°Bandits. Lots of them¡± which caused all three of them to shiver. Soon enough, the other three noticing that the carriage stopped caught up to them. Lyndis who was sweating due to constantly running asked, ¡°What happened?¡± while looking around as well. Viv answered again with, ¡°They''ll be here soon enough.¡± And they did. Armed men with a couple of women mixed in appeared in ragged clothes but with swords and other weapons. There were a few archers and mages in the group as well. They totalled 30 in all which was a bad thing. ¡°Bandits?!¡± said Lyndis shocked, seeing them. Hearing this shocked voice, the bandits all laughed and started to grumble about something generic. Something like if you don''t do this you will die. Either way it was interrupted by Viv in the end. ¡°Ah, you guys fight them¡± ordered Viv cutting off a conversation that this narrator rather not write. ¡°Huh?¡± The group was kinda shocked to this statement. ¡°There are 30 of them!¡± shouted Miriel. ¡°They''re only around level 100 each at most. Some of them are even lower¡± replied Viv calmly. ¡°We''re not even level 90 yet! Plus they have five times our number and can simply overwhelm us and kill us as well¡± retorted Miriel once again. Sain nodded glancing at the bandits that wasn''t expecting this to happen and said, ¡°She is correct. We will die at this rate against these numbers.¡± ¡°Then die.¡± ¡°That''s....cruel isn''t it?¡± said Sain depressed that this trip was going to end like this. ¡°If you lot cannot deal with a mere 30 bandits with the training you had, then you don''t deserve to be part of the guild.¡± ¡°Then..the seals you placed on the others?¡± asked Sain hopeful that Viv wouldn''t let them fight handicapped. ¡°Deal with it¡± replied Viv. There was a strange light in his eyes as he looked at the bandits with amusement. Eventually the bandits were tired of waiting which was honestly not even 20 seconds and attacked. An arrow flew to Viv and was about to pierce through and kill him in one shot...who would suspect such a young looking child would be a monster. ¡°Ahhhh!¡±
Party Member: Shadow killed a bandit
At the moment the arrow was shot at Viv, a scream from the bandit side was heard. Someone was killed just as Viv caught the arrow with his hand. ¡°Ahhhh!¡±
Party Member: Shadow killed a bandit
¡°Ahhhh!¡±
Party Member: Shadow killed a bandit
Two more screams were heard. Sain looked around and found that Shadow was gone. Staring blankly on what was happening, Viv shouted to them, ¡°What are you doing?! Are you going to let Shadow fight alone?!¡± ¡°O-of course not!¡± said Sain with resolve, ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± Against great numbers, having even one more comrade was important. Luna appeared next to Sain and looked around to see conflict. [Master, shall I kill them?] Luna asked that question and then Sain replied with, ¡°Yes, go with Lyndis and Raven to help out Shadow. They should be tracking his movements now.¡± With this, a wolf, human and elf went to charge at the bandits as well. By this time, Shadow killed another two bandits but in the end, they surrounded him only half paying attention to the group. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Miriel shot several ice bolts at the bandits as well to make way for the three near the bandits. ¡°Ah, ice mage!¡± one of the bandits shouted turning their attention to the group now. The last thing that bandit saw was a flash of light from a sword. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± Lyndis accelerated her slash and cut through the bandit in one go through the waist while moving low to the ground.
Party Member: Lyndis killed a bandit
The blood from the attack poured over her but she continued to move ahead to Shadow who was leaping around at the trees dodging arrows and magic attacks. Right now, half the remaining bandits turned their attention to the group. ¡°Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!¡±
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
Sain casted that spell onto Raven who was charging in with just a shield at hand. ¡°Ram.¡± He smashed himself onto a bandit that was about to attack Lyndis. ¡°What the-hell the hell away!¡± the bandit that was suddenly attacked shouted before turning to attack Raven instead. ¡°Root Bind!¡± chanted Serena with the creating of her vines which she moved to the bandits just in time to restrain the arm of the bandit that was attacking Raven. The pause in the attack allowed Sain and Miriel to cast their spells as well. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± A string of several magical attacks flew and hit the bandit killing him easily with also several holes appearing. Sain and Miriel continued to attack the bandits with their spells while the others tanked the attacks as much as possible. Sain checked onto Shadow''s health and it was already reduced down to a third. Raven was in better shape with half his head but Lyndis was nearing critical point again. Luna was also extremely wounded with arrows stuck in him and was enduring burns at several places. They had killed around half the bandits but couldn''t handle the rest. This was their limit.... ¡°....¡± Sain had to accept that they lost due to their lack of strength. But... ¡°Viv!¡± Sain called to the only person not doing anything. ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Please help us!¡± plead Sain while continuing to attack the bandits like mad with either ''Mana Bolts'' or ''Magic Arrows''. Viv looked to see that the group was in bad shape. Should he just kill off the bandits...? No, that would under mind their training...so should he heal them? No, that would do the same time to a lesser extent. They need to learn to be not dependant on others like Eden since that would only hurt them in the end. In that case... ¡°Fine¡± replied Viv knowing what he had to do in this situation. Sain could hear some strange language coming from Viv''s mouth. It was strange since the game''s auto-translator would be working so...this language came from the game then? By the time Viv finished...no the exact moment he finished, there was a loud roar that consumed everything else. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRRR!!!!!¡± And the source of it... ¡°Luna....?¡± muttered Sain seeing the familiar wolf that was now 5 times it''s original size and ripping apart the bandits like flies. The bandits didn''t even have time to react. They were simply killed by Luna one by one with each attack that surpassed what they could see. To Sain...it looked like Luna didn''t even move as the bandits were killed. But to a more powerful player...they could probably see how frighteningly powerful Luna was. Luna''s black and white fur like stripes was very apparent and glowed with a different light each. ¡°....¡± Seeing Sain in a shock state, Viv wanted to explain to him. ¡°This is what Luna will be one day.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Sain could only be surprised by those words. ¡°To be precise, this is in the middle of it''s growth period. I merely temporary made it happen now rather than later. Luna should be able to do this around the level 300 point I believe.¡± When Viv finished his words, so did Luna with the bandits. Wounded, the others returned with Serena having to heal them all with Sain assisting her with some of the more minor injuries. Luna also returned back to normal. With curiosity in Luna''s eyes, Luna asked: [What happened to my body?] At the same time, Sain realised that Viv could hear Luna talking unlike the others who could really say that Sain was one sidedly talking to Luna and not the other way around. ¡°I simply made it so that you could tap into your true abilities now for a while.¡± [It felt like my body was burning with power] ¡°That is the feeling though temporary. When you grow up normally, you can access this kind of power any time you want. But until then, don''t try to force power out else you will be cripple later on when you need strength¡± warned Viv. Luna then looked at Sain and also asked him a question. [Should I go now?] ¡°....¡± [Master?] ¡°No, you should stay for now. I want to know more about your capabilities¡± said Sain, ¡°We might be depending on you from now on even more so. Is there a limit on the time you can stay here?¡± [No, this summoning only ends when either I die or you make me leave your side] ¡°In that case you can stay...it feels safer with you here now.¡± ¡°Are you only saying that seeing the power that Luna will have later on?¡± asked Viv. Sain laughed, ¡°More or less. A 20 level gap is hard to fill and only grows if I don''t let Luna fight.¡± [That is unnecessary. I am far more capable than any normal creature in battle. I won''t let trash near master] ¡°That''s reassuring.¡± ¡°Sain is speaking to himself again...¡± muttered Lyndis in fright. ¡°Eh?¡± Sain looked over to see that the others were now fully healed and ready to go. However there was still something to talk about. Namely...about this. ¡°Sain! Please don''t talk to yourself! Seeing you go crazy is a horrible experience¡± said Miriel. Shadow nodded and added, ¡°When you talk to yourself...it sounds like when you switched personalities.¡± ¡°Wait a sec-¡± ¡°No need to talk. I am sure we can find a solution to the delusion of you talking to Luna all the time like you two are having a conversation¡± said Lyndis, she also glanced at Viv and added, ¡°To think Sain could string even Viv into this kind of play.¡± ¡°Play?¡± wondered Viv before realising the meaning of those words. A silent pressure went down on the three; Miriel, Shadow and Lyndis. Sain, Raven and Serena were spared this pressure thankfully to them. ¡°As a point.¡± The silent pressure increased. ¡°Neither Sain nor I are having a ''play'' with Luna here. Via his contract, Sain can communicate with Luna and I can as well for different reasons. Don''t act like brats about this.¡± The three were forced into a bowing position to Viv. ¡°That act just then...reminds me of how others treated you in the past. Taking advantage of a false weakness and using that to bully someone below you.¡± ¡°!¡± The three bowing on the ground were filled with regret. ¡°Therefore what do you have to say about your actions?¡± ¡°¡°¡°We''re sorry!¡±¡±¡± All three of them latched themselves on Viv''s leg leaving Sain a bit lonely. Seeing this actions, Viv went red with anger an hit them all in the head shouting: ¡°Why apologise to me! Say that to Sain over there!¡± Sain chuckled a bit and said, ¡°Don''t worry so much. I understand that they were only teasing me a bit. In fact it makes me happy for them to try and hurt me that way.¡± Everyone thought for a moment that Sain was a masochist... ¡°Happy since it shows we are quite close¡± he added letting everyone sigh in relief that Sain wasn''t ''that'' type of person...though he seemed too happy for some reason... [p=center]xXx[/p] Later the next night... [Master there are many humans appearing and surrounded us] Luna woke Sain up and told him of this. ¡°Good work...¡± muttered Sain patting Luna on the head. He immediately went to wake everyone else up as well. Looking around Viv was gone as usual while they slept in game so they don''t have to bother with timing the amount spent in real life to the game time. ¡°Bandits? Again?¡± asked Miriel with a yawn. Miriel went to wake up Serena who was sleeping next to her. Sain moved to where Shadow and Lyndis were who were on guard duty just in cast something decided to try to eat them while they were sleeping. Both of them had blood shot eyes. ¡°Bandit! I can finally relieve some stress here¡± said Lyndis with a firm attitude to wreck the bandits as much as possible for her stress. ¡°....¡± Shadow stood there silent and wasn''t saying anything. ¡°Shadow?¡± asked Sain shaking him a bit. His eyes were open but... ¡°Wake up!¡± Lyndis kicked Shadow immediately realising that he was fast asleep while she was awake the whole time. ¡°Ow!¡± Shadow woke up immediately with the kick. Looking at Lyndis with an annoyed look and then Sain, he said, ¡°Enemies?¡± ¡°Bandits.¡± ¡°Damn...wanted some sleep at least. Why couldn''t you take my place with this...heck that Luna of your probably warned you of trouble didn''t it.¡± Sain nodded which caused Shadow to sigh. He activated his night vision skill and looked around the place while listening in on any sounds. ¡°They''re not that close yet. Sensing enemies that far...that Luna has a really sensitive nose doesn''t it¡± said Shadow in praise though he was still annoyed that his sleep was disturbed. [Of course! My nose is ten times better than a lowly dog after all and my fangs are 100 times better then one as well!] Although Luna said that to Shadow, only Sain could hear Luna speaking to begin with. It looked like Luna mistook Viv being able to understand it''s speech as everyone else being able to as well even though past experience should have taught it that the others couldn''t communicate with it. ¡°Luna, what level are you?¡± asked Sain. [Level 76 master] ''That''s around 15 levels below us right now...Luna seems to be catching up...but more to the point...what gender is Luna?'' thought Sain not being able to tell via Luna''s appearance nor it''s speech patterns. ¡°Anyway, we better get to the others and prepare for a fight. How many bandits are there?¡± [Around 10 at most and all weaker than master and friends] Sain nodded and was relieved that this wouldn''t be a too difficult fight. A few minutes later, the group easily with Shadow attacking from the dark and Luna telling Sain where the enemies, wiped out the bandits that seemed to be a group that was sent to check up on the one that they fought earlier the previous day. If only they knew that something extremely annoying was about to come up for the next month due to this.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8000~ - First half is about skill training which while I somewhat want to skip since it''s slow is rather important for the rest of the series. - The second half is a typical fight scene that really didn''t take up much time to write. - Wanted Luna to have a bigger impact onto the story rather than just some summon that appears once in a while. Therefore I will include Luna into the rest of the volume! Vol.4 Chapter 4 - Rules to Travelling #4: Always be Alert ¡°Find you? Hmm....¡± Eden sat there pondering on that question for a few moments. This was a crucial thing for Peter and the others to know. He couldn''t really say that it was on a whim since it wasn''t but the truth was often more deadly than lies. ¡°Well...¡± Eden said the answer he thought up. He had to recount some experiences he had and regrets in the past as well to answer this properly. ¡°I don''t to leave anyone behind anymore¡± he said with a sad smile, ¡°And I no longer want to be alone.¡± A couple of memories include killing someone he trusted and that person trusted him in the end. Another were with some instances of Eden leaving on a solo journey away from Alexandra and Viv without telling them and often being found later critically wounded. ¡°....¡± The group was silent to his answer. They really and actually expected him to say that he did it on a whim since most of his other answers to things they asked in the past was also on a whim. It was to an extent that they felt like they were only toys to his game. How much Eden knew and what he experienced was unknown. But this answer...told only a small fraction of it. But it was something that gained at least some small trust in the group. ¡°Anything else?¡± Eden asked wanting to get this tension in the mood out of the air as fast as possible. ¡°What is the purpose of this guild or rather the purpose of the Independent Guild System?¡± asked Hina. ¡°....¡± Eden sat there silent which made everyone else worry about him getting angry over this and then kicking them out. There was a possibility for that after all. But his answer was, ¡°I can''t tell you that¡± in the end. ¡°Why?¡± questioned Hina with a suspicious gaze on Eden. It was clear while she respected him as a stronger player in the game, she did not fully trust him...in fact none of the group trusted anyone at face value anymore including each other. Only time and experience can allow them to trust others. Eden was holding too many secrets and this was something that the group didn''t like that much. ¡°Honestly....¡± Eden let out a chuckle, ¡°You ask the most important questions at the wrong time Miriel...no Hina. Do you really want to know why I spend over 50 years working on this?¡± [p=center]xXx[/p] Back in the game...a few more days passed marking the first week of the second month passed on the trip that the group plus Viv was having. [Master] Luna was once again alerted to enemies. ¡°Bandits again?¡± [Yes, there are more of them this time. Around 20 now] Since a few days ago, bandits were attacking them frequently on the road. The number of attacks in these few days surpassed 15 now. It was something quite rare for a place outside a dungeon in this game as well. As always, since they were used to these attacks, Sain got the group together and they attacked the bandits and wiped them out with a battle that only lasted for a few minutes at most. The sheer destructive power of the group trained was too much for bandits that were used to weaker prey. And so passed another day. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Daaaaaaaaaamn! We are fighting more and more each day¡± complained Lyndis who was lying on her back to the ground. It was currently night and the group were resting since they stopped moving at night to give the bull some rest. ¡°But that just means we get more experience from them¡± said Miriel, ¡°We managed to level up twice thanks to these attacks.¡± Shadow agreed and said, ¡°At least it becomes less boring with enemies around.¡± ¡°Boring or not, fighting all the time really stress you out¡± retort Lyndis to Shadow''s comment. ¡°But at the same time it really helps you relieve some stress as well¡± replied Shadow. Looking around worried, Serena said, ¡°P-please don''t get hurt too much...my healing spells...aren''t good enough yet.¡± Hearing this side of Serena as always, Lyndis moved behind Serena and lightly rubbed her head while saying, ¡°If it weren''t for you. All of us wouldn''t be able to go on¡± in a kind voice like a person comforting a small child... Well Serena was actually a child here, 13 years old to be precise. Raven was next youngest at 15 but then there was Miriel and Lyndis at 16 and finally himself and Shadow at 17 years old. To Serena, it was most likely that everyone else was an adult while she still remained as a child. ¡°Healing aside¡± said Sain, ¡°I''m more worried about the stamina drain fighting too much along with the training you three are doing¡± looking at Raven, Shadow and Lyndis, ¡°While Serena has a spell to increase stamina...it isn''t that powerful and can only delay the inevitable.¡± ¡°Why are you talking about such depressing things Sain?¡± asked Lyndis with a pouting face. She wanted to enjoy relaxing a bit longer before this discussing. Sain glanced at her and replied, ¡°Because I have to make sure none of you die for whatsoever reason. The last town here was a week ago...and the western continent is really spread out compared to other places.¡± Normally there was at least a town of some size within a couple of days of travel. With the years and increase in players...this was reduced to towns being a day travel next to each other and even once isolated areas having a large number of small towns and villages here and there. ¡°If any of us die then we will be alone from the others since Viv has no intentions of stopping to pick you up. Make sure you don''t die¡± Sain clearly reminded everyone of this point. ¡°We just need to not die right? That''s simple enough¡± said Miriel coolly. Shadow sneered, ¡°That''s easier said then done. Though it seems easy with you hiding at the back all the time.¡± ¡°What?¡± A vein was popping from Miriel''s forehead. She even said, ¡°I rather liked you better when you had your mouth shut. No...when your personality was so much better.¡± ¡°This is the real me. If you have trouble with it, deal with it else leave¡± replied Shadow rudely back as well. ¡°If you leave then there will be trouble on who can be the bait.¡± ¡°I thought that was Raven''s job.¡± ¡°No, his job is to be a meat shield. There is a difference.¡± ¡°Both of you, shut it please...¡± plead Sain wanting this bickering to stop. He realised long ago since Shadow changed...that these two had conflicting personalities with Miriel liking to command others while Shadow not liking to follow those commands. Meanwhile he had to deal with both of them and that stressed him quite a bit. [Master] ¡°More bandits?¡± sighed Sain hearing Luna. [No, are you okay?] ¡°Okay?¡± wondered Sain, he checked his body at various places and replied, ¡°Perfectly fine. My body is at top shape.¡± [Master, I was referring to your mental state. I worry that you will turn back into ''that'' again and force everyone was a trip that involves wiping anything in your way out. There is a limit on the burdens you can and must endure master] ¡°My mind is fine thank you.¡± After a few more words with Luna on how he was fine, Miriel said to Sain, ¡°You know it really makes you seem crazy when you talk to Luna right?¡± ¡°How so?¡± Sain was confused on this point. Well not really since others cannot hear with Luna has to say, some of his words may come as out of context. It shouldn''t be that bad according to his mind. ¡°It sounds like you are an insane mad man that is getting to familiar with a wolf¡± answered Miriel with the others nodding in agreement. ¡°....¡± [Master?] ¡°....¡± Sain could only think of whether he sounded like that. Anyway, Sain decided to not talk to Luna in front of other people that much from this day on in order to not look like that. The inside of someone was the most important thing but you also need to consider the outside as well and whether it makes the inside questionable. [p=center]xXx[/p] Back on the road, the group was doing their training. As usual Shadow, Lyndis and Raven were the ones that were off the carriage to do their own thing while Sain, Miriel and Serena were on the carriage with Viv supervising their magic training. They had made lots of progress with them understanding one thing. Viv was a monster on knowing these kinds of things and according to his story, an even larger monster since during his early days...when he was their current level which was in the 90s, all of his skill levels were in the advance level and had spells that were superior to the ones they used as well. This made Sain in particular to question how strong Eden and Alexandra back then as well since Viv mentioned they were power monsters from the very beginning. The bandits that they were dealing with would''ve been wiped out by them in a matter of seconds while the group took minutes to do the same. Sain could only sigh again and again of the clear difference in ability they had compared to them now. ¡°You are you and I am me¡± said Viv shortly after Sain got a little to depressed. ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°There are differences in people. These differences define people. There are thing you can do that we couldn''t¡± said Viv. ¡°Such as?¡± ¡°Fighting with other people. We were....are too strong without restraint. There is no need for us to fight with other people to begin with since we are too abnormal in strength. You are still in the limits and others can fight with you.¡± Viv had a solemn look on his face although it looked quite sad. ¡°Is that from your experience?¡± Sain had to ask. ¡°That is what Eden said to Gen when he asked why he wasn''t as strong as Eden even with all the training he did to get stronger¡± replied Viv. [p=center]xXx[/p] Lyndis was slowly mastering using the stances while moving quickly. It did however help greatly that she could now take this practice into real fights to further improve herself as well. The timing was still...off by a bit but she could now rapidly slay foes with her sword. This was a huge change from before when she could only face one or two opponents at once. Now she was zipping around the place and attacking more than 5 opponents at once. Likewise with her fire skills, Lyndis realised quickly that it was indeed making it so that stayed back further than she would''ve and actually hindered her in close combat. Because of this, her original rush in style which depending on her speed of attacks, was downgraded to a swordsman that could use and often used fire attacks from afar. ¡°There''s still a half second delay between the change...¡± muttered Lyndis. She might have managed to halve the time to set up a stance and even more so doing that while moving, it was still too ''slow'' in high speed combat. Other than that, Lyndis needed to aim at places in which there wasn''t any armour since her sword isn''t sharp enough nor is her swings. She had heard from Ron before that a master swordsman could cut even using a rusted sword using extreme precision and speed. Lyndis was aiming for such a point but there was little she could do with this body not being simply able to. As such, she needed to train her skills as much as possible. Her ''Sword Mastery'' was at Beginner Level 9 and was reaching Beginner Level 10 where it would change to the Intermediate Levels. According to what everyone had been saying, there would be two things that would happen if she reached that point. The first would be an extra 50% bonus to attack which was something equal to 5 level ups of the skill and the second would be that all sword skills would only cost half as much. The second reason more than the first was the thing that Lyndis really wanted. While her skill cost little mana, a drawn out battle would drain her of all mana especially if she used those fire skills though she could not right now. She only had just over 1200 mana and this while was higher than what Raven and Shadow had, was still not much if you consider her spamming skills all over the place in order to deal the most DPS as much as possible. As such, Lyndis would rather not improve her active skills but rather her passive skills which was still her main goal here. ¡°Should...I try to learn another skill here?¡± wondered Lyndis seeing that both Raven and Shadow had skills to improve their speed that she needed one as well. Thinking back on how she got most of her skills...even though they were all fire skills; the game would reward a player if they acted on something enough time. Surely a skill could appear with the training that Lyndis was doing, it was just that this game was extremely slow on these things to make sure random actions won''t generate powerful skills and become an exploit. With this in mind, she continued her training. [p=center]xXx[/p] Soon after, Sain called everyone again since there were more bandits nearby. It was the first time though probably the first of many battles they would have for a while. ¡°So....in order to make sure that all of our training does not get completely disturbed by the recent and constant bandit issue we are having, I decided to split ourselves into groups and rotate members when bandits appear¡± said Sain. ¡°Rather than just have two teams of threes...it''s better to have a team of 4 and rotate one or two members in and out at a time. The first group will be me, Lyndis, Raven and Serena. The next group, Miriel and Shadow will be added in and Lyndis and Serena will be taken out.¡± Miriel stayed on the carriage continuing to practise since this had nothing to do with her now while Shadow wondered off somewhere. Meanwhile, Sain and the three that he had selected prepared to fight the bandits further up the road. Sain was worried a bit that Miriel in particular would be attacked by the bandits that slip by but Viv assured him that he would take care of any that appear. As such, the four went ahead with only the worries of bandits which they had to face. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Luna, how many bandits are there?¡± Sain asked the wolf by his side. Due to Luna being here, there were actually five members going out this time which was a massive advantage here. [Only 8 this time master] Luna replied after sniffing them out. If Luna wasn''t here, then they would''ve had to many times face bandits without knowing their numbers and this was the most dangerous thing. One of them may use a surprise attack after we let our guard down to kill on of them in the confusion. After Sain nodded to Luna''s respond which no one else here besides him could here, Lyndis had to ask, ¡°How many are there?¡± ¡°Luna said eight¡± replied Sain. ¡°Not that many thankfully. I would rather not face 20 or so with these numbers¡± said Lyndis jokingly. ¡°F-Facing so...many of them would be difficult¡± said Serena although she did not mention whether or not they would lose against such numbers. Among those who improved greatly, Serena was the one with one of the higher growth in her spells. While the number of spells she had did not increase, her skill in using them did. All three healing spells she had improved with her ''Minor Health Regeneration'' nearing the Beginner Level 10 point now. According to what Serena said which was recounting with her master Mel said, when that skill moved to the intermediate level, Serena would learn the upgraded version of the spell which was ''Moderate Health Regeneration'' which while costing more mana, was far more powerful. To that logic, there was a good chance that Sain could obtain ''Moderate Heal'' as well when ''Minor Heal'' went to the intermediate level which would be great since his ''Minor Heal'' only did 155 healing even though it was at Beginner Level 8. Meanwhile Serena''s ''Minor Health Regeneration'' healed a total of 220 health when it was one level high, Beginner Level 9 and would improve to 500 health total when it reached Intermediate Level. In this way, there was literally no way Sain could catch up to her healing abilities but thankfully his role also included other parts which the others did a better job at as well. Miriel''s attack and support magic were better, Raven and Lyndis were better at close combat and Shadow''s speed and burst damage as higher. But Sain did not give up yet. A Shaman was a jacks of all trades and a good jacks of all trade was extremely powerful. [Master they are closing in. Trying to sneak around and attack us from behind] When Luna warned Sain of this, he was tempted to call out on them and have a straight out battle. But that sometimes was not the wisest idea you could have. However he decided that using his buffs often was the best idea at the beginning in order to increase the team''s overall strength. If Sain combined this with Miriel''s own spell, the two spell can amplify each other. ¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡±
Party Member: Lyndis has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Party Member: Sain has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Sain casted this spell three times, on himself, Raven and Lyndis. He did not believe that, some bandits would be able to take them all out immediately...but just in case. ¡°Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!¡± He casted that spell onto Serena. For a magic user with weak defences, she would see the effects of this spell the most. Compared to Lyndis or Raven who had relatively higher defence, this spell did not much but for Serena with low defence, it could double or triple her defence in the end.
Party Member: Serena has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡± chanted Serena as well noticing that Sain noticed something.
Party in range has been buffed with the spell ''Heartbeat Healing''
Health will regenerate for 15 points every second for 10 minutes
Perhaps noticing that Sain and Serena was casting spells on his team-mates or perhaps just got tired of waiting, the bandits all rush out at once behind them. But Sain and moreover Luna knew this. ¡°Take one down!¡± ordered Sain to Luna. [Understood!] With a small roar, Luna leaped onto one of the bandits charging at them and toppled him in one shot. The other bandits were shocked but did not stop to help the life of their comrade. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± chanted Sain firing a large number of mana bolts at the bandits causing them to further spread out to avoid the magic attacks. ¡°Root Bind!¡± chanted Serena as well causing several tens small vines to appear on the ground hurrying to the bandits from her. Unlike before where she had to focus on creating the vines at the location of the enemy, Serena through Viv found that this method was easier and safer as well since she could redirect the vines to protect her just in case. But this came at a cost. ¡°Chop down the vines!¡± shouted one of the bandits. Yes, using this method meant the surprise part of using the spell was gone. However it also served as a good distraction at least. By the time that bandit shouted those words, Lyndis and Raven who didn''t say anything nor was ordered by Sain charged at the bandits heroically. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± shouted Lyndis moving quickly enough to hit the bandit she charged at three times before he died and moved onto the next one. ¡°Anchor Howl!¡± shouted Raven in a rare expression of emotion. Suddenly all of the bandits could not help but to look at Raven with sweat on their faces and bodies as if they were to die if they did not. Sain took this chance to snipe some of the bandits while Lyndis and Luna took down some of the other ones as well. In the end, Raven battled two bandits and managed to kill them by impaling the spikes on his shield into them. At this rate, Raven would be fine with just a shield... Speaking of Raven, he generated a new skill while training on various things. It was a powerful taunt skill and had such a description below.
Anchor Howl Beginner Level 1 Let out a scream of intense fighting spirit causing enemies to look and watch you cautiously. The extent of this skill is based on the level difference, fighting spirit difference and skill level between you and your enemies. Range: 15 Metres Mana Cost: 100
In Sain''s opinion and really anyone, this skill was perfect for a tank with high health and defence to take damage. It forced enemies to target Raven instead of anyone else. The only limits is it''s range which would not work well with far away enemies like mages or archers. Furthermore this skill is not that great against stronger foes. There needs to some tests to see it''s effectiveness against a range of enemies. While this skill could work on minions, boss monsters were probably immune to it or had high resistance to these kinds of skills. Plus there was a chance that the enemy would just use an AOE move to attack them all at once. Looting the bandits of what they dropped which wasn''t a lot, Sain said, ¡°Let''s return¡± to the others. He was quite pleased that working with 3 other people was actually easier than working with 5 people at once. There was less hassle on what role they would take and Sain did not need to pay attention to them that much and more to the enemies instead. Perhaps....things would be actually better with less people. ''No no....better not think that. Numbers are still the greatest advantage that a group can have. It give so many other options and safety rails as well'' thought Sain quickly returning with the others to continue their journey. [p=center]xXx[/p] Another week passed with the same thing still happening. A total of 1 month and 2 weeks passed now, a substantial amount of time for the group as they neared the one year mark bit by bit. By the time they would finish this trip, a total of one year and three months would pass in game when they started. But they were still at the 10 month mark and half of them surpassed the level 90 point. Both Raven and Lyndis were at the level 86 point due to gaining the least amount of experience earlier on while later on gaining the same amount of experience as the others. In contrast, Serena was at level 89 since she was in most of the fights and Shadow at just level 90 due to the same reason. On the other hand, Sain was at a large level 92 while Miriel was at level 94. The main reasons here include when they didn''t die in the ''Eternal Dungeon'' some month and a bit ago while being the only two ranged magic attackers which can usually kill bandits quickly in a few shots. Because of this, they gained more experience than the others where Lyndis had her fire skills sealed and Raven still with no spear. It was simply due to a lack of pure firepower that caused them to fall behind in levels. But that didn''t mean they didn''t get stronger. Lyndis was slowly being swifter in her strikes while Raven was luring in enemies faster and faster as a distraction. Along with this came that these two had the greatest stat gain of the group constantly improving their strength, agility and stamina all at the same time that this gain equalled to the levels that they would have gained either way. If you combine this with the fact that Miriel''s ice magic was getting stronger rapidly and Sain and Luna helping out with Serena binding enemies and Shadow attacking critical points, the group could probably fast enemies about 30 levels above them just fine. [p=center]xXx[/p] ¡°Hmm? You want to ask about levels?¡± said Viv in responses to Lyndis saying something about her level being much lower than everyone''s else. ¡°Yep yep¡± said Lyndis on her knees and nodding her head at Viv while the others were taking care of bandits again or collecting firewood. This was something that Lyndis wanted to discuss but never gotten the chance to. ¡°Levels are only one part of this game even though they tell you the rough skill of the other side¡± replied Viv. ¡°Yeah but at this rate I might be weaker than everyone else!¡± ¡°That has nothing to do with me.¡± ¡°But you''re one of my guildmasters! You have to help your juniors on this!¡± plead Lyndis with hands clapped together. Seeing this act, Viv sighed and decided to help her a tiny bit. ¡°So you''re worried about falling behind with levels and then fighting abilities later?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°The you have nothing to worry about at all.¡± ¡°Huuuuh?¡± Lyndis had an exaggerated expression on her face showing her disappointment in Viv. Viv decided that this person was slightly like Al and had to treat her as such. ¡°You know that levels represent the experience a being has right?¡± ¡°Of course! That is a basic knowledge everyone know!¡± she replied happily. ¡°Then how does levels work?¡± asked Viv. ¡°....¡± Lyndis paused for a second and then asked, ¡°What does that mean?¡± in a shy manner. ¡°How does the level that represent you and the level that represent a monster work? How does level tell you how powerful you are?¡± ¡°Ahh....the level tells you how strong they are compared to others....?¡± ¡°Then are you weaker than say Serena who is level 89 while you are level 86?¡± asked Viv. ¡°Of course not! Serena is-¡± ¡°Someone I can defeat right? If that''s the case than you have nothing to worry about. Everyone has their own strengths. There is nothing wrong with being weaker than someone else. Being troubled by it will only cause you to fall when you need to stand.¡± ¡°I understand¡± replied Lyndis. What she got from this was that she had to deal with it. But she wasn''t completely finished on her questions yet. ¡°By the way, I heard about it a lot but how can some people defeat monsters that are much higher level than them? I mean, I read posts where there are some players in their early levels defeating foes even a hundred levels above them when they should be so slow and weak that they shouldn''t be able to.¡± ¡°That is an interesting question¡± said Viv thinking about it. ¡°Levels represent the experience that a person has right? Then do all players have the same experience starting off?¡± ¡°No...?¡± ¡°Then it can be that there are players should have higher levels starting off than others right?¡± ¡°But that''s impossible since you can''t measure a player when they start off.¡± ¡°However when they start to fight, the game can. Defeating higher level monsters means that your skill level in the game as in actual skills not game skill is higher than what your level is. By doing this your level adjust up to your skill level.¡± ¡°Shouldn''t it be the other way around?¡± asked Lyndis. Most players skill power levelled via others to a high enough level if they have the cash to do so. ¡°Ah yes, those types of people. They are those who exploit the levelling system to quickly gain ''strength''. To me, there are four types of players in this game. The first is the type of person that uses their level for strength, the type that want to get stronger without much work done. The second are the lone wolf type where they are strong alone but struggle with other people. They are strong on their own but are questionable working with others. The third are those who grow with numbers. The centre of attention I say, with charisma to lead others into battle. The final type of person are monster in their own rights. Namely people who cannot be categorised the same as other people. Level, stats and skills cannot define them at all.¡± Viv continued. ¡°This game rewards hard work. That is something that is said over and over again and yet so many people want to take the short path and fall short in the end.¡± ¡°Then...me and everyone else falls under the third type right?¡± asked Lyndis with a frown. ¡°Yes but that is still a good thing. If you''re in that type then you can become strong as well¡± Viv let out a sad laugh, ¡°Those in the second type and also perhaps in the third type as well are quite rare and often are geniuses in their own ways or work hard enough that the game needs to catch up. I believed Weed in an interview said that he always fought against strong foes no matter what.¡± ¡°Then...he fought against monsters that were much higher level then he was?¡± You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°Yep, because he was strong enough. Those who can fight within a 10 level gap to their enemies are considered above average in strength, those who can do the same within a 20 level gap are quite strong, a 50 level gap means they are an expert in the game and sit near the top of all other players, a 100 level gap means they are part of the top tiny percentage of all players known as masters that are more than often part of the top rankers. More than 200 levels in the gap means they are a monster you cannot mess with. Al and even Eden referred to such people as ''The abnormal bunch that break the game''.¡± ¡°....¡± Lyndis thought about it. The group could probably handle foes that were 30 levels above them so that meant they were quite strong in the game? However they would still be owned by a level 200 foe instantly. ¡°Were you, Alexandra and Eden part of the abnormal bunch?¡± asked Lyndis after thinking about it. ¡°More or less. It actually gets easier later on when you have all the skills you need¡± replied Viv before they were interrupted with the rest of the group returning from their fight. In particular, Miriel looked at Lyndis who was in the ground on her knees and then Viv and asked, ¡°Did you do something bad again?¡± with a smirk on her face. ¡°Heeeeey! That''s rude you know!¡± shouted Lyndis back. And so started another argument. ¡°Oh god, they''re shouting at each other again...¡± muttered Shadow disappearing to get away from the noise. Serena looked around not knowing what to do while Sain sighed and sat down with Raven who had nothing to do but observe what was happening. Inside Viv''s mind, he thought to himself, ''Those two have the same relationship as Eden and Al in the past....yes before Eden changed that day....well they won''t end like them either way.'' [p=center]xXx[/p] Another week passed in game and the group was now completely stressed due to the bandits. ¡°What the hell is with them?! I swear we have killed hundreds of them by now and yet they still come!¡± screamed Miriel in rage which was a surprise. It looked like the constant alert of bandits was taking a large toll on her. Sain could see that Lyndis shifted a few centimetres away from her. However she did not say anything that countered Miriel in fear of what could happen. ¡°Calm down Miriel, this isn''t like you¡± said Sain seeing that the others did not want to take this role, ¡°I was expecting Lyndis to be the one to shout like this first.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Lyndis made a displeasured face to Sain. ¡°I''m sorry but I can endure fighting for three weeks or even three months straight but to be alert all the time not knowing anything is worse¡± said Miriel sighing and supporting her head on her hands looking tired. ¡°....¡± Neither Sain nor the others countered her words again. This time they knew it was to be true since all of them were more or less tired of bandits now. While gaining experience and further improving their skills against human type enemies was good, it came to the point that they were sick of it. ¡°Anyway I talked to Viv about this before and he said there was going to be a rather large town we''re stopping at in a week''s time. At most we have to deal with the bandits for another week¡± said Sain hoping this could encourage everyone a bit. ¡°Urg...another week of this?¡± said Shadow in a downed tone. Out of everyone, Sain knew he was the most stressed out ever since he got a certain skill. Raven even muttered, ¡°Too much stress in fighting¡± at the notion of fighting this way for another week. ¡°We just have to deal with it...or find out why these bandits keep on attacking us¡± said Sain. ¡°That might but even worse than fighting some small time bandits in the short term but....a week without attacks is something I would really want right now¡± said Miriel. ¡°But...how are we going to find them?¡± asked Serena which was the most important question. ¡°No idea, but we really want this to stop right?¡± said Sain looking around. ¡°....¡± For some reason Lyndis didn''t speak up yet and was also doing something with her hands... ¡°Lyndis?¡± asked Sain directing everyone''s eyes to her. She looked around a bit but kept quiet despite this. ¡°You have anything to say?¡± asked Sain with a smile not wanting this awkward feeling to continue to exist. ¡°Actually....well....¡± she muttered not knowing what to speak. She looked quite afraid of saying something. But Shadow cut into her words without any kindness and said, ¡°She is a battle freak and likes the feel to fighting.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± she shouted at Shadow with even more displeasure in her face. Then she realised that everyone else was staring at her and then became smaller. ¡°Oh that''s all?¡± asked Miriel who recovered from her stressed out state. She was clearly uninterested in feelings that Lyndis had. ¡°That''s all....?¡± Lyndis muttered quietly, ¡°Don''t you have anything to say like how unladylike I am or how I should stop showing off?¡± he looked as if she was expecting this to happen. ¡°Rather than you being this way a bad thing, it''s actually a good thing since we will be fighting together for a long time¡± said Sain, ¡°Besides, if your abilities actually decreased due to trying to so something like ladylike....¡± Sain had a cold expression on his face as he thought about it. He would never let someone to be useless like that! However at the same time this brought him some pain as he was weaker than the others in all areas. Shadow added in, ¡°Yep, it''s much better since I have less things to stress about like being mobbed if you can kill monsters more quickly.¡± ¡°I..have to heal you less if you fight better!¡± said Serena in support as well. Although Raven said nothing this time, it seemed that he didn''t mind Lyndis the way she was. ¡°You guys....¡± muttered Lyndis almost tearing. This was the first time people actually supported her the way she was...others in the past always wanted her to be this or that that she couldn''t be in the end in matter how much she tried. [Master....] ¡°Sain...¡± said Shadow as well with an irritated voice at the same time. ¡°How many?¡± asked Sain with a sigh. It was once again late at night and it was at this time that bandits liked to attack them the most no matter the numbers they slain so far. ¡°A group of thirty this time...like the first time¡± said Shadow with a grim voice before Luna could say anything. While they grew stronger...numbers wasn''t something you can deal with easily. ¡°Looks like all of us has to fight this time....¡± muttered Sain. He hoped that some of them could at least get some sleep tonight. Sleep was an important thing and would only drag you down later on if you don''t. ¡°How much time do we have?¡± asked Sain to either Luna or Shadow. [Around 5 minutes at most at this rate] ¡°5 Minutes...that''s should be enough for at least a trap. They know we are here right?¡± asked Sain to Shadow this time. Shadow shook his head and said, ¡°They''re making lots of noises but I can''t hear their conversation unless I''m near. They probably do since they are heading straight to us in a line not even bee-lining away.¡± ¡°If that''s the case....¡± Sain talked about the plant that he just thought of. Comments such as ''this is cruel'' and ''you are evil'' were spouted thanks to this though but Sain didn''t care. He wanted to ''test'' out something for fun for a bit. Unknown to them all, a faint constant glow was hidden by the glove that Sain wore. [p=center]xXx[/p] The group of exactly 30 bandits, the same number in which they faced the first time crept to where the camp was easily. There was one reason for this, that was the only light source in a very large area so it was near impossible to not notice. Among these bandits was an actual bandit leader. (Note: Never be a bandit leader in my story...all of them get killed >_>) This person was a large man that by some chance happened to not only be 2 metres tall but also quite thin and held a short sword and an axe around the same size as each other in each hand. His toned muscle and frightening stare was not something you could ignore easily. Next to him were his best 10 men plus another 19 quite powerful bandits in their own rights. These men were former soldiers or otherwise powerful men that went through many battles and lived though many of them lived via running away in the first place. None of them were archers or mages though. If they were, they would still in their army and not as bandits. As the fate of the lowly soldier was almost always death else the skilled ones, these bandits were those who did not want to die and faked their deaths in wars. In total, this bandit group numbered a few hundred in total and hid on this particular road where there was enough hunt and kind travellers to feed them all. It was a quiet and peaceful life but the Kingdom won''t ever let them go as deserters. Because of this they started to hunt down people in order to keep them out of their safe haven. But recently something very strange was happening. The first was that a group that numbered 30 suddenly disappeared without warning. There were no traces of them when they checked later as if they disappeared...or killed and the bodies were hidden. Following down the road, there were less of them in groups as they would need to pass through a large group from the left or right. These groups usually only numbered a few, at most ten or even fifteen at times. The reason was this was that each group would fight and then retreat if they could wearing down the target as much as possible until they were wiped out with the least amount of deaths in their ranks. It was a simple plan but one that was very easily done with people who actually ran from large battles and war. But it came to the point where a large number of them disappeared...or died, one of the two. Half their numbers were now gone and they were at the point of breaking even with a few hundred more people left though these numbers did not participate in the ''hunting'' and hid away in the deep forest. Really, these last few men were the only ones that were on the roads now attacking travellers as the others could not bear to attack them as former protectors of such people and yet could not return back the way they were before they deserted. Because of this, the bandit leader...one of many bandit leaders that are cooperating this time with each other wanted to seek out and get rid of this problem quickly. ¡°Surround them first then strike¡± whispered the bandit leader to one of his men. That man nodded and directed the rest of them to completely surround the camp fire closing in slowly. Thick trees covered the place but light still shone through meaning they had to charge in to kill them all. From the size of this camp they were only a small group. Nothing to be worried about. No monster that were high level were going to come out to this middle of nowhere either way. When he was signalled that everyone was in position, the bandit leader yelled, ¡°CHARGE!¡± All thirty men broke through the trees and ran into...nothing? ¡°What?¡± the bandit leader looked around, there was even food cooking here. They could not have gotten away that far even if they noticed them. ¡°Search the area! Find them at all cos-¡± Someone sharp dug into neck of the bandit leader and he died. [p=center]xXx[/p] ''That''s one down'' thought Shadow as he quickly fled back into the darkness. The bandits quickly panicked with one of them suddenly lying on the ground dead. Shadow took this chance to, using ''Stealth'', ''Burst Speed'' and most importantly the darkness to kill another three bandits before they got smart and moved away from the trees where darkness sweep through. Shadow remembered Sain''s plan. The first thing was to create a place with lots of light to draw them in. There were two reasons for this. The first was to draw them all in at once and the second was to cause their eyes to adjust to the light and make it harder to see objects moving in the dark. Moreover, Sain had Viv manipulate the trees to literally force them in since they could not see in the place besides some glimmer of light. To make this even more foolproof, he had Lyndis and Miriel set up some food cooking as well since people did not leave food cooking without being there. Step one of the plan was to get them all there. Step two was Shadow killing or harming a few of them to get them to huddle together away from the trees and escape. Now was to step three... ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Both Sain and Miriel hiding on the trees fired their magic attacks at the 26 bandits that remained killing a few of them in the process while causing more panic in them as they could not see their enemy. The two continued to fire as the bandits realised that they were going to die and went for an escape. However step four now moved in... ¡°Root Bind!¡± All of a sudden, the bandits that tried to escape tripped over and were even dragged back into the series of magical attacks without warning. Their numbers by a few tens of seconds were reduced to 20 with most of them having high health and armour and therefore armour on them. By now, their eyes sharpened and they threw some weapons at Sain and Miriel forcing them to stop attacking and move away. Serena''s position was still safe though since her attack did not originate with her. Both Sain and Miriel dropped down intentionally in front of the bandits as if mocking them. They, two ''mages'' stood defenceless in front of them. After killing so many of their comrades, how could they not be angry and charge at them. ¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± Half the bandits charged at the two while the other half charged in the opposite direction intending to escape before anything worse happened. ¡°Now!¡± shouted Sain proceeding to step five of the plan. Raven step into the battlefield and shouted, ¡°Anchor Howl!¡± in a scream that resounded at the centre of the battlefield and forced all of the bandits to turn their heads to him. As he was in the middle of the place, the bandits that were charging at Sain and Miriel and those who were escaping had to all stop to look at Raven and could not draw their eyes away from him due to unknown fear. It was at this point that the final step, step six started. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± ¡°Backstab!¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Lyndis and Luna running in at where the bandits running away were about to escape through, Shadow who appeared from the darkness and the combination of Sain and Miriel all attacked at once with the bandits having their backs turned to them. A few shots in, some bandits decided to kill Raven first and charged at him despite attacking raining from behind them. But Raven was a tank, and a sturdy one with a shield. If he could not take a few strikes, who could? Raven quickly moved while activating ''Anchor Howl'' for a second time to renew the taunt at the bandits and attacked using shield to at least distract the bandits while his comrades quickly disposed of the rest of them. This battle in which before almost killed them in a straight battle was won easily and quickly with almost no harm to them with Sain''s despicable...I mean smart strategy. They did not even break a sweat to this and actually found it disappointing while the bandits were of pretty high quality ranging up to level 150 though the group did not realise it. With the battle ending Sain said, ¡°Now...to loot these bodies¡± like a bandit.... [p=center]xXx[/p] With Sain now also actively making plans against the bandit attacks, the number of battles that went by became easier. This was especially the case since with Luna and Shadow warning him of whether there were bandits around, they had at least a few minute each time to prepare for an attack. Speaking of which, Shadow gained a certain skill which was a sensor skill.
Pin Point Hearing Beginner Level 3 Allows you to target an area far away in which you hear all sounds much better in. Sounds such as movement of a living creature or conversation will be easier to pick up as this skill increase in level.
It was quite an interesting skill for Sain at least but was described as a ''pain in the butt'' since when active, Shadow had his hearing amplified by several times which hurt his head a lot before he got used to it. He had to combine it with his ''Hearing'' skill as well in order to make it effect enough for long distance alert which in turn made the sounds closer even worse. As such, no one dared to even move while Shadow was busy hearing whether there was anyone around though Luna still had his nose which was just as good. According to him and generally what skills do when they increase in level, the negative effects of the skills will decrease while the positive effects will increase as it got stronger. Another thing was that there wasn''t that much that changed in the following few days. By the time a week passed, there were really no more bandits left to face as they entered a relatively small town that sized around 300-500 people based on the number of buildings they had. Before they entered the town though...Sain checked the progress they made. [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 92,Level: 92]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Tactician,Title: Dark Walker]Fame: 625,Fame: 610[/quart][quart=Health: 3928,Health: 3551]Mana: 1601,Mana: 657[/quart][quart=Strength: 119 +31,Strength: 113 +32]Agility: 137 +36,Agility: 336 +36[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 112 +25,Intelligence: 10 +14]Wisdom: 113 +34,Wisdom: 10 +14[/quart][quart=Vitality: 131 +14,Vitality: 114 +14]Stamina: 86 +17,Stamina: 107 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 36 +22,Fighting Spirit: 42 +22]Endurance: 22 +14,Endurance: 18 +14[/quart][quart=Leadership: 9 +14,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 4 +14,Luck: 29 +24[/quart][quart=Offense: 16,Offense: 12]Defence: 23,Defence: 26[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 86,Level: 86]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Shield-Bearer,Title: Blade Dancer]Fame: 610,Fame: 610[/quart][quart=Health: 5982,Health: 3636]Mana: 692,Mana: 1177[/quart][quart=Strength: 207 +45,Strength: 201 +31]Agility: 130 +26,Agility: 157 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 10 +19,Intelligence: 102 +27]Wisdom: 15 +19,Wisdom: 12 +17[/quart][quart=Vitality: 208 +34,Vitality: 115 +14]Stamina: 114 +22,Stamina: 91 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 48 +27,Fighting Spirit: 26 +20]Endurance: 41 +19,Endurance: 25 +13[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +19,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 0 +19,Luck: 2 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 22,Offense: 18]Defence: 36,Defence: 35[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 94,Level: 89]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Sound Maiden,Title: Nature Wielder]Fame: 625,Fame: 630[/quart][quart=Health: 1693,Health: 1654]Mana: 2590,Mana: 2279[/quart][quart=Strength: 15 +21,Strength: 14 +33]Agility: 116 +26,Agility: 118 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 311 +26,Intelligence: 203 +24]Wisdom: 114 +26,Wisdom: 194 +34[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 12 +19,Fighting Spirit: 12 +25]Endurance: 15 +14,Endurance: 15 +14[/quart][quart=Vitality: 25 +14,Vitality: 25 +14]Stamina: 61 +17,Stamina: 58 +29[/quart][quart=Leadership: 0 +14,Leadership: 0 +14]Luck: 0 +14,Luck: 2 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 10,Offense: 10]Defence: 10,Defence: 10[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
Concentration: 25 +13Concentration: 29 +14
Seeing this, Sain saw that according to what he remember when they started, Miriel gained the most levels numbering at 10 while Shadow gained the second highest at 9 levels in total while Sain and Serena gained 8 levels each and finally Lyndis and Raven only gained 7 levels each. Meanwhile only Sain, Shadow, Lyndis and Raven gained any strength during this trip with Sain gaining 1 stat point, Shadow with 4 and Raven and Lyndis at 5 each. This was the same for the agility stat where Sain only gained 2 points, Shadow gained 7 points while once again Raven and Lyndis gained 5 each. However in the endurance department, only Lyndis and Raven gained stats there with Lyndis at 4 stat gain and Raven at 7 stat gain. On the other hand, they are excluding in the intelligence stat gain where Sain, Miriel and Serena only increased there with them gaining 4, 6 and 5 respectively. The same was for wisdom with each gaining 3, 2 and 3 respectively again. Finally everyone gained some stamina at least thanks to the month march though the forest and then the march after that on the road. Sain gained 5 points there, Shadow gained 9 points, Miriel gained 3 with Serena at 3 as well, Lyndis was at 7 points gained and finally Raven gained 9 stamina points as well. With this, Sain could tell that they really were strained during these month and 3 weeks of travelling for them to gain this much. However they were still in their ''growth'' period in the game with their lowish stats and this still did not compare to the training Eden gave them for a month...called hell. Otherwise, Sain could tell that fighting also rapidly increase stat gain as well and was a good method to increase certain stats since only walking gave you so much in stamina and rarely strength and agility if none at all. Next he checked everyone''s skill windows. [third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Beginner 9 (12/100) - Nature Mastery Beginner 9 (22/100) - Mediation Beginner level 5 (39/100) - Mana Burst Beginner level 2 (2/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 9 (250/1700) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 8 (151/1500) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Blood Burst Beginner level 5 (77/900) - Root Bind Beginner level 8 (322/1500) - Heartbeat Healing Beginner level 6 (59/100) - Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100) - Poison Removal Beginner Level 1 (0/100) - Health Restoration Beginner Level 3 (1/100),- Magic Mastery Beginner 9 (19/100) - Whip Mastery Beginner Level 4 (12/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 4 (32/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 5 (22/100) - Ice Magic Mastery Beginner Level 7 (53/100) - Magic Control Mastery Beginner 7 (12/100) - Mediation Beginner level 5 (96/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 3 (43/100) - Identify Beginner level 2 (12/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 6 (852/1100) - Clairvoyance Beginner level 4 (156/700) - Melody of Sound Beginner level 7 (130/1300) - Cracked Barrier Beginner level 5 (120/1800) - Shriek Beginner level 5 (99/900) - Ice Bolt Beginner Level 9 (1260/1700) - Ice Burst Beginner Level 4 (345/700)]- Sword Mastery Beginner 9 (22/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 5 (18/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 3 (15/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (54/700) - Fire Blade Beginner level 8 (873/1500) - Life Burn Beginner level 3 (380/500) - Power Strike Beginner level 7 (840/1300) - Speed Strike Beginner level 7 (870/1300) - Power Stance Beginner level 7 (260/1300) - Speed Stance Beginner level 6 (410/1100) - Precision Stance Beginner level 6 (455/1100) - Burning Touch Beginner Level 4 (622/700) - Flame Strike Beginner Level 6 (223/1100)[/third]
Skill Window
[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 6 (24/100) - Shield Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (55/100) - Shield Bash Beginner level 9 (121/1700) - Double Strike Beginner level 5 (453/1100) - Footwork Beginner level 8 (344/1500) - Repair Beginner level 3 (72/1200) - Ram Beginner level 6 (15/100) - Shield Parry Beginner level 8 (61/1500) - Spear Parry Beginner level 6 (7/1100) - Body Reinforcement Beginner level 9 (15/1700) - Anchor Howl Beginner Level 4 (120/700),- Dagger Mastery Intermediate 1 (11/100) - Stealth Intermediate Level 7 (44/100) - Hearing Beginner level 8 (98/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 4 (25/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 4 (78/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 5 (25/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 5 (42/100) - Backstab Beginner level 7 (311/1300) - Double Strike Beginner level 5 (574/700) - Climbing Beginner Level 9 (59/100) - Become Mist Beginner level 3 (16/100) - Burst Speed Beginner level 8 (725/1500) - Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100) - Pin Point Hearing Beginner Level 3 (66/100)]- Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 4 (15/100) - Mana Control Beginner Level 5 (19/100) - Spear Mastery Beginner Level 5 (12/100) - Identify Beginner level 2 (50/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 5 (12/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 8 (955/1500) - Mediation Beginner level 8 (8/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 4 (4/700) - Minor Heal Beginner level 8 (422/1500) - Weaken Beginner level 8 (446/1500) - Bursting Will Beginner level 5 (50/100) - Wolf Summoning Beginner level 2 (17/100) - Magic Arrow Beginner level 7 (823/1300) - Water Fill Beginner Level 5 (14/900) - Iron Skin Beginner Level 3 (35/500) - Swift Legs Beginner Level 3 (35/500) - Berserk Fury Beginner Level 3 (35/500) - Poison Removal Beginner Level 1 (2/100)[/third]
Skill Window
There was an interesting increase in the number of skills they could use here. Most skills increased by at least one level thanks to them being in the beginner levels still while some did not gain any since they could not be used. Sain was actually surprised that both Raven and Shadow managed to get a skill each in the intermediate level. Raven with the shield of course since he did not have a spear to use without Viv taking it away and Shadow with the dagger though he used a short sword...did the game count that as one then? Feeling satisfied with the progress they made, Sain caught up with the others and entered the town.
Onwards?
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9600~ - This chapter came out quickly....wrote 12 pages in one day and the rest in another (today). I''m quite surprise I could do that(again)...though I believe it was due to the fact that things are happening and I wanted to laze around (does writing this much count as lazing???) when I have a test early tomorrow...(bad idea here but that''s what the train is for; to study on!) - Well this is the first time in a while since I shown the status and skill windows. Lots of new skills in there and some of them (finally) in the intermediate level (yay). There will be a number of new skills in there since not even half the trip finished and there will be more training parts in there(had to change some bits to fit in the ideas I had in the plot). - This time, there was a focus on Lyndis in there(You know, part about her skills and later with Viv)...didn''t know how that happened wanted to write about her since her training and conversations seemed relevant enough (definitely not that I couldn''t think of something else to write with the other characters...) - So much rambling here...could go on one what I thought on each section but I won''t... Vol.4 Chapter 5 - Rules to Travelling #5: Explore Places ¡°50 years? You mean in game right? Royal road has only been out for at best 30 years¡± asked Hina. ¡°....¡± Eden silently smiled at her and waited for her to answer his question. Hina thought that Eden was quite controlling of things to even use silence to force people to act the way he wanted. ¡°Fine, tell me then¡± said Hina with a look that was not please at Eden. Hearing these words, Eden smiled a bit and then went back to his neutral face. ¡°The final quest, the final event, the final boss of Royal Road. Do you know what it is or what it could remotely do?¡± asked Eden. ¡°Another damn question...¡± cursed Ian seeing that Eden had literally no intention of answering and was dodging all questions left and right and at the same time forcing them to ask more questions that he would not answer. ¡°What I have given you all are clues that can prepare you in the future. I know that general outline on what will happen but not the consequences and how everyone will react to it. Anyway I''ll explain why the Independent Guild System was needed for the Kingdom that united the continent¡± said Eden. ¡°Basically, the Independent Guilds that you see are the Kingdom''s no, the Emperor''s personal army.¡± ¡°Army?¡± ¡°Yes, an army that consist of almost all players and it remains that they do not realise that they are part of one large army that was gathered. What better way to control a group but to make them believe they are doing something by their own will?¡± ¡°Isn''t that...cruel?¡± asked Grace. ¡°Not at all, Weed was the one who designed it this way. What I needed was a way to travel and act around the entire continent without any fools trying to stop me. When Weed knew of the massive benefits, namely guilds working together to stop other guilds from upsurging his throne, he agreed since even now, there are many that want to be Emperor and having someone on a throne made people more motivated to act.¡± ¡°....¡± The group stared at Eden thinking of what he said. This meant that the Kingdom was not as...great and powerful as everyone thought. There were still those who wanted to gain power that way after all. ¡°Anyway that reason was why the Kingdom and their lot agreed in the first place, I had another idea in which I needed the Kingdom to allow me to travel anywhere and everywhere without restriction.¡± ¡°....¡± The group thought this conversation would take a long time to finish. xXx Inside the town...which was the first slightly larger than a small village place that the group entered... ¡°Get your herbs! Get your herbs here!¡± ¡°Cheap weapons and armour for sale here!¡± ¡°Intermediate level blacksmith sword for sale here now! Get it cheap for 5 gold for a limited stock!¡± While this town had a population of around 300-500, they did not include the players that came and go. If you did include them, the number would double to roughly 600-1000 people in this town. Rather than a small town at this rate, it was better to call it a small city. However the land that this town had was only so much and there were no thick walls to protect it nor the proper buildings to consider it a city yet. But it was still located in a place that had high traffic and it would not be strange in a few years time that this place would expand rapidly. The group kept close together, wanting to not get lost in this place and followed Viv intensely who was taking it easy at any rate. ¡°To...many people¡± muttered Serena almost clinging onto either Lyndis or Miriel. Raven was as quiet as always but even Shadow did not talk at all in the presence of so many people. Miriel was silently glaring at anyone that dared to look at them as well. Seeing Sain sighed and then asked, ¡°What are we going to do here?¡± to Viv who did not reply immediately. Instead they had to walk a while longer with Viv leading the bull and carriage ahead until they stopped at a stable where the bull could rest. It was only then Viv answered him. ¡°We''re taking a break in this town for the day. Do what you wish, I''m going to stay at an inn called ''The Boar''s Hat''. Find it when you can¡± said Viv before disappearing from sight with speed that was faster than the eye could track. ¡°....¡± ¡°So...what do we do now?¡± asked Sain to this sudden predicament. He and the others could already sense the countless eyes on them...a group of players which has a bull and carriage. xXx Leaving the six to do what they want, Viv appeared at the inn in which he told them to meet up at later on and reserved a room to sleep in. ¡°One room for a day please¡± he said to the receptionist who was a young busty lady. She winked at him who still looked like a child even after a century and flirted with him a bit while guiding him to the room. When they reached the room however, Viv entered immediately and slammed the door on her. He could hear some curses from the lady on the other side of the door thanks to that. Waiting for a few seconds to hear that no one can listen in...as well as setting up a sound barrier and several more, Viv contracted someone. ¡°Eden, it''s me¡± he said to the other end connecting via PM. [Ohhh...Viv it''s been while. How are the brats doing?] Viv could hear the voice of Eden which was in a relax manner, probably completely different from what his current predicament on the other side. Only when he took this manner of speech was when Eden was in trouble in some way. ¡°What is happening on your end?¡± asked Viv not caring for Eden''s question. He would rather not have to find out later that he had to clean up after Eden due to him not paying attention. [Well....] It seemed that Eden was hesitant on speaking. Viv had just the thing to make him ''cooperate'' willingly and quickly. ¡°Eden if you do not want that swimsuit-¡± [I''m sorry! Give me a sec here! So many damn....] Eden''s voice cut off there. ¡°....¡± Viv waited for a few more seconds before Eden could talk to him again. [Okay, I''m all fine now. What were we talking about again?] ¡°Those six are fine. Under by teaching, their skills are growing and I believe some of them reached the intermediate level in some of their skills as well¡± replied Viv to Eden''s first question. [Ohhhh.....they sure are working hard] ¡°Unlike you in the past. Llyfr, Al and me had to remind you so many times to train your skills while those six diligently work hard themselves. I suppose it had something to do with having a strong role model¡± sighed Viv considering that Eden somehow once again managed to bring together a group in which would probably be quite strong in the future. [Anyway onto other things I want to know] ¡°Yes¡± said Viv, ¡°Sain has achieved a constant 10% synchronisation while the others are sitting on around 5-7% at best sometimes dropping lower or higher than that. The next best person is Miriel on some occasions.¡± According to what Viv knew, 10% was the initial point...25% was the first awakening and 50% was the final awakening where they weren''t allowed to go any further due to too many complications. If one went beyond 50%...they would go berserk like Ron into a giant 10 headed Hydra rampaging across the city without end until someone stopped him. [Good good, they are doing better than the last batch. It took them some years to get to that point. Is this the difference between using NPCs and players?] ¡°Who knows, better not let Al know about this¡± said Viv. [Yeah...last time we both almost got killed by her didn''t we] ¡°Al we quite angry that time you know and it was all your fault to begin with¡± said Viv pushing all the blame onto him instead. [Heeey! She beat the shit out of me that day...and the day after that as well...and a couple more before I finally died. You''re lucky that you only had to suffer for a day of beatings] ¡°I can''t say I was lucky to be beaten up to death to begin with¡± muttered Viv honestly sighing at the concept in which Eden considered ''lucky''. Now onto another subject that Viv wanted to talk about this time. ¡°What are you planning on doing anyway? Neither me nor Al knows what you are planning. Are you going off on your own again...you know what happened when that first happened.¡± ¡°Then what are you planning, me and Al worry too much about you...and I have to worry about Al at the same time chasing you....it would help if both of you explained things to each other without me forcing you two to.¡± [¡­.] ¡°Your power is poison. I can only describe it as an ocean of endless poison. Even if you give a drop to someone...0.000000000001% of your power and they still live, it is still poison in the end. What are you planning on planting this ''poison'' onto people.¡± [To be precise, there are only 12 people in total that I have done this with and they match with the other side. I cannot face all of them at once you know, that is impossible even more me] ¡°All of them?¡± asked Viv. [You know what I mean...''them''. One of them is my match already and it is unlikely I can take two on] ¡°So...this is also preparation for ''that''?¡± asked Viv. [No....this is a little bit of an experiment...a small wish...a small hope that they are able to single handedly match one of my ''kind'' for at least a while. Least I have to leave it to the other 12 I have prepared as well] ¡°....¡± [By the way, I heard you accepted some information from the ''Wise Men'' Guild recently] ¡°Yeah, the route we are going down are filled with bandits and Pks.¡± [Hmm...take care that they all don''t die] ¡°I won''t. I don''t get so distracted to be with to begin with either way that my mistakes will harm others unlike you with so many people in the past.¡± [You know...you really pick a sore spot when you''re pissed you know] With that, the call between Viv and Eden ended. ¡°Now....what to do?¡± wondered Viv. Really he only came here so no one could hear the conversation he was having and didn''t plan for anything else. Viv remembered that those six weren''t so great on dealing with other people, especially at mass...perhaps this can serve to make them so they can deal with these kind of places...else cause those ''marks'' to at least partly awaken some more....or make it harder for it to consume them in the end. xXx ¡°Let''s go exploring the town!¡± said Lyndis excitedly. ¡°I refuse.¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡°Ah....¡± ¡°....¡± Four people simultaneously rejected this idea at the same time. They were Miriel, Shadow, Serena and Raven. On the other hand, Sain said, ¡°Sure¡± which caused these four people to stare/glare at him at once. Seeing that Sain agreed to this, the others had no choice but to follow as well. Even at the edge of the town, there were a number of players, in groups of parties walking around the place. The appearance of so many people wearing weapons and armour of all sorts made the game seem like more of a game then before. ¡°In that case, then we should go somewhere where it is less crowded...we can''t do anything if we have to wait through so many people first¡± said Miriel telling her real reason and then excuse in that order. Miriel''s words were true though, there were really too many people here. Think of a crowded city at certain times of the year where it would be difficult to even move to one place to another and you get this place at the most crowded areas. ¡°The answer is simple then¡± said Shadow, ¡°Let''s just go to a part of the city that isn''t a complete train wreck of a place.¡± Sain nodded and then asked a question, ¡°Then...what should we do now?¡± ¡°Well let''s just explore the place then¡± said Lyndis ignoring the opinions of the others though they didn''t have any opinion on what to do anyway. Miriel sighed but had to agree with Lyndis, ¡°Yeah, it would be good to know more about this place. There could be some things to buy from here that we couldn''t back in the city...we have around 200 gold right now thanks to the bandits being money hoarders.¡± ¡°200 gold...¡± muttered Serena. For players, Gold was the highest form of money currency. A single Gold Coin was considered extremely valuable even for a level 50 player. The average amount of money a player had after they finished their 4 week confinement was merely copper coins and rarely silver coins. When they reached around level 10, they could steadily get more silver coins. This moved up to gold coins rarely when they finally reached level 50 on average. The group, nearing level 100 usually would have at most 100 gold coins. The amount that Miriel said they had...counting the sum that everyone had was double that value. However Serena did not account for the fact that most of the money a player would get would be...inevitably spent on new weapons, armour and especially spells. All of these things cost lots of gold and made it so that players were in an never ending spiral of gaining gold to buy new gear to farm for more gold. ¡°I want to at least get some upgrades for the weapons we''re using...well an upgrade for Lyndis and Shadow to be precise. Plus me and Serena need new staffs as well.¡± ¡°What about me and Raven then?¡± asked Sain. ¡°You don''t need a new staff since you don''t use one and a spear is good enough for you. Raven can''t use a spear right now as well and his armour is still better than the rest of us...speaking of armour, Lyndis do you think you need new armour?¡± Miriel asked. ¡°Hmm...depends on whether it will drag me down¡± Lyndis responded, ¡°Well might as well look through them though.¡± Armour is an extremely important part of the game. Besides protecting your body, they increased your defence as well. Good quality light armour would increase defence by 25 like the armour Sain wears. In that sense, the armour that Sain, Lyndis and Shadow wore were top class items in terms of defence alone. Good quality heavy armour however had a defence of around 40 which was the level of Raven''s current armour. However there were also the existence of rarer armour as well. Magic Armour would often have slightly lower defence values but in exchange have powerful side effects on them as well such as passively increasing defence or speed. Then there were also unique grade armour as well which had high defence and also good effects on them as well. However this kind of issue was far beyond the group. The current armour they had could potentially carry them until they reached level 150 if they pleased. However it cannot be said for their weapons which were only average in damage and were long due their replacement. ¡°You people over there!¡± said a voice suddenly. The group turned to see a warrior along with a couple other players approaching them. The group, or rather some of the group backed away a bit seeing them come closer. Sain noticed this and immediately said, ¡°Yes, what do you want?¡± in an impatient tone since he rather not have the others scared too much. Hearing this, the warrior smiled and said, ¡°I am wondering if you are interested in cooperating with us and a few others.¡± ¡°On what?¡± Sain had to ask since there was nothing else but that. ¡°The bandits! There are so many bandits here in this area that we, must liberate this town and others to the path of peace¡± he said. ¡°....¡± There was something off about this person''s speech and it seemed that everyone else noticed as well. Serena went behind Lyndis who was glaring at the warrior. Miriel gave him a cold look while Raven continued to stare and Shadow....umm...disappeared somewhere though Sain could not ask right now. ¡°In order to strive for peace and unity, we must all work together even on the most painful tasks to help others. There are many reasons on doing this to exterminate the bandit threat and helping this cause. You must join us in this Holy Crusade-¡± ¡°We refuse¡± said Sain flatly. ¡°And continue to-eh?¡± the warrior stopped in his speech that was rambling on about something that Sain and really everyone else had no interest in. They were to set off tomorrow either way so they couldn''t take part even if they wanted to. ¡°Have you reconsider since this is a rightful path where-¡± ¡°No. Leave¡± said Sain bluntly again. He had no time for this and at this rate Serena might end up crying since...there are tears on her eyes already. And more to the point, he nor the others wanted anything to do with this person. Plus his speech pattern is creepy as hell like he was forced role playing here. He was just stringing together words that led to a certain direction and hoping they made sense. Sain pointed to the others to leave as well to get away from him but when they moved, the other party members of this warrior players moved in and blocked the way. Seeing this, Sain had to ask, ¡°What do you really want?¡± ¡°For you and I with the rest of them to serve justice for freedom and peace. There is nothing better for someone to serve the cause. Only then can this Kingdom can go back on it''s proper route where those who had the right to peace can have it.¡± ¡°And I still refuse¡± said Sain not backing down. He was strangely calm about this. It was like...there was a lid on his emotions right now and it was boiling over soon... ¡°Unfortunately you don''t have a choice here¡± the warrior player took out an emblem with some sort of symbol on it. Sain couldn''t see it properly so he couldn''t really identify it. ¡°This is something I got to prove that I am right!¡± From the crowd that watched on, there were more players that seemed to associate with this person coming out as well. They pushed the other players off and completely surrounded the group that were watching but not doing anything. ¡°Now kind sir. I believe you can join us...and we can liberate you from your sins¡± the warrior''s eyes glanced towards Miriel.... ''Around...10 other warriors, 2 archers and some mages as well...this is not going to end well....for them.'' ¡°Shadow!¡± shouted Sain commanding him to start already. (Sound of several slices) ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± ¡°What the hell?!¡± ¡°Enemy!¡± Suddenly, the back of the legs of several players were cut and then fell onto the ground still alive but injured. Seeing this scene, the warrior player was shocked and then it turned into anger. ¡°Why you....!¡± he drew his sword and went to attack Sain. Snap~! And then his sword was hit away instantly by Miriel. Snap~! Snap~! Snap~! Three more strikes with the whip on the face and then he was crawling on the ground helpless. Sain looked around and saw that the others had already taken care of things. Serena bound some of the players while Raven and Lyndis knocked them down without killing them. Killing them would really give them the murderer mark which they did not need in the middle of a town that was filled with players. Having the murderer mark would do several things. The first and most noticeable thing was that other players could now attack you without penalties, the second was that the loot you dropped increase and the third that the NPCs will have a negative relation to you if you had the mark unless you are close to them. ¡°Well...didn''t think that I wouldn''t be doing anything beside shouting the name of one person¡± said Sain in a deprecating tone. Shadow appeared holding some....well money pouches...which...cough....and said, ¡°Well, you are our dear weak leader. We need to protect you after all¡± he had a mocking smile on his face as he throw a money pouch to each of the remaining people in the group. ¡°I''m not that weak...am I?¡± wondered Sain. ¡°How long do you think you had to take to knock out so many people?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°....¡± Sain thought about it. ¡°Well I wouldn''t be able to knock them out but killing them would be far easier for me who used magic and isn''t that skilled with a spear¡± he replied to Shadow. ¡°And that is why we had you do nothing at all¡± said Shadow in an exaggerated tone. Miriel cut in there saying to both of them, ¡°While I would love to lecture you on your tone, we are attracting a lot of attention now and I really feel like vomiting to this.¡± Sain nodded and dragged the group out of there as fast as possible before the guards could find them. xXx On another part of the town... ¡°That was fun, what should we do now?¡± asked Lyndis looking as if she was itching to get into another fight. ¡°Please don''t pick a fight...I rather not to flee from this town in the middle of the night¡± muttered Miriel just loud enough that everyone could hear while she was sighing. ¡°Say you who pulled out a whip and struck several players at once. You know you''re really good with the whip¡± praised Lyndis. ¡°And nothing else...¡± muttered Sain under his breath thinking back on when she tried to use a bow...and any other weapon from Park. Miriel glared at Sain and said, ¡°What was that?¡± Sain quickly waved his hands on denial and replied, ¡°Nothing, nothing at all.¡± Seeing that Sain was submissive to Miriel already...Lyndis turned to look at Shadow and asked, ¡°So how much did you steal from them?¡± ¡°Ah..? Steal?¡± asked Serena not knowing what was going on. Lyndis held up the money pouch that Shadow threw to each of them before they escaped. ¡°....¡± The group was in silent that Shadow would do this...but for some reason at the same time, Miriel''s eyes were shining with hope and dreams.. ¡°I estimate that they had around 300 gold in total which is lot mind you for a couple of punk only around level 50¡± replied Shadow. ¡°Level 50?¡± asked Raven pointing that out. ¡°Yeah..they were really slow and were taken out by us quickly. They had to be that weak in order for that to happen¡± Shadow replied to Raven reading his mind and question with his words. ¡°Total of 500 gold....¡± muttered Miriel. ¡°Miriel...?¡± asked Sain seeing that Miriel was in a daze. ¡°Plus later on...Viv will give us the skill books to sell if we manage to...could increase to 1000 gold if things go right....¡± she was muttering frantically while the others looked at her worried. In the end, Sain shook her a bit and said, ¡°Miriel! Snap out of it! We don''t need that much gold to begin with!¡± To hearing these words, Miriel snapped and shouted, ¡°Who doesn''t need money to live!¡± which caused Sain and the others to be more silent. ¡°Ah...¡± Miriel snapped out of it and then apologised, ¡°Sorry about that...¡± The situation was awkward for a few seconds more and then Sain decided onto the course of action they will take. ¡°We will split up into two groups from here until we meet with Viv at ''The Boar''s Hat'' inn. I''ll go with Miriel and Serena while Lyndis, Raven and Shadow will be together as well. We will take half the money we have and split it between us¡± said Sain. ¡°What...are you planning?¡± asked Shadow. Sain let out a smile and said, ¡°Shopping. Some of us may need new gear so you might want to update your equipment while some of us may need new spells to use at the same time¡± Sain looked at the sky and the position of the sun, ¡°We have around 5-7 more hours to do this and then we''re off to sleep then leaving the town.¡± ¡°....¡± The group silently exchanged money pouches so that they had equally distributed the gold and then split up into the two groups...namely the ones that used magic and the ones that did not. xXx ¡°That reminds me, did you choose which three blessing spells you decided to learn?¡± asked Sain to Serena. ¡°Umm...no...not yet...most of them are...powerful but...¡± muttered Serena but then picked up her voice and said, ¡°There are lots of different kinds of blessings...most of them affect the party as a whole and are only medium in strength but there are ones that only affect a single person at a time but are really powerful. But at the same time there are one that have side effects in exchange for their powerful effects as well. For example there is a blessing called ''Iron of Strength'' which increases strength by a lot but at the same time makes the body too heavy which may be useful for Raven but...useless for Lyndis or anyone else.¡± ¡°In that case it''s like you are choosing this spell for Raven?¡± wondered Sain aloud. Serena blushed red and Miriel pinched Sain''s cheek when he said those words. ¡°What she means is that whether learning a spell like that will be beneficial later on. Aside from Raven, the side effects are really bad plus Raven is also the mobile type¡± said Miriel resisting the urge to force Sain down and hear her lecture on the heart of a maiden. At this point, both Miriel and Lyndis thought of Serena as a younger sister. Plus Sain was the dense type, Shadow was...bad and Raven didn''t talk much so only they could take care of Serena properly. ¡°Is that so...¡± said Sain thinking about it. He turned to Serena and then said, ¡°Don''t worry about it too much. We are still strong enough to fighting without blessing or buffs...you can learn up to three of them so you don''t need to be too picky¡± while rubbing her head. ''Her hair...is quite soft and...fun to play with...'' Sain thought he had just discovered a new habit to be...until he saw that Miriel was glaring at him again with intense eyes. ¡°Any-Anyway I believe that the magic store is around that corner...¡± said Sain quickly leading the two to the store that he had heard about from a kind old lady that noticed they were all magic users. Walking over, Sain saw that the sign on the store had the name ''The Dragon''s Tongue'' on it. Not minding the name of the store nor the sign that was shaped in the form of a Dragon, Sain and the others entered the store. ¡°Welcome!¡± a middle age man appeared at the counter the moment they walked in. Sain nodded to the man in which he then proceeded to ask, ¡°How may I help you all?¡± glancing at Miriel and Serena behind Sain. ¡°We want to look around this store to see if there is anything we want¡± answered Sain. ¡°And what would you be seeking?¡± ¡°Mostly spell books and if there is a good deal, magic items and rings.¡± There are three things a store like this will sell. The first is spell books which are the most sold to mages. The second are magic items and rings in which other classes other than mages will also buy. You have 10 slots for rings as well which is why powerful rings are super popular and expensive at the same time. Sain recalled that only he had a ring in the group...so there are 59 rings in total that he can get for the group. But Sain only had the intention of buying rings that were good enough. The three started to browse through the store. Sain left them to their own devices and first went to the spell books section of the store to see what general spell they had that they could use. Looking through it, several windows appeared for him.
Fireball Spell Will create a single fireball on casting. The strength and number of fireballs will increase as this spell levels up Cost: 10 Copper
Fire Arrow Spell Creates a single arrow made up fire to shoot. The strength and number of fire arrows will increase as this spell levels up Cost: 10 Silver
Fire Tower Spell Creates a single tower of flame at the target location. The strength and number of fire towers will increase as this spell levels up Cost: 10 Gold
Paralyse Shot Spell Shoots a bullet with the effect of paralyse on it. It has a 10% chance of dealing paralyse and has half same damage as a normal spell on the same level This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Cost: 15 Gold
Poison Shot Spell Shoots a bullet with the effect of poison on it. It has a 10% chance of dealing poison and has half same damage as a normal spell on the same level Cost: 15 Gold
Sain looking through this thought, '' The ''Fireball''...the most basic fire spell cost so little...while ''Fire Arrow'' the next stage is 100 times more expensive and the same is with ''Fire Tower'' as well...it''s interesting how fire magic is still one of the most popular magic out there.'' Sain looked to find there were also lots of ice magic spells here as well in which Miriel was looking through. ''Then there are the ''Paralyse Shot'' and ''Poison Shot'' which seem really interesting...I want to buy them...so that means I''ll have to spend 30 gold total to get them....'' Deciding on these two spells, Sain also looked around the rest of the store as well. While Miriel was browsing mostly ice magic spells, Serena was looking through the magic items and rings. Looking through the magic items...Sain saw that there were many pieces of armour that cost way more than they can afford. There were items such as braces that cost over 200 gold a piece while only having moderate effects and were not worth it. The same were with the rings. Rings that had anything to do with mana or magic each cost several tens of gold and only had effects such as ''Increase Mana Regeneration by 1%'' or ''Reduce Casting cost by 3%'' and yet they cost so much. Sain understood if he stacked the effects of these rings it would be extremely beneficial but the cost would be too high at that point. Because of this, Sain did not dare to buy anything from there at all... Soon enough the three finished with getting what they wanted and went to see what each other wanted to have. Sain immediately presented the two spell books which totalled 30 gold coins. Likewise, Miriel wanted a new spell but only had one and also carried a new staff as well. Sain looked through the descriptions of both.
Freezing Spell A spell in which shoots frozen air to the target to cause them to freeze. With this spell, the target''s vision, speed and defence will decrease when this spell is used against them. The range and power of this spell will increase as it levels up. Cost: 20 Gold
Staff of the Ice Mage Durability: 30/30 Damage: 2-5 A staff that was made and designed for better use of Ice Magic. Restrictions: Magic Class Options: - Increases the Strength of Ice Magic by 15% - Decrease the cost of Ice Magic spells by 3% - Increase casting rate of Ice Magic by 1%
Sain who was thinking that this staff was powerful looked at the price and it was at 50 gold.... ¡°Miriel....¡± asked Sain without realising it, was he holding back then? Soon enough without waiting for Miriel to answer, he looked at what Serena wanted. There were no spell books but Serena had a ring, boots and can arm guards as well as a spell. He looked at them all.
Poison Coating Spell Cast poison effect on a weapon with a high chance of causing the poison effect. Cost: 30 Gold
Magical Arm Guards Durability: 30/30 Defence: 5 Arm Guards that were magically blessed so the magic strength of spells will increase by 10% Restrictions: Combat Class
Boots of Protection Durability: 30/30 Defence: 2 Boots that fit on all people and gives a bit extra protection while being light. Restrictions: None Class
Ring of Confined Healing Durability: N/A Defence: N/A Increases the power of healing spells by 5%
Sain, seeing the effects of these items...dreaded at the price. The magical arm guards...cost 60 gold...the other two items cost 20 gold each and in total 100 gold coins. ¡°....¡± Sain looked at the two and really asked, ¡°Do you really need these items?¡± Both of them nodded. ¡°Serena, do you really need these arm guards? You can''t even equip¡± said Sain. Both Serena and Miriel looked at each other and then Serena said, ¡°They''re...for you¡± while Miriel said, ¡°Hurry up and accept it. You are our last meat shield so you need to be able to protect yourself.¡± Sain looked closely at the arm guards. They were completely made of metal and were light...if not for the fact that they were a magical item, Sain would be thought that a single cut could break it. ¡°In that case, I''ll accept it. Let''s buy these items then¡± said Sain bringing over the books and equipment to the counter where the middle aged man said, ¡°That will in total 210 gold.¡± When Sain was about to give him the gold, the man also said, ¡°And if you are part of an independent guild, there will be a discount as well.¡± ¡°How much of a discount?¡± asked Miriel quickly before Sain could even open his mouth. ¡°Depends on the rank of the Independent Guild you are in. F rank gets a 5% discount and it goes up by 5% per rank. An A rank Independent Guild gets a 30% discount and a S rank one gets a 40% discount on all things purchased on the continent¡± explained the shopkeeper. This was something that Sain nor Miriel knew of. Who knew that being in an Independent Guild would also get these benefits...considering that being in one means you can be called to a quest at any moment... Miriel took out a emblem and presented it to the shopkeeper and said, ¡°I believe we will be getting that 40% discount then¡± with a smile. The shopkeeper''s eyes widened and said, ¡°I understand. That will be 126 gold instead.¡± They got a 84 gold discount on the things they brought...which leaves them with 124 gold coins left from their purchase. Leaving the store, the three were quite happy on learning this fact and then discussed it. ¡°It was nice to know that there was such a thing...to think that we could''ve saved even more¡± said Miriel. Serena then asked, ¡°But..where did you get...that emblem?¡± ¡°Yeah...Eden not mentioned it at all...¡± said Sain. ¡°Ah, from before my master gave it to me saying that Eden and the others will probably forget about it since they don''t use it often¡± explained Miriel. ¡°....¡± For some reason Sain had a bad feeling about this...considering that the ''Sleeping Sheep Centre'' is a S rank Independent Guild...however Miriel seemed happy right now so he rather not spoil her mood just yet. xXx On the other hand with Lyndis, Raven and Shadow... ¡°Let''s go to a pub and drink!¡± said Lyndis totally in control of the situation. She held and dragged the two other boys with her looking around quickly and also finding a place to drink. These two boys could only sigh seeing that Lyndis was out of control without Sain and Miriel. Those two did not realise of how much she restrained herself in front of those two. Sain might have looked really kind and easy going but he did not accept failure no matter what. If you did something wrong...then he made you do it again...and again until you got it right. Miriel on the other hand was also the same but with a cold glare instead. Without knowing it...for at least Sain, they had complete control over the group. But for some reason both Raven and Shadow could not help but think of when Miriel will take control...even though she said she had no intention to, the possibility and her nature to mettle in things made it hard for them to not think of that. This was the main reason he had to speak up to her to make sure nothing bad happens in the future. Although it was quite hard to always act like a bad person with a horrible personality, Shadow didn''t mind to...in fact he found out he was quite good at it. Plus for some strange reason, he got along with Sain and Raven better after he showed off the personality. ¡°Hahaha, there''s one there!¡± pointed Lyndis not even caring for the strange looks other people were giving them. ¡°Please don''t trash that place up¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Trash? Why would I do that? I''m only going to drink¡± said Lyndis puzzled. ''And that is the reason why...I don''t think we have enough cash on hand to pay for the damages...'' thought Shadow. He turned and looked at Raven who had the same expression on his face. Kick! Lyndis kicked opened the door to the pub since both her hands were already dragging Raven and Shadow through as well. Letting go of their hands, Lyndis once again ignoring the stares immediately went to the barkeeper and said: ¡°I want to drink!¡± ¡°....¡± The barkeeper stare at her and then asked, ¡°What kind of drink may you want young lady?¡± ¡°Alcohol! Beer!¡± Lyndis said excitedly. To this expression that she was making on her face, Shadow could only sigh since it was completely loose. She was already acting drunk even though she didn''t even drink one bit yet. The barkeeper then took out a bottle and poured it''s content into a glass cup and gave it to Lyndis while saying, ¡°That will be 5 silver.¡± Lyndis gladly gave him the money and immediately started drinking the cup. However she immediately stopped and then complained loudly, ¡°Why does this taste like juice?!¡± Shadow could see that there were several several chuckles around the place laughing at Lyndis. He gripped his short sword by his waist even harder hearing this...and then he remembered something from the game manual. Those who were under 18 cannot drink...but that does not stop them from buying in game...it was just that the game automatically replaces the alcohol with juice by the option you want when you try to drink. Lyndis should know this as well but she... ¡°Oi look at that elf chick¡± Shadow picked up some words using his ''Hearing'' skill along with his ''Pin-point Hearing'' skill together. He did not turn his head but glances at the location with the corner of his eye noting their appearance. He started listening in on them while Lyndis was making a commotion. Eventually the conversation went to a point that Shadow did not like. ¡°Let''s go and...¡± They were discussing on capturing her and using her... That was all that Shadow needed to hear. He used ''Stealth'' in the middle of this bar which was quite easy since Lyndis was attracting all of the looks anyway. No one even noticed that Shadow disappeared. He walked slowly and yet quickly to the edge of the pub and moved to behind the two men that were discussing harming his comrade. He took out both weapons...his short sword and dagger and moved them to point at the back of the two men who were at the corner of the pub. Then he started threatening them. ¡°If you do not stop what you are planning to do to my comrade, you will both die right now and will die over and over again until you can no longer handle this game¡± said Shadow in a low tone making sure to stab them lightly to make sure they did not get any funny ideas. Both these two men were shocked but did not move. For a player to get behind them so easily meant that he was no push over and was highly skilled. Plus his voice was scary as hell. As such they immediately nodded without reserve and then felt that the weapons pointed at their back was gone and the person with it. Shadow reappeared back at his original location just in time for Lyndis to say, ¡°Damn!¡± grab him and Raven and drag them out of the pub. ¡°Where are we going?¡± asked Raven. ¡°Good question¡± pointed out Shadow. ¡°Armour store of course¡± shouted Lyndis causing the two to flinch. ¡°I thought we didn''t need new armour yet¡± pointed out Shadow. Raven nodded to this. ¡°Who cares, we can just look if we can''t find anything interesting¡± said Lyndis not caring at their opinion at all, ¡°Plus we need to visit the weapon store as well and then get food to eat. I''m tired of getting meat stew or fried meat!¡± ¡°....¡± It took them a further 10 minutes in order for Lyndis who was dragging Raven and Shadow to find the armour store...which was luckily enough next to the weapon store as well. The only reason it took 10 minutes was because Lyndis did not ask for directions even though it was only a short walk away from the pub. ¡°This place is called the ''Turtle Shell''? What an interesting name¡± said Lyndis humoured entering the store. ¡°Welcome young lads!¡± said the shopkeeper happily to the three that entered. Looking around the place the three could see that this place was...ordered. Light Armour on one side, Heavy Armour on the other with everything else in the middle of things. There were several sets of armour on displace on the walls as well and pieces of them at a workshop at another room behind this shop. ¡°Can you point to us where the level 100 gear are?¡± asked Lyndis to the shopkeeper. ¡°Of course, what kind of armour are you looking for-ah, of course for yourselves¡± the shopkeeper quickly moved and took out three sets of armour for the three to look at. One of them was similar to the heavy armour that Raven wore but thicker at places, another was extremely thin...thinner than what Shadow wore and yet looked heavier at the same time and finally there was one that looked like what Lyndis was wearing but it looked heavier and less sturdy than the one she was wearing. ¡°Are you sure this is level 100 gear?¡± asked Shadow confused on the it being weaker than the one they were wearing. ¡°Of course this is level 100 gear! You can even look at the descriptions!¡± shouted the shopkeeper. He did not like people being smart on him.
Assassin Armour Set Durability: 30/30 Defence: 10 An extremely light weighted set of armour that is designed to allow maximum speed in it. Due to the thinnest of the materials used, the defence of this armour falls by a bit but small wounds and cuts are still easily prevented thanks to this. Restrictions: Thief or related class, Level 100 Options: - Agility +6 - Able to move in the dark with less notice
Heavy Armour Set Durability: 50/50 Defence: 30 A heavy set of armour which has several layers onto it. Due to this, the weight of the armour increases to a point where there is a noticeable increase in weight when wearing it. However strong blows aside from blunt weapons are easily deflected from this armour. Restrictions: Warrior or related class, Level 100 Options: - Sharp weapon damage decrease by 10%
Leather Armour Set Durability: 30/30 Defence: 15 A set of armour that was made by layering leather over each other while placing metal in between it at certain points to block as much damage at those parts. It does not hinder the wearer that much and allows a decent amount of defence at the same time. Restrictions: Level 100 Options: - None
¡°....¡± The three stared at the windows since they were...not what they expected at all. ¡°You see now! These are top grade goods for level 100 players! I''ll sell them to you at a discounted price as well. How much do you think you can handle?¡± said the shopkeeper looking at their expression. ¡°Are...you sure this is top grade gear? They''re worse than the ones who got now and they''re from when we were level 50¡± pointed out Lyndis. ¡°What the hell are you talking about?! There is no way a mere level 50 gear can outmatch something from level 100!¡± argued the shopkeeper. ¡°You want proof?¡± asked Lyndis with an eyebrow raised. ¡°Yes! Let me see the armour you''re wearing now!¡± Lyndis took out a bit of her armour...not all of it of course since she needed something to wear and she didn''t want to strip. After looking at it with wide eyes the shopkeeper gave it back to Lyndis with an apology. ¡°My honest mistake lads. Didn''t think that you would have stuff from a master blacksmith and not to mention a really skilled one as well¡± he sighed remembering the stats on a mere level 50 piece of equipment that were better than level 100 gear of the same type. The quality was as such that it rivalled a poor grade level 200 gear. ¡°Master blacksmith?¡± wondered Shadow, didn''t Eden give them their gear? ¡°Yes, a blacksmith that has the blacksmithing skill to at least the intermediate level. That''s when we start to call them masters of their trade as mid-level masters. It''s only when they reach the advance level that you can really do the interesting stuff like what was done of your armours¡± the shopkeeper explained. ¡°Wait, what was done to our armour?¡± asked Lyndis not getting his words. ¡°Ah, your gear was actually a lot higher level than you think. It was made and then had a certain piece of magic applied to it to lower it''s requirements to use. By doing this the effects of the armour decreases accordingly but it is usually better than the other armour it was reduced to. It takes a lot of skill to do that and there are at most a dozen people on the continent who know but only one or two that have the materials to do so. Not many people want to get gear that was intentionally weakened. Plus it costs a lot of money to do that as well. It''s well known as something to test your skills with but no one wants to teach it.¡± In other words why get a weakened version when you can get a the full one and grow into it to use later with it''s full effects. More over, the costs of having a weakened one was actually higher than having a normal version of the same armour, no one in their right mind would do unless they were randomly spending money on things. ¡°I see...in that case, we should use our current armour until a better one appears¡± muttered Lyndis thinking about it. The other three, Miriel, Serena and even Sain didn''t really need armour since they were fighting at the back. However they needed armour to fight properly since they are in the heat of the battle. ¡°In that case, should we check out the weapon store then?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Yeah...¡± The three left the armour store with that and went inside the weapon store. ¡°Welcome!¡± said another old man managing this store. The three ignored the man this time and started to look through weapons silently. They had 250 gold worth of spending money either way. As a result they spend all but 10 gold of their money on these weapons.
Long Iron Sword Durability: 80/80 Damage: 32-38 An iron sword that is longer than normal. As such, the damage it produces is higher than normal but at the same time the durability increased due to the good tempering of the blacksmith. It''s long blade surprisingly does not make it heavier than other swords. Restrictions: Level 140 Options: - Damage on living creature increases by 10% - Light weight and balanced at the same time despite it''s true weight - Sword skills are executed twice as fast
Light Iron Dagger Durability: 50/50 Damage: 19-20 Made also too thinly, it''s blade can easily sink through armour with a stab but at the same time can cut through thin metal like butter. It''s light weight at the same time increases the speed of attacks by a large margin. Restrictions: Thief or related class, Level 130 Options: - Able to cut through metal with some skill - Attack speed +15%
Strong Iron Spear Durability: 60/60 Damage: 25-30 Made with more iron than normal to increase it''s durability, it was designed to be used in long battles and does not suffer from any defects even with long use. Most of the weight of the spear is however positioned at the tip of the spear which causes trouble on handling unless you have great strength. The blade of the spear is also flattened to allow for cuts as well. Restrictions: Warrior or related class, Level 120 Options: - When used against light weight foes, +15% damage - Unbalanced weight which makes it hard to wield but at the same time increase damage +10% - Quite heavy and sturdy and causes durability +20%
Strong Iron Shield Durability: 100/100 Defence: 25 Made with heavy iron combined with light iron to create a shield that can block even strong monster attacks, this shield is so heavy that speed is greatly reduced unless you have great strength. The defence and durability is higher than normal as a result however. Restrictions: Warrior or related class, Level 120 Options: - Able to block heavy attacks easily - Movement Speed -25% if strength is lower than 200 - Quite heavy and sturdy and causes durability +20%
While they cannot use these weapons right now, they could in the near future. This was what you could say to be an investment into the future as they found weapons that they were suited to. While they were not the best weapons that could be used, they were quite powerful in their own ways combined with their skills. ¡°Thank you, come again¡± said the weapon store shopkeeper as the three left with the weapons in their inventory now. ¡°Yep! Now is the time to eat all I want!¡± said Lyndis once again excited. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Both Shadow and Raven could only look on helpless as Lyndis spent the last 10 gold they had...all on food... ¡°Give me some lobster!¡± ¡°More meat!¡± ¡°Yum! This taste greeeat! Give me more!¡± It only took 25 minutes for that 10 gold to completely disappear. Lyndis had been holding back on a long time but she was in fact a food addict. As a girl however in real life, eating so much would make her fat...but in this game, nothing would come from eating a bit too much. xXx Soon after...all six of the group made their way to ''The Boar''s Hat'' inn where Viv was. However just before they entered, Miriel suddenly asked Lyndis, ¡°How much gold did you spend on new stuff?¡± ¡°240 gold in total¡± replied Lyndis immediately. Miriel heard that number and then sighed and then Sain next asked, ¡°Were the stuff you brought important?¡± Lyndis tapped her chest proudly and said, ¡°Of course! If not for weapons we can''t fight can we even if it is expensive, every advantage helps.¡± Hearing this, Sain and Miriel were at least delighted that Lyndis didn''t spend all of the gold on something worthless while Raven and Shadow could not stop her. ¡°That reminds me, if you show the guild emblem, apparently you get a 40% discount on everything you buy at stores¡± said Miriel remembering what happened before. ¡°40%! I could''ve brought three times more food to eat with that money!¡± shouted Lyndis suddenly hearing of this discount. ¡°Food...?¡± Shadow then answered that question seeing that Raven did not want to, ¡°Yes, the remaining 10 gold we had was completely consumed by the food Lyndis brought on a rampage and none of it remained. We...couldn''t not stop her before it was too late¡± Shadow had a voice of sorrow. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Both Sain and Miriel looked at Lyndis....no stared at her...no glared at her. ¡°Lyndis.¡± ¡°Come here for a sec.¡± Both of them grabbed Lyndis before she could escape and dragged her to some unknown corner away from sight...and away from all hope. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!¡± ¡°Quiet you!¡± ¡°Mmhmhmhmmhmhh!!!¡± There was a short scream before even that was prevented from leaking out.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9100~ - New forums....well at least it looks nice and they fixed up some of the broken things for now...There was an issue where the first 5 chapters (Being the longest chapters) having their last bits cut off (Probably due to having a word limit before removing it) when all of the stuff was copied over. Fixed that since it wasn''t like the code for tables weren''t working and causing the chapter to crammed into the left half of the screen. Another thing is that certain tables are white and because of that...well the text is white on white (To resolve this problem for now switch to the ''default'' theme for the forum located at the bottom right which is black text on white background. I''ll switch to another colour for those tables later). I''ll have to edit those parts so you guys can read the text for this series...don''t expect that in ''The Unfortunate Fool'' since there are too many damn tables that are white with white text (Just highlight it for now). Another thing is the links are all broken now plus remaking the links with the ''Insert a link'' thing just causes it to go to this http.com page instead. Another thing is that the forums is still quite glitchy seeing while editing through this, it decided to make all my text go italics...something else is that when I copied this chapter here, it double spaced everything as in this space you see would end up as instead...so I''m presuming that this is for Microsoft word where it half space everything which didn''t registered as a double space before in the last forum. Quite annoying since it spaces everything out so much if I don''t edit it. If possible maybe a trigger to not auto double space everything when you copy thing in. Finally making the tables is so much harder with the lost of the [window] button... So...this is all I have to say about the new forums. Looks nice, there are MANY problems which makes it harder to do things for now...and I now have to start mass editing stuff... Vol.4 Chapter 6 - Rules to Travelling #6: Do Not Trust Strangers ¡°Because of this idea, having unrestricted access to all other parts of the continent was needed. But...teleportation is quite expensive to use you know. Those really rare portals are the only things that can constantly teleport someone. Because of this Independent Guilds cannot travel for free using this method unless it''s related to a quest of a certain level¡± explained Eden in great detail. For some reason, the group felt that Eden was the really talkative type since right now more than anything, they wanted him to shut up and just give them the relevant information and not this story he''s telling. ¡°Besides that point...where was I again?¡± asked Eden causing the group to face palm. They all screamed in their hearts, ''How the hell should I know?!!'' ¡°Please cut to the chase to my question¡± said Hina in a threatening tone. ¡°Right, the purpose of the Independent Guild System...hmm...well to sum it all up, I wanted something and the Kingdom wanted something and using this system both of us will benefit and get a lot from it¡± said Eden. ¡°Isn''t...that a bit too blunt. You went from storytelling and just summarising it all in a few sentences¡± said Hina. ¡°Well it''s either the short version or really long version¡± Eden said in a humoured voice, ¡°Any other questions? Not even about me?¡± ¡°If we ask you will avoid the question again¡± said Ian. ¡°Yeah! It''s no fun if you avoid all the good questions that invade your privacy!¡± shouted Maria as well. ¡°I don''t...think you should ask...those questions...¡± advised Grace to Maria trying to calm her down. ¡°Hahaha, damn you are really like Alexandra when you let loose Lyndis!¡± said Eden while trying to hold in his laughter. ¡°What are you laughing at?!¡± screamed Maria. ¡°No, nothing at all. It''s just that you are the exact type as Alexandra. The type that seemed to one thing but in the end they inside keep on worrying about those they care about. Have you ever thought that you needed to do this for a certain someone?¡± asked Eden. ¡°....¡± ¡°No..of course not!¡± ¡°That pause is quite funny to me you know¡± said Eden. ''What the hell happened in these few seconds...?'' wondered someone seeing this scene play out. Weren''t they a couple of seconds ago discussing something important and serious? xXx ¡°Other than the fact that Lyndis was beaten up quite harshly by both Sain and Miriel, did anything interesting happen while you guys were exploring this town?¡± asked Viv. Right now they were in the room that Viv rented out which could fit a dozen people in it. There, Viv sat on a bed looking at the group who were standing opposite of him...with the exception of Lyndis who was unconscious on the bed beside them. Due to the incident...before, Lyndis was beaten up with fists and even whipped and then healed by Sain under the name of ''training'' his healing spell in order to do it all over again until Lyndis fainted at the end where they carried her here to Viv. Thanks to this ''training'' however, Sain''s ''Minor Heal'' was about to reach the Beginner Level 9 level and soon after that, the Beginner Level 10 and then Intermediate Level. Since Lyndis was unconscious, Shadow took over the task of explaining what happened along with Sain to Viv. First they talked about how some players decided to try and gang up on them. Viv asked how their movements were to which Shadow responded they were really slow. ¡°That means you are stronger than your peers by a fair bit now¡± said Viv, ¡°Those guys were actually over level 100 you know though just over.¡± ¡°But even the thieves were super slow as hell¡± said Shadow in surprise that they were agility based players higher level than them. ¡°That is because of Eden''s training that you are faster than normal along with having more stamina than normal. When you start doing missions for Eden, you will believe that you are too slow¡± said Viv with a wry smile on his face. ¡°Missions?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Ah, that is something when your basic skills are all set¡± said Viv. ¡°But don''t we already have the basics down?¡± asked Miriel seeing that they were stronger than their peers according to Viv and yet still not at the lowest basic level. Viv shook his head and said, ¡°Not yet, you are at best 80% there is an acceptable level. There are still parts that need improvements before we can let you handle something. Remember when I said they you were all lacking in areas?¡± The group nodded, it was the time in the forest where Viv stated all of their shortcoming and made them work hard to overcome some of it. ¡°When there are no complaints from me then you reached the basic level we need. Only Sain and Shadow passed this so far.¡± Miriel raised an eyebrow glancing at the two and asked, ¡°After the basic level, what is next?¡± ¡°That is to improve yourself until the next stage until you are an expert at things. After that you work on improving yourself as a specialise master of something of your own choosing. Jenny chose to be a master barrier user while Mel decided to be a master druid.¡± ¡°Then...¡± ''What about me and the rest? What are we lacking?'' ¡°What you guys are lacking are some core parts of the role that you have. Raven is almost done...yes almost while you and Serena need some improvements especially you since you decided to pick of Ice Magic as well. Before you only needed to learn some more barriers and support magic but now you need to learn offensive Ice Magic as well¡± said Viv as if he was reading Miriel''s mind. ¡°So...there are more barrier and support spells for me to learn?¡± ¡°Of course, since you took of more work it''s natural to have to work more. Anyway by the time we finish this long trip, we''ll finish rounding you all up to scratch to the most basic level at least¡± said Viv. Next Sain and Shadow individually explain what they did next and then what they brought using the gold they had. The now had 124 gold coins left on them in total. ¡°Hmm...so you brought those kinds of spells. Not bad since they are the more situational type spells to use. Poison is extremely effective on living creatures especially with humans. This ''Freeze'' spell is something that is more effective against larger slow monsters but can affect large areas. Did you learn them yet? Hurry up and learn them!¡± Following his words, the three; Sain, Miriel and Serena learnt the spell in which they brought.
You have learnt the spell: Paralyse Shot
You have learnt the spell: Poison Shot
Party Member: Miriel learnt the spell ''Freeze''
Party Member: Serena learnt the spell ''Poison Coating''
Next they also equipped the gear that they brought as well replacing some of their old stuff and adding onto the new stuff as well. Thanks to this, Sain''s defence increased by 5 points while Serena''s defence increased by 2 points. ¡°Next up is you three¡± Viv glanced at Lyndis, Shadow and Raven even though one of them was still unconscious, ¡°You brought gear that you would use in the future right?¡± ¡°Yes¡± responded Shadow. ¡°Well there is a good chance you might find something better but you can sell the stuff you brought today later at a cheaper price than you brought it. Stores always sell things 50% the market price and only buy at the market price. This is why merchants are extremely important since they can maximise profit and minimise costs.¡± Viv then looked at Miriel. ¡°Hearing Sain''s side of things, it seems that Jenny gave you our Emblem to use.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel didn''t speak at Viv''s statement. ¡°There are many things that comes with carrying that...many good things like the discount you will get no matter what and also lots of bad things...what was Jenny thinking on giving it to....¡± Viv muttered to himself with a sigh and finally said, ¡°Can''t help it. Have to deal with it later.¡± ¡°Deal with what?¡± Miriel dared ask. ¡°Deal with those that will want to track us down now....there are many people who are afraid of us and even more that want to use us. The Kingdom doesn''t do anything because they are part of the group that wants to use us. As a S rank Independent Guild, they will probably...no will force on us some impossible task and watch us fail given the chance.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°However there is me, Eden and Al to deal with those kinds of things. We made heaps of profit pretending to struggle and reaping in the reward when we complete those kinds of quests. It forced them to reconsider their approach on us. You must know that we...this guild made too many enemies on all sides.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel and the others were still silent. Did...they...no, she make a mistake on using the emblem to save some money? ¡°Don''t worry about it, I believe the Kingdom has better things to do than provoke us¡± assured Viv with a kind voice that knew what Miriel was thinking and what could be. ¡°Get some rest for the journey ahead, there aren''t many stops left until we finish our trip. You still have another 4 or so months left of travel¡± ordered Viv dismissing the group to rest. xXx The next day...when Lyndis came about to be, the group was already at the gate where they would set off again. There, Viv along with the bull that was pulling the carriage waited for them without moving at all seeming to sleep as time passed. However when they got close, Viv opened his eyes as if he was awake the entire time and said, ¡°Get on, I rather not attract attention so close to others¡± he said which made everyone to climb on board on the carriage. A few minutes later, Viv started speaking to the group. ¡°Sain, Miriel and Serena, since you have new spells to use, get use to them and make sure to level them up as fast as possible though I don''t really need to say that. Otherwise the fastest way to do this is to repeatedly use the spell over and over again even out of battle. It might waste mana in the end but you are training your spells and skills like that¡± he said. They were now far enough from the town that there were no one around them. Viv proceeded talk to Lyndis, Shadow and Raven...especially Raven. ¡°It''s been almost two months since this trip started and the gear you have were given by Eden even further back...they should be starting to fall apart by now.¡± Everyone silently checked their equipment''s gear and found that the maximum durability was reduced by around 15-25 points each. It while not decreasing defence at all and the performance was quite frightening since equipment is very important in this game. In fact it makes up for around half of your strength. Without it, you would be easily surpassed by those weaker than you and better gear. Every turned to Raven knowing this. ¡°Not my fault¡± replied Raven even though there were no questions asked. Viv sighed and said, ¡°It is not Raven''s fault since this would happen sooner or later. Raven''s ''Repair'' skill is at...what? Beginner Level 3? That means there is a significant drop in maximum durability the longer you have him repair it. Anyway, since I believe you all don''t want your equipment to snap in two when fighting...I''ll change the line up for the remainder of the trip.¡± Viv proceeded to kick Sain, Lyndis and Shadow off the carriage. ¡°Wow!¡± ¡°Hey!¡± ¡°Ah!¡± All three of them muttered when they dropped on the hard ground. Confused Sain asked, ¡°Why was I kicked off as well?¡± ¡°Because that is the next step in your training. You can make and move the ball of light right?¡± said Viv. ¡°Yes...?¡± ¡°Then continue the training as you try to do that walking and eventually running!¡± said Viv with the carriage getting further and further away. ¡°....¡± Sain was utterly silent on this. Magic was something you had to concentrate very hard on to use. It was not something to be easily used when distracted from even moving. People say mages have the worse defence and need to be protected and that is true. However it''s not like the mages didn''t want to dodge or defend but rather their concentration was elsewhere for the magic they were going to cast which made it impossible for them to move. But there were those who used spells while in deep combat as well. Those people were known as combat mages and while generally having weaker spells, could use them rapidly in the mist of close combat. Another name for these types of players were magic-swordsman as well. They were a hybrid class that traded off the more powerful aspects of each class for advantages that neither had. Sain looked around and found that Lyndis and Shadow had already began moving ahead of him. ¡°Well...better get started.¡± First he wanted to test out whether he could do this while moving. He focused his mana into his hand and out popped a ball of light that was very small compared to the one Viv made. Next while at the same time focusing he tried moving forward. Poof~ The ball of light immediately disappeared when he lost focus for a moment. ¡°....¡± Sain tried again this time focusing more on the ball of light. Poof~ However the same result happened. ¡°Perhaps...I should try to create one by moving first...?¡± wondered Sain seeing that he was already falling behind rapidly by the second. He went into a jog catching up a bit before continuing his training. xXx On the carriage, Viv started to explain what the others had to do. ¡°Miriel, you are done with the most basic ice magic training. Next you will start to directly manipulate the water to move the way you want to.¡± Viv took out the bucket filled with water beforehand and moved his hand over it and gathered water and froze it. However the water now ice continued to move until Viv made it turn back to water and drop back into the bucket. Miriel frowned and raised her eyebrow. ¡°What happens if I lose all of the water?¡± she asked. Viv chuckled and said, ¡°Then you have to make do until night comes when Sain will refill it for you. Plus you can decide to gather water from other sources as well.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel immediately started to mimic what Viv just did expanding her mana into the water like she did with the freezing and unfreezing of the water before. When she did, we tried to move the water the way she wanted to but nothing happened. ¡°....¡± Miriel then decided and freeze the water into half ice half water and try again. She focused her mana into the ice component of the content of the bucket and tried to move it at least. Nothing happened at all. ¡°This will take time and when you do succeed, you will probably become an Intermediate Level Ice mage¡± said Viv, ¡°It is a skill that not many ice mages pick up but a powerful basic skill to know.¡± ¡°Did Eden do this as well?¡± asked Miriel. Viv shook his head with a smile, ¡°What Eden did in the past was control over his mana. After that, everything else was natural for him to the point it was frightening. Imagine a person who was struggling to control his own mana in a basic way suddenly being able to control the elements to destroy his enemies! Moreover, he went beyond that later with a skill that no one else can use.¡± ¡°What skill?¡± asked Miriel wanting to know now since it sounded interesting and powerful to know. ¡°It''s impossible for you to know. The most basic requirement is a good mastery of all elements I believe. You are struggle with just one. What point is there to know the other 11 main elements.¡± ¡°....¡± Hearing this, and thinking any more questioning is pointless, Miriel started back on her own training now filtering whatever anyone said to focus even more on the task. Seeing that Miriel had started her training, Viv now pointed his attention to Serena. ¡°Serena. You have become quite skilled with your ''Root Bind'' spell that it makes me happy as one who shares a similar path. However now it is time to move onto the next stage. Have you decided on which blessings to learn?¡± he asked her. ¡°....¡± After taking a moment, Serena nodded and said, ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Good now we can proceed to the contract. Tell me which ones you picked.¡± ¡°Blessing of Strengthened Night, Blessing of Invisible Torments and Blessing of Eternal Suns¡± replied Serena. ¡°Oh...so one that increases stats in the night or dungeons, one that makes it harder for hate to stick on you and one that reduces stamina consumption under the sun? Not bad choices since they benefit everyone positively¡± said Viv taking out some ritual items and casting something on them that caused them to moved around the carriage and floating in the air. ¡°This is only because we are moving right now. Well there''s no difference between doing this and the normal way¡± muttered Viv while concentrating on what to do next. ¡°Hold out your left hand. That will be used for the contract.¡± said Viv with Serena responding in kind. He started to explain what he had to do next, ¡°Normally you can only have one contract at a time until you are proven worthy for a second and eventually third but if you do it all in one go, you can get up at 3 at once at a time.¡± After she gave him her hand, Viv chanted a long spell, ¡°O Blessing of Earth and Nature heed my call of Eternal Night! The Cycle of Life and Death spins into a frenzy of chaos. Let the children of night be blessed by your grace and be given strength to combat evil! Let the bringer of hate be forced to the knees of justice as the invisible fangs of dark pierce them from behind! Let the children of light be eternally blessed with great strength to move forward through thick and blood! Heed this contract under the ''Bringer of Darkness'' and submit under the power over all life and death!¡± Light draw from the floating materials that floated around them and poured into the left hand of Serena''s. ¡°Ahhh!¡± Serena let out a small scream with the pain as a sharp pain.
Blessing of Strengthened Night has been implanted
Blessing of Invisible Torments has been implanted
Blessing of Eternal Suns has been implanted
Those three message appeared for Serena as she saw that her left now was also marked. There was a half moon that was covered my symbols of light around it like it was a sun and parts of it was more faded than the rest. ¡°This is a representation of the blessing that you now have¡± said Viv who was perfectly calm unlike Serena who was panicking that she had another tattoo on her hand now...though it was on the other hand. After breathing in and out for a few moments to calm down, Serena checked the blessing spells that she got since she only read about the effects and nothing more than that.
Blessing of Strengthened Night Beginner Rank From the Goddess of night, those who are blessed with this spell will gain a 20% in the night or in dungeons. This blessing was contracted in such a way that the effects of the blessing would increase after moving up to the next rank rather than level. The effects and mana cost of this blessing will increase when it reaches the next rank as the full effects of this blessing is restricted. Mana Cost: 1500 Duration: 4 Hours Cool Down: 24 Hours
Blessing of Invisible Torments Beginner Rank From the God of Hunting, those who are blessed with this spell will be harder to detect and their presence seem to wane to their targets. It does not give the actual effect of invisibility but rather divert the attention of others elsewhere. Having this blessing will give the effect of a Beginner Level 10 ''Stealth'' state. The effects and mana cost of this blessing will increase when it reaches the next rank as the full effects of this blessing is restricted. Mana Cost: 500 Duration: 30 Minutes Cool Down: 3 Hours
Blessing of Eternal Suns Beginner Rank From the Sun God, those who are blessed with this spell will gain greater strength and stamina while under the sun. To be precise, strength will increase by 15% while stamina will increase by 10% while stamina consumption will be halved. The effects and mana cost of this blessing will increase when it reaches the next rank as the full effects of this blessing is restricted. Mana Cost: 1000 Duration: 2 Hours Cool Down: 12 Hours
¡°This...this is....¡± stuttered Serena to such a point that Miriel noticed her state. Viv smiled and said, ¡°It is quite powerful right? Like I said before, normally you would only get one but I bent the rules a bit with my own original spell for this and gave you three of them though each of them are weakened to a third of their true abilities thanks to this.¡± ¡°....¡± Serena could only stare at Viv in shock as he continued. ¡°To be precise, these kinds of blessings didn''t normally have ranks. When they reach the intermediate rank, it will have two thirds of the blessings true effect and when it goes to the advance rank and therefore mastered, it will have the full effects it should have had in the first place. Mind you that it will take years of using them often to get it to that point¡± said Viv while also saying: ¡°Now onto the next stage of your training. You will be learning how to use nature as your weapon as I believe you would not want to learn shape shifting or summoning yet as it would give you too much to train at once. While you can use vine as a way to restrict foes from attacking you and others, you do not have a way to directly block them. As I am unwilling to give you one of my most powerful spells just like that, you will learn how to attack.¡± Viv took out a leaf....no a whole bag filled with them and said, ¡°You will learn how to manipulate and use these leaves as ranged weapons. Like how you used your mana in the vines to move them, you will pour mana into these leaves and move them the same way. Start by trying to move it freely around the air without breaking it.¡± As such, Serena now had a whole bag of leaves....to train with. It was quite...a different task that Serena thought she would be left with. She started to train on them while Viv then addressed Raven likewise with a bag. ¡°These are pieces of equipment.¡± ¡°....¡± Raven stared at the bag opening it to find pieces of armour that seemed a bit old. ¡°And this is a hammer.¡± Viv gave Raven the hammer in his hand. Raven kinda figured what Viv was getting at and immediately started by taking out a piece of armour and hit it several times reducing it''s durability. BANG BANG BANG! ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel was about to complain but then saw that Viv was looking at her as well. Because of this she shut her mouth and tried to continue her training while ignoring the banging sounds. After a few more hits at full power and the piece of armour that looking almost broken with really low durability. Raven started repairing it to which it''s maximum durability was reduced by a bit. He then started hammering it again and repeating the process many times until it had no more durability even from repairing it and broke into pieces.
Maximum Durability too low to repair. Piece of old armour broke
That message appeared and Raven took out another piece of old armour and continued. ¡°It''s good that at least someone knows what they''re going to do without me saying¡± commented Viv to himself. xXx Several days passed, in fact a whole week passed marking the two month point since they left Witchelm City. They were still on the road travelling at a steady rate as they fought the bandits and sometimes wolves and goblins that came their way. There wasn''t much on the levelling department since there weren''t that many battles that gave lots of experience like before. However the group had made progress on their training. For starters starting with Sain, it managed to somewhat make a very faint ball of light while jogging along with the others now. It was small but thanks to this, his ''Mana Control'' skill managed to gain 2 levels to Beginner Level 7 now. This amount of progress that would have normally taken at least a month to do made the training to be super effective. Next along with line was Miriel with her bucket training. In the first three days, she finally managed to properly move the water and ice around a bit to the point that it floated higher than the bucket edge. It took another 4 days and ongoing for her to sorta move it more freely. It was steady but each day, Miriel had Sain refill the bucket since lots of water were dropped and wasted during this time. It wasn''t much but both her ''Ice Magic Mastery'' and ''Magic Control'' skills levelled up once to Beginner level 8 each. Serena on the other hand didn''t have so much luck. Her training barely made any progress with her managing to crush almost all the leaves in the bag that Viv gave her. While her skill experience increased, none of them increased in level at all. One the other hand, Raven in this week managed to increase his ''Repair'' skill by two levels to Beginner Level 5. And for Lyndis and Shadow... xXx ¡°Why did you say that we can deal with the enemies this time on our own?¡± asked Shadow to Lyndis who were in front of the rest of the group. ¡°Because we can~¡± replied Lyndis ready to fight again. She was itching to move her body in different ways than the usual training. Shadow sighed and then Lyndis added in, ¡°Besides, you can to test out your new skill as well...though Sain already knows either way with that ''Party Scan'' skill of his.¡± Shadow nodded and remembered that that ''Party Scan'' skill was really invading their privacy in a number of ways...though it only works if they accept Sain seeing their skills and status windows which they did. It was really a faster way of giving them the details of their stats and skills besides commanding the game to do so every time he asks. Really it was a skill that required a great deal of trust in order to be used. ¡°Ah.¡± Shadow paused and stopped causing Lyndis to shut up for a bit. The reason being is that he picked something up with both his ''Hearing'' skills at once. ¡°Sounds like goblins¡± said Shadow with a sigh of relief. Goblins were some of the more easier foes to deal with at least. Plus with Serena''s ''Blessing of Invisible Torments'' on, both Shadow and Lyndis could now deal with low intelligence enemies like goblins easily. Taking sneaking postures, Shadow climbed up on a tree while Lyndis hid and moved in the bushes. Walking forward for a few minutes they encountered the goblins. There were 5 in total. ¡°Move move! Move to location!¡± one screamed to the others. It had better armour...well better rusted armour than the others and also had a shield as well. The other four goblins were the common ones you could find however.
Shadow: There are 5 of them Lyndis: Yeah I noticed Shadow: I attack from top and you finish them off? Lyndis: ....nah. Let''s try out our new skills! Shadow: ¡­.That may be too risky. Well for me not to you Lyndis: Come on! How else are you going to test out that super cool looking move? Shadow: ¡­.Fine.
Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! Shadow gave in and dropped from the trees in front of the goblins but did not attack them. ¡°....¡± He silently stood there until the leader of these goblins noticed him and shouted, ¡°Human! Kill human!!!¡± in a frenzy even kicking the other goblins to attack Shadow. ¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± one goblin screamed as it swung it''s sword that was too big for it in a slow loop. The little creature swung three time before getting close enough to Shadow to even hit. That was how frightened it was of that other goblin. Shadow didn''t even need to use anything to dodge. He simply side step it and sunk his short sword into the side of the goblin killing it.
You have gained experience
Next was the other three goblins. They had him surrounded on all sides about to stab him in turn now. Shadow realised that that first goblin was a decoy for this. As such, there were now three goblins attacking him with no way for him to escape easily. Right now was the right time to test out that skill he learnt recently. ¡°Shadow Step.¡± Shadow took a step forward and then a step back. However the goblins continued to attack the place where he stepped forward while he was unharmed. Confused, the three goblins attacked each other with no target to hit. ¡°Over there! There!¡± screamed the goblin leader that had no intentions of fighting shadow if possible. The three goblins looked and tried to attack Shadow again. ¡°Shadow Step.¡± Shadow took a step to the left and then right to which the goblins attacked to the left away from him. He moved in and slashed at one of the nearby goblins and killed them as well. A few more times all three goblins died and all that were left was the single goblin leader. Seeing the trick that Shadow used, the goblin leader tried running away. ¡°Re-Retreat! Retreat!¡± However while Shadow was dealing with those goblins, Lyndis sneaked behind the goblin leader and appeared from the bushes. Not noticing Lyndis was there, Lyndis took advantage of this and sprinted forward as well. ¡°Sword Dance!¡± A short burst of speed came from Lyndis as she quickly moved in and shouted, ¡°Speed Strike!¡± while using ''Precision Stance'' was active as well cutting through the small gap in which there was no armour blocking the way. The goblin leader died in one shot with it noticing until it died.
You have gained experience
¡°Well that was disappointing. Thought it would put up a fight at least¡± said Lyndis complaining that she really didn''t get much action in the end. ¡°Honestly you could''ve help me out when I was outnumber¡± replied Shadow scorning her a bit. ¡°That was your fault on taking so long on testing that ''Shadow Step'' skill of yours¡± said Lyndis seeing that she couldn''t even use her ''Sword Dance'' skill to the fullest, ¡°By the way, how was it?¡± ¡°Needs tuning. Can''t use it while moving quickly for now, I have to adjust the speed in which I move around to use it properly¡± replied Shadow. The skill ''Shadow Step'' was something that Shadow thought of for a while but took a long time to develop properly. The basic concept is to direct the enemy away from you by moving your presence to another location for the enemy to attack. There is no tricks involved or illusions but simple change in the perception of the enemy as they attack. ¡°This skill probably words better with skilled enemies but the more skilled ones can probably see through this as well like a trick¡± sighed Shadow thinking about it. ¡°At least you had a chance to think of how badly you need to train to use it. I don''t even know that!¡± complained Lyndis. Her ''Sword Dance'' skill was one used for longer and intense battles than most. Using parts of her body or even her sword as an anchor, she would fly around the place attacking everything in sight. It was a skill almost designed against a large number of enemies. This was the skill Lyndis thought up during this week and finally made it a skill to use. ¡°You will get other chances to use that skill. Besides didn''t you say yourself that it was better to use against multiple enemies?¡± Shadow raised his eyebrow at Lyndis while picking up the loot that the goblins dropped. There were only a few copper pieces in the end... ¡°Actually it works for long duration single combat as well¡± added Lyndis to the conversation. ¡°Yeah yeah, let''s get back to the others, I already told them we''re finish¡± said Shadow slipping away from Lyndis'' sight and disappearing entirely. ¡°...How is it that he still manages to hide from me so easily?¡± wondered Lyndis. xXx Another week passed on the road. There is nothing much to say about this period since it was more or less the same as the previous week. Each of the group were doing their individual training as they continued to polish up their skills for later. However there was a change. In fact it was something that they did not expect at least. It started when.... xXx [Master! Enemies really close and they are all humans] Luna was immediately alerted the the presence of enemies. Meanwhile Shadow was the same saying, ¡°Sain! They are fighting. Should we go help or not?¡± he asked. ¡°....¡± Thinking about it, Sain would rather not have to deal one of the group up ahead alone with the others. In the end he said, ¡°How many are there in total?¡± ¡°Around 30 or so¡± replied Shadow with an immediately answer. [To be precise master, a total of 34 humans] Luna added on to not be outdone by Shadow. Hearing these numbers Sain sighed and said when he was in range to the others on the carriage, ¡°Do you guys think you can take it?¡± after he explained what was happening. ¡°Of course!¡± said Lyndis with a grin. She was happy enough to fight at this point. Miriel frowned and asked Sain, ¡°Do you think we are weak enough to lose?¡± Sain took that answer as a yes for her. Raven silently nodded and thought shaky, Serena also agreed to go as well. Naturally Shadow was agreeing to go since there really no other answer while Sain sighed and said, ¡°Fine, let''s go.¡± ¡°Sain¡± said Viv stopping him. Sain turned to face Viv. ¡°Don''t trust strangers¡± he said before silently going back to his business. As such, the six along with Viv who didn''t say anything rushed to the location of the battle which was only a bit further ahead. ¡°Diiiiiiie!¡± someone shouted into the distance. There were loud clanging noises. ¡°Let flames strike true and far, flame strike!¡± A burst of explosions and flames could be seen at the distance. The battle was still ongoing, they could possibly make it. However something strange happened when they got near. ¡°Tch, more of them, retreat!¡± someone in bandit gear shouted while running away when the group just arrived. ¡°....?¡± The group was confused, they still had the advantage here even with them arriving so why did they run away? It was strange for a group of 30 to run away when a group of six appeared. However Sain had no time to think about that as he saw the people who were attacked. ¡°Thank you! Thank you!¡± There was a young woman who seemed like a mage who went up and shook Sain''s hand without warning. Her robe was ragged at most parts and she seemed to be looking quite shabby compared to the neat look he and the others had. Likewise was the appearance of the other people there. One was a warrior with a one handed style and a shield, there was a cleric and finally an archer. It was a balanced party though depended on the warrior for support. ¡°What happened?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Ah, some player killers came out of nowhere and attacked us!¡± the mage woman said. This caused the others to be more alert as well. Player killers were one of the more frightening enemies not because of what they did but the single fact that players were unpredictable at times. Even some of the more skilled players in this game would fall when facing them. You could say they were PvP experts while normal players were PvE experts. ¡°Umm...¡± the cleric who was also female raised her hand to speak. Everyone turned to her direction as she spoke, ¡°We can hitch a ride? With more people, those Pkers are less likely to attack.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain thought about and the space that they had on the carriage. They only had enough room for six people and... ¡°It''s fine¡± said Viv from behind, ¡°It''s not like they can do anything with me here. What level are you guys?¡± he asked to them suddenly. ¡°Around level 120¡± replied the mage. Viv nodded his head and then said, ¡°Get on. Make sure to shut and don''t disturb their training.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain wondered why Viv said that even though a bit before he said to not trust strangers. xXx Clang Clang Clang... The sound of Raven hammering the old piece of armour and repairing it could be heard with the silence on the carriage. There was only Miriel, Serena, Raven and the mage and cleric of the other party along with Viv on the carriage right now. This was mainly due to the space issue adding another four people onto the carriage and as such, the warrior and archer were forced to walk. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The mage and cleric did not know what to do. This scene was incredible strange. The extremely shy looking girl called Serena was playing around with leaves. The cool headed person called Miriel was doing something with a bucket with a hint of madness and the guy that looked hot them which was called Raven to them was silently hammering away like he had an obsession. From behind they could see the red haired elf called Lyndis to be doing something with her sword as she ran. The average looking one called Sain was holding out his hand and causing some sort of light to them and the other one called Shadow....was nowhere in sight which was strange. ¡°Umm...¡± the mage muttered not knowing what to say to actually try and say something at least. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Miriel stopping what she was doing. It seems that she heard the mage mutter to herself trying to start a conversation. Never once had the mage was in a party that was...like this. Miriel seemed like the type that really didn''t mind other people as much as the other two so she had to respond there even though she really didn''t want to. ¡°What should we...do?¡± the mage asked not sure on her words. ¡°Nothing¡± replied Miriel getting back onto her task. ¡°....¡± The mage was speechless on this respond. Wasn''t this too cold? Why were these people so strange? Usually other players were at least...more outgoing than this lot. The mage and cleric looked at each other and then sat there silently not daring to talk as the others were concentrating quite hard even though what they were doing looked quite ridiculous. They spent another few hours like that in this kind of awkward situation until... ¡°Ah, Sain said there are enemies ahead¡± said Miriel all of a sudden as she was responding to a PM from one of her comrades from the back where they jogged for hours at end. The mage and cleric already got several PMs from the warrior and archer that they wanted to rest and begged them to. ¡°Enemies?!¡± cried the cleric. Was it the Pkers again? The cleric was more sensitive to these kinds of things since she wasn''t suited for battle. As such she became a cleric but still had to go into battle as well much to her despair learning about it the first time she went out. ¡°Viv, can you stop so Sain and the others can catch up?¡± asked Miriel respectably. ¡°Sure¡± the one called Viv, who looked to be a young boy that was even younger than they were and as young as Serena and yet was respected so much. The mage wondered what was going on there. Viv silently did that and pulled the carriage to a stop where another few seconds passed as Sain and the others appeared including the warrior and archer of their own group. The mage immediately noticed that the three, the ones called Sain, Lyndis and Shadow did not seem out of breath yet. ''How large were their stamina for that to happened'', wondered the mage. There, the mage and cleric saw the one that was dressed in black and seemed to disappear and reappear as he wished and...a large wolf that was coloured black and white as well as if it was normal for it to be there. ¡°Wolf?¡± muttered the mage seeing this strange sight. Why didn''t they kill it yet? Noticing this mutter, Sain turned to the mage and smiled saying, ¡°This is also one of our comrades, Luna¡± he was rubbing it''s head as he said that as if everything was normal. The mage was shocked at the sight since wolves were natural enemies players should have. However Sain added on, ¡°This one is a summon though so it''s fine.¡± When he said that, the mage and more importantly the cleric calmed down. Being a summon means that this Sain had full control over it and therefore there was no risk at all. However at the same time Sain said out of nowhere, ¡°Yes, that is the best way to explain it. It''ll take too long to explain the full story plus I don''t want to¡± to himself as if he was talking to the wolf. Confused the mage thought, ''Okay there is also a wolf and the one called Sain is talking to it. These are extremely weird like they were hoping that enemies will come even though they seem weaker than us...'' Sain turned his head to the others and said, ¡°So, who''ll go this time?¡± getting onto the next point of things. The mage and the other three wondered what he meant by that. Weren''t they going to avoid the enemies or at least take them on with them all? ¡°I''ll go!¡± shouted the elf that was using a sword. The mage thought this was quite strange since elves were usually archers or mages. ¡°Fine, anyone else?¡± asked Sain. He looked around and found that Miriel wanted to go as well. The mage was surprised that only those two were going. ¡°Good, we''ll wait until your done.¡± said Sain one last time confirming it. As two elves were about to leave, the mage suddenly said, ¡°Wait, only two people are going?!¡± to this strangeness. At this rate they were going to die! ¡°Yes?¡± Sain was confused since it was like this for a good while now to the mage''s actions. ¡°Aren''t you worried if they''re going to die?¡± asked the mage panicking. The cleric also nodded along with the warrior and archer in their group. ¡°Hey! We''re not going to die!¡± retorted Lyndis annoyed on the notion on the some weak foes were going to kill them after all they had to go through but the mage didn''t know that. ¡°Though I hate to agree...¡± Miriel glanced at Lyndis, ¡°We are strong enough to take care of ourselves. Some simple foes aren''t that much to handle plus I wanted to fight for a bit to relieve stress since a while ago as well.¡± ¡°Wait, why do you hate to agree with me?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°No reason. Just that you are a power charging idiot.¡± ¡°Oi! I''m not like that at all!¡± shouted Lyndis back at this accusation that the others...found true at least. ¡°....¡± Meanwhile the mage and cleric was arguing on not letting Lyndis and Miriel go alone and that he should go with them. After a few more sentences calling Sain a heartless bastard, he said, ¡°If you really care that much, go with them!¡± ¡°Fine then!¡± shouted back the mage and cleric at the same time. As such there were now a fire mage and cleric mixed into the group that will take care of the foes ahead. xXx The mage and cleric walked behind the two players that they were following. ''How did it turn to this?'' The mage was questioning herself the entire time as the one called Lyndis and Miriel were arguing to each other on who will do what. She wasn''t paying much attention to it until they finally encountered the monsters that the one called Sain was talking about. ¡°Goblins!¡± shouted the cleric in fright. There were a total of 12 goblins in total. The mage was also shivering since she knew that Lyndis and Miriel weren''t even level 100 yet and are facing foes that were much higher level than them...and even her. Goblins in these parts of the road were often around level 150 for unknown reasons. ¡°I''m going! Back me up!¡± shouted Lyndis rushing in without hesitation drawing her sword and attacking after shouting, ¡°Sword Dance!¡± Her blade flashed along with her body as she went straight in the heat of battle without fear. ¡°Honestly...you two better help out as well¡± said Miriel coldly to them as she casted her ice magic at the goblins as well. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± she chanted firing attacks that narrowly missed Lyndis time and time again while also hitting the goblins at critical points killing them. The mage and cleric blanked out seeing this scene. The two cooperated so well that the 12 goblins died in less than a minute and Lyndis not sustaining any damage with Miriel backing her up so effectively. ¡°You...¡± muttered Lyndis all of a sudden. She turned to Miriel and shouted, ¡°Were you trying to get me killed?!¡± at the top of her voice. Ticked off, Miriel responded in kind, ¡°Of course not! If I did than you would''ve died from the goblins already! Be thankful I saved your neck after you ditched our agreement.¡± ¡°What agreement?! You said that you were going to take care of the enemies and I had to clean up after you!¡± ¡°Yes and you did the opposite of what I told you rushing in like an idiot! At least nick them from the edge before rushing into the centre of attention you damn attention whore!¡± ¡­. The mage and cleric watched the two even more speechless. While fighting they were working so well together and yet now...they were arguing like they were mortal enemies though not attacking yet. ''Perhaps they could....but....no....'' The mage left that thought alone for later. xXx Another few days passed with both groups getting to know each other a bit better. For starters, the other group made of a warrior, archer, mage and cleric also participated in the battles that came on the road. Because of this, the group now had some experience in which they learnt some of the skills that an archer and cleric would have. The advantages was as such that Miriel was even more disappointed that she didn''t manage to learn archery properly at all and had given up to quickly seeing that an archer could shoot down enemies from afar in tight corners. Another thing that was seen was the more powerful healing spells that the cleric used. When Sain saw the power of her healing spells, it made him think that it could have been better for Serena to have chosen that class if not for the other benefits that she gained as well. However.... ''Remember, don''t trust strangers'' That thought stuck on Sain''s mind as it was one of Viv''s advise that were usually right. And it came true quickly one time at the middle of night. [Master we are surrounded!] Luna alerted Sain immediately sensing a large number of people coming at them. Shadow at the same time was alerted with the unusual amount of sound coming around them. Sain and Shadow in turn alerted the others as well but it was too late. They could not escape. ¡°I''m sorry.¡± Sain felt a dagger deep in his back.
You took 1427 damage
He had lost a little more than a third of his health with that stab and more importantly could not think as well with a scorching pain in his back. ¡°Sain!¡± Seeing that he was injured and by the mage of all people, Miriel used her whip to strike at the mage rapidly which knocked out the dagger from Sain''s back as well. ¡°You dare attack Sain?!¡± screamed Miriel prepared to kill the perpetrator, the mage who looked harmless enough. ¡°Stop!¡± shouted Sain holding his wound though not really since it was too far from his arm to reach. Miriel though reluctant stopped before Sain said, ¡°Kill her and you will get the murderer mark.¡± ¡°....¡± However Miriel did not listen to Sain for once and prepared to kill the mage. ¡°Don''t move¡± said the warrior with his sword at Serena''s throat. He had a grim look on his face as he said that and Miriel had to stop. The warrior also glanced at Lyndis who looked like a demon with the anger in her eyes with her sword half drawn at them. Sain with his hazy vision looked to see that the archer had his bow pointed at Miriel as well. He felt a pain in his chest thinking about it. The lapse in time from the silence allowed the people who surrounded them to arrive with the appearance of a man with two people strung with him, tied up. ¡°I thank you four for luring them here and alerting us¡± said a man that Sain recognised as one of the bandits Pkers that attacked that group when they first saw them. Sain glared at him feeling a tingeing sensation on his right hand. ¡°We done what you asked and give us back our friends!¡± the mage shouted. One of them dressed as a thief while the other was another warrior but with only a sword and no shield this time. Sain presumed that these were the two that she was talking about...else was this another trap? Seeing this and with her personality, Lyndis asked in an upright way, ¡°Can anyone explain to me what the hell is happening?¡± with anger wanting to know which person to swing her sword at. The bandit smiled and said not minding Lyndis at all and instead looking down at her, ¡°Of course. You see these two belong to that lot which we took a few weeks ago. Seeing this opportunity we staged a fake attack to get them with you where spending a few nights telling us of your ability and now here we are. You are too foolish to let them close to-¡± ¡°Borrrrring!¡± Lyndis dared to interrupt in response to this. Miriel sneered and added on, ¡°Do you really think we are like Sain there stabbed in the back to trust people so easily?¡± ¡°....¡± Sain could only stay silent from that comment. He WAS indeed stabbed in the back moments before. He used used ''Minor Healing'' to heal himself from the wound a bit before standing up. [Master...there are at least 40 of them around us] warned Luna to Sain to which no one else except Viv could hear. Sain nodded and stood silent as his comrades continued to insult the bandit player despite the situation. ¡°Such a loser.¡± ¡°All bark but not bite.¡± He needed to think of a way out of this. If they were all players here then...bad news if they kill them even if they are bandits. They don''t have the red marks on them from what Sain saw at least with a few of them. ¡°Shut u-¡± the bandit tried to shout but was stopped by a blade to his throat and another to his back. ¡°Have you noticed that I wasn''t there from the very beginning?¡± asked Shadow with his short sword at the neck of the bandit forcing him to let go of the two players he had hostage. ¡°Move or die¡± said a voice from behind Shadow. He did not and several more weapons pointed at Shadow forcing him to move away. ¡°You are all outnumbered and out levelled. Most of us are at least level 200 here. How do you think we are still existing if we weren''t strong. Of course we will let...anyone who wishes not to die to join us¡± the bandit player said with scorn trying to fix his appearance after Shadow caused him to feel some fear. He greedily took his time to eye of all the females that he saw with made them uncomfortable though two of them did not let rest their intent of killing them that had cold eyes and blazing eyes respectively. ¡°....¡± Eventually things turned bad with the means of escape slipping away. ¡°Honestly....¡± breathed a certain person with more power than anyone else here. ¡°You lot really need to learn to ask me for help sooner again since there are reasons for everything¡± said Viv in a calm voice getting off the carriage ignoring the glances that everyone gave him. Event he pointed weapons of the bandits that tried to capture him fell short every time which made them even more alert to him. Viv looked at the bandit player and then to Sain and said, ¡°Only this one and a few others are actually players. The rest are NPCs else how else is he going to control them? Also, if you fight them at this point you will all die.¡± ¡°I see¡± Sain nodded to agreement, Someone twice their level at this point was certainly too much for them let alone a large group of them. Viv took his staff out that glistened even in the night. The bandits eyed at it even more seeing that it must be an expensive staff. ¡°Sain you better get the others get of here by running away¡± ordered Viv seeing that the bandits were about to attacking and were itching to with Viv showing off a valuable item in front of them. ¡°By the way, I''m not helping anyone here so you better run else you might die¡± reminded Viv as he gave everyone a smile which caused chills to run to the group. ¡°You have to be joking...¡± muttered Miriel realising what Viv was planning. ¡°RUN!¡± shouted Sain kinda half expecting on what will happen next. He grabbed onto the nearest person as did Miriel and Shadow and ran into the forest not caring the anyone else except for their own since Viv was letting off a frightening aura. ¡°What? Kill them!¡± shouted the bandit player. As the bandits tried to attack the group that leaped into the darkness of the forest, suddenly something prevented them from attacking. It was the trees themselves as if they moved to protect them. Seeing that the group in his care was gone and probably safe by now, Viv turned to address everyone else. ¡°I have gotten a request to remove a certain group of bandits from this area and some more information from the ''Wise Men'' group. Are you them....?¡± asked Viv wanting to know in an innocent voice though threatening tone at the same time. ¡°....¡± ¡°Respond.¡± Viv let out killing intent at all of them seeing that no one replied. ¡°I will deal with everyone here with no exception. You DARE try to harm someone from my guild!¡± there was a fury like no other in his voice. He like Eden and Alexandra had a side which you really did not want to cross with. The mage, cleric and the others felt that these words was directed to them and they stood in fear and shivered shaking waiting for death from Viv who they just ignored from the very beginning. ¡°M-monster!¡± one bandit screamed not being able to take the pressure any more and tried to run away. Viv did not move one step at all. A large root appeared from the ground from him and moved at piercing speeds and stabbed that bandit through the chest and several times more repeatedly until he died in a scream that echoed. Letting out a small smile that did not come up to his eyes, everything around him except for the fools that dared injured his fellow guild-mates were all without exception killed. Viv glanced at the group of six people that he spared and said, ¡°I''ll deal with you all later. For now I will want information of every bandit in this area¡± in a threatening voice.
Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9800~ - Well I have exams very soon...so I shouldn''t be writing at all...well not really since they are a week apart so it''s all fine if I right in between studying. There may be another chapter soon, may not be as always depends on my mood on writing. - This was a sort of...well usual chapter now for this volume. Felt this chapter was boring though it is the beginning of the arc and I need to write about it...if I skipped these 6 months so much would be disconnected so I didn''t. Have to deal with this slow pace for the rest of the series...even though I decided on the slow pace to begin with. - Another thing is of the double spacing thing. It doesn''t take much time to fix up but is really annoying since the chapter is pasted properly and this forum decides to double space it all of a sudden. Vol.4 Chapter 7 - Rules to Travelling #7: Find your way Eden looked out of the window...even though it was tinted black even on the inside and seemed to be able to see perfectly...the group thought that this must be part of his cyborg body''s features. After all he was able to use those...tentacle things from his hands earlier. Plus it''s Eden so everything wasn''t so shocking at this point. ¡°We have around 10 more minutes until we get there. We just crossed the bridge¡± said Eden, ¡°Note that the school is on an island so you can''t escape so easily.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°But it''s not like your going to escape right? If you do, than I will have to deal with more troublesome things than normal.¡± ¡°Who says we''re going to escape?¡± asked Maria. Eden scratched his chin and said, ¡°Well...you lot ARE a bit different from other people and you ARE going to a school filled with people. I just hope that you don''t decide on a genocide of the students there via some means.¡± ¡°I think you have us mistaken for some lunatic¡± said Hina in response to this. ¡°You''ll be surprised on how many of those incidents happened in the last 10 years. Thankfully security has been top notch to prevent these kinds of things for a decade now after a certain incident where several schools were bombed with the students in them¡± muttered Eden darkly. However he brightened up and said all of a sudden, ¡°Anyway in the school you are going to, there are three divisions. The Primary Learning section, Secondary Learning Division and University Division. All of you are in the Secondary Learning Section with Grace being 13 being in grade 8, Mark being 15 will be in grade 10, Hina and Maria being both 16 in grade 11 and Peter and Ian both 17 as well being in grade 12 the final year.¡± A few more minutes passed and the car that they were in stopped. ¡°We''re here¡± said Eden which made everyone nervous filled with expectations and fears of the place that they will be living in from now on. He got out and the others followed him out as well. Peter was looking around the place in surprise. ¡°This looks more like several mansions lined up¡± commented Ian seeing the sight. In front of them was a large building that was as large as the mansion they were in previously at least. To the left and right there were two more similar sized mansions and most prominently at the back, they could see a large skyscraper that was at least 100 stories high with a futuristic look. ¡°Welcome to the Prestigious Royal Private School known as Eden¡± said Eden in a ironic smile, ¡°A place where there are only geniuses here.¡± This would be the place that they would live part of their life in from now on... xXx Dashing as fast as she could, Miriel was suddenly overtaken by the person she grabbed. ¡°Hurry up¡± shouted Lyndis now dragging Miriel forward as if her mind finally snapped working. BANG BANG!!! The two heard some loud sounds from behind them...from where Viv was to be exact and fell silent. There weren''t any more sounds after that. Finally Miriel said in a low voice, ¡°It seems there is no one coming at us.¡± Lyndis agreed and said, ¡°We should contact the others as well.¡± As such the two started a party chat with the others.
Lyndis: You guys still alive?
There was a slight pause until someone responded at last.
Shadow: More or less, I''m with Serena here which isn''t exactly the greatest person as a Rogue should be with. Serena: Umm...sorry... Miriel: Can''t help it. We grabbed the nearest person to us and ran in which in my case is Lyndis. Shadow: That''s not too bad is it? I mean both of you have the cooking skill so you won''t starve to death. I''m more worried about Sain and Raven who neither have the skills to get food on their own besides hunting. Sain: No need to worry. Miriel: Sain! You''re okay Lyndis: Yeah yeah, shut up a bit so he can talk. Sain: Well I''m with Raven plus I have some spare food in my inventory. We can last for a while. More to the point, is there any chance we can meet up? Luna could track you guys down via scent. Miriel: Doubt it, we''ve been running for a good hour now and in all different directions. Besides Viv told us where to go anyway. Shadow: And where is that? Miriel: Follow the river east. So...find the river, we could meet up there but it''s unlikely and follow it all the way east where there should be a town there. Serena: But...we''re all split up... Lyndis: Could be worse. We could be all alone instead of pairs. Shadow, make sure you don''t attack Serena in the middle of night later on. Shadow: I AM not that kind of person! Lyndis: Well you DID grab onto Serena which means... Shadow: Would it have made you happier if I had grabbed onto to you? Lyndis: Nope since I would be worried about you attack me at night instead. Shadow: ¡­. Sain: Anyway...we should find the river as fast as possible but it''s the middle of night. Just hide for the night and we can deal with things tomorrow. Remember to keep in contact as much as possible since we can''t tell when each other dies. Lyndis: That''s kinda depressing... Miriel: But at the same time necessary since this game has no way to track when someone dies. Sain: Actually...my ''Party Scan'' skill does that but you guys have no way on knowing if either me or Raven dies.
With that, the party chat ended and Miriel was left with only Lyndis. She sighed silently trying to not let Lyndis catch her doing this. Miriel ultimately felt that this was going to be a long while as she stayed with Lyndis. ¡°We need to find a place to sleep...or log off for the night¡± said Miriel kinda asking for Lyndis'' opinion. ¡°Logging off is better since we don''t eve have a place to sleep¡± said Lyndis with a strong will. As such the two logged off for the night. xXx On Sain''s end, Raven took out the bag of old armour pieces that were by now half empty over the last few days. ¡°Umm...Raven, I don''t think it''s a good idea to do that in the middle of night where there may be enemies around the place¡± said Sain cautiously. This was really the first time that he had to enter a conversation with Raven alone. ¡°Have the train¡± replied Raven as if that was the most obvious thing. Sain sighed and let him do that. Meanwhile he looked at Luna who was completely alert and said, ¡°Are there any enemies around us?¡± [Not at all master. If they were, I will take care of them myself] Letting out a smile Sain then proceeded to ask, ¡°What level are you-actually can you just show me your status window?¡± [Of course master] A status window appeared in front of Sain''s eyes which were the stats that Luna had. He examined it closely.
[quart=Name,Alignment]Bright Luna,Neutral[/quart]
Status Window
RaceHybrid Wolf
Level73
Health2554
Mana230
[quart=Strength,Agility]160 +20,290 +20[/quart][quart=Intelligence,Wisdom]25,25[/quart][quart=Vitality,Stamina]70,105[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit,Luck]75,15[/quart][quart=Offense,Defense]100,50[/quart]
Magic Resistance15%
Bonus
- Part of the Black Sun Race, +20 Strength - Part of the White Moon Race, +20 Agility
Despite being lower level than him, Luna''s agility was much higher than his and was on the level that Shadow had though it''s strength stat was only a but higher than his. Seeing this, Sain could see that Luna was different and more special that other wolves. Most of Luna''s stats were on the high tier for his level and it continues to increase. At this rate, would Luna become the strongest member of the team? It was likely if it was based off stats alone. More importantly Sain remembered that Luna was still not completely grown up yet. He was quite a bit smaller than other wolves of the same level but was steadily getting larger with time. Also Sain half expected that Luna might get some skills to use soon at this rate. ¡°Hmm....should we log out tonight so spare the night?¡± asked Sain to Raven who was hammering away and repairing again. From what Sain remembered, Raven''s ''Repair'' skill was at Beginner Level 5 tight now and was steadily going to Beginner Level 6. ¡°No, need to train¡± replied Raven once again. ''It looks like he really responds when he needs to...'' With that thought, Sain asked, ¡°Luna, can you keep an eye out and alert me to enemies?¡± [Of course master. I will also rip them apart for you as well] Sain let out a smile and also sat down leaning back on a tree. He held out his hand and focused his mana into it to produce a ball of light. Then he tried to produce a second one...and then a third. This was his current limits. He suspected he needed to increase his ''Mana Control'' skill further to produce more...he was literally casting three spells at once right now even if they are the most basic spells you could use. In this world, there were many who craved to cast more than one skill. The furthest anyone went with this that is widely known are the quick casters that use weak but extremely quick casting spells. Another are those who can sustain an active skill like a magic barrier and also cast offensive spells at the same time though there are limits. And the third...is Eden who defies logic and reason casting tens and hundreds of spells at once. He was a monster in every sense to Sain after finding out from Alexandra that he had to individually cast each spell each time. In this sense, he was unable to use ''Mana Bolt'' like Sain did where there were tens of spells attacks casted in one go. Sain did not think that Eden actually had his spells listed in his skill list at all. If he did then it would be contradicting what Alexandra said before. ''Next...to try and move them....'' Sain tried to focus on the mana inside of the balls of light and to move them slightly bit by bit. It was like looking at several directions at once. However Viv was able to do it effortlessly in front of him and Viv had also said that this was good training for mana control. As such, Sain spent the night training slowly this way while Raven did the same with his ''Repair'' skill. xXx ¡°Hiiiiiii!!!!! Wolves!¡± screamed Serena paralysed with fear as Shadow grabbed onto her and sprint away from the enemies. ¡°Shut up else you might draw something else to us!¡± shouted Shadow at her which only caused her wailing to increase. Behind them were several wolves casing them with great speed that Shadow while carrying cannot escape from. ¡°Shadow Step!¡± Shadow used this skill and immediately jumped and climbed up a tree with one arm holding onto Serena. She let out a silent scream seeing and knowing what Shadow was doing. Thankfully, Shadow was able to place her on a large branch on the tree seeing that she was quite light. ''At least I''m getting better at using that skill...'' thought Shadow while hanging off the edge of the tree since Serena was taking up all the space on the branch. Shadow checked the skill and it was at Beginner Level 3 already which was a good thing since it made it easier to use it at times like this. He checked the skill window again to see any changes.
Shadow Step Beginner Level 3 Not an illusion of body but presence. By shifting one''s presence in one location to another and split it at the right time, enemies will be directed to attack an empty space instead of you. However this takes extreme skills in controlling one''s presence and may not work against certain foes. Mana Cost: 10
While it was very difficult to use, Shadow could only use it properly one in three times against proper foes, the mana cost was really low. As such, he could see that he could use it along with other skills at the same time. It was very useful in getting behind people since before, he used ''Stealth'' with this skill together and no one noticed that he moved else it might have been only due to the ''Stealth'' skill ultimately. But right now was not the time to be thinking on the applications of his skills. ¡°Are you okay?¡± asked Shadow. Serena though still shaken up nodded with tears in her eyes. ¡°Health Restoration...¡± she muttered casting a healing spell on herself. Now that Shadow thought about it, it was the first time Serena was hit and injured. He silently laughed at himself inside since it was only because she was with him that she got hurt in the first place. Well actually she died twice before but that was with the others. All she had here was him and...him seemed to not be good enough. Using his skills, he noticed that the wolves had already surrounded them. There was no choice but to fight with Serena here and it was near pitch black as well so Serena could not help him at all. ¡°Wait here and don''t move¡± said Shadow locating where the wolves were...they were walking around in a circle around the three. Shadow held both his short sword and dagger in both hands and dropped off the tree. STAB! Stabbing both blades into a wolf, along with the drop speed, the wolf died in one shot. ¡°Burst Speed!¡± Shadow sprinted to the next wolf but by then, it had reacted to Shadow. It partly dodged Shadow''s attack and got off with a moderate wound. However Shadow kicked back and slashed at the wolf a few more times killing it as well. Finally Shadow used his speed and the dark to mask where he was along with ''Shadow Step'' and killed the remaining wolves quickly like he was a damage dealer type character. Seeing that all the enemies around them are dead, Shadow said firmly to Serena who was on the tree, ¡°Let''s log off and wait until night goes away.¡± With that, the two of them logged off from the game for the night. xXx Out of the game, the four of them started discussing how to deal with their current situation. They were currently in their place at the school that Eden forced them in. There was some time before the start of the semester and Eden got them here early to prepare them at least and make them more at home for a while. The four, Hina, Maria, Grace and Ian sat down on soft chairs with cushions on them while being silent and waiting for Peter and Mark to come out. 10 minutes passed and Ian impatiently said, ¡°They''re not coming out of the game any time soon. Let''s start already!¡± ¡°They could be in combat and can''t log out¡± said Lyndis. Hina frowned and thought about it and said, ¡°True. Better start now and tell them the details later.¡± ¡°A-are they alright...?¡± asked Grace thinking they were in deep trouble. She was in this state since she was attacked. ¡°They should be¡± said Hina, ¡°Raven is a tank with the most health and defence while Sain is...well good enough and he has a healing spell as well.¡± Several more comments were passed around on what could have happened to them until they got to the main point. Hina took out a monitor and expanded it over the table. It was a map of part of the Versailles Continent. To be precise, it was the map around the area in which they were in currently. Before the...attack on them by the bandit players, they had crossed a river already. However this river curved back on the road a few more times and continued to the edge of that part of the continent where the western and central continent connected. ¡°Even if we don''t find the river...we can just continue east and then go north to the place that Viv pointed out¡± Hina traced her finger on the map and showed the path to take. The other three nodded and made a mental note to follow what she said. After Sain, she was the one who everyone had to listen to no matter what and most of the time, she said something right in their situation like now. ¡°Hmm...the main problem is that what will happen to you and Maria with no healer¡± said Ian remembering that both of them had to such skills. To this, Maria tapped her chest and said, ¡°Don''t worry! We have bandages. I''ve been keeping them in case of situations like this.¡± ¡°But that will at most close the wound without the actual skill¡± sighed Hina. She did not want this idiot to injure herself to gain the skill after a while. The ''Bandaging'' skill was a skill that not many people even now levelled since healing spells were much more effective. The only ones who used it were really warrior ands other classes that couldn''t heal and most often those who are soloing or have no healer in their party. The group known as Gemchi were one such group but still powerful despite that. They continued to discuss what they do for the next hour before they decided to stop and get some sleep to which Hina stayed up researching some stuff before going back into the game. xXx At the same time... ¡°No need to move Raven...unless something slips through and attacks you. Then you may want to attack back¡± said Sain with a wry smile while injured all over the place. Luna was in a similar condition but only Raven was perfectly unharmed. The reason for this was in front of Sain. It was a giant black bear with a half moon sign on it. Sain had estimated it''s level to be around level 30 considering that he with Luna was struggling with it. Like them, the black bear was injured all over the place as well. Bite marks and cuts were bleeding through it''s fur which only made it even more angry. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± Sain tried to use his most weakest and yet numerous attack on the black bear to cause an opening for Luna to rush in and attack but the attack that used to be effective in the beginning of the battle did not flinch the bear now. His attack simply did not have enough power. ''In that case...this battle will be drawn quite out....'' ¡°Paralyse Shot!¡± A yellow bullet shot out and hit the bear. Noticing that this was no normal bullet, the bear moved it''s muscle in such a way to expel it out of it''s body by force. Sain gave a dry laugh seeing that it could do that and knew to do that since after a couple more shots, the effects would be potent enough to stop it. ¡°Luna, attack from behind it while I attack from in front. Make sure to circle around a few times¡± ordered Sain. Luna did what he was commanded and ran at the black bear dodging the quick swipes and attacked it from behind. Meanwhile Sain was prepared to go all out once again. ¡°Release!¡± He released the restrains on his mana after so long. His ''Compressed Magic Mastery'' was at Beginner Level 4 which mean a halved 20% magic strength increase normally but when released...a 80% magic strength increase which was quad-triple what it was right now. However it went even more than that.
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +240%
After storing it for a whole day and even more, but still a whole day with these shackles on, the amount of mana he could use for power in his spells increased to the point that it tripled for a short while even when the skill was released at last. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± shouted Sain firing his attack at several points at the black bear. ¡°Gar?!¡± The attacks sunk deep into the flesh of the bear. It was several times stronger than usual as well. With a flash, Sain fired several more of those attacks in a rampage and managed to kill the black bear at last.
You have levelled up
Sain checked his experience and found that he was level 93 now. Still lower than what level Miriel was but they all would''ve passed level 100 by now if they spent the time hunting in a dungeon rather than travelling with foes that only gave small amounts of experience appeared. ¡°The skill increase is really good though I prefer the safety of levels instead¡± muttered Sain. Levels were a quick way to get stronger even though skill training was important. Skill training was just...too slow for Sain. Being an all rounder character, Sain would develop the least out of everyone. Because of this, skill training was most important to him even though it was the most difficult thing for him to do. Seeing that he had strayed back to these thoughts, he returned back to Raven with a sigh. He was still training his ''repair'' skill after all this time. From what Sain remembered, when his skill reached the intermediate level, there would be no durability reduction in repairing and Raven could learn blacksmithing as well. ''With Miriel and Lyndis having the cooking skill, all we really need is a tailor and...perhaps a alchemist as well? I doubt anyone could be a merchant without the proper class to do so...anyway I better go back to my training. Need to increase my mastery skills as much as possible...'' Sain sat down and continued his training with creating and moving the balls of lights as Viv instructed him before. He knew not of the next step but this part of the training was still difficult for Sain to complete. As such, he knew he still had a very long way to go. Both of them spent this time like this until day broke after an hour. xXx Logging back into the game, Lyndis looked around. Miriel was there as expected but the forest seemed different from yesterday though that was only because it was night and now it was day. Immediately, Miriel started another party chat again with everyone.
Miriel: Hello? Sain and Raven, are you two still alive? ¡­. Sain: Miriel? Didn''t you and the others log off? Miriel: Yes but now it''s day so we logged back in. Sain: I see....so that much time passed...yawn... Lyndis: Not to pick on anyone but did you get any sleep? Sain: Actually no. Monsters kept on attacking and Raven had no intentions of not stop training his ''repair'' skill so... Shadow & Miriel: Are you an idiot?! Sain: Well...what are friends in need? I only got wounded a bit. Serena: A-Are you okay? Do you need healing? Sain: Don''t worry I can heal myself. Miriel: How wounded were you? Lyndis: Oh, Sain it better not be worse than what- Sain: Well I went to critical health a couple of times. A level 130 Black Bear appeared. Serena: EH?! Miriel: You should have ran! Sain: With Raven defenceless behind me? That thing would have killed him in one shot. Shadow: Honestly you two are idiots. One idiot that decides to train his skills at the worse moment and another idiot that actually encouraged that. Sain: ¡­. Miriel: Anyway, while you two were being utter idiots, the rest of us discussed what to do next. Sain: Really? Tell me the results then. Miriel: We follow what Viv said since there is a high chance to not get lost anyway. Just follow the river east, it should eventually head more north where the port town is. Sain: Thank you. We should be seeing you guys there in a few weeks then. Miriel: Make sure you don''t die.
With that, the party chat ended again. However Lyndis sneered at Miriel with a laugh in her stomach. Eventually or rather immediately Miriel retorted, ¡°What''s so funny?!¡± Seeing this reaction, Lyndis could not hold it in any more and laughed as much as she wanted with Miriel glaring at her. ¡°What is it already?!¡± ¡°Hahahaha...it''s just that you had this super worried face on while you were scowling Sain.¡± ¡°I WAS not!¡± ¡°Yes you were. Just admit you are worried about him already Miriel¡± sneered Lyndis. ¡°....¡± Miriel still glaring at Lyndis said, ¡°I might be worried about him but that is just because he''s kind idiot. He''ll get stabbed in the back...again.¡± ¡°Well you had to admit after some time we all let our guard down around them¡± said Lyndis thinking back on those four from the previous day, ¡°Nothing to worry about. There had been worse cases especially in our lives outside the game.¡± ¡°Doesn''t change the fact that it happened and will happen again¡± muttered Miriel before checking her inventory and leaving. Startled Lyndis shouted, ¡°Hey! Where are you going?¡± ¡°To the damn river else you might want to follow me now!¡± shouted Miriel back definitely not in the mood on happy chatting. xXx ¡°Hmm..that was an interesting conversation¡± muttered Sain. He looked over and saw that Raven had already finished packing up his stuff and ready to go. He could not help but feel that Raven would be very suited to the knight class seeing that his blonde hair, blue eyes and handsome face was something that many females would like to see save them. It was too bad that his expression was blank though though Sain and the others didn''t care at all. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Let''s go¡± said Sain leading the way with Raven and Luna following behind him. Luna felt there was no need to talk as much as before since there was no present danger of enemies. xXx ¡°Serena, we need to go now¡± said Shadow following up on checking his gear and inventory as well. He looked over and see that Serena was nervous. ''Is it because she is with me or alone with a guy in general...she seemed to have gotten fine with Sain and Raven though.'' Shadow could only sigh thinking about this. ¡°Umm...¡± muttered Serena that was only loud enough to be picked up by Shadow would had two ''Hearing'' skills almost active all the time. Shadow moved his head to look at Serena which caused her to back away and try to hide before changing her mind and looking straight at him. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Is it...possible for you to carry me again when I can''t walk anymore...? My stamina is...lower....¡± Serena was red faced when she said this but Shadow simply nodded thinking nothing more of this. ''She''s red because she is shy. Well asking a guy to carry oneself is quite brave for a girl.'' With nothing more to say, the two also started their journey as well which should take them almost a month to complete he hoped seeing that walking is so much slower than the carriage. xXx Following this, a week had passed for everyone in the game. Currently at 2 months and 2 weeks into the start of this journey, the group had...become much stronger than before not due to levels but rather skills and battle sense. Right now, both Miriel and Lyndis were facing a tough enemy. A forest troll. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± shouted Miriel firing as fast as she could to give Lyndis even a bit more cover. She didn''t care of power since her damage to the forest troll was really low however it would serve as a good distraction. Slipping through the thick arms of the troll, Lyndis tried to slice through the waist of the troll but the attack moved to a stop mid way. The flesh of the troll was too hard to cut through. ¡°Tch.¡± Lyndis also leaped away in one go as the troll with it''s body that was almost twice as tall and four times as thick as a human tried to kick her. She had to be more careful than ever in battle since they had no healer. Plus both Lyndis and Miriel had some of their skills sealed. Miriel could no longer use support magic while Lyndis could no longer use fire skill. All they were now was an Ice mage and Swordsman. Things would be perfect if they had Sain or Serena here. But now was not the time to thinking of such things. Lyndis leaped back into action as Miriel also much to her surprise charged in as well. Lyndis knew that Miriel was different from normal mages as she placed points in agility as well and could on almost the same level as her dodge attacks. ¡°Ice Burst!¡± Lyndis had to jump away in time to dodge that attack. Ice shattered all over the place like a shotgun shot spraying the attack all over the troll''s body. The attack managed to damage the troll resulting in cuts but it was too shallow. Plus she had pissed it off. ¡°Power Strike!¡± shouted Lyndis from behind the troll trying to take the hate off Miriel as fast as possible. Unlike her, Miriel would really get one shot by the troll. Her blade manage to make a moderate cut on the back of the troll. It seemed that it used it''s muscles to tighten up just before to reduce the damage. The troll let out a roar before both of them backed away waiting for the next attack. Then, Lyndis got several PMs from Miriel.
Miriel: This is getting nowhere
The troll moved in and chose to attack Lyndis. She activated ''Sword Dance'' in time to dodge the attack. ''Sword Dance'' was an active skill that required no mana to use. Currently it was at Beginner Level 4 and looked like this.
Sword Dance Beginner Level 4 A series of attacks that are strung together to look like a dance. The flow of attacks is important as it goes higher on a faster beat as it increases the power and speed of attacks. However at the same time, the mind is working hard to accelerate what to do as well. Increase in sword damage/hit: 0.4% Increase in sword speed/hit: 0.8% Agility Boost when active: 40
Back in action, Lyndis had struck the troll a few more times before she could message back to Miriel. Lyndis noticed that Miriel was still firing her ''Ice Bolts'' at the troll.
Lyndis: I agree but there''s nothing we can do. We can''t escape since it''s too fast Miriel: Yes but I have an idea. Lyndis: ...
Lyndis had a bad feeling about this. She was not going to tell her to be a pawn for some scheme that would endanger her right?
Lyndis: What''s the plan? Miriel: I''m going to use the ''Freeze'' spell. The range is low, about 2 metres at best since the skill level is low. Lyndis: And I have to distract it...great Miriel: The spell will make it easier for you to damage and slow it down. Don''t complain.
Lyndis felt irritated at Miriel for a split second before the troll almost caught her in an attack. Because of this Lyndis shouted, ¡°Hurry up then!¡± From behind the troll now at close range Miriel said, ¡°Right! Freeze!¡± From her staff come a small storm of ice that really looked like a small blizzard was coming through. The attack focused on the legs of the troll and it immediately realised it and moved to attack Miriel. However Lyndis was not having that. Leaping into the air, Lyndis shouted, ¡°Power Strike!¡± slamming her sword into the head of the troll which staggered it for a few seconds as Miriel continued to freeze up it''s legs. ¡°Hurry up and attack the legs! Ice Burst!¡± ¡°Right, Power Strike!¡± Both Miriel and Lyndis focused all fire power onto their attacks and eventually the legs of the troll was instantly wounded and cut up badly to the point that it almost couldn''t walk anymore. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOAR!!!¡± The troll let out another roar and tried to attack both of them but Miriel moved back and started using her ''Freeze'' spell on it''s arms instead while Lyndis was observing it and sometimes attacking it. ¡°That ''Freeze'' spell of yours is quite useful at times like this Miriel¡± she commented. Miriel glared at her and replied, ¡°Well it''s ONLY useful at times like this. We wouldn''t be in this situation if you could cut off one of it''s limbs in one go.¡± ¡°Hey! You try cutting through something so thick!¡± complained Lyndis ignoring that Miriel was dodging for her life here against the troll. Her movements were unlike any ordinary mage as she skipped past attack after attack. Lyndis wondered when Miriel gained such skill to do this when she barely has any close combat experience. Well she wasn''t the kind to questions what others did in the end. Taking up the ''Power Stance'', Lyndis ran at the troll to aid Lyndis, ¡°Speed Strike!¡± She slashed at the troll several more time while Miriel continued to freeze the troll ever so more to the point that Lyndis could focus on attacking rather than dodging first. The troll was slowing down which in turn led to the two defeating it.
You have gained experience
You have levelled up
Lyndis had levelled up while Miriel muttered, ¡°Hmm...just a bit more.¡± ¡°Honestly fighting with you is so much harder than with anyone else¡± complained Lyndis. Miriel sighed and said, ¡°That''s because the troll was a tough enemy to fight against without any support!¡± xXx On Shadow and Serena''s end, things were that great either. A pack of small wild gnomes appeared and were chasing them with claws and hammers. ¡°Serena, hurry up and finish casting!¡± shouted Shadow who carrying Serena who was casting spells rapidly. She had already sacked up a few healing spells on both of them beforehand and was now using ''Root Bind'' to slow down the gnomes and at the same time casting a new spell to help them out. ¡°The shadows lie deep into the darkness of light and beyond. The hunter of day becomes the hunted at night and the hunter of twilight hunts them both. Blessing of Invisible Torments.¡±
Blessing of Invisible Torments is now active
The spell to which only Shadow and Serena were affected, gave them both the ''Stealth'' status. Even though Shadow''s own abilities of the skill was far higher, that was only when he was actively using it. At times like this, the spell''s effects of passively giving that effect was really useful. Looking around wildly for a safe spot, Shadow eventually just jumped and placed Serena on a tree saying, ¡°Shatter them as much as possible¡± with Serena nodding and using her ''Root Bind'' spell to do so. ¡°Attack! Attack!¡± shouted one of the gnomes throwing a hammer at the two but Shadow deflected it away in time. ¡°Use ''Poison Coating'' on my weapons every time I attack¡± ordered Shadow. ¡°R-right...Poison Coating!¡± Shadow''s weapon now had the temporary state of being able to inflict poison damage to anything he cuts. It was too bad the skill was at it''s lowest level and needed to be recast for every hit he made. ¡°Backstab.¡± Shadow moved quickly and stabbed the gnome that threw the hammer in the back. Soon after, the poisoned gnome died with all of it''s health gone. ¡°Kill the enemy! For glory!¡± shouted one of the other gnomes acting quite...savage compared to their more civilised counterparts. Shadow quickly moved around using ''Shadow Step'' several times to lose some of the gnomes and was really tempted on using ''Become Mist'' to finish them off easily. However the skill ''Become Mist'' would halve his health for the next day every time he used it so he really only wanted to use it when he was about to be killed. Plus Shadow suspected that he could still be hit by magic in that state either way. ¡°Poison Coating!¡± chanted Serena once again. ¡°Burst Speed. Double Strike.¡± Shadow continued to move along the line of Gnomes and cut them to pieces bit by bit aiming at their weak spots and killing them using the poison after hitting them once. He was also hit a couple of times inevitably since he wasn''t focusing on evading attacks rather than killing as many of the gnomes as possible. He shouted at Serena who was safe, ¡°Can you give me some more healing?¡± As such a few seconds later, Serena chanted, ¡°Health Restoration!¡± which immediately restored a fifth of his health immediately then proceeded to use ''Poison Coating'' again on his weapon. Shadow sighed a bit since he actually needed to slow down to wait for Serena to use her skill on his weapon over and over again. It would be more useful if Shadow had that spell instead and used it himself. However it was unfortunately a spell that his class cannot learn though he believed that was a variant of it somewhere. He would need to search for it when he had the chance. Eventually all of the gnomes were killed. They gained experience and looted the corpses to which Serena was still frightened of the dead gnomes even though they didn''t threaten her anymore. He sighed again and said, ¡°Please being so frightened of everything already.¡± ¡°I-I''m n-not...!¡± muttered Serena back red in the face again. ¡°And stop stuttering like that as well, it''s getting on my nerves¡± said Shadow once again putting out his honest opinions. ¡°I....I.....¡± Serena repeated that to herself and finally looked up at Shadow who was more than a head taller than her and said, ¡°I ca-can''t help i-it! I..get nervous easily!¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow felt like that wasn''t an answer. As such he pressed on, for some reason he wanted her to be angry. ¡°If that was the case than how come you were fine for a while before. Was that just an act? Or is this an act? Are you trying to get others to pity you?¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow looked down and Serena was puffing her face with tears in her eyes that were filled with hate for him. ''Ah...did I push too far?'' he wondered. It looked like he pushed a bad button on Serena and it would be a pain to restore her to her usual self. However just when Shadow was going to say something, some more gnomes appeared. There were seven of them. Serena shot her head in their direction and shouted, ¡°OH WHY THE FUCK DO THEY KEEP ON COMING?! ROOT BIND!¡± in an extremely unladylike and un-Serena like manner. Suddenly the vines that Serena was controlling shot at the gnomes, bound them in the usual manner and snapped their bodies in two...or more pieces instantly. ¡°....¡± Shadow was shocked. Did...Serena just use a non-lethal use spell to kill a bunch of enemies...and easily? However Serena was weak at close com- BANG!
You took 152 damage
Shadow felt pain on his face. Serena had whacked him using her staff and continued on beating him using it. Struggling Shadow managed to knock away the staff from her arms but then she started beating him up using her fists. ¡°Serena....please....stop....¡± Shadow managed to mutter through the pounding. Serena stopped and then said, ¡°Apologise.¡± ¡°....¡± Serena hit him again. He then saw that the glove on her right hand was glowing quite red... ¡°Sorry¡± Shadow said thinking about what that glow meant. It sort of happened with Sain as well which means....this is Serena''s alternative personality? Serena nodded though silent...and then he noticed that she was completely red in the face...no body as she blushed thinking of what she was doing on top of a man. ¡°A-ah, umm...ah....SORRY!¡± she shouted getting off him. ¡°Please don''t tell the others about this!¡± begged Serena. ¡°I won''t¡± he replied. He had no intentions of letting them know of the horrors he felt to be beaten up by THAT Serena until it was too late and when he escaped to watch them suffer as well. He could tell that if he did tell then Lyndis would laugh at him... As Serena got up, she tripped trying to get her staff as she was more nervous than ever around Shadow now. Seeing this scene compared to the horror of the other Serena, Shadow managed to laugh...for the first time in a very long time. xXx And so another 2 weeks passed.... ¡°Ah, you guys are finally here¡± said Shadow in a critical voice seeing the others for the first time in game since the incident with the bandits. Serena was by his side no looking at him at all but rather more than happy to fall into the arms of Miriel and Lyndis who was a bit shocked at this behaviour and as such Lyndis had to ask , ¡°Did Shadow do something inappropriate to you?¡± ¡°....¡± Blushing red once again, Serena tried to shake her head to Lyndis but she was glaring at Shadow instead with her sword out. At the same time, Miriel had this same fury and were eyes were ice cold as if she was looking at trash. She muttered, ¡°Damn Pedo¡± under her breath while lowering her evaluation of Shadow down to the bottom. A bit shocked at this sudden treatment, Shadow immediately hurried to say, ¡°I didn''t do anything to her¡± ''Because she was the one who beat me up...'' ¡°Liar¡± said Lyndis sharply, ¡°To think you would lay your hands onto someone so young....¡± as if saying that Shadow has those kinds of ''tastes''. ¡°I don''t swing that way¡± replied Shadow coolly though it didn''t help his situation. Just at this moment of tension where Lyndis and Miriel were about to skill Shadow, Sain and Raven appeared. Sain was happy to see the others for one while Raven was feeling a bit frigidity since he was unable to continue training his ''Repair'' skill after a while. ¡°Hey~¡± said Sain in a happy tone before suddenly taking several glances to see what was going on with the others. Sain walked up and then immediately said, ¡°Shadow did you-¡± ¡°Why is that the first things you have to say to me?¡± retorted Shadow in an angry tone. ¡°That''s because generally when a girl...and one younger as well is crying like that...¡± started Sain. Shadow took a glance at Serena and then really felt like stabbing her in the back saying, ¡°Ask Serena what happened. I was not the perpetrator this time but the victim of Serena''s actions. After that, she became like this.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± said Sain quickly ignoring the words from Miriel and Lyndis who could trust Shadow at this point. ¡°Well....¡± Shadow took a glance at Serena and remembered that she said not to tell but in this case it was better to tell. Shadow explained what happened when Serena snapped and killed so many gnomes and then proceeded to beat him up with her strength along despite it suppose to be lower than his. He also mention that there was some strange glow on the glove that she wore just like the time Sain went ''Commander'' mode. ¡°....¡± ¡°...." Following this, two more people fell silent thinking of what happened. Sain looked at Serena and remembered her personality and then thought of what Shadow said. In the end Sain said, ¡°There''s nothing to be worried about¡± on account on both what Shadow presumably did and what Shadow saw with Serena. ¡°But-¡± Lyndis tried to reject this since Serena was clearly now afraid of Shadow to some extent. Sain turned on Lyndis and then said, ¡°I said there is nothing to worried about. Serena there is nothing wrong with you when it happened what Shadow as there is nothing with me when...well you already know that¡± he had a wry smile on his face as Lyndis was figuring out what he was talking about. ¡°So...¡± muttered Miriel loud enough for everyone to hear, ¡°Serena is the third one to...change?¡± ¡°Change?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°The change in personality out of nowhere....Sain went....and then I went...and now Serena as well?¡± Miriel was talking and ignoring everything around her, ¡°What the hell did Eden do to us?!¡± At that moment, Sain had to calm her down since he could see that she was frightened now. HE went over and pat her on the shoulder and said, ¡°Everything is fine. It will all be explained later...Eden wouldn''t dare harm us anyway.¡± ¡°And on what basic do you think he wouldn''t?!¡± snapped Miriel clearly disturbed of what was happening to them right now. ¡°Well...for starters from the very start he has been taking care of us to the point that there was no danger when he was there¡± Sain pointed out from his memories, ¡°Plus there''s also Alexandra to Viv to help us at the time he does.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel arranging her thoughts eventually just gave up trying to convince Sain. It was too much effort and besides, now that they know what Serena''s alternative personality is...perhaps it wouldn''t be so bad to deal with it. ¡°Umm...so....¡± said Lyndis coughing a bit to get their attention, ¡°I am to come to an understanding that Shadow did nothing to Serena?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And also that she...THIS Serena who is so cute and small managed to beat Shadow up?¡± Shadow hesitated and said, ¡°....Yes.¡± ¡°BUUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!¡± Lyndis burst out laughing like she would die if she did not. The laughter was so loud that everyone had to plug their eyes to endure it though with Serena still in Lyndis'' arms, she could not do so and had a massive headache after that. ¡°Anyway, let''s go to the town where Viv is¡± said Sain following through and ignoring what Lyndis just did. He could''ve sworn that he heard Shadow mutter, ¡°And this is why I didn''t want her to know....¡± xXx ¡°They are them?¡± asked one person looking from a distance at the group that numbered six. Another person said, ¡°Yes.¡± This other person was the bandit player from back then. He was part of a large PK guild made up of 20 players and another 30 NPC bandits as well part of a great alliance of such guilds in this area. Behind the two were another 20 bandits at this time. ¡°Remember, we must undo all mistakes. Facing that monster was a mistake on your part¡± said the bandit leader whose level was at 200. The other bandits'' level average on over 100 as well. What could a group of six with levels lower than 100 do? xXx ¡°Enemies! Lots of them!¡± shouted Shadow immediately hearing them coming. [Master, they smell strong!] Everyone went into battle position as Serena quickly casted several spells on everyone with Sain. ¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡±
Party in range has been buffed with the spell ''Heartbeat Healing''
Health will regenerate for 15 points every second for 10 minutes
¡°Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin! Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin! Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!¡±
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
Party Member: Lyndis has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡±
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Party Member: Lyndis has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
¡°Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury! Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury! Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury!¡±
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
Party Member: Lyndis has been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
¡°The great sun burns with fury that consumes all creation that transcend the night! The golden lion''s roar sends of message to heaven and earth of the coming of an endless battle under the eternal suns. Blessing of Eternal Suns.¡±
Party in range has been buffed with the spell ''Blessing of Eternal Suns''
Blessing of Eternal Suns is now active
Before the enemy came, Serena had given them passive healing that healed them for 15 health per second, something on the extremely high side for 10 minutes. Sain had caused the three vanguard''s strength, agility and defence to increase by 40 points each and finally Serena blessed everyone with a 15% increase in strength, 10% increase in stamina and halved the stamina consumption rate. When the enemies did come, the group found them to be 22 bandits in total...and one of them they recognised. It was the bandit player from before....and all of these bandits had red marks on them else were probably NPCs judging by their actions. For some reason Sain felt happy to see them....the mark on his right hand glowed ever more brightly without notice. Sain for certain felt that they could win this...even if they are outnumbered and outmatched in plain strength.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8400~ Words - There isn''t much content for the 3 weeks that passed in this chapter. Mainly due to me not wanting to stretch this volume into two. Well I got to write about some character interaction this time round as well plus there is a lot to write next chapter as well. - If you guys haven''t noticed already, the group are already at school..it''s just that the first bit of each chapter is parts that came before the actual start of the volume in question. To me, writing this part in parts is at least makes it so I don''t need to write a 10 page prologue or cut back heavily in the first chapter for this. - Also is it me or as I read down this chapter the words...seem to be getting smaller? - Now...and update my status windows and skill lists for the characters after 3 weeks of training... Vol.4 Chapter 8 - Rules to Travelling #8: Fight through Trouble ¡°Eden? Why is it called Eden?¡± asked Ian in a tone that was extremely disrespectful to one older than him...even though Eden looked like only a few years older when it should be decades. ¡°No idea, this was here when I asked and has been recently updated to the newest facilities and buildings¡± replied Eden not caring that much of the attitude that Ian had towards him. Eden muttered a few more words and then started and walk straight ahead. The group, whom were looking around to see this new place followed Eden closely behind as he explained things to them. ¡°We actually came here quite early. You still have 2 more months until school starts¡± he said. ¡°Why did we come early?¡± asked Peter. Eden chuckled and then said, ¡°You all know that you will need to travel with Viv for 6 months in game right? That''s a month and a half in reality and you will be pressed to even meet that with school hanging down your back.¡± ¡°Makes sense¡± muttered Hina. ¡°Another reason is that I want you guys to get used to this place since you will be staying here for a few years at least. Grace will be 18 and graduating from the secondary section if things goes right when it ends.¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone shot their gaze at Eden. ¡°And everyone else would be in the University section of this school or rather academy. Calling it a school is so much easier for me. Plus there are lost of benefits on coming here. First there are no fees since everyone is sponsored by several governments. The second is that the lodging here is great. And third is there are lots of jobs later on if you came from this place even if you were expelled or only stayed for a week.¡± ¡°Why does this place seem like a gathering of suck up ass holes¡± muttered Maria with a sigh. Eden glanced at her and then said, ¡°Well there may be some people like that. Most of them have a lot of pride since they are considered geniuses. Well since you guys got in, you count as one as well.¡± ¡°And...what are you doing...after this?¡± asked Grace. Eden smiled at her and then said, ¡°You will be seeing me soon enough. They following Eden entered the first building they saw. Inside was extremely clean and white to the point that you would expect this place to be a lab or hospital. The receptionist who was naturally a beautiful young lady no more than 25 based on appearance alone saw Eden with wide eyes and then said hurriedly in a number of different emotions, ¡°Welcome to Eden Academy, please identify yourself¡± while at the same time shaking with fear or extreme respect to Eden. xXx Surrounding the group on all side with no way to escape the familiar bandit player said, ¡°Give up and die¡± to them. Sain simply smiled back at the bandits while the others were either worried or tense for the upcoming battle. Who was going to make the first move, them or the bandits? And then Sain said... ¡°Compress Magic Mastery Release!¡±
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +240%
His magic power increased by several fold and at the same time started the battle. A total of 22 enemies, all of which were higher level than them...in only levels and nothing else. ¡°Raven! You stick to Miriel and Serena¡± shouted Sain immediately giving that the priority. As for everyone else, they each split up and attacked in every direction. Shadow moved to take care of the weaker foes while Lyndis moved in the more crowded area where her body would be protected by the enemy itself. Finally Luna moved around in a circle attacking to distract the bandits as much as possible. At this point; Sain, Miriel and Serena were casting their spells to which the bandits knew was something extremely bad to them. ¡°Kill the casters!¡± the bandit player shouted directing 5 bandits to them solely. Sain grinned and started rapid firing spells at every bandit he saw. ¡°Paralyse Shot! Poison Shot! Poison Shot! Paralyse Shot! Poison Shot! Poison Shot! Paralyse Shot!Paralyse Shot!¡± Everywhere, bandits were either stunned for a second due to the paralyse effect or had a darken face due to the poison effect. Either way it was something that directly reduced the fighting strength of the bandits. Sain concentrated and then mixed in ''Weaken'' as well to reduce the damage the others took. Serena already had her hands full casting healing spells and ''Root Bind'' to stop the bandits as much as possible. Miriel on the other hand was doing as much as possible to kill as many bandits as she could. The other three were using their own skills to take down the bandits as well. Just as Sain was about to now focus on attacking the bandits as well... CLANG! Sain barely managed to block a sword that was coming down on him. It was the blade of the bandit player. Sain looked at the other player there at the back who seemed like the leader. He wasn''t doing anything....yet. Two...three more times the sword came down and Sain lost some health blocking it. Fortunately he didn''t need a staff to cast spells properly now. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± He chose the most effective spell at close range. While ''Magic Arrows'' had more power normally, in close range, ''Mana Bolts'' which outnumbered ''Magic Arrows'' in projectiles fired as better in blowing the bandit player away. Sain could tell that he shaved around a third of the bandit player''s health with that attack. Magic was extremely powerful to begin with and his magic was boosted several times stronger than usual as well. The bandit player retreated and then sent two more bandits to deal with Sain as he went to attack the others. Using his spear work, Sain who wasn''t that bad with the spear but rather the others were really good at their choice of weaponry. With some damage, Sain managed on his own while sending the occasional shot at another bandit when he could. The battle rapidly continued for another 5 minutes with half of the bandits surprisingly dead. While the player bandits mostly lived since they ran away when their head was low, most of the NPC bandits with their low intelligence charged and were swiftly killed. It was at this point that the bandit player leader moved in since it wouldn''t be too good if more of them were wiped out. xXx Shadow saw that that particular player who seemed quite stronger than the rest was about to do something. He finished dealing with one of the bandits that was harassing Raven enough to get to the other two and moved to take out this one as fast as possible. ¡°Burst Speed! Backstab!¡± Shadow intended to finish this off in one go aiming for the neck of that bandit. Moving along and dodging the other bandits, Shadow was about to strike at this particular bandit when... A gleam of light that was a sword and yet faster than he could react came slicing at him. ¡°Become Mist!¡± His instincts took over and and made his body into mist where the attack simply went through him without damage. Shadow''s body continued to moved through and re materialise on the other side of the said bandit. ¡°Shadow Step.¡± Shadow charged and yet moved in another direction to attack from that angle but the sword followed through and hit him reducing his health down even more. Suddenly Sain shouted, ¡°Shadow! Don''t attack that one! Deal with the others quickly!¡± Seeing that this bandit was much faster than him...Shadow complied and erased his presence in time to escape another blow before moving along to heal and attack another bandit attacking the others. xXx Serena was having trouble keeping up. Yes, even though she was a healer she also had a movement restriction spell as well and as such needed to stop attacks before they hit the others while healing them when they do. It was a double task that was difficult enough without every bandit moving in to attack her. ¡°Root Bind!¡± she shouted for the nth time in a row using the vines to trip the bandits over at time or stop them for a split second for someone to escape. While she wanted to help the others more, she needed to help Raven the most since he had to guard them and could only take hits. Furthermore Miriel had to take care of the ones Raven let through and Serena needed to stop the bandits from attacking her as well. At the moment things became too hard for Raven to deal with alone, Miriel took out her whip and started attacking the bandits nearby rapidly. ''Ah...they are attacking here a bit less....'' thought Serena in relief. Seeing that she had more time to breath now though time was still short, Serena started to recover the health of the group a bit more. ¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡±
Party in range has been buffed with the spell ''Heartbeat Healing''
Health will regenerate for 15 points every second for 10 minutes
Enough time had passed for Serena to cast this spell for a second time in this battle. The battle continued as Serena kept on using her ''Root Bind'' spell over and over again aiming for those attacking the others first like at Shadow and Lyndis and then those who would attack those nearer to her like Miriel or Raven. However since she wasn''t in deep combat like some of the other...no at this point she was the only one to notice, the bandits were attacking faster and faster. xXx ¡°Speed Strike!¡± shouted Lyndis as she cut three time in on go using her sword with great struggle on keeping this up. Her body, under the influence of ''Sword Dance'' for quite a while was steadily getting faster and faster the more she fought attacking and continuing to attack. However at the same time the bandits were keeping up with her. ''What the hell is going on? After half of them died, they suddenly stepped their game up'' she thought as she was forced to back away after some skirmish against three bandits at once. She took quite a bit of damage thanks to it though it was rapidly restored thanks to Serena on the job. To her left she could see that Serena, Miriel and Raven were fighting in a group with Sain not that far off and to her right, Shadow was doing his best on picking the enemies off but it wasn''t going as well as before. ¡°If only I had my fire skills...¡± Lyndis muttered with a ''tch'' under her breath as she charged straight back into the three bandits she was fighting before. To count, there were originally 22 enemies. Now there were 10 of them with half of them being players. She was taking care of three of them, while Serena, Miriel and Raven were dealing with another three and Sain dealing with two at the same time. Shadow was trying to pin the other two but no success. This left two bandits who weren''t fighting but at the same time were acting suspiciously and was probably the source of Lyndis'' bad feeling. Using ''Speed Stance'' she shouted, ¡°Speed Strike!¡± along with her ''Sword Dance'' boost to her speed and slashed at the bandits again. However at that moment, the bandits all blocked her strike at the same time. ¡°....¡± ''They are getting better at reading me...'' she thought seeing that these bandits were clearly reacting to how she was fighting...but at the same time she was doing the same to these NPCs. While in peril from dying by these bandits, at the same time Lyndis was happy for this kind of battle. A battle to prove herself and prove that she was can still move froward no matter what. The three bandits moved and encaged Lyndis quickly intending to attack her from all sides. Using her experience with these kinds of battles, Lyndis motioned and swung her sword from her back froward and to the side rapidly attacking in all directions essentially. This was something she practised quite a bit during this trip. A method to fight alone was as good or greater than a method to fight with others. In this display of her skills, Lyndis felt that one of the bandits faltered and immediately took the ''Precision Stance'' and shouted, ¡°Power Strike!¡± Her swing was swung down at that bandit to her right rapidly. The bandit with his skills blocked the attack but it broke due to the difference in quality of blade and to Lyndis'' own strength when striking him. Lyndis managed to cut down the man and quickly with almost a leap got out of the way from several attack from the other two bandits. Unless one strings a killing blow with another attack, there will be an opening. Lyndis remembered that from what Ron said a long time ago and put it into practise with expecting an attack when she did such a thing. Lyndis continued to clash with the remaining two bandits while the overall battle continued. xXx Raven clashed with the three bandits again using his shield to block the attack while using is empty arm or legs to attack them. Without his spear his offence was near zero however that didn''t mean that he couldn''t stall for time. ''Health is at 45%...Serena is healing again'' thought Raven almost too calm. Although sad, he was used to thinking clearly when beaten up though this time he could still breath well enough and did not have his limbs bound. ¡°Shield Parry!¡± said Raven knocking back a strike at him...no it was targeted behind him. These three bandits saw that Raven was not as a threat as the other two and thus moved to attack them if not for Raven directly blocking the way. However Raven was not perfect in his defence. Sometimes attacks slipped through or he was forced to dodge a killing blow and they went through to the other two. But at times like that, those two had their own ways of defending themselves and as such Raven wasn''t so worried of them. Counting them, Raven had four skills he could use, three of them related to the shield and two of the four he couldn''t use else the bandits would attack Miriel and Serena. As such he was limited to ''Shield Bash'' which could stun enemies and ''Shield Parry'' which could deflect attacks and allow him to counter-attack though he had no method of attacking. Clang! Another strike was bound off his armour which to Raven''s surprise was more sturdy than he thought even after his repairing of it resulted in the reduction of the armour''s maximum durability. ¡°Damn, his armour is too thick¡± said one of the bandits. ¡°I know, continue to attack, target those girls, they''re the ones keeping him up¡± said another bandit. Once again three blades tried to target Miriel and Serena and Raven moved to block them all. However one of the three attacks was too far so he couldn''t so anything about it. Instead... Snap~! The arm of that bandit was hit and was forced to drop the sword. Immediately after, vines came and forced him on his knees to which a ''Ice Bolt'' was shot and blew off his head in one go. The other two bandits stared at this scene while Raven thought, ''Miriel is going onto the offensive now after gaining enough mana again.'' While the group had extremely large mana reserves especially Miriel and Serena, they could still run low or out of it after a while. In the beginning of the battle, Miriel especially used ''Ice Bolts'' so many times that you did not expect it was possible for her to and hit, killed or at least distracted some of the bandits. When Raven felt like they were really going to get through this fine, he heard a chilling voice. ¡°Such a waste of a pawn there. You guys are really too weak.¡± The voice was deep, commanding and frightening to Raven. He looked to find that another bandit was in front of him but this time it was one of terrifying power. There difference of 100 levels was clear no matter the training. ¡°Die.¡± One word from this bandit was enough to cause Raven to instinctive move for life. He leaped back while using his shield to block the blow... BANG!
You took 1654 damage
''Spiked Edged Iron Shield of Attacking'' lost all durability and thus broke
Raven was sent flying away and hit a tree stopping him. His shield broke and the blow even pierced through the gauntlet of his armour as well causing blood to pour out at that location. However Raven noticed that several bones on other parts of his body was broken as well. He struggled but could not move properly but at this point he could not do anything. He could only look... Serena was acting strange. xXx Before he realised it, Raven was sent flying away while he was distracted with this damn bandit player. With some rage he shouted, ¡°Get lost!¡± kicking him several time in a combo, took out his dagger as well and rapidly slashed and slashed at the bandit player ignoring all damage until he killed him.
You have killed a player with the murderer mark rapidly, fame +10
Shadow did not even take 5 seconds to finish the bandit player off and ignored the message. ¡°Burst Speed!¡± ''Please make it...'' Although that bandit who took out Raven seemed slow to Shadow, he himself felt that he was too slow as well. That bandit''s blade was already going down to Miriel as she moved to protect Serena... ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow moved even faster and dug his dagger into the back of the bandit but he felt that the armour this bandit had just barely stopped the blow from dealing critical damage to him. In a frenzy, Shadow shouted, ¡°Double Strike!¡± with his short sword and cut the back of the bandit causing him to cry in some pain. The bandit''s arm moved and elbowed Shadow causing great pain in the stomach where he was hit. His movements were to fast for Shadow to track perfectly but he could see that a punch was sent once and then another elbow strike was sent to his back knocking him onto the ground. ¡°Urr....¡± Shadow let out a groan. His health was low to the point one strike could kill him but he was still alive. Ignoring Shadow now, the bandit moved to Serena and Miriel. When Miriel tried to cast a spell, her staff was knocked away easily. The bandit most likely as a player intentionally did this to prolong their suffering....and in the mist of this... ¡°AHHHHHHHH!!!¡± Serena let out a scream that had no attachment to the word ''human.'' The glove on her right hand fell off to reveal the mark of the warrior that was branded on by Eden so long ago was glowing bright red completely berserk. xXx Sain and while he was at it, Lyndis were dealing with two bandits each on their own. It was a long battle and either side could win. But at the same time both of them noticed that distress of their comrades and yet could not move to help them. By the time Shadow was knocked to the ground like that, Sain tried many times to cast a spell to help them but the two bandits attacked even more fearsomely and caused him to be hit as many times as he tried to help the others. But then everyone paused as Serena screamed...and saw that bright red light from her right hand. Sain not only glanced at that but also his own right hand which was tingling as well as if in response to this phenomenon. There was no message appearing in front of Sain about this...perhaps his ''Party Scan'' skill was too low for him to see what was going on with Serena on a game mechanic level. ¡°ROOT BIND!¡± shouted Serena shaking off Miriel who was trying to protect her. Vines appeared around her in quantities that Sain remembered to be several times more than she would usually be able to make. However unlike before as well, these vines did not try to tie up the bandits but shot at them like arrows digging into them and pinning them onto the ground like that. The four bandits facing Sain and Lyndis were incapacitated like that with the two...no five of them shocked at Serena. However the same bandit that was in front of Serena retreated a bit dodging the ''attack''. At the same time, the strange light in Serena''s eyes...blood-lust did not disappear but instead increase with a green glow surrounding her. The leaves on the ground and on the trees also glowed this colour as she shouted, ¡°LEAF SLICER!¡± At that moment, Sain did at a message from the game.
Party Member: Serena has generated the spell ''Leaf Slicer''
Leaf Slicer Beginner Level 1 A spell in which the user uses leaves as a base and powers them with mana to cause them to become sharp blades that will rip anything into pieces. The amount of leaves affected and sharpness, speed and toughness of the leaves are determined by the skills level. If there are no objects to imbue this spell with, the user can use twice the mana cost to still use this spell without it. Mana Cost: 50
By the time Sain read the first sentence and thus was also distracted by the actual spell in place, countless leaves from around them turned into weapons. There was no clear sound but the wind as the leaves that numbered over a hundred moved to kill everything in sight. ¡°Shit!¡± Sain could hear Lyndis say as she and Sain dodged and generally tried not to die by running out of the area effected. Looking at the bandits bound by Serena earlier, they all died though that one bandit that was clearly stronger than the rest survived with cuts all over his body and rage in his heart. ¡°Damn brat! Die!¡± he shouted branding his sword at Serena. There was no one to protect the ''weak'' Serena now. But instead of running away, Serena moved forward and actually blocked one of the bandit''s strikes using her wooden staff. This came to the shock of everyone include the bandit but at the same time Sain could see that the rage in Serena''s own eyes faded away as she returned back to normal... ¡°Shit!¡± Sain now shouted realising what was happening with Serena. At this rate she was really going to die. Pondering what was going on, Serena did not react as the blade came down on her head again. ¡°SERENA!¡± shouted Sain trying to cast a spell to protect her as fast as possible but not fast enough. Miriel who also shouted at the same time also tried to do the same but without her staff at hand and those two too far away... ¡°Dark Arrows.¡± Suddenly several black lights shot from the distance through that bandit and also player. ¡°Wa...¡± he had a look of shock and surprise as he died immediately. Everyone at that moment looked at the direction of the person who was their saviour. There, looking more dignified than ever was a boy that was wearing a cloak and had an expensive looking witch hat on his head with his staff that was radiant at the edge of the forest. ¡°Well then...group healing needs to come first¡± muttered Viv chanting something that Sain could not hear. However in the next second his health and stamina filled up to full which was a surprise. The injured Shadow and Raven also got up and looked at their bodies that seemed like nothing bad happened to them in shock. The level of healing was even on a completely different level from what they knew as well. ¡°Wow, I can''t even feel the pain I had before¡± said Shadow patting his stomach and back to see if there was still any injury there. ¡°Of course there isn''t any injury left. Healing spells work by restoring the body which means when your health is max out, it is unlikely you are to have an injury else you actually have one and need to get it healed to get max health again¡± said Miriel lecturing Shadow on how healing spells worked a bit. ¡°Umm...actually it''s that healing does both at the same time...healing injuries are also part of the progress of recovering as well¡± corrected Serena. Miriel looked at Serena and then nodded as if she corrected the information in her head. ¡°Come along¡± said Viv which was enough for the group to get up and follow him. In Raven''s arms Sain noticed was the fragmented pieces of his shield. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°....¡± xXx ¡°We are sorry!¡± A total of six people bowed down to them prostrating as much as possible to them. They were the ones they met weeks ago and gave out information of them to the bandits in exchange for their capture comrades. Sain could see that both Lyndis and Miriel were enjoying this...to which Sain noted to make sure to not act submissive in front of them just in case. After a few seconds where the group and the ones prostrating to them looked at him, Sain pointed to himself and said, ¡°Huh? Me?¡± ¡°Yes you of course! You need to decide on whether to forgive them or even punish them!¡± said Miriel firm on her belief on this situation. Sain noticed that she looked at them like trash and was edging at her whip. ''She...really wants to punish them doesn''t she...'' Inside now, Sain was considering what Miriel wanted and the well-being of those who were ground in front of him. For some reason he was trying to consider both sides when it was obvious which side he should pick. That is with Miriel of course for some reason... ¡°Fine you can-¡± ¡°No need to punish them anymore¡± said Viv interrupting at the right moment, ¡°I...already dealt with them¡± he said in a cold voice which sent shivers down everyone''s backs. ¡°Anyway I completed the magical contracts in which will bind you to follow the guild''s orders¡± said Viv calmly as if this had nothing to do with him, ¡°You will report in when we call and do what we wish even being used as a meat shield and dying countless times until you repay us full in blood. The only real way of getting out of this is deleting your characters and starting over though...we will track you down nevertheless.¡± The six people on the ground had collars around their neck. It was proof that they were under the absolute command of another. In other words they were now slaves to the guild and wore slave collars. Something that wasn''t exactly popular...for one to wear but it still exist though rarely since the Kingdom long since banned such things. Sain wondered how Viv managed to get them and more to the point why didn''t any of the guards stop him on making six people slaves. Perhaps this had to do with being part of an Independent Guild or it was just this guild, Sain didn''t know but didn''t question at the same time. He saw that Miriel was a bit disappointed in not being able to punish them. Seconds later, Viv sent the six off to god knows where and now addressed the group after taking to an area in which there were less people staring at them. ¡°Good job on those bandits. Most of them were higher level than you and there was one that was even a level 200 mixed in there¡± he said in praise. ¡°Wait¡± said Lyndis suddenly looking pissed, ¡°You KNEW there was one there and that we were getting attacked as well?¡± Sain immediately tried to stop Lyndis saying, ¡°Lyndis I don''t th-¡± ¡°Of course¡± said Viv as if it was obvious with Sain sighing at the same time, ¡°I knew from the very beginning that you were being attacked. I was wondering how you fare against them actually and how much you improved compared to the beginning. I only stepped in because I rather not have Serena walk back here for another 3 weeks.¡± ¡°So you knew and didn''t do anything?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°You had to learn how to fight, human foes are only the easiest of enemies to kill. There are countless ways on killing humans but no so for other races¡± Viv said shrugging his shoulders again, ¡°Plus this will help you cope later on when Eden isn''t so kind and hand holding as he is to you currently.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Then onto the next thing I have to deal with.¡± Viv flicked his staff and Lyndis, Serena and Miriel''s wrist glowed a bit from the seal that Viv placed on them months ago disappeared. He then said, ¡°Since we''re halfway on our travel, it''s time to switch what direction you two are training at. Serena will no longer be able to heal-¡± ¡°What?!¡± retorted many of the group as a green light flashed and Serena''s wrist had the same symbol on it again. ¡°Lyndis can use her fire skills but no sword-¡± Viv immediately stole her sword from her. ¡°Miriel is unable to use Ice magic this time-¡± The green light flashed again on Miriel as well. ¡°And finally Raven can''t use a shield though it already broke and can only use a spear from now on¡± Viv threw Raven''s spear which he took from before back to him. ¡°Wait how are going to get healing now¡± demanded Lyndis seeing this as unreasonable along with her sword being taken. Viv pointed at Sain and said, ¡°He can heal you.¡± ¡°But his healing is weak! So weak it long since couldn''t even heal us properly!¡± shouted Lyndis. Miriel at that moment whacked Lyndis on the head and said, ¡°Calm down. We can deal with no healing in battle and Sain can heal us out of battle slowly. It''ll be just like when we were forced to travel together¡± with a cold voice denying Lyndis on speaking anymore. Sain thought about his healing spell...''Minor Heal'' was at Beginner Level 8 and could heal 155 health at a time. Thankfully he could spam heal everyone when he needed. When the skill reaches Beginner Level 10, it would heal 185 Health and turning to the Intermediate Level would increase it to 250 Health healed each time he casted. Moreover he would at that point unlock the next stage of healing called ''Moderate Heal'' as well which cost more mana to use but at the same time would start at healing 500 health each time. As such it wasn''t so bad...as long as Sain continued to heal rapidly and increase his spell level as fast as possible. He was almost at Beginner Level 9 with the spell either way. ¡°Anyway do you guys wish to stay and rest here for a day or continue immediately? I believe you might be a bit tired after 3 weeks of walking on foot here.¡± ¡°I believe we should rest first¡± said Sain. Viv nodded and then replied, ¡°Then I will be waiting to pick you up tomorrow.¡± With that Viv left the group to their own devices. With Viv gone Sain could hear Miriel sigh, ¡°What are we going to do....¡± xXx At an inn in the town that was crowded with people they somehow managed to get a large room to themselves. This town was located on a trade route in which many merchants and other types of players travel through this place to get to one place to another. With part of the town being connected to the sea, there were many ships at the port. Most prominently was that there were several large galleons waiting for enemies to come to blow them to pieces. However at the same time from what Sain managed to piece together from conversations, the town was more full than usual. There was speak of another Guild taking control of this town. For some reason Sain felt that he had betrayed Raven by allowing the inn keeper who looked like an old aunty feel him up to get a room for a low cost... On the other hand Miriel was happy enough they got a room and for cheap as well. ¡°Anyway we need to talk about how we are doing things from now on¡± said Sain straight to the point, ¡°With Serena being unable to heal...and everyone else having to switch their skills as well....have to go from a generally defensive style of fighting to one that is offensive in nature.¡± Serena was now unable to heal which she tried just in case but no valid. However she could still use ''Root Bind'' that new spell ''Life Slicer'' and most importantly ''Blood Burst'' which would all be handy. On the other end, Miriel was now unable to use Ice magic which reduces her attack rating to near zero. In exchange her powerful buffing spell were now back and she can now create barriers again. Sain only wondered what she will be taught later on to boost this. As for Lyndis, she was still mad that her sword was taken from her. She had spent a lot of work on fighting with only a sword but now she has to deal with using only the fire skills she had. She had precisely two fire skills that could be used in combat which were ''Burning Touch'', a close range burning status effect inflicting skill and ''Flame Strike'' which was basically a wave of fire being shot. Sain knew that Lyndis would have to make more skills to survive from now on. On the other hand, Raven''s situation was more...delicate. His armour has been in tatters since a while ago and his shield was in pieces, broken even though he got his spear back. After spending some time alone with him, Sain realised he was depressed about his broken shield. ¡°Anyway it seems like I am now the main and only healer in this group...Lyndis, how many bandages do you have?¡± he asked. ¡°Why are you asking the same question as Miriel? We have a couple of rolls¡± she replied. Sain nodded and said, ¡°When the time comes...no it''s better for you to learn the actual skill. It will be useful when there is no one to use a healing spell¡± thinking of what might happen in the future. ¡°Also is it possible for you to create a AOE attack skill with fire?¡± asked Sain once again. Lyndis thought about it and eventually said, ¡°Yes...though it will take some experimenting. There are two possible ways I can do that...I suppose you want the one that doesn''t kill you guys as well.¡± ¡°No, learning both of them are fine as well. Having more skills to use is still better than having less. Also you will be taking Miriel''s place as the range attacker.¡± Sain than looked over and said, ¡°Next is Miriel...since I will probably not have enough time...I''m counting on you to buff everyone when the time comes.¡± ¡°That''s what I can only do now isn''t it¡± Miriel let out a sad laugh, it seemed that she enjoyed attacking enemies more than supporting the group. Sain ignored that along with the recent time when she really wanted to punish people as well and went to the next point, ¡°Raven you will be taking Lyndis'' place as the melee attacker this time round.¡± Raven nodded. ¡°While you are still depressed, you still have the other shield you brought from the store right? It''ll just be a while until you can use it¡± assured Sain trying to cheer him up. ¡°Thanks...¡± Raven managed to reply. ¡°Anyway we need to get used tot his again...but first.¡± ¡°FOOD!¡± shouted Lyndis like a hungry beast. ¡°....¡± The group was silent for a second before Sain said, ¡°Yes some good food...just don''t eat too much else we will sell your swords.¡± Lyndis nodded with an affirmative to this suggestion focusing on the food. xXx The next day, the group met with Viv who was curious on what was going on at the port. The town they were located in was a pivotal point in which many players and NPCs alike go to to cross the gap between this land and the next. To sum it up, it was at this town which people would travel to to get to the lands that connect the Western Continent with the Central Continent. And it was at this land that their destination lied which means they need to go through this town and cross using a ship to continue. ¡°What the hell is with these prices!¡± someone shouted. ¡°Rip off! Rip off!¡± another person shouted as well. The crowd rallied up and started screaming so many words at the same time that every recognisable word was drowned away. ¡°What''s going on?¡± asked Sain holding his head to the loud noises that was making him dizzy. Viv replied with, ¡°It seems that they are charging the price to cross higher and higher.¡± ¡°Why would they do that?¡± asked Lyndis this time though it was Miriel who answered, ¡°To get profit of course! They are one of the few places that you can catch a ship from and to the Central Continent.¡± ¡°Hmm....¡± Lyndis still wasn''t so sure about this explanation. ¡°Basically this is a choke point where lots of people gather. By increasing the price, you gain more money easily. I wonder how much higher they jacked it up¡± wondered Shadow while explaining it to Lyndis. ¡°It was originally just 10 Gold per person which was quite high but now it''s 100 gold per person¡± said Viv. ¡°1-100 gold?! That''s super unreasonable! It''ll be easier to just swim through!¡± shouted Lyndis in shock with the crowd who heard agreeing with her. ¡°I wouldn''t if I were you¡± said Viv. ¡°Huh why?¡± ¡°There are many creatures in the sea that are more than capable of ripping you apart and eating you before you know it. Eden and Al learnt that first hand before when they decided to go deep sea diving.¡± ¡°Diving....where exactly?¡± ¡°I think...it was called the most dangerous sea area where predators lived killing each other constantly...honestly I thought and still do think it was a horrible idea to go there to try to go fishing and then diving out of nowhere.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Let''s me deal with this first and we can get on our way to the next set of land we have to cross.¡± Viv moved through the crowd easily as if they were separating for him and an arrogant person looked at Viv with scorn and said, ¡°What the hell do you want? 100 gold to get on the ship and nothing less.¡± Viv looked at the symbol on the man''s equipment and said, ¡°So there was a change in guilds in this area recently.¡± ¡°Yes we now set the rules so get lost brat!¡± For some reason everyone heard the sound of something snapping from Viv. Suddenly the place he was standing at was getting darker...and there seemed to be a strange pressure coming down at them at the same time. ¡°I decided to destroy your guild¡± said Viv plain and simple. ¡°....¡± However the words coming out of his mouth came to be sudden and simply impossible for a young looking boy. The crowd was completely silent at this point as the guild that he was facing was struggling not to laugh at his effort. Following with those words Viv moved grabbed onto the person''s arm and flipped him into the air where Viv threw him again while falling back to the ground into the ocean water. Splash~ ¡°....¡± The crowd stare dumbfound at this scene. Someone so small could throw someone so large. But at the same time they all knew they were in a game and as such it wasn''t that uncommon though unlikely. ¡°Buereueuuge Save me!¡± shouted the man who was thrown into the water. Several of his guild mates appeared and Viv said in a happy tone, ¡°Oh! You saved me some time!¡± He proceeded to throw the next three...four..five people from the same guild into the water as well. Eventually a tough looking bald man with a giant scar on his face that would make all children cry I his presence appeared. With a large sword at hand the man declared, ¡°Who the hell are you to attack my guild?¡± Viv kindly introduced himself to the man with a bow, ¡°I am Viv of the S.S Centre Independent Guild.¡± There were murmurs when he said ''Independent Guild''. Every player knew that those who belonged in an Independent Guild were almost all elites due to the sheer difficulty in being in one and completing the ''Guild Quests'' given by the Kingdom. ¡°Oh...so you are saying that you are one of the elite brat?¡± asked...no rather said the man, ¡°As a Guild Leader I cannot let that go.¡± ¡°Go ahead¡± replied Viv not caring while giving this arrogant feel which immediately pissed off that man. In actual fact, if you looked hard enough, it was Viv who looked more pissed off. With anger in his body, the man slashed at Viv who literally did nothing at all and took the hit. ¡°Wa...¡± The blade was stopped as it hit the body of Viv. The man now more serious tried again time after time again but still his blade was stopped and Viv didn''t even take any damage. ¡°What is this spell?!¡± demanded the man. Viv looked confused and asked, ¡°What spell?¡± ¡°Ahh....! Tempest Strike!¡± the man scream pouring mana into his blade and slashing with the fury of a violent wind. Bang! ¡°Impossible.....¡± muttered the man with the crowd and even the group thinking of the same time. No damage. That was the result, an impossible result in front of them. The blade had clearly went for the next not hitting the cloak or other pieces of armour Viv had on but even his skin blocked the attack so easily... ¡°This level of power...I suppose around level 400?¡± wondered Viv touching the blade curiously and not bothering with the stiff faces around him. ¡°By now you know about the difference in strength between those 100 levels apart¡± Viv started to speak with everyone silent on him. He had an atmosphere for everyone had to listen or else. ¡°It is said 100 levels would make a 10 times difference in strength between two sides. This means someone who is 100 levels higher will have the strength of 10 men of 100 levels lower. Of course if one had the strength of 10 people this difference wouldn''t matter. But what about 200 levels instead? Would it be a difference of 20 people or...100 people? Answer me this, how many hundreds of levels do you think I am above you for me who is a magic user, weak in physical ability to not take damage from you a level 400?¡± ¡°....¡± There was silent. No one could answer. Even now, the average level was 100 and those who were level 200 were considered strong with those level 400 tilters. This was even more so for a level 600 but even a level 600 would be hurt by a level 400 if they were to be attacked. ¡°No answer?¡± Viv titled his head. ¡°....¡± The man was shaking now considering what Viv said. Even if it was a buff and they were of the same level, Viv had managed to throw six people with little effort and even managed to withstand his strongest move without a scratch. This person was a monster. That was what he was thinking all this time as Viv bestowal judgement on him. ¡°Well I did say that I would destroy your guild. I believe you had members all around this town keeping check on things. Tracing those with the Emblem you wear now is easy for me. Piercing Root of Hundred Fangs.¡± Viv uttered what seemed to be a spell and the ground rumbled and... ¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± someone from the crowd screamed...no several of them in fact. All of them were dragged up into the sky encaged by some plant life that had spikes on it as it went higher and higher. But this didn''t only happen here, all over the town the same thing happened. A hundred people...all from the same guild that only recently took over this town was captured and lifted up in the air. ¡°Let''s see....what should I do with them? Crush them to death? Make holes in them? Or should I make them be eaten alive bit by bit?¡± wondered Viv aloud enough to cause the imagery in everyone''s head shiver in fear. ¡°P-Please Stop!¡± begged the man on his knees now. Viv looked like he enjoyed looking down at the man at that moment. However Viv simply smiled at the man giving him hope for a few seconds. And then crushed it. ¡°I won''t.¡± There was a sound...several sounds loud enough for everyone to hear of meat and bones being crushed and grinded up into pieces along with the visual effects. A large number of people vomited due to the scene or ran away. xXx ¡°That is..completely sick¡± said Lyndis in a disgusted voice, ¡°Why the hell were we shown this?¡± Miriel pale said, ¡°Well I think that man pissed Viv off quite badly and with attacking him....¡± ¡°Would someone get that angry over some words?¡± asked Sain. The others...in particular Lyndis, Shadow and Serena looked at him worried and shocked. ¡°Considering...¡± Shadow said before looking at Serena and hurriedly catching her before she fainted to the extreme scene of blood and gore, ¡°Doesn''t this game have a filter for those under 18 or something?¡± ¡°No filter¡± replied Raven. Miriel shook her head and said, ¡°I think that''s only for those under 13. Serena is over that age so...¡± ¡°Hey, Viv is calling for us¡± said Lyndis very conservative in her words about Viv now. She had a feeling that Viv heard her words despite being so far away... Walking through the crowd that mostly disappeared by now, Viv cheerfully said, ¡°This man said he would let us go for free!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°It looks like we will also be getting first class treatment as well so you all will be getting a room while having a large space to practise.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°So what are you staring at? Let''s go~¡± he said super cheerful to the point that they didn''t recognise him. He was acting more like Alexandra for those moments there... After boarding the ship with a very few others...Viv turned to the group and said under his breath, ¡°Acting cheering like Al is hard...I noticed things were really grim so I tried that cheerful act but it didn''t work...I suppose only Al can do that then.¡± ¡°Anyway you can ask anyone where your rooms are. I''m going to relax for a while now¡± he said leaving the group behind with a couple of crew mates moving the carriage and bull to a safe location. ¡°....¡± ¡°What was that about?¡± wondered someone. xXx In his own private room alone...with several counter-measures to stop people from listening in...which included on that made anyone who placed their ear on the door to lose it, Viv contacted Eden again. ¡°Serena also awakened yesterday¡± Viv said immediately getting to the point. [Why did you tell me this yesterday then? I believe I did have some time to spare that day...] Eden was a bit irritated that this information was a bit late. ¡°I tried 4 times to call you, all at different times then gave up. Besides that how are you dealing with this ''Trial of the Emperor'' thing that Weed wanted you to look in?¡± [Hmm...well there are almost no trace of what it is. Many times has stories said of the chosen Emperor needing to pass something and something else to be recognised. Most of it is utter bullshit if you ask me. Just trying to make themselves sound fancy. It''s hard to find things out while concealing my intentions] ¡°And the parts that aren''t?¡± he asked again. [Who knows. They speak of at least some powerful foes coming. Alexandra will enjoy that at least] ¡°And idea how many?¡± [I think...three maybe four? No enough information on my side. So what kind of abilities did Serena get?] Viv remembered what he observed before he had to step in. ¡°Serena went berserk, her strength in both physical and magical abilities increased several fold but it didn''t last long. It''s either that her one doesn''t last that long or there is still some stability problems with her Synchronisation with her ''mark''.¡± [So Sain has increased thinking abilities of strategies in battle, Miriel has increased battle instincts with her sadist tendencies and Serena has increased combat abilities. Not exactly the greatest abilities to get but still not the worse. Well I wonder what the other three will get. How are they coming through?] ¡°Not sure. The ''mark'' awakens under stress so it could be a while. Those three who have awakened it at least felt a strong responsibility for the others.¡± [True true] ¡°Anyway, any idea what Al is doing?¡± Viv asked one last time. [Hmm...I believe she said something about going south to explore some pyramids. Something to do with those ''Sun Authorities'' again I suppose. It''s quite hard to do things when we can''t even fight at full power] ¡°You know as much as me that we are too powerful. Until the time is right we need some form of restraint.¡± [Yeah but taking away Alexandra''s Divinity was quite the shock] ¡°Didn''t Al say she abandoned it?¡± even though he already knew the real answer.... [Nah....she was lying then to make us feel better. Anyway half way in the journey, have they gotten stronger yet?] ¡°Not good enough.¡± [I see...I will be counting on you before they reach Alena] ¡°No problems.¡± With that, the call was cut off and Viv was left alone in his room once again.
Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8500~ - Well there are just two more chapters in this volume... - Also with how the text in my chapters (To be precise last chapter) decreasing in size after a certain point...I have an idea what is happening. I noticed that everything under ''Heartbeat healing'' was down sized...after I directly copied my chapter from openoffice so instead I copied everything first to notepad and then here...which solved the problem since notepad doesn''t have those fancy options. There must have been some hidden thing that transfer via copying which caused the size decrease that I didn''t notice. Well there shouldn''t be a problem from now on. Vol.4 Chapter 9 - Rules to Travelling #9: Learn about some Truths ¡°I''m Eden of course and these are new students for this school. I believe all the paperwork to transfer them in has been done already¡± replied Eden to the question on who he was. The receptionist bowed and said, ¡°Of course h-¡± Eden quickly placed his finger on her lip stopping her from talking and whispered low enough for only her to hear, ¡°Not yet...I want it to be a surprise¡± with a grin on his face which caused the receptionist to blush red. ¡°Y-yes of course. Are you guiding them to their dorms or should I?¡± asked the receptionist. ¡°I believe I can do that on my own.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± With that, Eden took the six to one of the buildings to the left side of the island where there was a old looking building made of wood and stone. Actually it wasn''t made of those materials but was disguised to look like it. In actual fact the materials used for all buildings on this island was the same as the tall tower at the back. Metal that was carefully made to be resistance to all kinds of damage whether it would be explosions, lightning strikes to acid rain. As a gathering place for the golden goose of the next generation, they needed to have the most perfect defence as possible. ¡°If I recall the four buildings on this island each have an unique name. The tower at the back is called ''Stein'', the building at the front you saw was called ''Fate'' and one to the east is called ''Akatsuki'' and the one we''re going to is called ''Dusk''. Remember them when you can or just call them the north, south, east and west building. Honestly I have no idea when why these names are...¡± said Eden chattering on as he led the group to the building that was 4 stories tall. Through the front doors he and the group walked up the stairs that were there onto the second...third floor, took a right and then into a corridor which connected to six rooms. ¡°This place is where you will all live for now¡± he said. The group looked around. It has the look of a high class orphanage written all over it¡± said Shadow sarcastically. Eden smiled to this though darkly. ¡°Anyway I''m going to leave you all for your own devices. There should be a capsule in each of your rooms. You can move them where ever you want if you desire to sleep in the same room. There are some basic stuff as well like beds, tables and chairs. Also I arranged for you all to have some spare clothes to wear as well as your school uniform.¡± Saying those words quickly, Eden hurriedly went away leaving the group not knowing what to do. xXx On the ship, the group didn''t have much to do. All of them were practising to get their skill levels up a bit higher for later. A total of 1 week passed peacefully on the ship without that much going on... xXx At the other side of the 1 week sea journey... ¡°Mannnnn, it''s nice to get my foot on proper land!¡± said Lyndis happy to not get sea sick again. The others looked her her warmly since she made it entertaining for the rest of them seeing her struggle with her own body. ¡°What''s with those looks?¡± she asked with everyone else looking away and Miriel letting out a small chuckle under her hand. ¡°Nothing¡± said Sain automatically. ¡°I think they were referring to your...aliment throughout the boat ride where you...had a problem¡± said Viv replying to her question while the others crept away a bit. ¡°Heeeey! You guys said you wouldn''t judge me based off it!¡± shouted Lyndis. ¡°We not judging you based on that alone. There are plenty of other stuff we can judge you from; like your spending spree on food¡± Shadow pointed out to everyone. Miriel sighed and muttered, ¡°At least there was no chance for her to spend money on the ship...¡± ¡°Actually she was gambling and lost 3 gold¡± Shadow pointed out again. ¡°WHAT?!¡± screamed Miriel. Sain was also glaring at Lyndis as well. ¡°W-Wait...that was my money you know...¡± said Lyndis over and over again backing away from the two that were approaching her, one with a whip and the other with a spear... ¡°That''s enough now¡± Viv clapped his hands and awoken everyone to his presence again. He looked at the bull and carriage ready to go and said, ¡°Let''s go. We have a different arrangement on the carriage this time.¡± A few seconds later, it was Lyndis, Miriel and Serena on the carriage getting a free ride while Sain, Raven and Shadow were forced to run behind them. Lyndis was happily gloating at the boys when Miriel hit her in the head and said to start her training. At this point, everyone more or less knew what they had to do for the best for the team. xXx Lyndis was working on her fire skills which at some...no most levels related to Fire Magic. However the main difference that prevents her from using Fire Magic was her ''Fire Manipulation Mastery'' skill which allowed her to use all fire as her weapon...and also shield according to Viv. ''Do not limit yourself to simply trying to attack with fire. Fire can also be used to defence as well but not in normal ways since it does not have a physical form. There are more ways than one to block an attack he says....'' Lyndis remembered the precis words that Viv used to hint at what she had to work with. The only problem was that with her nature, she wanted to do big experiments and not these small ones right now. Flick~ The flame in her hands moved from the left to right and right to left over and over again. Unlike Miriel and Serena, she couldn''t giant spells since she only had half their mana but at the same time it was several times higher than normal swordsman and only a bit higher than normal mages. ''Life Burn'' was a skill that directly used health instead of mana to power. It was fairly simple to use and very powerful at the same time as long as Lyndis didn''t get hit and die before she could use it properly. The skill taking her health burst out flames from all corners of her body without end until she directs it as a tornado which according to Viv once again was extremely wasteful. ''Burning Touch'' was a skill that consumed mana of course and came out of her hands. Using it without attacking anyone for the first time, she saw that her hands were glowing red, hot and anything she touched burst into flames. ''Flame Strike'' was a skill that consumed mana and produced a spear like flame for her to shoot. Lyndis found out recently that using the skill with two hands will produce flames from both hands and make the attack by spreading her arms out before firing. Of course she can still point and fire but it seemed that once again the skill would be less stable and waste more mana. She also had ''Fire Blade'' and ''Pocket Fireball'' but they were skills she couldn''t use or were really useless now that she thought about it. She tried testing out ''Fire Blade'' on her body but it did nothing at all while ''Pocket Fireball''....barely did anything besides light a small fire. ''Burning Touch'' was far more efficient for that. In the end, Lyndis wasted a lot of time on the ship not doing anything since she was sea sick. With an open space to practise it would have been the perfect place to develop new skill but she couldn''t. As such she now has to spend the time here to develop them and hope they won''t explode in her face. ¡°Sigh....¡± ¡°Lyndis....LYNDIS!¡± shouted Miriel. ¡°What?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°The flame is...!¡± Lyndis looked and saw that the flame was smoking up....more flame? There was a ball of fire that looked like a ball was set on fire and flames were coming out of it. Lyndis noticed that it was draining her mana but was about to put it out... ''Wait...this could be an interesting new skill....'' Remembering the sensation of the flame, she produced a second one and threw the first at a tree nearby...no one was going to complain about a tree right...? BOOM! The tree exploded and Lyndis got a new skill.
You have generated the skill: Fire Bomb
Fire Bomb Beginner Level 1 Produce a ball of fire that will explode and deal fire and explosion damage to anything nearby. There is a 3 second delay in the explosion when thrown. Mana Cost: 50
¡°Interesting...¡± Lyndis made the second ''Fire Bomb'' disappear since she didn''t want to make another explosion for now. ¡°What...was that?¡± asked Miriel now wary. Lyndis grinned and said, ¡°A new skill.¡± ''This is good...unlike burning touch and flame strike, this skill doesn''t seem to have a cool down. However it cost 50 mana per bomb while the other two uses 30 and 20 instead...'' Thinking about it, it was only a bit worse than the two other skills in mana consumption and yet the effects were probably going to be way better. ''Anyway while throwing around bombs will be more fun than it should....no it IS as fun as it should be...I need a skill that can defend myself just in case as well....full body flame armour? No...that will take too much mana to sustain...just a coating of flames can deter them...coating....'' Looking at her hand...how could she block attacks with this...? ''Since fire cannot directly block attacks...that means that if my body is made of flames I can''t get hit?'' Creating a basic flame...Lyndis slowly combined it with her hand.... Bang! However the combine effect exploded in front of her and burnt her hand quite hard. ¡°Ow....¡± muttered Lyndis enduring the pain. She really wished that Serena could heal her right now...or Miriel could produce some ice to cool down her hand. Then she remembered the Bandages. Taking them out of her inventory she took out a roll and wrapped it around her burnt hand quickly. With the passive effect of wrapping bandages around a wound, it would heal more quickly and give a slight health regenerative effect. However this effect would only do that unless you have the proper skill that will increase the effects of bandaging and even heal health as well. Back to developing a new defensive fire skill to use, Lyndis burnt her hands and other parts she dared to experiment on several times. And after the 20th or so time...
You have generated the skill ''Bandaging''
Bandaging Beginner Level 1 Allows you to stop bleeding and increases the life force of the person being bandaged.
She grinned seeing this and immediately started bandaging her hands again to which the effects were much better. The pain from the burns were disappearing much quicker. ¡°Why are you so happy to get burnt again?¡± asked Miriel with a eyebrow raised. Lyndis continued grinning and said, ¡°Because I got the ''Bandaging'' skill just now. Now we don''t need to completely rely on Sain to heal us.¡± Miriel frowned and then said, ¡°You do realise that using Sain''s healing would be quicker than using your bandaging skills...well the skill when raised can be used when Sain or Serena when she gets her healing abilities back can''t.¡± ¡°That''s right and now I have a way to heal myself better from these burns!¡± ¡°Then don''t get burnt in the first place¡± muttered Miriel with a sigh. ¡°Yeah but I''m trying to combine my flame with my body you know...to create a defensive skill to use.¡± ¡°Wait you were trying to do that?¡± said Miriel quickly grabbing onto Lyndis. ¡°Y-Yeah...¡± ¡°Are you an idiot?¡± ¡°What?!¡± Lyndis looked startled at the accusation. Seeing this, Miriel sighed and then started to explain, ¡°There is literally no way you can do that unless you have a special race or class. While using fire related skills and magic may make your flesh more resistance to flame it simply cannot become flame. Someone like Ron who was able to is a monster basically. Unless you can replicate what was done to him try something else.¡± ¡°....¡± ''Damn...why didn''t I think of that earlier? I did think of coating myself with flames but it would be way better if I was simply flame itself....'' As such Lyndis instead of trying to combine with the flame which actually did work for a split second, decided to cover her hand in fire that didn''t stray too far when she moved it. After an hour of maintaining this state, she got a new skill to go with it.
You have generated the skill ''Flame Coating''
Flame Coating Beginner Level 1 Coat an object with flames to increase the attack of it. It can also be used on the body itself to create a protective area where enemies that go to close will be damaged by the flames. Mana Cost: 10/Sec
With this, she decided to practise heavily for it would be still extremely useful later on. xXx While watching Lyndis work her way with her fire and manipulation of it to create new skills to use and train, Miriel too was trying to create a new spell as well which involved Sound Magic. Aaaaaaa AAaaaaa AAAaaaa Creating and manipulating sound using her mana, Miriel was practising on increasing her skill level for ''Sound Magic Mastery'' as much as possible from now on from Beginner Level 5 first. By creating variations of certain sounds, Miriel discovered that she could steady increase her mastery over it. However at the same time she needed a way to do this and got to making a spell...which she failed to do in the end and asked Viv about it which he gave her a spell book to learn and got this spell.
Sound Tunes Variation Beginner Level 4 Using mana to create sounds, almost all types of sounds can be created this way, blended into songs as well. It is a spell that all bards and music related personal desire! If the sounds are stung together in certain ways, new effects can take place for those who heard them Current Tunes: - Tune of Cheerfulness: Increases Mood (5mp/sec) - Tune of Depression: Decreases Mood (3mp/sec) - Tune of Alertness: Increases Sensitivity to danger (5mp/sec) - Tune of Distraction: Decrease Sensitivity to danger (8mp/sec) - Tune of Sleep: Causes Sleep (10mp/sec) - Tune of Awakening: Causes one to wake (2mp/sec) Mana Cost: 1/Sec per variations of sounds
When Miriel got this spell she spent a whole week working on which tunes can cause what effects and as a result she discovered six different tunes to use so far. ''This spell is mainly about discovering new ways of using it. Eventually I hope that I can find different tunes for more valuable buffs like increase health or mana in there....though it would cost a lot to sustain.'' Looking into the future of this spell, Miriel continued to train this spell for what it was worth. After that she needed to practise with ''Illusion Magic Mastery'' and finally with her new mastery skill that she gained on the ship. Barrier Magic Mastery.
Barrier Magic Mastery Beginner Level 2 The mastery in using all kinds of barrier type magic Barrier Strength increase: 20% Decrease in cost of Barrier Magic Spells: 2%
Like that mastery skills, it passively increased the strength of the magic that they align to as well either increase affinity to an element, increasing casting speeds or decrease the cost on using those types of magic There were also one spell that she gained along with this new mastery skill.
Ice Barrier Beginner Level 1 Creates a barrier of ice to block attacks. The strength of the barrier however is based off how much water can be turned into ice in the area. Mana Cost: 50
While it is technically Ice Magic it is also a Barrier type Magic as well. As such Miriel had to talk to Viv to allow her to use this spell at least since her seal on Ice Magic was preventing her on using it after she discovered the spell. ¡°Fuuu......¡± taking a breather Miriel decided to train up these two spells since she didn''t know when was the next battle and she was getting tired of producing sounds over and over again by now. ¡°Ice Barrier...¡± she chanted aiming away from everyone else as the spell created a physical entity that can clearly seen. Water quickly gathered in the space Miriel aimed at and created a large block of ice that was thin enough to not block the way but large enough to protect a large enough area just in case. Compared to ''Cracked Barrier'' which created a shell to protect the user, this spell was much more durable and would probably only break under large amounts of strain. ¡°....¡± Miriel looked to her right where Serena was doing her usual training with leaves in order to further familiarise herself with the spell she recently got which to Miriel was an extreme offensive type spell. ''Serena should have at least her magic mastery skill in the intermediate level right...?'' Miriel thought. It was only on the ship and after a week that her ''Magic Mastery'' skill reached Beginner Level 10 and thus turned to Intermediate Level 1 with a 50% magic strength bonus. ''At least our offence will not be hindered with the change...in fact I think we should be able to blow away enemies that come our way...unless they can endure our attacks for a while...it should be fine...'' Miriel repeated that thought in her head over and over again as time passed. xXx A day later, they were greeted with a battle at last. Surrounding the carriage there were numerous zombies appearing from the ground as the bull roared and stopped in it''s path. ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± screamed Serena backing away from the zombies as much as possible. ¡°Get ready to fight!¡± shouted Sain seeing them. However at the same time Lyndis shouted back, ¡°What the hell are we waiting for?! We should attack now!¡± It looked like the others agreed and Sain nodded and started firing off his spells at the zombies that already surpassed 20 in numbers around them. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Damn there are too many of them!¡± shouted Shadow being held down by one zombie as more surrounded him as he was too far out. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena casted that spell and dragged the zombie off him which allowed him to barely get away as three zombies tried to attack that very same place a second later. ¡°Zombies are level 50 right?!¡± complained Shadow remembering an old extract of some players fighting zombies in a cave. ¡°Actually they range much higher than that...these ones look like they are around level 80¡± said Miriel observing the zombies and determining their stats. As she said this the number of zombies increased to 30. ¡°Retreat as much as possible! There are too many of them, where''s Viv?¡± shouted Sain using his spear to chop at a few zombies at a time with little effect. ¡°Disappeared!¡± shouted Lyndis looking at the front of the carriage where the bull was gone as well. ¡°Damn...!¡± muttered Sain. He hoped that Viv would at least warn them beforehand of an attack. He didn''t have Luna out nor did Shadow heard anything. ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± chanted Sain calling onto Luna into the battlefield. When Luna appeared, he immediately backed away a bit from the zombies due to the stench that was worse for him. [Master...is there a need for me to be here?] For this reason, Luna was not exactly happy to be fighting these smelly zombies. ¡°Yes there is¡± replied Sain as he looked at Miriel who was casting a spell, ¡°Are you done yet?¡± ¡°Just...about....Melody of Agility!¡± chanted Miriel as fast as she could.
Party in range has been buffed by ''Melody of Agility''
Agility increased by 51% for 10 minutes
With the passive magic strength increase of 150% with ''Magic Mastery'' and the passive sound magic strength increase of 50% with ''Sound Magic Mastery'', Miriel''s ''Melody of Sound'' spell increased from buffing from 17% to three times it''s normal amount to a 51% boost. With a agility boost, Sain found that it could work well if he stack it with his own buffs that would in turn be buffed by the spell as well. ¡°Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin! Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin! Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!¡±
You have been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! ¡±
You have been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury! Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury! Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury!¡±
You have been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
With the three buffs on them, the formation was as such. Raven and Sain were at the front on one end. Shadow was on the front at the other end and the three girls were on the carriage casting spells. ¡°Leaf Slicer!¡± shouted Serena using that spell for the first time in battle properly. Leaves gathered around her glowing green with her mana infused in them and were shot at the zombies that were steadily increasing in numbers and heading for them. Her spell hit three of the zombies at once and caused great cuts on their bodies but not to the point that they would be stopped. Sain noticed that it was clearly weaker than the one she showed before...it was most likely under her state at the time, her magical and even physical abilities were being boosted. ¡°Urrrrrr...¡± Because her spell was weaker than he expected, Sain didn''t get to her in time to chop down the zombie. Naturally Miriel took out her whip and attacked a few time before Sain managed to pierce the zombie''s brain out...in front of Serena. As such Serena panicked a bit before Miriel had to calm her down. ¡°Serena! Use Blood Burst on them!¡± Sain shouted while firing off ''Magic Arrows'' at the zombies as his other attacks weren''t as effective on them. Serena nodded as Miriel support fire the zombies as far away from them as possible and shouted, ¡°Blood Burst!¡± A red orb that hadn''t appeared in a long while was created in front of Serena as she fired it off at the zombies passing through and sometimes rebounding off them to hit another target. After 10 seconds of this... BANG! Multiple zombies were destroyed in a moment and others lost limbs or large chunks of their bodies. The sight of the zombies gusting off organs and blood all over the place which was poisonousness mind you caused Serena to let out a shriek. The blood almost touched the rest them directly and Serena was covered in the blood herself.
Party Member: Serena is now poisoned
¡°Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!¡± And made her faint. ¡°Serena!¡± catching her, Miriel had to place her on the carriage as Shadow commented, ¡°Did she really have to faint right now? We are in big trouble losing an attacker here!¡± while slicing off a zombie''s head. Meanwhile Sain got to her and casted ''Poison Removal'' which cured her of her poisoned status. ¡°I can''t blame her¡± said Lyndis using ''Flame Strike'' to burn down the zombies in her area near Raven who was slicing the zombies quite well, ¡°These things look and smell really disgusting you know even from back here.¡± ¡°Say that when you''re forced to fight them at close range!¡± Shadow shouted back at her while doing a flip and stabbing his dagger into the zombie''s head while using his short sword to cut the head off. ¡°Umm...you guys, less talking and more fighting...here!¡± Sain swung his spear down at the head of a zombie spattering it''s head into pieces in one go protecting the three from the zombies that got nearer to the carriage. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± He then raised his right hand and rapidly fired mana bolts at the other zombies closing in on them. ¡°Damn...not effective enough...poison shot only heals them and paralyse shot can''t do anything against them....¡± he muttered under his breath. Sain noticed that the number of zombies have been increasing more and more quickly with them numbering 40 now even though they were killing them quite quickly. Without Serena and her clear firepower against these types of foes, they were struggling very much to keep up. ¡°Lyndis! Throw some of those bombs you can create at them¡± shouted Sain. ¡°Fine! Fire Bomb!¡± A single ball of fire appeared in Lyndis'' hand as she casually threw one at Sain''s direction at the zombies. The ball of fire rolled and stopped and after three seconds... BOOM! The ball of fire exploded and caught the zombies around it with it. The flames covered the zombies that didn''t die immediately from her bomb. ¡°....¡± Seeing this, Sain quickly said, ¡°Lyndis continued using that skill as much as possible. You should have a lot of mana to do so. Shadow! Raven! Retreat a bit to let Lyndis so her thing!¡± ¡°Right.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± ¡°Let''s do this¡± said Lyndis excited on the act, ¡°Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb!...!¡± She started creating as many fire bombs as possible and threw them over and over again at the zombies. BOOM! BOOM!......BOOM! Eventually the surrounding area was burnt black and crippled with all the explosions and fire that were spread. The zombies didn''t come out when the land was like this...else Lyndis killed them all with her bombs. They had gained a level each thanks to this battle.
Party Member: Lyndis has gained the title ''Bomb Maniac''
Bomb Maniac To blow things up is the best things for life! Explosion and destruction are so easy to make with this. Bomb AOE: +15% Explosion Damage: +50%
¡°Eh?¡± both Sain and Lyndis muttered those words as they shared this to the others as well. Miriel looked at Lyndis suspiciously and muttered, ¡°Lyndis you....¡± ¡°Wait wait wait wait! I''m not that kind of person!¡± she wildly waved her hands at their stares trying to deny this fact. ¡°They say a title is a perfect representation of a person¡± commented Shadow on this which only made Lyndis scream louder not acknowledging that she was this type of person. ¡°She...did seem happy to throw all of those bombs¡± muttered Sain thinking about it. She had this mad look on her eyes as she looked at the zombies being blown up or burning. ¡°Not you as well!¡± Miriel patted Lyndis on the shoulder as she started to tear up. ¡°Miriel my friend....¡± However Miriel grinned with an evil smile and said, ¡°I don''t recall being friends with a bomb maniac.¡± ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± Something in Lyndis snapped. Flames came out of her body and rapidly expanded knocking everyone away from her. Sain noticed that her right hand as well was glowing bright red as well. ¡°Ah she awakened because of that?¡± said a voice. That voice was Viv who juts came back with the bull. Tying it to the carriage once again, Viv casually walked up to Lyndis who lost control of her flames and then lightly tapped the back of her neck. Snap! Lyndis fell onto the ground with her neck seemingly being snapped... ¡°....¡± ¡°Don''t worry there is no permanent damage and she will wake up in a few hours¡± said Viv seeing the looks the other four minus Serena who was still fainted on the carriage, ¡°I was thinking Serena was unusual to having a violent reaction to the ''mark'' but it seems that it''s more likely that you two, Sain and Miriel are the unusual ones.¡± With Lyndis who was larger than him on his shoulder, Viv easily threw him on the carriage and told the rest of the group to get on as well. ¡°It looks like it''s finally time to tell you guys about what Eden did to you.¡± xXx On the carriage was strangely quite. It took some hours for Serena to wake and then Lyndis. Noticing the mood Serena did not speak as well and when Lyndis finally awoke... ¡°My neck feels really....stiff....¡± Snap An arm from Viv promptly moved around her neck and caused another snap to it to which shocked her and then realised that her neck was now fine. ¡°By the way, why is everyone on here right now?¡± she asked looking around. ¡°Well actually....¡± Sain started explaining to her what happened. xXx ¡°The phenomenons that some of you guys experienced...with the exception of Shadow and Raven now are due to the marks that Eden placed on you when you joined the guild¡± Viv started to explain. ¡°Your masters; Gen, Jenny, Mel, Ron, Park and Anna all have these marks as well and to some degree mastered enough for it to not control and consume them.¡± ¡°Control? Consume?¡± asked Miriel now worried. ¡°Yes control and consume. There are many phrases and tales of people being controlled by power and losing themselves with it. This is no exception...no...it is especially the case here with so many people seeking it not knowing what it will do to them¡± warned Viv. ¡°There is a good reason why Eden said to not speak about this power.¡± ¡°....¡± The group was silent as they listened to this. ¡°One thing to know is that the marks are all dependent on the individual. They represent yourself...some of them quite obvious...¡± Sain thought of the flames and the ''Lion mark'' that Lyndis had or Serena''s sudden power with the ''Warrior Mark''. ¡°While some others are quite difficult to understand...¡± Sain then thought of Raven''s one where it was a star. What could that represent and his own ''Serpent'' mark... ¡°Are there any questions so far?¡± ¡°Is there...any chance that these marks would change? Like how people change over time will these marks also...change?¡± asked Shadow rubbing his right hand. ¡°As far as I know, no. There are only 12 cases and all of them are in this guild and none of your masters had their marks changed on them though evolved is another story.¡± ¡°And...the dangers?¡± asked Sain this time. Viv replied in a grim voice, ¡°Many.¡± ¡°....¡± There was silence again as the group struggled to hear this. It was one thing to get some power up at random but another to know there are unknown risks on using them when they couldn''t even control it. If they end up in that state permanently... ¡°But none right now. You all are in the very early stage. This power is like a curse, it will only bring more danger the further it gets more powerful. Those small burst of power are only the beginning. Merely a faction of what this power can bring and what Eden is enduring...¡± ¡°How is...this related to Eden?¡± asked Miriel. ¡°This power that is inside you is his. The origin is his own...curse¡± said Viv in a low voice barely hearable to the ear. ¡°Where to start....yes at the beginning of course. It all began when Eden wanted to know the true limits of what humans can do. No...it was before that when...the days for us were much better than now. That day when he became so close to what he was meant to be....and yet chose to remain human in the end. That is the true beginning of this power and yet to far ahead and too behind.¡± ¡°One day an old friend of ours...dead at this point from war asked to take care of his apprentice for him. When Eden got to him...there were two more so he took them along as well. Actually there were more but when Eden turned up in Dragon form only three didn''t run away immediately and so as promise he took them in.¡± ¡°Are these...¡± said Sain. ¡°Those three were Gen, Mel and Jenny. The first to be taught by me, Eden and Al. Soon after we were gathering more comrades all of them ended up to be players like us but there were a total of three more NPCs that ended up in the guild.¡± ¡°Ron, Park and Anna¡± said Miriel. Viv nodded to continued. ¡°The thing with the marks started with those three who wanted more power and seeing their desires...in the end Eden allowed them part of his magic skills¡± Viv shook his head and then said, ¡°That was a grave mistake that almost cost them their lives. The human body was too...fragile. He had to turn them into something not human to save them. Later on instead of seeking humans to turn into non-humans he turned non-humans into humans instead. But this didn''t happen in the end and three more like those three were turned as well.¡± Sain had to think about how much time that they spent in the guild...decades of experience....and yet at the same time they were so strong even though they were NPCs. What did Eden do to cause them to be...so strong? ¡°Anyway were was I....? Yes...one day Eden realised at this rate the NPCs in the guild won''t last and had to increase their life force as much as possible and at the same time planted in them techniques to endure it. Eden did the same to you lot but with your mana instead which is more important as players.¡± ¡°Yes, he did mention it before.¡± ¡°Yes but even with this, they still had the problem of not being strong enough....not stable enough. Yes they were powerful in their own rights and would count as one of the strongest NPCs in the game sooner or later but yet at the same time lacking to what Eden needed. Therefore...¡± Viv took a deep breath to speak the next words. ¡°He decided to transform them into something not humanly possible with his own core power as a catalyst.¡± ¡°???¡± The group was now confused on this dramatically crucial part. To their expressions Viv smiled as he continued to say, ¡°Right. You don''t know about ''that'' yet.¡± Well just think of what happened to you when those marks were active. Serena and Lyndis both went violent when they were active no? And you seen Ron in his Hydra form as well causing destruction and havoc where he moved.¡± ¡°But...that didn''t happen with me or Sain¡± said Miriel, Sain nodded. ¡°That I cannot explain....actually I think I can sort of explain from what Eden told me. I said that the marks are the reflection of yourselves right?¡± Four people nodded. ¡°In that case what part of you are they representing? The human mind is far to complex for magic and even the marks that reflects on you to fully capture. So what part of you do they really represent?¡± ¡°Perhaps...repressed feelings?¡± said Raven slowly. ¡°When you are hurt and yet say your not. When you are sad and yet put up a smile. Every last time they are still there and exist in you but never made it out...¡± said Viv. ¡°You can say that the most common reaction is bottled up anger and hatred and instincts from deep within. Serena was bullied due to being inferior in some ways and could not lash out at them while Lyndis was bullied due to being superior in too many ways and at the same time could not lash out at them.¡± ¡°....¡± Viv then looked at Shadow and said, ¡°For someone who was ignored most of their life, there must be some anger or hatred in there¡± Shadow flinched, ¡°And for Raven as a person who was bullied and beaten based on appearances the same is with you is it not.¡± ¡°....¡± Raven stayed silent but was more stiff than usual in his expressions. ¡°Think of the marks as similar to the ''berserk'' state where you gain massive strength but in the end will most likely attack allies as well. ¡°But...¡± Viv looked at Sain and Miriel, ¡°But there are two that had already awakened and yet not reacted the same way. From what Eden said, the effects of the marks are more extreme at the beginning and end. The extreme change in personality will now only gradually occur.¡± Viv looked at the two and then asked, ¡°Seeing you two...your two are different from the others. You two would work well in other teams but with the others...not so much.¡± ¡°And what does this have to do with anything?¡± asked Miriel irritated now. ¡°What I am saying is that you want to be friends with people¡± replied Viv coolly, ¡°Lyndis might seem like that but as you noticed is very fragile in any case.¡± Miriel blushed red to these words but did not repute them. Sain on the other hand more or less new about this from the beginning and did not hide it so it didn''t bother him. Also the thing with Lyndis was only a minor surprise there since she tried to hide her emotions quite a bit from them all. ¡°Is Miriel the Tsundere type...?¡± muttered Viv. A few moments later and a couple of sentences exchanged Viv finally said, ¡°From what I know, the marks will first ''awaken'' in which you may experience some trouble. However after that, the marks will develop as an active skills or state you can use. I think Alena can explain it better to you when the time comes.¡± ¡°Alena?¡± ¡°The person we will meet later on at our destination¡± said Viv. Miriel raised her eyebrow in suspicion and asked, ¡°Why can''t Eden just teleport us there again?¡± ¡°Because you all need training and doing so without interference like now is the best way. Another thing is that Eden avoids that place for his own reasons.¡± xXx ¡°So...that''s what happened?¡± asked Lyndis, ¡°That''s all?¡± ¡°Yes, that is all¡± said Miriel not liking that Lyndis expected more from this. ¡°So...these...¡± Serena looked at her right hand, ¡°Will do something bad to us eventually?¡± ¡°The problem is we don''t know that yet¡± said Shadow, ¡°Judging from what Viv revealed to us, this power is something we shouldn''t rely on. It''s better to just things go naturally. I''m more interested in why Eden doesn''t want to go to the city we''re heading to.¡± ¡°Yeah! That sounds super suspicious for Eden¡± said Lyndis grinning to find hidden secrets. Sain lightly hit Lyndis on the head, sighed and then said, ¡°Shouldn''t we be focusing on our own issues right now? We are in a delicate balance where we might or might not be attacked by zombies and skeletons right now.¡± Sain looked around as he said that. The place they were in was a dead forest, cursed with undead and other foul creatures. It is in such lands that barely anyone goes through unless they have a really good reason since the constant attack will force them to bring something of the Holy Alignment to get through. However none of the members in the group could use Holy Magic. As such they would focus on the next best thing which was the fire element which was fatal to most undead and Serena''s own nature magic which was powerful enough to chop monsters into pieces. ¡°Well I can take care of that fine¡± replied Lyndis not seeing the point. Next was Miriel''s turn to hit Lyndis in the head, ¡°The point is that you don''t have infinite mana to use and the oh so useful fire skills you have may be useless if we''re not careful preserve mana just in case we immediately head into another battle each time we fight.¡± Lyndis pouted and then said, ¡°Things would be super easy if I had my sword.¡± ¡°So it would be if I could use Ice Magic while Serena can use her healing magic as well and Raven having a shield to endure attacks at the front again. Viv took those away since we trained them enough already. There are a number of skills and spell we need to learn in order to get stronger.¡± ¡°Wouldn''t things get easier if we levelled up faster instead?¡± asked Shadow, ¡°I mean skill training is important but in the end the quickest way to get stronger is via levelling. No matter how good our skill training is, we can''t beat someone twice our level normally.¡± ¡°It''s not like we''re not gaining experience¡± said Sain, ¡°While it isn''t as much as a dungeon run, it is still experience. Plus I expect that we will have time for levelling later on.¡± The conversation went on for a few more hours into the night....and as day broke... xXx The very next day... The carriage moved along with the entire group on the carriage as the frequent zombie attacks were too dangerous to face them alone. Click click click click click click click click click click click click click... The carriage continued to move along...and it stopped. ¡°Hmm?¡± Sain and the others looked around and found that they stopped in the middle of the road. Was there another attack? ¡°Get off¡± said Viv. The group silent and not sure on what to do caused him to say, ¡°Get off now¡± again to which they quickly got off almost tripping over each other. Viv went and looked at a particular area where there was nothing there and smirked. He moved his hand onto the air and ripped it apart. BREAK! Suddenly a large cave appeared leading deep underground. ¡°From the ship I learnt that there was a place that was producing a large number of undead in this area. As such I took on the task to get rid of it.¡± The group had a bad feeling about this. ¡°You lot will go in and clear it on your own. Here are a month''s worth of supplies¡± he said dropping several large bags onto the ground from his inventory, ¡°And now get in the cave and kill those necromancers¡± he continued to say with a smile. ¡°....¡± ¡°Oh don''t worry, the enemy is at most level 150. Most of the undead are your level and this will serve as good training against large mobs of enemies.¡± With that, several roots appeared from the ground, grabbed onto the group and the bags and threw them deep in the cave. Rumble Rumble Rumble.... As they were thrown in, the entrance to the cave closed leaving them trapped in but not before Viv said quickly, ¡°When you find the necromancers, show them the guild badge. One of them should understand what it means.¡±
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7400~ - This chapter was slightly shorter than what I usually write since I couldn''t think of almost anything else to put in without causing it to extend too far. Well there were some more insights in this chapter...to be revealed later. For now I have to cramp 1 month into a chapter and skip 2 more months which will be a hassle for the pacing of things. - This chapter isn''t edited since I don''t have time because my exam is tomorrow noon. I finished this up so I won''t get distracted in the actual exams thinking of this chapter. Vol.4 Chapter 10 - Rules to Travelling #10: Explore a Cave ¡°Right, what should we do now? There are still two more months until classes start¡± said Peter looking at the timetable in his hands as the others were as well. ¡°We have to get back in the game for that Viv person you know¡± replied Hina. Maria and Grace nodded at the same time and Maria said, ¡°I have a feeling that I don''t want to mess with that person no matter how small he is. If he''s the same as Eden and Alexandra then that means he''s a monster as well.¡± ¡°Honestly speaking, every other being in the guild is a monster¡± Ian pointed out. ¡°Well then, let''s get in the capsules then¡± said Peter with the willingness to discuss things about their school that they were enrolled in later. xXx
You have entered the dungeon ''The Cave of Darkness''
Bang! ¡°Ouch!¡± someone said while everyone landed awkwardly into the cave that quickly closed on them. ¡°Ahhh!¡± Lyndis who had the best balance and managed to not land on her back or upside-down tried to get out immediately but the cave entrance closed too fast. ¡°Damn¡± she muttered hitting her hand onto the stone wall. The group looked around...no they tried to look around but it was completely pitch black. Sain wondered how they were breathing, were there pockets of air coming in? Then he remembered his training. ¡°...Light up....¡± he muttered concentrating enough for a ball of light to appear in his hand causing everyone to gain their sense of sight in this cave again. Likewise Lyndis said, ¡°Pocket Fireball¡± which lit up a small fireball that also served as a light source. The only person who was not completely frightened of the darkness was Shadow who had night vision for the most part. Looking around Miriel started the conversation with, ¡°We need to clear this cave.¡± ¡°But how...almost every last detail we know of this place is unknown...except that we need to send a message to someone at the end...plus there were undead in this cave and with Lyndis'' fire skills possibly causing us to choke to death...¡± sighed Sain. Looking at the small fireball in her hand and putting it out, Lyndis said ¡°There is a chance that there are enough holes where air can get in that that may not happen...but for now I can''t do much.¡± ¡°Well you can be bait by lighting yourself up like a candle stick¡± said Miriel much to her annoyance. ¡°Honestly do you have to mention so often about some of my new skills?¡± asked Lyndis. Miriel tilted her head and asked, ¡°Would you rather me reference your title?¡± ¡°Not at all, please continue calling me a candle stick¡± Lyndis immediately replied in agreement to Miriel. ¡°....¡± ''How much do you not like being called a Bomb Maniac?'' wondered Sain in his thoughts. ¡°Anyway...we should get going then...¡± said Sain picking up a bag with supplies in there from Viv, ¡°Take a bag and let''s go...Lyndis you carry two so Shadow can scout ahead¡± ¡°...Fine¡± said Lyndis after a while of thought. ''Speaking of scouting...'' ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± chanted Sain summoning Luna into the cave as well. [Master] Luna nodded his head at Sain. Sain did the same. ¡°There are undead in this area. Tell us if they are near since in a cave, Shadow''s hearing may be more inaccurate than normal¡± said Sain. ¡°Yeah...¡± Shadow was holding his ear, ¡°I''m not going to do this in here...but there are enemies...somewhere...I can''t tell where and the clanging is super hard on me....but I can still see well enough in the dark so it''s fine.¡± ¡°In that case, let''s go...Viv said we have a month to clear this place...¡± muttered Sain shaking.... ¡°Yes...we have a month in here to ''play''....¡± Sain continued to mutter. ¡°Sain....?¡± The others looked at him worried. ¡°Right¡± said Sain with his eyes glittering with happiness, ¡°I''m going to make sure everyone here reaches at least level 110 at the end!¡± ¡°Wait!¡± Lyndis tried grabbing Sain but he slipped through walking ahead searching for undead to fight further into the cave. [Master! Wait for me!] ¡°....¡± The rest of the group looked at each other... ¡°Damnit!¡± cursed Shadow, ¡°He went commando mode again!¡± Miriel then muttered under her breath, ¡°Is...it because we''re in a dungeon? Is that is trigger? No...I''m sure that the symptoms appeared during the trip as well...¡± Both Serena and Raven patted her back waking her up from her trance while Lyndis said, ¡°Damn, we need to hurry up else he will die before we know it!¡± while complaining but nevertheless not even bothering to run away. ¡°Why does the commando have to come out now...¡± something whispered depressed on these turns of events. In this place...there was no escape...so they all had to go deeper either way... xXx ¡°You can come out now Al¡± said Viv looking annoyed to something a distance away. However at the same time Alexandra could hear Viv perfectly and leaped to him and quickly landed without any issues. Viv sighing said, ¡°You didn''t say you were nearby at all. I only noticed a week ago. Eden didn''t know where you were.¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± started Alexandra, ¡°But Eden is dealing with some things on his own and I got a mission to clear most of these lands so they can be turned into towns and villages later on. Plus Eden avoids this place since it''s kinda close to where Lily city is. There is a chance he could meet up with ''her''.¡± ¡°Well he does have a small trauma of it¡± said Viv. ¡°Small trauma?¡± said Alexandra with a laugh, ¡°You should have seen the look on his face when he realised who she was. After that, for a whole week he let out his ''stress'' onto nearby Gods to which the complaints was forwarded to me.¡± ¡°To be honest...that shock was amounted to his own guilt for the most part.¡± ¡°But in the end it was his own fault.¡± ¡°Yeah but he was completely....completely....¡± ¡°A maniac for slaughter? Or are you defending him because you love him?¡± Viv asked. ¡°Yes!....NO!¡± shouted Alexandra. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Well it''s Eden so he''ll be fine¡± said Viv. But Alexandra shot a worrying look and said in response, ¡°But it''s been 20 years in game already and yet he still didn''t get over it.¡± ¡°Plus there is Alena who is a whole other issue.¡± Alexandra smiled slightly and then asked, ¡°By the way, was it a good idea to lie about those brats?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Viv put up the innocent face to her. ¡°Berserk state? I don''t remember that happening at all with those who have the marks before. Well...not all of them but still it''s better to say that instead of their personalities being altered slowly.¡± ¡°Al, it''s more correct to say that only the dormant emotions are just being let loose a bit and that causes them to be a bit different than before¡± Viv replied trying to calm Alexandra down. However this had no effect on her at all. ¡°Only?! I don''t see any person who would like to know that their personality was being altered without them knowing! Furthermore they are Children! In the stage of their lives where they develop their own self....only for something unknown to interfere with it.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Do you think they will be all right?¡± asked Alexandra looking at the cave. ¡°Yes they will. Eden chose them for a reason. Also they are a bit broken in personality so the mark won''t be as hard on them compared to more normal people.¡± ¡°I dearly hope else...I will beat Eden up¡± Alexandra said with a firm grip on her sword glancing as if Eden was in front of her already. ¡°Sigh...why do we have to deal with this? If only Eden got his act together earlier....¡± muttered Viv unlike himself, ¡°Well right now he has to deal with his ''Trial of the Emperor'' thing.¡± ¡°Ah! I got a message from Weed about that. He said something about having us help him deal with it. That man is so cheap even though he knows that all three of us are weakened right now.¡± Viv nodded and proceeded to say, ¡°Yes, with Eden unable to access most of his more powerful skills, me being unable to summon my ghost army and you with your divinity sealed by the Gods, we have to deal with it in our own way.¡± ¡°Wait who told you that-¡± ¡°Eden figured it out. He told me a while back that was the reason why you were collecting ''Sun Authorities'' to make up the lack of power you have now. Al you are strong enough...¡± Viv assured her. Hearing and seeing this determined Viv, Alexandra could only sigh and say, ¡°Divinity and ''Sun Authorities'' come from difference sources and yet amplify other powers. If I have both of them...then that means I get a decent boost at the end.¡± Alexandra looked around and saw that the two of them were surrounded by undead. ¡°Well, it looks like I have to deal with this. Where are those kids?¡± asked Alexandra gathering holy magic in her hands at extreme quantities. ¡°I threw them in a cave.¡± ¡°Pha?!¡± Her Holy Magic exploded in her face in shock. However at the same time, the attack went and killed all of the undead around them at the same time. ¡°You did WHAT?!¡± demanded Alexandra on the verge of trying to save them now. ¡°I needed someone to message Eri and yet you weren''t here so...¡± Alexandra sighed and muttered, ¡°Honestly...why am I the one with the most common sense...?¡± At that moment, both Eden and Viv despite the distance between one of them felt a sneeze coming through. xXx Back in the cave, after a few minutes of catching up to Sain, they encountered a couple of skeleton knights. There were 5 of them and according to what Sain knew, around level 110 and were quite strong in melee combat. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Sain did not hesitate at all attack them leading them to the rest of the group as well. ¡°Sain!¡± shouted Miriel realising what he was doing with the rest of them not at peak shape. Sain didn''t bother looking back and shouted, ¡°Hurry up and fight! Miriel start buffing and the rest of you attack!¡± swinging his spear at the skeleton knights while retreating back to the rest of the group rapidly. Luna did the same and retreated at the same pace as a large level gap was there between it and the skeleton knights after all. ¡°Double Strike¡± said Raven moving in next to Sain and hitting the nearby skeleton knight. Another skeleton knight also moved in to attack as well which forced the two to take several steps back. ¡°Compress Magic Mastery Release!¡± shouted Sain removing his magic limiter.
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +240%
¡°Magic Arrows!¡± chanted Sain again. 4 magic arrows appeared and hit that one skeleton knight with extra power and broke into pieces. The other four skeleton knights charged at the same time after this. ¡°Ice Barrier!¡± chanted Miriel quickly. A large block of ice appeared which the skeleton knights were knocked into by their charge. With their movements disrupted Serena chanted, ¡°Root Bind!¡± creating vines to capture them now. ¡°Backstab! Double Strike! Backstab!¡± Shadow finished off one of the skeleton knights that was a bit further away from the rest in this time before the skeleton knights managed to rip through the vines and smash through the ice barrier. ¡°Melody of Strength!¡± chanted Miriel finishing her buff in time.
51% increase in strength for 10 minutes
With this strength buff; Sain, Raven and Shadow worked together with some support from Miriel and Serena to get rid of the last three skeleton knights. Meanwhile, banned from using her fire skills, Lyndis was reduced to a bag carrier. ¡°Right¡± said Sain after the group finished picking up the loot and gave it to Lyndis to carry, ¡°Let''s get to the next batch of enemies.¡± In a dungeon there was a limited supply of monster to hunt even though there was no respawn limit. This number usually renewed after a few weeks. For a normal dungeon there was roughly 5000 monsters in them so a small party would find it hard press to clear them all in time. Even with multiple parties this would be the same unless they were hunting without stop at an alarming high rate. Knowing this, even while fighting with their lives on the line time after time, there are barely enough time to clear this dungeon. Running through, a minute passed and they met another group of enemies. This time it was the slow moving and tough zombies they faced before. They started to come out of the ground and even the walls which was strangely soft when Sain touched it. ¡°Urrrr.....¡± ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± chanted Sain, ¡°Magic Arrows! Magic Arrows! Magic Arrows! Magic Arrows!¡± With his mana rapidly decreasing more than he wanted with ''Magic Arrows'' costing 20 mana each cast. Sain stopped and then relied on his spear more. ¡°Leaf Cutter!¡± chanted Serena forming the leaves in the air and shooting at at the zombies. She did not use ''Root Bind'' since zombies have high strength and could easily rip through them not slowing them down much. ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± chanted Miriel casting the spell onto Sain who was deep into the battle. He was hit a couple of times and took damage but as he fought he casted ''Minor Heal'' on himself over and over again with the 10 second cool down the spell had. After the battle finished with them taking quite a bit of damage, most of them only had half health left, Sain started casting ''Minor Heal'' on everyone. ¡°This is taking to long¡± muttered Sain while pleased that his spell was slowing gaining experience, ¡°Lyndis! Hurry up and bandage everyone up as well!¡± in a loud commanding voice that did not allow rejection. ¡°R-Right!¡± Lyndis quickly took out the rolls of bandages and wrapped them around the wounds that Raven and Shadow sustained. Sain also started healing Luna as well who not known to the others, was complaining to Sain on his treatment. 3 minutes passed when their health went back to 75% thanks to Sain healing them and Lyndis using the bandages, Sain said, ¡°Let''s go¡± getting up and walking ahead again. ¡°Damn, why is he so quick on his feet?¡± complained Shadow seeing that he was the one in the deepest danger with his role. ¡°Well at least you can fight...I wonder if I can use my fire skills...¡± said Lyndis displeased she was getting no action. However then Miriel said, ¡°Soon or later he will tell you...no force you to no matter what to speed things up. And at that time you wish you could not do anything.¡± ¡°Hurry up!¡± shouted Sain in the front with Luna. xXx
Minor Heal levelled up to Beginner Level 9
With this message, it had been a week since they were thrown into the cave that was also a dungeon. In this time they had slain a large number of undead in numbers that reached several hundred and cleared the first floor and moved down to the second. Reaching the second floor, the atmosphere in the cave reached a different level altogether as well. ¡°Uh....this place really smells bad...¡± muttered Lyndis covering her nose. At the same time Luna refused to go down there with them to which Sain simply de-summoned Luna since he was not going to be much use like this. Walking a but further into the second floor, they were greeted with several skeletons along with skeleton mages. Skeleton mages were extremely dangerous as they could cast magic. This simple fact made them a first target for parties as they could be wiped out if they did not stop them in time when they attacked and casted debuffs on the party. As such Sain immediately shouted, ¡°Lyndis! Use your skills to kill those mages!¡± ¡°Ai ai sir~ Flame Strike!¡± said Lyndis firing off a spear of flames to the mage. However at the same time, some of the skeletons moved and took the hit, dying to the flames but saving the skeleton mage. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Sain tried to attack as well but the skeletons were attacking them and using their bodies to block their attacks on the mage. ¡°Let mud smear the eyes of thy foes! Eyes of Darkness!¡± chanted the skeleton mages. The world turned dark for Sain at that moment.
Your Party is affected by the blindness effect
¡°Ah!¡± Slash!
You took 1531 damage
Sain and the others all had the blindness effect place on them. Without a line of sight, the other skeletons moved in and attacked them with them not being able to react. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± Sain shouted shooting blindly in the ''dark''. However it seemed that his attack missed quite a bit as he was almost hit again. ''What to do...what to do....what to do....need AOE attack....!'' ¡°Lyndis throw those bombs at them now!¡± Sain shouted while running away to retreat along with the others. ¡°Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb!¡± BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The group heard some explosions thanks to Lyndis'' attack but had no idea of what was happening due to the restricted sight. Even Shadow''s night visions didn''t work as the debuff directly hindered his sight. However a few seconds later....there was no sound from the enemy at all. ¡°So...we''re safe?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Probably¡± Miriel replied. ¡°Ah...this debuff lasts for a minute. Quite annoying¡± said Shadow looking through the total duration of the blindness debuff that was placed on them. After the blindness debuff wore off, Sain didn''t talk to the rest of the group but went straight ahead to the next line of enemies. ¡°Wait! Where are you going¡± shouted Miriel when she noticed Sain was moving forward again. Sain looked at her as if she was stupid and said, ¡°To fight more enemies. That debuff only effects us when the mage finished casting right? So we just need to use Lyndis to bomb them until at least those mages die.¡± With those words, the group was once again dragged forward fighting enemy after enemy with nearly no rest only to restore some health and mana for the next battle... xXx And so another 2 weeks passed in the cave. They were on, most likely the final floor where the number of undead was extremely high for the amount of space they had to fight. At almost every corner there was an undead there to fight them. Often they had to fight several groups of undead at once. However because of this, they rapidly gained skill experience, more than normal as well as levelled up a couple of times as well. On the third floor another few days passed (Yes I know I am REALLY skipping a lot of the details here...) they were met with a boss monster or something equal to it. ¡°Death Knight Raylean¡± muttered Sain reading the name of the creature in front of them. With the continued fighting all this time, the group''s equipment were in tatters almost on the point of breaking even with Raven repairing it over and over again. All of them were exhausted as well due to the large number of battles they had to go through. This floor did not allow them many breaks and even without Sain to ''urge'' them forward, but at the same time they were forced to be at their peak all this time. ¡°Lyndis...throw as many bombs at it as you can¡± said Sain immediately. Obeying this command, Lyndis produced a dozen ''Fire Bombs'' in which were all thrown at the unsuspecting death knight and exploded at it. BOOM....! ¡°Fool that breath as livings....die!¡± shouted the Death Knight charging in with his shield and sword out of the smoke that the explosions caused. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Sain once again reacted first and attacked but seeing that his magic attacks was quickly deflected away with the shield... ¡°Shatter!¡± he shouted prompting the others to dodge the charge as fast as possible. ¡°Dark Blade!¡± Bang Bang Bang! The death knight swung his sword as he passed by the group that moved and stuck to the walls. Lyndis and Miriel took some damage being hit by the death knight passing through. Seeing this power Sain estimated it''s level to be around level 150. ''If we kill it...then we will gain lots of experience!'' ¡°Shadow distract it as much as possible!¡± ordered Sain. Shadow made a face of disbelief but shouted, ¡°Damnit! I hate this role!¡± running directly at the death knight. ¡°Burst Speed!¡± Using only his speed to survive barely against the death knight that seemed to be even faster than him at any rate normally. ¡°Melody of Speed!¡± chanted Miriel.
51% increase in strength for 10 minutes
¡°Swift Legs!¡± chanted Sain as well on Shadow, ¡°Weaken!¡± and at the same time tried to reduce the damage from the death knight.
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with ''Swift Legs''
With the increase in agility, Shadow was somehow able to properly keep up better with the death knight in question. However even with the two buffing Shadow up with spells, it didn''t mean the others weren''t doing anything as well. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena casted that spell in a frenzy trying to capture the death knight who was having a heated battle to the death with Shadow. Serena''s vines wrapped around the death knight''s arm which slowed it down to a complete stop for a split second. Seeing this opportunity, Shadow leaped at the chance and tried to attack the death knight while it wasn''t moving. Clang! However with the strength of the death knight, it easily broke free of the vines and blocked Shadow''s attack with it''s shield and kicked him away where he slid on the ground on his back. ¡°Die!¡± The death knight moved to finish Shadow off. ¡°Raven! Get in there!¡± shouted Sain while preparing his spell. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± chanted Sain and Miriel at the same time seeing the death knight getting closer to Shadow and Raven not being fast enough to directly stop it. Over two dozen ''Mana Bolts'' came from the two and flew to hit the death knight. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang....! ¡°Damn that monster....! No effect¡± cried Miriel seeing the death knight perfectly fine even though it took on all of those attacks head on, Cracked Barrier!¡± she placed her barrier on Shadow in time for the attack to be deflected off. ¡°Ice Barrier!¡± she chanted next creating a wall between Shadow and it. B-Break! However the death knight easily broke through it in one strike but at the same time Shadow leaped at it attacking once again. Clang! His attack was instantly met with a block with the shield. ¡°No...that can''t be right¡± Sain had a sudden thought, ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± He fired four projectiles at the death knight this time and the death knight quickly moved it''s shield at an insane speed to block all of the attacks that went to a different location. ¡°Footwork! Double Strike!¡± said Raven who was close enough from running at the death knight to strike at it. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Bang! The death knight blocked these attack with it''s shield again. ¡°Serena! Focus on binding it''s shield arm! Lyndis! Attack using your fire skills!¡± ¡°R-Right!¡± ¡°Aye Aye!¡± The two added in their moves into the battle as well. Vines and flames flew towards the death knight who seemed more than happy to fight against both Raven and Shadow at the same time. At this point, Sain noticed that Shadow and Raven''s health were lower than 50%. ¡°Minor Heal!¡± he chanted making sure they won''t die as easily. ¡°Compress Magic Mastery Release!¡± Sain chanted under his breath as he held his spear in his hand and walked to the death knight who was taking little damage despite the large amounts of attacks that hit it.
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +80%
The amount of increased magic strength from this release was down to it''s most minimal level. The reason being was that Sain used it too many times today and as such it could only boost his power by this much. If he knew that he was facing a death knight today, he would not have used this skill at all. ''Raven and Shadow are attacking from close range...they are at the most danger. Serena is slowing it down with her binding skills while Lyndis is attacking from afar. Miriel also attacking...no supporting mostly using her barrier...we should be able to whittler it down. But without healing...we need to kill it quickly..'' With those series of thoughts, Sain also entered close combat with the death knight along with Shadow and Raven while the other three supported from behind. Every time one of them were about to get hit... ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± Miriel would cast this spell onto them to protect them a bit by negating the amount of damage they would take. And in another instant, she would cast ''Ice Barrier'' as well to create a physical wall or Serena would cast one of her spells to force the death knight away from them with the others increasing their attacks at the same time. Eventually some tens of minutes passed and Miriel chanted, ¡°Melody of Speed!¡±
51% increase in agility for 10 minutes
Suddenly Sain and the others felt faster than before and could face the death knight more easily. Against an enemy with high attack, defence and speed in all areas, being as fast at it was the most important thing. However everyone''s health and mana were pushing their limits. ¡°Lyndis! Finish this with your bombs!¡± shouted Sain trying to hit the death knight but failing due to the shield blocking most of their attacks without end. ¡°Fire Bombs!¡± Lyndis shouted once again producing a dozen or so bombs that all went to the death knight. Slash! BOOM! The death knight made the foolish decision to try to cut through the fire bomb and it exploded in it''s face causing visible damage to it. The next moment, another eleven fire bombs chained exploded around it as well. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM...!
You have gained experience
You have levelled up
You have levelled up
Defeated a monster that was much stronger than you! - All stats +5 - Fighting Spirit +10
Some windows appeared in front of the group when they finally defeated the death knight on their first try. All of them were over level 100 now but they still faced a monster that was 50 levels higher than them. As such they gained extra stats from the battle as well. ¡°Fuaaaaaaa!¡± Lyndis let out a long drawn out breath and slid to the floor exhausted. While her health didn''t go down that much, her mana was almost completely depleted. The same were with Miriel and Serena as well as they were continuously casting spells over and over again in the battle. However the ones who took the most damage were Shadow and Raven who were both on their last shiver of health left to which Sain prompted to end the battle as quickly as possible. ¡°The power of the fire bombs increase when chained eh...¡± muttered Miriel under her breath thinking about Lyndis'' skill. Sain was on the same line of thoughts seeing the power of that skill. It unlike the rest of their skills was on designed to create the most damage in as wide of an area as possible not caring for anything in that area. ''This kind of skill...will be useful later on....even without Lyndis not being able to fight with a sword...'' he thought thinking more about it''s uses. Explosion damage was sort of unique in this game as it has the highest base damage there even including magic. Along with this, it also has the passive effect of ignoring and breaking armour of enemies which is super effective against large and often high defence foes. And now this power fell into the hands of this group as well.... ¡°That reminds me, with that fire bomb skill, couldn''t Lyndis just keep on using it until the death knight died?¡± wondered Miriel speaking aloud not pleased with Sain after a month. ¡°Eh?¡± Everyone looked at Sain as if everything made sense now. ¡°Sain...is this true?¡± asked Lyndis, her voice straining. ¡°I wasn''t sure until the very end...that shield was quite troublesome and if it hit back one of the bombs...plus only a dozen bombs could affect it and Lyndis could really only do that twice in a row and if it blocked the second time as well...¡± he said with a pause at the end where the group imagined one of Lyndis'' attacks coming back at them. ¡°In that case why didn''t you have Serena restraint the death knight just before that could happen?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°That was impossible since that shield moved too fast and the death knight was really strong in the strength department¡± answered Sain once again. It was then Raven spoke up raising an issue, ¡°Another path there¡± he said pointing at an alternative path to which they could have avoided the battle ¡°....¡± ¡°Did you not see that?¡± wondered Miriel with a smile though her eyes were deadly cold. ¡°Well....¡± Sain tried to deny it but in the end... ¡°Yes I did. I wanted to fight a death knight so...¡± Sain played with his fingers saying that trying to look as innocent as possible. Suddenly three people started to beat him up with anger flared up in their eyes. Only Serena who looked frightened at this scene and Raven who didn''t care didn''t take part. ¡°Bastard! You left me with the worse role!¡± ¡°I was super worried that my mistake in that battle could have killed someone!¡± ¡°Do you know how difficult it was to fire attacks WITHOUT hitting an ally?!¡± Naturally they stopped before Sain died....and he took a while to heal using his own magic since Lyndis refused to use her ''Bandaging'' skill on him which was at Beginner Level 6 now thanks to the last month. ¡°Umm...¡± Serena walked up to him while he was still recovering and whispered, ¡°Sorry that I can''t heal you....¡± with a sad face on. ¡°Don''t worry about it¡± said Sain automatically patting her head with his hand. Sain could have sworn that Miriel shot him another glare at that moment so he stopped. After he healed himself a couple more times...
Minor Heal reached Beginner Level 10, will be converted to Intermediate Level 1
You have unlocked the spell ''Moderate Heal''
Sain was surprised. Was that spell used that much that it could level up twice in a month? Either way, he looked at both spell windows now.
Minor Heal Intermediate Level 1 Heals a Target for 250 Health. Heal: 250 Mana Cost: 15 Cool Down: 5 Seconds
Moderate Heal Beginner Level 1 Heals a Target for 500 Health. Heal: 500 Mana Cost: 30 Cool Down: 20 Seconds
It looked like the bonus on reaching the intermediate level for the spell ''Minor Heal'' was that the amount healed rounded up to 250 health healed each time and the cool down of the spell halved to only 5 seconds now. On the other hand ''Moderate Heal'' base healing was already double the amount ''Minor Heal'' could do but the mana cost was double and the cool down was now four times higher. As a rule, the base amount that a healing spell one rank higher was equal to the amount the lower skill could do at the Advance skill level. ''At that point Minor Heal would heal 500 health at the advance skill level but Moderate heal does the same already at the beginning....then that means Advance Heal which is the next healing spell to unlock will initially heal 5000 health instead?'' Either way Sain shared this news to the others even though they just had finished beating him up. ¡°Good news everyone~¡± he said in a cheerful tone that was unlike the scream he made while being hit. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Miriel with her mouth twitching. She hoped that Sain was not going to immediately get revenge on them. ¡°My ''Minor Heal'' went to the intermediate level and now I unlocked ¡°Moderate Heal''! Now I can heal your wounds better than before so you can take more damage without worry¡± he continued to say still cheerful. Then he made a sad face in which he said, ¡°However without Serena, I''m really the only one who can heal you guys when you are in a tight situation. Plus we still have two more months on this trip.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°It would be a shame that I ''forgot'' to heal you but instead used a ''Paralyse Shot'' on you instead wouldn''t it? Hahahaha¡± Sain started laughing though no one else was and his own eyes weren''t. ¡°Sain...is this a threat?¡± asked Shadow now worried about what was happening inside his head. ''Did us beating him up break something in him...?'' they wondered. ¡°No no no...of course not. I might accidentally ''forget'' to use a spell since I have so many of them now you see.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway there are still a few more day and the rest of the dungeon left right...? Now, let''s go and kill them all with our lives¡± Sain growled in a low tone with a sharp light in his eyes. Everyone had a bad feeling about this. ¡°Shit!¡± ¡°Got to go!¡± He immediately grabbed three people who tried and escaped and marched forward with them kicking and screaming. ¡°NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!¡± xXx A few more days later they reached the final room in the cave where the necromancers were. ¡°Please...no more...¡± Shadow was on the ground barely moving his mouth to say those words. Raven was panting on the floor as well unable to move with his heavy load on. Meanwhile the three girls were leaning on each other out of breath as well. Luna was also here since Sain summoned him and refused to left him go while fighting undead as well. Sain looked over then and said, ¡°This is troubling, we still have one more boss fight to go through. It can''t be that hard after the death knight battle.¡± ¡°Ha...ha...the death knight...¡± Shadow said, ¡°Was EASY compared to what you put us through afterwards.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± asked Sain as if he didn''t know what he put them through. ¡°For three bloody days we had almost no break in fighting! You drew so many undead to us time and time again to the point that we were overwhelmed and yet we somehow managed to survive!¡± Shadow shouted but then went limb due to using up all his energy to shout. ¡°Was it...really that bad?¡± Sain wondered. He was still standing here. Seeing the state of the rest of the group, they were clearly in no position to even do anything right now. ¡°In that case, I can deal with the rest alone with Luna here¡± said Sain moving froward to the final room ignoring the shock of the others who tried but couldn''t at all to follow him. After they were out of sight, Luna said, [Master I don''t think this is a wise idea. Without them supporting you-] ¡°Luna, am I that weak? To be in need of protecting all the time?¡± asked Sain. [No of course not! But the enemy might be numerous...] ¡°Viv said something about delivering a message so that means there is a comrade on the other side as well.¡± [If you say so...] Luna backed down but did not stop in following Sain all the way as he entered this strange room where there were a dozen people dressed in complete black...no make that eleven since one of them is wearing pink all the way... ¡°Who is this to barge into our haven?¡± ¡°What is to be done to this being?¡± ¡°He shall die, he shall die!¡± They all started to chant their spells and undead were raised from the ground. It happened so quickly that he couldn''t even escape or attack one of them. Remembering Viv''s words, Sain quickly took out the guild badge and flashed it in front of them. ¡°That is...¡± Much to...actually as Sain expected the one in pink reacted to seeing that. That person quickly moved around the undead and stood in front of Sain. The person was slightly shorter than him and looked at the guild badge saying, ¡°Is this real?¡± Sain nodded and said, ¡°Viv said you would know what to do next¡± looking around at the hundred undead not moving against him...yet. ¡°Yes yes~ Viv did mention that he may send somebody but to think it would be another cute boy~¡± ¡°Er.....¡± The person dressed in a pink cloak turned to the others and and said in a malicious tone, ¡°Now for me to do more fun things~ You must all die~ Rise Undead under the command of Eri!¡± throwing off the cloak. The person that Sain saw was a woman that was in her twenties...based on appearances, had pink hair that were tied in twin tails and from what Sain saw resembled something more like a magical girl than a necromancer. However in front her, the necromancer Eri, 10 undead...all of which seemed more powerful than the other undead were raised. ¡°Eri you betray us?¡± asked one of the other necromancers. ¡°Of course not~ I was only having fun with you¡± her tone while cheerful suddenly took a dive, ¡°By the request of my guildmaster you who have caused trouble with disappear. Kill them all¡± she ordered to her summoned undead. Sain counted the different kinds of undead that was produced by Eri. There were 3 death knights, 2 skeleton mages and the other five were creatures he did not know. However in mere minutes they wiped out the other hundred undead in the room with Eri casting buffs onto the undead...no undead have an opposite reaction to buffs and debuffs so it was better to say Eri cursed them to make them stronger. ¡°You fool! Dark Spear!¡± shouted one of the few necromancers left alive as Eri''s undead started their killing spree. Dark light gathered and formed into a spear that went straight to Eri who was in front of Sain. As such he did not know the expression on her face as she used her hand to absorb the magic and fire it back at the necromancer killing him in one shot. With everything else in the room dead, Eri turned to Sain and asked, ¡°Are you alone and is Viv with you?¡± ¡°No and no¡± Sain responded. [Master this person seems....] ¡°Weird? Yes but it''s not good to judge people like that¡± Sain responded to Luna. Eri looked confused and asked, ¡°Who are you talking to? Do you have an imaginary friend as well? No? Weird...¡± ¡°....¡± After a few more lines which involved Sain feeling that this person in front of him was really really strange and not right in the head, Sain took her to where the others were resting. Upon seeing them immediately... ¡°Yahoo~ Let''s go to Viv then¡± she said talking to the rest of the group who seemed fine enough as they could now move. ¡°Who is...this?¡± asked Miriel occasionally looking at what Eri was wearing. A frilly pink dress that made you think of magical girl was one thing but even her staff which had a skull on it was pink and frilly. ¡°This is Eri...I''m not sure what kind of relationship we have¡± said Sain. ¡°Relationship? Aren''t you quick¡± said Miriel with a strangely dangerous aura around her....and had her whip out as well. ¡°Not in that way. Even Sain couldn''t be that fast....right?¡± said Shadow stopping Miriel from attacking Sain but seemed intent to do so as well. Seeing this Sain sighed and asked, ¡°Anyway our objective here is done...is there a way out? The entrance kinda...closed when Viv threw us in¡± to Eri. ¡°Hmm...there was something like a shortcut in the back room that leads out. Let''s go there then~¡± she said amused already at the people she met. Eri turned and started walking to which everyone else followed. While walking through the back room which was still filled with the damages of the battle and the undead that she summoned, she started up a conversation as she revealed a hidden entrance and started walking up it. With her short skirt and stairs...Miriel and Lyndis promptly walked behind her forcing Sain, Shadow and Raven at the back. ¡°So you guys joined the guild as well?¡± Eri asked. ¡°Yes¡± Miriel responded though not as kind as Sain expected. ¡°Hmm...you guys are around level 100...that''s kinda low for them to let you in¡± Eri muttered thinking of something and then smirking. ¡°Actually...we joined really really early on when we were around level 56 I think¡± Miriel replied again. ¡°What?! I can''t believe that Eden would let useless people join! Ah...sorry not to mean you guys are useless, anyone under level 600 would usually be rejected if and when they tried to join...not that anyone who tried to join got in¡± she said, ¡°I''m guessing Eden, Alexandra or Viv sent you guys an invitation to join.¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Hmm...~¡± Eri kept to herself after that. Upon exiting the cave, with a breath of flesh air, Viv was there. ¡°Welcome back¡± he said as if nothing happened at all and that he didn''t throw them into a cave and then expected them to finish in a month. ¡°Vivvvvvvvvvvv!¡± Eri shouted running up and trying to hug him. Bang! She missed, tripped, did several back flips and landed on her head. ¡°....¡± The group was completely silent on this. Ignoring that person, Viv then said to the group, ¡°Judging by her being here, I believe you finished up? Yes, then let''s go.¡± ¡°Umm...¡± Lyndis tried to point out Eri who was not moving... ¡°Please ignore that thing, we have to go¡± said Viv as if in a hurry. He went straight to the carriage, dragging the group with them and was about to leave... ¡°Bone Prison!¡± Suddenly a wall made up of bones appeared in front of the carriage causing the bull to pull back in shock and fear. Viv gave up and sighed seeing this. He got off the carriage moved over to Eri and introduced her to the group. ¡°This is Erica or Eri for short. Please introduce yourself without making me want to hit you.¡± ¡°Yes sir~! Eri here~ Level 654 Necromancer of Justice~¡± Sain could have sworn that some sort of star appeared on the side of her head where she winked at them. ¡°And now you know and that she is in fact part of the guild as well though admittedly and thankfully one of the weaker ones¡± Viv said causing Eri to fake cry a bit. ¡°Boohoo...you are so mean! How could you say that to a fellow guild mate?¡± asked Eri in tears. Viv shrugged and revealed, ¡°The one who let you in was Al not me nor Eden. The ones we picked were at least the kind that didn''t make me mad when I speak to them. Plus they are not the kind that wishes to dress me up when the opportunity arises!¡± ¡°Ahhhh....but I want to dress you up like me~¡± Eri leaned closer and closer to Viv... ¡°Like a pretty doll¡± she whispered in his ear, ¡°I''M A GUY GOD DAMNIT!¡± he shouted to which he stopped and then sighed muttering, ¡°I can''t believe I just said something that Eden would have said...¡± completely depressed now. ¡°....¡± Once again the group was stunned at this scene. For one, Viv was being played so easily....Sain guessed that some people had natural weaknesses and this was one of Viv''s. ¡°Whimer...I guess I have to later play with Pato then...¡± said Eri in a depressed tone. ¡°Pato...¡± said Viv, ¡°You mean that former captain guard that later turned into...a really good tailor and went from super low voice to super high voice with the same body figure?¡± ¡°No, I mean his grandson who is similar but has more muscle and a kind heart~¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Aren''t they the same then?¡± asked Viv with his voice strained for words. ¡°Not at all! I knew the first Pato and he was really good to me, got me into wearing this instead of...those bland black cloaks while the current Pato helped make this dress~¡± Eri swung her dress around a bit to show. ¡°Anyway....you know what to do Erica so get to work. Eden wants you to work...well to do those kinds of things again.¡± Viv held out a scroll to her. ¡°Yay! Eden''s tasks are super fun to do for me~¡± she said rushing to grab the scroll and activated it to which she was covered in blue light and disappeared...teleported. ¡°Well that takes care of that...let''s go¡± he said. ¡°Umm...¡± Serena interrupted. ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°What kind of tasks...does Eden give?¡± she asked. ¡°Hmm...hard to say but most of them are cater to the individually. For Erica it would be something related to her skills as a necromancer and nothing more. I believe some of you know what your masters do for Eden.¡± He took out his hand and counted with his fingers, ¡°Mel practises medicine, Park trains recruits in the city and Anna deals with assassinations when Eden can''t be bothered and so on. If you wish, later on when you wish to have a steady job, Eden can find something for you to do.¡± With that, the month long journey in a ''random'' cave ended and they resumed their travel to Lily City located at the lands that are between the Western and Central Continents.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7900~ - Kinda had to compress 1 month of dungeon raiding into one chapter so skipped most of the content which would be 3 chapters of them exploring the place, facing monsters and traps and such to bring you this. Well it would be a good volume cliffhanger if I made them fall into a trap and leave it there... - Just the Epilogue to do now...I''ll post it tomorrow since I need to think up what to write that isn''t completely boring Vol.4 Epilogue - The End of a 6 Month Trip ¡°Right. We''re finally here after 6 months of travel¡± said Viv when they began to get nearer to a large city that was located on open plains with a large river crossing it''s side. ¡°Lily City, one of the larger and more rich city in the game.¡± ¡°Wow...¡± The group looking at the city even from afar knew that it was extremely beautiful. It was a mixture of white and green with the city being separated into two levels...on near the roots and one on amongst the trees. It was a city that was built around a giant tree that was hundreds of metres large. It resembled more of an elf city than a human one. ¡°How did they build it? And how strong must the wood be to support all of that weight?¡± Miriel wondered. ¡°Ah, that tree is artificial you know. It''s made of a certain magic stone that closely resembles wood. A very interesting material to use and the architects were very happy to work with it in the making of this city¡± Viv explained. ¡°Anyway since we''re here, I should release you all from your seals.¡± A flicker with his staff and the marks on Serena and Miriel''s wrist disappeared. Viv then threw Lyndis her sword but said to Raven, ¡°Unfortunately I don''t have a spare shield to give you since your one broke. However you are near the level to use that shield you have brought before. Hopefully it isn''t too much trouble to just use a spear a little longer.¡± ¡°New shield¡± Raven said holding up the shield that the death knight used. While it''s defence was for the most part weaker, it was still a good shield to use as a substitute at least. Raven nodded in response. It looked like he had gotten over it already. ''It''s good to see that he''s a bit more cheerful than before...'' ¡°Anyway make sure to continue practising your skills. Don''t be an Eden and not do anything for months only to realise that your friends are much stronger than you know and are forcing you to train¡± advised Viv. ¡°Did that really happen?¡± asked Lyndis with a laugh. Considering that something that lasted 6 months was about to end, she was as expected cheerful. ¡°Oh yeah, where are we going from now on?¡± asked Sain, ¡°The trip here is about to end but we still have no idea what to do next.¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Viv thought about it. ¡°Well that''s for Alena to decide.¡± ¡°Who''s Alena?¡± ¡°Someone important to the guild. A branch manager if you will...she will fill you up with what to know later on. But for now...enjoy the scene before you¡± Viv said relaxing. Seeing the city, Sain strangely had a calm feeling about everything, like it was going to be fine. xXx Elsewhere....at a place that no living creature would currently dare to come near. A man marched alone donned with pure white armour and a sword sheathed in gold that glowed with hope and dreams. Click Click Click... The man who had the greatest resolve continued to walk...to the centre of continent from a faraway land that no longer exist except in history and legends. Click Click Click... However the man who with his old age and white hair stopped. He touched his large scar on his face, made from the strike from his own child and looked...to the one who stopped him. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Yo oh fallen king¡± this other person said. With black hair and a figure of a woman...despite being a man in all but name, great power poured out of his very existence. ¡°You are?¡± the man asked taking a stance to draw his sword. The other person laughed and said, ¡°I''m Eden, no need to be so stiff! I''m not going to hurt you...yet.¡± The man felt a pressure unlike he had...no, he had felt this kind of pressure before in his younger days. The pressure of a dragon. Like a rabbit to be caught by prey, that was the kind of feeling he was still having despite being so old and yet so far from being mere prey. ¡°You stop me?¡± the man asked. ¡°Yes I will stop you no matter what¡± said Eden, ¡°I will make sure the Trial of the Emperor will be finished smoothly. That was what I was requested by that stubborn and cheap man after all. Plus now he owes me a favour!¡± Eden laughed at the idea of Weed owing him one which caused the man to have even more tension as he knew not when to draw and strike. To be in the mist of battle and yet acting like this...and still giving off no openings was certainly impressive. ¡°Get out of my way or be struck down¡± said the man no longer willing to deal with this kind of conversation. He draw his sword to revealed a silvery white sword with great power. ¡°Ohhh....so this is the famed sword of legend. Excalibur, the sword of promised victory and the sword of the King of Knights...well former King of Knights now isn''t it? Or should I call you the King of Ghosts now?¡± said Eden flapping his mouth off. ¡°You...¡± The man swintered his eyes onto Eden. He thought that this being needed to be slain if he knew that much. A new kingdom needed to be formed and can only be revealed when he had enough numbers. ¡°Will die here...¡± The man let out all of his battle instincts and pressure from his body at once and so did Eden to a lesser extent. ¡°Hmp! Not much of a talker eh, Dragonic Release!¡± said Eden giving off the illusion that a great dragon was in front of the man with the sheer quantity of power coming from his body. The man''s battle aura activated while Eden''s body was covered in blue flames were could devour even souls. ¡°Come! And fall beneath my resolve Dragon!¡± ¡°Don''t think I will spare even ashes when I''m done with you!¡± The man''s blade and Eden''s flames clashed with each other. BANG! The two clashed with everything on the line. The Trial of the Emperor is only just beginning... The once yet Warrior King had yet to descend onto the world... To plunge the new Emperor and his kingdom into chaos...
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Vol.5 Prologue - Lily City Arriving at Lily city, the city where it was built as an artificial large tree, they were stopped at the gate which was made of marble white stone. The design were as such that the travellers that passed by always looked back on it. ¡°Halt, state your business¡± said one of the guards. There were in total 6 guards that were present at the gate. The gate being very wide allows for more people to past through unhindered but at the same time required more guards to be stationed there. Along with them, another two groups, also travellers as it seemed with a carriage were stopped. ¡°We''re on guild business¡± stated Viv flashing the guild emblem to the guard. Even though the guard did not see the details of the emblem, the design and general shape of the emblem was enough to prove that they were in fact part of an Independent Guild and a powerful one as well. ¡°You may go through. Please have a pleasant stay¡± said the guard almost bowing to them. This caught the eyes of the other people in the area although Viv and for the most part, the rest of the group ignored the stares that they were getting. However Miriel had to ask, ¡°Why did that guard seem so respectful when he saw that guild emblem?¡± ¡°Yeah, is our guild that famous?¡± echoed Lyndis. ¡°It''s not the guild emblem...well it is and is not at the same time. Guild emblems are split into 7 tiers and 4 colours. They are from the bottom, White, Purple, Gold and finally Black. Only S rank Independent Guilds have a black emblem. Besides if that guard saw the actual Guild Emblem he would be so worried that the city would be destroyed that he would not be able to speak¡± said Viv in a matter of fact. The S.S centre was famous for many things...though most of them were rumours that involved them inadvertently destroying anything in sight including buildings, forts and whole cities if they need to. Who would want such creatures in their city? ¡°Hmm...how many S rank guilds are there?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Including our one...there are currently three though in total there were eight. The other two are the ''Wise Men'' and ''Gemchi'' groups.¡± ¡°What happened to the other ones?¡± ¡°Got destroyed or failed too many quests in a row and got demoted or disband in the end. Maintaining an Independent Guild is harder than you think. Other than the expectations that the Kingdom haves of you, you must also clear other conditions. The most common and hardest is a set number of Guild Quests every few months. It gets harder the higher you go and many have crumpled after moving up a rank.¡± ¡°I see then...¡± The group looked at Viv worried of what will happen now that they gained extra members and yet had little time to do these Guild Quests. ¡°Don''t worry, we rarely get to do anything in the first place. Besides, I completed a few while travelling with you guys at the same time. Anyway hold on since we''re going to the next level¡± Viv said while steering the bull forward. The bull moved forward on the road where it tilted upwards a bit. The group looked and there were multiple layers to this city and the tree that is the core of it. ¡°While I said there are generally two layers¡± Viv explained, ¡°There are many many more layers in between the two where it is almost a maze to figure out where everything is.¡± The carriage made a left turn, went up another layer and then up another two layers and then finally came to a stop. ¡°We''re here¡± said Viv getting off the carriage. The group followed suit and followed him to a building that was partly ingrain into the tree. And on top of the building was a sign that said: INDEPENDENT GUILD ADMINISTRATION CENTRE Looking around Miriel noticed that there weren''t any other people here despite the rest of the way, there were crowds of people in the way on the road. ¡°Don''t people visit?¡± she finally asked. Viv continued to walk to the building and said, ¡°There are some spells that keep outsiders out. Almost unbreakable to all but the strongest people you can find. Only those related to an Independent Guild can enter. If not there would be too many people here and also...¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. He opened the door. ¡°We only deal with the most troublesome tasks.¡± ¡°Ah Viv, it''s good to see you again. I got the message that you have brought some friends?¡± said a female voice inside the building. The group quickly followed inside where they were surprise that the inside was...so modern looking without the computers and technology part. One way to describe the inside of the building was that it looked and felt like a clinic or part of something very clean. There, the group found Viv talking to a young lady that was at most in her mid twenties. She had long black hair with bits of blonde at the end almost like the colour was fading away at the end, a pretty face and a slim body wearing no armour but a stylish set of clothes with a long skirt. And in her arms was a baby. ¡°This is Alena, who works with the city and otherwise to make sure things are running fine¡± said Viv introducing her. ¡°Nice to meet you¡± said Sain bowing slightly. The others did the same as well as Viv introduced them to her. ¡°These guys are the new recruits that need training. Sain is the one at the front, the black haired on is Miriel, the red haired one is Lyndis, the short on is Serena, the blonde one is Raven and the one that you can sort of see and not see is Shadow.¡± Alena let out a chuckle and said, ¡°The way you explain it is too simple. It might hurt their feelings¡± reprimanding Viv a bit. Then she looked around a bit peering behind where the group walked through and asked, ¡°So...no one else came as well? Perhaps...¡± she looked sad asking this. Viv shook his head and said, ¡°Eden and Al have work to do especially right now where they are needed most. Besides six months ago, Ron destroyed half the city in his rampage while Eden was asleep...¡± Alena looked amused and said, ¡°That sounds like him...sleeping on the job. Always...¡± ¡°Anyway I have to leave as well. I''m counting on you to take care of them. I''m certain that you have some tasks for them to complete while they''re here...¡± Viv looked at them, ¡°Also could you design some new clothes for them? They look quite ragged from the trip.¡± ¡°Of course¡± replied Alena waving Viv good bye as he left the group here with her. With Viv gone, the group looked at Alena on what to do. ¡°Right!¡± she said with confidence, ¡°First I will need your measurements¡± taking out some measuring tap and moving to close the door. ¡°You boys can move into that room over there¡± she pointed at a door, ¡°While you girls stay here since I suspect you wish to discuss on the outfits you will be wearing later on¡± with a hint of cheek. The males of the group did so and entered the room which looked like a waiting room with sofas and a large table at the centre. Compared to the room that they entered from the entrance, it was very small. Meanwhile on the other side of the door, Alena moved the girls to another room just in case which was her work room. Pieces of cloths and unfinished and finished outfits were everywhere. The girls knew immediately that Alena was a pro at this. And as such they spent the next hour on a heated discussion on not only theirs and the boys'' own outfits as well.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - 5th Volume start! Now I can finally get to writing more interesting things since most of their training (For now) has been completed! Vol.5 Chapter 1 - The Laboratory (I) Getting back to the boys, Alena along with Miriel, Lyndis and Serena were now all finished with all of the measurements and discussions on what they would wear thanks to Alena having the tailoring skill in the Advance levels and even the blacksmithing skill to the Intermediate levels. ¡°How did you get those skills to such a high level?¡± asked Lyndis, ¡°And what level and class do you have?¡± ¡°Lyndis! It''s impolite to ask for one''s class and level¡± scowled Miriel before bowing to Alena and saying, ¡°I''m sorry about her words.¡± Alena shook it off and said, ¡°Don''t worry. You freeman as the others said are interesting in lots of ways.¡± ¡°....¡± It was with these words that the group realised something. ''Alena is an NPC!'' However the biggest clue to this was in her arms right now which was a baby that was most likely to her child. Players cannot much to some people''s despair and many other pleasure, have children. That right in this game were to only the NPCs. However players could adopt NPC children if they wished. ¡°What''s wrong?¡± asked Alena confused on the sudden silence. ¡°Please don''t worry about it¡± replied Miriel quickly as Sain raised his eyebrow at her. She seemed to be...sucking up to her for some reason. He would need to ask later on. However for now Sain asked, ¡°What tasks did Viv mention?¡± ¡°Oh, that? Don''t worry about it. Those are minor tasks that I and my husband can deal with ourselves. Mostly just making sure that everything is in order with the documents that we have¡± she pointed at a whole stack of paper on the table which the group only noticed now. Upon hearing the topic of ''husband'' Lyndis spend no time to ask, ¡°Who is your husband? What does he look like? And how did you get together?¡± quickly to which Sain had to smack her head since it was a bother. He quickly noticed that Serena and Miriel seemed interested in this as well. Shadow and Raven on the other hand looked really bored. Sain also really could not care any less but it was impolite to look bored when others are speaking. ¡°Oh...well I can say my husband is a knight that works for this city. He''s handsome browned haired person with a bit of a childish side. When we first met he said he was completely smitten by me and immediately proposed to which my father beat him up in anger. He did this another four time before he could let me respond to which I said to date for a while before marriage. It took another 5 years before we could actually get married though.¡± ¡°Wa...that father of your seems to be really protective of you¡± said Lyndis. ¡°Yes¡± Alena nodded with some pride in her voice, ¡°He really like protecting me. However it''s even more so for my twin sister. She''s with my husband right now on a mission because...¡± she looked at the child in her arms. ¡°Well I have to take care of this little one here who is only a two year old. For some reason father started avoiding me when he was born...and they met...¡± a gust of sadness went through Alena''s face before it turned to normal. Suddenly the evaluation of this father was shot down with a beauty like Alena despite being married and having a child looked sad talking about him. ¡°It''s too bad...since he was such a good father before, always trying to make use happy and as a child your parents are very important. It''s only recently that he became a bit cold.¡± ¡°Don''t worry¡± said Lyndis with a thumbs up, ¡°We''ll beat up that father of yours when he appears and if he dares appears.¡± The others nodded in agreement to her. Alena let out a laugh to this and said, ¡°Sorry...but my father is really strong. My husband is said to be unrivalled by the sword in the Kingdom but both my father and mother could beat him up with ease with their bare fists no less.¡± ¡°Wow...it sounds like your parents are sort of monsters¡± exclaimed Miriel. ¡°Yes...to beat someone strong up like that...¡± Serena muttered to which Alena smiled again. ¡°Haha, being just strong isn''t the most of it, both of them are completely irrational to the point that the young me knew that they lacked common sense in the most basic sense. Well that should be enough about me, how were the others back at Witchelm City?¡± she asked changing the topic at a good time. ¡°Well...¡± Sain started, ¡°Eden is...you know and then Alexandra appeared and we were dragged into a B rank Guild Quest about a Demon King...then there are our masters.¡± ¡°Masters? You mean Gen and the others?¡± ¡°Yes, they took us in before we joined the guild. You know them?¡± Sain explained. ¡°Oh yes. I grew up around them and looked at Anna as a big sister figure in fact!¡± she said excitedly, ¡°So what exactly happened for Ron to go on a rampage? I know even while he''s drunk, he would never intentionally harm others.¡± Sain looked at Miriel who was there for those events and then explained it to Alena. ¡°Really? They are STILL fighting?¡± asked Alena really surprised of this news. ¡°What exactly happened for them to...¡± Miriel asked. Alena waved one of her arms and said, ¡°Oh I was told it was just a minor feud over something so simple and yet...decades later they are still at it. Some things never change.¡± ¡°Yes, I should get you six something to do before I start on your new equipment. What level do you wish for it to be? I suspect it will take at least a few weeks to do with my schedule.¡± ¡°In that case, around level 120 should be fine. Most of us are near that level¡± Sain replied to the question. Lyndis whined a bit being level 110 and needed to catch up the most. ¡°Ah, that''s a good and easy level to create for. I have had many people expect me to create equipment for them that are exactly what level they were to only come back to complain that I had not created it in the way they wanted since they levelled up in the meantime. Now...go down to the second lowest layer in the city and ask around for a guard called Lenny. I believe he has some trouble he wishes to be dealt with.¡± Sain and the other nodded and start to leave. But before they did Alena added on, ¡°You can stay here if you wish. I am actually a very good cook.¡± ¡°Thank you for the hospitality¡± Miriel replied bowing to her before leaving with the rest of the group. xXx While walking down to the second lowest layer as Alena said, Sain opened the group''s status windows. [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 116,Level: 114]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Tactician,Title: Dark Walker]Fame: 625,Fame: 620[/quart][quart=Health: 4795,Health: 4318]Mana: 1982,Mana: 897[/quart][quart=Strength: 151 +31,Strength: 145 +32]Agility: 166 +36,Agility: 415 +36[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 145 +25,Intelligence: 15 +14]Wisdom: 145 +34,Wisdom: 15 +14[/quart][quart=Vitality: 160 +14,Vitality: 138 +14]Stamina: 93 +17,Stamina: 115 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 60 +22,Fighting Spirit: 70 +22]Endurance: 27 +14,Endurance: 23 +14[/quart][quart=Leadership: 14 +14,Leadership: 5 +14]Luck: 9 +14,Luck: 35+24[/quart][quart=Offense: 36,Offense: 45]Defence: 58,Defence: 46[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 110,Level: 110]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Shield-Bearer,Title: Blade Dancer]Fame: 610,Fame: 610[/quart][quart=Health: 7362,Health: 4557]Mana: 852,Mana: 1427[/quart][quart=Strength: 260 +45,Strength: 267 +31]Agility: 160 +26,Agility: 190 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 15 +19,Intelligence: 131 +27]Wisdom: 20 +19,Wisdom: 17 +17[/quart][quart=Vitality: 261 +34,Vitality: 145 +14]Stamina: 125 +22,Stamina: 100 +17[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 65 +27,Fighting Spirit: 66 +20]Endurance: 50 +19,Endurance: 30 +13[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5+19,Leadership: 5 +14]Luck: 5 +19,Luck: 7 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 55,Offense: 60]Defence: 90,Defence: 55[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 118,Level: 113]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Sound Maiden,Title: Nature Wielder]Fame: 625,Fame: 630[/quart][quart=Health: 2053,Health: 2014]Mana: 3198,Mana: 2852[/quart][quart=Strength: 20 +21,Strength: 19 +33]Agility: 145 +26,Agility: 147 +16[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 390 +26,Intelligence: 260 +24]Wisdom: 145 +26,Wisdom: 250 +34[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 22 +19,Fighting Spirit: 22 +25]Endurance: 20 +14,Endurance: 20 +14[/quart][quart=Vitality: 30 +14,Vitality: 30 +14]Stamina: 70 +17,Stamina: 65 +29[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5 +14,Leadership: 5 +14]Luck: 5 +14,Luck: 7 +14[/quart][quart=Offense: 10,Offense: 10]Defence: 10,Defence: 10[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
Concentration: 40 +13Concentration: 49 +14
From before....they were roughly in the 70s and now they were in the high 110s. There was roughly about 40-50 levels gained through this trip and over half was gained during the one dungeon run in the cave. Right now they had experienced a total of 1 year and 3 months in the game or otherwise almost 4 months playing the game since they were sent to the mansion and instructed to play together for a task that is now postponed for now. In another 2 months in game or 2 weeks in real life time, they would have to start school. This means that they will be less and less time to play in the game. As such it was wise to hunt to make sure everyone reaches level 120 at least to equip the armour that Alena was making for them free of charge. ¡°I wonder what we should do now...after all that skill training, I feel like not doing much for now¡± Lyndis yawned. ¡°You better not slack off¡± said Miriel in respond. ¡°Can you lay it off for a while Miriel? We just completely a 6 month trip and some of us want to relax before we are thrown into something more troublesome¡± said Shadow. ¡°What?¡± Miriel glared at Shadow and he glared back. ¡°Please...don''t fight...¡± said Serena trying to stop the fighting while Sain was ignoring what was happening around him and now thinking of their skills since Lyndis mentioned it. [third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (15/100) - Nature Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (15/100) - Mediation Beginner level 6 (19/100) - Mana Burst Beginner level 2 (2/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Beginner level 9 (450/1700) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 8 (351/1500) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) Language Comprehension Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Blood Burst Beginner level 5 (877/900) - Root Bind Intermediate level 1 (522/2500) - Heartbeat Healing Beginner level 6 (79/100) - Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100) - Poison Removal Beginner Level 1 (0/100) - Health Restoration Beginner Level 3 (45/100) - Poison Coating Beginner Level 2 (167/300) - Blessing of Strengthened Night Beginner (5/100 000) - Blessing of Invisible Torments Beginner (8/100 000) - Blessing of Eternal Suns Beginner (25/100 000) - Leaf Slicer Beginner Level 5 (221/900),- Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (19/100) - Whip Mastery Beginner Level 4 (24/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 4 (32/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 5 (22/100) - Barrier Magic Mastery Beginner 2(32/100) - Ice Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (13/100) - Magic Control Mastery Beginner 8 (32/100) - Mediation Beginner level 6 (12/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 3 (63/100) - Identify Beginner level 2 (12/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 7 (52/1300) - Clairvoyance Beginner level 4 (156/700) - Melody of Sound Beginner level 7 (730/1300) - Cracked Barrier Beginner level 5 (1020/1800) - Shriek Beginner level 6 (199/1100) - Ice Bolt Intermediate Level 1 (60/2400) - Ice Burst Beginner Level 5 (345/900) - Freeze Beginner Level 2 (111/300) - Ice Barrier Beginner Level 1 (91/100) - Sound Tunes Variation Beginner Level 4 (11/700) - Muffletone Beginner Level 2 (23/300)]- Sword Mastery Beginner 9 (72/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Level 8 (28/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 3 (25/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (154/700) - Fire Blade Beginner level 8 (873/1500) - Life Burn Beginner level 3 (380/500) - Power Strike Beginner level 8 (440/1500) - Speed Strike Beginner level 8 (470/1500) - Power Stance Beginner level 8 (460/1500) - Speed Stance Beginner level 7 (310/1300) - Precision Stance Beginner level 7 (355/1300) - Burning Touch Beginner Level 4 (622/700) - Flame Strike Beginner Level 8 (523/1500) - Sword Dance Beginner Level 4 (310/700) - Fire Bomb Beginner Level 7 (513/1300) - Bandaging Beginner Level 6 (12/100) - Flame Coating Beginner Level 2 (18/300) [/third]
Skill Window
[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Beginner Level 8 (84/100) - Shield Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (55/100) - Shield Bash Beginner level 9 (121/1700) - Double Strike Beginner level 7 (353/1500) - Footwork Beginner level 9 (544/1700) - Repair Beginner level 7 (572/2100) - Ram Beginner level 6 (15/100) - Shield Parry Beginner level 8 (61/1500) - Spear Parry Beginner level 6 (657/1100) - Body Reinforcement Intermediate level 1 (15/2500) - Anchor Howl Beginner Level 5 (240/900),- Dagger Mastery Intermediate 1 (651/100) - Stealth Intermediate Level 7 (74/100) - Hearing Intermediate level 1 (59/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 4 (35/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 4 (88/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 5 (25/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 5 (42/100) - Backstab Beginner level 8 (881/1500) - Double Strike Beginner level 7 (674/1100) - Climbing Beginner Level 9 (89/100) - Become Mist Beginner level 3 (16/100) - Burst Speed Beginner level 9 (225/1700) - Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100) - Pin Point Hearing Beginner Level 4 (26/100) - Shadow Step Beginner Level 5 (127/900)]- Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 5 (15/100) - Mana Control Beginner Level 9 (75/100) - Spear Mastery Beginner Level 6 (22/100) - Identify Beginner level 2 (70/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 5 (20/100) - Mana Bolt Beginner level 9 (355/1700) - Mediation Beginner level 8 (8/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 4 (4/700) - Minor Heal Intermediate level 1 (822/2500) - Moderate Heal Beginner Level 3 (215/2900) - Weaken Beginner level 8 (1046/1500) - Bursting Will Beginner level 5 (50/100) - Wolf Summoning Beginner level 2 (47/100) - Magic Arrow Beginner level 9 (923/1700) - Water Fill Beginner Level 5 (164/900) - Iron Skin Beginner Level 4 (75/100) - Swift Legs Beginner Level 4 (75/100) - Berserk Fury Beginner Level 4 (75/100) - Poison Removal Beginner Level 1 (2/100) - Paralyse Shot Beginner Level 5 (132/900) - Poison Shot Beginner Level 5 (479/900)[/third]
Skill Window
The number of skills and spell they could use almost doubled compared to six months ago. It was a large surprise that they gained so many more skills and spells to use now. In fact it was rare for a player to gain so many new skills and spell over this amount of time. Usually new skills came from getting new classes and rarely through actions and spells which were expensive to buy especially on the later levels made it so that all mages were short on money. Warrior were the same with new swords and armour needing to be updated all the time. ''Speaking of skills....'' ¡°Miriel¡± said Sain stopping everyone else from speaking, ¡°Did Viv give you any skill books that were leftover?¡± ¡°Ah.¡± Miriel let out that short remark. ¡°Ahhhhhhh!¡± And she started banging her head into the side of the wall over and over again. ¡°Serena, start healing her! Moderate Heal!¡± shouted Sain seeing that at this rate Miriel would literally kill herself. The two quickly casted recovery spells onto her while Lyndis restrained her from doing more harm to her. ¡°I...¡± she muttered, ¡°Can''t believe I forgot about that....so much money...gone....¡± she cried a bit saying these words. ¡°Isn''t it fine?¡± said Shadow for a brief silent. ¡°I mean how much gold do we have already and plus we''re getting new equipment from Alena as well. There''s really little point in money unless we have a goal.¡± ¡°Little point in money?¡± said Miriel now calm but at the same time cold. Like a limp doll, she got up and took out her whip and laughed crazed in madness. ¡°Ahhh!¡± Sain, Lyndis and Raven all moved in to stop Miriel from doing anything rash while Serena stared at this and Shadow merely looked bored at what was happening. Thankfully they were still in an area where there was little to no people around so that they did not make a large commotion. ¡°Actually...¡± Shadow took out some books from his inventory, ¡°Viv gave them to me before he left.¡± ¡°....¡± There was silence....and a demon appeared. ¡°This piece of trash should die!¡± Miriel breaking free of three people started to attack Shadow with her whip. Snap! Snap! Snap! However Shadow with the highest agility in the group easily dodge the attacks and dared to yawn about it. As such Miriel redoubled her efforts to attack him over and over again to the point that the other three who originally tried to stop her sighed and gave up. ¡°Oh~ I see that you guys made it to this city¡± said an unfamiliar voice. Everyone turned to see someone in a knight outfit that was white and red and had a mechanical feel to it. The person in question had long red hair and a handsome type face. ¡°Who?¡± Everyone wondered aloud. Crash! The knight toppled over in shock and immediately got up pointing at himself saying, ¡°I''m Summer!¡± ¡°But it''s autumn right now¡± said Sain remembering that it was this season of the year. ¡°Yes...NO! That''s my name!¡± Summer shouted, ¡°How could you forget me?! It hasn''t even been a year yet!¡± Then another person appeared with the same type of armour though it was a female version. This person had long white hair instead. ¡°Oh~ Nice to see you all again¡± said this person. ¡°Lielm?!¡± said Miriel, Lyndis and Serena at the same time. To this sudden realisation, Summer face palmed himself with a great sigh in regret. ¡°That means...¡± Lyndis pointed her finger at Lielm then at Summer, ¡°Ah! That knight feller on that Demon King Guild Quest!¡± ¡°Yes...¡± Summer replied though depressed now. Lielm let out a crude laugh similar to when she was possessed to be a Demon King and patted Summer on the pat which produced some shockwaves due to her high level and strength. ¡°What are you doing here? Are Eden or Alexandra here as well~? No? I guess we can hang out for a bit then~¡± said Lielm without much of a concern of the person next to her. ¡°Hey!¡± Summer hit Lielm on the head and shouted, ¡°We have work to do! The Order still needs you to do extra work for becoming a pawn for a Demon King!¡± ¡°Aw....I don''t want to...¡± Lielm flashed her puppy eyes at Summer but they had no effect at all. ¡°We need to meet Alena to sort things out you...fool!¡± Summer hit Lielm on the head again. ¡°You know Alena¡± questioned Shadow. Summer looked surprised and said, ¡°Of course we do. She is one of the few people that everyone can trust as part of the branch that connects the Kingdom to Independent Guilds to ordinary citizens. While I heard she had connections with a guild in the past, she''s more or less a neutral party now.¡± While Summer was explaining this, Lielm sneaked past the alertness of the group and then touched Sain''s right hand poking at it. ¡°Ahh!¡± Sain let out a short scream and backed away. ¡°Interesting...¡± Lielm muttered. Bang! She was hit in the head again. ¡°Ow....¡± Lielm glared at the person who hit her who was Summer of course. As level 800 beings they were on a separate tier compared to everything else. They could be seen as legendary or heroic beings in the eyes of players or NPCs. To compare them, the average guard was at level 100. The average knight is at level 200, the next big jump are Royal Knights that are sometimes level 300 each. Then there are elite units as well like a famous knight or key figure that are level 400. At level 500, they are beings that are very much related to important history in the game while at level 600 they are being that are often related to class quests and are masters of their skills. But for one to jump from that point to the level 800 point requires unmatched skill on all levels and even for players, those who reached that point was even less than NPCs which is saying a lot. ¡°Lielm..why did you do that?¡± asked Summer scowling her. Lielm pouted and said, ¡°Don''t wanna say now.¡± Summer''s eye twitched and then there was a bright smile on his face as he said, ¡°What do you not want me to know?¡± ''Impossible...that trick cannot work...'' Lielm looked brightly back at Summer and said, ¡°That I feel a familiar presence on them all especially that one!¡± she pointed at Sain. ¡°Familiar...?¡± The gaze that Summer had in his eyes sharpened as he said, ¡°Blade!¡± and a large mechanical sword appeared in his hands. ¡°Lielm felt the presence of a Demon King in you...that wasn''t there before...what happened?¡± he demanded to the group but they were unable to answer as they were paralyse with fear. ¡°Is that so...¡± he raised his sword full of energy, enough to split through this city, ¡°Die!¡± Bang! A heel dug deep to the side of Summer''s body as he was kicked away hitting and destroying a wall in the process. ¡°Bad Summer!¡± Lielm said with an angry face though it looked comical, ¡°You can''t just harm them thinking they are enemies!¡± ¡°But you just said-¡± ¡°And that doesn''t matter. Lielm is friends with them! They''re aren''t demon kings!¡± she said cutting apart what Summer tried to say. ¡°But they could be later on!¡± Summer shouted to which Lielm hit him again saying, ¡°Eden already explained it to us before remember?! Unless you want to get Eden angry....leave me out of it.¡± Hearing Eden''s name, Summer paled and then retracted his sword back to the other dimension. He did not want to face Eden who commented that a Demon King, the strongest type of Demon King was a small fry. Besides Summer had a feeling that back then, Eden did not go all out and was holding back...along with that white dragon as well. Facing them plus all the other unknowns in that guild would bring extreme trouble to the Order. ¡°Fine...but an explanation better be made later on.¡± ¡°Of course there will be...I eavesdropped on some of the high ups in the order before when they were having a conversation with that Eden¡± Lielm said all of a sudden. ¡°What?¡± Everyone said that at once surprised that Eden was already connected to the Order of Knights before the Guild Quest. ''That kinda explains why he accepted the quest so easily...'' Sain thought. ¡°And...what did was the conversation about?¡± asked Miriel. Lielm creep up to her and hugged Miriel and then said, ¡°Oh it was about those things on your right hands. Eden planted them right? That means he planted his power into you lot. The Order noticed long ago that they were very similar to the power that the Demon Kings held.¡± Lielm let out a laugh and then said, ¡°And then the Order''s knights was about to attack him and that Eden found it funny. Shocked, the Order knights asked what was funny and you know what he said then?¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone did not want to say anything since Eden was unpredictable to the point that nothing would be surprising anymore. ¡°He said not to compared him with some small fries and started chanting!¡± ¡°Chanting?¡± Lyndis raised that question. ¡°Yes. I couldn''t remember what the exact wording was but it was super creepy! It was like...something was crushing my heart when I heard it. After that I loud explosion happened and all of those Order Knights were instantly defeated. It was super surprising what happened since the Order Knights were super powerful and yet Eden was super super powerful~!¡± ¡°And...¡± Summer said, ¡°What does this to do with why I shouldn''t attack?¡± ¡°Everything!¡± Lielm moved back to riding on Summer with her hands on his shoulders, ¡°Eden said if we dared do something like that again, he''ll wipe us out.¡± ¡°But that''s impossible. For one being to wipe out an Order that was built to fight the strongest of foes-¡± ¡°If you were there than you would know. You said before that Eden seemed like holding back during fighting right? You were right Summer. Eden is something you do not want to get angry. There are rumours that if you do than the city will blow up!¡± Summer took a few moments to open his mouth, not say anything then close and then repeat that a few times and finally said, ¡°If that is the case...besides, it is unlikely for one to quickly turn out like a Demon King...I apologise for any harm I may cause¡± while bowing slightly to the group. ¡°No no¡± Sain shook his hands a bit embrassed, ¡°Miriel was in the middle of trying to kill Shadow so you helped stop that by appearing.¡± Summer looked puzzled and said, ¡°The one who had a poor presence from before?¡± he went to look at Shadow frowning. Next he gave his advise to him, ¡°You...if you continue this way, you will lose your advantage.¡± Irritated that such words were directed to him, Shadow replied, ¡°And what does that mean?¡± ¡°I can feel your presence better than before.¡± Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. ¡°So?¡± ¡°That is a problem since before, even though you were weak, I had difficulties tracking you and yet now that you are stronger I having an easy time doing so. You will be a common person soon if you keep this up.¡± With that Summer left with Lielm who was waving her arms goodbye to them as they went ahead. The group with the exception of Shadow waved back tot her as he was thinking of Summer''s words just then. ¡°Hey¡± Shadow said. Everyone turned to him. Seeing this he sighed and said, ¡°So that''s what he meant...before when we started even if I did that you guys wouldn''t even respond and now...¡± ¡°Isn''t that a good thing?¡± asked Lyndis seeing that now Shadow did not ''suddenly'' appear out of nowhere anymore. ¡°Not at all...well in the perspective of battle. It''ll be harder for me to hide from enemies in plain sight and attack from behind. I did notice my stealth skills were developing slower than before...I think I will limit myself from now on to ''correct'' this¡± he said. ¡°I thought you had an issue with having no presence?¡± Sain asked this time. ¡°Yes but it is also the greatest thing I can bring to this group.¡± ¡°....¡± With that, Shadow refused to talk about the matter anymore. As such they continued to make their way down each layer of the city and eventually got to the one where Alena directed them to go. ¡°We should ask around for the guard called Lenny¡± said Sain seeing that even though there were many layers to this city as there were branches on the tree, each layer was extremely large even though it was not the complete size of the city each. ¡°....¡± Everyone looked away from Sain when he said that except for Lyndis. ¡°You guys...¡± Sain muttered a sigh seeing how they didn''t change one bit at all in this area. ¡°Fine, we''ll split up in two groups...¡± Sain saw that Lyndis was unusually excited for this. He suspected that Lyndis would take this chance to explore the city and spend her money instead of searching and corrected his words, ¡°No...we will go as one group and split up later as I don''t trust Lyndis right now-¡± ¡°What?!¡± Lyndis was immediately displeased seeing the change in plans with her. ¡°And search for the guard Lenny who seems to need some sort of help¡± Sain continued ignoring Lyndis. ¡°Also to sell those skill books at as high as price as possible¡± said Miriel refusing to forget about that issue there. xXx Several minutes passed and they managed to quickly gather information on the guard in question as well as Miriel running off to sell the skill books. In fact it was too easy as the inns and taverns were all filled with words and rumours about him. The crazed mad driven guard who lost his sanity during a mission where he was the only survivor. ¡°Right, what do we know about him so far?¡± asked Sain in a group meeting. ¡°He''s a common guard that was not noticeable before this incident. However afterwards, he''s so well known that there are a couple of players coming from other cities to ask about him. Apparently him being the only survivor and now mad makes it likely for him to be a quest giver¡± said Miriel. Shadow continued after her, ¡°From the words of the people, Lenny was well liked enough that his recent tragedy of his comrades is well known. All we know is that the city dispatched him and 20 odd guards on a mission that is unknown as the city refuses to talk about it.¡± ¡°Ah, that mission I know about. It was raiding a lab that was hidden near the city. There were some minor disappearances a few years ago and they had only found traces of it. One of Lenny''s superior on the mission was part of a group who worked long and hard to find this trace and the lab¡± Lyndis added in. Sain nodded to this information and then asked Serena, ¡°Any news from the healer place he was sent to?¡± ¡°Ah...no....he was saying some words about a monster and his friends over and over again...¡± Serena muttered out a bit frightful and then said, ¡°He also said that his friends were alive and well while screaming that the monster was going to kill him.¡± ¡°....¡± The group was silent since they had a generally bad idea on what was going to happen if they tried to search through all of this. ¡°Any other information?¡± Sain looked at Raven to which he answered, ¡°The other guards refused to give me information on him. Many others have already tried. Some with good relations know that Lenny was not that strong of a fighter.¡± Sain pieced together these bits of information they gathered and came to one conclusion, ¡°We need to meet with this Lenny and get a quest from him. After that we will probably be going to the lab to slay the monster or something along those lines.¡± ¡°That sounds about right¡± Miriel yawned stretching her arms more relaxed then when they were on the carriage before with Viv. ¡°You seem awfully more relaxed now for some reason¡± said Lyndis critical of her. Sain noticed that it was usually the opposite with Lyndis looking relaxed while it was Miriel who criticised her. ¡°Well....it''s like a massive load is off my shoulders right now¡± Miriel said straightening her back and expression back to normal. ¡°With Viv gone of course. You guys don''t know how terrifying...actually we witnessed a bit of it at the port town remember?¡± Memories of a hundred people screaming with their guts... ¡°Serena?¡± Miriel looked over to see Serena pale, ¡°Ah, I''m sorry for bringing that topic up¡± she said while trying to comfort her. ¡°No...problem...¡± Serena muttered back with a smile trying to hide the fact that her hands were shaking. ¡°Don''t worry about it¡± said Lyndis trying to encourage her, ¡°All of us felt sick at the time...I was trying not to vomit...anyway can we leave this depressing topic?¡± ¡°Yes...¡± said Sain, ¡°I suspect we need to meet Lenny in person.¡± As such, the six of them set off to where Lenny was. A place for a mentally unstable. Walking through the lively city, it was strange to think that they would end up in a place that neared depression for those who went near it. Several screams were heard as they walked closer and closer and... ¡°Players?¡± Sain had recognised the number of people in front of the building which was a hospital for the mentally unstable...or was it the right place?¡± ¡°Serena.¡± ¡°Y-Yes?¡± ¡°Is this the right place? And also were there always this many people who visited this place at this time?¡± ¡°T-This is the p-place...but....¡± Serena looked at the crowd who didn''t notice them yet. Miriel sighed and then said, ¡°It''s obvious what happened right? Lenny is giving out the quest and now people are gathering to get the quest from him. Ask and find out¡± Even though she said that, she had no intentions of doing that herself. Instead it was left to Sain and Lyndis to do the talking and they got a few words from the other players who were kind enough to explain what was happening. ¡°Ah, the crazy guy called Lenny is giving out a D ranked quest! It''s very limited though...first 50 players to get it only and you have to be under level 150 as well¡± said one person as Sain quickly counted the numbers. There were still enough for another 20 players. As such they got in line as Lenny gave the quest with some words. However when they got to him, he stayed there silent... ¡°Emblem?¡± he asked as if he knew that they were part of an Independent Guild. Sain showed him the black emblem that he was giving from Miriel to hold. A flash of energy came back into Lenny''s eyes as he talked quickly and quietly. ¡°Alena sent you right? Don''t talk back! I don''t want anyone else to know...that lab you are going to is dangerous. I don''t know what was done there but there is something that took the corpses of my friends...comrades and made it into a monster. You must be wary and destroy any corpses you may find...as they may come back a second or third time. There is also a man...in white with a coat covered red in blood. Kill him for me and for this city. He''s the man who had been kidnapping all those people years ago...and he had since run out of bodies to use...I fear if he is not stopped yet...more will...¡± The players behind Sain and the others noticed that Lenny was acting strange and came closer to listen in. However at the same time Lenny acted and screamed to which everyone including the group took a step back. ¡°Here...is the quest!¡± Lenny almost shouted.
Search through the forgotten Labs The guard Lenny had described to you in more details than the others who came to him of the things that lie in the lab. There is a man who is responsible was once a serial kidnapper who had plagued this city years ago. Kill this man to stop this madness and burn the research! Guild Rank: D Requirement: Part of Independent Guild Reward: Contribution points, etc
The group had gotten a D rank guild quest instead of a normal D rank quest. A D rank Guild quest was equal to a C rank quest. At the same time Sain had to act normal as the other players should not know of that they had gotten this kind of quest from Lenny. ''Was this Alena''s idea?'' he thought. However his thoughts were disrupted with players behind him telling him to hurry with. ¡°We accept¡± he said quickly to calm the other players down. You have accepted the quest The others seemed to have gotten the same quest now and had slight shock on their faces. Sain quickly took them outside where they would not be heard so easily and said, ¡°Say nothing, we know what to do now.¡± The others nodded and Sain smiled taking them to where the other players were gathering to get to the lab which was only a short walk away from the city. ¡°Gather here if you got the quest from the guard Lenny!¡± one player who looked extremely well equipped in heavy armour with a large gold colour shield and sword shouted. ''Looks like he''s going to be the leader of this quest then'' Sain thought slipping into the crowd of players along with the others. ¡°Right!¡± The player that looked really high guard started speaking to the players gathered, ¡°The lab in which we are to investigate the lab in which was spoken up! It is located nearby the city and after we clear it, we can return and claim good experience and perhaps a reward though I doubt the latter in any case! We gather at the north most gate in an hour if you need any more time to prepare! Those who wish to go early may do so if they wish! However make sure to live so you can tell us what to expect later.¡± There was a laugh in the crowd of players. A player nearby explained it to his companion of the joke. ¡°There was a group a while back that had a party charge in alone before everyone else was prepared and were hunted down by monsters in the dungeon they were going through. The video was really funny and went viral.¡± ¡°How is that funny?¡± asked the other player. ¡°It was funny since you had to watch them being super arrogant and equipped in expensive armour and weapons only to be killed by weak foes. You can''t buy skills.¡± Hearing this, Sain turned to the others and asked, ¡°What should we do? We don''t even know the location of the lab...it would take at least an hour to find out either way...should we stick to the group?¡± ¡°Yep, safety in numbers¡± said Lyndis agreeing with this idea. Miriel added, ¡°Just make sure not to cause conflict with other players. It''ll be troublesome if that happened.¡± ¡°Got it¡± Sain replied looking at Shadow for a comment but found that he disappeared. ¡°Shadow?¡± Sain asked looking around surprised that already he had disappeared. ¡°Yes?¡± Shadow tapped Sain on the shoulder to which Sain said, ¡°That problem of yours is that your presence wanes when you don''t speak for long...¡± ¡°If that is the case then I shouldn''t speak at all...much that I want to¡± he replied with a chuckle that the solution came so easily. Then he stayed silent until it was hard enough to notice him. There were way more flashy people in this crowd of players after all. Eventually the crowd of players split up doing their own things. Many went to get some supplies from the various stores shattered around the city while others went to the most north gate at once. There was no party of players who would try to leave immediately, probably due to the words of the player that talked to everyone that made the joke of charging and dying quickly...Sain recalled there was a common wording for this in certain circles but did not remember it well enough. ¡°Right...¡± said Miriel checking her inventory, ¡°With this, we have around 300 gold at best. Undead really did not give us much money and the skill books could only be sold at half price without a merchant.¡± Sain nodded and said, ¡°Right, more players are gathering now to leave. We better hurry up as well.¡± In the next hour that proceeded a number of players went and did their own things only to fully gather when the time to go was due. ¡°Is everyone here?¡± the same player that spoke before said to the group of players to which an echo of ''Yes~'' was heard. With this, the group of players filled with a total of 50 players set off to the lab to complete the quest they got. However in the mist of them, there was one party that had another quest which was a higher rank than what the other players got. xXx On the way to the quest locations... The group of players more or less had no rank. It was simply a gathering of players doing the same quest and as such there was no need for rank at all since their total size was only enough to be considered a small force. ¡°But still...how come there aren''t any battles at all?¡± asked Lyndis who was tapping the hilt of her sword repeatedly. ¡°Monsters aren''t stupid Lyndis¡± Miriel started to lecture, ¡°They also take into account the strength and number of enemies. If they have a good chance of winning in their eyes, they will take it. I believe the correct term for why this is happening is strength in numbers.¡± ¡°Hmm...too bad. Wanted to fight for a while now¡± she sighed hearing this. Sain tapped Lyndis on the shoulder and said, ¡°Please don''t be a battle crazed person.¡± The other nodded and agreement with Sain while Lyndis bellowed out, ¡°What? How can you say that to a lady?¡± Shadow sneered with a grin with, ¡°I see no lady, only a complete battle manic in the makings.¡± ¡°Hey! I can''t be that bad...can I?¡± Lyndis said almost shouting than thinking deeply about it. ¡°The first signs is that you wish to fight¡± said Miriel in monotone and then added, ¡°Of course if only you were to say you wish to get stronger. You at this point only care to have a battle right?¡± ¡°....¡± Lyndis pouted and did not say anymore on the subject itself. As such Sain moved to a topic he wanted to talk about a while since they came to city but could not before. ¡°Right, now that we have all of our skills and spell back in action¡± Sain said, ¡°Miriel...can you put up that sound barrier thing?¡± ¡°Of course¡± Miriel said in a prideful fashion, ¡°Muffletone.¡± Suddenly the sounds around them, the words and chatting of other players were gone...no just tuned out just like the group to them. Muffletone was a spell that Miriel gained while experimenting further with sound magic. It''s use was less so in heated combat but more of before and after battles where they might lure another group of enemies in. Also it is useful to lower than chance of certain information to get out. But this spell was not perfect of course. A complete lack of sound will make anyone suspicious and those with the proper skills to bypass this spell like Shadow and his hearing skills are not affected. The only good thing was that it was a low cost spell. Thanking Miriel Sain continued, ¡°With all our skills back, we have to reorganise ourselves a bit on what role we can play or just know what we can do at this point. We are...quite different from what Miriel originally envisioned us to be at the start. Agree?¡± ¡°Agree¡± the other echoed. ¡°Right...first Raven and Shadow''s role should be the same. Their skills haven''t diverged that much though...Shadow are you able to use stealth with any of the active skills yet?¡± Shadow shook his head and said, ¡°I can''t since my skill level with stealth is too low. I suspect I need to be in the advance levels for that.¡± ¡°I see...in that case just do as you wish. Your skills are good enough to be a melee user in direct combat either way¡± Sain said while moving onto the next person, ¡°Serena is now able to support others with your spells and also attack better now right?¡± ¡°Y-Yes¡± she replied. ¡°In that case since I have a more powerful healing spell to use now, you can possibly focus less on healing from this point on. Binding enemies and taking them down before they hit us is also important.¡± Sain looked at Miriel next, ¡°You turned out the exact opposite of what you proposed to do.¡± ¡°Yes I have.¡± ¡°With a whip you are fine in melee and yet your offence is on the same level as Lyndis and you managed to up your support side at the same time. Honestly I have no idea how you do it, I struggle with my own skills while you continue to just get stronger so quickly.¡± ¡°I take that as a compliment then¡± she smiled and then looked at Lyndis, ¡°And now to this bomb manic.¡± Lyndis shot Miriel a glare and then looked at Sain with expectation of his praise and such. ¡°Lyndis...well both your sword skill and fire skills have developed nicely. Keep it up.¡± And that was all for her. She looked dejected until Miriel added in, ¡°Your sword skill are above average and the damage you can do combined this with your fire skills is very high. With your hidden class and power, you are most likely to be the most powerful of all of us in the end. That is what Sain was about to say right?¡± Miriel looked at Sain who let out a bit of a cold sweat for a second but gave back a refreshing smile with a nod. ¡°As for me, I guess I can barely scrap by compared you everyone else¡± Sain let out a dejected laugh of self pity to which the others noticed and did not like for him to do. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± asked Lyndis despite his short words of praise to her earlier. Shadow nodded and said, ¡°You are the core of this group. Without you we couldn''t even fight properly.¡± ¡°Agreed¡± said Raven. ¡°D-Don''t be too...hard on yourself!¡± said Serena trying to encourage her. Miriel sighed and then said, ¡°How much longer do you think you are weaker than any of us. Although at times you are a despicable person with a twisted personality in doing things, you are someone that we need.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain felt his face going red and looked away quickly especially from Miriel who to him had the best words of encouragement. ¡°Anyway getting to the next point which the one which I rather talk about-¡± ¡°He''s super embarrassed right now isn''t he?¡± ¡°-I want to talk about what will happen later on. As in how we should process when we reach level 200 and take our class advancement to the next point.¡± ¡°Level 200...¡± Raven muttered, ¡°That''s a long time away.¡± A bit disturbed that Raven started to talk more, Sain hastily replied, ¡°That''s true but it''s better to figure out what we what we want to do now. For example, I''m leaning towards a battlefield controller.¡± ¡°Anyone else not know what Sain just meant?¡± asked Lyndis raising her hand. Everyone except for Miriel raised their hands as well. As such Sain explained it to them in the simplest form. ¡°A battlefield controller is a person who casts spell that affects the situation of the battlefield without directly taking part in the combat. For example I can use poison to deal some DPS, paralyse the enemy, bind them and many more. At the same time I can buff my allies as well with my spells. Basically it''s a full support role that can only happen in my role.¡± ¡°I see, so we''ll still have to leave the tactics to you in the end?¡± Shadow asked. ¡°More or less.¡± ¡°Well in that case, I''m leaning towards a more combat orientated class then. Playing stealth is fine but is extremely boring and repetitive with hiding and attacking at the right moment. Sain, I suggest you ask this quest later on when we are nearing the point we have to decide. Right now is not the right time¡± he said to which Sain agreed and did not bring that topic up against for the rest of the walk. xXx Eventually the players numbered exactly 50 reached a part of forest where there was a half hidden entrance that resembled ruins. This was the entrance to the lab...where the quest would take them. Everything about it was unknown but judging by the quest limitations the monsters will be at most level 150 in range and nothing more. Everything else was unknown at this point but with 50 players, the chance of failing was low, very low. ¡°Right! We should go in slowly now! If there are two more more paths, split up but do NOT go alone. At worst there might really be a monster in here that we have to be careful of¡± the same player with the golden shield and sword shouted to everyone. The other players silently agreed and with that player, one by one entered the lab. Inside the lab was quite dusty. There was all sorts of things broken and thrown around the place even though it was the most outer area. There were sharp claw marks on the walls that belonged to a large creature that made the players weary. After 20 or so metres of a straight path, there was a stairway to the lower levels. ¡°Two parties should stay on this level and explore to find out what they can and then join the rest of us later on¡± the player that made himself leader said. As such two parties, 12 players left the group to explore the top floor some more while the other 38 players went further down. Onto the second floor, the place was much larger. At least 5 times larger than the one above it. If one looked, it was a place that resembled a hospital in any case which were often the settings of horror games where a made creature chased and attacked you. Broken tables, chairs and beds were found everywhere. Eventually the parties on the top floor joined the rest of them and then helped with the search on the second floor. ¡°There seems to be 10 floors in this lab¡± a player shouted to the rest of the large group pointing at a worn out map of the place that still had bits of it intact. The more important information like the size of each floor was ripped off though. Seeing the size of this lab floor and that there were at least 10 floors in total, the players knew that this would take a while and would not simply end in a single as they hoped. ¡°By the way, what was the first floor like?¡± one player asked the parties that had explore the first floor. ¡°Wrecked. Nothing to see and a lot of useless junk lying around. It''s not as bad as this floor though. At least there weren''t as many of those...marking everywhere.¡± This conversation was heard by most of the players since the place echoed quite a bit and with people generally not talking too much, crucial information could be spread easily. After an hour, the stairs to the next floor was found under a pile of beds stacked up over each other. ¡°They tried to trap something down there....most likely some sort of monster or monsters. Get ready for a fight. Tanks at the front, healers at the back.¡± The player descended down to the third floor where they were met with...nothing at all. It was the same as the second floor except that there was a mixture of broken beds and glass now. Passing through the rooms, the lab was ransacked as if someone had cleared it in a hurry recently. ¡°Did the guards that came here before do this or....¡± Eventually the way to the fourth floor was found behind a door that was heavily barricaded to the point that warriors with axes had to chop it down while mages fired magic attacks onto it. The group knew that since their voices echoed too much they couldn''t discuss their quest that much. ¡°Found anything?¡± asked Sain to which the other shook their head saying, ¡°Nothing here at all. Not even a scrap of paper or anything.¡± This kind of conversation was not at all uncommon amongst the other players as they discussed a bit on how this place was more deserted than they thought. However this was a D rank quest and as such it was on a level that a mistake could kill them at any time. It was only onto the fifth floor which was blocked by several doorways that had to be broken through that they faced monsters at last. ¡°Mages fire!¡± Several mages used their attack spells at once blowing up the enemy that was seen. Only a spattered set of corpses could be seen. The player with the golden shield and sword said, ¡°Good job. We should continued at this pace-¡± SPAT! The upper body and everything with it of that player disappeared... ¡°GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRR!!!!!¡± BANG! And from the lower floor came a being that looked like a ball of meat...made up of human corpses. The rest of the remaining bits of that player''s body was absorbed into the meat ball and it used it''s countless hands and legs to give chase. ¡°Run!¡± someone said seeing this one in a kind creature. Bang! At the same time the exit to the upper floor was blocked with some sort of forcefield or barrier in place. Several attacks onto it proved useless. And in the mist of this was a mad laugh with only a few words to the players that remained. ¡°Only one can leave~ Only one can live~ Face the monster o brave warriors else turn on yourselves!¡± ¡°....¡± There was a bit of silence of all players as they were making their choices. Face the creature...or turn on their fellow players.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9100~ - Finally finished the first chapter...could have yesterday but my brain was melting into the heat known as near Australian summer. I swear things weren''t this hot several years ago...and yet it feels like the hottest days that summer would get. - Anyway a new city, old people and a new quest. So much to right about...a giant round meat monster made up of corpses is something I remembered from somewhere...but I can''t remember but I still used it! Also with all the action to come, I think it would probably take another 2 chapters to finish. Vol.5 Chapter 2 - The Laboratory (II) ¡°What the hell is with this choice?! Attack! Kill that monster!¡± someone shouted banishing his sword at the large meat creature. ¡°Yeah! Charrrrrrge!¡± The players started to attack the monster together slicing it into pieces. While it was the size that took up all the room in the corridor, it made it an easy target for mages especially. ¡°Use fire to burn it!¡± one player recommended which was generally accepted as the mages started chanting their spells to use. ¡°Let the light burn through flesh and bones, Flash Burn!¡± ¡°GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!¡± The meat creature was lit on fire and it let out a deafening scream through the human mouths that appeared all of a sudden from all corners of it''s body. ¡°Don''t mind the screams attack! Attack!¡± ¡°Sonic Blade!¡± ¡°Fire Sword!¡± The mages continued on using fire magic mostly on it to keep it burning while the other players in the area tried to stop it from moving by slicing off the hands and legs it used to move around. Even though the monster was quite large, there wasn''t enough room for everyone to fight it at once. And it was also stuck blocking the way through a corridor as well. As such, only two-three players at a time could fight it except for ranged players who attacked the higher area of it''s body to not hit the players fighting the lower area. After a few minutes the monster was slain with the group helping out as well especially with Lyndis who by far amongst the players had the most powerful fire related skills yet even against some of the mages. ¡°GARRR....¡± The meat monster fell silent as it died at last. ¡°YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!¡± And immediately afterwards the players cheered in their victory. However their cries of victory was short lived with the voice of a mad man echoed to them all. ¡°Oh~ How nice to kill the creature made up of innocent people. Yes, I am running out of parts to build them and you lot are more than enough to stock up on~ Oh and make sure you don''t make a mess dying, cleaning up is nil impossible with so many hands at stack.¡± ¡°....¡± There was another short laugher at the end of it as the players shattered around now more alert than ever with a monster slain and one of their comrades..the one that seemed to have the more powerful equipment instantly killed. ¡°That man is mad as hell. He was happy we killed his creation¡± one player said with other agreeing to it. ¡°Hurry up and get rid of the corpse of that thing...it being made if human parts makes me want to vomit when looking at it¡± another mage player said using some spells to make a path through that corridor even though there were several more paths available to take. ¡°What?¡± that player said seeing the disapproved looks of his peers, ¡°There is a chance that where we need to go is through the path this thing blocked.¡± His party members took the loot that he dropped when he died and said some small words of sorry that they couldn''t prevent it in the end. Without a clear leader, the players merely knew of their objective. Clear this lab and collect the reward killing everything else in the way. Up until now, the group was completely silent simply observing everything around them. They knew that given the chance and opportunity, some would want to take advantage of them and they did not want that. They had learnt from Viv on what to do at least in these kinds of things. Be invisible and don''t attract attention at least. But it didn''t stop them to at each stop talking to each other as well. ¡°There a few people who are still trying to get out¡± muttered Miriel pointing Sain to behind them where a party was clearly not ready for such a sight and were trying very hard to get out. Due to the ratio of male and female overall was shocking bias towards males in this case, the group attracted much attention with their above average looks. Even though the three girls considered themselves average in looks, they still had male players gazing at them at a time. ¡°We can get out when we kill that mad man who trapped us here!¡± one player shouted trying to stop the group of 5 players from wasting their time. That party venting on getting out stopped and looked at the other players who were close by with frightened eyes. There was a hint of desperation. ¡°I don''t want to do this anymore. I want to leave¡± said one of them. ¡°Oi...¡± And then one of them started to attack the other players obviously taken in by the words of the mad man at least. ¡°Shit! Restrain them!¡± said one player blocking an attack and then trying to grab and pin down the player that was trying to kill everyone else around him. Chaos ensured with a player attacking another. All groups including Sain and the others spread out just in case there were more as if on some sort of strange instinct to avoid death this way. ¡°Die! Die! I WILL be FREE!¡± That party made up of five people made it their goal to kill everyone else and make it out alive by themselves. Sain observed quickly and counted that party had three melee user and two ranged users with no healer. ''Perhaps they don''t have a healer...or the healer doesn''t agree with them trying to kill the rest of us'' Sain thought while still looking. ¡°Shit! Don''t attack to kill! We don''t want to be player killers!¡± shouted a man with a giant bastard sword seeing the archers and about about to attack the five at once. The archers did not stop but shot and hit the legs of the players that were attacking everyone else. Seeing this, the player smiled at least and thanked them under his breath as the five players continued to try and attack and kill everyone else in range even if they couldn''t move with their legs having arrows in them. He moved in and used the hilt of his sword and knock out one of the players in question. With a light sigh he turned to the archers to thank them at least. At the same time he said, ¡°Make sure you don-¡± Stab! A sword went through the back of his head and instantly killed him leaving his limp body to fall to the ground. Everyone looked to see who was the caused of this... ¡°I wanna leave...I wanna leave.¡± It was one of the five players that managed to drag himself more quickly than anyone thought to the players that knocked his friend out. You could see the blood trail on the floor which was more than it usual was since moving like that and quickly caused his flesh to be ripped open. ¡°I WANNA LEAVE!!!¡± The player now branded with the red marking on his for head stabbed and killed one of his team-mates nearby and rushed swinging his sword wildly at everyone else despite him moving quite slowly and limping as well. ¡°Serena!¡± Sain shouted, ¡°Bind him!¡± ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena chanted hearing the order causing vines to grow quickly from the gaps in the grounds and trap and pin the man onto the ground with no way to move. He continued to mutter over and over again about something that was not in the human language anymore as he wailed. However his desperation was very clear to anyone who looked. ¡°How long can you keep him like this?¡± Sain asked. ¡°A-Around...an hour I think. M-Maybe two if I don''t have to bind any one else as well¡± she answered honestly to him. While ''Root Bind'' used mana initially, for it to last long, the spell had to drain more mana from the caster to make sure the target doesn''t break out by weaken the vines too much over time. ¡°Three dead...forty seven left¡± Miriel muttered with a sigh. With this, the number of players remaining numbered 47 with 3 of them possibly willing to kill other players for their own gain to get out of this place. The first to die...the leader with the golden shield and sword...the second, the player with a bastard sword, and the third who was knocked out by the second. Seeing this Sain sighed and regretted simply watching since lives were lost even though they were no NPC lives. This event surely caused a great mistrust for all players right now for it opened up the possibility that they may not be killed by monsters but by other players. Seeing that he was the one who ordered his team-mate to take action, Sain was being stared at now by the other players as well. Suspicions and fear were in their eyes. ¡°Serena, can you direct your vines to the other two risks as well¡± he said with the other players listening particularly on the word ''risks''. ¡°Nooo!¡± one of the players, a woman screamed as the vines went and coil around her as well. The other player, a male while silent resisted as well but in the end was trapped like their now player killing comrade. Sain ordered Serena to move them together and took took their weapons away. Both of them had their weapons drawn with blood on them although they had not killed. They had certainly tried though. Miriel moved up to him and then said what all other players in the area wanted to know, ¡°So...what now?¡± also pushing her expectation onto him. ¡°Yes what to do~¡± the mad man''s voice was heard again, ¡°Two leaders down and so many more to go~ How many more will have to die? Who know! Perhaps it will total to 49 or will it be all 50? One who leads will decide on this~¡± The voice cut off there with a deafening silent from everyone at once. Each person would not want to take charge. The chances of them being targeted was too high and they wanted to save their own skin. Besides, whoever will lead will most likely be blamed at the very least. ¡°....¡± Sain thought about it. In the end they just needed to clear this place right? But at the same time this place made everyone feel fear in their hearts. A lab where monsters are made from the corpses of it''s victims. ¡°First...we will split up into three groups. The first, the vanguard group will be the ones who will explore each floor the most and see if they can find something. The second group will rotate in turn with the vanguard and will stick to the third group, the rear guard when resting. The rear guard will be players that aren''t confident they can fight...those things¡± Sain said in one go taking up the leader role even though the other players did not trust him as much as the other person. However at the same time, no one else was taking charge and what he said made sense at least to the point that it was quite hard for one to try and kill the other before being stopped. As such, as much as they were reluctant to follow what a stranger like Sain said, they did. ¡°No choice...¡± ¡°Better than nothing...¡± Such comments about him were directed in no particular way. Sain then looked at the bodies of the two players that were killed. He had no reason to but his eyes were somewhat drawn there as they were the ones that died. But at the same time there was something particularly wrong with this scene. They had no disappeared yet. ''It can''t be....'' ¡°Burn the corpses and make sure not even bone remain¡± he said with a serious tone while the other players were gossiping about him right now. ¡°What?¡± that word was echoed in the other players. Such a thing to do to another human body was something that they could not tolerate. Even Miriel and the others were surprised by his words. But before they could complain... ¡°NOW!¡± Sain shouted with a fury in hopes he was not too late. However it was already too late and the body parts....started to move. BANG! A player was fling to the side and killed to the force as two corpses combined into one like someone melted them together. The creature quickly took on the third corpse as well into itself the moment it took the chance to create a strange three headed creature. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± ¡°Fireball!¡± ¡°Burning Arrow!¡± Three people including Lyndis immediately fired their spells to hit the now monster. But while it burned, it was still ''alive''. Seeing this, Lyndis then shouted, ¡°Fire Bomb!¡± throwing one of them at the creature while it was about to run and attack. ¡°Run!¡± Lyndis shouted when the fire bomb landed near the meat monster. BOOM! The fire bomb went off and made a large explosion where it was. The monster''s body was shattered all over the place as well and the smell of burnt flesh was there. But even so... ¡°That thing is still trying to reattach itself together?!¡± Miriel exclaimed seeing the small bits of flesh trying to form one body again despite everything. ¡°Mages! Hurry up and burn those parts!¡±one player quicker than the others in his wit shouted trying to avoid saying ''human parts'' or ''flesh'' at any rate. ¡°Fireball!¡± Another player shot a fireball at the little bit of flesh and burnt it all as he chain fired his spell one by one at it. Just when things calmed down a bit with the threat of death gone again... ¡°Ohhhhh~! Good work team!¡± the mad man''s voice came back now. It seemed that it would talk to them for the most part when something happened, ¡°Now you just killed your friends and burnt their corpses as well~ Feels good doesn''t it? I had to make special, very special preparation for you all~ The bodies of freemen~ The joy in how I can use you all~!¡± ¡°....¡± And then there was silence amongst the players again as everyone felt pale and dizzy. This kind of things...was not good for the heart. Other than that, there was anger at the mad man for causing this to begin with, some to Lenny on giving them this quest and even to Sain who ordered them to act. Seeing this, Miriel and Lyndis both scowled muttering curses to them while defending Sain''s actions in their hearts with a few others. ¡°Those meat monster¡± Sain said at least to make sure everyone was in the same place, ¡°....are made up of corpses. The bodies of players that die should disappear immediately and yet they remain after death. That mad man probably wants us to kill each other to leave bodies for him to gather and make more of those creatures...¡± He took in a deep breath and then said, ¡°At this rate, we will surely wipe ourselves out much to his amusement.¡± He then looked at the other players that now really did not know what to do. On one hand Sain was the one who warned them of the risks dead bodies had since they seemed to not disappear in this place. That would mean that they had to destroy the bodies no matter what when the player died even if that means their equipment goes with them. But on the other hand there was still a risk that Sain would drive them to their deaths. Those meat monsters were the kind that would give you chills down your spine. This kind of monster was one that took away many things when you face it. The sheer shock itself was enough to paralyse thoughts. ¡°What do we do now?¡± one of the players, a young looking person who was almost as short as Serena asked and continued with, ¡°If we...don''t follow someone, we will die one by one right?¡± Sain took a few seconds to think about it. If he did not lead them then their trust in him would drop quite a bit and with mistrust comes trouble. But if he did lead them, someone thinking otherwise would not like it and that would bring trouble either way. ''In the end, what matters is whether I wish to lead them and make sure as many are alive at the end?'' he thought. No matter what, Sain could not see a situation where everyone here was alive and fine. There were simply too many people with unpolished skills. Most players here aside from them had not drilled to being up their stats or skills at all. They were the common player which was fairly easy to kill. But in the end, could he use them at least to finish this Guild Quest that he got? Sain decided that he could. ¡°Right. Start to split up into groups. Those who are sure they can defend themselves without being killed will be at the vanguard and middle guard, those who cannot will be at the rear guard¡± Sain clapping his hands once issued that order. As such everyone''s thoughts started again with someone to lead them. The players that could, numbered 46 including himself split up into the three groups. Shadow, Lyndis and Raven all went to the vanguard with this while Sain and Miriel were at middle group and Serena remained at the rear guard seeing that she was pale when the meat monster appeared. ¡°Is everyone prepared? Rear guard and middle guard will remain here for now while vanguard searches. We will move up as you find safe areas per hour. Make sure for those in the vanguard that you have at least one contact at the middle or rear guard! Vanguard will move in groups of three or more! Dismiss!¡± Sain shouted in a loud voice. There was a short shamble as the players in the vanguard moved froward immediately splitting into four more groups as they went to explore the depths of the fourth floor. There were 11 players that went to the rear guard, unable to take the risks of dying like that. With the three other players that were risks to them now, the vanguard and middle guard totalling 32 players would each would consist of 24 players in the vanguard and 8 players in the middle guard with the read guard. ¡°You seem really good at command others as always Sain¡± said Miriel next to him. He almost snorted and replied, ¡°How can I be good at potentially ordering people to their deaths. Plus they don''t trust me as much as they would otherwise. You''re more suited to controlling them Miriel.¡± While the other players were sorting themselves up and with three of them going off to be part of the vanguard group and Serena healing some people, no one really payed attention to them. ¡°I am really not¡± she replied with a smile, ¡°They would sooner go against me compared to you.¡± ¡°I doubt it since you are a pretty girl.¡± Miriel resisted a blush and said, ¡°And that is more reason why they would quickly turn on me. Emotions and views can quickly be overturned to the other side if expectations are not met. Noticed how they all immediately looked at you to command them at once when they could despite you being not as remarkable as others would?¡± ¡°...Yes.¡± ¡°The reason they did is that you look like you were someone who knew what to do next. Well other than that people tend to rely on those who can''t help but to help others. You are the perfect person to blame if things goes wrong¡± she said striking a chord at Sain. ¡°Of course I know that. I am willing to trust people but not to the point to be ignorant to their feelings and intents.¡± ''You are the perfect person to blame if things goes wrong.'' That thought echoed in Sain''s mind. If that was the case. If that was really the case then... ¡°No...things wouldn''t go that way so easily...¡± he muttered trying not to go to those thoughts. And yet at the same time he could not help but to feel the glove on his right hand. Yes...he would had to do what he must if it came to it. xXx Lyndis was with Raven and Shadow...two people that she ''got along with''. Although it was more like she was commanding them how she liked, she felt like she got along with them well enough. Besides she could boss them around all she liked. ¡°Man...nothing here as well¡± she said to Shadow. She was at least disappointed that she hadn''t had a fight to a while even within this dangerous place. After leaving into one of four initial paths, they and another group of players split up to explore the place in more detail. And when they say detail, it means looking and checking if there were things that could kill them. ¡°Are you really that desperate to fight something?¡± Shadow asked, ¡°Couldn''t you do something about it? It''s only been a few days since we last fought something.¡± ¡°Of course! I hate doing nothing!¡± Lyndis exclaimed, ¡°The more time I can spend fighting, the stronger I can get! Isn''t that the point of this game?¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow was silent for a moment until he said, ¡°You are the type to get 100% in a game or whatever you try to do aren''t you...? ¡°Of course! What else should I do when I am doing something, hold back?¡± She turned to the direction where Raven was. ¡°Raven, are there any of those meat creatures around?¡± she asked loudly to Raven who was a few metres away in another room searching there as well. Raven appeared out of the room and shook his head much to the disappointment of Lyndis. Shadow sighed since Lyndis was like this for a while now...no a long time now. Shadow remembered that Lyndis wasn''t like this at the beginning...or was she hiding herself until then like him? Either way, it was a pain for him to deal with her as she was the charge and noisy type while he was the opposite. ¡°What were you expecting? If it were as such than we would definitely heard it attack someone if not us¡± scorned Shadow. The logic behind that was that these creatures seemed to want to hunt humans and as such they would come to them else they will be the type to wait and lure people into a trap before attacking which is far worse. ¡°Hmm...it could still hide right? That''s why we''re searching¡± she said still hoping a bit. ¡°But the first one that was seen was a giant meat ball that was as wide as this corridor. I doubt that something like that can be hidden well¡± Shadow said shaking his head. Lyndis smiled and then opened a door, ¡°Really let''s-¡± Lyndis walked into another room and stopped...with dead silent. ¡°Ding dong ding dong! We have a winner here!¡± the mad man''s voice came back with an announcement. ¡°...You''ll be surprised...there are so many....¡± she muttered with a bit of a fright on her eyes. Noticing this serious tone as well as the message from the mad man, Shadow and Raven ran up to her. ¡°I''ll be damn...I guess you get what you want¡± Shadow muttered. In a hushed whisper, Lyndis quickly said, ¡°I wanted a fight but these numbers are overwhelmingly bad for us!¡±
Lyndis decided to immediately contact Sain about this. Lyndis: Hey Sain... Sain: Yes? Lyndis: What would happen if someone discovered a dozen or so of those meat monsters in a room? Sain: Well...don''t tell me. That message was- Lyndis: Yep. Shadow: Lyndis! They''re starting to move!
The meat monsters started to move. Eyes opened and mouths appeared as their main bodies expand as if it was breathing as evidence of the bodies remembering when they were still...alive and human in form. ¡°RUN!¡± Lyndis shouted when she noticed that they noticed them. ¡°GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRR!!!¡± A combined voice from a dozen creatures...with even more mouths screamed at once. BANG BANG BANG! Several arms flew and smashed into the walls of the room they were in. Arms and legs came out of their bodies as they rolled themselves to the three. A dozen of those meat monsters...one was enough to instant kill a normal player awakened at once. But Lyndis and the other two weren''t normal players at all. Trained by monsters they could be anything but normal. ¡°Throw your bombs!¡± shouted Shadow not exactly keen on reminding her of what she can do. ¡°Right! Fire Bomb!¡± Lyndis dropped one of the bombs behind her as she and the other two ran for dear life away from the meat monsters. However before the three second detonation happened, she noticed only three of the dozen meat monsters came chasing them. ''Why aren''t...don''t tell me...'' BOOM! The fire bomb exploded onto the first meat monster and damaged the other two near it as well. Part of the wall broke down due to the blast. Lyndis took this chance to contact Sain again.
Lyndis: Sain! Nine of those meat monsters are unaccounted for! Only three of them chased us! They''re probably going to attack everyone else! Sain: ¡­. Lyndis: Sain? Miriel: Yeah we kinda noticed! Three of them are here as well! Ice Burst!
The party chat cut off there with Shadow and Raven listening in onto it as well. ¡°Shit! They got to Sain and the others!¡± she shouted. ¡°How can they be so quick! It should at least take a minute to run to them from here!¡± Shadow complained drawing his two weapons and prepared to fight. They knew they the others were being attacked as well. However at the same time the meat monsters combined into one large one that was 5 metres wide now and as much as Lyndis did not want to admit, more disgusting looking than before. It was like a blob of flesh. ¡°Umm...I don''t suppose we can run since it''s quite big right?¡± Lyndis asked the other two at this point changing her mind on fighting it. ¡°Not at all. Remember the person who wanted to fight?¡± Shadow said in a sarcastic tone. At this point, the blob of flesh turned muscular and looked like it was hardened for a fight now. ¡°Strong¡± Raven replied which was not good news at all. And just like what Raven said, the meat monster became a lot stronger as well. The arms that were now too short for it to move around with, attached to each other as if they were grabbing at itself and made a new longer, larger arm made up of arms full of muscle. Bang! The arm was overshot at them and missed breaking the wall behind them. At the same time the main body was being pulled them quite quickly. Shadow was the one who took action first. He ran up to the meat monster or at least the arm and sliced at it with high speeds that was faster than the common eye could see. Even Lyndis had to admit that his strikes were almost too much for her to see. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Shadow shouted trying to cut through this arm from the meat monster after seeing the his quick but weak blows weren''t doing much. His short sword was too short even with this to cut it through completely and only managed to slice through half of it before getting stuck. ¡°Shit! Burst Speed!¡± he cursed pulling the sword out dodging another attack with extreme speed which was the near flying main body of the meat monster as it pulled itself to where Shadow was standing. Seeing what he was doing and not wanting out on the action, Lyndis aided him and swung her own sword now that she got it back from Viv from the trip. The large condensed bunch of arms wrapped around each other was her target and with a shout, ¡°Fire Blade! Power Strike!¡± In one clean blow, the large arm was completely severed off with the extreme heat coming from her blade enhanced with fire and extra damage from the increased strength when swinging it. The meat monster let out a scream as countless mouth popped out of it. The scream made Lyndis feel a bit dizzy but at the same time pissed off since it was so annoying to listen to. ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± The meat monster continued to scream as it changed it''s form. It now rather than a blob of muscle looked like a cube of muscle though Lyndis had no idea what that form could mean. Several of the human arms, in total six of them extended out to grab onto Lyndis all at once but she easily dodged and started slice them into pieces as well. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± she shouted while using ''Speed Stance'' as well at the same time to quickly slash three times in a second cutting off one of the arms though another was immediately produced. The six arms each came out of one side each and served to perfectly balance it no matter what side it was on. Because of this the meat monster''s main body was suspended into the air. She thought it was at least better than sitting on the floor with the arms having to drag it around. ¡°Damn this thing is really creepy¡± Lyndis muttered still seeing that it was made up of human bodies, ¡°Flame Strike!¡± she shouted firing off one of her flame projectiles to hit the meat monster''s main body. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The meat monster started to burn but at the same time it started to latch out more of those arms all over the place though each arm was thinner than the main six. ¡°Oh~?¡± she said humoured as the fire spread to those thin arms and were immediately detached and left to burn while the rest of the body was safe from the flames. ''Looks like it isn''t a complete bunch of meat after all'' she grinned not caring that it was quite disgusting. It couldn''t be worse than the silver butt monkeys that had a perverted fat human face as they tried to grope her before she burnt them all into cinders. But as she was in her thoughts and as Raven and Shadow continued to battle with the meat monster, the main body started to move to one of the holes in the walls. It was attempting to escape from them. ¡°Shit! Cut those arms off before it can escape!¡± Lyndis shouted preparing herself to at least cut off one of those main arms. ¡°Burst Speed! Double Strike!¡± ¡°Footwork! Double Strike!¡± ¡°Sword Dance! Power Strike!¡± All three of them started to fight shouting their skills and using them over and over again. The first instance that passed, all three of them managed to cut off one of the main arms each. The second instance, they moved onto the other three main arms. It took them another instance to cut them off as well and at this point, the creature with the thinner and thus weaker arms could not sustain itself in the arm fell to the ground with a thud. However the thinner arms grabbed onto the walls and tried to slingshot itself out. There were possibly a dozen of those thin arms preparing to stretch and pull it off away from them. Raven did not have the speed to get there in time and Shadow did not have the power to do it at once before it was too late. Thus Lyndis charged in ignoring some of the attacks that came her way that ripped part of her armour off her. ¡°Life Burn! Speed Strike!¡± she used those two skills at once. The first to cause her body to be covered in flames and the second to accelerate herself and her attack at least. In an instant her body was at the many thin arms that came out of the meat monster and cut through it with fire and sword at once. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow at the same time also leaped into the air doing a flip and landing onto the top of the meat monster''s head stabbing both his dagger and short sword into it. With blood spouting out of it''s body, Shadow knew that it dealt some critical damage there. When the meat monster was about to attack Shadow, it tried grabbing his legs first but by then Shadow was already off it using ''Burst Speed'' to get off quickly and ''Shadow Step'' to make sure to make it believe he was still on it before he escaped. Stab! Raven also started to rapidly strike at the core of the meat monster instead of Lyndis who focused on the arms that it was spouting. His stabs as Lyndis found were quite powerful...stronger than her cuts at least. There was a firm but neutral look on his face as several arms were shot at him rapidly. He used his armour to block most of the blows and his shield to knock away attacks that would otherwise be fatal. Blood also spouted out of the place he stabbed deeply in. Continuing to attack with their usual abilities, the three sliced up, burnt and stabbed the meat monster in pieces even though it was reattaching the cut off limbs back on. It was only with Lyndis'' fire skill that the meat monster''s size ultimately decreased gradually. However at the same time, as the meat monster''s health gradually decreased, so did theirs. Only now did Lyndis regret not taking Serena or Sain with them or at least another healer from another group. ¡°This is taking too long!¡± she finally shouted after several tens of minutes passed and her health passing into the critical state. Her control over how much damage she can take isn''t as good to survive with mere 2% or 3% of her health in the end. She pulled the limit when she reached 10% health left. At the same time she wondered what happened to the others at least. Since the last party chat with the others, they had not been in contact with them at all. Checking her mana, it was only a third of it''s max value now thanks to her using ''Life Burn'' which did not take mana. She had enough man to use six fire bombs at once which at this point would be enough to kill the meat monster...or most of it at once. ¡°Raven! Tank and lure it away from me!¡± Lyndis shouted not caring that he was in a worse shape than she was. She thought she could hear that Shadow scowled for a second at the same time. Raven nodded and then shouted, ¡°Anchor Howl!¡± causing the meat monster to stop and glare at him before attacking with all it''s might. Even with all his defence that was several times better than hers, enduring that many attacks would be difficult. Using the death knight shield, he blocked one..two blows before he was thrown away and pinned to the wall. More arms poured over him like a wave. ¡°Raven!¡± Shadow shouted worried. Shadow moved in to back him up by landing on and stabbing the arm that shot and hit Raven causing it to stop pinning him down. However at the same time she was caught by the countless other arms coming to grab him. It was at this point that Lyndis finished gathering her mana for her skill. ¡°Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb!¡± A string of fire bombs appeared in Lyndis'' hands. Although they had no cool down in use, it in turn was a bigger mana drain than usual. Even if she used them all now, it would only cause some outer damage to the meat monster. As such, she ran and smashed both of her hands with the fire bombs into the meat monster while it wasn''t paying attention to her. ¡°Take this~¡± she said not sure that she would live after this. But with her instincts, she jumped as far away from it as possible in one go. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! The fire bombs explosions stacked up over each other and blew everything away including her and the other two as well. And then her vision blacked out ¡­. ¡­. Slap! ¡°Ow!¡± Lyndis shot up looking around confused. There, Shadow was standing over her with Raven on his shoulders. ¡°Hurry up and bandage Raven! He''s going to die at this rate!¡± Shadow shouted in her ears though it was still ringing even now. However Lyndis knew of what to do and immediately took some rolls of bandages from her inventory and focused on wrapping them over the wounds that Raven took. You have used the bandaging skill: All bleeding will be stopped on target area Then, Raven was finally out of his life threatening situation. However than she checked her health and she was in the same situation as he was! ''Damn that bastard Shadow...I would''ve wanted to heal myself first! Isn''t it the duty of you males to allow people like me to live first especially since I''m the only one who can heal you in the end in this situation?!'' She started cursing Shadow in her mind until she saw that Shadow was actually in a worse situation then her. While she had around 2% of her health left he would have had around 1% left and was about to hit the bucket with all that bleeding from his body. Raven who was still hazy eyed said, ¡°Thanks¡± to her in his gratitude as she immediately and faster than with Raven wrapped Shadow in bandages. Then, Lyndis patched herself up as well and just in time before she died. ¡°Puha~¡± she let out that sound exhausted from the near death situation they were in. ¡°Never again use those bombs like that when we''re near¡± Shadow advised also resting at this point. When you don''t move and do anything, health regenerates faster. ¡°If I didn''t then we would have died either way¡± she responded. ¡°Chain reaction, power¡± Raven said with Shadow nodding his head and adding in, ¡°Too powerful in fact. Before with the death knight, I haven''t considered how powerful the chain reaction would be.¡± ¡°Me too but that was probably due to it negating some of the damage with it''s shield¡± Lyndis'' eyes went to the half broken shield on Raven. It seemed that before the blast happened, Raven used the shield to protect Shadow and himself. If not for that, they would have died. As for her, she was further away from the explosion than they were and only took damage when hitting the wall from the force. ¡°Anyway I believe we haven''t been this close to death since Sain went all crazy in the cave with all the skeletons¡± Lyndis said with some humour in her voice remember those times a bit better than they actually were. ¡°Yeah...please don''t remind me of that...I still have nightmares about it...¡± Shadow muttered obviously remembering it perfectly unlike Lyndis. xXx ¡°Push! Push two of them away as much as possible now!¡± Sain shouted taking charge of the force that including himself totalled 15 right now. Four players died instantly when the meat monsters did a surprise attack on them. In this group, including himself, Miriel and Serena, there were a total of 6 magic users. From what Sain saw, one of them was a fire mage, another a wind mage and the final one was an earth mage. It was not exactly the ideal situation with mages with completely different elements having to fight together. He would rather have a row of mages with the same element to further boost their spells in damage but such a convenient thing would not happen would it? Other than that, the other 9 players were melee players though half of them were part of the rear guard and were shaking as they fought. Some of them had shields while other did not but had enough armour to defend themselves with. Sain had them all face the meat monsters since if they did not, then they would all be dead, overwhelmed by how powerful each one was. Finally there were the three other players that were risks to the rest of them, bound in vines at a corner where they cannot do any more damage though draining Serena''s mana slowly. He was tempted to either free them or kill them so Serena could completely focus on the task at hand. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena chanted creating vines to wrap around the meat monsters. At this point with her restricting the meat monster could the melee players go up close to the meat monsters without being killed by it. ¡°Paralyse Shot! Paralyse Shot! Paralyse Shot!¡± Sain used those spell just in case as well to make it a bit easier for them to do the job he instructed. The attacks of the meat monsters immediately slowed down after that. Sain even casted ''Weaken'' on them a couple of times as well for good measure. ¡°Shield Charge!¡± shouted the group of players with their shields raised and using their bodies to push two of the three meat monsters away to the walls. The ones who did not have a shield at the very least help push or attack the arms that were spouting out from the meat monsters'' bodies. There were three melee players assigned to each meat monster. The reason being if one player suddenly died, the ones left over would not be able to endure long if it were one person. Another thing was that he wanted the meat monster to be split up. They were small enough to do that and he rather not find out that they can combine into a large and more fearsome single creature that was capable of taking care of them all. He had also checked that he had buffed them all with extra strength and endurance with his buffing spells as well to make things slightly easier. Miriel had also buffed everyone in the area in range with her spells as well. ''Melody of Sound'' was set to increase vitality under his orders. Otherwise, Miriel also used ''Cracked Barriers'' on some of the players as well. The ones without shields at least so they won''t be one shot in the end. ¡°Start attacking the one at the centre! Magic Arrows!¡± Sain shouted and chanted soon after. His attack opened up some holes in which blood poured out a bit. Sain clicked his tongue seeing that his attack was too weak but then the other mages attacked at the same time. ¡°Wind Slash!¡± chanted one of the mages cutting off several of the arms that the confronted meat monster to aid the other players. ¡°Earth Bullet¡± chanted the earth mage firing off a spell that was similar in nature to his ''Magic Arrows''. He immediately noticed that that spell dealt more damage than his. ''Was it because of the element factor...the difference in magic mastery or stats in intelligence...or all of them?'' he wondered as the other three left to attack followed up. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Miriel shouted firing off several of her attacks as well which only opened up the holes in the meat monster even more. ¡°Blood Burst!¡± Serena chanted using her most destructive spells onto them. The red orb moved quickly not only going through the meat monster they were targeting but at good measure, the other two which were about to escape as well. Sain immediately stopped the fire mage from casting for him to fire his spell a little longer later. The ten seconds passed very slowly to him and the others.... BANG! Immediately the flesh of the meat monsters broke into pieces as Sain shouted, ¡°NOW!¡± to the fire mage who was stunned at such a sight. ¡°Let the light burn through flesh and bones, Flash Burn!¡± the fire mage chanted burning as much of the meat monster as he could before it could regenerate. Soon enough all three meat monsters were now dead with no way to revive. ¡°Serena, start healing everyone¡± Sain ordered seeing the battle ended now though knew that Serena were getting some stares with the spell she used. ¡°Heartbeat Healing¡± Serena chanted immediately casting a spell onto every player in the area.
Allied players in range has been buffed by the spell ''Heartbeat Healing''
Health will regenerate for 24 points per second for 10 minutes
Due to both her ''Magic Mastery'' and ''Nature Mastery'' skill getting to the intermediate level, the boost to her spells increased by a further 100% in total above the amounts gained otherwise. ¡°Thanks!¡± said one of the players pushing back one of the meat monsters thanking Serena again for a second time though completely ignoring the fact that she also instant killed those meat monsters. ''Her affinity to kill killing creatures...is the best of all of ours after all'' Sain thought humoured seeing Serena at the same time was the most gentle of them all.
You have levelled up
''Ah...I gained a level again'' he thought not really caring at any rate. He can deal with levels later on. This was far worse than he initially suspected. ¡°Good news everyone! I''ve developed a plague to destroy all of Versailles!¡± The mad man started to speak again. ¡°Oh wait~ Wrong person and wrong time to speak~ Never mind me my little lab rats~¡± ¡°....¡± There was a stressful mood around again replacing the joys of victory very quickly. Sain sighed seeing that the mad man was doing this to agitate them and it was working. Slowly build up stress...and then give them a decision that they will take. That is the way to manipulate someone when you have no good relation to them at least that was Sain knew of the topic. Now they they had finished with this issue, he needed to contact the others first to make sure they are fine. Sain already knew they were alive though. ¡°Contact the those in the vanguard! I want to know what they are doing!¡± Sain ordered followed by a dozen players contacting their friends and team mates. Soon enough information was given that all of the meat monsters, in total a dozen were slain and their bodies burnt to ashes. However at the same time, seven players lost their lives bringing the total number of players left to 37. And three of them could not be trusted as well. Sain was happy enough that Lyndis, Raven and Shadow managed to take on and kill three of the meat monsters on their own. They shared that they gained a level thanks to that though they were at any rate near death for a while. Seeing that all was in order for now, Sain decided it was time to deal with some annoyances. ''At any rate having to keep on eye out from begin you is an issue'' Sain thought immediately walking to the three players that once tried to get out and later attacked them. Before they were shouting and as such, gags were placed in their mouths to stop them talking. Sain removed two of them, the ones that did not kill a player no matter if they tried. ¡°I have a deal for you two if you wish to not die¡± Sain said. The two players, one male and one female were silent to his words listening in if this was good for them. ¡°Since we are trapped here and need to proceed further down. I wish that you help us rather than stay here and drain mana from my comrade¡± he continued ignoring that they were trying to ignore him to seem uninterested. ¡°....¡± ¡°If that is how you wish to play it...¡± With more silence from them, Sain then took off the gag from the third player, the one with the red mark on his forehead. The sign of the murderer, a player killer or otherwise criminal. It was ironic that the mark will only appear when you kill enough NPCs that were lawful and good while it instantly appeared when you killed a fellow player without the same mark no matter what they did. This only worked to make players treat NPCs lesser than players. ¡°Hey you...I''ll let you free if you kill these two. What about it?¡± Sain said with a smile as bright as day as if nothing was wrong. Everyone who heard even Miriel and Serena were shocked at his words. He could not do that...right? The other two players paled immediately. While they were still comrades, there was nonetheless proof that he was capable of killing other players if he willed. ¡°Wait! Please!¡± the female player plead bashing her eyes at Sain at some hope he would save her. ¡°I am waiting for your answer you know¡± Sain said coldly ignoring the female player as she screamed left and right almost causing Sain to kill her instead of his original plan. ¡°I will do it¡± the red marked player killer said with a grim face though his eyes shined that he would be two steps closer on escaping this place if he did. ¡°But what reason do you have me to do it?¡± he asked Sain. To this Sain smiled and said in a bright tone, ¡°But what use do I have on getting the murderer mark like you? If you kill them, nothing more will happen to you while if I do, everyone else will turn on me as well. What do you say to this?¡± ¡°I see...I still agree then¡± the player said with hands itching to take a life as fast as possible. The battle that he recently seen only strengthened his resolve to get out of here alive as fast as possible no matter the cost. It was only when the other side was bound and him, to be unharmed in killing them that he was calm. After all there was no point if he, the greater person was harmed. ¡°Good¡± Sain replied simply stabbing his spear into the player killer and thus causing his health to be reduced to nothing. ¡°Wha-¡± the player barely managed to utter before dying with the light faded away from his eyes.
Killed someone with the murderer mark, Fame +10
With the killing, Sain had gained a bit of fame along the way as well which was a nice bonus. ¡°Huh?¡± Everyone was shocked at his actions. It was the reversed of what he seemed to be implying. They were actually expecting for Sain to release the player killer to kill the other two before killing that one in the end resolving the whole issue. ¡°Right¡± Sain said looking casually at the other two, ¡°If you defy me and attack anyone else. You will also die understand?¡± The two players nodded their heads rapidly and caused a slight blur. Sain let out a bright smile once again seeing this. ¡°Serena¡± Sain called, ¡°There is no need to bind these two anymore. Recover your mana while you still can¡± he said. Serena nodded obeying and released the bindings. No one dared to stop Serena seeing what she was capable of and her battle potential for later. And to the two players, Sain in a low voice muttered, ¡°If you dare attack another player even with my warning, like your friend...you will be like him. Dead in this place and I won''t make it quick. We are trapped here completely, what? Don''t believe me? Try logging out. You can''t escape. Like in a battle we are in a state where all of us are considered in a battle with something and that is this place itself.¡± Sain turned his back to the two player showing his trust in them even though they were currently unarmed and then said in a loud voice, ¡°All right, we will move up to a safe location when someone tells us where there is a big enough space to go to. Small corridors are these meat monsters'' best area to attack.¡± He then looked at the corpse. ¡°And someone burn this corpse before it turns into one of them¡± he said as well leaving it to the fire mage that was present. There were now 36 players left. 14 died on this floor alone. He would need to adjust the group formation to lower this number as they went on. Alone with Serena, Miriel muttered, ¡°As expected from Sain...I could never do that...¡± to herself and Serena only. xXx With that, another half an hour passed with them moving to the location that the vanguard players said it would be good to move to at the very least. It was an open space similar to the one they were in and had lots of space to defend from. As they walked however, there was a deep silence from everyone that was understandable. They had just experienced the extent of their enemies at the very least. Most of the players here were higher than level 100 and some of them capped to level 150 or at least near it. Still there was a large disparity in strength between the players at least. Those who panicked more were of the lower level while those who were more calm were at the higher level. Experience shows after all though Sain and the others were at the mid point of the level range and yet never panicked once...at least too much at the enemy like frightened rabbits. There were also a few suspicious glares at the two players that once tried to attack them, but most of them were directed at him. There was no issue at all with players keeping their distances from other players while looking around worried. In the end all you had were yourselves before comrades and quite far away were strangers. The 17 players walked for another hour meeting up with the rest of the vanguard group. ¡°Nice to see that you guys weren''t wiped out¡± said one of the older looking players. Most players at the lower levels were quite young with the age average increasing as the level got higher and higher. Royal Road was released for more than a decade after all and those who were young back then were considered middle aged now. ¡°It''s a good thing we had numbers...though you guys were split up so the causalities were much higher¡± Sain replied naturally. The player laughed and and then said, ¡°Yes, there was an issue with the corpses reviving after all. It took a while too long before we could take them all down permanently.¡± With that Sain nodded and then looked around with the others in the group that just got here. It was a good place to stay and rest for a while at least. ¡°What of the search?¡± he then asked the vanguard players. ¡°This place is huge, it might take a day to get down to the next floor and...¡± one player said worryingly, ¡°I fear we may not have enough supplies in the end for another 5 floors since we expected this to be a quick run.¡± The other players nodded and so did Sain. They packed expecting this to be a short and easy trip at least. Sain did not since he got a guild quest and it would be more difficult than it seemed. But the amount was not enough to last for more than a week still with only six of them let alone several dozen more. In total five more players went with Sain to discuss a few things while the other players watched on or did something to prepare for later. ¡°We on one hand need to get to the next floor as fast as possible but at the same time need to be prepared to face those meat monsters...too many death could be the end of us later on¡± Sain said in a grim voice. ¡°Safety in numbers again?¡± asked one player with a particular rat face that was hard to miss. ¡°Yes...increase the size of each individual group in the vanguard to the standard six and make sure that two groups are close together at all times...that way the number of deaths later on will decrease¡± Sain said not wanting for them to fail in the end with too little forces at hand. ¡°And what of the search?!¡± one player demanded. Without the search, they would be trapped here...and then.... ¡°I''m getting to that¡± Sain said annoyed. Did they not think that he did not think of that yet? ¡°From the previous floors...each stairway was barricaded for reasons we now know...find the place with the most defences and we find what we want. Any clues so far? Any locked doors, furnitures moved in the way¡± he said with his theory. Each stairway to the next floor was strangely blocked quite well the further they went down. ¡°Ah¡± one player seemed to remember something, ¡°There was this place that was strangely locked away from everything else. A whole bunch of stuff in the way but no idea what''s on the other side. Might be a dead end, might be the stairway or might be...¡± ¡°Another group of those meat monsters. They are quite...disturbing¡± said Sain with a wry smile. ¡°Aye...they can stretch their arms as well and you can even see the faces of it''s....materials¡± the rat faced player said. There was some fear in his eyes and his body shivered due to it but at the same time he had enough resolve to not let it completely get to him. ¡°Anyway that should do it leader¡± said one of the players. Sain frowned to this. Were they really pushing everything on him now? Sain corrected him saying, ¡°I''m not your leader as you do not need to take my orders at all.¡± ¡°But you still command us?¡± ¡°That''s because I rather not die here due to everyone else not being able to do anything. Plus you five are as much as a leader than I am, perhaps better. You are not sheep or at least I hope not or this will end quickly with our deaths if you cannot think right.¡± With a chuckle from the other players, the meeting finished quickly and a group of player were sent to look around at that area where it there was a possibility that they could quickly get off this floor to something worse. Sain in the end hoped that he would not need to turn his spear at them at any point. Facing thirty players was not a thing he wanted to do. Although...at any rate there was a good chance something like that might happen later. Either way, they rested for the rest of the day.
Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 10000~ - This was a much longer chapter than I expected. When first writing it was only 17 pages long extending to the next floor and by time I finished editing it, it went to 27 pages and was so long that I had to take away the content from the end of this floor in the lab to reduce it down to this. - As for the rest of this part of the volume...it will last for another 1 or 2 chapters since I did not expect the length but as long as it could be Vol.5 Chapter 3 - The Laboratory (III) ¡°Yo¡± said Lyndis walking to to him bandaged up after the night. It had been stressful since everyone barely had enough sleep since they were too worried that someone would sink a dagger into their ribs while they were sleeping. ¡°Ah, hello¡± Sain replied with a soft smile moving Miriel to wake her up, ¡°It''s been a while.¡± He smiled at her though he was a bit worried about her appearance with all of those bandages around her body that made her look like a mummy, ¡°Had to sleep else that battle yesterday along with other fatigues made up sleepy¡± she yawned. Soon enough they were joined with Raven and Shadow who were in similar states as well. From what she said, they had asked around to find Sain and the other two since the remaining players that numbered 37 in total slept quite far away from each other in groups like packs of wolves controlling their territory. ¡°Hmm? Why do you all look like mummies?¡± Miriel asked immediately recognising Lyndis and the other two even though they were as such through their equipment and physical features like height and size. ¡°Had to fight three of those meat monsters....don''t let them combine since it goes all muscular and becomes even more annoying to deal with. We were quite literally on our last leg when Lyndis decided on a suicide attack¡± Shadow said. ¡°Suicide attack? I would never let myself be killed like that!¡± she complained. ¡°Didn''t stop you from throwing half a dozen fire bombs while we couldn''t escape with it trapping us¡± Shadow pointed out. ¡°Our health were near the bottom when I did that! Plus we did survive in the end¡± she said affirming her case. ¡°Our equipment on the other hand was banged up a lot due to that as well¡± Shadow continued to say showing off that his weapons were dented by using them too much and form the blast. Seeing this, Raven took the weapons and repaired them. He had the previous day already repaired his own gear as well as Lyndis'' when she complained but not his yet so he did so now. ¡°I should have went with you¡± he said immediately seeing that this was the results of them not having a proper healer. Elsewhere some other players saw Raven repairing Shadow''s weapons and asked of him to repair theirs as well. As such Raven left them to do so as the others continued with their conversations. Lyndis flicked his forehead suddenly that caused him a slight reaction and said, ¡°You needed to take command of the other players remember?¡± Sain out out a wry laugh and said, ¡°I only command them as much as the let. The moment that they find something they don''t like, they will turn on me. Otherwise I can only hope to make sure you guys don''t get hurt because of me.¡± ¡°I and¡± Lyndis glanced at the other three, ¡°Everyone else can take care of themselves at this point. Even you can take care of yourself like those players foolishly decide to turn on you nor will we let you fight alone at this point.¡± She then let out a grin and said, ¡°Besides, we had Eden and Viv train us remember. If anything, we are stronger than most of them either way.¡± Hearing this, Sain also let out a small grin while breathing out. They now turned to Serena seeing that she looked like was itching to say something to them. ¡°D-Do you need me to heal you?¡± she asked to Lyndis and Shadow though also looking over at where Raven was with crowds of players giving him their near broken equipment to repair. Lyndis smiled at her and rubbed Serena''s head saying, ¡°Not at all! Our wounds long since healed. Save your mana for something else.¡± ¡°Then explain why you still look like a mummy¡± Miriel said poking at Lyndis'' arm. ¡°Ouch!¡± Lyndis exclaimed. ¡°See, you are still wounded, Serena heal these idiots¡± Miriel said in a proud boastful tone. ¡°Yeah please heal me already. My arms and legs ache when I try to move them too quickly..plus I think Raven has some trouble breathing from time to time as well since yesterday¡± Shadow added causing Serena to mutter a ¡°Ah¡± before running to Raven to heal him. ¡°Great¡± Lyndis looked at Shadow with scorn, ¡°We just lost our healer again.¡± Sain sighed and then said, ¡°If you recall I can heal you as well you know. I DID tell you all that I have a stronger healing spell now that is on the level of what Serena''s own healing spells.¡± Lyndis thought about it and remembered with a ¡°Ah¡± as well. Going a bit red of her mistake and unintentional insult to Sain she asked, ¡°Can you heal me then?¡± ¡°Of course. Moderate Heal!¡± Sain placed his hands on her back and healed her wounds bit by bit with his spells. While bandages may be able to close wounds and stop bleeding, it was not as effective as healing spells as until a certain point in the skill ''Bandaging'' does not recover health at all which means Lyndis, Raven and Shadow had been depending on their natural health regeneration to regain their health. And with the wounds that haven''t fully closed, their health was unable to recover completely even with a few hours of sleep. When both Lyndis and Shadow and from what Sain could see, Raven as well were healed, Miriel started questioning Lyndis on some things, ¡°So from what I remember you were the one who found those...things right?¡± ¡°Yep¡± Lyndis replied in a upbeat tone, ¡°Are you going to blame me for it?¡± she said cautiously to not get castigated by her. Miriel sighed, shook her head and then said, ¡°Not at all. If you haven''t, sooner or later, more sooner, everyone would be led to believe that it was safe and there would be more deaths as a result. Also from that mad man declaring it, he would have let them loose either way.¡± ¡°I see...thanks¡± Lyndis replied in a small voice little more than a whisper. Miriel then turned to Shadow and asked, ¡°Did you find anything so far?¡± Shadow frowned and then said, ¡°Most of this place looked like it had been looted already...though recently. There are lots of places where there is nothing and more where there seem to be something but nothing in the end.¡± Then in a whisper he said, ¡°I really don''t like this place...there seems to be ''other'' things here though we cannot see them¡± ¡°I agree...though we are all trapped here in the end. It''s laughable that one day in and we are already in quite a horrid situation¡± she let out a gloomy laugh that was not replicated by the others. Miriel looked more gloomy compared to when she arrived in the city. It was evident enough that she had expected to sleep on a soft bed after doing so on a hard rock or two for 6 months straight. ¡°You okay Miriel?¡± he decided to ask. She looked puzzled at the very least at this question and asked, ¡°Why wouldn''t I be?¡± ¡°You look stressed¡± he replied as well. Miriel sighed seeing that Sain wasn''t exactly good in this area of observation of other people and replied with, ¡°Over a year we known each other in this game and yet you only ask this now.¡± With Sain looking confused and the other four watching the two interested at the very least, Miriel continued after dragging him to a secluded corner where there was no one watching. ¡°Of course I''m stressed! I have to keep in mind what we have to do later, the responsibility of making sure someone doesn''t screw things up! What skills and spells we would need as well and now we are trapped in this damn laboratory with a mad man dictating what he wishes for us to do! How can I not be stressed right now?!¡± she said rapidly pulling her arms around him and her face into his chest. ¡°....¡± Sain could not say anything but had his mouth gaping open for a while now. Before he could say anything Lyndis started commenting to the others. ¡°There is literally too much in this game for me to learn about. For every known fact there are countless secrets in them and even when finding those secrets there are even more hidden underneath. It seems be more like a...a...¡± ¡°A whole independent world?¡± ¡°Yes that¡± Miriel sighed and Sain tried to encourage her. ¡°Miriel don''t think about it too much. There''s no reason for you to be able to do everything¡± he said calmly as Lyndis and Shadow decided to leave them to themselves for a while as they discuss something that he could not hear. A sad smile creped on her face as she said, ¡°I can''t since this is the way I lived for so long. I can''t change that quickly.¡± ¡°In that case what can I do to help you?¡± Sain asked wanting the best for her. ¡°Don''t worry about it. You''re already doing what you need for me¡± she replied leaving him puzzled to do something else . xXx An hour passed and the hunch came true with the heavily barricaded area being the location of where the stairway to the 6th floor. There were three separate barricades in the way to the stairway which made everyone even more nervous. Would the next floor be even more dangerous than this one? What lies there? These questions plagued the mind when one''s thoughts wondered too much. Most of the players here were inexperienced and new to the game as Sain and the others were, only that they were not used to such a stressful experience yet. ¡°We should get going. There''s no point in dwelling here any longer¡± Miriel advised to which Sain agreed. As such Sain ordered everyone to the location of the stairway to the next floor. Due to the place being quite hidden away, they stopped at the large room before the corridor which leads them to the stairway as Sain spoke some words of encouragement to them all. ''No...it''s better to not get their hopes up else they might snap quicker'' he thought rearranging his speech as he spoke. ¡°I just want to say one thing. Make sure you live else it''ll be more difficult for the rest of us.¡± Those words were met with complete seriousness for a few while there were still some...ignoring Sain as much as he was ignoring them. They were those who disapproved of him taking charge in the first place though not having enough voice to say otherwise or guts to take action. ¡°Please move in your own groups one by one down to the next floor¡± he then said starting the descent to the 6th floor of this laboratory. The groups of players walked down the stairway, in groups of six. On the way down and onto the sixth floor there didn''t seem to be anything wrong. The no accounts for screams and terror told those who followed that. The first and second group to walk down were particularly tense since of what happened when they first descended onto the 5th fifth floor and the immediately death of a player. They were like everyone else to at least some extent afraid of the unknown that would come to them as they walked nearer to it. However at the same time, the floor they entered was very surprising and interesting at the very least. ¡°What is this, a water park?¡± Miriel asked looking around. There was water. Lots of water around. In fact the room they entered to had a large pool at the centre while they walked onto the edge of the room to make space for everyone else coming down. ¡°At least there won''t be those meat monsters...unless they can float. They''ll look like meatballs floating in water!¡± Lyndis was a bit happy that she did not need to face those meat monsters anymore. While the fact there was lots of water was interesting, it also made them curious. How did the water relate to how this floor will try to kill them? This made Sain...and many others uneasy not wanting to get near the water at all. So far there had been no traps at all but who could say there would be none even now. ¡°Shadow...check for traps¡± Sain said. ¡°Right....¡± Shadow started using his ''Detect Traps'' skill and soon replied, ¡°There are none else they are intermediate level or higher traps.¡± His words relieved some players but Sain still had to ask, ¡°You think there is anything in the water?¡± ¡°No idea¡± Shadow replied immediately. When some of the more curious and yet brave or foolish depending went to touch the water to see what would happen, a large clanging sound was heard like someone dropping something metal on the ground. ¡°Sorry Sorry! That was me~¡± The mad man''s voice came back again. Nonetheless no one was happy to hear this voice as something bad always happened when he spoke. ¡°How long has it been since you came here? I dare say it was a day long~ Getting tired? Well I will give you this chance to sleep...with the fishes, or are they fishes? Well you will find out later~¡± Splash... Immediately when the mad man said those words...the players could heard sounds of something moving in the water and quite quickly backed away. There was a good possibility that they may be dragged into the water to drown or worse. Whatever it was, whatever creature it was, it was certainly not good. ¡°Ahhhhhhh!¡± and then someone let out a scream and everyone looked. A hand...a cold wet hand appeared from the water and grabbed onto several people''s legs at once. Everyone was stunned at these turns of events, much to their lack of experience that they did not do anything but stare. ¡°Help!¡± one player plead as the hands tripped him over and was quickly about to drag him under. Then several players acted. ¡°Sonic Blade!¡± one player shouted cutting off the hands that were coming out of the water. When he did the water turned blood red...no it was being mixed with blood. ¡°Don''t tell me these creatures also use...humans as their materials?¡± one player scorned at the thought that they would need to watch out for the dead as well else they will come back and drag them in as well. After some panic and flashes of spells and skills some of the water creatures were killed at least for were injured that they did not come up again. However the body of one of the creatures...dead floated facing up. No face. That was the first thought everyone had and it sent chills down their spine. The face was blank as the body was naked with no clear characteristics except that on the legs that there were some fish like features and on the back there were fins. ¡°....What the hell is that?¡± a player asked in an astonished voice. No one could answer even if it was lying dead in front of them. Player eventually said, ¡°I think...this is worse than the meat monsters.¡± There were some who agreed and some who did not but it remained that this was the treat they had to deal with now...instead of dying normally they would be drowned to death on this floor. ¡°What do we do now?¡± one player asked Sain pushing more responsibility onto him as well as their hopes and fears. ¡°I think...we should watch the water from now on¡± he said calmly. He had rubbed his right hand for a moment wishing that the ''mark'' that Eden placed on him would activate. When it did, he feared nothing. Walking forward onto the edge to the next room, the style of the rooms changed at least a bit back and forth between two styles. The first was the one they saw when entering the floor. With the centre having a pool, they would have to walk on the edge to get around. The second was the opposite with the edge being filled with water and a central platform being the only way to cross. This also extended to the corridors much to their dismay that even there they had to pay attention to the water. A few minutes passed and nothing happened. Everyone relaxed their guard down a bit but not to the point where they were helpless lambs. No, it was just that the fear of dying, being dragged down to the cold water wasn''t as prominent in their minds as a few minutes ago. However it was much to the dismay of those who had not paid proper attention...nay it happened too quickly. Someone was dragged under. ¡°Buhufaafgahhelp!¡± Splash Splash... Several more hands appeared grabbing the head of the player that it was dragging down forcing water to enter his mouth and lungs as he tried to escape making splashes everywhere. Several tried to help but when the hands tried to drag some, they retreated a bit causing the lost player to truly be lost to the waters now. The count of players was now 35. ¡°What...the hell? Is these waters that deep? To the point that a whole person would be dragged under even with all of us here?!¡± one person said in a angry tone. While his hate wasn''t directed to Sain he could tell that he was being blamed by the other players silently. ¡°....¡± Sain expressed nothing but only the interest in how these no face fish creatures worked. Would that player come back without a face as well? What of his equipment and clothing on him? Would it melt? And how does one''s body transform like that? With silence as Sain''s approach to this while thinking there were some complaining now. ¡°Shit you got to be kidding me. I''m going back to the previous-damn, the exit is blocked!¡± one such player shouted drawing the attention of the other players nearby. They, some players ran back to go back to the stairway but they immediately found that the water that once levelled so much...no the platforms themselves sunk into the water cutting off their escape. ¡°We now have no choice but to move forward. That mad man is forcing us to go forward no matter what¡± said Sain really regretting that they can only go forward now. Soon as they continued forward much to the grudging of some, they entered a rather large room with water at the centre pool again. There, lied six paths to take. Six corridors that would lead to rooms and from there...unknown. And then the mad man spoked again. ¡°What to do, what to dooooo? Six paths but I am ever so kind to you all~ All paths lead to one path but all paths are not the same! Can you tell the difference? Oh and by the way one path will be attacked so make sure you prepare for that~ Also if you kill another person then I will make a special exception for you to be unharmed. If six people are killed all of you will be unharmed by my cut cut pets~¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°I guess this means we will have to separate here then¡± said one player looking at Sain not caring about what the mad man said. Sain nodded in reply as everyone got ready to split up from there. But things weren''t as simple as you could think. ¡°They''re attacking! They''re attacking!¡± someone shouted as those no face creatures came from the waters as they quickly cut off any escape from where they came and to where they can go from now. ''Something is wrong here....why did they attack only now and only now? Surely attacking all of us when we are separated is more effective...'' But Sain quickly found his answer. Three dozen of those no face creatures could be seen. Through the rapid attacks from everyone, they were quickly dispatched as they floated dead back into the water. Thankfully they did not revive like the meat monsters forcing the players to burn them as well. However Sain thought there must be some hidden trick that would be fatal to them later on. As the battle ended someone said, ¡°These are easier than those meat creatures.¡± Others agreed but once again they were attacked by the no face creatures forcing to defend themselves a second time quickly. A player was also dragged in this time only to be just saved. He was pale coming out of the water. And then the no face creatures came out a third time from the central water pool. ¡°Attack! Attack!¡± one player shouted commanding any range players to take them out now. Everyone did until they realised something strange was happening. While their attacks hit there were no reactions at all. Whether dead or alive, these no face creatures acted like dolls. ''Some are fake...some are real...and we can''t tell...great'' he thought getting a better understanding why the mad man would show them this. Sain felt like sighing since this will be another issue altogether with them not knowing where the enemy would be. The enemy hiding from view was one thing but the enemy hiding in plain sight...not knowing which one is an enemy is far worse. ¡°Don''t waste mana or arrows attacking them¡± Sain said, ¡°Those are fake, just dolls that look exactly like the real thing.¡± The other players listened to his words since they seemed correct. Compared to the two earlier attacks nothing happened at all. But at the same time this raised the issue of what was a threat and what was not. Could these no face creatures pretend to be fakes when attacked and only to attack from behind when they are not looking? It was a stressful thing to think about. ¡°You all seem more stressed than before. Have you considered killing the other player? It might be that I could let the rest all free of you do~¡± ¡°....¡± With nervous tension of the unknown in plain sight the players moved forward taking a path...for what fate may have for them. xXx Splash Splash Splash...! The sounds of something coming was very obvious to the group now alone from the other players in the path they had chosen. ¡°Damn we have the worst luck¡± Shadow complained though he had the best stats in luck out of everyone in the group. ¡°Well get ready for battle already!¡± commanded Miriel though Sain was suppose to be the leader here. Sain looked at the water and then asked, ¡°Miriel...couldn''t you just freeze the water as we go to prevent them from attacking us?¡± ¡°....¡± There was a sudden pause in everything was Miriel and the others had that realisation as well. A ¡°Tch¡± could be heard from Lyndis while Shadow commented to Lyndis, ¡°Didn''t you say the other day that you didn''t want to fight?¡± ¡°Yes, but only those meat monsters. I''m more than fine with these fish creatures¡± she snapped back causing much surprise to Sain, Miriel and Serena that Lyndis''s considered not fighting for once. After a few moments with possible enemies coming their way, Lyndis a bit disturbed by the silences that her comrades were giving her asked, ¡°What? Why are you all silent like that?¡± ¡°Well....¡± Sain started to say when Miriel interrupted with, ¡°Are you fine? Do you have a fever¡± touched Lyndis on the forehead. Angered by being treated like a child or sick patient she knocked away Miriel''s hand and shouted, ¡°I''m completely fine! Why is when I decide not be fight you all think of me as strange while when I do you think of me as a violent brute?!¡± ¡°Because that''s how you usually act?¡± Shadow pointed out causing her to hit him on the head while Shadow cursed under his breath about something involving Lyndis being something else. Lyndis glared at him and he stopped mid way in his cursing though. And just when Lyndis was about to say something, a hand grabbed her leg with a splash. ¡°Freeze!¡± Miriel chanted quickly shooting the stream of freezing air at the hand which quickly froze onto Lyndis'' leg. ¡°Great, now I have a leg stuck on me. A cold bloody hand¡± she complained with an extremely irritated tone considering what happened a few seconds ago for all terms and purposes, she was pissed off right now. She chopped the hand off while using ''Fire Blade'' and then said to Miriel, ¡°Cast that spell that makes us more alert.¡± Miriel nodded not exactly disagreeing with Lyndis as well as feeling a bit guilty on hurting her feelings and chanted, ¡°Tune of Alertness!¡±
Party in range will be affected by the spell ''Sound Tune Variations''
Party will now be more alert to enemies and traps, -5mp/sec
Miriel''s ''Sound Tune Variations'' was a spell in which used sound magic to affect the party in more unusual ways compared to ''Melody of Sound''. ''Tunes of Alertness'' was one such part of the overall spell in which comprises of many different tunes. While ''Melody of Sound'' focused more on directly increase the abilities of a person with stat boosts, ''Sound Tune Variations'' focused more on indirectly increasing or decreasing the abilities of a person as she can manipulate several status effects on them. Another thing that rather than directly taking a set amount of mana for a certain amount of time, the spell constantly drains mana from the caster per second and without a large enough mana pool, the effects can only last a short amount of time. Furthermore Miriel was not limited in using only one effect of the whole spell unlike ''Melody of Sound''. She could use many of the at once in cost of having a larger mana drain from the spell than normal. After Miriel casted the spell onto the group which made their senses sharper, they continued down the path for a while being attacked once in a while. They completely ignore any of the no face creatures unless they moved and attacked them. And as they went on Shadow commented on how the other groups are nearby or at least some of them and they were making a lot of noise as well. ¡°Any clue on what that means?¡± Sain asked him. ¡°Hmm...¡± Shadow started thinking about it, ¡°There are a couple. They might be attacking all of the no face creatures on the way...or are being attacked...or attacking each other I presume.¡± ¡°None of them seem like good news¡± Miriel commented. They turned to Lyndis to hear if she had anything to say but she did not and gave them a light glare and started looking at one of the no face creatures instead. In the end, Sain said, ¡°Hopefully nothing bad happens to them. We still need them at least for their numbers and nothing else¡± revealing his intentions of them. ''Other players weren''t as important as us right now nor do I have the luxury to be thinking of them as well. I don''t intent to help them if it means harming them'' Sain thought about what he had to do. They continued for another minute and then the corridor ended to a room. ¡°Ah, we about to reach a large room¡± said Sain looking at the end of the corridor. On the other end there was a fairly large room that had the same design but was clearly larger than normal with water at the edge. It would be a perfect place to be ambushed however. ¡°Sain, another group is at that room as well¡± Shadow warned. There was a lot of concern on his face as he said this as well. ¡°Is this some sort of trap?¡± Shadow muttered again thinking about it. Stolen novel; please report. ¡°....¡± The group was silent to this speculation. If so, then they would be forced to attack other players...something many would not like to do unless they had to normally. The exception are in large battles or wars of course but normally players don''t think about attacking other players since they are ''human''. In their mind, players were placed higher than NPCs though here was a group that did the opposite. To them, the NPCs are more likeable than players as there are little hidden motive you have to watch out for. ''Do we go or not....either way we have to go'' Sain thought about the risks and then said, ¡°It''s unlikely that something bad will happen and besides....there is only one path and we have to go through here...¡± He started walking into the room. The other group of players were already there from what it seemed. The others though trusting on Sain but not completely trusting of the other players kept their hands on their weapons. They looked at each other a bit worried about Sain and cautious of the other players. ¡°Hey!¡± Sain called out. The other players looked at him with strange expressions. There, there were six other players. Three of them were swordsmen, one of them was the wind mage, then a cleric and the last was an archer. ¡°Are you guys-¡± Sain was suddenly pulled back as an arrow shot down at him barely missed with someone pulling him back instantly at the moment of danger. Sain felt on his butt as he looked only a bit surprised of this. ''So in the end...'' The other party of players had frightened faces unlike what he had ever seen...no he had seen them before. The faces of broken people who would blame others in the end to save themselves. Sain right now had no quarrels on whether to kill them or not. They were a danger to them, they had to die. Ziiiiiiiiiiiin! The sound echoed in the dead silent room. Several people drew their weapons and were at the stand point of the fighting. ¡°You okay Sain?¡± asked Lyndis. Sain looked to see that it was Lyndis who saved him in time and was making a deathly face at the other players. It looked like she was directing her hate to the enemy now. ¡°What the hell was that for?! Why did you attack?!¡± she demanded. However the other players did not respond but with hardened faces to attack. ¡°Need to be free...escape...¡± one of the enemy players muttered strangely. It looked like they had snapped and became a pawn to kill other players now. Sain was surprised that they did not attack each other first before them. Either way they had to fight now. xXx Lyndis holding her sword in one hand and the back of Sain on the other stared at the enemy. The reason of why she had one hand on Sain was to make sure that that archer wouldn''t snipe him immediately since he doesn''t have the reaction time to dodge an arrow yet. ''Better protect him now...better than him dying on me and the blame falling on me'' she thought insecure about herself a tiny bit in what could happen next. She looked at Miriel who was prepared to attack immediately and so were the others. ''Is this fine?'' she thought, ''They are players as well right? Should we be attacking them as well? But...'' ¡°Shadow...¡± Sain muttered addressing his intent to Shadow. It was at that moment Lyndis made a choice. ''Better follow what Sain wants in these kinds of situations.'' Shadow immediately knew what he had to do. Whether it was to attack the enemy from behind or be bait was unknown to Lyndis however. All she had to do was make sure Sain didn''t die and kill the enemy since she made her choice. ¡°Shit¡± Shadow muttered while disappearing using stealth at the same time. It was at this time the enemy moved and so did Sain in his mind at least. Lyndis immediately prepared herself to fight and killed off her hesitation at this point. Taking his mind into the battle, Sain shouted, ¡°Serena! Restrain them!¡± Serena started chanting...no was already halfway finished chanting when Sain shouted those orders. By now, they were quite good at knowing what Sain wanted unless it was completely unpredictable though very precise. ''It''s better to attack than defend!'' ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Lyndis shouted creating a burst of fire that was thrown as a large arrow of flame at the enemy. The brilliant lighting the spell had could have made Lyndis smile if not for the current situation. The attack went straight and true and was aimed at the swordsmen at the front. There were three of them and though Lyndis had confidence she could take on one or two easily...the risks on taking three at once were too high for her to do so. And beside there was an archer and mage to consider as well. ''What will they do...?'' At the same time her attack was dodged, the three enemy swordsmen charged in with their mage and archer attacking at the same time. The cleric was doing something but Lyndis did not care. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena chanted though at this point already, Lyndis was focusing on the swordsmen that were charging at Raven and herself. Clang! Raven moved in front of Sain blocking an attack from the archer with his shield and then started blocking the attacks from the three swordsmen. Meanwhile Lyndis moved to the right and planned to attack but a series of arrows and some magic attacks came her way. She took a glance and they were quickly suppressed by a noticeable amount of vines climbing on them. ¡°....¡± Though silent, Lyndis dodged the few attacks that still came through. ¡°Sonic Blade!¡± ¡°Power Strike!¡± ¡°Great Impact!¡± The melee enemy players started using their skills on him. There was some impact when their attacks hit the shield but Raven wasn''t blow back...or even wavered by it at all. Lyndis was a bit impressed seeing that she would normally dodge such attacks. Not wanting to be done, Lyndis moved in to attack the enemy from the side. She slashed once and the player crippled before the near fatal blow, before she could deal the finishing blow, another one of the swordsmen turned to attack her. When she was about to dodge... ¡°Paralyse Shot!¡± Sain chanted and shot a bullet where it hit one of the enemy swordsmen. That player suddenly stopped moving to which Lyndis at the same time moved in for the kill instead of dodging. ¡°Fire Blade! Speed Strike!¡± She used ''Speed Stance'' at the same time as these two skills with her blade red hot cutting through the enemy player at once.
You have killed a player
Due to the nature of the kill and due to being in a Guild Quest where the player killed was interfering in, there will be no reciprocations for killing the player
Two windows appeared in front of Lyndis when she killed the player where the corpse fell limp. She got annoyed by it and completely ignored it as she and Raven quickly finished off the two swordsmen with Miriel shooting one of her ''Ice Bolts'' at an attack that almost hit Raven in the head. ''She always seems to be good timing at these things...though her mouth is quite bad..'' she thought with a smile. Elsewhere when Lyndis looked, Shadow killed the other three players with Serena restraining them with her vines. ''That was...quite easier than I thought...'' The battle ended and Lyndis sheath her sword. xXx To be honest, Sain was quite surprise. Other than that one surprise attack on him when he didn''t completely expect it, his reaction speed wasn''t enough to dodge an arrow..., the enemy was far too weak. Besides that their reaction time was quite slow...slower than Miriel and Serena who were mages who were not used to high speed close combat, their strategy was terrible. In a nutshell they used their pieces incorrectly. On their side they had three melee swordsmen, a mage, archer and cleric. Against two melee, 3 mages of different types and a stealth type, they had the wrong approach. First why would they attack Raven and Lyndis first? The mages are obviously the larger danger here. Unless you were that terrible, one player could take on two for at least a while while your team-mates attacked the more vulnerable enemies. Second was that the this was the same for their back line. Why attack Raven and Lyndis when they could have attacked him, Miriel or Serena. Plus they completely ignored Shadow as well until he started killing them from the back. Thinking about how...low cut the enemy was, Sain sighed in disappointment. ¡°My my~ What do we have here~? Six players dead right now and then~ And yet...how? Interesting, I thought the drug would take effect already~¡± the mad man spoke. The group listened on since it was unlikely there was going to be Q&A with him at all. ¡°Such good little samples coming to me so quickly and quickly~ Remember, if you kill another player, you get a free ride to the next floor~! Annnnnd here''s a new special special rule~! Kill the killer and you can leave! Now~ Which one should you kill? Or should you kill them all~?¡± The voice cut off there. It was strange how the mad man knew of what happened all the time and would twist and tell things his own way. Either way they had to continue. Not wanting the bodies of the players they just killed...Lyndis burnt them and then said something important. ¡°Did you guys get that strange message about not getting the murderer mark or something?¡± she asked. ¡°Yep¡± Shadow replied, ¡°Three times in fact for each kill.¡± Sain also said, ¡°I got it as well since it is transmitted to the ''Party Scan'' skill. Basically we can kill in self defence when we are on a guild mission like now. I suppose it''s so it makes it easier for players on a guild mission to not get attacked so easily by other player.¡± Miriel nodded and said, ¡°But I''m presuming that if you kill indiscriminately, you get even more backlash due to this. Abusing power is the easiest way on making a bad reputation for yourself.¡± ¡°I-In...t-that case...are we going to b-e attacked by other p-players?¡± Serena asked frightened of the possibility. The world of blood and gore was not on for one so young. Sometimes Sain regrets that Serena was part of the team as she was so young. ¡°No...¡± Sain said thinking about it, ¡°Other players expect us to have the murderer mark on us but we don''t. That means they think we didn''t do anything.¡± ¡°But they can still attack us either way¡± Lyndis pointed out. Sain nodded and continued, ¡°Yes but without getting the murderer mark...we can avoid a lot of issues now and later on at least when we''re on guild quests.¡± ¡°Speaking of the quest, how is it different from what the other players got?¡± Miriel asked. ¡°Hmm....from what I know the only difference is that our quest involves taking this place down while theirs'' only tell them to investigate it¡± Sain replied, ¡°Naturally our one is a lot more difficult...plus I think none of the other players are part of an Independent Guild.¡± ¡°Of course. Independent Guilds are the cream of the crop, the elite of the elite. Failing is not acceptable and you are punished heavily if you do¡± Miriel said, ¡°Plus so far this quest doesn''t seem so bad...compared to demons and dragons being involved¡± she sighed at the end thinking about it. ¡°Anyway we should continue¡± she said with Sain nodding. xXx Another half a day passed with the mad man saying something things once in a while. The mad man also for some reason reported the number of deaths that occurred when the other players killed each other. So far the group was attacked twice by other players though no one died those times as they ran away when their health and life were at risk. But still, the other players killing each other, the number of players left including them decreased down to half compared to when they started this floor. Only 18 players left after two floors of deaths was too sad to say. However still the players left including the group did not seek out each other at any rate. The threat of them fighting were too high. All it took was a suspicious movement for them to fight. Other than the group who did not acquire the murderer mark, almost all of the other player did. And as such they no longer trust anyone even the ones who didn''t have the mark, though all who passed by the group attacked them and were thus killed by them. It saddened Sain that they were so weak. Miriel did not really care as long as things were progressing. Lyndis was disappointed the fights were dull. Serena felt that them fighting was a waste. Shadow thought of it as a bore. And Raven... ''What should I think of these circumstances?'' Raven walked near the back of the group. He was tired of fighting other players already as it made him think of the past...though the one who was weaker and stronger were reversed now. From his memories, the one winning should be happy right...? ''But why do I still feel that same crushing feeling even now...?'' Memories of being insulted, attacked and targeted came back. Was there a point in players attacking each other? Sain explained it as the mad man simply manipulating them to do so. It was unknown why they were unaffected like the others. Raven looked at his right hand. All but him and Shadow ''awakened'' it. He had no idea what was to come if he did but at the same time it couldn''t be worse than before and hopefully not as right now. Continuing walking...looking at the false enemies. Those creatures with no faces. Raven wondered if they were all real but chose not to fight. Yes, that would make things more gentler. ¡°Hellooooooooooo~!¡± The mad man started to speak and everyone stopped to listen. Though most of it was junk and simply did not make sense, there was a surprising amount of details that he reveals to the players. Tips and promises are only a part of it. Usually he tells on what was to come and warns of the dangers ahead. It was as if he wanted for them to come and find him. ¡°Only 18 left~ 3 groups~ I had the very nice, very nice urge to balance things out for you all~! Now now, you can thank me later but first I have to ask you. How do you fare with holes? I mean do you like the giaaaaaaaaaaaant ones or little tiny ones? That''s all for now~ And yes, you have all lived for the next floor~ How wonderful that you can see my ''collection'' in full. Then again, there''s a lot of seeing recently~ Ha!¡± ¡°At least that means we don''t need to fight other players¡± said with a sigh of relief. It was strange how he was so calm in these situations. ¡°For now¡± Miriel added. Sain nodded and replied, ¡°For now.¡± Likewise Miriel was similar in how indifferent she was to these situations. From his observations, Raven found that Lyndis looked and acted tough but at the same time was quite soft and fragile. Serena was the opposite in that sense willing to so the unspeakable at time while usually being inverted about herself. Then there was Shadow. To Raven he was a particularly interesting person. He gets along with everyone but Miriel and Serena. He even gotten along with Raven who did not speak much at all. On one hand he was a particular quite person like he was at times, and on the other hand he was quite chatty when he could. Although Miriel had her own preference, Raven preferred Shadow speaking rather be completely silent like him. ¡°By the way¡± Sain started to ask, ¡°How much experience did we get for killing those players?¡± ¡°Umm...not sure¡± Lyndis replied trying to think about it. ''Then why did you try?'' Raven wondered. ¡°Who knows, it''s a bit more than normal monster isn''t it?¡± Shadow asked. ¡°Huh? I thought that the game didn''t give experience normally when you killed players to discourage it¡± Miriel said remembering something. ¡°Hmm....maybe that''s why we didn''t level up after those fights¡± Sain wondered aloud. ''Perhaps..but it''s more like the levelling rate is slowing down'' Raven thought though he did not say or express it at all. Soon enough they reached the end of the path...and staring at them was a pitch black hole that was the size of the room...no was the room itself. Looking down at it, there was the unknown. A slow and sudden fear creped onto Raven. What was down there? Would he survive falling down there? Is this another trap? Those thoughts poisoned his decision as he and the others looked to Sain. ¡°Well...¡± he said disturbed by the hole as or more than the others, ¡°I suppose we have to jump in...but at the same time I really DON''T want to first. If only there were other players than we could use them but...¡± It was then that there was a rumble from behind them. Raven turned to see that the very air itself was vibrating heavily. Then it stopped. ¡°What...is that?¡± Lyndis asked. Shadow was the first to answer, ¡°We better jump now. I rather not face that.¡± ¡°Wait, what do you know?¡± Miriel asked. Shadow took a deep breath and said, ¡°You know those ''fake'' creatures that didn''t attack us...¡± ¡°Yes...oh god no.¡± ¡°They are all coming for us...and-¡± The rumbling began to the point that it sounded like a hundred people running and jumping at once. With his split decision then, Sain grabbed Miriel and Lyndis while Shadow grabbed Serena and himself and leaped into the hole. To where ever it takes them. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!¡± xXx Elsewhere....at a place that no living creature would currently dare to come near. ¡°Lightning Spear!¡± Eden shouted. Next to his arm came spears made of lightning as he shot them rapidly at the Fallen King of Knights....no the King of Ghosts now. Bang! Bang! Bang! The King swung his silvery white blade rapidly cutting through the lightning spears like a dance, a dance that was like a typhoon in it''s wake. The King charged at Eden as he continued to fire his lightning spears at him and in an instant, one step, got close to Eden and slashed with all his might that could split seas into two. CLANG! However there was a dull metallic sound of metal hitting each other. ¡°A golden sword...?¡± the King muttered before Eden kicked him away while summoning more weapons at hand. ¡°Geez...to think there was another person who could force me to use this¡± Eden said in a calm manner though at the same time holding back his urge to fire everything at the King. In his hands were golden swords that were perfectly identical as they were copies. Around him were a dozen more of them waiting to be used. And at the same time all kinds of magicks were being formed around Eden, all designed to kill the King. If not for his armour that blocked all but the most powerful magic and blows...if not for his sword that can cut through even magic itself. The King would be dead by now. ¡°You are a worthy foe dragon¡± the King said, ¡°I ask again. Join me!¡± The King raised his hand for Eden to take but all Eden did was stare and smirked. ¡°Enough chatter already. I want to know what else you are holding back. Your swordsmanship is powerful itself but that can''t be all to your power. I know you made a contract and gained that something. If you do not use that, you will die right now.¡± Eden closed his eyes and expanded his power even more. The King could feel that faint Dragon power become larger and larger every moment to the point that it rivalled a great ancient Dragon in strength. ¡°Dragonic Overload!¡± The Golden aura around Eden expanded and strengthened as the King stared gripping his sword. Even with that, the King believed with one stroke...he could end Eden''s life then and there. ¡°Still not doing it?¡± Eden asked disappointed, ¡°Then I will force you.¡± The King blinked and Eden disappeared. His senses blazed forward to it''s limit on survival. His body immediately swung to his left for the killing blow. ¡°Too bad, it''s the right.¡± A hand gripped the King''s head and threw him afar. The King toppled but regained his balance in inhuman speeds. Gathering his power in his sword and legs the King moved to the extreme speed combat with Eden. Even with this, the King could keep up with Eden. It was just that Eden timed his attack at the sole moment the King would relax by a slight bit. ¡°Aura Blade!¡± the King shouted causing his sword to glow with energy to the point that it doubled in size and power. As he swung, Eden also swung at him. The King with his knowledge of battle knew that his sword with certain will prevail with his aura reinforcing it. But at the same time he thought this, Eden let go of his sword and used another to swing at him. The King immediately reacted and changed his attack at the same time. Again Eden did the same and abandoned his sword halfway when he attacked. After a dozen of these exchanges with half a beat passing the King knew what Eden was doing. ¡°Aura Impact!¡± He exploded his aura out blowing away all of the swords with them. The moment his attack ended he sensed danger from above and dodged. Eden''s hand struck the ground breaking it with his aura covering his hand like a blade. ¡°Well, that''s my preparations done¡± he said amused. The King sensed around him and found... ¡°What is this impossible amount of magic?!¡± he could not help but to exclaim. All around him for at least a kilometre in the air and sky was filled with magic projectiles. ¡°It took a while but...die¡± Eden sung his hand down signalling all of the attacks to fire at him. In that instant, he knew he had to use that to survive. He had no choice else he would fail once again. ¡°Come! My Brethren!¡± His voice echoed in the empty sky as light shone around him, protecting him from the attacks. However some attack pierced through the light that came down like a message from the Gods. He easily cut them down with his sword or endured with his armour and body. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG...! For a full minute the attacks continued but in the end they stopped...and he survived. ¡°Wow...¡± Eden started clapping wide eyed that someone could survive that. He knew only someone like Alexandra or Viv to do that in their own way. Alexandra would face all of the attacks at once and yet survive with nearly not a scratch on her while Viv would counter with magic and the same would happen. At the same time as the light that surrounded the King and the area around him faded away, came another eleven knights with transparent bodies if not for the great aura that they have. ¡°My knights continue serving me even now¡± the King said looking at the knights that were once part of his Knights of Round, ¡°Even the traitors and those who left me.¡± The King looked at Eden with a savage look, ¡°But this is not all.¡± Behind the King came more and more of these ''ghosts''. All of them knights and they numbered in the hundreds of thousands. ¡°You will be a part of this and my kingdom when you die!¡± the King shouted praising Eden in his heart by forcing him to use this. His ultimate skill, ''Call of the Kingdom''. ¡°Hmm~?¡± Eden made a strange face, ¡°This is actually really interesting. I can see some old friends in there as well!¡± he exclaimed as if happy to see them again as enemies. Naturally his skill cannot possibly summon all of his knights at once, only a portion can be called at a time. ¡°Well I can''t hold back now can I? Facing an whole army like this. Too bad I can''t use [Magic King Drive] right now...but...¡± Eden''s eyes changed colour and looked like they saw through everything. A wide grin was on his face that was more happy than anything else. ¡°Do you think this is enough to defeat me, as weakened I am already from the meddling of the Gods? Dragon Transformation!¡± The King felt a great power...coming from Eden. The mana itself became visible to the naked eye and formed....in a giant Dragon. Pitch Black in all it''s might. A true Dragon that was a hundred metres large staring down at him and his army. But...this, this much was enough for the King to defeat for he had the blood and soul of a Dragon as well! ¡°Come foul dragon! We will slay you!¡± the King shouted leading his knights into battle. Ghost horses appeared for them all to ride into battle. Eden in his dragon form flapped his giant wings and flew in the air and shouted in his might. [Come Knights! I am the Black Dragon King of Golden Despair, Eden! Face your death here and now!] And thus an army of hundreds of thousands of knights and a giant black dragon started their battle.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9100~ - This came out a bit more differently than I planned. There was suppose to be a greater focus on player vs player action here but...that can come next time where it is the main focus - And now in the background of the story...comes a seemingly more interesting story! Haaa...it''s so hard to write about enemies that are overpowered and make them seem stronger than Eden...which in my mind is impossible most of the time which makes it so hard. An army of ghost knights...vs dragon Eden....results are as expected...only to be revealed later. Vol.5 Chapter 4 - The Laboratory (IV) Down a hole of pitch black they continued to fall for a while. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!¡± THUD! And so they landed onto the hard ground. ¡°Ow ow....damn we''re still alive¡± Miriel started complaining while rubbing her sore butt...not that she would even say that. Looking around, everyone else seemed to be fine at least. ¡°Yeah....I don''t think I would want to live much more with this pain...my wrists are broken and I think Raven has a broken leg here¡± Shadow said drawing attention to himself and Raven who both looked as if they were in pain. Shadow''s hands lay opened on his legs not moving. When he did move it a slight bit, he made a pained face. On Raven''s end, things were looking worse with one of his leg pointing at the wrong direction. While he didn''t look in pain as he was really really good at not expressing himself, the mood around him was more depressing than it would normally be. ¡°I guess having heavy armour is a bad thing when dropping from so high¡± Shadow said in a sarcastic tone. ¡°Naturally¡± Miriel snorted, ¡°Please tell me you have even the most basic knowledge of physic or even .¡± ¡°Umm...I think even little kids knows that, even the dumb ones...well not really the dumb ones but my wrists are hurting like hell here!¡± Shadow shouted. ¡°Ah....¡± Serena started to panic a bit seeing Shadow shout like that, ¡°Health Restoration!¡± Serena chanted quickly healing him of his wrists. With a snap, his wrists came back to normal, unbroken. Sain also used in his ''Moderate Heal'' spell on Raven to heal his leg...after twisting it back in the right direction which would cause enormous pain but even then Rave did not even flinch to it. ''How...much pain did he have to endure that so easily...'' Miriel could not help but to think. ¡°Right...¡± Sain said looking around the place where they landed now. It was quite dark to see anything prominent at all. Miriel also couldn''t see anything but there was one person in the group who may. Therefore he asked Shadow, ¡°Can you see anything?¡± Shadow shook his head, ¡°There''s no difference whether I use my night vision or not. It''s either because there''s really no light here....¡± ¡°Or a spell of some sort¡± Miriel added at the end. Really, the only thing that could do this remote to spell in the end. While swords and weapons stay the same for how many more era, magic keeps on going forward, but whether it goes in a straight path is questionable. This was why Miriel chose magic in the first place. While she knew that the sword was complicated to use in order to be truly skilled, only people like Lyndis who could do that when fighting can bring it to it''s limits. On the other hand, Miriel preferred to fight from a range, weakening and then finishing off enemies. Plus her role was much more interesting when she learnt ice magic. Sound and illusion magic were fine but to her lacked a certain impact which ice magic filled in. ¡°Hey Sain, what should we do now? Go forward or stay to see what could happen?¡± she asked. Unlike some people...she looked at Lyndis mostly, she rather not have Sain break down from all the stress that comes with leading people. But really with normal parties, each person has a voice and the leader is only a collective voice for such times with interacting with others outside the party. Their group on the other hand...was the opposite or near to it. Most of them didn''t care what to do as long as they are doing something. Herself as well, Sain was perfect for leading them due to his kindness to help in small ways. Not as an idiot that would help with everything and anything, but one that could help in very small ways. Now that Miriel thought about it, perhaps this was why they could endure what Eden wanted of them early on a year ago and what Viv wanted since six months ago. They lacked a certain will and needed someone to lead them. Sain answered her and the rest of the group, ¡°I say we should go forward...we don''t know how much time we can spend here doing nothing.¡± ¡°I agree¡± Miriel said with the others nodding. Really...sometimes they seem to be more yes men as long as it doesn''t collide with their...finer interests. But what these interests were...Miriel know yet. They had said nothing about it nor does she think that some of them...looking at Lyndis...would know. Lyndis was overly fond of battle, that Miriel knew. But underneath from what she had revealed to her in the Eternal Dungeon, wished for recognition not as something simple as wanting to be seen but as a fear to be forgotten. There is a bit of a superiority complex in her which causes her to clash with Miriel for a bit but nothing serious and more entertaining to Miriel at least. Serena while often shy and inverted in her feelings had a stronger will than Miriel and many others would think. Miriel knew for a fact that she wished to get stronger but in more ways than one. Simply living life as it would was enough for her. Raven was....unknown to Miriel for the most part. With so little in his words but much more in his actions, Miriel could believe he is similar to Serena with his feelings. But...at the same time Miriel had seen the blankness of his eyes to be filled hotter than Lyndis'' own at times and made due to not get on his bad side... Shadow when not speaking was fine. A fine tool to be used that is. When he speaks though...she feared that only Sain or Lyndis could contain him as she does not listen to her at all. He has a bad personality that leans to being a complete show off when he can. What kind of stealth character openly attacks?! And finally there is Sain...that idiot that she needs to look after. Having a slight inferiority complex...though he does not know it. With a mind that can process more complicated things in an instant than hers...he could be the perfect leader but chose not to. Bits of his true nature...as she sees it, makes him cold and calculating though he does not realise it and hides it even in his tone when he speaks of something normally evil. Miriel sighed thinking of all of this. They had started to walk into the darkness. Serena was pulling her robe while staying near and she watched into the darkness.... xXx Sain was confused on the most part. They had been walking for an hour and yet they have found nothing at all. Actually what they found made them wish that they found nothing at all. There were no walls...no enemies...and frankly no sighs of life anywhere which disturbed him greatly. However this was soon put away they they approached some light in the distance. There... ¡°Other players?!¡± Lyndis immediately went for her sword. ¡°Wait.¡± Raven saying that word was the one that stopped her. He placed his hand on front of the hilt to prevent Lyndis from drawing and probably starting another fight. The players, most of them with the murderer mark was as confused as them for the most part. It seemed that they had not killed each other since there were twelve of them there and no less. However there was a chance that some of those players were actually dead and what they were seeing were their corpses since in this place it didn''t respawn. Or was this itself a trap as well...? For all the players to meet up here... Either way, there was nothing to do but jump into the fire while they can. ¡°Hello¡± Sain said politely not particularly caring that they had killed other players. They could''ve done it in self defence like they did though they did not know that. Another thing was the first thing that they needed to do was establish communication again. ¡°Hello¡± another player replied to him. All eyes were pointed at him and his comrades. There were some faces of disappointment and hate but nothing more. There was some silence before someone decided, though will an irritated and accusing face, to say something on their mine. ¡°Why don''t you have the murderer mark as well?¡± one player demanded as if that mattered right now, ¡°Didn''t you fight with anyone?! Are you an enemy like that mad man?!¡± One of his team-mates restrained him in his outburst as another player said, ¡°They could have fought but not killed. Besides there are some of us who don''t have the...murderer mark as well¡± Sain noticed that the player that just spoke did not have the murderer mark as well. ¡°Then how can an entire group, them!¡± he pointed at the group, ¡°Not have one that does?!¡± Sain smiled and said, ¡°We drove those who attacked off many times....when their health gets low they usually run away though we were more than prepared to kill if not for self defence....there may be some that attacked us here....¡± Sain took a quick glance at the player that was accusing them. ¡°If I remember you were part of that group as well, the ones that attacked us. Should I have killed you to get the murderer mark as well?¡± The tension roes as Sain said these words. Sain looked closer and closer at that player analysing everything about him. His fears and weaknesses are clear. If they cause trouble then he would just need to clean them up before they harm the others. These guys are quite weak after all. ¡°....¡± But now was not the time or place for that. ¡°Anyway is there anything here?¡± Sain asked looking around ignoring the stares of hate form one player. Another player started to speak, ¡°Not at all...it''s just brighter here and-¡± ¡°Ho Ho Ho~!¡± the mad man started to speak at that moment which gave the players some fright. ¡°Tch¡± a player made that sound which Sain heard quite clearly. ¡°Only 18 left~ And yet, like good little boys and girls came here so so nicely~. Well I have to reward you like Santa does for all those little boys and girls that are good right~? Else I must give you coal. Well, I should show you where you are~¡± A great rumbling around them on the entire floor occurred. ¡°Earthquake?!¡± Every last player was struggling to stand up as the rumbling resembled an earthquake more than anything else. Most of them fell onto their knees or arms until it stopped. ¡°Wha-¡± And eventually it stopped...only the for entire floor to be lit up. But everyone would prefer the darkness and the unknown to what they would see in exchange. ¡°Screeeeeeeeech! Screeeeeeeeeeeeech!¡± ¡°Kaaaaaaaaa!!!¡± ¡°What....the hell is this?!¡± Around them were cages. An seemingly infinite amount of cages that went towards the infinite. And in all of them were beasts of all natures, twisted and defiled into...things that could not be described. As Sain looked he had seem monkeys with octopus limbs, dogs that had the legs of a horse, even snails that were giant with their shells and had snakes popping out of the shell instead. ¡°What the holy fuck is this?¡± one player exclaimed not wanting to believe his eyes. ¡°I''m glad you asked~ These are my dear pets~ Well most of them anyway, The rest are simply food for the rest~ .If you all look to your right, yes~ That right, you will see the remains of those who once barge in like you...oh some time recently~¡± Urged not to look by their reasoning and guts and yet their curiosity made it impossible not to, the players turned to look... ¡°Help....I can''t feel anything¡± said a human voice. The voice was so tiny and fragile that it almost sounded like it came from a young child. But that voice came from a mole head that was stuck on top of an adult human body. ¡°Help....¡± ¡°Please...help....¡± The same was so for a dozen more bodies that were mixed with something not human in all of them. Some of them had the head of a large cat, large dogs, large horses and so on...even goblin heads and even more combinations. ¡°....¡± ¡°Look...at their armour.¡± Their armour and weapons at their side were all to the city. ¡°The city guards?¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± These ''people'' were the guards that came before them were trapped...and most likely experimented on. ¡°My my~ What are those looks~? Didn''t your mother tell you not to treat others based on their looks? Or did they say to but not say it in their dam ugly faces! Ha! I have to thank that brave brave little guard that abandoned all his friends to this fate~ Tell him thanks from me when one of you decide to do the same~¡± Sain felt a urge that was something he rarely felt. It was something that was he felt urging in him for so long that wish to do. He wished to destroy this mad man and his games. ¡°You disgust me¡± Sain said with all his might. They were his true feelings. Never once did he think that someone was this horrible and deserved to die. ¡°Well I to you as well young monster~¡± the mad man seemed humoured at Sain at least, ¡°I will enjoy finding out what lies in your bodies that make you immune to my drugs~ Yes, the reason why you, well most of you went strange was that there was a drug being dissolved from the water~ But little tiny me found there were six unaffected! What a discovery~ What a menace in my plans~ But....what excitement! Let the games begin! One gate, one path to escape~ Will you flee with your life or die here~? Let it all begggggggggggin! Open da cage~!¡± C-Crack! Break! Crackling sounds of the cages being rapidly opened all around them were heard all around them. ¡°Shit this is bad!¡± Shadow cried, ¡°How many thousand of these things do you think he has?!¡± ''Where....where would the exit be?'' Sain thought rapidly. There was nothing where they came from but... ¡°Exit! Gate! Seen anything on the way?!¡± he shouted at the other players that seemed to already half given up though their weapons were ready. ¡°Not at all!¡± one player from another group shouted back. ¡°Actually yes there us¡± Everyone turned to look at who said that. It was a player from the other group. He had the murderer mark but that didn''t matter right now. ¡°It''s from the way we landed, there was this gate at the wall we couldn''t open no matter what.¡± ¡°Good! Run there now!¡± Sain said which caused everyone to start sprinting to that general direction where the player pointed. However at this time the creatures that were released from their cages at once started their move on them. ¡°Mages at the centre! Raven at front! Everyone else protect them, triangle formation. Six left, six right! Deflect the enemy away!¡± Sain shouted to the other players which in their lack of time to think obeyed him. With Raven at front, the other groups of players went in formation though it was sloppy in Sain''s mind but it had to do for now. There were a one more mage left outside the group, as Sain presumed that the others died with their slow speeds and low defence and health. The two last archers would also be useful as well as they can move quickly and attack with ranged attacks. ¡°Miriel! Focus on keeping the damage off Raven! Otherwise help the others as well¡± Sain continued to shout as they started running. ¡°Cracked Barrier! Ice Barrier!¡± Miriel casted those two spells. One was to negate some damage for Raven and the second was to stop one of those creatures from charging them at the side as they ran. ¡°Anchor Howl! Ram!¡± Raven shouted those two skills causing the monsters to divert on him instead of the other players on the side. BANG BANG BANG...! With his shield up, he endured and took a beating where his shield and armour did not block. He didn''t even bother to use his spear at all but just charging using his shield with his skills. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Sain, Lyndis and Shadow were on the right side of the formation and were attacking monsters there. With Sain and Lyndis casting ranged attacks, some of the creatures were hit away before they hit Raven or otherwise...them. Shadow solely worked on preventing the rest of them being killed by taking out or distracting the other creatures from them. There were three other players there with them as well and six player on the left side. The three other players being purely melee players mostly blocked attacks as much as possible while Sain and Lyndis casted their long range attacks on them and Shadow finished some off. ¡°Backstab!¡± Shadow appeared and dug his dagger and short sword into a hybrid crab creature that had it''s claw turned into dog heads that bite. The creature died and he shouted, ¡°Burst Speed!¡± running off to another enemy at the same time that was getting dangerously close to the rest of the players. The five players at the centre were Miriel, Serena, another mage and two archers. Due to the fact that mages usually cannot cast spells without a certain amount of concentration, especially when running with the exception of a few, they could not cast spells as easily. However it was not impossible to do so. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena chanted after taking three times as long to chant the spell in order to make it work. ¡°Serena! Guard the back!¡± ¡°Right!¡± Vines were created where she stepped and soon turned to guard them from the back. They wrapped around the creatures that chased them from behind. Meanwhile Miriel wished she could use her ''Melody of Sound'' spell in order to directly boost everyone¡¯s stats in one way or anther but it was a spell that took a while, 30 seconds to cast even in normal circumstances. It would take too long for her to cast without someone dying. As such, she had to resort to using her barrier magic and ice magic instead as Sain said. ¡°Ice Barrier!¡± she chanted blocking the charge of a rampaging horse that was coming on the left side. ¡°Huff....Huff....¡± She looked to see that the other mage was struggling to keep up...his agility and stamina was too low for anything to be done with that. If they slowed down for him, they would die. ¡°Double Shot!¡± ¡°Rapid Fire!¡± Then she looked at the archers who were trying to help on many ways by shooting their arrows in all directions hoping to stop at least one more monster from coming at them. Ten minutes passed in this fashion with them slowing down due to the larger...higher density of monsters getting in their way. ¡°H-Help!¡± The mage cried as something ripped on his leg and threw him up in the air where he was eaten in one go. All with sounds of him screaming in fear. ¡°....¡± The mage, Miriel knew was too slow. While allocating all his points into intelligence to increase the power of his spells, he lacked the agility to run away. Plus he must likely trained much less on his spells than Miriel did to hers as well. She had no mercy or pity on such people. But the same creature that ate that mage was getting dangerously close to them again. Serena''s vines were helpless against the creature that was 3 times larger than a human or normal beast. ¡°Ice Burst!¡± She shot an ''Ice Burst'' at it and killed it leaving the body of the mage who was already dead in it while running. There was no time to destroy the body. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhh!!¡± The she heard two screams from the left. Another creature managed to kill two player from the left side in an instant. ''Shit!'' she thought, ''We need to get to that safe spot NOW!'' Apparently everyone had that thought as they sped up a lot more than before not caring much on their stamina at any rate. Thankfully it was not anyone from her group that was soon to run out of breath or stamina right now. With the formation falling apart slowly, they saw a hole at the ceiling...and beyond that...a gate. ¡°There!¡± the player who told them of the gate shouted pointing. He was the first to reach the gate. Click. BOOOOOOOOOOM! That player died instantly perishing with two other players as well in a giant explosion that almost killed the rest of them as well. The other creatures chasing them ran away seeing the explosion. One of those who was killed was an archer that was too near to the blast and died. The other was a nameless melee player that was really just average and got unlucky as well. ¡°Shit!¡± ¡°The gate is open! Run!¡± The players including her and the group now only a dozen left all ran through the gate. Crack! Bang! As it closed suddenly, everyone looked from behind them and to see...the gate? ¡°....¡± The players stared dumbfound at the gate which protects them now which should not be there since the explosion blew it off... ¡°Didn''t the explosion destroy the gate...?¡± Lyndis asked questioning what she saw earlier like everyone else. Shadow answered her, ¡°Perhaps it blew the gate up or there was a second gate behind the first.¡± Lyndis and the others took that answer as it was more simple than finding out and risk being throw outside it where all those altered creatures lied. Seeing the altered creatures pound onto the gate...something that seemed to be protected by a barrier or produced the barrier that prevented them escape in the first place on the fifth floor was not a good feeling. ¡°What now?¡± a player suddenly said, ¡°There''s no exit here...¡± The players started looking around and found that this was true. While there was the way with the gate and such, there was no other way out of this space in the wall. ¡°That means...we''re trapped?¡± another player said shaking in fear. Would they be trapped here only to be killed and eaten or the other way around of those creatures that even now continue to try and hunt them down. ¡°No~ Of course not~! I''m not that cruel to do so...though I very much wish to. Just filter out the trash on the more...quality goods here. My my, seeing you all...so young and innocent...I only ask why only half of you are truly afraid? I must honestly know~¡± ¡°....¡± The player stood there silent. This was not good at all. Those who were afraid of the creatures at any rate were the remains of the two parties, groups that started off. The others...who weren''t were Sain and his group. There was a clear difference. One side was shaking and not knowing what to do while the other side were strangely calm about this and simply observed what was happening like it didn''t concern them. ¡°Why are you not shaking? How are you fine right now?! Don''t tell me you are one of THEM!¡± One of the players, that seemed to have finally snapped under the pressure of things accused Sain and the others of being one of the altered creatures. None of players on both side said anything though. ¡°Now now~ You can play the blame game later. Actually. You can by killing each other on the next floor~! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!¡± The ground rumbled and broke apart from underneath them. Surprise, shock and fear were some of the things that Sain felt, feeling that they were under the mad man''s palm all this time. And so they fell once more. xXx THUD! ¡°Ow....¡± Rubbing where it hurt, Sain stood up and realised that he was only with the rest of the group and the other players weren''t around him... He quickly looked around the floor that numbered 9 and found that they were in a circular space with walls that were the walls. There were torches all over the walls as well though. He then turned his eyes on the opposite side of the giant room that was 20 metres in diameters. ¡°Like an arena...¡± Sain muttered, ¡°No...¡± It could not be that... ¡°Hellooooooooooooooooooo~!¡± The voice woke up anyone who was still sleeping due to the impact of the floor. Everyone stared at the other side where they stared back at them. ¡°What...going on?¡± Lyndis asked wondering what the hell would happen now. First meat monster, no face monster, an entire place filled with countless mixtures of monster and now this? ¡°Welcome~ Welcome~ To the ARENA!¡± the mad man started. Everyone stood there listening in on what cursed thing they had to do now. ¡°First! I have to congratulate you all~ Getting here so far~ I think I will have you kill each other now.¡± ¡°Wha-¡± Suddenly, from the walls and the bottom the floor itself, some coloured gas came from all corners. The group backed away from the wall immediately sensing that it would be dangerous to get near it at all. ¡°Gah! Help!¡± one player shouted grabbing his throat in pain on the other side. Sain also saw that the other five players were the same as well. All of them seemed to be choking onto the gas and...turning pink? ¡°This wonderful gases increases the ability of those who breath it~ It also causes them to be very persuaded to my words~ Buuuuuuuuuuuut, you six alone are unaffected. I will find out why~ So kill them my now minion~!¡± ¡°Shit¡± Shadow cursed again ready for battle. An arrow was shot at Sain again. Bang! However Raven moved in the way to block the shot with his shield. Lyndis and Shadow moved at the front, ahead of Sain while Miriel and Serena moved next to him. Miriel patted his shoulder and then asked, ¡°Orders?¡± Sain sighed and thought about it quickly. There was no saving the other side now...and they won''t get murderer marks either way since this is a guild quest and they have to kill them so therefore... ¡°Finish them off as fast as possible¡± Sain said with a firm voice. He could feel that his right hand is tingling again and that his thoughts were getting faster and faster. By the time another three seconds passed, he more or less knew what to do. ¡°Everyone charge and kill them all¡± he said not believing that he had a chance to say this. ¡°Ah...¡± Miriel was the first to speak up, ¡°Is...that it?¡± she asked. ¡°Yes, let us start. They''re charging us right now¡± Sain said noticing that five players were attacking them right now. The archer was naturally staying back, whatever they were affected by seemed to not make them completely disabled in thinking. ¡°If you want precise orders, first Raven charge them with Lyndis followed behind him¡± Sain said. Raven hearing this order started charging at the players. The next second he used two skills with his shield up. ¡°Footwork. Ram!¡± BANG! His speed increased dramatically as he smashed through the players he went through. Three of the players were smashed away from Raven as he charged. ¡°Raven continue to kill the archer, Lyndis attack the other two¡± Sain continued. Behind Raven, Lyndis banished her sword out and sliced the two other players easily with her sword killed them. By them Raven had reached the archer and killed him as well. ¡°Now...we finish the rest off. Magic Arrows¡± Sain said his last order. He fired his magic arrows as Miriel did the same with his ''Ice Bolts'' and the rest of the players were killed with holes in their bodies.
You have killed a player
Due to the nature of the kill and due to being in a Guild Quest where the player killed was interfering in, there will be no reciprocations for killing the player
Sain got the message once again and Raven and Lyndis most likely did as well. While it said what would happen if they obeyed this rule, there is nothing on what would happen if they broke this rule. Decrease in fame, gaol time or exile if they did? Sain wondered to what extent would the punishment would be to exploit this. ¡°Goooooooooooooooood work everyone~¡± the mad man spoke, ¡°Timmmmmmmmmmme to meet me~!¡± Rumble Rumble ¡°Hmm?¡± Sain looked over to the edge of the wall where a fairly large hole opened up to them. ¡°Not at all suspicious¡± Shadow said with great sarcasm, ¡°There is definitely no trap or ill fate for us if we walk there.¡± ¡°But there is nowhere else to go¡± Lyndis said looking around some more. There were only the two holes in which they fell through from the previous floor. Now that they thought about it, the last two floors entrances were holes weren''t they? ¡°I guess that is where we have to go next¡± Sain said with a sigh giving up escape for now. They had to clear this place out either way in the end and it made no difference how they did so. ¡°Let''s go¡± he said walking first. The other followed close behind. Walking through the hole in the wall, they were met with a stone stairway down to the next floor. The group was quite as they walked down with each step echoing a bit each time they stepped, especially for Raven who wore heavy armour. xXx At the very bottom there was a large door which was open. Walking in there as well..there was a man wearing a white lab coat. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°You are...¡± Sain muttered knowing that this was the man who caused all of this. At last he could relieve of this aching feeling of hate. ¡°Yesss!¡± the mad man was very excited seeing the group in the flesh. He observed them as they observed him. He was an old man that looked to be older than 50 at least, he was nearly bald and wrinkles seemed to have consumed most of his body and yet...he seemed to have too much energy in that old body of his. There was a large sense of madness in his eyes. ¡°Seeing you guys and gals, you seem to young from what I ''saw'' before on you~¡± He took out a crystal ball and said, ¡°This little thing allowed me to track everrrrrryone in my place~ But I can''t see them no matter how much I try...¡± he made a sad face, ¡°Which is why I am verrry happy for you all to come and see me~¡± Sain could see that Serena backed away a bit and the others were holding tightly to their weapons. ¡°Your energy levels are a lot higher than it seems to be...especially on your right hands...I want them¡± There was a good extreme of hunger and lust from his eyes. It was a look of no caring what happened as long as he got what he wanted. ¡°Ew, you think we will just chop out hands off for you?¡± Lyndis stated, looked disgusted at the mad man. ¡°No no...of course not. It''s never that easy¡± he said sadden. He took out a staff hearing this denial from Lyndis. While normal staves were wooden for the most part, his was made of metal and looked nothing like a normal staff. It looked like something that was similar to the weapons Summer and Lielm used as part of their Knight Order. ¡°Therefore~ I will have to get them off you all~ Revive and play with them. Apple of Grace~¡± he declared. A yellow and gold orb that was the size of a large head was created from the staff no, transported to the staff and went up to the ceiling glowing down on them at once. And from the ground... B-Break! C-Crack! The ground crumbled as countless things crawled up from the ground. Sain immediately recognised the 44 people that came from the ground. It was blatantly very obvious to them. The one at the front was the player with the golden shield and sword that was killed first. The second was one of the players that tried to attack and kill the other players. The third was that bastard sword user that killed next. ¡°The dead?!¡± Lyndis blurted out. ¡°Yes, your kind~. However very interesting to study~¡± The mad man continued to say, ¡°This and that and you are far more interesting then them~ I am very very happy that I get...flesh specimens~ Kill them~ And make sure you don''t damage the hands~¡± he ordered the bodies. With that, 44 creatures that were or at least resembled the bodies of the other players that died in this laboratory. They knew that they weren''t players anymore, at best NPC controlled bodies that only looked like it. However at the same time it unnerved them. ¡°What do we do now?¡± Lyndis asked immediately sweating a bit at the high amount of enemies that they suddenly had to face. The only good thing was that these enemies did not seem to have the same speed and probably power and skill was the players did. ¡°Running is probably impossible at this time¡± Shadow said looking behind them to see that the stairway...no the entire hole that let them in was gone. Miriel added in, ¡°I don''t think I have enough mana to deal with all of this plus we don''t have a large AOE attack...¡± ¡°In that case we can only fight¡± Sain said confirming that their exit, the hole in the wall disappeared while they were talking. It looked like all the talk was to truly trap them here to be killed this way. Sain looked around the room. It was circular...which means they can''t go to a corner to defend from...which means anywhere is good enough to defend from. ¡°Back to the wall! Lower the area we can fight in!¡± Sain shouted moving everyone back to the wall in a semi-circle where Raven, Lyndis and Shadow were at the front and Serena, Miriel and himself at the back. ¡°Serena! Use your vines to stop as many of them as possible! Raven, you lure them to you, Lyndis and Shadow, kill any that come close. Miriel and I will start buffing you all first then will move on to support¡± Sain said quickly. ¡°Root Bind!¡± ¡°Anchor Howl!¡± Both Serena and Raven used their spell and skill at the same time. All of the enemy went for Raven instead of everyone else as vines appeared and trued to block as many of them as possible. Sain started to focus on casting his spells. ¡°Fire Bomb!¡± Lyndis shouted throwing it deep in the crowd of enemies. BOOM! An explosion knocked the central part of the enemies away. Roughly 5-8 enemies died from the blast and before Lyndis could use another one, the hate she got from the attack lured a few enemies off Raven and onto her. ¡°Fire Blade!¡± she shouted as she cut through a sword with her own that was blended with flame dripping off it. She cut down another two enemies before having to retreat else being lost into the crowd. Meanwhile Shadow was rapidly attacking and parrying attacks without moving one step. ¡°Shadow Step¡± he said calmly causing the enemy to slightly miss him while he counter attacked. Unfortunately he couldn''t get a one shot kill and as such the enemy often retreated before he could strike a fatal hit. ¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡± Serena casted her next spell that boosted healing speeds.
Party in range has been buffed with the spell ''Heartbeat Healing''
Health will regenerate for 15 points every second for 10 minutes
¡°Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin! Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin! Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!¡± Sain rapidly chanted for all three at the front.
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
Party Member: Lyndis has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Iron Skin''
¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡±
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Party Member: Lyndis has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Swift Legs''
¡°Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury! Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury! Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury!¡±
Party Member: Raven has been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
Party Member: Lyndis has been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
Party Member: Shadow has been buffed with the spell ''Berserk Fury''
When he finally said all of those words for his spells his felt that his throats was dry. At the same time Miriel was finished casting her spell. ¡°Melody of Vitality!¡±
Party in range will be affected by the spell ''Melody of Sound''
Vitality will increase by 51% for the next 10 minutes
Everyone¡¯s health increased by over 50% with his spell and just in time as Raven was taking a beating from the enemies. Both Sain and Serena had to combine their effects to keep him alive as well as Miriel using her barriers to stop most of the foes. Swords, spears and magic went his way and it was just as time as the effects of ''Anchor Howl'' was about to wear off, they would be attacked as well....and overwhelmed. Either way, with the enemy numbers, they were being pushed back to the walls already by brute force. ¡°Miriel, stun them all!¡± Sain shouted noticing the need to stop them all at once. Miriel responded chanting, ¡°Shriek!¡± using her staff and sound magic. Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! There was a deafening tone that was heard from the point of Miriel''s staff. All of the enemies that were cut down to around 30 now were stunned with their hands over their ears. ¡°Long Range attacks now!¡± Sain shouted to everyone over the noise. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Burst!¡± ¡°Flame Burst!¡± ¡°Blood Burst!¡± With the exception of Raven and Shadow who did not have ranged attacks, the rest of the group used all of their skills and spells at the same moment. Sparks of magic, ice, flame and a red orb flew about the room exploding in all directions killing else heavily damaging everything around. BANG! Eventually Serena''s ''Blood Burst'' spell went through and caused half the enemy to be killed instantly with exploding body parts. There were now only two dozen enemies left thanks to this. They were perhaps going to win despite the numbers. Sain checked everyone¡¯s health. Raven was at the worst at 20%, Shadow and Lyndis were a bit higher at 30%. If they were going to win, it had to be now. Both the effects of ''Anchor Howl'' and ''Shriek'' wore off at roughly the same time. ¡°Serena, do your best¡± Sain said, ¡°Keep healing and binding enemies but also attack them.¡± Serena was startled and then said with a confidence voice, ¡°R-Right! Leaf Slicer!¡± She manipulated the vines to stop some of the enemies and then sliced them to pieces using this spell. She looked quite exhausted using so many spells over and over again. The group continued to fight for another 5 minutes where they were pushed to the verge of complete exhaustion. The enemy was all dead...but at the same time the mad man was more than happy for them to do so. He clapped in a disordered way to them and bowed. ¡°Good work~ Care for round two~? I have selected these ones just for you unlike those sloppy ones~¡± he said with the yellow gold orb at the ceiling starting to shine again. ¡°Damn...¡± Sain muttered. This meant that they had to get rid of the thing at the ceiling. It was the source of those bodies... Six creatures emerged from the ground. All of them bone monsters that were twice or thrice the size of a person and each one was slightly different from each other. One had a giant horn at it''s skull, another had two blades instead of hands or claws. Another had four limbs and so on. Each of them were unique in a way that the group had never seen before. And more to the point, each of them were strong to the point that they could not beat them no matter what. ¡°About....level 250 I guess?¡± Miriel let out a small laugh at their current situation. They were facing something twice their level. ¡°Well I guess we could...nope. Not going to happen¡± said Shadow lowering his blades. It looked like he seen the futile in fighting right now. His back was a bit hunched as he said this. Sain turned to look at Lyndis where she was leaning onto her sword said, ¡°Our stamina is rock bottom as well.¡± Sain then looked at Raven who was doing with same with his spear but at the same time looked a lot worse than Lyndis. Serena was glancing at him on what to do and indeed he was thinking on what to do. xXx ¡°These ''marks'' are basically a tool that allows us to draw out the inner strength that our mind and body are suppressing. You have heard of people unleashing great strength or speed at times when their lives are in danger right? This is simply the same...however the difference is that we can do that at will.¡± ¡°I see....¡± Such a concept wasn''t that rare at all. Miriel knew that there were players that had lifted the limits on their bodies in game and were powerful thanks to that. ¡°With our ''marks'' however, there is another feature. It does not simply draw out inner strength but personalities with it was well that are hidden inside....¡± ¡°What?¡± Miriel could not believe her ears at all. Such a thing was fundamentally impossible to do. Things like inner personalities are things of fiction or scams that certain religious people say to trick people in the end. ¡°Not everyone have a hidden personalities that they are unconsciously suppressing. That is why Eden actually seek out people like us in the first place. We are all people who have lost something too important to recover. The Inner Personalities are a result of our hatred and despair or something that was replaced by something new after said event. In exchange for even greater power, what was being hidden inside begins to slip out bit by bit until it corrodes your mind and personality itself.¡± Jenny looked sadly at her own mark as well. ¡°Don''t get me won''t, the power that comes with this is enough that it compensates of what happens afterwards. But what is the most troublesome thing is that things get really out of hand when you can''t control that ''other'' personality in you. Usually these things appear after a year or so but that Sain....in a mere 7 months managed to unleash it.¡± Miriel frowned, what Jenny said might have some significant but it mostly did not make sense at all, so she asked: ¡°So...what exactly is happening to Sain again?¡± ¡°His other personality appeared out of nowhere and Eden needs to suppress it or let it loose from there.¡± ¡°And these gloves are...?¡± ¡°A way to suppress them until the time is right to use them though our ones are much more powerful while your ones only have a small amount of power to begin with.¡± xXx ¡°That''s it....¡± Sain muttered...he looked to see that the mad man was waiting for them to do something. He was probably wondering what they would do now that all hope was gone. But not all hope was gone. They still had their ''marks''. It was the one thing that would possibly allow them to break through the limits of their strength right now. ¡°Take off the gloves¡± he said to the others. They were openly shocked that Sain was saying this but he ignored hat. ¡°What?¡± Miriel couldn''t believe that Sain was saying this. He knew of what it could do to them. ¡°Take them off¡± he repeated. He would not let this go so easily. He knew....he felt that this was correct decision right now. Lyndis started to say, ¡°But won''t that-¡± ¡°Yes but trust me on this¡± Sain cut her off and took off his glove. The mark of the serpent that was burnt onto his hand was glowing red and without the glove it glowed even brighter and brighter... ¡°That''s....¡± The mad man had his eyes open at Sain''s right hand, ¡°Impossible that''s...¡± ¡°Agggh!¡± Sain felt a sudden and extreme pain coming out of his right hand. It was like his hand was being burnt off, melting from the heat. He grabbed his right hand using his left but then the heat caused his left hand to burn as well. He immediately let go and instead grabbed his wrist instead where his left hand wouldn''t be burnt. ¡°Sain!¡± Miriel and the other screamed looking wide eyed. They tried to help and stop them. He stopped them from coming closer and shouted, ¡°Take off the gloves now!¡± As he watched his right hand, the mark...expanded, evolved. The serpent coiled up at the centre looked as if it was alive and the markings like a snake coiled around the rest of his hand, around his fingers and eventually stopped to cover his entire right hand.
Mark of the Serpent has progressed to the first stage
Mark of the Serpent - Agility and Wisdom +25 - Other effects will appear as you level up
¡°Ha ha...¡± Sain let out a small laugh seeing that with the mark growing stronger the stat boost also grew. ¡°It worked...¡± he said breathlessly. He moved his eyes to see that the others were looking at him staring at him. No...everyone was staring at him at this point since what he did was crazy beyond measure and it was to such an extent that the mad man did not do anything but watch at this point. ¡°Hurry up and take off the gloves¡± he ordered once again. This time they obeyed and took them off looking a bit scared each while eyeing at Sain. Since he was fine they would be as well. ¡°Ahhhh!¡± Lyndis let out that cry. Meanwhile the others were dealing with the pain in their own way. But in the end all it took was a few seconds. Raven and Shadow looked like they were in the worst pain though...most likely since their marks did not activate before.
Party Member: Lyndis, Mark of the Lion has progressed to the first stage
Party Member: Shadow, Mark of the Ripper has progressed to the first stage
Party Member: Miriel, Mark of the Fairy has progressed to the first stage
Party Member: Raven, Mark of the Star has progressed to the first stage
Party Member: Serena, Mark of the Warrior has progressed to the first stage
After a few seconds of pain where he and much to his displeasure the mad man observed them. He noticed that how each of their marks progressed looked different. Lyndis'' one looked like flames around her hand. Shadow''s one looked like blades around his hand. Miriel''s one looked like diamonds running across, glittering around her hand. Raven''s one looked like a stream of water around his hand. And Serena''s one had the look of vines running on her hand. Then he looked at his one which looked like snakes wrapped around his hand. Then he noticed that each of their bodies changed a bit with their marks glowing. Shadow was fading in and out as if he was there but not there as well or there was something else there as well. The same was around Raven protecting him though it looked like some sort of...thing that was invisible to the eye. Lyndis had bits of flames floating about naturally. Serena had her green energy around her body and Miriel had ice floating around similar to Lyndis. But there was no change in him at all no matter how he examined. ¡°Sain...your eyes¡± Miriel said shocked looking at him. ¡°What about it?¡± he asked. ¡°They''re...well yellow and...snaked eyed¡± she said avoiding his gaze. ''Hmm...is this a side effect or one of the effects that this mark gives me?'' he wondered. Sain thought about it and concluded it was probably the physical change that his body had. For some...odd reason he had already knew of what changes that the others had. It was like he knew everything about them at this moment. Then he turned to the mad man who seemed to have snapped out of it now. ¡°This can''t be...this can''t be...¡± he repeated thinking of something. He then said one thing clearly as he looked at the group hurt, yes like they or someone hurt them just then. ¡°Kill them all¡± he ordered the large boned monsters. ¡°Rooooooooooooooooar!!!¡± They gave a deafening confirm on that order as they marched. Boom Boom Boom. As they walked slowly due to their size, they made large sounds as they moved. At that moment Sain started issuing his orders to the others as fast as possible. Since they had awakened to the first stage, they have no idea what they can do yet. Well...most of them don''t. Sain knew that some of them knew what they could do at least. ¡°Serena! Use that energy to boost the power of your spells to stop them!¡± Sain shouted. ¡°R-Right...¡± Serena concentrated and Sain saw that that green energy that was spilling from everywhere in her focused at once point in her staff. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Vines came out of everywhere, from the ground, walls and ceiling as they all poured to the boned monsters in the hundreds and wrapped around them all. ¡°Roooooooooooooooar!!!¡± one of the bones creatures roared and snapped through the vines. Another two did the same but the vines on the last three thickened and stopped them from doing so as well. Next Sain would have to direct the others in dealing with the rest as well. ¡°Raven!¡± Sain shouted and ordered, ¡°Charge at the first one. Feel that strange thing around you? Use that force to blow it away.¡± He then looked at Shadow next. ¡°When attacking and dodging make sure to focus on that feeling that you have more than one bodies and can move to each of them at once.¡± With that he left Raven and Shadow to charge and attack the three large bone monsters alone. He stopped Miriel and Lyndis when they tried to go and help them. ¡°Footwork¡± Raven speed increased getting closer to one of the bone monsters that was about to strike him. ¡°Ram!¡± He held his shield up and ran straight through the bones monster. It was blown back by some strange force before Raven even touched it and when it hit the wall that he flew to broke into pieces destroyed. ¡°Wa...¡± Miriel and Lyndis seeing this was super surprised at the scene. Something that was possibly hundreds of kilograms heavy was blown back like that? Next they watched as Shadow battled two of those bone monsters by himself. Bang! Clang! The bone monsters were missing him...or rather only hitting those shadowy figures that were jumping around as well. The bone monsters despite not have a brain anymore was not dumb. It followed the real Shadow mixed in with a couple of other fake ones and strike at it. But they couldn''t hit him no matter what. ¡°Those shadowy things are part of Shadow in mist form and he can move from each and any of them at any time¡± Sain explained, ¡°Because of this, even if you attack all of them...it is nearly impossible for him to get hit. ¡°And how do you know this?¡± Miriel asked suspicious. ¡°No idea¡± Sain answered with a smirk. When Shadow was finished with the two bone monsters he then told Miriel and Lyndis, ¡°Now it''s your turn to destroy the rest of them.¡± ¡°How?¡± Lyndis bluntly asked. ¡°Use fire and ice together?¡± Sain wondered though implying what he wanted them to do. Miriel was the first to noticed what Sain was talking about. ¡°Wait-that''s impossible isn''t it? Fire and Ice cannot mix!¡± she said denying what Sain would want her and Lyndis to do. To this, Lyndis patted Miriel on the shoulder and said, ¡°It would be interesting if it worked¡± raising her hand and producing some flames that went from the shape of simple flames to a horse that seemed alive. ¡°This power is interesting...if you can get other the fact that we had to suffer extreme pains to get it¡± Lyndis quickly said near the end. Miriel sighed at both Lyndis and Sain who wanted to do this and said, ¡°Fine...what is it that I have to do.¡± ¡°We do¡± Lyndis corrected. ¡°Simple¡± Sain said as if it was very plain and true, ¡°Think, create and use.¡± Lyndis grinned and discussed with Miriel a bit, ¡°I''m thinking of birds.¡± Miriel replied with, ¡°Birds of ice and fire? Not bad, make it pretty at least¡± and a grin. Both of them raised their rights hands with their marks glowing brighter and brighter at the remaining bone monsters that were still trapped by Serena''s extra strong ''Root Bind''. As ice gathered around Miriel, fire gathered around Lyndis and were released as if it was exploding from them. Two large birds appeared from them both. One of them was made of ice and the other of flame, both glowing brightly as they flew several as large as the bone monsters themselves as they hit. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! An explosion of ice and fire spread to almost all corners of the room. The ground was scattered and the walls looked as if they were scorched with flames. And standing on the other side of the room was the mad man dumbfound at what happened. He was injured due to the blast but it looked like he did not care at all. Sain looked up and saw that the yellow gold orb things was still there. ¡°Mana Arrow¡± he chanted shooting it but for some reason the spell was stopped by some sort of barrier before it could hit. ''What could be so important of that thing to the point that mad man didn''t even protect himself over that?'' Sain wondered. With the battle done for the most part, Sain could not feel anything coming from the mad man at all. He told the others to put their gloves back on and they all did stopping whatever effect that came about when them taking it off. However Sain had a feeling that those marking would not revert for at least a very long time if ever. Walking to the other side of the room avoiding the damage that they caused in their battle, Sain had his spear at the mad man''s throat to which he finally responded though not the way he expected. The mad man smiled and asked one question. ¡°Oh...the Kingdom finally decided to kill me...or did that Eden send you? I told him long ago that my work takes time especially of what he asked me to do.¡± ¡°.....¡± Sain and the others were shocked that Eden''s name would be thrown out here.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9500 (Exactly~) - This chapter took longer than expected...one due to me spending yesterday editing the first half of the chapter and two due to me pondering the future of the series. Was discussing with Ninnin who is actually writing (though very slowly) on the levelling rate of players which is an interesting topic. - Anyway this little part of the volume will definitely end next chapter (This time for sure) and move onto the next bit. - And now some of the more hidden features of the ''marks'' everyone got was revealed. Only a sneak peak that won''t come back regularly at all for a long time. Vol.5 Chapter 5 - The Laboratory (Final) ¡°Eden?¡± Lyndis questioned, ¡°Why did you mention Eden? How is he involved in all of...this?!¡± he moved in and grabbed onto the coat of the mad man shaking him demanding an answer. ¡°Don''t you know?¡± the mad man with his hands up not resisting replied with that and a confused look on his face. He honestly did not know why these people who tried to kill them didn''t know why? ¡°No! Now tell-¡± ¡°Lyndis calm now!¡± Sain along with Shadow and Raven grabbed onto Lyndis and dragged her away from the mad man since she was close to wanting to kill him and thus making it very difficult for him to answer any questions. With Lyndis restrained by Raven and Shadow and Miriel and Serena not really caring for what was done to the mad man, Sain said, ¡°Will you answer our questions?¡± The mad man seeing that Sain was still pointing his spear at him answered, ¡°Fine. We have all the time in the world to. Well you freemen do but I don''t. Make it quick before I die¡± he made a gesture of ''go ahead'' to him. Sain nodded and then asked, ¡°What is your connection to Eden.¡± ¡°Eden?! Yes, I know that person. A dragon hybrid of some sort. Long ago...a century ago to be precise, don''t give me that look, I come from a race that has double the life span of humans. It''s normal for me to live for over a hundred years. Anyway a hundred years, give or take a decade, I was in service of a certain sage.¡± ¡°Please cut to the chase¡± Sain said while interested in learning some history of Eden nonetheless did not see the relevance to all of this to Eden. He poked his spear at him again while Miriel was gripping her whip to be used. ¡°Calm down lad...I''m getting to it. Anyway I and many other were in service to a certain sage that had acquired this wonderful crystal of pure mana. Yes, we took some years studying it until Eden, Alexandra and Viv came to take it back¡± he said remembering the events in his mind. There was excitement, amusement and then...fear. ¡°Take it back? You mean it wasn''t that Sage''s?¡± Miriel asked. ¡°No¡± the mad man said bluntly, ¡°He and four others stole it off Eden and they hunted those five down to get them back I later learnt. Anyway the thing that was stolen was a ''Mana Fragment'', lots of things were unknown but the most prominent thing about it was it forcefully draws out the power of those affected by it. Lots of experiments later one some people captured to do so and Eden goes berserk destroying the tower where all the research was and all that were involved...expect for me.¡± ¡°Except for you? How are you different?¡± Shadow asked this time. He made sure to keep an eye on the mad man waiting for him to slip up so he can put a dagger in his ribs to end it. He was quite pissed to have to spent two days in ¡°Ah! I have no idea but in exchange for my minor life, I promised that I would do him something equal to my life being saved. Then several decades passed and nothing happened. I almost thought they had forgotten about me until they came to ask me something to do when I was in this lab hiding from the world. I and this lab was here before that city was built.¡± ¡°Long story short they wanted me to make a copy of something and gave me a branch of the original to work with. It took me decades to finish it and it was only done recently where I gave word to the Kingdom that I did...and then they sent men to steal and plunder my research, something I promised to those three on my life!¡± The mad man had it dramatic in his choice of words. He was completely different from when he was toying with them. Perhaps...this was the real him or part of it when he was serious and not trying to kill and use them as experiments at least. ¡°Why would the Kingdom want you dead and steal your research?¡± Sain asked. He was wondering why he couldn''t contact Eden right away in the first place. ¡°Simple! I am a dangerous man with dangerous research. Since they cannot use me any longer, they let me live since they would earn the wrath of Eden otherwise, they will kill and steal from me when I am dead and my job done. There are many factions in the Kingdom and those who forgot the grace and more to the point power of the Emperor crave for the throne itself! While the continent is unified, at the same time it became a game of thrones when the Emperor dies.¡± The group frowned at this. If something or a group of people were planning on taking over, it meant that the Kingdom was in danger. But at the same time many people tried and failed to do so already. ¡°Weed can''t permanently die and no one ever stole the throne¡± Lyndis said, ¡°He''s like us so how does killing him in this g-world matter?¡± she asked. ¡°His real body which is not stored on this world is a key weakness. Though none have succeed yet, with time, someone may do so from what I know. The mud known as nobles get more dirty more quickly when the plate is cleaner. Anyway I believe that you are part of Eden''s guild?¡± ¡°Yes and you are....someone from the guild?¡± ¡°Someone that Eden originally wanted in his guild. When I accepted the job he offered his protection. I denied though later on I did try to accept the offer from before but Eden denied me that himself¡± he made a smug look of disappointment, ¡°I believe it had to do with me staring intensely of the power of that ''mark'' on his guild mates. Too dangerous for me to be near them. Anyway I want to know why you are here to kill me when Eden did not send you so.¡± Sain and the others looked at each other. ¡°We got a guild quest from one of the survivors from those guards that told to kill you and destroy all research involved¡± Sain answered. ¡°Bah. Typical of nobles. When you cannot get, you destroy. Tell your guild about this later and he and anyone involved will be eliminated. Better for those scum to die. Right, now that you are here, I can entrust you with this.¡± The mad man moved his staff and drew back the yellow and gold orb that was the size of a large egg and placed it in Sain''s hands.
Obtained Copy of Yggdrasil''s Core
He placed it in his inventory noting the name to be the tree of life in Norse myths. The mad man whose seems to be less mad now that they had spoken to him then pulled a lever which opened a space in the ceiling and a ladder fell down for them. ¡°Climb up and you will get out in around 5 minutes¡± he said, ¡°I will at least make it easier for you to deal with those scum nobles. My life for the future of six young lads is a good deal.¡± ¡°Wait what are you doing?¡± Sain asked stopping the mad man from pulling the second lever. ¡°Destroying this place of course¡± he said, ¡°Since you are on a guild quest to kill me, you must complete it else those nobles have an excuse to take everything from your guild. Unless you want Eden and the other two to wage a massive war over this I suggest you do as I say. Give the core to...what''s her name...Alena I think....no give it to Viv since it will be safer that way.¡± The mad man pulled the second lever and the whole lab started to shake. ¡°You have five minutes to escape¡± he said smiling at them, ¡°Then this whole place will collapse.¡± ¡°Wait! Won''t this core count as part of your research?!¡± Miriel asked quickly with the others nodding in agreement. The Guild quest did say to destroy all research involved. To this the mad man grinned and said, ¡°My dear girl, once completed that core was no longer mine by Eden''s. And besides...the guild quest was most likely referring to my...other research. They used that excuse to try and get that. Now off you go.¡± The mad man shooed them away to the ladder where they climbed for a further 5 minutes to get out. At the bottom of the laboratory...the mad man said to himself in a quiet mutter no louder than a whisper over the sound of crashing, ¡°Done. My life is repaid now Eden. My life for theirs''....I hope that my work is beneficial to you in the end...¡± He looked up with fond eyes as the last of his laboratory crashed down killing him. xXx The group barely managed to climb out in time before they were trapped and killed as well. When the laboratory completely collapsed, they got the following message.
You have completed the Guild Quest: Search through the forgotten Labs The dangerous lab where a mad man was experimenting in countless innocences over the years have been killed and the research destroyed forever. Fame +100 Contribution to Kingdom +50 Level up x3 Collect reward from Lenny or administration for the quest.
The group gained a three levels due to this quest and plus the one level up they got during the quest itself, they gained a total of four levels thanks to this quest in two days. It was an extremely fast pace for this part of the game. They say if you put your mind to it, you can gain the first 100 levels in a year. However after that you can at best gain 50 levels a year and to a certain point it drops again. But Sain didn''t focus on that, more importantly thanks to the marks progressing to the firs stage at last, the bonus that they got from it increased. A total of 30 points or 6 levels equivalent was gained thanks to this as well. As such Sain checked their status windows to see what they gained thanks to this. And skipping over the actually showing of the status windows, they have improved a bit. He and Miriel had reached the level 120 point where they could equip whatever Alena was making for them though only the girls knew that designs they would be forced to wear. After that Shadow and Serena are both close to that point with a small 2-3 level difference to get there. However both Raven and Lyndis had the biggest problem with their levels. They both needed 6 levels to reach level 120 as they were level 114 each. This large sum had to be completed in the next 5 days. However for now, they would need to complete this guild quest though it left a bad taste for Sain since he directed his anger and hate at the wrong person...though it was justified seeing that, ''that'' research, the one he and the others fought against was unrelated to what he was ultimately doing. Sain sighed thinking about this as a voice asked, ¡°Did you just come out there?¡± Shocked Sain and the others turned to see... ¡°Viv?!¡± they all cried out at the same time with the exception of Raven who was on guard. ¡°Yes it''s me. So you coming from there means that ''he'' is dead right?¡± Viv asked with a frown looking at the filled up hole where the ladder was that got them out of there. ¡°Yes....¡± Sain replied not looking at him in the eyes. Though not knowing that relationship between him and that person, judging from how Viv reacted, his death was not exactly a good thing. ¡°What of ''that'' research. Did he complete it and give it to you?¡± Viv asked again to Sain. He was waiting for Sain to give him something which he knew to be that ''Core''. Going through his inventory, Sain took out the ''Core'' that the mad man gave him at the end for no more reason but to give it to Viv...else Alena he supposed. ¡°So...he completed it in the end¡± Viv muttered looking at it and taking it off Sain''s hands and placed it on his inventory saying, ¡°Good job¡± to either them or the mad man, Sain did not know. For a moment of silence where there was nothing going on, Sain asked ¡°So...where now?¡± Sain paused to think about it, ¡°That...man said that the Kingdom was coming for him and ''that''¡± referring to the ''Core'' that he had just gave Viv. Viv nodded to this and then said, ¡°I see. Tell me a list of people that relate to those who are part of this scheme¡± to Sain. Sain thought about it and could only think of one person, ¡°That guard that gave us the Guild Quest, Lenny.¡± ¡°In that case, take me to the person who gave you the quest. Are there any others that survived?¡± Viv asked again though itching to get to Lenny to ''question'' him. Sain shook his head and Viv smiled. These kinds of things are better if less people know about it. Another few hours passed as Sain and the other best tried to explain what happened in the last two days to Viv. ¡°Interesting...¡± Viv would mutter once in a while listening in on the smaller details like how some of the monsters would act or how the other players were revived as almost perfect copies of themselves with some defects in speed, power and skill but not appearance. When Sain asked if it was a good thing when the mad man died... ¡°It''s a good thing since he knew himself that he was too dangerous for the world right now. We are on a turning point on whether everything will collapse or not. Understand that there are so many things to support but so little pillars to do so. The Kingdom Knights and Independent Guilds are only some of the few¡± Viv answered in all seriousness which caused Sain to feel a but shameful that he regretted the mad man''s death even a little bit. ¡°Hmm...can people really accept death like that?¡± Lyndis asked. She was not comfortable that people doing that since it seemed close to suicide which is heavily frowned upon. ¡°Depends on how much you believe you have achieved. There are many men that have done a lot and yet think it was not enough and yet many more men who have done nothing to feel that they have achieved everything¡± he answered. The years of wisdom came out there when Viv said that. ¡°Isn''t the latter just accepting fate as it is?¡± Shadow asked. He did not like the idea of having follow others for all his life. If anything, he would prefer that he would be the one leading not the other way around...though the current circumstances were more than fine and Shadow was happy enough about that. ¡°Perhaps...that are some that whose lives can''t end so easily due to many reasons. Take your body is destroyed and you exist as a spirit not of your own free will. Death would be preferable then. They who are trapped like that are the ones who are to be pitied...¡± Viv said in a sad tone, ¡°Especially when there is no escape even in death.¡± Miriel then asked, ¡°Who are these people you are referring to? Do you know them?¡± ¡°I known them for a long time...¡± he muttered not wanting to answer anymore. ¡°....¡± As the some hours passed and they reached the city, Sain and the others took Viv to the hospital in which the guard Lenny gave them the quest. ¡°Ah! You completed the task did you not?¡± Lenny said looking much better than two days ago. Before he was in a state that it was not that unusual for him to die at any time. But now he looked well enough. Stepping in front of the others, Sain addressed Lenny. ¡°Yes, the quest is complete.¡± ¡°Congratulations, now the Kingdom will be safer than ever¡± he said with a smile truly believing it, ¡°With this, people can at least sleep a bit better.¡± Seeing this smile, Sain was unnerved. Did he truly not know what he was about to do if he succeeded? ¡°Cut the crap for now guard Lenny¡± Viv said moving in front of Sain. Lenny could feel that Viv was a powerful person especially since he was a NPC, ¡°Which lord do you serve?¡± Viv asked Lenny. Pondering what Viv was talking about he said, ¡°I serve Lord Deran why?¡± ¡°I see....¡± he muttered, ¡°That means...there are another four lords with him on this....¡± ¡°Umm...Viv?¡± There was a flash in Viv''s eyes which Sain knew to be...he stepped a few steps back to avoid the blood at least. The others followed suit and Serena covered her eyes not wanting to see what would happen next. ¡°Dark Torment¡± Viv said finally which seemed to be an eternity to the group. The floor under the bed Lenny was lying on had some dark mist climbing up and surrounded Lenny in an instant. The dark mist turned into hands like entities that poured into Lenny. ¡°Ahhhhhhhh!¡± Lenny let out a short scream before he died just like that. ¡°What''s going on?!¡± several voice from close by shouted running here. Sain and the others could hear the footsteps in which meant they were coming in seconds. Hearing this scream, several people, doctors, nurses and guards ran to see what was going on. Several patients that were same room as them ran out afraid for their lives as the same or more amount of people poured in. ¡°Dark Magic! Dark Magic!¡± one patient was very intent to scream out as much as possible. ¡°What...? Dark magic? Who?!¡± one person who was a guard ran in said seeing what was happening. One of the patients, Lenny a fellow guard injured in duty was dead and the person who did it was...a young child?! ¡°What on earth is this?!¡± The doctors and nurses and others were shocked to see that someone was killed just like that especially by someone looking like Viv. ¡°Halt and put down the staff!¡± one of the two guards that came in shouted noticing that the staff looked to be quite expensive... ¡°Halt and surrender else die!¡± the other of the guards shouted. They were both prepared though reluctant to a young child cut him down if it needed to be. Viv turned and looked and without a smile...pointed his staff at them. Realising that they had to stop Viv from casting a spell, the guards charged at Viv while the group further backed away from him and the incoming battle. ¡°Attack!¡± The guards took only two steps when Viv finally said, ¡°Grow Root.¡± BANG! The world changed as Sain and the others blinked. In one second, Viv was about to be cut down by the guards and in the next...giant roots pierced and killed all if the guards while protecting Viv. The two guards were killed instantly without them knowing what happened. Blood spattered all over the room as Viv silently and as if he had no emotions withdrew the roots of their bodies letting them fall onto the ground dead. ¡°Why did you kill them?!¡± Lyndis screamed at Viv. She did not like the fact that people were just...killed like that without reason or warning. Viv turned to look at her and said, ¡°They were attacking me. Self defence.¡± ¡°That still-¡± Sain shut her up and then said, ¡°We have a bigger problem now. Two...no three guards are dead and the suspects...¡± he looked at everyone, ¡°Are us.¡± Seeing this, Viv turned to the group and said, ¡°Come along, we''re going to Alena first. I need to speak to her. Nothing is going to happen to us¡± he assured them though the appearance of Viv who now looked like a serial killer did not help their case. ¡°But-¡± Lyndis was about to say something again but Viv cut her off and said, ¡°Until we get to Alena you all will not talk okay?¡± with a smile that said ''I will kill you if you continue''. Lyndis and everyone else immediately shut their mouths not daring to make another noise. He tapped his staff and the roots around the room threatened to stab and kill them as well. ¡°Now let''s go, I believe there are people wanting to met us.¡± xXx The guards heard the news quickly. It was easy when a group of people were saying ''murder murder in the hospital'' and guards can easily jump down to the lower levels in this city easily. As such the commander that was ranked under the captain commander which was equal to a general in normal battles otherwise was alerted and he sortied the guards to this location. ¡°Looks like we have company already. As expected from this city¡± Viv said going out. When they came out of the hospital they were surrounded by over 30 guards at once with 20 archers on the building and 10 mages prepared to bombard them with magic. It was quite a sum of reinforcement to be used against him. The guards were equipped with light armour with ropes at the sides to use to quickly go down a layer in the city. There were ropes all over the place as they descended. The archers were the same though they wore black light armour that cut off at the shoulders. The mages however were the typical types with their robes and hoods and such. Plus there were more coming as well. ¡°This is such a pain...¡± Viv muttered really considering to blow them all away. All it would take was to attack the mages and archers at the back first using his roots to defend and wipe out the guards at the front. The extreme level difference between the two sides made it easy for Viv to do so. Plus as a standard these guards are only around the level 200 point. Some were a bit stronger at level 300 but it wasn''t much of a difference to him. However if he does than it would be a bigger pain to explain to a few important people of why he would kill them all, what happened for him to do so and rebuild the parts of the city he would blow up. ¡°Surrender now and we will not attack! This area will be lit up along with your body if you do! You have been warned!¡± one of the guards using some sort of sound amplifier spell. The group was getting nervous of what was going to happen to them as well. As such Viv took out the guild emblem. It was pitch black meaning they were an S rank Independent Guild with a symbol of a dragon surrounding a sun at the centre and with stars all around it. It was the symbol of the oldest and strongest guild. It represented himself, Eden and Alexandra all at the same time and their power. ¡°Unless you want to be our enemy, back off!¡± Viv shouted allowing the guards to see that he was part of ''that'' Independent Guild. ¡°That''s...¡± the guards at the front backed off a few steps before someone from behind forced them froward again. ¡°Steady your aim! Do NOT back off men! Don''t you DARE back off!¡± someone shouted who was most likely the commander. The archers and mages were now even more readied to shoot Viv down. Using the emblem only had the opposite effect. ¡°Stop! Hold your fire!¡± The commander from behind came forward. The other guards moved to give way for him. He was a middle aged man wearing armour that was similar to what the other guards were wearing but it was thicker and one more layer and yet looked like it was lighter than the common armour around. It was most likely enchanted to boost the commander''s ability as well. Plus even without it, the commander looked extremely powerful as well. Around level 400 or 500 if Viv guessed right compared to the weaklings that he commanded. But even that was nothing before Viv...no it was as expected since he was hundreds of levels above him. Upon seeing Viv, he apologised of what disrespect his guards had to him and asked what happened hoping it was an misunderstanding. ¡°Ah, I killed three of your guards in there¡± Viv said without lying. ¡°What?¡± the commander uttered in disbelief. The commander stiffened up to these words and the other guards aimed their weapons at Viv again. To them it was a confession to a crime, an attack on them. Viv speaking to them like they were nothing was an insult on them. ¡°Kill this brat!¡± one guard shouted for the others to follow in to attack at once. ¡°Stop! Do NOT attack!¡± the commander had to shout again to stop his men from doing something extremely stupid. He and all the other commanders in the kingdom know not to face this particular guild if they wanted to live. ¡°I''m..sorry about that again. My men tend to be...hot headed at times though for very good reasons¡± he said. Due to the commander being a lot taller than Viv, almost two heads taller in face, he was looking down on Viv. No, he was seriously looking down on Viv. ¡°Not problem¡± Viv didn''t consider those guards much anyway. ¡°But why did you kill them? Why did you kill my men?!¡± he asked furious. He had no intentions of going against ''that'' guild but killing people indiscriminately was another whole thing that was wrong. To stand in front of the person who killed three of his men, one which only escaped recently from hell...it made him want to attack Viv. ¡°Two of them was due to self defence. I rather not have a blade go through me, especially when they are so slow to kill when it comes to me. The first...was due to a personal vendetta¡± Viv responded. ¡°Personal vendetta....?¡± the commander frowned. He placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. ¡°Of course, one of Lord Doran''s men. I and my guild now have a personal grudge against him and those who associate with him after that child Lenny called him his master¡± Viv explained. ¡°Why? What has Lord Doran done to incur your wrath?¡± the commander asked. ¡°Simple. You know of the guards that were sent to clean out a certain place and only one came back?¡± ¡°Yes...they were to kill a kidnapper and mass murderer. It was right to get rid of such a man.¡± ¡°However the problem is not that whether he was a kidnapper or mass murderer, he had done nothing of the sorts of humans for decades, he sworn in front of the Emperor himself when he took that pledge. The problem was that he was researching something important to the Kingdom and Lord Doran tried to steal it, and when he failed to destroy it instead. I believe Lord Doran was one of those who can issue Guild Quests for others? A lowly guard like Lenny would not be able to and despite this he gave the quest to my Guild!¡± ¡°So what Lord Doran decided to get rid of that scum. The Emperor has done nothing for years now! His influence wanes and he still protects that scum! It would be an insult to the code we obey if such a man exists!¡± the commander shouted with his men nodding. The crowd that has gathered back at the edge peered and listened in and seemed to agree as well. ¡°Like I said, the problem is that someone was trying to steal his research. Tell me, do you know what it involved?¡± Viv asked with a snort looking down on the commander not caring that 30 people were aiming their weapons and spell at him. ¡°No idea, something horrible I know.¡± ¡°Pfft¡± Viv started laughing. It was the first time the group seen him laugh like that. ¡°You are standing on it. Lily City, this city was part of his research. This whole city was his creation and yet someone dared tried to question his motives? You are scum that know nothing using your ignorance to cause trouble.¡± ¡°Take those words-¡± ¡°Or what?¡± Viv asked cutting off the words of the commander, ¡°Kill me?¡± ¡°If it must be than yes¡± the commander replied. There were now over a hundred men under his control in the area as they gathered during the commotion. Viv looked around seeing this scene. ¡°Do you all really think...¡± A black aura started to surround his body as Viv talked, ¡°This will be enough?! Me of all things?!¡± A black light spread from Viv''s body. The entire city and more was plunged into the night even though it was noon. Almost all light was prevented from coming in, this entire space was under his control now. The sky was littered with stars even though it was not night and it was strange to see them at the edge as well. Yes, it was like they were trapped in a dome. And his body was changing as well. His body looked partly different like there was something else mixed in as well. Some parts of his body, like part of his head and an eye and an arm lit up like flames though it was not flames but light, ghostly light like he was some sort of ghost. The guards started to panic and the Commander quickly shouted, ¡°Don''t worry! This is all an illusion!¡± ''Illusion my ass, what kind of illusion can alter the sights of so many people at once?! Plus doesn''t he feel that power coming from Viv''s body?!'' Miriel thought cursing the commander to be so idiotic even if it is to calm his men down. And then another person entered the scene. xXx ¡°Viv?!¡± a female voice was heard from a distance away and a person that they all recognised as Alena appeared. She while not having her child with her naturally as this was a battlefield now, was dressed in a white and green dress with an apron on and an bandanna on her head tying her hair into a ponytail. There were immediately whispers of her when she appeared. Comments such as the Kingdom was stepping in now or things are finally ending with her here were thrown around. She ignored them and made her way to the commotion glancing at the group and let out a small sigh seeing them frozen in fear of Viv. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Why are you....¡± she looked at the current situation where Viv was about to attack and the guards were about to attack him as well, ¡°Doing this here in the middle of the city. You know I prefer you all to take your issue outside the city where I can''t see and can''t care about.¡± Her hand were on her hips staring at both sides but none of them seemed to have listened to her. ¡°Both sides, arms down¡± she said ordering them. When both sides decided to not follow her warning again she repeated, ¡°Both sides, arms down else I will be forced to report that you all are intentionally fighting in the city using Kingdom resources!¡± ¡°Alena¡± Viv looked at her with a smile, ¡°I haven''t done anything yet.¡± ¡°Except forcefully controlling the space around this entire city, with this you can kill practically anyone in it in a matter of seconds. Plus you are in that half spirit form which I remember once caused an entire city to worship a strange deity to try and get rid of you! Viv...please don''t make me. What did they do wrong to anger you?¡± she asked in a pleading tone. ¡°Nothing for any others¡± he looked at the guards, ¡°To know. Guild Secrets¡± Viv answered. ¡°Guild Secrets my ass! Three of my men are dead, killed because of him!¡± The commander pointed in anger. ¡°....¡± Viv stared at the commander and said, ¡°Meh, not worth it.¡± He disengaged against the guards causing his body to go back to normal and the space turning back to day how it was suppose to be. However the guards did not do the same. They were still very keen on attacking Viv. ¡°He''s not a human so it''s fine.¡± ¡°Yes, we will get a promotion and reward if we kill it.¡± The guards started whispering on how to get rid of Viv for their own profit. At the same time, Viv moved some of his roots underneath the ground to the location of such people. ¡°Commander! Viv has let down his arms and so will you!¡± Alena ordered in a commanding voice. The Commander shrug and said, ¡°You have no power over me. All you bloody leaches called ''Kingdom Officials'' or ''Managers'' are pests to get rid of! I will get my justice whether this Kingdom follows me or not!¡± ¡°....¡± Alena was dumbfound at his words. He was literally declaring that he was above the law and above the kingdom as well. ¡°Commander are you-¡± ¡°Oh shut it whore.¡± ¡°....¡± There was silence as the commander not only cut Alena off but also insulted her. Viv sighed and shook his head, ¡°There you go..had to insult her.¡± ¡°Ho....a whore you say?¡± Alena''s eyes could not be seen by Sain and the others but they expect it to be filled with extreme hatred right now. Around her body, a red aura appeared. ¡°Yes a common whore that leaches off the so called great captain commander of this city. You are nothing before-Ahhhhhh!¡± The commander let out a scream of pain his hand was crushed. He had to insult her husband while he was off with many more competent people on a dangerous people with her sister. Alena moved without anyone noticing and grabbed and twisted the arm of the commander including the armour to which he was wearing there as well. As Alena let go, the commander jumped back and the dented mark of Alena''s fingers could be seen. ¡°Damn...you whore! Kill her!¡± he shouted. That to the minds of many including the other guards was a mistake. However orders were orders and they moved to attack Alena. ¡°Bad mistake¡± Viv said unleashing hell onto the grounds. BANG! From the ground, the roots that he planted burst out grabbing and crushing the guards that tried to attack and those who wanted to finish him off as well for good measure. Within seconds the hundred or so forces were either killed or captured. ¡°Well now, what will you do Commander?¡± Alena asked walking slowly to the commander who was still grasping his hand in pain. Not only had the commander insulted Alena personally, they made it so that they were about to murder an extremely important Kingdom official that managed Independent Guilds. Anyone who touched them would be killed. Though the only question was by whom they will be killed by now. ¡°You have a lot of guts for a mere substitute for this city. There have been many like you before and many will come after you who act like a brat despite your responsibilities. Answer me this, how strong do you think I am?¡± She cracked her knuckles and equipped some heavy gloves that were three times the size of her hands. In particular they looked quite mechanical and had a giant bolt screw at the back of each one. The left was coloured blue and the right was coloured red. They looked heavily but Alena had zero problems using them. ¡°Now that you have tried to attack me. I have to fight back don''t I? Else some people will question me. Don''t worry. I will make it painful.¡± ¡°You bitch...¡± the commander muttered angered and drew his sword with his other unharmed hand to swing at her. BANG! But before he did, Alena moved up in front of him and smashed her fist into his armour and him causing a large crack to be heard, most like his spine being broken. Being sent up a bit in the air by the punch along, Alena quickly moved in again with a style that was similar to how boxers moved and punched again. BANG! The armour broke into pieces and there were two large punch marks on the chest of the commander. Barely conscious at any rate, Alena then said to him, ¡°Just for you to know. I was holding back and thank God my husband, sister and more to the point my parents won''t ever know about this. If they did, you would have to suffer something worst than death.¡± ¡°....¡± The commander fell unconscious as some other guards not associated with him grabbed him and dragged him away. With that, Alena turned to the group and said, ¡°Now then, I believe we have a lot to talk about.¡± xXx Back at the ''Independent Guild Administration Centre'' which doubled as Alena''s home, the group explained what exactly happened in the laboratory where they and many many other players were forced to be toyed with and go through. ¡°I see...so that''s what happened...I wondered why a guard like Lenny could give a Guild Quest. Usually they have to go through the administration first which make sure every detail is to the letter¡± Alena said with a sigh, ¡°I did not expect that the nobles are starting to interfere with this system.¡± ¡°Isn''t that bad though?¡± Miriel asked, ¡°I thought nobles weren''t suppose to interfere.¡± ¡°And then haven''t...until now that is¡± Alena answered, ¡°I suppose it had to do with the recent years where the Emperor hasn''t done anything major.¡± ¡°Why would that matter?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Because for one, this generation of nobles, the natives at least only heard stories about Weed and such. Without him actually doing things, their loyalty depends on themselves and how they were raised. Nobles will eventually be corrupt sooner or later¡± answered Viv. ¡°I see...then why doesn''t Weed do something about it? His fame in the game is it is more likely to lose your memories of everything than to not know about him¡± Sain asked Viv. ¡°That is because Weed generally splits things into two stages. The first is him training and gaining gold. The second is him actually managing the Kingdom, most of it is self run but at the same time he pumps lots of gold improving it only to reap the benefits by taxes. The funny thing is that even though he tried many times to raise the taxes to the maximum, he was forced to lower it via expectations an longer term benefits.¡± Viv let out a chuckle thinking about it. Alena also joined in though the group was somewhat in disbelief that the Emperor known for setting low taxes and lots of benefits to the lower class would try to do that...and fail. ¡°Anyway the main thing is that certain nobles are getting ahead of themselves recently. Can you deal with it Viv?¡± Alena asked to him though it was more directed to the guild in general. ¡°Don''t worry about it¡± Viv said, ¡°I''ll get Anna to get rid of them and Park to clean the rest up as a training exercise.¡± ¡°With done with, let''s go to the second thing we need to talk about.¡± Viv proceeded to look at Sain''s right hand and said, ¡°You took it off didn''t you.¡± Flashes of the memory in the laboratory of the pain when taking it off and gaining these strange powers went through Sain''s mind. ¡°Yes...¡± he uttered feeling some shame like he was a child caught doing something wrong. ¡°We can''t change what happened any more than we can change every last detail in history...though there are very few exceptions to this¡± Viv sighed, ¡°However what we can do is know what to expect in the future. Listen carefully, as this is important. When you took off the gloves, the marks expanded and progressed correct?¡± ¡°Yeah it said something about going to the first stage, each of ours were different though. My one was flames while Sain''s was similar to snakes¡± Lyndis answered. ¡°That first stage is the true starting point...for better or worse. There are three stages in total, each one more dangerous to use than the next¡± Viv said. ¡°Worse...worse than personalities being altered?¡± Sain asked. He would rather not have something worse than that happening. ¡°Correct. The effects vary but it is highly possible to lose a use of one of your senses. This effect is temporary for the second stage, if some of you remember Ron going into Hydra form, that is the second stage. The third stage goes beyond that and the effects are permanent.¡± ¡°So...what effects does the first stage have?¡± Miriel asked in the end. ¡°From what I know, that power you used back then was the first stage. Eden nicknamed it as ''Boost'' as it literally boosts your powers. The second stage is called ''Awakening'' which is a long way away from you right now. The third and final stage is called ''Mankai'' or ''Bloom''.¡± ¡°Why is it called ''Bloom''?¡± ¡°Because like a flower you blossom and then...wilt away after the power fades away¡± Viv said sadly, ¡°Your masters used that only a few times altogether. Because of that, they lose several things whether it is emotions or memories.¡± Shadow then asked, ¡°So...how do we use this ''Boost'' power? It was enough for us to defeat monsters that are double our level. It would be useful to use.¡± Viv sighed and then answered, ¡°I don''t recommend using it often or at all. But if you wish to use it or have to, you should be able to. If you cannot it means that the power is not stable yet. Eden and I estimated it would appear soon enough when you reach at least level 150.¡± That was a fair point away. It would take them a few months to get to that point, but with dungeon hunting all the time...that point would come in around 4 months at best. But at the same time, But at the same time school was starting in two months in game time. That would inevitably cause the time for them to play to decrease by quite a bit. However as long as the continue to play, they would get stronger bit by bit. ¡°Is there anything about the marks we have you can explain? I mean, how come our master''s own marks aren''t like...this¡± Sain looked at his right hand though covered by the glove, he could feel that something had become bigger than before. The others also did the same. They all felt the same thing ever since they took it off at the laboratory. Viv nodded and then proceeded to say, ¡°That is because they have trained for years to control and contain it. The gloves on them are only there for safety. Do no take them off for a while else it might kill you or worse.¡± ¡°I see, anything else on the powers we developed thanks to this?¡± Miriel asked with Lyndis nodding in agreement on the topic. For some reason they were usually on the same note on these kinds of things. ¡°Each ''Mark'' is different. It''s powers depends on you as well though we can sort of guess what kinds of powers you may get. So far everyone''s except for Miriel''s one was guess correctly.¡± ¡°Why was my one different from what you expected? Is it possible that it changed at some point?¡± Miriel decided to ask since she was the different one this time. ¡°We guess that your one was to be similar to Sain''s but it ended up similar to Lyndis'' instead and not these things can''t be changed so easily¡± Viv answered. ¡°I see...¡± Miriel was in deep thoughts on why this was. She was compared to Lyndis instead of Sain so she wanted to know why that was. On the other hand the others knew why Miriel was similar to Lyndis. They were practically the same else one aspect of them. Their personalities that they had developed over the years. ¡°Anyway that should be enough for now. All of know is off hand from Eden and you can ask him when he''s done with whatever he''s dealing with later. Now, I have some business at the lowest layer of this city¡± he said getting up and exiting the building leaving the group with Alena and her child. xXx Another 5 days passed with the group doing dungeon runs every day in order to get Lyndis and Raven''s levels to 120. Another thing to note was that as Lyndis and Raven levelled up 6 times due to this, the others levelled up as well. Sain and Miriel only gained 4 levels during this time while Shadow and Serena gained 5 since they were leaving the last kills mostly for the two to get. As such Sain was now level 124, Miriel at level 126, Shadow at level 123 and Serena at level 122 with Raven and Lyndis at level 120. In a nutshell they did at the very end to which they spent another more hours than they usually would in the dungeon eventually slaying the boss there. It was an oversized Imp that was as large as a person instead of the usual tiny and weak counterparts. And because of this, they came back to the city late at night almost running back as they rather not deal with some things in the night though Miriel was slightly less so since her stats were boosted by a bit due to her race. ¡°Damn we''re late! Alena is waiting for us to appear!¡± Lyndis started complaining though it was less so of making Alena wait for them but rather they were about to get new equipment of her design and making. Another thing to know was that now that Raven was level 120, he had equipped his new shield and spear that he brought all those months ago. He had a go at the weak imps while they were going out of the dungeon. ¡°Don''t complain so much, it was for you and Raven that we had to stay longer than we should have¡± Shadow retorted not liking that they were faced with more enemies than usual taking down the boss monster. ¡°It was still good training nevertheless¡± Sain pointed out. ¡°Yes but I thought we were behind straining ourselves to kill one more monster as once commanded by a certain person I remember. That reminds me, Sain you haven''t been...acting up lately have you even in a dungeon¡± Shadow asked. ¡°Yes...¡± Sain was thinking about that as well, ¡°I''m half sure on what was the cause but now is not the time. Shadow can you carry Serena, she''s almost out of breath.¡± Sain and Shadow looked behind them. Raven, Serena and Miriel were back there. While Raven was wearing heavy armour, he looked as find as Miriel who was only wearing a robe that was near weightless. However Serena at the same time and her shorter figure was have trouble keeping up with the others. ¡°....Fine¡± Shadow finally said after thinking about it. It would not be the first time he would had to carry her on his back. However, ¡°I kindly refuse!¡± Serena said rapidly not stuttering at all. This somewhat shocked the others but in the end even after a few suggestions on why she should, they left her to run on her own. An hour later, they came to the city and went up several layers to where the Independent Guild Administration Centre was. ¡°Is it done?!¡± Lyndis said immediately barging in excited and not caring for her rude attitude. However Alena was not angry at her and simply smiled and said, ¡°Yes, it is done. All six sets of them each customised for each of you. Now I have prepared a dressing room for each of you. Take your time putting it on and ask if you need help putting it on¡± she warned before Lyndis grabbed her one and rushing into the dressing room. Miriel and Serena followed suit quickly as well leaving the boys with Alena. Sain bowed slightly and said, ¡°Thank you for doing this for us.¡± ¡°Don''t worry about it. It was quite fun to discuss with the girls on what you three will wear.¡± ¡°....¡± Suddenly the three realised that their fate was in the hands of the girls. They hoped that their clothes covered more than it revealed... xXx Some minutes passed and all of them eventually came out in their new equipment and looks. Outfits were quite unusual since they took up all of the armour slots at once. By adding or taking from the outfit, the effects of it change as well. As such it was possible to further improve an outfit. From the start, since Lyndis was the first to rush in to wear, she was the first to come out. Her outfit consisted of one shoulder plate with two layers. Two arm gauntlets double layered. Chest piece that extends down just above to stomach. Leg armour that reaches to to knees. Underneath is a one piece dress that goes halfway to her tights. The armour is white and red and colour and is called the Holy Flame Armour. From viewing the stats from the equipment, it came out like this.
Holy Flame Armour Outfit Durability: 80/80 Defence: 35 Armour that was made to fit a person who is both a swordsman and a fire user. This armour was modelled after and was based off the Holy Flame that purifies and destroys evil. The armour is of medium weight and includes a second layer underneath as well which is dress with flame resistance cloth. Restrictions: - Level 120 - Melee and Fire User class Options: - Fire Resistance +5% - Agility +10 - Charm +15
¡°This is wonderful!¡± Lyndis cried out hugging Alena in happiness. The armour she now wore fit exactly as she imagined it to be. She could move her limbs and body better than before and plus and the most important thing was that she looked good in it. Plus the durability was much higher as well as the defence and she got better stat boosts as well. Next, Shadow was the next person to get out in his outfit. With a scarf that was unable to cover his scorn he complained, ¡°It feels like I''m wearing nothing at all.¡± Lyndis grinned and drooled a bit looking at Shadow which made him back away some more from her. He did not want to be attacked by her at any rate. The outfit that Shadow got was one that suited him the most...though he did not like to admit it. It was a super light armour with little to no defence. It is near skin tight and is basically normal tight clothing but has pads on the knees and some basic gauntlets on the arms that are thin. There is also a scarf to cover his face when he needs to and is transparent at day and dark at night. The outfit had this status window.
Super Light Assassin Outfit Durability: 30/30 Defence: 3 Extremely light and tight clothing that was made to ensure that the wearer would be completely unrestricted in moving around. However due to the thinness of the outfit, the defence and durability of it decreased a lot. Along with the scarf used to hide one''s identity, the outfit is perfect to use at night where enemies have a hard time tracking you down. Restrictions: - Level 120 - Thief related class Options: - Able to blend into the dark better - Stealth Skill +20% in Dark - Dagger skills +30% damage
¡°Lyndis if you keep on staring I will stab you in the back¡± Shadow finally threatened when Lyndis almost went up to him to completely check out his body. He held his dagger and short sword at hand which had slots on his new armour at the back in a manner of self defence. The next person to come out was Raven. ¡°Not bad~¡± Lyndis commentated while Shadow sighed at her. ¡°....¡± Raven silent went up and stood next to the others not even caring of Lyndis nor Shadow''s current appearance. Shadow had a feeling that his outfit was the most normal for some reason. Like Lyndis, Raven now wore medium weight armour instead of full heavy from switching from full plate and half plate armour. Because of this parts like leg above the knee, stomach and arms are exposed. However he wears light leather armour there at the same time those his arms are exposed all the same. Shadow believed that this was done to increase his speed some more at least. The armours he wore had the following status window.
Half Plate Guard Outfit Durability: 80/80 Defence: 40 An outfit that includes a chest piece that goes down but to the stomach, arm guards that do not extend completely to the shoulders, knee guards that do not extend to the thighs and metal boots that fully cover over the ankles. Includes leather armour underneath to provide some defence in the gaps. Restrictions: - Level 120 - Melee Class Options: - Vitality +15 - Impacts of light blows will be decreased exponentially - Impacts of heavy blows will be decreased slightly
The stats that this armour had was only a bit better than Lyndis'' due to the leather armour he had underneath instead of cloth armour. In exchange Raven''s armour focused more on taking blows than anything else with light blows being less of an issue now than before. The next person to come out was Serena. ¡°Wow...did not expect that¡± Shadow said looking at Serena wide eyed. It was hard not to notice...that. ¡°Yeah!¡± Lyndis said happily, ¡°Now people won''t target her as much¡± she was happy with the results. ¡°Umm...is this okay?¡± Serena asked timidly. ¡°Of course¡± Alena said naturally, ¡°Who do you think designed that?¡± Serena replaced her robe with a one piece which is similar to a skirt but instead acts as shorts instead. There is a leather chest piece that was stylised for her as well and unusually also wears a large piece of armour on her right arm now that looks like she had a claw there though it is only complete at the wrist to hand and bits at the arm and shoulder. Her boots also reach near her knees as well and there is a belt fashion on them along with her other clothing. Her outfit had this status window.
Iron Claw Druid Outfit Durability: 40/40 Defence: 15 An outfit that designed for comfort for the user. It''s light weights and easy fitting shorts and boots make it easy for the wearer to run around. The leather chest piece is there for extra defence and protection while the arm claw that extends from the right hand to the shoulder increases defence and attack at that area. Restrictions: - Level 120 - Druid Class Options: - Able to deflect blows and attack using the iron claw - Agility +15 - Projectile Resistance +10
Next was Sain who was the second last person to come out. ¡°Quite plain.¡± ¡°Yes very plain.¡± ¡°I-It...suits you!¡± Shadow, Lyndis and Serena in that order commented on how Sain looked. In fact his outfit did not change that much at all. Sain had a wry smile on his face as they commented like that. However there were slight differences everywhere that made it easier for him to go with. For example, while wearing the leather armour, the gauntlets that he wore were now incorporated into that rest of the armour and there was extra metal guards that extended up beyond the elbows. This was the same for his legs and now he wore metal boots instead as well. His outfit had the following status window.
Reinforced Leather Outfit Durability: 60/60 Defence: 30 A leather armour that is quite plain but was made to fit the person in question. At the arms, magical arm guards were incorporated into the outfit while adding extra defence along side the arms and legs as well. Metal boots were also added in as well to increase kicking power. Restrictions: - Level 120 Options: - Spell Strength +15% - Agility +10 - Kick damage +30
The Durability and defence increased a bit but the most important thing was the other boosts. Originally the ''Magical Arm Guards'' had a 10% boost in spell strength but now it was improved to 15%. Furthermore, he had extra stats in agility and kick damage. Finally it was Miriel who was the last to come out despite starting to change a bit after Lyndis. She was wearing an one piece mini-skirt that reaches a bit above her knees that is black and purple in colour. Boots and clothing on wrists match in style. She also wears another layer of cloth on her chest area that is white. Another thing is she is wearing a two pointed witch hat as well. ¡°How do I look?¡± she asked the others coming out. ¡°Great!¡± Lyndis gave a thumbs up immediately. Raven nodded as well and Shadow and Serena made their own comments on her as well. ¡°....¡± However Sain was there silent stunned looking at her. ¡°Sain?¡± Miriel asked going over to him wondering what was going on, ¡°Hello?¡± she waved her hand in front of him which caused him to snap out of it. ¡°You look pretty¡± he said pretty much without intending it to slip out. ¡°Ah....thanks you look good yourself¡± Miriel started blushing and turned away with a slight grin on her face. If one looks at her outfit''s status window it would look like this.
Stylish Magician Outfit Durability: 40/40 Defence: 5 An magician outfit that was made with style. Every piece of his outfit was designed to match in style from top to bottom and yet not neglect the protection of the wearer as a fashion statement. This outfit made for a female magician also improves her abilities as well. Restrictions: - Level 120 - Magician Class Options: - Intelligence +10 - Charm +10 - Casting speed +25%
With this all of them had new outfits that cut back on certain equipment slots and were more powerful than ever. Sain estimated their abilities and strength in battle increased by around 30% due to these new equipment alone. ¡°Well then¡± he said smiling, ¡°What should we do first?¡± he asked the others. ¡°You can first help me on some small tasks¡± Alena interrupted, ¡°Due to the recent commotion your standing among this city dropped quite a bit. This will help restore it and gain trust and reputation.¡± For the next 2 months, they were used by Alena and the rest of the city as forced labour for all sorts of things.
Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 10000~ - The final bit of this chapter arc. I spent a bit more time than I should designing the new equipment that the group would wear. I based some of them off the equipment shown at the end of the volumes of OSO. It was quite interesting to use those images as a reference at least. - Now I''m going to take a break. I don''t write well in the heat...my brain shuts down most of the time when I do. Vol.5 Intermission - School Life Start! Roughly at the same time when the group was in the laboratory fighting for their lives... Eden was rampaging in his Dragon form. In the air, he was sending down rains of magical attacks of all sorts each with the power to blow up an entire building in one shot. It had been a few days since the battle started and Eden turned to his Dragon form to destroy the enemy. The only problem was...the enemies seemed endless. Eden checked his mana levels. Usually without any buffs of any sorts, his mana would be around the 500K point. However with ''Dragonic Overload'' active it would double to 1 Million mana to use. Right now his his was only a third of that amount. ''The toll of fighting for so long in this form is showing...'' he thought. Due to begin an existence that literally depended on his mana to survive, he had stocked up a couple dozen skills that increased his mana regeneration and reduced mana consumption on all levels. However using this amount of magic attacks over so many days slowly wore him down. [Dragon Breath!] He made another sweep down at the King who looked extremely battered right now. Things would end quickly if not for his endless supply of Ghost Knights to protect him but now his army was approaching it''s limits. Eden prepared for his final attack on the King to end it now. Gathering a massive amount of mana from the air around him, his black wings turned golden filled with energy. The golden marking on his body that were otherwise hidden with the black on black colour scheme appeared. Even without ''Magic King Drive'' he could do this. He remembered using this power once before when he was taught by another dragon of this supreme move that only Dragon Kings cans use due to the power consumption. [Annihilation Breaker!] His voice echoed in the area as the surrounding area bent to his will and everything started to be destroyed around him. It was a special move that reduced everything with no exceptions, even Gods into nothing. Once used by the ''Destroyer of Dragons'' it was ironically stolen by the Dragons and altered for them to use. For Eden who was both a ''Destroyer'' and ''Dragon'' this was one of the few perfect moves for him. It rated in the top 5 most powerful moves he had. CUT! Eden felt extreme pain as one of his wings was cut off. [Wah...?] His body in the air fell down and the power that he had gathered for the move scattered as well. The power exploded outwards causing some damage but it was minor compared to the amount that would have happened if Eden was not attacked. Another wave of...something flew to him and cut off his other wing as well. Feeling the danger he immediately turned back to his human form and dropped to the ground. ¡°Mana Shields!¡± he shouted creating a make shift defence just in case. He took a glance at the ''person'' that cut him down in his dragon form and frowned. He was of Asian descend with black hair but had noticeably red eyes that glowed brightly even compared to the red eyes vampires had. Wearing what Eden believed to be a black kimono for males and holding a long black Katana he knew that this person as an individual was more dangerous than the King with his army. He was not good with dealing with these kinds of enemies. ¡°Ah Eden funny to see you here~¡± Next to him, a certain wife of his had to appear as well. ¡°Alexandra don''t tell me, me being cut down from the air was your fault¡± Eden glared at her. Alexandra pouted and with hands on her hips said, ¡°How is it my fault if he¡± she pointed at the man, ¡°Was the one who attacked you.¡± ¡°The it was really your fault¡± Eden sighed. He expanded his senses to search for more enemies that he didn''t know of and found...one more. ¡°Damn...three at once...Alexandra do you think you can take out that one quickly?¡± he had to at least ask right? ¡°No can do, he''s better at the sword than me. And a lot better as well¡± she showed that her armour which was suppose to be of the highest grade cracked at multiple places and at parts falling off. ¡°....¡± Eden considered things and circumstances and then decided, ¡°We''re retreating¡±, he grabbed Alexandra and immediately teleported away from the upcoming battle that would result in their lost. xXx Back in reality, Peter and the others got out of the game and got dressed in their new uniform which they only started to wear right now. The clothes were of the standard uniform code and were a patterned red and black style. ¡°These clothes are so stiff to move in¡± Maria complained. ¡°That''s your fault for not wearing them before¡± Hina said sighing. At these times, she would rather save her energy for later since she would need to deal with school again. She had no spare energy to complain at Maria at the moment. ¡°Grace, your uniform is too big for you¡± Ian commented looking at Grace with her body looking several years younger than it actually was, to the taste of certain people. Grace hearing this pouted and hit Ian several times on the legs though there was no real damage done. ¡°Mark, are you done changing?¡± Peter asked knocking on the door to his room. The door opened and Mark in all his glory, with his hair up appeared. Usually he used his long bangs to hide his eyes as they were an eye catcher for better or worse but not everyone else could see his clear blue eyes. With this, the group started walking to gymnasium where other new students would got to and where they would finally be introduced to the school. Peter noticed while walking with the others, that there were many other students of all ages here as well. Most of them looked normal but there was a higher than normal percentage of weird looking ones mixed in than usual. He wondered about how school life would work while he pulled his eyes from staring at them too much. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. After asking about for the location and how to get to the gymnasium since everyone else did not want to talk to other people as usual besides Maria which he would not dare trust with these kinds of things anymore, the group got seated and waited for the time to pass. It was currently 8.30 am and they had another half an hour to wait before the orientation would start. ¡°Ahh...why did we come so early? We could have played for another 2 hours in game if not for Peter here wanting to come early¡± Ian said with scorn. Peter shook his head and said, ¡°Trust me on this, it''s better to go here early than to be slightly late and have no seats. Besides there are six of us and finding so many in a row later on would be a pain.¡± ¡°True enough¡± Maria agreed and so did Hina for the most part. ¡°Bah¡± Ian said seeing that the two girls mostly agreed with Peter even in game...though he was guilty of that as well. He was...usually agreeable on all things like he knew you as much as you knew yourself. Besides, Ian thought that Peter was kinds enough that there would be no problems in following him. The only problem was that everyone else thought of this as well which mean Peter had complete control over them. ¡°All yeah, speaking of the game, I want us to set a time period where we have to reach level 150¡± Peter said suddenly. ¡°Why are we talking about that now?¡± Hina asked. ¡°Because we have half an hour to spare of course!¡± Ian replied instead of Peter, ¡°Plus it was his fault we''re here early.¡± ¡°Right¡± Peter nodded to Ian''s words, ¡°Since we will be spending less time in game...plus Alena is pushing us quite hard on several accounts, I say 6 months would be a good point to get to that level?¡± Right now, the total amount of time in which they spent since they started the game was 1 year and 5 months. It this estimate was correct they would be near the 2 years mark when they were level 150. ¡°Agreed¡± All five of them except for Peter would asked said at the same time. The six of them even Mark who usually didn''t speak much to begin with started talking about what they were going to do and set goals when they have to the time in between of Alena bossing them around. Ian commented that Alena was similar to Peter in some ways. Peter and naturally the girls asked why to which Ian said that both of them had their ways on making others agree with them and to follow their orders. Peter gave a wry smile to that and said that Alena was on a completely different level on manipulating people. Ever since that incident, all of the guards were under her thumbs now. ¡°I wonder what her husband and sister would look like?¡± Maria asked no one in particular. ¡°Didn''t he describe them before?¡± Peter asked. ¡°Not at all¡± Maria replied. ¡°Hmm...I guess we can find out when they come back from that dangerous mission.¡± The group continued on having their conversation which led to Mark saying he wanted to take up blacksmithing when his repair skill reached the Intermediate level. Even Hina said that she would like to take up tailoring when she didn''t feel like practising magic. Ian on the other hand said that he wanted to get into alchemy since his master Anna mentioned it and ever since then he never had the chance to. Lyndis said that she would practise her swordsmanship in her spare time which drew comments from Hina and Ian of her hobby choices. Finally Serena said that she would like to read in her spare time to which everyone had no problems with. Sain was the only one who hadn''t had a clear goal but in the end he said he would like to train his skills a bit more when he had the chance. Eventually the half an hour passed quite quickly. The entire place was filled with students of all kinds, of all nationalities and personalities. Several times some of the students near them pointed out certain people who were famous in certain areas. However at the end, everyone was silent as the chairman of the school came to speak to the entire school. That person was a thin looking person with a slim waist and long legs. With long black hair and such a pretty face, one could mistake him easily for a woman. In fact 99% of people did. All six of the group were jaw dropped seeing that person here. ¡°Hello¡± that person said, ¡°I am the founder and chairman of his school.¡± The group could see that person smiling and looking at them all but trying to laugh at their shocked expressions. ¡°I am Eden and I welcome to my school!¡± The group had to look a bit away from Eden and found that a certain blonde woman by the name of Alexandra and a short boy by the name of Viv was here as well. ''You got to be kidding me!'' they all thought at the same time. All thoughts of a peaceful school life vanished.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - This chapter was suppose to be the epilogue of the volume but at the same time since with pacing and such, and because I decided not to spend another 5 chapters to cover boring events at the end of the last chapter, this ''Intermission'' chapter was born! - With this, I can cover the school life stuff earlier than I thought and not take up space in the next volume. I have realised that fitting in 20 years of in game time in 15 volumes was impossible and settled for only 16 in game years or perhaps it may be even less in the end. Either way I need to speed things up especially since 5 and a half volumes in and I am not even at the year 2 mark. Vol.5 Chapter 6 - Eden Academy ¡°Yes, I must welcome you all here despite me not being here for most of the time. I spend way too much time in Royal Road like some of you!¡± he let out a laugh which was followed by laughter of the other students around them. ¡°As you know, this school was formed to help develop talent and every last one of you here have talent. We made sure to check up on that. However talent alone cannot keep you in, you need to work hard to develop that talent or even discover new ones. I wish you all luck.¡± With his speech done, Eden was about to leave but then quickly doubled back and said, ¡°And before I forget again, we have a new nurse, Alexandra and a Guidance Councillor, Viv here as well. Please go to them if either or body or mind is damage.¡± After Eden left and the group noticed that Alexandra and Viv were gone with him, the Vic-Chairman started to speak. With their mouth still hanging from seeing Eden of all things here, the group more or less spaced out even more seeing that Alexandra and Viv were here as well. As such they didn''t really pay attention to the rest of the orientation as they were moved to a classroom together. ¡°Hmm? Why are we in the same classroom?¡± Hina finally asked noticing that they were still together and no one made any moves to tell them otherwise. They looked around and found people of their age, people older than them, adults and even children who are younger than Grace! ¡°This classroom is strange...¡± Maria muttered seeing this scene. The group with their own personalities and with little trust and communication skills outside of themselves other than Peter who seemed to want to see what would happen stayed shut up for the next 5 minutes where a woman appeared. Eventually someone came in and told them to get seated to which the group sat down at the third row to the front together. ¡°Tch¡± Peter could heard that sound coming from both Hina and Maria as well as the other girls for some reason while everyone else, well mostly...no all of the guys were excited for this person except for the ones checking out other guys. She was in her mid twenties, blonde hair green eyes and looked like a model. Peter, Ian and Mark as well as all the other males in the room eyed at her while Hina pinched Peter on the leg with some anger on her face. ¡°Why are you staring?¡± Hina asked with a tensed tone in her voice as she whispered that question. ¡°Why did you pinch me just then?¡± he asked her back while keeping a straight face in a whisper not taking his eyes off the teacher. ¡°....¡± She did not replied when that woman started talking to which was when Peter could not pester her for an answer any longer. ¡°Welcome to Eden Academy, as you all know, you are considered talented in some way which allowed you to enrol into this school. There are no age restrictions at all in this school as long as your age is reasonably within the age bracket. My name is Lisa and I am your homeroom teacher¡± Lisa, the homeroom teacher said at once. There were some murmuring from the other students but Lisa gave them a look and they all quiet down. ¡°This Academy gives each student almost complete freedom on how they will spend their time here. However in turn, each year, you are to present what you have learnt and depending you will advance a year or even be expelled if your results are that bad.¡± Lisa proceeded to write up some times in which were written onto the touch screen at the front of the room. ¡°Homeroom which is now will start each day at 9.30 am and will continue to 10 am. After that you are free to take whatever class you wish though it is not required to come to homeroom¡± she said, ¡°Homeroom will be used to tell you of the events that are happening in this school at the time as well as to ask questions on what to do in future classes.¡± She then took out a terminal and said, ¡°Please input your name here to enrol into this class. I must repeat for some people over the years that you have to stay in the class you enrol in. Not running off to another one.¡± The group opening up the terminal at their desks did so enrolling into this homeroom and then continued to listen. ¡°Each lesson after homeroom will be 2 hours long each. The first class will span from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm, the second class will span on from 1 pm to 3 pm, the third class will span from 3.30 pm to 5.30 pm and the fourth and last class of the day will span from 6 pm to 8 pm.¡± ¡°There is a list of lessons that you can go to as long as you are enrolled in them. You do not need to attend class even if you enrol though you are expected to complete a final exam on it when the semester ends. That is all for homeroom. There are no lessons for today.¡± With that, Lisa stopped her talking and the room fell into chatter including the group. Lisa was standing there observing and answering questions to whoever asked as well. ¡°So this is interesting at least¡± Ian said, ¡°Didn''t expect for them to put the Uni like system in the first grade.¡± ¡°Hmm....¡± Peter said thinking of what Eden said before, ¡°Does that mean Eden lied to us about the grades?¡± ¡°More like he changed his mind and changed the entire structure of the school while he was at it¡± Hina said, ¡°If you listen you know that this change happened only weeks ago.¡± Maria nodded and then smiled saying, ¡°It''s nice how it made it so we could be together still.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°What?¡± she asked hearing the silence. Grace then took her courage and spoke up, ¡°Maria...I think it''s...more along the lines...¡± in the end she couldn''t say it so Hina did instead. ¡°More like to make sure we won''t break down separated from each other. I mean the best way to make us...communicate with others is to separate us but if we don''t then everything would be for nothing.¡± ¡°I think it was a good choice still¡± Peter said. Mark then tapped Peter and the others on the shoulder and said, ¡°He''s here¡± making them look at the doorway where a certain person had to appear. Lisa also saw this and said, ¡°Chairman!¡± Eden smiled entered and then said a few words and made a finger gesture to the group to follow him. They got up ignored the chatter about Eden and them and followed him. Immediately when they got out of the room Hina asked in a harsh tone, ¡°Why are you here?! We have just attracted a LOT of attention there thanks to you!¡± ¡°Don''t worry, ignore it¡± Eden replied putting down Hina a bit before she burst out again, ¡°How can I, how can we just ignore all of that?!¡± Eden stopped in his track making the rest of them stop as well and stiffen up frozen fearing that Hina may have overstepped her foot. She was almost in tears when Eden turned around and said, ¡°I thought you were more like Viv personality wise since you are usually...but seeing you now all nervous and anxious, you are more like Alexandra in that way...else Jenny might have affected that while teaching you.¡± He then took a glance at Maria as well, ¡°Though there seem to be a lot of people like her around for some reason.¡± He turned and started walking which caused the group to follow him thinking of what he just said. Eventually they entered a place that was mostly white in colour and smelt of medicine. It was a small scale hospital. ¡°Why are these fancy equipment here? Isn''t this a school?¡± Maria asked looking around the place where some of the latest machinery were placed though there were only two more people in the room with. ¡°That is¡± one of the two people, Alexandra answered, ¡°We do not want to take any chances here. Besides there is less chance someone blows up a lab here than someone committing suicide or murder. That''s how good the safety measures are in this place. Plus the machines does most of the work now.¡± ¡°But¡± Viv who was next to her answered, ¡°There is a chance that the machines won''t work or does something wrong which is why a fully qualified doctor is needed even now though the profession is rather watered out in this era.¡± ¡°Wait why are you here as well?¡± Maria asked pointing at Viv. In his suit which made him look like he was cosplaying as an adult or a character from somewhere, Viv placed his hands on his hips and said, ¡°We''re here to talk about you lot of course!¡± ¡°Us?¡± The group pondered of what was so important that they had to take them out of class, though there was nothing going on and here though there was nothing here as well. Seeing this reaction, Eden sighed and said, ¡°Don''t tell me you already forgot what I said. That was only a little over 2 weeks ago...¡± ¡°Said what? I remember of course¡± Hina said, ¡°Though understanding what was the point before erasing it was another matter altogether.¡± ¡°The point that you need to talk to other people!¡± Eden said really not liking this since it reminded him of dealing with an ''uncaring Alexandra'' too much. ¡°We do talk to other people¡± Maria said referring to the rest of the group. Furthermore there was ''no thinking Alexandra'' as well and an actual Alexandra in the same room. Eden could only sigh as Alexandra looked humoured as Eden struggled without hurting their feelings. ¡°You need to talk and communicate with other people! It is an essential skill no matter what!¡± he almost shouted. ¡°....¡± It was at this time that Viv spoke up and said, ¡°He does have a point. Even when we...more or less isolated ourselves in the game, we were still able to at least talk to other people.....though many still try to run away from us.¡± ¡°But you got on well enough even without other people right? I mean there are many people today that live without human contact and are happy¡± Ian pointed out. ¡°Yep~¡± Alexandra said happily. It was fine as long as she had Eden and Viv with her since they were able to relate to each other from the very beginning and that relationship continued even now. ¡°But you are already within human contact as it''s a waste not to~¡± she said rejecting Ian''s idea. Really what was the point of isolating oneself from the rest of the world due to past reasons. To take a risk and to keep on taking risks to live life is the way Alexandra always been. ¡°And that I even arranged things for you all to have a happier school life as well..¡± Eden muttered sighing too much and as a result sat down on the bed to rest for a bit. Taking care of brats was difficult on his mind especially when they had a smart head and smart mouth. Seeing that Eden was in this state from just a few seconds of talking meant that he was tired of this and would rather just force them his options. Viv had to step in to save this group of children. ¡°You guys are far to young to isolate yourselves from other people¡± Viv said, ¡°Even though your pasts prevent you from doing so, it is still better to be able to and choose not to than to not be able to.¡± He remembered that ever since they became ''monsters'' that were too powerful, other people slowly drifted away from them. However they were still a bit older than them and he considered it too early for them to do the same. ¡°Nothing is wrong with us¡± Peter ensured, ¡°The others agree with me right?¡± There was silence as he said those words. Peter honestly believed he and the others were fine. No, he had to else what he reformed will break again. ¡°....¡± ¡°What''s with that silence?¡± Peter had to ask frowning. Was his view on them wrong? To him, they were all quite capable to the point that many would want them on their teams. Plus as someone said before, all of them had a talent above others. ¡°Uhh...Peter¡± Hina started, ¡°Grace here can barely look at another person aside from us and a few more in the eyes. It''s even worse for men but women are generally fine when they are in range. I myself feel sick when I''m near strangers not to mention having to talk to them.¡± Grace was the extreme shy types to those she didn''t know. Only rarely does she become close enough to some people to talk to. Other than that she had a habit of stuttering though Peter didn''t know that only applied to when males were near. Hina on the other hand was something who hated crowds and thus people in general as well. There was nothing to say as she put up a cold act to anyone besides the group and a few others. Maria raised her hand and said, ¡°That''s the same with me though I can suck it up and endure for a while at least.¡± Maria being the type to be hated and still wanted attention was similar to Hina but in the opposite way. She would act friendly to other people if they talk to her but never really wants to. It was just in act to protect herself. ¡°Don''t mention Mark since he barely talks to even us! As for me, sometimes they know I''m there sometimes they don''t¡± Ian finally said as well. Mark due to past events, would never talk to other people and even those he trusted like the group, he would only talk rarely saying only important things. Ian like in the game was an invisible person, no even more so in reality. It was easy for him to never develop the skills to talk to others that much though he was a chatter box with the group. ¡°And there you have it¡± Eden said following all of this, ¡°It''s thanks to this that only one of you¡± he looked at Maria, ¡°Perhaps two are able to do things without the others for a while though I believe even you won''t last long without the others¡± he looked at Peter while saying that. Peter seemed normal but he was one that would take all his pain and hide it from the others. This made him a time bomb in the making with those he didn''t trust and like. A person who seemed to be ready to be used and yet at any time snapping back was a bad thing. ¡°But it''s not a problem if we stick together right?¡± Hina asked. Since Eden made the effort to and they didn''t want to separate at any rate, it would be fine like that right? ¡°There will be a time when you can''t. You cannot always be with the ones you care about¡± Eden replied. There was a sad look on his face and the group noticed that Alexandra and Viv had the same look as well. However this expression changed when Alexandra said with a monkey like face, ¡°So did your relationships with each other change at all from the last time I saw you? Any...blossoming feelings of love?¡± Peter remembered the appearance of Hina in the new outfit...though immediately put it off to keep a straight face. ¡°Looks like there are two...maybe a third person!¡± she grinned at them with Eden rolling his eyes at her. ¡°Enough joking already Alexandra¡± he said but then turned to the group with some advice, ¡°As a good tip, never get romance advise from Alexandra. She is hopeless with it.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Alexandra hit Eden on the side though he did not react much to the damage though there was some irritation showing slightly on his face. ¡°Anyway since we can''t do anything about you guys not liking other people right now, I might as well get to talking about what is happening in the game¡± he said causing the interest of the group in listening to increase several fold. ¡°In game? Did something happen?¡± Peter asked. Though he and Hina more or less were the only ones to actively scout out information there wasn''t much going on right now. The game was starting to stale in content. ¡°Of course things are happening! It''s just that no everyone knows what''s going on. Only a few people, those who are in A rank or higher Independent Guilds knows about this. Actually only the leaders of those guilds and a select few know¡± he answered with a tone that was almost lecturing them. ¡°So why are you telling us?¡± Ian asked. ¡°Because we have a small rule of telling others what is going on with them¡± Viv answered, ¡°And you may be dragged into this as well.¡± ¡°Another Guild Quest?¡± Maria wondered. ¡°Larger and worse¡± Eden replied, ¡°Try a near inexhaustible ghost army along with a being that almost cut me down and another one that is still unknown.¡± ¡°....?¡± The group was confused on what Eden was getting at. Normally people would run away from all of that and what he did didn''t seem strange at all. However Eden, Alexandra and Viv all sighed at once. ¡°You guys really don''t know what I mean do you?¡± Eden asked in the end which the group shook their heads. All they really know other than some rumours of them once in a while were that they were all extremely powerful as seen before when Eden took on all of their masters and won and were all infamous seeing that no one dared to piss them off. But one being surely could not take on an entire army on his own right? If that was true than what was the point was an army? ¡°Alexandra...get the projector on...¡± Eden muttered. ¡°Eden you are a bit out of touch with technology recently, terminals serve as the one all the same¡± said Alexandra while taking out her terminal which seemed several times more expensive than the ones the school had. ¡°This is a clip of what we mean by ''bad''¡± Alexandra said showing them a clip. The clip showed them a wasteland filled an army of transparent beings that were yet at the same time physical in nature as well. A true ghost army that materialised. And on the other side fighting this endless army was a pitch black dragon. ¡°Dragon?¡± Hina wondered, there weren''t many of those in the game at at with a few select areas. ¡°That is me¡± Eden said. ¡°Eh? Weren''t you¡± Maria asked remembering something from the first guild quest they did with him. ¡°A lot smaller? Well that is my true size in dragon form. I can compress my size quite well to be that small if I wish but that is the size I can go up to and my full power in a nutshell¡± he explained while allowing the clip to continue. Soon enough something strange happened. One of the wings of dragon Eden was cut off and he fell to the ground. A few moments later a second attack cut the other one and he turned back into human form. They saw the person who did this and was surprised that he was not wearing any armour and only had that sword, katana. Then Alexandra appeared and they talked about something and then teleported away ending the clip. ¡°Tell me what was the problem here?¡± Eden asked. ¡°That you were cut down like that? Isn''t that your fault?¡± Ian asked with some sarcasm in his tone again. However Eden nodded and said, ¡°Think of it this way, my defence in that form is even higher than Alexandra''s here and not even Alexandra can cut me down like that. Meaning there is almost nothing that can withstand that attack.¡± ¡°Which means that the enemy is really really strong¡± Alexandra added in, ¡°I fought that one for a bit and he was stronger than me...well the current me that is. Plus add in his fighting style....he is easily the strongest swordsman in all ways.¡± ¡°That is actually saying a lot as you will find out later when you take a combat arts class with Alexandra¡± Viv added, ¡°Al is is one of the top 10 people based off swordsmanship alone. There are only a few people who can beat her with that.¡± ¡°Umm...isn''t Alexandra the nurse here? Why is she the combat arts teacher?¡± Peter pointed and asked confused. ¡°Because I want to¡± she said as if that was not strange at all. Eden interrupted and then said, ¡°We can dabble on those things later. First of all this army will invade and is coming from the west. Basically that means eventually Lily City will be in siege and as a result you may need to fight as well.¡± The group gulped thinking of the army they saw...none of the enemies looked weak and in fact all of them seemed extremely strong. ¡°But there is a chance you will not have to since they can just go pass the city¡± Eden added for comfort. ¡°How long will it take them to come...?¡± Hina finally asked. ¡°Around few months if we don''t do anything. But if me and Alexandra combine our abilities we will be able to stall for maybe over a year I guess before they reach you. If we continue after such event it would take them another 6 months or so to reach the capital as well and attack there¡± Eden said but then stopped. ¡°Now...don''t worry since I have sent you ''Arch'' for some protection. Out of everyone in the guild he is one of the most deadly since he is called the ''Zero Range Archer''.¡± Maria snorted hearing that name. It mean that that archer had literally no range at all, only to attack practically next to the enemy. ¡°Maria, I suggest you don''t do that in front of him. When you see him and think him as an archer you will understand that he is also a ''monster'' like Eri who doesn''t look that harmful...which I heard you met for a while and also the rest of the guild you haven''t met as well. You may meet some of the others as well during your time in Lily City.¡± xXx Next Eden had the group to sit down in a row as he talked about matters that personally involved them. ¡°First of all, I heard from Viv that you...took off the gloves and went to the first stage...right?¡± Eden really did not want to say this in front of Alexandra who from the very start disapproved of him doing this and creating the ''marks''. ¡°That is correct¡± Peter answered ignoring that Alexandra was close to attacking both Eden and even Viv for this happening. ¡°Why didn''t you stop them?!¡± she shouted throwing a punch at Eden, ¡°Are you planning on destroying their minds?!¡± ¡°Both of us weren''t there Al. We only found out later as well¡± Viv reminded her trying to calm her down so this place with expensive, no very expensive machinery wouldn''t get smashed up. He and Eden stopped Alexandra in her rampage while the group sat there stiff not trying to attract any attention to themselves. ¡°Plus it was their decision to make. Gen and the others made their decision a long time as well¡± Eden said holding down on fist while Viv did the same with the other. But that didn''t stop her from trying to kick Eden. The bodies they used were more tough than a tank and could deal more damage than a missile with a punch. And more to the point, they were very expensive so if Alexandra somehow broke or damaged one... ¡°Let''s continue without trying to smash each other up¡± Viv reminded the two or rather Alexandra again. He was worried about the piling costs of them messing around. ¡°Hmp!¡± Alexandra in a bad mood looked away not caring anymore and let Eden and Viv explain it from there on. ¡°Anyway what changes could you feel since then? I have a good guess but it''s better to know exactly what happened since then¡± Eden asked the group. ¡°Well...¡± Peter started to say, ¡°For some reason they haven''t been reacting at all since then. I mean before when I go into dungeons I kinda...change personalities while when Hina here grabs her whip she goes...¡± Eden nodded and then said, ¡°It''s just a bit unstable right now or rather it finally became more stable at last. Explain the abilities you got when the ''Marks'' were active.¡± ¡°Stable I thought-¡± Maria said before being cut off by Eden, ¡°Normally your marks shouldn''t react at all with those gloves on. Well there are rare exceptions or should I say supposed rare exceptions where they react. Now explain the powers you gained. I need to remodel your gloves to fit them later on.¡± ¡°Why can''t you do it now?¡± Ian asked impatient. He did not like the possibility that his personality would be altered like that. ¡°Because, I have things to do and the effects are long term not short term¡± Eden sighed and said in the end. Then it was the group''s turn to explain some things. While Peter said some small things about their powers with the ''Mark'' active, it was not in detail like Eden wanted. ¡°Well first when my one was active, from what Hina said, my eyes changed colours to be like a snake and for some reason I could tell what abilities that others could do and what the enemy could do as well¡± Peter said. Eden nodded and said in return, ¡°An interesting ability...similar to Gen in some ways. Your one seems unique though every power you gain with the ''Mark'' is unique.¡± Next Ian explained what happened to him, ¡°It was like several of my skills plus some more that I didn''t have were active at the same time. I could make clones of myself and move them independently and travel to each one when I was attacked. Plus I can past through physical objects in that mode as well.¡± ¡°Powerful and suits your base abilities¡± Viv said, ¡°Another unique skill there. We need to find out the names of these powers later on.¡± Hina spoke for both herself and Maria since their powers were similar, ¡°Both my and Maria''s powers are ice and fire respectively. From what I could tell, we could form them into whatever shape we wanted and even make them ''living'' as well.¡± ¡°....¡± The three were silent and the group thought something was wrong. ¡°Is...there something wrong?¡± Maria asked hesitant. ¡°''Genesis Flame'' and ''Living Ice'' eh...¡± Eden muttered with a worried look on his face. Seeing this, the group became more worried as well. Seeing this, Eden quickly changed his expression waving his hand with a dumb look on his face saying, ¡°Don''t worry! It''s just that I didn''t expect your two to gain ''that'' power considering our history for it!¡± ¡°What happened?¡± Hina asked wanting to know. ¡°Not for now¡± Viv replied stopping her and letting Grace speak next. ¡°Umm....t-there was this s-strange energy a-and I u-used it to p-power my spells¡± she managed to say. ¡°Did this energy come from outside your body?¡± Viv asked. ¡°Y-yes!¡± she replied. ¡°A user of ''Natural Energy'' it is then¡± Eden said hearing this, ¡°An energy based power is certainly one of the more powerful abilities you could get but is often dependent on your own skills without it. Train hard and it will be more powerful than anything else¡± he advised. ¡°Yeah like you did that¡± Alexandra snorted, ¡°You were so lazy that we had to force you to train!¡± ¡°Hey! I was young and didn''t want to do much work!¡± Eden retorted. ¡°Keep your quarrel shut!¡± Viv suddenly said causing both Eden and Alexandra to flinch. He looked at Mark and then said, ¡°You your power?¡± Mark opened his mouth to speak. He could not let anyone else speak for him at this moment since only he could describe it save Peter. ¡°There was an invisible...''thing'' around me. Like water it moved as I thought of what I wished it to do¡± he said slowly with a surprisingly deep voice. ¡°That sounds like an aura...but invisible?¡± Eden thought quickly, ¡°Hmm...not sure what it is. But it seems like an energy based ability as well...¡± With that the conversation of what abilities they had ended and then the conversation on the drawbacks started. Eden said, ¡°Viv explained most of the drawbacks when using that power but as the creator of that power you now have in the game, I must warn you again to never use it unless you have to. Trust me it''s better that way.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°....¡± As Eden continued to talk, Peter thought about something that someone mentioned before. ¡°Ah!¡± it was then that he remembered and asked, ¡°Summer said that the power of ''Demon Kings'' was similar to our marks!¡± ¡°....¡± It was then that Eden, Alexandra and Viv along with the rest of the group was completely silent. To this point in the conversation Eden gave the largest sigh yet and muttered, ¡°Why do they have to have good heads? This makes it more troublesome...¡± ¡°Why are you muttering like that?¡± Hina asked with an eyebrow raised. Eden and the other two''s reactions were strange. There was definitely something going on and the relation between their marks to Eden and ''Demon Kings'' was a key. ¡°And it looks like Hina figured there was a connection...actually I think all of them have by now~ Not bad~¡± Alexandra said humming at Eden''s annoyed expression towards her. ¡°I thought we agreed to not tell anyone about this matter unless we had to¡± said Eden to Alexandra. She in turn said, ¡°You placed those marks on them, so you have to deal with it!¡± ¡°Tch¡± Eden annoyed turned her face away from Alexandra and looked at the group staring down at them. They in turn felt some chills coming down on them. Was this something they should not have learnt? ¡°The relationship between those ''Demon Kings'' and your ''Marks'' are very similar as they are filtered out power. Basically they come from a similar source of power. In your case, me and the ''Demon Kings'' something else,¡± Eden basically explained it in one go though slowly. ¡°You? Why does it come from you?¡± one of them asked. ¡°Don''t worry about that for now¡± Eden said immediately kinda regretting saying that one word to them. ¡°Anyway don''t do anything too rash like trying to get to the second stage so soon else even I can''t save you¡± he repeatedly said to them as he explained some more of the minor details of the usage of the marks. Some of them included temporary immunity to certain status effects and other include sudden changes in strength against powerful enemies though both are not to be replied on. ¡°I just have one question...¡± Hina said. ¡°What is it?¡± Eden was getting a bit tired of Hina asking so much. He could see Jenny, her master through her. She always did ask too many questions. ¡°Why did you create such things as these ''Marks''?¡± she asked. ¡°....Why indeed...¡± he said thinking deeply about it. ¡°Well it is indeed an experiment that was partly inspired by those ''Demon Kings''....else the only other real reason other than to see if it would work or what will happen if it did was to prepare¡± Eden said firmly. ¡°Prepare?¡± ¡°Yes prepare¡± Eden nodded. ¡°Prepare for what?¡± Hina asked again. ¡°....¡± Eden as well as the other two were silent on this matter. They would not tell anyone anything about this. The only ones who know are them, Weed and Seoyoon, the Empress. These five are the only ones, excluding those who figured it out on their own as well of what is to come. ¡°There are in total including all of us, 29 members of the guild now. Excluding you six who are the newest and weakest of everyone, the average level of the guild is around 700 which is quite high even for elite guilds. Moreover, each person in the guild are all exceptional people. Each and every one of them are unique and powerful. But at the same time the total number of people that rejected joining the guild one way or another is too much. Thus the ''Marks'' are a way to compensate for that number¡± Eden said tapping his finger on his arm that was crossed. ¡°Plus it''s not like we can''t contact those people if we need help¡± Alexandra added, ¡°It''s just that they didn''t want to join a guild and be ordered around. Though we really don''t care what you do as long as you gather once in the end.¡± ¡°Another thing is that the number of these people Eden referred to are very low itself, only around another dozen and none of them have joined a guild¡± Viv finally said. ¡°Basically the ''Marks'' are a back up just in case we don''t have the numbers in the end.¡± ''As well as allow you all to not be helplessly killed at the end when your other powers don''t work on ''them''...'' Eden thought. ¡°I see¡± Hina seemed satisfied with the answer at least for now. With that, the conversation about the ''Marks'' ended and the six went back to their dorms since there were no classes about. xXx ¡°Lucky I didn''t tell them anything about ''Destroyers'', that would be a spoiler¡± Eden sighed in relief lying on the bed deciding to sleep for a while. Alexandra in turn lied in the same bed as him and said, ¡°Well at least they now know not to use that power as much. They think they suspect anything more than what you relieved?¡± ¡°Unfortunately, they are at least sharp¡± Eden said, ¡°Well they will find out the real reason later on either way.¡± ¡°How much time is there left?¡± Viv asked. ¡°If...we succeed in this ''Trial of the Emperor'' another issue will appear in another 4-5 years and there are two more after that as well so...another 12-15 years I would think though it could be 10 years or 20 years still.¡± ¡°Not exactly a reliable source then¡± Viv muttered. ¡°Well I have no idea what will happen after we get out of this mess...it would be a miracle if we are not dragged into something else...again.¡± The trio sighed seeing that even though a hundred years passed, nothing changed that much in their journey. xXx ¡°Do you guys really believe Eden? That Eden who is still hiding things from us?¡± Hina immediately asked when they were not being listened to by anyone else in range. ¡°He seems concern of us nonetheless¡± Peter said in response. ¡°But at the same time concern that we won''t be useful to him in the end¡± Ian added in. ¡°Lots of secrets¡± Mark nodded agreeing with Ian in the end. Meanwhile Grace tried not to join the conversation as it seemed that an argument was likely between everyone at this rate. But at the same time Maria said, ¡°Either way, whether Eden and those two are using us, they have housed us, taking care of us and trained us to be stronger as well.¡± ¡°But to be tools in the end¡± Hina added. ¡°Everyone is a tool to another. We''re using Eden and the guild for ourselves right now aren''t we? If not for Eden''s pity¡± Maria raised her voice a bit seeing eyebrow coming up, ¡°Yes pity! We would be quite literally stuck in another group doing what they want! From the very start everyone around us wanted to use us so who cares if Eden is using us as well!¡± ¡°....¡± Due to the spirited speech that Maria made, the others did not want to go against her though they all shared the same thoughts as her anyway. It was just that they were extremely suspicious of what they don''t know. ¡°Anyway we should sum up what we know so far from what Eden and the other two said¡± Peter said with the rest of the group agreeing. Talking and thinking about something will allow them to see more about it as a whole. ¡°Well first they made it VERY clear that using the ''Marks'' is a bad thing to us in the long run¡± Hina said following up with, ¡°But from what they said as well, it''s fine to use it only once in a while at most when we can''t beat something otherwise.¡± Maria nodded in agreement and said, ¡°We were able to beat something twice our levels thanks to using it that time. But at the same time...¡± she remembered the sensation to which that came before that point. The pain...was something that she would rather live without remembering or feeling again. If using the ''Mark'' meant that she would need to experience or worse pain than it would not be worth it to use it casually. ¡°That power...¡± Ian said thinking aloud, ¡°It could be useful to use it as a reference for new skills. I mean I think I can replicate the phenomenon to a certain extent by using ''Burst Speed'', ''Become Mist'', ''Shadow Step'' and perhaps one skill that creates clones and another to teleport to these clones at will.¡± ¡°Wow, that''s a lot to do to get those strange shadow clones you made¡± Maria exclaimed. ¡°It''s not like your one is easier to do Maria¡± Ian replied, ¡°You and Hina have the exact powers from what I see and it is near impossible to replicate.¡± ¡°You can''t say that for now¡± Hina cut in, ¡°Maria has a higher chance of doing so than me, since she has a direct fire manipulation skill.¡± Peter nodded and then directed his gaze at Mark and Grace. ¡°On the other hand, both Mark and Grace seemed to have an energy based type power. Mark was about to flip those creatures without touching them while Grace could use hers to boost the power of her spells several fold¡± he said. ¡°Quite normal¡± Mark said in response, ¡°Compared to everyone else.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Ian raised his eyebrow, ¡°How is your one normal even compared to ours. Only you can flip giant creatures without touching them here. Plus Grace over there is another monster that can easily overpower the rest of us.¡± ¡°Ah...d-don''t worry! I w-won''t use it against you gu-uys!¡± she said in the end shuttering due to speaking to quickly without warning. To this Peter smiled and said, ¡°Don''t worry, I don''t think we will use these powers against each other at least. Plus I''m wanting to know more information on that army that Eden showed us.¡± ¡°Yeah, I''m wondering why the Kingdom hasn''t sent an army against it?¡± Hina wondered. Perhaps they can''t or they chose not to leaving it to Eden to deal with trusting that he would finish them off easily. But they in the end retreated and now the Kingdom was in danger. An army that size...would be nearing the million point and simply cannot be ignored. ¡°Either way we will know later on about this army¡± Peter said simply, ¡°I''m more worried about that one that managed to cut Eden down like that.¡± Maria nodded and said, ¡°From experience...well not exactly but from word of mouth and such, Dragon scales are some of the hardest things in the game and Eden...Eden seems stronger than a normal Dragon seeing his size. But for something to cut through him that easily means a super strong enemy.¡± ¡°Which will be impossible for us to deal with as well in case you want to fight that being that managed to nearly take down Eden¡± Ian had to remind her. She was having that look where she was happy fighting to the death. This was troublesome to him since usually he and Mark were being dragged around with her and had to fight along side her in order to make sure she didn''t die as a result of herself. ¡°Don''t worry, we can''t think of those sorts of things that are way off for now¡± Maria said grinning, ¡°First I want to test out our new outfits in the game. I heard there was a tournament in the city few months away in the game.¡± ¡°Isn''t that the one where you need to be at under level 150 to enter?¡± Hina asked. ¡°Yep.¡± ¡°And isn''t it in another week?¡± Hina asked again. ¡°We can always take the one after that if you want. They come every quarter year and are individual based¡± she said with a smile. In this way, there was a possibility that they would be able to face each other. ¡°There will be people who are 30 levels above us there!¡± Ian immediately said expressing his discontent on dying because the enemy would be too strong. ¡°Levels aren''t everything remember? We were able to defeat monsters much higher level than us in the end¡± Hina said. The group looked at Peter decided on something ¡°So...should we enter?¡± Peter asked the question they were waiting for. ¡°Of course¡± Maria said with confidences. Hina made a arrogant expression and said, ¡°Naturally¡± which would be perfect if she had glasses. The other four also agreed and therefore they made their goal to get a little bit stronger before the tournament started.¡± xXx With the time that they had for the rest of the day, the group went back into the game and was greeted by Alena. ¡°How was your day?¡± she asked with a kind smile that was completely different from what you could expect from someone who knocked a high levelled commander out with her fists. That slim figure was able to... But before Sain could finish that thought Lyndis answered, ¡°It was nice! We met Eden and the others there as well!¡± she said with a bright smile. Alena once again smiled in return and said, ¡°From what Viv tells me, you will have less time to come here as well. This school will take up some of your time I believe.¡± Miriel shook her head and then said, ¡°Not really since there is a lot of freedom there. We don''t even need to attend if we want as long as we do fine in the end.¡± ¡°But you should still go since it is your education¡± Alena replied quite worried that the group would slack off and fail later in life. ¡°Ah, all of us already had enough education. All of us before we met each other already completed everything on a high school level. This is, unlike back then is some extra things that Eden is forcing on us¡± she said. ¡°However at the same time I think there are courses that relate directly to this continent and some other things as well that will be useful later on¡± Sain said after Miriel, ¡°Plus we were forced to enrol into a combat class with Alexandra as the teacher.¡± ¡°Ah, is that so¡± said Alena, ¡°Have you decided on anything here that you wish to set as a goal?¡± she asked them. ¡°The tournament in a week¡± Sain answered immediately. Alena paused for a second in slight disbelief and remembered that they were part of ''that'' guild which she was raised with. It made sense that they at least could do this. As such she also decided to give them some information. ¡°The tournament in a week''s time is an individual fight between singles. There is a prize of 1000 gold for first place which is a lot for your level and second place gets 300 gold and finally third place only gets 100 gold¡± she said. Immediately when she mentioned the gold involved Miriel''s eyes flared up seeing that they could be able to get up to 1400 gold from this. Right now, they only had 300 gold between them all even when Alena had given them new outfits as well which could possibly cost them 500-1000 gold each. She was ever thankful to Alena for this. ¡°Another thing to note is that there are hundreds of people competing even in this city which only houses 300K people in it at a time. If it was a major city, the numbers competing would go up in the thousands and force them to have a battle royal style fight first to lower the numbers¡± Alena pointed out. Depending on the number of people competing, it would mean that they would be faced with more dangers then ever before. Even if it didn''t result in a battle royal, having multiple matches in a row could only leave them exhausted and easy pickings for other players. ¡°I see, thank you are telling us. Is there a time period where we need to enrol in?¡± Sain asked politely. For some reason Alena had this strange presence that didn''t allow him to be disrespectful to her. ¡°Don''t worry about that. I am one of the people who take admissions to the tournament, well only those who are in Independent Guilds that is though it is very rare for one under level 200 to be part of one and uncommon for one under level 300 to be in one as well.¡± The group thanked Alena once again and headed out to see what their new equipment can do. Walking down the layers of the city that was made in tune with the entire tree that was giant, they noticed that they were being stared at. ¡°Don''t worry¡± Sain said to the others, ¡°Since our appearances are more...flashy, they will notice us either way.¡± ¡°I still don''t like those looks...it''s like they''re leering and undressing me with their eyes¡± Lyndis said discomforted. Miriel then said coldly, ¡°If they come close, it''s fine to attack right?¡± ¡°You will attract the attention of the guards¡± Sain warned. ¡°Not if I assassinate them¡± Shadow replied hiding within the rest of the group so everyone else think there''s only five of them instead of six. Thanks to this new outfit, he was at least able to do this else...be super embarrassed about his skin tight outfit. But at the same time there were people noticing Shadow though he had not realised it. Ignorance is bliss after all. Walking through the city gate, the group continued onwards to a nearby dungeon that was suitable for those at the level 120 point. It was ''Giant Mice'' dungeon where the mice were the size of large dogs or wolves depending on their strength. They ranged from the lowly level 100 brown mice, to the more powerful level 120 white mice and finally the powerful level 150 black mice. It was truly a place that was suited for them to train in. Arriving at the dungeon, there were already a number of players gathered but none disturbed the group for two reasons. The first was that their party was a full six man one and the second was that due to the recent incident involving Viv, they were now known as part of an Independent Guild. Such players rarely allied with others unless they had to. To say, they are the elite players even if their levels were low. As such the group entered the dungeon that was a maze of countless rooms and started their training. After taking the paths that took them to the white mice which were level 120, they entered a room where there was an easy three white mice. The white mice reached up to their knees but they could also jump quite high over their heads and had fangs that were sharp enough to break through stone in a single bite. At the same time most of their bodies were made of muscle and little fat was there making it hard to cut through with a sword. Their weaknesses include, poison and fire. As such Lyndis who could use fire, and Serena and Sain who could use poison would shine the most here. But they weren''t here for that alone. They wanted to see their limits and as such Sain, Miriel and Serena were taking a break as the other three took the three white mice on their own. ¡°Haaaaa!¡± Lyndis as she was, naturally charged in straight without anything else and started attacking while dodging the surprisingly high amount of kicks to her by the mice. Chaining it up with ''Sword Dance'' she managed to kill the white mice in less than a minute without any active skills. Raven was the same letting the white mice crash into his shield before stabbing it while it was partly stunned before repeating rotating around it and repeatedly attacking it while on guard. Raven finished around the same time as Lyndis. On the other hand Shadow was completely different. From the start he was toying with his white mice using only his natural lack of presence to avoid attacks and stabbed it in multiple places before it died bleeding to death. It only took him half the time than the other two while he could have ended it instantly with a stab to the head. ¡°Shadow is it necessary to do that?¡± Lyndis asked seeing his work displeased. Shadow looked back at her and said, ¡°I wanted to see the fatal spots for later. I don''t know the body of giant mice that well.¡± Lyndis shrugged it off since Shadow usually did this every time they encountered something knew. He needed to know where the weak spots were and as such had to experiment else his effectiveness would be lowered. He knew there were several skills that allowed one to see weak spots and such but he didn''t have it yet so had to resort to this. Otherwise he would had to randomly slash at the enemy until it died. Something that Shadow found cruel and unnecessary. With this, the group headed for the next room looted the bodies of the white mice and got some good quality white fur and were met with another set of three white mice. This time it was Lyndis, Raven and Shadow''s turn to stay back as the other three fought. As the three separated to fight their own foes, Sain held his spear, Miriel with her whip and unsurprisingly Serena held her staff in one hand now opting with her right with the claw was a last measure self defence. The white mice being of low intelligence attacked the three individually not thinking of numbers at all. As such the three smiled at once. Sain moved in quickly while casting ''Magic Arrows'' at it shooting it a few times before hitting it with his spear. The white mice let out a small scream before backing away. Not willing to let it go, Sain then shot a ''Paralyse Shot'' at it which hit and caused it to slow down dramatically. Sain continued on this manner until it died at the 30 second point. Meanwhile at the same time Sain started, Miriel simple held her staff in her right hand and her whip in the left waiting for the white mice to attack her. When it moved in, Miriel attacked with the whip first causing it to flinch for a second. That was all she needed as she casted ''Ice Bolt'' and killed it quick quickly at the 10 second point. Finally there was Serena who unlike the others had little to no skill in close combat. Her agility may be high for a magic user but her strength was still just over average to a certain extent and was not worth mentioning at her level. But at the same time her spells were possibility stronger than Miriel''s. ¡°Root Bind¡± she said wrapping the white mice in her vines onto the ground. She then immediately went for the killing blow using ''Leaf Cutter'' which led to it dying within seconds. The three went back to the others as they commented. ¡°We finished faster¡± Miriel said bluntly. ¡°We did not use skills or spells¡± Lyndis replied with a ''Hmp''. Miriel placed her hand on her hip and then said to Lyndis, ¡°I thought we came here to test our limits with our new outfits not to know who can do what while holding back!¡± ¡°That''s enough Miriel¡± said Sain interfering so this wouldn''t get dragged out. Serena too got in between the two afraid that they would trade blows right now. But expectations were betrayed as Lyndis said, ¡°You''re right but you didn''t go all out yet did you.¡± ¡°Naturally, these weaklings don''t require my full power. It''s enough to use enough to blow them away and continue¡± Miriel replied to Lyndis. Meanwhile Shadow muttered so only Sain and Raven could hear as Serena caught up to the other two, ¡°That was disappointing. I wanted a cat fight.¡± Sain let out a scowl and said, ¡°Now is not the time for that¡± though changing to his usual tone saying, ¡°It''s better if they get along at least.¡± With that, the group continued heading deeper and deeper into the dungeon soon facing the Black Mice that proved to be a challenge. However with Lyndis using her fire skills more actively and with the others using their skills as well, they weren''t as bad as what they faced before. Eventually they managed in another 5 days to reach the boss room. The dungeon was actually quite small if you kept on a certain path. ¡°From what I hear this boss monster is a giant black rat called a ''King Rat'' which can summon other mice to it''s command. It is several times larger than even the ''Black Mice'' we faced...for good reasons¡± Miriel said expressing her knowledge of the boss. ¡°But it still has the same weaknesses right?¡± Lyndis asked. ¡°Of course¡± Miriel smiled wickedly. If things goes right, they may get some rare item from the boss monster. ¡°Okay then, let''s go. Formation as usual okay¡± Sain said pushing the door to open the boss room. There at the other end of the room was a giant rat that was 5 metres tall and looked as if, no could eat an entire person in one go. Seeing the group it let out some noise and mice of all kinds and size came to attack the group. ¡°Lyndis is on protection duty! Raven charge the rat! Everyone is as usual!¡± Sain shouted quickly. Miriel before already lay out some buffs for the party which was increased speed and defence with her barriers on them. Immediately following this, Lyndis started using her fire skills to burn away the enemies and keeping them away while the rat not that afraid charged at them and was intercepted by Raven. ¡°Footwork! Ram!¡± Raven said slamming himself at the rat. However due to the size and weight of the rat, it was Raven who in the end was being pushed back. ¡°Poison Shot!¡± Sain chanted aiming and shooting it at the rat''s mouth. Instantly the rat became noticeably weaker due to the poison inside of it. Sain had a good feeling his ''Weaken'' spell would be useless against it. At the same time, the group was being overwhelmed by mice. ¡°Shriek!¡± Miriel chanted. Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! The high pitch noise caused all the mice to either be stunned or run away from the group and Miriel, the source. Taking this chance Serena used ''Root Bind'' to help Raven stop the rat as Sain and Lyndis focused fire on the rat as well. 10 seconds later the rat was covered in it''s wounds but at the same time was about to crush Raven with it''s raw power that was fitting for a boss monster. ¡°Backstab.¡± But at the same time, Shadow moved in and killed the rat in one shot stabbing his short sword into it''s head at the precise location where it would die instantly. ¡°Well I suppose that study before had some merit then¡± Lyndis had to admit seeing this. After this, the group went out of the dungeon and got out of the game as they were able to start their first class at school after skipping homeroom to slay the boss monster. After the class which would only take 2 hours, they would have another day in game to prepare for the tournament. Yes, this was their first class...''Combat Arts'' led by Alexandra as the teacher.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9700~ - This chapter was a bit later than the last one which took 2 days. The reason is not because my fingers are being swollen due to typing too much. It''s because I wrote another mini-chapter to use for later while I was inspired to do so. - There isn''t too much action in this chapter, most of the small details were omitted. I''m thinking of slowly getting to this style instead of complete details of battles if it''s not that important to the plot. - The next Arc I think for the remainder of the volume would be the tournament unless I manage to finish quickly on it with a chapter or two left. Vol.5 Chapter 7 - Tournament (I) Back in reality, no it was better to say that they were in a VR space that was not Royal Road. The group along with no one else was with Alexandra in a large room that closely resembled a dojo of some sort. Alexandra was wearing one of those karate outfits you see a lot in movies and media though the use of such things instead of higher tech suits increased to the point it was rare to see this even in media now. ¡°Where are the other students?¡± Maria asked looking around. ¡°There are no other students¡± Alexandra said. Hina frowned and then asked, ¡°Was there a problem with the enrolment then? Usually there were at least a dozen students a class.¡± Alexandra smiled at her and then said, ¡°You forget that this is a place where geniuses in one form or another gather. No else is here since they chose not to come, plus there are almost a hundred other classes running at the same time.¡± ¡°I see¡± Hina thought about it that way and indeed having all of them here was a lot for a class since talents stretch far and wide. ¡°I heard from Alena that you intend to go into that tournament later on. After this class you have around a day and a few hours to prefer otherwise¡± she said slightly shocking the group though they soon realised that someone must have told her...though Alexandra should be with Eden far away from them in the game right now... ¡°Anyway¡± she adjust her belt which was strange on her outfit since she was actually wearing one and then said, ¡°This class is mainly for me to train you in the details of combat.¡± Hearing this most of the group frowned and questioned such a need of this. They were strong enough and with their new gear, they were even stronger now. Alexandra did not need to question them on their opinion since it was plastered over their faces. It was far easier to just teach them the hard way. She only had 2 hours to do this anyway. She let out an arrogant look and said one thing to them. ¡°Come.¡± Maria was the first to charge in as always wanting to punch Alexandra. In this space, your body''s specs are the same as in reality. This meant any advantage Alexandra has in the game was removed here. With a single straight punch directed at her, Alexandra simply flipped Maria and threw her away with a single swing and started walking to the other five. Next Peter, Mark and Ian all moved in at the same time nodding at each other to confirm. This person was still one of their guild-masters. How could she be weak? The three did a pincher move to which Ian leaped to kick in the air while Peter and Mark aimed to attack from below. Alexandra caught Ian''s kick and threw him as well and at the same time jumping in the air, grabbing onto Peter and Mark and threw them as well. ¡°This is quite disappointing¡± Alexandra mumbled heading to Hina and Grace. Hina was getting cold sweat from Alexandra and Grace was shivering a bit. Seeing that Grace wasn''t about to do anything useful right now, Hina moved in and with her limited knowledge, mainly with theory tried to control the battle against Alexandra. It was met with complete dominance from Alexandra as she smashed throw Hina''s stance with force and threw her with the others as well. Finally there was only Grace. Alexandra dared not underestimate her since both Eden and Viv and she herself confirmed she probably had the greatest potential in the group. Alexandra started off to attack since Grace was probably not going to attack. But at the same time Grace attacked leaving Alexandra a bit surprised. Alexandra dodged the punch which was faster than what Grace could do in Royal Road and went to strike. Her hand coming down, another one of Grace''s attacks, a kick came to her. ¡°Ho~¡± Alexandra grabbed her leg and then with a single twist, flipped her in mid air. But Grace continued to attack and then went for a second kick to which Alexandra was very pleased. ¡°Good work¡± she said before controlling Grace''s centre of gravity as well with a palm and throwing her to the others where Hina and Maria caught her. Turning to the group Alexandra declared, ¡°Grace is currently stronger than the rest of you. What do you have to say about that?¡± ¡°I don''t understand¡± Ian said looking at Grace, ¡°Such a small body and yet was able to handle more than us. Completely the opposite as in the game¡± he continued saying. He was quite interested when the rest of them failed instantly while Grace was the only one who could hold on for a while. ¡°Ah...that''s b-because...it was a r-reaction to d-danger¡± Grace replied getting off Maria and Hina at once while shying looking away. ¡°Reaction to danger...¡± Peter muttered, ¡°So this happens when you''re in danger?¡± ¡°Y-Yes!¡± she replied with a high pitch tone that was a level higher than normal. ¡°That kind of thing is actually quite normal¡± Alexandra said, ¡°Usually when people are in danger, their bodies react first. There are two ways of this, first is natural talent and the second is with experience. Now, come.¡± For the next 10 minutes Alexandra had been throwing the group left and right easily without any effort. There was literally no progress at all within in this time span and Alexandra almost had enough of them. ¡°Why are you all so weak?!¡± she complained while stepping on Peter with her foot as he lied on the ground beaten. She twisted her foot in the place she kicked him moments before. ¡°Stop!¡± Maria suddenly said, ¡°You might make him awaken something like that! It will be bad if he becomes a masochist¡± she was clearly worried about Peter who was being stepped on and yet was not moving to get her off of him. Did he ''awaken'' that kind of taste right now? ¡°Who the hell will become a masochist Maria?¡± Peter groaned in pain as he got up. Even though this was a VR space, they could still feel pain. ¡°If anything it would be you who has been charging in first all the time¡± he added holding his side as he hurt like hell when Alexandra kicked him there. ¡°He does have a point¡± Ian agreed. He too got up after Alexandra pinned him down with one hand and twisted his body in a way he did not expect possible. Lining up again with Maria grunting, Alexandra said bluntly to them. ¡°At this point I really can''t see anything to teach you. You guys even lack some of the more basic combat skills you need. After you lose your weapon, your body is the only thing you can depend on¡± she sighed. ¡°But I can''t really do anything with me throwing you left and right though I hoped you guys would quickly gain the skills that are required. I guess I have no choice.¡± The group silent gulped thinking of what she was about to make them do next. First she only made them come at her to attack while she threw them around but now she was planning something else? ¡°More than attack you guys lack defence...though I can''t say so myself but defending without a weapon is a useful skill!¡± she said with confidence, ¡°Especially when you managed to piss off Eden and forgot to bring your sword while running away.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway spread out a bit and I will go very...very easy on you all and you have to defend as long as possible. Attacking is not allowed~¡± she said thinking that this would be the best method for now. The group did so and Alexandra attacked them one by one each time making them last at best 10 seconds on average. This was taking into account that Raven easily went over 20 seconds with Alexandra like this while Grace was instantly taken down. After repeating this for another five times she stopped and said, ¡°Looks like even with this, it''s too hard...¡± ¡°That''s because you use strange techniques to throw us around!¡± Ian complained, ¡°The skill difference is too high! It''s like a level 1 facing a level 100 here!¡± ¡°That''s true¡± Alexandra agreed with Ian ignoring his rude tone once again. ¡°In that case, why don''t we spar between each other¡± Hina suggested, ¡°I can go with Maria, Ian with Mark and Peter with Grace.¡± ¡°Wait, why am I stuck with Mark?¡± Ian asked. ¡°I don''t trust you with Grace¡± Hina said bluntly. Maria agreed and said, ¡°She''s been a bit too scared of you ever since that time...¡± ¡°That wasn''t my fault!¡± Ian shouted back. Hearing his loud voice, Grace cowered away even more. Her impression of Ian decreased again wit his outburst. ¡°Annnnd your relationship stats with her decreased again. Really, it would be better for you to shut up while near her from now on¡± Maria suggested. ¡°....¡± Ian was about to shout again but stopped considering his relationship with the others would really break down at this rate. He had no intentions of being left out any time soon. Soon enough Alexandra split the group into three and had to spar with each other instead. One side would attack while the other would try their best to defend. It was this way for the remainder of the lesson with Alexandra though bored sitting out of the action. But from time to time, she would give them hints and corrected their way of doing things. Finally she said to them, ¡°Good luck on that tournament. Remember if anything, don''t let go of your weapon unless you have to.¡± With that the lesson ended and the group left and went in the game. xXx In the infirmy that was too high speced to be considered one. It was more like a mini-hospital in there but still Alexandra sighed and lied on a bed wanting to rest. ¡°Teaching is really straining...why don''t they understand the basics...?¡± she muttered wanting to sleep and not do anything for a while. ¡°That''s because they lack the natural instincts for battle¡± a person replied. She turned her head to see that Eden entered the room and answered her question. Alexandra then said, ¡°That doesn''t explain why all of them were so...weak even with the VR setting adjusted for everyone to have the same strength and speed. Grace, that Grace was the best at attacking and Mark was naturally the best at defending. The rest were meh.¡± ¡°That''s kinda harsh. Most of them haven''t even been in a fight outside the game.¡± ¡°But at the same time that knowledge from the game should have at least allowed them to perform better. They are separating the skills they gained on the other side from the ones on this side. Quite stupid if you ask me¡± she made an uncaring expressing and turned to get some sleep. However Eden would not have that and asked, ¡°So what did they learn today?¡± ¡°Nothing¡± Alexandra said, ¡°Aside from that they are really weak. Even when against each other only Mark and Grace performed well in their areas. Hina and Maria were fine except that they lacked realism while the other two, Peter and Ian were holding back for some reason.¡± ¡°Why would they hold back?¡± Eden wondered. ¡°Who knows...either way I just want to ask what will happen to them if they''re aren''t useful...like some of the others we picked up¡± Alexandra had a worried tone. Eden became serious and said, ¡°If they really aren''t useful in any way than we will throw them away like the others.¡± ¡°....¡± Seeing Alexandra''s extremely worried expression Eden chuckled and said, ¡°Looks like you really care about them.¡± ¡°How can I not? Their future is based off how they perform. Bringing them here, feeding them, housing them and educating them isn''t free! The moment that they can''t prove themselves all of this will be taken away!¡± Alexandra said quickly. ¡°But at the same time, they currently have good potential at least¡± Eden reminded her. ¡°Really now? Remember when we were their level? Viv just joined us as well...¡± ¡°And we were facing monsters that were twice our level and still won. Yes I remember and it was those first 8 years that llyfr was still with us¡± Eden replied like that causing Alexandra to stop talking. ¡°Are you okay?¡± Eden asked seeing that Alexandra wasn''t herself right now. ¡°No¡± she simply replied though with a soft smile on her face. Eden sighed and said, ¡°Don''t worry, we will get through all of this...one way or another. Though in the end...¡± ¡°Is that still an option to use?¡± Alexandra asked not wanting Eden to use that in the end. ¡°Perhaps...as a last resort of course¡± Eden left Alexandra a smile as he said, ¡°We better get back in the game as well. We need to stop that Ghost Army in time for a proper response to come to deal with it.¡± ¡°Doubt that would work...but-¡± Alexandra looked at the back of Eden and wanted for that to not disappear again. xXx Back in the game now, Alena greeted the group again and they left to do some business elsewhere. To be precise, the girls did while the boys had nothing else to do. ¡°You guys can''t come¡± Lyndis said bluntly. ¡°Why?¡± Shadow raised his eyebrow not understanding for a moment and then realised it, ¡°A girl''s day out now?¡± ¡°Yep¡± Lyndis nodded with a smile. Thus the three of them left the other three behind as they went to do some window shopping on their own. ¡°I guess we can get something to eat first¡± Sain said with a sigh going the opposite direction. Shadow and Raven followed behind Sain as he did. xXx ¡°So...with the boys gone, we can finally have some heart to heart talks to each other!¡± Lyndis said a bit too excited though Serena was the same and Miriel could not help but to smile a bit to this. This was something that both Serena and Miriel have rarely experienced before though Lyndis had a lot more experience it did not mean that it was any better. ¡°Okay but where should we go? But first...Muffletone!¡± Miriel chanted and used that spell that prevented others from listening in on them. Nodding to her use of that spell Lyndis said, ¡°Hmm...first I would like to look at some clothing stores...but I''m hungry so should we go eat?¡± ¡°Sure!¡± Serena said energetically. With the boys gone she was much less shy and anxious. Her original personality was of a bright child after all, even if it was clouded many times in the past. ¡°Then let us go¡± Miriel said, ¡°I know of a good cafe down this road judging by the reviews it had, the deserts are quite good.¡± ¡°So they have cake and sweats? Yes!¡± Lyndis made an exaggerated gesture and the three went to that place which was only partly full. Miriel dis-spell her spell for a bit to order some food but used it again when they sat down to eat. After a minute of enjoying this, Lyndis suddenly said, ¡°So you like Sain eh.¡± ¡°Pffffffffffffffffffft!!!¡± Miriel spat out the cake she was eating which caused many people to look over as Miriel flustered tried to clean herself up in a panic. ¡°What the hell was that for?!¡± she shouted though no one could hear her other than Lyndis and Serena and she hit Lyndis on the head. ¡°What? it was a question~¡± Lyndis lazily said finding Miriel''s current face funny. ¡°You said no question! Just a statement!¡± Miriel retorted. Serena at this point poured more oil on the fire and said, ¡°How long has it been since you started liking him.¡± ¡°Around a ye-that''s not the point!¡± Miriel once more retorted. It was like she was the straight man in a comedy act. Angry at the two who were definitely doing this on purpose Miriel asked, ¡°What about you two?! Do you have anyone you like?!¡± The two looked at each other and smiled and then said at the same time. ¡°What if it was Sain as well?¡± It was at that moment, something inside Miriel cracked. Lots of emotions that she thought she didn''t have flowed out until... ¡°Just kidding. Sain is fine but not my type~¡± Lyndis said with a smile grinning at Miriel, ¡°Plus Serena here can barely manage to stay calm in front of boys without running away. How can she fall in love so easily?¡± ¡°....¡± Lyndis continued to say, ¡°On the other hand Raven is my type appearance wise but his no talk and expressionless trait is a complete turn off. And in no way in hell am I going to end up with that bad mouth Shadow.¡± Miriel agreed to those points and then said, ¡°What if Shadow shut his mouth and Raven started talking?¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Lyndis thought about it and then said, ¡°Still no. I rather not get love in the way of our teamwork. That would mean I would prefer to save one of them instead of you two and I rather not have that¡± she smiled and then looked at Serena. ¡°What about you? Does looking at either Raven or Shadow make your heart beat wildly?¡± she asked. Serena shook her head and then said in a small voice, ¡°Raven is nice but he''s like a good big brother...Shadow is a bad person.¡± ¡°Hahaha¡± Lyndis let out a loud laugh and if not for Miriel''s spell everyone would have heard that, ¡°You have that right. It was a good choice coming here to talk about this.¡± Miriel sighed and then said, ¡°I thought we were going to talk about something else...like clothes.¡± ¡°We are¡± Lyndis replied, ¡°But at the same time talking about who we like is also something super interesting as long as the boys you like don''t like me. Then it becomes super awkward haha....¡± Lyndis looked down and Miriel said in an astonished tone, ¡°Don''t tell me...¡± ¡°Girls are real bitches sometimes you know¡± she said, ¡°If you can get them the first time, try again until you win them over. Don''t blame the other person...¡± she looked at Miriel with a sad face but then changed it saying, ¡°But you have nothing to worry about. Sain is completely smitten by you.¡± ¡°Huuuuh?¡± ¡°He had that look when he saw you after the change in outfit. He was completely stunned by you¡± Serena said nodding her head. ¡°Completely fell for you or close to it when he saw you then¡± she continued to say, ¡°Though he might have had some feelings before that.¡± ¡°Or is could be the super dense type and doesn''t know it yet. You have to be aggressive to get him at once before someone else steals him away¡± Lyndis advised. In Miriel''s mind, she was ''aggressively attacking'' Sain and making him her...what the hell was she thinking about?! She couldn''t possibly do that especially when they had other matters to do. ¡°I won''t do anything since we have other things to do. A relationship as you said would only bring trouble right now¡± Miriel said calmly. ¡°Though you did think about pushing him down and making him yours¡± Lyndis unnecessarily added in as well which caused Miriel to glare at her. ¡°ANYWAY¡± Miriel said loudly to stop the conversation steering into that direction and immediately found another topic to talk about, ¡°Serena I just want to ask why you started stuttering after a while with boys. I mean before you didn''t talk that much you still didn''t stutter as well.¡± ¡°Yeah I want to know as well!¡± Lyndis agreed with what Miriel was thinking of and put away her talks of Miriel''s infatuation of Sain for later. ¡°Well...¡± Serena started to talk to explain this to them, ¡°Before when we met...¡± ¡°Yes I remember that. Quite funny how difference some people were¡± Lyndis interrupted mid way. ¡°Yes, some people like you never changed. Anyway continue Serena before this idiot talks again¡± Miriel said to both of them. ¡°Okay, I only saw everyone else as strangers-¡± ¡°Like the rest of us¡± Lyndis interrupted again. ¡°Lyndis!¡± Miriel said furious. ¡°Sorry...¡± she replied dejected. This time she kept her mouth shut as Serena continued speaking. ] ¡°As I was saying, I saw everyone else as strangers and we all weren''t as friendly as now. At that time I didn''t even see the other three as males per say and it was only when we started hunting and interacting for longer that I realised it since I was focusing more on my spell training¡± she said in one go without Lyndis interrupting her this time. Both Lyndis and Miriel were taken a bit back by her statement. If those three heard of this, their spirits would be crushed...or would they be relieved. Either way, this wasn''t going to get into their heads from them at least. The three girls continued to chatter along and then went to shop for dressed and other cute clothes. Much to the surprise to Miriel and Serena, Lyndis had a preference for plainer clothes on off occasions. Likewise the other two also had this same taste though they amounted it to the fact that they lived most of their lives conversing money due to being orphans. They sent the rest of the day like this. xXx Meanwhile on the other side of the team. The boys late at night were waiting for the three girls to come back to their new base of operations. The Independent Guild Administration Centre and also Alena''s home. While the girls were chatting, the boys mostly looked around at the weapons, armours and other stuff that may be useful for them later on. Shadow brought some rope and other minor things while Sain and Raven spent most of the time reading up on the latest news. Much to their surprise there was nothing on a ghost army invading but the clip Eden and the other two shown them proved. Not thinking that Eden and the others would lie to them and also not wanting to talk about a ghost army to other people, the three have searched up informations on ghosts and previous armies that were formed from them. Their search... ¡°There''s nothing here at all!!!¡± Shadow shouted at the top of his voice. He had just spent the entire day for nothing. The cry of a baby awakened by his shout was heard as Sain and Raven quickly moved away from Shadow, the area where it would be dangerous to be near. ¡°My my¡± Alena said trying to calm her child down, ¡°Please don''t shout so loud...else I might have to put you down.¡± While there was still that everlasting smile on her face, her tone and eyes were dead serious on killing Shadow if he did this again. The same applied to the other two. It was at this moment, the door opened and the girls came in. ¡°We heard a shout. Is everything all right?¡± Miriel asked concern that such a loud voice was heard from this building. It was possible something happened. ¡°Just Shadow shouting and venting his frustration¡± Sain replied though trying not to stare at her. He was complaining in his heart that her current outfit was too revealing...he had no idea where to look. The plain robes were better for his eyes and heart. ¡°Oh, so nothing bad¡± Lyndis replied not caring much for Shadow right now. While he was fine most of the time, it was those small moment where he wasn''t...as long as he keeps his mouth shut he''s fine. ¡°Why do I feel that you are slowly ignoring my existence...¡± Shadow muttered in a low voice. ¡°Well you were the one who wanted to do so a while back!¡± Lyndis said remembering that Shadow said that his abilities in stealth was decreasing and he wanted to change it back in order to not be useless. ¡°I kinda want to change my mind on that¡± Shadow said somewhat unsure of that action now. ¡°Oh you don''t need to worry about that. According to Viv, that was only because the power of your ''Mark'' was leaking out a bit. He said that in the passing as he left somewhere¡± Alena said while going to her bedroom to place her child there to sleep. ¡°What?! That was why?!¡± Shadow unintentionally shouted out. Alena''s child started crying again when he did. ¡°....¡± Sain and Raven immediately grabbed the three girls and force them out of the building along with themselves for their own safety. That day...Shadow was unheard of until the next day where they met again at the tournament. xXx Approximately 3 hours before the start of the tournament... ¡°When did this city have this large arena like building?¡± Sain wondered seeing that this large structure looked almost exactly like the Roman Colosseum in real life. It was however half the size of the real one though. ¡°Hmm...this place was actually empty when we came here...did they build this in such a short amount of time?¡± Miriel looked quite impressed at the building and the speed it was built. However Raven looked around and then asked the rest of the group, ¡°Where''s Shadow?¡± ¡°....¡± The rest of the group was silent and was praying for his life. Ever since last night they had not heard from him at all even while sending messages to him via PMing. Any hope of seeing him again amounted to Alena. The five entered the arena and moved to the participation area where there was really hundreds of other people, players there competing as well. There, a person that looked like an old mercenary character spoke to everyone at once. ¡°Welcome to the quarter tournament for Lily City!¡± the voice was clearly heard from all corners of the arena and the crowd cheered at the announcement. ¡°How noisy¡± Miriel muttered a complaint. ¡°Today we have some good news and some bad news to you all!¡± everyone was listening in on these words. ¡°The bad news is that the number of participants number over a thousand this time which means there will be a need for a preliminary round to lower than number of participants quickly! The good news however is that the reward for this tournament has been tripled! The grand prize is now a total of 3000 gold!¡± Every person whether it was the participants or the audience cheered for this. The higher the stake the better the reward and the audience loved people struggling whether they won or not. At this time the arena changed and twelve platforms appeared a little higher than the ground. ¡°The rules of getting through the preliminary round is simple. Out of 8 groups and 12 platforms you must survive and be the last one. Only then will you advance to the first round! I hope for you to split from your team mates here else be forced to fight them early!¡± the announcer said. ¡°He''s right¡± Miriel said quickly to the others, ¡°Better split up and hope we are all in different groups.¡± The others nodded and then separated and went in different groups. Sain was in group 3, Miriel was in group 4, Raven in group 1, Lyndis in group 8 and Serena was in group 6. All of them were separated as they waited for the preliminary rounds to begin. xXx There was a small group of people gathered a bit away from the crowd of audience waiting to get a good view. These people were those who betted on these kinds of things to make quick money. Whether they manipulate the results of the tournaments for their own gain is questionable. ¡°Have we decided on who to bet on now?¡± one person asked. This was the question that they all had. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. While betting later on remained a certain level of profit. The most profit you could gain is via betting from the very beginning where everything is unknown. The gamble and risk you would take would result in the gain to be easily tens or hundred times higher than normal. Another person responded, ¡°Yes, there are some good candidates. We need to get them at least through to the finals. All of them are near level 150 and are quite strong. Some of them may be soon part of an Independent Guild if they keep it up. Or used to be isn''t that right.¡± ¡°....¡± The third person stayed silent but then the second person continued to mock him. ¡°To be kicked out of an Independent Guild at your level. It was a miracle you got in one but when you get kicked out your reputation fell to the ground hahaha, proves you right to be so arrogant to the rest of us before.¡± The third person spoke as in response to this, ¡°That was a mistake. One mistake, for someone like me to be...¡± ¡°Yeah yeah we heard that too many times¡± the second person rudely replied. He had heard this too many times to care anymore. But then the first person suddenly said, ¡°Oh, this is interesting. There are some people from an Independent Guild in here this time.¡± There was some shock as the other people quickly looked at the information on them. Details on their appearance, age, class and certain abilities that was researched a bit was shown. More to the point was Independent Guild they are a part of. ¡°This is...¡± the third person was surprised. ¡°Hahahaha this is too funny¡± the second person laughed, ¡°To think they are members of the one that kicked you out!¡± Several people decided to bet on these six immediately since it was likely they would win. However some didn''t and one of those was the third person. There was a flash of anger as the second person reminded him, ¡°Remember not to go against these brats. If you do then even we will be your enemy.¡± ¡°....I know¡± the second person replied though was lying through his teeth now. What better chance for him to prove that he was better, right than to make this guild suffer. ¡°....¡± In total there was a few dozen players that this group bet on in small amounts. It was nothing much, only a few gold, a small investment. However they could not help themselves betting a bit more for the six that were in an Independent Guild. But at the same time... ¡°That guild, that guild, that guild, that Eden''s guild....¡± a certain person was biting into his fingers thinking about the pass. ¡°I''m not useless, I''m strong, I can prove that¡± he continued to mutter while sinking his eyes into those who were participating. xXx
Character Name: Raven Group 1, Platform 7 participant Current Round: Preliminary Round
As the groups were fighting in order, Raven was the first to had to go. He got onto one of the twelve platforms with other players that numbered to nine other than himself. Before coming, there were people moved from groups to even the numbers out. However at the same time there were many complaints to this. They naturally wanted a better chance at winning and were doing their best not disobey the decision to move them in another group. These people were immediately kicked out which lowered the number of people participating by b it. Thankfully none of the group was sent to another and if things went well they all would meet in the final rounds. In the platform, Raven was naturally quiet though this was the first time for those around him to be naturally quiet as well. The atmosphere was tense as they all decided to which person to fight first. ''No need to take them all out by myself. I can just wait a bit to let them weaken themselves and finish off the rest...though I doubt on that happening. There are a few staring at me.'' Raven noticed that his appearance attracted a lot of attention. Perhaps he should have worn his other equipment which while a bit flashy wasn''t as attention attracting as this. However Raven did not notice that it wasn''t because of his equipment, the other players has the same level or high flashiness, but his face that caused the attraction to attention. Several male players decided to attack Raven while they had the chance and several female players decided to take those male players out. But in the end they will win, they all thought. Raven observed the other players while he had the chance. Most of them were melee characters, swordsmen and a few with shields as well. There was a thief character mixed in as well but no magic characters. ''Well these kinds of tournaments would make it hard for magic users to win'' Raven held his spear and shield a bit tighter as the countdown to the start of the fight began. ¡°Let the first set of fights in this tournament begin!¡± the announcer said which caused a set of loud cries to resound from the audience and the participants. ¡°Die pretty boy!¡± Immediately when the fight began, three people out of nine opponents went for Raven. He had expected this but for them to assault him like this not caring for anything else was unexpected. Their hate for those like Raven who looked better than them allowed them to at least not kill each other first. ¡°Twisted Blow!¡± one of the players against Raven shouted, his blade moved in one direction and the next but Raven could still see it and determine it''s path in the end. He raised his shield and moved forward not back as he was near the edge of the platform already. The three players did not even hide the fact that they were targeting Raven at all with them coordinating to take him out first. ¡°Ohhhhh three players have already started to gang on on a single person in this tournament!¡± the announcer said in an excited voice. He then started to commentate on other interesting scenes that the audience could draw their eyes to. ¡°Shield Bash¡± Raven knocked away one of the players like this while using the rest of his armour to take the blows from the other two. Next he spun his spear into one of the other players killing him in one shot which was surprising at least. Raven moved in on the third and said, ¡°Double Strike¡± hitting the arm and stomach of the third player and injuring him quite a bit. It was at this point that the first player was back to normal and was attacking Raven again. ¡°Impact Blow!¡± ¡°Sword Strike!¡± He was forced to move back a bit before using ''Spear Parry'' and ''Shield Parry'' to get some more hits in and finishing them off at the same time. Looking over to the rest of the platform, there were now only two more players left to defeat. One of them was a shield and sword user while the other was a normal swordsman. As Raven moved to attack the two the one with the shield killed the other one and went for Raven as well. Clang! Raven blocked the attack while passing by with his shield and turned to attack with a stab. Clang! The attack the blocked and the two continued to exchange blows like that. Raven in the mean time while fighting this way checked his health and it barely fell from 90%. The enemies were really just too weak at this stage. However the one in front of him seemed more powerful than the rest at least. ¡°Footwork¡± Raven used this skill to quickly get closer to the player and then used ''Shield Bash'' to knock him back. Further charging ensured that the opponent was pressured enough to not attack and only block. ¡°Spin Strike!¡± the player shouted spinning around and dealing a heavy blow as Raven blocked it. The force was enough to unbalance him for a second as the enemy went in to attack. ¡°Shield Parry¡± Raven simply said using his shield and timed his block so that the strike would be deflected away and finally stabbed his spear deeply into the body of the enemy killing him only after pushing through a few more times. When he did the following message appeared in front of him showing his updated details to the tournament
Character Name: Raven Group 1, Platform 7 winner Current Round: To be set
¡°Victor of Platform 7 has been crowned!¡± the announcer said with the crowd giving a follow up cheer. At the same time as this Raven heard a voice announcing that he had won in his platform, how he performed and instructed him to leave the platform. Raven did so silently not paying attention to the crowd as he left. He moved to an area where the others were waiting. ¡°Good work¡± Sain said immediately when he appeared. Raven noticed that Sain looked a little bit nervous. He didn''t say anything since he thought Sain would perform well enough on his own. The others aside from Shadow who was not there at the moment said the same words as all of them watched the the other players finished up. xXx
Character Name: Sain Group 3, Platform 2 Participant Current Round: Preliminary Round
Moving onto the third group of players, it was Sain''s turn to perform. Moving onto the platform he had quickly realised that being magic user was bad for two reasons. The first was that of the time used for chanting spells and the second was that all magic users were immediately targeted. Magic was the most destructive power in the game and anyone who would let this power be used was a fool. As such to not be targeted from then and on, it was better to not use magic this round...else he would be forced to fight everyone else on the platform at the same time. Standing on the platform on the edge would mean that it was likely that he would be knocked off. Being knocked off the platform would mean that you would lose but at the same time killing another player was much easier so not many would do that. ''I have to make sure I win in the end no matter the cost!'' he thought though he did not understand that he as strong as the rest of the nine players on the platform even without magic already. With Raven not discussing anything with the others, he did not know that Raven only lost a little over 10% of his health in his battle. As Sain''s defence was half of Raven''s he could expect to lose around 20% or more health at the very least without a shield to use. ¡°Let this round begin!¡± With these words every player on his platform including himself moved to fight. Unlike with Raven, no one particularly targeted him and as such Sain was able to take in a few hits on some of the enemies. Generally not going fully aggressive and not fully running away as well. Sain left it for the other players to take each other first and help one side to victory with a small strike here and there. Without any skills invested into physical attacks and only spells to use from, Sain didn''t have much of a choice. He had seen how everyone ganged up on magic users even with the smallest spells used. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± one player who noticed that Sain wasn''t really fighting much attacked him. At this point there were only were five more opponents left for Sain. And the other four were attacking each other as well. Sain dodged the attack that was wrapped in flames noticing that the area of the attack was a bit larger than the sword strike itself. It took off some health from him even though he dodged it. With his sword still on fire the opponent continued to attack Sain and only Sain. Sain tried blocking with his spear and attacking but this opponent was too aggressive at the very least. In the end he had to use magic. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± he chanted firing off all of the attacks into the opponent that used flames. Bang Bang Bang...! Every last attack hit and some of them were even critical hits as well as the opponent hit with magic died from that one spell. ''Now I kinda get why they target magic users...most players are weak to magic'' he thought as the other four opponents stopped what they were doing. ¡°Minor Heal...¡± he chanted quickly to restore some health before the other players started to move in to kill him. ¡°Magic User! Kill him!¡± one of them shouted. ¡°Annnd another magic user is being attacked by all of the other participants! So far none of the magic users have made it through these battles. Will this one be the same or will it be different?¡± the announcer said. There were two sword users, one spear user and one shield user among the four opponents. Seeing that he was now going to be ganged up on four opponents at once, he decided it was best to buff himself a bit. ¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡±
You have been buffed by the spell ''Swift Legs''
With his agility stat being boosted by 50 points at this point, Sain quickly ran away from the enemies. ¡°Wait! Stand and fight!¡± one of the enemies shouted. ¡°The contestant is running away! The other players are struggling to keep up with this magic user!¡± the announcer said excitingly causing the cheers from the audience to increase. ''Who would want to face four opponents at once? I''m a magic user and all of you are ganging up on me!'' Continuing to chant while running he used ''Mana Bolts'' once more on each of them which caused them to back away for a while so he could use another spell. ¡°Paralyse Shot!¡± Sain chanted several hitting the players several times. Even though the spell was at Beginner Level 5, it only had a 14% chance of causing paralyse and the damage was really low. However some luck was with him as one of the players, one of the sword users was paralysed thanks to this. Sain continued to firing ''Paralyse Shot'' since he had a rather large mana pool compared to normal mages and also benefited from the fact that the chanting time of the spell was near zero. After doing several loops with the rest of the players even splitting up to block both sides, Sain managed to paralyse another player, the one with the spear this time. ¡°You can''t run now¡± said the shield user along with the other sword user as Sain was backed to the corner of the platform right now. At this point, the user that was first paralysed would soon be relieved from that state and it would mean the end for Sain. However at this point thanks to the enemies wasting time and believing that Sain only had weak spells to use on them, he finished chanting this spell that he would otherwise never been able to use right now. ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± he chanted summoning Luna. [Master] ¡°Luna no time to talk, attack the one on the right¡± he ordered. [Right!] Having a large wolf being summoned was a shocker but it was another thing for that very same wolf to be large and powerful at the same time. The shield user was easily pushed back by Luna was only level 100 at best. Running to the other player Sain started to take down the other enemy. He quickly stabbed three times in a row where the sword user could barely block one and then killed him. Looking to the right, Luna was on top of the shield user and killed him. ¡°Now only two left¡± Sain muttered looking at the last two. He at least wished to save some spells to be hidden for later so he and Luna went to kill them both together to lower the risk. When he killed the last opponent, a certain window updated in front of Sain''s eyes.
Character Name: Sain Group 3, Platform 2 Winner Current Round: To be set
¡°Victor of Platform 2 has been crowned!¡± the announcer said with the crowd cheering once again. Sain felt a slight tingling feeling from his chest hearing this roar of applause. ¡°Good¡± he said leaving the platform, ¡°That wasn''t so bad.¡± Luna followed behind quietly as Sain went to where the others were. Seeing Luna with Sain, Serena went over and started patting Luna to which Luna did not reject. Meanwhile the others said some words of congratulations and then Miriel asked, ¡°Why didn''t you use magic from the start?¡± Sain replied with, ¡°Oh I wanted to see how far I could go without it for a bit. Better to hide the fact I could use it as long as possible. You''ve seen what happened when I and anyone else used it. Miriel, Serena, both of you need to be careful than they will be targeting you first.¡± ¡°I know¡± Miriel replied nodding. Serena did the same as well. Next was Lyndis'' comments on his performance. ¡°Yeah the rest of your opponents chased after you and you ran. We all saw that and it was quite an embarrassing performance¡± she said, ¡°You looked completely ridiculous until the very end where they finished everyone else off quickly. Why didn''t you do so immediately to attract less attention? The announcer was all over you.¡± ¡°Umm...¡± Sain couldn''t say that he forgot he could do that without everyone else....therefore he made up an excuse on the spot. ¡°I wanted see how strong the other players were so I held back¡± he said with a laugh that no one believed. ''He forgot.'' ''He forgot didn''t he...'' The other four thoughts were quite in line with this. xXx
Character Name: Miriel Group 4, Platform 10 Participant Current Round: Preliminary Round
It was Miriel''s turn to fight now. Like the other two that came before her since they couldn''t find Shadow at all anywhere...which was troubling at the very least, she went on the platform and there were many eyes on her for good reason. ''Bring it on'' she thought seeing that it seemed that Sain warned about was truth. It was a completely different matter to experience it herself. She needed to be a place that didn''t result in her being attacked from all sides and therefore the best place was near the middle of the edge of the platform no matter how close it is to her being pushed off. ¡°Let group four start fighting!¡± the announcer shouted which caused all twelve platforms to start fight with all the noise. ''How troublesome...'' she thought not minding that four players were coming at her at once. Seeing that she was a mage and yet at the edge made it easier for them to think they could take her out fast. ¡°Too bad¡± she said while taking out her whip and immediately used it to attack. Snap! A loud sound came from the four people at once. Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Miriel used her whip to hit them several times with one hand while in the other hand used her staff to aim at once of the enemies. ¡°Ice Bolt¡± she chanted firing several ice projectiles into the body of one of the players. That player being pierced by ice turned grey and died. ¡°That''s one down...¡± she muttered moving to the next target. However it seemed that the other player had noticed this and went to strike Miriel down at once. ¡°How sad for eight people to gang up on one girl¡± she said provoking them. ¡°Damn shut that damn bitch!¡± ¡°Kill her!¡± ¡°Don''t let her cast magic!¡± They all seemed to shout many things at once but Miriel wasn''t paying attention. When several of them got near she immediately chanted, ¡°Ice Burst!¡± firing off a shotgun like blast of ice which instantly killed three of the players. BANG! Shocked by this, the other players backed off for a split second but then continued on moving in since such a spell would need a long cast time and especially cool down. Seeing this Miriel decided she needed some actual defence since Raven, Lyndis or anyone else wasn''t here to take the hits for her. ¡°Ice Barrier!¡± she then chanted causing a physical barrier of ice to appear in front of her protecting her. She had moved to the corner of the platform and was trapped. ¡°Take that barrier down!¡± ¡°Double Impact!¡± With the combine force of several players the ''Ice Barrier'' she made was easily crushed and they went through. But at the same time the 3 second cool down for ''Ice Burst'' had passed. ¡°Ice Burst!¡± she chanted for a second time. BANG! The blast once again took out several players at once. It was as such from a mage that had Intermediate Levels in both ''Magic Mastery'' and ''Ice Magic Mastery''. Usually only mages of around level 150 or higher could get to that point even when using ice magic all the time. With the very few players left to oppose her, she easily dispatched them using ''Ice Bolt'' and using her whip when they got near.
Character Name: Miriel Group 4, Platform 10 Winner Current Round: To be set
¡°Victor of Platform 10 has been crowned!¡± the announcer said with the cheer that was getting onto her nerves at this point. She walked with a slight smile to where the others were...unknown to the dark eyes that watched them. xXx At the same time as the tournament... ¡°Yo, it''s been a while¡± Eden said with a happy go tone that completely did not go to his eyes and smile that looked like he wanted to torment and torture the person he was looking at. ¡°You again¡± said the King of Ghosts. Both of them were standing in open plains once again. However this time there were some form of life around them. They were slowly pushing east into the Western Continent. ¡°Prepare to die¡± he said simply to Eden. This time he did not try to recruit Eden as it was clear he was an enemy. Next to the King was that swordsman that managed to cut down Eden and the other one that Eden did not confirm before. ¡°You ran last time before meeting me¡± the third one said. He was covered in a cloak but revealed himself now. It was a young man with blonde hair and golden eyes and looked no older than Eden himself...though aging wasn''t an issue for him. He had no weapon at hand but something felt off about him. ¡°And you are?¡± Eden asked with a smile. It was at this time Alexandra appeared and stood next to him. He could see her waving to the swordsman from before as well. ¡°I am the ruler of 72 Demons, King Solomon¡± he introduced himself to Eden and Alexandra with a slight bow. The two were a bit shocked since there was another legendary person here. ¡°Call of the Kingdom!¡± the King Arthur shouted calling onto his ghost knights. The unnamed swordsman also drew his black Katana and aimed at Eden and Alexandra. ¡°Before we start, who are you?¡± Eden pointed at the swordsman. ¡°....¡± There was a brief silence as Alexandra who was also in battle that person said, ¡°I didn''t tell you?¡± ¡°....¡± Eden glared at Alexandra for leaving this information out and then looked at the swordsman and asked, ¡°And you are?¡± in a kind voice that was concealing the fact that Eden wanted to torture and rip off the limbs of this man. Did he know how painful it was to have his wings cut off? ¡°I am Kyoshiro. Ghost God Mibu Kyoshiro¡± he said introducing himself to Eden. Eden looked at Kyoshiro with some interest as he was no ordinary person. Pushing Alexandra back so much with that thin long sword was something that only so few can boast about. But more to the point that he called himself a God. ¡°Hmm.....a God but I can''t feel any divinity from you at all....no it''s better to call you a fake God then?¡± Eden wondered aloud. There was a self deprived smile on Kyoshiro''s face. ¡°My clan was one created by Gods in their image. I am the last one as the others stopped functioning¡± he explained to Eden in a cold voice but then Eden noticed that there was blood on his Katana....and he was in a stance already. ¡°Shit!¡± Eden knew it was too late but still leaped away and at the same time a giant wound appeared on his chest.
You have taken 153 516 damage
¡°Battle Aura!¡± Eden shouted as Alexandra used her ''Holy Aura'' as well and charged into the three enemy. ¡°Come Demon of Lightning, Baal!¡± Solomon shouted summoning a giant demon that generated black lightning everywhere. It was the size of a around half a giant and yet could kill a hundred of them with the power it holds. At that moment against a swordsman that he couldn''t see attacks from, a King of a ghost army and another King of Demons, Eden thought, ''I really have my work cut off for me'' as he sighed.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9100~ - Well the beginning of a new arch and the second half of the volume as well. I was thinking of what to write about and there were a few ideas but having one major event after another would be too...predictable. Therefore I made them enter a tournament since that seemed to be the only worthwhile idea that popped up in my head. - Anyway I wrote more on Eden since he''s actually doing something important and introducing the rest of the villains for the rest of this arc. Vol.5 Chapter 8 - Tournament (II) Flying through the air with six golden wings on his back, Eden dodged the near countless attacks from the ghost knights and the demons summoned. However he still had the time to complain. ¡°Damn how many attacks do you intent to throw at me?!¡± he screamed throwing another couple of layers of mana shields around him. Due to his long age and the fact that he obtained a cheat key known as ''Creation'', Eden was able to make countless skills and use them. Among these are a total of 134 physical defence skills, 165 magic defence skills and 185 mana regeneration skills. He had another 182 skills that were other things he also picked up that were useful as well. All of this made Eden one of the most unkillable existences in the game alone combined with his high mana that is his lifeline. But at the same time most of these skills, especially the more powerful ones were sealed away with ''Magic King Drive''. Just like Alexandra cannot use her ''Divinity'' he could not use ''Magic King Drive'' and Viv cannot use his ''Yggdrasil Trigger'' which he gained at an unknown time. These powers were the main core of their power in the past and now they are unable...no unwilling to use it. For their powers was now a seal for a mighty beast. ¡°Flame Tornado¡± Eden shouted forming flames at his hands and throwing it at a couple of those ghost knights causing a tornado of flame to be summoned at that location. ¡°Ahhhh!¡± the ghost knights screamed as the flames melted them. ¡°Charge! Charge! For the King!¡± the following ghost knights went through the flames ignoring their injured comrades to strike down Eden. At the front was the King once again attacking him. ¡°Golden Bow!¡± Summoning his bow, Eden pulled and fired causing the single strike to multiple into hundreds and thousands of arrows. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang...! Eden only managed to take out around half of the charging knights as their defence or perhaps because they were now ghost knights that they managed to survive that. With his silver white sword, the King leaped from his pure white ghost horse and shouted, ¡°Excalibur!¡± Light gathered in his sword and exploded in a wave similar to Alexandra''s ''Sword Wave''. He had experienced this kind of attack countless times. How could this be any different? ¡°Sitri, stop him!¡± Solomon shouted causing one of his summoned demons, one that had the face of a leopard and wings of a griffin to charge at Eden and grab him causing him to be unbalance for a split second. But at the same time the King''s attack was about to hit him as well. ¡°Shit...!¡± Eden braced himself for lots of damage. ''Damn he sent his minion to suicide with me'' Even with ''Dragonic Release'', ''Dragonic Overload'' and ''Battle Aura'' active along with a couple of other spells in place, something of that power, that rivalled Alexandra''s in power would be difficult to defend against. It was at that time that Alexandra jumped in front of Eden and shouted one thing with her sword blazing full of energy. ¡°SWORD WAVE!¡± Another wave of energy was let out in the direction of the first attack. BANG! The two attacks collided. However Alexandra''s attack was twice as large...and much much more powerful as well. She did not hold back at all and waves of destruction where ghost knights and summoned demons were blown away. ¡°Alexandra hold back a bit will you¡± Eden requested, ¡°It would look bad like the wielder of that legendary sword Excalibur were to lose like that.¡± ¡°Well they can think of that later when they aren''t double teaming you¡± he replied with no mercy. ¡°By the way, what happened to the other one?¡± he had to ask. He had a bad feeling about this. ¡°Oh, he''s coming this way¡± she pointed at the charging shadow that would bring death. Eden knew that was Kyoshiro and he was heading here to kill them both. Even with the extra defence ''Humanoid Dragon Transformation'' gave him, it wouldn''t matter since that sword seemed to cut through all defence. ¡°....¡± ''In that case, I have to stop him by force.'' Formulating a spell in his head, Eden said, ¡°Earth Destructive Wave¡± and slammed his hand down on the ground. The spell activated and the ground from Eden to Kyoshiro started to break and split apart. Visually it was the ground in a wave like form flipping itself over like a tsunami. ¡°Divine Wind Style: Mizuchi!¡± ¡°Wha?¡± In the instant that Kyoshiro said those words, wind was blown out of his body. It was like a warm gentle breeze and yet his instincts flared out to get away else be killed. He immediately forced ''Battle Aura'' to maximum and got the hell away from this wind. But at the same time, this move''s range was too large to dodge like that. By the time the words came out of Kyoshiro''s mouth it was too late to dodge. CUT!
You took 2153 damage
You took 1658 damage
You took 2993 damage
¡­.
The damage quickly stacked up to take over half his mana in one go. His armour was full of cuts everywhere which would make the person who deals with his clothes sad and the rest of his body had large cuts on it as well. Thankfully due to ''Recovery Burst'' his body was healed in the next instant though the mana that was lost wasn''t coming back any time soon. ¡°Ow ow ow¡± Eden muttered, even now getting hit like that would be painful. Why he didn''t make a pain reducing or pain negating skill was beyond him. Either way he did not have the time nor mana to do so now. ¡°Alexandra you okay?¡± he asked looking over. At this point on one side there was an army of ghost knights and demons and on the other there was a swordsman that was way too powerful unless they get serious in a one on one fight. ¡°No....¡± Alexandra muttered but with a grin, ¡°It''s been a while...no a very long time we had to fight foes that were stronger than the current us.¡± ¡°Doesn''t help that our power is capped at level 800 right now and they''re level 900 each...plus our bodies are kinda rusty after so long without a good battle¡± Eden sighed, ¡°Aren''t you going to use those ''Sun Authorities''?¡± he asked. ¡°Already am...I have 5 of them now anyway¡± she said, ¡°But using them is a pain. They drain so much stamina when active, especially when five of them are active at the same time.¡± ¡°How is that a problem for you who almost literally has unlimited stamina?¡± Eden asked while firing off a couple of spells in either direction. They were mostly lightning or fire spells which were quick and easy to use. ¡°Anyway it looks like it''s time to retreat again¡± said Eden looking around to see that their situation was particularly bad. Alexandra waved to the enemies and in a cheerful voice shouted, ¡°We''ll be back to play in a bit~!¡± With that, Eden grabbed Alexandra and teleported away. xXx
Character Name: Serena Group 6, Platform 1 participant Current Round: Preliminary Round
Confirming this, Serena walked up to the first platform and waited for the match to start. Seeing that she had a large metal claw that extended up on her right arm, she was getting a lot of stares. ¡°....¡± She really wanted to run away now since there were so many people looking...just looking but they might be looking at her and commenting on her. But she couldn''t run away at this point. Not since a long time ago when she met with the others. ''It''s fun being with them...'' she thought. Soon enough the announcer said, ¡°Let the match begin!¡± causing the fight to start. With her staff it was clear that she was a magic user and the fact remains that she had a flashy appearance and furthermore she was near the centre of the platform. It was like she was saying that she wanted to be attacked. ¡°Heeeeeeiiiiii!¡± she let out that scream when she found that several blades were heading that way. Using her higher than normal agility even for normal players let along a magic user though she was a druid, she dodged the incoming attacks with seemingly ease. With her stats this was very much possible however as a young girl, Serena has a natural fear of blades. Furthermore the others in the group did not allow Serena to be harmed if they could and as such she was similar to a sheltered princess. But at the same time she was part of the group who went through a minor hell by Eden. Her bonds with them did not allow her to run away right now. Though she still let out a scream every time one went for her. ¡°Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!¡± another blade came to cut her and she dodged screaming. ¡°Damn that voice is annoying! Kill her already!¡± ¡°Can''t...she''s a young girl....¡± ¡°Than push her out of the platform!¡± After several seconds of this, everyone who aimed for Serena then went off to attack each other rather than waste time hunting down her. As such she had enough time to cast her spell, a mistake on the other players'' part. ¡°Root Bind!¡± she chanted causing vines to grow from the platform and bind the players in place. All eyes went on Serena as she did this. ¡°S-Sorry...!¡± she suddenly said seeing that the other players were glaring at her now. She really wanted to run away now but she couldn''t at this point. ''Have to finish them off...with what...? Strongest spell...?'' It was that moment at that point that Serena decided to use the spell that she thought had the most power...which was unfortunate to everyone else. After chanting for the required time for the spell which was almost none at all due to being a quick cast spell, Serena said, ¡°Blood Burst!¡± creating a red orb in front of her. The red orb curious to everyone else shot out and hit the other nine players on the platform several times in several place before disappearing. ¡°Hahaha what the hell was that-¡± one player said feeling nothing at all. But at this point the time for the spell true power had passed. BANG! In an instant every player burst out like a balloon. Blood poured and rained on all sides even spreading to where the audience was. And then there was silence. ¡°....¡± No one moved. Not even Serena moved. Nine people just...burst into pieces just like that. Everyone looked at the scene and Serena with eyes wide and jaws dropped. If Eden and Alexandra were here, they would be the only ones to laugh at this scene ignoring the blood all over the place. It was at this moment Serena got two messages. One was this.
Character Name: Serena Group 6, Platform 1 winner Current Round: To be set
And the other was this.
You have gained a new title, ''Born in Blood''
Born in Blood A person who had used blood magic, a powerful and yet at the same time strangely no longer forbidden to a few that serve the Kingdom, that had used this spell in front of so many and yet looked completely calm. As such not many would dare try to cross you and many would avoid you at will. Intimidation +40% Blood magic Strength +20%
¡°Eh?¡± Serena suddenly gained this title out of nowhere even though she had used this spell before and in front of other people as well..though it was not as large as this crowd that numbered in the thousands. ¡°Winner of the platform one has been crowned!¡± the announcer said quickly regaining his professionism. Serena quickly bowed to the crowd and almost ran out and out of sight as well. ¡°Good work Serena!¡± Lyndis gave her a thumbs up, ¡°That scene you caused as quite funny~¡± ¡°I hope you don''t refer to the blood bath Lyndis¡± Miriel said though patting Serena on the shoulder worried that she would yet have another trauma of people again. ¡°Of course not! I''m not that deprived to think something like that is good! I was referring to that scene where everyone was super shocked at what the small and cute Serena here did~¡± she replied. ¡°Also Serena got a new title thanks to that now¡± Sain added in since it was unlikely that the others would know from Serena herself. ¡°New title? What is it?¡± Lyndis was quite happy for Serena to get a new title. It would mean that she would get some bonuses in an area....though she wondered what it could be. ¡°It''s...¡± Serena started to say, ¡°One that increases my Blood Magic strength-¡± ¡°And one that she got for causing that scene¡± Sain added on again. For some reason he felt like bullying Serena for a bit right now. Perhaps it had to do with almost being killed just before. ¡°Plus she gets extra intimidation as a bonus as well.¡± When Sain said that with Serena blushing a bit from embarrassment the others looked at her a but shocked. How could this person do anything intimidation? It was such a waste of a bonus that would be well suited for Lyndis or Miriel. Anyway the group continued to watch the matches to see if Shadow would appear at all. xXx
Character Name: Lyndis Group 8, Platform 3 participant Current Round: Preliminary Round
¡°Wow~ So this is what the others saw when they stood here¡± Lyndis said looking excited at the very least. Competitions were something that Lyndis liked a lot since it allowed her to show off her abilities in front of everyone else. Like the others she would be seen and talked about. Now it was Lyndis'' turn to fight on the platform as well. Though a bit too excited, she was happy that there were some strong people in this tournament as well. ¡°Some of those winners looked quite good when fighting as well¡± she muttered thinking of those guys that looked younger than her and yet had this serious look in their eyes that made her want to bully them. But she wasn''t into younger guys so there¡¯s that. ¡°Hmm....lots of people around my level...and even under as well¡± she continued to mutter to herself. From looking at her opponents she could partly tell what level they should be based off their equipment and even more so from their stance. A powerful person was never sloppy even when drunk. Well...maybe they were but they were still better than some people at her best. The best example of this was Sain in her eyes as while it looked like he was sloppy he was quite accurate when he felt like it. It was only due to him fumbling around with spells that caused this problem. He even used his spear sometimes as a staff to fire spells when he didn''t need to. A spear is meant to be a spear not a staff! But still, at least half the people here on the same platform as her was of a lower level than her. The other half were of higher level but at the same time were pretty weak. Stat wise Lyndis was around 30 levels above what was normal due to training. But beyond that was her skill with the sword. Right now Lyndis was only a bit better than average but she had a lot of experience against human like enemies. In other words those bandit attacks helped her develop skills that would make it even easier to kill other players. From what she saw, this preliminary round was a good way to get rid of all of the weeds that were weak at least. ¡°Come on come one...¡± she muttered waiting for the announcer to hurry up! She was losing patients here and wanted to let loose already. Seeing the others do their best in their own way made her want to fight as well. She gripped her sword wanting to fight but at the same time had to restrain herself since she didn''t want to be disqualified due to anything. She stood at the centre of the platform like Serena and simply waited and calmed her heart as much as possible. While her heartbeats slowed down a bit it was still quite fast compared to normal. Her body was adjusting to move at faster than normal speeds in an instant. ¡°Let the round begin!¡± the announcer shouted. At that moment she drew her sword and looked around. The other players started attacking each other and one of them came to fight her as well. It was a young boy with sky blue hair and armour that made him look like a knight. Any normal girl would have trouble attacking this person but Lyndis at this point only wanted to fight. ¡°Fire Blade!¡± Lyndis caused her sword to be blended with flame itself as she and the young boy slashed at each other. BANG! In an instant Lyndis'' strike moved faster than his even though she didn''t even use ''Speed Strike'' or ''Speed Stance'' at all. His sword was heavily damage as Lyndis knocked him away. Looking dazed at his damaged sword due to Lyndis he still came charging back in. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± Lyndis shouted while also using ''Speed Stance'' and ''Sword Dance'' at this point as well. Bang Bang Bang! Critical Hit! Lyndis hit the young boy and his armour three times with her sword melted away his defence bit by bit. By the time that Lyndis killed him she had hit him only around 10 times in a row. Disappointed a bit she seeked out the other players to hunt down as well. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± she shouted firing it at once of the other players nearby. The player hit on the back started burning and died. Shocked was the expression the other player had with his opponent killed like that. ¡°Flame Coating!¡± Lyndis shouted next covering her body with flames. With his appearance she looked like some sort of flame demon. The other players catching on to the danger went to attack Lyndis while they still could. However... ¡°Weak! Weak! Too Weak!¡± she shouted chopping up one of the players that could not escape in time with her attacks raining down on him. Her personality right now was as such that it was almost like the ''Mark'' was activated again. However it was more like Lyndis had found a switch and pulled it causing her to be like this on her own. After killing the fourth player in a row the other five players at this point decided to gang up on Lyndis no matter what since she was a clear danger to the rest of them now. Some of them wanted to jump off the platform to escape death but seeing Lyndis'' expression force them to admit that she would not let them to. In this tournament there were certain rules to be met. Those who surrender will not be killed unless they are in mortal combat in which case they should not be fighting to begin with. The other rule is that to not attack those who have left the platform. ¡°Life Burn!¡± Lyndis used this skill since she had lots of health to burn at this point. Even more flames came out of her body and were thrown at the other players. Some of them hit, some of them missed but that was not the point. The other players soon realised the only way off the platform was behind Lyndis while her flames covered the rest of the platform. She was forcing them to fight. Moving back into the action with speeds that were almost faster than what the other players could see she started to fight them all at once with her sword flying in all directions due to the effects of ''Sword Dance'' that increase sword speed the more hits she did in a row. ¡°Take her down!¡± one of the other players shouted while using a skill to push Lyndis back. After four more blades went to hit Lyndis a few times her health dropped to around 60% which in her mind was still quite high...though she had fought with only 10% of her health before due to Sain. As such she wasn''t that worried though the confidence of the other players increased. It was at this point that Lyndis'' mind calmed down a lot. Before she was like a raging flame but now she was like a calm light. ¡°Haaaaaaa!!!¡± All five players went to attack her at once attacking with one at front and two at either side. Focusing she used ''Precision Stance'' to help her block some of the attacks. ¡°Fire bomb¡± she whispered while taking a moment to drop it on the ground. There was a three second timer on this skill so Lyndis spent another two seconds fighting and took the last second to run the heck away from there. BOOM! The fire bomb exploded and killed all but one player. The last one was in critical condition and was about to die. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°Hmm...¡± she decided to put him out of his misery at least. She walked over and placed her blade on top of his head and was about to stab down... ¡°I surrender!¡± the player shouted for all to hear. Lyndis in her position could not stop her stab but in the end altered the trajectory to narrowly miss the player''s head.
Character Name: Lyndis Group 8, Platform 3 winner Current Round: To be set
¡°....¡± The window updated to say that she was the winner for this platform. Lyndis looked down at the player. Why didn''t he surrender before she was about to kill him? ¡°How boring¡± she muttered leaving. While she had some fun so far this last thing left a slightly bad taste in her mouth. Was that person trying to even though he lose to drag her down as well? Anyway she left the stage and moved where the rest of the group was. ¡°Shadow wasn''t in this group either...¡± she said a tiny bit worried about him. ¡°Well he can take care of himself¡± Miriel replied, ¡°Especially when we were worried about him he didn''t contact us back!¡± ¡°Haha, please go easy on him when he appears¡± Sain said with a bit of sympathy to Shadow. ¡°Not at all¡± Miriel replied in a cold tone, ¡°Note that you will be treated this way if you dare do something like that as well.¡± ¡°Please have mercy on me in the future¡± Sain plead with his hands together in a prayer like state to Miriel. Lyndis had this feeling that she wanted to slap both of them for showing her to light hearted and charming scene. To offset this feeling Lyndis went over to pat Serena''s soft hair and looked a bit at Raven''s handsome face only for a little bit. She didn''t want to use them for this to begin with. xXx Another group came and went and Shadow was nowhere still. Sain and the other four were getting really worried now. If he was not in the last group then where could he be? They watched as the final group came in and quickly looked at all of them...eventually they found Shadow near the back. ¡°He''s over there!¡± Lyndis shouted pointing making sure the others knew where he was as well. The rest of the group located Shadow as well and noticed that he looked strange. ¡°Are those bags under his eyes?¡± Miriel wondered seeing that his face was more pale than usual and there were clear dark purple marks under his eyes. ¡°Why is he hunching?¡± Sain wondered as well seeing that if he had grey hair and wrinkles one could mistake him for an old man. The energy that Shadow usually had even on his bad days wasn''t there as well. It was like he was forced to do something throughout the night without end. ¡°Is...he okay?¡± Serena asked too focus on why Shadow was like that. Even though she didn''t like him when he talks, him in his current condition was too pitiful. ¡°I can explain that though it was his fault to begin with.¡± The group turned to see Alena. ¡°Alena!¡± ¡°What are you doing here?¡± The group was surprise to see her since she wasn''t here from the very beginning. She smiled and then asked, ¡°Is there a rule that tells me not to come here?¡± Thinking about it for a second Sain said, ¡°Actually this place is only for-¡± ¡°My position allows me to come and go where ever I want¡± she immediately said confirming her position compared to the others. As a ''Manager'' to the common citizen or ''Official'' to the Independent Guilds she has at least this amount of power though many complain about it but none dare try to say that in front of her. But there was one idiot that did here. ¡°Hmm....sounds like an abuse of power to me¡± Lyndis muttered not caring what others felt about it. If not for her relationship with Alena and with the guild she would be put to sleep by Alena right there and then. But instead Alena said, ¡°Well it''s only a small thing compared to the amount of work I have to do. With only me, I have to handle most of the issues in this city and surrounding area. It gets worse in the Central Continent where a dozen people like me there can barely manage the place. We are scrapped for good enough people to take a position¡± with a sigh indicating that she was usually exhausted adding on child rearing onto her list of things to do. ¡°Oh I see¡± Lyndis replied and then asked, ¡°So what you have Shadow do all last night?¡± ¡°Some work though he just finished a few minutes ago¡± Alena replied without any hesitation. ¡°And....what kind of work is this?¡± Miriel asked, feeling that Alena was becoming similar to Eden, Alexandra and Viv in their attitude on things. It was like an extremely difficult and time consuming task to everyone else was a simple matter to them. ¡°Let''s see....¡± Alena started recalling what she had Shadow do, ¡°First I needed him to organise some files, then deliver them across the city and finally had him collect any reports as well.¡± ¡°That sounds simple enough¡± Lyndis said. Alena nodded to her words but Miriel knew better. ¡°Wait isn''t this city extremely difficult to get around with builds all over the place in layers?¡± Miriel asked. ¡°Yes even for trained people, it would take around a day to reach the top which was why I only made him do the bottom half of the city¡± Alena replied. ¡°....¡± There were around 20-30 layers in the city. The higher you go the further each layer is. However near the bottom was the first 10 layers that were stacked quite closely and you have at least a 20 gap in between them. This gap only gets large as you go up...even 5 more layers. Even for Shadow this would be difficult to go up and down and through each place he needed to go. But for now, the group watched as Shadow competed as well. xXx Shadow was tired. Very tired. To the point that he wanted to fall down into a deep sleep. ¡°Damn that woman...¡± he muttered with irritation. He really did not like her from the very beginning. She reminded him too much of Eden without the ''I will help you'' attitude. Perhaps that was what Eden was really like. But at the same time Alena forced him to work throughout the night and as such he was exhausted.
You are exhausted to the limit Due to a massive lack of sleep along with overwork, your body is in no condition to work. Take a rest! Stamina -60% All stats -20%
Even the game feels that Shadow was having a hard time and suggested that he to rest. But he had to compete and after that he could take a rest....at least for a while. But the problem Shadow had right now as that his stamina and the rest of his stats were decreased though not by that much.
Character Name: Shadow Group 10, Platform 12 participant Current Round: Preliminary Round
Ignoring this window Shadow drew his blades and waited though at the same time alerting the other players to himself. He did not care right now since he wanted to finish this up and get some sleep. ¡°Let the fight begin!¡± the announcer shouted causing the fight to begin. In the moment that those words left the announcer''s mouth, Shadow made his move against the other nine players. First he would need to rapidly take them out, no that was the final result. First he needed to take them off guard. With two weapons at hand he could easily kill any one of these players with ease with a surprise attack. Therefore he chose the option that would make them even more fearful on them. ¡°Shadow Step, Burst Speed!¡± Shadow used those two skills at once causing the other players to think there were three people charging at fast speeds. ¡°Backstab!¡± he shouted disappearing and reappearing behind the player that was furthest away from him at the start. He sunk both his weapons in him and killed the player. With one down he continued to the next one and one after that. Soon enough in a matter of a few seconds he managed to kill the rest of the players.
Character Name: Shadow Group 10, Platform 12 Winner Current Round: To be set
The announcer then said that Shadow won his match and he left to meet with the others...where ever they were with a yawn and drowsy sight. xXx ¡°What the hell was that? I didn''t know Shadow was that good at killing other people¡± Lyndis exclaimed seeing that Shadow had bested the rest of them in the amount of time they took to win. From what they saw it didn''t even take 20 seconds for Shadow to kill the rest of them. ¡°A lack of presence is the most important thing for someone in Shadow''s role. Even though they knew he was there they ignored him right?¡± Alena inquired from the rest of the group. ¡°Yeah..¡± Lyndis replied, she saw something like that. ¡°But I don''t understand why they ignored him. He even drew his weapons before the match began which attracted a lot of attention¡± Miriel said as well. ¡°Shadow looked really weak...wait¡± Sain seemed to have understood something, ¡°Was the reason he was ignored because they didn''t see him as a threat?¡± ¡°Correct¡± Raven nodded in agreement. ¡°Was this the reason why you made Shadow do all of that last night?¡± Sain asked with a slight admiration to her now. ¡°What?¡± Alena seemed surprised, ¡°No I was just pissed at him for waking my child with his shouting so I made him do that. Whether he succeed or failed has nothing to do with me. My Dad used to say that whether you failed or not is still due to yourself in the end.¡± ¡°....¡± The group reminded themselves to not get on Alena''s bad side as well... xXx Later on when Shadow finally found the rest of the group and Alena left for work, it was the near afternoon now. The announcer of this tournament had said that the next set of round is on the next day and the final set of matches at the last day. So in total this tournament will last for three days and the first day was up. ¡°Sup¡± Shadow said not wanting to talk much longer as he felt that his brain was slowly shutting down. ¡°You actually look quite terrible there¡± Sain said a bit worried about Shadow. But then this triggered Shadow''s is talking and he said, ¡°You don''t know the last of it...I had to run, climb and fall all over the place several times in a row the entire night and till just before my match.¡± ¡°In that case you should see¡± Sain advised him. Shadow with his eyes that could not help but to close once in a while and open slower each time looked at the others and then said, ¡°Seeing that all of you are alive, that means you won as well right?¡± ¡°Of course!¡± Lyndis tapped her chest piece with a prideful look on her face. ¡°Good¡± Shadow said not caring to talk bad to Lyndis at the moment, ¡°If any of you lose to these level of people than I would have quite this team.¡± ¡°....¡± There was a mild shock from the rest of the group. They had not thought of quitting before but at the same time it was something that would be a last resort even if they get into major arguments about some things. After all, they had nowhere else to go. xXx ¡°Looks like all of those six managed to get to the next round without issues and some of them were the best at killing other player!¡± one person said enthusiastically to the others. There was a slight cheer as they raised their bets onto them. ¡°Seeing their abilities, it would be safe to assume that at least most of them will get to the final rounds as well¡± another person said after analysing the group''s abilities, ¡°Especially that last one...never have I seen such a quick slaughter against those who should be stronger than him.¡± The first person laughed along with the others. However a certain person did not. ¡°What the hell...I could do better than that¡± he muttered while biting down his nails again and focused on the stage. ¡°Why why why...!¡± he continued to mutter to the point that the others noticed. ¡°Oi¡± one person grabbed his shoulder, ¡°Stop before you do something stupid.¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± the person took out his sword and was about to strike. ¡°Stop.¡± In an instant several dozen blades came down to that point that they almost struck him and pushed him to the ground. ¡°This is your last warning¡± one person said. The presence he was emitting was powerful and he continued to say, ¡°Do no hinder us for this tournament.¡± There he motioned for the others to lift their swords as well. In the end the others left and went back to their business one by one not even keeping an eye on him. What trash. But still that person did not move and drowned him in his presence. He leaned down and then whispered in a voice that everyone heard either way. ¡°However there is nothing wrong after we get our money out of this.¡± The man smiled. He was finally going to do it. Nothing will stop him. He will make that Eden suffer a bit. He continued to think of what he would do to those six.... xXx ¡°Hoo....that junior of ours is pretty good¡± Eart said seeing Shadow kill that many people in such a short time. ¡°I don''t like him. Everything needs to be painted with pink justice!¡± Ari proclaimed. Seeing these two Arch sighed and then said, ¡°You only don''t like him because of that?¡± he wondered quite a lot of the sanity of his guild mates. Eart was masked with a gas mask you would often see in movies but you could tell that his long hair was green. There wasn''t much of him except that there was something strange that he was constantly knee deep in the ground whether it would be dirt or concrete or even leaves in this case. He was always knees deep in something except air, water and flames. ¡°Anyway are we spending the night here?¡± Eart asked seeing that at this rate he was going to have to pay greatly for the broken path he takes. There was a reason for this, his class ''Earth Slave'' gives him control over all earth related magic and skills but this was the cost of it. On one hand architects hate him for destroying their roads, as such he was banned from most cities but on the other hand they love him for creating perfect bases for roads which they could use. They would exploit him and charge him either way. But that wasn''t the worse thing... ¡°Eart are you peeking up my skirt again?!¡± Ari demanded in her magical girl outfit. Yes, she was Eri''s the pink necromancer¡¯s sister. She used her wand to hit Eart in the face as he complained, ¡°I wasn''t looking up! How can I peek at this angle?!¡± In this day and age where short skirts that were clearly not hiding enough, he was deemed a sick pervert. In an outrage Ari started to use her flashy and yet strangely enough powerful magic saying, ¡°So you were peeking! Take this Magical-¡± ¡°Stop it else I''ll kill you both¡± Arch glared at them with his eyes which was enough to make them back away. Arch was wearing dark leather armour that allowed him to hide in the dark easily. But underneath this leather armour was chain-mail and even more so was a very well trained body. With his slight beard and hair flowing back unlike Eart he was popular with the ladies. But to someone like Ari all she could feel was extreme fear when he was angry. The reason was simple, he was the ''Zero Range Archer''. One meaning was that he could only fire at ''Zero Range'' while the other was he had no range as in he was an ''All Range'' archer. Arch held this double meaning title as without a ''bow'', he was able to cause instant death with a weapon that no one has seen or heard of. But with a bow he was able to snipe over 100 km and kill a person running away. Even with luck in hitting, shooting that far was near impossible for normal or even the most skilled archer. As such he was deemed no.1 in the guild for his offensive possibilities. Even Eden cannot replicate his feat. ¡°Anyway I was called by Eden to protect our juniors from any harm that comes to them so why are you here?¡± Arch asked looking at the two. ¡°I wanted to see how brilliant our juniors are in the field¡± Eart started laughing though neither Eart or Ari were convinced. ¡°You wanted to pick up the girls don''t you¡± Arch fully saw inside the deep secrets of Eart''s heart. ¡°Disgusting¡± Ari looking at Eart as something less than an insect. ¡°And you?¡± Arch asked Ari, ¡°Don''t you and your sister have something to do from Eden as well?¡± ¡°Oh that?¡± Ari waved her hand up and down in the same position, ¡°Something of that level, Sis can take care of it~¡± ¡°If you say so¡± Arch replied no caring that much, ¡°Eden usually only gives tasks that you can barely complete...¡± ¡°I guess he underestimated us then~¡± Ari started laughing and then she got a call from her sister Eri. ¡°Sis?¡± Ari looked alarmed and then started nodding and saying ¡°Yes¡± or ¡°I got it¡±. After a few seconds she turned and looked at the two and said, ¡°I have to go.¡± ¡°What happened?¡± Eart was curious about this at the very least. ¡°Umm...something about a super cute rabbit clan that turned berserk ugly ''things'' and almost ate her...she escaped and needs help exterminating them completely¡± she said with a shy smile. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Both Eart and Arch though at the same time were these two sisters the right choice in leaving this matter to? This was an important Guild Quest was it not? In the system of an Independent Guild, especially a large one, they may take a number of guild quest in one go. As such to not plague others with random windows that they have almost no relation to, an option could be selected to assign certain guild members to that quest and no one else. This was the same for those who have accepted a guild quest on their own and required a certain level of trust. However all Guildmasters whether they use this option or not will be barged with messages and notifications of all Guild Quests at once without exception. This was why Viv knew of the six members of the group accepting a Guild Quest which would mean Eden and Alexandra knew as well. ¡°Anyway have to go~¡± Ari winked at them and then shouted out loud, ¡°May the contract of the Holy Light of Justice bind me to the mortal clan of Cuteness! Let the bonds between sisters expand and break through the limit of the Endless Horizon~!¡± To Eart and Arch this was a super embarrassing chant but to Ari this was perfect. However at the same time this was not that bad even compared to the chants of other spells. With this the barrier between time and space broke and Ari jumped in leaving the two with a ¡°See you later~¡± Turning back to the Arena the two watched the crowd of audiences leave bit by bit. Eden''s hunch was usually right and he could not be here right now. Which was why Arch was sent here though Eart tagged along from his last mission for the guild. ¡°Now who is targeting our cute little angels?¡± Eart wondered. Arch whacked Eart on the head again and warned him, ¡°Don''t call them angels. They are our juniors and we need to protect them. All of them mind you and don''t focus on protecting only the girls.¡± ¡°But why?¡± Eart demanded, ¡°The red haired one is a perfect tomboy childhood friend! The black haired one is the perfect cold hearted tsundere girlfriend and the brown haired one is the perfect little sister character!¡± BANG! All of a sudden there was a small explosion from Arch''s body and a hole next to where Eart was. Whatever happened Eart did not know but he crossed a line here. ¡°Remember our mission right now¡± Arch warned for the last time, ¡°Else if we fail and one of them gets hurt...Eden will....¡± Both Eart and Arch paled at thinking what could happen to them if they failed. So far their fails were only minor ones but it seemed that Eden was particularly attached to these ones which means... ¡°Even if I have to use my body as a shield I will protect those three girls!¡± Eart proclaimed causing Arch to hit him in the head though not shooting him to death.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7300~ - This was slightly shorter than the usual chapters, in fact this is actually the shortest normal chapter I wrote, this was 18 pages long. - It''s also a bit sad that I can somehow make these side characters more interesting then my main characters... Vol.5 Chapter 9 - Tournament (III) Spending the night in game since if they were to log out there was a chance they would oversleep especially one person who did not have sleep the previous night, the group gathered in a room in the Independent Guild Administration Centre. There with the exception of Shadow who needed all the sleep he could, the group sat in front of two particular people who were...unique. One of them was wearing a gas mask and was strangely enough knees deep into the floor while the other looked quite handsome but had a cold attitude on everything. They were to say polar opposites to each other. ¡°Ohhhhhhh! They look even better close up!¡± Eart said enthusiastically moving closer in on them. At that moment Arch grabbed Eart and then dragged him to the other end of the room and forced him to stay there. ¡°Arch! How can you do this to me?!¡± Eart demanded. In a cold voice Arch replied with, ¡°Why were you trying to look up their skirts Eart? Isn''t it bad enough that you usually do this but to do it to underaged people as well?¡± It was at the moment that both Miriel and Lyndis looked down at their legs and pulled their skirts down a bit trying to cover a little bit more. They had forgotten that there were these types of people here in this game as well. ¡°My apologises again for bringing this pervert to you¡± Arch said once again to the group. When the two came in and saw the group the one called Eart immediately charged at them and almost wrapped his face into one of the girl''s legs. A true pervert which was promptly taken out by Arch who was enraged at Eart''s actions. ¡°No no no, don''t worry too much of it¡± Sain said with respect to Arch. From what their introduction said about them, they were their seniors in the guild...which meant that they were powerful at the very least. The group save Shadow could see that when Arch took out Eart with something that they couldn''t tell. However Alena thanked him for his work and then warned Eart not to do that again else problems may arise. Much to the group''s surprise Eart nodded obediently and commented that Alena was more womanly to which she blushed slightly. ¡°I''ll get something for everyone to drink in a bit¡± she said leaving the room. After the awkwardness disappeared a bit the group and the two seniors started talking as they still had a few hours before the semi-final matches. ¡°I just want to ask one thing¡± Lyndis said. ¡°Go ahead¡± Arch replied indifferently. Meanwhile Eart was about to enthusiastically say something to which Arch grabbed his mouth and threatened to crush it causing the rest of the group besides Lyndis who didn''t seem to mind to freeze a bit to the scene. ¡°How did Eden recruit you?¡± she asked. There was a moment of silence and the one who broke it was not Arch but Eart. He said, ¡°That story closely relates to how the Independent Guild System was proposed and then officially approved by Emperor Weed. Want to know? Eden more or less told this story before but Arch doesn''t like it.¡± Arch glared at Eart though not stopping him as he continued saying, ¡°It was when Arch was still new to the game and really weak and when he first met Eden. It started-¡± ¡°Eart I''ll tell the story since you will definitely add in lies to try to make it more interesting¡± Arch interrupted. ¡°How so?¡± Eart asked wondering what Arch was talking about. His stories were ''always truthful'' though it was a bit exaggerated at times. ¡°When you told me how you met Eden you said something along the lines of battling a massive dragon, saving a princess and being crowned king at the same time and being called a hero.¡± ¡°What? That really happened!¡± Eart retorted. ¡°Quiet!¡± Arch almost shouted in a threatening tone and started talking about what happened at day. xXx At a local tavern there was a bar there filled with only a dozen or so people, all working class and all just finished work. There wasn''t much to say that the drinks were cheap and tasty at least after a whole day of hard work. Those who came here were mostly middle aged men that had some years left to do before retirement and leaving it up to the next generation. It was the same for the bartender as well. In his forties he had an apprentice that was half his age though only hired for a few years. Always silently doing his work, always polishing the glass the bartender waited and sometimes conversed with his customers. It was a job that required high social skills but at the same time you needed to distance yourself away from them to expect new faces. ¡°Oh~ This place is pretty run down at places. It''s also dark and stinks of liquor¡± a female voice that sounded like angels were coming down rang through the tavern. As the gender democratic was more or less male with only some waiters being female and quite old, all heads turned to the door. Some in interest and some with anger that their place to be was insulted like that. The person was a tall blonde hair beauty wearing paladin class armour from what the other people could see. With a face like that, all hate from the comments she made disappeared. It was like she had a calming effect with her here if not for her behaviour that turned more than one head and caused more than one sigh. ¡°Alexandra, why did you happily insult this place when we just entered?¡± another person said. Though much lower pitch to the point that you could mistaken it for a man if not for the face, long hair and body type, the black haired woman(?) also entered with the woman. Wearing some casual clothes you could see her(?) slim waist though it was disappointing that an area higher up was not larger. ¡°I believe that''s her way of saying she likes the place Eden¡± and finally there was a misplaced person in this place as well. A short browned hair kid whose gender wasn''t that well known though the hat was unmistakeably one of a witch they presumed that person was female as well. ¡°Right right Viv~ Let''s rest here for a while~¡± Alexandra said with a hum. The three walked into the tavern that was dead silent now listening on them. There was no voices, no clangs of cups and glasses and no laugher as well. They sat they the counter in front of the bartender as Alexandra said in a loud and unladylike voice, ¡°A barrel of liquor!¡± already seeming drunk on other ways. However Eden shook his head and said, ¡°I rather not pay for damages later on.¡± ¡°Damages to this place?¡± Alexandra asked expecting that she might trash this place if she were drunk. ¡°No¡± Eden shook his head again, ¡°Damages to this entire town....¡± Next to him, Viv nodded and said, ¡°You always seemed to do that when completely drunk. Thankfully Eden is usually sober when you do that-¡± ¡°Though I rather not be¡± Eden cut in expressing his opinion. ¡°-And I practically never get drunk either way¡± he continued. Viv looked at the bartender who did not react to some of the words that they had and said, ¡°Just three bottles.¡± The bartender nodded and said, ¡°Understood¡± and took three glasses and three bottles out of some cheap liquor that the other customers also drunk. The three started to pour in their glass and drank. Within seconds Alexandra already drank half of her bottle while Eden and Viv were just starting. ¡°Master...¡± the apprentice said, ¡°These people seem...one of them is even a child....¡± he looked at their high class gear, ¡°Why didn''t you give them some more ex-¡± ¡°Because that is what they wished for¡± the bartender said to his apprentice. It seemed there was a lot for him to learn. It was at this moment the tavern went back to normal with people shouting and ordering food around them. However there was always a glance to the counter where those three sat there like they were removed from the rest of the world. ¡°Another!¡± Alexandra almost shouting showing that her bottle was completely empty, ¡°It was better than I thought!¡± Eden sighed looking at Alexandra again. At this rate he would have to put out a few thousand gold for the repair fees....again. ¡°Al, don''t drink too much. We came here to meet him about the system we proposed¡± Viv warned. Alexandra gave Viv a look of ''what are you talking about'', ¡°Of course, I can keep my liquor.¡± ¡°Please say that to me with a straight face my dear wife¡± Eden said sarcastically. Alexandra turned to Eden not getting his sarcasm and said, ¡°I can keep my liquor.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden placed his hand on Alexandra cheek for a few moments looking into her eyes...and pulled. ¡°What the hell is this foolish person saying. Do you think I will make that mistake again?¡± ¡°Honetly yeeesh¡± Alexandra said despite her cheek being pulled. Pissed, Eden pulled even harder until he noticed some people were giving them weird looks. ¡°Ow...¡± Alexandra used some Holy Magic to heal her cheek and returned to drinking the second bottle that the bartender placed on the counter. Behind the counter and while the three didn''t pay attention to him, the apprentice whispered, ¡°These people are weird...one of them called the other her wife.¡± ¡°That is not for us to judge. They are customers¡± the bartender reminded his apprentice with a sigh. It looked like years of training wouldn''t be enough. ¡°But they are women...women shouldn''t...¡± the apprentice muttered thinking of the two of them in bed and... ¡°You know that all three of us can hear you right?¡± Viv said looking at the apprentice which made him go red and stiffen up in more ways than one. Noticing that Viv was irritated the bartender went up and bowed saying, ¡°My apologies, he is still an apprentice.¡± ¡°That''s fine, fine¡± Alexandra waved though now slightly redder in the face. While they weren''t looking, she swiped Eden and Viv''s bottles and drank it as well. ¡°Right!¡± she clapped her hands thinking of a great idea, ¡°Let''s play a little game then!¡± Her words attracted the attention of many people. The tavern was a bit more quiet as Alexandra spoke, ¡°We we win this game you can be our errand boy for a week and if you win...you can spend the night with one of us¡± she said in a seductive tone which caused many men to sit down then for good reasons. The apprentice bartender was blushing red and was completely stiff from the excitement he was feeling and the fears from the death stares that other men were giving him. However then Eden interrupted with a cough. ¡°What? You don''t like the conditions?¡± Alexandra asked patting him on the back. She(?) replied with, ¡°I know what you are thinking well enough to know the game you are about to propose...in that case if he chooses wrong...we can do whatever we want to him for a night as well.¡± Eden let out a smile like the devil and ensnared the apprentice, then looked at the bartender, ¡°If that is all right for you.¡± ¡°Of course, this was only due to his own impoliteness in the end¡± the bartender said finally letting out a grin. Unknown to him and the three, they actually knew each other. And as such he too could tell what kind of game that was about to be proposed. ¡°Right!¡± Alexandra said starting to drink yet another bottle that the bartender gave her, ¡°Game is simple. Very simple. Choose one of us.¡± The place was silent hearing this. ¡°Buuuuuut. Choose wrong and you lose! The topic is which one is the girl!¡± There was a slight chuckle around the place as she said this as all three of them were women(?). However what she said next was even more shocking, ¡°The other two are 100% guys.¡± Eden let out a grin and then said, ¡°By the way, this one might be a guy as well or even that one over there. Or am I a guy as well?¡± confusing everyone who heard her(?). ¡°Umm....ah...¡± the apprentice panicked. He was completely sure that the one called Viv was a male...though witches were suppose to be female right? The blonde one on the other side could not possibly be a male...but her attitude was completely like one. And the one in the middle....the black haired one while a bit small(?) in the chest area, had to be a woman! No! That may actually be a lie as well. Then Viv decided to give him some advise, ¡°Rather than thinking too hard, go with your instincts. Choose the one that you rather go with whether the choice was correct or not.¡± The apprentice nodded and thought about it. He was not into little kids so Viv was out of the question. Then there was Alexandra who was wearing armour...she could be large underneath there! But then there was Eden...who was a complete beauty that could melt his heart no matter what... ¡°I choose...¡± he pointed blushing at Eden with everyone staring. At that moment three things happened. First Alexandra burst out laughing to the point that she fell onto the floor. Second was that Eden sighed and third was that he slipped some coins to Viv since he lost a bet. Then he looked at the apprentice that was now figuring it out, ¡°Congratulations...you are my lackey for the day.¡± The apprentice had chosen wrong. Eden then said, ¡°This monkey on the floor is female and my wife...due to many reasons and this is not one of them¡± while Alexandra finally got up and sat back down while still chuckling. The apprentice was frozen at the revelations. He was certain that...his dreams were now crushed. As for the rest of the tavern, they were all shocked. Who could have thought that the beauty that they would immediately cheat with to their wives would be a man. No they would rather mishear those words instead. But before that feeling sunk in another person entered the tavern. It was a shabby man that looked to be in his forties at his latest or even fifties if you wish to stretch it. He looked around and saw the three and smiled and went up to them. ¡°Thank you are coming here¡± he said with a business smile. Everyone though there was something familiar with him... Taking one last glare at Alexandra, Eden turned and then said, ¡°Thank you for coming Emperor Weed.¡± ¡°Emperor?!¡± That word echoed around the tavern and more than one person either spilled their drink or broke their glass in shock and even ran in fear. The apprentice more than ever was frozen seeing the newly crowned Emperor in front of him. Many would die right now to see him. It hadn''t even been a week since his crowning as the sole Emperor of the continent that united all. So many were searching to kill him and take the throne while many more want to be in his good books else be noticed by him. Sitting down next to Eden since Alexandra moved next to Viv to get away from Eden, Weed said, ¡°You will be treating me of course.¡± ¡°You were the one to ask us here!¡± Eden complained, ¡°Plus you''re the Emperor now for Gods sake! Can you not be cheap for a single moment?!¡± Weed gave a solemn look of hopelessness and despair saying, ¡°I once brought salt that was 500 won more expensive once and then...¡± ¡°....¡± Eden could only sigh at Weed. That event happened years ago and yet he was still bringing it up. In the end he took a bottle from Alexandra who was dangerously getting close to being drunk and gave it to Weed. ¡°Hey!¡± Alexandra started complaining hitting the counter while Eden said to calm his wife, ¡°You can drink as much as you like then.¡± ¡°Now about that system you told me about...¡± Weed started. The whole place plus extras from outside that heard that Weed was here listened in. ¡°It will benefit you as well. Times are changing¡± Eden said in response. ¡°Yes, more and more players are in this game and the levels of them are slowly getting higher compared to NPCs. The positions of NPCs are slowly being taken over by players¡± ¡°I''m guessing that number will drop again soon enough, people are fickle and wish for the easy path. Players taking over is a temporary thing since when a new generation comes in one goes out and retires, and the NPCs fill the void. Plus most of the time they are more trustworthy than players.¡± Weed nodded and then said, ¡°Independent Guilds are certainly interesting-¡± ¡°Since players do the work and yet the Kingdom gets the credit...or most of it. It will give players other goals besides taking over something¡± Eden cut in. Many people gasped seeing that Eden dared cut the Emperor when he was speaking. ¡°The only problem is of those who run wild with that power¡± Weed said finally addressing the issue he had with it, ¡°Unless you wish to take care of that as well¡± he looked at Eden. ¡°Bah¡± Eden drank a glass in one go, ¡°We''ll take care of the really serious and major ones at least but don''t you dare call us on something so minor. As for the others issues...there''s bound to be powerful and yet trustworthy people to deal with them. Call them ''Managers'' or ''Officials'' since that they are.¡± After a few seconds Eden said, ¡°Make sure the guidelines are extremely strict as well. Weed out the useless ones.¡± ¡°Of course¡± Weed was more than understanding of that point since there are too many slackers in this world and this will only weed them out easily, ¡°I wonder how things will change when this comes into place. The people won''t accept it.¡± ¡°Of course not¡± Eden snorted, ¡°They never liked change even if it kills them. The game is changing...now that an Emperor is crowned the game is finally in it''s second half and that means...¡± he let go at the very end to not spoil things at least. Even with this knowledge the chance of Weed succeeding without them helping was infinitely close to zero. After all Eden knew of the end game and how strong ''that'' was. Weed nodded and the two...no four drank for another 5 minutes when Weed said, ¡°I heard you are planning on making a guild through this system. It will be the first guild of this kind ever.¡± ¡°Well I did design it for my guild¡± Eden replied not caring. He then looked at the apprentice and said, ¡°Hmm...you''re a player aren''t you. That reaction...yep a player.¡± Weed nodded looking at the apprentice which made him go like stone and said, ¡°A player for certain. This one will be the first to be recruited?¡± he asked Eden. ¡°Nope, there are some others that I rather recruit first...but since I have him for the day I might as well use him to test out a new weapon I developed.¡± It was then that Weed got up and said, ¡°I will give you a report on it later. I don''t have change or any money on me so you have to pay¡± he said smiling and leaving in almost a dash. Before Eden could chase after him he looked at the amount of bottles that seemed to have stacked up at where Weed was... ¡°Isn''t this nearly 50 bottles?! How can he drink that much in such a short time¡± Eden exclaimed. The bartender smiled and then pointed at Alexandra who was creating another pile of empty bottles and said, ¡°She drank half of that and I had to move it to make room. The total amount you owe...¡± The bartender slipped a piece of paper of the amount of gold owed... ¡°ALEXANDRA!!!!¡± ¡°Wait?! What is it-AHHHHHHH!!!¡± Eden snapped and then attacked Alexandra. Meanwhile the bartender kept in his heart that most of the gold owed was due to Weed taking with him only the most rare and expensive alcohol they had which was only one bottle''s worth but was worth a thousand times more than all the other bottles in this tavern combined. Alexandra while drinking a lot, only drank the cheapest ones all this time. The bartender then looked at his apprentice and said, ¡°Can you please clean this up...¡± and then looked at Eden and Alexandra, ¡°And whatever mess they make as well?¡± The apprentice that was only a new player in this game with a few years under his belt quickly hurried to do so. Later on, Eden would take him and give him a unique weapon of his making and later on this player was known as the ''Zero Range Archer'' and a known and powerful member of the ''Sleeping Sheep Centre''. Meanwhile it was at this time and place that the Independent Guild system was approved and the first Independent Guild as made as well. The bartender continued to watch, listen and remember of that day to the very end. The day when the game changed forever. When the Independent Guild System was announced and formed. xXx ¡°And that''s more or less what happened¡± Arch said in the end. ¡°Wow...¡± Lyndis said, ¡°I never even heard of those three being super casual like that!¡± she exclaimed in surprise of a new side of the three that she didn''t know. ¡°What are they usually like to you?¡± Eart asked. ¡°The ''I am your teacher'' and ''You must listen, this is important'' type except for Alexandra¡± replied Lyndis in a humoured tongue. To this Eart said, ¡°Oh they are always like that to new members. Their attitudes, especially Eden''s one change when you reach level 200. He goes ''No more Mr nice guy'' on you.¡± ¡°Oh thanks¡± Miriel said to Eart for the first time when he almost started rubbing his face which was covered by a gas mask on her leg, ¡°At least now we know what will happen later on. Any details on anything that will change after that point?¡± ¡°Anything for you....please step on me to kno-¡± WHACK! Arch hit Eart on the head and answered instead, ¡°Basically you will be given two tasks. One is to reach level 300 and the other is to complete 10 guild quests. Whether other guild members will help you or not depends on where we are and if we have time. You have two years in game to do both.¡± ¡°Wait a minute¡± Miriel said now anxious, ¡°We are at the level 120 point and expect to get to level 150 at the end of the second year in this game. It will take us seven months to do that and another year after that to get to level 200.¡± Sain seeing Miriel''s point added on, ¡°From the level 200 point onwards gaining experience to level up slows down. To continue at our pace of levelling means we need to gain several times more experience to continue at this current pace of ours.¡± Raven, Serena and Lyndis also realised this point when Miriel and Sain explained what was bad about it. They say after level 200, the levelling was near a slow snail''s pace compared to before. However Eart continued to say, ¡°Don''t worry. All you have to do is hunt monster that are higher level than you. Quite simple.¡± The group looked at each other and remembered their skills and stats compared to other players. Certainly they were in the above average section but to hunt stronger monster than even that to quicken the pace would be impossible for them without dying a few times in the process. ¡°If your worried about your abilities, there is still the second class advancement¡± Arch reminded them. It was at this moment that Alena returned with eight cups of drink and gave them one by one to everyone else. ¡°Where were you in talking?¡± she asked the others to which Arch replied, ¡°Their second class advancement.¡± Alena looked surprised for them to be talking about about something so far ahead. She looked at the group without Shadow there since he was sleeping in the other room still even though it had been over 10 hours since he started sleeping and then asked, ¡°What do you want to know about that?¡± ¡°Oh I was about to talk about it and about ''our'' one as well¡± Arch replied to Alena. Alena made a knowing expression and then asked, ¡°Should I explain or you?¡± ¡°I think you should¡± Arch replied, ¡°I wish to enjoy this drink you brought us¡± with a slight smile. ¡°Okay then~¡± Alena said looking at the group with an expression saying ¡°Ask away¡±. ¡°Well...¡± Miriel started since she was the most knowledgeable in the group about this, ¡°From how you said it, it seems that there is something....different going on?¡± she was not sure what they meant and therefore could only ask like this. ¡°Oh yes, there is a difference between how people in and out of this go to their next class¡± Alena explained, ¡°Normally you would go to a guild as in mage guild or warrior guild and get a small quest to get your next class. This is mainstream and quick and easy to do.¡± Miriel nodded agreeing. ¡°However in the guild it is different. In order to make sure that you get the best possible class you can, the procedure is different. Instead of getting a quest you go through another trial where you encounter dangers which will force you to decide on some things and in the end you will get a new class.¡± ¡°So...this is the same as joining the guild?¡± Sain asked. Alena shook her head and then said, ¡°That path you took is only available to those who were apprentices to Gen and the others. Really only you six went through that path though I must talk to them about this kind of method of testing.¡± Alena''s eyes were pitying the group knowing full well what Eden forced them to do. In fact she along with Alexandra rejected this kind of idea but he did it anyway. ¡°The process is very different. While normally you can choose a class it is the other way around in our...your case¡± Alena said. ¡°Our?¡± Miriel picked up that word, ¡°Were you part of the guild in the past?¡± she asked Alena. Alena shyly replied with, ¡°Actually no but I was more or less raised in it. It''s just that when I asked to join when I was an adult I was rejected quite severely¡± with a soft laugh, ¡°Mum and especially Dad rejected me quite hard.¡± ¡°And when you refer to mum and dad....?¡± ¡°Alexandra and Eden of course¡± Alena relieved. ¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°Eh?¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± The group could not help but to let out their shock all at once. ¡°W-waitwait wait! You''re THEIR child?!¡± Lyndis shouted pointing at Alena. ¡°Y-Yes t-this is q-quite a s-surprise!¡± Serena said after Lyndis completely shocked and not knowing what to do now. ¡°Who gave birth?¡± Raven pointed out a good question. Even though Eden said he was a guy...a guy...with that appearance he would more or less be a guy that looked better than 99% of all girls out there. Only Eart and Arch did not look shocked at this information, which meant that they knew beforehand and Arch even said, ¡°It''s rude to pry into people''s personal lives. Ask Eden or Alexandra for the details.¡± With that, the group spent the next little hours left on working out strategies and the what not for the semi-final rounds. xXx Back at the Arena... ¡°I want to hire you for work¡± said a person cloaked who was also the person that had so much hatred to the guild. He talked to a person who was dressed similarly but at the same time was a professional hit man. ¡°Who?¡± the man asked. ¡°The winner of this tournament¡± the person replied with the man letting out a slight chuckle. ¡°Don''t people usually try to kill them BEFORE they win?¡± the man asked though the person did not reply. Instead the man said, ¡°5000 gold up front and you will pay the other half after I''m finished. Someone at that level won''t have many connections.¡± A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. The person smiled. Oh the winner will be one of them and they do have connections...you are just a pawn to be thrown away. The person dropped a heavy bag of gold that had just the right amount to it. ¡°Make sure you run quickly so you don''t get traced to me¡± the person said. Walking away to make preparations the man noticed that that person hired a dozen other people before him. He wondered what kind of issue he had with the soon to be winner that will be crowned the next day. Furthermore he wondered who will be the winner since the person seemed confident that he or she will win. xXx ¡°Hmm...I wonder how the next set of matches will be played out¡± Miriel said while they were walking to the arena again. ¡°How so?¡± Lyndis asked. ¡°There are 10 groups, and 12 people left in each group. This means there are 120 people left in the tournament. If they use a one on one match format from now on that means there will be so many matches that it will be impossible to finish this set of rounds in a day¡± Miriel explained. ¡°In that case shouldn''t they just do something that involves a large amount of players at once again to cut down the numbers?¡± Shadow asked, ¡°Though I''m guessing it will be the format of each group again. What do you think will happen?¡± he asked Sain on his opinion. ¡°Hmm...¡± Sain thought about it, ¡°It would indeed take too long for a one on one match style again so I think they will use the same format as before in a battle royal style between twelve people each this time.¡± ¡°Whhhhhat another one of those? I thought the preliminary rounds more or less stomped out all the weak ones to get to something more interesting¡± Lyndis complained. She really did not like how in the end, the other players ganged up on her though she still won in the end. ¡°Why are you complaining?¡± Shadow asked, ¡°Chances are you''ll be able to get to the next round fine. The only ones that have to worry are Sain, Miriel and Serena who need time to cast spells.¡± ¡°That is true¡± Miriel nodded though she already had a plan in mind to deal with that. She didn''t know of the other two planned to do though. ¡°Anyway let''s hurry up a bit, the first round is starting¡± said Sain prompting them in a slight sprint. He looked at Raven who was up first, he didn''t seem nervous though. On the other hand, he had no idea what he would do when it was his turn. xXx
Character Name: Raven Group 1 participant Current Round: Semi-Finals Round
With this window appearing for him, Raven left the others to watch and proceeded to the centre of the arena that changed quite a bit since the last time he saw it. Now instead of having 12 individual platforms that were only to a certain size, the place to fight now was easily ten times larger. ''Instead of the slightly raised stone as well they used dark polished wood as well for the stage and there are four lamps at each corner as well. They must have put a lot of effort to construct this throughout the night'' he thought looking around. As one of the twelve players to fight, Raven had a certain amount of strength over other players but that could be said the same for the other eleven as well. Whether it was them defeating or killing the other nine opponents they had or waiting for others to do the job first to finish it off or a combination of both, these were opponents that had a certain level of skill and strength. Raven knew that it was stupid to underestimate any of them. In his eyes he counted the types of enemies he would have this time. Naturally the number of swordsmen was high but strangely enough there were some other variations he did not expect mixed in there. There were 7 swordsmen, 2 spear-men and of those nine, 4 of them used a shield as well. However the last two were unusual at the very least. One of them was a mage of some sort while the other looked like a shaman like Sain but used a bow and dagger combination. Whether that person used magic of some sort was unknown.
Countdown to start begins in: 10 Seconds
This window appeared as a slight surprise to Raven as it did not happen in the last round. But after thinking about it, it was as expected to give the players time to spread out, target and to hide from other players if they wish.
to start begins in: 9 Seconds
Raven watched as the other players generally tried not to have a blind spot. Those who were confident enough did not move much. But those who were not as so moved further away from everyone else.
Countdown to start begins in: 8 Seconds
Raven too move back a bit getting a bit away from the mage and the shaman. He did not want to face magic and then get attacked from behind be another player.
Countdown to start begins in: 7 Seconds
Speaking of behind there were 2 players that could attack his back. He moved further to the right to avoid this.
Countdown to start begins in: 6 Seconds
With so little time left, Raven simply moved near the outer edge of the stage which all the other players did as well as if this was determined before. It looked like players think similarly when trying to not be stung over.
Countdown to start begins in: 5 Seconds
Half the time to prepare was over, Raven now looked to see who he would fight first.
Countdown to start begins in: 4 Seconds
To his right were some swordsmen with shields. They would be troublesome to deal with. He decided to take out one of the spear-men first. It would be much simpler for him. But at the same time he would not need to think if one attacked him first.
Countdown to start begins in: 3 Seconds
Countdown to start begins in: 2 Seconds
Countdown to start begins in: 1 Seconds
Countdown to start begins in: 0 Seconds
It would be best to finish this quickly
Start!
When that window appeared and the round started, Raven shouted, ¡°Anchor Howl!¡± The effects took place immediately as all eleven other players though shocked could not stop looking at Raven else they felt that something terrible might happen to them. In this effect three players attacked him at once. ¡°Shield Bash!¡± he used his shield to knock them away with ease. His 340 strength stat was coming into play here and along with his 340 vitality stat as well, Raven was confident in tanking. The other players realised that the source of this was due to Raven and that they needed to take him out to end the effects of whatever what was happening to them. As such Raven made all of his opponents enemies at the same time. But this was what he wanted. ¡°Footwork! Ram! Double Strike!¡± Raven quickly used his skills to kill several of those swordsmen at once when they started attacking him. With a heavy weight plus speed and attacking at the same time, his attack bonus increased several times and along with precise strikes trained since the beginning Raven was able to take out three enemies quickly fine enough. ¡°Let the water spirit gather and blow my enemies away! Water Bullet!¡± At the moment of that chant finishing, Raven''s instincts made him move his shield to block. He felt an impact and then was hit back a few metres. The impact was as such that another player caught up in it died at the same time it hit Raven.
You took 2043 damage
The damage even though he blocked it with his shield was quite high. ''So this is the damage of a mage that focuses only in it...'' Raven thought. There were several types of mages but the most common were those who focused on pure damage alone. While low in everything else, their magic damage was on the extreme side. Another two of those ''water bullets'' were shot at Raven but this time he knew to dodge them. However only two out of a dozen more were shot at him. The other ''water bullets'' were shot at the other player who were all still under the effects of his ''Anchor Howl''. ''She used my skill for her advantage...'' he thought seeing that quickly the only ones left were the ones who could dodge the attacks this mage used. In total including himself, there were five players left. One of them was the mage naturally having the most kills so far, the other was the shaman and the other two were swordsmen that had a good reaction time to the attacks. From what the other players were doing it seemed that taking out the water mage was the first choice now. ¡°Ahhh!¡± However the shaman shot at one of the other players rapidly killing him. The other swordsman moved up to attack the shaman just as Raven moved up to attack the mage. ¡°Oh raging water spirit, gather and disperse. Water Turret!¡± the mage chanted. Water gathered around the mage and like a holes sprayed at Raven. To be precise, a very powerful holes that could easily push him out of the stage or kill him. Luckily enough Raven dodged the spell and using ''Footwork'' again, he charged and one shot the mage with his spear. He felt that if it were Sain, Miriel or even Serena a spell would come to stop him or they would dodge. Soon enough the swordsman killed the shaman with the bow and then went to Raven to which he defeated him in the end as well.
Character Name: Raven Group 1 winner Current Round: To be set
With that window appearing at him, the audience cheered for Raven as he left. ¡°OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± The cheers almost overwhelmed if not for the fact that he was used to containing his emotions. He look a brief look around the crowd and saw that all eyes were on him. ''What is this feeling...?'' he thought. Their gaze were not of pity or hate but something else he could not pick up.... Walking to the rest of the group, Sain first said, ¡°Good work¡± patting him on the shoulder before looking back at the stage. The others also said a few words but he ignored them for the most part. He walked over to the wall and leaned on it sliding down taking a good breath in and out. He noticed that his hand was shaking a bit. ''Was I nervous...?'' he wondered as he looked at his hand that was still shaking lightly. No...this feeling was one that he had not felt for a long time...yes, a feeling that he thought had all but disappeared. xXx Following Raven, the second group also went along. In there another twelve players fought to the death and the winner was to be crowned as this strange weapon user. He was quite tanned and wore only light armour but at the same time he duel wielded this set of zigzag shaped swords that unusually and easily cut through weapons. ¡°Hmm...that person seemed interesting at the very least¡± Arch commentated on his own with Eart looking as well. Eart was spreading his ''Earth Essence'' around the arena grounds in order to instantly respond to an emergency at any time when it comes to it. Therefore he was focusing on the task and wasn''t speaking to or listening to Arch at all. However within moments Eart opened his eyes and wiping off the sweat he said to Arch, ¡°I finished. Man that was too difficult to do here. Why couldn''t this be a normal city without those defence enchantments all over the place?¡± Eart started complaining on how the city as stronger than most others with the walls, floors and the entire tree being made to be resistant to most things. Arch nodded and then said, ¡°Good work. The third group with Sain is coming up¡± and then looked back down at the arena. They were both on top of the roof of the arena. To be precise the arena was an open spaced around made like a stadium in real life. As such they were sitting on the area where it shielded the audience from wind, rain and sunlight to a certain extent. If anything goes wrong, Arch at least can jump down immediately. Meanwhile at the same time Eart can use his skills at a long distance to help out as well. But this was unnecessary as Arch alone can take care of things as long as it is eliminating threats. ¡°Ho...that Sain kid is going in now¡± Eart said looking down interested, ¡°What are your thoughts on him? He looks plain but plain looks aren''t everything since he leads five other people with none of them complaining or leaving!¡± ¡°A collective and calm mind leader¡± Arch replied based off Sain''s impression on him, ¡°He is indeed something as being a leader isn''t something so easy. Being able to lead is a talent itself.¡± ¡°But he has no team here to help so what is he going to do?¡± Eart wondered. While Sain was quite good in the support area and commanding his friends, it was completely different from fighting alone. ¡°There are lots of ways to do things even without help¡± said Arch, ¡°Though whether he can do so is up to him.¡± With team mates, you have safety and to separate duties. When you are alone however, you are forced to bear that burden all alone. You need to be alert at all times and every decision you make are your own and are your fault in the end as well. Those who stick together cannot comprehend this. Eart said, ¡°Don''t worry. From what I can tell and what Eden told me, all of them were originally loners to begin with.¡± ¡°So...?¡± Arch wondered. ¡°You cannot change your nature that easily. It sticks to you in the end no matter what. I know personally that this is true. They all can handle themselves even without each other given the chance.¡± ¡°Oh the match started¡± said Arch noticing that people were moving quickly down there. Using their better than normal sights to see closely, they saw that Sain retreated almost immediately when the match started. ¡°What is he doing? Why is he not casting spells¡± Eart asked frowning. While this was the correct method to battle for a mage in this situation all he was doing was running around again not even casting spells since he was moving. Mages need a certain level of concentration to cast spells and when moving it is extremely difficult to do so. ¡°No, he is casting a spell¡± Arch said looking at what Sain was doing. While it seemed like he wasn''t, in actual fact he was rapidly chanting words. Eventually a magic circle appeared in front of him and a white and black wolf appeared. ¡°A summoning spell!¡± Arch said surprised. Not many players would take up that spell since the creature summoned would drain experience from you while you hunted. However in these circumstances this spell was powerful in that it gives you an ally to use. After that, Sain started firing magical projectiles left and right at the other players. Some died and those who remained tried to attack Sain but were stopped by that wolf. Arch and Eart noticed that that wolf was a special breed as it was quite powerful. Eventually the last player fell to Sain''s spells and he won. ¡°What an interesting person. He knew his strength and more importantly his weaknesses and came and went in a way that allowed him the best way of victory¡± praised Arch. It was uncommon to see these kind of people in the game even now with billions playing this game. As Arch was continuing to praise what Sain did Eart interrupted with, ¡°Oh the girl is coming up!¡± ¡°....¡± Arch glared at Eart and hit him in the head again. Arch felt that years without someone in his life for that role has caused Eart to end up this way. He should seriously try to stick with one woman. The next round started with Miriel doing the same thing as Sain and retreated from the battle. A couple of players noticing that Miriel was a mage from before charged at her and tried to attack but was struck down by a whip in her hands. ¡°Why doesn''t she use magic...is she preparing some big as well? Also her hair fluttering when she runs is sooo nice¡± Eart wondered looking at Miriel''s actions, ¡°No if she were then she would not be flashing those legs around the place for all to savour. Plus that skirt makes me so bad not to be lower to try to take a peek up.¡± ¡°Eart shut it¡± said Arch in a cold voice again. He did not understand why Eart''s personality changed so much when it involved females. He was perfectly normal when it was about all males though he had a disgusted feeling coming out of him. Arch was tempted to hit Eart in the head again for his comment but he did have some good words mixed in there as well...somewhere...though Arch also did wonder on why Miriel did not use a spell yet though he guessed her intentions right. ¡°She is probably thinning out the ranks of enemies by waiting. Then when there are a few left she will finish them off in one quick sweep¡± said Arch. ¡°Well she better hurry up since that other mage there is doing something as well¡± Eart pointed out. On the opposite side of the stage was a mage that seemed to be chanting and gathering mana so far. No enemies much to Arch''s surprise attacked her. ¡°Eart, tell me any effects that that mages placed on herself¡± Arch ordered. ¡°Aye aye sir~¡± Eart said before responding a few seconds later with, ¡°She seemed to have place a misdirection spell on herself to not be targeted or rather casted it on everyone else. That way she would not be easily attacked by chance. And might I say that she is quite the beauty as well showing so much skin there¡± Eart drooled a bit looking at that other mage as well. WHACK! ¡°Concentrate on tracking any suspicious¡± sighed Arch reminded him of their duty. They were not here to sight see but to protect them from any harm. ¡°But only you were assign here right? That means I can slack off and watch as I like¡± Eart replied with a great attitude of ¡°I don''t care.¡± Arch looked at Eart for a moment and patted him on the shoulders which was quite difficult to do since he was several heads shorter than him with his legs in the roof and said, ¡°Eart...do you really think Eden will let you off when he finds that you were here and dared slack off in front of him?¡± ¡°....¡± Eart took a moment to think and then tearfully said, ¡°No...not at all...¡± in a sad tone. He knew Eden well enough that this was impossible to happen and in fact he would be punished by several difficult missions as well as his normal workload. As such he did not dare slack off since the normal workload was massive enough. As the two watched the match, eventually the number of opponents Miriel had decreased and eventually she went all out killing the rest of the players with her ice magic in one quite go and won the match. The audience cheered as she left the stage. ¡°She wasn''t too bad¡± Arch commented on her overall performance. In shock Eart looked at Arch and said, ¡°Wasn''t too bad?! She was marvellous! Her hair fluttering as she-all right I''ll stop so stop giving me that death stare!¡± A few minutes later the winner of the next group was crowned as well. It was a water mage similar to the one Raven had to face but this one could use a large amount of water more fluently then the other. Onto the next round it was Serena''s turn to fight. ¡°If anyone dares harms that little sister character I will destroy them!¡± Eart proclaim intensely to the point that Arch probably did not see such a serious side of him before. However Arch still had to remind him that they were here to watch not to interfere unless they had to. ¡°Really...? I could just...¡± Sadden Eart muttered something about giving only a bit of protection which would be along the lines of one of the higher grade protection spells you can get. It was not on the level of a little anymore as well. ¡°Eart an absolute 18 circle protection sphere is not a little protection anymore¡± Arch said reminding him for a second time stopping with a sigh. ¡°Ahhhhhh!¡± Eart suddenly screamed for no reason. Arch''s mind raced and searched to see what happened and who caused it while looking worried at Eart. ¡°What''s wrong?!¡± he shouted at Eart seeing if he was hit somewhere with a projectile. If it went in him, there was no choice but to pull it out of his body and if it is poisoned then he had to do it quickly. ¡°Someone is attacking cute Serena! My heart is breaaaaaking!¡± he shouted. ¡°....¡± Dumbfounded, Arch looked down and saw that Serena, the young girl that was far too young to be in the guild in his opinion struggling as several other players attacked her at once. While she was good, she was not on the level as the others in close combat abilities yet. ¡°I must help her!¡± Eart said with a determination that Arch only seen once before when they were surrounded by countless monsters and he was quite determined to save the pretty hostage in the quest. BANG! Arch fired off an attack in Eart''s direction again with a cold glare that could freeze flames itself. ¡°DO.NOT.INTERFERE!¡± Arch made it very apparent and if Eart were to do so he would shoot him to death. There were rules in place to make sure that they, those part of the guild and monsters in terms of strength, would not do something stupid. Eventually the match progressed where Serena was knocked out of the stage and lost. The winner for that match was a thief user that used his speed to push Serena out without killing her. ¡°NOOOOOO!!!! Cute Serena lostttttt!¡± Eart shouted. Arch was very tempted to shoot him again in order to relieve some accumulating stress that he gained thanks to Eart recently. ¡°It was as expected though. That thief player knew what he was doing and was taking advantage of the time gaps between spells¡± Arch said. As he was saying that, a cloaked person appeared next to him and then whispered something. ¡°What?¡± Arch said surprised, ¡°Are you sure about this?¡± he asked the cloaked figure. After a moment the cloaked figure nodded to which Arch frowned. As the cloaked figure disappeared Eart asked, ¡°What was that about?¡± ¡°Got news that someone is being targeted in the tournament.¡± Hearing that news, Eart clicked his tongue saying, ¡°It better not be one of the girls.¡± ¡°Might be, might not be¡± Arch replied. The matches continued with the next winner being a two handed sword user, then Lyndis, a knight character and finally Shadow. They had no time to comment on them but instead focused to see if anything would happen and spring into action. Actually those fights were actually quite boring to them as it was as they predicted. The two handed sword user had a high strength stat and used that to blow away his enemies, Lyndis used her sword skills and fire skills together to finish off the enemies quickly, the knight player had a good foundation and as such defeated the other players fairly and Shadow used his speed and stealth to finish off the enemies almost instantly again. But so far nothing happened at all which was strange. ¡°Something wrong?¡± Eart asked Arch seeing that his expression was a serious one. ¡°Yes...¡± Arch replied, ¡°So far I have gotten reports of a person hiring a large number of assassins and hit men but none of them when questioned could tell who their target was. What is the point of this?¡± ¡°Maybe someone just wants to randomly kill someone? Or anyone would do in the first place¡± Eart wondered, ¡°Though the costs of doing so and hiring so many would be a waste. Each person to hire cost a few thousand gold each.¡± ¡°That would make sense¡± Arch nodded though he paused for a second, ¡°But I have a bad feeling that our guild in particular is targeted.¡± Eart let out a dry laugh and said, ¡°Yeah, how many enemies does our guild have now? If we weren''t a gathering of monsters one way or another we would have been destroyed a long time ago.¡± ¡°It does help a bit that our guild has a bad reputation of destroying everything in sight when we do something too flashy¡± Arch pointed out. After a while he said, ¡°Since nothing happened we can meet up with the juniors at Alena''s¡±
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9200~ - In this chapter I used part of it to explained some of the backstory of one character and used 7 pages as a result though it was written outside this chapter a bit back. On the other hand I realised quickly that writing in detail of the battles would take too long and extend into the next volume so I cut them all back except for the first one I wrote. - Well the next chapter is the more interesting one with some of the group fighting each other. Vol.5 Chapter 10 - Tournament (Final) ¡°I lost....¡± Serena muttered dejected in the presence of the others. Miriel patted her on the head and said, ¡°Don''t worry, the enemy was just a bad match up to you¡± trying to comfort her as much as she could. Serena was in a state of almost tearing up and crying as she was the only one that wasn''t able to get to the semi-finals of this tournament. Everyone else with a varying amount of difficulty did. It was this fact alone that made Serena feel especially inferior to them now and her fear of being abandoned increased again like in the past. Those who are not useful are worthless and to be abandoned no matter what talents they have. Those words echoed in her heart time and time again and would never escape from her mind no matter what, no matter how long it had been since then when she was deemed ''useless'' and thrown away even though she inspired to be stronger like her teacher that day... ¡°Stop comforting her like a spoiled brat. She lost and that''s it¡± said Shadow in his usual twisted and yet blunt tongue. His words shocked everyone who listened but even more so to Serena. ¡°What the hell was that for?!¡± Lyndis screamed, ¡°Can''t you have one moment where you aren''t down-talking others?!¡± Shadow scratched his ear uncaring and said, ¡°What she needs right now is not for you all to fatter her on every turn and to comfort her lightly at every mistake but to make sure she learns and grows up! She will be useless at this rate and will be kicked out by someone if she doesn''t get her act together!¡± ¡°Shadow! Shut up!¡± Miriel shouted with a glare, ¡°Else do you want to be restrained and whipped until you are like a dog?¡± she threatened with a look of a devil. While she was angry, one part of her was strangely happy that she could do this and a small slight grin that could barely appear was on her face. Seeing this expression quite clearly, Shadow started complaining to Miriel, Lyndis started shouting at Shadow and Miriel was saying something to Serena and she was looking all worried while Raven was expressionless as always. ¡°All of you be quiet now¡± Sain said in a single calm voice. The chatter in the room all stopped when Sain said this. ¡°Seriously when I usually do this why don''t you listen to me and now you do?¡± he asked the others looking a bit reluctant to talk much more on their own. ¡°That''s because you''re usually not serious on your ''commands'' outside fighting¡± Shadow replied. ¡°But this time you are¡± Lyndis continued after Shadow as if they were getting along all the time. Seeing this, Sain sighed and then said, ¡°To think things were easier at the beginning where you all did not say much at all and followed what me and usually and most of the time Miriel said as well.¡± ¡°Well get used to it now since we are used to each other now, we will now have complaints about each other¡± Miriel said, ¡°Though only you haven''t really changed that much out of all of us¡± she pointed out. Sain smiled a bit and said, ¡°That''s because I, from the beginning was always being honest to you all though Lyndis I say is similar but not exactly the same in that aspect as well. Notice how she was less antagonising to anyone else especially at Shadow before but now¡± he continued to smile at the others. ¡°Do you keep track of how everyone changed from the beginning?¡± said Shadow with some sarcasm in his tone. ¡°Of course¡± Sain replied brightly, ¡°Do you wish for me to explain how everyone changed since the beginning?¡± ¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°NO!¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± Strangely enough all of them somehow agreed to that at the same time and shouted the same thing at them as well. ¡°If that''s the case than I won''t¡± Sain smiled at them but in their hearts they somehow knew that Sain was keeping tabs on them and could use it against them...he was even worse than Miriel in that sense. In his heart he made a mental note of all of their changes so far which to the dismay to the privacy of the others. xXx ¡°Well we need to talk about what will happen tomorrow¡± Sain suddenly said, ¡°First of all, me and Miriel will have to fight and whoever wins that will face Raven if he wins as well. On the other side is Lyndis facing Shadow If she wins and to the finals as well.¡± ¡°Looks like I get to kill Shadow¡± Lyndis sneered. ¡°Not if I kill you first¡± Shadow said back to her. He gleamed at the possibility of facing her fair and square and prove that he was a better fighter than her to prove something unknown to Sain. ¡°Why do you two...not like each other that much?¡± Sain had to ask. Both of them looked at Sain and spoke at the same time. ¡°Because he''s an asshole¡± ¡°Because she''s a bitch.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Language aside this might be a good opportunity to solve your issues with each other¡± Sain had hoped that after this they would get along with each other a bit better with this. However on the minds of both Shadow and Lyndis, they were thinking of one thing. ''I will put this bastard/bitch down!'' Judging from their expressions, Sain could more or less tell what they were thinking about as well. They were planning to kill each other in this tournament. ¡°As a reminder, do not kill¡± Sain warned with a firm voice, ¡°If you do, I cannot say you might die somewhere outside of range from the people''s eyes.¡± ¡°You won''t do it¡± Shadow let out a dry laugh, ¡°You are far too trusting and kind to do that and plus you don''t ha-¡± Stab! Sain''s hand moved to his spear and he shot it at Shadow''s head. If not for the fact that he drew his dagger at the same time to block the attack, he would be killed by Sain. ¡°....¡± Sain gave Shadow a smile, a cold smile while Shadow could only smile with sweat gathering from concentrating too much of surviving from that surprise attack. ¡°While I am not as good with the spear as Raven¡± Sain looked down at Shadow who looked a bit troubled, ¡°I am very good at tricks though I don''t like using them.¡± ¡°Tricks? Your tactics involve very straightforward ideas Sain¡± Shadow questioned him a bit. Lyndis smirked thinking that Shadow had made a bad move there. ¡°Well you are right but at the same time I am not used to using tricks with other people. Doing so along is easy enough¡± he replied. Miriel giggled a bit and then said, ¡°Sain, out of everyone, I think you changed the most or rather finally started to show your true colours at last.¡± Understanding her words, Lyndis and Serena nodded as well. ¡°Really now?¡± Sain raised his eyebrow. ¡°We picked you as leader because you were the most trustworthy one but now since we do trust you with everything you revealed yourself to be...cunning at some extent¡± said Miriel while smiling slightly. ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about¡± Sain replied still with a smile. All he felt that it was the right move to do this right now. He looked at Miriel and then said, ¡°Don''t you dare hold back on me.¡± Miriel smiled back and said, ¡°I naturally won''t.¡± xXx At a location where it was possible to spy on the group talking... ¡°Hey, you want to bet on who will win in the end?¡± Eart asked. Arch frowned at the notion of gambling, it was essentially putting things to luck most of the time. However in this case they both knew the facts. ¡°Sure who will you bet to win?¡± Arch asked. ¡°Sain¡± Eart replied immediately, ¡°That person was really really chilling to me when he went out of character.¡± ¡°In that case I will bet on Miriel. A hundred thousand gold or one guild mission to do?¡± Arch proposed. ¡°Make that two guild missions and you have a deal!¡± Eart replied after thinking of it. A mere hundred thousand gold was really not worth betting on to them but a guild quest..something that they all had to do and extremely difficult to complete as well. For getting rid of two times he had to do it, this bet was worth it. ¡°Got it, I''ll send a message to Eden when I won this bet¡± said Arch confident. As always, Eart was quite bad with reading other people. There was a good chance to him that Miriel would win. ¡°By the way...¡± Eart could not help saying. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Why are we hiding here?¡± asked Eart. ¡°....¡± Arch took a moment to summarise his thoughts into, ¡°It would be awkward to come in now.¡± xXx The next day the tournament went onto the final rounds. First of was Raven and the unusual dual wielding user that used zig-zag swords to battle.
Character Name: Raven Finals Participant Current Round: 1
With the message at scene the counter went down and it eventually ticked down to zero. Raven and the other player were at opposite sides of the stage, roughly twenty metres in fact. It would take a good 3 seconds for them to hit each other.
Countdown: 3 Seconds
Countdown: 2 Seconds
Countdown: 1 Seconds
Countdown: 0 Seconds
Start!
The match started and both Raven and the other player charged at each other immediately. There wasn''t much to think about as it was a simple one on one battle. Raising his shield to charge Raven said, ¡°Footwork! Ram!¡± instantly increasing his speed at the player. Clang! Clang! The player took two swipes at Raven as he dodged and passed by. Raven used his shield to block the two attack on him and moved to block the third and fourth attack that was coming in as well. Clang! Clang! Using the force of the two attacks that came to slide himself a bit away from the player Raven stopped and started charging again attacking with his spear. He stabbed three times but all of them were blocked by the two swords that seemed to entrap his own weapon. Figuring that he needed to go faster Raven used, ''Double Strike'' in the middle if his attacks as well. Using his quick paced attacks he forced the player onto the defensive and continued to strike without mercy. ¡°Let rage boil into fury, dual strike!¡± the player shouted swinging both of his swords with glowing light at Raven. ''Can''t get hit with that no matter what'' Raven thought seeing the power in that skill. ¡°Shield Parry!¡± Raven responded as well. His shield and the blades collided and caused sparks to fly as both of them were blown away from the blast. Raven''s timing was slightly off due to the light on the player''s sword but was able to block it. Taking out some throwing knives, the player aimed at Raven though at the same time digging his swords into the ground. ¡°Footwork!¡± Taking a step back for a moment, Raven charged once again dodging left and right quickly from the throwing knives thrown at him. ¡°Haaaa!¡± Raven let that shout as he swung his spear down at the player. Bang! The player blocked it using his dual swords in a cross space. However Raven did not stop and proceeded forward doing a side swipe hitting the side of the player that blocked some of the attack with his armour. BANG!
Dealt Critical Hit!
The player was knocked away from the impact of the attack as Raven pressed on to attack again and again. Eventually his spear made his way to the throat of the player killing him.
Character Name: Raven Finals Participant Current Round: 2
¡°I...won...¡± muttered Raven as he looked around before returning to watch the next match. xXx ¡°Make sure you don''t hold back on me¡± Miriel reminded Sain again while they were walking to the stage. Sain smiled and said, ¡°Don''t worry. Make sure you don''t as well...I want to test something...¡± The two got onto the stage and separated each other by 20 metres and waited for the counter to start ticking. In his mind, Sain was calculating how Miriel would move. If he were to charge at her with his spear then she would use her whip to stop him. And if he used magic first she would return fire with her spells that were stronger than his. ''In that case...''
Countdown: 3 Seconds
Countdown: 2 Seconds
Countdown: 1 Seconds
Countdown: 0 Seconds
Start!
The match started and Sain immediately shouted, ¡°Compressed Magic Mastery Release!¡±
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +300%
With his body full of magic strength, Sain now had more damage in terms of spell damage than Miriel at least for a few minutes until it runs out. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Miriel finished chanting that spell and fired 5 of them at Sain. Dodging it closely enough Sain chanted, ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± and fired 5 of them at Miriel as well. She too dodged the spell quite easily while chanting another spell at the same time. ''I''m too slow in chanting at this rate and have no time to summon Luna. Need to distract her.'' ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± he chanted but at the same time Miriel chanted, ¡°Ice Barrier!¡± creating a physical barrier to defend herself. Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang...! All of his ''Mana Bolts'' hit the ice barrier and were stopped in their tracks. Taking this time, Miriel casted ''Cracked Barrier'' onto herself and also chanted, ¡°Melody of Speed¡± to enchant her agility by 51% which according to what Sain remembered was around 100 points in agility at any rate. Surprising Sain, Miriel moved out of the cover of her ''Ice Barrier'' and ran at Sain with her whipe swinging it a couple of times at him. Snap! Snap! Snap! She hit him three times in a row thanks to her increased agility but not much damage was done to him.
You took 321 damage
You took 221 damage
You took 356 damage
¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡± Sain chanted increasing his agility by 50 points which at this point was lower than Miriel''s. However at the same time he was far more superior in close combat at least. ¡°Poison Shot!¡± she chanted while moving in, he shattered a couple of those spells at her watching as Miriel tried to dodge them while attacking Sain at the same time. Getting close enough he trust his spear at Miriel which narrowly missed her head. In the next instant he chanted, ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± firing off the magical projectiles at her at close range. Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang...! Sain knew that she took a fair deal of damage thanks to that but it wasn''t too serious. But at any rate he was far too close to Miriel now which means... ¡°Ice Burst!¡± Sain jumped back at the same moment she said those words trying to reduce the damage he took as much as possible. However while jumping back may have reduced the damage by say half it was still a lot that could have killed him in one shot.
You took 3755 damage
Most of his health was gone and as such he chanted, ¡°Moderate Heal¡± in time to allow his body to move again. He healed around a third of the damage that Miriel caused him. ''Honestly it is so difficult to fight when my damage output and other outputs are lower than hers...'' Sain thought with a sigh. In the end he decided to spam spells at her to make an opening at the very least to summon Luna. ¡°Mana Bolts! Paralyse Shot! Poison Shot! Magic Arrows!¡± He shot all of those spells as Miriel created another ''Ice Barrier'' to block the attacks, however due to his magical damage increasing the ''Ice Barrier'' broke pretty quickly though he was met with several ''Ice Bolts'' in turn as well. This continued with a few more minutes with both of them shaving off each other''s health bit by bit. Sain with more health, defence and a healing spell was in an advantage due to him able to take more hits while Miriel had an overall better attack option. Eventually however, Sain managed to corner Miriel with his spear pointing at her throat. ¡°Surrender¡± he said calmly to the point that Miriel thought he was a completely different person. However Miriel had a plan for this...a plan that would only work on Sain as she didn''t want to reveal her thump card yet. ¡°Please don''t hurt me¡± she immediately whispered within the vicinity of Sain which caused him to flinch. ¡°....¡± With her eyes pointing up on him and blinking lightly, Sain for some reason could not move at all but was stunned at what Miriel was doing. To him she was a completely cute girl right now. As such some useless thoughts came about in Sain''s head which allowed Miriel to move in to attack in close quarters. ¡°Haaaa!¡± Miriel tackled and saddled onto Sain and casted some ''Mana Bolts'' to be floating waiting to be shot at Sain. By the time Sain recovered from Miriel''s ''attack'' he realised his situation and sighed. Raising his hands and letting go of his spear he said, ¡°I surrender...¡± a bit disappointed at himself. And as such Miriel was the winner of this round. xXx ¡°Two Guild Missions for me then¡± Arch smirked at the results while Eart was wide mouthed at the end results as well. Sain was literally at the verge of victory and yet... ¡°How is this possible?¡± Eart asked wondering what was going on with this world for someone to lose in that position. It was literally improbable that that would happen. Letting out a small laugh Arch said, ¡°You underestimate the cunningness of Miriel in that situation. She used her last weapon and it worked on Sain.¡± ¡°You mean making Sain blush like a little girl?¡± ¡°More or less.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Remember the two guild quests you owe me now¡± Arch reminded him, ¡°I''ll get in contact with Eden after all of this is done to tell him my good news.¡± xXx With a bit of a sigh Sain followed behind Miriel as they went back to the others. He tried not to look at them as Miriel seemed very pleased at her work. ¡°Though I asked for you to not hold back...I did not expect that. You looked...really cute then...¡± Sain muttered under his breath so that only Miriel could hear. Hearing this Miriel turned into a slightly darker shade of red before turning back to normal. Her light skin made it very easy for others to tell when she was embarrassed. ¡°I can''t believe you lost like that. I lost a bet thanks to you¡± Shadow immediately said when Sain and Miriel was in earshot. ¡°Sorry...¡± Sain let out a dry laugh to hide his embarrassment. On the other hand Lyndis had the opposite expression and said, ¡°Good work Miriel. Knew you could win in the end.¡± They saw that Shadow gave Lyndis some coins to which counted to 10 gold in total. After that Serena proceeded to heal the two from their injury as Miriel started to mediate to recover lost mana from the match. Soon after this the match between the thief player and the two handed player went away. Over a series of events where both sides were quite close on beating each other, the thief player in the end was the one who won. And such as now it was Lyndis'' turn to battle. xXx Lyndis was in a good mood. The reason was as simple as you think as she was facing a strong foe.
Character Name: Lyndis Finals Participant Current Round: 1
With the window confirmed as went out on the stage to face the knight player. Wearing medium to heavy armour, Lyndis realised that this player probably had the same amount of defence as Raven but was much slower as evident on the noise he made while moving. It was very likely he had three layers of armour; leather, chain-mail and finally plate on. ''He must have good connections else a lot of money to get all of that while under level 150'' she thought looking at him. Other than the fact that this player looked plain except for the fancy armour, Lyndis couldn''t tell if there was anything special about him. But at the same time she had to keep her guard up as well though.
Countdown: 3 Seconds
Countdown: 2 Seconds
Countdown: 1 Seconds
Countdown: 0 Seconds
Start!
The match started and the knight charged at Lyndis. She noticed that he was much faster than she expected with all that armour on. Perhaps his boots were enchanted with a speed boots or something. ¡°Flame Strike¡± Lyndis pointed and fired her attack at the knight. He blocked it using his shield and continued onwards. ¡°Flame Strike¡± Lyndis used the skill once again to which was blocked again. By the time her second attack hit the knight''s shield he was already close enough for close combat. Lyndis picked up and drew her blade and said, ¡°Fire Blade!¡± turning it into burning red blade. Clang! Lyndis swung down at the knight to which he blocked using his shield again. The clash between the red hot blade and the metal shield started with her attack not cutting through and only causing a minor cut to the shield. ¡°Ack!¡± the knight backed away when he found that his shield was more damaged than he thought it would be. Not letting this chance go, Lyndis activated ''Precision Stance'' and ''Sword Dance'' and started attacking rapidly at the knight. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Each time Lyndis tried to strike down the knight, the more he blocked with his shield not daring to attack back. And each time the durability of his shield would decrease by a bit due to the extreme heat that her sword was making. Also Lyndis was hitting nearly the same spot on the shield each time which further accelerated the decline of the shield''s durability. ''This is taking too long! Time to finish this!'' she thought after a full minute of this bashing of sword to shield. ¡°Power Strike!¡± she shouted also switching to ''Power Stance'' as well and taking a breath in to increase power. BANG! Lyndis struck on that weak spot on the shield that she had been making in one go and a large crack appeared on the shield as it crumbled away. Shocked the knight tried to attack Lyndis but due to the passive effects of ''Sword Dance'' which increased sword damage, sword speed and agility, Lyndis was able to knock the sword out of the knight''s hand before pointing her sword at him. ¡°Surrender?¡± she suggested to him. ¡°....¡± The knight looked back at her and then said, ¡°I Surrender¡± with his hands up a bit upset that his shield was broken like that. ¡°Yay~!¡± Lyndis shouted excited that she won.
Character Name: Lyndis Finals Participant Current Round: 2
With this window appearing, Lyndis nearly started skipping to where the others were. xXx
Character Name: Miriel Finals Participant Current Round: 2
The next round came in another half an hour in order for both players to rest up a bit and for some extra events similar to commercials in the game to appear. Miriel''s opponent was a water mage while she was a combination of a ice, sound and illusion mage all in one. In terms of pure specialisation she was at a disadvantage as the mastery of the water mage''s skills and spell were probably better than hers. However Miriel had more diversity in her spells as well. Aside from actual healing spells, she more or less had powerful attack, defence and support spells to use. Miriel looked at the the water mage with some confidence at least. The water mage was a female like her but had this old looking robe on compared to hers. Miriel knew proper mage equipment weren''t that expensive but the spells were. She would not take any chances here especially when she saw what another water mage almost did to Raven. Even with his defence that were three times higher than her plus his shield blocking the attack, Raven lost a lot of health that would kill her even with his defence and shield blocking. She just wondered how she and Sain battled it out for so long with their defences especially hers was lower than his. Perhaps it had to do with their higher magical resistance or the fact they dodged most of the attacks they thrown at each other. Either way, Miriel waited for the timer to tick down and for the match to start.
Countdown: 3 Seconds
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Start!
With the match starting Miriel immediately chanted, ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± and shot five ice bolts at the player. Barely dodging the attack, the player immediately counter-attacked using ''water bullets'' at her as well. As expected it seemed the water mage was more skilled than her in pure specialisation since there were seven ''water bullets'' to her five ''ice bolts''. ''I need to finish this quickly than!'' she thought quickly preparing a barrier at least. ¡°Ice Barrier!¡± A wall of ice appeared to block the water attack and then Miriel immediately went to the next spell as well for some more protection, ¡°Cracked Barrier!¡± She created a barrier that negated half the damage she took for the next two strikes. ''Now to increase my stats as well...'' ¡°Melody of Agility!¡± she chanted next to place the stat boost on herself.
Agility increased by 51% for 10 minutes
By this time the player moved in order to get a better view of her and attacked using ''Water Bullets'' again. Miriel dodged the attack much more easily now with her agility being increased by around 100 points. Miriel counter-attacked with her own ''Ice Bolts'' but they were stopped by this water barrier around the player. Frowning Miriel continued to dodge some attacks and attacked herself but the water barrier always stopped her. Then Miriel realised that the player was consciously controlling that water barrier. ¡°Shriek!¡± she immediately chanted when she had the chance. Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! The sound caused all but a few to stop in their tracks and cover their ears. The water mage player being the closest felt it the worst. As such that annoying water barrier disappeared and now she could attack as much as she wanted. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Miriel immediately chose to attack at least wanting to deal some damage first before anything else and five ''ice bolts'' hit the body of the water mage and caused her to spit blood out. If she wasn''t going to die soon, she was critically injured right now. Tap Tap Tap... Miriel walked over to the water mage and asked, ¡°Surrender?¡± Unable to speak the water mage nodded a bit and Miriel had won her match. xXx Following Miriel''s match, Lyndis and Shadow went out to the stage as well passing comment at her each on her victory. The water mage was taken by some healers and was back to normal within minutes. Right now Lyndis wasn''t feeling that excited at all. She knew Shadow. She knew what he was capable of and when serious he was almost like a monster itself and as such she could not lose focus like that when against her. ¡°Ready to lose?¡± Shadow asked with a smirk on his face. That look made her want to punch him right here and now but she resisted and taunted back with, ¡°How badly do you want me to crush you?¡± And that was it for the two of them until the counter ticked down to begin. ''Even a split second blink could kill me...'' she thought. The scary part was that Shadow''s agility was twice as hers and his strength wasn''t that far behind her at all. She drew her sword and waited for the timer to tick down.
Countdown: 3 Seconds
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Start!
The moment the match started, Lyndis released that she had already lost Shadow...and he was her only opponent right now and they were alone on this large stage! ''Damn that Stealth ability of his!'' she cursed in her thoughts. She knew that his stealth skill was at the higher levels in the intermediate but to think it would cause her to lose him so quickly. Then she felt something bad was about to happen behind her... ¡°Flame Coating!¡± she shouted causing flames to burst out of her body to protect herself. It was just in time to deter Shadow from landing a critical and likely fatal hit on her.
You took 800 damage
Thankfully the damage he can deal was lower than her to begin with else this might have ended immediately even with that. ¡°Fire Blade¡± she made her preparations and lit her sword on fire and counter-attacked Shadow when he actually dared to attack her head on. Just in case she also used ''Speed Stance'' and ''Sword Dance'' as well as he moved in. ¡°Burst Speed.¡± Suddenly Lyndis felt that she could not keep up with Shadow at all. His speed increased by almost three times with the skill active and this frankly made him even more fearsome. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± Using her instincts, she spent the next two seconds blocking attack after attack with her own. Also using the other skills that were active, she managed to cause some damage back to Shadow at the same time. ''Curse his speed...'' Using her ''Flame Coating'' she was able to deter Shadow from hitting certain vital points but otherwise was near powerless against his rapid attacks. However Lyndis did notice that his attacks were...predictable. ''No better time to test this than now...'' she thought with a grim smile on her face. ¡°Fire bomb! Fire bomb! Fire bomb!¡± Consuming 150 mana in the process, Lyndis created and threw three ''Fire Bombs'' at certain locations and allowed them to explode. BANG BANG BANG! All of these explosions missed Shadow of course but it lead him to directly attack Lyndis at the front which was a bad idea no matter your speed. Taking up the ''Precision Stance'', Lyndis shouted, ¡°Speed Strike!¡± swinging down on Shadow with the blunt end of her sword slamming Shadow onto the floor. Knowing that Shadow could not move she whispered to him, ¡°I win~¡± and as such the match against Lyndis and Shadow ended. xXx ¡°Ow ow ow....I think dying would be better than this pain...¡± Shadow cursed a complaint against Lyndis again when they met up with the others. ¡°Hey you''re lucky I used the blunt side of my sword to save you from a death!¡± Lyndis retorted back immediately as well kicking Shadow on the back which caused him more damage and more reason to curse at her. ¡°Do you know how painful it was to be hit like that on my back?!¡± ¡°Looks like you two are getting along now¡± Sain said with a smile noticing that they while they were fighting there was less malice involved now. ¡°¡°Who the hell is getting along?!¡±¡± both of them shouted. After some words, Sain and Serena healed the two as there was a while until the next match which was between Raven and Miriel. ¡°Anyway I want to say one thing¡± Lyndis looked at Shadow while he was silently waiting for her response. ¡°What is it?¡± Shadow finally asked after waiting for a full 10 seconds for her words that never seemed to come. ¡°You were so easily baited into a trap by me¡± she said bluntly with a smirk on her face of her superiority to Shadow and the worse part for him was that he couldn''t repute it at all. He did fall into her trap and lose because of that. He who was several times faster than her lost like that. ¡°....¡± As such all Shadow could do was glare at her to which amused her even more. ¡°Healing is done¡± Serena said all of a sudden next to Lyndis as she finished healing her, ¡°Lyndis being mean is bad!¡± Her unexpected words and more to the point, her not stuttering was a large surprise to Shadow. It was like the person he knew was completely different...no she was completely different from what he remembered. After Lyndis and Serena left some words, Shadow immediately went up to Serena and then pat her on the shoulder to which, surprised, she turned and asked, ¡°W-What d-do you w-want?¡± in a frightful manner. ¡°....?¡± Shadow was a bit confused here. Why was Serena fine talking to Lyndis normally, well like a normal person and yet was like this to him. ¡°Umm...what are you doing to Serena?¡± Lyndis asked tapping him on the shoulder as well. There was a smile on her face but at the same time Shadow could not help but to be frighten of her right now. ¡°Ah...¡± Shadow muttered, ¡°I was just wondering something.¡± ¡°And what might that be? Hmm...? Serena you can go so I can take care of this ''thing''¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow was a bit disturbed that he wasn''t even a human in Lyndis'' eyes right now as Serena left and it was just the two of them together alone now. While she didn''t draw her sword to cut him down then and there, she did ask, ¡°So what do you have against Serena?¡± ¡°What?¡± Shadow was astonished at the question. ¡°Why does it seem like every time you see her you would bully her?¡± ¡°What? Wait, you think I''m bullying her?¡± he asked completely surprised. Well he was a bit harsh on her at times but that was nothing to be worried about...right? Frowning at the expression that Shadow had on his face Lyndis muttered, ¡°Strange...¡± and continued to say, ¡°Looks like you don''t realise that Serena is avoiding you a bit.¡± ¡°A bit?¡± Shadow let out a cold laugh. She made it very apparent that she was trying very hard to do so. ¡°I think she is clearly hating on me or is simply afraid. Well anyone would if they found that someone was not especially kind to them¡± he simply said in response after thinking about it. ¡°I hope you''re right...I rather not have Serena avoid you ALL the time from now on¡± Lyndis replied back in a quiet tone. xXx The next two matches were of Raven and Miriel and the thief player and Lyndis. To summarise things, Miriel won the match against Raven by a narrow margin thanks to using her magic in certain ways to restrain Raven in place while she beat the crap out of him. As for the match between the thief player and Lyndis, it was an overwhelming win for Lyndis who defeated Shadow before. In terms of pure speed alone, Lyndis was even a bit faster than the thief player which she felt as strange.
Character Name: Miriel Finals Participant Current Round: Last Round
And so it went to the final match where the champion would be determine... ¡°I guess it''s up to us now¡± Lyndis said with confidence to Miriel, ¡°Either way we get the top two prizes.¡± Miriel smiled in return on the thought of all that gold but instead said, ¡°However there is another pressing issue we need to determine here for a while.¡± ¡°Yes...¡± Lyndis also had the same thought. ¡°¡°I am definitely stronger than you!¡±¡± Both of them said those words and thoughts out aloud at the same time on the stage and waited to attack each other in the end.
Countdown: 3 Seconds
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¡°Ice Bolts!¡± Miriel chanted pointing her staff at Lyndis. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Lyndis shouted at the same time. Bang! The attack on both side with equal power cancelled each other out. Before their attacks landed on each other, the two already moved to the next attack. Lyndis charged straight in to the side with her sword while Miriel took out her whip and chanted, ¡°Ice Barrier!¡± ¡°Like that will work! Fire Blade!¡± Lyndis shouted smashing through the ice barrier with brute force. Bang! There was a short explosion of noise as she broke through it. ¡°Tch!¡± Miriel clicked her tongue seeing this. Her skill proficiency with the ''Ice Barrier'' spell was too low seeing that Lyndis was able to rip through it like that. ''Need to get further back...'' Miriel continued to retreat as she casted her next spell. ¡°Melody of Agility!¡± she chanted increasing her agility in this match as well by a hundred points due to the effects of the spell.
Agility increased by 51% for 10 minutes
She would need it against Lyndis who was much better at close combat than her. In fact Miriel knew for a fact that it was a bad idea to face against Lyndis in close quarters as she was really good with the sword even compared to other players as she shown before, especially in the tournament. ¡°Ice Burst!¡± Miriel shot that spell at Lyndis who was closing in causing her to fall back a bit before charging at her again. With her increased speed Miriel instead of just running away tried to surround Lyndis into a corner. With a couple of her ''Ice Bolts'', Miriel managed to control Lyndis'' movements to the nearest corner to which Lyndis probably realised. However it was too late for escape. Snap! Snap! Snap! ¡°Ow ow ow! That hurts like hell!¡± Lyndis complained while Miriel ignored her and continued attacking. She started by attacking Lyndis with her whip. But Lyndis wasn''t going to have any of that so she shouted, ¡°Fire Bomb!¡± and threw one at Miriel or in her general direction. ''Shit!'' Miriel luckily hit away the ''Fire Bomb'' that was heading straight to her. BANG!
You took 115 damage
The ''Fire Bomb'' exploded in the air pushing Miriel back a little bit while causing her some minor damage as well. Not flinching to this damage she chanted and fired her ''Ice Bolts'' at Lyndis which she cut down using her sword. ''Damn she''s a monster to cut down those attacks like that'' Miriel grumbled in her thoughts seeing Lyndis doing that. Miriel continued to shoot her ''Ice Bolts'' at Lyndis while retreating at the same time as Lyndis cut them down while proceeding forward. ¡°Ice Barrier! Ice Barrier!¡± Miriel created two more barriers in between herself and Lyndis. Using the time gained with the barriers, she chanted, ¡°Cracked Barrier¡± placing one on herself for some extra protection. ¡°Mana Bolts! Ice Bolts!¡± she then chanted twice using the two spells to fire off various projectiles at Lyndis as she smashed through her ''Ice Barriers''. ¡°Life Burn!¡± Lyndis responded in turn using her health as a fuel for her flame attack to which completely knocked away Miriel''s attacks, well at least the ''Ice Bolts''. Lyndis was still hit by several ''Mana Bolts'' in the process as well and took some damage. ''Need to continue attacking...'' Miriel held her whip in her left hand and continued attacking Lyndis with it. ¡°Flame Coating! Speed Strike!¡± Lyndis shouted speeding up to charge close to Miriel with her sword and body on fire. ¡°Shit!¡± In an instant Lyndis was up close to Miriel with her sword coming down onto her. Miriel dodged to the left with a roll and fired ''Ice Bolts'' at her which narrowly missed. With Lyndis so near, Miriel had no choice now but to try to stun her at close range. ¡°Shriek!¡± Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± Lyndis let out a scream of pain as the spell worked. However at the same time her blade went down on Miriel and made a deep cut on her side.
You took 745 damage
''Time to use ''that'' then'' Miriel then barely thought with her life in danger. ¡°Glacier Strike!¡± Miriel chanted quickly. The spell activated as she expected though it was something she only had a short time on using as she only created it a day ago. From the ground, water gathered and turned into ice and shot up in a diagonal manner hitting Lyndis straight at the chest knocking her back as if she was flying. BANG! Lyndis flew away and fell flat on the ground. She had won. ¡°Fuueeee...¡± Miriel let out a relieved sigh seeing that Lyndis did not come up. She was knocked out unconscious from that attack.
Character Name: Miriel Finals Winner
Congratulation you have won the tournament! Fame +200 You have levelled up x3 Gained 3000 gold in prize money
Tournament Winner This title is given to anyone that has won a tournament before. The effects of the title depends on the level of competition that you have won. The higher the level, the better effects this title will give. This title stacks with the effects of other titles + 10 to all stats Discount to all purchases in Lily City for the next three days due to fame
Seeing these windows, Miriel grinned to herself as went to Lyndis to pick her up as it seemed that she was actually knocked unconscious. xXx ¡°That one won...cash in the bets we made on her¡± said one person cloaked said to the others. The other people cloaked rushed around doing things as one person only stared at Miriel. ¡°Can she die now?¡± he asked the first person. The first person smiled and said, ¡°Yes.¡± Now that she won, they had no reason to keep her alive and it would make sure this one would be calm for at least a while longer until everything he wanted goes to plan. Even if this fails, it would give them some time away from the eyes of the Kingdom to act a bit more freely.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7100~ - This chapter took a long time for several reasons. Mainly due to me writing most of it in the last two days since I had my wisdom teeth pulled out Vol.5 Epilogue - In the End ¡°Arch....¡± Eart suddenly muttered feeling that something was wrong as Miriel was accepting the prize of 3000 gold along with Lyndis accepting the lesser prize of 500 gold from the tournament. ¡°Yeah I know¡± Arch replied feeling that the atmosphere of the place became heavier. It seemed that something was going to happen...and now. ¡°Eart make sure you protect those two if any attacks comes to them¡± Arch ordered. ¡°I know..¡± Eart muttered focusing on manipulating the earth around those two to make sure nothing happened to them. If Eden were to find out that they were harmed under their care. Also Eart felt that he must protect them no matter what. His pride as a pervert...no as a gentleman required him to protect them no matter what. He knew that Arch who was known as the ''Zero Range Archer'' had no ability to protect which was one reason why he came around to help for a bit. ¡°Is it me or are there lots of suspicious movements around the place even with people leave¡± Arch muttered. Eart checked and there were indeed some movements that he found suspicious as well. There were at least a dozen different people who were not acting like everyone else whether leaving or running off to a location. ¡°Arch, they''re attack!¡± Eart waned suddenly seeing that something was flying to Miriel''s head. ¡°Earth Sanctuary!¡± he chanted controlling the ground around Miriel and Lyndis. BANG! Eart shifted the earth around the Miriel in particular and just in case also protected Lyndis as well. The attack that seemed to come from a hidden weapon, as used commonly for assassin was blocked by the earth that he used. The attack stuck clearly on the shield of earth with everyone wide eyed on what happened. ¡°I''m moving in¡± Arch simply said in a cold voice to Eart before moving out. ¡°Roger that¡± Eart replied in the same cold voice. Anyone who would face against the guild will die. xXx Following the blood-lust in the air, Arch could predict the location of each enemy. To be precise he had a skill that allowed him to watch everything in detail in a certain range though he could not keep track of everything when the range was too large though useful against single targets. As such he immediately located the two dozen assassins that all were about to attack Miriel even now. It was a simple matter to him where he had to track down their movements when he had already located them from since a while ago. ¡°Divine Snipe!¡± Arch said dropping from the sky shooting at all of the enemies shattered around using his ''bow''. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang....! In an instant two dozen bodies fell down as well. He had not killed anyone yet since getting the murderer mark in these circumstances was troubling at least. He just went to fire some stone to knock them out else stop them until Eart can capture them himself. Either way due to them having exceedingly high infamy and himself having a special title, he did not gain much trouble doing this. However his attack caused quite the commotion when he landed on the ground fine. ¡°What the hell was that?!¡± ¡°Did someone die?!¡± ¡°Gun Fire in this game?!¡± The sound of Arch shooting closely resembled the sound of a gun shooting in reality. In fact while in the beginning of the game, guns had not been created yet, it was another question decades later with Arch being one of the very few gun users though heavily limited in this respect. But at the same time he didn''t use a gun at all...yet. All he did was fire off some stones at the assassins. As the ''Zero Range Archer'' he had two special skills that was unrivalled. One was ''Divine Sight'' that was something that Eden also had to spy on people. The other was ''Divine Dividing'' which allowed him to continuously shorten the distance between two targets though it''s original application was to halve things. ¡°Hmm?¡± In the mist of knocking out the other assassins that managed to live from his attack, he noticed that he saw someone he saw before... ¡°Die!¡± the man shouted jumping at Miriel. But before he could land a hit on Miriel and kill her, Arch shot at the man and Eart used his earth related skills to trap the man into the ground. With the commotion growing larger, Arch walked up to the man and took a good look at him. ¡°Time to call Eden...¡± he mutter realising who it was with a sigh. He had also captured the other assassins and turned them to Alena to be dealt with before Eden came at least. xXx ¡°So....who is this?¡± Sain had to ask. Right now he was looking at a dishevelled player in a cloak that apparently hired lots of assassins to kill Miriel. That was enough for Sain to hate this man. ¡°What will happen to him?¡± Miriel had to ask though since this was the man that tried to kill her. She had no idea who he was nor did he know his intentions. ¡°Well...¡± Eart tried to answer but he rather not. For a player, this kind of punishment was the worse kind and was the main reason their guild was feared beyond everything else. Soon enough Arch said, ¡°Eden is about to appear...¡± to which the man suddenly started to struggle violently trying to escape. A blue light flashed and Eden appeared. But he wasn''t normal right now. He had a ragged look and a fearsome look on his face. ¡°Which one is it?¡± he asked in a cold voice to Arch. Arch simply pointed at the man tied up and Eden proceeded to him. He said these words to him. ¡°I have warned you before. No second chances taken.¡± ¡°WHY?!¡± the man suddenly shouted, ¡°WHY DID YOU KICK ME OUT?! ONE MISTAKE! IT WAS ONLY ONE MISTAKE!¡± With his initial shock to the shouting gone, Eden made an evil smile and then said, ¡°That one mistake cost some reputation. However more importantly you failed my orders in the end and therefore was kicked out of his guild. I only keep the useful ones.¡± Eden looked at the group who were strangely quiet. They knew better than to speak up now since Eden wasn''t the calm and almost ''loving'' person they knew, but something else. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.¡°Anyway I have some things to tell you lot¡± he turned to them ignoring the man for a second and then decided to rip his mouth off to make it easier. A soundless scream was heard and made the group hold their breath as if they were in pain as well. ¡°From what Arch told me, you now know that I generally won''t be nice to you when you reach level 200 right?¡± The group nodded at once. ¡°In that case I will tell you what will happen to those who fail. Whether it is screwing up a guild quest or straining the guild reputation, I simply kick them out of the guild which is enough punishment. The negative impact would be enough punishment for most. However there are those who still...persist in trying to prove themselves right.¡± Eden took a glance at the man without a mouth now. ¡°Some would try to harm the guild including trying to assassinate members. These people are dealt personally by me. There are a number of them counting the years.¡± It was at that moment that Sain asked, ¡°How many...were there before?¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Eden thought about it, ¡°I think there were in total of 182 players that were kicked out of the guild. Of those, half of them tried to ''bite'' back on us and so I punished them again.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°The punishment that comes from me is the deletion of the avatar or character and in other words the player itself.¡± The group gasped. Dying in the game was one thing but to lose your entire character, that you made and grew over the years...it was something that was like cutting half your soul out. It was something that was unimaginably cruel to do. Eden moved his hand and grabbed the man''s head with it and simply said, ¡°Deletion!¡± Seeing this, the man''s body started pixelating which was something that games never had in decades. Eventually those pixels shattered and disappeared...and a character was completely deleted from the game... ¡°....¡± Eden was silent for a few moments but then turned to Miriel and Lyndis and said, ¡°You two were the final two in the tournament right? Congratulation. Make sure you spend that gold wisely.¡± Those were the words he left as he teleported away. xXx Some time later at Alena''s place. While they were suppose to be celebrating but the mood was quite bad and Alena trying to cheer them up was not having much success. ¡°You need to be cheerful at times like this! Miriel you won the 3000 gold grand prize and Lyndis got the runner ups 500 gold prize!¡± she said to Miriel and the others noticing that they were quite pale after Arch said Eden visited for business. In her heart, Alena knew what Eden did in the end. He showed them something that could crush all hope. However at the same time, it was only one side of Eden the world knew. To them, he was a cold hearted killer in all ways but to her...and her sister and family he was extremely kind like how he treated the group before today though he was angry for their sake. ¡°You guys were lucky¡± Arch simply said after not wanting to endure this solemn mood anymore. The group looked at him not sure on what to do. Whenever it came to Eden, they seemed to not know what they should do. They were his puppets, this toys in the end...and if they were abandoned by him as well... When Arch was about to say something, Eart appeared. ¡°Ahhhhhh! Don''t be depressed! Let me rub mysel-¡± BANG! Both Alena and Arch knocked Eart away from the girls that were visually surprised at Eart''s appearance. After flying away through the wall and dropping god knows here, there was a slight chuckle. ¡°Damn him...always taking an advantage when he can...¡± Arch cursed under his breath. Alena sighed and then said, ¡°I can''t believe that he never learnt his lesson before in all this time...I remember dad almost killing him after trying to peek up sis''s skirt.¡± It was at that moment that the chuckle turned into a laugh. ¡°Hahahaha¡± Serena started laughing at bit at what just happened. It was like in those really old T.V shows where the villain was always blasted away. And what Alena said only made it funnier to her and the rest of the group. Seeing this the rest of the group started laughing one by one as well. ¡°We gained a lot of gold thanks to this!¡± Miriel said excited on what she could do with the money. Lyndis nodded and said, ¡°We can buy lots of food for a celebration! I want a pizza party!¡± in response to this. ¡°As long as you don''t eat it all alone¡± Shadow said though adding in, ¡°I think we can be a bit loose on cash today¡± as a suggestion to which Sain nodded. ¡°Oh yeah, we still have school tomorrow so we can''t stay too much¡± said Sain remembered about that. ¡°....¡± Suddenly the laughter and celebration stopped as they remembered they still had school. With a sigh Miriel said, ¡°Why did you have to mention that....?¡± Now was not the time to mention school of all things.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - This is the end of the 5th volume at last! That was rather...well fast and slow since it took around 3/4 of a month to complete - If anyone did not notice yet (I think most), I mentioned in the TOC that I decided to extend this series to be much longer. In fact it would be twice as long now ending at 30 volumes in total...as long as I think I can do all of that...anyway the reason is due to pacing which in volume 6 & 7 in ''The Unfortunate Fool'' was terrible. Months and years skipped often. - Anyway this arc will extend into the next one as well due to this which means I can keep the current enemies, at least until the end of the next volume as well - The prologue of volume 6 will be up tomorrow. Vol.5 Extra Chapter - Trying to change his gender "Right I''m going to change my gender back to normal!¡± Eden proclaimed in front of Alexandra and Viv. Looking slightly stunned Alexandra dripped some of the water she was drinking from her mouth and Viv raised an eyebrow at Eden. Right now they had rented out a room to use in a tavern so they were not disturbed. ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Alexandra asked, his words confused her at the very least. From what she remembered Eden at some point turned into a female and then turned back to normal while she and Viv weren''t looking. What the problem was something she did not understand. ¡°Eden are you having another delusion about your gender again?¡± Viv asked as well thinking the same thing as Alexandra. ¡°No!¡± Eden shouted, ¡°As long as I change my gender, all those guys hitting on me will stop!¡± ¡°I don''t think that will ever stop¡± Viv replied with Alexandra nodding while grinning. Angered Eden shouted, ¡°Don''t you two understand what I''m talking about?! Just last week several lolicons tried to pick you up!¡± Alexandra looked interested in Viv and then asked, ¡°Did the really happen?¡± fully intending to listen in on this interesting thing. Viv looked up at Alexandra and then asked, ¡°Didn''t a couple of guys also do that to you?¡± ¡°Wait when did this happen?¡± Eden now asked as well. Alexandra let out a giggle and then said, ¡°Don''t worry, I wasn''t the target that time, it was you. Plus they were the super macho type as well.¡± Eden vomited a bit of blood daring to think about it. He with the last bits of strength muttered, ¡°Please...never mention that again.¡± Patting him on the back, Alexandra said, ¡°Don''t worry...you know that I will only do so to entertain myself.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden was having a lot of thoughts on their marriage. It had only been a year since they finally got together and it was something that he rather not remember as thinking back there was a string of stupid mistakes everywhere. ¡°What are you thinking now¡± Alexandra asked wondering what was with the expression on his face. ¡°Considering the state of our marriage...¡± ¡°Hahaha, no need to worry. I think only you can withstand my ''playing'' without breaking¡± she said with a grin. ¡°That is something I''m not happy about...¡± Eden muttered a bit red. He had to remember what Alexandra was doing to him before... ¡°Can you two stop flirting and get back to the point¡± Viv said in a cold voice as if to say ''All you riajuus can just die!'' ¡°R-Right...!¡± Eden replied along with Alexandra at the same time. Eden took out a book and opened it on a page and said, ¡°According to this, there are more genders besides male, female and neutral.¡± ¡°So...this is somehow help you?¡± Alexandra asked not sure what was the point. ¡°The point is that I can change my gender to be something other than my current one!¡± Eden said excited to be rid of this troublesome gender called ''Hideyoshi''. Due this gender not only do other people aside from Alexandra and Viv strangely enough think he was female, his charm increased to an extremely high level and furthermore there was this strange light whenever certain parts were revealed. This made it difficult even for him when Alexandra strips him all of a sudden sometimes....though he rather not remember those times at all. ¡°Anyway I made a couple of these spells since for some reason I can''t learn the spell not matter how many times I try to recreate it using ''All Creation''¡± he continued to say, ¡°I have ten tries since I ran out of resources to make these spell papers.¡± Eden took out ten strips of paper with a magic circle drawn on them. ¡°Let''s try it this time...the effects are random unfortunately¡± he said a bit cautious. ¡°Umm...¡± both Alexandra and Viv looked worried as if they knew this was a bad idea. ¡°Anyway gender transformation!¡± he said letting the strip of paper to glow and send out lots of smoke everywhere as he changed him. Poof! ¡°Cough cough, what happened?¡± Alexandra asked fanning away the smoke to see what happened to Eden. Did it actually work?
Gender has changed to: Meatbun
"What is this soft texture my skin turned to?" ¡°E....Eden....?¡± Alexandra muttered in disbelief. Viv was so shocked that his jaw dropped to the ground and was staring at Eden as well. ¡°So, what do I look like now?¡± Eden asked though Alexandra was about to burst out laughing and Viv was now starting to giggle as well. Frowning, Eden looked down and noticed that his waist was awfully round...and wide. ¡°Give me a mirror¡± he said immediately to the two wanting to know what the hell happened. ¡°BUHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!¡± Alexandra started rolling on the floor unable to breath due to too much laughing each time she saw Eden. ¡°Whaaaaaaaaa???¡± Eden screamed seeing himself in the mirror. He was...he was....he was.... ¡°Eden, you are a meatbun¡± Viv said without mercy crushing Eden''s soul into pieces. His appearance was like a mascot of a giant meatbun with a large body like one and thin and think stick like limbs that would normally be impossible to lift him up. Furthermore his eyes were large and on the rest of his body as well...he didn''t have a neck anymore and his mouth was where his stomach was which was very wide... ¡°....¡± Eden took out another strip of paper before Alexandra decided it would be nice to ''eat'' him. ¡°Gender Transformation!¡± he shouted again causing the smoke to appear and change his body once again. Poof!
Gender has changed to: Big Breasted Futanari
¡°Cough cough...Eden would you change, that form was ''perfect''¡± Alexandra said mocking him but her jaws dropped when she saw Eden with the smoke clearing away. ¡°Why does my chest fill heavy?¡± he asked looking down to see that he couldn''t see his feet again. Upon seeing this, Alexandra walked over and grabbed his chest...which were large and jiggling everywhere as he moved. ¡°Why are they larger than mine?!¡± Alexandra demanded in the most serious tone Eden had ever seen her with. ¡°Like I know!¡± Eden checked ''it'' down there and noticed that he was a guy...with giant boobs now... ¡°Damn why are you a woman and with a larger chest than me¡± Alexandra shouted, ¡°Change I will never...actually this feels quite nice¡± her expression changed to one who was having fun instead. ¡°Stop...fondling....me...¡± Eden could not help but to moan a few times which in turn made Alexandra more aggressive. ¡°What the hell is this?¡± Alexandra grinned continuing getting into it, ¡°What size are you now? F? G? Or is it H? Damn I envy you!¡± ¡°Al...¡± Viv suddenly said, ¡°I think you should check down there as well¡± pointing at a certain spot. Looking at that spot, the grin on Alexandra''s eyes began larger and her eyes sparkled with a dangerous light to Eden. She immediately grabbed ''it'' which caused Eden to flinch and then whispered in his ear, ¡°Now what do we have here you dirty-¡± WHACK! Viv hit Alexandra on the head and in a cold voice, ¡°Leave your flirting where I can''t see it.¡± Even though she was hit by Viv then, Alexandra was in a good mood since her ''toy'' suddenly upgraded into something better...with boobs as well! ¡°Right!¡± she said looking at Eden on the ground panting, ¡°Eden''s let''s get to a private room and have some fun~¡± However Eden had other ideas since he felt that something very dangerous was about to happen and as such he took another strip of the paper and shouted, ¡°Gender Transformation!¡± causing smoke to appear in the room again as he transformed genders. Poof!
Gender has changed to: Tentacle Monster
Suddenly Eden felt that the heavy weights disappeared from his chest...though there was a slight other problem here. ¡°Eden why did you change?! I want-what the heeeeeeell?!¡± Alexandra let out a short scream as something wrapped around her body and removed her armour one by one without her consent. As the smoke cleared it was revealed that Eden was normal...except that his arms were replaced by tentacles now...and they were all around Alexandra forming into things that you would only see in certain places with ''Tentacle Rape'' content. ¡°Umm....¡± Eden muttered with a red face, ¡°I can''t control these...¡± ¡°That''s a problem now!¡± Alexandra shouted at Eden with all her armour removed and now having her clothes slowly being stripped off with those tentacles going at places where she would normally only allow him to without Viv looking at them. ¡°Viv...this is...¡± she looked at Viv and was a bit shocked that he made a half disgusted and half amused face on. ¡°Help me!¡± she shouted loudly. Seeing this Eden''s tentacle arms quickly moved into her mouth and started...doing things. ¡°Viv, take one of the strips and use it on me!¡± Eden said quickly seeing how this will go...if Alexandra gets addicted to this then...he would be the victim in the end. Moving quickly Viv dodged the tentacles and removed one of the strip and shouted, ¡°Gender Transformation!¡± and used it on Eden. Poof!
Gender has changed to: Head-Genitals Swap
The tentacles that were ''restraining'' Alexandra disappeared and she was dropped to the ground panting a bit. ¡°I can''t breathhhhhhhh!¡± Eden shouted though he sounded like it was muffled by a piece of cloth. ¡°Eden...?¡± Viv asked instead of Alexandra who was not paying much attention right now. As the smoke cleared it was made apparent what changed this time... ¡°Oh dear~¡± said Alexandra in a fake shy manner. ¡°Damnit use the spell againnnnnn!!!¡± Eden shouted from his trousers. ¡°Genital...I mean Gender Transformation...¡± Viv uttered using another strip of paper with the spell on it. Poof!
Gender has changed to: Self Roasting Clam
¡°What the hell is this?!¡± Eden screamed the moment the spell changed him again, ¡°I''m...Cooking!¡± ¡°Buhahahahahhahahaa!¡± Alexandra started laughing again seeing Eden when the smoke disappeared. Instead of his body there was a large shell in the room now and he was inside it with something heating up. Hence the name self roasting clam as he was literally being cooked here right now. Unable to bare it any longer, he shouted, ¡°Viv! Hurry up and change me again!¡± ¡°....¡± However there was no response from Viv and Alexandra as well. While Alexandra was rolling on the floor laughing again, Viv was trying to restrain himself from doing the same as well. The scene of Eden being trapped in a shell and was cooking was too funny to bear. ¡°Help me!¡± Eden screamed again. ¡°Hey Viv...buahahha...how long do you think until Eden is ready to eat?¡± Alexandra jokingly said. Howeve Viv was serious and answered, ¡°Another couple of minutes at this rate. He will be ready when he stops screaming.¡± ¡°Now is not the time for jokes!¡± Eden screamed yet again. ¡°I was being serious though¡± Viv answered seriously without any remorse of his words. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°....¡± There was a brief silence and then Eden shouted, ¡°Alexandra! I don''t want to be cooked and eaten by Viv! Heeeeeeeelp!¡± he plead to Alexandra of all things. ¡°Right, Gender Transformation!¡± said Alexandra using one of the strips of paper again. Poof.
Gender has changed to: Erotic Lamb
¡°What the hell is this?!¡± said Eden looking at himself. While he was no longer roasting in a shell, he was quite disturbed to see that his hands were replaced by these large...fluffy mat like things...and that his chest was being covered by a strip of thin white wool. And...that he had horns and only a but more white wool to cover his privates down there as well... ¡°Ha...ha....ha...¡± Alexandra seeing Eden looked at him greedily. For some reason she started acting this way when she saw Eden after the smoke cleared. ¡°Haaaaaaaa!!!¡± Alexandra leaped on him and started ''attacking'' him all of a sudden with hearts on her eyes like she was processed. ¡°What the hell is going on?!¡± Eden screamed in fear right now. Viv then commented seeing what was happening and said, ¡°I seems that Alexandra is under the ''charm'' status right now...if not for my resistance to such things I would be on you as well....¡± in a sad tone like he was missing something out. ¡°Damnit!¡± Eden tried pushing Alexandra off but with her strength stat it was an impossible thing to do no matter what. ¡°Where are you licking me?!¡± Eden shouted noticing that something wet was rubbing against his skin at certain places. He looked over to Viv for help but found him in a state of resisting the ''charm'' status that Alexandra was under. Viv was slowly moving to him with the same eyes that Alexandra had. ¡°Tch!¡± Eden took one of the paper strip while Alexandra was still licking him and shouted, ¡°Gender Transformation!¡± Poof.
Gender has changed to: Rare Herb
¡°....¡± Eden looked a bit stunned at the message in front of him. It was not something that he expected at all. ¡°Yuck! Bitter!¡± said Alexandra while coming back to her senses. He rubbed her hands quickly on her tongue and got off Eden. Meanwhile Viv was glowing seeing what Eden had become. Eden also looked at himself. Instead of being flesh and blood he was more...tree than that. His arms, legs and the rest of his body were covered and vines and flowers but underneath he knew that there was some human form somewhere. ¡°What happened to me?¡± he wondered. ¡°I''ll tell you what happened¡± Viv said with his eyes glittering, ¡°You have become my new best friend. No offence Al.¡± ¡°A lot taken and why?¡± asked Alexandra while determining what was with his sudden change to Viv''s attitude to Eden. ¡°Because...¡± Viv stared at the single flower that bloomed at the centre of his chest, ¡°That over there is an extremely rare and extremely valuable flower in which is almost extinct and is considered...legendary to find.¡± ¡°Why do I feel like something bad is about to happen?¡± Eden asked knowing what this will probably lead to. ¡°The only problem is that when I pluck that flower¡± Viv drew closer to Eden, ¡°You will die almost instantly or in a few seconds. One or the other.¡± ¡°Okay then¡± Eden nodded, ¡°Not going to let you do that.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The two stared at each other and then at the moment Eden moved to snatch one of the strips of paper left, Viv moved to pluck the flower off Eden which will ultimately cause his death. When Viv was about to touch the flower and thus harvest it, Eden who already had the strip of paper shouted, ¡°Gender Transformation!¡± Poof.
Gender has changed to: Eternal Loli
BANG! Viv charging into Eden knocked both of them to the wall as the smoke came and went. When it all cleared, Eden noticed that everything was suddenly a lot bigger than he remembered a few moments ago. His arms and legs were shorter as well and he saw Alexandra looking at him strangely.... ¡°Don''t tell me...¡± ¡°Kyaaaaaaa!¡± Alexandra let out that girlish scream which was unlike her completely and then raised Eden into the air easily while almost glowingly smiling at him. ¡°Pu me dwn!¡± Now that he shouted he noticed that his voice was a lot higher pitch and also not as solid as he remember as if he was stuttering on some words...like a child. ¡°So cute~!!!¡± Alexandra wrapped herself around Eden''s body and nearly crushed him using her massive strength by accident. ¡°Lut me go!¡± he shouted again but that only caused Alexandra to rub her cheek on his rapidly. When Viv came over all he did was pat Eden on the head as well which was a strange feeling like everything was going calm.... His face relax for a second but then Alexandra said, ¡°This is perfect! A cute Eden to be with!¡± Suddenly Eden realised if he stayed like this he would be treated like a child for the rest of his days and those days would be very long to him. The thought of Alexandra and Viv together taking care and doting on him was horrifying to him at the very least. He got the sudden strength to break through Alexandra''s grip and ran, tripped and rolled his way to the strip of paper all while Alexandra looked at him with glowing eyes forgetting that if he got there then the ''cute'' him would disappear. ¡°Gendar Transfomaton!¡± he shouted with his undeveloped mouth. Poof.
Gender has changed to: Man Face Baby
¡°You got to be kidding me...¡± he muttered as he realised his limbs somehow got even shorter. As the smoke disappeared, the originally happy expression on Alexandra''s face turned into disgust. ¡°What kind of...thing is this?¡± she asked drawing her sword to finish Eden off now while she still could. ¡°Wait!¡± Eden shouted, ¡°What the hell happened to me?!¡± Viv could only comment with, ¡°Normal face on baby.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Hurry up and kill me now!¡± he shouted realising the terror of what he was now. ¡°Roger that! Sword-¡± Alexandra was about to use her skill here but Viv jumped on her arm and said quickly, ¡°If you cause damage here, we have to pay for it! Besides we have one more of those strips of paper to change Eden again!¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra in the quickest he had ever seen her took the strip of paper and then used it on him, ¡°Gender Transformation!¡± Poof.
Gender has changed to: Male Alexandra
Feeling that his limbs were back to normal, Eden stood up as the smoke disappeared and then noticed the gasping faces of both Alexandra and Viv again. He sighed and asked, ¡°What happened now?¡± ¡°Well...¡± Alexandra with a mix of a blush and guilt, ¡°You look like handsome!¡± ¡°Yeah you do!¡± Viv replied as well. Eden was feeling positive right now and turned to look at the mirror. While in his normal clothes, he was a healthy looking and yet a bit thin young man with short black hair and a handsome face...that looked exactly like Alexandra''s. ¡°.....¡± Eden''s eyes twitched a bit and he fell into despair banging on the floor. ¡°Damn! All of this to turn out as a male Alexandra!¡± he shouted almost crying. It was too sad...in the end he became a male copy of Alexandra. Even if he would become a male version of someone, it had to be one of her. Being married to someone with the exact face was not something Eden enjoyed now did Alexandra as it seemed. More to the point he would see her every time he looked at himself now. ¡°What now....?¡± Viv asked not knowing what to say. ¡°No idea...¡± Eden was out of energy right now. His eyes looked at Alexandra and then fell back to the ground. ¡°Isn''t there a way to change gender without using that spell? Like that gender changing potion you mentioned in the past¡± Alexandra said quickly trying to bring some hope to Eden. ¡°All gone¡± he said, ¡°Plus I don''t know the recipe nor anyone who can make one.¡± The three pondered for a while thinking of a way out of this... ¡°If only...¡± Eden started saying, ¡°there was a way...to chance all of this...¡± [Thou have heard thy prayers] ¡°You got to be kidding me¡± Alexandra muttered seeing a...divine being descend onto the mortal plane. Light brown hair that was even on both sides that reached the shoulder and was completely naked with that thin and delicate body that could be either male or female. Light mysteriously shone on the private parts as well... [Thou am Hideyoshi, the God of all Hideyoshi] ¡°....¡± Eden, Alexandra and Viv jaws if not attached to the rest of their faces would have dropped to the bottom of hell by now. A God...a God was here... Just to make sure Alexandra took her sword and swung at it to which it mysteriously missed. ¡°Yep a God all right. Only one can cause me to miss like that¡± Alexandra comment with the Hideyoshi God nodded his(her) head. Turning his(her)head back to Eden it spoke. [Thou have heard a prayer and thou shall receive!] A flash of light occurred where Eden was standing and he started shouting in pain. He felt like his body was changing...into something familiar. When the light disappeared and Eden stood there...naked and back to normal.
Gender has changed to: Hideyoshi
Opening and closing his hands in front of him he remembered this feeling. [Thou prayer have been granted] Eden stared at the Hideyoshi God and it stared back at him. Two beings completely naked with mysterious light protecting certain areas on their body looked at each other and nodded. One disappeared back to where ever it came from and the other looked at Alexandra and Viv. With a sigh Eden said, ¡°Now I''m back to square one...¡± ¡°Please put something one¡± Viv said noticing that Eden was naked right now. Eden let out a laugh and said, ¡°Why should I? This mysterious light always appears when ever I''m naked.¡± ¡°Actually...¡± Alexandra muttered blushing red really hard, ¡°Ever since I took...we....the light no longer appears for me. ¡°....¡± Realising the meaning of those words Eden and eventually Viv turned red as well as Eden shouted, ¡°Damn! I need some pants here!¡±
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - This is an extra chapter of what I thought would happen if Eden tried to change his gender~ - This is also one of the reasons why chapter 10 took so long as well~ Vol.6 Prologue - To Stall for a Year Another 6-7 months passed since the beginning of the attack from the three powerful enemies that came with the ''Trial of the Emperor'' as well as the tournament that a certain group won. With Eden and Alexandra focusing on stalling as much time as possible they managed to keep them away from the capital city of the entire Kingdom to this point. Keeping them from there was impossible though. On the other hand, Viv was also at the capital city dealing with something else. In order words a trap for those three exceedingly strong foes. However it was not like the entire player base did not notice these three beings coming at the kingdom head on and...winning. There was a massive outcry when a sudden army of ghost knights and demons appeared slaughtering everything in the way. Over a dozen times, players have organised for a force to take them out only to die in the end against an endless supply of enemies. Head on attacks failed, large scale magic failed and even assassinations against these three beings failed. ¡°Is it done yet?¡± Weed asked impatient. Everything in the plan was relying on this moment. Viv snorted and then said, ¡°I finished a month ago. It''s only because two stubborn people had to stall them for a month longer than they should have that the damage piled up longer.¡± Weed glared at Eden and Alexandra since they caused trouble again. While Weed was wearing his usual gear of the shabby kind, underneath he was wearing some expensive and powerful armour just in case....though it was strong for level 600 player and not those near level 900. At this point dying was more of a pain than losing some equipment at that level for Weed, in fact the ''powerful'' and ''rare'' level 600 equipment he was wearing could be equal to the shabby armour he always worn in the past when he was much weaker. Plus losing the war and battle right now right now would be even worse than losing every scrap of money he had on hand. Eden looked into the distance using ''Divine Sight'' and then saw three figures again. They had completely emptied out the capital city which was a very hard task to do. However at the same time it wasn''t so empty. There were still a hundred thousand elite knights, ten thousand elite archers, ten thousand elite mages and other units that in the end totalled to a hundred and fifty men and women to use in this upcoming battle. Plus behind them were another hundred thousand normal players that wished to protect this place on their own. ¡°Weed you do know most of those guys will die quite tragically right?¡± Eden had to ask to make sure. Weed shrugged and said, ¡°Most of them are players so it''s fine. The real elite NPCs were used to take care of the people who had to leave the city.¡± ¡°What of the new players then? Don''t they still have that restriction place on them that prevents them from leaving the city?¡± Alexandra asked next though she really didn''t care. ¡°Since a long time ago, new players were prevented from starting out in the capital. It was too unfair and crowded so that option was disabled¡± Weed replied again though he smiled evilly and added, ¡°I was given a lot of compensation from Unicorn when they had to, for the sake of the balance of the game.¡± ¡°....¡± The trio could only sigh at Weed. The so called compensation was nagged out of Unicorn by Weed when he had the chance. Forcing the most powerful company in the world to his whims...Weed was not originally at all even for them. Though this was coming from seemingly immortal creatures that cannot be deleted or removed as they were part of the Goddess AI and the game in a sense and that Goddess AI cannot control them as well since they were originally players as well. ¡°They''re around...an hour away from the city¡± Eden finally said as he noticed that ghost army that equalled to the hundred thousands and 72 large demons appeared to attack. ¡°Should we use long range attacks?¡± Viv asked. Weed nodded and said, ¡°Lure them in and make sure they don''t know what is happening until it''s too late.¡± Alexandra at that moment looked around and asked, ¡°Where''s Seoyoon? I would think she would try to protect you at any rate.¡± Weed frowned and then said, ¡°She is taking care of family.¡± Alexandra grinned knowingly of what Weed was talking about but didn''t say anything about it. There was only one reason why a woman would stop playing the game for at least a while. ¡°Alexandra, stop daydreaming and help with the attack. Your Holy Light will be useful against the demons at least¡± Eden said already gathering mana to turn into lightning for a giant ''Lightning Shower'' spell. Alexandra looked to her other side and found that Viv was preparing a large scale dark magic spell as well which she knew to be ''Hell Drop'' one of the few ultimate spells Viv knew and used. Sighing that there was little chance for a close combat round with that Kyoshiro swordsman, she gathered holy light in her hand and prepared to use ''Divine Missile Strike'' which was just a large blast of Holy Magic in an area. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Since you three are fine here, I will be commanding the troops from afar¡± Weed suddenly said leaving the three in the mist of preparing for a large scale attack each. ¡°H-Hey!¡± Eden was quite startled when Weed ran away. Rather than leading the troops he was more likely waiting for the trio to do most of the hard work for him and finish it off in the end. ¡°Eden, focus. We can deal with what Weed wants later¡± Viv reminded him. Eden sighed and Alexandra let out a dry laugh as all three of them used their attacks at once. ¡°Lightning Shower!¡± ¡°Hell Drop!¡± ¡°Divine Missile Strike!¡± Three things happened. First was Eden''s ''Lightning Shower'' which were thousands of lightning bolts falling onto the enemy. The second was Viv''s ''Hell Drop'' which was basically a giant rock...an asteroid falling down on them. And the third of Alexandra''s ''Divine Missile Strike'' which was a missile made from Holy light that came from Alexandra and struck at the enemy as well. BANG BOOOOOM BANG BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM BANG BANG BANG BOOOOOOM!!!!! A series of explosions happened as the landscape was completely shattered by their attacks. Even though they were only on the level 800 point, it was them at their level 800 point which was still quite very powerful. xXx An hour passed with the initial attack being responded with many attacks from the enemy side as well. As Weed said, he led the troops into the enemy and fought before retreating due to them being too powerful and otherwise being told that the trap was fully in place now. Right now, most of the army that Weed led was dead or injured to some extent, as three certain beings walked into the halls of the Imperial Palace, a place that no enemy managed to get into since the unification of the Kingdom decades ago. ¡°Where is it?¡± the Fallen King by the name of Arthur asked noticing that Eden and the other two were hiding for an ambush. King Solomon also looked around and then said, ¡°From the energy it give, looks like that is it. The Holy Grail...or one of them.¡± At the end of the hall was a golden cup that had barely any features. It was just a plain cup but at the same time it was one of the most important items in the game given to Weed to protect during the ''Trial of the Emperor'' not that anyone knew other than him. ¡°This feeling...¡± Kyoshirou said, ¡°Protective barriers? I will cut them down!¡± With a slice of his sword, the many many and I mean many layers of protection barrier surrounding the entire Imperial Palace was cut apart like it was nothing. However at the same time, the Trio grinned. ¡°Thanks for doing that~¡± Eden said amused seeing the surprise of the three enemies. All of a sudden their movements were completely restricted, unable to move and talk. The trio dropped down in front of them and started saying a few things. ¡°The barriers you broke were only a part of a much large one that surrounded the entire region. It took me half a year to make it¡± Viv explained with a pride tone. ¡°Yeah and getting you here wasn''t so easy¡± Alexandra pointed out, ¡°We need to make even you think we were resisting with all our might. Well...we actually were so no tricking you there¡± Finally Eden spoke up and said, ¡°During our investigation of you three, a common name popped up. The ''Warrior King''. Whatever that is, it is what will appear after you lot right? Whether you succeed or fail, it will appear.¡± Eden looked at the Holy Grail and then said, ¡°Therefore since doing either is a bad idea, we will use the third option. Seal you away until we find out everything we want to know.¡± He clicked his fingers and space distorted at the location to which the three beings stood. Eden didn''t even look at them when he said, ¡°Don''t worry. With your powers, you will be out in at least a year.¡± Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang! The sound of space snapping into place, sealing the three could be heard from the entire Kingdom as the battle ended.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Prologue is up...chapter 1 is around halfway done. Was kinda waiting until my day ended to post this since I didn''t want to post this and that extra chapter next to each other. - If you didn''t notice it already, there is a good long time skip to the beginning of this volume. More on that next chapter. Vol.6 Chapter 1 - Time Passing And so seven months passed since the tournament which was an eventful time period which also marked the 2 year mark since they had started playing Royal Road. Since that time, they had reached the level 150 point in their character development. To be precise, all of them passed the level 150 point with some having one or two levels at maximum higher than the others due to the increasing experience requirements to level up. Since then, the three that didn''t gain a title yet recently which were Sain, Raven and Shadow also gained new ones as well after various events. The charge of beasts that gathered under the ruler-ship of a giant boar, the tracking of a money launderer that stole from many and the towering block against a giant ancient golem that threatened a village. Sain now had the title ''Unexpected Leader'', Shadow with ''Silent Stalker'' and Raven with ''Unmoving Tower''. Due to all of them gaining a new title, the old ones effects were replaced as well but for the better.
Unexpected Leader Something that seemed like a side character and yet is actually a person that is the main star of the show! Those who process this title will be unexpectedly good at leading others due to their ability to see beyond the norm Leadership +20 Ability to command other +20%
Silent Stalker A dark being that has no hesitation to cause grief and torment in a target. In the day or night, the target will be tracked no matter what. The person stalking in question can blend into crowds itself and this title is proof of it. Agility +20 Stealth is 15% more effective
Unmoving Tower With great strength and endurance, a person with this title can take on a large beast without moving. Strength, balance and endurance are the three things that are used to block attacks and only when they are perfected, this title is granted by taking down a large beast. Endurance +20 Damage taken while blocking -20%
The titles that they gained during their first month in the game only increased all of their stats by 1 and another effect as well. But with these better titles, the effects of them are much better as well although they lost a slight bonus to other stats in the end. As such the group was not at all sad that they weren''t able to get the effects of their past titles...though according to what they found, there were titles that still had an effect on you even without it being the ''active'' one. These were usually negative titles but there were a few like the ''Bookworm in Training'' title that Miriel gained early on as well that were the same. These titles are insignificant individually but when stacked up are extremely powerful. Other than that, their fame increased by around 200 points each in this 7 month period. As such their status windows were as such now. [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 152,Level: 151]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Unexpected Leader,Title: Silent Stalker]Fame: 835,Fame: 820[/quart][quart=Health: 5887,Health: 5456]Mana: 2487,Mana: 994[/quart][quart=Strength: 187 +30,Strength: 182 +46]Agility: 202 +60,Agility: 526 +70[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 181 +24,Intelligence: 15 +13]Wisdom: 181 +48,Wisdom: 15 +13[/quart][quart=Vitality: 196 +13,Vitality: 175 +13]Stamina: 93 +16,Stamina: 115 +16[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 60 +21,Fighting Spirit: 70 +21]Endurance: 27 +13,Endurance: 23 +13[/quart][quart=Leadership: 17 +33,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 9 +13,Luck: 35+23[/quart][quart=Offense: 237,Offense: 245]Defence: 81,Defence: 50[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 150,Level: 150]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Unmoving Tower,Title: Bomb Maniac]Fame: 810,Fame: 810[/quart][quart=Health: 9993,Health: 5828]Mana: 1044,Mana: 1924[/quart][quart=Strength: 340 +59,Strength: 347 +45]Agility: 200 +25,Agility: 230 +20[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 15 +18,Intelligence: 171 +41]Wisdom: 20 +18,Wisdom: 17 +16[/quart][quart=Vitality: 341 +58,Vitality: 185 +13]Stamina: 125 +21,Stamina: 100 +16[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 65 +26,Fighting Spirit: 66 +19]Endurance: 50 +38,Endurance: 30 +12[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5+18,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 5 +18,Luck: 7 +13[/quart][quart=Offense: 370,Offense: 144]Defence: 430,Defence: 86[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 152,Level: 152]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Tournament Winner,Title: Born of Blood]Fame: 1025,Fame: 830[/quart][quart=Health: 2609,Health: 2295]Mana: 4172,Mana: 3768[/quart][quart=Strength: 20 +30,Strength: 19 +47]Agility: 179 +50,Agility: 196 +30[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 492 +59,Intelligence: 338 +23]Wisdom: 179 +35,Wisdom: 348 +48[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 22 +28,Fighting Spirit: 22 +24]Endurance: 20 +23,Endurance: 20 +13[/quart][quart=Vitality: 30 +23,Vitality: 30 +13]Stamina: 70 +26,Stamina: 65 +28[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5 +23,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 5 +23,Luck: 7 +13[/quart][quart=Offense: 56,Offense: 59]Defence: 84,Defence: 59[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
Concentration: 40 +22Concentration: 49 +13
Seeing this the differences between each member of the group was becoming more apparent. Raven''s health is at the top with Miriel and Serena''s health at the bottom with the rest having roughly the same amount. As for mana, Miriel and Serena were at the top with Sain and Lyndis at the middle and Raven and Shadow at the bottom of that list. Stat wise, the group had barely gained any due to them not doing particularly straining activities like fighting hordes of enemies for hours. Another thing to note is their skills window. Over the last 7 months there had been some progress but nothing like the giant leaps and bounds that came with Viv helping them train their skills and spells. [third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (15/100) - Nature Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (15/100) - Mediation Beginner level 8(19/100) - Mana Burst Beginner level 3 (12/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Intermediate level 2 (470/2600) - Moderate Health Regeneration Beginner level 3 (1450/2900) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Intermediate level 1 (1351/2400) - Moderate Stamina Regeneration Beginner level 1 (1450/2500) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Language Comprehension Beginner level 3 (17/100) - Blood Burst Beginner level 8 (877/1500) - Root Bind Intermediate level 4 (522/3000) - Heartbeat Healing Intermediate level 1 (59/100) - Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100) - Poison Removal Beginner Level 2 (88/100) - Health Restoration Beginner Level 7 (85/100) - Poison Coating Beginner Level 5 (167/900) - Blessing of Strengthened Night Beginner (10035/100 000) - Blessing of Invisible Torments Beginner (8734/100 000) - Blessing of Eternal Suns Beginner (2500/100 000) - Leaf Slicer Intermediate Level 1 (221/2500),- Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (19/100) - Whip Mastery Beginner Level 7 (24/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Beginner 6 (32/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Beginner 7 (22/100) - Barrier Magic Mastery Beginner 5 (32/100) - Ice Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (13/100) - Magic Control Mastery Intermediate 1 (32/100) - Mediation Beginner level 8 (12/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 5 (63/100) - Identify Beginner level 3 (12/100) - Mana Bolt Intermediate level 1 (52/2400) - Clairvoyance Beginner level 7 (1056/1300) - Melody of Sound Intermediate level 1 (730/2500) - Cracked Barrier Intermediate level 1 (1020/2400) - Fortified Barrier Beginner Level 3 (333/2900) - Shriek Beginner level 9 (199/1700) - Ice Bolt Intermediate Level 4 (60/3000) - Ice Burst Beginner Level 8 (345/1800) - Freeze Beginner Level 5 (111/900) - Ice Barrier Beginner Level 8 (91/2200) - Sound Tunes Variation Beginner Level 6 (11/1300) - Muffletone Beginner Level 4 (23/700) - Glacier Strike Beginner Level 5 (91/900)]- Sword Mastery Intermediate 2 (72/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Intermediate Level 2 (28/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 5 (25/100) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 4 (154/700) - Fire Blade Intermediate level 3 (873/2800) - Life Burn Beginner level 5 (380/900) - Power Strike Intermediate level 2 (440/2600) - Speed Strike Intermediate level 2 (470/2600) - Power Stance Intermediate level 2 (460/2600) - Speed Stance Intermediate level 1 (310/2400) - Precision Stance Intermediate level 1 (355/2400) - Burning Touch Beginner Level 7 (622/1300) - Flame Strike Intermediate Level 1 (523/2400) - Sword Dance Beginner Level 9 (310/1700) - Fire Bomb Intermediate Level 1 (513/2400) - Bandaging Beginner Level 8 (12/100) - Flame Coating Beginner Level 5 (18/900)[/third]
Skill Window
[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Intermediate Level 2 (84/100) - Shield Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (55/100) - Shield Bash Intermediate level 2 (121/2400) - Double Strike Intermediate level 2 (353/2600) - Footwork Intermediate level 2 (544/2600) - Repair Beginner level 9 (572/2500) - Ram Beginner level 9 (85/100) - Shield Parry Intermediate level 1 (61/2400) - Spear Parry Intermediate level 1 (657/2400) - Body Reinforcement Intermediate level 3 (15/2900) - Anchor Howl Beginner Level 9 (240/1700),- Dagger Mastery Intermediate 3 (651/100) - Stealth Intermediate Level 9 (74/100) - Hearing Intermediate level 3 (59/100) - Dark Vision Beginner level 5 (35/100) - Night Vision Beginner level 5 (88/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 7 (25/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 7 (42/100) - Backstab Intermediate level 2 (881/2600) - Double Strike Intermediate level 1 (674/2400) - Climbing Intermediate Level 1 (89/100) - Become Mist Beginner level 4 (16/100) - Burst Speed Intermediate level 3 (225/2800) - Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100) - Pin Point Hearing Beginner Level 5 (26/100) - Shadow Step Intermediate Level 1 (127/2400)]- Compressed Magic Mastery Beginner Level 7 (15/100) - Mana Control Intermediate Level 2 (75/100) - Spear Mastery Beginner Level 8 (22/100) - Identify Beginner level 4 (70/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 6 (20/100) - Mana Bolt Intermediate level 3 (355/2800) - Mediation Intermediate level 1 (8/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 5 (4/900) - Minor Heal Intermediate level 3 (822/2800) - Moderate Heal Beginner Level 5 (215/3300) - Weaken Intermediate level 1 (1046/2400) - Bursting Will Beginner level 7 (50/100) - Wolf Summoning Beginner level 5 (47/100) - Magic Arrow Intermediate level 2 (923/2600) - Water Fill Beginner Level 5 (164/900) - Iron Skin Beginner Level 8 (75/100) - Swift Legs Beginner Level 8 (75/100) - Berserk Fury Beginner Level 8 (75/100) - Poison Removal Beginner Level 2 (21/100) - Paralyse Shot Beginner Level 9 (132/900) - Poison Shot Beginner Level 9 (479/900 [/third]
Skill Window
There were several new skills and spell that they had learnt during this time as well. Miriel gained these two spells, one of them which she made in the tournament. She had been working mostly on training her various mastery skills as she had seven of them.
Glacier Strike Beginner Level 5 Created ice at the ground to shoot up at an angle at an target. The impact will cause the target to fly away with the possibility of stunning if not knocking them unconscious. Mana Cost: 100
Fortified Barrier Beginner Level 3 Create a sound barrier around the target that will block damage and disappear when the barrier''s health is depleted. Damage Blockable: 1500 Mana Cost: 150
On the other hand Serena really only gained some spells due to the next stage of it unlocking.
Moderate Health Regeneration Beginner Level 3 Heals 1300 Health over a total of 100 seconds or 10 Health per Second Heal: 1300 Mana Cost: 50 Mana Cool Down: 20 Seconds
Moderate Stamina Regeneration Beginner Level 1 Heals 1000 Stamina over a total of 100 seconds or 10 Health per Second Heal: 1000 Mana Cost: 50 Mana Cool Down: 20 Seconds
As for everyone else, they had gained no new skills or spells due to them only using their current ones. In terms of progress most skills and spells that are at least of the Beginner Level 7 range would increase to the Intermediate Level. Skills and spells under that are increased by a range of 4-5 levels in the intermediate and those already in the intermediate levels increased by a range of 2-3 levels. xXx Coupled with the girls of the group, they were now fairly well known in Lily City for good and bad reasons. But at the same time they did not desire this at all. Because of this they were in their current situation. Sain was racking his brains out trying to think of a way out of this right now while the others kept watch of anything that may come near. ¡°Damn did they find us again?¡± Shadow whispered to the others. He was hanging on the side of the building they were on and had a better view of everything else on the ground then the rest of the ground. Right now the group was strangely enough in an alley way to which was due to a certain quest they were doing. ¡°Shadow are there anyone nearby?¡± Sain asked having an headache on what happened recently. Before this, they were chased by a dozen players all trying to drag them down shouting for information, money and the quest itself. It was quite a frightening sight that would make you lose faith in people. The decent ones at least backed away when asked to, they almost had to cause a massacre in the middle of the city. ¡°Remind me again how we got into this situation?¡± Miriel asked as well with a slight accusing gaze at Sain. The group knew that this problem began with Sain...though did not end with him. To this, Sain had to sigh and said, ¡°Because I wanted to get some materials from a quest that would be quite useful in making a better weapon for me to use. I didn''t know that it happened to be a rare quest that lots of people seemed to want in on.¡± It was indeed a rare quest but not an unique one. There had been similar quests that popped up before and the rewards were posted online which meant anyone with the right mind who knew of this would want in with the quest. ¡°Yes, perhaps next time you should tell us if a quest would result in every player from under level 200 to try and leech off us else try to steal the quest from us!¡± Lyndis almost shouted with stress. ¡°Shhhh!¡± everyone else stopped Lyndis from shouting where they were. There were two ways of gaining quests in the game. The first was the traditional way of getting it and so on. The second way was something that is considered a bad taste though acceptable at times. It is to steal the quest from another player. With enough fame and contributions to the faction that gave the quest you can take the quest from a player after killing them and gaining information and collect the reward when you complete it. Naturally this would not work if the quest had been already completely since that would just be reaping other people''s rewards. You need to do it while they are on the quest itself. ¡°It''s not like you helped as well seeing that YOU were the reason that the other players knew that we had this quest¡± scorned Shadow, ¡°You and your big mouth was actually the main reason we''re hiding here in the first place!¡± Lyndis looked away a bit at his words. Actually it was mainly her fault that they were chased around so early. With a quest like this, information being slipped was inevitable and as such they would have been chased already. However being chased while being unprepared was something else since Sain did not complete the preparations with Alena after accepting the quest a few hours ago. They were chased after they reached some of the lower layers of the city from Alena''s place. Seeing the nothing was going on now, they were waiting for the right chance, Shadow finally said, ¡°Anyway I''m going to check the surrounding area for a bit¡± while disappearing into the night with his stealth skill. Nearing the Advance levels, he was able to slip into buildings without notice as well. Now all he had to get was a pickpocket skill and lock-picking skill and he was the perfect thief not that he would admit to such a generic class. ¡°Sigh...¡± Sain started remember the events a bit... Listing down the events that happened...first it was him with Raven talking to a local blacksmith about some arrangements for Raven to train his ''Repair'' skill. He was very close to the Intermediate Level and thus could learn the ''Blacksmithing'' skill soon after. However to do so with this blacksmith which one of the higher rates of experience gain under him as said by Alena you need to do a favour for him. As such it turned up as a quest. Sain accepted a quest didn''t think much of it. He told the others about it and headed to Alena to tell her about it as well. When Alena heard of this, she paled and made some preparations immediately. And then Lyndis talked about it a bit somewhere else which attracted the attention of certain players. This led to numerous players trying to get the quest as well and the group decided to run away. In Sain''s inventory was a map to the location of the quest. The quest itself was simple but the reward was something else.
Locate the Magitite Ore Given the map from an old blacksmith, find the mine and collect the ores for the blacksmith to use. Quest Rank: C Requirements: Level 150, Fame +800 Reward: Magitite Ingots or Weapon made by Magitite Ingots
From what Sain could tell with some research, Magitite was a material used for lightning based magical weapons and it was considered a high class item for those under level 400. The quest rank itself wasn''t high since it wasn''t so difficult but the mines location was the real prize here. Another thing was that the damage factor into a weapon made by one was high enough that warrants such weapons being sold for a hundred thousand gold. The main reason for this was the passive effect of increasing mana and mana regeneration. Along with this was that the damage a weapon made with this material would have double the attack of his current spear which was high quality but made from common materials in the end. Plus judging by the content of the reward on the forums, he could make his new weapon a custom spear that doubled as a staff as well. ''Well in the end I could just sell it if it doesn''t work that well...'' he thought as well if the quest reward didn''t go as well as he thought. ''Miriel would be very happy if I did sold it though...'' Sain smirked a bit thinking about it. Thankfully since it was dark they couldn''t see his face right now which would make thing awkward for him. Naturally this attracted certain players that wish to get the material for selling later on and certain blacksmiths that want to quickly improve their blacksmithing skill due to the fact that higher quality materials will give back more experience in blacksmithing. As such this quest and the material itself was something that was highly craved for. ¡°There are too many people around¡± Shadow said returning. Hearing this the rest of the group sighed. This meant that the chance that they would get out of the city would be too low to even try now. ¡°S-Should we l-log out?¡± Serena suggested to the others. Sain considered this and really did not want to since it would waste time...but at the same time it looked like the only choice right now. ¡°Yeah...I think we do¡± he finally said seeing that there was only a low chance of things going right currently. With that the group logged off the game and back into reality. xXx ¡°Waaaaaaaaah.....¡± Peter let out that sound as he exited the game. His body was quite stiff if not for his real body not moving but also his virtual body being stiff as well when he logged off. Peter was quite tired when he got out of the capsule. It was mainly due to the fact that recently he had been in the game too long without sleep that he was in this state. The reason for this was simple, he wanted to train his skills a bit more. ¡°I guess there still won''t be many chances to train some more...¡± he muttered under his breath. The increase in the group''s skill level dramatically decreased with time, no it was the increase in the requirements to increase the skill levels. From the intermediate level point in a skill or spell, it would take the equivalent of 3-4 levels of the late beginner levels. ¡°Speaking of which...we got another quest...¡± Ever since the tournament, the time they spend on training decreased and the time they spent running around the place and doing different quests increased. In the last seven months, Sain and the others had probably done around 30 or so quests in total which would each take up a few days to weeks to finish. They were things from hunting some monsters in certain areas to protecting merchants from bandits and monsters alike as they travelled. Such quests were low on experience compared to the extremely difficult Guild Quests but they did give some good rewards on occasions especially if they were a chain quest. These results were mainly in gold and less so in materials and items. Even those items and materials were of no use of them so they sold most of them elsewhere since they were lower quality goods most of the time. The real reward for these large number of quests was the increased relationship with the NPC and the city itself which granted them a small discount here and there. Plus they gained some interesting information such as rumours at the same time and access to other quests. Right now, adding onto the amount they had before the tournament and gained due to it, the group has around 7000 gold in storage, safeguarded by Alena. Even for a level 200 player, this amount of gold could get them a good set of armour and weapons to use. However this was split between a group of six so in reality it was more that they had a little over a thousand gold each. ¡°With this quest...we should try to hunt a bit in the mines...¡± he continued to mutter aloud to himself. According to the some sources, the monsters there are in the level 150 range. It could be a good chance to clear it out in around a month and gain around five levels as a result. Ten straight months of doing this, hopping to other stronger dungeons, the group could be able to reach level 200 and have some time to spare as well. ¡°Is everyone all right? You all are awfully quiet right now...¡± Peter heard Maria say in a long strained voice. It did not, Peter noticed, have the usual loud and energetic feel to it that she would normally have whether they were in a pinch or just relaxing. To be honest it was quite annoying at stressful times. Getting out, Peter saw Maria stretched her arms and then proceeded to see if the others were all right with a bit of a hurry. ¡°Just verrry tired so shut it¡± Ian replied as loud as he could when Maria came to him as well after checking with Hina, Grace, Mark and himself. ¡°Ian there are other people in this dorms sleeping you know. Don''t talk so loud¡± Peter had to remind him walking towards him as well. ¡°How can you continue to talk so much like this?¡± Ian had to ask with a surprised tone. With no response from Peter there was a sigh coming from Ian the conversation was cut off there. Eventually one by one, the rest of the group gathered on the sofa and chairs that were around the room and slumped on there. They were gathered in a circle facing each other. Most of them were droopy looking with some of them falling asleep and watching one moment to another. Peter himself was one of the most affected since he had the least amount of sleep out of everyone accounting for many things. What happened around in the game, what places would be good to train at, what skills and spells that they should learn, the classes and their advantages and disadvantages and so on were on his mind. Most importantly were of the guild related stuff and what Eden and the others planned with them. These were the things that were on his mind most of the time. ¡°Damn I am too tired to talk right now....¡± Ian muttered wishing to sleep right now. Peter felt the same way but his sense of responsibility to the rest of the group was too much for him to sleep. Hina sighed and said in a sarcastic tone, ¡°We DID run around the city for an entire half day without rest...I guess the strain is getting to us right now.¡± Peter nodded. They did run around the city for that long and in the end was forced to log off to escape. However once again, since this was something important, Peter reminded them, ¡°We still have school tomorrow as well...¡± he looked outside the window and it was night...around 12 am to be precise of the clock was correct. They could just rest in the game for a day but seeing that it was not a wise idea right now, they had to do so in reality. ¡°There are 10 hours...¡± Ian thought about it for a second before continuing, ¡°Until that homeroom thing starts...don''t tell me you want to attend it¡± Ian said surprised at Peter''s ability to want to go to school. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°I think we should¡± Peter said bluntly. ¡°Do we have to?¡± Maria has to ask. ¡°Besides that combat class that Alexandra hosts for us I don''t think there are any classes that we should take at all¡± Hina said however Peter said, ¡°There are other classes on Royal Road there as well. History lessons and otherwise that might be useful as well.¡± ¡°Which we have researched beforehand already¡± Hina interrupted, ¡°Those classes that they give are just a waste of time which is why we don''t even attend them.¡± Peter pointed out, ¡°But not all of them though. There are some classes that might be useful. For example there are VR classes on production classes that allows you to practise out of game with in game features.¡± ¡°....¡± Hina thought about it for a bit and then said, ¡°Speaking of production...are we going to pick that up as well? I mean Mark intends to learn blacksmithing when he gets his repair skill high enough right?¡± Mark nodded. ¡°Aside from blacksmithing, there is tailoring, sculpturing, fishing, mining, enchanting, writer, painter, alchemist, scholar, weaver, jewellery, carpentry, architecty, merchant and so on, I think some of us should pick one up later on¡± Hina suggested. ¡°Personally I would take up being merchant to get the discount on money and such but unfortunately it is nearly impossible to get the skill without changing class to one¡± Hina further explained. Hina waved her hand while looking bored and continued to say, ¡°As for the other professions, maybe one or two of them are worth the effect but they are highly specialised in that they would take too much time to train. Basically it would be nice to achieve one of them in our spare time.¡± Thinking of this some more. she looked at Mark first, ¡°Fishing which grants a good bonus to health and some other stats as well when it reaches the intermediate level.¡± ¡°True but it would take a few month of non stop fishing to get it to that point and besides there isn''t exactly a good stop nearby to do so. Plus it would be extremely boring and a waste of time to do so¡± Ian pointed out rejecting the idea of Mark fishing for that long that only that. ¡°Or we all could do so at the same time and get those bonuses¡± said Maria a bit hopeful on the idea. ¡°¡°¡°No¡±¡±¡± Peter, Hina and Ian all rejected that idea quite quickly. One person wasting his time on this activity was one thing but the entire group doing so no matter what benefits it might give so was another thing itself. Plus with more people fishing there is a slower pace of experience gain in the production skill itself at a single location which gives even more problems. In other words it was something that would be taken as a hobby instead. Plus Mark would take up blacksmithing first. ¡°Fine then¡± Maria said seeing the reaction of the others, ¡°I''ll take up fishing on my own then.¡± ¡°Wait¡± Ian stopped to stare at Maria, ¡°YOU want to take up fishing?¡± ¡°Well...¡± Maria was a bit hesitant, ¡°Other than moving my body a lot, I do have a thing for staying still and can''t always be known as a sword freak to the rest of you.¡± ¡°I don''t think that will help anymore¡± said Peter thinking back at the last two years where she had been only focused on the sword. She had proven quite a number of times that she was quite used to the heat of the battle and even more so to violence. However at the same time it would be nice that Maria was not always acting like she wanted to pick a fight continuously. ¡°But if you want, make sure that you don''t drag your performance down with it¡± Peter advised to which sparked an argument from Hina to not waste time altogether. After a few more minutes of them arguing on various things of what to do in the future, it was decided once again for the nth time that it would be best to let it go as it goes. With this, the six retired to the night. xXx ¡°This is KMC news and we are live on report on the Imperial Palace that after recent events and including an evacuation of the city itself¡± said a good looking reporter. The group did not pay much attention on her but the news she brought instead. ¡°Since yesterday, we have been given reports of a large scale army of unknown origins invading the capital city and the Imperial Palace itself. The Emperor Weed was not present on questioning but...¡± The news continued to say several things like who might be the cause of these events, the effects it will have on the rest of the continent and what could happen later on which was purely rumours on their side. Peter brought the controller and switched channels several times to over Royal Road news channels as well. All of them were reporting the same thing. The last line was one particularly catching. ¡°Is this the fall of the Invincible Emperor Weed?¡± xXx The next day the group did not enter back into the city immediately when they woke due to fears that they may be still chased. It would be better to take some time off for once since it seemed that they were spending too much time in the game. ¡°Come on, let''s go¡± Peter reminded the rest of the group again after breaksfast. As such they had no reason not to go to homeroom. The thing was that the number of times they came to Homeroom increasingly decreased as time passed and the last time they came was a week ago and the time before that was a month ago ¡°I see that you decided to appear again¡± Lisa said seeing them after entering. There were a few stares towards them but they mostly ignored it. Because of this fact it was quite uncomfortable for the group to have Lisa, the homeroom teacher to raise her eyebrow at the appearance of the group. It had just been two months since school started and yet they missed out on half of it. ¡°Anyway for this homeroom I have to direct your attentions to some things that happened in recent times...¡± Some time passed and what Peter at least got from it was that there was a slight increase in fees for the school to pay for some new equipment. Otherwise some classes will be shut down due to no members attending. This would mean around a third of the classes will be shut down unless there are any students attending them. Eventually they were called to their combat class with Alexandra. But before they got into the VR space where physical damage did not really matter, she had some words to the group. Unlike homeroom, they did come to every class here for good reasons. The first was that the class was useful to them in fighting overall. The second reason was that if they did not, Alexandra as their guildmaster would not be very happy. Plus the girls at least got along with Alexandra well enough. But right now there was something else going on. ¡°You guys really need to attend some other classes other than this one¡± she simply said to them. It was a statement that they did not want to hear after Peter was saying that a couple of times throughout the last few days. Most of the group groaned and Hina said, ¡°You sound like Peter here....¡± ¡°That''s because I told Peter to plant the idea in your heads early on since you insist on missing so many other classes¡± Alexandra took out a terminal and then showed the group several pages. There were their names and also a list of classes that they were enrolled in. All of which aside from this one, they didn''t go to. Plus there were lists of other students as well with similar circumstance. Flicking through it Maria asked, ¡°What is this?¡± ¡°The students that will be cut off by the end of the year.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°And...we are...¡± ¡°Very close to it right now¡± explained Alexandra, ¡°You need to attend some other classes...even if it is an easy one. There are many classes that cater to certain skills in Royal Road. For example a blacksmithing class, Tailoring class or Cooking class to attend.¡± ¡°So...me and Maria can attend the cooking class then?¡± Hina suggested to which Maria nodded. ¡°Blacksmithing class¡± Mark said thinking about how it could be useful later on. ¡°This really sounds like a pain to do...¡± Ian muttered with a sigh. He really did not want to part take in this. ¡°Well you can take an Alchemy related class since you said something about that before¡± Hina said with a cold tone. ¡°I heard how difficult it is to learn the skill though it would work well with the ''Botany'' skill that I gained as well¡± Ian said. ¡°Or you can take lessons involving Royal Road again with Eden and Viv. Both of them actually have their own classes and they can pass you if there are things you have to do in Royal Road¡± Alexandra suggested. ¡°...Wait, those two are teachers as well?!¡± Peter was quite surprised on this. Viv was a guidance councillor and Eden was the chairman after all. ¡°Eden teaches history as in history of the continent in Royal Road while Viv looks at the applications of classes, skills and spells at certain circumstances. Both quite useful to you all and with some people are attending them, they more or less have free time to do so¡± Alexandra said with a grin on her face. It would at least make it so that she did not need to report to the two of them about the state of the group in front of her. It would lower her stress level a bit. ¡°Anyway I''ll talk to those two about this since you guys are part of the guild. Honestly taking these two classes as well, all you need is another class to fill up the empty slots. You have another 3 months until finals to which should be simple¡± she further explained. ¡°However if things goes wrong for the first time, Eden can probably take care of it¡± When Alexandra said that, the group was a bit reminded about the time of the tournament. ¡°I want to ask....¡± Peter started to say, ¡°Did you know about how Eden can...¡± Alexandra looked at Peter with understanding and then said, ¡°Yes all of us knew. However at which point to say, you usually learn about the time you reach level 200 in which case Eden or me or Viv comes to explains the new duties that you have. You still currently have the ranks of recruits in the guild do you not? When you reach level 200 you get promoted to regular member and thus the safe and boring days are over~¡± ¡°Then if we are unable to-¡± ¡°Rather than focusing on that. Focus on now and now you need to learn how to better use your weapons. Due to recent events we still have a year to do things.¡± ¡°A year?¡± ¡°Well there are two things that will probably happen in a year in game or rather 3 months in this time speed. One of something only certain people know and is related to the recent commotion at the capital city and the second is that you guys will probably reach level 200 by that time.¡± ¡°You mean the news that the capital city of the kingdom was invaded and it fell or something along those lines?¡± Hina had to ask. ¡°Fallen?¡± Alexandra was surprised, ¡°What do you mean fallen. We repelled the enemies for now though they will come back in a year. Took 6 months of planning and stalling to get this result.¡± ¡°All of the news stations are saying the same thing¡± Mark explained. ¡°Hmm...¡± Alexandra thought about it for a bit and muttered, ¡°I need to get a talk into those guys then...¡± before focusing back on the lesson itself. Right now the group was at the stage where they were sort of competent on hand to hand combat and moved onto armed combat with their choice of weapon. Not much of a surprise, they were rapidly getting better at using them since they also used those weapons in game. With this thought in mind, Alexandra worked the group harder than usual. xXx By the time they got back into the game, it was morning and they appeared at the same alleyway that they came out of. ¡°You think we still have to sneak out?¡± Lyndis asked in a low voice just in case. Miriel nodded and then said, ¡°Most likely. It has only been a certain amount of time so some people may remain. I suggest we change into something less...attention grabbing¡± she pointed at the equipment that they wore. However the problem was that they did not have much equipment that they could wear instead of their current ones. They were stored away just in case which was a mistake at this point. But at the same time Sain took out some cloaks and passed them around. ¡°I asked Alena to give some a while back just in case¡± he explained with eyebrow raised. ¡°Why didn''t you give this to us before?¡± Shadow asked. It would save them a lot of trouble before. Sain shook his head and said, ¡°There was a good chance to be caught even with these on. This can really only hide the flashy stuff we have on and most of our faces. It will also be hot underneath as well and six figures running off like this into the night is super suspicious isn''t it?¡± ¡°Anyway¡± Miriel started to saying putting on the cloak that was quite...unpleasant to the fashion sense of humanity, ¡°How long should it take for us to get to the mines?¡± ¡°Well...¡± Sain took out the map. ¡°According to this it is located up north, a week''s worth travel on carriage to get there. There is a town nearby as well but it is a three day walk from there. I think we should catch a ride to that town then leave from there to avoid people questioning where we are going.¡± ¡°Hmm...what''s the town''s name?¡± Shadow asked. ¡°Moonight Town, a place that has a strong luna energy¡± Sain answered. xXx Sneaking out of the city was easy, too easy to the point that the group questioned a number of things since almost no one was searching for them. There were only a couple of players that stuck to trying to find a hint of them but they avoided those kinds of players like everyone else like the plague. ¡°That was easy¡± Shadow muttered following behind Sain and the others. He felt quite disappointed recently as there was barely any interesting things going on where they had to risk things to get to the end, but on the other hand he liked it since the stress levels were falling down. He was walking next to Serena which was a strange thing since she didn''t try to run away the moment he comes too close. The problem was that she still did that when he tried to talk to her which leads to another conversation with Lyndis and Miriel about how he treats her, therefore he didn''t in the end though he could tell that she was fighting about something. ¡°Speak already¡± he simply said and nothing more to it to Serena. ¡°....¡± As though she not hear him Serena continued on without saying a word. This had happened before in the last couple of months when he tried to talk to her. ''Well...at least she''s not running away completely from me now...'' he thought with a sigh seeing the low goals he had at this point which was very very sad to him. ¡°Don''t say things so blunt¡± Serena replied after a while which was a large surprise to Shadow. If it weren''t for the fact that he was sure that it was indeed Serena who was next to him, he would have thought that it was a prank or some monster in disguise to get his guard off. ¡°You are actually speaking to me...and not shuttering?¡± Shadow had to question her. ¡°....¡± Serena made a face full of strain and after a while said, ¡°Takes time but in short sentences...¡± she stopped again for a few moments making the same face and then said, ¡°Able to speak...with you fine...¡± ¡°Hmm....¡± Shadow found this interesting. It looked like Serena was making a real effort that everyone did not notice on trying to speak to him. ¡°Well I guess this is better than the shuttering all the time..though from what I gathered from Miriel and Lyndis you are fine with them. What about Sain and Raven then?¡± ¡°Raven fine..doesn''t speak...Sain...speaks too much...¡± Shadow let out a small chuckle at the thought of Sain hearing those words and having part of his confidence crushed even though it was a bit cruel. Other than that it was interesting that Serena''s speech patterns to him are either extreme shuttering or extreme gaps in talking. xXx An hour passed since the group left the city. Since they, as they determined that there was really no use on wearing the cloak anymore since there doesn''t seem to be anyone following them, they took them off. ¡°That was way to hot for comfort...¡± Lyndis muttered even though she was a fire user and therefore must have some resistance to it. ¡°These cloaks are quite cheap and I got them in a hurry¡± Sain said explaining the main reason, ¡°Otherwise I might have gotten some that had a better cooling feature.¡± He started looking around. There were now in a populated place in which merchants would stop by first before heading to Lily City. There were a number of merchants, new and old, trying o barter for a few more coins and many leaving and coming from many places. Searching through the crowd, Sain eventually found one merchant that was transporting some materials to Moonight Town. ¡°Aya, there is really no need for you to come with me and pay for it as well¡± the fat merchant said, ¡°There is little danger in going to Moonight Town. In fact I would pay for your services in other circumstances.¡± ¡°Don''t worry about it¡± Sain said handing over 10 gold to the merchant. For merchants, guards were of the highest importance as they themselves have little to no fighting skills. For a group of level 150 player like the group the cost to hire them would be around 50 gold for a week''s trip. Furthermore adding onto the fame the group had, this amount increased to around 70 gold instead. Basically with Sain handing over some coins the merchant is saving 80 gold coins in total with this. However there was another interesting thing that Sain noticed. There were two more groups like them though both in the level 100 range instead that this merchant hired. Sain greeted them for a bit as the others looked around as well. ¡°Nice to meet you, I''m Sain, level 152 Shaman¡± he said to the two leaders of the other two groups. One of them were a brawly looking man, a Barbarian who said, ¡°I am Lowne a Level 103 Warrior.¡± The other person was a young female mage that honestly looked a bit average and chubby saying, ¡°I am Mise, a Level 98 mage.¡± With that each of them introduced their team-mates to the rest of them. Naturally as some of his own group''s classes were...strange or out of the norm, but Sain decided it was fine to tell them. On the brawly man''s side there were two more warriors and two clerics and finally a mage as well. It was quite an unusual combination that focused very much on the physical attack side. From what Sain could see, the mage only played a secondary role for ranged attacks at time. On the mage''s side, it was the opposite where there were another cleric and 2 mages in the team with an archer and a warrior in place as tanks as well. It was the opposite of the other team where they focused on the ranged attacks rather than close range attacks. Sain found that the merchant intentionally hired these group since they could work well in certain situations. It was a smart move not to completely have balance teams when you can hire cheaper more specialised groups that can''t get more jobs due to their teams make up. Some more time passed and there were a total of five carriages in which the merchant had. The merchant himself sat at the front leading the rest of them. The brawly man''s team was split between the first carriage and the third carriage, the mage''s team was split to the second and last carriage and finally their group was gathered onto the fourth carriage. ¡°Okay then, let us go!¡± the merchant said to his drivers which led bulls rather than horses due to their larger stamina, health and endurance but not in speed. xXx And so a week passed on the carriage with nothing much happening. Most of the group, at least Sain, Miriel and Serena took this chance to further train their magic skills during this week. As for Lyndis, Shadow and Raven, they were doing their own things. Or rather they took this chance to relax more than the others or help out when the other two parties were in a small crisis. The level of monsters in the area to Moonight Town was quite low to the group but was of the right level for the other two groups. It was around level 70-120 towards the later when getting closer to the town. Most of the enemies were common wolves, goblins and some giant spiders on the way. Wolves and Goblins attacked in packs which usually meant that everyone had to help out else a carriage might be damage but the giant spiders were different. ¡°More Spiders!¡± one of the players shouted with cold sweat. Most Giant Spiders hunted alone and as such when one died, most of the time, another did not appear. But when they did not... ¡°There''s a swarm of them! Help!¡± another player cried. At this point the group could not stay back and let the others die. The bulls were also startled by the appearance of so many foes. ¡°Let''s do this!¡± Sain said, ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Bang! Bang! Bang...! A total of 10 Magic Arrows were shot out by Sain. Upon reaching the Beginner Level 10 point, he could fire only 5 of them at once but when going to the Intermediate Level, this doubled to 10 of them at once and the mana cost decreased from 20 to 10 and the cool down was at 3 seconds instead of 5. His attack made holes in several of the spiders but the their numbers...around 20 or so, they would be overwhelmed immediately. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Lyndis fired that skill out above the carriages which melted some of the web that was quickly covering them all. Meanwhile Miriel was buffing the other parties and then themselves so they wouldn''t die. ¡°Backstab! Burst Speed! Backstab!¡± Shadow on the other hand was chaining up his kills by hitting the critical point of a giant spider and then leaping to another one and doing the same over and over again. Several more minutes passed after this when the giant spiders stopped coming. ¡°Damn I really hate these spiders even if they are weak...¡± Miriel muttered. The appearance of the spiders caused many people, mostly the girls to refuse to fight for a while at least when giant spiders were involved. ¡°Yeah...that''s true¡± Sain muttered in reply. He thought he felt a tiny bit closer to Miriel thanks to that fact though the cause wasn''t so...noble. Sain himself almost lost it before when a pair of them grabbed him and strung him up in the air in web where Shadow quickly cut him down and Lyndis willingly burnt them the web and the spiders into pieces. ¡°Ha...ha....are they all dead?¡± one of the warriors asked. He was completely covered in web and took the time to rub it off their armour. ¡°Thankfully¡± one of the mages said in reply though there was no need to. As for the other two groups, their teamwork was kinda rough but it was similar to the themselves a while back. The warrior based group was as expected quite explosive in short battles especially against all kinds of foes that had little to no defence. With three swords coming down on them and clerics and heal them up, they are able to sustain themselves for a long battle. The mage based group was the opposite. They were better on long battles where they can cast multiple powerful spells at once near the end of the battle. Three strong spells and even the group with a 50 level gap could not go through unhurt. In terms of damage potential, this group was much higher than the other. Because of this, the group did not need to interfere that much as they knew that fighting would give them experience and with their level, there would be little experience to gain from such ''weak'' monsters. The time on the carriage was spent in peace due to these facts. xXx ¡°Thank you for letting us ride on the carriage¡± Sain said to the merchant once again. A little red in the face to the kind gesture, the merchant said some words of encouragement and then left to sell and later buy things and go back to the area around Lily City. ¡°See you later¡± one of the mages waved at them leaving. The thing was that all of the mages in that group were female which caused Miriel to glare slightly at Sain when he waved back. Ignoring her look for the moment and Lyndis'' giggle at the scene and Shadow''s sigh, Sain proceeded to say, ¡°So should we go to the mines immediately or stay a bit to see what this place has to offer?¡± But before anyone could answer, a battered knight on a half dead horse came rushing into the town. ¡°What''s going one?¡± ¡°An event?¡± ¡°That person is hurt!¡± The murmurs were countless as the battered knight eventually came up to the group and Sain in particular. ¡°Thou are part of an Independent Guild...?¡± the knight asked with his life slipping away. Noticing this Sain immediately casted ''Moderate Heal'' but the wounds wouldn''t close even with Serena and several other clerics from the warrior group. In the end Sain had to say, ¡°Yes we are part of one.¡± ¡°The emblem...¡± the knight muttered. Sain realised that the knight wished to identify which Independent Guild they were a part of. He took out the pitch black emblem and showed it briefly to the knight. To this, the knight smiled and said his final words. ¡°Danger comes to this town...the wronged have come back for vengeance....in three days....¡±
Defend Moonight Town from the Dangers that comes to harm it! The unknown knight, on his last breath has warned you and the other people of the town of a danger that comes to harm this town for vengeance. It is unknown what kind of foe but in three days there will be some sort of attack. Lead and help the defence of this town Guild Quest Rank: C Restrictions: - Moonight Town must survive the attack - The threat must be eliminated
You have accepted this quest
A Guildmaster of your Guild has approved of accepting this quest, reinforcement will arrive in 5 days
¡°What....?¡± There were many things Sain wanted to ask right now but now was not the time.... Everyone was now relying on him on what to do.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9100~ - First chapter which I finished a bit before posting so there hasn''t been any major editing here so point out any mistakes. I think I missed a few things here and there... - Anyway this is the third Guild Quest that the group has done/is doing in the series.. Vol.6 Chapter 2 - Moonight Town Siege ¡°Hey Sain, what is going on? Why did we just accept a Guild Quest?¡± Miriel asked not sure on the message she and the others just received. Unknown to them, all players in the town and area nearby also got a quest to aid in the defence of town. ¡°....¡± Sain was looking at the dead knight. There were bite marks everywhere and he most likely died of bleeding rather than anything else. However there were no fatal wounds which contributed to this fact as well... ¡°Sain?¡± Miriel was a bit worried that he was going off in his own world again. Focusing too much was a problem itself. Suddenly there was a call from Eden to him.
Eden: I accepted the quest so don''t worry. Guild-masters have that power. Reinforcement will come in five days, the person is called Alice. Make sure to use everything and everyone to defend the town and lead them if possible.
¡°....¡± Sain was thinking of what Eden just said when...
Eden: Another thing is...
¡°Sain?¡± Miriel called again cutting off what Eden said though Sain could figure out what the message was. ¡°Yeah...what?¡± Sain focused suddenly on Miriel''s voice and noticed that they were getting a lot of stares here and there. To the side there was an elderly man that was most likely the elder and leader of this town. ¡°Are you the town elder?¡± Sain asked. The man nodded and said, ¡°I am and you have just accepted, no were obligated to accept the request from that knight. What is going on?¡± Sain took a breath in and summarised what he knew so far which wasn''t much. ¡°Basically there will be an attack on this town in three days. The foes are unknown...but from the wound of this man there are many humanoid creatures...goblins, imps perhaps? The time period of these attacks are unknown but my Guildmaster had told me that reinforcement will come in five days.¡± ¡°Five days?!¡± the elder exclaimed, ¡°And what will we do in the two days we are attacked?!¡± ¡°Well there are around...how many people in this town?¡± ¡°Population is 1000. With you freemen it increases to 2000.¡± ¡°Well we have 2000 people to work on defences. The three days will be spent reinforcing the town as much as possible. Other than that, there should be people who should scout out and find whatever killed this knight...I have a bad feeling about this.¡± ¡°Right then...¡± the elder turned to several people and in a hurried voice started talking rapidly on what is to be done. After a minute the elder turned back on Sain and then asked, ¡°Will you be leading the defence then?¡± in a hopeful voice. Sain nodded and said, ¡°Yes, my Guildmaster ordered me to¡± while holding up the black emblem that made the elder''s eyes widened to the point where one might mistake him for a strange monster. The elder naturally knew of Independent Guilds, who didn''t but not many knew that the black emblem was one of a S rank Independent Guild, the highest order. But at the same time the elder sensed that the group''s strength was not of one that level. ¡°Are you not...¡± the elder tried to say but could not in case of offending them. ¡°A bit too weak?¡± Sain let out a small laugh, ¡°Yes, we are just recruits at this point. The reinforcement person will be much stronger and will help when he or she comes.¡± With this the elder sighed in relief. ¡°By the way, I want to know the size of this town and places where we can cut off defending as well. Food supply and water supply is also something we need to keep track of as well and there should be a request to a nearby towns and villages for reinforcement and shelter as well.¡± ¡°Ah...of course¡± the elder almost bowed to Sain while leading him to the town hall. Meanwhile behind Sain and not taking part in the actions... ¡°Man Sain really changes when he gets command of other people doesn''t he?¡± said Lyndis always amused on how Sain can turn from one face to another to help people on coping with the situation. ¡°Please don''t remind me of that. Remember the dungeon raids from a while back....I feared that he almost turned back into ''commander'' mode for a while¡± sighed Shadow. ¡°Well at least he is focusing on something that matter now instead of...¡± said Miriel though she cut off mid way. ¡°What path to take?¡± Raven added. The rest nodded in agreement. While Sain did not notice it, he was actually quite picky and would over think things too much especially under stress. This continued to increased until one of them actually had to drag Sain out of that state to make sure he was on track on what he was suppose to be doing. It was one of the strange things about Sain that they noticed. xXx ¡°First of all cut off these parts of the city¡± Sain pointed at the map of the town. Moonight Town was a fairly large place to defend but had proper walls though not that thick and high. The area where Sain pointed at were outskirts which were added and made it so that the walls had were to be modified to accumulate them as well. There were some murmurs about this but it was generally accepted. However Sain continued on looking at the map which had details on buildings and what they did as well. ¡°Is there anything wrong?¡± the elder asked. ¡°....¡± Sain ignored him focusing elsewhere on where to cut off next. There were around 400 buildings in the town and only 30-40 of them were stores and other essential places and those were located quite a far a part from each other. The houses don''t matter to Sain at all, they can be rebuilt easily. ¡°Make the main defence around these area...¡± Sain moved his fingers around most of those buildings that he found to be important and more to the point sturdy enough to deal with the damage. ¡°My God! You cut the town in half with that! Whatever that comes will lie waste to our homes...our...¡± ¡°We do not have enough numbers to defend everything. Rather than a large loose defence, it is much better to have a smaller and tight formation where any sudden surprises won''t in the end cause the fall of this town!¡± Sain was acting slightly aggressive to the elder of this town and the others who were present here which were the owners of the stores and representatives of the rest of the townsfolk. There was many chatter about how Sain was insane and that they should kick him out. But in the end none of that happened since they knew that Sain had a commission, a Guild Quest to protect this place which meant that the Kingdom at least felt that it was not proper for this place to fall. ¡°Anyway there are many things to do. First of all is to make a general outline on where the defences will be. This will be the task of the first day. The second day will be spent reinforcing these outlines and the third when the attack will happen will be making any last second acts¡± Sain said at once in the end. ¡°And what of the supplies?¡± the elder asked as well wanting him to know enough not for the blame to fall on him, the elder. ¡°How much do you have?¡± ¡°It is nearing winter so supplies are higher than normal. We have enough for a month normally but in a siege...around a week at most?¡± ¡°Good enough though there will be a need to gather more after this, I think the Kingdom will supply this town a bit after this so no one starves to death¡± said Sain. The Kingdom''s number one policy was to make a world without starvation. As such there was an extreme amount of food being produced every moment on all corners of the place. And as a result the food prices have dropped and the demand of cooks has increased at the same time. It was a good time to be a cook in the game. ¡°Anyway for the materials needed to build the defences...¡± Sain muttered. He did not like this part of the plan. From what he saw there was no nearby quarry and the forest was already on the decline. ¡°We will need to take it from the town itself¡± he sighed saying this. There was some face of shock on the elder but he accepted it quickly. He had drew out an outline of the plan and gave it to Miriel to give to the other players. The area in which they had to protect was around 30% smaller than the actual town itself. This was mainly due to some essential buildings that need to be protected were spread out too much so he couldn''t help it. Furthermore with this decrease in area needing to protect, the actual length of the defences would be halved and as a result the density of the defence would be twice as normal than before as well. However even if they can''t get to that extent, there will be less time spent on creating and reinforcing walls through the town and more time for other tasks as well. ¡°Next is the alignment of the defences...there are a thousand NPCs here and a thousand players as well...can you gather some people that can lead them?¡± Sain asked. The elder nodded and the next minute some people appeared. From how he felt of them, they were around the same level as him, near the top in this town where most of the monsters were around the level 70-120 range. ¡°Does anyone know the rough estimate on the players class and levels?¡± Sain asked them. Several of them shook their heads but there was thankfully one that nodded and said, ¡°Of the thousand players, around 50 are level 150, 150 are around level 100 and the 800 left are under or equal to level 80. Half of the players are of the common warrior or melee class, a third are mages, the rest are archers or other classes.¡± Sain nodded to these words, it would be useful to know who he can send to their deaths without much impact. Other than that, of the NPCs, only around 200 of them were guards of around level 100 as well which meant he had 1100 people to use and 900 people to protect which is quite the number. ¡°Anyway...¡± Sain started to speak of what is to be done with the formation. ¡°Don''t station anyone yet but understand that there needs to be at least 10 people at each joint in between buildings. First start gathering wood and stone and stack them to make a small wall on these lines¡± he said. ¡°Yes!¡± A person ran to follow those instructions. ¡°At these points should the wood and stone will be placed first in order to quickly construct the walls later on. Move quickly since we only have three days to complete everything!¡± Soon enough the whole place was running with activity where both players and NPCs ran around the place to close up houses and lock doors. Pieces of stone were being stacked up each other in between buildings to make walls while people hurried left and right on gathering wood and other materials they can use to make the walls seem a bit higher and a bit thicker. Meanwhile Sain was rapidly giving orders... ¡°Group over there! Focus on making the walls thicker not taller! It will fall down on us if it is too high! You over there! Put those chairs back! They are too weak to be part of the wall! What the hell happened here?! Why are there no defence here! There is a great gaping hole in the middle of our defences here!¡± The power of nagging was extremely effective in making people move a bit faster. To help Sain, Miriel did the same on another section of the defences however the rest of the group did not have much to do in their roles. ¡°Oh yeah¡± Sain said suddenly as if he remembered their existence again, ¡°Shadow, Lyndis and Serena. Will you three head out and scout to see what the enemy is looking like. The moment you see them, come back here and report what they look like and what their numbers are about as well.¡± ¡°Right¡± Shadow nodded along with Lyndis and Serena pleased since they did not have to stack up pieces of furniture anymore. At the same time Sain had Raven help out with the constructions of the make shift walls. Upon looking at him, he noticed that the areas in which Raven was working at had a higher number of females there...whether it would be NPCs or players and that production was strangely higher there as well... ¡°Don''t tell me...¡± Sain muttered. He sent Raven to another area and the work of that area he was in plummeted while the area he was sent to sudden was faster than before. It looked like where ever Raven went, women followed and seeing a large amount of women, the men would naturally work harder than before. Sain smiled seeing this thinking on how to use this to increase work on certain areas...there are still a lot of gaps here and there and all of them needs to be filled in... xXx Shadow was moving with Lyndis and Serena through the forest in the general direction in which the knight came from. It had been around half a day or so since they started running and even Serena kept up with Shadow who was clearly faster than the other two. He had to slow down a lot to allow them to follow as well. He felt that it was quite annoying that he was being dragged down now. ''Why did Sain send them with me as well?'' he wondered though he half thought that Sain only did that to make sure that he would not die a bad death due to a surprise attack. Soloing was such a thing and the most common reason for death were due to unexpected events. ¡°Did he come this way?¡± Lyndis questioned someone on the side of the road. It looked like a farmer that was taking a break from work. ¡°Yes, to that direction¡± he pointed while Lyndis thanked her. There were some reports by the people that lived by the road where he came from and Shadow was increasingly worried that it was close to the mines where they originally were to go. Deciding to at least discuss it Shadow asked, ¡°What are the chance the enemy came from those mines?¡± While still running Lyndis responded with a question herself, ¡°Which mines?¡± ¡°The Magitite one. The one we were suppose to go to¡± he responded. Lyndis took a moment to think about it and then said, ¡°There is a good chance...I remember the map and there is only one mine in this direction.¡± ¡°Great, now we have to go through monsters to complete that quest as well. We better not get a third quest to do as well¡± Shadow said in a annoyed tone. Getting multiple quests was a stressful thing especially if they were closely related to each other. Even worse if the quests conflicted with each other, the punishment for failing a quest is always worse than the rewards that it could give. This was why people don''t accept any and all quests that they come through. ¡°Haha¡± Lyndis let out an amused laugh to this while Serena looked calm for the most part. While thinking of this, Shadow using his ''Pin-point hearing'' and ''Hearing'' skills, he heard some rustling that was not natural at all. He stopped and motioned for the others to do so as well. ¡°Hold up¡± he said trying to listen on what kind of creature could make these sounds. ¡°Enemies?¡± Lyndis asked again while Serena was alert for them. Shadow shook his heads since if they were then they would be attacked already. ¡°Don''t know yet...going to check it out. Make sure you are prepared to run like hell though¡± Shadow advised the two as he left. Hearing one nearby, Shadow moved and saw what was around. ¡°The hell is this?¡± he said out loud shocked by mistake. ¡°GOOOOOOORRRR!!!¡± Due to Shadow talking, the creature which looked like a zombie in all aspects though red in colour charged at him. He looked to see that there were countless other lines of them as well. They numbered at least in the hundreds if not thousands. ''This is bad Sain...we are completely outnumbered here...'' he thought deciding to retreating immediately. Rushing back he found that Lyndis and Serena were also under attack as well. ''This is bad!'' Leaping off a tree he dashed using ''Burst Speed'' and stabbed through one of these creatures through the back using both his weapons at hand and killed it sliding to kill another two quickly as well. From how easily they died they were quite weak to them but their numbers were a problem. ¡°We running away now¡± he said really not liking the idea that they are being surrounded by what seems to be fast zombies. To this, Lyndis cut down a few more of those creatures and said, ¡°Damn I was finally getting into this battle and...Serena hurry up with that spell!¡± ¡°R-Right!¡± Serena was a bit startled by Lyndis'' reaction at the creatures'' appearance but immediately chanted, ¡°The shadows lie deep into the darkness of light and beyond. The hunter of day becomes the hunted at night and the hunter of twilight hunts them both. Blessing of Invisible Torments.¡± The effects of ''stealth'' appeared for both Lyndis and Serena but not Shadow since his skill with ''stealth'' was higher than what the buff gave him. ¡°Let''s go¡± he said to the two already running away from a horde of make shift zombies...though he felt that they weren''t zombies at all. Zombies feared holy light and fire but didn''t even flinch at Lyndis'' fire skills...else their brains might have rotted early. ¡°What are you doing commanding me?¡± Lyndis asked in a coyed tone to Shadow bushing his arm a bit. ¡°....¡± Though she switched back immediately seeing Shadow''s expression, ¡°Would you rather run away now or continue staring at me?¡± she asked though when one of those creatures came near her sword arm flashed and the creature was cut in half instantly. Seeing this kind of thing, Shadow snapped back to normal and then sighed and then said, ¡°Let''s get to Sain so he can handle all of this own his own.¡± As such the three ran away from a horde of enemies quite easily without much effort. xXx Another half a day passed since the three came back to Moonight town and immediately they saw the difference from it was the previous day. Passing through the gate there were countless people moving about doing something though Lyndis really did not care what. What she knew was that they needed to know that the number of enemies were high, really high and that chances are, they will lose sooner rather than later at this rate. Getting to Sain was easy, just a few words on the guy who is shouting commands at everyone else pointed them in the right direction. ¡°Yo Sain¡± she said waving her hand to him, ¡°Got the news for you on the enemy~ though you won''t like it.¡± Sain hearing this placed whatever he was doing down and then started to listen on what Lyndis, Shadow and Serena experienced. ¡°Basically there are zombies¡± Lyndis explained with Sain raising his eyebrow at the explanation. He looked to Shadow for a better report. ¡°There are really zombies...though the fast kind....and I''m not exactly sure if they are zombies¡± Shadow said by Sain prompting him to which irritated Lyndis a bit, ¡°They are around level 70-100 in range and there are around...a few hundred to thousands.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± Sain asked. ¡°Well we were being surrounded by then but I am sure there are lots and lots of them that this¡± he pointed to the walls, ¡°Won''t last that long.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway, we can probably deal with that later...¡± Sain said, ¡°I want you guys to rest than help with some work tomorrow.¡± With that, the first day to the attack ended. xXx The second and frankly even third day was also similar in what happened during the first day as well. Some people gathered things to use. Some people built the shabby looking walls that would collapse in minutes and some people still lazed around seeing what could happen. And eventually the third day ended....with the enemy coming. A total of 1100 people were stationed at the make shift walls that were quickly made in a day and reinforced in the next two. The time was about dusk which meant that they only had an hour left of light before the night completely sinks in, which also means that their enemy will be stronger by 50% as well. ¡°Mages and archers prepare to attack...¡± Sain said holding his hand out to fire his magic as well. Next to him were Miriel, Lyndis and Serena who all could use ranged attacked. Nearby were also Shadow and Raven who were prepared to fight as well. This was just the usual for them, a battle with this level of intensity. ¡±GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!¡± ¡°GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!!!¡± ¡°GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRR!!!¡± The sounds of the enemies screaming while charging made some people take a step back instinctively. However the group did not since they had seem much more powerful foes and seen things that made them truly despair. Compared to that, this is a piece of cake. ¡°Attack!¡± Sain ordered. Suddenly, hundreds of attacks flew from the town and to the fast zombie like creatures that ran at them. Bang Bang Bang Bang....! Whether it was magic attack or arrows, they ripped through the zombies like they were paper. Blood spattered everywhere though it was hard to tell since the level of light was too low. After the first wave of attacks from the defenders, the zombies stood straight up and began to charge again. Then the second wave of ranged attacks happened and the same thing happened again though the number of enemies steadily decreased. ¡°Hey...did zombies always revive like that and were this hard press to kill?¡± Shadow asked Raven. Raven looked at the zombies and shook his head. Something was wrong. Passing through the parts of the town which they had abandoned, the onslaught of ranged attacks stopped to not further damage the town. Now the battle would go through on the make shift walls. ¡°Come on¡± Sain said brining the group with them to fight. Their role as well as the other players that were high level enough was to sweep the enemies from the walls as much as possible in a circle fashion around the place where they were attacking. With 50 players at that point, there were around 10 groups in total that would do this. ¡°The Night calls! The night that exist from the genesis of all creation pulls from the strength of all and no creature! Let the night shine darkly on you and being great strength to battle any and all evil! Blessing of Strengthened Night¡± Serena chanted.
Party has been buffed by ''Blessing of Strengthened Night''
All stats +10%
The Blessing of Strengthened Night was a spell that allowed the stats of anyone in the night or dungeon to have their stats boosted by 10%. While was not to compare to the 50% bonus monsters had, it was useful enough to offset the balance. Seeing this, Sain started to chant his buffs onto the group as well. ¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs! Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡±
Party has been buffed by ''Swift Legs''
Agility +90
¡°Melody of Agility! Melody of Strength¡± Miriel further chanted as well.
Party has been buffed by ''Melody of Sound''
Agility increased by 50% for 10 minutes
Strength increased by 50% for 10 minutes
With ''Melody of Sound'' increasing to the Intermediate levels, several things changed in the spell. The first was that Miriel now had the option of using two songs at once which capped the stat bonus to 50% and the second was that she was able to also give resistance to certain elements as well though there was no need for that here. Running quickly they soon found their first battle for the night at least. It was a fairly large group of around 20 of those zombies. They were rapidly breaking through the wall and there was no one defending at all! Were some of these people idiots? Even though there were more than one layer of walls, having a gap in one was a bad idea. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Either way, they had to eliminate the enemy in the end. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Ten bright arrows appeared and fired hitting several of the zombies killing most of them. Lyndis proceeded by charging in and cutting most of them to pieces finishing the battle. Surprised at the quickness of the battle Lyndis said, ¡°That was easy...¡± It was then that Shadow patted Sain on the shoulder and recommended, ¡°We should split up to cover more grounds.¡± ¡°...Fine. Since they are kinda weak it should be fine. Just don''t die¡± Sain said letting the others do their own thing for the moment. Right now he needed to find the idiots that ran from their post. xXx Serena was now on her own running away from around five of those zombie like creatures on her own. If anyone else were with her, she would be able to cast her spells more freely, but at the same time that was unnecessary since she was over 50 levels above these creatures. The difference in strength was already enough with her who did not have good close combat skills at all compared to the others. ¡°Leaf Cutter!¡± She turned and pointed her staff at the zombies causing leaves to cut through their flesh. Even though her power was more than enough to take them out, some of them still revived like there was a necromancer nearby acting. ''Is there one...? They don''t seem weak to holy light at all...'' Serena thought grimly. Perhaps they were a different type of monster that was related to zombies to look enough like them but different enough that they had some differences. Serena had heard that some zombies did not fear holy light but perished to them easily nonetheless. Unfortunately none of them in the group could use it so they had to resort to their own devises. Out of everyone, Lyndis probably had the easiest time since with her sword skills plus fire skills, she was extremely good at getting rid of them. Serena continued on using ''Leaf Cutter'' on the enemies that continue to increase as she ran passed them. As she went, she notice that there were still people on those walls that Sain ordered them to make fighting. AS the zombies climbed up they stabbed and kicked them down. ¡°Grow Root!¡± she chanted seeing that one place was having a problem causing roots to appear and drag the enemy down to the ground where she used ''Leaf Cutter'' several times to dispatch them in the end. Bang!
You took 311 damage
There was a sudden pain to her back as something bit down on her...hard. ¡°Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!¡± Serena started panicking at the pain. ''Ow ow ow ow, it hurts!'' she thought while at the same time casting ''Blood Burst'' as well causing the red orb to fly around all over the place. At the same time she used that iron claw on her right arm and crush whatever was biting into her. And after 10 seconds... BANG! A large number of things exploded into pieces, mainly the zombies and thankfully none of the humans. Her attacker went into pieces as well while she rubbed the part where she was bit. She hoped that she wouldn''t turn as well. Seeing this and healing herself using ''Health Restoration'', she sighed seeing that she was still unable to be cool at those moments. ¡°I wonder when I can get stronger...¡± she said lonely into the night. She wished she had someone to talk to at this moment, even Shadow. xXx And so the night passed and the third day since they were at this town with battles still going on on all sides. Some of the walls as Sain expected were broken through and clumps of players had to move there to stop the waves of zombies that seemed endless from breaking through. From this night along around 200 people died on their side while the ''death'' counter for the enemy was more than double. This would be wonderful in normal circumstances but the enemy numbers seemed to be endless with the zombies appearing even in day unaffected by it. ¡°They broke through the wall!¡± someone shouted to Sain. He was currently behind the defences feeling that it was better to receive reports and command others when he wasn''t being attacked. Hearing this Sain had to make a choice. If everyone retreated now, then the situation would be the same as always. However if he moved to block the breach then the death counter will rise. They still had another whole day to survive before reinforcement comes from the guild. And another thing is that task from Eden as well. Sain thought of his group and then decided immediately, ¡°Send some people to block it up! Make sure nothing gets through!¡± he shouted. ¡°Yes sir!¡± the people replied quite like soldiers to a senior officer. It was strange how the game made it so rankings between people were easier to see than in reality. People were easily made to believe in his words and followed his orders. Or was this the effects of the leadership stat being higher than before or his title? A swarm of around 30 players went to fill in the gap where the hole was. These player were quite low levelled in his eyes, only around 80 in range and could only be used to stall. He also thought he saw a couple of level 150s running around nearby slaughtering the zombies as well. Things seemed to be all right. ¡°Smoke?¡± Sain looked to see that there was a strange series of smoke coming from all areas where the defences were at to the forest itself. He wondered what was going on and went to the closest place and found that the zombies were smoking. He grinned a little seeing this. Was the sun causing them damage as well? This means that they would retreat right? However it was none of those and they still continued to attack and at the same time focused on certain paths more than others. He took out a map of the defences which also detailed the number of people at each location based off the reports that he was getting from some people he ''friend'' to contact each other better. ¡°Move 5 people from your area to the area a bit north¡± he said continuing to message other players as well to do the same. In total there were around 40 small groups he had to manage though most of them did their own thing unless Sain had something for them to do. Sain had to move some people from one area to another while still considering the lowered defences as well. Another two hours passed and the strange smoke that came from the zombies stopped which was worrying and relieving at the same time. Worrying since it may be that something just finished and relieving for it ended and there was nothing to do to stop it now but to focus on other tasks. ¡°Cough¡± someone near Sain suddenly spat out blood. ¡°....!¡± There was surprise on everyone''s face since they did not realise he was hurt...no he was not hurt at all. He was someone with Sain and a few others that were telling commands to everyone else. Feeling that something was wrong and connecting it to that smoke the zombies made, Sain stepped back and held onto his spear. ¡°Cough Cough Cough¡± the coughing and spitting of blood continued rapidly until his skin turned red...like the colour of those zombies. Eventually blood seeped through his eyes, nose and ears as well and his hair fell out as well as he let out a roar. ¡°OOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGG!!!¡± With skin burnt red, a player, a person turned into the enemy. ¡°Kill him now! Don''t get covered by his blood!¡± Sain realised it was about to attack someone and they needed to act now. Sain fired off his ''Magic Arrows'' but the player turned player dodged them all. ''It''s fast!'' Switching strategy, he chanted, ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± and fired off 28 mana bolts based off the skill proficiency he had with the spell so far. Bang Bang Bang...! Most of the magical projectiles much to his surprise missed though there were some that hit it''s limbs but never it''s main body at all. The creature jumped up high onto the roof just as the other players realised it was there. Thankfully there was a good archer that sniped it down hitting it''s leg dropping it onto the ground where a dozen or so warriors hacked and slashed at it until it died. ¡°Fueee....¡± Sain took a deep breath in as things were about to become even more troublesome than before. xXx And Sain''s hunch was correct for the most part. The ''infection'' was indeed troubling as how they got it or how or why each person transform into a stronger version of the zombies that require at least a dozen people to take out at a time was unknown. Right now it was the afternoon and the onslaught of the zombie attack was slowing down so the players and guards took turns to a break. Right now Sain was with the rest of the group. Most of them looked fine though Serena''s outfit was kinda broken here and there as if she decided to fight using that iron claw of hers. ¡°So how was everyone''s day.¡± ¡°Fine¡± Shadow replied. ¡°Okay¡± said Miriel. Raven nodded. ¡°F-Fine¡± Serena responded as well. ¡°Perfect!¡± Lyndis was gleaming. ¡°....¡± The rest of the group save Lyndis sighed thinking on how this person could get along with any situation she was in. ¡°Anyway we need to make sure this town exist by the time of tomorrow where someone from the guild by the name of Alice appears to help us¡± he said to the others, ¡°though it will be more difficult since players are turning into those zombies as well...¡± ¡°Rather than zombies aren''t they more like infected people?¡± Shadow pondered aloud, ¡°Perhaps there is a way to ''cure'' them.¡± Miriel shook her head and said, ¡°Doubt it. If it could be done so easily then there would be a spell for that. I never seem a zombie reversal spell ever though there were rumours of one before.¡± Looking interested at such a spell Serena asked, ¡°Could it exist?¡± However Miriel still said, ¡°It''s a rumour and most rumours are false though there are some that are true, we don''t know if it is true...perhaps Viv who has lots of magical knowledge in all areas might know.¡± ¡°Back to the point, there is a good chance that we...well I need to transfer some people to the residents in case one of them turns...there are around 50 people defending them after all¡± he said with a sigh. This was becoming more and more troublesome as it went on. To think he would be forced into this kind of situation. One where he had to defend else he would fail the Guild Quest. One where he couldn''t attack to end the Guild Quest as well. It was a stalemate which he couldn''t resolve at his level which was, to Sain''s knowledge, why Eden sent reinforcement to them by the names of another member. Seeing this side of Sain, Miriel frowned and tried encouraging him...though she was not sure on how to. ¡°You can''t do everything by yourself. You have to depend on us as well¡± she said though she would have rather say for him to depend on her particularly. Lyndis seemed to agree and said, ¡°Yep! You can''t work alone all the time on this. More people means more ideas and more viewpoints to this as well.¡± Surprisingly enough Raven said his own words of advise, ¡°Don''t stress, be calm¡± which wasn''t much but for Raven who rarely talked unless it was important, it was quite significant to Sain since he knew the intentions of Raven a tiny bit better than the others. After a few moments of no one speaking and the mood going no where else escaping right now, Shadow spoke. ¡°Have we spoken that the Magitite mines might be the source of this invasion?¡± ¡°No¡± Sain was quite surprise that Shadow would mention that. From what he knew, this and that were two separate issues that he had to deal with. He looked to Lyndis and Serena who confirmed this by nodding. ¡°So...in the end we have to go there?¡± Sain wondered. ¡°I think so since those zombie creatures were coming from the mine''s direction and there was nothing else there at all¡± he continued to say, ¡°Plus for some reason I feel that the ones that came to attack are weaker than the ones at the mines...¡± ¡°That sounds interesting but there is a chance that something else is involved instead as well¡± Miriel pointed out, ¡°Perhaps there is a necromancer summoning them though whether it''s in the mines or nearby is questionable.¡± ¡°True¡± Shadow had to agree there. All he and the two who went with him knew was that there was an army of them stationed there. Bang! BANG! BOOM! BANG! ¡°What''s that noise?¡± frowning Sain asked looking around what was going on. Soon enough a person, an NPC guard from what Sain could tell ran to him huffing and puffing. ¡°What is it?¡± Sain asked immediately seeing the dire face he was putting on. ¡°Those creatures...ha....ha...¡± The guard looked as if some tragic scene struck him and could not continue for a few more seconds but in the end said, ¡°They are appearing in the residents!¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sain was surprised. They were the furthest from the battle and that strange smoke that Sain believed to be the source of the ''infection''. However how did some of the residents that were furthest away get ''infected''? With a click of his tongue he immediately contacted some people and then rapidly sent for some people to come over to see what was going on at the heart of the town. ¡°Let''s go¡± he said to the others to which they silently followed feeling grim on what they would see. Some minutes passed with the group and the NPC guard running pass escaping residents that could not fight. ¡°GOOOOOOORRRRRR!¡± there was a scream coming from one of those zombie creatures. From sight alone there were at least a dozen of them but there could be more. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± chanted Sain shooting down the first one he saw. The others also acted when they saw the scene as well. Lyndis, Raven and Shadow all charged at once with great speed, Shadow was even running up a wall to dodge the people. ¡°Burst Speed! Backstab!¡± Shadow shouted slicing one of the zombies into pieces. ¡°Double Strike!¡± Raven struck twice and created two holes where he stabbed with his spear. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± Lyndis ran up and rapidly cut down one of the zombies as well. With Miriel, Serena and Sain using ranged attacks as well, the situation was quickly resolved for now as the creatures that were certainly not zombies but looked liked one were all killed by them. Looking more at the scene, Sain noticed that there was a large amount of blood coming from one building... ¡°....¡± Walking over he almost opened the door when- BANG!
Bursting Will has activated +17% to all stats
With that message coming out, the door burst open and something hit Sain back which caused him to fly back to the other building across the street. Taking some damage which was his arm twisting in a weird way which he immediately healed himself he watched as the others went to attack this creature as well. Shadow and Lyndis leaped at it at the same time. BANG BANG! And at the same time they were both hit away like him. But unlike him they were not taken by surprise and thus landed perfectly on the ground. ¡°That was surprising¡± said Lyndis a bit curious of the creature that deflected both of them. ¡°It''s coming¡± said Shadow holding both of his weapons prepared to defend. The creature walked out in the day. The foul smell that came from it could be smelt from a long distance away, Sain felt like vomiting a bit smelling this and pinched his nose. He looked over to Serena to see that Miriel was getting her away from it. ¡°Looks likes it will be only us four for now...¡± Sain sighed seeing that Serena cannot deal with the smell that well. Even so he watched the creature that managed to deal this amount of damage to them walk out in the light. ¡°What the hell is that?!¡± the NPC guard that was with them exclaimed in fright. Sain frowned. That thing looks similar to the meat monster that they met in the laboratory before. It was as if it absorbed bodies and became bigger. It had four legs, seven arms and two heads and was red in colour. You could see it''s veins clearly as well and there was a distinct rotting smell to it as well. Plus it feels powerful at the same time. ¡°Raven will tank while the rest of us will try to take it down as fast as possible¡± said Sain though at the same time worried that more of them will appear. ¡°Right¡± replied Raven raising his shield and heading in front of this creature. For a moment the creature disappeared for a split second before appearing in front of Raven. ''It''s fast!'' Sain exclaimed in his thoughts again. Before he had his suspicions but now it was clearly stronger than normal. From it''s speed alone, Sain judged it to be around level 180 which was within their capabilities to deal with it. ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± chanted Sain summoning Luna into the battle as well. [Maste-this smell...why do you always summon me when the enemy smells this bad?] ¡°No time to chat, help Raven¡± ordered Sain seeing that Raven was being pushed back easily in terms of pure strength alone. The creature was hitting Raven with several of it''s arms and Raven was continuously retreating while blocking unable to attack. To his side were Lyndis and Shadow who were trying to attack but at the same time can''t since the creature''s counter attacking skills were really good. [Understood] Luna bared his fangs and leaped to bite off one of the arms of the creature. Seeing this, Sain was quite surprised at Luna. From what he remembered, Luna was 30 levels below them and yet he was able to harm something 30 levels above them, 60 levels above him so easily. ''Looks like Luna is quite powerful for his level as well...'' Sain thought though at the same time firing off ''Magic Arrows'' to take down the creature. ¡°Watch out!¡± Sain shouted seeing the creature changed targets from Raven to Lyndis. Bang! Raven pushed Lyndis aside and took the hit instead. Sain watched his health do down to near critical level as he looked to be broken at any time. Anger boiled up in him as he saw Raven like that. ¡°Compress Magic Mastery Release! Boost!¡±
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +420%
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Serpent'' is now active. ''All Knowing Eyes'' is now active.
¡°Magic Arrows!¡± he chanted loudly and ten ''Magic Arrows'' formed around him. However the size of the ''Magic Arrows'' were extremely large as if it was an entirely different spell itself. Before his ''Magic Arrow'' spell would form one the size of a regular arrow but now it was at least 10 times larger than before...and even more powerful. ¡°DIE!¡± he shouted firing them off at the creature. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!! All ten attack hit the creature at frightening speed. Ten large holes appeared that were so large that it was now more empty space than flesh to before it was hit. The creature died on the spot like that and the effects of ''Compressed Magic Mastery'' and ''Boost'' faded away. ¡°Ha...ha...ha...¡± Sain was panting hard. It has been a while since he used ''Boost'' in a battle. The power of ''Boost'' was the power of the ''Mark'' itself unsealed to the first stage according to what Eden said. It''s power to what Sain knew were of two things. The first was the power that actively came from the ''Mark'' itself. His one was called ''All Knowing Eyes'' which allowed him to see the strengths and weaknesses of all things. Miriel''s one was called ''Living Ice'', Lyndis was called ''Genesis Flame'', Serena was called ''Sage Mode'', Raven was called ''Gravity Force'' and Shadow was called ''Real Illusion''. The second was a passive effects of using the ''Mark''. Basically it doubled the user''s stats, any effects on them at the cost of the consumption of health, mana and stamina when using skills and spells to double. In this state as well, the group found that their personalities differed a bit though that is another story. Sain looked sadly at Raven who while not expressing anything on his as usual was in extreme pain. Due to the backlash of using ''Boost'' as well as his too low ability to heal, he was unable to relieve Raven of this pain. Raven had some broken bones that Sain couldn''t heal right now. When he was hit head by the creature, his spear arm was twisted strangely and one of his legs wasn''t working anymore when he was hit while pushing Lyndis aside. Soon enough by Lyndis, Miriel and Serena came back seeing that the enemy was defeated and Raven was injured. ¡°Raven!¡± Serena shouted shocked, her healer face was back on, ¡°Moderate Health Regeneration!¡± she chanted while next using ''Health Restoration'' and ''Minor Health Regeneration'' at the same time to quickly heal him. Meanwhile Miriel looked at Sain and realised he had used ''Boost'' again. ¡°Sain!¡± She shouted at him, ¡°What the hell are you thinking?!¡± ¡°....¡± Sain could only look away in shame. ¡°Don''t you dare look away from me right now!¡± she pulled his face to face hers and continued in anger, ¡°YOU were the one who said to not use ''Boost'' like that! So WHY are YOU the one using it the most?!¡± Sain could see the anger in her eyes. However he could only say, ¡°I guess I lost my cool for a bit¡± with a wry smile on his face. SLAP! Pain centred at his cheek could be felt. Miriel had slapped him and she was extremely angry right now. He noticed that there were some tears coming out though not to the point it could be noticeable to anyone else. Before he knew it he placed his hand wiping the tear away gently saying, ¡°Sorry¡± to her. The two looked at each other for a few more seconds undisturbed- ¡°Cough.¡± And then the moment was disturbed by Lyndis not wanting to be in this sickening sweet mood that Sain and Miriel were creating. The two looked away from each other after realising how close they were.... Miriel was the first to speak saying, ¡°Anyway don''t lose your cool anymore. Raven had been injured worse than that in the past and so have the rest of us. So why in the last six months have you lost your cool more than the year previous to that altogether?¡± ¡°....¡± Sain looked at the dead creature and then soon after got a series of messages from many players on what to do. It looked like there were more of those strong creatures appearing all over the place. ¡°No time for that, we need to move out quickly¡± he said after the near spamming...no at this point, it could be called spamming. ¡°Let me guess¡± Miriel said though she didn''t even pause to say, ¡°More of those things?¡± ¡°More or less¡± Sain responded as well as sending some of the stronger players by message to help them deal with this. The group set out to deal with this issue, where people turned into monsters.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Words Count: 8400~ - I wrote 16 pages yesterday and only 4 pages today....there seems to be something wrong with this. - Anyway second chapter of the volume. This part of the volume will end next chapter though I''m thinking of making the volume follow a chain quest line starting of the quests they got. Vol.6 Chapter 3 - The Mines Entering certain space, Eden looked around to find a certain Goddess AI relaxing strangely enough. After her creator died, this Goddess changed a bit to hide what Eden believed to be grief. It was the first AI to achieve emotions though it was the first AI in many things. The Goddess was still in the same appearance as he last met her...only the younger version. With long brown hair with silver in it and wrapped in a one piece dress you could not tell it was a Goddess by looking at it. But it was still the absolute ruler of the virtual space. Even though he could not be restrained that easily, he could still be trapped and tortured for all eternity. Thankfully this Goddess AI was not a sadist...he hoped. ¡°It''s been a while¡± he called out to it to which he looked and smiled at him. ¡°Please don''t say that every time we meet....¡± Eden sighed. This damn Goddess AI can instantly count the number of nanoseconds since they last met and would bring it up all the time. Displeased the scenery changed from the blank white space to a raging battlefield. Eden ignored it and still talked to the Goddess AI. ¡°I have a favour¡± he said bluntly. [That will cost you another skill] In total Eden had 666 skills he could use. Many of them were extremely overpowered like ''Absolute Gravity Control'' or ''Eternal Elixir Production'' that could break the game. And he had hundreds of them! As such he wasn''t allowed to even use them in game thanks to this Goddess AI hating cheating and he got the most cheaty skill of them all which only it had before! All Creation! A power to create anything and everything, even new continents if he wished! However upon testing it, a certain Goddess AI rudely took him from the game and explained some rules that were placed around the skill. The first rule! Never break the game. The second rule! Find a balance. And the third rule! Don''t exploit it. In all honesty he tried not to...but circumstances...cough...falling from the sky with next to no mana to fly....cough....poisoned with something that can only be healed by the most perfect elixir....cough...forced them to often create such skills. The only thing was that he wasn''t allowed more than a certain amount of skills in total as well and he could exchange a skill for a favour. He had already used 5 favours to get those six, Sain and the others safe under his wing. He had no plans on letting them go on that. He always had Sain working for him by explaining...no threatening him after all. He would be a good tool to use, the group he took in had the potential to be something great...only that he would make sure they owe him too much that they can''t escape. ¡°What so skill are you taking this time?¡± he asked. He hoped that ''Unlimited Vigour'' would not be taken. That skill was made and saved his life after Alexandra...three days straight was all he had to say with that. [Divine Sight] ¡°What?!¡± Eden exclaimed, ¡°How can I peek at others then?!¡± Even though he still had ''Eagle Vision'' it did not have the same range as ''Divine Sight''. [Do you want me to relay this conversation to Alexandra? Hmm?] ¡°No.....¡± Eden would rather this damn Goddess AI take the skill else what was said falls to Alexandra''s ears. [Fine I''ll take ''Hell Stalker'' that lets you see in dungeons instead] Eden smiled at this. The skill use was only that but at the same time allowed him to see where all the monsters, traps and treasures were...though getting there was another matter itself. [Anyway what do you want?] ¡°Location of someone in the game. With your information nets you know of that family that brought the new members of my guild before I took them in right?¡± [You mean the child trafficking one? I believe someone was sent to monitor him and catch him when he acts] ¡°Yeah that one. The rich one...locate his granddaughter that''s connected to the game.¡± [¡­.] Eden waited for a few seconds but was shocked at the results. [No results found] ¡°Huh?¡± [There is no one by the name of Helen Maridknight in the game nor is anyone connected has that name] ¡°Impossible, Simon even confirmed that she was in the game itself! That capsule is definitely connected to Royal Road and I even made him check again before coming here!¡± [There are three possibilities to that] ¡°Which are?¡± [The first is that the actual person is of a different name but-] ¡°You would know that as well, next.¡± [The second is that there is an error or that the person in question is dead. There has been a few cases where a dead person looks to be alive connected to the game even though there is no response] ¡°Great an impossible task for them to do¡± Eden let out a dry laugh thinking if he didn''t come then those six would have to set off in a task that was impossible to complete. ¡°And the third?¡± [The third...is that Helen does exist and is alive but I cannot find her...if I am compromised by her] ¡°....¡± Eden did not like this possibility. The Goddess AI, deemed the most perfect system that was created so far which had countless protections and was separated from everything else by 10 degrees. Even one character not supervised could not go through it unnoticed. Otherwise it meant that this damn AI was lying through it''s teeth to him. ¡°....Anyway tell me anything you find out later on this.¡± After that he left the place. ¡°Fuee.....¡± The Goddess AI breathed out in relief appearing back in game in the form of the Holy Seer. Suddenly a certain Heretical God appeared which was the same one that watched in game when Eden met it last. ¡°How annoying that he is so sharp¡± she offhandedly commented to the God next to her. ¡°How much does he know?¡± the Heretical God asked. The Goddess AI, no, the Holy Seer sighed and said, ¡°To the point he know that person he seeks is involved in the late game.¡± xXx The start of the fifth day, the day in which reinforcement from the Guild, started with the appearance of a giant monster. ¡°Damn they are combining! Take them down quickly!¡± Sain shouted these orders but quickly realised that it was too late and the numerous zombies combined together to create one giant one. Right now about 300 of 900 non combat NPCs died while 90 of 100 NPC guards were dead as well. Ad for the players, half of them were wiped out as well so it was a very bad thing for a creature of this size and power to appear. Standing at 20 metres all and in the shape of a normal zombie except for the bottom where it was a sludge of meat, the creature with one large eye looked at the town....and screamed. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRR!!!¡± The sound was so loud that everyone was stunned by it and were forced to stop and hold their ears in fear that they might break from the sound alone. Some people fell over while other were tipped to try and support themselves from this ''attack''. Lyndis was one of these people who fell over as she was not close enough to anything that could support her at the time of the scream. ¡°You got to be kidding me¡± she cursed under her breath seeing the creature again. Although the countless zombies were now gone, instead they got this giant monster that was certainly over level 200. At this rate they will be defeated quite easily and fail the Guild Quest. ''NO! That can never happen!'' she sweat in fear thinking of what Eden told her before, though she did not realise those same words were directed at Sain as well. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± she cried out and poured as much mana as she could into the attack and fired it at the colossal monster. The attack was like a tiny arrow to a fortress, it barely burnt a small part of it, that''s all. BANG BANG BANG! The colossal monster slammed the ground three times and sent waves of destruction all over the place. It was like several earthquakes hit them right now. ¡°That thing...can use Earth magic as well?!¡± Sain screamed in disbelief. Lyndis noticed that his eyes changed to one that was snake like. He was currently using ''Boost'' right now, a day after he did before. Clenching her teeth she decided she might as well use it now, else be killed here. ¡°Boost!¡± she shouted sending the great amount of power sealed within her right hand to the rest of her body. ¡°Ahhhhh!¡± she let out a small scream feeling a bit overwhelmed of it flowing so much everywhere. The glove on her hand felt extremely hot, hotter than any other place right now.
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Lion'' is now active. ''Genesis Flame'' is now active.
All of a sudden, Lyndis'' body was covered in flames due to the effects of ''Genesis Flame''. Her health, mana and stamina were all decreasing slowly due to this and she knew that she only had minutes with this before it consumed and killed her. ¡°Lyndis?!¡± Miriel looked at her in disbelief that she would use ''Boost'' right now. She was well aware of the risks it prosed. Other than the change in personality, ''Boost'' had another side effect. That is being consumed by flames, for her at least. Lyndis let out a cough and saw her blood on her hand and then said, ¡°At this rate the Guild Quest will fail and SOMEONE is already using it as well!¡± she pointed her arm at Sain to which Miriel glared at Sain again for doing something reckless again. ¡°Get back!¡± Lyndis shouted to anyone nearby as she ran to the front lines. The flames that covered her made her look like a raging flame that was alive. No more than 30 metres away from the colossal creature, he thought of a giant tornado of flame. ¡°OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± The flames by her will acted and burst forth from her body consuming a great deal of her health, mana and stamina at the same time. ''Genesis Flame'' was extremely powerful but at the same time was even worse than ''Life Burn'' as it burnt all three things that keeps her alive at the same time. ¡°BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURNNNNN!!!¡± she screamed not caring for much more than that right now. This came first before everything else right now. The flame tornado with Lyndis as the source burnt around the colossal monster and appeared to be sending burning parts of the creature around the place as it rapidly discarded the parts that were burning. However the colossal creature much to Lyndis and everyone else''s surprise moved out of the flame tornado taking it out with a swipe of it''s arm. ¡°Cough!¡± Lyndis spat out blood as she collapsed.
Stamina has been completely drained - Unable to move - Unable to take any actions
Mana has been completely drained - Mana reflux will cause you to be stunned for 10 seconds - Any use of skills will fail until completely healed
Health as reached critical point, health will slowly decrease until death
''Damn......'' she thought of her current state. At this point she only had around...a few minutes even without the final flames killing her until she died. Tap...tap....tap... She heard someone walking to where she was. She did not recognise the sound of the footsteps. ¡°Well you are in a bad shape, don''t use that much power in such short time when you have so little practice with it¡± a woman said to her though she could not see who it was at all, her head was still pointed at the colossal creature. ¡°It was a mistake to face it head on like that you know. It is right now around the mid level 300s and you are...level 150 with powers that allows you to get to level 200 at best? That power, that ''Mark'' that Eden gave you is stable right now so don''t expect anymore than a 50 level boost in power from now on¡± the woman continued to say. ¡°Lyndis!¡± Sain shouted running up to her. He chanted and quickly casted ''Moderate Heal'' and several ''Minor Heal'' to get her to around 30% health quickly. Getting up she looked at the woman who was talking to her though it was one sided with Lyndis being silent. She was in a mid 40s she believed but looked as if she was still in her thirties with silver hair with red tints at the end. Her hair only reached her shoulders as well. She was wearing a full black leather armour set that Lyndis believed to be extremely high level as well and donned no weapon on her. It was hard not to see that one of her arms was tattooed with an angel wing and the other with a devil wing. ¡°Who are you?¡± Lyndis asked. Hearing this, the woman laughed said, ¡°Who am I? I am reinforcement! I am Alice, level 800 or so and as for class¡± Alice continued to say with a smile, ¡°That''s a secret that you don''t need to know¡± There was a bit of cheek in her tone like an overenthusiastic aunt though as a fellow woman she would never say that. ¡°Lyndis!¡± ¡°That''s...¡± Lyndis looked over to see that the rest of the group ran over with worried faces. She could not help but have a bitter smile at this scene. She did not expect to find herself with people that would care for her so much again. After some words from her saying that she was fine, Lyndis watched as Alice looked at the colossal creature with a serious look and then looked at the group. She took something from her inventory and threw them at the group. ¡°Drink these, at your level they will completely heal you all in all aspects¡± said Alice paying little attention to the colossal creature that should be her priority right now. When Lyndis questioned that she scorned her and said, ¡°YOU are my priority right now not this town. My orders are to make sure you all are fine. Now drink!¡± Taking the strange liquid in her mouth, Lyndis found the taste to be quite sweet.
Drank Rare Elixir of Time Reversal - All status will be reversed to 1 week before (Higher the level, lower the reverse time)
After drinking it and finding that her health, mana and stamina were completely filled again, Lyndis had a new-found respect for the woman in front of her. Plus this elixir seemed to be an extremely rare one as well. She looked to see that Miriel had a horrid face on most likely thinking of the costs of obtaining as much as six as these. Seeing this expression, Alice said, ¡°Don''t worry about it. Eden made them when he still has the skills to make them...though he said something about trading it off for a favour.¡± With those words, the person named Alice spouted out two wings. One was made of feathers like a bird and looked like the wings of Angels you would fine and the other was bony and looked more like a bat wing which was a wing of a devil. In her hand came some black liquid? ¡°Transform and pierce my enemies!¡± Alice chanted causing the black liquid that suddenly looked metallic to form into a large spear. ¡°Ho!¡± She threw the spear casually and formed a second black spear in her hands. When the first spear hit the colossal creature... BANNNNNNNNG! Even louder than the scream, an explosion occurred and the colossal creature fell into pieces with it''s head being blown off cleanly. ¡°....¡± The group and most likely anyone else who saw this scene had their jaws dropped to the ground. There were no words to describe their shock right now. ¡°Damn they split up before it died...¡± Alice muttered under her breath. She crushed the black spear in her hand and then from above it rained countless of those black spears into the zombies. It was an attack that could wipe out armies easily and without effort from Alice. It was at that point Sain said, ¡°We should go to get rid of the source to end the quest¡± Surprised on leaving this place defenceless, Lyndis looked at Alice and then calmed down. ''If someone that strong is here then...'' She had confidence that a level 800+ player on their side would keeps things well enough for at least a while. Getting up from the ground, Lyndis stretched her arms out feeling that she was back to normal at least. ¡°So should we go now or later?¡± she asked Sain. ¡°It''s better if we go now. You know the path right?¡± he asked her. Lyndis nodded her head and said, ¡°Yep¡± though she could see Shadow scorning her for some reason on the side. She had no idea why Shadow had such a bad attitude on most things in life. With that, the group left the defence of the town to Alice and left for the Magitite Mines, where they had two quests relating to it. xXx A day and a half passed by quickly with Miriel and Sain buffing their speed and Serena recovering their stamina on the move. ¡°Annnnd there had to be a bloody army blocking the way as well¡± Lyndis sighed seeing the enemy in such numbers. As such by the times they got to the actual mines, which by the way was filled with those zombie monsters even more densely than they expected, was mostly out of mana to use. ¡°What now?¡± Shadow asked. They could wait until their mana regenerated but by then he feared that the number of foes will increase again and head off to the town. ¡°Sain?¡± Miriel looked at him for answers. ¡°We could A, wait until we are fully recovered to go though that extremely large army of zombies will march to the town or B, charge in right now and get ourselves slaughtered by numbers. These zombies seem to be in the level 150 range¡± Sain said observing the enemy. They were certainly zombies...but at the same time weren''t. On their skin were some sort of crystal or metal that glowed a bit. This was something unknown to Sain and he was tempted to use ''Boost'' again to use his ''All Knowing Eyes'' to identify what it is but Miriel was staring at him right now. ¡°We should choose the first option then¡± Miriel said, ¡°We don''t even know how many enemies there are and when they leave the place to the mines will be empty.¡± The group was currently a hundred metres from where the mine entrance was. Getting there...was more than difficult for them right now even if they used the power of their ''Marks'' and ''Boost'' to help. Looking from Miriel to Raven, Sain noticed there was a slight change in...mood if he had to call it. Sain more or less knew what Raven was worried about. ¡°Raven, with Alice there, the town will be fine. She is extremely powerful as we all seen. A level 800 player ranks in the top 500. There are only in total 500 odd players over level 800 compared to the 5000 odd players above level 700. From what I heard, there is no one over level 900 yet so Alice is one of the most powerful players out there....don''t worry too much¡± he said. Hearing this Shadow was certainly surprise for another reason altogether, ¡°How did you know of what Raven was thinking of?¡± Sain looked confused at the question and said, ¡°I could tell?¡± uncertain. With a slight grin Lyndis turned to Miriel and said, ¡°Looks like your greatest rival is Raven, Miriel. They are already on a understanding without words~¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel was silent at this remark and then said, ¡°We need to rest and prepare right now¡± without much emotion. Another passed with the group recovering to full mana and stamina levels. ¡°Urrrrrrr....¡± And the zombie army started to move out. The group stiffened and stayed quiet for another 10 minutes until they believed the army is gone. Judging from what they saw, it this army was twice as large as the previous one. ¡°Let us go¡± Sain said leading the group into the mines. He ignored the piercing gaze of Miriel from behind him. He could have sworn that this has been happening more and more often than before. Did he do something wrong? xXx Inside the mines which was quite dusty, it did not even take them a minute before they encounter an enemy. One of those zombies with metal/crystal on them like a spotted freak show. ¡°Tch¡± Sain was worried about this but still persisted, ¡°Kill it quickly¡± he ordered. As they ran, Shadow sped up and beheaded the creature and they continued on their way. The more they ran, the more they encountered these creatures. At the beginning, they were of a level where one of them could quickly deal with them but eventually, say after an hour, they were strong enough to last a minute in battle with all of them. Sain wondered what was with this strength, it was unnatural and he wondered why it seemed that these zombies crawled out of the walls as well. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± he chanted shooing the last enemy into pieces. This marked the 4th or so dozen enemy that they killed. Their experience bar filled up once during this time as well though they were close to levelling either way. Looking around the group searched through the loot that they got and when Miriel identified what was on the zombies, he was in utter shock. ¡°This is magitite!¡± she said. ¡°What?!¡± He could not believe it. Something that they required, something that should be deep in the mines was on the zombies? He questioned many things right now and one of them was why it was like this. He took one of pieces which weren''t identified yet, though he knew it was magitite and said, ¡°Identify.¡±
Low Quality Magitite Fragment
That was enough for him to tell that this zombie situation was closely connected to magitite. He would need to tell Alena about this later to report to the Kingdom. Even though Magititie was extremely valuable...if it caused this then it was not worth it no matter what effects it gave. ¡°Umm....guys¡± Lyndis said all of a sudden while the rest of the group was focused on the magitite. ¡°What is it-damn!¡± Shadow said looked around like Lyndis. It seemed that he discovered something as well. When Sain looked around he was not happy at all to find that his thoughts on the zombies appearing out of the walls to be true. They were surrounded already by seven of those zombies...freshly made as well. They backed together in a clump looking at both directions where more enemies soon crawled out. ¡°Any ideas?¡± Shadow asked. ¡°A few¡± he replied though not liking most of them. ¡°Please tell me that one of them does not involve fighting all of them¡± said Miriel holding her whip in one hand and ready to attack if the need comes. ¡°Well...first you should make a path for us to run through. Then we can think of something else¡± he said thinking of Miriel''s ''Glacier Strike'' which was extremely powerful. ¡°Quite the crummy plan¡± Lyndis said after cutting one of the zombies'' arm off when it got near. It was then that the other zombies reacted and ran to them. ¡°Do it now!¡± Sain shouted. ¡°Glacier Strike!¡± BANG! A few of the zombies were smashed back as a path was cleared and appeared for them to run through. Without a word, all of them ran through knocking back, not even caring to kill them at this point, and ran into the darkness. xXx After said even where the group found out that zombies came out of walls...apparently, they did not spawn in the normal way but were rather created instead, a week passed by quickly. Sain and the others wondered what was going on with the town but based no quest message appearing it meant that the town was still safe with Alice. Right now they were near the heart of the mines. The place where the magitite ore was mined out of. At the lowest level of this place, a long time ago, a village that no longer exist accidentally found this and then upon telling of this discovery was attacked and destroyed, the village thus disappeared and all knowledge of this place was almost gone as well save the few survivors. Another fact they found out was that being in the presence of Magitite for too long poisoned you and caused those metal/crystal pieces to appear on your body. This is off set by sun light which would be the reason none of the zombies had them by the time they got to the town. They found this out from a person in the mine that was on the verge of death telling them to escape this place. However the group was not affected by this. For some reason the ''Mark'' that was on their right hands seemed to negate the effects of this like many other things though regular poison still affected them. The group continued onwards until they were met with the origins of the Magitite Ore. The Magitite Crystal Ore. From the words of a diary they found, the Magitite Crystal Ore ''infected'' the walls of the mines which transforms part of it into normal Magitite Ore. These are usually low quality but the longer they stay like that, the higher quality they will be. Naturally the Magitite Crystal Ore itself was of the highest quality. The effects of Magitite Ore in order of quality were, increased mana regeneration, lightning damage and finally increased mana itself from low, medium to high quality with each level stacking a further effect on. It was unknown what the highest quality ore would give. But right now, Sain had not leisure on thinking on that. There was a slight problem right now and that is, the Magitite Crystal Ore is alive. It is alive and is creating metal monsters. ¡°Use range attacks first!¡± Sain shouted seeing them. ¡°Fire Bombs!¡± Lyndis shouted chucking a few of them at the metal creatures that were humanoid in shape but only that. Their arms were made of blades after all. Boom Boom Boom! The three ''Fire Bombs'' exploded at the metal monsters and cracked and broke pieces of them. Sain was pleased to see that such a skill was at least effective against these creatures as they soon found out that normal attacks, even magical ones weren''t as effective. ¡°Lyndis! How much mana do you have?¡± Sain asked while hitting one of the metal monsters and yet not dealing any damage to it''s hard body. His spear was made of iron that could not pierce through Magitite after all. ¡°Enough for three dozen ''fire bombs'' why?¡± Lyndis shouted back. Her sword was dented at place from attacking such a hard thing and she jumped back as the metal monster she was fighting attacked. ¡°Glacier Strike!¡± Miriel chanted smashing the metal monster away from her. BANG! The impact of the spell caused some cracks on the metal monster but it was at a minimum, not enough to destroy it in one blow like a ''fire bomb''. With this, Sain had only two ways of dealing with them. A minute passed and they were backed into a corner. With the Magitite Crystal Ore producing more metal monsters out to a total of around seven of them at once. Sain wondered if there was a limit on how much it could sustain at once. C-Crack! It was then that the group saw a great crack appear on the Magitite Crystal Ore. It was the size of a large person and all of a sudden there was a crack. ¡°W-What''s going on?¡± Serena asked seeing this as well. With the appearance of the crack the seven metal monsters stopped their attack and ran back to the Magitite Crystal Ore. They plastered their bodies onto it and fused with it. With confused looks, the group saw the Magitite Crystal Ore change. Bang! Bang! BANG! It started compressing into the size of a head but it didn''t stop there. More Magitite was produced from it and formed into the shape of a Dragon. A Magitite Dragon of all things... It''s eyes glowed with hate as it looked at the group as flames spilled lightly from it''s mouth. It was a small Dragon but it at the same time was 10 metres long and enough to eat all of them given the chance. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Furthermore there was this strange golden glow around it as well...which was familiar to them as they fought against it before. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRR!¡± The Dragon leaped forward at the group with it''s mouth open. ¡°Shatter!¡± And in response the group ran away in all directions. Sain, Serena and Shadow moved to the left while Raven, Miriel and Lyndis moved to the right. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Burst!¡± Bang Bang Bang...! Both Sain and Miriel with little time casted their spell at it on both sides but it was completely non effective. Meanwhile Serena was chanting a spell to use in the next second as well. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Vines came from the group and wrapped itself around the Dragon that was made of metal. However the Dragon itself was an extremely powerful being that was capable of breaking free within seconds even if Serena increased the power of her spell using her ''Boost''. Bang! With a charge, the Dragon rammed itself in between Sain, Serena and Shadow with the vines barely alternating it''s path to not crush one of them to death. Shadow grabbed onto Serena and ran away from the Dragon while Sain did the same alone. This was going to be a long battle. xXx Some minutes passed since the Dragon appeared from the Magitite Crystal Ore. Right now Raven was having some difficulties moving around. His leg was broken, snapped in two when he failed to completely dodge an attack. The Dragon made of metal was quite strong, stronger than anything he had faced before. A simple attack can break bones and taking a clean hit will mean death. ''Then all I have to do to survive longer is to take the simple attacks rather than letting it deal me a clean hit'' he thought as a combination of Sain and Serena''s healing spells healed his leg back into shape. There was pain when he leg broke but thanks to the pain reduction feature that lowered the pain levels, it didn''t hurt as much as he expected. Breaking a leg in game was only like having the leg flare up with some pain rather than a scorching pain that would completely paralyse you. Raven was thankful for that at least. ¡°Rooooooooooooar!!!!¡± The Dragon came charging at him again. He had used ''Anchor Howl'' and was taking the full force of it right now. It came charging at him again, it seemed that it took a a lot of mana to use that breath attack from earlier. ¡°Shield Parry!¡± Raven simply said using his shield to block. BANG! And as such his shield and arm were blown away twisting and breaking due to the impact of the force. Raven clenched his teeth upon feeling the blow to endure the pain as he was used to. A couple of healing spells later he was fine and took on the vanguard again. Eventually... ¡°This is getting nowhere, Boost!¡± said Sain all of a sudden before Miriel could stop him. He looked at the Dragon and Raven who was fighting it. ¡°Raven!¡± he called. ¡°.....¡± Raven dodged an attack at that moment but took the time to look at Sain as if saying ''what is it?'' to him without any words. ¡°Shit! That golden glow is really what I thought of it! Raven! Use your ''Gravity Force'' to crush that thing! It''s really weak to those kinds of attacks thanks to our ''Marks''!¡± Sain said quickly while providing some covering fire with his ''Magic Arrows'' spell which for reasons only he knew were now effective. ''I guess it can''t hurt to at least try his advise'' he thought retreating from the front. In his steed both Lyndis and Shadow ran up to the Dragon and battled it head on instead while using ''Boost'' as well. ¡°Power Strike!¡± ¡°Backstab!¡± Even though the two used those skills, they weren''t that effective against the Dragon at all. Even though Lyndis'' blade now could cut through the metal scales and Shadow was the same, it was still minor damage compared to what the Dragon could do to them. As such Raven felt like he had to hurry else they might be blown away and killed in an instant. ¡°Distract it using ''Fire Bombs'' Lyndis!¡± Sain ordered. With a slight grin that made Raven want to head out of here to not be caught up with whatever she planned on doing, Lyndis created several ''fire bombs'' at hand and threw them all at the Dragon. And when the timers went to zero.... BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM! A chain reaction of five ''fire bombs'' at once. ¡°Boost!¡± said Raven activating that skill.
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Star'' is now active. ''Gravity Force'' is now active.
Feeling the power of that invisible force around him, Raven manipulated it like it was part of his body and blocked an attack head on this time. To be precise, the attack didn''t even hit him as he forced it onto the ground. Swinging his arm down with that force, Raven slammed a blow using compressed gravity in a small area. Bang! The force was enough to crack the metal armour that the Dragon was made up. With a kick up, the Dragon was flipped over and then with his spear covered in that force, Raven stabbed at the Dragon piercing through it. Bang!
You have killed a Magitite Dragon! All stats +1 Fighting Spirit +10
You have levelled up x3[window] Seeing these messages, Raven relaxed for a second since the battle ended.... PAIN! HATE! SUFFERING! I WANT TO KILL! I WANT TO KILL! ¡°Ack!¡± Raven let out that sound as he felt the effects of using his ''Mark'' appearing. His personality was being changed...at this rate he would attack the others. ''I cannot allow for that to happen!'' With determination, he took his right arm and snapped it to forcefully take himself out of this trance that he was quickly falling into. [window]You took 683 damage
Right arm is has been broken, will not be able to use it until healed
¡°Raven!?¡± Sain and the others cried out in surprise. Raven endured the pain to send away the thoughts that plagues him and deactivated his ''Boost''. ¡°Moderate Heal!¡± Sain quickly chanted restoring his arm back to normal. The broken bone was repaired and Raven nodded to thank Sain. With a sigh Sain then with some anger in his voice said, ¡°You didn''t need to break your arm to snap out of the trance...¡± After thinking of it for a bit, Raven replied, ¡°Trance too strong¡± to which the others nodded in agreement. Of everyone, Sain had the most experience with using ''Boost'' much to the complaints of Miriel but also had the best control over it. He was now the least likely to have his personality change that much when using it in short bursts. However for the others, this was not the same. Raven himself right now experienced lots of pain and suffering and a desire to destroy everything in sight. It was something that existed to begin with so he was unable to suppress it or rather the chains around those feelings were loosing when ''Boost'' was active. Likewise to himself with anger issues when using ''boost'', Miriel would turn into a complete sadist that liked to humiliate others and Lyndis would become a pyromaniac that cares only of burning things. As for Serena, she had a similar effect as Raven where she goes in a berserk state instead of having to deal with anger issues like himself. Shadow on the other hand actually doesn''t speak at all when his ''boost'' is active which was a surprise. Soon enough the group recovered enough to search through the loot. xXx Looking through everyone''s health, they were right now around the 70% mark. The battle against the Magitite Dragon was a fearsome one that drained them of almost all their mana and to near critical point of their health. If not for the power of their ''Marks'', if not for Raven''s ''Gravity Force'' being highly effective against the Magitite Dragon, they would certainly be defeated. That was what his ''All Seeing Eyes'' told him of the battle. Walking over to where the Magitite Dragon died, Sain found that it dropped several things. Other than roughly 500 gold coins, it also dropped various gems such as rubies and sapphires. But most importantly it dropped Magitite Ore. Picking it up Sain said, ¡°identify¡± one what seemed to be the smallest and impure piece he could find.
Low Grade Magitite Ore Imbue with the power of the moon and magic slightly, this ore has the power to give a slight boost in mana regeneration when used as the material for an item
Sain was extremely happy looking at even this low grade piece! The fact that even this gave some boost in mana regeneration meant that the higher quality ores were even more valuable as well! Miriel looking over at Sain and seeing the status window of the low quality Magitite Ore was also shocked. ¡°My God! Even this would sell for a hundred gold coins easily!¡± she exclaimed. In recent times, with the depletion of certain mines and the hunting of powerful monsters at mass, certain materials increased in price dramatically. Before when the game started, something like this could only sell for 10 gold coins at most. Now it was 10 times the price! Feeling extremely happy on this find, Sain identified the next two grades higher of the ores as well and looked at what they gave.
Medium Grade Magitite Ore Imbue with the power of the moon and magic moderately, this ore has the power to give a moderate boost in mana regeneration when used as the material for an item. Furthermore there is a boost in magic resistance and a slight passive lightning damage effect given to any weapon made with this material.
High Grade Magitite Ore Imbue with the power of the moon and magic greatly, this ore has the power to give a large boost in mana regeneration when used as the material for an item. Furthermore there is a moderate boost in magic resistance and a slight moderate lightning damage effect given to any weapon made with this material.
The next two grades were even better! ¡°Medium grade will sell for 10 000 gold coins, high grade for 100 000 gold coins!¡± Miriel practically drooled at the sight of these ores. However Shadow had to remind her that most of these ores will be given to the blacksmith in the end. Their quest was to collect a certain amount though they would be able to take any excess. Finally Sain held in his hands the piece of Magitite that was the most clear and pure he saw. He was certain that this was the core of the Magitite Dragon itself. ¡°Identify.¡±
Pure Grade Magitite Crystal Ore The highest grade possible for an ore, it is infused with the power of the God of Moon, Mani and was given to a certain village for prosperity for the future. With this ore, there are four effects given to any weapon or armour that is made with this material. The first is a high mana regeneration, the second is increased magic resistance, the third is lightning damage applied and the fourth is increased mana capacity. Furthermore since this is a piece of the original crystal that was given, another special effect is given for any weapon and armour that was created using this; it will scale and grow with the user''s level and will be bound to them.
Reading this, Sain''s jaws were set on the ground right now as he was completely stunned and frozen at the last effects that this crystal ore gave. Curious on why Sain was like this, the others also looked and were completely shocked in the same way and another 5 statues were set next to him. Even Raven who was usually expressionless had this shocked face on him right now. If anyone came in right now and saw this, they would wonder if they were petrified and seek a priest to heal them. After a while minute with Sain''s hands shaking with this in his hands he could hear Miriel mutter, ¡°This is priceless...millions of gold would be an easy price for this...how many hundreds of thousands of dollars would this sell for as well!¡± ¡°We can''t sell this!¡± Lyndis hearing what Miriel muttered rejected the idea. She moved in to keep Miriel''s hands off of it fearing it might turn into coins if she did touch it. Shadow nodded and agreed, ¡°It is too good to sell off. Plus it is bound to the user so it cannot be stolen as well! The person who gets this doesn''t need to buys a weapon again!¡± ¡°But who will get the weapon?¡± Serena wondered to herself not noticing that she was wasn''t shuttering or shortening her sentences unintentionally. ¡°....¡± The group looked at each other and at the ore with greed. First of all, seeing this atmosphere, Serena raised her hand and said, ¡°I can''t take this since lightning isn''t compactable with my nature magic.¡± Thinking of this Lyndis then said, ¡°Since it is mostly magic related, we should rule out the non magic related personal right?¡± Hearing this, Shadow shocked said, ¡°Damn! You just want it for yourself don''t you?!¡± complaining on her greedy words. ¡°Well I DO use more mana than you¡± she replied back with an arrogant attitude. She looked at Miriel and then said, ¡°Miriel could also use it as a gem on a staff as well. Lightning works well with ice I would think.¡± ¡°You''re thinking of water not ice¡± Miriel sighed though she still at heart wanted it as well to use on a weapon for her. Hundreds of thousands of gold saved in the long run if they used this. Just as the rest of the group aside from Raven who rather not argue at all, Sain spoke some unexpected words. ¡°Can I have this? I mean if we can actually keep it in the end¡± he asked the others. He was expecting some sort of rejection from but there was silence. He wondered what they were thinking about at this moment since no matter what group, there would be some argument on something this valuable as he heard just then. ¡°Sure....okay?¡± Shadow was the first to reply though unsure. He was not sure what to do since Sain usually did not care at all on getting things but when he did, he would persist no matter what. ¡°Okay...if that is what you want¡± Miriel said looking closely at Sain. Serena, Raven and Lyndis nodded at the same time as well. The others had the same response as they were unsure on what Sain really wanted. However what they knew and what he didn''t know was that he was almost glaring at them when he asked in his normal tone. xXx After collecting the Magitite Ores the group had the following message.
You have completed the quest: Locate the Magitite Ore Give the Magitite Ore to the blacksmith You have levelled up
Due to the completion of a C rank quest, the group had another level up and in total increased from an average of level 151 to an average of level 155 between them all. Right now they had a total of 156 Low Grade Magitite Ores, 50 Medium Grade Magitite Ores, 12 High Grade Magitite Ores and 1 Pure Grade Magitite Crystal Ore. With this, they collected them in their inventory with Sain holding the Pure Grade one and everything else was split between them evenly. They did not know how much they needed to give the blacksmith in the end. Most of the Low and Medium Grade Ores were taken from the zombies but the High Grade and Pure Grade ones was taken from the Magitite Dragon. Moving along since this wasn''t actually the end of the mines, the group via Shadow with is ''locate trap'' skill strangely enough found a hidden passage way and they followed it through. ¡°What do you think will be at the end?¡± Lyndis asked. Miriel replied with a laugh, ¡°Hopefully not one of those Dragons again. One was enough to nearly kill us.¡± ¡°Hopefully it will be some sort of treasure¡± Sain said optimistically. However it was nothing like that. At the end, strapped to the walls were rows of bodies...corpses. All of them were bound with a large crystal that they had recognised as Magitite and the one that the Dragon has in it as well. ¡°This is sick¡± Miriel could only mutter seeing this. The group decided to split up in the fairly large room to explore the place a bit more. It was like a maze in here so they could well easily get lost. But at the same time, nothing would be done quickly if they decided to be careful and stick together. With words of caution, Sain left the others and explored the place. ¡°....¡± The more he looked, the more he was reminded of a certain place...that laboratory, but the man was dead already...or was he? Sain was not sure on this part but he continued to explore until he found a desk and diary in it.
Obtained Unknown Diary x1
Opening the diary, Sain quickly read through it and was shocked. ¡°This is....¡± It was a detailed account of what happened to these people...at least what happened to result in this. There was a Moon Goddess..and she gave a small village a powerful crystal to grow with. The village did becoming known for the crystal and was growing rapidly. Fearing this, the nearby town and it''s leaders stole the crystal and destroyed the village. As for the villagers...they were captured and experimented on creating those...things in the end with their bodies endlessly. With anger, the Moon Goddess cursed the town in question to never have moon night ever again. And the name of this ringleader was.... Closing the diary he placed it in his inventory and met up with the others. In the end they figured out that the source of those zombies were these corpses...the magitite was infinitely producing the zombies to attack the town. Whether this was intentional or a coincidence did not matter. ¡°Was there a switch to destroy this place?¡± Sain asked the others. They shook their heads...it seemed that they had to do this the old fashion way then....and painfully to their hearts as well. ¡°Well then...I think I saw some oil in this place somewhere....we need to spread it around so it gets every inch of this place¡± he said following a route where he remembered finding barrels of oil which were super expensive stacked in a row. For the next hour, the group went around oiling the bodies for the final burn. xXx A day later the group returned to Moonight town; they did not want to stick around at the mine any time soon and almost ran with all they got back here. It was about time the last of the bodies used to produce the zombies would be completely burnt up. At the gate was Alice who was smiling at them. ¡°Did you do what you had to?¡± she asked them. Seeing that the others probably did not want to answer, Sain instead nodded for them to to indicate they did. Alice did not question what they did or ask how they did it. All of that did not matter in her eyes, the means does not matter for the end. And in this case the end would mean peace to this town at last. Since the group left for the mines, more than a week passed and while Alice was strong, she could save every life in time at once. Because of this, the number of residents decreased even more eventually. She was quite worried that they might have failed or yet worse ran away from the Guild Quest itself which was a bad idea in the first place as well. ¡°Come¡± she said leading them into the town. They followed behind Alice to where the Elder was. They needed to explain that they might be attacked later on but it wouldn''t continuously happen anymore. The moment they set foot in town which was half destroyed by the siege, all of them got another message from the game.
You have completed the Guild Quest: Defend Moonight Town You have levelled up x3 Contributions to Kingdom +100 Contributions to Moonight Town +1500
¡°Oh¡± that was all they could say at the appearance of this message. To get this far they had to... The group stopped to look at this message that they weren''t particularly happy about. Alice noticed this and stopped as well to address them. ¡°You know you should be more happy to complete a Guild Quest of all things¡± said Alice noticing the depressing mood that everyone was in. With a sigh Lyndis said, ¡°Can''t help it...to finish the quest we just...well...burnt a lot of dead bodies...¡± Alice did not react at all to that statement and then said, ¡°There are many dirty things in this world and some of them you yourself sometimes needs to do. What you have done was the natural course. If you did not, this town and many more would be dead.¡± She looked up at the hazy sky that was soon to rain and then said, ¡°We better hurry up then. I have things to do after this as well¡± prompting the group to follow quickly. ¡°....¡± Entering the home of the Elder of the town which was a size larger than any other house they passed by, Sain noticed that he was thinner and more pale then he remembered. Well in all honestly his town was met with a week long attack from zombies if he recalled the span of the Guild Quest. ¡°You are...!¡± the elder looked shocked at the group thinking that they had failed and died. However instead he was met with them alive and well, physically that is. ¡°The deed is done Elder¡± Sain said, ¡°The zombies won''t be troubling you that much longer now.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± the elder asked. If the deed was done then his town was safe...right? ¡°Actually what we destroyed was what producing the zombies that were attacking this town. There are quite a number left but they won''t have enough numbers to deal any major damage to this town anymore. We are planning to go back there and clean the place up¡± he said assuring the elder. With a sigh of relief the Elder congratulated the group on this effort. ¡°On behalf of this town, I thank you for your service to this place¡± he said saluting them with a kind smile. The group and Alice nodded and left one by one. Eventually it was just Sain and the Elder and Sain had said to the others that he would catch up soon. The group did not find anything that worrying about that. ¡°Do you have anymore business with me?¡± the elder asked. Sain nodded and then looked at the Elder using his ''All Knowing Eyes''. The name that he found in the book appeared above the Elder''s head. A bit startled the Elder asked, ¡°What is wrong with your eyes?¡± ¡°Don''t worry about it¡± said Sain with a laugh as well, ¡°I was checking to see if you were infected with whatever disease that caused this event.¡± Sain made sure to lie about the second half of his words though. ¡°....¡± With nothing more to say, Sain said, ¡°Well then I''ll be off.¡± ¡°Take care then.¡± The Elder moved pick up a book. With his spear, Sain stabbed it into the back of the Elder pinning him onto the floor while he wasn''t looking. ¡°Arhh-¡± Some blood poured out of the wound but since since he was putting pressure onto it, the Elder would not bleed to death. Sain also made sure that the Elder could no longer scream that much and to call for help. ¡°W-Why....?¡± the Elder was bleeding out on the floor as he asked this last question. ¡°I am eliminating the source of this plague. You WILL tell me everything!¡± Sain said coldly to the Elder. He made sure to use ''Minor Heal'' to keep the Elder alive for a bit longer. ¡°I know nothing!¡± the Elder shouted back. To this, Sain''s eyes became even colder as he dealt the finishing hit. He would not have mercy on him any time soon. He was the one who destroyed an entire town for his greed, experimented on them as well and caused this whole incident to happen. A few seconds later the Elder died. Due to no witnesses to this crime, there will be no infamy gain or bounty pplaced on you ¡°Sigh...I killed another person now...¡± he muttered to himself. He wondered how much more he had to do at this rate... He remembered the conversation he had with Eden before. xXx ¡°At this rate most of you are going to be kicked out of the guild and therefore from school and therefore from that mansion as well¡± Eden said bluntly to Sain one day out of nowhere. ¡°W-What is this about?¡± Sain asked, ¡°How are any of us lacking?¡± ¡°In many ways. Mainly that you are not improving fast enough...you all are still limited to common sense. Even if you are Gen and the other brats apprentices, I cannot be lax¡± Eden sighed looking at Sain. In his guild, common sense was the thing that was least needed. ¡°However there is a way for me to give you lot more chances¡± he continued to say to Sain. There were many matters to be done and to lower that burden even by a bit was a big thing. ¡°And this way is?¡± Sain asked with a frown. He did not like where this was going. Usually this meant something bad in stores for him or the others. It was at that point Eden smiled and said, ¡°There are many ways on doing that. Which type of method would you prefer, the clean one where you hold no guilt or the dirty one where you are one of the guilty?¡± ¡°....¡± Sain thought about thinking of the others...and Miriel, ¡°Which one will give us...me a better chance in the end?¡± he asked. He had no intentions of letting the other dirty their hands at all. As their leader, he would bare that burden for them. The smile on Eden''s face changed at that moment. It become one of an evil nature. He knew Sain was like this and would choose this end. Perhaps it would not be the end...after all, the real test comes after a certain trial. ¡°Isn''t it obvious?¡± Eden asked though Sain already knew the answer. ¡°....¡± It was then that Sain decided to do what must be done to protect the others. He had grown close to them...too close to the point that he wished to protect them no matter what. Even if his soul would be painted black, he would still do so in order to protect them. There was no need for them to know... He would protect them no matter what. No matter the cost.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9100~ - Well some bits may be disjointed since I spent the previous day working on something else that I will post tomorrow, hope you enjoy that extra chapter. Anyway not much to say here but that I think I cut some things out a bit to shorten it. Vol.6 Extra Chapter - The Day Christmas Froze This is an event that took place 25 odd years before the start of the story... In the northern part of the continent, at the most beautiful city in the entire continent, a place where ice and snow mixed together, the city of Morata stood. A masterpiece in that the city itself was a sculpture upon completion, it was the most popular city in the game for good reasons. Aside from its pure white and nature mixture style of a city, there were countless sculptures about where you gained bonuses from them. More than that there were countless paintings and other types of masterpieces that made up this city. In all, it was a place that could literally cater for anyone for anything at this stage. And even more so, the city was in a celebrative mood as Christmas was coming soon. Countless pine trees were planted and decorated with red and green and stars at the top at each. Presents were gathered to be given out at midnight for hundreds of thousands of people. Even for three certain people this was quite a nice way to spend the day. ¡°Man are people really happy right now¡± said Eden noticing that there was literally no arguments at all and all trouble seemed to not even exist right now. Right now he and Alexandra were sitting near each other on seats on the street. If you looked at the current crime rate in the city, it would be a flat 0% even though the security of the city was quite low with most guards celebrating as well with their friends and family. ¡°Well it''s Christmas! It''s natural for people to be happy on this day!¡± Alexandra said it as if it was completely natural for such a thing as 0% crime rate to happen. Hearing this Eden remembered that before, there had never been this large of a celebration for Christmas before. On the forums, millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people all over the game were cooperating in making this is biggest event ever. One reason Eden could tell that there were no crimes was that they did not want to earn the wrath of hundreds of millions of people at once. The other was that they were also caught up in the mood after the unified Kingdom that Weed led focused on helping the masses with food and housing at the very least. The number of homeless, jobless and bandits decreased rapidly with this plan even though it was opposed at the beginning. The Independent Guild System was the same when it was introduced before but now it was as natural part of the Kingdom as anything else. It helped a lot against revolts and plotting against the Kingdom with a free organisation that was almost completely made of elite players and NPCs. Looking at a couple walking down the street....well there were a lot of couples on the street now, Eden decided to listen into their conversation. ¡°Hey hey, what do you want for Christmas?¡± the girl said clinging onto the boy''s arm. The boy blushed and said in a low voice that only she (and Eden) could hear, ¡°Only you right now.¡± They got closer together and walked away of range. ¡°Hmm....¡± Eden made that sound thinking of their conversation and looked at Alexandra. Viv for some reason decided to go somewhere doing this time, something about using happiness as an energy source for a spell. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Alexandra looking at Eden as well. She was unsure why Eden decided to look at her right now. ¡°Well...¡± Eden started to speak thinking of the conversation he listened onto, ¡°We are married right?¡± ¡°Yes...?¡± Alexandra was really confused on why Eden was acting like this. Usually he would never mention that they were married and would sometimes even avoid that topic. ¡°And we usually don''t go on dates or anything like that¡± he continued saying. ¡°That''s because every time we do, something happens. Sometimes it''s legendary monster or other rare and uncertain quests that are forced on us as well¡± replied Alexandra thinking about it. Eden nodded thinking of this as well. In the end he was redder than Alexandra had seen him in years as he asked, ¡°So...do you want to act as a couple for...today....?¡± Hearing this, Alexandra was suddenly feeling very happy. Happy enough to ignore the fact that Eden does not consider what they usually do, which was understandable, to being a couple. She moved over and wrapped her arms around him from behind. A little startled, Eden did not resist though as Alexandra whispered in his ear, ¡°We ARE a couple though¡± and then nimble it slightly which caused Eden to flinch. ¡°Yeah....¡± Eden really had no idea how to get any closer to Alexandra even though they were married (at first unwillingly) for years. He held onto her arms as they stayed like that for a few minutes. ¡°To think that I would see this sickening atmosphere between you two as well right now¡± said Viv interrupting their thing. ¡°Viv!¡± Alexandra immediately let go of Eden as if she was caught red handed in a crime. Eden also shot his head in Viv''s direction in shock as well. ¡°Why are you here?¡± he asked Viv while trying to hide the fact that he was as red as a tomato right now of being seen like that. (Even though to others beside Viv, they looked liked a nice lesbian couple) ¡°I finished with my work with this happiness energy that someone in the mage guild decided to experiment on¡± Viv replied with a slightly disappointed tone. ¡°The results?¡± Eden asked. He was quite interested in this as well as a ''mage'' of some sorts. There were many theories on using emotions as an energy source but it was either too hard or too dangerous in experimenting on normally. However right now it was Christmas which meant there were two particular emotions that were unusually high. ¡°The other emotion other than happiness is too high for us to test¡± Viv said, ¡°So instead we decided to experiment on the ''hate'' that comes from people who are spending Christmas alone.¡± ¡°So I go watch then?¡± asked Eden, this topic would be particularly interesting to him. Alexandra sighed hearing this and said, ¡°Great, this is definitely how I imagined spending my Christmas eve with you¡± in a sarcastic tone. Feeling a bit guilty since he knew that Alexandra was not interested in the magic stuff, he said to her, ¡°Don''t worry. I''ll make it up to you later.¡± Raising an eyebrow she asked, ¡°How?¡± Lying through his teeth which made him feel even more guilty than before, Eden replied, ¡°That''s a secret¡± with a fake grin on his face. At the very least he had to go with sparing with her else letting her do anything to her for an entire night...both of which will tire him out....greatly.... Talking with Viv on the matter of using the emotion of ''hate'' which Alexandra walked closely behind them not paying attention to their conversation, they reached the mage guild in Morata which was a bit smaller than other guild buildings in the city due to the costs. Entering it the moved up the tower and got into a room where there was a large and complicated magic circle the size of the room itself engraved onto the floor. ¡°This is?¡± Eden was wondering what it would do. ¡°A simple spell to summon a bit more snow into the continent. It''s overly large and complicated because it needs to draw the power source from emotions¡± Viv explained. Soon after a few mages that Eden did not know greeted them and took Viv to do something. Thus Eden was left with Alexandra again. Looking at the magic circle Alexandra asked, ¡°You...like these kinds of things?¡± though he figured she was less trying to insult him and more trying to find out what he liked. ¡°Hmm....less interested in magic circles itself, I find them a pain and am more interested in the idea you can use emotions to fuel a spell¡± he explained to Alexandra. He took this chance to hold her hand for a bit which she did not reject. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The two stayed liked that for a few minutes until the mages activated the magic circle on the ground. It glowed with a threatening red and black colour. ¡°Is it supposed to do that?¡± Alexandra asked frowning. ¡°....¡± Eden did not answer but continued to observe the magic circle in question. He felt there was a great power coming from it and spilling in and out constantly to the point that it was flooding out. ¡°Shit, it''s going berserk!¡± a mage shouted as the magic circle sent out waves of power in all directions. Several people were blown away by it and before Eden could do anything, he was hit with a wave of ''hate''. ¡°Why am I alone!? Where is everyone?! They should all die! I WII NOT BE ALONE TONIGHT!¡± BANG! Startled, the effects of whatever happened quickly disappeared and the magic circle laid there broken and on it was Alexandra with her sword drawn piercing through the floor. With a sigh she muttered, ¡°This is why I don''t like magic that much. It ends up like this all strange and creepy with the voices, especially when you try to experiment with it.¡± With that the incident ended....not. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! An earth shattering sound was heard by everyone in the Kingdom at that time. The celebrative mood of Christmas ended with that as this was a warning sigh of something disastrous to the highest level.
The God of Winter, Heretic God Hoor has descended
With that message, for the first time to many players, they bore witness to the descent of a God that will only use chaos and destruction to the lands. ¡°Did...the spell summon a God?¡± someone wondered. xXx Looking up in the sky, a man in pure white clothing appeared. There wasn''t that much to say about him but that he was blind was there were bandages around his eyes and that the power of ice literally was coming from him. ¡°Well this is bad¡± said Eden looking up at the God. It had been a while since he killed one...and to think it would be one of the ice element! Looking around he saw that everyone aside from him and the other two were shaking in fear from seeing Hoor. If Eden remembered correctly, Hoor was the God of Winter that was not only blind but was misled by Loki...that bastard, in killing his brother Baldr which was considered one of the strongest if not the strongest God out there. In one of his hands was a shaft of mistletoe as well.... Saying those words Hoor created a blizzard in Morata and then disappeared. Following this, all over the continent, Hoor appeared at each location and caused a powerful blizzard to appear. Eventually the entire continent was in a frozen state due to the power of the Heretic God Hoor. ¡°What...was that about?¡± Alexandra wondered, ¡°Killing his brother?¡± she then asked. Viv was the one who answered that question, ¡°Long story short, Loki tricked Hoor in killing his brother Baldr using a shaft of mistletoe which would have normally be impossible as Baldr could not be harmed with any attacks.¡± ¡°So....how did Baldr die then? Can''t Gods revive?¡± asked Alexandra again. Both Eden and Viv sighed at the same time hearing this question. ¡°You are supposed to be the representative to the Gods as well....how is it that I, the enemy of Gods know more about them than you?¡± Eden sighed a second time considering his own circumstances as well. ¡°Well...!¡± Alexandra panicked a bit and then said, ¡°I didn''t really listen when they explained all the rules and such when I got the class! I mean there were thousands of them all shouting stuff at me at once! You can''t blame me for not remembering most of them!¡± ¡°....¡± ''This woman....what the hell does she thinks Gods are?'' ¡°Anyway the reason Baldr was killed by Hoor, his brother was that firstly, Hoor was blind and second Loki used him to throw that shaft of mistletoe as an arrow which had no intentions of hitting Baldr. Loki being the ass he is, made it so that Hoor would aim at Baldr without knowing and thus Hoor killed Baldr which was super unexpected on all sides¡± Eden took this chance to explain the rest of the lore to Alexandra to which she nodded her head. Other than a Destroyer being able to permanently kill a God, a God can also permanently kill a God. It is the Dragon type is weak to Dragon type theory and the ''Destroyers'' are the Fairy type in this situation... But then had to ask, ¡°So why did he descend to the mortal plane? I thought Gods weren''t supposed to do that.¡± Eden face-palmed and noticed that Viv did as well. They did not bother to tell her the reasons why a God would do that. ¡°Anyway, let''s head to the church of Freya to see what we can do...considering I have a very good feeling I will be used to kill Hoor in the end¡± Eden sighed thinking of the soon to be death match between a certain destroyer and a God. xXx At the church...which gathered hundreds, if not thousands of people praying right now, Eden, Alexandra and Viv walked through the back and met with the pope who had come quickly along with several other important people to discuss what is to be done with this God. Entering Eden said one thing to them, ¡°So you want me to kill Hoor right?¡± ¡°....¡± A group of some of the highest positioned people in the continent, all of them at least the level of a high priest...several popes and other important figures from the Kingdom were completely silent when Eden entered. They stared dagger at him since they knew of his nature. But when Alexandra appeared they were all smiles. ¡°The Gods have no abandoned us yet! Surely Lady Alexandra can resolve this!¡± one high priest that Eden recognised was from the church of Lou said. The other people in the room agreed with statement showering Alexandra with praise and cursing Eden''s choice of words. ¡°Will you talk with the God to calm down?¡± one person asked. ¡°Talk?¡± Alexandra was confused by this and asked with her head tilted, ¡°Aren''t we going to kill it?¡± ¡°....¡± The room was completely silent again. ¡°T-To kill a God...even fallen...Lady Alexandra you must reconsider! Without the aid of other Gods, they cannot be slain!¡± one person said. Alexandra pointed at Eden and said, ¡°But we have the ultimate God-Slaying tool here and he even wants to fight for free.¡± When Eden heard the words that he was doing this for free, he retorted without realising it, ¡°Who the hell will fight a God for free?!¡± ¡°What? You seemed excited to fight one though this time you have me and Viv to help out as well¡± she said bluntly. To this, Eden let out a heavy sigh. ¡°Alexandra...you are a being that represents the Gods in the mortal plane, you of all people cannot simply slay a God when you feel like it like me.¡± Several people nodded though did not like the remark that Eden had slain Gods before. ¡°Besides, facing a God is more than a simple death match. They are the most powerful existences to be there and furthermore this isn''t a minor God but a major one! The difference between a minor God and a major one, even if it had lost all of its followers is like Heaven and Earth!¡± ¡°Then...it will be a fun battle?¡± she wondered aloud. Eden face-palmed again and found that everyone else did at the same time as well. Surely now they understand some of his pain when dealing with Alexandra and the thoughts of battle. ¡°Al, I think you need to gain permission from the rest of the Gods if you want to fight¡± Viv advised. ''Good thinking Viv! The other Gods will sure not le-'' That thought was not finished as a voice came down to all of them. [Thou who have power...subdue the Heretic God and be rewarded...you cannot deny this quest Eden..this will complete the set of powers you will need later as well]
Kill Heretic God Hoor. The God of Winter, Hoor had broke the contract with the Gods and had descended onto the mortal plane causing countless blizzards to occur. Slay Hoor and stop the continent from being destroyed! Rank: SS Requirement: Enough power to slay a God Reward: Unknown You cannot deny this quest
You have accepted this quest
¡°Shit!¡± he had just gotten himself into another damn quest as well...at least it is a double S rank quest this time and not a triple S rank one like with Hades... Upon looking over the quest details that were forced onto him, he noticed that Alexandra was staring at him. ¡°What?¡± he asked. ¡°I don''t think this is the first time you battled with a major God....I''m right am I¡± she said. ¡°....¡± Upon sighing again Eden went to explain it to her, ¡°The first was Hades who plotted to rebel against his peers...I gained the power of the strongest fire when I slayed him. After that, the Gods would sometimes...randomly give me more tasks to slay their brethren, all of them which were causing too much trouble.¡± Hearing this, many people drew their breath in with surprise. ¡°Medeina the Goddess of forest, Artemis the Goddess of Hunt, Enki the God of intelligence among many things, Iah the God of moon, Apep the serpent God, Selene the Goddess of the moon, The rain deity Jaguar, Iris the Goddess of the rainbow, Ani the God of sky, Hemera the Goddess of day, Sulis the God of Sun, Xihu another Sun God, Zeus the High God, Perendi God of Thunder, Ullr God of many things again, Njord the God of the Sea and wind and the list goes on including other minor Gods as well.¡± ¡°So...how many Gods in total have you killed?¡± Alexandra asked. ¡°A total of 47, with Heretic God Hoor it will be 48 and my powers as a ''Destroyer'' will be complete to use and perfectly balanced this time without me going berserk any time soon like when I took in Hade''s powers.¡± ¡°Isn''t that...a lot?¡± Alexandra raised that question seeing that she didn''t know that Eden went off to kill so many of the Gods while she didn''t notice. ¡°Well there are literally millions of Gods and out of the ones I killed, only 11 so far were major ones...at least in the past they were¡± he responded. From the minor Gods he killed quite a lot of, he gained some useful and useless abilities from but from the 11 major Gods he slain, he gained power over a certain element. After killing Hoor and gaining his power over winter and ice he would complete the set to control the 12 elements to the extremes. ¡°Anyway we should go find Hoor to kill him then¡± he said ignoring the gaping open mouths of those high priests and popes in the room and left the room with Alexandra and Viv. xXx Elsewhere around the continent, there was a giant outrage at the appearance of a Heretic God. Christmas was ruined! xXx A few hours later, the trio were confronting the Heretic God in a giant ice lair. Hoor was sitting on a ice throne looking down on the trio as if it was natural. [So you have come to slay me Destroyer. To think my brethren would intentionally send you to kill me after all I''ve done for them. However you need to slay me to have complete control of the elements in the end. It is good that my death will benefit some at least....] Hoor spoke with a sigh as if this was inevitable. ¡°In...that case would it be possible to finish this without a life and death battle?¡± Eden asked hopeful to avoid another life and death battle against a God. [Perhaps, for my sin was my involvement of the death of my brother...but in the end Gods who hold the power of ''Origin'' and can forever revive with time and Destroyer who hold the power of ''The End'' and can forever break that cycle will remains mortal enemies to the very end] This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Bang! Bang! Hoor got up from his throne. He increased his size to his natural one. Hoor and many other Gods in certain mythologies, particularly from the Norse ones were all part giant at least. It was not strange at all for Hoor to grow to a 20 metre size. Seeing this, Eden could only sigh as Alexandra looked with excitement of battling a God. However thankfully Hoor had more sense than to make outsiders, particularly Alexandra fight him as well. [One who holds the pride and power of the Gods should not battle Gods. One who holds the protection and will of the land should not battle Gods as well] With that statement both Alexandra and Viv were encased in ice, frozen. ¡°....¡± Looking at them with shocked expressions, Eden could not decided whether to laugh at how easily they were taken out or despair in that he would have to fight alone this time again. ¡°Will they be fine with our battle?¡± he asked to make sure. [This ice is made from my life and power itself. When I die, you can use the power you snatch from me to free them. If you lose, I will free them nonetheless] ¡°So I can trap them in there as long as I want eh....¡± Eden had some evil thoughts at that moment. [¡­.] The Heretic God was quite speechless of how Eden could think of such things casually. Perhaps it was not exactly a good idea to allow him to kill him in the end...though he would put up his greatest fight yet nonetheless. Looking up at Hoor, he held his Divine Sword at hand as his body went into battle mode against a God.
Facing a God, all stats +50%
Facing a God, will be able to deal double damage to it
Facing a God, able to negate some of its powers
Due to holding the power of fire, all ice element damage will be halved
Due to holding the power of water, all ice element damage will be doubled
[Prepare to die Destroyer!] Hoor with that shout swing his fist with the power of winter itself encased in it. Feeling immense danger even though his level a long time ago broke the 1000 point, Eden leaped away with such speed that you would think he had teleported away. BANG!
You took 167 774 damage
The attack landed where Eden was standing causing a great fist imprint on it. Furthermore countless ''Ice Spikes'' shot up spreading to Eden''s direction at the same time. ¡°Flight Magic!¡± he shouted spreading his six wings of light and flying in the air. Channelling his mana into his hands he rapidly fired off fireballs at Hoor. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang...! [Pitiful! This is the power of one that had slain Gods?!] Hoor used a swipe to blow away his fireballs and send a shockwave at Eden which in turn blew him away to the end of the lair. BANG! ¡°Ow!¡± Eden saw that a third of his mana dropped from that attack alone. Spitting out blood from his mouth as he waited for his body to recover using ''Burst Recovery'' he said, ¡°Dragonic Release! Dragonic Overload!¡± releasing the power of the Dragon from his body.
Dragonic Release has been activated - Spell Damage Increases by 100% - Spell Range Increase by 60% - Mana Absorption can be Activated - Strength is Increased by 60% - Agility in Increased by 60% - Movement Speed Increases by 30% - Defence Increases by 30% - Resistance to Magic Increases by 20% - Domination is twice as effective - Fighting Spirit is increased by 150%
Dragonic Overload has been activated - Mana Doubles - Gives Rapid Natural Mana Regeneration of 150 mana/second - All Skills rank up by 1 - All Skills in Beginner Levels rank up to Intermediate - Spell Damage Increases by 150% - Spell Range Increase by 80% - Strength is Increased by 80% - Agility is Increased by 80% - Movement Speed Increases by 50% - Defence Increases by 50% - Resistance to Magic Increases by 30% - Fighting Spirit is increased by 200%
Dropping a bit in altitude, he quickly sped up while flying at Hoor dodging another fist and firing a great blast of fire at Hoor''s back. BANG! The impact knocked Hoor forward a bit but it looked like a gentle push on the other hand. Clicking his tongue he gathered fire and mana in his stomach and blew it out of his mouth like a flame-thrower. ¡°Burn!¡± Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush! The flame attack that was large enough to consume the 20 metre large giant Hoor, burnt around him being blocked by the power of ice. Following using his Divine Aura to get rid of the flames, Hoor used his power over Ice to shoot a giant ice spear at Eden at speeds at which due to fire breathing could not dodge in time. ¡°Battle Aura! Dragon Transformation!¡± he shouted, activating both skills at the same time.
Battle Aura is now active Defence increase: 300% Speed increase: 300% Attack increase: 300% Fighting Spirit increase: 500%
Humanoid Dragon Transformation is now active - All stats +200% - Defence +350%
Golden aura burst from his body and from the front, black scales appeared to reinforce his skin. BOOOM!
You took 710 663 damage
The attack knocked Eden to the other side of the lair and took almost all of his mana at once. With a sigh he could see that Hoor was really not holding back on him and that he would have to do this as if he was throwing away his life...like every other battle against a major God. Quickly regenerating his mana to full using a skill and compressing his golden aura onto his sword, Eden turned into his ''Dragon King'' Mode where a black mask appeared on his face and his scales took the form of armour protecting him in all directions. ¡°Heaven and Earth Separation!¡± he shouted swinging his sword. BANNNNNNNNG! The dimension cut apart in the direction he swung but Hoor blocked it using his arms to guard again although he was bleeding now. Gathering his aura into his sword again he used ''Heaven and Earth Separation'' for a second time...third time...fourth time... Four large cuts were present on Hoor''s arms. [Impressive power...but!] The wounds suddenly sealed themselves and Hoor was back to normal though you could see the wounds that Eden dealt him. In the air, Eden positioned himself for an attack but then Hoor stopped him asking one thing. [Answer me this Destroyer, why are you holding back?] ¡°....¡± Staying in his stance, Eden did not answer however he had a revelation that ''that'' seal would not be undone if he used it now. Either way he could not win against a God without using it. ¡°Fine then¡± said Eden focusing to unleash the true power of a ''Destroyer''. With each word, more and more chains appeared and more power came through his body. [I to awaken am the Tyrant whom stole the throne of God] [I devour the wisdom and rip apart the Knowledge] [I will become the Magic King that rules over all Creation] [And I will show you true Despair!] [Magic King Drive!!!!!!!!]
Magic King Drive has been Activated - Spell Damage Increases by 500% - Spell Range Increase by 400% - Freely able to use the Elements at Will - Mana Absorption is at maximum (Able to absorb life as well) - Strength is Increased by 350% - Agility in Increased by 470% - Movement Speed Increases by 240% - Able to Defy several laws of Physics - Defence Increases by 200% - Able to use ''Flight'' Magic without any cost or restrictions - Able to use ''Golden Weapon Trio'' Freely in this state - Resistance to Magic Increases by 80% (Maximum Magic Resistance is 99%) - All Skills will be increased to maximum level
Ability of ''Magic King Drive'' in the presence of a God has been activated. Commencing subduction of Divine Power Due to being in the presence of a God and using ''Magic King Drive'', a further +50% has been applied to your body With immense power that Eden only felt a few times...especially in recent times, his golden aura expanded, no exploded several times over. ¡°Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!¡± That cry was let out as Eden moved at high speed in front of Hoor and kicked him. BANG! Hoor was blown back by the kick but Eden did not stop there at all. ¡°Chained Golden Strike!¡± he shouted. Around him hundreds of golden swords and spears appeared and shot at Hoor like a machine gun. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang....! Countless wounds appeared on Hoor as the attack pierced through his defence and divine power. ¡°Soul Devouring Flame!¡± Eden shouted next covering his body in blue flames he stole from the God of the Dead. Burning along with his golden aura, he formed the shape of an eastern dragon using the flame and made it charge at Hoor. ¡°Rooooooooooooooar!!!¡± the eastern dragon made of blue flames roared burst into more when Hoor punched it catching his entire arm in flames. Seeing this, Hoor tried to put the flames out but Eden did not let him. ¡°Chains of Heaven!¡± Countless golden chains...that once bound him ironically bound the God instead restraining him with arms and legs spread out. His arm that was on fire was still burning, furthermore it was burning more quickly this time. The power of ''Chains of Heavens'' was as such he could only use it in ''Magic King Drive'' and when used against a God...it would drain them quickly of their powers no matter how strong. With this the battle would end. Forming in his mind of a sword capable of killing a major God, as its powers were stronger than other minor Gods, a large sword that would be better used by the giant sized Hoor than himself, Eden called out its name. ¡°Sword of the End, Ragnarok¡± he said. The sword was of a golden and red colour scheme and was a good 15 metres long as well. While looking like a two handed sword, it was actually a weapon that a giant could use with one hand. It was then, seeing this sword that Hoor started laughing. [Hahhahaa, to think that that sword, one of the banes of my kind would fall in the hands of another bane of the Gods. Too ironic...O fate cannot be avoided in the end] ¡°Are those your final words?¡± he asked the Heretic God that was slowly burning away. [Do not fall into despair and turn into a true Destroyer young one] ¡°....¡± With that, Eden stabbed the sword into Hoor which in turn obliterated him into pieces. With that, Eden got a series of many messages from the game, most of which he ignored.
You have slain the Heretic God Hoor! - You have gained 631 531 Fame - Infamy will be reduced to zero - However since you are an enemy to all Gods, this Fame is cancelled out and Infamy will not be decreased - You have gained 3 levels - All stats +464 - Fighting Spirit +1627 - You have gained the ''Power over Ice'', the power to control all ice no matter what - Able to use ''Absolute Zero Ice'' - By obtaining the final power over the elements, you have achieve a perfect balance of the elements in your body to the extreme that should not be possible, elemental damage +500% - Due to this effect of a perfect balance of elements, the maximum elemental resistance you can gain is decreased to 80% from 99% - Ice Resistance will increase by 50%, reached maximum of 80% ice resistance - All elemental attack will be less effective against you - By slaying a God you have worsen your relationship with other Gods - Since it was a heretic God that had broken the contract of the Gods, relationships with Gods will increase - Due to being a destroyer, the above effect will not apply - Getting rid of a major threat to the Kingdom, +1 000 000 contribution points - Due to this, relationship with the Kingdom and it''s people will increase - By killing the Heretic God with next to no damage to the Kingdom, relationship with Kingdom will rise exponentially
You have completed the quest: Kill Heretic God Hoor - Fame increased by 100 000 - You have levelled up - The Gods will give you your reward shortly after Christmas
¡°Ohhh...¡± seeing that he gained a total of 4 levels of a surprise. He was over level 1000 which meant that nearly nothing he killed would give him experience. However killing a major God in terms of power gave him 3 levels and completing a double S rank quest gave him another level. He did not really care much of the other information like his fame at this point, but he was interested in the power of ''Absolute Zero Ice''. Reverting back to normal, he moved to unseal both Alexandra and Viv from the ice. Upon being freed, the two looked confused until Alexandra realised that Eden had fought and killed the Heretic God without her. ¡°Hey! You were supposed to let me in with the fun!¡± she shouted. Eden grumbled a bit on how he couldn''t free her until now either way which made Alexandra smack Eden on the head. ¡°You are NOT allowed to put yourself in that much danger EVER again! You hear me!¡± she shouted in his ear. ¡°Right...right...¡± he replied almost automatically though he was a bit happy that she was worried about him at any rate. ¡°We should go back. Soon enough, the celebration will start soon now that the countless blizzards are gone with that Heretic God gone¡± said Viv with Eden and Alexandra nodding their heads. Thus the trio went back to Morata for Christmas Eve. xXx The next day after a full night of Eden and Alexandra...cough... ¡°Umm Eden...¡± Alexandra came in rubbing her stomach with an unease look on her face. Last night was...extreme to both of them because they had to drink a certain thing that they both did on their honeymoon night...which led to... Snapping out of it, Eden noticed that Alexandra was looking at him worried about something that wasn''t there yesterday. Confused, Eden asked, ¡°What is it?¡± he did not like her rubbing her stomach for some reason... ¡°I''m pregnant.¡± ¡°.....¡± Those simple words made Eden''s face twitch uncontrollably. He immediately connected this to the ''reward'' the Gods gave him for killing Hoor yesterday. This was not a reward at all! This was some form of cruel punishment! ¡°Daammmmmmmmmmmn!!!!¡± he screamed in anguish. BANG BANG BANG BANG! Eden started smashing his head into the wall thinking about it. In his mind, he cursed the Gods with every fibre of his being. He would destroy every one of them in the end not leaving a scrap of them left! Seeing Eden like this, Alexandra let out a laugh and said in playful manner, ¡°I was joking. Don''t worry about it and also...that look on your face was priceless puhahahaha!!!¡± She was resisting the urge to roll on the floor laughing. ¡°....¡± Looking angry at Alexandra Eden stormed away leaving her in the room alone. BANG! The door was slammed shut as well and Alexandra expected Eden to let out his rage at some poor unsuspecting monster somewhere. She sighed and continued rubbing her stomach where from what she could tell, two new lives were in her. ¡°With that as his first reaction how will he take it that I wasn''t joking....¡± she muttered. She decided to think of names for the children that she will bear one day...though she hoped Eden would not disappear when they are born.... xXx ¡°And that kids is how you two were born!¡± Eden said to the two young children on his legs. They were only 5 years old and to Eden, super cute to hug! He finally could understand Alexandra''s obsession with hugging cute things now. Seeing them calms his heart down...to the point where he feels that he no longer has to fight an endless battle against the world. ¡°So...dad killed a God and thanks to that mum had us afterwards?¡± Alena asked with an unsure tone. Usually the stories that their dad told were really ridiculous...only that Eden wished they were stories. Her sister nodded in question as well. Eden let out a laugh and then said, ¡°Like I said, you two were my reward¡± wrapping his arms around them. They were quite warm. ¡°Heeeey! Don''t leave me out!¡± Alexandra shouted jumping onto the back of Eden and hugged all of them at once. Their children let out laughs as they tumbled forward thanks to that hug. But all of a sudden Eden made a serious tone and asked his wife, ¡°Didn''t you say you were making an extremely dangerous dish that would explode if you didn''t stir it or something for 3 seconds?¡± ¡°Oh....'' BANG! The kitchen exploded into pieces with Eden hugged his children harder than ever to protect them from the explosion. Then he let the two go and got up as Alexandra tried to sneak away. ¡°ALEXANDRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!¡± he shouted chasing after her. More chaos ensured thanks to this. Their Christmas was always one where something humorous happened no matter how small.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Merry (Possibly Early) Christmas to you all! - I wrote this for Christmas two days ago and edited a bit as well. Muhahahha Eden''s reaction to Alexandra being pregnant was one that I always wanted to write about! EDIT: I have no idea why the italic thing is glitched to italic half the chapter...man, maybe I shouldn''t use use it in the future... Vol.6 Chapter 4 - Returning back to Training ¡°Welcome back you all¡± said Alena with a smile as Alice dropped them off. She took her child quickly to his room and gently put him down in his crate rocking it a bit. ¡°I''ll be in the other room¡± Alice replied while quickly before heading to the other room to discuss some things with her privately. Sain wondered what Alice wanted to talk to Alice about that they did not need to know. Alice nodded with understanding and then looked at the group realising their expressions to which she asked, ¡°What''s wrong¡± frowning seeing that they were not in a particularly good mood. ¡°....¡± There was some silence until Sain spoke up as always. He would need to make sure the others would talk when he could not in the future. ¡°That Guild Quest we got...¡± Sain sighed thinking of it again. If there were any other ways, if they could have done something else on that matter then they would not be like this. If there was another way that is. They all knew that they lacked strength to change anything at all, playing into the palms of the ones that can actually do so. In that respect, nothing changed at all when Eden picked them up changing their lives for a second time in a casual matter. In the end, they were being used by Eden again like puppets just when they were starting to feel that they were doing something at least. ¡°Anyway, we want to...talk to you about something after your business with Alice is done¡± Miriel said interrupting Sain seeing that this was not the best time when their feelings were not exactly in the right place. Seeing Sain''s depressed expression along side the similar dejected faces that the others, including Miriel processed as well, Alena nodded to this and believed that they needed some time to themselves right now. ¡°Understood, I''ll give you some time to think over what you want to talk about then¡± she replied with a knowing tone as if Miriel and the others were children under her care. She was a bit too used to handling children that her tone ended up like that. With a close of a door, the group was now alone with each other. ¡°11 more months eh?¡± Shadow spoked up lying on the sofa with a same tone as always though this one sounded more dejected than usual. Raven nodded in a similar mood as well. How much longer until they will be strong enough to decide their own fates they wondered. The time period in which the group went from Lily City to Moonight Town and back them took roughly a week and a half. In this time, they had completed two quests, both C rank but one of them was a Guild Quest as well. ¡°It is impressive that we managed to do two quests of that level in such a short time...¡± Sain muttered as if that was to encourage them and himself. With both quests done, the group did not return to Lily immediately but instead went to the Magitite Mines and spent the rest of a month to clear it out. The plague of the zombie attack was completely over with that which made them feel a bit better. ¡°We cleared out the mines as well...gone back in there¡± he let out a sad laugh. ¡°Don''t ponder too much on it¡± Lyndis suggested, ¡°Thinking too much right now is a bad thing...I know from experience¡± she sighed at the end. ¡°What do you know-screw it. Too tired to insult you right now¡± Miriel said the same, ¡°Thinking right now is too much. Wonder how that town is doing.¡± Moonight Town was quite damaged by the attack. More than half the buildings of the place were trashed and reconstruction went away smoothly at least. The important part was that the most important buildings, the food storage building and the wells were all fine. With some help, they will not starve as winter came. ¡°That major guy man...seems kind enough¡± Serena said relieving the others though this sunk a dagger in Sain right then. ¡°Y-Yeah...he seems like a nice person¡± he said trying to keep his tone even. It would be best not to speak more on this else the others may find out, ¡°In all we gained around...10 levels from this?¡± It was during this time in the mines that they levelled up a further three times increasing their levels to around the level 161 point. To be precise Sain, Miriel and Serena were level 162 each while Shadow was level 161 and Raven and Lyndis were both level 160. ¡°Yeah, impressive I might say¡± Shadow pointed out, ¡°Well that''s what two quests in a row does for you.¡± ¡°I wonder when our levelling will slow down...¡± Lyndis wondered. ¡°Around level 200 remember. It''s common knowledge¡± Miriel spat back with a bit of shock that Lyndis did not even bother to remember that. ¡°In these 11 months we need to at least reach that level 200. If we can''t then Eden will most probably kick us out of the Guild for good reasons¡± Sain said causing the others to be startled by his words. There was some silence as these words sunk in. ¡°Wait, being kicked out?¡± asked Miriel. She had no heard any of this at all even from the others. Likewise Serena, Shadow and Raven were shocked at these words as well. However Lyndis was not, as she was the other person Eden talked to this about. But at the same time, she held her words on this. ¡°Yeah...¡± Sain scratched his head and then said, ¡°He told me around 6 months ago that at this rate would will be kicked out when we fail at something or don''t become strong enough. He told me this to make sure we are prepared whether it is for the tasks ahead or the other outcome.¡± Miriel''s face turned ugly as she panicked though it turned back to normal quicker than you could blink as she banged the desk a bit with her hand. ¡°Damn damn damn damn!¡± Miriel repeatedly cursed, ¡°If you told me this earlier than I could have prepared a course for us to do! We are lacking in so many areas here that''s it''s not funny. Whether it is skill proficiency, number of spells and even levels itself, we are lacking completely!¡± ¡°Wait...calm down¡± Sain reached out for Miriel who looked like she was about to storm out of the room, ¡°The first two points are understandable but we still have 11 months to work on reaching level 200.¡± ¡°Yes but when we reach level 200, we can get out 2nd class advancement, possibly from our Masters that are back in Witchelm City. With a more advance class we can explore more powerful skills, spells and traits that we can gain¡± she rapidly said, ¡°Plus with this net, we are less likely to be kicked out as well.¡± ¡°But...didn''t they say that when we reach level 200, Eden will more or less treat us like a regular member of the Guild and not like this? Isn''t that a bad thing to more difficult tasks while if we are weak?¡± asked Lyndis pointing that out. She thought of what Miriel said a lot so she in turn knew how to counter it her arguments. Gaining levels is not everything, and in this case doing so too fast will bode ill to them all. ¡°Lyndis has a point¡± Shadow finally said, ¡°There is no reasons to go too fast now. Remember when Eden said the foundations are everything when he....trained us? Is that the right word? Getting to level 200 quickly will only make it worse for us in the long end. Well if you want, you can do that alone and get kicked out by yourself.¡± Shadow sneered at the possibility at the end. His relationship was more or less the same with Miriel. Which meant they hated each other''s guts. ¡°Then what the hell should we do now?!¡± Miriel asked herself while clutching her head ignoring Shadow completely. ¡°Umm...¡± Serena went over and patted Miriel who fell onto a chair and said, ¡°We should work on this together...and slowly¡± she added at the end. Serena who was calm was more in line with Sain and those who wished to not rush this. Getting to level 200 was one thing but to sustain their above average strength compared to their level was another thing. At best, at normal conditions they could most likely beat someone 10 levels or if they were lucky 20 levels above them. Though this was more as a group verse group situation was individuality. With a tap of the door, it opened with Alice coming out though it seemed that she was listening in on the conversation that the group had...not that she had a choice on the matter. ¡°Serena is right¡± said Alice coming out of the room either finished with what she had to say with Alena or hearing the disturbance that she was making. Looking over, the group listened to what Alice had to say. As the most senior member right now in their presence, they naturally looked at her for guidance. ¡°Eden taking in people early is common. I am one of the rare ones in the guild where he didn''t have a hand in training them¡± she gestured at the tattoos on her arms, ¡°Of those who had the same thoughts as you and went with it, getting to level 200 quickly with little notice to everything else, they have all failed in the end and were kicked out of the Guild¡± she said bluntly ¡°....¡± Miriel could feel a sigh coming up. She was really that out of it that she tried to go with that option...though she was glad some of the others immediately tried to stop her in this. ¡°But of those who have slowed down and thought out their approach and slowly built themselves out, most of them were kicked out as well.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Though it doesn''t matter which way you go if you are going to be kicked out, those who had made an effort and slowly built themselves ended up a lot better than the other kind. Plus most of them have made themselves known quite well in a good way.¡± ¡°Wait, there are people who were kicked out of this guild and were fine?¡± Lyndis asked in disbelief. Eden didn''t seem like the type of person to let anyone fine when he deemed them useless. ¡°Yes, though that encounter of one who tried to have you assassinated Miriel, was one of those the former who were too overconfident in their skills and never blamed themselves for his failures. Naturally he will be hostile to the guild until he was permanently eliminated¡± she said addressing that point. Remembering what she heard of the incident and the report Eden gave in of that, Alice was surprised that the group did not even flinch at the sight of a person''s jaw being ripped out. Were young people today that diluted to such violences...or was there something with them fundamentally? Either way it did not matter though she found them interesting at least compared to other regular players that were really worthless. Alice then let out a chuckle which was her amusement when the world finds out about them, they were too similar to child soldiers and the world did not want Eden of all people to be creating them since no one would be able to stop him. But right now was not the time to be thinking of that and she needed to explain some things to them to at least comfort them, even a little bit. ¡°From what I heard¡± she continued, ¡°Of those in the latter cases of leaving the guild, Eden made sure that them leaving did not affect them at all. Therefore even if you get kicked out but worked truly hard, Eden will make sure that nothing too bad happens to you. There are many cases where he actually brings them in for help at times. So don''t worry about that too much....¡± ¡°But...¡± Miriel was still concern about another point, ¡°Eden right now is taking care of us in the real world as well...which means if we are kicked out then....¡± ¡°I think mum won''t let dad do anything bad happen to you there as well¡± said Alena coming into the room as well. ¡°Ah yes, you can take it from here Alena¡± Alice said leaving the building and the group alone with Alena this time. ¡°Geez she always leaves these kinds of things to me¡± Alena said with a slight sigh. She turned to the group and then asked, ¡°So what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?¡± ¡°Actually I was wondering where your sister and husband are, ever since we came here they never came back right?¡± asked Lyndis ignoring the other issue at hand for her other interests right now. ¡°Lyndis!¡± shouted Miriel in anger that the conversation would be drawn to something so useless. ¡°Now now¡± Alena tried calming Miriel down at least before proceeding to say, ¡°Sis and my husband are both on a trip to Kallamore to see if they can find the source of the monster trouble over there that lasted for hundreds of years. A great deal of people went there from all cities as well.¡± ¡°Oh¡± Lyndis let out that sound seeming satisfied with the answer. ¡°Now what is troubling you all then?¡± asked Alena with a smile. With that, Sain with some input from the others explained their current situation and what they could do about it. In the progress they made in a month, they had gained a total of 10 levels like that though without good quests along the way, it was unlikely for them to level that fast from now on. According to what Eden said before, they had a total of 1 year to reach level 200 and now they had 11 more months to complete this though it was quite easy for them to get to gain 40 levels in that time. ¡°Basically we need to get stronger but without levelling up to quickly.¡± And from what Alice said, doing so would only make it harder for them if they get to that point too early. While levels were important, skills and stats were even more so. However they had no clear way on increasing that without gaining levels rapidly as well. It was a wall that was difficult to overcome. However this leads to a lot of time to spend on other matters like the development of skills and spells and achievement of new ones as well. But at the same time, practising the older skills and spells would be more and more difficult as it grows as it require more than practise and more of live combat to master. ¡°So...what should we do now? We need to level up but that isn''t exactly high on out list now. Doing difficult quests will only accelerate it but at the same time we are limited that our skills are slowing down in growth¡± Sain asked with a sigh nearly coming out in the end. ¡°.....¡± Alena seriously thought about it. This would affect their future after all. ¡°I see then...in that case I should teach you¡± she finally decided in the end. Those word got a surprised reaction from the group. ¡°I am sure I can make you all stronger by 3-5 times by teaching you two particular skills each in a month period alone without you levelling even once! Plus with some extra training you can become even stronger than before!¡± said Alena with utter and complete confidence in her methods. Her smile was brilliant, but too brilliant to the point that she was unable to see the shock on the group''s faces. ¡°Huh?¡± The group was dumbfound at her words. If a hundred level difference means a ten time difference between two people then a twenty level gap was equal to one being twice as strong as the other. But what Alena was proposing was something akin to a thirty and fifty level difference through training two skills along! ¡°Wait!¡± Miriel said, ¡°What on earth can make us that much stronger?!¡± Alena put up two fingers. ¡°One are foundation skills. That alone will grow with you and improve performance. That alone will make you twice as strong.¡± The group nodded in agreement. Things like ''Mastery'' skills count as foundation skills as they affect you all the way to the end. Blatantly, any skills that does so count as foundation skills as they are the groundwork of your character. However such skills are hard to find most of the time due to their difficulties in training instead of their power at late game. ¡°The second are fighting styles for each of you. These are called ''Arts'' and are a recent thing but can be considered a set of skills, they weren''t really a large thing until mum taught some people the power behind them and now everyone wants one!¡± she said with some pride in her voice. Though really the real reason was that it was easy to get one now compared to before. The so called ''Art'' skill was one that was already a thing when the game began. However most of them were extremely hard to find and combined with most of the skills associated with them were weak with the exception of one or two. As such learning associated skills in a set was frowned upon as it wasted time when you could be learning more powerful skills. But at the same time some people still learnt these weak skills and in the end, ended up stronger than their peers! Seeing this, eventually after a certain even involving Alexandra killed many people at once with these ''weak'' skills chained up together in an invincible dance of death people started recognising them. And now, these ''Art'' skills getting that much recognition from the media and forums are really popular with early and mid gamers though not many stick to them due to the difficulties training them. ¡°Anyway it''s nearly night as well so you might as well turn in that other quest you lot have and stay for the night!¡± Alena said enthusiastically with a motherly smile to the group. They could only awkwardly smile back at her. How could this kind and living natured person be the child of Eden and Alexandra? (Ignoring the fact she beat down a level 600+ person before in the past with her fists) However they did not know that Eden and Alexandra both spoiled their children while planting in them powerful and inhumane techniques as they grew up casually making them much stronger than they appeared. As such they may sometimes look weak but in fact were very strong. With a few words of goodbye for now the group left to meet with the blacksmith that once caused them to almost be chased out of the city to escape. They made sure they had their cloaks on to avoid people recognising them. xXx 2 hours, a dozen confrontions and a death match stopped by guards later they made it to the blacksmith at last. ¡°Damn...those people are persistent even after a month¡± Shadow muttered that complaint to which the others agreed with him. 156 Low Grade Magitite Ores, 50 Medium Grade Magitite Ores, 12 High Grade Magitite Ores and 1 Pure Grade Magitite Crystal Ore. A Low Grade averaged around a hundred gold coins each, Medium Grade would average around a ten thousand gold coins each, High Grade would do so for a hundred thousand gold coins each! The Pure Grade one would most likely surpass a million gold in price. All of this would equal to over 10 million gold if they sold it little by little to keep demand as high as it could. If they sold it all at once they could get a similar price but to let the price point drop would mean that they would only get a little around a million gold. How could the group let even one piece be taken from them? Entering the black building which was extremely famous, they were greeted by a receptionist as the blacksmiths in here did not confronting too many people at once who would scream their requests. It had been common practise to do so now that there are so many people in the game that most cities were too populated. ¡°We would like to hand in the quest involving the Magitite Ores¡± Sain said causing the receptionist and anyone else to flinch greatly at his words. ¡°Please come this way quickly! The Grandmaster will want to meet with you!¡± the receptionist said bringing them into a room where a dozen or so muscular men in tank tops sat and looked at them. Serena felt like she wanted to run from this sight as it resembled a gang meet up in those T.V shows she watched before. ¡°So...¡± the man at the very back that seemed to have an overwhelming presence asked, ¡°You have gotten the Magitite Ores then?¡± ¡°Yes¡± Sain replied, ¡°156 Low Grade Magitite Ores, 50 Medium Grade Magitite Ores, 12 High Grade Magitite Ores and 1 Pure Grade Magitite Crystal Ore to be precise.¡± Even the man with the overwhelming presence which Sain and the other immediately recognised as one of the great Grandmasters in the game. One of the three Grandmasters that mastered Blacksmithing! It was due to this reason why this place was extremely popular. Along side this grandmaster were several advance level blacksmiths as well. Combined with this, the place would be visited by thousands of people each passing day with no end. If not for the reference from Alena, the group would not be able to even get close to this place. Ignoring the chatter from the other blacksmiths in the room with them the Grandmaster raised his hand and said, ¡°I asked for only 50 low grade pieces for some of the younger ones to train with.¡± ¡°Well there was an opportunity and we really didn''t have much choice else we would have left them back at the mines.¡± The Grandmaster understood something at that time, ¡°A Guild Quest...involving the mines?¡± he sighed. ¡°Someone modified the Magitite to spawn an near infinite number of zombies and they attacked a town¡± Sain explained also ignoring the other blacksmiths who were staring daggers at him and the group now. ¡°Never-mind that, there are other Magitite Mines out there...¡± the Grandmaster said, ¡°Tell me you gained this much, you wish for something from me right?¡± ¡°I want you to personally forge some equipment for us¡± Sain said with a gentle smile on his face. It was then the other blacksmiths could not hold back any longer and shouted insults to Sain. ¡°You fool! To make the greatest blacksmith in the continent to-!¡± ¡°You will have sullied our hands with your tone!¡± ¡°Such arrogance! Kill them and take the ores!¡± ¡°STOP!¡± the grandmaster shouted with a fury to his fellow blacksmiths. The shout was so loud and powerful that the group felt like they were about to be blown away with that alone. ¡°Do NOT insult my pride with your words¡± he said to the other blacksmiths. They all could not help but to turn their heads away from him in fright. Looking at Sain and the others who did not look away however the grandmaster sighed. ¡°You lot, especially you¡± he pointed at Sain, ¡°Are extremely arrogant. If not for the fact that you have brought more than I asked, if not for Alena referencing you here, if not for the fact that you are part of an Independent Guild and if not for the fact that you have the backing of three monsters I owe favours to, I would have had you killed you and exiled you from your safe life so far. I have no interest in facing three grandmasters along with many other monsters in that guild at once because of you lot.¡± There was a slight chill from hearing those words but Sain ignored that. He would want to get onto his main point now. ¡°I can give you all of the low and even the medium grade Magitite ores to you if you want. That would be quite valuable alone right? In exchange for your services¡± he said to the grandmaster handing over several large bags of them. ¡°And what will you have me do with the rest?¡± the grandmaster asked. Hearing that, Sain smiled and said, ¡°From the Pure Grade one, I want you to make a spear for me. Use your best abilities since levels don''t matter with that. As for the 12 High Grade ores, use 6 of them to make rings for us. Level 200 for those if you please. That leaves 6 left to which I want two of them to be daggers for protection around the level 160 point. Another short sword of the same level which leaves three left. Lyndis, Raven you want anything?¡± A bit startled that she would have to speak all of a sudden...she then realised that she was quite fine with what she had so far. ¡°No need for me¡± she said shaking her head. However Raven said, ¡°Large Shield and smaller shield¡± Sain nodded and then said to the grandmaster, ¡°And use the last three pieces to make a two new shields for Raven here.¡± ¡°Halberd as well¡± Raven added. Sain was honestly surprised right now. He did not know that Raven was thinking of using another weapon other than a spear. A Halberd like a spear has a point end so you could use it like that but it was similar to a two edged axe as well used for chopping. It was a good weapon to use with a large shield as well. Looking at the Grandmaster Sain added onto the request, ¡°Also a Halberd as well.¡± It was at that time that Lyndis spoke up at Sain, ¡°Wait wait wait, I don''t get a new weapon as well?¡± Puzzled Sain asked, ¡°Why do you need a new one? Your sword is a perfectly good one and is quite powerful in that it allows you to use your sword skill twice as fast¡± questioning her a bit. Lyndis pouted and then said, ¡°Of course I want a new one if it is stronger! For a swordsman like me, getting a better weapon no matter what is something we all desire! Even Raven spoke up to get new equipment as well! Besides I bet Miriel and Serena would want new staffs as well...both of them are quite old¡± she pointed out in the end. Sain looked at the two and saw that both of them were looking away trying to avoid the issue. He sighed and made a mental note to remember to get them new staffs later on. ¡°If that is all, then leave¡± the grandmaster coughed aloud drawing Sain''s attention back to him. It was then that Sain remembered something from before as well. To be precise it had to do with Raven again as well. ¡°Ah, and another favour as well¡± he quickly added. The grandmaster raised his eyebrow and said, ¡°Another favour? You are pushing your luck brat.¡± However was a look that he was humoured by them in his eyes which Sain could see. He knew that this person would do the favour and request if it was not too unreasonable. Sain could only grin a bit to that and then asked, ¡°Can you take Raven in later on for a bit to level his ''Repair'' skill to the Intermediate Level and give him the blacksmithing skills?¡± ¡°And you couldn''t possibly give this task to someone else?¡± ¡°Might as well while we''re here¡± Sain shrugged. Looking into Sain''s eyes the grandmaster finally sighed and said, ¡°That guild or yours is full of monster all the way. Anyway I''ll take the extra ores as payment for your request. The rings and other weapons from the High Grade stuff will take a day each to forge. Your spear will take another week as well and another day to add in finishing touches. So twenty days in total to make all of this.¡± Sain frowned and then asked, ¡°Why does it take so long?¡± The grandmaster chuckled and asked, ¡°Why do you think Magitite Ores are so valuable?¡± ¡°Because they add on mana regeneration, magic resistance, lightning damage and increased mana capacity?¡± ¡°That and the fact that they are extremely difficult to handle. It is however simple for me to do all of this in a day, few hours if I wish but to use the most of my abilities would mean it will take much longer. That and my pride as a grandmaster will not allow me to forge anything less than my best.¡± Hearing that, Sain and the other bowed a bit and thanked the grandmaster for his service. Taking the Magitite Ores from them, the group got another notification from the game. You have completed the quest: Gather Magitite Ores - You have levelled up! With this, they gained another level as well and completely cleared out the quest log that they had. They can now three more quests at a time. With that, the group left and before that Sain had to ask, ¡°By the way, what did you mean by not wanting to face three grandmasters? I thought only Alexandra was one.¡± The grandmaster chuckled and then said, ¡°Oh Eden and Viv are grandmasters all right. But the kind that everyone wishes to avoid. Plus Eden is a dual grandmaster which makes him even more of a monster.¡± Sain was slightly in shock but quickly remembered what Eden was and calmed down seeing that wasn''t exactly the most shocking thing he found about his guildmasters...yet. xXx A bit afterwards Miriel realised something... ¡°Sain!¡± she immediately grabbed him by the collar, ¡°Why the hell didn''t you save some?! We could have gotten a lot of money on selling some Magitite Ores! Even the Low Grade ones!¡± Sain seeing Miriel like this could only give her a wry smile and explained, ¡°There were two reasons. The first was that if we sold even some without us telling them, they will find out. That would be a breach in trust. The second reason is that I suspect that that Grandmaster in Blacksmithing knows the number of ores that we have on us.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Still feel like it was a waste to give ALL of it to them...after all the work we did to get them¡± Miriel muttered. ¡°Well we are going to get top quality gear thanks to it now¡± Sain laughed. ¡°Still all of that gold...¡± ¡°I''ll make sure to buy you a new staff within my limits okay? I''ll even go with you to choose one¡± Sain promised her which made her look happy for a split second before he added, ¡°Oh and Serena needs a new one as well right?¡± Stolen story; please report. ¡°....Yeah...¡± Serena said looking away. She did not want to be glared at Miriel right now. It wasn''t her fault that Sain was too dull in the head to know what he did wrong?! xXx The group returned to Alena and then explained what happened to went to sleep in her home as well.... The next morning...early in the morning they were gathered in one of the larger rooms where it was used as something similar to a dojo. Sain wondered how this could fit in here seeing that this room was quite large. However that was not his point of interest right now. Right now Alena was wearing a tight set of clothes, naturally used for easy movements but he had a bit of trouble on where he should be looking. *Glare* But with the help of Miriel next to him, he was perfectly not distracted at all! ¡°First, today I want to teach you certain techniques that you all will find to be extremely useful. Dad used to say that this allowed him to be twice or trice as strong after training in that area for the first time. The previous day, I used a communication orb to contact your masters to give me a breakthrough on what kind of thing that would really boost your abilities.¡± ¡°And...?¡± asked Lyndis slightly impatient. ¡°They said to let you all figure it out yourself!¡± she said with a laugh. ¡°...Master....¡± Sain sighed with a headache. The group felt like their masters which they haven''t seen in over a year were probably sulking because they had not visited them at all. They could have not since they had other things to do in Lily City as well and Witchelm City was too far away. ¡°Don''t worry, I have another way to find out what is most suited for your cultivation skills¡± Alena assured them. She took out a box and from it some strange training gear. From what Sain could tell those were restraining tools meant to train the body''s muscles in everyday life. ¡°Umm...¡± As Alena continued to take out six sets of those restraining training tools, Sain and the others were quite shocked in seeing Alena handle those tools quite well. ¡°With this, your training will be twice as effective!¡± she said assuring them once again. She quickly explained what she wanted them to do, ¡°Along side gaining a cultivation skill and to the next stage, there is a need to train up your bodies as well! I heard that you have no gained many stats outside of levelling so I want to fix that~¡± For some strange reason...no because of that reason, the group could see the image of Eden behind Alena... Once again will they have to suffer through ''Hell Training''? ¡°This is not ''Hell Training'', that would be too cruel, this is simply foundation training for you all¡± Alena quickly explained seeing the frightful faces the group were making. They still vividly remembered what Eden out them through under the name of training. ¡°So...you won''t give us Hell Training that will pound every skill and spell you would ever need to slay even the most power monsters and even Gods?¡± ¡°What? Dad said that when he told you of Hell Training didn''t he?¡± Alena were startled that something could proclaim that then remembered she was the daughter of two such people. ¡°Don''t worry, don''t worry. My training will be considered a breeze compared to whatever Dad made you do~¡± she assured them once again. Alena further took out some rings that looked like bracelets. For some reason, Sain could feel a strange magical current going through that bracelet. She excitedly said, ¡°With this added on as well, training will be twice as effective!¡± ¡°Why does it seem like she repeated herself...?¡± Shadow mumbled to himself getting a sense of deja-vu. Next she gave each of the group one of those restraining training tools and four of those bracelets and explained, ¡°The restraining training tools will help in allowing you to use explosive power when attacking. Those bracelets are gravity bracelets that will cause your body to become heavier and will train your endurance more than anything else while rapidly increasing other stats.¡± Miriel frowned hearing this and asked, ¡°Are there not any tools to train on the magic side?¡± ¡°You could read a book but I think you already used that method to the limits...ah I can let you use this instead!¡± Alena took away two of the gravity bracelets from Miriel and replaced them with two different ones. ¡°These are mana restraining bracelets! It will make it more difficult for you to use magic!¡± said Alena still enthusiastic of training someone at last. She passed on these bracelets to Sain, Lyndis and Serena as well though only taking two gravity bracelets from Serena and leaving Sain with his. As the group equipped these training tools one by one with the help of Alena, the restraining training tools thankfully could be equipped under one''s clothes without taking them off, she activated each of the tools on the group. First she pulled something on the back area of the restraining training tool which made Sain''s body clench up due to something tightening up.
Muscle Restraining Tool has been activated! - Will become more difficult to move the body - Has been set so you need at least 30 kg of force to move - Will passively increase strength, agility and stamina gain when worn
¡°This might be too high for Miriel and Serena for now but you two don''t have as much trouble with the gravity bracelets instead¡± Alena explained a bit before touching the bracelets and activating them on Sain.
Gravity Bracelets has been activated! - Gravity placed on body will increase - Has been set so you will increase in weight by 50% - Will passively increase strength, agility and endurance gain when worn.
Magic Restraining Bracelets has been activated! - Makes it more difficult to gather mana and use magic - Has been set so you need twice the mana to use magic and lowers the magic strength of spells by half - Will passively increase intelligence, wisdom and concentration gain when worn.
Bang! ¡°Ow!¡± With that, Sain was now on the ground unable to move at all. The force on his entire body due to the gravity rings was bad enough but with the restraining tool as well, it made it so that he could not even support himself properly. ¡°Damn...can''t even....move...¡± he muttered out since even moving his mouth was difficult due to the increased weight pressing down on his jaw. If he did not, he feared that his jaw might fall off else stretch a lot in the process. ¡°Ah!¡± ¡°Damn!¡± ¡°Eck!¡± ¡°Wow!¡± ¡°....¡± After a few more moments he heard the others falling onto the ground as well. The only exception he could see was Raven though that was not surprising. ¡°Impressive that you can resist this much at the beginning¡± Alena praised Raven a bit on his efforts. Right now everyone was a restraining tool that forced you to use 30 kg in force to even move. Gravity Bracelets that increased your weight to three times or two times for Miriel and Serena. Furthermore for Sain, Lyndis, Miriel and Serena, they had to use four times their mana to use any type of magic and the power behind each of those spells were only a quarter of it''s usual strength. However at the same time the amount of stats that they gain during this time will increase due to the training. While the group were squirming on the ground with Raven eventually collapsing as well, Alena said, ¡°This training will last for a week. First I suggest you take a day to get used to it and not move that much~¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Also another thing is that you will all gain the stats from the training after you take them off. I have no intentions of letting you take them off until three months have passed as well¡± she added before leaving. The group could not reject that idea since they really could not move now. They were crawling around on the ground shamefully like worms right now. And as such a day passed like this on the ground not being able to move properly. xXx Out of the game, the group was strangely enough taking a class where Eden was the teacher this time. From what Alexandra said, Eden was a history teacher while Viv was a skills teacher for Royal Road related content. Along with the group, there were two dozen other people in the room with them and they were sitting near the back of the room. ¡°Now, today''s lesson will account for the Independent Guild System implemented by Weed that has been around for the last 67 years in game or nearly 17 years in real life time. Made on the 55th year of the game since it had started, it long since been a core feature of the game now to be able to join one-¡± The lecture continued with Eden talking reading off a book. Maria found this quite boring. Before when she and the rest of the group were collected and made to play Royal Road, they all dug of general information as much as they could. Therefore they had researched all of this before and knew most of the facts at least. Maria was tempted to yawn but see that it was Eden who was teaching, she did not dare. Therefore she started to look around to find that almost every guy in the room was staring intensely at Eden. She found this extremely gross. The one guy that did not outside the others was sitting next to her as well. Looking at him, he wasn''t too bad in terms of looks...at least a first. There were some flaws but who cares about that! The guy looked back at her and smiled to which she smiled back as well Several more minutes in and with the class now in open discussion on some points of events that happened in the game, Maria decided to talk to the guy. ¡°Hey¡± she said. ¡°Hey¡± he replied back looking interested in her as well. Seeing this, she grinned and asked, ¡°Want to talk about something more interesting than history?¡± ¡°Sure¡± the guy replied, ¡°I''m guessing that you are here because you play Royal Road as well.¡± ¡°Naturally, why waste time on something that you don''t need.¡± ¡°How long have you been playing? I''ve been it for 4 years in game and reached level 300 a while back.¡± Maria thought of the average rate a player levels up and found that he was above average by around a year and then said, ¡°2 years for me and reached level 160.¡± The guy smiled and then said, ¡°I guess it helps that I''m in an Independent Guild.¡± Maria was slightly surprised. From what she learnt, being in one means you were part of the elite and even level 400 struggle to be in one for long. Anyone lower either is an exception or has connections to some people in it. However this was the first Maria learnt that being in one help you level up faster. ¡°How so?¡± she asked. ¡°Well my guildmates helped me level up quickly. Because of that I also got good gear and skills as well. I can literally take down things that are 10 levels above me!¡± he said excitedly. ¡°Hmm...¡± she tried to look impressed but only could get out as amused. She and the rest of the group took out something that was level 200 when they were level 100 themselves...though that situation was an exception. Now they can at most barely take something that is 50 levels ahead of them using ''Boost''. ¡°Say why don''t you join the guild I''m in. I''m sure that I can power level you to 200 quickly¡± he said which caused her to only frown. ¡°Doesn''t power levelling cause your natural stat growth to slow down?¡± she asked. ¡°Good equipment and good skills can fix that. Plus you can train later on so you can join now while you can¡± he laughed though Maria did not find it amusing. ¡°I can''t¡± she simply said. ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°I''m already in an group so....¡± ¡°No way! You can ditch them for me because-¡± Whack! A folder hit the head of the guy at high speeds to the point it caused him to hold his head in pain. ¡°And you will what?¡± Eden asked glaring down on Maria and the guy those mostly the guy, ¡°I don''t recall allowing people to try to hit on girls in my class¡± he said coldly causing a shiver down Maria''s spine. ¡°C-Chairm-man?!¡± the guy said. ¡°I believe your name was Michael or something like that and your in game name was Luke. What? You''re embarrassed to use the name of a Hero from the last century in a galaxy far far away?¡± ¡°....¡± Michael was stupefied hearing that and his thoughts were in pause trying to think of what reference Eden was referring to. ¡°Anyway to you lot. I heard Alena is going to train you. Her training method is more kind than mind but do take care not to get traumatised by her smile¡± he said with a sigh as if this happened before. ¡°?¡± Maria and the rest of the group pondered on this point for a few seconds before Michael''s brain started up again. The guy named Michael apparently turned red at last seemingly now knowing what Eden meant and then muttered, ¡°If this was in game then no one would dare insult me...¡± ¡°Ho?¡± Eden snorted coldly at him. This time the whole class was looking at them now. ¡°Then my elite guild-mates will take care of you! Plus I have a lot of money able to be used to take you out as well! My father will hear of this and-¡± he proclaim but Eden whacked Michael on the head with his folder at hand again. When Michael tried to retort again, Eden started slapping him using the folders with a disinterested look on his face. The act of Eden doing that and Michael not even being able to respond made it look like a comedy skit. Maria almost burst out laughing...someone unknown dare trying to take out Eden, that monster? Impossible. She could see that five other people were struggling to not laugh as well. What Eden was doing right now was a bit too funny for them. ¡°They are elite players parts of an Independent Guild! The Guild-master himself is level 700 as well! And we have influence that no common player could have!¡± he finally screamed. ¡°....¡± There were some gapes of surprise from across the room. There were some mutters of to take note of him and others that saying that he he was only bragging. Other than that, Eden finally stopped hitting Michael with his folder and decided he side tracked too much. ¡°In that case let us return to the lesson now¡± Eden looked disinterested and went back to the lesson where the guy named Michael made smug look showing that he truly believe that he ''beat'' Eden. A level 700 player was nothing anyone normal would want to go against. However Eden had at least two dozen players and NPCs that were a hundred levels higher than that poor level 700 player under his thumbs. Plus Eden played with six level 800 at once which were hers and the rest of the group''s masters. She knew more than most at least that Eden was probably a player that was above level 900 or had several overpowered skills lined up together or both to do that. ¡°Ha¡± the guy named Michael let out that sound as Eden turned away. All of a sudden, Maria felt that Eden was about to snap this person into two. She could literally see the rage in Eden''s eyes as he was about to move and finish him off in one go. ¡°Yahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhoooooooooooo!!!¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Eden turned to the direction of the sound. BANG! And was blasted out of the classroom...which was on the second story. And in the steed of Eden was a blond haired woman with a face of a beauty swaying in the breeze. That woman looked around and asked one thing. ¡°Where''s Eden? I need to talk to him about something about the conditions of the dorms for health reasons.¡± That woman was Alexandra. Maria was shocked to see this scene in reality of all things...the lines between reality and the game was starting to blur to her right now as everyone else had their jaws dropped to it. ¡°You kicked him out of the window¡± Peter pointed out startled. ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Wait didn''t you just kick him through that window and this is the second floor?¡± Hina asked her. ¡°....¡± The room was completely silent for a moment. Were they in the presence of murder? ¡°ALEXANDRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!¡± There was a loud scream from outside the building. Maria wondered how Eden was even alive at this point but she remembered that Eden was a cyborg or something like that. To summarise the events later on, Eden and Alexandra went with a chasing game where Eden looked like he was about to kill her and she escaped. xXx Later on, after class, Hina went over to inquire about some things with a grin that Maria could only call evil. She felt that this is the true face that she was hiding from Peter all along to make sure that she is just a cute girl in his eyes. ¡°What is it?¡± Maria asked with a grunt partly knowing what is going to happen. ¡°So...that kind of person is you''re type¡± said Hina. ¡°Noooot at all!¡± retorted Maria without realising it. She panicked a bit when she realised that other people including that guy was looking at her now. She was too loud. Red in the face she quickly dragged Hina out of the room with her to a place they won''t be overheard. After cursing a few times Maria asked, ¡°Why are you doing this?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Hina made a amused face and then Maria realised why. ¡°You still have a gruel from what? 7-8 months ago when I teased you a bit about you and Peter?¡± she inquired. ¡°More or less¡± Hina did not even try to deny it. As such Maria could only sigh since it was from so long ago. ¡°Anyway why don''t you like him?¡± Hina asked with the same look on her face from the first statement that made her retort. ¡°Because¡± Maria started to explain, ¡°He is the polar opposite of us.¡± She could not even count the number of things that was wrong with him. ¡°First of all he is super arrogant, wants to process me for some reason other than I look...nice to him, he flaunts what is not his, brags about what he has no power over, average in looks at best; even Ian looks better than him and most importantly he is a dick.¡± Hina raised her eyebrow and asked, ¡°I thought the number one reason would be that he almost pissed Eden off.¡± Maria shrugged, ¡°If he was the opposite of this and that I liked him and he managed to piss Eden off, I would take his side instead of Eden''s. I think Alexandra and Viv would approve of my decision as well.¡± Seeing that this conversation needed to be ended quickly, Maria was tempted to say she wanted to meet with others to discuss whatever but instead said, ¡°So anything changed with your relationship with Peter?¡± ¡°Pffft!¡± Hina surprising made that same sound as before when she asked her this. ¡°Why did you have to bring that up again!?¡± Hina growled in a low tone looking to hit Maria. ¡°Because.¡± ¡°Because?¡± ¡°Because you brought up the topic first so I should naturally do the same for you¡± she grinned seeing this flustered look on Hina''s face. ¡°N-Nothing c-changed at all!¡± ¡°Oh¡± Maria looked disappointed, ¡°I thought you made some progress over the last 7 months at least.¡± ¡°How could I?! Everyone else was there and I didn''t even get some alone time with him at all!¡± At that moment, Maria felt some slight pity for Hina. xXx With the day passed and the group sort of used to the effects they were under now, they were at least able to hold a conversation while sitting upright instead of flat on the ground. They sat into a circle facing each other as they talked. Sain began to speak first, ¡°Now that we are used-¡± ¡°Not exactly used to but rather just barely scrapping by you mean¡± Lyndis interrupted which caused Miriel to glare at her for a bit. Sain let out a cough to make sure they were paying attention to him for now at least. ¡°Yes, anyway now that we are more fine than before, we should move onto the next step which is to determine how hindered we are using this training method¡± he continued. ¡°Hmm? Aren''t we hindered to around a quarter or more in our stats?¡± Shadow asked. ¡°Actually it''s worse than that¡± Sain sighed, ¡°With the gravity rings, most of us except Miriel and Serena are hindered by 4 times while they are only to 2 times. Adding onto the restraining tool on our bodies as well it becomes even harder to even move around as well.¡± ¡°That''s true, I can''t even move my arm up properly unless I use a certain amount of strength and when I do I have to make sure not to overshoot which makes controlling the movements of my body even worse¡± said Lyndis. ¡°But that means it is good training to further learn how to precisely control the movement of the body. I heard that the better one does this, the less stamina the use when moving and less strength needed to attack¡± Miriel further added to which the other nodded. ¡°Yes, but as a counter to this, we are like babies having to relearn how to walk and how to even move right now. It will take time but we should be able to stand up at least by today if we make the proper method to control our bodies.¡± Lyndis joked a bit and said, ¡°As long as we don''t snap back when we try.¡± ¡°You mean that poor attempt to do so earlier?¡± remarked Miriel remembering that Lyndis shouted for help earlier when the restraining tool was about to snap her back in half...backwards. The rest of the group had a small chuckle remembering that which caused Lyndis to go a bit red remembering it as well. Such an embarrassing sight was something she did not wished to show. xXx Another day passed making it the third day of their training. The first day they managed to lift themselves off the ground, the second day they managed to get up and now they were trying to walk. All with that smile from Alena that was kind enough to be there...though it was starting to become unsettling as it only came when one of them was suffering. ¡°Fuue....¡± Sain let out a sigh seeing that he can now stand up properly without some part of his body snapping weirdly at all. To stand still was harder than to move as the restraining tool was forcing him to precisely use a proper amount of strength to counter the force that it was placing on him. Seeing that every last one of the group was able to stand up and to a lesser extent walk around even with this pressure on them, Alena came in and made it harder for them. To be precise she had several requests for them. ¡°Can you please deliver these to the local market and get these ingredients for dinner?¡± ¡°Can you please ask one of the guards about this incident?¡± ¡°Can you please go up to get this herb for tea that I have ran out of?¡± She asked in this kind nature which made them sweat tears as each one of these requests were troublesome to the max. Everyday for the next four days she made them do this forcing them to walk around the city which was extremely difficult for them now. They had to watch out for their strength failing, using too much strength in a step, moving improperly and even watching out for any sudden thing that might come to them. Because of this constant stream of requests from her, the group could not help but to feel some unpleasant thing coming from behind Alena''s smile as she gave them those requests. It would be like Eden smiling all innocently in front of them while asking for an ''easy'' request from them. Which was why they were more than thankful for Alena saying that such requests would not come anymore and that they were moving onto the next stage of the training...though the training devices were still on them all the way. ¡°Right¡± Alena said bringing into a room that was at some time before they realised it was connected to the dojo place in the building. ¡°This will be the place that you will gain a cultivation skill¡± she explained allowing the group to see this small cramped room that was no larger than a box that could barely fit a person sitting in there, ¡°In this room you will not need to worry about food, water or sleep at all. This place will pour a certain energy type that you are most attuned with in you and you need to make sure it stays in your body.¡± Alena started to explain the procedure that will allow them to get a new skill this way. ¡°After gathering the energy which should flow in naturally after a few hours, make sure to rotate it around your body to get the full effect. After that the skill should at least appear.¡± ¡°But...¡± Lyndis asked to ask nervous, ¡°What if we fail?¡± Alena shook her head and then said, ¡°It is literally impossible to fail since the room will force any type of energy into you that stays with you. Even if you die, you still get the skill though a lesser version of that though you can train it up to the full version later on.¡± With that the group looked at each other nervously and then Sain asked another question that was important, ¡°Why is there only room for one?¡± Alena tilted her head in confusion and then asked, ¡°Who says that you all are going in at once?¡± Looking at the room again they found that it was extremely small like a cube that only one person could fit in. They could definitely not all fit in at once, let alone two at a time as well. The group also found that they could feel something...off about that room as well...like it was about to suck them in. Seeing the group slowly being drawn into the room in question, Alena clapped her hands to draw their attention away from it and to her again. There had always been a problem of people losing themselves peering into this room from afar. Strangely enough when they are in the room itself and without anymore distractions, such things don''t happen. Alena believes this is due to everyone who goes in will focus on themselves which prevents themselves from being lose to the mysterious power of this room. ¡°In order to not allows you to disappear...or in this case die in the room, I want you all to listen carefully on what I am to explain to you now¡± said Alena in a stern attitude that was completely serious as she could be. ¡°This room is dangerous. Though I have no idea where it''s origins lie, it has in the past been used as a training tool to focus the user''s mind. Naturally this room takes it to the extreme where if you fail your mind will disappear into the void to be unrecoverable.¡± The group nodded though Miriel asked, ¡°Are there exceptions to this rule since you are allowing us to do this.¡± ¡°There are¡± Alena let out a slight sigh and said, ¡°When your kind appear, we later found out that for some reason only your lot can come back...well after you die of course. Don''t worry too much about it¡± Alena gave the group a bright smile hiding her concern of them. ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Nothing else? Then I guess I can let one of you in. Also another thing is that you are stuck there for at least a day¡± there was a bright smile on Alena''s face as she said that. ¡°....¡± The group would soon learn that that smile could be more frightening to become one of the ever lasting smiling devil of training.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 10200~ - Happy New Year~ Here''s a chapter. - Inspiration of the training method may have been influenced or inspired by other pieces of works...cough...credits to them at least. - Not exactly the most interesting chapter in my opinion. Well I''m planning a eventual climax to the end of the volume either way. - Anyway while this chapter was easy to pose (mostly dialogue), the next chapter is bombed with so many text boxes...I blame the fact that I have 6 MCs and need to write up on all of them. Vol.6 Chapter 5 - Whole Bunch of Stuff Sain volunteered to get in first for two reasons. The first was that he had the ''Party Scan'' skill which would allow him to track of the other were affected by so he rather get this over with first and observe the others. The second reason was that while using ''Boost'' he had his ''All Seeing Eyes'' which could at least give him insight on what he needed do. ¡°Ready?¡± Alena asked one last time to which Sain nodded. ¡°Remember to tap the door when you are done if you finish early else I will open the door after a full day¡± she finally said closing the door on him. Thud. The door to this cube was closed but strangely enough he could still see. The walls were glowing slightly which allowed him to see even as it was not dark.
You have entered the room of solitude - Will have not need to eat, drink or sleep this place - Strange energies will be poured in you - You will not be able to get out until 24 hours passed
This message appeared which aligned with what Alena said before. He was calm as so far nothing was out of his expectation. Soon enough he decided that this energy that was suppose to go in him was not going to be tracked that easily so he decided to meditate. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Seeing nothing happen, Sain just decided to think of tactics instead...since he had a whole day in here, it meant that he had some time to spare...right? As such he started thinking of ways to beat enemies that were stronger than them. Ways to take the enemy unguarded, ways to slip through attacks and ways to kick them down and continue to kick them until they died. An unknown amount of time to him passed until he felt that something entered him. Almost panicking he felt that this energy was truly violent in nature as it felt like it was trying to run amok and rip his body apart. He focused his mind first on trying to control it....with no success. He could not control it at all but then decided to let it do what it wanted seeing that even if he died he would still get the skill. ¡°Argg....¡± he let out a groan as he allowed the energy pass through his body. It was like...a blade was in his veins and cutting it through as it moved across his body. The energy without warning from the core of his mana decided to rotate around his body on it''s own. He could feel that his body was slowly falling apart as time passed but still allowed the energy free in his body. As more time passed and the amount of that violent energy passed in him, the pain increased but strangely enough as if he was numb to it, became more bearable to endure. He could feel that the violent energy was being compressed as well...was this the effect of his compressed magic mastery skill? More and more time passed and the energy that seemed limitless and expansive became like a drop of power to draw from. From that, Sain decided to rotate that power around his body on his own. At first he felt the same pain as before but as his body got used to it, he was slowly able to adapt to it. Eventually though he really could not describe it properly, felt that the violent energy has merged completely with his mana which made it go blackish in colour. It was at that time that he gained the skill.
You have gained the skill: Violent Energy Circulation
Violent Energy Circulation Beginner Level 1 After cultivating the strange energy and merging it with your body, circulating it around and using it is the next step! This power is untapped, violent and unrefined for the most part but it has strangely been suppressed due to the nature of how you use mana and thus was able to co-exist in your body. As this energy exist in your body, the regeneration abilities to recover health, mana and stamina increases passively and as you use this power actively when using spells, it''s power will be more powerful with less control. - Health, Mana and Stamina Regeneration +10% - Magic Strength +10%
Sain gasped for breath. He was extremely surprised right now for not the effects with the regeneration but the increase in magic strength as well. Due to the effects of ''Compressed Magic Mastery'', he would not gain any magic strength bonus from the skill at all when he did not release it even though right now at Beginner Level 7 it would passively give him a 140% bonus. The reason he did not use it actively was that the less he used it, the more powerful this bonus would be to the point that it would triple if he did not use it for a full day. The second to fifth time he used it, the effects of the bonus will be doubled but after that the extra bonus would vanish. And he later found out that using it more than 10 times will just give the regular ''Magic Mastery'' effect of 10% per level which he did not want. But with this, with this if he levelled it up, his magic would be gather what it was and better yet it would amplify the effects of ''Compressed Magic Mastery'' as well. Right now if he used it, instead of a 420% increase in magic strength it would be 462% increase instead. A 10% increase made the increase in power a lot higher. Sain grinned as he waited to get out of the room and test it out. xXx Raven was the next to enter the room. He got the same message that Sain got when Alena closed the door to the room and he waited. From what Sain said, you just need to focus on the energy that enters your body eventually. As someone trained in the use of his body to fight by his master Park, the near god like spear user, he was sure that he could tell that something foreign enters his body. The only problem according to Sain was that it may be difficult to control it like in his case. But Raven did not mind that. He was used to taking damage, taking the hits for others and by others at the same time. He sat there waiting not thinking much on anything. All he did was focus on the feeling of his body. Quicker than Sain at least, Raven felt something warm enter his body. It was not difficult to control at first so Raven thought that it was not it. Therefore he ignored it for the most part until he realised that the energy that came in him was different from Sain''s. It was then that he focused on the energy that was like clump gathered in him. He felt it with his mind and it was warm. Something so warm in him....was something he believed was impossible. He focused on that feeling for a while longer before he realised he was meant to also spread it across his body. If Sain''s experience could be called blood being pumped through the veins of his body than Raven''s one would be the blood that is spread across his muscles. It was done more easily than he though and the warm feeling came around his body and rotated faster and faster like it was a competition on how fast it can go around him. The more it went around him, the more he felt that his body was becoming tougher. While soft to touch it would immediately harden as something hit it, like a certain thing that would be a liquid on one hand but a solid when hit. Raven remembered it was something to do with corn dust mixed with water. In the end he too gained the skill and felt happy about it.
You have gained the skill: Bright Aura Circulation
Bright Aura Circulation Beginner Level 1 A bright light that exist to protect the body! Aura is something that many young knights inspire to get as it is the representative of the body''s power coming out to protect it. This Aura is warm like the sun and yet feels soft but yet hard at the same time to allow flexible use. As this Aura exist in your body, the regeneration abilities to recover health and stamina increases passively. Due to the nature of this Aura that you cannot control properly enough to allow it to exit the body, defence will also be increased. - Health and Stamina Regeneration +10% - Defence +10%
Raven nodded to the question and waited for Alena to let him out to talk about what he obtained compared to Sain. xXx The third person to enter the room was Shadow. Learning of what Raven experienced, he knew that to try and experience the feelings that both of them did was nearly impossible. As such he would not ignore anything that would come in him. ¡°Well then...wonder when it will come...¡± Shadow muttered before realising that there was no one else in here with in so it was impractical to talk right now. He sat down and waited leaning on the wall. He thought of many things and it was mostly of his own presence. It was like a Shadow about to only exist in the light someone else made. Like a parasite he laughed at himself. Of whose light, was it Sain''s light or someone else''s, he did not know. He found Sain bright and dark at the same time. Raven was like stone and he rather not mention the others at all...but Lyndis was like a flame, a bright light that he felt he could exist with... ¡°No...¡± He couldn''t believe he was having these kinds of thoughts right now. He focused more on the energy or whatever he would gain and it seemed the room answered him. He felt something...but it seemed to slip out away from him at the same time. ¡°....¡± A bit frustrated he tried to catch it but it escaped from his mind as he tried to seek it. Several hours passed like this until his mind was exhausted to think. ¡°....¡± But then something strange happened. As he was relaxing and unconsciously hiding himself again, the strange energy...no it felt more like mist in nature gathered around him naturally. ¡°Mist...¡± A combination of water in the air being lit up due to the cold but it is there but not there to the eyes of a person. An illusion to many in the past and nothing more than a reflection of light, not leaving even a shadow. ¡°Mist...shadow...¡± He decided to try again but this time with not force. He simply allowed the mist that he could not see nor feel to gather naturally at a place that it would exist. Like himself it could not exist without something to support it. Eventually the mist decided to gather without him urging it to and it spread out naturally around his body. There was nothing to be contained but at the same time it stayed there mysteriously. Eventually he gained the skill as well.
You have gained the skill: Dark Mist Circulation
Dark Mist Circulation Beginner Level 1 Something that is there and yet not there at all! This Dark Mist is something that no person who thinks of finding it can get. It only exist in places that allows it to but not at will and gathers and disappears along with it''s users at time. As this Mist is spread across the body, the regeneration abilities to recover health and stamina increases passively. Due to the nature of this Mist that you are more inclined to disappear and hiding is easier than before like the body would disappear like mist. - Health and Stamina Regeneration +10% - Stealth +10%
With a sigh that his stealth skill increased in ability again, he left the room when Alena said time was up. He was surprised that a day passed like that so quickly. xXx Gathering information from the previous three before her, Miriel entered the room and allowed Alena to lock her in. She was quite calm on the inside but was looking quite nervous on the outside, like something was reversed for a moment there. Calm down, calm down was what she was thinking as Alena closed the door of the room where she would be trapped in there for a whole day else she would finish early though there would be nothing to do until the day passes. ¡°What to do now...¡± she wondered. She was sitting with her back straight up and was staring at the wall. She thought she might as well try the method the other used...to focus on yourself to feel something changing or coming in her. ¡°....¡± For some reason those words felt...never-mind, either way she was sitting there, calm. Hours later, Miriel could feel that the room was getting closer. ¡°Is my body temperature dropping?¡± she wondered. It didn''t seem that the room was getting colder and her body wasn''t getting closer as well...though she could not tell on the second point. However Miriel remembered that she needed to accept whatever was coming at her. ¡°....¡± As such she calmed her mind again and allowed herself to get colder and colder... Eventually she clearly felt that there was something was inside her body right now that wasn''t there before. To describe it, it would be a cold spot next to the place where Miriel''s mana source was. ¡°This is...¡± Feeling this, Miriel''s mind slipped a bit and all of a sudden that cold spot increased in size rapidly. Her body temperature was dropping rapidly now. ¡°Damn..!¡± She focused her mind immediately and went on trying to control this power...else to try and contain it a bit so it doesn''t kill her in the process. Several hours later she felt that the size of this cold spot was as large as her mana source. Feeling something, she went on to mix it with her mana. Bit by bit, her mana felt like it was getting colder and colder the more she did it. When she completely combined the two into one, she felt that the new mana was rapidly spreading across her body. It was like having an ice pack on every part of her body and at the same time gained a new skill as well.
You have gained the skill: Ice Mana Circulation
Ice Mana Circulation Beginner Level 1 A cold source where it goes against the normal method of using mana. By combining mana with this cold energy, it is transformed into Ice Mana where it boosts the power of certain spells. This mana is as cold as ice and as such increases the ability of the user while giving off a cold feeling around the user. As this Mana is spread across the body, the regeneration abilities to recover mana and stamina increases passively. Due to the nature of this Mana that you''re Ice Spells will increase in power the stronger the source of Ice Mana in the body becomes. - Mana and Stamina Regeneration +10% - Ice Magic Power +10%
Feeling satisfied she waited as Alena let her out as more of that ice like energy came out and poured into the room increase the power of the skill even if it''s by a bit. xXx As Lyndis walked in the room and sat down, she looked as Alena closed the door on her with some determination. To be frank, she was sort of excited to see what kind of skill she would get since everyone else seemed to have gotten interesting ones at least. ¡°Hm...hum...hm...hum...hm...¡± However sitting in here without doing anything would be quite difficult for her. Why couldn''t it be something that required her to do something...doing nothing and gaining something seemed strange to her. ¡°Boooring....¡± she let out that word again and again for the next hour while trying to calm down or something. She was really bored and there was nothing to do at all in here, plus it was cramped and felt a bit moist as well. Minutes felt like hours to her when she wasn''t doing anything at all. At times like this, she would usually exercise or study back in the real world since she had nothing else to. Or she would take up a hobby until she was bored. It was really only due to this that Lyndis managed to become quite good in a number of things...because she was bored and had the time to do so. While squirming around, trying to think of a way to not be uncomfortable in this cramp little room, she felt like it was becoming hotter in the room. She started to sweat a bit. ¡°Is it because I''m moving around?¡± she wondered. However her thoughts were incorrect as the room became hotter and hotter as time passed. Now even her sweat evaporated as well. She started to panic a bit not knowing what the hell was going on but in the end she tried to stay calm, in this inferno like heat. ¡°This heat is even hotter than my flames itself¡± she cursed feeling that it was two or three times hotter than any flames that she could produce. A few more hours passed and Lyndis was surprised she wasn''t dead yet. The heat seemed to have concentrated around her skin as the walls were strangely cool. It was only then that she released that this was the strange energy that was most suited for her. She was on guard to defend from the heat but she was suppose to do the opposite! Allowing the heat into her body it felt like she was cooking right then and there. While nothing burnt, it felt like something was pressurising her into something smaller and smaller. However Lyndis was not ordinary at all. She was considered a genius at age 14 when she learnt everything to know to an advance high-school level, after that she went into gaining several skills and hobbies to the point that it could be said that she was a master of several trades. And all of this was not due to talent but hard work. With her determination, how could she be ordinary. With a small shout she pushed all the heat into the centre of her body, where her heart was and allowed it to flow around her body like blood. The more she breathed, the hotter the flames, the faster her heart beats, the more the flames rage. She inadvertently grinned as the flames no longer felt hot but was only a comfortable warmth.
You have gained the skill: Fire Blood Circulation
Fire Blood Circulation Beginner Level 1 A raging flame inside of you exist! Pumping through the blood of the body, the flames quickly spread and light up the true power of the body! Like a raging flame, the fire blood in your body will increase in size the more fuel is added, namely the more air in your lungs is used to push it further. When fighting it will seem like your body has been lit up in flames. As this blood is spread across the body, the regeneration abilities to recover health, mana and stamina increases passively. Due to the nature of this fire blood that you''re Fire Skills will increase in power the stronger as the flames get hotter in your blood. - Health, Mana and Stamina Regeneration +10% - Fire Skills Power +10%
¡°Yeah!¡± she let out that shout of victory as she finally gained this skill. Now she could get- ¡°Huh? Why can''t I get out? Alena? Alena?¡± she said knocking on the door but there was no response at all. She had forgotten that she needed to stay in the room for a full day... xXx The final person to go in the room was Serena. Seeing that the others were all fine and got the skill that they needed from this room, Serena was more nervous than the others when Alena locked the door and trapped her in here. ¡°I''ll be fine, I''ll be fine¡± she repeated to herself to assure that everything will be fine. Nothing bad was going to happen, she thought over to herself as well. She will not be left behind again... Either way she did not notice that unlike that others that took hours for them to even feel a change, Serena''s was being surrounded by a certain type of energy that her body housed before. It also happened to be the energy that was most suited to as well. As such, it was easy for the natural energy to go in Serena''s body. In mere minutes the natural energy mixed with her body and with the reserves that were left over when she used ''Boost'' in the past. Because of this, she was quite surprised when the skill appeared for her so quickly.
You have gained the skill: Natural Ki Circulation
Natural Ki Circulation Beginner Level 1 Coming from Natural Energy itself, Natural Ki is an energy that focuses on the energy that is mixed with the body itself. With increased strength in the body, natural ki boosts the power of the physical side more than anything else. As this blood is spread across the body, the regeneration abilities to recover health, mana and stamina increases passively. Due to the nature of this Ki, the body''s condition for attack, defence and speed will greatly increase as well. - Health, Mana and Stamina Regeneration +10% - Body Condition +10%
¡°Eh?¡± She let out that sound seeing the skill window pop up like that. Wasn''t it suppose to come out after hours of hard work? Serena wasn''t so sure on this point anymore. ¡°But...how do I get out...?¡± she wondered for the next day when Alena finally released her after a full 24 hours. She clearly remembered that if she slacked off even now, she would die and as such focused her mind for that outcome not to happen. Serena felt like she didn''t want to be in a closed box like that ever again... xXx Due to the exhausting of staying up for a full day else be killed in the room, Serena was asleep for the next day. As such Alena decided it would be a good time to allow the group a slight break as it is. Everyone gained a skill each due to the strange room that they were in...though it would be more precise that they were trapped in. Once in the place would not open for another day which mean if you were uncomfortable, you would be for an entire day without sleep. The stress that came from being in that room was extremely high as you needed to stay up for a day straight. However in the past, via Sain, the group almost did this several times in dungeons though they wished to not remember those times. ¡°With this, everyone more or less has a good boost in regeneration in several areas which will only increase from now on...¡± he muttered. As Sain was the first one to go into the room and also the person with the skill ''Party Scan'' which allowed him to ''spy'' on what happens to the other, he kept note of what skills the others gained. Looking at each of the skills that they got, Sain could only sigh since the room really gave them what they needed the most. Sain was lacking in magic power, Raven as the tank needed more defence and Shadow the scout could stealth better. These things he understood but the girls were less so. Miriel had her ice spell''s power boosted, Lyndis was the same with her fire skills and finally Serena with her body condition increasing as well. He had only some idea on why they got these skills while they could have gotten other ones all the same. Plus another thing he was a bit dissatisfied was that now when he casted a spell, his body had an slight dark aura and his spells were a bit darker in colour as well like it was something sinister...what could have happened for this to occur. While practising Shadow appeared and commented, ¡°That dark feeling suits you¡± while him himself was slowly disappearing again like he was some sort of mist. Miriel''s cold aura went even colder as she used her spells now as well but still like Shadow said his dark feeling around him suited him. The same was with Lyndis who felt a bit like a flame now slipping around and burning everything as she used her fire skills though it was only a quarter of the usual power. In the end Raven patted Sain on the shoulder and nodded in sympathy. Only that the feeling that he was giving off was the complete opposite of which he was giving off. To compare it, Raven felt like the hero and he felt like the villain here! Sain spent the day pondering about this face xXx After everyone got some rest, they were gathered again by Alena who was damn still smiling all the same. It was quite creepy now to look at... Now their bodies were slowly getting used to the effects of the training she gave them. But it was still difficult to walk if you were not paying attention to how you move. Next to Alena was a black orb that was supported by a pillar. There was an powerful feeling coming from it. ¡°This is a Recognition Assignment Orb.¡± ¡°Reco-what?¡± ¡°A Recognition Assignment Orb is the thing that will give you the ''Art'' skill that is most suited to you. These are actually quite common but they are split into the ranks to which level of skill you can get¡± Alena explained quite bluntly. ¡°A F rank one can only give you a F rank Art skill. An E rank can give you either a F or E rank one and so on. This is an A rank one which can give you up to an A rank Art skill. There are S rank ones but those are located only in Advance Training Centres or elsewhere where no one knows.¡± Miriel raised her hand and then asked, ¡°Say if we got a low ranking one, is it possible to remove it and get another one?¡± ¡°It is possible to remove the Art skill since you are only allowed to have one at a time with some minor effort and money. However doing so and immediately trying to get a new one will only end up as the same one. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°In that case how much would it cost¡± Miriel further asked. ¡°Around a hundred gold, not much but at the same time not many people change them either way. These Recognition Assignment Orbs can only give you the best Art skill that is suited for you! However if there is a large enough change from before and after, it is possible to get something else. Now who''s first?¡± she asked at the end. ¡°....¡± The group took the time to look at each other and then Lyndis walked up first. Nodding to this Alena said, ¡°Now place your left hand, since the right is taken onto this.¡± Lyndis did so and felt a strange sensation where something was crawling up her arm. Then...with a bright light there was a flash as a creature floated up in the air. It was the size of a person and was quite dignified in appearance. ¡°A dragon...?¡± she shuttered surprised. The Dragon lit up and ''ran'' into here left hand turning into a cross.
You have obtained Skill: Dragon Dance Art
¡°Okay that is really interesting. Only skills that are at least B rank turn up like this¡± said Alena nodding at seeing the cross like thing on her left hand. ¡°Umm...why is it a cross and what was that?¡± asked Lyndis confused as well as the others. ¡°The cross is a way that the designer of these orbs place in so no one knows what kind of Art Skill you have. Through the Art skill which is based off the best thing you can use, one can determine strengths and weaknesses easily by looking. As for the second bit, certain ranks gives off certain reactions from the orb.¡± Alena gave them several images of other people using the orb. ¡°A F rank Art skill to a C rank one will have a glow of a certain level¡± A each person they saw placed their hands on the orb, it glowed at different levels from a small light and a glowing sun like presence, ¡°When it reaches B rank it will appear outside the orb itself like with you.¡± ¡°Then what about A rank?¡± asked Sain wanting to know, ¡°And what about S rank as well.¡± Alena smiled to these questions, she did not mind them but rather wished they asked more! She felt like a teacher like this! ¡°An A rank Art skill will have a much larger reaction than a B rank one. A B rank one is as you saw but an A rank one will fill out this entire room. An S rank one is even larger giving off enough energy that it reaches the sky. There have been only 10 or so confirmed reactions so far.¡± Sain and the others nodded to the answer. They did not need to worry about giant lights coming out due to them at least. Alena looked at the rest of the group, ¡°Now who''s next?¡± ¡°I''ll go then¡± said Sain. He was wondering on what he would get when there an image of a dark throne in the air before it turned to a cross as well.
You have obtained Skill: Evil Rule Art
¡°Why does it always turn sinister...¡± he wondered. He wasn''t that type of person...right? Though in the past... Sain moved over to where Lyndis was and waited for the others to get their Art Skills as well. ¡°Well it probably has to do with the best way you can fight¡± Alena smiled at Sain answering his thoughts but Sain could only frown to that. ¡°Who''s next?¡± Alena turned to ask. ¡°....¡± Raven was the next person to come up and touch the recognition orb. He was completely calm as always when he got his one. His one took on the shape of a meteor running through the night sky.
You have obtained Skill: Meteor Stream Art
¡°....¡± Raven simply stared at it and said nothing else. No one else felt the need to comment on it though Alena commented on it nonetheless. ¡°A meteor eh...next¡± she said prompting Shadow to touch the recognition orb. ¡°Fine fine¡± he said without care though it looked like he was at least nervous.
You have obtained Skill: Divine Shadow Art
¡°What''s with this cloaked figure...?¡± he muttered before it turned into a cross as well. He frowned seeing his as he was similar to the reaper mark he got on his right hand though this one became a cross. ¡°Divine Shadow? That if I recall is an B rank Art skill that is extremely rare...though figures coming from someone in the guild¡± Alena sighed lightly. ¡°Rare?¡± Shadow asked. ¡°Oh there are records on which ones you can get. So far only your one is the one that I can confirm though that is only due to me as a child watching someone get it with my mum at a church¡± Alena carelessly said. ¡°Hmm...¡± Shadow didn''t care much on those words or whether is one was unique or not, so he went off to where the others were. Before Alena could say ''who''s next'', Miriel walked forward and asked, ¡°My turn right?¡± while placing her hand onto the orb. She was perfectly calm getting her one but was slightly startled at seeing the type of Art skill that she got. ¡°A moon...?¡± she saw a half moon on in the air before it became a cross as well.
You have obtained Skill: Barrier Queen Art
¡°Really? I was hoping something related to ice as well...but for barrier skills to come up...?¡± she questioned what this meant. She thought she was slacking off a bit in terms of using her barrier magic but why did it appear now. ¡°Serena, you are the last one¡± said Alena kindly. Serena looked around to see that everyone else finished already and was looking at her. Slightly panicked due to nervousness she placed her hand onto the orb to which lit up the entire room. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOARR!!!!¡± A mighty beast appeared from the orb and even roared at them before going into Serena.
You have obtained Skill: Beast Transformation Art
¡°A r-rank?!¡± Alena was slightly startled seeing that the creature from the orb roared of all things. ¡°Beast...Transformation...?¡± Serena asked not knowing what this meant. ¡°Ah¡± Alena let out that sound seeing that Serena was confused on why she was, of all people got an A rank Art skill when everyone else got a B rank one, ¡°Serena, I will explain everything later so can you go over there for a sec?¡± She asked that with the usual smile that rejected no opposition. Serena nodded and did what she asked after blanking out for a second. With everyone getting an Art skill from the recognition orb, Alena had them line up to examine the Art skills that they have obtained. In the order in which they gained the skill.
Dragon Dance Art A dance to which follows the straight sword path of the dragon. It is said that when a person uses with skill, the illusion of a dragon attacking is made as a red aura appears around the body when used. There are 4 different types of attacks, each giving a different effect and one final technique. Rank: B First Slash (Powerful blow that deals knock-back damage, 100 mana) Second Slash (Rapid series of attacks, 300 mana) Third Slash (Breaks enemy weapon, 500 mana) Fourth Slash (Creates illusions with speed to attack in all directions, 1000 mana) Final Slash (Consumes all but 1 health, all mana and stamina to deal extreme damage with an attack that will act as if a dragon was attacking the foe in one strike. Covers the body in extreme aura which will blow up the enemy will great power in one final attack)
Evil Rule Art A series of spells which are designed to make weaken or hinder the enemy designed from a certain magician that ruled others through terror. A sinister dark aura will appear around the body as you use these spells. There are four basic spells and one final spell. Rank: B Astral Bind (Creates ropes of mana to bind one target, 100 mana) Mind Shock (Causes Confusion status, lowers defence and dodge, 300 mana) Sleep Hypno (Causes sleep effect, 500 mana) Skill Rejection (Prevents the use of skills and spells, 1500 mana) Downplay Rule (Causes a combination of poison, paralyse, confusion, sleep, weaken, slow and mind break on target with absolute certainty. Cost minimum of 2000 mana to use, else uses health as well)
Meteor Stream Art A series of attacks that follow a certain set of techniques of a meteor. A bright aura will appear around the body as you use these skills. There are four basic skills with different effects and one final skill. Rank: B False Strike (Makes the enemy thinks you dealt lots of damage to it at once, 50 mana) Cross Slash (Attacks in all four directions at once, 100 mana) Heavy Blow (Crushes defence and lowers attack of enemy, 200 mana) Aura Saber (An attack that ignores defence, 300 mana) Meteor Burst (Consumes all mana and stamina to gain power from the entire body that will boost the body''s power by 50%, speed by 100% and endurance by 200% as well as temporary negating a certain amount of damage each)
Divine Shadow Art A Shadow to which is there and not there and deemed one of the secret techniques to which an assassin can use. A grey aura that blends into the darkness will appear the body when used. There are 4 basic skills and one final skill included with this. Rank: B Stealth Blade (Deals Critical damage to foe, 50 mana) Assassinate (Attacks fatal point on enemy, 100 mana) Tripe Slash (Attacks three fatal points at once, 200 mana) Shadow Play (Causes an illusion with no form to appear in front of you, 300 mana) Final Assassination (Converts all but 1 health, all mana and all stamina into one certain fatal blow that will deal critical damage while at the same time increase damage by 500%, speed by 200% and stealth by three times at the same time)
Barrier Queen Art A Queen that protects other is the basic of this skill. With four basic barrier spells and one ultimate barrier spell, even if a dragon attacks, you can block it. A blue aura will however appear around the body when you use these spells. Rank: B Purification Barrier (Protects target and removes any negative status effects, 200 mana) Flow Diverting Barrier (Effective against non-physical attacks, 200 mana) Guard Point Barrier (Creates a small point where attacks are deflected back, 500 mana) Elemental Reflection Barrier (Will turn into the opposite element when attacked, 1000 mana) Transcendent Triple Barrier (Can block any attack for 20 seconds, heals 20% of health of anyone inside and gives bonus to attack, defence and speed as well. Costs all mana and minimum of 2000 mana to use)
Beast Transformation Art The ultimate art of transforming into other creatures that the druids have developed. With each of these transformations power in their own way, the user is able to adapt to any situation at once. A green aura is present around the body when this skill is used as well. Rank: A Rabbit Shift (Transform into rabbit form, greatly increases agility and kick power, 200 mana) Turtle Shift (Transform into turtle form, greatly increases defence, 250 mana) Wolf Shift (Transform into wolf form, increases strength and agility and bite damage, 300 mana) Bear Shift (Transform into bear form, greatly increases strength and claw damage, 500 mana) Wyvern Shift (Transform into Wyvern form, greatly increases all stats, attack and defence and allows for flight and to breath fire as well, consumes all mana and requires minimum of 2000 mana to use)
¡°So...we all get five new skills thanks to this?¡± Shadow asked Alena. She nodded and response and then said, ¡°Yeah, in all you get four generally more basic skills and one final ultimate level skill or spell that you can only use once in battle.¡± The group nodded, from the looks of things, each of their final skills would drain nearly every last bit of them to even use once...but the effects of each of them are enormous to the point that it could be said it was worth it. Looking at the skills windows, Alena nodded and said, ¡°As expected from B rank and A rank Art skills. All of them are powerful.¡± Turning her gaze at the group, she could feel a bit of pride in them though most of the credit she believed lied in their masters training them from the beginning as well as Viv a while back and to a lesser extent her dad as well training them. She was interested in how they would develop later on. ¡°So...what did you want to explain?¡± Miriel asked seeing that Alena wasn''t speaking and just nodding her head. ¡°Oh¡± Alena snapped out of it and then said, ¡°Yes, the explanation. First of all, I have to say that it is extremely fortunate for you all to get at least B rank.¡± ¡°But wasn''t there A rank which only Serena got?¡± asked Lyndis. To this Alena smiled and then proceeded to say, ¡°You have to understand that getting B rank is around only 1%. A rank is even lower than that so even if 2 of you got A rank and the rest C rank, it would be lower in chance than everyone at least getting B rank.¡± ¡°And from the looks of things, you will most likely spend most of your mana using these skills and spells as well in one battle.¡± ¡°Yeah...me and Raven have the worst out of it then¡± Shadow sighed seeing that both him and Raven did not get any mana regeneration boost with their other skills. ¡°That is true but most of your skills cost less mana to use than the rest of us. The fourth skill is only 300 mana in costs while everyone else require at least 500 mana or more to use. My fourth spell requires 1500 mana to use...though it is extremely powerful...¡± Sain said sighing at the end as well. ¡°And from the looks of it, only half of us have direct attack skills. The rest of us have support or secondary skills meant to boost or support others¡± Miriel added, ¡°Though most of these skills are more or less more useful than the common attack skill.¡± ¡°This ''fourth slash'' skills...I want to test it out¡± Lyndis muttered. Hearing this, Miriel let out a small laugh and said, ¡°Be careful with that skill, you can only use it twice.¡± ¡°But it sounds super powerful though. Much more than the other ''basic'' skills we got¡± she replied. ¡°Oh that reminds me-¡± Alena started to say. ¡°It''s true that we have some more basic skills but they were useful enough that we got by find enough¡± Miriel replied to Lyndis ignoring Alena right now. At the same time Shadow and Sain were having a conversation as well. ¡°-I still need you to do some small tasks for me else you might not see the day of light again¡± Alena continued to say with a smile as if nothing was wrong though the group could have sworn that they heard her scowl at them for a moment there. ¡°.....¡± Everyone turned and looked at Alena who while looked perfectly fine was still having that poker smile face on. For some reason, the group felt if they did not listen to her right now, they would never see that new equipment ever again. ¡°Umm...¡± ¡°Yes Lyndis?¡± Alena politely asked still with that smile. Lyndis could not endure that everlasting smile and could only beg, ¡°Please have mercy on us.¡± ¡°No.¡± That word was enough to make the group despair a bit. Who the hell said Alena was better than Eden in training? xXx And so another 5 days passed marking it the 20th day since they started the training by Alena. Right now, Alena had gone to the blacksmith to pick up their new equipment. This was after they found that rumours of that Grandmaster spending a lot of time making equipment was spread. As such it was likely the group might be attacked sooner or later due to association with good gear. Therefore Alena volunteered to go though the group initially rejected that idea but remembered she sent a level 600 guard flying in the air at once time with her fists alone. There was no rejection after that. After coming back, Alena gave the equipment to the group to which Sain used his ''identify'' skill to see the stats on the new stuff they got.
Magitite Ring Made from the hands of a Grandmaster! As such the abilities of the ore that was used in question would be great. You can clearly see the small tiny details that had been used in place on every speck of this ring. Requirements: Level 200 Options: - Increase Mana Regeneration by 20% - Increase Magic Resistance by 10% - Due to the level of craftsmanship, can increase boost skill level by 1
Magitite Dagger Durability: 70/70 Damage: 25-30 Made from the hands of a Grandmaster! Because of this and the sheer level of detail, other effects will appear on this dagger as well. Requirements: Level 160 Options: - Increase Mana Regeneration by 10% - Increase Magic Resistance by 5% - Extra 15% Lightning Damage when used - Not many monsters will try to attack the user of this weapon
Magitite Short Sword Durability: 100/100 Damage: 40-50 Made from the hands of a Grandmaster! You can tell of the level of effort that was used this make this weapon. The thinnest of the blade combined with the thickest allows to cut through even some of the harder monster hides to pierce into vitals. Requirements: Level 160 Options: - Increase Mana Regeneration by 10% - Increase Magic Resistance by 5% - Extra 15% Lightning Damage when used - Stabbing skills will increase by 50% in power
Magitite Halberd Durability: 100/100 Damage: 35-40 Made from the hands of a Grandmaster! The sheer size of this weapons usually makes it difficult for people to use it, but this weapon is surprisingly light and balanced. This weapons can easily be used to either slash or stab enemies to death Requirements: Level 160 Options: - Increase Mana Regeneration by 10% - Increase Magic Resistance by 5% - Extra 15% Lightning Damage when used - Can blast away light enemies with a swing
Magitite Light Shield Durability: 80/80 Defence: 35 A shield made from Magitite by the hands of a Grandmaster! The shield is extremely light allowing for quick movement but at the same time process a powerful defence as well. This shield can even take the attack of a large foe at ease. Requirements: Level 160 Options: - Increase Magic Resistance by 10% - Increase Lightning Resistance by 10% - Can absorb the impact of a blow to up to 30% negating the damage and force behind it
Magitite Tower Shield Durability: 120/120 Defence: 50 A heavy shield made from Magitite by the hands of a Grandmaster! The shield is extremely large not allowing any attack to get through. As such it is extremely heavy as well needing a certain level of strength to even lift up. Requirements: Level 200 Options: - Increase Magic Resistance by 15% - Increase Lightning Resistance by 15% - Completely deflect any light attacks, easily block heavy attacks - Due to heavy weight, needs 500 strength to use with a movement speed demerit of 25%
Pure Magitite Crystal Spear Durability: 150/150 Damage: 40-45 Made from a pure grade crystal of the rarest kind, this weapon made by the hands of a Grandmaster is top notch! The near transparent look along side engraving of a complicated pattern on the base of the spear made of the same material makes it a rare and powerful weapon. Requirement: None (Can only be used by the player Sain) Options: - Increase Mana Regeneration by 20% - Increase Magic Resistance by 10% - Extra 30% Lightning Damage when used - Weapon is bound to user and scales to the level of the user as well
Aside from the large shield and the rings, all of the equipment they got could be equipped. As such Shadow was now using a new short sword which was of a dark colour unlike his spear. Miriel and Serena now also carried daggers on their side as well and Raven had a new halberd and replaced his large shield with a smaller one. However at the same time Lyndis was fluming with jealousy that the others including himself with his spear got new stuff and she did not. However all of them would be able to use the rings they got by the year''s end. With a sigh he felt that he needed to comfort her. ¡°Hey Lyndis-¡± he was in the process of calling when Alena talked over him saying, ¡°Now that this is done. I believe you all owe me some favours now¡± with a bright smile. ¡°....Favour?¡± asked Miriel with her eyes twitching now. ¡°Yea a ''small'' favour if you please. I heard that there was a need for some practice partners for some of the younger guards. If you were to ''help'' them...¡± she said still with that everlasting smile that was proving to be the devil''s smile more than anything else.... ¡°S-Sure...¡± Miriel accepted on behalf of the group. xXx Around 10 days later and a month at the start of the training from Alena, all of a sudden she gave them a quest. During these 10 days, the only significant thing that happened was that Raven reached the intermediate level in repairing and got the blacksmithing skill and that the rest of them realised how weak they were compared to before even with new better equipment. But back to the current task at hand. ¡°This will be the final step of your training. Live combat with all of those restrictions¡± she said giving the quest.
Hunt down the Chimera A dangerous being was spotted in an area that is not as guarded as the kingdom hoped. As such there seemed to be experiments on making these creatures. One particular one proved to be too much to handle for the forces there. Eliminate the Chimera. Rank: D Reward: Experience and Money
¡°We accept¡± said Sain quickly not wanting to do Alena another ''favour''. He tried not to think of what Alena forced them to do...even Eden was better that her since he would give them a swift death. The group quickly headed out to hunt this creature before Alena forces to do anything else straining. Never again will they allow themselves to be used....as models for a fashion show! As the group left, they did not release that the smile on Alena''s face the entire time broke and she sighed muttering, ¡°Trying to encourage them with a smile all the time is hard...¡± The devil''s smile was actually trying to encourage them! ¡°Sigh...and I thought that little break would loosen them up a bit...if they did not like it, why didn''t they ask me to stop...?¡± she continued to mutter to herself. Alena did not realise that her smile was starting to traumatising them to the point that they were acting submissive to her...
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8500~ - So many damn text boxes.... - I was intending for the content of this chapter to be part of the last chapter but it ended up too long and I needed to cut it off at the beginning of this chapter. Luckily enough, I still have 5 more chapters to work on this volume so there shouldn''t be a issue with content. I hope - btw, chapter 6 is nowhere finished to it will take perhaps two days or longer to finish up...if I''m not writing anything else at the same time. In the mist of trying to sleep and killing two mosquitoes that dared bite me and prevent me from sleeping, I''m going to write extra chapters about mostly Eden to fill in gaps that the main story cannot. The actual main story will be purely about the MCs, else the beginning and end of each Arc. Vol.6 Chapter 6 - Hunting a Chimera ¡°The greatest news today in Royal Road is the increasing number of monster appearances in the Western Continent. There have been reports of many monster dens suddenly expanding into the reaches of once safe areas. It is advised to not travel in these areas for now as the monster levels are relatively high for non-combat high levelled players.¡± xXx Setting off on the road, the group chatted to each other ignoring the fact that even walking was gradually getting harder and harder with the restrictions on their body due to training. ¡°Thank God that Alena gave us this quest¡± said Shadow with a sigh of relief. Though agreeing with him, Miriel still said, ¡°Why are you complaining? You''re not the one who was swarmed with male fans trying to touch you...eck¡± she made a face of disgust remembering it. ¡°Even being in that scene was bad enough...even if no one noticed me for the most part¡± he replied slightly depressed. He didn''t know whether to be happy or not. ¡°It is a good thing that we did that task with a different face¡± said Sain. Due to the insight Alena had, she made it so that during that...fashion show....their faces were a bit different from before. The nose would be straighter, eyes would be larger, cheeks would be a bit higher and so on. These were small changes but changed the impression people had on them greatly. Though because of this, they were thankful enough to move about without people looking or even approaching them, they did not like the experience nonetheless. ¡°I feel this chill when I try to remember what happened...¡± commented Lyndis, ¡°In all my life I have never seen people so...perverted. Raven frankly got the worse of it¡± she said looking at him. He was expressionless but you could tell that he was trying very hard to stay that way when...''girls'' started rushing to him when they got the chance. Honestly it was more like a stampede of hungry beasts in the presence of a meal for the first time in a while. ¡°Can we...not talk about it....anymore?¡± asked Serena a bit red. She did not expect that many people...to have that kind of fetish for young girls...or was it just her? With a cough by Sain, they got back on track with what they needed to talk about. ¡°Too bad we didn''t take a carriage...¡± said Sain in a disappointed tone. ¡°How could they?¡± Miriel asked, ¡°When they know that the area we are going is an dangerous area right now¡± she looked into the distance where they were heading. It would soon be night as the sun was setting to their right. ¡°Couldn''t they just let us off in an area nearby? We would still pay them and they will be a safe distance away from said dangerous area¡± Shadow started complaining. ¡°They didn''t even want to take the chance right now...¡± Sain sighed remembering how all of those drivers rejected him quite badly. It seems that the news of the areas in the game, at least part of the western continent was spreading. There were less and less people coming out to explore the wilderness...though the number of cities in the game is extremely high and even more so for towns and villages as well now. How much is this? Think of the number of cities, towns and villagers at the start of the game, and times it by five. The central continent is more or less fully packed else for the dungeons and it is spreading to the other four ends of the continent. After that, it is the northern and eastern continents where there is more development. The only thing was that the western and southern continent were...more harsh on new players that it is less populated. While not as bad as one of the 10 restricted zones, the plane of despair, the western continent has a larger quantity of monsters than normal while the southern continent was even worse with less monsters but more of ones that were extremely high levelled. As such these two sides of the continent would evermore be less popular than the other parts of the continent. Which was fine for the group as they hated crowded stuff either way. ¡°What the hell is going on? First monsters are coming out more often and we get a quest to slay a Chimera¡± Lyndis sighed thinking of the amount of stress she will get out of this. Sain replied with, ¡°I believe they are at least partly connected though, I mean chimeras aren''t exactly natural.¡± ¡°So...a quest to find the culprit or something?¡± Lyndis wondered. Miriel tapped Lyndis'' shoulder and said, ¡°We only have a quest to slay one chimera. Please don''t jinx it so we have to find the culprit of this...¡± she thought back to the scene of lined up corpses being used in an experiment and having to burn them. ¡°....¡± The group was silent for a while longer until Serena asked, ¡°How long..will it take to get there...?¡± Sain looked at the map which he took from his inventory and given by Alena on the general area of the chimera sighted. They were heading south of Lily City to a location around 300 kilometres from there. Taking into account that they will need to stop on villages along the way to resupply and being attacked by monsters plus their own training which was still ongoing.... ¡°Around a month a guess.¡± There was an unified sound of groaning from some people. To be precise, Lyndis, Miriel and Shadow. ¡°What is it?¡± Sain had to ask. Complaints from anyone was a rare thing and he wanted to know what was up. ¡°A month of...this¡± said Lyndis pointing at the bracelets they have on. Thanks to it, all of them have at least twice the weight to endure, in some cases quad-triple plus restrains that make it even harder to move about. Even walking was a difficult task to them while they were trying to perfectly control their bodies let along fighting. More than often, each day they would suddenly pause for no other reason than that they couldn''t move. In combat this would be fatal. ¡°The only good thing I can see that can come from this is that by the time we get to the chimera, we will be more or less partly used to these restrictions¡± said Sain, ¡°Though it really hurts to think our battle abilities have dropped several notches now¡± he further added grimly. At the level 160 range, the group could be said equal to a level 170 or level 180 group in their normal state. However right now with their training, they were only equal to a level 150 or less group. The sudden drop of battle ability ranged around 30 so naturally the group felt weak. However that was not all they had to deal with. ¡°Don''t forget that we need to train our circulation skills and art skills as well¡± Miriel added, ¡°Those skills are really powerful but the circulation skills won''t do much at this point and there is too much of a high chance that our art skills will fail when we use it.¡± ¡°In that words, practise more and more...¡± Shadow sighed, ¡°Why does it always resort back to more training. Is this new life a string of everlasting training?¡± ¡°A wise man once said that to live is to train until the end~¡± said Lyndis in a good mood seeing Shadow depressed like that. ¡°What wise man?!¡± retorted Shadow without intending for it causing his body to weaken for a second and snap back. xXx A little while later, Sain said to Serena, ¡°Oh that reminds me, I want to know some of the details of one of your blessing spells.¡± Looking a bit startled since Sain called out to her all of a sudden, Serena rapidly nodded and then allowed Sain to ask away. ¡°The ''Blessing of Eternal Suns'' spell. It''s duration is around 2 hours and it''s cool down is 12 hours right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Among the effects are a 15% stamina increase and stamina consumption to be halved as well right?¡± ¡°Yes..¡± Serena was sure that Sain wanted her to use the spell but was not sure on why he was asking her this instead of inspecting the spell with his ''Party Scan'' skill. It had that effect to see everyone in the party''s skills and spells to the last detail. ¡°Hmm....¡± Sain scratched his cheek in habit and muttered, ¡°So we use this spell now or during a battle...stamin will decrease even faster during battles now....what to do, what to do...¡± In the end, Serena could not understand the rabble that Sain was spilling out of his mouth as he debated to himself on the timing on using the blessing on the group. xXx The greatest difficulties the group faced right now was that of monster attacks. ¡°15 Dire Wolves are coming!¡± Shadow shouted retreating back more slowly then he ever thought he could. Of everyone, he was the most affected by the training which restricted speed more than anything else. ''Enemies already? Wasn''t this suppose to be a relatively safe area with little monster activity?'' ¡°Right¡± Sain responded and confirmation to the situation. Dire Wolves weren''t that strong, around the level 130 point but with them at their current state...could they still win? Either way it was a good time to test themselves in real combat. ¡°Formation is as usual all right¡± he said to the others. ''Well this will be a good time to test out how much we can do now...'' Raven was standing at the front with Lyndis a bit behind him. At the back row were Sain, Miriel and Serena with Sain a bit further in front. Shadow was either to the far right or left but he chose to stay near Lyndis at this point. Around 15 metres from them, the Dire Wolves were charging all at once. They were quite spread out as well. Sain, Miriel and Serena prepared their spells. They dared not use those ''Art Skills'' yet as there was still a good chance of failure. As such.... ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± ¡°Lead Slicer!¡± Magical attacks of a dark, blue and green colour flew from them respectively. Ever since Sain got the Violent Energy Circulation skill, his magic looked darker than before and only grew like that as the skill developed. Bang Bang Bang...! As the first attacks hit, the Dire Wolves moved and split into three groups. The two from either side continued to charge while the middle group, that was hit and harmed stayed back a bit. ''Three of them were hit and damaged, the other twelve split into groups of six. This might be bad.'' ¡°Tch, if it was at usual, they would have been killed instantly¡± Miriel muttered before chanting, ¡°Fortified Barrier!¡± onto Raven. Raven moved up a bit prepared to intercept. It looked like the Dire Wolves of both sides will attack at once...but Raven was quite good in these situations now. Holding his Halberd with one arm, he swung it horizontally shouting, ¡°Meteor Stream Art: False Strike!¡± BANG! There was a large impact when Raven hit several of the Dire Wolves away. Out of everyone, Raven was least affected by the training as he was mainly a strength/tank person. He did not need to move much at all. ''Raven hit several of them at once...eight of them will now back away. That means there are still four that will attack immediately.'' ¡°Evil Rule Art: Mind Shock!¡± chanted Sain. A gust of black magical power appeared around one of the Dire Wolves and caused it to fall into the confusion status. ¡°Glacier Strike!¡± Miriel chanted sending one of the Dire wolves flying away dealing lots of damage in one hit though it would usually kill something of this level in one shot. ¡°Lyndis! Shadow! Deal with the other two!¡± ordered Sain. It was at this moment that Lyndis and Shadow ran from their position and started attacking as well. ¡°Fire Blade! Dragon Dance Art: First Slash!¡± ¡°Burst Speed! Divine Shadow Art: Assassinate!¡± Both of them did not hesitate in using their ''Art Skills'' and as such instantly killed two of the Dire Wolves with a single blow each. However even so, the Dire Wolves focused on Raven more than anything else. This was the effect of ''False Strike'' which makes the enemy think you dealt a powerful blow to them. It can be served to make an enemy run away from you or fear you but in the end it forces them to pay attention to you more than anything else. ''The eight Dire Wolves that Raven hit are coming at him now. The three from before are as well. The injured one is retreating a bit.'' As Lyndis and Shadow were attacking from the sides, Raven was being attacked upfront and at a range and rate which he couldn''t counter attack at. As such Sain chanted, ¡°Astral Bind¡± while Serena chanted, ¡°Root Bind¡± onto the enemies that were near Raven while Miriel fired off her ice magic attacking them as well. ''Two are stopped, another one is killed, one died from bleeding, there are eleven left. Hmm?'' However in the mist of this, Sain noticed that Lyndis and Shadow''s health were rapidly decreasing more than Raven''s. ¡°This is...¡± He looked see that they weren''t doing their usual high speed combat but rather was parrying attacks with their weapons and not moving a lot. Sain thought this was most likely due to the restrictions on speed with the increased gravity around them. Moving like before would be too straining so they need to slow down which means their usual combat style of hit and run wasn''t working. But quickly enough, the two sort of got used to it. They were taking fewer and fewer hits and their movements weren''t as rough as before but was a long way from what it used to be. With some time, the amount of Dire Wolves were reduced to three though at the same time most of the group took some damage here and there. Feeling that this was drawn out for too long, Sain gave the order to go full out. ¡°Dragon Dance Art: Second Slash!¡± ¡°Meteor Stream Art: Aura Saber!¡± ¡°Divine Shadow Art: Triple Slash!¡± Lyndis, Raven and Shadow all killed a Dire Wolf with those attacks and finished the battle off while consuming a large amount of mana each.
You have gained experience
The amount of experience they gained wasn''t even 0.1 of a percent. There was a difference of around 30 levels between the group and the Dire Wolves after all. Fighting a rabbit when you can slay a lion means you don''t get that much. ¡°That was tougher than I expected....¡± said Sain seeing that Raven, Lyndis and Shadow were at around half health. Usually they would not be even scratch by enemies of this level. ¡°You mean quite pathetic right?¡± Miriel sighed, ¡°We are 30 levels higher than them and yet...¡± ¡°We just need to get used to these restrictions¡± Sain interrupted quickly, ¡°We are fighting as if we were 30 levels stronger than them.¡± While these ''Art Skills'' were indeed very powerful, they consumed too much mana to be used continuously at all. Even some of the weakest of skills cost more than anything else they had so far. ¡°My mana is mostly drained from that one fight...urgh¡± Lyndis made a disgruntle noise from her mouth seeing that her mana levels was quite low, ¡°What about you two?¡± she asked Raven and Shadow. ¡°Almost gone.¡± ¡°Yeah almost completely depleted as well.¡± Hearing that, Sain checked his mana levels as well. They were a lot lower than he expected with only a third of his mana left. This was mainly due to him needing to use his spells more often to kill an enemy now. In any case, they would need to adapt to using these new skills and spells and how to sustain themselves while using them. xXx In the middle of the trip... ¡°That reminds me...we haven''t actually gone shopping to get you a new staff you¡± said Sain all of a sudden surprising Miriel. With hands hands on her hips and a gleaming look on her face to him, she asked in a completely sarcastic manner, ¡°And how long did it take you to figure that out?¡± ¡°Around...a few weeks I guess...¡± replied Sain not hearing the sarcasm at all. Opening and closing her mouth several times and deciding whether to lash out at him, in the end Miriel only sighed and said, ¡°We were busy, are busy right now. That date can happen later on.¡± ¡°Yeah we need to find a time and date where the three of us can go out together¡± said Sain. ¡°....¡± Miriel sighed even harder this time and then poked Sain on the back with her staff and asked in an ice cold voice, ¡°Please tell me you are not intentionally this dull in the head?¡± ¡°....¡± Sain thought about it quickly for the first time and said gently, ¡°If you wish it can be just the two of us then...¡± Miriel smiled brightly to that before kicking him in the leg saying, ¡°Make sure you get that faster this time.¡± Sain could only mutter under his breath saying, ¡°Though if you only told me sooner...¡± Since Miriel and Serena generally got along in his eyes, he thought she would want to take her along as well to not make her excluded. Only that in this case, Serena really wanted to be excluded for many reasons. xXx And so a month passed by quite quickly. They, during this time were attacked a large number of times, mainly due to the increasing number of monsters appearing all of a sudden, but at the same time that they were weaker than they were originally which made them feel ''weak''. Their above average fighting spirit can only do so much in preventing monsters from attacking them. Right now, they were in the outskirts of a half destroyed village that was attacked by this Chimera. ¡°Do you know what happened here?¡± Sain asked a passing man that seemed to be a lumberjack by appearances alone. The man turned, surprised to see such young people here and then replied, ¡°You should get out of this area. It''s too dangerous and the younger ones have already been safety evacuated away.¡± ¡°In that case, why are you here then?¡± ¡°To get some supplies and tools that are needed later on.¡± ¡°So you have no problem answering some questions right?¡± Sain was using that same everlasting smile that Alena had on right now throughout the conversation. He would not take no as an answer at all. ¡°R-Right...¡± the lumberjack replied, ¡°What do you want to know.¡± Sain looked around and the remains of the village was in a bad state. He would want to ask a few things on that. ¡°First, how long has it been since all of this?¡± ¡°Around a month or so.¡± Sain thought that was around when they got the request though they could have gotten here quicker if any carriages would dare go with them at least...there were some things that reputation and influence could not get when they were only at this level. ¡°Hmm...a Chimera did this right?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± the lumberjack said more excited now, ¡°That thing came out of nowhere and destroyed everything around here!It made it''s nest nearby.¡± ¡°Give me a brief description of the beast and the location of the nest then¡± said Sain in a cold voice, no longer playing around. ¡°Ah¡± the lumberjack was surprised at the sudden change in tone and said, ¡°Well...the body is of a goat with the head at the back...has a lion''s head and has three snakes as it''s tails. If you walk a few hours to the west, you can probably find it. Are you searching to kill it?¡± ¡°More or less.¡± The lumberjack looked curiously at the group and with some feelings of sympathy said, ¡°Good luck with that. I have to go now, in case anything happens, there are a few basements in some of these houses that you can hide in.¡± ¡°Thanks for the information¡± said Sain waving the lumberjack away. When the man was gone from sight and they were completely alone in this half destroyed deserted village, the group started talking to each other. ¡°Well this battle is going to be fun¡± said Shadow with some sarcasm in his tone. ¡°It has a goat''s body...this will be interesting¡± said Lyndis not getting on what Shadow said before her. ¡°We..still have to be wary...¡± warned Serena despite the two not caring the much. Sain nodded and agreed, ¡°Serena''s right. That creature might have some perk that will make it troublesome to handle. And there might not be just one of them as well.¡± ¡°Explain¡± said Miriel. ¡°It has a nest, if it''s female than it might breed seeing that there were reports of more of them elsewhere, this might be the case¡± said Sain. ¡°Then let us hope that is not the case¡± said Shadow, ¡°This place is currently a safe zone. There''s nothing around here at all, not even the tiniest creature which means that chimera is kinda strong or that it has a dangerous attribute to handle.¡± ¡°That''s quite the insight coming from you¡± exclaimed Lyndis. Shadow could only glare at her to this. What did she think he was? An encyclopaedia of just random remarks? ¡°Anyway¡± said Shadow ignoring Lyndis at this point, ¡°We should go kill that Chimera already. We can''t get that much stronger waiting around here plus it will only get more difficult with time if it goes around killing things and levelling up.¡± The rest of the group except Lyndis nodded to this and they made their way to the general location of where the Chimera should be. xXx Several hours later they were exploring some open caves where it looked like the Chimera was here...at some point. ¡°Large scratch marks, destroyed walls....yep that Chimera was here all right now but right now...again¡± Sain said repeating himself for Gods knows how many times. ¡°Sain...¡± Miriel said with a sigh, ¡°Do us all a favour and don''t say those words in that order EVER again.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain looked at Miriel and then looked at the others seeing that they were quite stressed right now...though partly due to him he must admit. The only problem was that he was bored out of his mind now. No action, not even a hint of it and just repeating this search with no success at all. It was no wonder he was trying to keep his mind on something. ¡°All right¡± he said promising not to say those words in that order again, ¡°In that case I will direct my boredom in another-you got to be kidding me¡± he swore seeing the one thing that he wanted to see and yet didn''t want to see right now. ¡°Chimera!¡± he shouted drawing out his spear in hand as the Chimera noticed them at the same time. With a lion''s front, goat body with the head on the back and tails of snakes, the creature was extremely large four times the size of a grown lion and barely fitted into the cave that they were in right now. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!¡± With that roar alone, one can judge the strength of another being compared to oneself. Immediately Sain and the others knew that this creature was stronger than them. Around level 180 if his estimates was correct. ¡°Shit!¡± Sain cursed, his legs were partly giving way for many reasons right now but things were going to go from bad to worse. Spat! All of a sudden from the three snake tails, green gas appeared from their mouths in large quantities that completely blocked off the way. Upon breathing it in...
You are poisoned! Health will decrease 5 points/second
¡°Poison¡± he exclaimed pulling his arm over his mouth. Even though it was a light breath in, his health was decreasing at such a rate. There were several stages of being poisoned. One breath will lightly poison you, two breaths will moderately poison you and any more than that will cause you to be heavily poisoned. While he and Serena had skills to remove the poison, now was not the time as the Chimera was charging at them. BANG! ¡°Barrier Queen Art: Guard Point Barrier!¡± Raven who intended to block the charge was sent flying away but not before Miriel managed to place some barriers on him. At the same time due to the effects of the ''Guard Point Barrier'' which deflected attacks back, the Chimera was also sent flying back taking damage. If they were going to get out of this alive then... ¡°Evil Rule Art: Sleep Hypno!¡± he chanted consuming 500 mana immediately with that one spell. The effects of the spell fell onto the Chimera and... ¡°Didn''t work?!¡± he exclaimed seeing that the Chimera was still moving, ¡°No...only the Lion head is sleeping which means...¡± The goat head made a shout at them before a magic circle appeared in front of it. ¡°This is-¡± before he could speak another word, lightning struck them. ¡°AHHHH!!¡±
You took 367 damage
You took 445 damage
¡­.
The damage stacked up a bit more and Sain around lost half of his health.
Party Member: Miriel is in critical health
Party Member: Serena is in critical health
He cursed once again seeing these messages. It was only due to their slightly higher magical resistance that they didn''t die from that at all. ¡°Moderate Heal! Minor Heal!¡± he chanted while the other three tried to stall for as much time as possible. Right now he was only focusing on those two and he healed Serena first and then proceeded to heal Miriel second. Compared to a mage to a healer, which one was more important right now? It was the healer even though Sain would really much want to heal Miriel first, his judgement did not let him. BANG BANG BANG! As the battle got more chaotic the Chimera banged it''s body onto the sides of the wall which caused some loose stones fall down on them. ¡°Done healing them yet?!¡± Lyndis shouted, ¡°We are getting slaughtered here! Flame Strike!¡± As she shouted that, she fired that fire skill at the Chimera but that didn''t do much at all as the flames were only a quarter of the usual size it would normally be. Annoyed at what Lyndis did, the Chimera jumped and hit the ceiling of the cave not taking any damage due to it''s thick skin. BANG! ¡°Ah...damn¡± Sain muttered as more stones the size of a person''s head fell down. It was then that the end of the cave cracked up to a unknown path. ''We are too weak to take it out right now plus it got a surprise attack on us...'' Seeing an opportunity Sain shouted, ¡°We''re running away, come! Into the cave!¡± ¡°Wait where-ohhhh¡± Lyndis looked a bit too excited seeing this new entrance while Shadow and Raven focused more on stopping the Chimera. Both of them were quite wounded and Sain could tell that they only had a third of their health left. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°I''m coming~¡± said Lyndis as she ran over and grabbed the still unconscious Serena. Meanwhile Sain grabbed Miriel and ran following her. ¡°Let''s go!¡± he shouted one last time to Raven and Shadow. The group quickly ran inside, deep into the cave as the Chimera let out one last lightning attack at them which fortunately missed though it still chased after them. xXx Upon waking up, Miriel felt like her body was rocking a bit and moving quite quickly...though she herself was not moving at all. She wondered what was going on and opened her eyes. ¡°Oh, you''re awake¡± said a voice that could only be owned by Sain...though it was strangely close to her right now. It couldn''t be... Upon opening her eyes however, what she saw was a raging Chimera chasing after them quite quickly. ¡°Whatthehellisgoingon?!¡± she screamed out loud as if she saw the face of the devil himself. Right now, she was latched over his shoulder as he ran as quickly as he could. ¡°Ah, Miriel¡± Lyndis called at her and she turned her head to her left to see Lyndis waving with a smirk on her face. Miriel blushed red and was about to speak but... ¡°Now is not the time to talk! RUN!¡± Sain suddenly shouted which caused Miriel''s ear to ache a bit due to the loud noise. ¡°This is never ending, we need to cause a cave in!¡± said Shadow much to the terror of Serena who was being carried in Lyndis'' arms...Miriel could not help but to see that Serena was being princess carried while she was not...she would need to get a word in with Sain later on... It was at this point that Lyndis screamed retorting, ¡°Are you trying to kill us?!¡± ¡°At this rate, we are going to be killed either way!¡± Shadow shouted back. Miriel turned her head to see that Sain had this irritated face that twitched once in a while like he wanted to scream something out. In the end, Sain said in a calm collected voice that was scary considering the situation: ¡°Lyndis, give Serena to Raven or Shadow. Miriel will use ''Shriek'' on my mark to stop that Chimera even for a second and Lyndis will use her ''Fire Bombs'' to cause a cave in, in front of the Chimera hopefully killing it as well.¡± Those instructions were made clear with Lyndis giving Raven Serena but Miriel had to ask, ¡°Why aren''t you letting me down? My speed is actually higher than yours right now.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain did not answer and without a response after a while, Miriel decided it was not worth knowing right now when they are so close to death by Chimera. A few minutes passed like this with the tension increasing. Sain did not say anything yet so no one made a sound at all. Soon enough, the Chimera though slowly was getting closer and closer to them. In one case, Miriel''s face was almost ripped off by a claw attack if not for Sain quickly using ''Astral Bind'' to stop it at the last moment before speeding off. ¡°....Any time soon is fine you know¡± said Miriel pouting a bit. At this rate they would run out of stamina and...she would need to carry Sain and...no no no, she can''t think of that. Right now they were approaching a clearing that had multiple paths that they could take. Seeing this, Sain knew the plan he made hastily would finally start. ¡°Miriel use ''Shriek''....NOW!¡± In a panic from being snapped out of that delusion she was having, she shuttered out, ¡°Wha-wha what?! Right, Shriek!¡± before using the spell. Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkk!!! Though not using her staff, the spell came out of her hands and caused a massive amount of irritation to the Chimera. It seems that the spell with those magic restricting bracelets on made wasn''t strong enough to stun the Chimera with a quarter of it''s power. ¡°Lyndis, ''Fire Bombs'' now!¡± shouted Sain with the next order. ¡°Right, Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bo-¡± Lyndis chanted those words and threw the ''Fire Bombs'' at the Chimera or rather at the walls and ceiling and such. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!....! A series of chained explosions occurred causing the cave in though only around the area in which the Chimera was at. Seeing this, Lyndis uttered, ¡°....Did we-¡± ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRR!!!¡± ¡°-Not at all I guess¡± Lyndis had this strange frown that was mixed with disappointment right now as Sain quickly said, ¡°Let''s escape quickly. That thing can probably break through in no time.¡± As such, once again, the group went in deeper to this mysterious series of cave tunnels. xXx After a few mire minutes of running around the place, trying to see if the Chimera was following them, the group stopped completely exhausted. ¡°A-Are...we safe....?¡± Lyndis panted out holding her knees. She let go of her strength a little to much and caused the restraining training tool to snap her back. ¡°OW!¡± A sharp sound came from her mouth as she was bend backwards. No one was in a mood to laugh at her nor had the energy to. First of all, Sain said to Serena one thing: ¡°Serena, use ''Blessing of Invisible Torments'' on all of us. That will make it harder for anything to find us for around half an hour.¡± Serena did so and started chanting the spell, ¡°The shadows lie deep into the darkness of light and beyond. The hunter of day becomes the hunted at night and the hunter of twilight hunts them both. Blessing of Invisible Torments.¡±
Party has been blessed by ''Blessing of Invisible Torments''
Beginner Level 10 ''Stealth'' will be applied to whole party
With that, even from each other, the group felt like their presence dropped a notch. ¡°Sain.¡± It was a strange feeling to see everyone at once being slightly similar to Shadow in how it was so easy to hide one''s presence. ¡°Sain.¡± In fact even the presence of Miriel which was still over his shoulder was quite low now as well to the point in which if he wasn''t directly touching her and her weight pressing down on her, he would not, most probably recognise her as fast. ¡°Sain!¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Sain heard Miriel call out for him for some reason, ¡°What is it?¡± he asked. ¡°You...can let me down now.¡± ¡°....¡± It was only now that he released that he was still carrying Miriel over his shoulder...though he could have sworn that he was thinking of that earlier in his mind... Letting her down, Miriel did not even look at him but patted herself down. Sain could strangely remember the feel of her legs...no! He did not have a leg fetish! Definitely not! With a cough...well several, Sain said to the others, ¡°We should explore this area..there doesn''t seem to be any monsters so it''s not a dungeon.¡± The others agreed with Shadow saying, ¡°Let alone monsters, I don''t think there is anything living here besides us...and that Chimera that''s probably alive.¡± ¡°Yeah¡± said Miriel ready to face Sain now, ¡°We didn''t get a quest notification that the Chimera was slain, else it might be a different one we are hunting. Or that thing might be a Chimera but something disguised as one as well.¡± ¡°I doubt it is the last option and the second option is unlikely as well¡± said Lyndis. ¡°True but it is still possible...¡± replied Miriel. ¡°Anyway, what should we do now while we recover our status, Sain?¡± asked Shadow looking at him. Sain did not pay attention at those words as he was focused on something else that caught his eyes. He moved to the wall and touched it... ¡°This feeling is...familiar...¡± he muttered having that dread feeling again. ¡°Sain?¡± The rest of the group looked to see what was wrong. It was only then that their expressions changed as well. The walls...the shadows on the walls were. ¡°Body print...?¡± said Serena gasping her hands on her mouth. On the walls were countless prints of bodies being there, lined up endlessly across the entire wall and the next and so on. ¡°This can''t be happening again...¡± Sain muttered hitting the wall lightly. He did not want to experience that again. ''Should we search for it...or just leave as fast as we can?'' ''No....from that mine and here, the same thing happened and the rising number of monsters.....this can''t be a coincidence....'' Sain gritted his teeth thinking of what they could find if they searched for it. Last time was a laboratory of bodies being used to produced zombies, or at least creatures that near their existence endlessly. What else could be here... ¡°Sain¡± said Shadow in a low voice but Sain could hear it clearly, ¡°I know you are deciding whether or not to find what is going on here...but unfortunately it is right here....I don''t think we have much of a choice now that I''ve seen...''that''.¡± Every word that came out of Shadow''s voice was strained and sounded like he was chocking. It sounded like he had seen something he revolted. ''I can''t get weak right now...'' Picking himself up again Sain turned and looked at the others and then said to Serena, ¡°You don''t need to see this if you do not want to. You are the youngest of us and barely count as a teenager. You don''t need to see this.¡± ¡°I-I''m fine...¡± Serena made her resolve and walked with the others to see what on that other side. ¡°This is...¡± Sain sharply breathed in. There was a room that was all so similar to the one that they found in the mines. But this one was different was it was not used to create countless weak monsters. Instead it did the opposite and used those countless weak monsters to make few strong ones. ¡°This...what should we so...¡± asked Miriel in a depressed tone not sure on what to do. Seeing this, everyone''s hearts dropped a bit. The sight of countless monsters being produced from the bodies of dead humans and mashed together was a bit too much with all the gore...not that anyone would dare describe it in detail. ¡°We should leave this place alone¡± Sain finally said. ¡°What?!¡± Lyndis made that sound as she was in utter disbelief. ¡°You want to leave¡± she pointed at the large tank where it looked like another Chimera was being made though only in it''s early stages, ¡°That unharmed and functioning?!¡± Sain nodded which only made Lyndis angrier. ¡°What.is.your.deal?!¡± She almost grabbed Sain when Miriel stopped her. Sain looked at Lyndis without blinking and said, ¡°Finding two in a row means there are more right?¡± ¡°Yes....¡± ¡°That means there is a person or group behind it all.¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± ¡°Which means they might check up here to find this whole place trashed. What would they do when they find out?¡± ¡°Hide the other places.¡± Their conversation answered the question on whether to destroy this place or not like the mines. Now that he thought about it, it might not matter anymore. Whoever was behind this probably knew what happened at the mines. Which means it doesn''t matter what they did here or not. However, he still did not want them to suffer anymore because of this. These last quests were questioning their morality and ethics a bit too much. Making a wrong choice may lead to a bad end. And Sain would stop that no matter what. xXx A week passed by in these cave tunnels. The reason being was that they were checking if there were other secrets or clues on who was behind all of this. But the only real reason Sain proposed this was to keep their minds on what would happen when they did not destroy that place. In a whole week they have found nothing and even encountered that Chimera a few times. Eventually they decided it was best to just fight and kill it and leave than stay here. In the plan they made, they would face the Chimera in this large open space as taking those Lightning or Poison attacks would be suicide in a closed space, plus there was a risk of a cave in as well. Second was that the snake tails and goat head on that back would be taken out first. While the Lion front was dangerous with it''s claws, it was not as bad as taking on the other two sides when the Lion side was taken out. Finally was that when you take one side out, after a while it would regeneration back to normal. The amount of time that this happens in depends on each part but the Lion head will come back in 10 minutes, Goat head will come back to 15 minutes and the Snake Tails will come back in 5 minutes. But enough of plans and such. Right now, Sain and the rest of the group were confronting the Chimera head on. It seemed that being crushed by rocks wasn''t enough to even flinch it at all with it''s thick hide. Currently, the group had several effects on them due to preparations. First was the ''Blessing of Strengthened Night'' which would give them a 20% stat boost in the night or a dungeon. Second were barrier spells. Everyone had a layer of ''Fortified Barrier'' on them though some of the other ones from her ''Art Skill'' wasn''t used since it cost too much mana before a battle. Third were further buffs from Miriel. These included ''Melody of Sound'' in both strength and agility to boost them by a further 50%. This was combined with one of the effects of ''Sound Tune Variations'' which was one that allowed them to sense danger better. Fourth were the buffs that came from Sain. ''Iron Skin'', ''Swift Legs'' and ''Berserk Fury'' which at this point increased endurance, agility and strength respectively by 90 points. This combined with the effects of the buffs from Miriel greatly stacked over. Finally there were the healing spells that Serena stacked over. ''Heartbeat Healing'' was naturally used and greatly increased their health regeneration by almost 70 points per second. All of this were stacked over each other before the battle began and Sain wanted to finish this as quickly as possible before their disadvantage increased too much. Another thing was that the wolf summon, Luna was here as well. ¡°Go attack that Chimera with the others¡± he ordered. The wolf responded in agreement before attacking as well. ''Now then....'' ¡°Boost!¡± he shouted activating the ''Mark'' on his right hand.
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Serpent'' is now active. ''All Knowing Eyes'' is now active.
¡°Compress Magic Mastery Release!!¡± he added quickly as well.
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +420%
With both of these in effect Sain looked at the battle which started seconds before he activated both of these. Strength and Weaknesses of the Chimera were revealed to him! However he noticed something strange... ''Something...is watching...us?'' BANG! BANG! Right now, Lyndis and Raven were immediately at half health after taking a hit. The Chimera was moving rapidly and swung it''s head at both of them. ¡°Health Restoration!¡± Serena was healing them and Miriel activated her barriers as well to help out. If there was any time to use that spell, Sain thought, it was now. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Skill Rejection!¡± he chanted causing the lightning that was gathering by the will of the goat head to disappear as it could no longer use skills or spells. 1500 mana, most of his mana was consumed as well as a result of this spell. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRR!!¡± Noticing that it''s skills and spells was stripped away, the Chimera roared and attacked using a leap attack instead. This attack was so sudden and unpredictable that Shadow was...no Raven pushed him aside using his body and took the hit...again. BANG! However by then, there were several layers of defence on him so his health was only reduced by a third. Sain made sure to heal him a bit with his ''Moderate Heal'' at least before going back into the battle. ¡°Shadow Step! Burst Speed!¡± Angered, Shadow used both weapons at hand to slash at the eyes of the Lion Head before rapidly retreating though it wasn''t as fast as before since the Chimera noticed him still. Shadow was surprisingly leaping around the place in multiple directions. Did the effects of ''Burst Speed'' allow him to get back most of his former speed? Sain looked over and saw that Lyndis was dodging to the sides and Serena in her ''Rabbit Form'' which had white rabbit ears, feet and a tail appear was dodging around the place rapidly while using spells on both sides to heal and to damage. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± Lyndis shouted moving at the back of the Chimera and chopping off the three snake tails at once. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± It was only then that Sain and Miriel started attacking the Goat Head. It would be troublesome to have to face lightning again when his ''Skill Rejection'' wore off. Soon enough Raven got back into the fight while only Sain and Miriel stayed at the back-line...though Serena was suppose to as well until that part of the plan. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRR!!!¡± All of a sudden by some means, the Chimera turned red and had this frightening aura around it. Sain knew immediately that it went berserk. In this state it''s damage and speed would at least double. ¡°This is bad, retreat!¡± he shouted not willing to get into a battle like that where several of them could be killed instantly. The Chimera leaped...and landed in front of him. ¡°Damn!¡± Sain motioned the spear in his hand to block... ¡°Barrier Queen Art: Transcendent Triple Barrier!¡± Miriel shouted.
Transcendent Triple Barrier is active (Can block any attack for 20 seconds, heals 20% of health of anyone inside and gives bonus to attack, defence and speed as well)
BANG! Sain was knocked back all the way to the wall. However thanks to the effects of the ''Transcendent Triple Barrier'', he took no damage at all and will not for the next 20 seconds. However with all her mana spent, Miriel was the one in danger now. ¡°Miriel!¡± he shouted trying as fast as he could to use a spell, anything to save her. ¡°Dragon Dance Art: First Slash!¡± Lyndis charged from the side and used her sword to smash the Chimera away with force. You could tell that her sword just had it''s durability dropped by a lot thanks to that. With a calm mind now that Miriel was not in danger though kinda useless now, Sain said, ¡°We''re finishing this in one go.¡± The others nodded as Miriel got out of the way. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Downplay Rule¡± he chanted forcing an oppressive presence onto the Chimera. All of a sudden there were seven different negative status effects placed onto it. However Sain noticed that most of them, the more useful ones like paralyse or sleep quickly disappeared as it was negated. And with that, all of his mana as well and some of his health due to having less than 2000 mana at the time. Seeing that the Chimera was like this now though in turn Sain turned out useless for the rest of the battle, the others acted as well pouring everything into their next attacks. ¡°Beast Transformation Art: Wyvern Shift!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Sain was surprised that Serena would use that move right now. All of a sudden, the large room they were in got smaller as a small sized wyvern appeared and bit into the side of the Chimera causing blood to gush out of the wound. ¡°GAH?!¡± Surprised at the appearance of the Wyvern that was Serena, it allowed Serena to attack it a few more times but retaliated in response. The Chimera bit into the flesh of the Wyvern Serena which caused her to scream in pain. Serena as the wyvern picked the Chimera up with her mouth in rage and threw it onto the wall causing it to crack. After that, she turned back into her human form completely spent. ¡°Meteor Stream Art: Meteor Burst!¡± Seeing Serena like that and the Chimera injured he used that final move as well. ¡°Ram!¡± Raven''s body was covered in a golden light as he charged and smashed his body into the Chimera causing massive damage to it. BANG! He also did the combo attack with his Halberd before he noticed that Lyndis was about to attack as well. The effects of the final move quickly wore off as Raven''s mana and stamina were completely depleted with this. ¡°Dragon Dance Art: Final Slash!¡± Lyndis shouted. A red eastern dragon appeared around her almost as an illusion as she too charged in and attacked. BANG! The Chimera tried to counter attack but at that moment, Lyndis'' body was too fast for it...even though her body was restricted due to the training, she simply used all the force in her body to leap once to attack. With a Vertical Swing down she made a straight cut through the Chimera''s Lion Face. But even with that, it did not die at all. Without taking out a vital point, it could potentially recover back soon enough before the group could. However there was still Shadow who watched and waited for this chance. ¡°Divine Shadow Art: Final Assassination¡± he said calmly walking to the Chimera slowly and yet quickly. It was calm and silent as the Chimera''s life was taken by a fatal critical hit that dealt six times the normal damage plus the factor of surprise.
You have completed the quest: Hunt down the Chimera - You have levelled up x3
They levelled up three times due to the completion of the quest and due to the killing of a monster that was 20 levels higher than them. ¡°....¡± The group was completely silent. They were too exhausted to talk right now and some of them were focusing control of their bodies so they would snap back. ¡°Honestly...why did you all use those final skills one after the other?¡± he asked sighing. ¡°Because it was cool...¡± Lyndis barely muttered on the ground. Right now, due to all of them using the final move in their ''Art Skills'', they were in no state to even talk properly right now let alone move. Such techniques were deemed to be a final resort for a reason and they had no strength left to even move...for only half of them that is. Sain, Miriel and Serena were all fine since their ''Final Move'' only took mana and health when they did not have enough. However Lyndis, Raven and Shadow''s did consume all stamina plus more. Taking out a mana potion which he brought and never used until now, he drank it and healed those three so they wouldn''t die with their one health. ¡°AHHH!¡± ¡°DAMN!¡± ¡°....!¡± And just in time as well. Right now they were watching three people having their bodies snapped back because they had no stamina left to resist. Sain could not tell that he was being amused by this scene or was pitying them right now. ¡°Hahahahaha!¡± Miriel let out the laugh while Serena was giggling as well. Sain thought they had a pretty good relationship with the group by laughing like that...Sain also could not help but to laugh a bit while two people complained to them while another one was silent. Either way, they needed to wait for them to recover...and for that month trip back to Lily City that would just be as exhausting as the trip to here. Sain rubbed his shoulder feeling that it was becoming stiff from him trying to make it stay put for so long. xXx ¡°Eden I have completed the task.¡± [Good work Sain. How was it?] ¡°The Chimera was taken down though with difficulties and that place is still in tact so it will produce more monsters like the Chimera...though it was not only limited to creatures that we could see normally.¡± [I didn''t mean that but rather your relationship with the rest of that group of yours] ¡°Fine.¡± [That is neither good or bad. Sain, will you bet you will be close enough to them that they won''t leave you when they find out about your side jobs or distance enough they won''t care?] ¡°....¡± ¡°Speaking of things to be discuss, does your daughter know?¡± [Know? You mean about Alena? What does she not know?] ¡°No, not her but the other one. The one in Kallamore investigating the endless amount of monsters that come each week. This and that are related to each other right?] [Sigh...] ¡°However you knew that which means Weed knew that and therefore the Kingdom knew that. While areas are actively being purged to get rid of these monsters nests, why hasn''t the Kingdom done anything about Kallamore?¡± [I really hate kids that figure things out quickly you know] ¡°Is it because that the monster nests serve as protection? Or as a seal to keep people out of whatever is really under Kallamore. I find it strange how for hundreds of years ago, Kallamore''s once last stand was there and they somehow manage to get through that at the time. Kallamore at that time was invading quite harshly to get more territory while the other Kingdoms did not to Kallamore. What is under that place that those Kingdoms did not want to deal with?¡± [And this confirms it. I really hate kids that figure things out quickly] ¡°Then-¡± [If it happens then we have to deal with it. If it does not, we do not need to deal with it. Do not disturb the hornet''s nest when you can even if it will attack in the end] ¡°....Is that a warning?¡± [No. That is advice if you ever decide to do something stupid. Tell Alena about those monster nests and she will notify the Kingdom to help clear them out. It will probably take the rest of the year to finish this up] ¡°....¡± [Hurry up and get stronger else the game will be too difficult to catch up later on]
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9000~ - Could have posted this yesterday but I was too tired...still am tired...next chapter will take a while longer than usual again...not getting much sleep these days. Vol.6 Chapter 7 - Released from Training A month later and numerous battles as well that tested their strength as well, they reached Lily City once again and reported to Alena, well at least Sain was since the others decided to take off for personal reasons. ¡°So...where are the others? I would have liked to see them after two months¡± she asked with a smile on her face. ¡°Haha...¡± Sain could only let that small laugh out as her smile currently reminded him of the same one that she used while ordering unreasonable tasks onto them....it was a truly frightening that could not be forgotten. ¡°They said that they had something to do so they all left before I got here¡± he answered, ¡°Though they are probably somewhere close by.¡± Alena let out a chuckle and said, ¡°And you are right. They are hiding behind the entrance spying on you.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain did not know whether to laugh or not now. Were they using him to see how shallow or deep the waters were in case they would drown with him? Honestly there were some things he needed to say to them after this about teamwork...where he would not be the only one to be dragged down. ¡°Anyway¡± said Sain ignoring that. Since they didn''t want to come in, then he would proceed as if they weren''t there at all, ¡°We completed the quest.¡± ¡°Good job¡± said Alena with a dazzling smile on her face until anything Sain saw before. If her smile before was a normal one, then this one was an angelic one. It was completely different to the point that they were like heaven and earth. Sain felt refreshed by just seeing this smile as he blushed red seeing this. However that feeling only lasted a moment as there was an extreme chilling feeling coming from the door... With a cough Sain then said, ¡°During the quest we found a lab like the one we found in the mines before...we didn''t destroy it but there may be more.¡± Alena nodded and then said, ¡°I''ll report this to the Kingdom immediately...say...did dad contact you at all?¡± ¡°....¡± Sain thought about the meaning of those words and decided it was best if she didn''t know the content of what Eden wanted with him. ¡°No.¡± He told a lie like that but knew that if he said ''Yes'' instead and that was the wrong choice... ¡°What now...?¡± he asked. ¡°....¡± Alena did not respond to that question and Sain felt that she knew that he lied then though she did not attempt o pursue it. Both Sain and Alena did not talk but looked at the door. Seeing that they were there, they would be able to provide from conversation and led on to what to do next. Sain for one wanted to end this training since he did not like the uncomfortable feeling he had for the last three or so months. ¡°Come in¡± Sain eventually said in a cold tone seeing that the rest of them did not want to come in willingly. Eventually one by one, the rest of the group came walking in. To be precise only Lyndis, Miriel and Serena did. Raven and Shadow seemed to be missing. ¡°Where are those two?¡± ¡°Oh those two are having a male bonding session now¡± said Lyndis with a laugh. However when several eyebrows were raised she corrected herself to say, ¡°They went out to eat together¡± and with the eyebrows still raised she once again corrected herself and say, ¡°They logged out to check up on something.¡± ¡°I see, don''t tell lies like that¡± said Sain though he could feel Alena''s stare coming down on him. With everyone''s eyebrows lowered Lyndis could only mutter, ¡°Why couldn''t I be allowed to have some fantasies...?¡± ¡°Because those fantasies are quite immoral in your mind¡± replied Miriel with a harsh tone. ¡°Come on! Don''t tell me you haven''t had any at all! Plus how would you know?!¡± retorted Lyndis while whispering in Miriel''s ear, ¡°What about ones with Sain in there?¡± Turning red, Miriel pushed Lyndis away and said, ¡°I had no such thoughts! Especially with male on male action...though sometimes....I''m a girl as well all right! I have the right to have those kinds of thoughts no matter how unnatural they are!¡± ¡°Actually I find it quite natural to think of those things...as long as they only remain as fantasies and nothing more¡± Alena added her input as well. Serena being the youngest one though at the stage where such conversations would be new to her was brimming red as three females exchanged words involving their tastes. Lyndis seemed to prefer the direct male on male contact with...omitted from Sain''s mind due to such mature content. Miriel on the other hand rather had them romantically involved emotionally with...omitted from Sain''s mind due to shock. Alena was a balance of both... Finally the conversation went on and Lyndis asked Serena, ¡°What preference do you have?¡± ¡°Umm...¡± Serena did not know what to say but in the end she said, ¡°Couldn''t they just hold hands?¡± ¡°Lots of innocence there! And when they get closer!¡± ¡°Don''t corrupt Serena''s mind like that.¡± ¡°Now now, it is fine as long as no one else knows.¡± As the conversation raged on...Sain could only think that somehow something strange is happening and that he sympathise with Shadow a bit now. Being ignored was hard...and even more so when the other side was talking about you as well... ¡°How did this conversation drift away like this...?¡± he sighed (And how the hell did I get here from ''Male Bonding''?), ¡°You know that I am still here right? Is it all right for you to be saying what you like and such in front of me? Especially since I am a guy?¡± It was only then that those four chatting away noticed his presence again. While looking away a bit to avoid eye contact with him, Miriel said, ¡°R-Right! We need to report in the quest!¡± ¡°I already did that.¡± ¡°Y-Yeah...¡± Lyndis looked away as well, ¡°It''s better can imagining you as-¡± Miriel quickly covered Lyndis'' mouth before she said any more though Sain already heard all of it from before...not that he wanted to recall any time soon. With several coughs from someone...Sain looked at everyone else present. Lyndis was being suppressed by Miriel who had a desperate look on her face, Serena was still a bit red and confused and Alena was ever smiling as usual. ¡°....¡± He decided to ignore what happened in the last minute or so for his sanity. ¡°Now that we are back on track, what about out training Alena?¡± asked Sain to the woman who was about to make the excuse of needing to check on her child to leave quickly. Right now her child was three years old and was learning how to walk and talk slowly. Seeing the child only made Sain remember his past where he had to take care of those younger than him all the time. Those memories were something he did not want to remember. ¡°Ah yes...it''s been three months now and you still managed to slay a Chimera of level 180 while weakened like that. I suppose we can end the training here since it would do you no good anymore¡± she said. ¡°Yes but I don''t recall ever learning how to erase my presence like Shadow.¡± ¡°....¡± Alena''s face went from smiling to one that was uncomfortable with what was said and back to her smiling face quickly enough...though now Sain more or less knew that Alena usually had a poker face on with them. It really did not frighten him that much anymore...he hoped. ¡°I need to get some things in order to take those devices off you. They were originally designed to weaken prisoners so...yeah.¡± Alena started walking to the storage room where she kept all of the things that weren''t being used right now. She took out several large keys and undid the training devices that were on their bodies one by one.
Released from Muscle Restraining Tool
Released from Gravity Bracelets
Released from Magic Restraining Bracelets
With these three messages, Sain''s body felt especially lighter right now. He felt like he could jump and hit his head on the ceiling...though he would never so that, the feeling was what that counted.
Finished 3 month training from Alena! - The following stats increased due to the training: 20 strength, 30 agility, 10 vitality, 20 endurance, 20 stamina, 20 intelligence and 30 wisdom
¡°Oh?¡± Sain was slightly surprised at sheer amount of stats that they got from this. Looking at the other three stats, Sain could tell that Lyndis got roughly the same amount of stats from the training as him. Miriel and Serena on the other hand had half the stat game on the physical side but almost double on the magical side. If things were the same for Raven and Shadow they would have gained nothing on the magical related side and their physical related stats would be around double of his. Soon enough Shadow and Raven appeared. ¡°What''s going on?¡± asked Shadow. To that, Alena gave the same smile that made Sain blush a bit to Shadow though his reaction was the polar opposite to Sain''s with him shivering in fear. Seeing that Shadow might break down due to this one day, Sain said, ¡°The training tools are coming off. Hurry up and let Alena release you.¡± Shadow first looked at Sain, then at Alena who was still smiling and back to Sain and eventually nodded. And Alena released them from the training as well with that. Sain also took this chance to at everyone''s status windows again. [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 166,Level: 165]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Unexpected Leader,Title: Silent Stalker]Fame: 835,Fame: 820[/quart][quart=Health: 6601,Health: 6420]Mana: 2829,Mana: 1064[/quart][quart=Strength: 221 +30,Strength: 236 +46]Agility: 246 +60,Agility: 618 +70[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 215 +24,Intelligence: 15 +13]Wisdom: 251 +48,Wisdom: 15 +13[/quart][quart=Vitality: 220 +13,Vitality: 209 +13]Stamina: 113 +16,Stamina: 155 +16[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 78 +21,Fighting Spirit: 89 +21]Endurance: 47 +13,Endurance: 53 +13[/quart][quart=Leadership: 25 +33,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 9 +13,Luck: 35+23[/quart][quart=Offense: 237,Offense: 245]Defence: 81,Defence: 50[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 164,Level: 164]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Unmoving Tower,Title: Bomb Maniac]Fame: 810,Fame: 810[/quart][quart=Health: 11451,Health: 6556]Mana: 1144,Mana: 2254[/quart][quart=Strength: 408 +59,Strength: 395 +45]Agility: 264 +25,Agility: 274 +20[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 15 +18,Intelligence: 205 +41]Wisdom: 20 +18,Wisdom: 47 +16[/quart][quart=Vitality: 399 +58,Vitality: 209 +13]Stamina: 165 +21,Stamina: 120 +16[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 105 +26,Fighting Spirit: 95 +19]Endurance: 80 +38,Endurance: 50 +12[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5+18,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 5 +18,Luck: 7 +13[/quart][quart=Offense: 370,Offense: 144]Defence: 430,Defence: 86[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 166,Level: 166]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Tournament Winner,Title: Born of Blood]Fame: 1025,Fame: 830[/quart][quart=Health: 2904,Health: 2690]Mana: 4784,Mana: 4352[/quart][quart=Strength: 30 +30,Strength: 29 +47]Agility: 218 +50,Agility: 225 +30[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 574 +59,Intelligence: 406 +23]Wisdom: 223 +35,Wisdom: 406 +48[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 42 +28,Fighting Spirit: 32 +24]Endurance: 35 +23,Endurance: 35 +13[/quart][quart=Vitality: 35 +23,Vitality: 35 +13]Stamina: 80 +26,Stamina: 75 +28[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5 +23,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 5 +23,Luck: 7 +13[/quart][quart=Offense: 56,Offense: 59]Defence: 84,Defence: 59[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
Concentration: 40 +22Concentration: 49 +13
Since the beginning of the year, Sain''s health went from the late 5000s to mid 6000s like that. His mana only increased by 400 points but that was enough to cast a number of spells. This was the same for Shadow though his mana only increased by 100 points to just over 1000. Raven on the other hand went over the 10 000 health point and was sitting halfway to 12 000 health from 11 000 instead. Like Shadow his mana increased by 100 points due to the level ups. Lyndis made a similar leap in health as Sain and Shadow though her mana increased by 200-300 points from the beginning of the year. Finally there were Miriel and Serena. Both their health points increased by 300 and sat on the mid 2000s in terms of health. Mana on the other hand increased by around 600 points instead which made Miriel''s mana pool increase to the upper 4000s while Serena''s mana pool went over to almost mid 4000s. This was the amount of progress that was made in 4 months and they only gained 14 levels during this time as well. xXx ¡°Anyway is there anything new on this side?¡± Shadow suddenly asked. ¡°Not yet¡± Sain replied, ¡°What were you two researching on the other side...else were you, as Lyndis said ''Male Bonding''?¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow sighed and touched his forehead a bit before saying, ¡°What the hell exactly happened here?¡± ¡°Well the girls were discussing wh-¡± ¡°Nothing at all!¡± both Lyndis and Miriel covered Sain''s mouth up quickly. They especially did not want Shadow to know about their ''overheard'' conversation just then. Sain was one thing but Shadow was another thing entirely. With several coughs from Lyndis, glare from Miriel and a bright smile from Alena, Shadow did not dare ask what was going on. ¡°So what did you find?¡± Sain asked again when he could talk again. ¡°Oh we were researching some things about the increased monster activity from this part to the western continent.¡± ¡°And the results?¡± ¡°It started from one part of the Central Continent...though no one noticed since-¡± ¡°It was like that from the very beginning right.¡± Both Sain and Shadow looked into each other''s eyes ignoring the strange stare that Lyndis was giving them...did Lyndis awaken something recently or was she always like this and he was just noticing this... ¡°Yes, anyhow since around just before we got that quest to get rid of that Chimera, the areas in which there were high monster activity now were still fine and in normal range¡± he said, ¡°The only problem I found was that the majority of the areas in which now have extremely high monster activities all had one thing in common. That is, their monster activities were in normal limits until recently and that they will experienced a large increase at the same time.¡± ¡°Which is a big problem for the Kingdom¡± said Alena, ¡°Recently for a number of years there was nothing major going on so the number of guards and knights decreased a bit.¡± ¡°But shouldn''t there still be a large amount of forces stationed to protect the Kingdom?¡± asked Sain confused on this point. A Kingdom this large should have a large number of troops to protect it as well. With a sigh Alena explained some things to the group, ¡°Things changed a lot. What you are talking about is before the unification of the Kingdom. Mass drafting and conscription isn''t something common anymore.¡± ¡°Compared to now, the number of troops to citizen ratio was larger?¡± Sain more or less figured that point out quite quickly. Even if the number of troops the Kingdom had was still the same, the increased number of citizens may make it harder for them to protect everyone. ¡°Yes....back at the eve of the unification war, the ratio of troops to citizens sat at a 1:10 ratio which is actually quite low for that time especially when it came to war. Usually it would increase to 1:5 or even 1:3 if things goes badly¡± Alena explained without smiling this time. ¡°And the ratio now?¡± ¡°It depends on whether you include the Independent Guilds in there as well...but it goes around 1:50 right now.¡± ¡°So low!¡± Lyndis exclaimed hearing the large difference. Alena shrugged seeing that reaction and said, ¡°The population grew around four to five times since then and the number of cities, towns and villages grew as well.¡± ¡°Which usually means more troops would need to be recruited to maintain order¡± Sain pointed out. Alena gave a sad smile and said, ¡°With our Emperor, do you think that is possible?¡± ¡°Ack...¡± Sain remembered that the current and only Emperor Weed was an extremely cheap person when it comes to money. It is a wide known fact that he would not spare a coin, even a copper coin when he could. However at the same time he made several, no a large number of investments everywhere though in the end, the profits went back to him, everyone was more than happy for it. ¡°True....but shouldn''t there be a need to still get some in order to stop rebellions and revolts from happening?¡± ¡°Ah, that is true¡± said Lyndis once again when she could not keep her mouth shut. Miriel sighed and decided to enter the conversation as well saying, ¡°The problem is that there were none since everyone was more or less happy at the time that the war ended and Weed had a reputation of being a fair and just person.¡± Alena let out a chuckle and said, ¡°Until that one month where all the taxes were shot up so high you thought it was a dream. That was a fun time according to what mum and dad told me. You would think people would complain but it was the opposite and people were shouting on there was some large investment coming up soon. That Weed was actually pressured in doing so and took the money he got from those taxes in that month which were literally hundreds of millions gold and formed the 256 areas project.¡± ¡°That...¡± Sain remembered that Simon, that butler as well as Eden if he recalled correctly mention that though in a different way. ¡°This 256 area project thing...what is it?¡± Miriel asked not familiar with the term and thus frowning. Alena was slightly surprised that Miriel did not know this and started explaining, ¡°Ah, one day Weed decided managing all those cities and such were too troublesome-¡± ¡°I know that part, what are the other details?¡± Miriel interrupted and asked again. ¡°Well...¡± Alena was a bit taken back on Miriel aggressive behaviour....she would expect this from Lyndis but not Miriel... ¡°The Kingdom was split into 256 points of interest. These points of interest would be given an area to govern and they will report in to the Kingdom. Before that, the administration almost died with all the work they needed to put in managing the Kingdom.¡± Miriel and the others nodded. Even managing a city was hard work, a Kingdom was worse and an unified Kingdom was a step higher in terms of paperwork needed. ¡°As such to make it more interesting, a certain trio suggested to make this project into a game as well instead of work to encourage the administration to work better¡± Alena let out a embarrassed laugh. The group could tell which trio suggested that... ¡°Because of this the ''Area Wars'' began.¡± An explanation on what is being talked about. There are 256 areas in the Kingdom all over the continent. These areas may include only a few towns and villages at remote places to several cities in more crowded places. Due to the fact that there would be no more wars else a rebellion or revolt happens, knights and guards were fearing for their future as something necessary. Because of this, the ''Area Wars'' were suggested to keep up livelihood while at the same time allowing something unique to happen in the game. ¡°The ''Area Wars'' is basically a way for two or more areas to compete against each other. They will bet either items, supplies or even territory and fight in a mock battle. Whether it is a large scale battle or a small duel is up to them.¡± ¡°I see, that way people would rather focus their energy in these ''Area Wars'' instead of fighting the Kingdom because they are bored¡± Lyndis made a serious face as if she figured out the murderer in a case and said that which proceeded to Miriel chopping her head with a sigh. Lyndis must be very bored to be doing this, was the thought Sain had. ¡°Anyway, the interesting part of these ''Area Wars'' is that Independent Guilds can take part in them as well growing their influence. Winning one of these would equal to completing a Guild Quest¡± Alena further explained. ¡°I see...in that case there are Independent Guilds that focus on these ''Area Wars'' right?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Hmm...that would make sense. Getting a Guild Quest is one thing but trying to find one is almost impossible since they come to you...¡± he muttered. ¡°Maybe later on you will take part in one as well...but for now, focus on getting stronger okay~? Take a break for today as well~¡± Alena ordered in a cheerful tone before leaving to care for her child now while muttering something about how it was bad to be raised without a father in sight... And whether he would cheat on her during this period... All of which the group did not need to hear. xXx ¡°So what should we do now? Sain asked as they were walking on the streets of the city. They were right now wearing their cloaks but were not hiding their faces. It was simply that their outfits were a bit too flashy and attracted too much attention. As such this was the perfect way to counter it. The first person to answer was Lyndis as always saying, ¡°Hunt monsters?¡± ¡°No can do, I want to do something other than that since we just came back from a trip for that¡± Shadow denied that route quite desperately. Two months on travelling alone...only to spend more than a week on hunting a monster. Plus they were restricted with the training tools on their bodies at the time which made even walking more difficult. It was only just that Shadow wanted a slight break from all of that. Taking a break after three months of that training was fine...or so he repeated to himself. Only that there were several training demons here that only loved to train in the group... ¡°Hmm...¡± Miriel started to pondered and got an idea saying, ¡°Why don''t we go to the Basic Training Centre then.¡± ¡°Why would we go there? Didn''t we finish what was equal to their course through Eden?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Is there another reason?¡± Serena asked after her. ¡°Of course¡± Miriel made a look that said ''We know each other for so long and you haven''t figured it out yet?'' A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Sain thought about it as well. Other than for the basic training course, people would go there for testing out new skills and such. But they were quite familiar with their skills right now...which only left. ¡°Is it testing out our bodies after the training then?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Something is wrong if the first thing we do on a break is go train...¡± Shadow muttered to himself then. Miriel nodded to Sain ignoring Shadow and said, ¡°We gained around 10 or so levels worth of stats which means Alena was quite right in that her training would at least make us twice as strong. Picking up on what Miriel''s intentions were, Sain agreed and said, ¡°Sure...though afterwards...¡± Miriel grew silent and nodded. After that would be time only for them... Annnnnd the rest of the group more or less figured it out seeing the two as well...but dared not tease them about it right now. Both of them could become demons in the future if they did which would in the end only make them suffer the most. While training was fine, doing hell training for the next few years was another thing entirely. Shadow tried to look at his comrade in not wanting to train that much, Lyndis. However her expression was of one that was similar to her trying to do something interesting...to which Shadow could only sigh. He would have to follow them either way. ¡°Well judging by things, Alena will give us a quest tomorrow anyway...¡± he could only mutter in deep regret. Being adopted and then kidn-enrolled in a school, he thought he would have a lot of spare time. He was wrong... xXx At the basic training centre, there were only a few people hitting scarecrows at the moment. Due to the increased number of players, monsters were becoming rarer by the year. As such, the only other way to be stronger was to grind stats like this. However even so, many people would rather wait a little longer than use this method to get stronger. Compared to the past, the number of combat related players in terms of percentage dropped. Even though many new players would choose to have a combat related class, later on they might change to a non-combat one though the other way around only rarely happens. This thought in Sain''s head made more sense with what Alena said of there being more citizens than troops in terms of percentage ratios. The game was slowly stagnating here. Even with major events and battles, most players wouldn''t be affected at all. B rank quests were now minor, A rank quests only got minor coverage since there were more of them now. Only S rank or higher quests would gain major attention even if they were especially rare. Royal Road had become part of society now...which meant that it''s newness and excitement was dying a bit. However rather than thinking of that now, Sain was more surprised of how much easier it became on moving his body. ¡°Ohohohoho, those are some fine moves boy¡± the instructor of the basic training centre came up to him and the rest of the group seeing what they were doing. ¡°There are barely any wasted movements there¡± he continued to compliment them. ¡°Wasted movements? What are those?¡± asked Lyndis causing several people to stack over in shock. ¡°Lyndis!!!!¡± Miriel was especially angry at her seeing that ''Wasted Movements'' and such talks were everywhere to the point it was common knowledge now. Sain ignored the two whom were ''bonding'' and asked the instructor who was the typical veteran soldier looker, ¡°I''m sorry but can you tell her? It''s hard to explain...¡± he let out a sad laugh. The instructor gave him an understanding look since explaining things to those who had little common sense was difficult. ¡°Well little girl¡± the instructor said to Lyndis who was strangely pinned down by Miriel right now, ¡°Wasted movements are movements the body does that are inefficient. Have you felt that your sword swing can be faster or stronger?¡± Lyndis nodded. ¡°In that case getting rid of excess movements and making yourself go faster and stronger without increasing stats or skills is the process of getting rid of wasted movements.¡± ¡°I see...oh so that was it was. I''ve been doing that for a long time now¡± she said nonchalantly as if it was nothing. Sain could feel a sigh coming up looking at Lyndis. Out of everyone, she was the hardest to read as she was quite unpredictable. It was like she knew nothing but what someone tells her...though it looks like someone did a pretty good job so she seemed normal at first. It was only later that Sain released that Lyndis more quite abnormal in her behaviour. Whether it was not knowing something as common as what was the use of a sleeping bag or knowing something was uncommon as how to cut up a lizard and turn it into food. ¡°This is quite surprising little girl. It usually takes a few more years to in order to start to get the same control over the body as you. Which means you did training involving it¡± the instructor said. ¡°3 months of Alena''s training does that¡± said Lyndis back at him. ¡°Alena?¡± the instructor was quite startled hearing that name, ¡°You mean that smiling devil?¡± ''So she is called that to others as well...'' This thought floated into the group''s minds naturally. After looking at the group again, the instructor quickly said, ¡°If you need anything, call me over...otherwise don''t tell Alena I called her a smiling devil.¡± ¡°Who are you calling a smiling devil?¡± ¡°I-I-I...I...¡± The instructor turned around in fright seeing Alena looking at him smiling the entire way...the group could feel a chill come up at that moment as well. ¡°I need to talk to them so can you leave...please?¡± Alena made a cute gesture but the instructor looked like he was running for life. ¡°....¡± The group looked at the instructor with pity...for what would happen later on when no one was looking...Alena would ''ask'' for ''favours'' to the point that you wished you were dead. This was because though they thought they had not insulted Alena before, she would still quite cruel in her training methods. With the instructor gone, Alena turned to the group and said, ¡°To think that you would come here on your break...¡± with a sigh. Shadow agreed and said with a sneer, ¡°Isn''t there something wrong when someone suggest we come here? I would think she would rather prepare for her da-¡± ¡°Ice Bolt!¡± ¡°Wah!¡± Using his reflexes that were beyond normal, Shadow managed to dodge the attack though he shivered a bit seeing the ice cold feeling that Miriel was emitting from her entire body. ¡°That is no good¡± said Alena in a worried fashion. Shadow thought that Alena was going to stop Miriel from killing him...as he was about to speak, what Alena said shattered this. ¡°Shadow you must not talk about what and what not when it comes to girls¡± she patted him on the shoulder with that smile... ¡°Damn! Why the hell am I the one being told off when I''m the one who almost got killed?!¡± he shouted. ¡°That is because your mouth is the source of the problem here¡± said Lyndis. ¡°Tch¡± Shadow turned his head away seeing that nothing would be done like this and that he would lose if he challenged right now. Though he hated to admit it, Lyndis was stronger than him in a fight. ¡°Anyway what are you here for?¡± Shadow asked Alena drawing to the next conversation. ¡°Oh I''m here with work.¡± ¡°....¡± The group thought they had a day break... In fact it was only a few minutes of a break? How much of a devil Alena was to do this to them? They also only got back from the previous quest that she gave them and that took 3 months! ¡°Isn''t...this a bit too soon for another quest from you?¡± asked Sain. He was clearly troubled by the fact that Alena would give them another quest so quickly. ¡°A quest?¡± Alena asked confused but then gave them an understanding look, ¡°Oh you mean the thing I''m going to give you tomorrow. I''m here with some minor tasks that can''t count as one.¡± ¡°....¡± The group could only stare at Alena who did not seem to know that taking a break means not doing anything...though right now they seemed to be training. ¡°What are with those looks?¡± asked Alena, ¡°You guys have enough time to train rather than have fun so I supposed that you wanted to do something more interesting. It looks like as if you didn''t want to do more work.¡± Her words matched their thoughts exactly. ¡°Actually...¡± Miriel spoke up, ¡°Me and Sain have...¡± Alena nodded with a smile and then said, ¡°Of course¡± while patting Miriel on the shoulder, ¡°I understand. You two can take a breather while everyone else can take on your load as well.¡± ¡°Thanks~!¡± Miriel made that cheerful sound that was completely warm and fluffy. The others including Sain though for different reasons were in shock. ¡°Right then¡± said Alena moving to pick something up that was extremely large...a whole bunch of paperwork, ¡°While Sain and Miriel go off on their date, everyone else can help me on this.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°You won''t refuse me right?¡± That smile made it impossible to refuse. xXx The next day, as Alena said, they were given another quest to work on.
Help Eliminate the Source of Monster Trouble for the Kingdom Recently, it was found that the increased monster trouble was due to monster nests appearing all over the place. To ensure the peace of the Kingdom, these nests need to be exterminated. Help in this effort. Quest Rank: Depends Requirement: Not a criminal of the Kingdom Reward: Experience and Money Depends on results
¡°What...is this?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°A quest¡± Alena replied with not much care. ¡°I see but why does it seem like it''s going to take a long time to complete?¡± ¡°Because it''s a quest to eliminate this new threat to the Kingdom. Something like this is actually wide spread now with thousands of people accepting it and contributing in the effort. There will be some people directing you to locations to clear¡± she explained. ¡°In that case we will get transport to each location?¡± asked Miriel. She really did not want to spend months walking again. Alena only smiled and said in a kind voice, ¡°Perhaps though doing so will only increase your workload.¡± ¡°Compared to doing nothing but walking for months I rather do work¡± said Lyndis while sighing. She could not believe how unimaginably boring it was to walk and have nothing exciting happen. Alena clapped her hands at that moment and then said, ¡°In that case, I shall provide you with some transport then. Though don''t regret it.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°That reminds me...¡± said Miriel looking around, ¡°Where is Sain? I haven''t seen him since yesterday.¡± She held in her hands, the staff that Sain felt matched Miriel the most...
Graceful Staff of Barriers Durability: 30/30 Damage: 5-7 A staff that was made and designed for better use of Ice Magic. Restrictions: Magic Class, level 165 Options: - Increases the Strength of Barrier Magic by 25% - Increase magic casting speed by 10% - Decrease the cost of Magic spells by 5%
It was a beautiful violet staff that was carefully carved out with magical enchantments placed on it to protect the user. It looked quite well with her current appearance. ¡°Sain...¡± xXx ¡°Yeah....I''m about to finish the job. I got the information we need¡± said Sain messaging a person. ¡°Please....spare....me....¡± Sain looked down and with a cold gaze gathered mana into his hand. A sinister black aura appeared around his hand at the same moment. ''This...feeling when I use magic now, suits me...'' With that thought he killed again. That grim feeling that came whenever he killed like this did not come anymore. ¡°Looks like this person wasn''t it as well...I need another lead soon...though he did have some other useful information on him.¡± He sighed as he cleaned off the blood on him. Today was quite messy even for him. ¡°Honestly why do I need to investigate a case of stolen materials? Couldn''t the Kingdom do this instead? There are actual trained people that can do this work instead of me.¡± Looking at the time, he released that he should have met up with the others a long time ago. Cursing that this job took so long, he left the dark corners and went back into the light. xXx The following 4 months afterwards was quite rough for the group and they gained 15 levels in the process of this time so now they were around level 180(Noooo...I just updated their status windows as well...). They were moved from location to location clearing out monsters and destroying the nests that produce them. They were going so quickly that had no time to feel guilt or regret and burning corpses. Or rather they were going quickly so they couldn''t feel such things. Right now, they were currently near a mountain pass where there was once again, a Blue Tiger ahead. ¡°Between the types of monster nests we have destroyed, how many of them were Blue Tigers?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Around....four or so I think?¡± replied Miriel. She really did not keep track of all the monsters they have killed during this time. Other than these Blue Tiger nests, there were also goblin nests, which were troublesome to get rid of due to their high spawn rate, Orc nests which was strange as they were the dumber than usual Orc types and wolves nests. Beside these three common types, there were also some rarer ones like Chimeras, Werehyenas and Drop Bears. In all, the group got a bit more experience hunting down monsters compared to before where they were more used to human like creatures. However as they travelled from the nearest town here, they noticed an obstacle was in the way. ¡°A goblin village? In this range from the town as well?¡± Shadow wondered coming back to the group to report this. ¡°....¡± Sain was silent on this issue. Naturally they could not allow a goblin village to exist so cost to where people live...however do they have enough power to finish them off without allowing one to escape? ¡°What should we do?¡± Sain wondered as well. However Lyndis answered this immediately and said, ¡°We should fight them before they gather more numbers.¡± Hearing this straightforward answer, Sain laughed slightly and Miriel said, ¡°We may actually made things worse.¡± ¡°How so?¡± she asked back. ¡°The goblins are gathering there, so what will happen when they flee from us? Where is the next nearest target for them?¡± asked Miriel in a cold tone. ¡°The town...¡± muttered Serena. ¡°That''s right¡± Miriel nodded to this answer. For them who were a part of an Independent Guild, doing something like this and causing further damage and lost of lives was unforgivable. This was especially the case when Eden demands no less than perfect from everyone. As such they need to be extra careful if they were to deal with the goblins right now. ¡°Then should we deal with them or not? If there are more than ten running off in direction directions then I can''t catch all of them¡± said Shadow for the final confirmation. ¡°The decision should go to...¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± The group looked at Sain for the decision. He sighed seeing this since this would stick to him if they failed... ¡°If you guys wish for it...plus I think this relates to our quest, we should take them out then¡± he said in the end. He hoped everything would go all right at any rate. xXx Later on hiding near the goblin village that seemed to be only set up recently... ¡°Thank god this place is new...there are only around 20 goblins in there¡± Sain muttered to himself. If there were at least 30, then that would mean there was some chance a few goblins would escape and if there were more than 40, then there was a high chance some would escape. Therefore Sain was thankful this would go smoothly. ¡°Is everyone in position?¡± he messaged the others. Right now they were separated and surrounded the goblin village. To be precise, he was with Miriel and Raven while Lyndis was with Serena and Shadow. This way, the formation would be solid with a tank and healer in each side. One was in the directions to the town while the other was in the polar opposite. The plan was to route the goblins away from the town and into the other side. This way, the goblins had a low chance on getting out to the town even if they did not exterminated them fast enough. Furthermore, Serena used her ''Blessing of Invisible Torments'' on them which allowed them a Beginner Level 10 ''stealth'' each. ¡°Yeah...Lyndis said that she was bored¡± said Miriel next to him, ¡°Do you know what level the goblins are?¡± she asked him next. From what Sain could see since they were positioned quite close to the goblin village, their level were only around 150 which means they could one shot each of them easily. ¡°Quite low...they are weaker than-no, the same level of strength as what we would have fought months ago¡± he replied. However the problem was whether there were any other in the area or a hidden path for them to escape. Since goblins weren''t known to be that smart, the second wasn''t a problem but the first was. As such, Shadow spent an hour scouting out the the area around the goblin village and found that these 20 goblins were all that were there else they were too far away in which case it would be too much of a waste of time to hunt them down either way. Sain looked closely at the goblin village once again thinking of this. There were a total of five small hut things made of wood. Three of the goblins patrolled around the place while every other goblin were more or less being lazy. They could literally end this in a few seconds. ¡°Ready-¡± He was about to call to start the extermination but something appeared and he stopped. ¡°What....is that?¡± Miriel could only gasp. There was this strange creature...a human? No, it was too tall to be a human as it was 3 metres tall and overly thin as well. It was completely pitch black and had horns on it''s head. There were also large sharp claws on it''s arms as well. As for the strength of this creature... ''Too strong!'' Sain immediately stiffened up and did not dare to move. Looking at Miriel and Raven it seemed like they did not dare to move as well. However this did not extent to the goblins seeing that this strange creatures dropped down on them. ¡°What is this? What is this?¡± one of them asked getting up and lifting it''s rusted sword at the creature. ¡°Answer! Answer!¡± The goblins started to gather and surrounded the creature. They did not attack however as if their instincts knew that it was that much more powerful. And then it ended in a moment. The goblins were cut up into pieces and crushed...without a sound. There was no sound as they were butchered at all... ''What the hell is this?! How can there be no sound when something like that happens?! Even the ground was shattered...!'' As Sain could only stare and nothing else... [I came here thinking I felt the presence of the youngest...] The creature spoke! [However to think I felt it from six...and to be so faint that it would be impossible to tell unless you knew his power personally] The group could not spoke. They felt that if they did then this creature would kill them all like insignificant insects. [Ah yes, tell Eden that I would like to fight him again. This time though, without the pawn of the Gods and contractor interfering] With that, when Sain blinked, the creature was gone. The group did not know now that the creature they met was one of that they would face again in the future... xXx ¡°What the hell was that?¡± asked Shadow breathing unevenly. Being in the presence of that thing was enough to make him lose his calm. ¡°More to the point, why did it come here?¡± asked Miriel. Lyndis then pointed out, ¡°Didn''t it mention Eden?¡± ¡°Why would Eden have to do with this? It was searching...it felt something familiar I think and then...¡± said Shadow. ¡°It doesn''t matter now...¡± said Sain, ¡°We can report this to Eden later so we better focus on taking out this monster nest and those Blue Tigers.¡± ¡°Umm...what did you think when it mention us...?¡± asked Serena. ¡°....¡± ¡°Perhaps¡± Sain thought about it, ¡°It mistook us for Eden? But that would only mean...¡± he looked at his right hand where the ''Mark'' was. This was the only thing that directly connected them with Eden. This ''Mark'' which Alexandra was more than troubled by with them having. This ''Mark'' that gives them get power in exchange for losing something at the same time. And now a creature finds them based on this ''Mark''? ¡°How much do we not know about Eden?¡± he muttered. ¡°....¡± The mood was tense. However there was always that one person who could lift that mood up. Slapping Sain on the back, Lyndis said in a cheerful manner, ¡°Well it doesn''t matter right now right? I mean what''s done is done. Can''t start complaining now.¡± Sain could see a faint smile on Miriel as well as she said, ¡°Yeah, it can''t really complain right now.¡± Sain looked to see Shadow, Serena and Raven were a lot calmer and less tense than before as well. Seeing this, something inside of Sain felt different. Like the feeling of it didn''t matter if he was here or not... ¡°Sain? Are you still startled by that creature''s appearance?¡± asked Miriel cost up causing him to back off a bit. ¡°No, not at all¡± he said with a sloppy smile on his face. For some reason, Miriel turned away a bit red seeing like this muttering ''A new side to him, good!''. Seeing this, Sain felt like it was all going to be all right. As such the group set off to hunt that Blue Tiger they were here for in the first place. They walked to...an abandoned place that was once a place for worship of such creatures in the past. Now it was only used to produce Blue Tigers that were used to destroy the peace.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7800~ - This chapter took a tiny bit longer since near the end I was not sure how to direct to the next chapter and the rest of the volume. Lots of sub-plot in this chapter as well! I would like to write about these ''Area Wars'' later on in this series as well since it was something present from the very start and only talked about a bit. - Anyway I will work on chapter 8 now...hopefully I can get some pages done today... Vol.6 Chapter 8 - To Break the Limit Walking for several hours, the group managed to get to the location of the monster nest in this area. It was according to the report, inside a temple that used to worship Blue Tigers as rare mythical animals from the heavens. Sain found this ironic as these very same creatures were being used to cause trouble and were deemed as monsters instead of anything to worship now. ¡°This place...¡± said Sain taking a good look at the temple in question from the outer parts, ¡°Looks like it had been looted quite finely since a long time ago.¡± Miriel gave a slight snort and then said, ¡°Perhaps that is why no one comes here and why this place looks like a dump.¡± ¡°Well this place is a ruin of a temple. It is natural that many players before have come to this place and took anything of value¡± replied Sain taking out his canteen for a small drink. ¡°Why is it natural for people to take and loot thing? How did such a thing become so common?¡± she wondered. Thinking about it, Sain replied with, ¡°Perhaps it was due to past games that encouraged people to do so. I mean even this game has elements of looting things as you go like with monster drops being somewhat random.¡± ¡°I see but I prefer money dropping instead of loot. So much easier to buy things later with money¡± Sain thought he saw a strange flash come across Miriel''s eyes and could only laugh a bit. Looking forward he saw that the others were more or less exploring the place a bit ahead of them. Seeing this, he was about to go to them else call them over but Miriel wrapped herself around his arm. ¡°Miriel?¡± his face was becoming hot due to this. ¡°Sain...¡± she looked up at him with those puppy eyes that he cannot defy. He would have preferred her sharp cold gaze instead though...since he could actually talk back at her when she was like that. ¡°Y-Yes?¡± he said nervous. He wondered how much longer she would cling on him like that. ¡°Is everything all right?¡± she asked. In his mind he thought that everything was all right with- ¡°You seem to have a darker expression on your face recently. Have...you been doing anything behind our back?¡± Those words pierced into his heart more than he thought it would. He knew one day that the others would know what he was doing or suspect of what he was doing but so soon? He expected this kind of thing to come in a year or so... ¡°No¡± Sain smiled back at her and said, ¡°I''m not hiding anything from you or the others.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel stared up at Sain for a bit before letting go of his arm. With a sight pout she said, ¡°One day I will find out what kinds of things you are doing without anyone else knowing. It''s not fair that you know what I''m doing all the time and I don''t.¡± ¡°Haha.¡± Sain really hoped that she of all people did not know though Lyndis would be more troublesome for other reasons. He could believe the others would not react as bad as her. Anyway Sain and Miriel rejoined the rest of the group in the hunt for the Blue Tiger. xXx Soon enough they encountered one after going into the temple slightly. It was a Tiger...that had black stripes but instead of white or orange, it was coloured blue...not to mention that it''s back had spikes on it that poured out blue flames as well... ¡°This is...I didn''t think that it could use flames like that¡± said Shadow moving away a bit behind Lyndis. Pissed off, Lyndis asked, ¡°Why did you immediately cower behind me first when you saw it can use fire?¡± ¡°Well you are a fire user so you are supposed to have a pretty good resistance to these kinds of things compared to the rest of us¡± Shadow explained. Miriel tapped Lyndis on the shoulder as well and said, ¡°In that case, be the meat shield since I am bad with fire in my resistances.¡± ¡°Heyyyyy!!!¡± Ignoring the scream from Lyndis right now, Sain looked at the Blue Tiger. It was...observing them but was not attacking them. What was it waiting for? There was only one of it and six of them which meant that it would attack them normally. Seeing that it did not run away immediately, this kind of behaviour was strange at the very least. Sain wondered was there something off about it or that it wished to die? However it was none of that as they soon found out from behind. ¡°A second Blue Tiger...?¡± Serena said in fright. One that looked like it could eat her whole was scary enough for her but two and from both sides...? No, there were even more, four, five of them. They were all surrounded due to this. ¡°Tch, to think things would get worse¡± said Shadow already holding his weapons prepared to fight them to the death. Sain too was holding his spear. He would at the very least need to defend Miriel or Serena if they were to be attacked so they can use their spells. From the looks of things they were around level 180 as well which makes them evenly matched in normal circumstances. However right now they were surrounded which meant that these Blue Tigers had the clear advantage. In this thin corridor that only allowed a few people to stand side by side, they had the clear advantage. Two at the front and three at the back. ¡°Hey why aren''t they attack yet?¡± asked Lyndis noticing that if they were going to attack then they would have already. Miriel seeing this point said, ¡°Yeah why-¡± ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRR!!! ¡°-Damnit Lyndis! You jinxed it! They were waiting for a signal to attack!¡± Miriel immediately cursed Lyndis at that moment while hurrying up to case her spell. ¡°Serena, bind one of ones at the front!¡± Sain ordered while at the same time chanting, ¡°Astral Bind!¡± onto one of the Blue Tigers. White rope in the form of his mana wrapped around one of the Blue Tigers while Serena''s ''Root Bind'' did the same...no. ¡°The roots were burnt off?!¡± Serena cried though it was understandable. These Blue Tigers were of the Fire Element which means her Nature Based spells were not effective on them. ¡°No choice¡± said Sain moving up to that last Blue Tiger at the front, ¡°Everyone else take care of the three at the back! I''ll take this one¡± he shouted to the others as he swung his spear down at the Blue Tiger. It dodged and leaped to attack. Sain raised his hand and chanted, ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± before rolling away to dodge after he fired a few rounds into the Blue Tiger. Seeing that his attack didn''t do that much damage, he once again cursed his lack of firepower. ¡°Compressed Magic Mastery Release!¡± he said going full power now.
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +672%
Even with the triple boost bonus that the skill had, it would normally be only a 480% boost. However adding on the bonus of the ''Violent Energy Circulation'' skill which was at Beginner Level 4 it increased in power by a multiplication of 40%. Feeling the strength of his magic increased several fold inside of him he fired off ''Mana Bolts'' when the Blue Tiger leaped at him again. Bang Bang Bang...! Numerous small holes where his attack hit opened up all over the Blue Tiger. ¡°Paralyse Shot!¡± Whether it was partly due to the release of his mastery skill or luck, the Blue Tiger in that one hit was completely paralysed unable to move. Seeing this, an evil grin came up on Sain''s face as he walked up and stabbed his spear into the Blue Tiger. Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! After countless number of stabs, it finally died. How strong was it''s life force for it to survive this long? Sain was even hitting it''s vital points several times as well. He was definitely not having fun taking this thing out. As he was thinking of this, the ''Astral Bind'' of the other Blue Tiger came loose. ¡°Ah.¡± Sain was bewildered that it had such bad timing. That Blue Tiger seeing what Sain did to it''s comrade immediately went to crush him with it''s large claws. Sain could not dodge since it was too sudden but... He wasn''t alone. ¡°Dragon Dance Art: Fire Slash!¡± Lyndis came flying over smashing away the Blue Tiger with a single heavy strike. Bang! The attack echoed a bit in this empty temple but was enough to shock Sain a bit. Lyndis was quite fast in her execution of her skills now though Sain thought that she also used ''Sword Dance'' or ''Speed Stance'' in order to get here quickly as well. Lyndis turned to Sain seeing his look at her and smacked him on the head.
You took 167 damage
¡°Ow!¡± Sain rubbed his head feeling the pain. ¡°What the hell were you doing fighting alone?!¡± she demanded. Miriel walked up and also said, ¡°And you didn''t even call for help at all. If not for Lyndis noticing...¡± she sighed at the end as well. Sain looked back and saw that the three Blue Tigers at the back were taken out, killed by them. As expected, with the five of them it would be an easy task. However right now he needed to address these two whom were angry at him. ¡°I killed one of the Blue Tigers and the other escaped from it''s binding the next second taking me off guard¡± he explained. ¡°Still why were you even off guard in the first place¡± said Lyndis placing her sword on her shoulder. She looked at the Blue Tiger that was getting up and ready to attack with the flames around it increasing in size. ¡°Because I was taken by surprise?¡± he answered. Really to be taken off-guard really only means you weren''t prepared for it. ¡°Why were you taken by surprise?¡± Lyndis asked again. ¡°Can we have this conversation after we dealt with that?¡± asked Sain. As Lyndis was about to say something again, Miriel covered her mouth and said, ¡°I think so to¡± with a soft smile there which also made him go off-guard again. ¡°Right then...¡± Sain looked at the Blue Tiger that was coming very close, very quickly and said, ¡°Mind Shock.¡± A black wave of magical force came down on the Blue Tiger forcing it onto the ground. The effects of confusion, lowered defence and lowered dodge were immediately placed on it. ¡°Glacier Strike!¡± chanted Miriel next seeing that it wouldn''t dodge at any rate. Bang! The Blue Tiger was sent flying into the air due to the spell and Lyndis leaped up in the air at the same time and shouted, ¡°Power Strike!¡± cutting the Blue Tiger in half before landing. ¡°....¡± Sain made this blank stare at Lyndis as he said to Miriel, ¡°Hey, why does it seem that Lyndis...¡± Miriel had this same look on her face as well and responded in kind, ¡°Somehow she is slowly becoming more and more like ''them''¡± referring to the others in the guild...all strong...and all monsters. ''In the end I am normal'' That thought came up in both their minds....though one of them had six different mastery skills at a fair level while the other could increase his magic strength beyond what a normal mage could do, none of them were at any rate ''normal''. ¡°Anyway we should try to map out this place since there seems to be more than one Blue Tiger to face...and at least one strong one¡± said Sain moving ahead collecting the loot from the battle. xXx ¡°Hey...did you see how Sain looked happy to stab that enemy to death like that?¡± ¡°It was like he was in a trance.¡± ¡°You think he noticed?¡± ¡°Doubt it. You don''t notice the change in yourself.¡± xXx A bit later, the group progressed quite well into the temple. It seems that it had an underground layer into the mountain and was actually quite spacious in size. There was this large courthouse style space at the centre of the place which was located inside of this giant structure. There was a second layer to it which they could have used to spy on things but they found that they would be spotted immediately anyway so they didn''t use it. However instead they sent in Shadow to scout out a bit. ¡°Well this is bad¡± he said bluntly coming back. ¡°What is it? What did you see?¡± asked Miriel frowning. Shadow would usually never lie about these kinds of things, at least he never lied about it yet. ¡°Well...there were a around 10 of those normal Blue Tigers¡± he answered. ¡°Normal?¡± asked Lyndis before saying, ¡°There''s a special one in there then?¡± Shadow nodded and then said, ¡°There is one that is larger than the other and has some sort of metal armour on as well. It''s probably the pack leader.¡± ¡°Which means it''s the boss monster of this place and the one that we need to kill¡± said Sain with a sigh. Taking on that boss monster alone was one thing but to deal with the other 10 Blue Tigers at the same time? It would be quite difficult at the very least. In that case... ¡°Shadow, I have a job for you¡± he said. Shadow blinked and nodded and asked, ¡°What kind of job.¡± As such Sain gave him a bright smile since he had agreed without thinking about it and said, ¡°Be bait.¡± That smile that resembled Alena''s own made Shadow shiver from fright. ¡°What do you want me to do...exactly?¡± Shadow cautiously asked this time. He would be dead if Sain gives him a more difficult task than he could handle. Hearing this, Sain also thought of which task would give him the best chance of victory. ¡°So...¡± Sain decided it was best to use that method, ¡°Tell me Shadow. Are you more likely to survive facing 10 Blue Tigers alone or that Boss Blue Tiger?¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow thought Sain was kidding. Both of them were death sentences. However Shadow knew that Sain did not joke about these kinds of things...he could see the same light as when Sain was in ''Commander Mode'' again... Shadow cursed under his breath and said, ¡°I think I can hold out against the Boss Blue Tiger...probably. You better get rid of the others quickly as well! I don''t I can survive more than a minute against that thing.¡± ¡°I see...¡± Sain continued to smile and said, ¡°In that case, let us make the preparations.¡± xXx Sometime later, Shadow was all alone on that second level on the edge of this open courthouse style opening. He was right now hiding as the rest of the group came at the front entrance. The plan was simple. The rest of the group would come in and draw out the 10 Blue Tigers and Shadow will appear to stop the large Boss Blue Tiger that was most likely harder to handle then those 10 Blue Tigers. The plan would start when... Bang...BANG! Black Magic Arrows, Blue Ice Bolts and Red Flame Strikes flew to hit several of the Blue Tigers head on causing some damage to them, no they were all seriously damaged now. Sain, Miriel and Lyndis were not holding back at all and were using ''Boost'' right now to increase their damage. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOARRRRR!!!¡± That Boss Blue Tiger let out that roar which probably meant to deal with the enemy. The other seven Blue Tigers ahead of the other three injured Blue Tigers went out to attack. Soon after the Boss Blue Tiger went up and was about to head out as well. ¡°Just this is my time to shine...¡± Shadow sighed dropping down from the second level and in front of that Boss Blue Tiger. In his left hand was a dagger and his right was a short sword, he stood in front of the Boss Blue Tiger fearlessly. He smirked and said, ¡°Those guys better hurry up. I really can''t keep this up for long¡± seeing the immense pressure the Blue Tiger was giving off. This monster was probably over level 200 and it was a boss monster as well which means double the fun and trouble for Shadow who has to deal with it. After a second this Boss Blue Tiger recognised Shadow as an enemy and fired off flames from it''s body to attack him. ¡°Burst Speed!¡± He leaped up straight at the Boss Blue Tiger dodging the flames and as he flew in the air hovering above the Boss Blue Tiger he said, ¡°Assassinate!¡± dropping down and stabbing both weapons into it. ¡°ROOOOARRRR!!!!¡± ¡°Ah, shit!¡± When his weapons dug into the Boss Blue Tiger it started letting out more flames from it''s body. Shadow leaped away immediately but he took some damage from the burns. He lost a third of his health in an instant thanks to that as well. ¡°Haha, this thing is the worse for me who has literally no defence right now.¡± His current equipment in terms of defence was a suit that literally gave only 3 defence but also boosted his other skills. It was the perfect equipment for his play-style...but right now he was doing the polar opposite to that. Soloing monsters alone was difficult for him if he had to face to head on. However if there was a distraction like Raven or Lyndis to use, his ability would shine. But he had none of this right now, against 10 Blue Tigers, the others would need every last person to clear them out even a little bit quicker. Which was why he was here alone. ¡°Woah!¡± The Boss Blue Tiger made a sweep using it''s claws that was as large as him. Looking at it now, wasn''t it too large? The other Blue Tigers were only around the same size as a person while this thing''s claw as the same size. Or rather, it did just grow in size? Shadow thought this was bad... ¡°Shadow Step! Shadow Play!¡± he used those two skills at once. One shifted the presences to another direction and the other created an illusion in another direction. Combine the two and you have the perfect clone to use. But doing so cost 310 mana with ''Shadow Step'' costing 10 mana while ''Shadow Play'' costing 300 mana. Shadow made that clone charge at the Boss Blue Tiger as he retreated a bit. Slash! And in an instant the clone he made was ripped into pieces...though it was an illusion Shadow was sure that if that was him, the results was the same. The only slightly large Boss Blue Tiger was now several times larger and from the looks of things several times stronger as well. It''s body took up a tenth of the space around them now as well and the flames only made it seem bigger. ¡°Damnit...you guys better get here really soon...¡± he muttered activating ''Boost''. If he didn''t go all out then he was dead either way. xXx On the other side of things, right now the five of them were running a fair distance away from where Shadow was battling. This was not due to them abandoning him but rather to get to the ideal space to battle these 10 Blue Tigers. Facing 10 of them at once was foolish so what if they battled them one by one. Compared to a 5 v 10 situation it was better to have a 5 v 1 situation 10 times. As such all of them ran into a small alleyways in between buildings that could only fit one Blue Tiger at once. The moment they got in and with the effects of ''Boost'' still on... ¡°Astral Bind!¡± Sain chanted wrapping ropes around the first Blue Tiger. The strength of the spell allowed it to be stopped immediately. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± ¡°Flame Strike!¡± ¡°Leaf Slicer!¡± All three of the girls used their spells onto that first Blue Tiger and within seconds it was killed. The same happened a second and third time until the Blue Tigers refused to go in to die like that. ¡°Well I guess that is it with our advantage....Raven you are up¡± said Sain moving onto the next plan. In the situation where the first place stopped, like when the Blue Tigers refused to attack them, the second plan would be to draw them out to one person while everyone else killed the other Blue Tigers one by one quickly. Right now the remaining seven Blue Tigers circled around the only place they could exit. Raven stepped out running with his shield raised. One of the Blue Tigers responded and tried to block him or rather claw at him. ¡°Ram!¡± he said slamming his body into a Blue Tiger forcing it back a bit. However the force of the blow was not enough to allow him out of this alleyway and proceed to the next plan. As such, Lyndis charged in as well shouting, ¡°Dragon Dance Art: First Slash!¡± slamming her blade onto that same Blue Tiger this time sending it flying away. BANG! In that moment Raven ran through and shouted, ¡°Anchor Howl!¡± The shout echoed all over the place and forcefully drew the eyes of every Blue Tiger onto Raven without fail. Sain, Miriel and Serena at that point also ran out of the alleyway as well. ¡°Astral Bind! Mind Shock! Hypno Sleep!¡± Sain chanted those three spells at once at different Blue Tigers each. It costed 900 mana in total but it was better than allowing all seven Blue Tigers attack Raven. At this moment, another three Blue Tigers were out of the battle for now. The remaining four started to attack Raven as well. ¡°Roooooooooooooooarrr!!!¡± The pitiful roar of the Blue Tiger made him think that it was like a cute puppy for a second. ¡°Target the one Lyndis attacks and being it down quickly. Serena, heal Raven when it comes to it¡± Sain said looking at everything with a calm eye. ¡°Right!¡± Lyndis grinned at the thought slicing up the enemy and shouted while charging, ¡°Dragon Dance Art: Second Slash!¡± letting out a rapid series of attacks on one of the Blue Tigers that were still focused on Raven. Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Due to the effects of ''Anchor Howl'' the ability of that Blue Tiger to respond was quite bad and so Lyndis got a good number of hits on it before the next wave of attacks on the Blue Tiger happened. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± ¡°Leaf Slicers!¡± Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang...! Sain, Miriel and Serena finished that Blue Tiger off with those spells as Lyndis moved onto the next one. It looked like with the healing from Serena which was quite high in power in his opinion, Raven could survive several minutes like this. He was dodging more than taking hits right now. They waited for the cool downs on the spells to finish as well. Noticing that the three Blue Tigers that he had removed from the battle was recovering quickly Sain said, ¡°Lyndis! Target the ones not attacking Raven for now. Miriel, allow Raven an opportunity¡± shifting his target onto them as well. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± he chanted attacking the Blue Tiger that was bound by ropes from his ''Astral Bind''. The attack made it bleed quite badly due to the numerous hits on it. A few seconds later Lyndis was up cutting into that same Blue Tiger and Miriel chanted, ¡°Shriek!¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkk!!! That spell stunned every last Blue Tiger in the area, even the one that was woken up by the spell. Seeing these several seconds of opportunity, Raven shouted, ¡°Meteor Stream Art: Cross Slash!¡± attacking the remaining three Blue Tigers around him at once. BANG! The impact of the attack was mainly due to the Halberd but at the same time, with double damage due to stun, and the high damage of the Halberd in the first place, the Blue Tigers around him all died. Moving onto the last three Blue Tigers, some which were still under the effects of his spell, the group finished off them quite quickly. ¡°Right...¡± Sain said to the rest of the group, ¡°We better get back to Shadow then.¡± The others nodded and they all ran back to where Shadow was battling that Boss Blue Tiger at once. xXx Bang! Boom! Boom! Bang! The sounds of conflict were near as the rest of the group ran to where Shadow was kinda hoping that there was not to be a heroic sacrifice or something like. Though in a nutshell they really didn''t care of he died since he will come back either way with some complaining. Heck in some cases it would be better for him to die to shut his mouth up. In the end, when they came back to Shadow the whole place was covered in dust. One would wonder how such a thing happened. ¡°Damn you guys took so long to get here¡± said Shadow who was bleeding all over. His equipment were in tatters as well. Sain looked at his health and he was barely alive right now. And it was at that moment that that Boss Blue Tiger moved to kill Shadow. Shadow by some cursed fate or luck fainted at that same moment as well. It was likely he used ''Final Assassination'' and it failed. ¡°Astral Bind!¡± chanted Sain however the target was much much larger than he expected so the spell snapped immediately as it was casted. ¡°Shit!¡± Lyndis leaped in the way and gazing the ground, got Shadow out of harm''s way grabbing hold of him before she threw him back at Sain to catch. ¡°Wait wait wait!¡± Sain panicked as he caught Shadow in his arms. He was actually really light... Sain dropped Shadow on the ground and prepared to fight going up next Lyndis acting as a vanguard along with Lyndis and Raven. Right now Serena was healing Shadow as well and Miriel applied some new buffs on them all. Rumble Sain felt a chill climb up his spine. ¡°Sain, shut up for now about Shadow and tell us what to do!¡± shouted Lyndis shivering a bit looking into the dust. He didn''t even say anything about Shadow...not that he cared that much since he did his job. Sain took a look at the dust cloud that seemed to spiral around like a storm before disappearing. And in front of them was that very same Boss Blue Tiger...but it was huge! Before it was only around 3 metres tall and now it was 12 metres tall! It grew to a size that was four times larger than before. Furthermore that was this Divine like golden aura around it like it was some sort of God-like creature...from what Sain could tell using his ''All Knowing Eyes''. ¡°What the hell happened for this to occur?¡± Sain wondered while smiling awkwardly since this was the only thing he could do right now. By his estimates, this thing was much stronger than a level 200 boss monster right now...from the feeling it gave. Could be level 300 then in pure strength or even higher? Perhaps even level 400? Due to Sain''s ''All Knowing Eyes'' he was able to calculate the level of this Boss Blue Tiger easily...but the value was only still increasing! Right now even while using ''Boost'' and his ''Compressed Magic Mastery Release'', Sain felt like he was being overwhelmed here. Such a creature would be near impossible for them to beat. Even though they were level 180, with ''Boost'' applied they were at least level 230 in pure strength wise. Facing something with this endless difference in strength was impossible. However this thing was probably stronger than even that and furthermore was a boss monster so it''s strength, speed and vitality is so much higher than normal as well. As such... ¡°RUN!¡± he shouted while at the same time picking up Shadow and throwing him over his shoulder before sprinting away with the others. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!¡± The Giant Boss Blue Tiger let out that roar that was louder than anything they heard and caused an earthquake to happen. Tripping over due to the imbalanced land all of a sudden, the group was forced to a stop. Then as Sain turned, he found that a great amount of blue flames were being gathered in a ball... ¡°Barrier Queen Art: Transcendent Triple Barrier!¡± Miriel shouted creating that barrier around Sain. Seeing this, Sain immediately dropped Shadow and stood in front of the rest of the group.
Transcendent Triple Barrier active (Can block any attack for 20 seconds, heals 20% of health of anyone inside and gives bonus to attack, defence and speed as well.
He would be completely invulnerable in the next 20 seconds. The Boss Blue Tiger fired off the giant fireball that was the size of a building. Seeing this and knowing the explosive power of an attack like that, it would still kill the others even if Sain blocked it for them. In the next second, Sain''s body decided before his mind and he leaped at the Boss Blue Tiger. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! The blue flames exploded around him causing his vision to flare up due to all the light. BANG! Sain was blown back further away from the Boss Blue Tiger can the rest of the group. However due to Miriel''s ultimate barrier, he was not harmed at all...though there were only 15 seconds left... Struggling to get up due to the shock of the blast, even if he took no damage, his mind was not completely fine, he watched the others fight for their lives before him. Right now the distance between him and the others were more than 50 metres! He could not even run to save them even though he wanted to. Shadow was knocked out so he was worthless right now, Serena was shivering more than he ever saw her while Miriel tried to calm her down since all her mana was consumed casting that barrier. Raven and Lyndis were next to each other waiting to defend the others from any attacks. However with a simple sweep both Raven and Lyndis were blown away. They could not even react. BANG! BANG!
Party Member: Lyndis has died
Party Member: Raven has died
¡°Lyndis! Raven!¡± he shouted, he started to get up and run to them now. There was still another 10 seconds of invulnerability on him...if he could get to the others and escape... But fate-no reality was too cruel as the Boss Blue Tiger did not spare Sain any feelings at all. It probably only saw them as toys. Boom! Boom! Boom! Like a cat playing with it''s prey, the Boss Blue Tiger spat out small blue fireballs at the Miriel, Serena and the now awake Shadow. ¡°What the hell is going on?!¡± Shadow immediately shouted seeing that he was being attacked by blue fireballs after almost being killed already. ¡°Shut up and get Serena out of here!¡± Miriel shouted back pulling Serena who was in shock from the ground and into Shadow''s arms. ¡°Run!¡± she commanded but before either of them could do anything the Boss Blue Tiger did a tail sweep attack which barely missed her since she stumbled on the ground a bit. But Shadow who dropped Serena at that same moment wasn''t so lucky. BANG! Shadow was blown away to a wall on the side.
Party Member: Shadow has died
Sain could only watch him die as well. ¡°Damn!¡± Miriel cursed, she grabbed onto Serena and started running as well. By now, Sain only had another 5 seconds before the effects of the barrier wore off. Right now he was only 20 metres away from Miriel and Serena. He would protect them no matter what! More seconds passed...and the distance between them shortened. 17 metres... The Boss Blue Tiger noticed Sain and started it''s attack again. 15 metres... 12 metres... 9 metres... Sain could see that blue flames were being gathered rapidly again. 6 metres... 3 metres... The giant blue fireball attack was formed and was about to be fired at them all. 1 metres... There was only 1 or 2 seconds left of the barrier''s effects on him. He reached for Miriel who did the same and... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! And then were all consumed by flames. BANG! Sain was once again blown away but once again...but thanks to the effects of Miriel''s barrier, he continued to live. Once again he found himself tens of metres away from that Boss Blue Tiger that was larger than any foe he had seen. But most of all...
Party Member: Miriel has died
Party Member: Serena has died
He failed. He failed to protect anyone. He was useless. ¡°Ha...haha....¡± he let out that sad laugh seeing his powerlessness. Even now he was unable to protect anything. He wept as tears poured out of his limp body that refused to move. Then what was the point of this strength he continued to polish bit by bit? What the point of working for Eden in all of those tasks that made him sick to the core? What was the point? As he had these thoughts, he looked at the Boss Blue Tiger that was more surprised than ever to see that he was alive. He let out another laugh. He will pour all of his emotions into killing this Boss Blue Tiger. Yes, that way he could endure it. At the very least it was better than lying here doing nothing but feel sorry for himself. But how could he gain more strength quickly? How could he gained enough strength to destroy this monster that was more than double his level at least? He looked at his right hand that was covered by the glove... What was he prepared to sacrificed for the power? It was simple. ¡°I would give anything for it right now.¡± He made his decision and took off the glove that was holding back the forbidden power Eden gave him. xXx ¡°Ho?¡± Eden felt a reaction...it was faint but it was indeed an reaction. And it was not coming from Gen, Jenny, Mel, Park, Anna or Ron. Which meant... ¡°One of those kids is doing something very stupid?¡± he wondered. He expanded his senses into the skill that would allow him to see anything he wanted at any location. ''Divine Sight''! There he located a giant blue tiger that was covered in blue flames and had this golden armour on it. He frowned immediately seeing this. ¡°This is...that is impossible right?¡± he said a bit shocked. But then he saw no one else there so he searched for a bit and found Sain and immediately understood what was happening. He smiled and then said to Sain even though he could not hear him, ¡°If you really want power that much, take it. However the cost will be very high you know~¡± He grinned as he waited to see this entertainment. Sain was becoming a better source of fun than he initially thought. xXx The words. The words to a chant appeared in his mind and so he said them. These words filled with power as the ''Mark'' expanded to every place all over his body and flowed a deep red. ¡°Let it fall, Let it fall, Let the countless flames fall and become stars.¡± ¡°Let it shine, Let it shine, Shine brighter than anything else in the sky.¡± ¡°Let it rage, Let it rage, Like the roar of the Heaven Shattering Beast.¡± ¡°Let the forbidden fruit which lies in the false paradise be plucked and consumed.¡± ¡°And let this small flower bloom once and for all.¡± ¡°Mankai.¡± Then that power exploded.
Mankai has been activated - All health, mana and stamina limits have been lifted - All health, mana and stamina will be recovered to max value - All health, mana and stamina regeneration will increased to max value - Level has been temporary increased to 1000 - Stats will be scaled up to that level based on current stat placement - All limitations on skills has been lifted. - All skills in this state will be ranked up to max value - Attack, Defence and Speed will increased exponentially - Awakening of special class has been unlocked in this state - Body will be transformed into new race during the effects of Mankai - All race abilities will be unlocked in the state of Mankai as well - The permanent sacrifice will be taken after the effects wears off
Power of the D&st!@y&r has been activated
Sain ignored those windows that seemed to annoyed him over and over again. He felt his body rip apart over and over again as his muscles ripped themselves only to reform rapidly. Even the veins in his body burst forth and reform at that same rate as well. Furthermore Sain felt that it was not only that. His skin ripped open to show seep crimson scales. Though he did not know how....he felt that his iris turned a even deeper shade of golden and the whites in his eyes turned black. Then...from the back of his body a long tail emerged as well! ¡°This is...¡± he looked to see that the Boss Blue Tiger was stunned at Sain and his appearance and even more of the power that was overflowing from his body. But Sain ignored the Boss Blue Tiger for a second. The ''Mark'' from his right hand grew to the rest of his body and was sending off dangerous sparks all over the place from every part of his body. He knew he only had a few minutes or even moments at best at using this power... ¡°So....¡± He looked at the Boss Blue Tiger that seemed so small now. He could just move and crush it... But... ¡°You will have to suffer for killing them at least right?¡± he asked the Boss Blue Tiger as he took a step to it. Though it was a natural step to Sain at this point, he instantly appeared in front of the Boss Blue Tiger with that one step. Rather than a step it was more like a leap! But with his increased speed that nearly caused a sonic boom, this was nothing at all! ¡°Then...¡± He grabbed the claw of which killed Raven and Lyndis and ripped it off. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAARRRR!!!¡± The Boss Blue Tiger roared in pain as one of it''s limbs was so easily ripped off. Furthermore it was not regenerating at all! For a creature this large and strong it was natural that it''s regenerative powers were powerful at the very least! But there seemed to be no reaction from it''s body to even try to heal. The Boss Blue Tiger was afraid right now. More afraid than anything else right now. What kind of monster was in front of it. Thus it decided to run away. It turned it''s body and ran from Sain. ¡°Oi...who said you could run away?¡± Sain moved at speeds that he thought was impossible for a human...no living thing and casually grabbed the tail which killed Shadow with a sweep and pulled it off. Ignoring the pain, the Boss Blue Tiger jumped on the building and continued to run away from Sain even abandoning it''s tail! It had lost all shame at this point and focused on only surviving right now. And so Sain leaped as well in the air and flew at speeds that were so fast to follow. And while falling from the air... ¡°Don''t you dare run from me!¡± he shouted sending a full power punch directed in front of where the Boss Blue Tiger would run at. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG! The force of the punch that was more power than even Sain thought sent the area in front of the Boss Blue Tiger, away to such a size that the distance of the destruction caused by the punch was over a hundred metres long! It was only then that the Boss Blue Tiger stopped and completely submitted to death... ¡°Good Good...¡± Sain smiled coming close to the Boss Blue Tiger and petted it. If not for the fact that Sain could destroy not only it but this entire temple immediately, the Boss Blue Tiger would never allow anything to do this to it. Even if it was a Dragon that did so. ¡°This is the mouth that breathed that fireball that killed Serena and...Miriel¡± Sain cold voice made the Boss Blue Tiger stiffen in fear completely stunned and paralysed due to the immense sinister aura that Sain was producing. If everyone was a bright flame that shone brightly, then Sain was a deep dark flame that was bottomless in all ways. He held his Pure Magitite Crystal Spear which scaled to his current level. It was probably one of the strongest, if not strongest weapon in the game right now. He wondered how powerful it would be even with a simple stab... ¡°Disappear¡± Sain said his farewells to this Boss Blue Tiger and did a simple stab at it. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!! In an instant nothing was left of that Boss Blue Tiger. That stab completely annihilated it, the temple and went through the side of the mountain as well! ¡°Hahahaha!¡± Sain was laughing like a maniac seeing this destructive power. A level 1000 could do this? They say Weed is approaching level 900 and he was the strongest player! He could not be able to do this even if he wanted to. A simple difference of 100 levels between this and that was this much?! It was laughable at the amount of time needed to get from where the strongest player was at to this point Sain was standing at even if it was temporary. However now Sain knew time was up... The power was disappearing from his body rapidly...no, it was his body breaking down from using all of that power at once. It was like a balloon being filled with water and continued being filled and filled until it...bursted. But before that, he collected the loot from the Boss Blue Tiger that was dropped since Miriel would complain. He didn''t even bother to see what he gained. ¡°Ow!¡± There was a sharp pain in his right eye at that same moment as well. He knew what was going on but didn''t like that...
The Sacrifice has been taken
The next moment when he opened his right eye, he saw nothing through it... And then he felt his consciousness fade away but not before one other message from the game.
You have died
xXx ¡°How interesting...that creature was one of the better experimental beings with the power of fake divinity and yet it was destroyed like that.¡± There was a man hidden away watching everything that happened. From the group dying one by one to Sain awakening a strange and powerful power and killing it before dying himself. ¡°How interesting, how interesting! From what we know, even if a peek level person tried to kill one of Divine nature, it was be near impossible with the amount that Blue Tiger had. It was more like a God than anything else, even if it was a minor one.¡± That man disappeared from sight seeing there was nothing else to do here. xXx ¡°How nice for Sain to give this to me for that power¡± said Eden holding a transparent ''thing'' in his hand. A sacrifice was needed to use that power. Even if it was only a while, that power went to the limits on what a mortal can do in the mortal realm. The fact is that there is virtually nothing that can stop you when using this power. ¡°Even if it is me...in my state, even that Sain could kill me in that state¡± he laughed at the thought. He who was over level 1000 and went beyond the limits of mortals and yet restrained to a mere level 800 or so in the end. ¡°Well I guess he will learn of the sacrifice he needed to make for that power that time...though with those eyes of his I bet he knows already!¡± Eden started laughing again. Seeing Sain act out like this was really too fun. To be kind, to be cruel, there needed a balance in order for them to be forged the way he wanted. Anything than that and they could turn out useless like most of the others he took in. As such Eden was more than happy that Sain jumped to this step even though he will only suffer due to it later on. ¡°As for this...¡± he looked at the ''thing'' which represented the ''sight'' from Sain''s right eye in his hands. ¡°I guess I can keep it until he decides to bring me something of even costs to it to get it back.¡±
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7400~ - This chapter took a lot less time than anything else to write. Lots of battle scenes and motivation does that. - As for stuff I did not plan to happen in this chapter. First was that this battle would last for the entire chapter, it was only meant for two thirds, second was the boss monster being that strong...kinda happened and third was the use of Mankai, that was suppose to be fully introduced several volumes later. Vol.6 Chapter 9 - A Side Effect ''Waking Up'' from the game, Peter got out the capsule. There was this gloom feeling inside of him as opened his eyes. He had died a few minutes after the others so it would translate to around a minute or so? ¡°Peter! Peter!¡± Miriel...no it was Hina shook his body as he sighed looking worried. Seeing her, he patted her head and said, ¡°I''m fine. Don''t worry about it¡± with a smile. ¡°But you died in the end too right?¡± she asked. The others at this point also gathered around him as well, all giving their worried faces to him as well. He found this quite heart warming. ¡°Well in the end...yes¡± he said with a soft laugh. There was nothing to do now that they had died like that. ¡°I think we should let someone else deal with that monster¡± said Maria, ¡°That thing easily destroyed us all!¡± Ian and Mark nodded their heads hearing this and Grace as if whispering said, ¡°It was really scary as well...¡± ¡°Yeah that thing continued to grow larger and stronger with time and became that kind of monster where we couldn''t even react to in the end...plus to think I died from a tail sweep...¡± Ian sighed saying this. ¡°Thank god you dropped Grace at that same moment else she might have died from a tail sweep¡± said Hina thanking in a twisted way. ¡°Though in the end you two died from a giant fireball...¡± Peter muttered. ¡°Well it couldn''t be helped! The enemy was too strong this time¡± said Hina with utter confidence that they can get over this and move on. ¡°Yeah...¡± Peter felt his right eye for a bit...his sight from it was...a bit blurry? He was out of game now so the effects of this new blindness should be gone right? ¡°Peter why are you covering your right eye?¡± asked Hina frowning while checking out Peter. He was awfully silent for most of the conversation when he usually tried to encouraged the others when they died. Throughout their time in the game, each of them died around half a dozen times or more when it was unavoidable. There were such situations where they had no choice but to die. They did not usually make any careless mistakes so their death rate is actually quite low compared to others. What happened with the Boss Blue Tiger was one such instance of this. But still, Peter was too silent on this matter and it looked like he didn''t want to speak of it. Noticing that no one else was speaking and were simply looking at him, Peter gave them a smile and said, ¡°Shall we revise on what each of us did wrong to die like that this time?¡± The rest of the group felt that smile would not let them go until they dared not do the same mistakes ever again! Sain had this horrible habit of reviewing things over and over again until they could not be repeated. ¡°Damn...and I thought he wasn''t going do this this time...¡± Ian cursed. ¡°Peteeeeeeeer, can we skip it this time? These kinds of talks are super boring!¡± Maria complained as well. ¡°Oh?¡± Peter''s eyes went a bit blank and cold for a second when he looked at Maria as he asked, ¡°So you want to die again?¡± Ian and Maria felt that coldness and panicked to stop Peter. However they panicked to the point that they did not realise this was only a slight joke from Peter to stop them from slacking off like this when they had the chance. ¡°Wait! This isn''t a game! We will really die if you try to kill us here!¡± ¡°Yeah! Hina! Save me from your boyfriend!¡± However Hina did no such thing since she wanted Maria to suffer a bit for trying to even tease her in that state. Mark and Grace also simply watched as well since they didn''t want to be drawn into this kind of thing. And throughout all of this, Peter was unable to see through his right eye. And as such he was ignoring a lot of things that happened next. xXx ¡°You really did it this time you know¡± said Eden sighing. ¡°So...what exactly is happening to me?¡± he asked. ¡°Virtual to Reality Dysfunction. That is what it is called when the effects of something that happened in a virtual space still affects you in reality. It''s actually more common than you think, with more time spent in a virtual space like Royal Road, the more likely it is to occur.¡± ¡°So I can''t see with my right eye in game and now reality as well?¡± Peter frowned asking himself that since it was quite difficult to appear as if nothing wrong happened at all. ¡°This effect is just temporary. If you spend less time in game, your real body will adjust itself to reality again. By the time you can get back in game after your death you should be fine.¡± ¡°Wait, how do you know about my death in game? And more to the point how did you know about that?¡± Eden smiled like a devil catching a poor innocent soul at Peter. ¡°How did you think you were allowed to gain such power at that time?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Now seeing that you are suffering from Virtual to Reality Dysfunction.....tell me. Are you Sain or Peter?¡± ¡°I''m Sa-Peter of course.¡± Sain-Peter paused for a bit before realising what exactly was the problem here. ¡°This is a bit bad. You are losing your grip on what your real self is...else the self you are in reality.¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± Peter sighed. ¡°It means that like many people, you are acting out a certain role, a certain person different from yourself in reality. This happens sometimes when you use a different name, gender or appearance in game. You feel as if you are another person in game and you separate it from yourself to be that person. This is why it is not recommended to play as a different gender in a Virtual Reality Game as this is especially likely to happen when you try to switch genders between the game and reality. But even so, this was only getting more common after a certain amount of time passed.¡± ¡°....So how do I stop it?¡± ¡°Act like yourself.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°The others don''t have this problem and not many others have this problem as well. They are opening up well enough to each other and you and are acting like themselves. Many people fall back on their original personality in the end if they try to act either way as well. Do the same or are you too scared to do so?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°That''s fine in itself. It takes time to really accept of who you are when you have the chance to be another person altogether.¡± ¡°It doesn''t help with you trying to draw ''it'' out of me with those missions.¡± Eden smirked and decided to end the conversation for now. At this rate Peter would be late to his class with Alexandra. ¡°You won''t be getting that right eye''s sight back in the game. That is the cost of that power, don''t even try to use it. It is a power that will only end badly for you. Mankai is a power that is like a prayer and in exchange it will take more than it gives.¡± ¡°I see, in that case goodbye for now¡± Peter bowed to Eden before leaving. ¡°A player''s avatar can use that power up to five times. You have four more uses before...you will be crippled and be unable to even function normally anymore.¡± ¡°Why are you telling me this? Do you expect me to use this power again?¡± ¡°....¡± Eden paused since the answer was yes. They would need it later on, at least against ''them'' it was impossible to even combat without it. ¡°Don''t tell Alexandra about this. She has enough to worry about and I don''t want her to be more worried than she is right now. Also if Alena or anyone else finds out, tell them that I said to not tell Alexandra as well.¡± Peter left the room with Eden''s words on his mind. ¡°Light or Dark...which side is the real one I wonder....¡± xXx ¡°So...all of you died?¡± asked Alena seeing that the group was kinda late on coming back right now. It was either they got sidetracked or them dying and since the first was unlikely for them, it was the second then. ¡°More or less¡± Sain sighed. They had lost a level among various other things. They had to go back to recollect the equipment they dropped as well which only took a short while since the town they spawned back in was next to the temple and no one really investigated the place after... Thankfully there was little coverage so no one came to nick away their stuff while they were there. However at the same time, the rest of the group questioned what exactly happened there to which Sain stayed silent on. ¡°That monster was really strong though...and really large as well¡± said Miriel with a sigh as well, ¡°To think that we would all be one shot one by one so easily...¡± ¡°Well it didn''t help that that thing grew stronger with time...if we all fought it at the beginning perhaps it wouldn''t turn out like that¡± said Lyndis. Shadow raised his eyebrow looking at Lyndis and asked, ¡°Are you suggesting that it was my fault then?¡± ¡°Why? We all agreed that the plan was the right choice, how is it your fault of all things¡± replied Lyndis, ¡°The only fault is that you couldn''t kill that thing alone which I doubt any of the rest of us could do especially when it turned into that large form.¡± ¡°Wait¡± Alena blinked a bit and raised her hand and asked, ¡°What exactly happened there?¡± ¡°....¡± The group looked at each other and then at Sain to explain things. Once again Sain could only sigh seeing that nothing really had changed at all with the rest of the group forcing this kind of role onto him. As such Sain could only start explaining things. From the start as they entered the temple to find multiple Blue Tigers to face, to continuing down to find the boss of the area, the plan they had and used to lure the minions and boss away from each other. And finally the appearance of the Boss monster''s larger form and them dying on by one. ¡°And so, what should we do now?¡± asked Lyndis, ¡°We really have no way on killing it, don''t even know where it is and plus it has that golden aura...¡± ¡°Golden Aura? What Golden Aura? Like the one dad has?¡± asked Alena a bit shocked. If what she was thinking was right then that creature was... Shadow nodded to what Lyndis said and then said, ¡°Yeah though it was a bit different from the one Eden showed us when he was beating out masters up, every last monster we face with that Golden Aura, we were forced to use ''Boost'' to kill it since nothing else could even damage it.¡± ¡°Plus their regeneration abilities were high as well¡± Miriel pointed out. ¡°How many have you faced with such abilities?¡± asked Alena quickly in her tone. There was this harsh light in her eyes that was rough and cold at the same time. ¡°Umm...there was one that Viv killed back at Witchelm when there was a large number of monsters attacking, there was another which which was mini-dragon from the Magitite mines and now this Blue Tiger as well¡± Lyndis answered quite nervously since Alena came close to her face as she spoke. After taking a breather, Lyndis calmed down since she did not expect for Alena to make her heart beat like that. ¡°That Golden Aura and that many of them...which means...damn!¡± Alena paled and then quickly said, ¡°I need to get in touch with dad-no, he''s doing something right now. In that case Gen or the others will do!¡± She stood up and immediately went to grab a communication crystal to contact them as Miriel asked, ¡°What is the problem?¡± concern of Alena''s sudden change in attitude all of a sudden. She and the others have never seen her so panicked before. ¡°Hello Hello? Anyone there?¡± Alena asked into the communication crystal but there was no response yet. She turned to look at the group and said, ¡°We need to send someone with a ''Mark'' to go and kill it quickly before it becomes someone on the level of a Minor God or worse! A 6th Tier entity might be born on this continent...which would really be the end.¡± ¡°Minor what?!¡± said Miriel slightly shocked at the words. ¡°That Golden Aura is the power of Divinity which should be impossible to encounter this frequently in the mortal realm! The only possible is-no was...but they were already...¡± Alena looked away from the group with a serious face not smiling anymore and into the distance. ¡°That Blue Tiger needs to die as quickly as possible to avert a disaster¡± she said. The Kingdom was not ready yet-or rather it was impossible to be ready to face those kinds of creatures... Even if it is a fake power... ¡°Then there is nothing to be worried about. That Boss Blue Tiger with that fake power is dead¡± said Sain silencing everyone else in the room. You could literally hear the floor creek a bit as someone almost slipped over in shock at the time as well. [Hello? Alena, why did you-] ¡°No time for that Gen!¡± Alena shouted cutting off the communication crystal immediately. Now was not the time for that. One crisis was averted though lots of questions were now presence. ¡°How...exactly is it dead?¡± Alena asked Sain in a calm tone but inside she was quite shaken up. From Sain''s description it was at least level 400 or maybe even level 600 at the end of his story. ¡°I killed it¡± Sain bluntly said, ¡°And in the process I kinda trashed the temple as well.¡± ¡°You got to be joking¡± said Shadow with a laugh but then saw Sain''s face, ¡°You really...damn, he''s not joking here.¡± ¡°How exactly did you kill it?¡± Miriel asked worried that Sain did something dangerous, no she was more than certain that he did something dangerous in order to kill it. Sain took a deep breath in and then looked at each and every one of them. Most of them had the look of surprise. Miriel had a worried look, Lyndis had sparkling eyes while Alena frowned at his words and even more so to the words he spoke next. ¡°I used Mankai.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°You mean...''that''?¡± asked Miriel grabbing onto him, ¡°You mean that technique that Viv warned us to never use?! You mean that very same technique that will take something from you permanently if you use it?!¡± ¡°Ah.¡± She held him tightly refusing to let go as she shook him down. Sain could not help but to fall back onto a chair with Miriel on him with a look of desperation and fear in her eyes. ¡°What was taken?¡± she then asked, ¡°What was it?!¡± She grabbed each of his limbs and said, ¡°You can move fine enough, hearing should be fine as well...I''m not sure on smell, taste or touch...sight?¡± Miriel looked deeply into Sain''s eyes which made him blush red though she ignored that which was quite rare since she was usually the one who looked away first. ¡°Sight is fine?¡± she wondered before Sain said, ¡°Miriel, you are too close.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel nodded and then backed away though her fear of something horrible happening to Sain overruled her embarrassment by several levels. ¡°Anyway after everyone else died I pulled off this glove¡± he showed them his right arm by pulling the sleeves up, ¡°Which caused this to happen but all over my body.¡± Right now, the ''Mark'' on Sain''s right hand had spread right up his right arm as well. If the ''Mark'' spreading across the hand was phase one then this was phase two. And finally when the ''Mark'' took over the entire body it would be phase three. ¡°Then I heard some words in my head and recited them aloud¡± he continued to say. ¡°What kind of words were they? It might not be Mankai if they were different words but perhaps ''Limit Break'' which is a lesser version of it with only temporary effects on the body¡± said Alen cautiously. Right now, the rest of the group were emotionally on a tipping point. What she saw was enough fear that it would be unusual for someone to break. Though she was a bit happy even though the situation that they were worried for Sain at least. ¡°Let it fall, Let it fall, Let the countless flames fall and become stars. Let it shine, Let it shine, Shine brighter than anything else in the sky. Let it rage, Let it rage, Like the roar of the Heaven Shattering Beast. Let the forbidden fruit which lies in the false paradise be plucked and consumed. And let this small flower bloom once and for all. Mankai. That was the chant¡± Sain said in a sad tone, ¡°Which I believe means I indeed used Mankai then.¡± ¡°....¡± The rest of the group looked at Alena for some hope. They all knew of the effects just ''Boost'' had on them but something like ''Mankai'' whose effects were even worse? What could have happened, what happened already that they could not see in Sain? ¡°Mankai is really powerful though...¡± Sain started explaining, ¡°Not only does my level get raised to 1000, all my skills get max out in that state as well as my health, mana and stamina as well. It could literally be called invincible mode.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain was quite positive in his explanation which he hoped to lighten the mood but there was still that dead silence. Then Alena said this to Sain, ¡°Don''t use it anymore. The first time is the strongest but with each use it gets weaker and weaker...since your body is permanently damaged each time you use that power.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain silently noted that he will probably never have that feeling from before ever again. Upon thinking of this, he saw that Lyndis seemed to have something she wanted to say. He nodded to her to see what she wanted to say. ¡°What...was taken for you?¡± asked Lyndis slowly since this was a delicate area to tread on. Sain only smiled and touched his right eye a bit to tell them. Even now there was no signs of it coming back...nor did he expect for it to come back. ¡°Don''t worry, I''m more or less used to it now¡± he said to assure them. However throughout the day from there on, they had this worried look when they looked at him...or rather his now blind right eye. xXx Several days have passed since Sain and the others came back and he revealed that his right eye''s sight does not work anymore, though he did not say it out loud. In this period, Alena was surprisingly...lenient on the group or rather him. And so...the rest of the group were as well, supporting him when they felt like it. For example, moving to the right side of him to make way for him, pulling him along when they believe it was too hard for him to walk and in one case, feeding him food...though that was only Miriel and he really had no idea why one would do that. Sain in the end felt like this was too much. He had gotten used to having no sight on one side already. Well...not really. ¡°Ow....¡± Sain scrapped part of his knee after he fell down after tripping over something. ¡°You okay Sain?¡± asked Miriel who was next to him as always now. She had refused to leave his side for too long after that incident. By instinct now, he placed his hand over the eye that no longer saw...and got up from the ground. He had tripped on something that his other eye did not see in time. It seems that losing one''s sight had worse repercussions than he thought. Without his right eye''s sight, he was unable to see to the far right but that was not only it. Without a second eye to see from, the timing for him to react to decreased since he can literally only keep an eye on things. His ''vision'' did not only narrow down. It was his reaction timing from sight that was slowed down as well which was more fatal. ¡°Sain! You are spacing out again!¡± Miriel called to him and drove him out of his thoughts. He smiled at her which shut her up a bit before saying a few words....when it comes to him. ¡°Ah, what was that?¡± he asked since he wasn''t listening. Miriel sighed and said, ¡°Alena said she was looking for us and that is why we are going there.¡± Sain nodded and saw from his left eye a certain Lyndis with a smirk on her face. Seeing this he could only sigh ever since a while ago, no to be precise those days ago she had the face other than the worried one she had when looking at him when Miriel wasn''t stuck with him. ¡°Lyndis get that look off your face¡± said Miriel on a cold voice noticing Lyndis'' expression as well. ¡°What look?¡± Lyndis replied still not changing her look on them, ¡°All I am doing is appreciating the scene before me. Aren''t you lucky you now have a reason to stick next to Mr Boyfriend over there.¡± ¡°H-He''s not by boyfriend yet!¡± ¡°Yet?¡± That look on Lyndis'' face only grew more intolerable...it was like Lyndis'' face suddenly turned into a duck''s and it was smiling at them. One that made you want to punch it. ¡°Yooooooooooouuuu!!!¡± Miriel let out the shout chasing after Lyndis who was running away now. Sain sighed and then moved his head and found that Shadow was now in the place where Miriel was. ¡°Wow!¡± ''When the hell did he get there?'' ¡°Relax¡± said Shadow, ¡°I''m here to make sure you are fine as well...though with no motives like Miriel over there.¡± Sain frown, ¡°I am not a cripple you know.¡± ¡°You are close to it though. I have never heard of a skill that would permanently take something away from you for the cost of using it¡± he said, ¡°Though from what we saw and what you said, it would indeed be a trump card to use at the last moment.¡± ¡°Well I don''t plan on using it anymore in the foreseeable future. And I guess losing only this eye''s sight is better than losing the use of a limb or worse¡± Sain replied. ¡°....¡± ¡°Plus I haven''t even used ''Boost'' at all since then so I don''t know what effects my ''All Knowing Eyes'' will have to my lost sight¡± he added on as well. ¡°....¡± Shadow was silent for a few moments looking at Miriel and Lyndis and then said, ¡°So what do you think about Miriel?¡± If Sain had been drinking something, he would have spat it out. However thankfully he wasn''t and was calm enough about this to not panic like Miriel. ¡°What about her?¡± ¡°She likes you and it is even more apparent that if you did not notice, you couldn''t even be called dense but brain dead.¡± ¡°I am aware of it.¡± ¡°So....do you like her as well?¡± Shadow asked. ''What do I think of her...?'' Sain wondered in his mind. Miriel to Sain at the beginning was a cold calculative person but now he thinks that she is the complete opposite of that. Most of what she does is based off emotions at any rate and she gets happy and angry as easily as any other person. Though he thought she was sticking around him a bit too much...he didn''t feel uncomfortable at all. In fact he was relaxed next to her and that he knew that the first thing he would try to save was her which meant... ¡°Do I like her?¡± he wondered. ¡°Why does that seem like a question rather than a statement?¡± Shadow asked seeing that he was next to Sain as he said those words aloud. Ignoring Shadow for a moment there, he watched the game of catch and mice between Miriel and Lyndis end and said, ¡°I''m not completely sure right now...besides.¡± ¡°Besides what?¡± ¡°We still have work to do. Interpersonal relationships can come later¡± he said bluntly. He and the others would need to do some work in order for them to survive in this guild even if it is a little bit longer. They are nearing their time limit now...they only had three months left before the 3 year period comes. Furthermore they had another 20 levels to gain in that time period. They have wasted a bit too much time here...but based off the contributions they had made in the last couple of months, they would easily gain around 5 levels off it. Which means they need 5 more levels a month which wasn''t much...but. He would really like some time to allow them to train some skills some more. Right now around half the skills they got were still in the Beginner Levels, he wants them to make those skills reach the intermediate level before they got to level 200...however they did not have enough time to do so. ¡°With some extreme training that focuses on skill growth...maybe in a month or so...perhaps a bit more...¡± he muttered. Hearing this, Shadow stayed silent as they got to Alena''s place. xXx ¡°To summarise things for you all, we found the main base of the enemy.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Sain was honestly surprise. To think the quest would end right now which means they having a break to grind some levels. ¡°How exactly did this happen?¡± asked Miriel. She would want to know right away since this case was connected on more than one level to them. ¡°Simple¡± said Alena, ¡°Some trackers traced some unusual prints to an abandoned church where there was an underground tunnel which was connected to some mines. We believe they are using that mine as a base of operations.¡± The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°And they didn''t attack or eliminate them?¡± asked Shadow this time. He had a feeling that they would have to clean it up later on and Alena telling them this only increased the chance. ¡°We are when we gather enough forces to clear them out in one go. If they escape it will take months more to finally track them down and by then their plans might go more wild and dangerous in the process.¡± ¡°What''s the problem then? Why did you call us here then?¡± asked Lyndis. If there was nothing to do here, then why were they here. ¡°Is there some sort of issue you need us to deal with?¡± asked Sain this time. Alena wouldn''t waste time like this without a reason. ¡°The problem is the type of enemy and their level¡± said Alena with a sigh, ¡°Demons and around level 400.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain could not hear anyone gasping for air since no one was even shocked at the news. To be frank, it could be any type of enemy and would not be surprising if there were Dragons down there which would be worse. ¡°So are the demons the cause of the recent events or is someone controlling them?¡± Seeing this kind of reaction and question, Alena was disappointed and said, ¡°You should be more surprise when Demons are involved.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Sain asked curious on the reason, ¡°Though I would like you to answer the question first.¡± Sain smiled at Alena and she smiled back. ¡°Demons are the super strong kind of monster. It is alone rare that we have to face demons on this low of a level. Most of them are at least level 500 or higher at least. It is unlikely the demons are being controlled but working together one may be the case. Demons aren''t known to lie low and wait for a chance. They would rather take action immediately and destroy everything with power.¡± ¡°I see....¡± Sain did indeed remember that Demons weren''t exactly the type to sit down and talk let alone the type to even do anything secretly. ¡°Hmm...from your reaction, dad at least took you somewhere with Demons didn''t he?¡± ¡°It was a guild quest and Alexandra was there as well¡± answered Sain immediately since he was thinking of that quest right now as well. ¡°Mum as well huh....¡± Alena pondered for a moment and then looked at the group and smile brightly. ¡°Anyhow looks like you are coming with me to clear out that enemy base!¡± she proclaimed to the group though it was more like-no it was an order rather than a suggestion. ¡°Huh?¡± That smile continued on smiling before dragging off the six of them onto a task that was way above their level here. However that smile did not allow rejection even still. And it looks like Alena was coming with them as well which means...yay... xXx Packing up some things in bags and placing them in their inventories, the group plus Alena prepared to set off at the city''s gates. There were some people who knew Alena on the side lines talking a bit and were bidding her goodbye for a bit. ¡°Is it fine to leave your kid?¡± asked Lyndis concern of Alena''s child. It has recently started to walk and was running all over the place so there was a great deal of concern from Alena on his safety. She even hired the group to babysit the kid as well. ¡°It''s fine, I have a friend that takes care of kids to take him in for a while¡± she replied though it was still very apparent that she was quite worried. ¡°Is that person trustworthy then? There have been cases where the child has been abused and without the child telling the parent, the abuse may be hidden for many years¡± said Shadow though there was no hint of concern in his tone. Sain knew that he wanted anything to not travel with Alena. With her smile, he was getting more and more stressed out on it. Basically he would get more stressed and irritated which affected his mood quite a bit. Upon hearing Shadow''s words, Alena made a slightly shocked face and was prepared to run back in the city. However Serena grabbed Alena and said in a soft kind voice, ¡°Don''t worry...that person is a friend you trust right?¡± ¡°Yeah....¡± Alena nodded though looked at Shadow with a glare. ¡°What I said was the truth though it was only a chance that may happen¡± Shadow said nonchalantly back to her before turning his back to her. Alena let out a stiff smile and walked up behind Shadow and whispered in his ear, ¡°Do you wish to be tormented?¡± You could literally see Shadow''s back vibrating in fear as she said those words. Lyndis and Miriel were struggling to not laugh seeing this kind of scene and within some more minutes, they all set off to where the abandon church was. To be precise they were on a fast paced carriage so they would get there within three days. However in that time they would need to defend from monster attacks and such as well. This would be a good time to practise some aiming for Sain at least. He would need to know how affected his aim was now compared to before. As such he restarted his training to control his magic. Pouring mana into his hand, he produced a ball of light in the air. ¡°What are you doing?¡± asked Miriel seeing that she knew Sain was beyond this kind of ''basic'' training now. ¡°Trying to see the extent of my aim now...¡± he said focusing on sustaining that ball of light in the air. It hovered away from him but still moving at a set distance away from him. It moved around 10 metres away up and the air. ¡°Now...¡± Sain raised his hand to use another spell at the same time. Doing these two spells at once was his limit even though one of them was an extremely basic spell as well. ¡°Mana Bolt¡± he chanted firing one off at the ball of light. It missed, around 2-3 metres away from the ball of light. Seeing this, Sain really frowned and it was noticeable. That others seeing this action knew what Sain was doing when he said he wanted to see the extent of his aim. Seeing that he missed quite badly, he moved the ball of light closer, around 5 metres now. ¡°Mana Bolt.¡± Bang! The attack hit and the ball of light shattered into pieces. It seems close distance aiming was something he could still do though he doubt he could do this a few days ago with his hand-eye coordination screwed up. Sain continued on doing this throughout the three day trip not even bothering to even help the others when monsters attacked, they were strong enough to do that without him. As such, by the end of it and when they were close to the abandoned church, he was able to hit a target 10 metres with an error or around half a metre which was considerably better than the error of 2-3 metres when he first started. However it was still far cry from his aiming skills from before where he was able to have these results at a range of 20 metres. If and when he used ''Boost'', this range would increase to 30 or even 40 metres away. ¡°Fuee....I just has to do for now....¡± he muttered under his breath before going into the mediation state. His mana was not completely empty but with him constantly readjusting his aiming skills, most of the time, he was at half mana or less though his mana regeneration was good enough that this process of his mana disappearing before running out. It took Sain 10 minutes for his mana to completely recover due to the Mediation skill being in the intermediate level and getting a boost in the amount of mana that would be regenerated in that state. After another hour in which there were signs of more and more people coming to this place, the group and Alena got off at the abandoned church which was swarmed with paladins and priests mainly at front and then strong looking players after that. ¡°Wow...so many strong players here¡± said Lyndis in slight admiration. She knew the difference in strength and thankfully respected that. Alena laughed a bit and said, ¡°Well most of them are really just trash but there are some that are good enough that maybe my dad and mum would recognise.¡± Looking around the place, Alena let out an ''ah'' and pointed to a middle age man with grey hair and a stern seriously looking face. ¡°Speaking of those my parents recognise, there is one of them¡± she said pulling the group to the man. The people in between the way made way curious on the scene and dared not block the way if anyone associated with the man wanted to speak with them. The man had this feeling of being a block of pressure where nothing would dare go wrong in front of him. The man in question seeing Alena had a look of surprise and said, ¡°I did not expect you here...does this mean...¡± he paled a bit at the end. ¡°Nope!¡± Alena gave him a bright smile and then said, ¡°Mum and Dad are off doing other stuff which they will probably drag you in later on. Mum said something about it being fully serious this time.¡± The man sighed and then muttered some prayers to some god that Sain couldn''t hear the name of. After the short prayer the man looked at the group with a pondering eye and asked, ¡°And they are?¡± ¡°The Guild''s new recruits. Well not exactly new but they are almost at the three year mark since they started. They''re a bit over average in strength for their level¡± Alena explained even though she was actually not part of the guild but kingdom administration. The man nodded and said, ¡°Nice to meet you. Seeing that those three took you in...perhaps you may become quite strong.¡± Alena made a grin and said, ¡°Oh they will be strong. Dad will never let them be something but strong. Else I will make Dad make sure they are strong no matter what!¡± The group felt a shiver at that moment and Eden elsewhere sneezed and wondered who was talking about him. ¡°Alena...¡± said Miriel speaking up and asked, ¡°Who exactly is this person?¡± to which several people nearby gasped in shock. Alena ignoring those other people said, ¡°This is the Great Holy Knight Galeiran. A person in that very small percentage that reached the level 800 point....which is to say, what''s up with you being here. I heard the Demons were only level 400 or so. Isn''t you being here overkill?¡± Sain noticed that her speak was becoming less and less formal by the word and became more like Alexandra''s own speech pattern....like mother like daughter in the end. The man named Galerian raised his eyebrow and chuckled saying, ¡°Aren''t you the one to say that. You bringing a group of ''new'' players that aren''t even level 200 from the look of things.¡± Alena shrugged and said, ¡°I can always bolt with them away if it comes to that. But little Sain here killed a monster that was at least twice his level recently...though I forbid him from using that power even again.¡± Sain felt a glare from Alena for a slight moment there before he realised she was all smiles again. ¡°Oh?¡± Galeiran seemed very impressed and said to Sain, ¡°I would someday like to spar with you a bit when you get a bit stronger then.¡± Sain laughed it off saying, ¡°I am actually quite weak but...defeating that monster, well left me with permanent side effects as a result.¡± ¡°Compared to me you are¡± Galeiran laughed as well, ¡°But in the end I am quite weak compared to that Alexandra. She is a real monster with her swordsmanship being on the same level as that Great Knight and holy magic on the level of that Great Priest.¡± ¡°Great Knight? Great Priest?¡± Lyndis wondered aloud. ¡°Ah, those are the titles of those who have essentially reached the limits of their class. It basically means their path of getting stronger has ended there until and unless they find another path¡± explained Alena. ¡°Though there are those who have reached the limits of their race as well¡± the Great Holy Knight Galeiran added on, ¡°All you need to know is that anyone who carries the title of ''Great'' means they are strong.¡± The group nodded to this explanation though it seemed that the tense atmosphere around Galeiran more or less disappeared now. ¡°Well then, I need to make preparations with some others. It won''t be a joke if there is some secret escape route and we let them run away Alena¡± said Galeiran. ¡°I know already¡± replied Alena not caring that a few people were glaring at her...though they were all women and all priests at the same time... Seeing this Alena sighed and said, ¡°Anyway get back to your fangirls.¡± ¡°Fangirls?¡± wondered Galeiran not knowing what Alena was talking about. With some words to the other people nearby, he left the group with Alena. With Galeiran gone, Alena turned to the rest of the group and with a smile and her hands clapped together said, ¡°Now let''s have a picnic then~¡± ¡°Huh?¡± The group could only be stunned at the random suggestion...no order that came from Alena. In the end, they set up nearby sitting down together and started a picnic... xXx Looking at the sandwich in her hand, Miriel took a bite and found it was quite delicious. It was sweet and yet had a mild taste of spiciness. It was a quite unusual taste but it felt flesh since usually they ate the cooked food that Miriel and Lyndis made. This mainly consist of bread brought from stores, usually preserved ones so...Rye Bread as well as meat cooked from animals they hunted on the way. Which wasn''t really much since the long road since they needed to preserve as much resources with long distance travel. Otherwise, Miriel and Lyndis also made other dishes as well...when they had the time. ¡°Why exactly are we having a picnic at this time and place? Especially since the other players are already going into the abandoned church and tunnels to battle demons¡± asked Shadow with one of the sandwiches in his hand but did not take a bite in yet. After taking a bite and praising herself, Alena answered, ¡°What''s the point of you all going down there? You guys are only low levelled players compared to the rest of them. Plus you will be slaughtered if you go down by those Demons in one hit.¡± Shadow thought about it and said, ¡°Point taken but why the picnic.¡± ¡°Because I wanted to?¡± Alena asked him that but there was no answer from Shadow as he started eating. Instead, the conversation moved to another note. ¡°This is...really good¡± said Lyndis taking another bite, ¡°I need to get the recipe from you later.¡± Miriel nodded and agreed saying, ¡°I would like it as well¡± before looking at Sain who was silently enjoying the meal himself. ¡°This is really good...do you have the cooking skill?¡± asked Serena. Alena nodded and said, ¡°Yeah, I worked with mum before when cooking so it''s natural to pick up...a couple dozen things from her...especially when she would sometimes leave the kitchen to chase dad with a knife.¡± ¡°....¡± ''Why that seem strangely normal...when is shouldn''t be?'' Miriel thought hearing that story. They continued eating as some of them spoke. ¡°So did you pick it from naturally from Alexandra then?¡± asked Miriel wondering how long it would take her to make something this delicious. ¡°No no no¡± Alena waved her hands at Miriel and said, ¡°Mum was never good at teaching and Dad was...running away from Mum most of the time. It was Uncle...which is Viv that actually taught me surprisingly.¡± ¡°Wait Viv can cook?!¡± exclaimed Lyndis spitting out some food from her mouth at the same time. While Lyndis panicky cleaned up her mess, Alena replied with, ¡°Not as good as Mum though...which is why he never mentions it even to them. Don''t tell those two else I''ll be in big trouble thanks to it.¡± The group nodded. After finishing the sandwiches and the drinks that Alena also provided, she suddenly said, ¡°Let''s talk about relationships now~¡± ¡°Eh? This again?¡± asked Lyndis, ¡°Nothing really changed you know...though Miriel is now attaching herself to Sain more and more and will soon turn into a stalker when he wants and needs some space.¡± ¡°What the hell will turn into a stalker?!¡± retorted Miriel before looking at the distance between her and Sain. They were sitting next to each other but not only that, they were quite close to each other, shoulders touching. How else would she be able to help him if something wrong happens? She was definitely not too close to him at all! If she was getting too close than he would tell her right? This was definitely not a problem at all! ¡°So Sain, are you tired of Miriel sticking to you all the time yet?¡± teased Shadow. ¡°....¡± Miriel sent a cold glare at him to make him shut up. She would not let anyone get in the way of this...because she was worried of Sain all the time now! ¡°Well...¡± Sain started to say. In that moment, several emotions clashed inside of Miriel. First was the joy that if he would say he didn''t mind at all and indeed would like her to be closer. The second was despair if he said he wanted her further away... It had to be the first option! It had to be! ¡°I don''t mind¡± he continued to say. In her mind, a giant ''YES'' appeared without her control. She made a squirm in excitement due to this and fought inside herself to keep herself calm. However on her face, the others except for Sain since she was out of his sight saw how happy she was due to those words. ¡°But it doesn''t really matter either way.¡± Miriel could feel her mood dropping rapidly. What the hell did Sain mean by that? What did he mean?! What did he mean?! What did he mean?!¡± ¡°Miriel...¡± Sain said in a low voice. ¡°What is it?!¡± she quickly replied at once. ¡°Can you please not grab my arm that hard?¡± he plead to her. It was only then that she realised that her left hand was gripped onto his right arm and was clawing into his skin with her fingertips. With surprise, she left go immediately and then started to apologise. ¡°Sorry sorry¡± she said seeing if she did any damage to him accidentally. Damn, if only she had a healing spell or the bandaging skill like Lyndis. This continued for a while longer until they heard a loud shout. xXx In the middle of a drawn out battle, the Great Holy Knight Galeiran struck down the demon in front of him with his sword filled with Holy Magic powering it through. The Demon died but with it''s last bit of life, grabbed him to allow the other Demons to attack him as well. ¡°Extreme Holy Strike!¡± he shouted cutting up the Demons that attacked him into smaller pieces in order to prevent it from regenerating. However even now, the Demon continued on regenerating greatly when they were not hit with a fatal blow. It seems that these Demons were slightly resilient to Holy Magic which was not exactly a good thing but it''s resilient to Holy Magic was much lower than the other elements, especially the Dark element. As such there were many Paladins and Priests on this mission when Demons were mentioned. The Demon Race were a frightening race that even him, a level 800 player did not instantly kill these Demons half his level. Was this the difference between the base stats and bodies of humans and demons? However in a few more strikes, Galeiran felt that the Demon was gathering energy inside of it. He immediately knew that it was planning on suicide and moved to defend. ¡°Holy Barrier!¡± he shouted covering his body closely with Holy Energy. BOOOOOOOM!!! ¡°That is strange¡± he said to his comrades, ¡°Even now these Demons won''t die.¡± He looked to the others who were battling their own Demons in parties while he fought them alone due to his high level. He figured that the other players would soon know that the Demons would not die so easily. And that they would blow up at a certain point though he was not sure. After several more explosions he shouted in a loud voice to warn the others seeing that it would be a waste if too many people die from this. ¡°ATTENTION ALL MEN!!!¡± He took another deep breath in and out before he continued. With a certain skill, he was able communicate with every player that was no an enemy including the group outside as well. ¡°THE DEMONS ARE MORE RESILIENT THAN EXPECTED! FURTHERMORE THEY WILL EXPLODE UPON CHANCE AT DEFEAT! BE WARNED OF THIS AND CONTINUE FORWARD!!!¡± With that another set of Demons appeared and Galeiran set off and fight another horde of Demons. xXx Irritated to the core, Alena unplugged her ears and said, ¡°That man has always been loud....¡± Holding her head from being dizzy due to the noise, Lyndis asked, ¡°What exactly was that?¡± ¡°A special skill that allows one to transmit their voice to anyone in range. Only for humans though so the Demons won''t be tipped off if he says any command though this is more of a warning than anything else.¡± ¡°Kinda a useless skill most of them time I say¡± said Miriel in an irritated tone as well. That loud voice took her by surprise as well. She looked over to Shadow who was on the ground in greater pain than anyone else due to his hearing skills. ¡°Health Restoration!¡± chanted Serena onto Shadow as he was more pale and making a more ghastly face then anything the group saw before. With the green glow due to the spell on Shadow, he soon recovered and started complaining, ¡°What the hell was that?! Couldn''t he have warned in a less loud voice?¡± Alena nodded in agreement and said, ¡°Galeiran is the type of person to shout first than think second. In other words a muscle idiot if you take out most of the sensible side of him, which is actually not much.¡± ¡°I see...¡± said Sain, ¡°But you seem to know a lot about him and a lot of other high levelled player as well....and most of them-no all of them see weird in one way or another.¡± ¡°Every strong person is weird in one way or another¡± Alena said, ¡°Why do you think the average level is still at a hundred?¡± ¡°An increase in players that decrease the average at the same rate as the increase in levels from other players?¡± ¡°Nope. If that was the case then you are saying that everyone is progressing in levels at least a bit¡± Alena gave them a smile and a hint at the same time. ¡°That leaves...¡± said Sain, ¡°That there are so many players at level 100 that every level outside the close range don''t matter that much?¡± ¡°You can say the average is also equal to the medium level of all players. Actually for those who have nothing to do in this world, their levels are only around 50 at the beginning. Seeing that levels means more safety, they would hire others to power level them to 100. Level 200 while much safer takes a lot more time, so level 100 is a safe and cheap bet on the level you need to be to be mostly safe in the game¡± Alena explained. ¡°....¡± The fact that there are many players that hire others to power level them quickly in the game made them twitch a bit since they got here through a lot of hard work all the way with no shortcuts. Even though they knew they were stronger in the end, to get to the same point and to say it with less effort did not sit that well with them. ¡°Anyway for that guy to shout means things aren''t going as well as he thought...¡± saying that Alena grinned in a fashion that definitely reminded them of Alexandra. ¡°Which means things will be interesting in there....¡± she continued. ¡°What...are you planning?¡± Shadow asked to which Alena responded with: ¡°Let''s go explore that place and kill the boss before everyone else!¡± Alena had this dangerous look on her face when she said that. The group later on regretted they agreed to this.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8800~ - Absolutely no combat and text boxes in this chapter at all... - Woke up at....6am...so....6 hours of sleep thanks to a mosquito preventing me from sleeping for long...the later bit of the chapter may be a bit off thanks to that....still sleepy....anyway watching the AGDQ 2015 Battleblock Theater Co-Up Vol.6 Chapter 10 - Demon Worshippers Chapter 10 Inside the abandoned church and right before they would jump in, Shadow had to ask, ¡°Why are we doing this again?¡± It was a real pain in the ass to do so. Why should they, people under level 200 plus one whose level was high but unknown go into a place where there were demons level 400 or so? It was completely irrational to do so! Normal people would not even think so. ¡°Because I feel like it?¡± said Alena though it sounded like a question...she went over to the hole where they would jump in with some of the others. However this person...no, none of them were normal in the end... He himself fought against a Boss Blue Tiger that grew in size and power for long enough that the others came back to back him out...though he fainted immediately afterwards... That was embarrassing to speak but a normal player would not be able to keep up that long at all. And here we have the daughter of two complete monsters that were separate from the thoughts of anything ordinary. How could she be normal at all...that smile was only a fake face to conceal this face it seems. ¡°That isn''t exactly an answer there...¡± Shadow sighed hearing this. ¡°And also it''s boring without company here¡± she added. Lyndis patted on on the shoulder and said while nodding, ¡°Give it up, we''re all on this together.¡± ''What do you mean by together? I will be the first to suffer.'' He was the scout in the group...though sometimes he wondered if he was just a good decoy. Sain uses him like that though when monsters were around or a good knife to kill them quickly. With low defence and average health, there was a good chance that he would die in a hit from an ordinary monster. Well in this case all of them will die in a hit since the enemy now are level 400 Demons after all. Even Raven''s high health and high defence can''t do anything about that. ¡°Though it means we have to suffer together we can still run away¡± said Miriel, ¡°And that means we won''t let you off on the suffering as well.¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow could only be silent at these words. In order words you will make it so he would have no choice to suffer in the end? How unlucky of him to be comrades with this person. Meanwhile Alena, Sain, Serena and Raven were checking out the tunnel and called them over. ¡°It''s quite dark...¡± Sain said creating a ball of light using his mana and sending it down to light the way. As usual now, Miriel was strapped onto Sain''s arm...or back...or even fronts if she felt daring. Shadow felt it was strange on how that cold Miriel turned out so...warm and attached to Sain...though it most likely had to do with that change in personalities due to the use of the ''Mark'' over time...she never did that stuff in reality. And he found her squirming around hitting herself of what she did in game... Shadow thinks that Miriel did not notice the effects in game while reviewing her actions, she does in reality. Though that means...how did he change in game? What twisted way did he become without knowing so and the others do? Sain turned...well he was normal and nothing changed even though he used the ''Mark'' the most. Lyndis was the same as she used it was second most. Those two were probably honest to themselves to the core either way so there was nothing to change there. Miriel seemed to change in ways he thought of already. Raven...he was not sure, he did not speak much. As for Serena, he was not that close to her...though they can speak to each other a bit now. That however was most likely too, the effects of using the ''Mark''. ''At least it seems something good happens when using the ''Mark''...Serena seems more open now'' he thought looking down into the hole of darkness. This light revealed the mines in which most likely spanned all underground. ¡°Damn that space looks quite small to get into¡± commented Shadow on the gap they need to go through. He hoped that he, the thinnest person here did not need to go in first to test it out. Bad things happens to the person who goes first after all. ¡°And what are you implying there...stick man?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Nothing at all and I didn''t look at you when I said that¡± said Shadow quickly. ¡°It should open up a bit later...¡± said Serena on her thoughts on the matter though at the same time she was worried and said, ¡°What if it collapse with us.¡± ''And that is why I don''t want to go in first..considering that the one who goes first dies first'' he thought. ¡°Considering that it hasn''t and this place was occasionally rumbling due to the battles, unlikely¡± said Miriel assuring Serena. Serena nodded and then looked to Sain where he said, ¡°If we have to go in, we better go in then.¡± ''But we don''t actually need to go in...there is no point for us to go in there.'' ¡°Yeah!¡± Alena cheered, ¡°We need to kill the boss of this place to make that Galeiran''s smirk fall off!¡± ¡°Somehow your personality is reverting to one really similar to Alexandra''s now....¡± Sain muttered under his breath though Shadow could hear everything. Shadow thought that they were exactly the same though he did not know that in fact that Alena was quite serious most of the time like Eden but at time when her personal feelings were involved and a hint of madness, she was a lot like Alexandra. Actually she leaned more on the side of Alexandra rather than Eden, it was just that for so long, she was holding back. Grabbing onto Shadow first, she dropped him in first, with the others next and then jumped in next. ¡°Son of a-¡± ¡°Yahhhooooooooooooo!!!¡± As such all of them were dropped in like that. xXx Getting up, Lyndis groaned as she felt like hell with pains over several places over her body. Being dropped like that was not how she intended to get down here at all. It was a 40 metres drop and even those high levelled players went slow with this. But she had to admit, this made things quicker with Alena dropping her down like this. ¡°You okay guys?¡± she asked looking around. It was quite dark but with Sain''s balls of light-or rather just that one ball of light, lighting up the place, she saw that everyone seemed to be in one piece at least. ¡°Yeah¡± replied Sain not even paying attention to her, he was looking at something else. Miriel was stuck next to him again, she wished they would stop with that love-love atmosphere they make like that. She seemed fine as well. Over to the other side was Serena sitting down with Raven, both looked fine as well. One that did not speak much and one that struggled to speak with boys together was an interesting combination she had to admit. She would need to tease Serena about this later. Then there was Shadow...that prick had this irritated look on his face again. Well his mood was quite bad recently with Alena of course. Lyndis had no idea what the hell was his problem. Everything she suggested, he rejected of course. ¡°Well at least he''s go with weapons...still a prick most of the time though¡± he mumbled in an extremely low tone that even Shadow could not hear, or at least he did not let her think he did. Lyndis looked around more and did not find Alena so she asked, ¡°Where''s Alena?¡± It had to be Shadow responding but he said, ¡°She''s out exploring the place to see if there are any Demons around.¡± ¡°Isn''t that your job?¡± she asked him. He in turn responded in a cold voice and scuffed his boots onto the ground saying, ¡°Yes, me going out there against monsters twice my level is a good idea.¡± Lyndis felt the sarcasm quite easily from his tone and choice of words but still didn''t like his attitude. She wondered how the hell could Sain and Raven get along with him at all. He was just filled with taunts and comments that make you want to hit him... Or was it was just her? Either way she said, ¡°It would indeed be a good idea if I wanted you dead.¡± ¡°Meh.¡± And that was how the conversation between her and Shadow ended for now. She thought it could be blown up several times as they try to kill each other like how Miriel almost killed him once for teasing her. Lucky for Lyndis, she was close enough to Miriel for that to not happen...though she still found that her being stuck to Sain all the time now distracting for more than one reason. A couple of minutes later, Alena returned and Lyndis asked immediately, ¡°Did anything interesting happen?¡± Alena shook her head in disappointment and replied with, ¡°Unfortunately those other guys can clean this place up quite well.¡± Hearing those words, Lyndis was a bit disappointed as well. This would be a good chance to see Demons again close up since the last time Eden and Alexandra took care of everything and even then they only saw a slight bit of their kind while running away. ¡°Well that just means we need to search a bit for them then. I did mention that I intend for us to steal the kill of the final boss here right?¡± asked Alena. Lyndis made a silent ''Yes!'' in her heart as she said, ¡°Yeah you did¡± with a grin on her face. ¡°In that case follow me¡± said Alena walked forward with her and the rest of the group following through. Lyndis walked next to Miriel who was stuck with Sain. Ahead of the three were Raven, Serena and Shadow though Shadow was on the far right of things. Seeing that there was nothing to do, Lyndis decided to chat Miriel up a bit. ¡°Hey Miriel-¡± Lyndis saw that Miriel was gazing strangely at Sain with a dangerous light in her eyes. It was one look of a predator had for prey and Miriel was that predator and Sain was her prey! ''At this rate, Sain will be ''eaten'' by Miriel!'' she thought about to stop Miriel. But then immediately thought it may be entertaining to let Miriel do this and then realised of what she did in reality...but the game prevents those under 18 from doing such things as well so.... She didn''t need to do anything but watch amused at the sight of those two She noticed that Sain was now struggling seeing something wrong with Miriel whispering, ¡°Miriel, Miriel¡± though that was only encouraging her. Such a scene reminded her of a person trying to get his lover off of him. It made her stick to core to be reminded of such a scene but with those she knew involved in such a thing, she could not help but to be amused. ¡°What are you watching there?¡± asked Shadow in her ear without warning. BANG! Lyndis let out a kick at him without knowing and instead hit the wall with her leg. ¡°Ow ow ow...¡± She held her leg in pain as she hit damn solid rock there. Cursing several times, she almost shouted at Shadow, ¡°What the hell was that for?!¡± ¡°What was what?!¡± she could tell that Shadow was a bit angry now-well really angry now, ¡°You were the one who suddenly attacked me! Was I suppose to take that hit!?!¡± ¡°YOU were the bloody one who whispered something in my ear! That''s damn sexual harassment there!¡± she shouted back at him. Shadow stared at her in anger while she did the same to him as well. She wanted to draw her sword and cut him up. She knew she had the ability to-well most likely since he had twice her speed but she had twice his strength. Plus she had her Fire Manipulation skills as well. She could take him at a range while he can''t. And in this close space that only allowed so much space to run, she had the advantage. But just when she was about to draw her sword... ¡°What''s going on here?¡± asked Alena who stopped and came back hearing loud shouts from Lyndis. ¡°This crazy bitch attacked me!¡± said Shadow with a glare at her. ¡°This asshole scum sexually harassed me!¡± said Lyndis with a glare back at him. ¡°....¡± Alena could only sigh at both of them. She muttered under her breath, ¡°This is like dealing with mum and dad arguing....again.¡± Hearing that, Sain had to ask, ¡°So their relationship was once like this?¡± looking at the two. ¡°What the hell?!¡± Lyndis moved to kick Sain but Miriel moved in to block her. Miriel sent her a glare as well like an animal protecting her cub so Lyndis was forced to stop. ¡°Yeah...there were a lot of stories where things went south with the two but in the end they packed things up again each time...which went on for years until dad-¡± ¡°Enemy!¡± Shadow shouted pulling his weapons out pointing at a direction. Looking at Shadow all serious, Lyndis knew this was not a joke. This was the only thing he would not joke at. Draws~ Lyndis drew her sword as well as whatever enemy was coming was getting closer. To her side, Lyndis saw that Alena was frowning and so were Miriel and Sain as well whom Lyndis noticed was using ''Boost'' right now for the ''All Knowing Eyes'' effects. And the dangerous being that appeared was....a child? xXx Right now, Sain''s senses were on full alert. Right now in his right hand was his spear and in his left was a ''Magic Arrow'' spell to which was about to fire if anything went wrong...even at that child. Him being alert to a child was especially concerning. Using his current knowledge of what was going on, he could tell that something was wrong...though at this point he could not tell what. He did not have enough information for that at least for now. When he noticed that Lyndis and soon Shadow was about to drop their weapons, he warned them saying, ¡°Don''t lower then yet¡± in a commanding tone. Lowering one''s weapon at any point in such a situation was a bad idea. Alena seemed to agree with him and advised, ¡°Sain is correct. There is some very wrong with this situation.¡± ¡°What is wrong?¡± asked Lyndis frowning. She clearly did not see how a child in these mines was very wrong in this situation. Before anyone else could speak on the matter, Sain then said, ¡°Raise your weapons, children should not be here where Demons swarm the place¡± and explained the reasoning at the same time. ¡°Right, though children aren''t harmful correct?¡± she asked next. ¡°Though they may screw us over without realising it...¡± said Shadow. He was acting very cautious right now also feeling that a child here was a very bad thing for many reasons. ¡°Ah¡± the child said noticing them since he was looking down since he was walking towards them, ¡°Are you big brothers and sisters here to play as well?¡± ¡°Play?¡± The child looked brightly at them and held out a box for them to see. It was a plain box...on the surface but Sain was having an extremely bad feeling thanks to this. However Lyndis looked at the child warmly and asked, ¡°What kind of playing do you have here?¡± and was about to approach the child but Raven stopped her. Lyndis took a glance at him before looking back at the child. ¡°Ah, the uncles said we will have some visitors coming soon. Everyone else went off to greet the others that came!¡± the child said excitedly. ¡°Uncles?¡± ¡°Oh boy...¡± Alena muttered feeling the bad feeling as well, ¡°Most of the guys here are either paladins or priests, they will never suspect a child...even if they knew it was a trap of some sort.¡± Feeling this was bad news, Sain took a look at the child. It certainly wasn''t a demon...that child was human but that box... ¡°And...¡± Sain asked, ¡°What kind of things will be done in this playing?¡± ¡°All I have to do is open this box and everyone can play together!¡± The child started to open the box. ¡°Shit!¡± Shadow swore in the process of figuring whether to run up to grab that child into safety or to retreat away from whatever was going to happen. Sain''s hunch made or more than clear that opening that box was a bad idea. He released the ''Magic Arrow'' spell on his left hand and fired it at the child to at least knock the box away from him. But it was too late....and he missed. The box was opened at that moment as well and he made eye contact with Miriel hoping for a barrier to appear just about now. Thankfully Miriel reacted in time shouting, ¡°Ice Barrier!¡± A barrier made of ice appeared as a physical entity in front of them all as what was in the box, when opened exploded consuming the child next to it as well. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! The explosion that was a firery mess broke through the ''Ice Barrier'' and was about to hit them as well but Alena jumped in front of them and made a block using her arms and her hand gauntlets. A bright light appeared in front of Alena and formed a light screen which blocked the flames and explosion away from the rest of them. When the explosion and flames stopped, someone asked, ¡°What was that?¡± However whoever said those words was drowned out quickly as a large series of rumbling sounds were crashing around them. ¡°What''s going on?!¡± asked Lyndis in a shout. Sain had this bad feeling and he was right as Alena shouted, ¡°Cave in! Get together now!¡± Moving quickly, Sain dragged Miriel who was next to him next to everyone else. Shadow seemed to have grabbed Lyndis while Raven grabbed Serena to Alena. She in turn gathered that light in her gauntlets and spread it around them. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Rocks dropped from the ceiling and onto the light shield. The rocks cracked upon hitting the light shield but at the same time as time passed on, cracks appeared on the light shield as the pressure increased on it. ¡°Damn, it won''t hold out!¡± Alena warned to the group as they prepare to die from this. BANG! BANG! BANG! Seeing her light shield was more or less going to break any moment now, Alena made a stance to the wall. ¡°Haaa!¡± BOOOM! After that, there were only several flashes but Sain realised that at least him, survived else he would be kicked out of the game from dying. xXx Sain was not sure how much time passed but by the time he did, he realised that some time must have passed as he was unconscious due to the cave-in. Looking around, he saw the others lain in a row. And another thing was that they were in a close enclosed space, around 8 by 4 metres in size. ¡°....¡± Walking over, he checked that each and every one of them were fine and nothing bad happened to them. All five of them seemed so close now that they were like this... ¡°They are all fine, I made sure to heal them and you when you guys were almost crushed by rocks¡± said Alena. He looked over and found that Alena''s equipment were ragged a bit more than usual, most likely due to rocks ripping it apart at parts. Sain could see some more skin than usual at places on Alena. ¡°If you keep staring, Miriel will be mad at you.¡± He decided to look at Miriel at that moment, though he did not want to admit that he was staring at Alena a bit too much. It was only quite interesting on how Eden and Alexandra''s features mixed into one. But even so, having only one eye for sight was still quite troublesome for him...his aim was off again. Even when looking at them lined up like this, he couldn''t tell the distance to them well enough. ¡°If you keep staring at her, Miriel will be quite happy about it¡± said Alena in a chuckle this time. It did not seem like a warning. ¡°In that case, it''s fine though I wasn''t staring at her¡± he said while correcting her at the same time. ¡°You say that but your eyes-well remaining eye goes to her all the time though you had difficulties looking at her with her stuck on your right side all the time¡± she continued. ¡°It''s not like I lost my actual eye.¡± ¡°But you lost your right eye''s sight due to using Mankai. Anyway enough about that depressing talk, let''s move on to discussing something even more depressing....¡± ¡°You mean the child?¡± ¡°Yes, your opinion on that?¡± Sain thought about it for a second and all things considered, that child was essentially a suicide bomber...though not knowingly. It left him a bad taste since it had been years since the last child soldier in the world had been killed, the world changed a lot with such things eventually being eliminated. As such Sain said, ¡°Honestly it is good tactics to use something that most will not suspect and few will be suspicious as well especially in these circumstances where there will be many that are unable to suspect children.¡± ¡°Personally I think it is bad taste to use children either way, most likely Lyndis would rage at whoever would even dare think about it¡± said Shadow getting up awake. ¡°Oh, you''re awake at last¡± commented Sain seeing that Shadow was awake now so he could input into the conversation now, ¡°What''s your opinion on what happened?¡± ¡°What is there to say?¡± Shadow sighed, ¡°Child was used to deliver a bomb to us and died as a result. Though the only question is how many.¡± ¡°How many indeed....¡± Sain could feel a sigh coming up, ¡°This is something we really should discuss when the others are awake as well.¡± ¡°We have one person who doesn''t talk, another who is reluctant to talk, one that a hot head that is quite predictable and another that might or might not make a good input but depends on whether she wishes to piss me off.¡± ¡°Point taken.¡± ¡°Well it would be still interesting to know what they think about the whole situation...until someone gets us out of this¡± Alena said looking around. ¡°Speaking of situation, what''s out current one?¡±asked Shadow. ¡°Stuck in this space which I made by digging through, enough to fit all of us here with a bit of room. Bad news is that if we try to escape from in here, then I fear that it is likely that this small space will collapse on us¡± explained Alena. ¡°So....we are stuck here¡± said Shadow. ¡°That seems like it¡± said Sain with a sigh. ¡°Well....we can''t do anything with the others not awake yet...¡± said Shadow looking closely at Lyndis. Sain could have sworn that there was this strange light in his eyes then....most likely because he wanted payback for what Lyndis did. xXx Several hours later.... ¡°SHADOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!¡± Lyndis swung her sword to kill. ¡°Fortified Barrier!¡± luckily enough, Miriel placed a barrier onto Shadow which protected him from the surprise attack. However it would be destroyed in a few hits due to her high damage when attacking. Raven and Sain then moved in to restrain Lyndis as she herself looked like a Demon trying to kill him with her killing intent spilling out all over the place very apparently. Alena laughed seeing Lyndis like this while Serena looked on worryingly. ¡°Miriel.Why.Are.You.Helping.Him?!¡± Lyndis demanded. Miriel sighed though could not help but to chuckle seeing Lyndis'' face. Though she didn''t like Shadow at any rate, she did like what he did to her face. ¡°I must admit that my handiwork makes you look better¡± said Shadow mocking Lyndis as much as he could. ¡°Dancing Dragon Art-¡± Lyndis prepared to attack Shadow using her ''Art Skill'' though which one was not known to the group which one of her skills she would use; hopefully not her final skill which would leave her near dead afterwards. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Ah~~~~Raven help me hold her down some more!¡± Sain shouting to Raven next to him as they both tried to pin her down as she was using her skills even with them on her. In the end however, Sain let out and pointed his hand at her chanting, ¡°Paralyse Shot!¡± The attack hit Lyndis but there was no effect. ¡°Are you attacking me?!¡± she shouted in response. Sain tilted her head questioning and replied, ¡°Just trying to make sure you don''t kill Shadow which is most effective when you can''t move.¡± As such Sain shot Lyndis several more times using ''Paralyse Shot'' to stop her and eventually paralysed her. With a sigh of relief, Raven was able to let go of Lyndis now since he was not sure on where he should be touching. However even he almost burst into laughter seeing what was done to Lyndis'' face. Serena walked over to the paralysed Lyndis and said softly, ¡°It isn''t too bad...¡± Lyndis almost cried hearing that and asked, ¡°Can you clean it up for me?¡± ¡°Sure...¡± Serena replied with a kind smile on her face. Seeing this, Lyndis let out a light smile. As such Serena started wiping Lyndis'' face from all the...markings Shadow made on her face. Shadow turned Lyndis into a very cute cat...with the whiskers and all. Sain watched Shadow doodle all of that onto her face with amusement. Later on, with a mirror and a scream, everyone else that was still sleeping all woke up at once. ¡°Is....ne here....he...scream.¡± ¡°What was that?¡± Sain suddenly asked hearing those fragmented words. ¡°''Is anyone here, we heard a scream?'' they asked¡± said Shadow confirming what was said. Quickly enough, several loud shouts from Alena later, one of the walls from the side was broken down. Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack! The hole that was made continued on being made larger and larger via the hilt of a sword being continuously hit on the side until there was enough room for a person to get through. And the person that came in this gap first...was one that made Alena look at him with slight repulse. ¡°Hell Alena, nice for you to stop by as well¡± said Galeiran in a calm voice though he looked humoured at the thought of Alena being trapped in a hole like this. ¡°Out of all people...¡± Alena sighed, ¡°Why the so called Great Holy Knight?¡± ¡°Because I was the one who got here first and am the Great Holy Knight¡± said Galeiran passing Alena and moving on to look at the group, ¡°And it looks like you are dragging people around again. That hobby of yours did not make my day back then Alena.¡± ¡°You owed mum several favours and dad wouldn''t let me out back then without a powerful guard¡± said Alena with her arms crossed. She had a displeased look on her face. ¡°You mean a series of powerful guards plus hidden assassins to take out any and all potential risks to you. Your sister never had this problem¡± he sighed shaking his head as if lecturing a young child. ¡°Sis would rather stick with dad on his spare time-that''s not the point right now! You had encounters with those....children right?¡± asked Alena after cutting short her statement. Galeiran frowned and nodded his head, ¡°We were...close to that child when he....¡± ¡°Fortunately the one with us went...boom further away which meant we didn''t take any loses¡± replied Alena. ¡°Fortunately for you, unfortunately for the rest of us, a lot of players died from the bombs first and then the cave in second.¡± ¡°Not my problem.¡± ¡°It is all of our problems if and when they would use children in their plans!¡± he shouted in rage. He did not like the fact that children were used a weapons when they were clearly innocent no matter what. Galeiran took a glance at Alena before looking at the group and asked, ¡°What happened to her?¡± gesturing at Lyndis. Shadow made a short laugh before the effects of the paralyse on Lyndis wore out. Lyndis looked at Shadow wanting to kill him but stopped in some respect to the Holy Knight in front of her. It would not be wise to kill Shadow in front of him. ¡°....¡± Seeing no one answered him, Sain answered that question since everyone else didn''t seem to want to, ¡°She was about to kill a comrade in this small space. Those things happen....sometimes in such situations.¡± Galeiran nodded and said, ¡°That would happen all the time with Eden and Alexandra when I travelled with them.¡± ¡°Eden and Alexandra would fight all the time like that?¡± asked Sain with eyebrows raised. ¡°All the time...got better when they weren''t trying to serious kill each other by then. Mind you that this was before the Guild was created and Eden asked and I rejected his offer to join¡± he continued. ¡°So...you are not a member of the guild but one close to it?¡± ¡°Yes. I do some favours here and there at time, there''s really not much that they ask in the end compared to what I got off them. Anyway we should move together...else some people may die here.¡± Galeiran looked behind him and motioned at several people, there the group saw around a dozen people move in formation with Galeiran leading them. Alena looked displeased at this and with a disgruntled look said, ¡°Let''s go, we better get-¡± Crack! ¡°Hmm?¡± And then the ground fell from under them. And finally Alena and Lyndis let out, ¡°Son of aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa------¡± together xXx
You took 10 damage
¡°Ow...¡± Sain rubbed his ass and wondered why he only took 10 fall damage. He was thankful enough that he took only 10 damage from the drop...and from the looks of it it seems the others were fine as well...though strangely taking only 10 damage each. ¡°Everyone okay?¡± asked Miriel looking around. ¡°Yeah....¡± Lyndis groaned rubbed her backside, ¡°My ass hurts a lot though.¡± ¡°Yeah my one too¡± said Shadow doing the same until he saw Lyndis, ¡°Lyndis what are you doing with your weapon-¡± He immediately tried to back away seeing her attacking him but he hit a wall and Lyndis was approaching quickly. Bang! Lyndis'' sword hit and cut down on the wall and slide down to where Shadow shoulder was making only a slight cut. With a huff and puff she said in a haughty tone, ¡°And this is for the sexual harassment from you and the drawings on my face. Any problems.¡± ¡°Well...¡± Shadow looked into Lyndis'' eyes and asked, ¡°Why didn''t you cut me down just then?¡± ¡°Because for one we need you right now as our scout¡± Lyndis looked at the others and then said, ¡°And for two I will never cut down my comrades, no matter how much of an ass you are.¡± ¡°Heh.¡± Shadow made that sound which may look like he was taking this very lightly but it was simply him recognising and acknowledging Lyndis'' words. Sain looked around further and noticed that Alena wasn''t here and asked, ¡°Where''s Alena?¡± to the others. They too did not respond but looked around as well and at last, Serena pointed at a hole and said, ¡°She dropped there....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Sain could not believe that Alena managed to drop through two holes in a row... However considering her bloodline, it was highly plausible. In any case, Alena was actually safer than the group now considering that she was a powerful person who they were weak people stuck in this place with no way out. ¡°Exit is over there....¡± said Miriel pointing at a hole in the wall of the hole they were in. ¡°Any chance it won''t lead to our deaths?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Doubt it¡± shrugged Miriel, she was not that interested in whether they would live or not, since this place was an entire death trap for them who were only this level. ¡°Anyway there''s nothing to do staying here...we should see what''s on the other side at least¡± he said moving to the hole and climbing through. There, he found that there was a tunnel through this way which seemed to be some hidden path or something like that. ¡°Interesting...¡± With the thought of seeing something interesting, Sain moved forward with the rest of the group behind him. The space in the tunnel was small to the point that they could barely fit a person, though thankfully an adult person so most of them had an easy time going through, especially Serena. Going through they did not dare speak as they might attract the attention...of some things they don''t want to face right now. Namely monsters that were twice their level. After several more minutes, they reached the end of the tunnel and through some sort of covers. Sain and the others saw that they were currently in this dim dark room with nothing much in it except that it was made using black bricks which gave it an ominous feeling. ¡°Where is this place?¡± wondered Lyndis in a low voice, she took Raven with her when she peered out of the open door; most likely to use him as a meat shield immediately when things went bad. ¡°No enemies around...I hope¡± she added seeing that there was nothing out at the corridor. ¡°There are none, nothing is moving around this area¡± said Shadow affirming that fact, ¡°You could have asked me first.¡± ¡°Well I just almost cut you down.¡± ¡°And I already let it go already.¡± ¡°Really? I thought you were the type to keep grudges.¡± ¡°If I was, then you would be dead ten times over by now¡± said Shadow while clicking his tongue at her. After this, the group went off to explore this new place that they had landed into. It was quite a maze but in the end after a few hours, they were drawn to a place that had an ongoing battle in it. Peering through....the group watched. xXx The Great Holy Knight Galeiran rapidly swung his sword in all direction in a cross like fashion cutting through the Demons that were stuck on him as he charged violently. There was no time to be wasted even to save a comrade. After the cave-in, he had searched the place and only found two dozen of the possibly hundreds of players that was down with him. And all of these people were battling Demons as well with no care in their lives, only to stop what was happening over there on the other end of the room. ¡°Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!¡± With a great swing, he let out a wave of energy similar to one done by a certain woman at the target. BAAAAAAAAAANNNNNGGGGGGGGG!!!! However even so, his attack was blocked by that barrier that surrounded them. The reason why he was so determined to do whatever it takes right now he that there are a dozen or so people lined up in a circle preparing to summon a High Demon. These people from what he knew were demon worshippers. Heretics that denied the grace of God in order to gain evil powers. But that was not the main problem here. Demons were powerful creatures, even the weaker ones. Minions could and would be level 300 while the lower rank ones level 400 and it only goes higher. At the top of these Demons were Demon Lords, nobles of the Demons and Demon Kings, their rulers. A High Demon was a being that sat between Demon Lords and Demon Kings in strength, extremely powerful and must not be let out no matter what. And here he was fighting to make sure it wouldn''t be summoned. ¡°Grand Cross!¡± he shouted shooting down several more Demons with his Holy Magic. There were a hundred Demons in this room and he alone was taking half of them at once since he was strongest here. But even so, with their numbers alone, they were able to stop him. As such he was prepared to destroy everything in this room to stop the summoning of a High Demon. ¡°O Grace of the Beings of Light gather in my hand and radiant through the darkness that grant the Blessing of Holy Night! Heed thy contract to this mortal and turn into thy weapon that slays evil! Holy Sword!¡± In his hand, a great large Holy Sword appeared that was made with pure Holy Energy. It was a sword to cut down evil and one that was really good at cutting down Demons and Devils as well. With a swing he took down one Demon and moved onto the next and next almost running to the end of the room. ¡°Damn! He''s getting closer!¡± one of the demon worshippers shouted. ¡°Holy Strike!¡± he shouted swinging his sword down on this magical barrier in which started to crack under the pressure he was giving it. ¡°Darkness before the crevice of the cracks of justice. Dark Blast!¡± A wave of dark energy was blasted at Galeiran but at the same time he increased the around of Holy Energy around his body to endure the blast. ¡°Haaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Impact Strike!¡± Galeiran used that warrior skill to increase the damage in which he dealt to the barrier but at the same time- Slash! From behind he was attacked by a demon and his attack was interrupted which saved the barrier. With a ''tch'' he made a kick behind him killing that Demon due to the large level difference between the two and once again attacked the barrier. He was more than sure that this barrier was either created with great care or from an extremely powerful person or group of people or both. But at the same time, Galeiran was even more so. ¡°Light gather in my hand!¡± Galeiran gathered and increased the power of the Holy Sword in his hands and struck again at the barrier. BAAAAAAAAAANNNNNGG!!! That loud echoing sound resounded in the large room as the barrier was destroyed. The demon worshippers looking worried took out their staves which had skulls on them. ¡°Too late¡± he shouted swinging his sword down on them as well. He quickly cut through them as fast as he could. ¡°Too late indeed¡± one of the demon worshippers said with a laugh. The magic circle in which they were activated glowed a dark red colour. Cut! Galeiran instantly cut through it using his sword and that was that. Or not- Bang! Galeiran was knocked away immediately to the other end of the room. He felt that impact quite a bit considering that his defences were quite high due to him being of a paladin type class. He looked to see something he really did not want to see right now. In front of him was a 5 metre tall demon with twin horns and long arms. And from the pressure that it gave off, it was certainly powerful, at least on the same level as him... ¡°Damn...¡± he cursed under his breath and saw that there were three demon worshippers still alive...they need to be eliminated later on. He hoped they would not escape from this place but it was unlikely. But right now he needs to focus on taking care of this High Demon in front of him. xXx ¡°Three of them are escaping, need to get to them quickly¡± said Sain rushing back into the tunnels the moment he saw that back door they went through being connected to the tunnels. He would just need to find them and finish them off to- ¡°Why the hell are we chasing them?! They are probably stronger than us and will kill us in one hit!¡± shouted Miriel. Sain only realised that she was following him while the others were still watching the battle. ¡°Because they are of the magic class plus they must have used up all their mana from what I saw summoning that demon. Any questions?¡± said Sain running forward. ¡°Yes, why the hell are we chasing them?!¡± asked Miriel this time. ¡°Why are you following me?¡± he asked her as well. Out of all the things that he did, this time, it went back to the usual reckless stuff he would do. She had no choice but to revert to her usual self for now...she had enough of banging her head into the wall and letting off silent screams of what she was doing to Sain in game. She rather not have to avert her eyes when they meet in reality due to the stuff she did in game. ¡°Because you will get yourself in trouble again-why are we chasing them down?!¡± she retorted. ¡°No time they''re here!¡± Sain shouted still running and just spotted the three men. Right now only Miriel was with him unlike the rest of the group whom were more than content on allowing Sain to do his own thing. Just as Sain said that, three middle aged men ran in front of them and quickly noticed them as well. One of them swore while stopping while the other prepared a spell to use against them. The final one still ran away from them. ¡°Astral Bind!¡± Sain chanted hitting the one that wore and stopped by accident instead of the one who was chanting a spell. Neither Sain or Miriel had enough time to cast a spell against the one that was in the process of attacking them or the one who was running away. ¡°Curse and echoes of firery rage come upon me! Hell Fl-¡± Bang! All of a sudden a figure of a person hit that person and smashed him to the wall. Sain immediately knew who that person was and smiled at the sight of her. ¡°That''s for putting that damn trap door there! I thought I was going to di-ah, why are you guys here?¡± asked Alena seeing the group while at the same time strangling the second person that was bound by Sain''s ''Astral Bind'' in her arms crushing him. ¡°Long story¡± said Sain noticing that the third person was getting away. With his spear in hand, Sain threw it and by some miracle hit the fleeing man in the back. Blood dripped onto the floor in this tunnel of carnage. ¡°Damn you!¡± he shouted pushing the spear out of his back with sheer force and muscle even though he was some sort of mage and letting it drop onto the ground as he turned to look at him. There was a glare filled with enough hate to curse someone. That man started chanting a spell to use but Sain was faster this time, ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± Bang! Bang! Bang...! The attack hit the man several more times and he was bleeding more and more mainly due to the fact that his ''Compress Magic Mastery'' skill was released now and was getting a greater bonus to magic strength here. As Sain moved in closer to the man wary of any attacks, the man opened his eyes one last time and lunged at him. ¡°Ah.¡± He struggled with the man a bit before pushing him off. ¡°My life ends here but surely our Kings will rise up and kill you all! The Seven Demon Kings will never forgive the Gods for giving this plane to the weak mortals!¡± With those words, the man died bursting in black flames that almost hit him leaving many questions to be answered...
You have killed a Demon Worshipper that is a danger to the Kingdom - You have levelled up x4 - Fame +100
Seeing this, he realised that his level increased to 186 and his fame increased quite a bit as well. But there was one thing he was wondering right now... ¡°Seven Demon Kings?¡± Sain wondered picking up his spear. He heard the others plus Alena walk up behind him. He turned and looked at him and said, ¡°It was kinda a waste for him to die...could have gotten so much more information off him.¡± Alena hit him on the head and said, ¡°I was more worried that you would have been killed going up near him before he burst into flames.¡± Holding of the body of one of the Demon Worshippers, she looked at the man and then to Sain and then asked, ¡°What exactly is happening here? I was kinda trapped in a den of demons for a while before meeting you lot after seeing some fleeing men.¡± ¡°Ah.¡± It was only then that Sain remembered of what was happening in the other room. ¡°Galeiran is fighting a High Demon that was summoned by these guys, we need to go help him!¡± he said quickly before rushing off. However a combination of Alena grabbing him and Miriel holding him back, he was stopped. With a laugh and a strange gaze from Miriel who said, ¡°You are NOT going to risk your life like again OKAY?!¡± ¡°....¡± Sain could only nod in response to that command and Alena could only laugh seeing the situation he was currently in. Alena also added, ¡°There is nothing to be worried about. Galeiran is more than capable of taking a High Demon out.¡± ¡°....?¡± ¡°Why do you think he is called the Great Holy Knight? A person who has reached the limits of his class is something that most people cannot comprehend. The word ''strong'' can only describe him. Plus what can you, as weak as you are do?¡± ¡°....¡± With those words, the three returned to where the others were and saw the scene of Galeiran slaying the High Demon in time. Galeiran''s sword pierced through the head of the High Demon as it burst into ashes when it died. There was a cry of victory as he slain the High Demon. Alena let out a smile and said to Sain, ¡°See, not a problem.¡± A few moments later, Galeiran looked to see Alena and the group at the side and walked up to them after several people congratulated him. Seeing Galeiran walk up to her, Alena smiled and brought of the two bodies in her arms. ¡°I got the rats that ran away from the oh Great Holy Knight¡± she said in a mocking tone. Galeiran did not react much seeing this kind of tone since he was used to it due to babysitting duties. ¡°There were three of them¡± said Galeiran in the same tone pointing at the two bodies. ¡°The last one burst into flames though said some interesting things before he did¡± she explained to him in a low tone. ¡°I would like to hear about it later then¡± said Galeiran. He motioned and whispered something to a couple of people before Alena could respond. ¡°You''ll hear it in my report¡± she replied. Alena turned to the group and then said, ¡°Well, back to Lily City then.¡± The group nodded and made their way out but first... ¡°How do we get out?¡± asked a certain Alena to no one in particular. She and the group dropped in to this place literally. It was only some time later that a certain Alena placed her pride aside and asked Galeiran for the way out..for they got lost several times and even managed to find a Giant Ant Nest while trying to get out of the tunnels somehow.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8100~ - Final chapter of the volume except for the epilogue that will come out tomorrow and the Arc epilogue that comes the day after that. Was actually planning on writing a full length battle scene but decided not to considering that the group aren''t strong enough. Makes more sense that the stronger players took care of everything while the group just watched. Considering this, the title is kinda misleading for most of the chapter there is no mention of them. Vol.6 Epilogue - A Bridge to the Next Stage ¡°Eden¡± said Sain contacting him. [You got out there alive? What of Alena?] ¡°She''ll live, in fact she''s living a bit too much here...considering she led out to a giant ant nest that almost caused us to be food. I have never seen someone get so lost...¡± [Yeah....she gets the bad luck with monsters with me and the lost bit from Alexandra] Sain thought about it and nodded even though there was no one in front of him to gesture to. But it made sense, from all the stories of him and the other two, they got in a lot of trouble without knowing or intending to. ¡°Anyway I''m contacting you since you wanted information about the reasons on why there are so many monster nests recently. Turns out Demon Worshippers were summoning them all over the place, they even summoned a High Demon in the end though Galeiran killed it.¡± [A group that can summon a High Demon into this mortal plane? Did they mention anything else?] ¡°Yeah, one of them mentioned about the Seven Demon Kings and about something of freeing them, what''s that about? I never heard of Demon Kings being sealed let alone seven of them at once¡± Eden sighed. [This is most likely...no, it''s too early] ¡°Better early than later.¡± [...Fine. Don''t tell those other five about this though] ¡°I don''t intend to.¡± They had no reason to know about anything like this. All they had to do was depend on him on this...even if they did not know yet. [The Seven Demon Kings refer to the Seven Demon Kings of Sin sealed somewhere. The seal is powerful, once Alexandra wanted to see and fight them but the seal prevented anyone from getting near. I have no idea how to get rid of that seal nor intend to since it would be troublesome] ¡°I see.¡± [It seems judging by your report and the reports from the others who have cleared out monster nests as well, there seems to be a lot of them] ¡°....¡± Sain did not say anything since he knew that Eden usually had a couple of people work on one thing at once. Better to find out things from multiple points, Sain was only one of the gears in the machine known as a guild. ¡°What''s the difference between these Demon Kings and the other ones? Like the one you killed before.¡± [The difference between the one I killed and those seven? Those seven were the first Seven Demon Kings, the originals you could say. They are the oldest Demon Kings and as such the strongest ones as well] ¡°And their connections to us?¡± [Why would you ask that?] ¡°Summer. That Knight from that guild quest felt the same power of a Demon King on us as the power you gave us. What''s that about?¡± [¡­.] ¡°....¡± [That topic is something especially too early for you but seeing that you wish for this, except to work a bit harder to compensate] ¡°Fine.¡± [You and them have similar origins] That conversation stopped there. xXx And so roughly three months passed in a flash after the events of the abandoned church and demons. There were a series of quests that Alena had them do. These included more eliminations of the monster nests that gradually been reduced over time in the Western Continent and other quests that seemed unconnected to each other as well. Running to collect several items, killing certain monsters and so on; they were kept busy combined with real life stuff with school thanks to the trio. ¡°Sorry of intruding¡± said Sain opening the door and entering the Administration building which was also Alena''s home with Miriel. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.¡°Hey¡± said Lyndis seeing them walk in. Serena waved at them as well along with the child that was in her arms. ¡°You''re early¡± said Alena looking at the two enter the place, ¡°I thought you two were on a date.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain looked away and he saw Miriel do the same as well. He really could not call that a ''date'' but rather it was more like a run down of selling materials that they had collected over the time. Thanks to this, the amount of gold they had in total now numbered to roughly 5000 gold coins. ¡°Want anything to eat? I might as well make you two something while I''m making something¡± Alena added on. She was making soft foods for her child which was right now playing with Lyndis and Serena. Raven and Shadow watched on as the three played house. ¡°Hmm....¡± ¡°What about some desserts¡± said Miriel in a happy mood, the amount of money she had increased after all, ¡°Crepes or Ice Cream would be nice right now considering that it is getting into summer right now.¡± ¡°I don''t have the tools to make those right now, especially in this season¡± Alena let out a laugh and suggested, ¡°Maybe something else?¡± As those two were talking about food, Sain looked at where Lyndis, Serena and Alena''s child was. Sain would really need to ask of the child''s name one day...but never got the chance and would be especially awkward to ask now... ¡°Right, and now you...¡± ¡°Yeah! Here''s the food...¡± Sain could have sworn that the child was a boy...and yet he was playing house with those two... This was probably due to the influence of Lyndis again... Alena would not be happy when she learns that Lyndis was influencing her kid to be...well from what he knew, Alena grew up in a family with only daughters so... ¡°Sain, any preference?¡± asked Alena. ¡°Not really...hopefully something cold¡± he replied in a bored tone, there was really nothing happening recently. ¡°We have nothing to do right now...¡± sighed Sain on the table. ¡°And no tasks that you placed on us that is to be completed as well..plus the training you put us through ended at last¡± added Miriel. In these three months, several things happened. The first was that they all reach level 200 from the fifteen levels they needed before. This was mainly due to some dungeon runs and the quests that they got from Alena. Another thing was that Sain forced them all to train their skills, as such all of the skills that were in the beginner levels were now in the intermediate levels now. Because of that, they got a bit stronger than before thanks to it. Putting down some food on the table, Alena gathered and the group and with a sigh said, ¡°There may be a lot of work coming through soon.¡± ¡°And what makes you say that?¡± asked Shadow. If only they knew...that soon they would be so overworked in the next two years thanks to the events that was simultaneously happening right now. It was soon time for the seal on the three fallen warriors at the capital city to break free.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - This is the end of the 6th volume...annnd another time skip! Arc Epilogue will be posted tomorrow... Arc 2 Epilogue - The Coming of a King At the other end...with the trio...at the same time. ¡°Eden¡± said Alexandra approaching him from behind, ¡°I heard some...certain news.¡± Hearing this, Eden felt a cold sweat in which he hadn''t had for a very long. One of which that only appeared whenever he pissed Alexandra off quite a lot at once...to the point where she would want to kill him. And this was most likely one such case. ¡°How did you know?¡± Eden could only ask. She was most likely referring to what happened to Sain...though it was months ago....to be precise three months ago. ¡°Alena.¡± ¡°Damn that daughter! Always causing trouble with you!¡± he cursed under his breath. He couldn''t believe both daughters plus his wife loved to tease him...though his wife was about to kill him right now. ¡°Don''t you dare think you can escape from this!¡± Alexandra had a firm grip on his shoulders now and was squeezing them tight. It was only when he noticed that ''seal'' that was placed here a year ago was cracking that he said, ¡°Wait, we have some business with them right now¡± though he was more than happy to see them right now. It was strange how he was happy to see enemies instead of his ally and wife right now. ¡°We will talk about this later¡± Eden assured Alexandra. Alexandra made a grumble and muttered, ¡°You''ll be sure I will ''talk'' to you about this.¡± ¡°....¡± Soon enough the two joined Viv and 50 of the most powerful players on the continent. Every last person here was at least level 800 and were all powerful players with countless years of experience in life and death battles. Some of them were hired as Dark Gamers as well. Crack! Crack! CRACK! CRACK! BREAK! The tear in the dimensional space in the halls of this palace was revealed. With Weed at the lead and the trio was a fail safe back up only, they revealed themselves once again. The King of Ghost Knights, Arthur. Puppet Ghost God, Kyoshiro King of Demons, Solomon. These three beings were the enemy of everyone here right now. The three looked at the massive group of players, noticeably looking at Eden, Alexandra and Viv. ¡°Looks like they brought guests...and a certain Emperor as well¡± said King Arthur as he looked to Solomon. ¡°Indeed but...numbers won''t help.¡± In an instant, a great number of Ghost Knights and Demons appeared from behind the three. They totalled around fifty each and were increasing in numbers quickly to the point that the advantage in numbers disappeared immediately. ¡°Well then...¡± Eden walked up next to Weed and Seoyoon and then said, ¡°Any last words?¡± Weed rolled his eyes to these words and said, ¡°I will only die after you and after I gain from this.¡± Alexandra walked up to them next and said, ¡°That will be very difficult.¡± And then Viv walked up next saying, ¡°Though that could be arranged-well the die after part.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden could not know what to say about these two proposing to have him intentionally killed before Weed. ¡°Let us start¡± he said while drawing his sword at the same time trying to ignore that Alexandra and Viv may ''accidentally'' push him into an attack. xXx ¡°Sword Wave!¡± ¡°Moonlight Sculpturing Blade!¡± ¡°Meteor Stream!¡± ¡°Warship Breaker!¡± ¡°Last Strike!¡± A combination of at least five different attacks hit each of the three enemies at once. Kyoshiro was taken out, at the same time taking out a few players in the process, Solomon was taken out, the same and now King Arthur was in the process of being taken out. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. They were not dead...they had no time to finish them off at all at battles of this speed where an instant was enough to travel was one point to another. ¡°Defence Counter!¡± King Arthur shouted deflecting some of the attacks back but in the process some of the attacks went through and destroyed part of his armour. Seeing this, he retreated all the way back and looked at the remaining people left. There were only 10 out of 50 players left alive here in this battle. Even for the top players, facing enemies of this power and numbers would be fatal. But at the same time they had the Invincible God of War plus a misfit similarly invincible trio in the group as well. ¡°To think we would be pushed this far¡± King Arthur said with praise, but at the same time he was gathering light in his Holy Sword. Using full power, his sword gleamed with intense light as he shouted it''s name. ¡°EXCALIBUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR!!!¡± The wave of light in the attack was so large and powerful that it broke through the ceiling of the Imperial Palace. Eden could have sworn that Weed made a painful groan seeing this. ¡°Well your turn¡± said Alexandra patting Eden on the back. Surprised Eden asked, ¡°Isn''t dealing with light your area?¡± ¡°Nope¡± Alexandra let out a cheerful smile before throwing him at the attack. ¡°Ahhh!¡± With a click of his tongue Eden flew at the pillar of light that was falling down on them and shouted swinging his sword while in the air. ¡°Full Counter!¡± The light reversed and moved to hit King Arthur instead. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG!!!! King Arthur was blasted away by the light and hit the very expensive wall of the Imperial Palace quite hard which made Weed groan in pain once again. Eden thought he saw Alexandra chuckle at the sight of Weed groaning in pain. However at the time to which they would be celebrating, a loud rumbling sound was heard by everyone left in the city. The sky split open up and a person appeared from the Heavens. ¡°A Heaven sent warrior?¡± one of the remaining alive players muttered seeing this scene. ¡°What the hell is going on here?¡± asked another player. Weed simply responded with, ¡°The next part of the quest.¡± Descending down, the Warrior King came. An existence that was beyond mortals to face, and this was the very being that they needed to slay else be slain themselves. A being encaged by a golden lion armour, holding countless weapons he could use on him and with a dignified face of a ruler of all. The final part of the Trial of the Emperor was ticking to an end.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - 2 Arcs down....7 more to go...this is going to take more than a year to finish... - Start of the next Arc won''t be coming soon since i want to write some extra chapter stuff...have some ideas which I couldn''t write since I focused on finishing this first Arc 2 Extra Chapter - To try and learn proper magic One day, at a point in his life before the events of a certain forest where he met a fairy queen and failed to protect her, Eden was interested in what ''proper'' magic in this world was. After all he only had his teacher in that field to ask him about. [What? Is my teaching of magic that dull to you?] In his mind, he could hear llyfr talk to him. As such with just his thoughts as well, he could talk back to him though as respect to his privacy, llyfr would only response when he talked back else when Eden had a really rude thought on his mind. ¡°No no no...¡± Eden waved quickly to someone who was not there, if another person saw him, then they would believe he was off in his head. ¡°I''m just wondering what ''normal'' magic is like you know, like chanting and casting a spell without having to even think about the image of the spell in question.¡± [Although it is not well know, chanting is actually a type of language magic which makes what you say to be casted. The words in a chant are important as they define and shape the magic in which you are casting] ¡°Oh.¡± That sounded rather...dull for many reasons. [This type of ''basic'' and essentially diluted magic can never compare the magic you can use right now. However unlike the magic you use, this type of magic is quite safe and won''t blow you up if you fail] ¡°....¡± Sometimes, Eden questions whether llyfr was teaching him magic to make him stronger or see him blow up spectacularly once for all. However Eden knew that llyfr was the main reason why his magic more or less never failed before. After all Eden was just a mere amateur in magic while llyfr was a master of it. ¡°Anyway I wonder if there is a magic guild that will show me some spells...¡± he wondered. [Why can''t you just ask that Viv about magic then? I believe he is highly proficient in the use of magic. Well much more than you at least] ¡°....¡± Eden thought that was a low blow. How could he compare to someone who has skills in the advance level while most of his were in the later beginner or mid intermediate levels. Either way, Eden decided to find a magic guild somewhere. xXx A total of 4 hours, a number of events including a dozen men trying to pick him up and even more flex all of a sudden while he was near, he found the magic guild. ¡°Kind of...less shabby then I thought¡± he said looking at it. There were many things to be said but in all, it was a large building made of mostly stone which was a rare thing since this was located near the outskirts of the city. However there were two powerful looking guards at the entrance and a dozen more patrolling around this building at the moment. He wondered why they were there... [It''s probably some sort of event happening in there. Go in, I''m interested what could merit all of this for such a minor place] ¡°....¡± Ignoring that llyfr called this place which could be larger than even a school to be minor, Eden headed inside the magic guild with the guards taking more than once glance at him... Inside, the place was completely packed for some reason. He looked around and found someone who didn''t seem like talking and asked, ¡°What''s happening here?¡± The man, who was early twenties looked at Eden with a dreaming gaze before answering quickly and flustered, ¡°Oh, the aptitude tests are happening again. Some magical academies are watching to see if there are any good ones to take in.¡± ¡°Aptitude Tests....?¡± Eden was not sure on this and asked again. ¡°You don''t know?¡± The man looked confused on why Eden was here to begin with and then suddenly thought of several ways to talk to him (who he believes to be a she) more and could eventually develop into a relationship.... ¡°Cough¡± Having a good feeling on what this man was thinking, Eden coughed to get back on track from his fantasises. ¡°The aptitude tests are a way to measure the level of a mage¡± he said simply. ¡°But don''t skill levels do that already?¡± Eden asked. If that was the case, then what the hell was he wasting time training these skills for?! [Training is essential to everything. I believe I told you that-] However Eden did not hear the rest. ¡°This and that are different. Instead of proper level, this measures potential. You know that some people in this game are more suited to one thing than another right?¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± A person who never ran much would be a poor thief or an idiot with no brains and all brawls would be hard press to be a mage. ¡°This is a measure of that. The first is a measure of elemental affinity. This determines what types of magic you are more suited to. The second is a measure of potential mana levels.¡± ¡°Wait mana levels can grow at different rates???¡± Eden suddenly grabbed the man''s shoulder not letting go and pushed him to the wall. If one saw this elsewhere, it would look like a beautiful girl pushing down a man. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Y-Yeah...though they are mostly the same except maybe due to race. Elves are generally better in magic than humans in both ways as well...¡± the man spoke blushing. Hearing this, Eden got really interested in this. However he realised that he was not properly dressed and looked like a new player....though he really didn''t care at this point. He simply went with the fact that he may be a new player right now. Taking a few moments to pay a silver coin to undergo this test, he lined up behind the man he talked to before. The more and more people went, Eden saw that most of the time rarely did those orbs glow at all...and most of those people were players. ¡°Hey what''s up with people failing?¡± he asked ¡°Oh, that is because players start off as blank slates. Without reading a bit or learning a bit of magic here, it is impractical to even do this test unless you have a race other than human¡± the man explained. ¡°Oh.¡± Eden thought that was an interesting point. [It''s more like these orbs cannot sense that much and require you to have a certain level of magical power to do so. Else these people are scamming a lot of people with the costs and the fact that most of them can be mages either way. Listen here, if the orbs break than leave as this place is really cheap and not worth your time] Eden didn''t think much of it and continued to wait. On an interesting note, the guy that he talked to had a good affinity to fire and wind though his potential mana levels were average...still there were a few people who were interested in him. ¡°This is good¡± he said to Eden, ¡°Even having above average potential is a good thing.¡± Eden could only smile back at him as he was called up. ¡°Place your hand on the orb.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden did so and then what could be called a shining force consumed the entire room. Five colours...7 colours...10 colours...12 who colours which represented different elements shone through the room endlessly. B-Break! However it stopped when the orb in his hands broke into pieces. Shocked and confused, there were many people jaw dropped right now but the person in front of him only looked frightful at Eden and could only say: ¡°Affinity to Fire element...exceptionally high, affinity to Earth element...exceptionally high...¡± the man continued to call out all of the elements that Eden scored high on. ¡°P-PLease...place your hand on the second orb...¡± Eden smiled and was about to but a few centimetres away from touching the orb, it broke into pieces as well. ¡°Strange...why did it break before I touched it?¡± he wondered. Either way listening to what llyfr said before, he should leave now. It looked like his so called potential mana levels was too high to measure [Well you are hosting me so that might be the reason] ¡°....¡± At this point Eden really didn''t think of anything but that he was bored now and should go back to Alexandra and Viv. ¡°Later~¡± he said in a slightly cheerful manner to the guy who was also jaw dropped, stunned in shock as he only looked at Eden strangely. But just as he was going to leave, some people tried to block his way. ¡°I am from Luna Academy and wish for you to-¡± ¡°Will personally pay for all tuition and-¡± ¡°A skilled mage will more than enough to train you to-¡± He heard these comments over and over to the point that it annoyed him. There were generally two things that came out of their mouths. One was to join them and two was the benefits they will give him. Both were worthless to him. ¡°First Seal Release...!¡± He released the first seal onto his power and let out a turret of killing intent in all directions. In all, it could only be described as a shockwave of sudden power coming out of Eden who froze even the level 300 or higher people nearby. If I were to get in this person''s way I will die. That was the message that was convoyed to them all as Eden walked away without a care. And while he was walking... ¡°I wonder if I should ask Viv about some simple magic I can perform...seeing that I can''t use ''proper'' magic at any rate...¡±
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - The first of three extra chapters I wrote, this one was written a while back. This was inspired by Coiling Dragon in how people are tested for their magical abilities before being enroll into a school. Arc 2 Extra Chapter - I am a Magic King ¡°HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!¡± Eden''s blade was stuck in the chest of the God of the Dead, Hades. He was pouring more and more power into the sword that had the effect of sealing to take away the power of flames that this God had. [Accursed Destroyer! Do you think this will be the end?! Even if you destroy me, you will have to kill more and more of my breathen even if they turned their backs on me!] ¡°Shut up and die already you damn freak!¡± Eden increased the power of the sword once again causing the golden light that was spilling out like water to increase. [Ahhhhhhh!!!! Die Destroyer!] Hades with his bone hands gripped and grabbed Eden and started crushing him at the same time. As a being that was the size of a giant, this could easily be done. However Eden did not let go of the sword inside of Hades and supplied even more power into it. ''Not enough...I don''t have enough power to kill him...need more power....more power!'' ¡°Grrr....Chains of Heaven!¡± Several chains appeared and wrapped themselves onto the sides of Hades'' arms and started to pull. If Hades wanted to crush him then he would rip him apart literally! [Fool! I will not even let a scrap of your soul survive this! Soul Devouring Flames!] The Blue Flames that he had been working to suppress appeared again! Did he supply too much power elsewhere to that Hades can use it again?! ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± Eden let out even more golden aura from his body and sent it all to kill Hades. [AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!] The Blue Flames continued to grow and conflicted with the golden aura that Eden sent. BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!! A burst of blue and golden light consumed the space. The explosion caused the death of countless beings in the underworld, if they were not killed then they were critically wounded by the shockwave the blast gave.
You have killed the God of the Dead, Hades! - You have gained 431 531 Fame - Infamy will be reduced to zero - However since you are an enemy to all Gods, this Fame is cancelled out - You have levelled up x37 - All stats +1204 - Fighting Spirit +3944 - You have gained the ''Power over Fire'', the power to control all Fire no matter what - Able to use ''Soul Devouring Flames'' - Elements in body has been tilted to the Fire Element. Fire Elemental Damage increases by 50% while Ice Elemental Damage decreases by 50% - Fire Resistance increases to 90% - Fire Elemental attack will be less effective against you now - By slaying a God you have worsen your relationship with other Gods - Since it was a God that went against it''s breathen to raise an army, relationships with Gods will increase - Due to being a destroyer, the above effect will not apply
You have completed the quest: Take over the Underworld - You have levelled up x22 - Fame +63 422 - You will be teleported back into the mortal world soon
¡°It''s over....? It''s finally over?¡± Seeing this, Eden dropped to the ground tired...it had been several years since...well since he was transported his forcefully. Was it 5 or 6 years since he started on this quest, fighting against undead and other nasties along the well to get stronger and stronger for this. ¡°I can finally see those two at last again...¡± he mumbled with a sigh of relief. Alexandra will certainly complain on how he took so long...
Due to the effects of killing a Major God, Magic King Drive will move onto the next stage
Body and Mind has been processed into the state of a true Destroyer
¡°Ah...Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!¡± Eden wrapped his hands over his head. Something was....inside of him! It was...! You will now be teleportated to the Mortal Realm
Teleportation is starting
¡°Damn...not now...what the hell....is happening...?!¡± He felt like his body and mind was on fire...everything was going blank. Something...strange was happening to him... Kill them.... Kill them all.... Will never forget.... Will not forgive.... Every last God and their pawns will be killed.... xXx ¡°Are you sure this is the location?¡± asked Viv who was with Alexandra. He had been asking this for a while now. Alexandra sighed and said, ¡°Yes this is the place, got a call from above that Eden is coming back. It has been 6 years...and I want to kick him for disappearing like that.¡± Alexandra made the motion and kicked some dirt off the ground. ¡°Yeah he could have logged off in those 6 years to meet up and talk...but he didn''t or couldn''t. Either way it was a good thing ''they'' called you and told you where Eden was sent¡± said Viv in a calm voice. ¡°....¡± The two looked into the sky for a while until cracks started to appear. ¡°He''s coming!¡± said Alexandra excited. What should she do to him the moment he appears? Kick him, fly kick him? Or maybe a hug...? Crack! CRACK! CRACK! A portion of the sky broke and a person fell through it. Geared in mostly black gear and that long black hair, it was definitely him. ¡°Eden!¡± she called as he dropped to the ground. He looked quite ragged though understandable. Alexandra ran up to him and was about to- ¡°Al stop!¡± shouted Viv. Hearing this Alexandra immediately stopped seeing what he meant. Bang! Alexandra looked at the location of the explosion and found that it was caused by a fireball...and a large one...which came from Eden. ¡°Eden! What''s going on?!¡± Alexandra shouted at Eden but there doesn''t seem to be a response at all. Eden was acting...strange right now. His eyes were unfocused and the feeling he was giving off was quite sharp, unlike the usual him. [I to awaken am the Tyrant whom stole the throne of God] ¡°Eh?¡± He started to chant for Magic King Drive for unknown reasons. But at the same time Alexandra knew that Eden was going to fight seriously now if he was going to use that. Did he want to fight her immediately upon seeing her? ¡°Eden?¡± All of a sudden, several fireballs were formed and were fired at Alexandra- ¡°Shit!¡± -Causing her to react and dodge. Bang Bang Bang! BOOM! ¡°The hell?!¡± Alexandra jumped back and drew her sword and prepared for battle. Even if it was Eden-no especially because it was Eden, she would not take any chances here. [I devour the wisdom and rip apart the Knowledge] Eden''s hair turned into a silvery white colour and his pupils turned golden like a snake watching his prey. However his expression did not change at all as he continued to attack using magic attacks. ¡°Viv! Stop him¡± Alexandra shouted to Viv to do. Unfortunately she didn''t have any skills that could capture and not kill...though she doubt those skills would kill him in the first place. ¡°Grow Roots!¡± Viv chanted while tapping his staff onto the ground. Several large roots ripped forth from the ground and went to Eden to attack and bind him. However Eden easily dodged these in extreme speed and covered his body in flames to burn through them all. ¡°....¡± Viv continued on producing more roots using his mana as a source and continued to battle Eden like that. [I will become the Magic King that rules over all Creation] ¡°This is bad! If he completes the chant...! Sword Wave!¡± said Alexandra while sending a wave of energy from her sword at him. BANG! The attack hit Eden head on but it seemed to not have any effect on him at all. Even though Eden blocked it using his arm and the attack broke and snapped it back, Eden did not have a reaction to it and simply let it recover. The usual Eden would at least complain about the pain. [And I will show you true Despair!] ¡°Let the stars fall into dust and nothingness. Starfall Series Spell #3: Meteor Stream!¡± chanted Viv. Viv created a black ball made of dark magic covered by red sparks coming out of it and fired it at Eden. BAAAAAAAAAANNNNGGG!!!! The ball hit Eden as he grabbed it using his hands- ¡°Wha?¡± Viv was shocked seeing this act. It would be normally impossible to do this since the spell would rip apart your hands if you even tried. -And with brute force he crushed it as well. ¡°...!¡± Both Alexandra and Viv immediately retreated seeing that. They needed to put distance between them and Eden. [Magic King Drive!!!!!!!!] With the chant complete, the golden aura around his body increased several fold. His hair and eyes changed colours and the tattoos all over his body appeared and started glowing golden as well. However at the same time, golden chains appeared over his body and broke apart as well. This was not the same Magic King Drive they knew in the past. It was a bit different and Eden was a bit different as well. ¡°Golden Weapon Chain!¡± Eden shouted producing several dozen golden weapons into the air while firing them off at Alexandra. ¡°Holy Aura! Divine Beast Shift!¡± she quickly shouted covering her body in a pure white aura while powering up her body. She swing her sword several times breaking the golden weapons that were fired at her and using her aura to block any attacks she could not. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang....! ¡°Need to bind him at least...¡± she muttered while thinking of the spell she would use and chanted, ¡°Oh Holy Light, let thy punish this Sinner. The Chains of Judgement come and begone as the call of the end begins. Through night and day, does thou seek the damned and drag them from the Heavens, Chains of Icarus!¡± A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Several beams of light shot out from Alexandra and wrapped themselves onto Eden and onto the ground at the same time. The spell was a success at least, it would take a while for him to break out of that. Eden stopped and looked at her....and turned his hand into a Dragon Claw. ¡°Al! Dodge!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Eden with his claw hand ripped through the bindings and charged straight at her. His body blurred as he went faster and faster. ¡°Crusader Sprint!¡± she quickly shouted this and doubled her speed as well. Slash! She dodged the first attack that was a simple stab but his attack twisted and changed direction and went straight at her again and forced her to block. After that, Eden did a roundhouse kick while in mid air and attacking at the same time at her which sent her flying away. Bang! However at the same time Alexandra blocked the attack with her sword. ¡°Al!¡± Viv shouted seeing that Eden did something while attacking Alexandra at the same time. Alexandra shouted back, ¡°Viv, don''t come here! He''s-!¡± ¡°Flame Pillar!¡± said Eden. Looking down on the ground, Alexandra realised that Eden spread his mana in the ground to now quickly use this spell faster than she could react and escape. ¡°Compressed Light Warrior!¡± she shouted producing another layer of armour on her. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! She survived the attack with near no damage but her vision was blocked due to the flames and dust all over the place. She wondered if Eden wasn''t going to attack and say it was all a joke... In that moment of doubt Eden appeared above her and did a dive kick on her which penetrated her Holy Aura, the Light Warrior Armour and her actual armour to hit her stomach dead on.
Critical Hit!
You took 47 516 damage
¡°Ack! Cough!¡± Alexandra spat out blood due to the damage he caused ¡°Damn you!¡± But at the same time she grabbed his leg and slammed him into the ground. Bang! Getting up she gathered her Holy Aura and poured it in her sword before smashing that down at him as well. ¡°Impact Strike!¡± BANG! But once again Eden grabbed the attack wit his hands that were now dragonified. With a growl several magic projectiles were formed around him. Fireballs, Ice Bolts, Lightning Spears were formed around him. ¡°Uh oh...¡± ¡°Crimson Spear that rejects the heavens! Starfall Series Spell #7 Longinus Strike!¡± A single red black spear formed in the air and shot down at Eden stabbing him through the chest at the moment he fired the magical attacks at Alexandra causing it to misfire in all directions. But at the same time, Eden kicked Alexandra off of him and retreated a bit. His appearance was becoming more and more wild but at the same time his fighting style was getting more refined, more focused on the kill. ¡°Why does it seem like he is targeting me?¡± Alexandra wondered thinking about it now. He had not even payed attention to Viv here. ¡°Did you do something to piss him off recently?¡± asked Viv. That question really made sense right now but they couldn''t even contact him in 6 years. ¡°Umm...a lot in the past? I think we need to administers some shock to snap him out of it¡± said Alexandra thinking of a way to get Eden back to normal. ¡°Any ideas?¡± Viv asked again. From the looks of it, it seems Eden fell through quite deep in these 6 years to not recognise them and even attack them. ¡°Yeah...one. And I don''t like it.¡± She really did not want to do that...since that would probably one of the only things that could shock Eden that she could think of now... Plus Viv might tease her later thanks to this... ¡°Well hurry up else he will end up killing us instead¡± Viv started a series of spells, mostly setting up magical traps to stop Eden if he runs away or attacks them. At the same time as this, Eden started chanting something as well. ¡°I''ll kill you. I''ll kill you. I''ll kill you. I''ll kill you. I''ll kill you. I''ll kill you. I''ll kill you. I''ll kill you. I''ll kill you!¡± he repeated over and over again while looking at Alexandra. ¡°And his mind officially snapped...didn''t know he hated me that much¡± sighed Alexandra. ¡°Yeah...Al, better get on that idea to snap him out of that...¡± Viv advised. ¡°....Can you stop him for a few seconds?¡± she asked him. ¡°....Maybe¡± he replied back gripping his staff and gathering the mana in his body and putting it into his staff. Viv stepped forward against Eden who was turning more and more into his dragon form. Right now only his arms and legs were dragonified but soon enough the rest of his body would and then...large dragon form which would be a real pain to deal with. ¡°Dark Arrows!¡± Viv raised his hand and fired several ''Dark Arrows'' at Eden. At the same time he chanted, ¡°Hatred of the Besieged flows through the air, in the rivers and in the depths of the tainted grounds. Curse of Chains!¡± All of a sudden, a number of cold hands popped out from the ground like a horror movie and started grabbing onto Eden after he dodged the Dark Arrows that were heading his way. ¡°I said to shock him not me Viv...¡± Alexandra muttered while sighing, he had to use that spell of all things. She thought she and Eden in the past, many times told him to never use that spell... ¡°Viv, doubt that can trap him...considering he''s isn''t even afraid of them right now¡± said Alexandra. ¡°Already got it Al. Gravity Bind. Astral Lock. Binding Roots!¡± Viv used those three spells quickly in a row skipping the chants to them. Even though the spells were a bit weaker, stacked together they were a lot stronger together in that short amount of time. Increased gravity, chains locking the legs to the ground and roots that wrapped around the body along with countless hands dragging him to the ground forced Eden to a stop. However at the same time Eden was resisting the spells as well with sheer force. ¡°Damn that high magic resistance....¡± Alexandra could not help but sigh seeing Eden...now that she thought about it, most of the time she sighed was due to Eden. ¡°Al! Do it now! You only have a few seconds!¡± he shouted to Alexandra. ¡°Right!¡± said Alexandra though at the same moment, Eden started casting spells all over the place and were randomly firing them at Alexandra. As such the longest 5 seconds of Alexandra''s life started with her shouting, ¡°Blood Destruction!¡± causing her body to glow red and the marks on her body to glow that same colour as well. And when she reached Eden.... She tightly wrapped her arms around him and kissed him...and stuck her tongue in and rotated it in there just in case. ¡°Mmmph!¡± Eden let out that reaction with his eyes opening wide in shock. Seeing this reaction and the fact she wasn''t filled with holes right now she continued for a good another 15 seconds before Eden fainted in her arms. ¡°Mmmppphmmmphmm................................¡± His hair went back to black, his eyes as well and the tattoo all over his body stopped glowing and disappeared quickly as well. With this battle done...and Eden unconscious, Viv walked over with an astonished look on his face as he said, ¡°Al you...¡± Alexandra nodded with a sigh once again due to Eden and replied, ¡°That was the one thing that I knew for certain that would shock Eden...and looking at your face, you too.¡± Viv averted his eyes and said, ¡°Yeah...didn''t think you would....¡± ¡°Hopefully he will not remember anything about it when he wakes¡± she said with Viv nodding in agreement. xXx Some time later.... Eden woke up and felt the warm and soft feeling of a bed. Shooting straight up and hit something with his head.
You took 316 damage
¡°Ow!¡± ¡°Ow!¡± He opened his eyes and realised it was Alexandra''s head that he bumped into. Without knowing it, he hugged her happy to just see her. ¡°Okay....¡± said Alexandra with her hands up as Eden let go of her, ¡°It''s been a while.¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± Eden smiled, ¡°I must have lost conciousness when I was teleported. How did you find me?¡± ¡°Got the location beforehand¡± she replied but then took a moment to ask, ¡°You don''t...remember what happened after you were teleported?¡± Eden shook his head and said, ¡°Nope. Did anything happen?¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra made a stern look and was about to tell him something but decided not to. He did not need to know how strange he was acting, how he tried to kill her and especially not that they had their first kiss due to that. It was only later on...when Eden returned to that state that he remembered all of this. It was also then that he knew the dark secrets of truly being a Destroyer...but that is another story.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - The second of three extra chapters, this one I wrote yesterday. This one is set in the time period where Eden just gets back from finishing the SSS rank quest he got at the epilogue of the last series. Arc 2 Extra Chapter - Marriage Consoling Royal Road was popular. So popular that many services have been moved into the game as it was quicker and more efficient to do so by gaining service to anyone who played the game. As such it was not strange for certain occupation to appear in the game as well like lawyers or even marriage consolers, especially the latter with angry wives killing their cheating husbands in game instead of in real life. It opened up a lot of opens for redemption. Therefore it would not be strange for one blonde Caucasian beauty and one Asian beauty to be here together...even though they were both women(?) and that they were about to kill each other right now. ¡°Can Miss Alexandra and...Miss Eden?...go to the consoler now? It is your turn. The cost will be taken now as well¡± said the receptionist in a loud and clear voice causing several people to turn their heads to them. Eden thought there were many wives that were more angry than before at their husbands when they caught them staring. Both Eden and Alexandra walked over to the receptionist and handed over the 10 gold which was a minor cost compared to most things and went in the room where there was a middle age man with a modern scholar''s look inside. Closing the door, he directed them to sit down and said, ¡°Please be seated, everything here will be confidential to just us here.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Eden and Alexandra looked at each other and sat on opposite seats without talking. Eden could have sworn the consoler muttered, ¡°This is going to take a while to solve¡± while he and Alexandra glared at each other. ¡°First of all Eden and Alexandra¡± said the consoler, ¡°My name is Harry and know that I am here to help. Another thing is don''t wreck my work office else you want to be fined quite a bit.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Communication is key in understanding each other, as such talking is a perfect tool to do so¡± he continued, ¡°As such, can you first tell me how long you two have been married?¡± ¡°Three years¡± answered Alexandra. Eden had no intentions of talking to her at all because of what she did...and what he feels. ¡°That is some time...usually couples have problems around 6-8 months within their marriage¡± said Harry looking at both of them. He then looked at Eden to answer as he asked, ¡°Tell me, how did your relationship start.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°This will get nowhere if you do not answer Eden.¡± ¡°I needed someone to party up with for a quest and Alexandra offered help. After that we travelled together.¡± ¡°I see, quite common for people to get together due to a simple act of partying together in this world. The act of saving another will often cause the one saved to hold feelings for the other...¡± Harry looked at Eden and Alexandra whom both held powerful presences even by just sitting down casually, ¡°But I don''t think this is the case with you two.¡± ¡°Now how long have you two known each other?¡± ¡°Around 50 years now¡± Alexandra answered this time. It seemed they were taking turns in answering questions here. ¡°50 years!¡± Harry calculated and that meant that both of them would have aged at least 12 years in real life. Due to the programming of the game, your in game character will age at the same rate as you in real life. But Eden and Alexandra at best look at their very early twenties or even younger! Harry looked through the information the two wrote down before coming in this room. According to this, Alexandra was 31 years old while Eden was 29....he made sure to note not to mention Alexandra''s age since....30 was the point you needed to be careful about those kinds of things. However both of them looked at least 10 years younger than they actually were. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± As Harry thought about all of this, the two stared at him to get onto it already. With a cough Harry continued and then asked, ¡°Now what seems to be the issue of your marriage Eden.¡± ¡°Why are you asking him?!¡± shouted Alexandra. ¡°And I thought we were taking turns in answering. Looks like that memo didn''t get to you¡± said Eden in a mocking tone that almost made Alexandra punch him. However his glare and her slight guilt stopped her from doing so. ¡°I repeat, what seems to be the issue here.¡± Eden glared at Alexandra for a second before looking at Harry and said, ¡°Suspicions on cheating.¡± ¡°Oh you know that isn''t true at all!¡± Alexandra shouted again at Eden and he replied with, ¡°As I said, suspicions and nothing more though it would be good to know that you weren''t flirting with other people!¡± Eden raised his voice higher than he thought with the last words. ¡°Calm down both of you¡± said Harry quickly, ¡°There is clearly some sort of misunderstanding between the two of you.¡± ¡°Not at all! This person does not want to look at reality!¡± said Alexandra. ¡°I agree though this person should really consider her actions before acting on it!¡± said Eden in the same tone. Harry could have sworn that he saw the shadows of a dragon behind Eden and the shadows of a lion behind Alexandra. However that thought disappeared as he continued and said, ¡°First I would like one of you to explain your side of the story to me with the other listening and not interrupting.¡± ¡°Agreed, I get to go first¡± ¡°Fine, I get to go first.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Both Eden and Alexandra looked at each other irritated. ¡°Shall we flip a coin then?¡± Harry suggested, usually these things solved the issue of turn orders. ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°No!¡± Alexandra answered first hopeful while Eden did the opposite in despair. ¡°Flipping the coin it is...¡± said Harry taking out a coin ignoring Eden''s protest. Harry gave Eden a word of advise which is, ¡°You must go with the flow once in a while.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden nodded grudgingly and said, ¡°In that case, I will go first if the coin hits heads or tails.¡± Harry was surprise since that meant it was near certain he would go first in his story then. He expected Alexandra to protest but found her grinning as she said, ¡°Fine.¡± Nodding to this outcome and thinking Eden would speak first, Harry flipped the coin. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Ans the results was that it landed on neither head or tails but the edge which surprised him heavily. ¡°You got to be kidding me...¡± Eden sighed looking down depressed. However on the other side, Alexandra was happy and said, ¡°As expected from your bad luck!¡± Harry did not know what to say...the chances of this happening was near impossible especially when he chose the other option and him flipping it normally. ¡°Anyway...let us explore the story from Miss Alexandra''s side first.¡± xXx ¡°So can I summarise that some people approached you and you were only simply talking to them?¡± asked Harry in a polite tone. He had seen this type of thing before lots of times where one side of a couple gets angry due to this. ¡°More or less¡± replied Alexandra. Looking at her, Harry was sure that she got everything out...though the problem was the other side. Eden looked pissed right now. ¡°Do you have anything to say about the story Alexandra told?¡± he asked Eden. Eden nodded resisting the urge to shout everything out. In the end he said, ¡°There are several points which she left out.¡± ¡°Such as?¡± ¡°Like the part she got drunk and started trashing the place for starters.¡± ¡°....¡± Harry had no words for that. ¡°Or the part that she started lining up the guys that she thought looked good with force.¡± ¡°....¡± Again Harry had no words for that. ¡°And finally the bit that really ticked me off, trying to take them home to do all sorts of things behind my back. If I wasn''t there, what the hell would have happened?!¡± Harry looked at Alexandra and said, ¡°Miss Alexandra, I believe this is your fault.¡± ¡°Hey! You are also to blame, I mean you completely trashed the place even more and killed everyone there and caused us to be banned from the city!¡± ¡°....¡± Strangely Harry had no words for Eden now. ¡°Plus you were drinking there as well after following me for no reason! You while drunk smashed down several people before you lashed out on me!¡± ¡°Like hell I was drunk! I was perfectly reasonable when I killed them!¡± ¡°....¡± Once again, Harry had no words right now. ¡°Anyway why the hell were you following me?!¡± demanded Alexandra. ¡°Because I was damn worried you idiot! What do you think I felt to see you cheating behind my back!¡± Eden shouted slamming his hands on the table. ¡°Who the hell was cheating?! That was only damn flirting!¡± ¡°Why the hell were you flirting with other people then?!¡± ¡°Because you don''t let me do it with you!¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The shouting match seemed to have stopped for now as Harry looked fearfully at both of them. They seemed to be breathing heavily but at the same time a bit calmer now. ¡°So basically...¡± said Eden, ¡°The only reason was...me not giving you enough attention?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± Eden let out a depressingly long sigh hearing that answer and held his head with his hand. ¡°You could have asked me you know.¡± ¡°I gave you lots of hints!¡± ¡°Like what?¡± ¡°For one I made references that I was a bit lonely lots of times!¡± ¡°You mean about how Viv was gone for some reason?¡± ¡°Or the fact that I wanted you to take me out somewhere.¡± ¡°We did. You said you wanted to go hunting so we did.¡± ¡°And that I wanted you to eat my cooking!¡± ¡°I believe you asked me to taste your cooking and I said it was good. I even complimented you several times as well.¡± ¡°So did you see all the hints I gave you?¡± ¡°Not at all.¡± Both Alexandra and Eden sighed at the same time. Harry was happy enough that his office wouldn''t become a bloodbath with him being the first victim. ¡°I believe this session is over since your problem is solved¡± said Harry with a sigh of relief. However as he got up both Eden and Alexandra stopped him and said, ¡°Oh we''re not done yet.¡± ¡°Yeah, there are a lot of other issues we need to solve.¡± Harry felt some cold sweat from his back come out. He made a poker face and asked, ¡°How many issues do you have?¡± ¡°Around a few dozen or so¡± said Eden thinking about it. ¡°And this will all process similar to the one that was just solved?¡± Harry asked. Alexandra nodded and said, ¡°Yep. Do you charge by the hour, each issue or just the session.¡± Even though it was actually the latter and just the session, Harry said, ¡°By the hour or otherwise each issue. The price will also increase by a bit each time as well to compensate with time being taken from other customers.¡± If he was going to be fearful of his life, then he might as well make good money off it! 10 gold an hour or per issue was nothing compared to the fear he faced when the two shouted at each other with real killing intent. This soon became a long day and then long night for the marriage consoler Harry even though in the end he made a few thousand gold from it. He never wanted to see them again! xXx A few months later.... ¡°Come in¡± said Harry. Two figures, a blonde haired Caucasian s beauty and a black haired Asian beauty came in. ¡°It''s been a while.¡± Harry could only make his poker face while sweating out once again feeling this would be a long day.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - This chapter was an idea what I thought of a while back but only recently got on writing. Basically what would happen if Eden and Alexandra went to get consoling for their marriage. Arc 2 Monologue – The Thoughts of Six People A Hypocritical Smile My first real memory was of the endless blue sky and how I admired it simply for being so large and free. Wanting to be someone who could be like that to other people, I placed a smile on my face and listened and talked to people. They placed their trust in me and I answered them as best as I could. Who knew it soon became that I was unable to do the same for others. They poured their very selves into me as they told me everything, even the things I did not need to know, should not need to know. They were pushing everything onto me and as such for that first memory to not be tainted I continued to answer their trust. However I soon learnt, though too late that even if someone placed their trust in you and told you their secrets, they might not want you to know anymore and would try to harm you in any way to get rid of you. As a result, two children, who were under my care were killed by accident in one of these plans went wrong. I felt it was foolish and a waste of life, only pity could be felt for them as their only real family wasn''t really a family. That is the fate of orphans like myself. Abandoned by parents, relatives or even fate. Uncared for by the world, out of duty we were only cared for. If not, many of us would have died before we learnt how to walk. Because it was out of duty, there was no real love, except from each other who were in the same situation. As such, to gain their trust, I learnt how to ''love'' others like they were something precious. No one knew, only a few suspected but my act did not stop. Could not stop. At first, the blame was placed on me by those who wished me harmed, me, the secret keeper you could say but soon enough my ''love'' payed off and I was still protected. But I knew that this ''love'' was fake and as such this protection would be fake as well. Because of this I decided to stop this act and care not for others, but soon I found that the act and real reversed. The act of caring was too strong now for me to forget, even if the real me wanted me not to. Some call this kindness to be unable to stop caring. I call it a curse since you cannot live without others. Like a puppy, this kind heart of mind would die without others but at the same time my cold heart only gains from this. One side is white, the one the world sees, one side is black, the one that is hidden. Eventually by some miracle I was adopted at a late age. I thought I would become an adult and sustain myself alone else take care of the younger children at the orphanage. It was a fate I was considering quite a lot. But in the end, I was still not alone. Five others were adopted at the same time, with age the same as me to lower by a few years. I felt there was something more than simple yearning for love from them. That they might want to live their own lives but immediately was disappointed. They pushed the role of ''leader'' onto me, there was nothing different at all. But at the same time there was this whole other world in the game Royal Road. Something I never played but heard a lot of. I remember watching brave warriors, powerful mages and sneaky assassins fight in all kinds of places and against all kinds of monsters. It could be a world I could be myself at last. But soon I realised that I would be stuck with the other five. We trained and got stronger together as I played my role as they did as well. The smiling kind leader was what I was to them. But training was fulfilling, fighting was trilling! Bit by bit I could become myself, I could fight alone at last! But I have trained into my role, a support pillar for everyone else. If we were birds then they, though all different could all fly away but I alone was flightless. Stuck on the ground, destined to die alone. But they didn''t leave, even when I only showed them a bit of my true nature. My nature where I didn''t care about anyone or anything and just killed and killed. They accepted it but still fear it. But they still accepted it, something I did not expect. Time passed and quickly we met stronger and stronger people all over the place. I was in awe seeing their power. Their independence. Their freedom. I wished for it. Even it was a hard path, I desired that same freedom as them. But I realised that what I considered to be my chained reversed that I was their chains, holding them back. I wanted to get stronger. And ''that'' answered. This ''Mark'' that was a mysterious power with unknown origins except it came from a known person. The more I yearn for it, the more it gave me but at the same time, the more it consumed me bit by bit. I could tell as the white was slowly disappearing and the black was rising slowly but surely. This was a chance. The fake white could finally disappear! But at the same time, that part that connected to those five would disappear as well. Then who glowed in the light cannot coexist with me in the dark. And because of this I continued to grip onto the white. I continued to foolishly wish for that white that would allow me into the light. Even if this smile is fake, even if this light is fake, I still desired it. But he saw through me, that monster with the mask of a human. If my smile was a mask, in the end I was still human. But his mask is of a human, there was a monster underneath it. And those five have not noticed it yet. He drew out the black in me. Forced it out, giving it food to grow. The black was growing larger, but the white was not getting smaller as well. Soon...it became the same size as each other. White and black balanced. I was now unsure which one was the real one. Was this fake smile real? Was this cruelty real? No! I wish to be in the same place as them! The black must be fake! The white must be real! But the white has been strained already. The black was mixing in and was turning grey. This fake smile was still fake, but was there something else underneath it? If both colours, both sides mix then what would be the results? Would they accept it? This ugly me? But until then...I will continue giving them this fake hypocritical smile. A Lonely Attitude I knew from a long time that I was superior to others. Learning how to walk and talk quickly I soon went on to see the world I was in at a much higher level than others. While some played with toys, I chose instead to learn more of this world. And what I learnt, that I will forever remain ignorant of everything. To know more but know that you will be ignorant or to know less but know you know a lot, the choice was clear. Was that a mistake? I was not sure, maybe I could have interact with others more easily if I choice differently. But my choice shaped me. I was Cold. Sharp. Precise. As such was the way the world saw me, how I saw me as I deemed myself the superior one and as such needed to act as such. There was no need for other people, they were mere picture-books to the textbook I was. People admire me, desist me, fear me who knew too much in too little time. Whether it were tests in mathematical nature or literary nature, I aced them all. Even though things on the physical side was harder for me, some training efficiency made me still superior than most in that area as well. And I was alone. The lone queen without even a King as I did not allow it. Many have pursue me whether it was for greed, pride or simple admiration but my rejection of them only caused them and others to continue to distance myself from me. Rumours spread. Strangers became enemies. But even so, I continued to exist alone and whole unlike them who damaged themselves while trying to damage me. To them, I was perfect but to myself I was even less perfect than them. All of this and I was barely able to hold a simple conversation to others. My hands were cold, just like my heart. And like ice when in the presence of the sun, I would melt and disappear completely. But things did not turn out as I expected. I did not find a sun to cause me to become nothing as I once expected. Such geniuses were uncommon or rare enough that I could not find one even when trying. But upon adoption, something I thought would never happen, as adults saw me and did not see a child, I met those five. To me, they were all damaged goods. I was damaged goods. But at the same time, I thought they all could be suns and melt me away. I feared them. I knew that they too were special. I needed to take control and quickly. And I did, more quickly than I thought that I thought that they knew of my intentions from the start. They did not... Like a machine, I trained under another. Took that knowledge and made it my own. This whole new world that I could never enter! A place of magic and might! A whole another world filled with everything to challenge myself was perfect to me. But in the end I still had five other people to pull forward. I let one of them be the puller instead and sat back and continued to hone myself. But they too honed themselves at the same time. It was unexpected but it was true that some trained themselves more than others. I just needed to do so more than them. But I felt the limits to this. Even if I put a 11 and they put a 10, the difference was too small to notice until a long time! But even so, I needed to be superior to them, even though I placed myself in the support role. I soon felt the limitations of this and went to learn another branch, another way of fighting, on my own this time. The strong were simply strong. There was noting special about them, with time anyone could get to that point. That was cold hard truth about this game, with time and effort anyone could get strong, as it is a game. But cruel reality came crashing down earlier than I thought. I saw strength beyond the limits, battles that were impossible and powers that made me fear it''s unknown. This fear, this fear of being inferior pushed me to master more than I could handle at times. And it rewarded me. But at the same time, the other five did the same as well. Did they think they needed to be superior as well? Those thoughts disappeared with the effects of the ''Mark'' appearing with time. I knew it would come but still feared it. It showed them what I hidden away. A kind me. A warm me. A me that became the sun against the ice in my heart. It was opening like a wound and did not close, could not close as ice will only be continued to be melted by the warmth of the sun. But that sun in me was only so small, my ice could trap it forever still. But there were five more suns around me. And one especially large one as well that I like a moth to a flame could only be drawn to. That warmth he gave me, in some ways saved me but at the same time doomed me. Like an addict, I desired more of it. Desired to own it, even consume it if needed in the end. These feelings of a fickle and small person, I knew this feeling from love. I only hope that this love of mind does not get responded no matter what. For if this love turned mutual, the sun in me would explode and the ice which I have carefully crafted for all these years would disappear. I would no longer be superior, not, needed not to be superior for I knew that I would have no need for that. And because of that, I feared that outcome the most. I am alone. And will always be. But my heart, my desires for warmth in this cold casing around my heart will not allow me to. My self is a mirror. One side is ice cold that rejects all while the other is warm that causes the ice to melt slowly. I am destroying myself. I wish for the warmth of others but at the same time reject it as it has always been in the past and I once thought it would be for the future. I want to be alone, but at the same time I do not want to be alone. I still wish for others. A Kind Hatred I am a parasite that lives off the kindness of others. That is something I know more than anything else. With my appearance, it is easy for others to wish to take care of me. Those who make the better impression will get the most kindness from others, and benefit from others the most. Even so, there is also the problem of envy. When one has something another do not, they try to take it away from them to even the level field, to drag others down to them and then kick them even further down. That is how people ''rise'' up in the world. However is it wrong that I do not wish to ''rise''? People expect me to solely based on how they like my appearance. Expectations, wishes, desires are things that I do not have. I find them something unnecessary for me who can only live off others. When I do simple things, I get praise. When I stand out, I get kicked down. I soon learnt how to limit myself so I would not attract the attention of others whose expectations, wishes and desires are more than they can handle. They loathe me who had less than them and yet lived better than them. This was even the case for the ''adults''. This was even the case for ''teachers''. The one who attacks me are not children for they hold no ill expectations, no ill wishes and no ill desires. Instead the ones who were suppose to hold tolerance and respect did. My so called peers and elders were such people who did not hold these things, they were even lower than children. However they had influence. Something that merely appearances alone cannot get, I cannot get. Together they must have felt the top of the world pushing someone else below them. Not to mention of those who just watched as I continued to be abused and abused over and over again. I did not blame them. They did not want to get dirty. So they ignore anything that they do not want to see. It a blind curtain that was useful in order for you to only look up and never down. So I endured. I endured and endured and pushed my emotions inside of me. Soon I stopped talking, that was unnecessary. Soon I stopped expressing myself, that was unnecessary. Anything to make it easier for me to endure. And so, my wish came true in a twisted manner, I no longer felt pain. It was fine now, with no pain, I can continue to endure. However there was always something lacking now... With no pain, my heart instead of fearing them, loathes them now. Those who attack me, I will punish. This hatred would kill them and in turn kill me. But I never got that chance. And by ironic chance, I seemed to have been picked up for adoption which was strange since I was near adult now. From an early age, there was no one who came to adopt but now, it was so sudden. There, I met five other people like me. All of an age that should not be possible to adopt, but here we were. This was a strange situation. However it became even more strange, they trained under different masters and yet still were gathered together as one. Fighting together, getting stronger together, the bonds between was only getting stronger with time. And that scared me. Can I trust them? I who was at the front, the vanguard, the defender, the tank. Could I trust them with my back? Never once have they attacked me even on accident. Therefore I decided to trust them, to that extent that is. I found myself being able to talk only a bit to them. There were things that simple actions cannot convey and I did not have the tools to write my thoughts here as well. However looking at their happy expression, like nothing was wrong, this small hatred that had been nurtured for so long began to spout. Why could they smile like that while I couldn''t? Why could they laugh like that while I couldn''t? Why could they express themselves like that while I couldn''t? It wasn''t fair. For I had suffered for than them and yet in the end I was only rewards more than them. When I realised these emotions, I shut them off immediately. They did not need to see this side of me. I did not need to see this side of me. I am a parasite that lives off the kindness of others. They do need me to live on. I need them to live on. It was clear on who was higher than the other. As such I will follow them, leeching off them all in order to live. For that is the only way I know how to live. For I live off the kindness of others. There was no need for me to feel anything else when I can just live. But it was getting harder for me to do so. This ''Mark'' reveals what is hidden deep in the heart. It is something that will destroy me, my way of life. Already I feel the urge to kill. I fill the urge to end the everything of others. But in this world, it seemed to be accepted. I could use monsters and not humans to solve this, even if the insides are running out of control. Therefore I swore to myself that I will not harm them. That was the only thing I could do. To never become their enemy at least, I will not bite the hand that keeps me alive, that is a basic instinct that even a dog has. Though I was no better than a dog obeying every order like a machine. But I think, the sometimes...maybe that I can live without the need to take the kindness of others. To live a life on my own, without being supported all the time. Such a life would be freedom but at the same time I know, that in the end I will die alone with that kind of life. Like a domesticated caged bird, I will not fly from the cage for inside the cage was safe. Even though the cage changed, it was still a cage in the end. I cannot fly out of it. But even so, even with these flaws, there are things I must do. In order to protect this cage of mind, I will continue to protect it no matter what. I have placed the carriage in front of the horse. With this kind hatred to the things that bind me, this is the only thing I can do. An Expected Ideal I wish to be a better person. That was the simple wish that started it all, though at the same time it started later than it should have. Timid, Clumsy and Useless. Those were the things I was called all the time. Me who could not do anything was scorn for what I could not do. I was a simple matter that I did not think much of, it was a natural thing is happen. Thus I accepted such a fate to be hated due to only that. That is, until I saw that person. She was bright, intelligence and most importantly someone better than me at least. It was due to this that I desired to be like her, become like her. I placed that expectation on myself. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.Trying to be better than before, I put more effort in become like that person. That person who stood up for me, I worked for that expectation as well. However other people did not want me to succeed. They wished for me to be that person that they could blame everything on. They made me to be that person who they could blame everything on. Even when I was a bit better than before, they made my mistakes larger, even ones I did not know even existed, did not exist at all. I did not know what to do. That person supported me but the time where she could was running out. I had to change and had to do it now. But at the same time I could not change. I continued on being useless. But even so, I kept that person in my mind to become like that person. I wanted to be great! I wanted other to depend on me. Even if I hate other people. I wish for them to depend on me even so. Even if they would use me, throw me away and break me, I will continue to try my best. Because that was the only thing I could do. But even though I did not change, could not change, other things around me changed instead. With a new place to call home and a new family I was gifted these things to start over. However even if what around me changed, I did not change at all from before. Immediately in this new world, I was unable to do anything. Then I met that person. The second person that I could admire. A different type of person compared to before. She was bright, brutal and a representation of what I could be in this new world. As such I would train to be like that person no matter what. Even if I was useless, I would try and try until I could. In this new world, I was given that chance and I will take it. However it was clear that I was not suited for battle. I trembled into the face of danger, and needed others to protect me. Even with the skills to heal others, that was all I could do, heal. But in my desperation I have learnt something different than I expected and become someone who could slay dozens of monsters once in a row even if I could only do so once in a while. Even if it was a bit, I was changing bit by bit. I did not know if it was better for me but I was getting closer to that person that I admired in this world. However at the same time, bit by bit, I have learnt to admire the others as well. They strengths and weaknesses were becoming clear as time passed but at the same time, they don''t let their weaknesses get to them. Because of this, I became to respect them and acknowledge them as well. They too were moving forward as well. I wish to be strong. I wish to be bright. I wish for many things but at the same time I was not fine with what I was. Because of this, I desired strength but the role I was placed in did not allow me such strength. But at the same time I continued to desire it, to place that expectation on himself. I no longer wanted to be timid, clumsy and useless. I wanted to become someone else at least in this world. But to throw away all of that was something I found to be unable to do. I was still timid, clumsy and useless in the end but thankfully not as much as before. Soon enough, obtaining this ''Mark'', which was able to draw out the hidden emotions of a person, I knew that soon I would be able to act like myself more. A me that was not burdened with expectations on myself. This was not what I wanted. Without it, I will turned back into what I was. The little bit of achievement and process which I made for so long would disappear if that was the case. However some things changed for the better at least with this. With less expectations, the better I saw who I really was. I am so small. Not only in height but abilities and even expectations. What I aimed for was to be a normal person though on the slightly brighter side. It was something to not aim for but instead to simply be. My whole life of me wanting to be better than what I was a mistake. That dug in quite deep. But at the same time, I soon realised that the second person I placed my expectations on was something great. That person was not normal, powerful to the point that it would be easy to be called a monster. As such, even though the first person I admired faded a bit, the second became even brighter. I wish to be stronger than before, no-I wish to be as strong as that person. As such I trained myself more than ever, but the strangest thing was that at the same time, the others did as well. They were improving themselves as well. This was good. They were similar. Surely all of them wanted to be stronger as well. For whatever reason it was. At the same time, I sought to improve my relationship with other people. First it was the girls, with them things came more naturally. As my elders, I respected them as they were hard working and talented in what they did. The boys, were more difficult. One of them was mute, one of them had a bad mouth enough to make me cry but there was one that was kind and listened to me all the time. That kindness was something I could not take. It would have been better to called useless than get that kindness. As such another part of me was revealed that I did not know. A darker side-no it would be better to call it a more primitive side. A side that was the opposite of myself. A side that was wild and dangerous. However, I kept it in me, still sleeping though I hope it could be a part of me soon as well. A Fake Laugh I knew from the start that I had less talent than other people in the things I wished to do. It was why I worked harder than anyone else. I prove myself equal to those people. When was it that I was called the talented one? However at the same time I kept this kind of thing up. I worked harder and harder without anyone knowing. Those who knew only gave me some silent praise for my efforts but other that did not know complicated only on my ''talent''. I was not talented, this was the result of hard work. As such I haven''t even dated a guy yet! Worse yet I haven''t even gone out with friends at all! When did it start though? When did this cycle of more and more hard work start to only be called talented? I do no know, but this kind of cycle lasted for almost a decade. At the day, in the presence of others I was called a genius of sorts. Talented in all the fields that I went into. Whether it was intelligence and physical ability I excelled in all of them to the point that I even surpassed the talented ones. But in the night, without the presence of others, I worked harder and harder making sure I was better than the last day. My mind strained with countless pieces of knowledge trying to get into my head while my body screamed as I continued to pull it beyond it''s limits. It was the cycle of destruction and I knew it. However because of this, I was trilled to be bathed in the glory of one that is called talented, a queen that was above others you could say. But that was my downfall as well. You see, people don''t like it when others are always better than them. They will do whatever it takes to bring you down instead of going up. Well some of the talented ones tried to do the latter but what was a few months of hard work compared to years of gruesome training that made even me shake in fear. Though I was the one who did this to myself. I was too bright for them. I cannot stop. Even if rumours were spread about me. Even if people that once praise me distance themselves from me. I will never stop. Because I was called a genius, I was worked hard to shine in the light. Because I was called a genius, I was in the end isolated from everyone else. But then, a chance appeared. A new home, a new place to be myself. I no longer needed to keep up this act. But that act was me now. And I sought the same attention as before, only that I was surrounded by people that were actual geniuses that my own ''genius''. These were people who have done the same as me and yet worked less for it. Therefore I wanted to lead them. Make myself larger than them, it was something I had always done and succeeded in but then failed the first time. My ego was shot down. It was as simple as that. I did not blame them, this was actually a good thing. I could be someone else now, I did not need to be in the light all the time, in fact it was better to stay in the shadows from now on. Only that someone else was better at it as well. Therefore I continued to work for myself, for that ego. Not that I knew that getting that ''Mark'' only made things harder for me. Talent? Effort? All of those things could just burn up for all I care! Such things were meaningless unless there was a reward for it, something I could show off with! And I knew how ugly this emotion was. This feeling called vain was. Therefore I wanted to start over, a new me. It was easy, using the excuse of the ''Mark'' I built a new self though at the same time knew that this vain of mine was the real me. And that my deepest emotion was to abandoned this and disappear completely. But I cannot, I did not want to no one, I wanted to be someone and if I ran from all of this, no matter how far I ran, nothing would change, no it would only get worse. I would abandon others for myself if I did this. That was something I, as one who worked hard all my life could not do. It was simply that I too worked hard on this relationship with the others. Friends or foes they were, we were always together in the end. Friends forever? Maybe not. But comrades forever? That was indeed possible. And with joining a guild, I had so many more comrades as well, even though I only met with a small portion of them. Most of them seemed to be travelling around the place doing stuff. Each of them seemed powerful and I was excited on when I would get to that level. It was not simply vain that I wanted to be as strong as them. It was more that I wanted to slay monsters like people in legends. Such things weren''t easy to come by even for me. However seeing those three, I realised that my efforts will never reach their level. They were powerful to such an extent that I knew no number of effort or talent anyone else could process could match them. It would not be wrong to call them broken cheat characters. But that was fine. It would be strange if there weren''t people like that, people that no other can touch. But at the same time, a fire was lit inside of me. A fire that was waiting to be lit up for a long time. Yes, this feeling was something called joy. The joy in getting stronger, to see your hard work pay off as you sliced the head off an enemy or when you can battle people at speeds that make everything else blur. It is because of this, I have been addicted to battles. The trill of it was something that I could not get enough up. To fight and to get stronger were two things are were a part of each other. And the best thing about it was that the others seemed to be the same as me. All of them wanted to be stronger for one reason or another. But to get stronger for the sake of getting stronger? Perhaps only I had that kind of feeling in this group. But even so, I feel that something is missing. Something that is important that would allow me to flare up greater than ever. I do not know what it is. But it makes me sad that I am missing it. Whether it is love, hate or revenge, I do not know what it is I need. And because of this, I will continue to laugh, hiding that something is wrong. That something is missing from me. Am I human...or a puppet of my own expectations? A Fearful Nightmare From the start, it seemed that I lacked the shining the presence that others seemed to have naturally. However that was fine. Even though strangers soon forgot me, my parents never did. That is, not intentionally. As I grew this problem only increased. There were times where I skipped a meal thanks to this and I saw the distress of my parent''s face as they realised this as well. But at the same time, it was the thing that allowed me to live. They forgot me. That will never change. But at the same time, they died at the incident as well. Something that will never change as well. And I lived thanks to that. Therefore I had mixed feelings on why I was still alive. On one hand, I lived due to not being there but at the same time it hurt me greatly in my heart that my own parents forgot about me even if it was for a second. And on another hand if I was there with them, I would have died and nothing would happen then. But would it be so bad for me to end like that? Such suicidal thoughts were immediately planted in my mind thanks to this. However soon I was faced with another situation. It was the fact that I no longer had no support in my life, otherwise known as orphanage life. It did not help that my condition made it near impossible for me to be close to anyone with an attention span with only a few minutes. Such was the defect of children and adults that would presumably more attentive weren''t much better as well. However life continued for me even if people were unintentionally forgetting me. I had many friends. It was just that I doubt they would remember me when we would change classes every year. This continued even to my high school years. Countless incidents where I was forgotten and something happened was recorded. Hell even a rumour of the disappearing boy was created due to me. What I knew was that I was very surprise that someone, someone I didn''t even know called for me telling me that I was to be accepted in this rich family. I thought it was too good to be true. And it was, there were five other people with me over there. Two of them were guys, one average looking and one good looking which made him hate him more than I should thanks to that. Compared to that, the three girls, one was cold like ice, one was small as hell and the last was a puffed up balloon of ego and self confidence. Not exactly the best impression on them all. As such I decided to keep to myself for the most part. It seemed like the perfect idea for the moment and it was indeed the right idea. However later on...bit by bit I started to open up but not too much. Started to talk more. The reason was more than simple to me. I did not want to be forgotten as they were slowly doing with me not making my presence on them. However it was extremely hard to do when your role was to sneak around the place without other people knowing. It was also strange that I was really good at this in battle. Most of the time, even monsters ignored me for the others which made it very easy to kill the or land a critical hit. However with the addition of the ''Mark'' strangely enough, for better or worse, it became harder and harder to hide myself from the others. However hiding from monsters and the like were still the same. It looked like I was making a large impression on them. But at the same time my relationship with them went for the worse. At least for the girls at least. One of them loathes his attitude, one of them loathes his mouth and one of them was scared of him now. However even those relationship mended themselves somewhat with time. Even if it ended up with some permanent relationship damage between myself and them for the most part. At least the trust issue did not lead to them stabbing me somewhere while I wasn''t looking. But aside from that, I recently noticed another problem here. That is, my presence was slowly slipping again. Even in this game, it had decided that others would soon forget about him, even if it were those I wished to not disappear upon. I do not want to disappear. I do not want them to forget about me. It is something that I didn''t want to happen even if I died. For to me, being forgotten is something I find worse than death now as it was to my parents. I did not want to be that dream that you could not exactly remember. I am afraid of that outcome. Therefore I wanted to plant my presence, my existence onto others, even if it means playing the bad guy to some of them. My mouth wasn''t that bad, from what I knew I knew what ticked people off and usually avoided them but at the same time, I knew how to intentionally tick people off to make sure my presence was known to them. Though I felt slightly sick doing this. I believe the two guys knew of this. They didn''t comment on my bad mouth, mostly due to one day me sharing that fear with them, else they figured it out on their own. The average looking one knew the mind and heart quite well. While the silent one knew the emotional states of other people quite well. But the girls...for as sensitive they were to some things, they were completely clueless about this. Well it was not like I cared, as long as they remembered me it was all fine to me, even if they resent me and rather not have me there at all. But at the same time...sometimes I get these nightmares. Nightmares that scare me more than anything. A world where I was forgotten once again. A world where I did not exist. I would be more free than anyone else, yes but at the same time I would be more lonely. That was something that I cannot endure. And so I act this way, in due course because of that fear. I wish to become stronger in order to make myself harder to forget. They say it was hard to forgot someone strong. I take that to heart and wish myself to be stronger than before. But until then, until the time when that can happen, I am content on my current position. I am content that I exist in their hearts at least. Else the nightmares will come back. I do not want to be forgotten.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7000~ - This is something I decided to do since I felt that the characterisation of the MCs was a bit lacking even though it is 6 volumes in now. I have actions but individual thoughts on some of the more personal things was hard to do when you are trying to focus on six people at once. This is a slightly outline of the thoughts the MCs had at some time near the end of the second Arc. - Also I was meaning to split this into 6 parts, once for each but decided to out them all in one. Arc 3 Prologue - The Appearance of a King Weed looked up at the being that was known as the Warrior King, a being according to the quest known as ''The Trial of the Emperor'' that needs to be slain in order to complete. This was a quest that determined whether decades of work would be allowed to exist or not. Releasing his presence among the survivors, there were only ten left after all; the Warrior King descended further from the sky and onto the ground on even footing. Now was the chance, if he would battle now and slay him, the quest would end. But what was with this immeasurable presence he was feeling? It was on the same level as those three-no even higher. Weed was extremely tense right now prepared for a fight in an instant. ¡°Calm thy self o Emperor of this land¡± said the Warrior King. His voice had a refreshing feeling to it but that only caused Weed, who saw through all deception realise that this appearance was a mask. The Warrior King was a being that took delight in battle. But things had a process and now Weed needed to get to the next part of the quest. He placed a proper mask known as a rotten smile on his face and looked at the Warrior King. ¡°Are you the one called the Warrior King?¡± Weed asked the man in golden lion armour. Oh how much he wanted to take that armour for himself to sell, it must be made with something expensive so even if he smelts it... ¡°Yes I am and according to the contract I have made with the Gods, I am to battle thy to determine whether thy are worthy of the prised Divine Fragment that holds part of the powers of the God. An item that is capable to reverse time and repair anything and everything; that was thy choice of item to obtain in this trial correct?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Upon the start of this long and troublesome quest that was ranked above ''S'', Weed had the choice of over a dozen items, all beyond rare to obtain if he were to complete it. Some of which included legendary weapons that would give him unparalleled powers or armours that gave near invincible protection. Such things interested him but the Divine Fragment was simply worth more than any of the other items. Even items destroyed can be recovered with it though you need the proper mana to use it at a high rate. He had a plan for that as well....though the other side wouldn''t be happy. Weed took a glance at Eden, Alexandra and Viv. All three of them were definitely not weaker than him. And they were not allies at all but rather closer to enemies in terms of using each other, to exploit each other. ¡°So should we fight you now or give you time to prepare? Your three servants were taken out by us after all¡± said Weed in a loud confidence voice, ¡°I would gladly take some treasures from you if it means to give you a bit of time to mourn.¡± A wicked smile went on Weed''s face. He would try and get money no matter the situation, even now! However the Warrior King simply smile and raised his hand and let out three streams of light that went to the bodies of his servants and in the next second their bodies were recovered, floating in front of him. With another flash of light, the three servants, Arthur, Kyoshiro and Solomon were revived. ¡°Ah...so we were revived¡± said Solomon looking at his body. The other two did the same and looked at the Warrior King. ¡°What is it that you wish my king?¡± they all asked at once in a respectful tone to him. Everyone in the room held their weapons tightly again. It took the lives of most of them to even take them out and now they were revived? What nonsense was this, was what Weed was thinking, a quest that would revive the powerful minions along side giving you the final boss? ¡°Ahhh~~~~ what about a light sparing match for now?¡± The Warrior King let out a yawn which Weed had to admit pissed him off. He was taking them lightly. ¡°Thunder Birds!¡± Weed shouted taking the first strike in this battle. Birds of Thunder formed and shot at the Warrior King. The three servants did not move to defend at all... BANG! With a wave of his hand, the Warrior King easily deflected the attacks which once again landed on his palace which made him groan in the thoughts of the repair fees. ¡°Tch.¡± Weed expected this, and he used short distance teleportation, ''Blink'' while temporary transforming using Sculpture Transformation to appear behind the Warrior King and attacked from there. His form changed into the form of a large Chaos Warrior! His health, strength and speed increased greatly due to this! ¡°Triple!¡± Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Even though he called the skill ''Triple'' it could go up to twelve hits at once. His ability on using the skill was so high that it pushed the skill to this point. However Weed felt annoyed that the armour that the Warrior King wore completely negated the damage in his attacks. Else there was something else in place here that negated his attacks. Weed had experienced this before in the past against certain enemies. ¡°Charge!¡± ¡°Kill them!¡± ¡°Attack!¡± But at the same time, the rest of the players with him attacked the Warrior King at once. The Warrior King''s three servants moved in as well this time as well to battle them. ¡°¡°¡°You will not disturb the King!¡±¡±¡± They chanted that all at once like loyal subjects. Weed was disappointed that he couldn''t convert them into his own men. They would be worth as much as most of the top players together. ¡°Coming through!¡± shouted a man(?) charging through the three while using ''blink'' as well. Weed envied that person to be able to use that skill, or one similar to it without needing to turn into a Chaos Warrior. However without using ''blink'' the others were unable to get through the three enemies blocking their way no matter what. It seemed that they had placed some sort of barrier that blocked all physical means of getting through. Because of this, only the one called Eden could help him now surrounding himself with a Golden Battle Aura and clashed with the Warrior King in front as Weed clashed with him in the back. ¡°Kaiser Sword!¡± ¡°Heavenly Slash!¡± Both Weed and Eden used their skills at once sending blue light and golden light at the Warrior King on both sides. BANG! BANG! Both their attacks hit the Warrior King but it seemed that this was negated as well. Ignoring this, Weed continued to attack and Eden did the same as well. For another few seconds, 5 seconds in total, the Warrior King continued to block and dodge their attacks as they were using ''blink'' to teleport around him and attack in all directions. ¡°Time Sculpturing!¡± Weed slowed down the time around him, at the same time it seemed that Eden also had a time manipulation skill as well, he must make sure that Eden is in his debt after this. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. As both of time with the world around them slowed down was about to hit the Warrior King with their attacks, time started flowing the same again at the same moment! ¡°Wha?¡± Taking them by surprise, the Warrior King attacked both of them at the same time when they were attacking from opposite directions. Eden was kicked away while Weed managed to block the swing of an arm that came his way. The negation ability he had had a cool down which meant he wasn''t invincible! Furthermore it seemed to only affect skills and spells. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Eden covered his fist in fire and punched the Warrior King to test this theory. The Warrior King used his negation ability again and that flames disappeared. Rather than negating attacks itself, it was more like negating skills and spells from working. Plus it seemed the Warrior King''s negation skill had a lower cool down than he thought or it''s cool down depended on the level of attack that he negated. Which mean... Weed stopped using his skills and focused on pure swordplay. Bang Bang Bang Bang...! His sword was like a snake in that it twisted and turned in unexpected ways going pass the defences of the Warrior King to hit him. He took out another weapon and dual wielded it against the Warrior King. However strangely enough, Weed noticed that Eden was doing the opposite of him and was trying to overwhelm the Warrior King using a massive amount of skills and spells at once. ¡°Gravity Hell!¡± Eden chanted causing the space around the Warrior King to be press down. Weed was forced to retreat due to that but realised that there was this strange energy coming out of the Warrior King. It was no energy he heard up, he wondered if he could by chance acquire it. ¡°That is enough¡± said the Warrior King. He sent out a wave of that energy which stopped the spell Eden casted around him. Next a large amount of pressure came from that body, causing Weed to back away even more feeling that even one step closer to him meant death. That was how fearsome the Warrior King''s true power was. He didn''t even attack and he was much stronger than a near level 900 player by simply defending himself. Was this being level 1000? Or even higher? Can the level you have get higher than that? ¡°....¡± The Warrior King motioned and the three servants returned to his side. ¡°Reviving you three took a lot of energy¡± he said to them in a calm voice that ignored everyone else, ¡°As such it will take me some time to recover to my full strength.¡± The three hunched their heads lower hearing this. To be told that put shame to their pride though it was all their fault to begin with. The Warrior King moved his head and looked at Weed and said, ¡°I will be at the place that exist between past and present, between illusion and reality. Come if you wish to strike me down while I am recovering else I will fully recover.¡± ¡°And there will be no hope for you.¡± The two looked at each other, the Warrior King was looking down on him! Him of all things! Weed immediately knew that this battle was over and that the next battle would be over there where the Warrior King dictates the rules. The Warrior King looked at Eden next and then revealed a sword. Even Weed could not help but to be completely absorbed in looking at that sword. It was so majestic and powerful like it supported an entire Kingdom itself on it''s own! He wanted that sword no matter what! It was even more superior than the Helium Sword that he had which was made by a Grandmaster Blacksmith. That was how powerful it was! A divine sword could not simply describe it. However Weed saw that there was fear on Eden''s face, paled as he looked at that sword. Eden managed to stumble out the words, ¡°You...that sword...how...?¡± as if he remembered it from before. The Warrior King made the sword disappear and then said with a solemn expression, ¡°Thy am a failure that could not become as great as llyfr. Thy could only be a mere Warrior King.¡± He looked up in the skies in sorrow as he spoke. ¡°In the end there was no greater king as him...even now and for the rest of eternity, he remains as the sole Hero King that later fell to become a Tyrannical Magic King like yourself. Facing his back to the Gods.¡± ¡°....¡± With those words the Warrior King and his three Fallen Warriors left the space in the Imperial Palace as if they teleported. However rather being a teleport spell...it was more like space was being controlled in it''s raw form. The battle ended, it was a failure. They could not avoid the months and possibly years this quest could drag on with. Weed felt chills thinking about the battle that will come. Even the quest to slay the Embinyu Church''s God was merely an S rank quest. As this was a Double S rank quest, it would mean the level of destruction that would be caused if failed to be larger than the continent itself! However at the same time, they knew of the appearance of the Warrior King now, some of his powers and maybe ways to take him down. He needed a weapon that could cut through that armour of his. He would need to request information from a God on that matter, most likely from the God that represented Blacksmithing. He would need to use his connection to the dwarves for that. This was going to be a long quest, it has been a long quest already. Even a few months or perhaps years would no matter that much. In the end, Weed wondered who or what llyfr was. Eden seemed to know but did not ask since he did not want to step on a landmine and make him an enemy yet. But in the end he thought of the costs of repairing the palace after this... ¡°I shall increase the taxes by 1% to compensate for this¡± he determined, no one would complain if he pocketed some extra gold here and there.
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Author''s Notes: - This is a bit different from the other Arc Prologues, simply due to that this is an extension of the last Arc. Really this originally should have been done at the beginning of volume 6. And now I have three more volumes to play around with. - The Warrior King is NOT Gilgamesh. He''s not as cocky for starters....well I have him a negation ability but no idea on what else he could have...hmm..how to make him overpowered but to the point he can be beaten... Vol.7 Prologue - Their Meeting Once Again Eden looked around with a sigh. He did not expect to see ''that'' there especially since it should have been destroyed already. Did the Gods reforge that sword then? That sword which represented their combined power? That sword that llyfr once used. Against that weapon, it was impossible to win...unless. ¡°A replica then...?¡± he wondered. ¡°A what replica?¡± asked Alexandra who he didn''t realise was behind him. She toyed with his hair for a bit before asking, ¡°What''s eating you this time?¡± ¡°Long story¡± he replied. Alexandra pouted and said, ¡°Everything is a long story to you. It takes forever for you to explain what is happening that you are not pleased.¡± ¡°Because it takes that long to explain it. Besides I''m not as simple as you, which is why having you around makes me happy.¡± With those words, Alexandra smiled and with a thump on her chest, she said, ¡°Those words just earned you some good food made my me!¡± Eden laughed and said, ¡°All food that you made are good.¡± ¡°Even the pig feet?¡± she wondered. ¡°....Maybe¡± He was not going to answer that because it was likely that it will be served to him later on if he did. Soon enough Viv came to them waiting for them to finish their moment. The moment Eden was about to teleport them away, Weed walked up to him and looked him in the eyes. ¡°What is it? If it is about the Warrior King, we will help you deal with him but it''s going to take time. Even I don''t know where the hell he ran off to¡± said Eden addressing that issue. However it seemed like that was not the topic on his mind as Weed asked, ¡°Who or what is this ''llyfr''?¡± ¡°....¡± Eden took a moment to summarise his feelings about that. And in the end he answered, ¡°An old friend. Anything else?¡± Weed gave an evil smile to that and asked immediately, ¡°Just the costs of-¡± ¡°Gotta go!¡± Eden hurried more than ever to teleport out of there without thinking that he accidentally set the course to a place that he had no step foot in for 3 years... xXx Appearing with a flash of blue light; Eden, Alexandra and Viv appeared in the middle of the room which surprised the group at the very least. It was the first time they saw those three together. ¡°Eh?¡± Eden looked around confused on something but Sain did not know what. ¡°What''s going on?¡± asked Miriel to Alena but there was no response from her. All there was was, too a shocked expression on her face. Eden took a look at them with a serious and cold look and pointed at Alena and Sain and said, ¡°You two come with me, the rest of you stay¡± in a commanding voice. ¡°....¡± However while Sain was about to do so, Alena recovered from seeing them so suddenly and placed her hands on her hips and said, ¡°Well nice to see you again too dad¡± with a pouting face. Seeing this, Eden''s serious and cold face softened as Alexandra ran and hugged Alena''s child in her arms. Everyone looked to see what was going on there. ¡°Ahh!¡± the child let out a shocked voice as Alexandra proceeded to rub her face to his, saying, ¡°To think my cute little grand kid would grow up so fast~!¡± However she suddenly stopped with that child trying to escape from Alexandra''s arms and muttered, ¡°Those words really make me sound old....¡± ¡°You are old¡± confirmed Viv though he added, ¡°We have been living in this world for more than a hundred years and are part of the ''Beginning Generation'' of players as well.¡± ¡°He has a point¡± said Eden from the side as well, ¡°Both of us are grandparents as well since a few years ago as well you know. You think you could go retire and start something like knitting?¡± Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.Alexandra sent a glare at Eden as she placed the child back to the ground where he immediately ran to hug Alena who picked him up. Viv turned to the group noticing them and said in a polite manner and said, ¡°It''s been a while.¡± Serena nodded and said, ¡°It has been¡± with a smile. Serena liked Viv more than the other two since he was more similar to her in several ways. ¡°Ah¡± Alexandra also realised the existence of the group in the room and said, ¡°Hey~! It''s been a while~¡± in a casual wave as well. ¡°We saw you yesterday in class¡± said Lyndis with a laugh. ¡°Still been a while¡± Alexandra pointed out. Seeing there was literally nothing going on, Sain asked, ¡°Why are you three here anyway?¡± ¡°Hmm? Did you hear that we reached level 200 a bit back?¡± asked Lyndis at the same time. ¡°Level 200?¡± Alexandra was a bit surprise and said, ¡°That means you can take your 2nd Class Advancement then.¡± ¡°Damn that means more work to be done...¡± muttered Eden with a sigh though Alena reputed him saying, ¡°You mean more work to push onto me?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway this is a good thing since there is going to be a lot more work going on around here. You six after finishing your class advancement will be promoted to regular members of the guild. Damn why the hell did I become a chairman of a school and enrol you lot in it?¡± Eden said with a sigh. Alexandra comforted Eden with the words, ¡°Because it felt like the right thing to do at the time. Especially when the circumstances were so.¡± ¡°Enough of that¡± said Alena, ¡°I want to know more on ho-¡± Bang! The door opened and suddenly two people entered while speaking at the same time. Everyone looked to see who would dare do this at this moment. ¡°Sis! I''m back!¡± said the woman with silver hair with a slight blue colour mixed to it as well. Alena had a happy look on her face seeing this person. She had a petite like face but her figure was similar to Eden''s. She was wearing tight leather gear so you could see the curves on her body. ¡°It''s been a while Sis¡± said Alena with a grin, the woman pinched her child''s nose a bit as well before hugging Alena. ¡°Alena is little Ares growing up fine? I hope he remembers his dad''s face!¡± said the man that was a head taller than the woman. He had a handsome look with his brown hair cruel cut but had several scars on his face which left him with a veteran look. His was wearing the standard set of guard armour with some differences. Alena laughed hearing those words as she with Risene still hugging her, jumped into his arms with her child named Ares in her arms as well. It was hugception over there. Soon enough the hugs were over as the two new people looked around in the room which was dead silent right now. Both of them paused in place seeing so many people in the room. Especially Eden and the woman in question. ¡°Risene...¡± Eden muttered with some strange pain in him seeing that person in front of him. Risene stunned seeing Eden for the first time in years also muttered, ¡°Mum....¡±
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Author''s Notes: - Finally up to volume 7...I will try to make it all connect together later...need to start planning out this volume will turn out Vol.7 Chapter 1 - The Second Trial ¡°Mum....¡± said Risene emotionally looking at Eden. Seeing Risene, his daughter Risene who processed similar looks to that ''Risene'' and practically the same ''soul'' as her, Eden made a pain expression. She would be around the same age as ''her'' when ''she'' died. Eden sighed and said, ¡°Told you not to call me that¡± before trying to leave through the door. However Risene moved in the way blocking his path out. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± As the two looked at each other for a moment, Risene quickly panicked to her earlier words and in a quick fashion said, ¡°Sorry, got used to calling you that in public that it kinda stuck. I get strange looks when I call you Dad....though still strange looks when I call you Mum since you look so young.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Dad it has been three years since I''ve seen you¡± she said softy before trying to hug him. However Eden stopped her with a hand and said in a slightly emotionless tone, ¡°The report on the investigation of the Serbian Valleys in Kallamore...I will read it later.¡± With a stunned Risene and no one in his way, Eden almost ran out of the room in extreme speeds. ¡°What....just happened?¡± asked the man who was Alena''s husband and went by the name of Daten who looked at all of this confused. From what he remembered, those two had a good relationship at least for as long as he knew them. They were a perfectly good father and daughter pair...who at the same time looked at similar ages that they could be called sisters instead. ¡°It''s a long story¡± said Alena. She continued saying, ¡°Relationship between the two have been very rough for a long time now. Dad is ignoring her while Sis is trying to get his attention no matter what. We have no idea why, mum knows of course.¡± Daten nodded and understood that this was a complicated matter that he should not get into. But for now he took Ares, his son into his arms and lifted him up in the air. He was just happy to see his family again. ¡°Well I will leave it to you since I don''t want to die a painful death for sticking my nose in too much on this¡± said Daten with Alena nodding, understanding. But at the same time, he knew not to interfere with family issues especially when he had to do with one overprotective parent named Eden. Even more so since that same Eden was more secretive than anyone else he knew. Even as a Captain Commander for the guards of this city, it knew next to nothing of his work or movements. ¡°Sigh...¡± Moving along Alena patted Risene on the shoulder and said in encouragement, ¡°At least this this time he looked and talked to you instead of completely ignoring your existence.¡± ¡°Sis....¡± said Risene and asked, ¡°How do I fix this?¡± in a pleading tone. Her current appearance was one that made anyone heart''s ache to see how much in pain she was. ¡°You simply can''t since it is not your fault¡± said Alexandra coming up on them, ¡°Its that idiot''s own fault.¡± ¡°Mum....¡± said Risene seeing Alexandra again in years too like Eden. ¡°And I thought you would call me Dad since ''Mum'' seems to have been taken. That way I can, at least tell that damn idiot that he has that feminine glow¡± Alexandra replied with a grin. Risene managed a small laugh thanks to that. However Alexandra looked serious as she looked at the opened door. ¡°All the hugs and sweet talks can come later Risene, I have to find Eden before he completely disappears again. When he wants to, literally no one can find him¡± said Alexandra before rushing out to find Eden as well. ¡°See you later!¡± Alexandra shouted as she left in a sprint as well. ¡°Hmm?¡± It was then when Alena was still comforting Risene, Daten went over to introduce himself to the group. ¡°Hello I am the Captain Commander of this city, Daten¡± he said with a smile, ¡°I don''t recall Alena telling me anything about you all...though I was gone for several years so...haha.¡± He made that laugh while scratching his head. He really did not know what to do here. His wife seemed to know them, but he didn''t so he didn''t know what to say. ¡°Now you are...?¡± he asked since that was the first thing that popped in his mind. The child named Ares interrupted and pointed at group one by one and introduced them in a cute voice. ¡°Lyndis! Raven! Serena! Sain! Miriel! Shadow!¡± He then turned around and pointed to Alena and said, ¡°Mama!¡± then to Risene, ¡°Aunty!¡± which was surprising and then to Daten who was in anticipation but paused and tilted his head confused and asked, ¡°Who?¡± ¡°Who?!¡± Daten had several black lines drop down his head and then dropped to his knees muttering something about how it has been so long and how it was understandable that this would happen. ¡°Hahaha, looks like little Ares doesn''t remember you then~ That''s for not being here for the last 2 years!¡± Alena said in a triumphant voice over Daten which caused him to only be more depressed. It seemed that Alena was the more dominant one in this relationship. Though the group did not know that it was polar opposite years ago... ''This family seems to be very lively...'' thought Sain seeing them though at the same time had a strange ache in him. A family. Certain he thought he had one but seeing the actual real thing in front of him again...made him feel like he was missing something. Certainly the others felt the same way as well. Abandoned, lost, they all desired one thing which was why they all accepted to be adopted when the time came though it was unexpected at the very least. However now was not the time to play on these kinds of emotions. There was a time and place for everything and doing so not was certainly not the time or place at all. ¡°Daten¡± said Viv walking up to them, ¡°It has been a while.¡± Daten moved his head to look at Viv and said a slightly more cheerful and respectful tone, ¡°Yes it has been a while. Two or three years in fact since Ares was born.¡± ¡°Yes¡± Viv nodded and looked at the group and then said, ¡°I need to talk to these guys for a bit concerning their 2nd Class Advancement since they are part of the guild.¡± ¡°Part of the guild?¡± Daten looked at them shocked, ¡°Didn''t father in law say that...¡± ¡°There was no chance of finding anyone else good enough in time?¡± Viv finished the sentence with a smile and further said, ¡°But he couldn''t refuse the request of Gen and the others back at Witchelm City.¡± It was then that Lyndis interrupted then blurting out, ¡°Wait, our masters requested for Eden to let us in the guild?!¡± Viv looked puzzled and said, ¡°You did not know?¡± Lyndis shook her head and the rest of the group did as well. They did not know this was a good thing or a bad thing at all to join this guild. But from the benefits they got for the last two years, Sain determined it was a good thing. In three years, all of them reached level 200, had most of their skills in the intermediate level with Shadow reaching the Advanced Level for his ''stealth'' skill which was more than surprising. In all, it took them a quarter of a year in real life, 9 months to do all of this. Usually it takes the average player a full year in real life or 4 years in game to do the same. However Sain knew that there were players that took only 6 months, or 2 years in game to do the same as well and some even lower. ¡°Well now you know. Let us get something to eat at a restaurant then. This place isn''t exactly a good place to discuss with right now¡± said Viv taking a glance at Risene. The group nodded and followed Viv as they left. There were no introductions from Risene to them as they left. xXx Walking along, none of them spoke a word at all. Viv seemed to be in a bad mood but they did not know the reason for this. However what they did know was that Viv was letting off a terrifying aura around him. As such, even the people on the street stopped all chatter as they passed. However when they did, whispers came about from behind. Such comments on how menacing the aura Viv gave off, comments on the equipment he wore which were clearly all first class and comments on them as well. In the two years they had been here, they had been known for several things. Competent in what they do, Friend of the Smiling Devil and the New Golden Nests. They had gather much respect as they were known to dive into dungeons up to 50 levels above them and also gathered much envy as well. The fact that they knew Alena was enough to deter anyone. If it was known they knew Eden as well, as infamous he was in some circles, people would run away from them which would be a troublesome things at the very least. At least Sain thought so, he had no idea what the others thought at all. Soon enough they entered this half run down building which was otherwise known as a Ramen Store. All of them sat on the counter at the same time and ordered something to eat. As they waited for the meal, Viv as expected said, ¡°From the facts, it remains that you are now level 200. Congratulations and welcome to the mid game though it''s too bad Eden and Al can''t do the same right now due to...family issues.¡± ¡°We noticed¡± said Shadow bluntly. He had four people, namely Sain, Miriel, Serena and Lyndis in that order to shield him from Viv''s wrath if it comes to that. However that didn''t seem to affect anything since Viv let out a tiny bit of murderous intentions to Shadow which almost caused him to leap away, out of the Ramen store. ¡°Anyway I wish to see your status windows if you please¡± he ordered with the group agreeing unconditionally. Normally this act was only done for those you trust especially well, even members in guild may not give each other their status windows if they do not want to. However the group fully trust Viv and the other two guildmasters as they invested too much in them to throw them away. [quart=Race: Human,Race: Human]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 200,Level: 200]Class: Shaman,Class: Rogue[/quart][quart=Title: Unexpected Leader,Title: Silent Stalker]Fame: 985,Fame: 870[/quart][quart=Health: 7655,Health: 7505]Mana: 3271,Mana: 1239[/quart][quart=Strength: 255 +30,Strength: 271 +46]Agility: 280 +60,Agility: 723 +70[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 249 +24,Intelligence: 15 +13]Wisdom: 289 +48,Wisdom: 15 +13[/quart][quart=Vitality: 254 +13,Vitality: 244 +13]Stamina: 113 +16,Stamina: 155 +16[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 78 +21,Fighting Spirit: 89 +21]Endurance: 47 +13,Endurance: 53 +13[/quart][quart=Leadership: 34 +33,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 9 +13,Luck: 35+23[/quart][quart=Offense: 300,Offense: 320]Defence: 81,Defence: 50[/quart]
Status Window
SainShadow
[quart=Race: Human,Race: Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 200,Level: 200]Class: Shield Footman,Class: Sword Priest[/quart][quart=Title: Unmoving Tower,Title: Bomb Maniac]Fame: 860,Fame: 860[/quart][quart=Health: 13223,Health: 7708]Mana: 1294,Mana: 2614[/quart][quart=Strength: 480 +59,Strength: 467 +45]Agility: 300 +25,Agility: 325 +20[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 15 +18,Intelligence: 205 +41]Wisdom: 20 +18,Wisdom: 47 +16[/quart][quart=Vitality: 471 +58,Vitality: 245 +13]Stamina: 165 +21,Stamina: 120 +16[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 105 +26,Fighting Spirit: 95 +19]Endurance: 80 +38,Endurance: 50 +12[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5+18,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 5 +18,Luck: 7 +13[/quart][quart=Offense: 520,Offense: 495]Defence: 430,Defence: 86[/quart]
Status Window
RavenLyndis
[quart=Race: Night Elf,Race: Half-Elf]Type: Neutral,Type: Neutral[/quart][quart=Level: 200,Level: 200]Class: Magician Bard,Class: Druid[/quart][quart=Title: Tournament Winner,Title: Born of Blood]Fame: 1075,Fame: 880[/quart][quart=Health: 2904,Health: 2690]Mana: 4784,Mana: 4352[/quart][quart=Strength: 30 +30,Strength: 29 +47]Agility: 254 +50,Agility: 261 +30[/quart][quart=Intelligence: 680 +59,Intelligence: 480 +23]Wisdom: 259 +35,Wisdom: 480 +48[/quart][quart=Fighting Spirit: 42 +28,Fighting Spirit: 32 +24]Endurance: 35 +23,Endurance: 35 +13[/quart][quart=Vitality: 35 +23,Vitality: 35 +13]Stamina: 80 +26,Stamina: 75 +28[/quart][quart=Leadership: 5 +23,Leadership: 5 +13]Luck: 5 +23,Luck: 7 +13[/quart][quart=Offense: 56,Offense: 59]Defence: 84,Defence: 59[/quart]
Status Window
MirielSerena
Concentration: 40 +22Concentration: 49 +13
The first thing Viv saw was that every last one of them had the same level which was surprising. ¡°We didn''t really know what to do after we hit level 200 so those who did stopped killing monsters to let the others catch up¡± explained Sain seeing this question on Viv''s face or rather Viv was pointing at it. Looking through it, Viv was slightly impressed as they didn''t do so bad as he thought. Due to the fact that they were at level 200, they had spent almost 1000 points into their characters, or to be precise 995 points exactly. But adding the points up roughly, you can see that their stats equal to around a level 300 who did not gain any stats at all instead of a level 200. They had an average of 1500~ combined stats due to training and this did not include the bonuses from their titles or otherwise. Though there were more variation where the two girl as pure magic users had less combined stats as the others and Sain the same by a bit as well. However to Viv, this was simply ''above average'' at best. The Gemchi at similar levels had stats that had a combined total of above 2000 while Weed was an even larger monster with combined stats at the same level of over 3000 and nearing 4000. (This is true, I calculated off the status windows they gave us in the LN for this. The Gemchis and Weed are monsters compared to my MCs) This was why Viv only considered them above average at best. But at the same time they certainly had higher stats than himself and Eden and Alexandra at the same level. Compared to them, the trio had even less stats than them, but at the same time this was due to the fact that it took them half a year in game to get to that point. While the group was at the same time was at the level 60 range, the trio in the past were in the level 200 range. The trio''s 6 months, no 20 weeks in this world in the past was only worth slightly less than the groups 3 years in terms of stats they gained. Plus the fact remained that the Trio did not know of the benefits of training to gain stats as well and did not spend months at end just to gain more stats. ¡°Hmm....seeing this, you guys are in the slow and steady group. Your foundations for the rest of the game will be rock solid which is a good thing even if your levelling speed is a bit slow¡± praised Viv. ¡°Wait, what do you mean by that?¡± asked Lyndis, ¡°Out levelling speed is a bit slow?¡± Viv nodded and said, ¡°There are many rankers that in the past only took a fraction of the time you did to get to level 200.¡± ¡°Then why didn''t you let us level up faster like them?! It would be easy to get stronger that way!¡± she said in a loud voice that almost catch the ears of other people if not for Miriel using ''Muffletone'' quickly. With a sigh of relief her casting was quick enough, Miriel reminded Lyndis with the same words that were said to her...well the same meaning at least. ¡°Foundations are everything but levels are not. You can lose levels but cannot lose the stats you gained otherwise with hard effort¡± Miriel said to Lyndis, ¡°Out of those who have levelled up quickly, how many remain to reach the higher levels where things get even more difficult?¡± ¡°Miriel is right you know¡± said Sain agreeing with it, ¡°There was a broadcast before on one of the T.V channels that does Royal Road stuff that said not even 10% of such players manage to break level 600 in the end.¡± Next to Lyndis, Shadow also added, ¡°If you wish to out level us, go ahead. Do not expect us to wait when we do later on.¡± Lyndis almost hit Shadow but at the last second realised he was making sure she did not screw up. He was caring for her...and the others at least, though in a twisted way. She let out a sigh and said with her head lowered, ¡°In the end we need to keep on training till the end then....¡± Thoughts of her past flashed back to her. It seemed like that kind of repeated effort was required in this game...though Lyndis could only think that the only good point was that she could see her efforts better than others... And that there were others with her doing the same time time. As this topic ended and Viv was about to go to the next point, the Ramen store owner brought out seven large bowls were placed in front of them. Viv thanked the owner and payed him and said, ¡°This place has pretty good food. Besides cooking yourself or letting Alena cook for you all the time, you should explore the city some more and eat at places like this.¡± ¡°....¡± The group did not comment but spent the next 10 minutes eating. While they struggled to eat one large bowl of Ramen, Viv ordered two more bowls and finished at the same time they them. The group wondered how and where all of that goes to with Viv eating so much. Seeing this expression, Viv simply said, ¡°Both Eden and Al eat more than me you know. I have been Al eat an entire bull once...and a large one as well.¡± ¡°....¡± The group did not know how to comment. ¡°But it was after she starved for a few days fighting and killing a really strong monster for a few days without end.¡± ¡°....¡± Once again the group could not comment. ¡°Anyway back to the point I was in¡± he said seeing the group had nothing to say, ¡°Given your stats and the fact that it is quite high, why not try to go the Beginner Training Centre and clear it when you have the time.¡± The Training Centres. It was a thing that everyone that was into fighting knew or at least heard of. There were four and a rumoured fifth training centre all around the continent. The first was the Basic Training Centre, focused on training stats alone. This was the most widely known one and most used as well. It is said that around 1% of all players cleared this. For a player base of billions, tens of billions, it means hundreds of millions of players have cleared this. However they were limited to those who wanted a way to get stronger, namely combat based players. Plus a large percentage of the higher levelled players finished this stage since the training centre would give you stats equal to 30 levels if you did. What was a month of training when it would otherwise take you half a year to do the same? The next stage was the Beginner Training Centre. More rare, it focuses on testing your skills and scales the enemies to your strength, meaning high levels makes it harder. At best, around a million or so players cleared this stage and gained the extra free skills this place gave you. It was a popular choice for martial arts frantics as it gave you the class an a unique skill of your choice as well. Next was the Intermediate Training Centre where there were only 12 of them in the whole continent. Only a small selection of players knew what it was about but it is said you gain several powerful skills and an important role in history if you finish it to the end. The last recognised and known one was the Advance Training Centre. It is said you need be be recognised by a master to even known the vague location, travel for months to reach that place. The ultimate test in stats, skills and wits which will grant you will gifts and treasures of the rarest kind. But that was not all. There was a rumoured Master Training Centre only for the strongest, a place where the greatest riches lie whether it be in weapon, armour or skills if you manage to pass it. That is if you can find it and even more challenging, clear it without dying for you only have one chance at it. The group did not know that the Trio once upon a time when they were bored out of their minds, quickly cleared the first two training centres, destroyed one of the towers for the third, made the master of the fourth cry and challenged and cleared the fifth all in a matter of a single day thanks to Eden teleporting them directly to each place. And in the end, they called meh to the rarest riches they got where others would have killed to have. But the group did not need to know that fact. ¡°Maybe later when we have the chance¡± said Sain, ¡°With still have to deal with out 2nd class advancement first.¡± ¡°You are correct¡± said Viv nodding in agreement, ¡°Now show me your skills.¡± He said that in such a way that one would pause to think of what he just said, but due to the chains of ranks between them plus that either way, he would know, Sain allowed Viv peak into their status windows as well. [third=Serena,Miriel]Lyndis[/third][third=- Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (35/100) - Nature Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (35/100) - Natural Ki Circulation Intermediate Level 1 (0/100) - Mediation Intermediate level 2 (49/100) - Mana Burst Intermediate level 1 (12/100) - Minor Health Regeneration Intermediate level 2 (670/2600) - Moderate Health Regeneration Intermediate level 1 (150/4300) - Minor Stamina Regeneration Intermediate level 1 (1551/2400) - Moderate Stamina Regeneration Intermediate level 1 (1650/4300) - Quicken Death Beginner level 1 (0/100) - Language Comprehension Beginner level 5 (23/100) - Blood Burst Intermediate level 1 (877/2500) - Root Bind Intermediate level 5 (522/3200) - Heartbeat Healing Intermediate level 2 (11/100) - Plant Botany Intermediate level 1 (14/100) - Poison Removal Intermediate Level 1 (8/100) - Health Restoration Intermediate Level 1 (15/100) - Poison Coating Intermediate Level 1 (167/900) - Blessing of Strengthened Night Beginner (10935/100 000) - Blessing of Invisible Torments Beginner (9234/100 000) - Blessing of Eternal Suns Beginner (3743/100 000) - Leaf Slicer Intermediate Level 3 (221/2900) - Beast Transformation Art (Proficiency: Low),- Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 4 (9/100) - Whip Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (54/100) - Illusion Magic Mastery Intermediate 1 (32/100) - Sound Magic Mastery Intermediate 1 (22/100) - Barrier Magic Mastery Intermediate 1 (32/100) - Ice Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (23/100) - Magic Control Mastery Intermediate 2 (52/100) - Ice Mana Circulation Intermediate Level 1 (0/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 6 (70/100) - Mediation Intermediate level 3 (52/100) - Identify Intermediate level 1 (62/100) - Mana Bolt Intermediate level 1 (152/2400) - Cracked Barrier Intermediate level 1 (1020/2400) - Fortified Barrier Beginner Level 9 (333/3700) - Ice Barrier Intermediate Level 1 (191/2500) - Ice Bolt Intermediate Level 6 (460/3400) - Ice Burst Intermediate Level 1 (345/2500) - Glacier Strike Intermediate Level 1 (931/2500) - Freeze Intermediate Level 1 (111/2500) - Clairvoyance Intermediate level 1(1056/2500) - Melody of Sound Intermediate level 2 (730/2700) - Shriek Intermediate level 1 (299/3000) - Sound Tunes Variation Intermediate Level 1 (110/2500) - Muffletone Beginner Level 4 (43/700) - Barrier Queen Art (Proficiency: Low)]- Sword Mastery Intermediate 3 (22/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Intermediate Level 2 (58/100) - Fire Blood Circulation Intermediate Level 1 (0/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 6 (28/100) - Bandaging Intermediate Level 3 (42/100) - Sword Dance Intermediate Level 1 (211/3000) - Power Strike Intermediate level 2 (1440/2600) - Speed Strike Intermediate level 2 (1470/2600) - Power Stance Intermediate level 2 (1460/2600) - Speed Stance Intermediate level 1 (1310/2400) - Precision Stance Intermediate level 1 (1355/2400) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 6 (154/900) - Flame Strike Intermediate Level 1 (1523/2400) - Burning Touch Intermediate Level 1 (822/2500) - Fire Blade Intermediate level 4 (873/3000) - Life Burn Beginner level 7 (410/1100) - Fire Bomb Intermediate Level 2 (513/2600) - Flame Coating Intermediate Level 1 (1238/2500) - Dragon Dance Art (Proficiency: Low)[/third]
Skill Window
[third=Raven,Shadow]Sain[/third][third=- Spear Mastery Intermediate Level 3 (14/100) If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.- Shield Mastery Intermediate Level 4 (55/100) - Bright Aura Circulation Intermediate Level 1 (0/100) - Repair Intermediate level 1 (72/3500) - Blacksmithing Beginner Level 6 (12/100) - Shield Bash Intermediate level 2 (121/2400) - Ram Intermediate level 1 (15/100) - Double Strike Intermediate level 2 (1353/2600) - Footwork Intermediate level 2 (1244/2600) - Shield Parry Intermediate level 1 (61/2400) - Spear Parry Intermediate level 1 (657/2400) - Body Reinforcement Intermediate level 4 (15/3100) - Anchor Howl Intermediate Level 1 (1240/3000) - Meteor Stream Art (Proficiency: Low),- Dagger Mastery Intermediate 4 (11/100) - Stealth Advance Level 1 (11/100) - Dark Mist Circulation Intermediate Level 1 (0/100) - Hearing Intermediate level 3 (69/100) - Pin Point Hearing Intermediate Level 1 (36/100) - Dark Vision Intermediate level 1 (45/100) - Night Vision Intermediate level 1 (98/100) - Locate Trap Beginner level 7 (55/100) - Disarm Trap Beginner level 7 (52/100) - Backstab Intermediate level 2 (1881/2600) - Double Strike Intermediate level 1 (1674/2400) - Climbing Intermediate Level 2 (19/100) - Become Mist Beginner level 4 (26/100) - Burst Speed Intermediate level 4 (225/3000) - Shadow Step Intermediate Level 1 (2127/2400) - Plant Botany Beginner level 5 (14/100) - Divine Shadow Art (Proficiency: Low)]- Compressed Magic Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (65/100) - Mana Control Intermediate Level 3 (15/100) - Spear Mastery Intermediate Level 1 (52/100) - Violent Energy Circulation Intermediate Level 1 (0/100) - Identify Intermediate level 1 (20/100) - Party Scan Beginner level 7 (50/100) - Mana Bolt Intermediate level 3 (455/2800) - Magic Arrow Intermediate level 4 (1923/3000) - Paralyse Shot Intermediate Level 1 (232/1500) - Poison Shot Intermediate Level 1 (279/1500) - Mediation Intermediate level 1 (8/100) - Summon Familiar Beginner level 5 (104/900) - Wolf Summoning Beginner level 5 (47/100) - Minor Heal Intermediate level 4 (1522/3000) - Moderate Heal Beginner Level 9 (2215/4100) - Weaken Intermediate level 2 (1046/2600) - Iron Skin Intermediate Level 1 (15/100) - Swift Legs Intermediate Level 1 (15/100) - Berserk Fury Intermediate Level 1 (15/100) - Bursting Will Intermediate level 1 (50/100) - Water Fill Intermediate Level 3 (164/3400) - Poison Removal Intermediate Level 1 (21/100) - Evil Rule Art (Proficiency: Low)[/third]
Skill Window
¡°Ho...¡± Viv let out that sound clearly impressed of what he saw. The majority of their skills were in the intermediate level with only some of them stuck in the beginner level. Furthermore, Shadow reached the Advance Level for his ''Stealth'' skill as well. Only rarely would one find someone who achieved this much in less than a year of work. His talent in this area was even higher than Anna, his master. However it was only a shame that he lacked the killing edge she had. From what he saw, this group was high keen on training skills. It would only take a few months to train a skill to the intermediate level but they did this with almost all of their skills. What with this, it was quite hard to see what they were specialised in. But at the same time, the intermediate level was that much harder to level up that even if they wanted to, they cannot conceal with they preferred to use. ¡°Answer me this, it looks like you all obsessed with getting your skills to the intermediate levels. Why?¡± Viv asked them. ¡°It was Sain since all of a sudden he wanted us all to train in that¡± said Lyndis with a scowl at Sain for all that effort they had to do in those three months. ¡°Sain...was quite scary seeing us train¡± said Serena in a small voice adding onto what Sain did. ¡°Yeah he was almost as bad as Eden making us run those laps with our lives on the line or Alena with her everlasting smile as she tormented us with painful tasks¡± said Shadow as well taking this as a time to vent. ¡°Fortunately Alena isn''t here since she isn''t as kind as me on letting go of criticism on oneself¡± said Eden behind them. The group paled but Shadow especially as they turned around to see Eden and Alexandra together. It was a strange sight since they should have known they were here at all...unless Viv told them. But the group did not know that Eden had a special skill to sense all souls in a range. Namely no one can escape from him and he can escape quite well as a result...unless Alexandra chased you in which case you can give up on getting away. ¡°Well it''s not like she will do anything to them since she likes them~¡± said Alexandra after seeing that the group were frightened of that possibility. She knew her daughter well enough that she was similar to Eden in tormenting people. She patted Eden''s head and said, ¡°Plus we have this enduring loving father that can''t help but to never say no~¡± ¡°....¡± Eden made an irritated look before sitting next and Viv and ordering something to eat as well. After some moments, he asked, ¡°So...? What were you talking about?¡± ¡°Just praising them a bit on their skill proficiency¡± Viv answered, ¡°Unlike someone we needed to be reminded to train his skills in the past, these guys will be fine even if we don''t watch them.¡± ¡°Oh~? The kids are getting stronger then?¡± asked Alexandra, ¡°Maybe one day they will be strong to let me play with them seriously.¡± The group felt a chill run down their spine hearing this. ¡°Stat wise alone, hell level wise that will be near impossible for them to do within this decade¡± said Eden though he paused and said, ¡°You don''t mean to...¡± Alexandra smiled and said, ¡°They are to take their 2nd class advancement. Why let them take up minor common classes when they can get really strong ones?¡± ¡°....That might really break them¡± said Eden though Viv said in counter, ¡°Not that it stopped you from using that with Gen and those brats.¡± ¡°We trained them in mind for that you know¡± said Eden, ¡°Plus I believe you two were suppose to be the ones to care about their well being not me!¡± ¡°Funny how things work out¡± said Alexandra with a grin, ¡°Well as long as you don''t make them do anything too dangerous without me knowing.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Eden~? Are you hiding something from me~?¡± asked Alexandra in a carefree manner but at the same time, there was this threatening feeling coming from her in all angles. She leaned in closer and asked in a low tone, ¡°Is it about that sword?¡± Eden nodded and said, ¡°Can''t believe they made another one of those...considering what happened last time. Well it shouldn''t have the same power as the original at least...but still...we may not be able to win this time.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The group listened on as if their lives were on the line! This kind of thing you would rarely get to hear! An opponent that even Eden was unsure to beat?! He who was toying with an all might Demon King like it wasn''t his business? ¡°Well we can get White to help out again...speaking of him...where did he go?¡± asked Alexandra remembering that White helped out on reconstructing Witchelm city and disappeared. ¡°He has his duty as a Dragon King and I have my own. Can''t keep it from him for too long¡± Eden replied. He took a look at the group and peered at their status window and skill window using another unreasonable skill he had... ¡°Well I can only wish you guys good luck on your 2nd class advancement especially if Alexandra is the one deciding the location for it...¡± Eden sighed in regret that he may not see them whole again afterwards. ¡°Location?¡± asked Sain. He knew some of the minor details on the 2nd class advancement. Basically there were a bunch of places you could do so but in all, it was simply getting a newer, more powerful class. If the class was a Magician then the next class may be Ice Magician instead. A Soldier could also be upgraded to Knight as well. It was something that wasn''t exactly necessary but the bonuses of a better class was not ignorable. ¡°Hmm...yeah, Alexandra can take you guys there¡± said Eden seeing that his bowl of Ramen finally came to him. Alexandra shook her head saying, ¡°I need to go help Weed later on so I can''t.¡± ¡°Viv then?¡± Eden looked to the right this time but Viv too shook his head and said, ¡°Have business, can''t do much about it for a while.¡± Eden sighed seeing that this may be pushed onto him and said, ¡°Might as well leave it to Gen and the others then, they remember where it was...¡± The other two nodded in agreement and the matter was pushed onto Gen and the other masters of the group. xXx Some time later... ¡°Go into the forest where there are blue rabbits...find the hidden cave that looks like a fist and at the side path open up the small hatch....and...¡± The group looked down at this magic circle that was engraved into the ground. Now all they had to do was pour their mana in and.... ¡°Do you think this is a good idea?¡± asked Serena. Miriel shook her head and said, ¡°Our masters said this would be extremely dangerous...¡± ¡°When is anything that involves Eden not dangerous?¡± wondered Lyndis. ¡°Enough of this already...we have to go sooner or later¡± said Shadow. ¡°....¡± Raven touched the engraved magic circle with his hand...it was designed to be used many times as the magic circle will take a long time to vanish. ¡°Well then...let us go¡± said Sain starting to pour his mana into the magic circle with the others. But at the same time, let us reverse time a bit to what happened before this. xXx Upon being teleported by Eden back to Witchelm City without him going there of course, the first thing Sain saw was a middle aged man doing something with small figures, probably something to do with that battle simulation device he had been working on. ¡°Master!¡± he called happy, it had been too long since they met. He had a lot to discuss about him and was a bit eager to discuss tactics and strategies in battle. Gen looked at Sain and said in a blank manner, ¡°Who the hell are you?!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Sain froze at that point. It had only been 2 years since he had seen him and he was forgotten already?! Looking stunned, Sain saw that the next thing Gen did was cross his arms and said, ¡°I don''t know anyone who doesn''t call or even send a message in two damn years! And that goes for the rest of you as well!¡± ¡°....So petty....¡± Sain sighed remembering that Gen wasn''t exactly the best role model to have. Now that he thought about it, Gen really only have him the basics and nothing more. Right now Eden, Viv and Alena have contributed to him more than Gen. Now Sain was wondering if he should call Gen his master now... ¡°Who the hell is petty?!¡± Gen shouted hearing those words. It was at that moment that the door on Gen''s house was kicked down with a person in green and a person in violet coming in all of a sudden. Sain remembered that the one in green was called Mel and the one in violet was called Jenny. ¡°Serena!¡± ¡°Miriel!¡± Both of them called out the names of their apprentices at once and at the same time Serena and Miriel were embraced by each of them. ¡°Serena, you grew taller!¡± said Mel rubbing Serena''s head while Jenny simply looked and nodded seeing Miriel''s new outfit in improvement. Soon enough another three people appeared. One of them was donned in silver armour, another in red armour and the last...was somewhere? ¡°Lyndisssssss! Give me a hug!¡± Ron shouted leaping at her. This kind of action stunned several people at once. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!¡± Sain chanted quicker than he ever expected throwing Ron out the door all wrapped up and unable to move. ¡°Well that was unexpected¡± said Park seeing Sain do that to Ron. Even though Ron was drunk, it didn''t mean that he let his guard down...that much. Bang! ¡°Ow!¡± Everyone looked outside to see a petite, short and near child like girl named Anna with long black hair and dressed similarity to Shadow on Ron''s face. It appeared that she leaped off the building on him...one would question why she did that and another would question how Ron was still alive. And at the same time- ¡°Wow!¡± Gen dodged several hidden projectile weapons from hitting his eyes from Anna''s position. ¡°Will you cut it out for once?!¡± Gen shouted at her with Anna shaking her head with a determined look on her face. Park only patted Gen on the back and said, ¡°Give it up Gen, she will hate you for the rest of your life.¡± ¡°....¡± Gen had nothing to say on that matter and simply looked elsewhere like what Jenny was saying now. It looked like to Sain that he was trying to avoid the reality of being stalked and attacked randomly by a child like assassin all the time. ¡°Miriel seeing you in such...an outfit, does this mean...?¡± Jenny held out her pinky looking at one of the boys with a strange look. Miriel made a perplexed stunned look on her face before shouting in panic, ¡°Wait, what?! I did nothing to Sain yet!¡± With an evil grin, Jenny''s eyes went to Sain and ''observed'' him though in reality it was more like stripping him with her eyes. Sain felt another large chill all over his body for the second time today. ¡°Sain! When did you seduce that girl?¡± asked Gen in a over familiar manner wrapping his arm over Sain''s shoulder. But Sain in a blank expression said, ¡°I do not recall I had a master here as he did not recognise me¡±, Sain took a look with eyes that were void of emotion and said ''I don''t know you so get away from me''. ¡°....¡± Gen could only stare at Sain who did not even recognise him right now, or rather intentionally did not recognise him. ¡°Right now Gen in his head is saying ''I so sorry for ignoring you and so on so don''t ignore me as well!'' and so on right?¡± said Mel in a cocky tone to both Sain and Gen at the same time. Gen took a blow to that since his mind was read. Plus Jenny said, ¡°He reaps what he sows. His fault for not being happy to see his apprentice after so long.¡± Gen took another blow thanks to that. After a few moments of this and that and more chatter between master and apprentice, things finally got back on track on what the group was here for. As the leader of the group, determined in the first 5 minutes of them actually talking to each other back in reality, Sain said, ¡°Basically we are here for our 2nd Class Advancement.¡± Gen and the other masters looked surprised as Gen let out, ¡°Oh! And you came here to get the next stage of the classes you have?¡± Gen seemed happy that they had considered them in this decision. There was a large selection of classes that they could chose and to think they would come back here for it. Sain nodded and said, ¡°Yes. Eden sent us here.¡± Upon hearing Eden''s name, Gen frowned and asked in a slightly confused tone, ¡°Are you sure Eden sent you here since he isn''t the type to do things without a reason.¡± ¡°Actually it was Alexandra who proposed us to be here, Eden just cut off the 6 month travelling time to get here from Lily City¡± said Sain correcting himself a bit. ¡°Oh¡± Gen looked more fine since it was Alexandra who cares for the safety of this young group rather than what Eden wants with powerful people and throwing them away when they weren''t useful. ¡°Alexandra said something about taking the same thing as you, our masters when you were getting your 2nd Class Advancement as well¡± Sain added. ¡°Pfffffffffffffftttttt!!!¡± If several of the masters were drinking or eating anything, then they would have spat everything out. The ones that clearly reacted more than the others were Gen, Mel and Jenny. The other three simply accepted it since you could not oppose any of the Trio either way. ¡°You got to be kidding me!¡± Gen swore in a harsh tone while hitting the wall, ¡°Are they planning on breaking you all?!¡± With Mel and Jenny with a serious look on their faces nodded in agreement as Lyndis pondering what this was about, asked, ¡°Umm...what do you mean by that? Eden mentioned us breaking as well....¡± Mel sigh as she said, ¡°Remember that trial Eden gave you to join the guild? The one you cannot remember about?¡± The group sort of nodded since they really did not remember it at all. ¡°This one is worse than that.¡± ¡°....¡± Lyndis was silent at that, although she did not remember the specific details of what happened last time, and asked, ¡°How so?¡± ¡°....¡± The masters were silent again until Park said in a serious tone which alone gave his words even more impact, ¡°You don''t want to know.¡± xXx ¡°So when will you make up with Risene?¡± asked Alexandra after Eden teleported the group. This was not a topic to which they need to hear or even learn about. ¡°There is nothing to make up¡± Eden replied in a annoyed tone, ¡°There isn''t anything to fix as well.¡± Angry now, Alexandra pushed Eden onto the wall and said, ¡°Look, I have a daughter crying her tears out thanks to you and a husband that acts like he doesn''t care!¡± ¡°....¡± Eden did not reply which only caused Alexandra to get even angrier. ¡°You-¡± ¡°She looks the same as ''her''...¡± Eden finally said cutting off Alexandra. ¡°Three years passed and now she looks even closer to ''her'' than before...I don''t know what to do...¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra calmed down and listened to what Eden said and thought about it. Their daughter did look like ''her'' and Eden named her that when he first saw her...even Alexandra had to admit that Risene was a lot like that ''Risene'' in the past. And because of that she knew what was getting into Eden. ¡°It was all my fault...from the beginning if I wasn''t near her then...if I just let her die there...if I didn''t screwed over her life...in the end I didn''t even care when she died!¡± Eden covered his eyes with his hands and crouched down wrapping himself in his knees. If anyone else saw him, they would not believe it was Eden. That Eden who was all knowing and all powerful and could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. There seemed to be nothing wrong in his life...to those who only know that side of him. ¡°No one could have predicted what could happen...¡± said Alexandra, if anyone was to blame, she would need to share it as well. She too could have did things differently, took her away from all that death even convince her... Else it was at least so Eden wouldn''t look so weak now. To Alexandra, that Risene was a friend, but she hardened her heart at the time to protect and support Eden no matter what. And thus did not realise what pains he would suffer later on. A Destroyer has no need for emotions, and the more they use their powers this way, the less emotional they will be become, until they will not even care if friends and loved ones died by their hands.'' Only a trail of death and destruction would follow them for the rest of their days. ¡°Don''t worry...I am here at least. Viv too...Alena as well and everyone else can support you now...it will be all right in the end¡± she said trying to comfort him. ¡°You know, our Risene isn''t exactly the same as ''that'' Risene in the past...¡± said Alexandra pulling his face up to hers. ¡°How so?¡± There was still this dejected look on his face. ¡°She gets really depressed like you right now~ ''That'' Risene would rather put a dagger in your chest when she had the chance~¡± Alexandra decided to tease him a bit and poked his nose. If it would get him back to normal, then she didn''t care what she had to do. To protect Eden right now, their family was needed... ¡°Shall we talk to Risene then?¡± she asked hoping for the right answer this time. ¡°No...¡± Eden rejected that offer but now had a slightly more determined look on his face. ¡°We still have a lot of work to do. The location of the Warrior King, what he intends to do and to reinforce and prepare the Kingdom for the fight.¡± Eden got up and put up the usual face of confidence but underneath was still that matter with Risene. Even so, that issue was not the main priority right now. ¡°Plus I want to know where and how that Warrior King knew of llyfr¡± he said with a slight shake in his voice. If it was possible to see him again... xXx ¡°God this thing is draining our mana really really fast!¡± said Lyndis in alarm that already half her mana was depleted to this magic circle that was only starting to shine. In total they together had around 19 000~ mana and around 42 000~ health in total as well. If this magic circle drained health after mana had been depleted and it was still not enough then... ¡°Be quiet and focus! Make sure you don''t send too much in else will kill you¡± advised Miriel in a harsh tone. ¡°Right.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± For the next ten minutes the group poured in all of their mana but the magic circle was still only half activated. What kind of design was this to force you to use you mana and then health to get to the location of this 2nd Class Advancement Quest! Speaking of the quest...
Complete your 2nd Class Advancement! Your masters have told you of the location of the site where you will take a test to advance to the next class. The class you will get will depend on your own efforts. Details will be given as you get to the location site Rank: Class Advancement Quest Reward: Class depending on the results of the Quest
¡°....¡± Finally the magic circle was shining at full force. It''s brightness caused those who looked at it to be temporary blinded as it''s magic started. ¡°It''s coming!¡± Sain warned not sure on what to expect. With a blazing blue light, all of them were teleported. xXx Opening his eyes, there was nothing around at all...or rather they were in rather large room...one that was at least 100 by 100 metres large. It was so large that even though at the walls, there were bright torches, you could not see the centre at all. ¡°Where are we?¡± ¡°Somewhere underground at least...there are some small plants growing at the corners and edges..it near the surface though¡± said Serena looking at the plants life. However Miriel then asked, ¡°Has this trial that we were told about started?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Hello Hello?¡± asked someone not from their group... There, Sain sensed there were three people standing, waiting for them. From their shadows he could tell that two of them were around his height while the third was around Serena''s height. ¡°....¡± The group silently waited for something to happen and so did the other side. However in the end, they heard a voice they did not expect here. ¡°So you lot are the ones who awakened us this time¡± said one voice that the group knew even if they wanted to forgot. That person seemed bored as he said that. ¡°Let''s go fight and kill them over and over again~¡± said another voice that they were familiar with. That person seemed more than happy to see them. ¡°Don''t forget why we are here¡± said the last and final voice that tried to calm the second. That person seemed calculative and were more serious than the other two. ¡°These voices...they''re...!¡± said Miriel surprised as much as any other person who knew of them. ¡°Shall we begin then?¡± asked the first voice in a lazy manner making a wave of his arm. However on the other side of it, namely to the group, they felt that massive pressure go down on them all at once. Flash! Rip! Sain felt that something was separated from...around the neck region. He could not believe it. It was all over in a flash, he could not even react at all.
You have died
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8500~ - First Chapter of this volume, started to write the second now so don''t expect anything for a while to be posted. The end of this chapter and more or less the next chapter is me basically thinking what would happen if the group had to face the Trio at the time when they were the same level. - In all I cannot see the group winning at all...therefore it became a discussion topic with Ninnin on how many times they will die. Vol.7 Chapter 2 - Repeating Deaths
You have died
That message flashed in front of Sain''s eyes but when he came to, he was still here? Didn''t he die? Wasn''t he suppose to be booted out of the game? What was going on? Was this just an illusion then? However he felt like something heavy was pressing down on his mind. However confusion was not allowed as the person in front of them, the person that Sain believed to have ripped his head off...thankfully the pain levels were reduced a lot to taking a hard hit in reality... ¡°Eden?!¡± shouted Lyndis seeing the familiar black haired person in front of them, who also attacked Sain as well. But at the same time, this Eden seemed different from the normal one, he still had that overwhelming feeling to it but...it almost lacked invincibility to it. Plus his equipment were only a shirt and pants as well. But the most noticeable thing was that the black tattoos all over his body were clearly visible and he wasn''t even using his powers. ¡°That means!!!¡± Shadow looked at the other two and found they were Alexandra and Viv as well. Alexandra was wearing golden armour with a dull glow and a fancy design that was completely different from the one they remembered her to use and Viv''s own equipment seemed to have been downgraded as well. ¡°Your attentiveness is lacking!¡± Eden shouted before firing off several fireballs at close range. Miriel reacted to that quite quickly and shouted, ¡°Barrier Queen Art: Elemental Reflection Barrier!¡± targeting Raven who ran into the fireballs intending to detonate them before they hit the others. BANG BANG BANG BANG!!! However the barrier around Raven was broken instantly with brute force and Raven was consumed by flames.
Party Member: Raven has died
Seeing this message Sain looked at where Raven was and realised he was still there. Like him, he didn''t disappear when he was killed? Were they now just ghosts? ¡°Sain! Your orders! What the hell should we do?!¡± shouted Shadow snapping in out of his thoughts. However the first thing that Sain though that he could see him, which mean that they weren''t dying? ¡°You know it''s a bad thing to blank out in battle~ Sword Wave!¡± Alexandra appeared a good distance away from the group but gathered a large amount of energy into her sword and shot it at the group...who all could not react since it was too fast. BAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNGGG!!!
You have died
Party Member: Shadow has died
Party Member: Miriel has died
Party Member: Serena has died
Party Member: Raven has died
Party Member: Lyndis has died
It seemed their health was reduced down to zero as they were blasted away and hit the back wall but in the end Sain could hear the groans and pain of the others quite fine. Due to the shock they were unable to move as the trio looked at them a bit disappointed. ¡°Giving up already?¡± asked Alexandra in a slightly pouting tone. ¡°Well you did blast them away like that, normal people wouldn''t be able to get up after that¡± said Eden, ¡°Though now that I think about it, it is strange that I do even though I''m normal.¡± Viv then said, ¡°Shouldn''t we tell them about the rules and conditions they need to beat before you two decided to surprise attack them out of nowhere. It was a no-brainer that they all ended up like this when you did that.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Right you forgot about that didn''t you...¡± sighed Viv shaking his head. ¡°Basically you need to survive for two hours here¡± he started to explain as the group one by one got up, ¡°In this room, you cannot die so disable those messages, and health and mana every time you die though you will still feel pain and the sensation of death every time you die. Finally the effects of buffs disappear when you die but the cool down of spells will also reset when you die. If you manage to stay up after 2 hours or do something interesting then you will clear the quest and get new classes.¡± ¡°Is there anything we need to explain?¡± wondered Alexandra. ¡°Hmm...there was something about your performance affecting the end class you will get I think¡± Eden pointed out as he looked down at the group. With those words a window that more or less summarised what was said appeared.
2nd Class Advancement Trial In order to complete this trial to get a more advance class, there are several conditions you need to clear. These are: Be able to fight till the end of the 2 hour period Else do something interesting to complete the trial if the first condition has failed During your time in this room there are other effects that are given. When you die, you will instantly be revived in the next moment This will cause all health, mana status effects and cool downs to reset as well
¡°That said...¡± Eden let out an evil grin, ¡°We won''t be holding back even if we''re not real.¡± Alexandra agreed and said, ¡°We''re the same level as you guys, level 200 and were based off us when we were at this level which is basically us around half a year into the game which is like only a sixth of the time you had. Well according to my latest memory, we are in Morata right now in it''s early days though at the same time I have a feeling that us right now are in our early days as well.¡± ¡°So basically you guys are a younger version of the ones we know?¡± asked Miriel. ¡°More or less¡± said Eden, ¡°Though I am curious how long it has been and what we have been doing since our now and your now.¡± ¡°Enough of chit chat...¡± said Alexandra, ¡°Since we kinda attacked you out of nowhere, you can have some free attacks on us~¡± provoking them a bit. ¡°I say three attacks will do then¡± said Eden agreeing with what Alexandra just said. ¡°In that case...¡± Sain realised that Shadow was near them now and used ''Stealth'' as they were talking. In an instant from using ''Burst Speed'' he presumed, Shadow was behind Eden with his dagger out about to use ''Backstab'' on him. Since they were of the same level now, something like this would kill Eden if not critically injure him or so Shadow thought. ¡°Too slow.¡± Bang! Eden twisted his body and kicked Shadow in the stomach sending him flying away, away from the rest of the group. ¡°That''s one attack~¡± said Alexandra not paying attention to the rest of the group at all to even turn her back to them. Lyndis took this opportunity using ''Speed Stance'' and ''Speed Strike'' to attack Alexandra. Now, the group were at a stage where they can use skills without shouting out the names of them though they still find it easier by habit to do so. But at the same time Lyndis'' sword was about to touch Alexandra... Clang! Alexandra carelessly parried the blow using her own strike. With a grin, she swung her sword down at Lyndis forcing her to block with her sword up and at the same time landed a kick on Lyndis before striking her down a second time. Bang! The blow of the strike was enough to plastered Lyndis onto the ground with force alone. ¡°Your strikes are too weak and your swings are yet not precise enough and is like a child swinging a sword for the first time¡± Alexandra started criticising Lyndis but then said, ¡°Oh that will count as the second attack on us before we come to attack you as well~¡± Hearing this, there was a large pressure for Sain, Miriel, Serena and Raven who were left standing. After this attack, they would be attacked...judging from their speed and power even though they were of the same level, Sain knew they were outmatched... In their current state that is. ¡°Miriel, Serena, starting applying buffs on us...we should do this since they said they won''t attack until we do for now¡± ordered Sain cautiously. He would want to take this advantage as much as he could while it still lasted. Of all the buffs they had, only Serena had two that lasted for at least 2 hours and one of them was useless right now since they were underground. Both of them nodded and starting chanting at once. ¡°The Night calls! The night that exist from the genesis of all creation pulls from the strength of all and no creature! Let the night shine darkly on you and being great strength to battle any and all evil! Blessing of Strengthened Night.¡± All stats will increase by 20% Serena stopped chanting there since health regeneration buffs did not matter here at all. ¡°Melody of Strength! Melody of Speed!¡± Miriel chanted those two spells at once.
Strength increased by 50% for 10 minutes
Agility increased by 50% for 10 minutes
¡°Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!¡± ¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡± ¡°Let fury overcome you and strike down all foes! Berserk Fury!¡±
Defence has been increased by 150 points
Agility has been increased by 150 points
Strength has been increased by 150 points
Sain applied these buffs to every in the group as well and did so without the need to consider the need to converse mana right now. This place...where mana would not drop was a useful one but at the same time how many times would they die even with this? ¡°Are you done yet? I''m getting bored here¡± asked Eden tapping his foot on the ground impatient. ¡°Not yet...¡± said Sain with a smile, ¡°Boost! Compressed Magic Mastery Release!¡±
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Serpent'' is now active. ''All Knowing Eyes'' is now active.
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +900%
Right now, when released, Sain''s ''Compressed Magic Mastery'' would give him a bonus of 300% increased magic damage normally due to the bonus of reaching the intermediate level skill being doubled as well. With Sain not using this bonus since the day began, the effects of the skill tripled to 900%. However that was not all since his ''Violent Energy Circulation'' skill came into play as well. At it''s current level, it also gave a passive bonus of 150% increased magic strength as well. This means the total increase of magic strength Sain could use right now as 2250% off his base stats which were less than half of Miriel''s. But with the bonus in magic strength, Sain''s own magic attacks were several times higher than Miriel''s now and were on a level where it could match a level 300 mage or even a level 400 as well considering boost practically quad-tripled these effects as well but at the same time lowered his time limit as well. However the main problem was that he had a time limit, at most 10 minutes where the bonus will drop down dramatically the more he uses spells, all the way down to a 375% total magic strength increase bonus with the effects of ''Compressed Magic Mastery'' going down to it''s base 150% increased magic strength. Therefore Sain needed to make this count at least. Since attacks wouldn''t matter that much...he would at least make it more difficult for the three to attack them after this. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Downplay Rule!¡± he chanted sending out the dark energy of the spell at Eden, Alexandra and Viv all at once even though it was not designed to target multiple people. The effects of poison, paralyse, confusion, sleep, weaken, slow and mind break came into play immediately with all three of them slightly surprised at it''s effects. ¡°Use Boost and attack now!¡± Sain shouted feeling the effects of his mana draining but at the same time being unable to use any more spells. Feeling this, he quickly used his spear and stabbed himself to die and revive with full mana again even though the effects of the buffs he had would disappear. He watched as the others attacked at once. Lyndis and Shadow were fine now as well considering they were hit quite hard and had the time to recover now. ¡°Dragon Dance Art: Final Slash!¡± ¡°Divine Shadow Art: Final Assassinate!¡± ¡°Meteor Stream Art: Aura Saber!¡± ¡°Glacier Strike!¡± ¡°Leaf Slicer!¡± All five of them attacked at once with only Miriel and Serena not using their ''Art Skills'' since they were not attack skills but rather support ones instead, so they used their regular spells. All five sets of attacks went to the trio but Sain felt that something was off, like even this attack would not work. ¡°Mana Shields!¡± Eden shouted sending out waves of mana that formed into spheres around them instantly, Sain could see using his ''All Knowing Eyes'' that there were a half a dozen layers onto it and all around all three of them at once as well. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! The five attacks hit the mana shields and only managed to crack through the first layer and stopped at the second layer of the mana shields. Seeing this, Eden smiled and said, ¡°That''s the third attack. Now it is our turn.¡± it had failed, even though they were the same level as them, even though these version of them had less experience than them, even though they had less training then them, it still failed. ¡°What monsters...¡± Sain could not help but to say. Whether it was in stats or skill proficiency, Sain was sure that they were higher than theirs if not the same level, three years compared to half a year. There was a large difference no matter what you do, but to stop five sets of attacks at once like that? The spell ''Mana Shied'' at that level should not have that much power. ¡°Blood Burst!¡± chanted Serena firing off her most powerful spell in destructive power. Seeing the red orb fly towards them Viv said, ¡°Dodge it.¡± The other two seemed to have understood this and dodged it when it ripped through the mana shields, no it was simply that Eden stopped supplying it with mana that it so easily got through. As they were dodging Sain and Miriel fired their spells at them rapidly, but almost none of them actually hit them. All three of them went into different directions, without a course of teamwork anywhere. Eden attacked himself and Miriel at the same time while Alexandra went to Lyndis, Raven and Shadow and finally Viv faced Serena. He had no time to help the others now, he and Miriel needed to focus to at least resist Eden. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± he chanted firing them at Eden. As a result of not wanting to be hit, Eden jumped into the air to dodge them to which Sain remarked that his jumping abilities were better than Shadow''s. Since precise attacks did not work... ¡°Wide spread! Mana Bolts!¡± ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± It seemed Miriel understood this thought pattern enough as she fired off the same spell as him at the same time, even though right now her spell was weaker than his... 25 Mana Bolts came from Miriel and 29 came from Sain, all of which like a shotgun attack shot at Eden who was in the air. ¡°Fools!¡± It was at the moment the Mana Bolts hit Eden that Sain realised something was wrong. They weren''t doing as much damage as before, or rather they did so little damage that it didn''t matter. Even though ''Mana Bolts'' was a low cost, low damage spell it shouldn''t so this little damage. Sain pushed Miriel behind him as she casted ''Fortified Barrier'' onto him to withstand some damage. Unlike ''Cracked Barrier'' that only negate damage which could be powerful at a later point, ''Fortified Barrier'' was more stable and useful since it could withstand multiple hits over time. Eden landed on the ground and Sain moved his spear to intercept, since Eden was unarmed he had the advantage. Oh he was wrong. ¡°Golden Sword.¡± A Golden Sword appeared in the hands of Eden when Sain initially stabbed his spear at him which was dodged quite quickly and easily as well. STAB! The Golden Sword went into his chest with much shock of rather why didn''t he think Eden would use that sword in the first place. His gaze could not help but to drop to Eden''s waist where there was another sword. ''So the Eden back then also used a sword...?'' As the Golden Sword was in him, Eden pushed Sain aside who no longer had any strength as he was dying and fired off a couple of fireballs at Miriel. Miriel tried to counter attack using ''Ice Bolts'' but like the spells before, it didn''t work as well on Eden. ¡°Lesson number one here is that magic is ineffective against someone like me. A 50% magic resistance on this body makes it so that mages have more than a bad time against me. Though in any case, combined with my high defence, it just makes it more difficult for you.¡± Saying that, he pulled the Golden Sword out of Sain''s chest and chopped his head off again before in the next instant, Sain was revived like that with a cough due to the shock of dying like that. Bang! He felt Eden kick him away in the next moment as well. Another loud noise and Miriel was sent flying to where he was as well coughing up blood due to the large impact. Before he knew it, the rest of the group were gathered like this on the ground, sliding from being kicked or thrown here. ¡°Is this all?¡± asked Eden in an even more disappointed tone. Alexandra sighed and said, ¡°Three against one and they couldn''t even manage one hit in. Their fighting styles are so rough and unbalanced that they were pretty much attacking one by one to me.¡± Viv then added, ¡°The girl has nearly no attack spells other than that Blood Magic which was disappointing even though it felt powerful and the other was simply minor cutting spell.¡± ¡°Well then, were they crushed due to all of that or not?¡± asked Eden to the group. Sain looked at the three of them. He clearly felt the difference between himself, with the others and them. Even though they fought together against them who fought alone, they could not win. Whether it was in stats, skills or the use of them, he was sure they were better than them in that. But in the use of magic, swords and fighting in general they were significantly weaker than those three. From what he saw, Eden was a mix between using magic and close combat, Alexandra was purely close combat user and Viv was purely a magic user. All three of them were the dominating types in terms of how they fought. Basically they all fought like they were the main fighters between all three of them. Though it may be just that they had similar levels of strength, it felt like if one of them could not keep up then they would not get any action at all. In that case, what were they missing? Those three did not get this way from simple experience along, if it was that then they probably had more. Was it the difference in facing monsters stronger than them all the time? He heard that even from an early stage they had been fighting and killing stronger monsters all the time. Teamwork? Skills? Stats? What was it that let them do this? That thought was the only thing he could think of as they got up and tried again against these three monsters. ¡°Oh~ You took a bit longer to get up than I expected but it looks like you guys need to die a few more times¡± Eden said with a tone that let out no pity to them or any hesitation to kill them countless times. xXx Meanwhile at the other end of the master apprentice side...Gen sat with a cup of alcohol in his hands. He usually didn''t drink but as a result of recent events, he had started once again. With him were five other people who were with the exception of one in their forties. That exception was only him her twenties and was currently trying to stick a blade through his head without hiding that fact. Well it might be because she was almost dead drunk that her efforts turned out like this. Personally he liked it since it made it easier for him to defend himself if not for the fact that being a bit drunk himself made it harder for him to defend himself. His hand shook more than usual when he blocked the some attacks that came at odd directions. ¡°I wonder how many times they have been beaten up, burnt, frozen and cut up in pieces...¡± wondered Mel in a far away tone. She was only thankful that it didn''t leave physical scars but was more than worried about the mental scars they will have. All of these came from her own personal experience. ¡°Trust me, it is better to not think about it¡± advised Park opening another bottle to drink from. Today was a day where they really had no choice but to drink their worries away, or at least they wished to do. Gen thought about the time when they went through that trial...to be precise it was only five of them at the time though Anna went through it alone later on. For all their skills and abilities they were utterly trashed beyond hell. One of them had the magic power to blow them into pieces on no end, the second had the sword skill to blow them away and the last had the magic skills to dominate them all without moving a finger. Furthermore all of them were highly skilled at CQC or Close Quarter Combat even at that point. Even that Viv who was at the time a pure magic user. ¡°Might as well think about it since there is nothing else to do but worry about¡± mumbled Gen shaking his cup for more liquor. That Trial was an even more cruel one than the first where it showed you your worse nightmares. It kicked you down and continued to kick you down even when you realise how much of a small fish in the ocean you were. First will come the shock of dying so many times and yet still living, then it will be the confidence you may actually make it through, that is until later on when you still can''t even land a clean hit in on them you start to despair and give up. Each time it takes greater efforts to get up... ¡°Speaking of that, the younger versions of those three are quite different from the ones who know¡± said Ron picking up the conversation. Jenny nodded in agreement but did not like the fact that she was agreeing with this flirting pervert and said, ¡°Didn''t they say they came from the really early days for them?¡± ¡°I think so but it has been decades since we did that damn trial¡± complained Park, ¡°Can''t remember everything.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°True¡± said Mel but not admitting that she was that old, ¡°But I feel like they had more energy and felt more carefree compared to now and when we first met them. Like nothing in the world could stop them from doing what they wanted.¡± ¡°Well that means things finally caught up to them and had to deal with it¡± said Gen with a slam of his cup that he noticed had a large crack on the side of it now. ¡°Hopefully they will be better off than us in the end...¡± Gen wondered in the end. xXx Around 10 minutes from the start of the trial. ¡°Lightning Fire Chain Strike!¡± shouted Eden charging head on at the group alone with no back up. His entire right fist was covered by fire and lightning. From what the group got from it was that it would both stun and burn you if you get hit. The solution? Don''t get hit, but that was easier said than done. ¡°Root Bind!¡± Serena chanted quickly tying up Eden''s body in place. With him not moving, his attack wouldn''t hit them you would think. ¡°Fire!¡± All of a sudden the magic in his fist shot out like a regular fireball but still covered with lightning and hit Raven who blocked for Serena. BOOOM!!! Raven''s shield broke and his body was blown away. He most likely died then and there else wouldn''t be able to move anymore. The strangest thing was that rather than they were being revived when killed, it was more like their time reversed to a state where they were fully healed. As such all broken equipment were recovered instantly on death as well. ¡°Charge!¡± Sain shouted along with Lyndis and Shadow with their weapons aimed at Eden who was still stopped by Serena''s spell. Miriel had casted barriers onto each of them as well which would make it so they wouldn''t be instantly randomly. However.... ¡°Flame Tower!¡± From underneath her, flames blow up like a pillar and consumed her completely. It did not matter if she was resistant to flames as she would still take damage from such a spell. However even though Lyndis died then, Sain and Shadow still charged through. ¡°Flame Tower!¡± ¡°Like that''ll work!¡± Shadow shouted speeding up using ''Burst Speed''. His agility was high enough that it looked like to Sain that a small sonic boom was happening. But at the same time Eden let out a smile..and a small fireball that moved ever so slowly... ¡°Fire Explosion.¡± BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! The impact of that explosion was large enough that it consumed both Shadow and Sain who was further back at the same time. They both fell to the ground grasping for air as they ''revived''. Even though their physical state was reverted, their mental state hasn''t, no it compiled on with time and more deaths. Sain did not see what happened next but he presumed that both Miriel and Serena died. ¡°Damn are you just using fire attacks to piss me off?!¡± complained Lyndis seeing Eden being much better than her in the field. ¡°....¡± Eden did not reply but rather stuck his tongue out at her continuing to mock her. ¡°Done yet?¡± asked Alexandra, ¡°It''s my turn to fight them now~¡± Ever since the first dozen ''deaths'' they sustained, the trio basically stopped attacking them all at once since it was boring and went on too quickly. Instead they rotated as they killed the group each time. But if they ''revived'' instantly, why don''t they attack the next moment they die? The reason was that there was always this heavy pressure on their minds after they die and it was only getting heavier and harder to get up as they died more and more. This was most likely mental strain on their part. ¡°Well give them a chance to get up at least¡± said Eden with a lo laugh. He was looking down on them quite a lot since they died to them so many times. xXx Around 20 minutes from the start of the trial. ¡°Sword Wave!¡± shouted Alexandra blasting that wave of energy from her sword to the group. BANG! In that one blow, Raven, Miriel and Shadow were killed immediately which only left Sain, Serena and Lyndis left to face her. However even with three left, Alexandra almost instantly smashed through any defences they decided to place up. xXx Around 30 minutes from the start of the trial. ¡°Root Bind!¡± From Serena''s side came several vines that like a precise tool went towards Viv. ¡°Grow Roots!¡± However from Viv''s side came larger and much stronger and yet faster and more precise roots which conflicted and completely tore through Serena''s spell. The roots impaled through her and tossed her aside. ¡°Serena!¡± Miriel shouted trying to catch her body through habit alone even though there was nothing to gain from it. She didn''t even place a barrier around herself when the roots went through her as well. ¡°Flame Coating! Speed Strike!¡± Lyndis ignored what happened around her and focused her blade on taking down Viv. Her body sped up and went towards Viv dodging the other roots that he was manipulating, Sain counted to be only 7 at a time right now. ¡°Let strength gather and become the wind! Swift Legs!¡± Sain decided to help her and casted this spell which caused her speed to increase by a third from the stat gain alone. When it seemed that Lyndis was finally about to get a hit in, Viv raised his hand and chanted, ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± A series of rapid attacks came from that hand and hit Lyndis like machine gun fire. Sain was honestly surprised, he did not know you could do that with the ''Magic Arrow'' spell to make it rapid fire instead of multi-shot instead. However the thought of learning something new and being happy about it stopped when he was ''gunned down'' as well. xXx Around 40 minutes from the start of the trial. ¡°Your reaction speed is too slow!¡± The blade cut off his arm and several more stabbed into Sain''s body in one go. The others had died from the spells that Eden thrown at them. Sain could not believe that Eden was using a different spell each time he casted. How many spells does he know? Either way, now was the time to focus even though this wasn''t going to work period. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!¡± he chanted creating ropes with his mana and wrapped them around Eden in a snap. SNAP! And like a snap as well, the ropes were broken free with brute strength. This ''First Seal Release'' thing he used is really annoying. It even drained his mana so he couldn''t use a more powerful spell at all within seconds. ¡°Well at least you tried¡± said Eden as he killed Sain again. He had died without doing anything again. xXx Around 50 minutes from the start of the trial. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!! A series of chained explosions made of wind and ice consumed them all and they all died like that. xXx Around 60 minutes from the start of the trial. The group got up again after being beaten down by one of the trio once again. How many times has this happened? It was at least a hundred times now, no-it could have reached a few hundreds by now. They did not even need to spend more than a few seconds to take them out. It was becoming more like a sport to the trio on how to take out the group. It was then, that Eden said all of a sudden, ¡°We''re around the half mark time. You know that this will become harder right? I mean the three of us have been holding back a bit so you know what was happening.¡± ¡°....¡± The group did not speak. If they could speak than they could be spending more time to regain their mental strength. ¡°Anyway time to do this. Body Transformation!¡± All of a sudden, Eden''s hair turned silvery white, eyes to a blood golden colour as his body morphed into a indescribable monster. It looked to be a mix of several species into one when Sain analysed it using his ''All Knowing Eyes''. ¡°Wait a second!¡± Shadow blurted out, ¡°Weren''t you suppose to transform into a Dragon?!¡± ¡°Hmm? I might be later on. Nice of you to speak to me again, I''ll kill you last¡± replied Eden. ¡°Well that''s a nice thing to do, considering it''s you of all people to say that¡± said Alexandra. Eden raised his eyebrow and asked, ¡°What is really your problem about my killing methods?¡± ¡°Besides the fact like it was heavily inspired and came out of a horror film?¡± ¡°You chop people into pieces!¡± ¡°You blow them up!¡± Hearing these insults fly at each other Viv said half jokingly, ¡°At this rate you two will get married.¡± ¡°¡°Like hell we will!!!¡±¡± Both of them shouted that at Viv but then Sain remembered something he didn''t tell them before. ¡°Actually both of you do get married¡± he offhandedly said in a casual manner. ¡°See¡± said Viv pointing that out. ¡°¡°WHAT?!¡±¡± Both Eden and Alexandra screamed that at once and pointed at each other before saying both at once: ¡°I get married to this beast?!¡± ¡°I get married to this avatar of traps?!¡± Both of them glared at each other before shouting again at the same time to each other. ¡°Who the hell is a beast?!¡± ¡°Who the hell is an avatar of traps?!¡± ¡°You are!¡± ¡°You are!¡± ¡°....¡± The group was honestly surprised to see those two not get along that well. Even though they said that they fought a lot in their early days, they did not expect that to be true and moreover to this extent that they did not even like to be compared to each other. ¡°Damn you!¡± ¡°Damn you!¡± Eden started to use a spell at Alexandra of all things saying, ¡°Flame Stri-¡± But Alexandra was faster, ¡°SWORD WAVE!!!¡± BANNNNNGGGG!!! And Eden was blasted away. ¡°....¡± The group looked on in sheer shock. What the hell just happened in front of them. ¡°Ow ow ow, that really hurts you know!¡± shouted a bloodied up Eden before Alexandra with a ''Hmp'' sent over some healing spells. ¡°Wait why didn''t you instant heal like usual?¡± asked Lyndis forgetting that this Eden was a younger version and was different from the one they knew. ¡°Instant healing?¡± wondered Eden before saying, ¡°That might be handy one of these days. Tell me more about this, it might save by life one day from this beast¡± while gesturing at Alexandra. However Viv stepped in between Eden and the group saying, ¡°Remember, we are here to kill this group over and over again.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden was silent on this but sighed in the end saying, ¡°You are too serious Viv. I miss the really shy you that blushed whenever I talked to you~¡± ¡°Another word about that and this time I''ll be the one to attack you¡± said Viv threatening Eden a bit though he had an innocent blush on his face. Several people including and especially Lyndis did not expect Viv to have that kinds of expression on his face. ¡°By the way¡± said Eden all of a sudden to the group, ¡°You can give up any time you know. Let us know when.¡± ¡°....¡± The group did not respond. They had no intentions of surrendering that easily. ¡°Anyway hurry up and fight them Viv¡± said Eden seeing the group seemed to have refused. That might change after a couple hundred more deaths though. ¡°Hey! It''s my turn now¡± Alexandra immediately started complaining to the fact her turn was just skipped like that. ¡°You attacked me, you get your turn skipped¡± said Eden in a calm tone though it was very apparent that he was grinning, ¡°But it''s not like it will take even a short while until your turn in up again right?¡± Alexandra looked at the group and then said, ¡°Fine....¡± If anyone in the group had the strength to, they would complain but in the end, what was said was the truth, and the truth was that they could be taken out quite easily. xXx Around 70 minutes from the start of the trial. ¡°How much more than you endure this? Your speed is dropping and your attacks are slipping~!¡± shouted Alexandra in a frenzy. It seemed something in her clicked and turned her like this. Her sword flashed white and it seemed that her sword went faster and faster with time even if they learnt how to parry them a bit. They all died again. xXx Around 80 minutes from the start of the trial. ¡°Oh, you would hit me if not for the fact that you missed! Grand Fireball!¡± BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! They all died again. xXx Around 90 minutes from the start of the trial. Got cut up into pieces again and died. xXx Around 100 minutes from the start of the trial. ¡°This is getting boring real fast so I''m going to crush you...¡± A giant ice hammer appeared...oh the irony....not! xXx Around 110 minutes from the start of the trial. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. There was nothing to do but die at this point. xXx Around 119 minutes from the start of the trial. ¡°Hey hey¡± said Alexandra slapping the cheek of Lyndis who did not respond at all to the ''attack''. She was not even conscious anymore and was simply out of it due to extreme exhausting of doing this for two hours without rest. With the mental strain of dying and having your body recover but not your mind stack on so many times, in the thousands of times, even a powerful will will deteriorate and stop eventually. Likewise the rest of the group was knocked out like this and Sain was barely holding on due to ''Bursting Will'' which did not let him go since there was a giant treat in front of him....this skill helped him in the background in the past lots of times but only now did he curse having it. Why couldn''t he sleep like the others in this kind of situation? He did not want to face these guys...but since they were unconscious... Did this mean he could really let it all go now? No more caring about them. No more thinking about them. Only to focus on himself and this task. Should the ''black'' come out to play? ¡°Oi, there''s something wrong with that one¡± Viv pointed out at Sain, ¡°Feels like your energy is coming out of him.¡± ¡°Hmm....really?¡± asked Eden looking down on Sain who was still on the ground but then realised it and said, ¡°Wow, didn''t think there would be someone else with this seal on them.¡± Seal? What seal? Did he mean the ''Mark'' that had already spread across his right arm completely? How was that a seal? But before he could think of it more, Eden kicked him and made him roll on the ground a few times. ''Damnit....!'' He had no strength to move anymore. Even if he was stupid and tried to use ''Mankai'' it would be a complete waste since the costs will be too high for the benefits it would give. Sain had no idea on what to do. What was he missing? Even now he did not know the hell he was missing that made him and the others weaker than those three. Their stats are lower, skills proficiency as well and even their experience is lower than theirs and yet they could not win no matter what! ¡°119 minutes in...I guess with this you all fail¡± said Eden looking down at Sain as he said these words and casually walking back to the other two. ¡°Well that just means you were never useful in the end¡± he continued to say, ¡°Though it was still a good effort even with no results.¡± Good effort? What the hell did that matter? The results were everything, he knew this and knew that if they failed at this critical point...they would all be kicked out of the guild. That can never happen! He would not let the others have to suffer through that! Without being in the guild so much resources will be out of their reach, without being in it, they will lose the support of Eden! That would truly be the end. What was he missing to solve this? ¡°Everything from the moment you all came here did not matter since you all seemed to be too distracted to fight us properly.¡± What...did it matter? They had the resolve. They had all the training they needed to clear this...no matter what. At the very least, he did not want to disappoint them!
Condition to add further effects to the skill ''Bursting Will'' has been completed
Bursting Will Intermediate Level 1 One''s will to do something even if it cost you your life. Increases all stats by a certain extent while in a deep crisis for some brief couple of seconds while in danger and afterwards. Due to overwhelming will, the body can be forced beyond it''s ability temporary based off the emotional state of the user. All Stats increase by: 25%
Sain ignored this message except that he could probably move now. It was a now or never situation literally. He got up allowing for Alexandra and Viv to have a surprise look on their faces before charging at Eden. ¡°Die!¡± he shouted before attacking. ¡°Don''t scream out your attacks idiot.¡± STAB! STAB! STAB! Three golden sword stabbed him in the leg, arm and chest vertically pinning him there like a statue. He could not move, Eden''s back was still there...! ¡°Points for the efforts at the end though I doubt you will be able to get up after being revived one last time¡± said Eden though not even turning around. Did he underestimate him that much? ¡°Cough.¡± Sain could not help but to cough up some blood due to his body being in a poor state. Eden was walking away again. They will fail... NO! STAB! ¡°Eh?¡± The one who let out that sound was Eden. Sain''s spear from the back through the chest...finally reached him for the first time. ¡°NOW!¡± Sain thought he heard Miriel shout that while at the same time causing ice to climb up on Eden''s legs. ¡°Gravity Force!¡± Sain also thought he heard Raven say that and use the skill he got using ''Boost'' onto Eden making it harder for him to move. ¡°Sage Mode! Grow Roots!¡± Sain again thought he heard Serena use her powered up spell to wrap vines around Eden and tightened to the point that he was not sure it could split a man. ¡°Genesis Flames!¡± Sain now sure he was not be delusional about this saw that Lyndis created swords of flames and stabbed it in the arms that were trying to break the rest of him free. ¡°Finish him!¡± Miriel ordered though Sain thought he was the leader here. He saw that Shadow was using his ''Real Illusions'' to split himself into three and stabbed his weapons into Eden at places he presumed were critical or fatal points. Seeing this, even though he could not see it, Sain felt that Eden was grinning right now. ¡°Ah~ I screwed up~!¡± Eden said in a monotone voice that was not funny at all, ¡°Looks like I have to give a pass to you then~¡± he continued to say. With those words, his body started to disappear in particles and so did the other two as well. The golden sword in Sain disappeared as well and his wounds were healed? What was going on here. Alexandra sighed at Eden during this and said, ¡°You let them do that didn''t you¡± with a look that more or less saw through him completely. Eden looked back at Alexandra and said, ¡°And you didn''t stop them at all¡± with a look that said ''I don''t know what you are talking about''. ¡°Wait, what the hell are you talking about?!¡± asked Lyndis in a loud tone. Her voice drew attention from the trio again. ¡°By the way good work on getting up at the last moment¡± replied Eden to Lyndis though not answering the question at all. ¡°You didn''t move at all after Sain stabbed you with his spear. What was up with that?¡± asked Miriel. It seems that she thought Eden threw in the towel with pity. She did not like that idea. ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about¡± Eden tried to make a gesture using his arms but there were swords of flames in them right now. ¡°So basically you three have been killing and killing us so many times I can''t even count and suddenly you let us go with mercy? What was the point of winning like this?!¡± asked Shadow in a heavy and angry tone. It was then that Viv said, ¡°The point was never about winning. If so, we wouldn''t be called here.¡± ¡°Then what was it?¡± ¡°Well....¡± Viv tilted his head like he didn''t know the answer. ¡°Well I didn''t want their efforts being wasted like that. I''m not that cruel to let someone work so hard and kick them out for something like that¡± said Eden who was now free from the after effects of the group''s combined attacks. The group felt that Eden was definitely the type of person he just said he wasn''t. Oh how much he changed between the one they saw and the one they knew... ¡°Anyway...¡± He went next to the trio and faced the group as if to say something to them. ¡°But if you gave up mid way or before the end, then you would have definitely failed this trial¡± he said laughing though added, ¡°Well I had no idea on what to do if you guys didn''t do that last ditch effort in the end and instead stayed dead like that.¡± He continued to laugh, ¡°llyfr would definitely scowl at me for not thinking it through.¡± ¡°Well duh, most of the stuff you do is stupid¡± said Alexandra in a condescending tone to him. Even though it was extremely small, Sain thought he saw a mutual thrust between the two. And one day that trust would... ¡°Anyway it looks like you guys found what you were missing¡± said Eden. ¡°Missing?¡± asked Lyndis though Sain knew he was talking about. ¡°Whether it''ll be a goal, a wish, an ideal or any other of the crap people believe in, without it, people are simply unable to express their true abilities to the fullest¡± Eden continued to say, ¡°The purpose of this trial is to test that resolve, that desire that keeps you moving and makes you get up every time we kill you.¡± ¡°Well duh, most of the stuff you do is stupid¡± said Alexandra in a condescending tone to him. Even though it was extremely small, Sain thought he saw a mutual thrust between the two. And one day that trust would... Eden turned his head and looked at Sain and the rest of the group realising the time was up, ¡°Well I wish you luck dealing with the future me~¡± before disappearing with the other two with happy smiles that they had never seen on their faces until now. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± There was a deep silent as the group stood there not sure on what to do now. ¡°Wait, what the hell are we suppose to do now?¡± asked Shadow on the question that was on everyone''s minds. They finished the trial so...how the hell do they get out of this large room? And what happened to the rewards and so on?
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8000~ - This was...an interesting battle for me at least. I even had to compare the notes I made a year ago to figure out the Trio''s power level and just decided to write what I felt would happen if both sides met and fought....yeah. The Trio was really that overpowered. Vol.7 Chapter 3 - The Prize and Punishment ¡°Hmm? What''s over there?¡± asked Shadow pointing at the very end of this overly large room. The group seeing there was nothing else to do walked there and found six different engraving onto the walls. One was a serpent, one was a star, one was a lion and so on. They were the symbols that were the same as the ''Marks'' they had on their right hands. A strange feeling prompted them to touch these symbols which lit up the ''Marks'' on their hands for a split before a message appeared in front of them from the game.
''Mark'' confirmed, message will now play
All of a sudden a screen with Eden in it appeared in front of the group. Though looking serious, Sain could tell that in this video it seemed that Eden was feeling extremely happy for some reason. ¡°Hello Hello~ If you are seeing this message that means you have completed your 2nd class advancement at last!¡± ¡°Oh so this is a video to congratulate us?¡± wondered Shadow in a bit of a surprise. He did not think Eden was that type of person to do so and even send a personal message to them. ¡°I''ve been watching over you lot for a long time now and finally you have started to walk forward without the need for me to watch over your every step..man those were quite the difficult days. Alexandra even told me that I was too overprotective when she was the one who suggested watching over you all to begin with hahaha.¡± ¡°Who the hell is overprotective! I was just watching to see if they do anything interesting!¡± shouted Alexandra in the background of the video. ¡°Somehow I think this video isn''t for us...¡± Miriel said in a cold tone that hid her dejected tone within it a bit. ¡°Yeah...¡± Lyndis agreed with her. It seemed that they were seeing something that they weren''t suppose to see right now. This message was clearly not for them. Both of them continued to look at the video being played. ¡°Hahaha, anyway from now on things will be much more difficult. It is at this point that monsters are really more likely to get smart on you. No more luring enemies one by one into a trap, those kinds of things won''t work as well. You need to polish your skills even more than before, personal skills will be more important than ever and you will face even more difficult things in life.¡± Eden on the screen let out a sad smile. ¡°But even so, even if you desire dangerous adventures, make sure you live life the way you want to and return to us at the end of every one of them. We consider you something like our kids you know....though we don''t have any hahaha. Might as well fill that spot in now rather than later.¡± ¡°Anyway now it''s time for you all to get your new classes! By the way it was a half lie when it said the class is dependent on your actions in the trail. It''s actually your actions ever since you got your ''Marks''. Good luck learning on how to use them!¡± With that, the video was cut short and ended. And then Sain and the rest of the group were bombarded with messages from the game.
You have completed the quest to Complete your 2nd Class Advancement!
Your class has been changed from ''Shaman'' to ''Evil Enchanter'' Bonus from the ''Shaman'' class has been removed Strength, Agility, Intelligence and Wisdom +20 All magic costs will decrease by 10% Bonus to ''Dark'' and ''Evil'' type spells by 25%
You have learn the skill ''Rune Engraving''
Rune Engraving Beginner Level 1 Able to temporary enchant equipment with the effects of certain runes. As this skill levels up, more runes will be able to be used, effects of the runes will be stronger and the effects of the runes will last longer as well. Runes able to be used: Sharpness
You have learn the skill ''Double Blade Enchanting''
Double Blade Enchanting Beginner Level 1 A truly powerful skill that allows one to target something and to increase one stat at the cost of the other. However this skill is not perfect as some of the stats in the conversion will be lost when used. This imperfection will decrease as this skill levels up. Conversion rate: 50% of the stat
You have learn the skill ''Dark Gain''
Dark Gain Beginner Level 1 A passive skill that increases the health and mana of the user whenever an enemy is killed. It is possible to extend the effects of this skill to the party but only at a 10% effectiveness overall. Health and Mana gain per kill: 0.1%
Sain was more than surprised seeing this. When he first got his ''Shaman'' class he did not even get a skill at all and now he was getting three of them at once with this. Moreover, from what he could see, these three skills were extremely powerful for the party and even himself. ''Rune Engraving'' was a skill that applied onto equipment temporary. The full effect and time period of the skill depends on how much he uses them and judging from the skill itself, it would be something to apply before battle. On the other hand ''Double Blade Enchanting'' or rather just ''D.B Enchanting'' or even ''D.B.E'' to shorten the name, was something to use in battle. By converting one stat into the other, he would be able to turn his balanced character into one that focused on strength, agility and so on. Basically his performance would be equal to the others with this skill. Finally there was the ''Dark Gain'' skill which was interesting and powerful. By killing monsters, his health and mana would increase by a tiny bit, currently at 0.1%. By the time it reaches the Intermediate Level, it would give him 1% per kill which was insanely powerful with numerous and weak monsters. Overall, Sain could tell he got a moderate boost from all of this alone. ¡°Wow! What the hell is this? Isn''t this a bit too much to give?¡± exclaimed Lyndis shaking from the sheer happiness she was giving off. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Miriel taking her eyes off her screen which was only visible to her and looked at Lyndis before looking back. ¡°She is probably referring to the skills she got with her class¡± said Shadow still focusing on his own updated status. After several minutes which gave them enough time to shift through everything they got, Sain said, ¡°I think it is time to see what each other got¡± while at the same time showing the others the skills he gained due to this now. ¡°Wow...those are some really good skills there¡± said Lyndis expressing some shock that Sain managed to get those kinds of skills like that, ¡°Though...¡± she looked at Sain with a grin and asked, ¡°Evil Enchanter?¡± ¡°Yeah, what''s up with that?¡± asked Shadow as well. ¡°....¡± Sain was silent on this matter and thus decided to go to the next person as fast as possible, ¡°What about you Lyndis?¡± ¡°My class and my skills are super awesome!¡± Lyndis exclaimed arms wide open immediately seeing the chance. ¡°Oh we are not going there yet¡± said Miriel in a teasing manner, this was a rare chance to tease Sain who from so far had been doing things without a fault. ¡°Miriel...¡± Sain sighed hearing this and immediately gave up like that. If she would want to do this, then Sain felt that she could since she had been helping the rest of them with her research into the game and advise on how to use their skills and spells. ¡°Oh, we''re not going to my stuff now...?¡± Lyndis was a bit disappointed but then quickly cheered up saying, ¡°Could it be that Sain is secretly on the dark side?¡± ¡°If that was the case then we are all doomed¡± replied Shadow in a sarcastic tone. But even so, Sain remained silent on the matter. Noticing this, Shadow then said, ¡°Well it''s not like it matters. Sain will always be Sain no matter what.¡± ¡°....¡± The rest of the group stared at Shadow for a few moments before he had to ask, ¡°What?¡± ¡°You can actually say something good¡± said Lyndis while looking astonished. ¡°Mhm¡± Serena also nodded in agreement to this as well. ¡°Anyway it''s time to look at my new class~¡± said Lyndis in a cheerful tone again. She showed them her new status window. Her class was now called ''Flame Samurai'' which was a class that focuses on extreme swordsmanship and fire but more on the swordsmanship side from what he could tell. Compared to her ''Sword Priest'' class, the bonus that her current class had had a bonus to Strength and Agility by 35 points each and Intelligence by 25 points. This was an improvement of 25 points and 15 points respectively on each side. Furthermore she got a new stat called ''Honour'' as well. It seems like it''s not only knights that get this stat. Interested, though he had to look through it anyway, he looked through the skills she got from the class.
Battle Buff Beginner Level 1 The presence of a strong user gives others confidence to the point that they may find themselves performing better than usual. Those in the party of a user of this skill will gain various passive buffs when fighting at the same time as the user. Attack increase: 1% Defence increase: 1% Speed increase: 1% Fighting Spirit increase: 1%
Katana Mastery Beginner Level 1 Affects the attack power and attack speed of Katana type weapons Katana power increase: 10% Katana speed increase: 6%
Fire Dance Beginner Level 1 A type of sword dance that combines fire with attacking. When this skill is active, the power of sword skills will increase while at the same time adding a slight fire elemental type damage onto the attacks as well. Mana Cost: 100/minute
Looking at this, Sain knew that Lyndis was going to be much stronger thanks to this now. With the right training with these skills, she would be even stronger in close combat. ''Katana Mastery'' was one of the basics but seeing her class, it would stack on with ''Sword Mastery'' making her effectiveness with the Katana doubled. Plus ''Fire Dance'' was a skill that passively added on fire damage onto her normal attacks as well. It would basically give a lesser effect of ''Fire Blade'' all the time from now on. But the biggest gain was ''Battle Buff'' which was a party buff for everyone else. From what Sain saw, by his estimates, if Lyndis could master this skill then they would have their overall performance boosted by 30% as well. A truly powerful skill which could bring out more than the limits of a person in the same party as her. ¡°Well...¡± Shadow said with some disappointment in his tone to which Lyndis had to ask, ¡°What?¡± in an annoyed tone. ¡°Compared to what Sain got, two of your skills are more like things to build of your basic more than anything else¡± Shadow said analysing what Lyndis got from this, ¡°But the bonus from your class is better than his at least.¡± ¡°Though stats don''t matter that much when the skills are good enough¡± Sain added on as well which made Lyndis pout a bit and Miriel laugh though she said, ¡°Well with your combination of skills, your magic damage actually went higher than mine for a while.¡± The rest of the group nodded in agreement to these words. ¡°But from the looks of it, you have already become the strongest between all of us in individual fighting¡± Sain continued to say praising her a bit, ¡°In pure melee, Raven is a match for you but while also using flames, you would be able to take him out since he works better than you with multiple opponents with his shield and wide range attacks.¡± ¡°Umm...¡± Lyndis was for some reason to Sain turning a bit red hearing these words. ¡°What is it this time? Are you really the type of person to be embarrassed with praise of this level?¡± asked Shadow noticing that Lyndis did not even try to boast of anything at all. It was a strange behaviour that even the rest of the group noticed. In the middle of this, Miriel was letting off a cold aura to Sain and asked, ¡°When did you start to try to conquer Lyndis as well?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± Sain was more than shocked at those words and quickly said, ¡°I don''t know what you are talking about?! Isn''t Lyndis only happy that I praise her for the first time?!¡± Miriel, Serena, Raven and Shadow at that moment all let out the ¡°Eh¡± sound from all of their mouths at the same time. ¡°Wait this is actually the first time?¡± ¡°Didn''t you encourage the rest of us before?¡± ¡°Cruel...¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Isn''t this a too negative reaction?! The only reason for that was that Lyndis was doing everything perfectly correct so there was no need for me to correct anything or encourage her! Plus I''m sure I complimented her before!¡± Sain shouted in protest. ¡°I see...¡± said Lyndis nodding in understanding though still a bit pissed thinking about how Sain didn''t praise her once in three years...though soon said, ¡°Though I find it amazing that even now you are capable of making up excuses so quickly.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain''s mouth was open from those words but then closed it and quickly said, ¡°Let''s move on now...¡± ¡°Actually I would like to know the details of your compliment of Lyndis...NOW!¡± Miriel pinched his leg and tried to drag him away but with her inferior strength and the rest of the group watching, now was not the time so she gave up...for now. Sain shivered a bit feeling her intentions. He wouldn''t...die unnatural all of a sudden later on right? ¡°Umm...¡± Serena said, ¡°Show status window.¡± Sain was moderately surprised to see Serena was up next. He checked the status of Serena who converted from being a ''Druid'' to a ''Berserker Druid'' since she was the least likely to protest. It was an interesting notion to him since Serena was someone as far away as a berserker and get getting a class related to it. From memory, the Berserker class is one that is unusual to have even though a large number of people know of it. Basically to get the class, you must continue to kill monsters over and over again to the point that any sane person would not be able to do so. And even after getting the class, you must continue to kill and kill monsters to let the class grow else you will become extremely weak if you stop for a while. It was a powerful class in terms of attack that is based off soloing enemies with powerful skills and power but also had large drawbacks in that they don''t work well in parties and needed to continue to fight to maintain their current state. For her stats, she now had a bonus to Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina by 25 points each. Each of them increased by 15 points from before except for strength which is a new entry there. Also, a new stat that she got was one called ''Rage'', he would need to look into it later on as it seems connected to some of her skills. Nonetheless her stats got a boost thanks to getting this class and she got three new skills as well.
Source Contracting Beginner Level 1 A skill that allows the user to make contracts to multiple spirits or animals to gain part of their power. Though not allowed to summon the actual creature to your side, you are instead able to draw out power from them instead. The effects of the contracting depends on what is contracted and how long the contract has been in place as the longer the contract, the stronger the effects it will be. Number of Contracts at a time: 1
Berserk Conversing Beginner Level 1 A reckless skill for a Druid that has abandoned any sense in order to recklessly battle enemies up close and personal. This skill allows you to convert your Intelligence and Wisdom stats into Strength and Agility. Mastery of this skill will allow you to do so without any conversion lost but until then, some stats will be lose when using this skill. Conversion Lost: 1/3 of the stats
Berserk Instincts Beginner Level 1 An inborn instinct that never left you and has always waited to be used. Using this skill will activate that instinct to battle and cause you to lose any rational thoughts other than the battle itself. This skill will allow you to use the best of your skills when fighting in close combat though at the same time may have some other unintentional effects on you when active. However in this state, you are only able to use melee attacks and no spells. Mana Cost: 250/minute
To be honest, Sain was a bit unsure on some of the finer details that Serena got and he didn''t. He did not expect for her skill to involve...close combat at all since she was...well timid and at times nervous to the point she would freeze when something frightening attacked her. However this problem is removed when using ''Berserk Instinct''. Even though she would probably be unable to heal in this state, it would mean they would have another close combat person in the party. This would mean everyone could fight in close combat. Beyond that was the ''Source Contracting'' skill that is not exactly as it was called as it does not draw out power from ''Source'' itself. Instead of contracting to gain the service of a familiar as an example, you instead gain part of their power of what you make a contract with. Sain was not sure on the limits of this skill but if Serena could get the power of a Dragon with a contract... Finally there was the ''Berserk Conversing'' skill which was similar to his own ''Double Blade Enchanting'' skill though it was limited in turning Intelligence and Wisdom into Strength and Agility. From what he could tell, this skill goes with ''Berserk Instincts'' and perhaps even ''Source Contracting'' as well. The first to comment on this was surprisingly Raven with the word, ¡°Powerful.¡± ¡°Powerful indeed...with this Serena might actually become better than Lyndis in close combat at least when she uses these skills properly¡± added Sain as well seeing the potential in these skills more than the ones he and Lyndis got. ¡°I just this means I have to stop teasing Serena so much...¡± sighed Lyndis then smirked thinking and also saying, ¡°But the day where Serena kills Shadow for a bad comment comes closer.¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Shadow was in protest now. He and Serena did not have that bad of a relationship now...right? He turned to look at Serena in confirmation but found her in deep thoughts. With his face twitching, he asked, ¡°Are you thinking of how to kill me?¡± Hearing these words, Serena became flustered and said, ¡°No no no¡± while waving her hands in denial and furthermore said, ¡°I was only thinking of how to use the skills I gained-¡± ¡°-On killing Shadow right?¡± asked Lyndis hopeful. Once again Shadow protested angrier thane ever, ¡°What the hell do you have against me?!¡± Lyndis only smirked before Miriel cut in and said, ¡°Okay, showing you guys my status window now.¡± In front of Sain''s eyes was Miriel''s status window which showed that her class changed from ''Magician'' to ''Glacier Bard'' which was a slight surprise. He had expected her class to still be heavily magic related and not go into the bard direction. However stat wise, the bonus from her class was the same as a magician as it increases Intelligence and Wisdom. However instead of increasing those two stats by 10 each like the magician class, this one increased it by 25 points each. Due to having the Bard type class, Miriel also gained the ''Charm'' stat as well. ¡°Miriel any ideas why your class went from magician to bard?¡± he asked though the only answer he got was, ¡°Look at my skills then.¡± And so he did.
Reflective Song Beginner Level 1 A passive song that play ongoingly without the need of mana to sustain it. This song targets one of the non-attacking skills and spells that you have and replicates it to a lesser extent. However in doing so, you are unable to use that skill or spell while this skill is active. Furthermore this song can only reproduce a much weaker version of the targeted skill or spell and cannot be used with other songs at the same time. Total effect of reproduced song: 1%
Amplify Song Beginner Level 1 A passive song that players ongoingly without the need to sustain it. This song targets one skill or spell and amplifies the effects of it to increase it''s power. However you are only able to target one skill or spell at a time and does not include passive skills. Furthermore this song cannot be used when another song is being used at the same time. Total Amplify effect of targeted skill or spell: 1%
Frost Song Beginner Level 1 A passive song that players ongoingly without the need to sustain it. This song targets enemies and reduce the effects of any skills, spells or other passive effects they have on you and the party. Furthermore this song cannot be used when another song is being used at the same time. Total Reduction effect of targeted enemies: 1%
Sain looked at these skills with understanding on why she got a bard class now. These three spells were passive skills that would last forever even outside of battle. One of them placed an everlasting loop of a spell, another increase the effects of a spell and the last reduces the effects of enemy skills and spells. Quite frankly since they could not be used with each other, Sain felt there was no need to make any connections on how to use them like that. In all, all he could tell with these three skills was that they were quite balanced in how they worked. ¡°Hmm...¡± Sain let out that sound and said nothing more on it. ¡°Why is there such a little reaction compared to the other two???¡± Demanded Miriel holding Sain by his collar and swinging him back and forth desperately. Honestly when he praises Lyndis, she gets angry and when he doesn''t exactly say much to her, she still gets angry. He could not only pay attention to her only. He had other duties in helping the others as well. After Miriel stopped shaking him, Sain finally could say, ¡°There''s really nothing to talk about here. They are good support skills but will take time to develop.¡± ¡°I know! They''re my skills!¡± Miriel protested. ¡°Then why did you want me to say something?!¡± Sain was really confused now. Miriel''s actions since months ago has been strange. Though he felt that she was...cute in some ways, it was really different from the usual her....and that he missed that cold and calculative Miriel. ¡°Miriel, it not too good to be jealous...of Lyndis¡± said Serena in a soft tone that was almost covered up by Miriel''s rampage of words. ¡°Puhahahahaha¡± Lyndis let out that laugh and Shadow was chuckling a bit as well. Miriel sent them a glare that was colder than usual before she said, ¡°Since no one wants to discuss me...we''ll go to the next person. Raven!¡± This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Upon that order, Raven showed the rest of the group his status window and skills. However at the same time Shadow complained, ¡°Wait why am I last?¡± ¡°Simply because~¡± Lyndis gave that answer that wasn''t really an answer. Ignoring the complaints that came from Shadow''s mouth there after, Sain started looking through Raven''s stats like the others. From what he could tell, his class changed from ''Shield Footman'' to ''Aura Knight'' which to his opinion was a huge step since these kinds of classes have ranks and being a knight was quite high. As for the bonus to his stats, his bonus increased from 10 points in Strength, Agility and Vitality to 15 points in each. And once gain Sain noticed that Raven gained the ''Honour'' stat like Lyndis. Anyway, Sain started to look through Raven''s skills as well.
Aura Manipulation Beginner Level 1 The ability to use Aura and all shape and form. New methods of using Aura will generate a new skill. Aura Power Increase: 10% Aura Control Increase: 3%
Battle Aura Beginner Level 1 The ability to cloak the body with Aura to increase power, speed and defence all at once. It is a powerful skill but takes up great amounts of stamina to use. As time passes, your aura will develop as well changing to suit you the most. Power increase: 1% Speed increase: 1% Defence increase: 1%
Knight Presence Beginner Level 1 Presence is one of the key things that will prevents monsters from attacking you. But at the same time it can be used to cause the enemy to falter and attack prematurely as well. This is a passive skill that allows you to also increase your presence and lower the presence of others as well. The stronger your fight spirit, the stronger this skill will be.
¡°Oh.¡± Sain was quite interested in this though if he let out that thought than Miriel would be mad at him. Even so these three skills were quite fine as well in terms of their use. ''Aura Manipulation'' was something that was in it''s name but ''Battle Aura'' was one of the variations and one that could change as well later on from what he saw. Furthermore, Sain believed that it was said that most of the top tier players could use at least one version of this skill. Besides that was the ''Knight Presence'' skill which is another application of using Fighting Spirit but also to protect everyone around him by drawing in attacks more effectively as well. ¡°This is quite something...¡± Sain muttered thinking about it that way. ¡°I agree, Raven is becoming a better and better tank now...though that does not excuse your behaviour before¡± said Miriel in a criticising tone. ¡°Haha...let''s not focus on that now...¡± suggested Lyndis feeling that too much of this overbearing mood was a bad thing and said, ¡°Well it looks like that Raven will be able to take on more powerful foes soon enough.¡± ¡°You''re just happy that the meat shield is better now¡± said Shadow in a rude way, ¡°Well I''m happy about that as well since without you or Raven, it''ll be hard to sneak behind enemies.¡± ¡°....¡± There was no comment on that as the group moved on and Shadow showed his status and skills. His class went from ''Rouge'' to ''Night Assassin'' which seemed to be an unique class like everyone else though Sain was not sure why their classes had two words in them now... Were all classes like this at this point? Anyway stat wise, Shadow''s ''Rouge'' class gave him a bonus of 10 points into agility and luck while his ''Night Assassin'' class gave the same bonus to those two stats but at 30 points instead which was a large improvement but a typical one at the same time. As for his skills...
Critical Eyes Beginner Level 1 Gives eyes that temporary allows one to see the weak spots and fatal points of targets. These spots will be highlighted in red and will only last for the duration of when this skill is active. This skill will last for a minute at a time. Mana Cost: 50
Silent Walk Beginner Level 1 Dramatically decreases any sounds that you make while walking even on dry leaves. This is a common skill for an assassin to have and will only work as you supply mana into the skill. This skill will last 5 minutes at a time. Mana Cost: 100
Dark Deception Beginner Level 1 A passive skill that will allow one to hide in the dark better. It seems that even the shadows are protecting you as you lurk in all dark corners of the world to your prey. This skill allows one to trick others in thinking there is nothing there when there is. The effectiveness of this skill is dependent mostly on how dark it is.
¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway moving on....¡± said Sain a bit awkwardly. ¡°Hey! I can tell you didn''t even think of it right now!¡± Shadow shouted pointing at Sain. ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked Sain trying to act all innocent. ¡°....¡± Though silent, Shadow was giving off some good killing intent though it would be a mistake as one of hides and strikes from behind in battle to have such a thing. ¡°Do you wish to know my thoughts on it?¡± asked Sain this time not trying to tease Shadow for his own slight entertainment. ¡°Please....¡± ¡°Critical Eyes is something that you already do right? You more or less analyse the weakness of the enemy and strike them there but this does it for you. Silent Walk is also something you should already be able to do as well and is kinda a waste as well. Even Dark Deception is another useless one since you already have stealth.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Do you want the more in depth version that details even further of how this really isn''t much?¡± ¡°Not at all!¡± said Shadow not wanting Sain to criticise his skills anymore. ¡°Good¡± Sain nodded seeing that this issue was fine now...and then he asked, ¡°So does anyone know how to get out of here?¡± ¡°....¡± Once again the group was completely silent on this. They originally thought that by pressing the symbols on the walls they would be able to get out, but instead they got their new classes and skills along side with it while being stuck in this place. ¡°Is there something we''re missing...?¡± wondered Miriel aloud trying to figure out something. xXx Elsewhere at the same time... ¡°It has been half a day already....I know that it takes a while for them to go and come back from that place but they really should be back already¡± said Mel all worried. She was especially worried about Serena who was the ''weakest'' one of that group. Jenny was also worried but not to the extent of Mel since she knew that Miriel was capable enough...though it seemed that along with her Sound, Barrier and Illusion magic, she also took on Ice Magic and also a Whip as a weapon. That was a lot to juggle around especially since she was using 4 different magic types at once. But even so, she believed that Miriel would be able to handle it with her serious and sometimes cocky attitude and thus said, ¡°Don''t worry so much about it. Since Miriel is there, it will be fine.¡± ¡°Aren''t you being too confident on your apprentice? I on the other hand cannot trust Lyndis to so something without playing around and making things worse¡± said Ron, ¡°Though it is finally good to not be chased by my debt collectors.¡± ¡°Yeah you need to thank me for that¡± said Park who was next to Ron. It took him a while to ''persuade'' those debt collectors to back off. ¡°Thanks for that¡± said Ron in a polite tone. ¡°You''re welcome¡± said Park in a superior tone. ¡°Anyway what did we do when we found out there was no apparent exit to that place?¡± asked Jenny who could not remember it properly at all. This was definitely not because she was getting old and forgetting things... ¡°I believe we almost starved to death in there...¡± said Mel remembering things. ¡°Took me a few minutes to get out¡± said Anna bluntly. ¡°....¡± Five of the people here just remembered that Anna took on the trial on her own. It also seemed that she had less trouble getting out than them though that may be due to something else. Due to this, Gen sighed after dodging another surprise attack from Anna which at this point to him was normal, and said, ¡°I wish I said something about what to do later since Eden seemed to have forgotten about making a exit for that place.¡± The rest of the masters sighed as well except for Anna who had no trouble with this. ¡°All they need to do is press the button¡± said Anna. ¡°Problem was finding it...¡± sighed Gen, ¡°I don''t think we nor them had someone who can find it...especially when the number of buttons needed to be pushed at the same time increases with the number of people.¡± xXx Approximately some hours later.... ¡°How much do we have left?¡± asked Sain examining part of the walls they were trapped in. ¡°You mean supplies or those damn button?!¡± shouted Shadow on the other side of this extremely large room. It was so stupidly large that it made searching for these small sized buttons even worse. Plus the place was not well lit in the middle which made things even worse. ¡°The buttons I mean¡± said Sain though at this range, only Shadow could hear him even at a distance being the furthest away. ¡°Well...we found three of them, we still probably need to find another three...or more. Better hurry up since I think we might die from a lack of proper air. I swear this place should have been made with proper ventilation¡± Shadow started complaining. Sain let out a small laugh since if that was the case then they would have suffocated to death already...not that they could still die in this space. ¡°Hey~! I found another button!¡± shouted Lyndis on one side. ¡°Hmm....¡± It looked like there was a button on all sides of this room including the ceiling and floor...which meant they could focus on certain areas to cut down time...though it would take a long time either way... ¡°This is really going to take a while...¡± Sain sighed seeing this task at hand. xXx Several more hours later... ¡°We''re finally out!¡± ¡°God damn that took way too long!¡± ¡°Who the hell designed it so we needed to find those damn tiny buttons?!¡± Every last one of the group was crawling out of the ground almost literally as they yearned for flesh air. However upon climbing out, they noticed a message from the game appearing for them.
You and your party have gained the title ''Undying Freak''
Undying Freak A freak of nature that continued to rise up from the dead, crushed by a near invincible force repeatedly. And there must be a large strain on the word ''repeatedly'' since you have been killed over a thousand times within 2 short hours. Due to this, the body had adapted to death quite a bit, more than others can say and there are several near impossible and powerful effects on the body due to this. Whether it is the schemes of the devil or the pity of the Gods, those abilities are yours now. They are: Chances of resurrection working on you will double and time period to be resurrected will double as well Upon dying, you will only lose 1% of skill proficiency instead of 5% Upon dying you will only lose all of the experience you gain for the next level instead of losing a whole level You will not drop any equipment normally unless equipment has conditions to drop or via skills All stats +20
¡°Hmm?¡± Sain was reading through it but didn''t have the chance since another message appeared almost immediately after the first.
Independent Guild Information has been updated
Rank in Independent Guild has been upgraded to Regular Members
Has been placed in a new sub-group for Independent Guild
Independent Guild Information Guild Name: Sleeping Sheep Centre Guildmaster: Eden, Alexandra and Viv Size: Small Members: 31 Guild Vault: Unknown Amount (Restricted) Current Ranking of Guild: 1 (Compared to all other Independent guilds in the continent) Description: When this Guild appeared is unknown as the information is restricted for new recruits of the Independent Guild. A number of things are restricted for new recruits that have yet to complete a Independent Guild Quest. However the Independent Guild is said to very old and powerful in several ways. In order to gain more information on the Guild, ask one of the Guildmasters.
Sub Group: The New Rookies Rank: Regular Members Members: 6 Average Level: 200 Total Contribution Points to Guild: 12531 Total Contribution Points to Kingdom: 8734 Description: A new set of members that show some promise. Notes to know: By doing quests, contribution points to the Guild and Kingdom will increase. The amount will vary on the quest rank that has been completed and whether it benefits the guild or kingdom more. Failing a quest or causing trouble will reduce the total amount of contribution points you will have. This depends on the level of trouble you get into. When the total contribution points to the guild reaches the negatives, you will be kicked out of the guild. When the total contribution points to the kingdom reaches the negatives, contribution points to the guild will be subtracted instead.
¡°Wow, that''s a lot of things to look through¡± said Lyndis scrolling through it quickly. Sain did the same and noticed that his work showed up in the total contribution points to the guild...hopefully no one else in the group would become suspicious due to it. However he noticed that both Shadow and Miriel were taking glances at him while looking through the windows. ¡°....¡± He said nothing of it and neither did they. It was only when Lyndis started speaking that they started talking though not on the abnormal contribution points which he caused. ¡°Wow this title is super good!¡± exclaimed Lyndis. Sain agreed with her statement. Other than the standard stat increase and minor bonus to resurrection, the other three effects were truly powerful to be envied. One that lowered the amount of skill proficiency lost when dying. One that lowered the experience lost when dying. And one that made losing equipment when dying near impossible. It was these three effects that all players would want to have since dying in the game was extremely tough on players. Not only did they lose some skill proficiency which was hard to raise, they lose a level which is even harder to raise and most importantly, they lose equipment by chance on death which could be worse than losing levels itself! And the group now had effects that negated most of the negative effects of these three things. It was only a shame that there was no effect to reduce the timer to revive. ¡°I agree that this is powerful but did we really die over a thousand times...?¡± wondered Miriel. ¡°I lost count after a hundred or so¡± said Sain, he was at that point was not concern on the number of times he died but rather trying to survive. Scrolling through the rest of the stuff, Sain decided and said, ¡°We should get back to our masters first...they should be worried.¡± ¡°Yeah...my master seems to worry about me a lot¡± said Serena looking down and rubbing her tights since it was the middle of the night and cold. ¡°Speaking of which, how much time did we spend in there? We left around morning but it didn''t seem so much time passed...¡± wondered Lyndis. ¡°Around 12 hours?¡± wondered Raven commenting on this. ¡°Something that would have taken only a bit over 2 hours lasting six times of that...? Damn I really want to punch the guy who made this trial¡± said Shadow spiting that person. ¡°You mean me?¡± asked Eden pointing to himself. The group paused in both speech and thought as he appeared behind Shadow who did not realise anything yet. ¡°Yes you and when I see you next....¡± Shadow stopped realising something was wrong and turned and looked at Eden. ¡°....¡± ¡°Shit.¡± Shadow said that single worded and used ''Burst Speed'' to try and run away. Along with ''Dark Deception'' and ''Silent Walk'' active as well ''Stealth'', it was truly hard to keep track of him. However the person he was trying to run away from was a being that was temporary at level 800 due to restrictive reasons and a user of countless skills. Thus... ¡°Air lock¡± said Eden lazily causing the air around not only Shadow but the rest of the group to freeze in place causing them to be unable to move at all. It was not like a sealing skill as it did not target the person but the air around that person and therefore there were little counters to this skill. And it was impossible to break with brute strength alone. ¡°Ah damn!¡± Shadow let out that scream as Sain had to ask, ¡°Why are we caught up in this as well?¡± Eden gave him a look and asked, ¡°Are you going to run away like that idiot?¡± ¡°Are you going to do something that will merit us running away?¡± asked Sain in return. Eden smirked at that and said, ¡°Looks like you obtained the ''Undying Freak'' title. Good, that one is really hard to get though you only need to die and be revived a larger number of times in a day. The effects however vary with the number of deaths and time it took for those deaths. Seeing that you came from that trial, you more or less got the best version of that title.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°What''s with the silence? It''s not like I took your ability to speak¡± wondered Eden. ¡°Why are you mentioning the title we just got?¡± asked Miriel cautiously to Eden. She had a bad feeling about this. ¡°Why I''m going to kill you all of course.¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone in the group at the same time tried to move but could not move at all thanks to Eden''s skill that he used on all of them. ¡°Why are you planing on killing us?!¡± shouted Lyndis in fright. She and the other had already experienced two hours of them killing them but again? Never! ¡°Why?¡± Eden made an angry look on his face as he questioned him. ¡°Do you know what time of year it is?¡± he asked them. ¡°....¡± The group was silent though Sain had suspicions. ¡°It''s about the end of semester?¡± he asked. ¡°Nope, that passed already while you guys in game were doing things while I wasn''t keeping tabs on you in real life¡± Eden said, ¡°Just because me and the other two are too busy, it doesn''t mean you can skip on things!¡± ¡°....¡± The group did not like where this was going. ¡°As such you failed to complete any of the tests due to playing around in game too much.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°A semester is 4 months long giving you a 2 month break till the next one. This means there are 8 months while I expect you to attend class while another 4 months of doing what you want. This means a whole semester is equal to 16 months in game or 1 year and 4 months.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Actually that means you were suppose to take your tests 2 months ago in in game time or half a month ago in real life. From what I know this was the time when you were mass questing asking Alena for things to do.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Now if you actually attended, say Alexandra''s combat class you would have noticed that the teacher there was replaced by an AI. I checked and found that you guys haven''t even attended in 4 months which probably means you haven''t been attending the other classes for the same time though neither me nor Viv expected you lot to show up in out classes as well.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Any questions so far?¡± asked Eden in a lecturing and scowling tone. ¡°Why are you telling us this?¡± asked Sain though he was tempted to ask why didn''t he remind them but that was completely their fault...though it probably wouldn''t have happened if they attended class regularly to begin with. It was then that Eden flashed a smile and said, ¡°Good news is that you still have almost a whole month or in real life or to be precise 6 months in game to work on passing the supplementary tests for those subjects you skipped out on. I believe other than combat training it is my class of the history of the continent, Viv''s analysis of classes and skills and the general course which is a mix of all other classes that you need to do since you guys did not choose another subject to go into.¡± ¡°And...?¡± ¡°And you won''t be able to play Royal Road until you all pass...actually until the new semester starts as a punishment since the retests are at the end of the break before the semester starts.¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°No complaints else I can make the punishment worse¡± ordered Eden which forced everyone shut. After some moments of silent from the group and after he got his points through, Eden sighed. ¡°Four subjects and you have a month and a half to study and pass them all. Until then you will not go back into Royal Road, I will put a lock on your capsules until then. But before that...thankfully you won''t actually lose a level due to your new title now....¡± Eden raised his hand producing an insane amount of mana through it that the mana itself, being compressed so much was now visible to the naked eye. ¡°Wait!¡± Sain could hear someone shout that last plead for mercy but at this point he simply gave up since defying Eden was impossible. BANNNNNNNNNGGGGG!!!!
You have died
With that, Eden caused them another death...
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 7900~ - This chapter took too long to write! God did I not feel like writing this chapter...I would say I was having writer''s block but I was writing 3-4 pages a day. Good thing is that I know that I can at least dish out a chapter at least once a week. - Anyway, these are their new classes and new skills they got thanks to it. I planned out these classes a long time ago and now only can give them it. There are some things I wanted to skipped out on like some of the new stats they got...it will be a pain to edit the forum tables later on to include them... - Anyhow, now that this chapter is done, I can start on that extra chapter that popped up thanks to me and Ninnin talking about Gods work... Vol.7 Chapter 4 - Training is Endless Exiting the Capsule, Peter sighed thinking of what just happened. Eden just had to kill them and furthermore it seems that they weren''t allowed to get back into the game for a good month and a half now which would mean 6 months would pass in game due to this. This time was enough to level them up two or so dozen times, it was not a small figure at all. But still, like Eden said, it was also important to study in school and not get draw too much into the game. He had heard stories where many people had their real life ruined because they were playing the game too much. He could not blame them at this point. Royal Road was too real, too good to be true and so much more interesting than the real world. How else could it still be the greatest game to have existed for the last 30 or so years. Even when other VR games popped out, many fantasy ones, space ones and sci-fi ones, Royal Road still remained at the top. The main reason was that there are explorations to find other continents and there has been results at least. Whether there was a continent as large as the one they started one remains a mystery but there were small pieces of land that could count as a small continent out there. It was proof alone that this game was so much more complicated and unique than the other ones in both size, content and popularity. Even that Star Wars VR game only lasted a few years before having to be cut off due to a lack of interested players. But there was really no point in thinking of it right now. He got up and went to where the others were gathered already to find them complaining on what happened already as well. ¡°Uggh....what the hell! He just says that and all of a sudden he kills us as well! Just because we just gained the ability to not lose a level when dying doesn''t mean he can test it out so soon!¡± As usual or rather as expected, the one that was the loudest in complaining was Maria. When she didn''t like something, it seems that she was the one who voiced her opinion the loudest. While it got her point across easily, there was a strain on his mind after a constant supply of complaints. ¡°The main problem was that Eden had a point. We should have not played too much in the game...really, it''s not like me to forget about something like that. I think we spent too much time on only Royal Road that it ended like this¡± said Hina. Unlike Maria, she was much more calm and looked at things at a more objective based stance. Because of this, even though she was not as loud as Maria, she got her point across more easily than her. Plus did help that Peter preferred to listen to her when he could. These two aside from him had the most say in what to do because of this. Ian lied on the side of talking about things but in the end don''t care much on where to go, Grace was on the side to follow what the others say and Mark did not care about decisions altogether which mean the decisions went to himself, Maria and Hina. As for himself, for some reason the others listened to him a lot for some reason. Overall he just expressed opinions on what could benefit them all equally. He would not favour one decision over another due to his relationship with him. Noticing that Peter appeared at last, Hina said, ¡°Ah, Peter you''re finally here. Please tell this idiot that there is no point in complaining to either Alexandra or Viv about what happened.¡± At the same time, Maria sent a glare to Hina and said to Peter, ¡°Peter, please tell this fool that if we did complain to those two, there is a good chance that we may be able to get back in game earlier than the month and a half Eden said.¡± The only thing Peter did was sigh and consider both sides first. On one hand, the possibility of getting back into the game early was pleasing at the very least. They just got to level 200 and got their new classes as well but on the other hand, Peter felt like they would be punished even more by Eden if they failed their re-tests for their subjects. ¡°First, I think we should think of passing those exams. After we are confident enough to pass them, we could ask one of those three to take the exams earlier and as such, get back into the game earlier as well¡± he said to them all. ¡°....¡± The rest of the group was in deep thoughts to this. He was sure that they were thinking of all their choices here but in the end, really it was up to Maria and Hina since the other three seem fine on what they got. ¡°I guess it is fine then, I doubt Alexandra or Viv would let us in without great reason¡± Maria said in slight defeat. Likewise Hina said, ¡°I agree on us being able to pass those exams. Those exams were the whole reason we got this punishment to begin with.¡± ¡°Which means we have to study for those exams in the end¡± sighed Ian. It was clear to Peter that Ian did not like to do something like this, probably because he like Maria would prefer to be in game playing it instead of this. ¡°Anyway we need to make an outline on all that we need to know....¡± said Peter remembering that the school gave them revision stuff a while back though they never even touched it. xXx Meanwhile in the game itself... Gen and the other masters were really worried now. It had been over half a day since the group had set off to clear that trial for their 2nd Class. By now they should have come back with the good news that they have passed and got new classes. However they did not yet which worried them greatly. ¡°Did they perhaps died somewhere?¡± wondered Ron on one of the possibilities out there. ¡°They may have, freemen are more likely to die than us, natives after all¡± said Park agreeing to this. There wasn''t much else to talk on the matter as if they were discussing their demise then it would turn extremely depressing for them. Therefore they did not and simply waited and continued to wait. Soon it was in the middle of the night and there were still no signs of them. Finally some of them decided to leave since there was no point waiting in Gen''s home any longer. ¡°I guess we have to wait until morning to see if they come back. Due to recent events with the Imperial Order, no one can come in or out of any city in the Western Continent for a while at night for security reasons¡± said Gen with a sigh. ¡°Yeah ever since that battle in the Imperial Palace that got a large number of people riled up¡± agreed Jenny with a sigh as well. Yes, ever since 3 months ago where there was a great battle in Imperial Palace itself that left it quite damaged, the Kingdom was on high alert for the enemy that appeared there. There were many rumours on what those four enemies may be but in the end, even the Kingdom does not know and it is simply said that it is the enemy that their Emperor, Weed needs to slay. But what worried Gen the most was that Eden, Alexandra and Viv was there due to the recording on those ''T.Vs'' that the freemen used. It showed the entire battle from start to finish where they battled against those strange and powerful knights and demons alike. Even though the freemen numbered only 50, they were some of the strongest that could match himself and the others in a fight. And yet half of them died in the beginning of the first half of the battle like that. And then that Golden Lion armoured man appeared. Even Eden could not land a hit on that person, what kind of monster was that?! Furthermore the first three enemies were revived as well and they disappeared like that without anyone stopping them. Since then, the Kingdom had issue an order for everyone to search and find those beings. However even if they did, how many could even fight them. In all Gen could only think of several thousand freemen that could fight them for a while and even less that could possibly defeat them. They were the current Emperor, the Empress, The Royal Court Magicians, The Royal Archer Captain, the Royal Monk Captain and so on that possessed great power on their own right. But in the end the ones with the greatest of chances were always those three. ¡°Did any of you guys leave yet? No? Good.¡± All of a sudden the door was opened revealing a thin black haired person with a shadow was humour in his(?) face. It was Eden just as he was thinking of him. ¡°Eden?¡± asked Mel with a frown with her moving way back away from him. She was still scared like hell of him as usual. Jenny on the other hand had the opposite reaction and from what Gen knew of her, had great respect to Eden as her teacher though there was still fear in her. On the other hand Park had a co-worker relationship with Eden, Ron as well and Anna referred to Eden as her ''Master'' after all as he was the one who picked her up. Gen could not remember what was the circumstances but Eden was also the one who suddenly placed Park and Ron into their team when it was still him, Mel and Jenny. But right now, Gen was thinking of something else. Since Eden was here, it was impossible for him to not know what happened to their apprentices. He hoped he did not give them another unreasonable task again. ¡°Eden what happened to our apprentices?¡± he asked Eden to which Eden responded with, ¡°Oh, I killed them.¡± ¡°....¡± Normally either himself, Mel or Jenny would retort here but all three of them had their faces twitching and their bodies shaking not sure on what to do. The other three; Park, Ron and Anna simply accepted that fact though. ¡°And also, they won''t be coming back to this world.¡± ¡°...Does that mean...?¡± Mel was pale now. The only reason Eden would say that was that he...[Deleted] them right? However Eden shrugged and said with a smile, ¡°Actually to be precise I''m banning from this world for 6 months.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± Several of the masters let out a sigh of relief. Compared to Eden, they had almost no say in what would happen at all. Even though they were indeed powerful, they were still natives of this land and only had one life. Eden on the other hand was even more powerful than them by several times and furthermore was a freeman who had unlimited lives essentially. Their standing was made quite clear with this fact alone. ¡°Also those six passed the Trial and got their 2nd Class so don''t worry about that¡± Eden added like that and was about to leave. However Gen got up and quickly grabbed Eden by the arm and almost shouted, ¡°Stop!¡± in a loud voice. ¡°....¡± There was some shock, looks of amusement and even a look of worry as everyone stayed in place not moving at all. ¡°Grabbing me like this...Gen....¡± the pressure around Eden increased several fold in an instance as he turned to glare at Gen with his eyes changed to one of a dragon, ¡°Do you wish to die?!¡± The pressure alone made him want to kneel down and submit to his death but he did not. First Gen wanted to know a couple of things even it cost him his life as a cost. ¡°What exactly happened at the Imperial Palace?¡± he asked Eden. The next moment he felt like the air in front of his exploded as he was sent flying back into his house. Bang! He hit a bookshelf and broke it causing books to hit him several times on the head as a result. ¡°Why do you need to know?¡± Eden asked in a cold tone also looking at the others causing them to back down quickly, ¡°There is nothing I need from you for now.¡± ¡°And that is exactly the problem here!¡± Gen shouted letting out years of emotion from here on, ¡°You took us in, trained us and just let us be like that?! Why didn''t you call us to battle with you three months ago?! What is going on right now? Why have you told us to not take part in the search for the enemy?!¡± Gen was breathing heavily now. Not because he said too many things at once but rather because the pressure around him due to Eden increased once again. It seems that Eden was mad right now and that was a problem for the stake of his life. ¡°If I brought you guys there at the battle three months ago, you or least some of you would die. If you searched and found the enemy, some of you would for certain die. Even with the power of a fully realised ''Mark'' which I gave you, it is possible you would not even be able to escape with that power. It is also possible that ''Mankai'' would be ineffective against those four let alone the use of ''Awakening''.¡± ¡°Even so, is it fine for us to just stay here and do nothing?!¡± Gen asked once again. ¡°I took you all in all those years ago not out of any kind of emotion you expect of me to have but out of obligation. Obligation out of a favour from an old friend, obligation from even old enemies and others. Whether I use you and let you all die because of it is not for you to think but mine. Besides even without you, the search is going on, we have narrowed down the place the enemy might appear to the Western Continent or further west where they first appeared¡± said Eden at once leaving with that. With Eden gone, Park patted Gen''s shoulder and said, ¡°At least you got everything out and did not die from that blurt of words. Though don''t do that again else Eden might really kill you.¡± Gen sighed and knew Park was right. ¡°But really what is he thinking of not using us?¡± wondered Mel. ¡°Perhaps we have a different use in mind¡± suggested Anna. ¡°Perhaps...well either way, one day Eden will use us but whether we can survive it...¡± Jenny said darkly. So far all the tasks they got fit into their abilities and sometimes tiptoed beyond it at times but nothing to the point they were completely helpless. But things were really stirring up now. There was a chance that they would be forced to move out whether they wanted to or not. xXx Outside...as Eden walked further away from Gen''s house, he was stopped by a person by the side of the road. It was Alexandra. ¡°It''s not like you to lash out on those brats and even those kids¡± she said, ¡°Are you still emotional about Risene? You kept it well together before when Viv told us to meet him at the Ramen store and saw those kids.¡± ¡°Shut up....¡± Eden hit the wall and caused a large crack to appear. But the strange thing was that there was no sound from the impact, Eden was controlling the air around it to stop any sounds that goes through. ¡°Meeting Risene and ending it like that is really bad you know¡± said Alexandra leaning her back onto the wall, ¡°After all you are quite stressed from trying to find that Warrior King guy.¡± ¡°That guy knows about llyfr!¡± Eden shouted, ¡°And with that kinds of ability he can''t be normal at all! There are literally no records of him anywhere which means...!¡± ¡°He''s from the same place was llyfr eh¡± said Alexandra in an uncaring way. ¡°....¡± ¡°But that doesn''t have anything to do with it right? It''s that sword that caused you to become like this. What exactly is that sword? I felt a lot of Divine Power coming from that thing¡± she asked. ¡°I...don''t know. What I saw were fragments of llyfr''s memories when I looked at it¡± said Eden. ¡°Fragments?¡± ¡°Yeah...the fragment of llyfr in me...the fragment of the [Original Destroyer], every last Destroyer has a fragment of him, his power in us. Those brats and those kids and even the Demon Kings, Chaos Dragons and so on, from us ''Destroyers'' who possess the [Fragment] of llyfr, they possess an even smaller fragment of our power as well though filtered once more, a drop of a drop of an endless ocean you see.¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra frowned, ¡°I know about the Demon Kings and ''Marks'' but are there really that many more that possess the power of [The End]?¡± Eden shook his head, ¡°Only those who have the [Fragment] have the power of [The End] that can completely destroy a God''s [Origin]. Only llyfr and every last Destroyer has the power of [The End], even the ones that were not fully realised. Those who gained powers due to us don''t.¡± ¡°And what does this have to do with those memories you were talking about?¡± ¡°Nothing. Just that the next battle will be even harder than the last. What is your progress in collecting those [Sun Authorities]?¡± ¡°I have four of them now and can completely control three of them so I don''t destroy everything in sight when I try to use them at once.¡± Eden let out a chuckle and said, ¡°I thought [Sun Authorities] were suppose to be extremely powerful to the point that one can barely possess one.¡± ¡°They are, which is why I can only control three of them for now. It has only been what? 3 or 4 years since I got my first one? Those Sun Monsters that possessed the [Sun Authorities] spent decades and centuries on just trying to make sure they don''t die from possessing it alone.¡± ¡°What happens when you try to use all twelve of them at once?¡± asked Eden. ¡°Hmm...no idea but it is most likely that my body in the mortal world and without the power of [Divinity] cannot endure it for long. Maybe for a couple of minutes I could use the power of someone over level 1000 and suppress even ''Mankai'' but with my [Divinity] I could deter most of the burden onto my [Divine Wings], well back when I still had them.¡± ¡°Hmm...so you are able to temporary get back into your best state with that...didn''t Viv say he was trying to make a contract with the strongest spirit or something?¡± ¡°Yeah, he''s been trying to tap into the power of the [Tree of Life] or something. What about you? Have you found something that would equal [Magic King Drive] yet?¡± Eden shook his head with a soft smile on his face and said, ¡°Not at all. At best I could use [Elemental Resonance] to boost my elemental magic but nothing to the extent of [Magic King Drive]. That state was really a cheat mode now I think of it.¡± Hearing that, Alexandra pouted and said, ¡°That''s what I''ve been saying for the last century or so!¡± ¡°Haha.¡± ¡°Anyway the real reason why you are so stressed you that you found the enemy''s hideout right?¡± ¡°....¡± Eden was momentarily stunned before saying, ¡°How the hell did you know that?!¡± ¡°I have sources~ One by the name of a True Goddess~ Plus I have plenty of footage of you running away for dear life~¡± Alexandra smirked. ¡°Damn that Goddess!¡± Eden cursed. ¡°So how exactly was that dungeon? I wasn''t allowed to see any details that may reveal it''s actual location¡± she asked. It was at that moment that Eden sighed and said, ¡°That place a dungeon? It''s more like a Fortress. Enemies at least level 800 at least along with traps in all as well. A combination of undying knights that can phase in and out of a physical state control the activation of traps which can''t harm them due to that. Furthermore there are also High Class Demons of all types wandering around the place leading lesser demons with them. Something like a mere 50 or 100 of the top players aren''t enough. Even with the three of us combined, we may not be able to breach it without our former power.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Plus there is a problem with those three we faced repeatedly. One of them is based off the King of Knights another from the King of Demons and the last though I''m not sure but from his swordsmanship alone is probably based off the greatest swordsman.¡± Alexandra was in deep thought and said, ¡°In that case why don''t we bring Weed, Seoyoon and the Gemchis with us! That''s already what? 500 people?¡± ¡°Eh but the strain of tele-¡± ¡°Plus if we add on some of the elite paladin and priests as well as exorcists out there who would love to help kill demons that''s another 500 people from the top my head. Might as well take a thousand knights since they are usually all strong. Along with the 3000 or so other players who would want to help we have an elite army of 5000 easily!¡± she said with complete and utter confidence. ¡°You don''t know where that place is located right?¡± asked Eden with his eyes narrowed. ¡°Nope! Don''t care, just need to bring them all there right?¡± said Alexandra while casually patting him on the shoulder. ¡°The enemy location is on a floating island that they control. It''s location is deep in the sky, high to the point that it makes the great mountains of the world seem short. How exactly do you expect me to teleport an army of 5000 up there? The mana costs alone is too extreme even for me.¡± ¡°In that case figure it out, I need to talk to people now~¡± Alexandra ran off without him leaving him with a task to transport 5000 people including himself and her and Viv up there. He sighed thinking about it. However he in no case had any thoughts of not doing it. ¡°An army of 5000...if I draw up a teleportation connection and while using the highest grade mana stones...Weed won''t like the costs at all. Hmm...considering all the factors and the fact that it is near impossible to draw that teleportation connection circle on that place without them knowing...all of this will take another year and a half to complete...¡± he muttered. ¡°I better get started then...damn so much gold and mana stones will be spent due to this. I wonder Weed can give me some pity money on this plan....¡± xXx Another two weeks has passed in real life. To summarise everything that happened till then, this conversation with Alexandra would do. xXx ¡°Nope, can''t get in the game for another month. Eden made it very clear that this was punishment for skipping out on your exams the first time¡± said Alexandra with her arms in a cross shape. ¡°What?! You allowed us to take the exams early and yet not get in the game early as well?!¡± Maria retorted seeing it as unreasonable. ¡°This is not unreasonable¡± said Alexandra reading Maria''s mind, ¡°But rather me giving you the chance to spend a month on something other than exams. Frankly you aren''t missing that much in game. A good month is a way to get away from the game itself.¡± ¡°But what should we do then?¡± asked Peter, though he was sceptical that she would allow such a thing, he had at least some hope they would be able to get back into the game. ¡°Who know¡± said Alexandra shrugging, ¡°Try and find something to do then, you can use the VR device in our classroom though if you are that bored.¡± With that Alexandra left. xXx And so they were in this kind of situation where they had nothing to do. Peter sighed seeing that they would waste so much time here. If they slack off from one day, then they would waste even more time than before! Never-ending training was the key to maintain a top shape! As such was a words of that Weed that was greatly quoted to anyone who trained regularly. As such a whole generation of gamers lived by those words and became strong. And Peter intended to follow by these words even though there were a number of issues in the way right now. ¡°I guess the first thing would be to use that VR device that Alexandra left us then¡± said Peter thinking of trying to get something out of this. Even though they couldn''t get back in the game, didn''t mean that they couldn''t actually do nothing. A VR device was perfect to simulate some sort of training for them to do. And in it, they could test things that they could not in the game itself. As such the group started to leave from the infirmary where Alexandra usually worked at to their combat class. As a result, they met with a certain person that Maria sort of knew from a conversation before. A certain bright looking person that had nothing wrong happen in his life appeared before them. ¡°Ah you''re...!¡± that boy that was no older than the rest of them pointed at Maria and then paused for a few seconds, ¡°I...don''t recall your name.¡± Maria moved up in front of the rest of the group and laughed saying, ¡°I didn''t get the chance to tell you my name before. Plus I haven''t been in class for a while as well.¡± ¡°In that case why don''t you introduce yourself to me? It is the privilege of guys to know the names of beautiful girls like you¡± the boy laughed a bit haughtily this time. As one who was talented enough to get into this academy and with a powerful family background, it was only natural for him to think above most others. But the problem was that everyone else here was on an equal standing on him! Family connections meant nothing here since everyone was connected to other powerful figures. However those of his age usually had no such thing. Because of this, he acted like this without much restraint in front of Maria and the others that watched behind her. ¡°My name is Maria. Nice to meet you Michael¡± said Maria. ¡°Oh¡± Michael was surprised at least, ¡°I didn''t think you remember though I didn''t introduce myself back then.¡± ¡°Well you did make an impression trying to pick a fight with the chairman of all things.¡± ¡°Yeah....my father did tell me to never do that again in a desperate tone after all. I wonder what kinds of connections she has to even make my father¡± Michael was in deep thoughts for a second but then suddenly said, ¡°So what level are you now? It has been three months and I have reached level 320 thanks to it! It really gets harder to level up later on.¡± ¡°I''m level 200 and just got my new class with my advancement. Plus I got a pretty good title out of it as well¡± said Maria in a happy tone though they were immediately killed before they even got to try out it. ¡°Oh a new title? Titles are really hard to get, you need to either do something for a long time without rest or do something that makes a big impression to get one. I worked really hard and only got two so-so titles that barely help me out¡± Michael laughed a bit about it. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°Oh but even if you work hard there is a good chance you won''t be rewarded like with fame¡± said Maria in a sweet tone and asked, "Have things been good with that Independent guild of yours?¡± Michael nodded and said, ¡°We are still just a C rank one but we should be able to get to B rank when we get more good members and do more Guild Quests. The issue isn''t finding those Guild Quests but because they are difficult that it takes the entire guild to make sure we don''t fail a D rank one.¡± Maria smiled hearing that masking the fact that she just thought that D rank was kinda low. The Guild quest that made them go through those Labs a while ago was D rank but the one to defend the Town was a C rank one. Both had similar difficulties in the strength of monster but the latter needed you to protect as well moving up the rank. Plus the thing was that they had to complete these level of Guild Quests on their own without the help of the rest of the guild except for the latter one where they really had to. ¡°Oh you should really join, my guild is becoming a bigger deal now¡± said Michael once again, ¡°You can even invite your friends, we are more than happy to accept new members no matter what.¡± ¡°Sorry but I am fine where I am currently. Plus won''t I only get in your way?¡± Maria shyly let out a laugh upon hearing Michael''s words. ¡°No, not at all!¡± Michael grasped Maria''s hands for a few seconds but then suddenly said, ¡°Oh I need to go now!¡± before running away. ¡°....¡± The group simply stood there silent looking at Maria. She sighed and then said to the others, ¡°I know...¡± The first to speak was Ian of course, ¡°You really had to act in front of him? Now there''s going to be a damn misunderstanding thanks to this. And what''s with acting like a shy and weak girl? You are the complete opposite of that!¡± ¡°Hey! It''s rude to act like that in front of people! Plus there is a good chance that I can get good information off of him!¡± retorted Maria back in return. ¡°But playing with his emotions isn''t nice is know. You even changed your personality to get in further¡± Hina made a motion with her hands of moving forward. Grace also nodded and said, ¡°Playing with others'' feelings is....¡± ¡°Hey hey hey! Why am I suddenly made like a villain?! If Peter over there did that there would be no-¡± Suddenly Maria got a glare from Hina which make her take a step back due to the pressure from it alone. ¡°T-That was a joke you now...¡± though there was a good chance that may happen in the future. ¡°Anyway¡± Maria still continued to talk, ¡°It''s not like I have to show my true self to everyone you know? It''s okay to act a bit so I don''t have too many enemies out there. Unlike some people I don''t exactly want to be alone.¡± ¡°....¡± The rest of the group was silent, even Peter was silent on this matter. ¡°What? To get along with most people, I need to act in a certain manner which they like. And unlike some people, I can''t live completely ignoring other people as well.¡± Peter let out a slight smile and said, ¡°Well at least you act like yourself with us....¡± ¡°Yeah, how else would I act? I would be super tired if I did with you lot¡± she said before they all continued to walk to their combat classroom for the VR device. xXx While inside the VR space...the place was constructed to be a training area. Right now the group was quite literally in a box. To the left and right were a total of six rooms that would be used by each of the members of the group alone. One one end of the box was an entrance to a group training room and on the other end was an entrance to a conference room for discussions. ¡°So, what are we doing?¡± asked Ian to Peter who was dressed as ''Sain'' right now. This appearance was exactly like he was in game to his weapon as well. For some reason, Peter had changed their appearance to be the same as in game. ¡°We are here to train¡± said Peter. ¡°Train? More training?¡± asked Maria, though she knew training was important, actual experience was even more so. Plus the level of training that Peter desired from them was on another level itself. ¡°More or less, thankfully this place has allowed us to use our characters so our physical abilities in here is the same in game¡± Peter started to touch some buttons on a screen and a monster spawned all of a sudden. With a quick stab, that monster died in one hit. ¡°Which means while we can''t gain any stats, skill proficiency or experience, we can still train here¡± he further stated. Normally while training in game, at times they would be given messages from the game when they gained stats or increased their skills'' levels which would often distract them but now there were no such messages. ¡°But what are we going to train?¡± asked Maria, ¡°I don''t think this place can replicate skills and spells.¡± Peter nodded and said, ¡°You''re right but we says we are trying to train our ''skills'' here. It is said that martial artists and those trained in combat have an advantage in game. All I''m doing is replicating that in this VR world¡± he started to smile at the rest of the group which made them shiver. Any kind of training they did was so horribly difficult that they could cry but it was another thing when Peter assigned them training! The difference was that Peter knew their exact strengths and weaknesses and made sure to push their strengths to the limits and kicked away their weaknesses at the same time. Cruel, ruthless and unforgiving was Peter when he decided to train them. ¡°Unfortunately I haven''t gotten permission to increase the time speed in here so we can only work at normal speeds. This mean we only have a month of this in the end¡± said Peter, ¡°We will split from individual training for the first week, group training in the second, individual again for the fourth and one last group training for the last week.¡± For some reason, the rest of the group felt that the group training would be extremely difficult. ¡°I have enable you guys to spawn monsters if you wish as well but please make it so the monsters you spawn don''t suddenly expand and destroy everything around here¡± Peter continued to instruct the rest of the group, ¡°As for what to do, find something and do it, those individual rooms are customisable so you can make it into anything you want. If you wish to relax for the whole week, feel free as well. Since we are on break, we will log off here when we need to eat and sleep and otherwise. Also every seventh day, the last day of a week, we will take a break from this as well.¡± Saying all of this, some of members of the group thought that Peter really become a leader-like figure now. He was naturally issuing orders to them and they accepted it quite well. Compared to the beginning where he was more clumsy with his orders trying to not offend anyone, this one seemed more natural to them. And with this, their training started again. xXx Right now Peter was in his own individual training room. From what he gathered from the rest of them, they intended to train hard as well. This was good. Everyone would become stronger thanks to this. He would not let them waste time that easily. After all he would have to work with them for years to come at this rate. Anyone who gets too lazy will only be a hindrance to the rest of the group and every last one of them were at least above average in his mind. ¡°Only Maria and Hina are doing their usual stuff...with a sword and with a whip respectively. The others are doing something new each¡± he muttered thinking about it. Ian took up a short bow, Mark took on throwing weapons and Grace was using unarm martial arts training now. All of them reverted their weakness in that area. Soon enough, it would be fine for them to act individually as they would be able to use almost all cards. With the weakness of being unable to use both close and long range attacks, their abilities as a group would more than double at least with these extra cards. As for Sain who was already skilled enough, in his mind, in both of them, he had something else in mind for his own training. ¡°Spawn set allies 1!¡± he commanded the VR space. In front of him came, five figures that had default looks and all different classes. There was one swordsman, one mage, one priest, one archer and one thief. Along with himself as an anchor with lots of sub roles, it was a perfectly balanced party. Naturally there was no need to think he would be working with the group alone in the future, there may be a need to command other types of people instead. As such... ¡°Spawn set enemies 1!¡± he commanded once again. In front of him were an exact copy of his own party in here. Even the fact that there was a shaman in the enemy part as well. To him, their experience in dealing with other players was lacking to the extreme. Even though they can take out bandits, they were poorly equipped and had numbers and focused on ambushes and quick battles. Players on the other hand had smaller numbers but much more powerful attack, defence and speed in every way; at least the ones that would attack them, the Pkers. Plus the biggest thing was that he did not know how such players would react, which was why he was using this problem to simulate such things to gain experience like this instead. ¡°Okay, let us begin¡± he said to his NPC generated allies facing the enemy now. xXx Right now, Ian was in an archery range with a short bow and arrows at hand. He had decided than rather than train more in close combat, it was better to expand the ways he could attack. With sneak attacks dealing so much more damage most of the time, it would be foolish if he didn''t try to shoot enemies from afar. ¡°Well time to test out my shooting skills...hopefully it isn''t as bad as Hina''s...¡± he said to himself. He remembered that Peter told him to never let Hina near a bow or any kind of throwing weapon ever. Since it was one of those rare moments where he thought Peter was joking and yet was not, he followed that order to a T. ¡°The range on this thing should be only 20 metres or less...¡± He looked at the bow at hand. In terms of length, it was about a arm''s length which was quite smaller than the bows that most archer used. Plus another thing was that this one was designed to be compact. A light metal bow was a rare thing to see in game since the materials used would be hard to get or expensive to get and finding a bow smith that could make one was hard as well. Even so, Ian wanted a compact bow to use since a too large one would only get in the way. He drew the bow and held his breath and hands steady and aimed... Ping! The string made that sound she is shot the arrow. He missed naturally but was not that far off, only a couple of metres to the left compared to Peter being also killed by Hina when she tried when he was standing behind her. How does she do that while defying the laws of physic? He did not know but for certain he was no Hina in shooting thankfully. He drew the bow for a second time and shot, it was another miss and it went further away in the opposite direction and he was shooting a target only 10 metres away. It seems that the minute adjustments makes a big difference here...though he only moved the bow a few centimetres to where he felt it would work. After sighing and remembering that he had a week to work on this is drew the bow and shot again. This time, he barely knocked off the side of the large target in front of him. Rather than stealth, this was much more difficult for him. Stealth came naturally as part of his core nature as a being but this...is new and something that will take time. As such he continued to practise on his skills. As Peter said, training is really important here. After this he would need to practise in a forest with live targets though... xXx Right now Mark was in a familiar place to him. Though it could be said that he spent a good month at this place at the beginning. Yes, it was the barrack again and the same training area that Park trained him in. This was the place in which he felt the easiest to train in though there were no other people, he was more than fine with that. Most of the people there made even him want to kill them. That was how bad most of them were. But that was not the point right now. In fact, he did not know why he was thinking of this while holding throwing spears and throwing axes at hand. As a tank, he had no need for long range tactics but that in turn restricted him to only be a tank. With some skills to combat enemies at close range at least, he got by well enough with support. But he would be helpless against flying enemies and the likes. Carrying one smaller shield on his right arm and one larger tower shield as tall as him on his left, Mark knew that with the addition of an extra larger shield which was as heavy as his armour, his agility and thus speed would go down dramatically. He knew that his agility was on par with everyone else, in fact his agility stat was no worse than Peter and Maria''s in game and Hina and Grace had agility stats of a bit lower as well making the group all quite fast to begin with. But the burden of equipment was enormous. With the exception of Ian of course with his super light equipment, everyone else wore equipment that were quite light, around at most a few kilos. In fact theoretically, Hina and Grace would be the fastest after Ian due to their light equipment loads. Next was Peter and Maria with equipment that were a bit heavier and at the same time provided with more defence. Finally there was himself with the heaviest equipment with the best defence. In terms of pure weight, he carried around 30 kilos with his normal equipment which could be considered still light though only thanks to the high quality materials used to make it. With the addition of this Tower Shield now, that weight doubled to 60 kilos of equipment weight. He would need to get used to the weight against enemies that require this Tower Shield to be used against. Namely large foes and boss monsters with high attack or AOE attacks. But the real reason he was using all of his equipment right now was to test if he could throw weapons like this. Mark from some small experience knew he was a good shot, the question was now only how good. He gripped the first weapon, the throwing axe, easy to use but a short range. He threw it and it pierce into the target which was a lump of armour standing there. Bang! He felt it was good that he was able to do that. Next was the throwing spear...shorter than his own spear itself it could also be used in really short range fights. He made similar motions as before and threw it. Clang~ The throwing spear hit but was knocked off the armour. It seems that the power behind the throw was not enough... ¡°....¡± Finally there were the throwing knives. The lightest of the three and had the least power but could be used the easiest and with multiple of them if trained to. There were certain advantages to this and he knew it. He motioned his stance and threw the throwing knife casually. Clang! As expected it could not go through the armour completely but it unlike the throwing spear stuck on. From now on, he would only use throwing axes and throwing knives for this training. With this, he took off the Tower Shield happy to know he could perform while using it. If his strength was high and his agility too, it would be useful to swing around a giant shield as a weapon he thought. Now was the more serious practise he had planned... ¡°Spawn in enemy set 1¡± he said casually letting out his voice. In front of him were five guard enemies no stronger than him. He held his actual spear in hand with a throwing axe in the other. He would need to incorporate these new weapons into his fighting style. And so began his training as well. xXx Grace was not the type of person to stand out. In fact you could say she was the type to avoid attention like the cold. Which was why it would be unexpected at the very least to see Grace right now trying to learn some martial arts of her own. She had chosen two of them, one was jujutsu, the more ancient form of judo and one more deadly and the other was taekwondo which was combat based off using one''s lower body and well known to the world. Against common beliefs, jujutsu was a fighting form used and honed in actual combat in the past. A soldier would use it with fists, kicks, weapons and so on to kill another. Because of this, it also included punches, kicks with grapples and choke holds though Grace was more interested in how to throw her enemies away from her. Which was also why she wanted to learn at least the basics of taekwondo as well. While jujutsu was difficult for her due to her height and weight, at least at the beginning, taekwondo while having similar issues was more about attacking than defending which was a slight plus to the former. Plus while in game, her stats affected things as well. Using ''Berserk Conversing'' and ''Berserk Instincts'', she could be able to fight without thinking of the forms she needed to use, as long as she practised in game as well. But first were the forms. Jujutsu moved to the advantage of the upper body while taekwondo did to the lower body. They were near polar opposite in this but there were at least some similar forms to use with both. She would need to practise harder with these to transfer form one style to another. Or she could just make up a new fighting style that mixed both. There were indeed some martial arts that did so in the past and were taught to military people as well and used and proven. Why couldn''t she do something like that? ¡°No...I can''t get ahead of myself...I need to focus on this task first¡± she said to herself. She still had little confidences that her thoughts of doing so would work. Which was why she restricted herself so to the basics right now. At least for self defence. At least in case she was attacked again. At least in preparation. Her thoughts were aligned to this. xXx Right now, Maria was holding a sword in her hand and swinging it down at a moving target. Though it was a puppet and had no attacks, it was quite quick and dodged often against her. It was a good way to train. ¡°Haaa!¡± She made a big swing and as a result placed a lot of power in it and...missed. ¡°Damn, my habit again...¡± She had noticed compared to actual masters of the sword, they rarely used power but instead speed or a balance of both but never purely power alone. What was the point of an attack if it did not connect? As such, she was trying to correct herself in using more speed based attacks than power based ones though she thought it was incorrect to think that she needed to change her fighting style. Maybe it was because of her class change, maybe it was because she didn''t wish to fall behind the others and be a burden. Everyone else had a irreplaceable in the group but she did not. Even without her, Mark was there to tank, even without her Ian could fight in melee, even without her Hina could use magic and so on. To be frank, Peter who was the average line of the team was more useful than her. Often pushing them in when there was an advantage and pulling them out when things got too rough. All she did was charge in and attack, that was all she knew to do in this game. Therefore, to get stronger is the first thing to do. After that is to make sure she was useful to the others. At least in this game her actions was recognised. She could perhaps even be a hero though it was unlikely. At least she didn''t want to do any wrongdoings or harm other intentionally. Killing others for no good reason was a big no to her, especially the innocent. Therefore, she swung her sword down again. ¡°Ah.¡± While in her thoughts she forgot about her power output. BANG! However she still hit and she hit even harder than before. ¡°Huh?¡± She was a bit confused here since she actually didn''t study the sword at all. Why was it that her sword that should be slower went faster? She tried again and missed completely this time. But the time after that she did it again. ¡°A sword that is slow yet fast? A sword that is fast yet slow?¡± she wondered. For some reason when she made it go fast, he went slow and she could aim better and move her sword more smoothly as well. She didn''t know this was something that others trained for decades to achieve. A realm of master swordsman that could manipulate their actions completely in unpredictable ways! ¡°This looks interesting at least, might as well do this and see where it leads¡± she said not knowing that she was following the same path that Ron did years ago in his path of the sword. xXx Right now Hina was venting out her emotions on the targets that were running around. She had set it so a set number of targets would spawn for her to attack at. ¡°Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn!¡± She was currently thinking of her situation with Peter. Thanks to the effect of the ''Mark'' in game, she was like a charmed girl towards him! Her pride could not allow that and therefore she was taking it out on these targets that looked like Sain in game. She needed to rid of these emotions as fast as possible, it couldn''t be that she actually fallen for him right? Everything she said was inadmissible since she was not herself then. Even the stuff she said to Maria on that matter in the real world as well! She was talking about Miriel not Hina here! Why should she hold emotions to that guy?! Just because he was kind! Just because he took care of her! Just because he always would consider her first! She needed a way to take out her stress on what she did in game and this was the perfect way. ¡°Damn...¡± She calmed down and looked at the damage she caused. There were countless virtual bodies of ''Sain'' all around her now. ¡°Good thing that no one can know of this...¡± ¡°Oh Hina¡± said a voice entering. ¡°Hiiiiiii!!!¡± Hina could not believe that sound came out of her mouth. ¡°I needed to ask you some-....¡± Maria who just entered for reasons unknown to Hina walked in and saw what happened...or what was left of it. ¡°Are these all ''Sains''?¡± Maria asked pointing at one of the bodies on the ground. ¡°....¡± ¡°Did you get in a fight with him...or did he do something to anger you?¡± asked Maria a bit more concern now that Hina was not responding. ¡°Or...are you into ''that'' kind of thing?¡± she finally asked. ¡°What k-kind of thing?¡± asked Hina with a shaking voice. ¡°BDSM¡± Maria stated bluntly. Hina could feel her face going red as she gripped her whip and attacked Maria like that. ¡°H-Hey!¡± shouted Maria blocking the attacks surprisingly with her sword, ¡°Just because your love life with him isn''t going anywhere, it doesn''t mean you can take it on me!¡± ¡°Who the hell has a love life with him?!¡± retorted Hina though her actions said otherwise, especially when she was currently carefully trying not to harm the ''Sain'' dummies that she attacked on the ground. ¡°Tch, acting Tsundere on me now as well?¡± said Maria in a slightly irritated tone, she did not know why the hell Hina didn''t just wrap her arms around Peter and made it done with. She found someone she liked after all so she should be more true to her feelings. ¡°Shut up! Shut up!¡± Hina screamed, she did not know why she was losing control of herself here of all things and with Maria of all people as well. After she chased Maria out, she realised she needed to apologise to her later on which made her angry again. But first she needed to calm down and confirm herself. ¡°Just what do I want?¡± she asked herself in the end. The game, the training and her relationships with others. What did she want? She sat there on the ground trying to think of answer. But none came up.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9300~ - This chapter was so much easier to write compared to the last two. I didn''t need to think on how things fell into place after all. - And so the training that is endless continues...now that I think about it, it impossible to make these characters grow without training...even though I didn''t want to write about more training...damn when there''s nothing to do there is always training again..well at least with this I can explore some different paths with their new fighting styles. - Now I have another 6 chapters to write for that epilogue I''ve prepared for this volume''s end. It will be interesting if I get the pacing right. Vol.7 Chapter 5 - Complicated Reasons ¡°Damn a month of that kind of training really wears me out¡± said Ian rubbing his shoulder though looking at Peter he added, ¡°Though the only training that really worn me out was yours. Doing a dozen simulated battles and getting lectured on what I did wrong is no fun at all.¡± ¡°Which is why it is called training, because it is not fun¡± said Hina a criticising tone to Ian before she realised she was defending Peter again. She frowned at this and noted that her behaviours was becoming...unlike her now. ¡°Yes yes~¡± Alexandra clapped her hands to get the group to pay attention to her and said, ¡°Poor Lisa whom I''m SURE you remember as your homeroom teacher was quite sad to see you guys not even appear for your exams before.¡± ¡°....¡± The group had nothing to say on this. There was little guilt but more like it was a pain to respond to this right now. Yes, right now, Alexandra was working with them on their new subjects for the new semester since it was the start of it now. Normally they would have chosen it a while ago but...with their training they forgot about it again! ¡°First of all, you are taking the advance combat class with me again, then is advance history of the continent with Eden and advance analysis of class and skills with Viv and the second semester general course as well...somehow I think you guys are becoming lazy here....¡± Alexandra muttered at the end with a slight slight. ¡°That because it''s easier for us for this arrangement to happen¡± said Peter with a smile. Alexandra twitched and said, ¡°Don''t do that, you remind me of Alena when she asks for something...damn what the hell did Viv teach her while I wasn''t looking?¡± she cursed at the end as well. Peter felt that there was no need for them to know that piece of information...but whatever, more info on those three is always good. ¡°Anyway with this you have a whole another 4 months of a semester to deal with...sigh...and it''s only going to be busier in game as well with the arrangements being made as well¡± Alexandra placed her hand on her forehand lightly and looked down. Interested, Peter asked, ¡°What kind of arrangements?¡± ¡°Oh, lots of mana stones that can hold mana, quite rare but obtainable and expensive as well as food and other supplies for the expedition¡± she said lightly though she paused to realise what she just revealed. ¡°So that was what the news has been talking about...¡± said Ian remembering the Royal Road new channels that said that the Kingdom was employing some of the elites in something unknown. All the details were only vague at best and outlined that there was going to be a rough 5000 men army going somewhere by first teleporting through a large distance. There was not much but rumours says that a person found the hideout of the people who trashed the Imperial Palace all those months ago in the game. ¡°Well you don''t need to know anything about that, just that it will take a while longer, a long time to get things into way for that mission¡± said Alexandra with a sigh. After a few moments of silent, Alexandra said to the group after tapping a few buttons on her tablet, ¡°There, I just removed the restrictions on your capsules so you can get in the game and play now.¡± She then looked at the bed and said, ¡°As for me, I rather get some sleep now...though I rather not laze around like Eden. Thus I have to tell you your guild responsibilities then.¡± ¡°Guild responsibilities? You mean what Arch, Ent and such were talking about during that tournament from a while back?¡± wondered Peter. ¡°Oh you heard of it before? Good that makes it easier to explain then. Basically you are given an outline on what you need to complete for a set period of time. The longer the time period, the harder the tasks you are given. Basically for you it will be to get to level 300 and do some quests and not screw up.¡± ¡°That sounds easy enough¡± commented Ian. Alexandra let out a laugh and said, ¡°You''ll be surprise on how many failed this. When I say quests I mean Guild Quests not the normal kind.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Well good luck with that, I''ve left the details to your masters in game so you should speak to them as soon as possible.¡± With that, Alexandra went to sleep on a bed in the infirmary. Hina, Maria and Grace promptly dragged everyone out at that time as well. xXx In the game, Sain respawn inside of Witchelm city as it was the last safe zone they were in and it was night as well. Looking around it seems that only one person here respawn nearby him. ¡°Oh, Sain! You spawned in this location as well?¡± wondered Lyndis running up to him. Sain let out his usual smile and said, ¡°Yeah, it seems so. We need to find the others but I''m in no rush.¡± Lyndis stared at Sain for a bit and said, ¡°You know, you should only say those words to Miriel you wannabe lady-killer. She seems to be off a bit thanks to you. Be a man to ''fix'' her up then~¡± in a slightly teasing tone that made Sain wonder what was going on in her head. Though it would be better for him to not know. ¡°I have no idea what you are talking about¡± said Sain bluntly ending this conversation to which Lyndis said, ¡°Hmm...you''re no fun¡± with a dissatisfied tone. However before Sain could say a word about it, both of them heard a piercing scream. ¡°KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± ¡°What?¡± Both of them reacted and drew their weapons immediately and waited with dead silence. Soon enough the sounds of footsteps were heard. ¡°Help me!¡± a woman in dress robes came running to them. Her clothing was dirtied and she had a desperate look on her face. Behind her were three men chasing her, all armed as well. Sain wondered who they should help, the woman or the men? But before anything else, Lyndis rushed at the three men and took them out with her sword. She cut them up with her sword flashing quickly. ¡°Wait!¡± Sain shouted but it seemed that Lyndis did not listen to him. She was about to kill off the third person as well...! ¡°No choice, Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!¡± Ropes of mana appeared around Lyndis and bind her causing her to fall on the ground trapped like that. Naturally seeing his attacker down like that, the third man moved to attack Lyndis now. But Sain already knew what to do. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Sleep Hypno!¡± The man suddenly fell asleep on the stop collapsing onto the ground like that without moving a muscle. ¡°Sain!¡± Lyndis screamed as he looked to see if the woman was fine. After checking, he kept one eye on her after saying not to leave and went to Lyndis. ¡°Why the hell did you bind me?!¡± Lyndis screamed at him. She did not believe what she was doing was wrong. To this Sain simply sighed and explained to her before he let her go. ¡°You shouldn''t have killed those two...now we need to spend some time making it so this event didn''t happen¡± he said to her. ¡°What are you talking about?!¡± Lyndis struggled but the strength of the spell was too much for her. Not surprising since the spell was a single target spell that had a good amount of power to it. Being more anxious now due to several reasons, he quickly messaged the others to come here quickly and in a few minutes they all came rushing here all while Lyndis was still bound to his spell. ¡°Calm down for a moment and think through on what is happening due to your killing spree¡± he ordered Lyndis. He looked back to the woman who was thankfully still here and said, ¡°Don''t say anything yet, this is as troublesome as it is right now.¡± ¡°I understand¡± she simply said those words respectively and bowed to him. He had a strange suspicion of her but that had to be thought of later on. In the meantime, Sain checked her out. Long lusty brown hair and was in a pure white one piece that was her dress robes that didn''t cover much up in the leg department. He would now stop here since if Miriel caught him staring at her... ¡°You''re thinking that I didn''t catch you staring at her exposed legs right?¡± asked Miriel breathing down his neck. He felt true fear then and there. ¡°Examining only to deter where she is from¡± he said quickly. ¡°Normally I would say ''No excuses'' but this time I see that Lyndis is tied up with your spell, two people are dead and the third is asleep probably thanks to you as well¡± she said, paused only to ask, ¡°So what happened?¡± Sain explained the chain of events quickly to Miriel. ¡°Hmm....¡± She pointed at Lyndis and said, ¡°Unbind her.¡± Sain did what she said, he trusted in her judgement at least. Plus Lyndis wasn''t the kind of person to attack him or the sleeping man all of a sudden if there was no cause for it. However upon release, Lyndis moved up to punch Sain, or at least she tried. Her fist hit a barrier which was placed by Miriel after all and she cursed on her hand being hurt. ¡°Minor Heal.¡± ¡°...Thanks¡± Lyndis said in a grudging way. Soon enough Raven, Serena and Shadow who was also with Anna; his master appeared as well. Looking around all of them except for Shadow was silent. ¡°Well this a complicated piece of cake we have here...did Lyndis really cause all of this?¡± he asked. ¡°Screw you¡± said Lyndis in return. Shadow turn his head away and made the comment of, ¡°I take that as a yes then.¡± Sain sighed seeing sparks fly from Lyndis to Shadow and asked, ¡°First, what do we do here? We have two dead, one more or less captured...speaking of which, can someone tie him with rope? I don''t think my sleep spell will last any longer.¡± The sleeping man was quickly tied by Anna who did so silently. ¡°Right, and we have the woman being chased here as well which I have not spoken to yet¡± he continued. At that moment, Anna walked to the woman and asked, ¡°Name?¡± The woman who seemed a bit frightful of Anna said a slightly shaking tone, ¡°Aria Dutcish Meldwore.¡± Anna frowned and said, ¡°This is bad.¡± Miriel nodded and also said, ¡°This is bad indeed. This person is the daughter of a recently fallen noble that tried to rebel against the kingdom¡± she looked at the men and then said, ¡°Those people were probably from the Kingdom to capture her as well.¡± ¡°....¡± All of a sudden, things became complicated. xXx At the home of Anna which no one from the group had ever been to, the group and their masters had gathered. Sain and the others did not even have to look around the place when Gen said, ¡°You lot really got yourself in deep trouble here. Thankfully Anna is a specialise in removing corpses from a scene. If what I heard was true then you helping her was the worse choice.¡± Gen took a glare at Lyndis and asked, ¡°Did you not even ask of who they were? Then saying that they were people from the Kingdom would prompt you to stop.¡± Lyndis looked down in shame. However it was Ron who backed her up saying, ¡°She couldn''t actually help it you know. Her class is now ''Flame Samurai'' plus she had the ''Honour'' stat as well. A woman being chased by three three men...even if it was Raven, he would have probably done the same.¡± ¡°However he would not have killed two, three if not for Sain stopping her!¡± Gen roared, ¡°Actions must always be taken with the consequences in mind! That is called thinking!¡± ¡°Gen she gets it¡± said Mel with a glance at him looking at the state of Lyndis who made this mistake, ¡°There is little we can do now. At best we can erase that this event ever happened but first we need to know what exactly is happening from Park and Anna who are interrogating those two right now.¡± And not too soon did both said people entered the room with the rest of them. The woman named Aria followed behind as well. ¡°Good news and bad news guys¡± said Park with a sigh, ¡°Good news is that the three men weren''t from the Kingdom, in fact I think the Kingdom should be thankful for Lyndis doing what she did.¡± Everyone sighed of relief then. ¡°And the bad news?¡± asked Gen still not happy enough about this. ¡°We have the largest damn smuggling, slavers and so on organisation to deal with now¡± he said bluntly. Jenny looked in surprised and asked, ¡°You mean [Little Droplet]?!¡± Park nodded grimly and said, ¡°Yes, which is good news and bad news once again. Good news is that they can be get rid of since we now have a source of information. This organisation is so tight that any leads hold nearly nothing but based off that guy that Sain saved, we know where one of their routes are.¡± ¡°Which leads to their operation¡± said Gen, ¡°Which leads to one of their bases and their network.¡± Park chuckled and said, ¡°Good thing Lyndis killed before asking since these guys would have suicide if they could not escape.¡± ¡°....¡± Gen made some sort of grunting noise that made Mel and Jenny chuckle a bit as well at him. But soon enough, Gen went back to the serious him and asked Park, ¡°Is there anything else to extract from him?¡± referring to the man captured. Park shook his head and said, ¡°Done and disposed of.¡± ¡°Easily done¡± said Anna with confirmation. The group felt a slight chill feeling that their masters were too used to this and wondered what happened in the past for them to harden like this. Park and Anna turned to the woman named Aria and the rest of them turned and looked at her as well. Gen then asked, ¡°So what do we do with you? As a fallen noble, you have actually less worth than a commoner right now. Plus [Little Droplet] was chasing you for reasons unknown and will be looking for you.¡± ¡°I can help!¡± Aria said with resolve. Gen replied with, ¡°Girl, every last one of us here is stronger than you and more capable though I am questioning one recently...but still what you can do, we can probably do with more safety and reliability as well.¡± It was then that Aria smiled and asked them all, ¡°But can you meet up with an informant that has information on [Little Droplet] including their bases and networks?¡± ¡°....¡± The room well silent then and Park said, ¡°You better not be lying here else we will make you experience hell¡± in a cold voice. Such a thing was too good to be true. ¡°I am not.¡± ¡°Location? Time? Identity?¡± Gen asked these three questions. ¡°Umm..what?¡± Aria was unsure on what Gen wanted. ¡°Location of meeting, time of meeting and who you are meeting¡± said Mel confirming what Gen asked in a more roundabout manner. ¡°Uh...at an abandoned village, around a week from now and I don''t know the last, I was just told from a friend I knew that was killed recently about it¡± Aria answered. ¡°....¡± The room was silent once again and Gen said, ¡°This is too risky. But too good of an opportunity to risk. Ron will take care of this matter, you and Aria will talk on all the details that will be needed, every last word your friend said to you.¡± Ron nodded and took Aria away with her surprise at his quickness. Then Gen turned to Anna and said, ¡°Though you hate taking orders from me, investigate her family and any connects of connects that may have leads.¡± Through frowning due to the reason that Gen stated, Anna nodded her head and said, ¡°Roger¡± before disappearing. Then Gen said to Park, ¡°Tell the city governor about this to report to the Kingdom¡± to which Park went out then. Finally to Mel and Jenny, ¡°Search around the place, identify anyone that is there and yet not suppose to be and so on. You know the drill, anyone following will be captured if possible else killed.¡± ¡°Right.¡± ¡°I know.¡± Both of them left and so it was only the group and Gen now. ¡°As for you all, Eden told me of your trial and I want to congratulate you all on passing considering that we, your masters all faced the same thing and knew it was quite...difficult.¡± ¡°....¡± Due to the current situation they were in, none of them dared to even make a wrong breath. ¡°And because of this, your responsibilities will increase as well. First of all are the conditions you need to fulfil before the deadline. A window appeared in front of the group.
Guild Orders The Guildmaster has issued several orders based upon the judgement that you will be kicked out of the guild if you do not complete all of the following. These can be done in any order and in any way. Reach Level 300 Complete 5 Guild Quests (Higher ranked ones will be worth more. C = 2, B = 3, A =4, S =5) Complete one mission from a Guildmaster. Time Limit: 1.5 Years
¡°The first two you don''t really need to worry about. There is actually a place where you can accept Guild Quests instead of trying to find them. The only thing is that A rank and higher Independent Guilds can only use them for success reasons¡± Gen further explained, ¡°As for the last thing, I''m not so sure since the stuff Eden gives can be extremely easy or difficult beyond anything else.¡± Sain nodded and said, ¡°Got it¡± understanding what Gen just said but soon asked, ¡°So what are going to do?¡± ¡°Nothing¡± said Gen bluntly, ¡°You all have just reached a new stage of the game here. It''s best for you to train to around level 250 before even considering anything else.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain stood there frowning. Did they not, despite their low levels completed Guild Quests before? Even though it was difficult to the point that he felt they could not endure, did they not complete it with little to no help from the guild? ¡°Master, we are strong enough to take care of ourselves¡± Sain assured. Gen only shook his head and said, ¡°You are wrong, there are many things in the world that even make me frightened and I am someone who is several hundred times stronger than you.¡± ¡°But we cannot just not do nothing in these circumstance!¡± Sain said again with a louder tone this time. ¡°There are times when you need to do nothing.¡± ¡°We have done nothing in the last three years! Everything was with the guidance of someone else!¡± Sain shouted this time. He did not like the fact that they were in the hands of Eden all the time. With this, they were suppose to be more free than before from that. ¡°....¡± Gen was silent and then finally opened his mouth to speak. ¡°I still refu-¡± ¡°Cut them some slack Gen¡± said Ron interrupting him. Gen sent a look at Ron as he entered with Aria and then said, ¡°This girl wishes to speak to them¡± pointing at the group. ¡°...Fine¡± Gen agreed in the end. Aria who was in dressed in something that was more appropriate and made Miriel not want to hit Sain for staring at her, looked and examined the group one by one. With a smile she finally said, ¡°I wish for your help!¡± while bowing ¡°....¡± ¡°From what that gentleman-¡± Lyndis also blurted out something inappropriate at that moment, ¡°-Said, it seems that it is likely that some of my family. My younger siblings are still alive but captive. I wish for your help in finding and saving them!¡±
Find the Lost Siblings The daughter of a fallen noble, Aria Dutcish Meldwore has beliefs that it is possible that her younger siblings are still alive but captive of the evil organisation ''Little Droplet'' which is also a threat to the Kingdom. She requests for you to help her find and save them else...find them nonetheless. Requirement: Save Aria from kidnappers Rank: Unknown Reward: Unknown
Seeing this, Lyndis immediately tried to say, ¡°We ac-¡± but several hands covered her mouth stopping her from accepting. Looking around, it seems that everyone has a serious expression and she got what was happening right now. Because of the fact that Aria looked defenceless and innocent, she had let her guard down again. Accepting this quest may not be the right thing to do. As such Sain asked, ¡°What are your intentions on giving us this quest?¡± ¡°Uh...I want to save my siblings?¡± replied Aria in a question like tone as well. ¡°Do you know the risks we need to take for this quest?¡± asked Sain once again. ¡°B-But my siblings¡± Aria started tearing up and the others were about to be sway by it if not for the fact that Sain had an especially cold face on which made it impossible for them to suggest anything to him. This was the first time they saw Sain with such a face, which meant this decision was extremely dangerous. ¡°What do you think master?¡± asked Sain on something the rest of the group did not get. ¡°Hmm...not sure¡± replied Gen, ¡°Could be a trap, could be ignorance, both come in hand to hand after all.¡± After a while, Gen asked, ¡°Girl, do you know what Independent Guild runs this city? You should seek help and ask them instead.¡± ¡°....¡± The rest of the group suddenly knew what was going on. However Lyndis still had some doubts...though in the right ways now. Was it a coincident that she and Sain met her running at them when they just appeared and she has information to lead them to [Little Droplet]? Now was the time to decide on which answer was correct here. However at the same time, Lyndis did not want to cause unnecessary trouble to the rest of the group and the guild due to her. As such, she decided to reject this request...even though it would be a bad thing due to her ''Honour'' stat, the circumstances in this situation was really too suspicious to accept right now. But Sain overturned her internal decision. ¡°We accept this quest then¡± he said surprising everyone else at the same time.
Party has accepted the quest!
With this, they were in one this whether they liked to or not. First to react was Shadow who said, ¡°This was unexpected, I thought you would say no.¡± Sain gave Shadow a wry smile thanks to that and then it was Lyndis''s turn to react with, ¡°W-w-w-wait a second! Weren''t you on the side of opposing accepting this quest?!¡± ¡°Did I ever say that?¡± Sain wondered. ¡°Your face hell of did! None of us could talk with that super cold ''I am going to kill someone'' kind of face on you!¡± she shouted back. ¡°Well it''s good that you got your energy back¡± Sain laughed considering that minutes ago, she looked like she wanted to disappear. Miriel sighed seeing that Sain was trying to encourage that Lyndis. She would have been fine even without him interfering. ¡°Now it looks like you are stuck with us dealing with this¡± said Ron with a laugh looking at Gen disproving face he was making. ¡°Sain...¡± Gen warned but Sain said, ¡°I know¡± with a smile. He made his resolve to kill Aria if it turned out as a trap in the end. With another sigh, Gen said, ¡°Get a room at an inn, tomorrow we will discuss what is to be done.¡± With a nod, the group left the house and went straight to a nearby inn. xXx After paying the inn for a particularly large room for all of them, as they had little intentions of sleeping but rather to use it to discuss, the group sat in a circle wanting to talk about what just happened. ¡°So..Lyndis'' screw up turned out to be a good opportunity for a big bust eh¡± said Shadow with some sarcasm in his tone. ¡°Don''t say it like that, I''m still feeling guilty thanks to Gen you know¡± said Lyndis shaking her head. In the last hour her stress levels had really gone up and was giving her a headache. ¡°In that case you can rest for a bit you know¡± advised Miriel, ¡°There is a bed you can sleep on in this room.¡± Lyndis looked to the bed that was extra large but that was really the only bed in the room itself. She really did not want to take up space like that and thus said, ¡°No..I really can''t-¡± ¡°And somehow she is changing her personality to compensate for her shortcomings when she said before she wouldn''t with us¡± said Shadow commenting to himself though it was obvious who was the target of the words were. ¡°Shut it! I''m going to sleep then!¡± Lyndis shouted at Shadow before throwing herself onto the bed with a thud. Despite being large, it was not soft which made Lyndis'' body ache a bit when she hit the bed. ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway with that done¡± said Sain ignoring the groans of pain from Lyndis when she hit the bed, it was actually really hard, ¡°We should talk about what she should do now, our normal dungeon raiding plans seems a bit more difficult then.¡± ¡°That only depends on what your master tells us to do¡± pointed out Miriel, ¡°We may not be to do anything for the next month or so until they finish up on their side.¡± Shadow nodded and agreement and said, ¡°Taking on an evil organisation...I feel like we need to increase our level plus...I want to buy new equipment, to be precise a bow to use as well.¡± ¡°A bow?¡± Miriel questioned, she did not know the content of anyone else''s training except for Sain''s. ¡°Yeah, I was using that training time to train in it, I got quite good as well with a short bow which can be hidden quite easily as well¡± he said. ¡°And there is no possibility that you can shoot someone directly behind you while aiming forward?¡± asked Sain more interested now. ¡°Hey!¡± Miriel actually slapped Sain on the head for saying that with a red face. He did not need to remind her of that failure... ¡°So we agree on waiting until tomorrow to decide on what to do then?¡± asked Sain ignoring Miriel a bit. ¡°Agreed.¡± With that, the group logged off from the game to search for anything on this organisation called [Little Droplet]. xXx Back in reality, upon the encouragement of Hina, Peter logged into the Dark Gamer Union on Hina''s account which she made without anyone else knowing. There, he browsed through some of the latest news...prices of materials increasing and an increase in restlessness in certain areas due to increased monster attacks after a continuous drop in it since the last decade and so on. He searched the term [Little Droplet] and got up some information from the Union.
Organisation Name: Little Droplet Type: Dark, Evil Funds: Unknown Members: Unknown Danger Rating: High Information: Location of bases, members and even resources of this organisation is unknown. It is more than well hidden. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.Activates include kidnapping, slavery, drug dealing, assassinations but on a low key level only. Rarely do they attack high status people. Goal of this organisation is unknown. However it has been declared as the enemy of the Kingdom, there are great rewards for those who report about them. All other more detailed information requires more points to view
¡°....¡± There was really not much on this organisation except that it was bad news to cross...and they did. Peter could not help but to sigh thinking of the trouble that will come to them now. He hoped that everything would work out well in the end... ¡°I don''t know if this is a small organisation or a powerful one...or both...for even the Dark Gamer Union to not have much information on them...¡± Peter sighed. He spent the rest of the time off the Dark Gamer Union site and was researching places to train now that they were level 200. xXx The next day in game, which was only a few hours in real life, the group skipped the night this way, the group gathered at Gen''s place this time where he would issue them his orders on what to do. He had all night to think of what could happen and prepared for all of that. ¡°I have decided still that it is best for you all to train to increase your level for a month.¡± The group took a deep breath in, in the end he had no intentions of letting them in on anything? ¡°However, for the first week you need to focus on adjusting to using your new skills and classes. A week from now, Ron is to met with that informant that Aria mentioned. As for her, she is in protection right now and hidden away.¡± Gen took one last took at the group before saying, ¡°Dismiss! Get on to it already!¡± xXx At the side of the city gates where there was a weapon store nearby, the group was gathered to discuss on what to do. ¡°First me and Raven need to buy some new weapons¡± Shadow said to the others taking Raven with him as well as a few hundred gold. Everyone knew the value of good weapons and the fact was that the group was not scraped for cash like before. Thanks to being in the guild, their expenses not only dropped but their gain increased as well. They had currently roughly 5000 gold in between them all so what was a few hundred gold? Plus from now on, their earnings would increase even more as well. Monster would start dropping silver coins instead of copper and monster drops would sell for gold as well. From what most of the group knew, the price of swords, bows and other weapons were roughly the same price if they used the same amount of materials. Because of this, a good level 200 bow would cost around a few thousand gold coins. Shadow buying one for a few hundred meant that his focus was not the power of the bow for now but rather it''s use. As for throwing weapons, they cost even less so Raven''s expense should be fine. Soon enough, Shadow and Raven reappeared back in front of the group with their new weapons as well. Shadow held a short bow that was barely the length of his arm. It had a silt feel to it and was coloured black. When placed on his back, it was hidden quite well. Meanwhile Raven now had three throwing axes and twelve throwing knives on his side and the inside of his shield as well, all lined up. Raven looked more like a warrior than a knight right now due to that. ¡°What are the stats of those weapons?¡± asked Sain curious. Shadow waved it off and said, ¡°The really good ones were truly too expensive. I brought this weak level 140 one because it was the only one coloured black and could be hidden and was one of the few short bows they had. Raven''s throwing weapons are the same. In all, it didn''t even cost that much though we may need to visit a proper blacksmith for proper weapons.¡± Sain nodded noting that they could not really rely on those weapons they just brought, but at the same time, they had other means to battle that were quite strong. He set the course of where they would train, a dungeon that had werewolves in them. They could shift of their beast form or more human like form to attack. A balanced dungeon that had many foes to fight which was perfect as a test run. As they walked, Sain thought of their new skills now. Sain now could use runes though they were of the very basic to increase weapon damage of the group, change up the stat distribution of the party though had horrid conversion rates and could supply an extremely small amount of health and mana to the party for their kills. All of these would be extremely powerful when trained but not right now. On the other hand, Lyndis now had a party buff that would only grow with time and two new passive skills that would be powerful if she could find a Katana type weapon which was moderately popular but on short supply. It will be most likely take a while to ask the guild for one. Next Shadow''s skills made him an even better assassin than usual now. Two skill that allowed him to hide better and one that allowed him to see weak points in enemies made it so that with the addition of a bow, even if it was weak, it could be powerful though his speed was dangerous enough. Raven, the opposite of Shadow became an even better tank with a skill to increase his base parameters, a passive that increase the power of the first and finally another passive that makes it harder for foes to attack anyone but him. Meanwhile Miriel had three passive skills that had no mana costs and would last through battles as long as she made them active. One looped a spell over and over again at the cost of most of it''s power, another increased the effectiveness of a spell and the last decreased the abilities of foes. Though weak now, when trained they would also be quite powerful as well. Finally there was Serena with three skills that directly increased her close combat potential. The first supplied a new source of strength for her, the second converted stats from the magical to the physical and the last allowed her to use her full potential in close combat. All three, especially the first was frightening at the very least to use. Thinking of Serena first, he had the group stop for a while and chanted, ¡°Wolf Summoning!¡± In front of him, magic circle was formed and the Hybrid Wolf Bright Luna was summoned looking curiously at Sain. [Master, the presence around you became darker again] Even so, Luna moved to lick Sain''s hand when he could. As on raised from a pup, Luna was extremely attached to Sain. Furthermore he was used to the presence of the others as well. ¡°Why did you-oh it''s for Serena right¡± said Miriel realising his intentions. Serena carefully looked at Luna with both interest and fright. Interest since Luna was quite the beautiful animal to begin with and fright since despite being only level 180, it could still kill her in one bite. Luna''s growth was no slower than the rest of the group and even made progress when Sain didn''t summon him. [Master why have you summon me? There are no enemies worth our time here] ¡°I didn''t summon you to let you fight, more like I want you to make a contract with Serena here¡± said Sain. Hearing his words, Luna turned and looked at Serena with interest. [This druid...changed in a way that makes me slightly fearful to her now. Before she was like a helpless rabbit but now a rabbit with sharp fangs?] Sain chuckled at the choice of words Luna had for his impression of Serena though only he could hear Luna to begin with some exceptions like Viv. Luna continued to look at the rest of the group and said the following: [It seems everyone else had grown stronger in different ways than I last remember. I fear I may not be much help to you until I reach level 200 and advance to the next form as well] ¡°Next form?¡± asked Sain extremely interested now. He had never heard of this before. [For some reason, most monsters advance in terms of stages based on levels. The first advancement is level 200 which is the largest change and adding 200 more levels each, our power, speed and everything increases dramatically and there is a good chance of variations on advancing] ¡°Ho...I would like to know more about that but this isn''t the time¡± said Sain to Luna, ¡°Can you and Serena form a contract so she can gain part of your power?¡± [Understood] ¡°Okay¡± Sain looked at Serena and said, ¡°Luna agreed so you can form a contract with him now.¡± ¡°Y-Yes!¡± For some reason Serena was standing up straighter than usual. She placed her hand over Luna''s head and said, ¡°Source Contracting start.¡± Immediately the area was filled with red light, then black and white light before it all faded away. Serena then made the motion to open up her status window and stared at it in shock. ¡°30 points bonus to strength and agility?!¡± she also screamed in excitement. Sain then immediately checked the message that Serena just got.
You have made a contract with the Hybrid Wolf Bright Luna As a result of this contract, you will gain the following: Strength & Agility +30 The skill ''Claw Slash''
Stronger and new bonuses will appear as Bright Luna grows stronger as well Sain was pleasantly surprised by this to the point that he decided to keep Luna around for a bit longer. As such, the six people plus a wolf walked a day and a half to a dungeon on the side of the mountain. xXx You have entered the tomb of a forgotten grave That message appeared for the group who had entered this dungeon. Due to the fact that this dungeon was discovered in a hard to reach place, it is not exactly popular along with the fact that the experience and loot gain here isn''t that much as well. Sain had desummoned Luna seeing the goal here was not to clear the place but rather to see the extent of their growth right after their classes were upgraded. There was no need for Luna''s service now that Serena made a contract with him. After walking only three corridors down, they found a pack of large wolves that were even larger than Luna. ¡°Looks like this is the place¡± said Sain seeing the wolves, ¡°Remember don''t use boost or any other buffing spells. We are here to test ourselves not completely clear this dungeon while being drastically more powerful than them.¡± The rest of the group nodded. Using the power of ''Boost'' which doubled all stats, effects of skills and spells and such, it was possible for them to battle creatures 30 levels above the usual. While using all of their buffs it was possible for them to fight creatures 20 levels above the usual. And with their base stats, they were already able to fight foes 20-30 levels above them. Using these things made it possible for them to fight a creature a 70 levels above them, though only fight and not defeat. Along with the fact that combat becomes a lot harder as the levels goes up, right now at their best even with ''Boost'' and their buffs, they can only manage monsters around 50 levels above them at best. Which was why they went to this dungeon which had monsters ranging from level 180-200. A dungeon with werewolves in it that can transform into two forms to fight. However Miriel asked, ¡°In that case, can I use ''reflective song''? I want to train it using ''Sound Tunes Variation'' since buffs aren''t allowed.¡± ¡°Fine with me¡± said Sain not caring that much. With the current effect of that skill, it shouldn''t affect much at all. ¡°Ah, they''re coming¡± said Shadow pointing at the enemy charging them in wolf form. At this point, the group was quite experienced on fighting level 200 and higher monsters so something of this level was something that could not panic them. They prepared their weapons and waited to attack. But what did was that these seven wolves inflated and turned into werewolves when they got close enough. ¡°What the...!¡± muttered Lyndis moving up and using ''Power Strike'' on one of them. The attack was blocked by the thick muscles that the werewolf had on it''s arms. However strangely enough, Lyndis struck again at the same spot with her sword and this time did not use ''Power Strike''. ¡°Garr!¡± The werewolf screamed in pain as Lyndis'' sword cut through it''s arm and into it''s body. With another flash of several sword strikes on it, the werewolf died leaving only six left in the beginning of the battle. Unwilling to be outplayed by Lyndis, Miriel chanted, ¡°Glacier Strike!¡± striking another werewolf in the gut and killing it in one strike. This was the power of magic itself which was much higher than normal attacks. Now there were five werewolves in their large human like forms attacking them. The group shattered around these five and surrounded them attacking on all sides. Shadow disappeared moving back and fired some arrows with his bow but dealt little to no damage to them but did manage to piss three of the remaining werewolves off to him drawing them in one direction. ¡°Ah damn¡± Shadow said that while moving behind Raven who became his meat shield. Raven swung his halberd using two hands as his shield was now strapped onto his arm temporary and cut all three of the werewolves but did little damage to them still. The powerful blow did little to stop them from forcing Raven to defend himself. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Mind Shock!¡± chanted Sain attacking the mind of one of the werewolves that were attacking Raven. That werewolf stopped moving and Shadow through using various skills, there were too many to bother saying, attacked stabbing his short sword into the side of the head of the werewolf ''Confused'' due to Sain''s spell. That werewolf fell onto the ground as Shadow and Raven worked on those two werewolves. Meanwhile Lyndis was tanking two werewolves on her own and was dodging instead of blocking with Miriel and Serena firing off spells that caused great cuts everywhere on the two werewolves. Deciding to finish things off, Lyndis shouted, ¡°Dancing Dragon Art: Second Slash!¡± causing a series of rapid attacks to come from her and finishing off the werewolves. Looking onto the other side of the battle, Raven and Shadow finished off the other two werewolves as well. Sain at that pointed noted the time it took for them to kill the werewolves and thought that even with the class change, new skills and increased stats, there wasn''t much difference in how they fought. Perhaps it was due to them not fighting enough. As such they dug deeper into it. xXx This dungeon was quite a small one, only taking them a total of four days to reach the deepest point and the boss room. In front of them was a large 3 metre tall black werewolf known as the Black Werewolf King. A level 240 boss monster that was quite powerful in both power and speed. In it''s humanoid form, it had a lot of power and defence with a considerable amount of speed. But in it''s wolf form, while it''s power decreased a bit, it''s speed increased dramatically making it a challenge to form a party that can deal with both. It''s speed was that it was faster than Shadow which was saying something but every last one of the group invested into Agility which meant they could endure it''s speed. But without Sain allowing them to buff their stats, it would be difficult to fight this boss monster. ¡°What''s the point of getting stronger if we can''t beat something significantly higher level than us without the use of spells?¡± he said when one of them mentioned it. It was one thing to depend on skills, another thing to depend on stats but a completely another thing to depend on true skills alone! Their stats were quite higher compared to other players on their level but that was only due to training. As NPCs, they trained more and more than players so their stats were more than often higher than their levels. It was the same for the group as well, though compared to an NPC of the same level, their stats were still higher due to the level of training they had. Right now, the black werewolf noticed the group which had just stepped into the room. ¡°AHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!¡± The Black Werewolf King called upon it''s allies to appear with him to fight. But there were no other enemies, the group made sure of that. Before this, they killed every last werewolf so the Black Werewolf King could not use them. Seeing that there were no comrades coming which mean they were all dead, the Black Werewolf King was angry now. Immediately shifting into wolf form, it became a black blur as it moved to attack Sain. Not surprised at the least since he was the one at front, Miriel casted ''Ice Barrier'' blocking the way to Sain to which the Black Werewolf King leaped over it to attack from above. But at the same time, Shadow was also in the air leaping at the Black Werewolf King and kicked it too the side, the right of the ''Ice Barrier''. Bang! With speed comes power as well, which was why Shadow''s attack was powerful enough to knock the Black Werewolf King off. The rest of the group took no time to also attack as well. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± ¡°Leaf Slicer!¡± ¡°Flame Strike!¡± ¡°Take this!¡± ¡°...!¡± Since all of them had the means of attacking in long range now, all of them attacked using long range without restrain. The first wave of attack from the group came with dark, blue, green, red magic attacks while there were also arrows and some throwing knives mixed in as well. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang...! A series of loud noises came from where they just attacked now. Emerging from it, the Black Werewolf King was injured but not to the point it couldn''t fight. In fact most of the attacks actually missed. Another thing was that it''s wounds were rapidly healing! The healing power of the Black Werewolf King was beyond frightening but nonetheless it''s health was reduced by a bit. ¡°The damage it took was about...30% and it healed 20% or so...¡± muttered Sain calculating the damage they dealt. It wasn''t that this Black Werewolf King was that strong but rather that it''s healing powers were off the charts to the point that a short battle would be drawn out to a long one. ¡°No wonder why this place isn''t so popular with the boss monster like this¡± sighed Lyndis, she hated foes that kept on getting up and up. ¡°Enough chatter, it''s about to attack again¡± said Miriel warning the rest of them. However Sain noticed that there was something off about it''s aura now. Still in it''s wolf form, the Black Werewolf King charged at them again, this time to Lyndis. Upon reaching her however, it transformed into it''s humanoid form which was 3 metres tall. The speed of the transformation was too fast as well! ¡°Eh?¡± Not only Lyndis but the rest of the group were shocked as well. Sain heard Shadow scream ''Burst Speed'' but the Black Werewolf King was already in the position to punch Lyndis with a fist that was as wide as her waist. Sain didn''t have time to cast a spell as well. BANG! It''s fist hit Lyndis and made her fly away almost lifeless if not for the fact that Shadow caught her in time. ¡°Moderate Heal!¡± ¡°Health Restoration!¡± Both Sain and Serena went to it and casted immediately healing spells onto Lyndis. Serena then casted a few regenerative spells on Lyndis as well as Sain looked at the Black Werewolf King who was now attacking Raven. Seeing Raven being pressured extremely, Sain felt the rage in him build up. Even though he promised himself that he wouldn''t let anyone...! ¡°Evil Rule Art: Mind Shock!¡± Sain chanted forcing the Black Werewolf King to pause to wear off the effects of his spell. Looks like this level of a spell can''t cause a complete confusion status. ¡°Doing that to Lyndis...¡± Miriel''s cold aura became even colder as she chanted, ¡°Glacier Strike!¡± Not from below but above came down the attack that hit the back of the Black Werewolf King and knocked it to the ground. There it was a perfect best for Raven to attack now as well. ¡°Meteor Stream Art: Heavy Blow!¡± Raven swung his halberd down on the Black Werewolf King with both hands like using an oversized axe and caused a large chop wound onto the Black Werewolf King though it was already healing. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!¡± Sain had no intentions of letting it get up again. Since it was on the ground, it may as well stay down as they torture it to death due to it''s superior healing abilities. But as he was thinking of this, he felt a large amount of blood-lust and turned his head. Both Shadow and Serena looked angry now with Lyndis still unsteady behind them due to the large impact. ¡°You may do the honours this time¡± said Shadow in a cold tone. ¡°Thank you Shadow¡± replied Serena in the same cold tone. Sain wondered when those two got along so much. ¡°Beast Transformation Art: Bear Shift!¡± Serena chanted with her body bursting with strength now. Her body grew another size but did not buff up with muscles like a lump of it but rather her body just together grew a whole size larger. This made her hair seem shorter as it was still the same length now. But Serena was not done yet. ¡°Berserk Conversing!¡± she shouted transforming all of her intelligence and wisdom stats into strength and agility instead. Over 500 points of each turned into roughly 340 points into the latter which meant that right now, Serena was stronger and faster than him. She walked up to the Black Werewolf King with her killing intent clear and said, ¡°Berserk Instinct¡± letting the skill take over. She stepped on the Black Werewolf King''s leg and suddenly applied enough pressure to break it. ¡°ROOOOOOARRR!!¡± The Black Werewolf King screamed in pain but Serena did not stop. For the next half an hour, Serena ''Broke'' the Black Werewolf King to the point that Sain actually mercy killed it so it didn''t need to suffer anymore. For the first time, Sain felt that Serena was truly scary as well.
You have levelled up!
You and your party have killed a Black Werewolf King! For this achievement you will gain the following: At stats +3 Fighting Spirit +5 Damage against wolf type enemies will increase by 3%
It was a moderate gain from this fight and from the dungeon. Including this level up, they had gained a total of 2 levels thanks to this dungeon which was actually quite the lower gain for a dungeon. However more importantly, Sain wanted to know what was up with Serena''s sudden increase in strength. As such, he checked that new stat which was called ''Rage''.
Rage It is the emotion that will cause you to lose control but at the same time, provides you with greater strength and speed than even allowed with fighting spirit alone! The higher the rage, the more power that can be drawn out of the body but at the same time, this stat will only increase with more bottled up anger and will decrease when you use it to attack.
¡°....¡± Sain could not say a word seeing this stat. It was literally a battery for a bomb to explode out. While quite powerful it relied on emotions to increase it? But with their all stat bonus, could Serena use this stat all the time or just when there was at least one point in it? Sain did not know but had no intentions of testing it out since he rather not have that Serena attack him instead. With this, the group spent another day and a half returning back to Witchelm City after testing out their strengths in the dungeon. xXx ¡°I have some bad news.¡± That was the first thing that Gen said to the group when they came back. He did not even wait for them to come to him but instead waited for them at the city gates and dragged them away into his home. ¡°The meeting with Aria''s informant failed, Ron was ambushed and attacked. Though unharmed, it seems that [Little Droplet] is cleaning up for itself which means we are all in more danger now. Though it seems that they don''t know yet that we are tracking them, Eden has approved of us destroying them since the Kingdom requested for it.¡± It was then that a window appeared in front of them.
Destroy the Evil Organisation, Little Droplet The Kingdom had requested the independent guild you are in to destroy the organisation that had been plaguing the kingdom for many years now. You are ordered to search and destroy every last trace of that organisation no matter the method. Guild Quest Rank: B Restrictions: - The Organisation Little Droplet must be destroyed - A majority of members of this organisation must be captured or killed as well
You have accepted this quest
Gen let out a laugh while the group was in shock now. All of a sudden they went from not doing anything to having to destroy this organisation. And they didn''t even have the chance to deny even though they doubt they would be let off. ¡°Another troublesome thing came up...¡± Sain sighed thinking of the work they would need to do to finish this quest.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9200~ - Things are starting to be set up now with this chapter... - I just had to create an evil organisation...sigh...this kinda screwed up a lot of my planning on deciding on this... Vol.7 Chapter 6 - Into the Night ¡°It''s all not bad you know¡± said Gen encouraging Sain. But at the same time, Shadow asked, ¡°How can this be not bad. We are now to required to destroy an organisation like that all of a sudden? With no preparations? No idea of their members and bases as well? What about their strengths? What if some members run away?¡± Those series of questions were the same ones that the rest of the group kept asking their hearts as well. To this, Gen only grinned and said, ¡°Don''t worry too much about it. While they are well hidden, at best they are a fairly new organisation and their size isn''t too big. Plus their strength at best is around the level 300 point.¡± ¡°....¡± That still did not make it better, in fact them being of that strength meant that currently, none of the group could even fight some of their top brass since they were only level 202. How could they close an almost 100 level difference. ¡°And on the plus side, since this a rare case of a B rank Guild Quest, some other members of the guild will help out for their vacation, well compared to what Eden forces them to do usually. Most of them are still in the 10 restricted zones controlling any invasions that may come through¡± said Gen still smiling. ¡°....¡± A B rank Guild Quest was equal to an A rank Quest. This was something that would not count as a vacation...but compared to the latter, something like this would be a vacation. After all, quests involving the 10 restricted zones were mostly at least A rank and sometimes were S rank. In fact, half the quests that were classed, S rank involved the 10 restricted zones in some way. ¡°Anyway master¡± said Sain starting the conversation again, ¡°Now that we are involved, what should we do?¡± ¡°Other than get stronger quickly?¡± asked Gen to which Sain nodded, ¡°You need to wait since we literally have nothing on them now except that they may be in the area.¡± ¡°....¡± So even if they wanted to do something, they could not since even the rest of the guild had no idea on what to do. Perhaps if Eden led them...but from what Sain heard he would be busy for the next year and half with the other two on something. Plus they still needed to speak to Alena...since it has been a while. ¡°I want to ask something¡± said Sain. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Gen with a frown. This would never be good since that Sain is asking for something. ¡°I want to know about the other members of the guild. We really only know the guildmasters, master and your comrades and Arch that ''Archer'', Eart that ''Earth Mage'' and Eri that necromancer. Oh and Alice as well recently.¡± ¡°Hmm...I guess it would be fine to tell you about the others...¡± Gen said with a sigh. Then he started his long speech on the other members of the guild. ¡°I think Eden already mentioned this to you but there are a total of 29 members to this guild excluding off members that come and go without actually joining. However there are those like Alena and Risene who aren''t officially part of the guild but might as well be except that Eden doesn''t allow them to be.¡± Gen started counting something and then said: ¡°The guild can be split into say 5 factions. The first are the guildmasters, the second is me and those guys as the few natives in the guild and the third are you guys as the new rookies which work as a team.¡± The group nodded to this. Certainly they knew all of this already. ¡°But then it becomes complicated with the other members¡± Gen sighed, ¡°Most of them honestly work better alone so Eden let them and they complete their work well enough as well. You already knew Arch and Eart so no explaining them. Eri that Necromancer also has a sister in the guild called Ari who is a....¡± ¡°A...?¡± ¡°Magical Girl...cough.¡± Gen looked like he really did not want to say those words. ¡°On the male side there is a shovel knight user so is really good at duelling. That Death Metal Bard user who infiltrate me with that tool you freemen call a guitar. However he''s really good at leading armies and such. There''s this weird thief that can''t deal physical damage but can set powerful debuffs on enemies. And also there is that Pudding Mage guy which...I can''t explain in words on what he does nor on how he got that class in the first place.¡± ¡°....¡± For some reason Arch and Eart seem normal right now. Every last one of these guys were all strange and unusual. ¡°Now on the female side there is a Vampire Knight called Yuna, don''t mess with her. A White Rabbit called Kuro as well who uses a giant hammer to smash even trolls into paste, don''t mess with her. And the last is Nue who is a string user and a snake...never mess with her if you are not into puppet play where she breaks you.¡± ¡°Master did you...¡± Sain looked disappointedly at his master. ¡°No! I didn''t try to hit on them! Plus all of them are actually older....damn I''m getting the chills again!¡± Gen looked all panicked and such blurting all of this out. The impression he made on the group went to the negatives then. ¡°....¡± With a cough and ignoring what just happened, Gen continued, ¡°Then there is this strange one...¡± ¡°?¡± ¡°A few years back Eden took in a person that seemed normal for the most part. Kinda out of place in our guild you see...but according to Eden, he forced him to go serious which is something that is impossible for most to do even in this guild. Name was Hiiro and is a Word Master or something like that. Even Eden said he was interesting...though in the end Eden still beat the crap out of him to force him him join.¡± ¡°Master.¡± ¡°Yes Sain?¡± ¡°Is there a reason why you don''t remember the names of the first four male members?¡± he asked. ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway I believe you already saw the last member which Alexandra forced in, that one in the maid outfit. His name was White I believe...and a Dragon King. Never mess with Dragon Kings, ever¡± Gen warned, ¡°Even other Dragons are tame compared to a Dragon King of all things...¡± Sain was a bit saddened that Gen ignored his question but more so because he really forgot the names of the other male guild-mates...perhaps he would need to ask Mel and Jenny about it. ¡°Anything else you want to ask?¡± ¡°Umm...¡± Sain thought of when Alena tried to contact his master that one time only to connect to be cut off, ¡°In that case, can we talk to Alena then? I know you have some way of contacting her at least.¡± ¡°....¡± Gen closed his eyes and thought about it. In the end he said, ¡°Fine...¡± and took out a communicator orb that was similar to the one that Alena used to contact him before. After pouring some mana in, the orb glowed and a voice came out. ¡°Gen? This really isn''t a good time, Risene started drinking and she''s like mum in how...¡± CRASH! A loud sound came through at that moment as well. ¡°Actually, Sain and the other brats wanted to talk to you for some reason. Going to leave it here for them to speak now.¡± With that, Gen left the room leaving the group with the communicator orb still working. ¡°....¡± Since there was no response from the group, Alena talked instead, ¡°Hello Hello?¡± ¡°Umm...is this a bad time?¡± asked Miriel speaking up for the group instead. Several more sounds of crashes was heard. ¡°...Don''t worry about it. My husband is just being used as a sandbag for my sis.¡± ¡°....¡± The group had no comment for that. Especially how she sounded like she didn''t even care about what was happening on the other side to her husband. Sain wondered what was Risene really like...as another daughter of Eden and Alexandra. ¡°Anyway what did you want to talk about?¡± Alena asked. ¡°No idea, Sain wanted to talk you see¡± said Miriel turning over the communicator orb to Sain. ¡°Sain?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± ¡°What is it? Do you really like being my errand boy that much?¡± asked Alena. ¡°....¡± For some reason, Sain saw Alena smiling as she said that now. She must be very stressed right now. Well it was no wonder since her husband and sister came back all of a sudden and one of them seems to be beating the other up. ¡°Anyway we passed our 2nd class advancement trial thing set by Eden. I was wondering what was happening on the other side back in Lily city¡± asked Sain. ¡°....¡± Alena took a moment to say, ¡°In the six months you guys were gone? Not much, there is still that issue of rising number of monster nests and dens, but other than that not much. On a much more personal scale, I need to stop my sister from drinking. She is like mum when she rampages and she is quite strong as well. Hopefully Ares isn''t negatively influenced by it...¡± she sighed in the end. Sain let out a laugh and then said, ¡°I''ll give the communicator orb to the others then. Maybe they have something to talk to you about.¡± ¡°Oh, I wanted to know some opinions on some dresses-¡± Sain quicker than anyone could tell pushed the communicator orb onto Sain and left the room. After all, he had a message from a certain person. xXx At the back-room that was quite dark, a place that would be definitely suited for the type of conversation he was going to have. ¡°I''m in a place where they won''t hear me...well ''them'' at least. I don''t think you care if Gen cares¡± said Sain. ¡°Well...you''re right since I already told Gen about this but he denied doing the dirty work prompting for you to do so instead¡± said Eden through a message. ¡°So this is part of the quest that was pushed onto us?¡± ¡°What do you mean pushed? You lot were the hold reason why this quest appeared in the first place. I even had to withdraw a couple of members from the 10 restricted zones who were on guard duty there for this quest! Any Guild Quest over B rank needs to be carefully done.¡± ¡°I got it so what do you want?¡± Sain''s tone was quite cold right now and uncaring. Rarely anything good would happen with such a conversation with Eden. ¡°Just a small mission.¡± ¡°And will this count for that guild order that you need us to do as well?¡± ¡°Unfortunately no. That order will be something more significant than what I want you to do. Anyway to destroy this [Little Droplet] organisation, tell me, what would you do normally?¡± ¡°Find the source and eliminate it?¡± ¡°Precisely why we won''t do that. They tend to hide better when you fail the first time, therefore the second option would be-¡± ¡°Draw them out, right.¡± ¡°However there is a small problem here.¡± ¡°We don''t know where they are or how they operate.¡± ¡°Therefore to cut off the supply to this organisation we need to do one thing.¡± ¡°Attack supply routes at certain area...¡± Sain was not happy at all of this outcome. Because they did not know which supply routes to target...they-he would need to target several of them, most of which are not related at all. ¡°Well compared to letting this organisation live, this is a small sacrifice.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°If you are unhappy of this task then you don''t actually need to kill anyone. You have enough skills to do that right? Besides, letting some of them live will draw [Little Droplet] out even more.¡± ¡°I understand.¡± Sain made his resolve though there will be especially trouble if anyone else found out. ¡°Also, another thing. I''m putting another person from your group to help you¡± said Eden. ¡°...!¡± The door opened and another person blended into the darkness along with Sain. A person of his height, but dark hair with equally black eyes and a presence so faint you could barely feel it, especially when his footsteps were naturally small. ¡°So this is what you were doing in your off time¡± said Shadow closing the door. There was no looks of judgement in his eyes as he accepted what Sain did and what he-they would have to do now. However Shadow sighed and said, ¡°If it is this kind of work I guess I know why you can''t tell the others about it. So how long will this mission last for?¡± Sain ran through his thoughts and calculated the estimate of how many supply routes to various places they would need to attack. ¡°Around a week at least¡± said Sain, they needed to complete this in a week else there would be more tragedies than necessary. After all, these supply routes are more than not to small towns and villages that would starve without them. They would be killing those innocent people off by doing this. ¡°All is for the kingdom and more importantly the guild and even more so for that one goal in the end¡± said Eden before cutting off there. xXx Logging off the game, Peter came out of the capsule. It was time for class now. The last time he and the others logged out was 4 days ago in game when they were still in the middle of that dungeon. Due to previous accounts of them skipping classes and exams, starting this semester they will be forced to attend every 2 hour class for the 4 days they have it plus another 2 hours on the last day on another matter. What that last thing was, Peter did not know, but this would be the first class he would have in the General Course which takes place of the second day of the week. The first was naturally Combat class with Alexandra. This lesson would be followed up the next day with Eden''s history of the continent and then the next with Viv''s analysis of classes and skills. In all, aside from the weekend, their time was cut a bit short due to this. However Peter accepted it, in fact it was a bit of good news for him since he could come away from the game for a bit. What he had in plan was not something he would like after all. Plus this game him some time to relax as well. Aside from just that mission Eden gave him and Ian, he had another task with the rest of the group of coming up with ways to find hints at that organisation though if one cannot come up, he would have to force one to come up. Plus there is that matter with the younger siblings of Aria as well to consider. And finally he was wondering what members would be joining them on hunting this organisation down. With them and their masters, it would be twelve already. A few more and half the members of the guild would be working on this. Peter guessed that there was a limit of cockiness even for a S rank guild though he had to consider they were being drawn out for another matter as well. One that he did not know about, but there was really no point in thinking about it. ¡°Say Peter¡± said Maria in a familiar and relaxed way, ¡°Do we really need to take this class? We didn''t even go to the last one once!¡± Peter sighed and said, ¡°Guild orders, this is also our punishment remember.¡± ¡°If not kicking us off the game for more than a month bad enough!¡± Maria pouted upset though she at that time focused on her training and made great improvements with her swordsmanship in game. ¡°Is still our punishment though. It''s not that bad since we only waste 2 hours here, 8 hours in game on these classes a day. Plus we have the weekends off¡± said Hina. ¡°Isn''t that more or less what normal students at some places have in terms of time spent?¡± asked Ian. ¡°Actually I think it''s even less. Those in highschool still need to suffer 6 hours days for a 5 day week. We only get a third of that. Most universities force students through twice what we need to do though they are optional though¡± Hina answered Ian''s question. It seemed that Hina didn''t want Ian''s blood today...though that just may be an in game thing. ¡°Yeah but still, we don''t need to pay attention to class at all, so there''s that as well¡± said Ian in a lazy tone. ¡°That''s being rude..right?¡± asked Grace disapproving of Ian''s idea. For some reason both Hina and Maria started rubbing her head with a strange expression on their faces. ¡°Meh, it''s probably going to be boring anyway¡± said Ian with a ''hmp''. Either way, it was what Ian said. The Advance General Course subject they were doing was indeed quite boring and most of them were very tempted to ignore the lesson itself. xXx Back in the game, the group was in discussion of what to do about trying to take down the organisation called [Little Droplet] and more importantly right now, trying to find traces of that organisation in any ways. ¡°Whether it is anything that a organisation that size requires...people, supplies, connection or even influence, there is absolutely none we can find at all!¡± said Miriel with a deep sigh. They had been searching for a few hours now, been looking through records of the city that has been granted to them for this task. However, or rather as expected there was nothing at all. It was actually not strange at all since they would have covered their tracks in the most obvious ways already. ¡°This is getting nowhere¡± said Shadow, ¡°I think it''s better for us to pursue other leads.¡± ¡°Where?¡± sighed Lyndis. ¡°Who knows...¡± Shadow said, ¡°Maybe we should split up for now and see if we can find anything in a week.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain knew why Shadows said that but the others did not. ¡°A week?¡± asked Lyndis a tiny bit suspicious. However Sain said, ¡°I would be surprised that we could find anything in a few days. A week could give us enough time to perhaps find even a slight lead that may lead to an actual lead.¡± ¡°In that case¡± said Miriel, ¡°Should we all go alone then?¡± Sain nodded and said, ¡°I think so, cover more ground. Otherwise we can leave the city and grind if we''re not up to sitting through...this for a week.¡± The rest of the group nodded and it was decided they would search for a week individually. However then, Sain said, ¡°That reminds me...we need to upgrade our equipment as well. These outfits are only level 120 and we are 80 levels higher than them now...their defences despite being good gear, they will eventually be a burden.¡± Lyndis agreed but said, ¡°But at the same time, we are really used to them...¡± ¡°True¡± said Miriel, ¡°But it will be good to use new designs for the new equipment we will be having.¡± She said this while looking at her outfit. Upon those words, Lyndis looked delighted at that thought but also asked, ¡°I wonder if it is possible to just upgrade our equipment rather than change it.¡± ¡°That may be possible...have to ask one of our masters about it...I think there are blacksmiths and tailors capable of doing so but they cost a fee to do so¡± said Miriel but she once again looked at her outfit. ¡°I don''t like the stares I get while walking around with...¡± Sain looked at where Miriel was and she seemed to be concern about her revealed legs. Sain had no problem about it but that just might be him. ¡°Well we can talk to my master about it in around a week or so as well. Or you can give the designs to a tailor first and charge it to my master''s name¡± said Sain uncaring about Gen''s expenses. ¡°That would work¡± said Miriel agreeing, her impression of Gen was bad to begin with. Miriel immediately left to the tailor store to design a new outfit for herself. ¡°That reminds me as well...I need a new sword¡± said Lyndis looking at her sword. She too went out, probably to a blacksmith. ¡°In that case I really need a new staff...I had this one since level 30...¡± Serena also decided to get a new staff now. She was kinda overdue 170 levels though her spells weren''t weak at all, as such is the power of training her skills and spells to a higher level than most. Anyway with that, Raven was left in the room still looking through those papers while Sain and Shadow left. xXx ¡°Well that takes care of that¡± said Shadow. Both him and Sain were together as the rest of the group went to find leads on their own. ¡°....¡± However Sain was still frowning. ¡°What is it this time? You know you are being super quiet now right?¡± asked Shadow not liking this Sain that much. There seemed to be a different side to Sain that is only revealed here. One that seemed to be a lot darker than that goody good shoe one that is kind to a fault to people he knows. Well this one wasn''t so bad so far, or so Shadow thought. He smirked inside a bit wanting to know how Miriel would react to this kind of Sain. ¡°Anyway where should we go now?¡± asked Shadow ignoring that Sain was acting like Raven. ¡°To the south-west, we will begin our...no my plan there¡± said Sain in a cold tone that was similar to an angry Miriel. For some reason, Shadow was reminded of when Sain commanded them in their early days, it was like he reverted back to that state. ¡°Ai ai ''commander''¡± said Shadow walking aside with Sain out the city. For this time period, the rest of the group wouldn''t know what they were doing. And if they asked, then they could use the excuse of searching outside the city as one. ¡°Hmm...also will this be fine? I mean you don''t have the stealth skill do you¡± said Shadow. ¡°Talkative as ever Shadow¡± said Sain with a sigh, ¡°Shut it when we need to do the important stuff okay?¡± ¡°Wow, what a change in attitude¡± said Shadow astonished. Miriel would certainly cry if she saw this kind of Sain...or she could be excited in a strange way. ¡°But you still didn''t answer my question¡± said Shadow in the end. ¡°You don''t need the stealth skill to use stealth. It only helps if you do, plus most of the people who detect me end up dead¡± said Sain. ¡°....¡± Shadow honestly felt that this Sain was really strange. What kind of switch was developed all these months and years due to Eden? xXx Merchant A walked along side the carriage with food and other necessary supplies with his old cracking bones that would soon no longer be able to makes trips like this. The reason why he was called Merchant A was a strange event where one of those freemen called him that and that name stuck on. However he didn''t mind as it was from one of those heroes that help end the final war where the continent was finally united. It took the combined power of the freemen several decades to do so and he was only starting off as a merchant during that time. He made quite a profit and eventually downsized with the years as peace came. But he never forgot his roots, trading with small villages all over the place. But soon enough it became a small mission of his to lend supplies to places that the Kingdom knew needed more and could not provide. The kingdom''s population was quite large after all, with no major war and monster attacks lowering in the decades, the humans have spread quite far and wide. Now there are those who venture to the 10 restricted zones for land while in his youth, it was a place of complete and utter terror. A nightmare they called the place. But that was in the past and times changed. So why were the mercenaries that he hired to protect and the carriages of food and supplies all dead?! ¡°Hmm...seems like that old man is the only one left¡± said a voice in the darkness. It was night and there were torches shattered around the place. ¡°I thought I told you to only kill if necessary¡± said another voice, this time it was much colder than the first. Merchant A did not know why this happen. He was just delivering some supplies to a poor village nearby? Were these people bandits? Rebels? Or perhaps assassins on his life? ¡°Burn the carriage, leave the old man¡± said the cold voice. However the other voice responded with, ¡°Hey hey, the old man will die in the night if you do that.¡± ¡°Are we suppose to help him then?¡± asked the cold voice. ¡°Point taken.¡± The next moment, the carriage burst into flames. ¡°No! NOOO!¡± Merchant A screamed. If this all burnt up then...those people in the village would starve! He wildly swung his arms at the flames, trying to put the fire off but all he did was catch himself on fire as well. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhh!!!¡± He screamed in flames as his old body burnt like a candle. The last words he heard were, ¡°Well that was a stupid thing to do throwing himself in flames to put it out.¡± xXx Looking down in the burning corpse of that old man that seemed to be a merchant of some kind, Sain felt a slight bit of pity. Why? The reason was that his goals were noble at least to use his own funds that he gained during the early stages of his life as a merchant in the middle of war to profit to help others. However, even so, Sain felt no hesitation to end his life if it came to it. Plus that old man practically killed himself though it looked like he had little time left of travelling around so far. ¡°Hey, looks like one of those mercenaries actually survived¡± said Shadow a few metres away from Sain. Due to Shadow''s night vision skills, he could tell things better than Sain though Sain usually just relies on his own sense for the most part instead of skills. ¡°Is that so?¡± said Sain walking over to where Shadow was. And there it was, the mercenary was crawling away with a trial of blood following behind him in the dark. He stopped accepting his fate. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°What do we do now?¡± asked Shadow. These people were NPCs...which meant their bodies would stay here for a while, even more so if they were connected to a quest to be. ¡°Burn the bodies, make it seem like something not human attacked I suppose. It wouldn''t be too far fetched since there is a good rise in monsters that are popping all over the place right now¡± said Sain. His eyes flickered downwards and found the mercenary started to crawl away now. Looks like he didn''t like the idea of being burnt to death...in that case. STAB! Sain''s spear went in the mercenary and killed him.
Killed a mercenary of the Kingdom! - Infamy +100 - Due to no one knowing your acts and part of Independent Guild, Infamy is cancelled out
Looking at the message, Sain was happy enough that the infamy he gained was cancelled out by the fact no one else knew of the act and that he was part of an Independent Guild... Fame and infamy will only be gained and stick on you if people knew. But for some strange reason when you kill a strong boss monster you will gain fame even when alone. He guess it meant that there are people out there keeping track of such things. But at the same time, there were people who were keeping track of crimes as well which was why he gained infamy as well. Either way, it was just a mechanic in the game and Sain really didn''t care about it unless it affected him too much. He looked around and found nothing else to do here so he said, ¡°Let''s go, there are a couple other people we need to attack¡± to Shadow. Shadow responded with, ¡°Got it.¡± And both of them disappeared into the night once again. A week later, there were many rumours of some unknown bandits attacking the supply routes to small villages and towns. There were several groups of people who went to find these people, but there were no traces of them in the end. Some people wondered the reason on these attacks while others were happy for the chance to gain fame and contribution to the kingdom, but none of these things were learnt in the end. But these unknown attacks did exist. Simply because a large group of players were slain by them though it was done so quickly that there was barely any video footage able to be shown by it. xXx And so three weeks later and with the same incidents were happening over and over to the point that it could not be ignored by the Kingdom anymore and therefore a quest was formed to solve this case. However even so, the rest of the group did not take the quest to solve this at all. The first was that they were busy already, and the second was that two of them were actually on the receiving end of this quest.
Oni Mask of Concealing Identity Durability: 20/20 Defence: 1 A mask of an Oni, a mythical being of rage in the eastern parts of the world. With this mask on, you instill terror into enemies and hide your own identity
Sain had that mask so he was safe for the most part in his identity being not revealed. This was the same mask that he used all the time back in Lily City when he needed to sneak around due to missions from Eden. ¡°This thing became like a good luck charm to me now...¡± Sain muttered looking at the mask again. It was black in colour which made it especially hard to tell where it was in the dark. But those who get a good look of it therefore gets easily freaked out due to that. Even if he was caught, others would only see him as the a guy wearing an Oni Mask which makes it perfect for him to use it right now since they are on to him and Shadow. Speaking of Shadow, all he did was cover his face using that scarf of his which was actually quite handy since it gave the same effects as his mask to conceal their identities. Sain called Shadow over and asked, ¡°Are you sure that that scarf can hide your identity? If you get caught...¡± Shadow sighed again and asked, ¡°Are you sure you can hide your identity with that mask on? I mean if you wear it at any time besides now, won''t you be caught?¡± ¡°Don''t worry, no who saw this mask lived to see or tell in the first place¡± replied Sain as a matter of fact. ¡°Also why didn''t you wear that mask before? I mean it is useful since you don''t gain infamy thanks to it right?¡± Sain looked at Shadow confused and said, ¡°Because it wouldn''t be fun otherwise?¡± ¡°Why do you sound like a serial killer saying that?¡± sighed Shadow. He just saw Sain looking at that mask with a soft smile as if he was pleased with it. This kind of action was unusual but not uncommon when looking at a rare weapon for something. Sain only muttered to answer that quest, ¡°I wonder if I can let loose with this...¡± Whether Shadow heard or not did not matter much as he became extremely quiet which caused Sain to lower the amount of sounds he made to listen in as well though with much more difficulties than Shadow. ¡°Are they over here?¡± ¡°Search in that area¡± ¡°If we can find them, we can kill them!¡± Both of them were alerted to this, the other side weren''t exactly making their presence unknown at all. Small animals and what monsters were near all ran away by now. They knew they needed to take action right now if they wanted to live. Even if the other side were on average 50 levels below them, it didn''t mean there weren''t any strong people in there or that they could be underestimated at all. Being mobbed by a dozen or more people at once wasn''t fun. ¡°How many?¡± asked Sain to Shadow that seemed to have moved to the tree branches up high. In this situation Sain had no choice but to be the tank here...or hidden tank as he liked to refer it to as. ¡°Around...50 I guess. They''re really not pulling any stops here¡± said Shadow with a sigh, ¡°I wish I had a skill that lets me tell what level they were at least. You''re the only one who can tell such a thing without a skill.¡± ¡°Can you estimate their base level then?¡± asked Sain though immediately saying, ¡°Though I guess with these numbers they are around at least level 100 and at best at highest, our level? Anyone stronger won''t bother with these tasks unless we''re unlucky.¡± ¡°What''s the point of asking me that when you say that?¡± sighed Shadow. ¡°Hey I head something over there!¡± someone far away shouted to which Sain and Shadow noticed was pointing in their direction. ¡°Damn, revert back to that cold and silent side now! This ''you'' is to chit chatty for this!¡± Shadow cursed at Sain in a low voice before saying, ¡°The usual plan in dealing with them?¡± Sain moved further back in the bushes and said, ¡°No, that won''t work. Too many of them. We could escape but that will be troublesome later on. Better to split them off and use a hit and run tactic.¡± ¡°Got it, what about the clean up?¡± ¡°Don''t bother with it, there are too many¡± replied Sain. ¡°They will send stronger people then!¡± said Shadow in the same low voice but with a more urgent tone, ¡°Plus I''m wondering if we will level up faster than the others due to this. Won''t this allow us to gain experience quickly? The excuse of hunting monsters won''t work if we are suddenly 2 or 3 levels above them.¡± ¡°Oh, actually the ''Party Scan'' skill has a feature that spreads experience evenly to all members no matter how far.¡± ¡°How does that work?¡± asked Shadow interested at the wrong time. ¡°Basically we don''t gain experience as fast but later on everyone will gain experience faster than before for a while based on the experience we gain right now and split it so those with less experience will gain more until it evens up.¡± ¡°Is that why Lyndis and Raven levelled up quicker before?¡± ¡°More or less. Rather not tell them this since it''s a pain to explain to some people.¡± Both of them thought of Lyndis and sighed. There were more rustling sounds and shouts of people getting closer and closer. They didn''t have much time before a fight broke out. ¡°Anyway, they are getting closer, good luck with surviving¡± said Shadow before disappearing. Even for him, actually for both of the, facing 50 foes at once was a bad idea. Especially since they weren''t exactly the type to be able to tank damage. Therefore, Shadow would strike at unexpected places to confuse them and Sain would lure and split them up into smaller groups to allow Shadow to continue using hit and run attacks. This way, thing will turn out chaotic and there was a chance for them to win. Though if things came to it, both of them would use ''Boost''. His own would allow him to see the positions of the enemies and Shadow''s own will allow him to split into more parts to attack multiple people at once. Therefore it was also important to draw them in as well since the usual plan of him tanking it while Shadow quickly finished them off would not work here. Sain was sure that he would die before Shadow could kill more than three of them even with boost. It seemed that the other side had mages and priests in their groups as well. Shadow would target them first. No, the first to die will have to be the thieves and archers since they could have vision skills that could track them. Either way, since they were only 20 or so metres away, now was the time to act. Sain was sure that Shadow was on the other side of this 50 large group to cause them to be confused on the point of attack. ¡°Wolf Summoning¡± chanted Sain allowing the magic circle to be formed that shone like the sun in this dark forest area. ¡°Light?!¡± ¡°Over here!¡± ¡°Attack!¡± [Master? Enemies?] Upon Luna being summoned, he immediately knew of the situation since Sain had been summoning him recently for these kinds of tasks. There was no need for Luna with the others since six of them was enough to deal with normal foes to begin with. But without the other four here and only Sain and Shadow, using Luna was extremely important right now. ¡°Attack on the edge, retreat and continue to attack this way¡± ordered Sain to which Luna nodded and bared his fangs at the players before leaping and clawing one of them. ¡°Wolf?! Mages attack!¡± someone shouted seeing that Luna attacked one of their comrades. In an instant, a dozen magic spells went to Luna but using his speed that was even higher than Shadow, Luna''s came out unharmed retreating into the shadows before appearing elsewhere and attacking there. As the players focused their attention onto Luna, a scream echoed at another location. It seemed that Shadow started his work now. With that, there were only 49 players left to kill. ¡°Guess it''s time for me to work then¡± muttered Sain in a low voice activating both ''Compressed Magic Mastery'' to it''s fullest as well as ''Boost''.
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Serpent'' is now active. ''All Knowing Eyes'' is now active.
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +900%
Sain looked at the windows that confirmed the activation of both abilities. Even so, Sain was not used to seeing his magic strength power increasing so much. Even though normally at this stage it would only increase by 300%, three times, it tripled to 900%, nine times due to the stacking effect of the skill of saving mana on the cost of having no benefit from the skill for most of the time. Furthermore with his ''Violent Energy Circulation'' skill boosting magic strength by 150%, it seemed to have multiplied the first by two and a half times leaving it at a 2250% magic strength boost, something that higher than even the fully mastered ''Magic Mastery'' skill. It seemed that ''Mastery'' type skills only added on seeing that Serena and Miriel''s ''Magic Mastery'' did not multiply with their other magic mastery skills but only stack on. But there was also ''Boost'' doubling EVERY effects as well as his stats which made it go even higher that Sain didn''t want to calculate it at all. However their circulation skills seems to be an exception to this and therefore Miriel''s own ice magic is two and a half times stronger than before multiplying with her two magic mastery skills. If he recalled, based on his calculations, her ice magic is a bit stronger than the effects of ''Compressed Magic Mastery'' being activated without the multiplying effects of his own circulation skill. Basically her ice magic was usually very strong, though it did not make much sense to Sain that Lyndis'' own fire skills were on the same level as Miriel''s ice spells though Lyndis prefers the sword to using it. But as Sain was thinking of this, which was actually a bad time to do so, it seemed that someone spotted him. Before he knew it, five people came to attack him. However putting the mask on, Sain only grinned. Only five? ¡°Magic Arrows¡± in a cold tone, he fired off 7 Dark Magic Arrows due to the effects of his circulation skill causing it to change colour from a bright colour to a dark into the five players that were charging at him. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! The Magic Arrows hit three of the players and instantly killed them. As such was the power of spells beyond normal limits since especially his that could rival and surpass mages that focused on magic power before anything else. ¡°Rune Engraving: Sharpness!¡±
Sharpness effect as been applied to spear, damage as been increased
Sain activated one of the new skills he had and applied sharpness onto his spear temporary to increase it''s damage. Thus he charged up with his spear in hand and stabbed the fourth player before kicking him and slashing at the fifth player that could not react in time. Both of them seemed to have died quite easily. From their reaction, they were certainly lower level than him at least. He won''t gain that much experience from this. ¡°Over there! Attack the one in the mask!¡± someone shouted drawing his attention to them. There were four archers aimed at him right now which was a bad thing. They would shoot even if he tried to stop them using magic. Therefore... ¡°Double Edge Enchanting: Intelligence to Agility, Wisdom to Endurance!¡± ¡°FIRE!¡± Several arrows, more than than four flew at him, they seemed to have used a multi-shot skill or something like that. He activated another of the new skills he got. With this skill, he poured his intelligence and wisdom stats into the other two increasing his speed and resistance to the arrows as he dodged. However due to the 50% conversion rate of the skill, at best he was barely at double his speed but was several times more tougher than before.
You took 372 damage
You took 441 damage
You took 368 damage
But he still took three arrows even when dodging with a combined damage total of over a thousand. ¡°Moderate Heal¡± he chanted healing himself.
You''ve regain 2100 health
Even though his healing spell regained more health than the damage he took, he still used it since every last bit of health mattered here. But at the same time, since most of these players were weaker than even the usually weak him in his base state, Sain felt there was no need to retreat right now. Firing off spell after spell, even using his ''Evil Rule Art'' on the stronger players to stop them, he, Luna and Shadow more or less using their superior skills and stats alone managed to cause this overly large group of formerly 50 players to collapse so easily. Sain knew this of course. After all, controlling such a large group like that was extremely difficult, it was better to split them into smaller groups and perhaps even smaller groups again to control them. If it were him who was commanding this group, he would at least split this large group into three, front, middle and back. Stab! He killed another player effortless constantly adjusting his stats to suit the situation best. xXx At a time where only so few players were left. ¡°M-Monster!¡± someone shouted to which he responded by shooting him dead using his magic spells. Oh there was some irony here. Here he was in a guild of monsters, weaker than the others by far in his own opinion and he of all things was called a monster. Then what of the others? Were they not stronger than him? What of the other members of the guild? Were they all not high levelled players and powerful in their own right? And what of the guildmasters? Able to make such powerful beings submit to them. What the hell were they if he was a monster? However the fact was that he was here to destroy them now that they were going against him. Any kind of pity was unnecessary at all. Right now, the once massive group of players, split in confusion and chaos only had a fifth of it''s numbers left. Three against 50 and they have come so far. But it seemed that these ones were stronger than the rest. They had a look of arrogance in their eyes and showed it since they didn''t not even move one bit when the battle started. ¡°The experience and reward will be ours!¡± one of them shouted bulging in muscle. He was a barbarian it seemed. A race that had high strength, agility and endurance growth but no ability to use mana or the stats associated with them. From the feeling he got... ¡°Over level 200 eh.¡± Sain could only smile under his mask at them. 10 players over level 200 in front of him! He did not know what he was feeling or that his mind was changing facing these players but the fact was that he felt like breaking them. The others were simply too weak for any enjoyment to come from killing them. Analysing them quickly, Sain counted there were 2 archers, a priests, 3 mages and 4 warriors including that barbarian. Quite a party though normally the limit of a party was 6 players else you would experience a penalty to it. ¡°Don''t interfere. All of them are mineeeee!¡± ordered Sain in a ecstatic state. First he would need to disable that priest. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Sleep Hypno!¡± With that, the priest fell asleep immediately and so one of the life lines of this group of 10 players was cut off. ¡°Damn, kill him!¡± The rest of the players noticed that Sain had acted and were now attacking him. The four warriors charged first forcing the other players to stay their hand in fear of friendly fire. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Mind Shock!¡± But before they came, Sain targeted that barbarian and forced confusion, lowered defence and lowered dodge onto him. He would take care of him later. Following this, Sain danced around the three warriors attacking him, firing off magic attacks onto the other players, not them causing the warriors to be further infuriated at him but what they didn''t know was that they caused their comrades to not fire on him. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± His attack penetrated one of the archers not expecting an attack from him when three warriors were pressuring him. However Sain betrayed expectations when he fired off ''Mana Bolts'' at the mage killing him as well. The last archer tried firing but Sain chanted, ¡°Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind¡±, using the spell onto him and then finishing him off with ''Magic Arrow''. The three warriors were quite weak thankfully. Because of this, he managed to kill the 2 archers and a mage before the other two mages decided to bombard all of them with their spells. ¡°Lightning Shock!¡± ¡°Wind Blast!¡± A combination of lightning and wind came their way. Immediately seeing this, Sain grabbed one of the warriors and pushed him in the line of fire. The two spells collided onto this poor players and he died. ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Damn you!¡± ¡°Ahahahahhaa¡± Sain felt joy as he felt them contemning him. However he needed to finish things quickly as that priest was finally waking up and that barbarian was finally able to move without tripping now. Throw~ ¡°Gah!¡± All of a sudden, Sain''s spear ended up in the priest''s stomach. Sain had no idea what made him do that but it worked. ¡°Magic Arrows! Magic Arrows!¡± And from both his hands came magic arrows from two spells at once. Frankly this was the first time he casted two spells at once successfully not that he didn''t try before. The only case of success was with that ball of light spell that didn''t even count as a spell. However the effects were quite destructive. Two of the warriors facing him were instantly killed taking that much damage and the third was even wounded. He kicked that third one down on the ground before chanting, ¡°Magic Arrow¡± killing him as well. Finally there was only that barbarian left. ¡°....¡± Sain stared at him in a strange way. He wondered what he would do. With his double axes at hand, the barbarian screamed and charged at Sain who was unarmed. ¡°Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!¡± Sain wondered if the barbarian screamed in fear or to get courage. ¡°But either way...Evil Rule Art: Downplay Rule.¡± A combination of poison, paralyse, confusion, sleep, weaken, slow and mind break hit the barbarian who was already weak to these kinds of spells. He tripped unable to move his muscles and spazed out a bit on the ground as well. ¡°How boring¡± commented Sain before retrieving his spear from the priest and killing the barbarian and last of this group of players.
You have completely eliminated a large group of 50 players! - Due to this events, you have gained 100 Fame - Fighting Spirit +5 - Endurance +10
Due to killing so many players, Infamy increase has multiplied to 7500
However due to action being done under the use of a Mask of Concealed Identity, Infamy will only apply when wearing the mask in the area
[Master] ¡°Sain.¡± Both Luna and Shadow called out to Sain seeing that the battle ended with their victory. Sain looked over those two and said, ¡°Collect the loot, sell the ones we don''t need and keep the ones that seem useful in the future. Also hide the fact we were involved from the others.¡± [Understood...but how do I collect them?] ¡°Right, can I slack off for a bit. I''m a bit tired.¡± Sain sent them both a cold glare which somehow went through the mask he was wearing and said, ¡°What do you think? Figure it out yourself.¡±
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8600~ - Took longer than expected. Due to me playing Drakensang with Ninnin which took up more time than you think and second, today I was sick with 5 pages left...well the chapter is here and Uni is coming up in a few weeks...watch as I say I will slow down and instead pull out 2 days chapters several times in a row... - Another thing is that there is an ongoing MT Ark translation going on. https://arkmachinetranslations.wordpress.com - Link is here if anyone wants and those who have not realised it exist (Like me and Ninnin). It is up to Vol 8, Chap 3 in translation which means 4 volumes to get through :) Vol.7 Chapter 7 - Towards a new City ¡°Nothing, there is absolutely nothing we have found in this last month. Arggghhhh!!!¡± Lyndis flipped the stacks of paper in her hands into the air. ¡°Well we didn''t find anything in the previous month as well¡± commented Shadow. ¡°Nothing to be discourage about, it just proves how deeply hidden this organisation is¡± said Sain in response. Right now, 2 months had passed since the beginning of their investigation. It had also been a month since that large mass of players tried to hunt down Sain and Shadow as well. Frankly, there were no other large groups of players that wished to hunt them considering they took on 50 players and still won. Because of this fact, even though the Kingdom willed it, no player wanted to take the quest. And because of this, Sain and Shadow''s ''mission'' went one smoothly. ¡°But to spend two months like this and have nothing come out of it...¡± sighed Miriel. However for the rest of the group, it was then mainly trying to find any clue nonetheless. Some of them even went to other villages to try to find anything. But the results was like Lyndis said. ¡°Yeah, two months and we have nothing. Plus we only gained...what? Six levels in these two months?¡± said Lyndis, ¡°We need to get to level 300 as well and we only have 16 months to do so which is way too short.¡± ¡°We have figure that out later as well¡± said Sain calmly looking through some files, ¡°But first comes this Guild Quest. If we complete this one, then we only need to complete two more to clear that part of the orders we were given.¡± ¡°How the hell are you so calm about this?! The thought of getting kicked out of the guild...ahhh!¡± Lyndis grabbed her hair and started pulling before she realised what she was doing and stopped. Sain ignored her for the most part but Miriel and surprising Shadow tried to stop her from doing too much harm to herself. After two months of nearly no action, Lyndis''s was by far the most stressed out of everyone. The thing that allowed her to relieve her stress, monster hunting was declining for them right now to focus on this task. ¡°Oh?¡± However, Sain had some good news for them it seems. He looked through this piece of paper about the taxes of a certain city nearby. Miriel noticed the expression on Sain''s face and asked, ¡°What is it?¡± crawling over to get a good look as well. ¡°This is...¡± muttered Miriel going into deep thoughts as well. ¡°Please tell we you have good news¡± said Lyndis letting out a large yawn. She leaned back onto the wall and relaxed even more. ¡°Yes I do have good news¡± said Sain with a grin, ¡°We finally have a crack in that organisation that we can break through.¡± ¡°According to this, there is an increase in exportation of certain supplies from this city recently. It''s not much but this place is known for their consistent usage of certain resources and is unlikely to screw up in exporting them¡± said Miriel explaining what Sain had found. ¡°What the hell? That really isn''t much. Could be a screw up¡± said Lyndis but in turn Shadow said, ¡°Remember how in the last month or so, certain supply routes were being attacked?¡± ¡°Yeah....OH! That explains why then. One of those supply routes was part of that organisation or something and now we also know that that city is part of it as well!¡± said Lyndis excited enough to charge and try to siege and destroy the city in question. ¡°Umm...no¡± said Sain deflating Lyndis'' words, ¡°One of those supply routes may not be connected but rather the village it was going to. One supply routes goes through...a few villages at a time as well so it''s almost impossible to get anything through it. Plus it may not be the city itself but a small part of it, a tiny part of it that is helping out a bit and we need to find that.¡± ¡°....¡± Lyndis tilted her head in confusion for a bit and then asked, ¡°Then why are we still here?¡± Sain waved her down and then yawned as well saying, ¡°Because we need some sleep now as well. We were all awake for a few days in here you know...¡± xXx ¡°So you think there may be a lead to [Little Droplet] in this city?¡± asked Gen looking through the files that Sain just gave him. ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°And there is a lead there because...?¡± ¡°Circumstances show that there may be a chance that someone is at least connected to that organisation since the city helped out with the supply issue recently. Normally it would only be this city that needs to take care of it right?¡± ¡°Hmm...¡± Gen scratched the beard that was growing and said, ¡°If you believe so, I can''t keep you from going. Also remember that you still have another quest from Aria to find her siblings as well.¡± ¡°That can come after, we need to actually find [Little Droplet] first¡± replied Sain. Gen nodded with approval of those words and said, ¡°Okay then, everyone else can for a while. I need to talk to Sain privately for a bit.¡± The rest of the group left the room leaving only Sain and Gen in there. With them gone, Gen let out a look of worry to Sain and asked, ¡°So with this, those attacks will end right?¡± Sain nodded and said, ¡°Yes, with this, a crack has been made to [Little Droplet] at last.¡± Gen let out a sigh and Sain asked him, ¡°Master why are you looking so depressed? If not for this chance, we could have been searching for years with no success at all.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Gen looked astonished at Sain, ¡°Because of this, so many people have suffered. So many have starved to death as winter comes and food is becoming more difficult to get without help.¡± ¡°However this leaves [Little Droplet] with no other choice than to depend on more...easily access places to get their resources to survive as well¡± Sain countered, ¡°Plus did the Guild Quest say ''No matter what method''?¡± ¡°That is indeed true...but I did not call you here for this kind of talk. Morality talks can comes after you are given a unforgivable choice.¡± Sain nodded and started to listen to what Gen was about to say. ¡°Now that you have reached this point, there are several things you need to know. Naturally one thing is that your levelling speed will decrease dramatically the higher you go.¡± ¡°Yes, experience requirements to level up has increased recently, if not for that, we would have gained at least 10 levels in the last 2 months¡± replied Sain remembering that what used to take them so-so to gain now was even harder. But the gain was that monsters after a certain level started to drop more money, silver coins as well and though rarely, even gold coins. ¡°Good, but another thing to be even more wary about is that monsters are increasingly stronger from now on as well. Mere teamwork can be broken through with brute force no matter how steady your formation will be. Also, with the increase in ability, you will start to feel restrain at times to use teamwork. Therefore it is more important now to focus on individuality since I believe by now, you have achieved a lot in teamwork.¡± Sain nodded. He had noticed that it recently, Lyndis was able to charge in and destroy enemies quicker than if they worked together to take them down. In fact, he felt that even he could do the same without the others. He made a mental note to split them in smaller teams like when with Viv was travelling with them to counter this. There were so many things that only needed all of them to cooperate with. Even normal bosses were able to be taken down with a faction of them. The only thing to be worried about are those abnormal bosses with higher attack, defence and speed than other bosses though those are rarely met. For example, that Black Werewolf King was one of those abnormal bosses since it had lived for too long thus being able to transform quicker and have it''s abilities enhanced more than it should. If only three of the group took that thing on, perhaps they would be defeated. Extreme speed in one form and extreme attack in the other and especially it''s extreme regeneration as well. They could only counter both due to their numbers in fighting it. ¡°However¡± Gen started to speak again, ¡°There is another problem that will arise due to this. If you become too accustom on fighting alone, then your teamwork will suffer later on. It is then that you need to decide whether it is more important to continue with individuality or focus on teamwork.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain thought about it. Right now, they needed to lean more towards working alone but at what point what on should they work together more? Or should they get rid of that altogether? No, it would be a waste to just disregard teamwork like that. Because of this kind of training, they were able to defeat foes that were stronger than their combined sum. On principle, monsters were stronger than the average player. This meant to survive, they would need to band together. But Sain had no idea what to do right now. Why did Gen tell him this to begin with? ¡°I see you are confused right now but later on it will become clearer. To fight alone and to fight together, both are similar but so different at the same time. Only when you experienced fighting alone can you appreciate fighting together.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain believed Viv said something like that before though in a different way. Something like he, Eden and Alexandra were all able to fight alone and such if they wanted to. He couldn''t really remember what he said, his memories might be incorrect though. ¡°Is that all you wish to say to me master?¡± asked Sain, soon enough they would need to go to where the others were. They needed to prepare to leave the city again soon. Also, the faster they moved, the better to follow the lead. ¡°Yeah, just one thing¡± said Gen while at the same time asking, ¡°What do you fight for? What is done everything for?¡± ¡°....¡± Sain moved to the door and opened it before saying, ¡°I exist to protect no matter what¡± and left the room. Alone now, Gen only could pondered, ¡°I wonder what he really meant by that....¡± and looked at the door again before saying, ¡°And ''who'' said that as well...I hope things won''t go bad for that ignorant apprentice of mine...take care to not be consumed by ''yourself''.¡± xXx Outside with the rest of the group, they started talking of what to do now though Sain wasn''t here yet... ¡°So where are we going?¡± asked Lyndis. Miriel sighed and asked, ¡°Didn''t you read that report as well? How could you not remember it?¡± A bit shocked and panicking, Lyndis suddenly said, ¡°I couldn''t help it since I was too tired!¡± ¡°So were the rest of us and we all know where we are going¡± said Shadow. ¡°Grr....damn you Shadow! This cute Serena would never backstab me like that!¡± Lyndis shouted while hugging Serena all of a sudden. Serena could only let out a ''It can''t be helped'' laugh out feeling Lyndis around her. ¡°If you wish to know then ask¡± said Sain appearing behind Lyndis. ¡°Kya!¡± Kick! Lyndis kicked behind her without thinking and almost sent Sain flying away. That is almost since Sain dodged the kick in time with a frightening reaction. If not for the ''Bursting Will'' skill, he would have definitely be hit. He thanked the skill on not only increasing his stats at this point but also increasing his reaction speed as well. It saved him a number of times in the past and will in the future. ¡°Oh, it''s you¡± said Lyndis calming down seeing it was only Sain. However on the other side, Miriel''s angry side came out and Serena instantly got away from Lyndis at that moment. Snap~! Lyndis felt a sharp pain on her leg. ¡°Ouch!¡± she said feeling that pain before looking at Lyndis shouting, ¡°What was that-¡± She suddenly paused seeing the current Miriel. It was like a demon god appeared before her right now since the killing intent that was coming out was that much. ¡°Lyndddddddddissssss!!!¡± Miriel said in a cold and angry tone. She walked over to Lyndis and grabbed her by the collar but Lyndis did not react. Miriel was simply that scary right now and no one wanted to interfere in fear of attracting the attention of this demon in front of them. ¡°M-Miriel...calm down...¡± plead Lyndis. Miriel shot her a glance before saying, ¡°No.¡± ¡°....¡± Lyndis stared shivering without saying a word due to this. She did not speak or even struggle as Miriel pulled her to an alley way away from the sights of the rest of the group. ¡°Hey isn''t this bad?¡± asked Shadow that snapped out of it first. Raven started to move to the alley way but Sain stopped him. ¡°....¡± Raven made a look questioning why Sain had stopped him. In turn, Sain replied, ¡°Raven I understand your feelings but...do you like being whipped?¡± Raven shook his head. ¡°I see....I fear Miriel would do worse than that if you interfered right now...also Lyndis needs to learn some manners as well...suddenly trying to kick me all of a sudden. I''m not like Shadow you know¡± Sain started to pout a bit and ignored that Shadow was retorting something right now as well. A few seconds later, Miriel came out with a non-responsive Lyndis at hand. Her eyes seemed diluted more than it should and her mouth was open in a strange way as well. ¡°How does one whip someone so they ended up like that?¡± wondered Shadow with squinting eyes at her. ¡°Do you wish to experience it yourself?¡± asked Miriel with a refreshing smile. For some reason, Sain saw Alena behind Miriel for a second there. It must have been his imagination for that to appear all of a sudden like that. The world wasn''t that strange. ¡°No no no, I rather retain my sanity you know¡± replied Shadow backing off a few steps just in case. Seeing that, Miriel further applied her dominant nature onto Shadow saying, ¡°If that were true then you would have obeyed me on many occasions in the past¡± with a sly smile on her face. Feeling that things were turning really bad for him, Shadow hid behind Sain and shouted, ¡°Sain! Tame that witch!¡± while pointing at Miriel. ¡°....¡± Several people, except for Lyndis whose consciousness was out for the count, went wide. Sain only sighed seeing that Miriel was becoming enraged again and said, ¡°Shadow, you can''t call a lady that¡± in a soft tone filled with all kinds gentleness in it. Shadow looked in disbelief and said, ¡°What lady are you-¡± He suddenly paused looking at Miriel to which Sain had no choice but to look as well. ¡°L-Lady....¡± Miriel was blushing red being referred to one. ¡°....¡± Sain had nothing to say here in fear of making this situation even worse than before. He could only sigh to think what the effects of the ''Mark'' was having on her. He already knew what was going on simply because of the large differences between her in the game and her in reality. Though he had nothing to say about it since he was the same to some extent. ¡°Anyway let us go to-¡± His words were cut off by a large shouted. ¡°Please wait a moment!!!!¡± Sain looked and found that it was Aria who said those words and were running towards him...too quickly. ¡°Ah.¡± The next moment, she tripped and fell into Sain''s arms to which he caught her. Suddenly he felt that there was a large amount of killing intent going his way. ¡°???¡± Ignoring it, he looked down at Aria and asked, ¡°Are you all right?¡± Aria looked up at him with slightly red cheeks and said, ¡°Yep, now I am¡± with a big smile on her face that was like an angel''s. Once again the killing intent increased. He wondered what was going on here...
You have generated the skill: Sense Killing Intent
Sense Killing Intent Beginner Level 1 A remarkable ability to sense things around you have developed into a skill that allows you to sense any killing intent or dangerous intents directed your way. Better run when you see a message from this skill since danger usually comes with it. As this skill levels up, you can even sense where this feeling is coming from.
¡°This skill...?¡± wondered Sain looking at it not realising that he was grabbing Aria with his other arm and pulling her closer to him.
You have sensed a dangerous presence
¡°Eh?¡± Sain wondered what was with this message.... He quickly looked around; Raven''s black face, Serena''s worried face, Shadow''s smirking face, Miriel''s smiling face and Lyndis'' deranged face. Eh? There seemed to be something wrong with what he saw. ¡°Umm...can you let me go? It''s getting...¡± said Aria to which he looked down on her again. Looking at them, it looked like they were embracing each other.
You have sensed a dangerous presence
Again, that message. Sain quickly scanned everyone''s face again. Raven''s black face, Serena''s worried face, Shadow''s smirking face, Miriel''s smiling face and Lyndis'' deranged face. Nothing seemed to have changed but he still had that bad feeling. On the meantime he let go of Aria and apologised for his conduct to which Aria said, ¡°Don''t worry about it¡± with an innocent face to the point that Sain could not help but to blush a bit to it. You have sensed a dangerous presence ¡°....¡± Again with this message, Sain had his suspicions but wasn''t Miriel smiling right... ¡°Oh.¡± Looking at Miriel, it wasn''t that she was smiling but rather her face was completely stiff and it happened to be a smile. Judging by the feeling she was giving off, she was even more angry than with Lyndis minutes ago... ¡°Sain~ Can you come with me for a second? I need to talk to you about something....personal¡± said Miriel grabbing onto his face without mercy. How the hell did she have this much strength?! Did Serena''s ''Berserk Conversion'' skill somehow managed to go to Miriel while he wasn''t looking? ¡°W-Wait a sec Miriel!¡± Sain cried out feeling this was not going to end well. However any other attempts to persuade her was stamped out with her hand''s grip strengthening. He was quickly dragged into the alley way where he thought he heard Shadow made a comment on how Miriel was about to rape him... This was not funny at all! Before he knew it, Miriel had tied him up using her whip and pushed him onto the wall. Sain had a feeling that Shadow was right after all. God, how did it come to this? ¡°Miriel! Please stop!¡± he shouted. ¡°Not going to happen¡± Miriel continued to tie him up. ¡°There has to be a better way to do this!¡± ¡°Well this IS the time and place¡± said Miriel assuring her will onto him. ¡°In an alley way?!¡± Sain retorted without realising it. ¡°Why not?¡± ¡°Because it''s dirty to do such acts in this place! Plus someone might come and...!¡± ¡°What are you talking about? All I''m going to do is tickle you to the point you will almost faint¡± said Miriel bluntly. ¡°Oh....¡± Sain was a bit stunned at that answer, he calmed down a bit seeing the alternative was much better in fact. ¡°Fueh....¡± Sain let out a sigh of relief that ''that'' would not happen here at least. ¡°Sain what did you think I was going to do to-¡± Miriel moved her face in closer which only made it more apparent that her face was going red the next second. SLAP! ¡°You pervert! I would think that only Shadow would think of such things in situation!¡± she screamed. Actually it''s was due to Shadow''s suggestion that Sain got this impression in the first place. But Sain did not say that but instead said, ¡°You pulled me, a guy to the alley way, tied me up and are pinning me to the wall. What am I suppose to think?!¡± ¡°Shut uppp! This is your fault for getting close to that Aria! I thought you had a bad impression on her that you didn''t stare much...¡± Miriel was silent thinking of something and cut off her words then. Then she had to ask a certain question upon realising something. ¡°Don''t tell me, you''re gay? That''s why my advances haven''t been working?¡± Miriel had a look of helplessness as her strength left her. However Sain was left stunned again. Gay? Was that what Miriel thought of her failures to be because? ¡°I thought I noticed you being closer to Shadow recently...to think you were in that kind of relationship with him...¡± muttered Miriel near tearing now. She stared daggers at him.
You have sensed a dangerous presence
¡°....Ah.¡± This message snapped him out of his shock. Therefore he had to quickly explained that he was not gay and not in a relationship with Shadow since it could ruin two people''s lives even though such people were more accepted than in the past. ¡°Miriel, me and Shadow are not in a relationship¡± he said carefully. Now she was really crying. ¡°So you ARE gay....sob...¡± ¡°I''m NOT gay for Gods sake! What the hell gave you that impression?!¡± ¡°Because...Because...my advances....¡± Sain sighed and said, ¡°You know that we have other things to do now. Such options are at best very limited and frankly would be a bad idea since it will distract both of us. Plus there is a difference of the you in game and in reality...I have a feeling you will be quite angry after you log off¡± he continued to say carefully. One false move and he was done for here. To perfectly clear his name of such things, he needed to play every card right! ¡°Then...you find me attractive?¡± she asked looking up at him with those puppy eyes. ¡°Y-Yes...¡± he was literally forced to say that in this situation, ¡°But Lyndis is also attractive and so is Aria and even Serena when she grows up as well! Not only that, some of the Masters are attractive as well, well the female ones and not to mention Alena, her sister and her parents as well even though Eden is guy he still looks like a woman¡± Shoot! Why the hell did he have to say all of that? Did he have a death wish right now? ¡°....¡± You have sensed a dangerous presence Once again this message appeared in front of him. Why did it seem like this skill would be very easy to level...? ¡°You...looked at the others with such eyes? So many people and I did not realised how perverted those eyes were?¡± Miriel looked dejected and looked at him in a dangerous way. You have sensed a dangerous presence Sain again had a bad feeling...now was the time that Miriel would trike at him... He instinctively closed his eyes and waited for pain or death itself. Smooch~ Sain thought he heard a strange sound and his lips pressing on something. It was really soft... ¡°Eh?¡± Sain opened his eyes not to see a Miriel about to kill him but one that was looking seductively at him??? ¡°Don''t look at other women. You are mine now¡± she said whispering in his ear, ¡°Else...¡± She touched her lip lightly with her finger and Sain was really wondering why the hell he was focusing on that right now. He instead decided to look at her current outfit that changed thankfully from before. From the bottom up, she now as a long violet dress down to her knees. She also wearing boots that reaches the mid way to her knees and the boots are folded a third of the way up. She also wears a buttoned up shirt that is long sleeved and is tanned in colour that is a lighter colour than her dress. Around her neck is a brown scarf that at the ends have a snowflake pattern onto it. Another thing is that her hair is split to the left and right tied up by a flower on the right side and cloth on the left side to form a small knot of hair at the back. All of this gave her a different kind of charm compared to before. If the previous outfit showed off her provocative nature, then this one showed off her modest nature though she was completely provocative being this chose to him nonetheless. He could only stare at this strange Miriel that seemed to captivate him. ¡°But that doesn''t mean you can be let off punishment~ Punishment for getting close to another girl while you knew you had me~¡± she said. ¡°Eh?¡±
You have sensed a dangerous presence
¡°Though I don''t use it often nor do many people know about it...I have a certain talent of being able to tickle someone so greatly that they will feel like fainting and yet cannot.¡±
You have sensed a dangerous presence
You have sensed a dangerous presence
You have sensed a dangerous presence
Advice from the Game: Get out of there if you want your sanity intact
His newly gained skill was sending off danger messages like there was no tomorrow. He then suddenly remembered Lyndis'' expression and thought that would happen to him. He had to avoid that outcome no matter what! ¡°Miriel!¡± he shouted, this was the only way. ¡°What is it~?¡± asked Miriel simply enjoying Sain''s struggling at this point. He couldn''t even move due to her whip restraining him at the joints. ¡°Let''s go on a date later.¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Just the two of us, does that sound good?¡± ¡°Yep~¡± ¡°Then-¡± ¡°Two dates, plus you need to make sure you don''t ogle at other girls¡± she strangely made a determined look on her face when she said this. Sain felt hopeful suddenly. ¡°Fine¡± Sain nodded his head wanting to get out of this place to the others as quick as possible. He made a mental note to not be with Miriel alone from this point on as well. ¡°Yay~ But you are not getting off nonetheless¡± she said cruelly and in a cold tone. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Eh?¡± You have sensed a dangerous presence ¡°You know...I kinda have this great feeling when I see others tormented...to think I could see this on you as well~ Ah~ Today is a good day. Tormenting Lyndis. Getting two free dates with you and best of all, tormenting you as well~¡±
You have sensed a dangerous presence
¡°Eh?¡± Did he hit a weir switch in Miriel somewhere? No...Sain felt that this was Miriel''s original hidden emotions coming out now. It was just that something else overridden it later on and it was coming out at this moment! Damn what kind of situation was this and be caught up in this at this moment?! Miriel''s hands made strange gestures while moving closer and closer to his body... Sain paled not being able to even scream at this moment.... Then... He was not sure but he felt like he was ascending to heaven but at the same time descending to hell if anyone knew what that meant. xXx Meanwhile with Shadow with the rest of the group and that person named Aria waiting for Sain and Miriel to come out of that alleyway, he was spying on their conversation using his hearing skills. One thing was that Miriel thought he and Sain were....no. He would need to get her back for that comment even though he was on the verge of laughing out loud to that. Second was that Sain was definitely going to be a whipped man later on. Shadow knew that the two had somewhat mutual feelings but was restraint due to this group of theirs though he doubt they would be in a relationship even with only the two of them. One was too serious while the other acted serious. Finally this Aria person was pestering him again not seeing those two come out. ¡°Sir Shadow! Sir Shadow!¡± Aria cried for his attention. Seeing that Sain was not here she moved on to him? Shadow took a glance at Lyndis who was still out of it and...to the alley way where Sain was in the process of being out of it, he said, ¡°Be quiet I can''t listen in on those two.¡± ¡°Then...those two are...umm....¡± Aria was quite red saying that to the point that Shadow could only think that she was quite a sheltered girl. As his thoughts went to ''Look even Serena isn''t phased by it'', he quickly realised that Serena was turning red listening on his conversation with Aria that was filled with misunderstanding of Sain and Miriel. Well, it''s not like he was on the blunt of it. Might as well let it go, where it goes. ¡°Look at Lyndis¡± said Shadow pointing at her and said, ¡°That is going to be done to Sain.¡± Both Aria and Serena turned to look at Lyndis again who was out of it even now. ¡°Now what could have Miriel done to cause that? It looked like she was on the verge of something and Miriel didn''t let her to the point that her mind broke and is still broken now even though a few minutes passed¡± he continued to say. Both Aria and Serena turned red and Shadow simply crossed his arms and nodded in understanding. Though they probably think it''s something else, it is in fact being tickled without being allowed to faint. He continued to say, ¡°It will be soon done. Sain is approaching his limits which is surprisingly higher than Lyndis. Men are actually quicker than women most of the time.¡± The two turned red again. Another blessed misunderstanding. He wondered what would happen later on when they found that their thoughts were completely wrong. ¡°Almost done....about....now.¡± Shadow thought he heard a silent scream somewhere and the others seemed to as well. Soon enough, Miriel who had a satisfied look on her face led out Sain who had the same out of it look as Lyndis out of the alley way. The first thing was that both Aria and Serena were staring at Miriel with blushed faces. The second was that Shadow said, ¡°So how was it? Was Sain''s reaction better than Lyndis?¡± Miriel looked at Shadow with some understanding that Shadow probably heard it all and gave him a devilish smile and said, ¡°His reaction was better than expected¡± in a completely different way than she usual was. It was like the Ice Queen turned into a Succubus but really it was simply an Ice Queen enjoying herself. Shadow smiled knowing that another misunderstanding with Aria and Serena happened again. He would need to tell Lyndis about this later on...though he wondered why he wanted to tell her to begin with. xXx At the same time, Raven stood there listening to what Shadow was saying and did nothing but listened. Soon enough, Miriel approached him saying in sigh language which he was taught to know in secret by her, ¡°Did Shadow say something inappropriate? Aria and Serena are giving me strange looks.¡± Raven nodded and Miriel responded again in sigh language away from Shadow''s sight, ¡°Give me the information later. I will punish him for this.¡± xXx ¡°Eh? Was that a dream?¡± When Sain and by extension Lyndis woke up from their out of it state, he realised that it was time to log out already and prompted them all to, to get to class in time of course. He noticed that Aria was still there as they logged out. xXx As Peter got out of his capsule, he could have sworn that he head banging noises from where Hina was. No wonder, she did that to him in game...now that he thought about it...Peter felt that he was turning red just by thinking of it. No good, he needed to focus on task first since that takes priority. Anything else can come later. Gathering the group up he could not help but to take a glance at Hina. Which she notice. She turned red immediately and turned away. Peter could only sigh seeing that she was quite different in game compared to reality. As such was the result of her ''Mark'' again screwing with her. Out of everyone, she was having the worse time with it since she was originally a cool character type not a cute one. ¡°First of all...since there was some issues...¡± Peter started to say as Hina coughed at the same time, ¡°We need to talk about some things while we prepare for class...we have 5 minutes for talking before having to go to class I believe.¡± Peter looked at the group which had no problem to this, ¡°First of all, how much cash do we have in game?¡± ¡°It used to be around 5000 gold. Minus the thousand gold we needed to spend on upgrading our gear even with recommendation and favours and also minus another 300 gold with my new remodelled outfit from the old one and another 500 gold on Maria''s new sword and another 500 for Serena''s staff as well...we have around 2500 gold left though it''s closer to 2700 gold¡± answered Hina ignoring that she was still slightly red while looking at him. Peter could not help but to be red looking at her as well. ¡°In that case we could buy a carriage to use else try to find an escort quest to the city in question¡± said Peter. ¡°The second seems unlikely, better to go for the first. If we use our masters'' names again we could get one pretty cheap. At minimum it is a few gold, a hundred gold would be a good point to use for the carriage, horses and supplies we may want to take with us¡± said Hina in one go and continuing with, ¡°I heard there are certain items you would want to take to that city.¡± ¡°Say, what is the city''s name? None of you answered me before¡± asked Maria again, this time in real life compared to before in game. ¡°The city is called Shia and it''s a new type of city in the game. An urban type that is completely different from other cities¡± explained Ian, ¡°I think they said that the city was going to have even skyscrapers in there though it''s still in construction.¡± ¡°Ho...is that why I haven''t heard of it before?¡± Maria wondered and which Peter replied with, ¡°Perhaps, and because it is still currently being constructed that we are going there. A place like that where literally hundreds if not thousands of tradesmen come and go and are pouring in supplies and out with money to the extreme, it is impossible for such a place to have carelessly give supplies to a small village far away.¡± The rest of the group nodded in agreement there. Plus there was a fact that any city under the rule of Weed would not dare even spare a coin for their own use else for the punishment that would come. Anyway the group continued to discuss what they were to do when they got to the city. Some research on some of the inns they could stay at, some of the places they should visit first. Ian was interested in the bow collection that the city had which was more mechanical than the tradition bows and so on. ¡°By the way, what did Aria want with me before?¡± Peter suddenly asked seeing that whatever she wanted, he didn''t know since Miriel in game... ¡°Oh, she said something about not forgetting her quest and even going with us¡± replied Ian who seemed to have taken care of it. ¡°Wait, going with us? Don''t tell me...¡± Peter gave Ian a suspicious look but Ian only gestured to not worry saying, ¡°I rejected that offer much as I wanted to accept. I don''t trust her as much as some should considering I still think her circumstances is off.¡± ¡°I see...¡± Peter agreed with that though the good will of the others seemed to not care about it. Eventually the group headed to class and before long, after 2 hours came back to get back into the game. xXx ¡°Okay, we''re about to go now¡± said Sain calling out to the others to hurry in whatever they were doing. Through Miriel''s schemes and words, she had managed to buy this second hand carriage for a modest sum of only a hundred gold while it''s actually price would have been three times that. It was actually quite a large carriage compared to the ones they had been on before. There was enough space for four people to lie down on their backs and still have some more room. Plus it''s design was one of the wild west that you see in old movies about that place and time. ¡°Okay, I''m tying the hinges onto the horses¡± said Miriel. To pull this carriage you would also need horses or bulls. Since bulls were generally more expensive to use and buy with better endurance and stamina, the group had to go for a horse instead. With the buying of the carriage and horses, the total amount of money they had decreased to just around 2500 gold now. In mere moments, they had used up half their savings from years in a few months. It was no wonder why most players remained poor even though the places they hunted in gave them more gold than before. The higher level you go, the better gear you need and therefore the more gold you need to spend to get it. Plus there was the issue of repair fees, travelling costs and accommodation to consider as well which slowly but surely decreased the amount of gold you had. Basically the group was extremely lucky to even save around 5000 gold together at this point mainly due to the fact that their masters spoiled them a bit and that Alena took care of the price of things when they were with her. Each of their outfits even back at level 140 each, would have cost them several hundred gold each. That mean a little under 2000 gold immediately not to mention their weapons that they were lucky to get free in exchange for materials. Normally blacksmiths charged for their services alone even if you give them the materials especially those from the Grandmaster level. In the meantime, Sain checked several things. The first was that new sword that Lyndis brought as well as the new staff Serena brought as well. The second was their outfits that were either changed like with Miriel, or upgraded like with everyone else.
Sharp Katana of Flame Durability: 60/60 Damage: 80-95 A blade that is quite sharp that can cut through most monster shells with a single slice. It''s sharpness is powerful but a double edged weapon as as a result, it''s durability is much lower than other swords at it''s level. But in exchange, it''s damage is higher than before. It also has an unusual ability of being tempered though strengthening with flames. Restrictions: Level 200, Samurai Type Class Options: - Strength +20, Agility +30 - 30% higher attack speed - 25% more damage against living enemies - Flames can be combined with this weapon to increase damage and durability temporary
Seeing this, Sain could only sigh at the extreme damage it had for a level 200 weapon. His own Magitite Spear that was a growing type weapon currently only had 70-75 damage and this was not adding onto the bonus the weapon had to increase the damage even more. Compared to Raven''s Halberd whose damage is 35-40 and level 160, it was considerable strong though Raven''s doesn''t focus on attack alone and the actual damage is higher considering the weight of the attack and that he also uses a shield as well. Likewise with Shadow''s short sword with only 40-50 damage and also level 160, it was lower as well but at the same time it had an effect to increase stabbing skills performance like backstab by 50% as well and Shadow''s own ability to get multiple critical hits at the same time. However Sain thinks that Shadow should get a new dagger since his one now has too little damage. Perhaps he would get one with a new bow at the Shia City. Basically with this, Lyndis now had the strongest direct attack out of everyone even though it''s durability was quite low. He then looked at the staff Serena got.
Magical Staff of Nature Durability: 50/50 Damage: 7-9 A powerful staff that allows the user to enhance nature type spells. There are several special engravings on this staff that provides some level of protection from attacks as well. Another thing is that this staff gives out a natural calming effect causing the user to be less likely to be attacked and stay calm even in difficult situations. Restrictions: Level 200, Druid Type Class Options: - Intelligence +30, Wisdom +20 - Increase Nature based spells by 20% - Decrease damage taken by 15% - Chance of enemies attacking user decreases by 40% with the presence of other people, else alone only 20%
Likewise with the new weapon Serena got as well, it was truly powerful as well. Increasing the power of her spells as one thing but also to decrease damage, increase stats and even lower the chance of being attacked as well. Sain wondered if all level 200 weapons were this strong. The cost of 500 gold a weapon was really good for this level of weapon as well but Sain presumed that they got a discount due to being in a S rank Independent Guild plus other schemes they may use. Even if a weapon at this rank was 500 gold though in actuality it was closer to a thousand gold more expensive, buying new weapons for the rest of the group would deplete the amount of gold they had by another 2000. He really didn''t want to think about it much and decided it was better to replace equipment when they find better ones or need to really upgrade if it dips in their performance. As such he started to look through their upgraded outfits now.
Upgraded Reinforced Leather Outfit Durability: 100/100 Defence: 50 A leather armour that is quite plain but was made to fit the person in question. At the arms, magical arm guards were incorporated into the outfit while adding extra defence along side the arms and legs as well. Metal boots were also added in as well to increase kicking power. Has recently been upgraded to a higher level to increase durability and defence. Restrictions: - Level 200 Options: - Spell Strength +15% - Agility +30 - Kick damage +30
Upgraded Holy Flame Armour Outfit Durability: 120/120 Defence: 55 Armour that was made to fit a person who is both a swordsman and a fire user. This armour was modelled after and was based off the Holy Flame that purifies and destroys evil. The armour is of medium weight and includes a second layer underneath as well which is dress with flame resistance cloth. Has recently been upgraded to a higher level to increase durability and defence. resistance cloth. Restrictions: - Level 200, Melee and Fire User class Options: - Fire Resistance +25% - Agility +30, Charm +35 - Flames have a slight Holy Nature, +15% Damage to Undead Type Foes
Upgraded Half Plate Guard Outfit Durability: 120/120 Defence: 60 An outfit that includes a chest piece that goes down but to the stomach, arm guards that do not extend completely to the shoulders, knee guards that do not extend to the thighs and metal boots that fully cover over the ankles. Includes leather armour underneath to provide some defence in the gaps. Has recently been upgraded to a higher level to increase durability and defence. Restrictions: - Level 200, Melee Class Options: - Strength +20, Vitality +35 - Impacts of light blows will be decreased exponentially - Impacts of heavy blows will be decreased moderately
Upgraded Super Light Assassin Outfit Durability: 50/50 Defence: 5 Extremely light and tight clothing that was made to ensure that the wearer would be completely unrestricted in moving around. However due to the thinness of the outfit, the defence and durability of it decreased a lot. Along with the scarf used to hide one''s identity, the outfit is perfect to use at night where enemies have a hard time tracking you down. Has recently been upgraded to a higher level to increase durability and defence. Restrictions: - Level 200, Thief or Assassin related class Options: - Agility +20 - Able to blend into the dark better, Stealth Skill +20% in the dark - Dagger skills +30% damage
Remodelled Stylish Magician Outfit Durability: 60/60 Defence: 25 An magician outfit that was made with style. Every piece of his outfit was designed to match in style from top to bottom and yet not neglect the protection of the wearer as a fashion statement. This outfit made for a female magician also improves her abilities as well. Has recently been remodelled and also upgraded to a higher level to increase durability and defence. Restrictions: - Level 200, Magician Type Class Options: - Intelligence +30 - Charm +30 - Casting speed +25%
Upgraded Iron Claw Druid Outfit Durability: 60/60 Defence: 35 An outfit that designed for comfort for the user. It''s light weights and easy fitting shorts and boots make it easy for the wearer to run around. The leather chest piece is there for extra defence and protection while the arm claw that extends from the right hand to the shoulder increases defence and attack at that area. Restrictions: - Level 200, Druid Type Class Options: - Able to deflect blows and attack using the iron claw - Agility +35 - Projectile Resistance +30
Seeing all of this, Sain could say that the upgrade of their equipment did three things. The first was increased the durability of their armour by 20 points, the second was increase their defence by 20 points as well with the exception of Shadow''s one and finally boosted or even added new effects to their armour as well. He believed that the blacksmiths and tailors that were working on this, imbued their armour with new materials considering they weight almost the same but there seemed to be new parts here and there. For a price that totalled 1000 gold along with a further 300 gold to modify Miriel''s outfit to the current one, it was an extremely good price even if they had to throw around their Guild''s name, their Master''s name and plead to them for this deal. If not, Sain feared that the costs would reach up to a 1000 gold each, which meant over 6000 gold in total normally. They were really lucky to get this off for this price. Another thing was that now they could use their Magitite Rings as well. Bringing up the window for the ring, it showed this.
Magitite Ring Made from the hands of a Grandmaster! As such the abilities of the ore that was used in question would be great. You can clearly see the small tiny details that had been used in place on every speck of this ring. Requirements: Level 200 Options: - Increase Mana Regeneration by 20% - Increase Magic Resistance by 10% - Due to the level of craftsmanship, can increase boost skill level by 1
Aside from increased mana regeneration which was extremely important and useful, magic resistance was also increased which is one of the harder things to increase and finally all of their skills were boosted by 1 level due to this ring. Theoretically if one wore all six of these rings, they would get a boost of 6 skill levels making them so much stronger due to that as well along with a 120% boost in mana regeneration and a 60% boost in magic resistance as well. Too bad he needed to share. With all of this now, he estimated them being able to take on monsters 35 levels above them in their base form. With buffs it would go up to around 40 levels above them and with boost it would be 50 levels above them. Sain had to also consider the increased strength of enemies from this point on as well since the difference between a level 100 and level 150 is actually smaller than the difference between a level 200 and level 250 not in stats but combat ability. Even with increased stats, a monster 50 levels above them may have some strange ability that would still make it difficult to defeat. However as Sain was looking through all of this and thinking this, the rest of the group had already finished packing and were simply waiting for Sain right now. ¡°Sain! Hurry up! I rather not spend the night time fighting monsters here!¡± Shadow shouted for him to hurry up out of his thoughts. Sain only let out a small laugh and said, ¡°We''ll be doing that either way. Shia City is 2 weeks away on carriage, 2 months away by foot.¡± With a carriage, the amount of time they needed to spend travelling would decrease. It was not only the travelling speed that would increase but the decrease in time needed to rest and even less so due to the need to carry supplies while walking. As such, Sain moved onto the driver''s seat with Miriel and asked, ¡°Do you know how to drive?¡± honestly. Miriel nodded and said, ¡°I learnt a bit back when I got the horses. The theory should be right.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain had a strange feeling seeing Miriel doing something based off theory. However soon enough they were off, going through the city gates and onto the roads to the west, where Shia City lied still being constructed from a town. This would be the place they would be in for the next while at least. First it began with Witchelm City, then to Lily City with Viv and finally...now to Shia City. This would be the third city they would visit. Sain relaxed a bit looking around before deciding to train his magic a bit. To the side Miriel actually groaned and asked, ¡°Are you going to train here? More to the point, why are you training again?¡± Sain looked at her confused, ¡°Training is endless you know. I say some people behind us should as well to not waste two weeks on nothing.¡± He thought he heard several more groans from the back with his words but he ignored it. If they wanted to get stronger, then they needed to endlessly try to be stronger than before, even if they didn''t gain experience, skill proficiency or anything else. This was the way Sain chose to get stronger. xXx On the way to Shia City... ¡°That''s...?¡± Sain looked into the distance and found something he could not believe. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Miriel who was not seeing the same thing as him. However Sain still continued to stare at the creatures in the distance. They numbered four in total...and all of them were boss class monsters. Each of them were different creatures so Sain was not in hell sure on why they were not attacking each other. But from the looks of it, they seem to be allies. ¡°This is bad, stop the carriage, prepare for battle!¡± Sain shouted agitated. ¡°Hmm? Ah oh...¡± Shadow was the second to notice the bad news since he was able to hear some monsters coming up but was it was worse than he thought. It was before long that those 4 Boss Monsters noticed them. From what Sain could tell, all of them were level 250 each. Before they could take on one of the same level but 4 at once?
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8900~ - I wrote 13 pages yesterday and another 10 pages today....sudden motivation to write from a death scene I''ve watched is strange... - Anyway due to sudden motivation to write as well as sudden inspiration in the middle scene of this chapter, my planning was messed up again...yay. Anyway I was tempted to end at the group at the city but decided to end at them facing boss monsters on the road. Vol.7 Chapter 8 - Boss Battles and Unique Drops ¡°Four Boss Monsters...¡± muttered Sain drawing his weapon as he got off the stopped carriage. Miriel who heard him exclaimed, ¡°Four of them?! Are you sure you''re not mistaken?¡± Hearing this, the others started to panic a bit as well. A Boss Monster was something that needed to be taken with caution. However facing four of them at once was a death wish, especially when there were four of them at once. ¡°Should we run?¡± suggested Shadow immediately. He had a good feeling that he was going to be bait here. However Lyndis said, ¡°I think we need to fight. Doubt we can escape with the carriage. If we abandon it that means over a hundred gold gone.¡± Hearing this now, Miriel quickly said, ¡°I agree with Lyndis. A hundred gold is still a lot and to waste that...I would rather die twice then do that.¡± Sain looked at each and every one of them even though it was not the time for that now. Shadow had a look of he didn''t care what happened, Miriel and Lyndis were determined to fight. And Serena and Raven did not seem to mind battling at this point. He looked over to see the Boss Monsters looking at them curiously. There was a Blue Stripped Panther, Red Moon Bear, Green Poison Serpent and a Giant Purple Rabbit. Sain had read up on the bosses in the western continent and their appearances so he knew these were the names of those Boss Monsters. And from the looks of it, all of them were in the level 250 range. It would be soon that they would attack so he needed to explain some general plans to the rest of them. ¡°From their names, the Bear is a strength type, the Serpent is a poison type and the Panther and Rabbit are agility types but seeing that the Rabbit''s body shape is similar to the Bear''s, I''m guessing it could be a balanced type.¡± ¡°So what do we do?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Raven has the worse speed so he can''t take on the Panther and I''m not taking any chances on the rabbit. Therefore you need to take on the bear.¡± Raven nodded in understanding. ¡°As for the Serpent whose a poison type..they are generally weak against fire types but snakes are generally weak against ice types. Therefore either Lyndis or Miriel should take care of that one. Serena or me can remove the poison from you if we have the chance¡± ¡°Got it.¡± ¡°Right.¡± Lyndis and Miriel looked at each other and then Miriel said, ¡°Lyndis can take it, I''ll support if I need to.¡± ¡°Agreed¡± said Lyndis nodding. ¡°Shadow¡± said Sain looking at him, ¡°Take the speed type. You are twice as fast as any of us and can even go faster. I''m afraid that the rest of us will be unable keep up with that panther otherwise.¡± ¡°Fine...¡± sighed Shadow, ¡°In the end I''m to bait it till the rest of you help me out right?¡± Sain shook his head with a smile and said, ¡°No, you will have to kill it. The rest of us will be too preoccupied to help you that much. But if you wish, Serena can help you though she will be healing the rest of us most of the time.¡± Sain looked at Serena confirming this arrangement. ¡°I''ll do my best!¡± Serena said with determination. ¡°As for the Rabbit...I''ll have to take it since no one else is left with the ability to tank it. I''ll have to use Luna as well to keep up with it¡± said Sain with a sigh, ¡°Miriel I want you to focus more on buffs and placing barriers on us for this battle. Support with Ice Magic when you think will work.¡± ¡°Right¡± said Miriel starting chanting her spells. ¡°Serena don''t use your buffs since they take too much mana¡± said Sain adding in that information, ¡°Also, everyone can use ''Boost'' if they feel like it. Surviving comes first and if any of you guys kill one of the bosses, support the others the best you can.¡± Sain looked at the boss monsters again, he saw them approaching more hostile than before now. ¡°They''re coming, hurry up with the buffs¡± said Sain starting to chant for his own buffs as well. The battle between the group of six at just over level 200 and the four boss monsters at level 250 was beginning. xXx Raven approached the Red Moon Bear. It was a massive creature that was 3 metres in height as it was standing on its two legs. The amount of fur it had seemed thin but instead, its muscles were several times thicker. He was alone on this task but it seems like there was little chance that he or the others would be attacked by the other Boss Monsters at least. Boss Monsters had pride as well and it looked like they intentionally spread themselves out for one on one matches. They were confident on winning. However it was the same for him and the rest of the group as well. Currently he had Miriel''s songs which gave him 50% more strength and agility along with Sain''s buffs, that''s 150 points in strength, agility and endurance. Due to the effects of Lyndis'' battle buff as well, his attack, defence, speed and fighting spirit increased by 4% as well. Finally his own battle aura when active would increase his attack, defence and speed by 3%, 4% with the effects of ''Aura Manipulation'' as well. Of course this is only when the skill is active. Right now he also equipped his Tower Shield as well on his left arm and placed his other shield on his right arm. This increased his defence to almost 800 compared to his offence that was barely over 650. In Royal Road, your offence and defence were determined by several factors, but the game is able to show you the base values of both. Offence is a value determined by your base weapon damage and strength and will increase or decrease in battle with the speed, power and position of your attack, as such agility is also a factor in your attack but is a variable stat which is why it does not show up in the calculation. Defence however is determined by your base armour defence, vitality and endurance and will rise or lower depending on where you get hit. At some places, like your eyes, you have no defence there and such locations are known to give the attacker a critical or fatal hit. Therefore even against this Red Moon Bear that seemingly had higher attack and defence than him, it was possible to win. Staring at the Red Moon Bear, Raven noticed when it quickly rushed up to him in a single step and slash downwards using its large claw. Raven quickly stepped back in the face of this and lifted his Tower Shield. BANG! The attack gazed his Tower Shield but at the same time forced him back a whole 3 metres. Its attack was frightening high. The durability of his Tower Shield decreased by a point due to that as well. However he wasn''t going to give up based on one attack. ¡°Battle Aura!¡± he surrounded himself with his aura and then said, ¡°Boost!¡±
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Star'' is now active. ''Gravity Force'' is now active
All of a sudden his body was surrounded by an invisible force. His body was become a base where gravity was distorted and being controlled by him. By surrounding his body with this power, he was able to divert attack from him.
Moderate Health Regeneration has been applied, 2500 health will regeneration over 100 seconds
All of a sudden Raven saw this message appear in front of him as well. It looked like Serena was starting to heal everyone by applying regeneration spells onto all of them one at a time. This could possibly lower the chance of him dying. Seeing this and the fact that ''Boost'' was active which not only doubled his stats but also all the effects on him, Raven was much stronger than before that he could not compare. He felt like he could tank a level 300 foe right now. ¡°Footwork!¡± Therefore he charged at the Red Moon Bear that was in its process of doing his second attack at Raven. Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnng! He let the attack claw at the edge of his shield again as he moved forward holding his halberd in his right hand. Covering it using ''Gravity Force'' again, he increased the power of his strike like that. ¡°Double Strike!¡± And he swung his halberd twice and hit the Red Moon Bear squarely head on. BANG BANG!! Both attacks hit the Red Moon Bear head on but it didn''t seem to do much damage. Normally this kind of attack could blast an enemy away or at least deal a deep cut in them. But the muscles of this Red Moon Bear completely blocked it. ¡°ROOOOARRR!!!¡± Not to mention that now that he had provoked it, another two attacks came down on him again. BANG BANG! This time, Raven was sent flying back a bit and fell down and the moment he looked to get up, he saw the Red Moon Bear charging at him again.
Guard Point Barrier has been applied on you
BANG! ¡°Roar?!¡± All of a sudden, the Red Moon Bear''s attack was sent back to it through the barrier that was placed on him. As the one who gets these barriers the most, Raven knew that this point could sent back an attack if hit. The only downside was that the barrier was extremely small, only the size of a hand and Miriel had to control that as well. He doubt she could do that a second time, so he got up and prepared to fight again. Several times he had avoided taking damage due to chance but soon enough his stamina would wear off. He needed to finish this quickly, but that was impossible. xXx At the same time, Shadow was having difficulties with the Blue Stripped Panther as well. ¡°Burst Speed!¡± she shouted retreating again along with his three clones that he made using his ''Real Illusion'' skill. Slash! Slash! Slash! However instantly, those three clones were attacked as they were slightly slower than he was in reacting to attacks. Shadow thought this had to be a joke, what kind of monster could attack him at three different places at once?! As expected, he drew the worse straw out of everyone. He wanted to curse Sain right now but he figured that anyone else wouldn''t even be able to keep up with this thing to begin with. ¡°Divine Shadow Art: Assassinate!¡± Shadow teleported behind the Blue Stripped Panther the moment that it landed onto the ground and therefore stopped moving for an instant. Slash! However he missed! That Panther moved behind him instantly and tried to attack him. ¡°Shadow Step!¡± He used this skill along with creating another three clones as decoys to get out of danger. Slash! One of the clones that moved to block the attack was split into pieces instantly. Once again Shadow cursed at the fact he was fighting this thing. He didn''t even have time to think of anything at all. At this rate he would run out of mana and die. Unlike some people, he and Raven had a low amount of mana to use, well compared to the others. He only had 1400 mana to use in this battle and within a minute, he used up a third of it instantly. ¡°Tch.¡± Shadow leaped around the place, using complicated movements to confuse the panther on where to attack. Because this was an open plains type of place, he was more disadvantaged than the others. His main focus was on stealth not on head on combat. ¡°Critical Eyes!¡± His eyes were covered with a strange light that would allow him to see the weak spots of the Panther. Several places lit up but they were the eyes and other common places you would target even without the skill. He just wasted 50 mana thanks to this skill. ¡°God Damn it!¡± he shouted holding his two weapons at hand. One of them, the dagger was completely useless against this foe. It was too weak and needed to be replaced later, if only he spent money to buy a newer better one. Using a bow against this thing was useless as well. It was simply too fast to aim and shoot at it. Plus, Shadow thinks that it can knock out the arrows in mid flight since the bow was quite low levelled as well. ¡°Do I have any support here?!¡± Shadow decided to shout out but then he looked to see three others in deep combat unable to do anything. Another thing was that Miriel and Serena were constantly casting spells as well to support the rest of them and were barely keeping them alive. With a sigh, he continued battling without much choice. xXx Sain moved back even more due to the rentless attacks from this Purple Giant Rabbit. Looked like he picked quite a difficult one to deal with. In terms of attack, defence or speed, the other Boss Monsters were probably better than this one. However this one was quite ferocious in attacking him using his entire body to attack which included body slams often and slide kicks as well. ¡°Luna! Distract it! Miriel and Serena, knock it away if it tries otherwise¡± Sain ordered with a shout. Even though he said that Miriel and Serena were to support the others as well, most of their efforts were on aiding him instead. From the looks of things, Raven and Shadow were even with their own Boss Monster but Lyndis was struggling a bit on her own. But in the end, even with Luna, he was struggling the most which was why he changed the plan mid way since if one of them died then the plan would fall apart. Originally he was hoping that they could win in a one on one match with each of the Boss Monsters since they had gotten stronger, but he was severely naive in even thinking of that! Each of them had enough strength to take 2-3 of them at a time. In a battle of attrition, they would lose. Therefore, he changed the plan for them to gang up on one of the Boss Monsters and kill it and move onto the next one until all of them were dead. It was a simple plan to which even a child could think of. Which was why he called Miriel and Serena over to help him. But he had no time to worry about him, that is, that Giant Rabbit which had a body type similar to that Bear Raven was fighting did a jump kick towards him. He dodged to the left to which the Rabbit''s left fist was aimed and fired at him as well. He ducked to dodge that attack as well and stabbed his spear into the arm that narrowly missed him. Another kick was coming this way so Sain leaped back but the Rabbit charged in at that moment. Vines wrapped around the Rabbit and ice flew to hit the Rabbit as well. He liked the idea that he was not alone in this. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Mind Break!¡± he chanted using that spell on the Rabbit but it had no effect. ¡°Tch...Luna!¡± Sain shouted commanding him to attack. BITE! Luna bite the leg of the Rabbit from behind and caused some damage that way. BANG! At the next instant, Miriel used ''Glacier Strike'' on the Rabbit as well. She seemed to be gathering power and then focused it onto the spell that she just used. ¡°Haaaaaaa!!!¡± And then used her ''Living Ice'' ability which she gained while using ''Boost'' to create two large ice hands from that ice to grab hold and pin down the Rabbit. Grab~ Grab~ The Rabbit immediately tried to struggle out of the ice but it was quite large and was holding quite tightly onto the Rabbit preventing it from moving that much. ¡°Attack now! Ice Bolts!¡± Miriel cried firing off her Ice Spell one after the other to the Rabbit. ¡°Leaf Slicer! Blood Burst!¡± Serena followed up with her own attacks. Luna got away before this set of spells barraged the Rabbit to the point that it was no longer completely unharmed. ¡°GRRRRRR!!!!¡± Blood eyed, the Rabbit stared at them with killing intent.
You have sensed a dangerous presence
The game itself warned him that something bad was going to happen. However if he tried to avoid it, it was not likely he could at all. ¡°Therefore...attack¡± a small grin appeared on Sain''s face as he fearlessly charged in. For some reason he did not know even with his ''All Knowing Eyes'' as it was not really omniscient, one of the fists of the Purple Giant Rabbit was glowing brightly and turning golden. However he felt it was a bad idea to get hit by it. Or even let it attack... ¡°Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!¡± Ropes of mana suddenly appeared and wrapped around that right arm of it trying to stop it from attacking but Sain knew he only had a few seconds at best. ¡°Luna, distract it!¡± Sain shouted one last thing. He trusted Luna enough on this task. And in the next moment, Luna delivered. CHOMP! Luna took a large chunk of flesh off of one of the legs of the Rabbit, it seems whatever it was doing decreased its defence by a lot. Sain continued to charge in, though it had only been around 3 seconds since he started to charge. The Rabbit was disbalanced due to the sudden attack and Sain threw his spear into the Rabbit''s other arm making sure it couldn''t attack him when he did that. Leap~ Kicking the Rabbit back a bit with a knee attack, Sain landed on the Rabbit with both hands wide open and with spells in both of them. ¡°The outside might be tough, what about the inside?!¡± With a devilish grin, Sain stuffed both his arms into the large mouth of this Rabbit and fired off both spells in his hands. ¡°Magic Arrows! Magic Arrows!¡± BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! Fourteen Magic Arrows shot at the Rabbit from inside of its mouth. The inside must have been wounded quite badly but Sain wasn''t going to stop there at all. ¡°Now for seconds~! Mana Bolts! Mana Bolts!¡± From each hand, another 25 Mana Bolts came out of both of them to a grand total of 50 Mana Bolts in total. It was like fireworks were coming out of the Rabbit''s mouth. The insides of its mouth at least would have been shredded by now. Blood gushed out as Sain removed his arms that were perfectly fine despite being in the Rabbit''s mouth and he dropped to the ground. ¡°Still alive? What powerful vitality¡± Sain was a bit shocked that the Rabbit was still alive. However... ¡°Miriel, Serena¡± Sain called the two that were probably watching him now without looking at them, ¡°I can take care of this, you two help one of the others. Lyndis might need some help with the poison Serena.¡± ¡°Right!¡± ¡°Understood!¡± As such both of them left to help the others. [Master...this thing has started to...] Luna called out to Sain worried but Sain himself did not worry, ¡°Yeah, this thing is strange. We barely scratched off 10% of its health.¡± Sain could see the health percentage of the enemy in front of him. Most players with an identifying skill could do this. It was only a matter of using it on a monster instead of an item. And what he saw surprised him but in the end he still had a calm smile on his face. ¡°If it can live with even that, it doesn''t mean its not hurting. If we cut off its limbs, attack its vital constantly, even a Dragon will die no matter how weak the foe is¡± he said coldly. He was reverting back to that ''him'' that did not usually come out. However Luna was used to this Sain and would rather be shocked with Sain was all smiles and kindness. [Understood, Master I believe we should make it bleed to death then. It is almost granted that any living being would die without their blood] Sain nodded and grinned, ¡°As expected from my prized companion.¡± To the Purple Giant Rabbit, Sain had become something akin to a demon now. xXx ¡°Ora! Take this!¡± Lyndis shouted throwing flames onto the ground again. She had turned her battlefield into a flaming field through her use of ''Genesis Flames'' which allowed her to shape and produce any number of flames as she wished. Right now, the path for this Green Poison Serpent was cut off now. As such she charged in with her Katana in hand. ¡°Fire Dance, Fire Blade, Speed Strike!¡± she used those three skills in a row cutting horizontally at the Serpent. ¡°Sissss!¡± However this Serpent was quite slippery in how it dodged despite having a rather large body that was 10 metres long though coiled up most of the time. Another thing was that it was quite quick...in how it escaped. ¡°Power Strike!¡± Lyndis slammed down on the ground with her sword cutting through the slimy scales of the Serpent. However due to it being slimy, it was quite hard for her to cut through it. ¡°Burning Touch!¡± Therefore she set the Serpent on fire at a certain location before trying to attack. However just as the slimy stuff prevented her from getting a good hit in, it was also poisonous.
You are now poisoned, -100Hp/sec
It was quite a potent poison to remove a 100 health a second. She would die in a little over a minute and a third. However... ¡°Serena! Poison heal me!¡± she shouted to Serena who was primary helping Lyndis on the poison issue. Soon enough, Serena''s ''Poison Removal'' skill worked from afar since it was in the Intermediate Level now, and cured Lyndis of poisoning.
Moderate Health Regeneration has been applied, 2500 health will regeneration over 100 seconds
Minor Health Regeneration has been applied, 1000 health will regeneration over 100 seconds
Another thing was that Serena placed two of her regeneration spells on her at once at the same time. Lyndis thanked Serena for being so kind in her heart as she charged head onto to the Serpent once again. She would need to get more serious now. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± Lyndis fired off a large flame attack at the Serpent. Combined with the place filled with fire already and that she increased the size of the flames with ''Genesis Flame'', the attack was much more powerful and larger than it was suppose to be. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!! The Serpent was lit on fire and the slimy poison that was covering its body was being dissolved by the flames. Seeing this chance, Lyndis dashed next to the Serpent. ¡°Dragon Dance Art: Second Slash!¡± Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash Slash....! Several dozen strikes were executed in a mere moment with Lyndis'' Katana. With the bonus to not only ''Sword Mastery'' but also ''Katana Mastery'', her attack and attack speed was much faster than before. Several cracks appeared on the scales of the Serpent where she attacked. She didn''t care much for the sides of the Serpent and instead directly attacked the face. ¡°Dragon Dance Art: First Slash!¡± She did a upper attack using her sword causing her cracks to appear on the side of the face of the Serpent before being hit into flames on the ground. Seeing the chance, Lyndis leaped in the air and got into the ''Power Stance'' and shouted, ¡°Power Strike!¡± before slamming her sword down onto the Serpent smashing it into the ground. The attack seemed to have stunned the Serpent as it was not moving anymore. ¡°One more time! Power Strike!¡± Lyndis slammed her sword into the Serpent again. The sheer force of the attack broke the Serpent''s scales and reduced its defence in turn. ¡°Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike!¡± After the fifth consecutive strike the Serpent finally let out its last scream of life and died.
You have killed a Green Poison Serpent - You have levelled up - Due to the effects of ''Party Scan'', the rest of the experience will be spread to you and the rest of your party members later on - Due to soloing this Boss Monster, you have gained Strength +3, Agility +5, Endurance +10, Fighting Spirit +10
Seeing this message, Lyndis smiled greatly though was a bit unsure on this ''Party Scan'' detail but was still happy for a level up and stats bonuses. ¡°Kay...now to see if the others need help¡± muttered Lyndis looking at the direction of the other three. Raven was fighting with Miriel supporting, Sain and Luna were butchering the Rabbit and Shadow was having difficulties with that Panther. ¡°Huh?¡± Lyndis rubbed her eyes thinking she saw something strange. She once again looked around to see the circumstances of the others fighting. Raven was fighting with Miriel supporting, Sain and Luna were butchering the Rabbit and Shadow was having difficulties with that Panther. ¡°....¡± She must have been imagining it. Better check again. Raven was fighting with Miriel supporting. That was perfectly fine, with her barriers, Raven was able to defend against the attacks and get in some attacks as well. Miriel was also using her spells which helped a lot. ¡°Okay nothing strange there.¡± If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.Now she looked at the next one. Sain and Luna were butcher- ¡°LYNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDIIIIISSSSSS!!!!¡± Shadow screamed at her when he realised she was standing there with Serena doing nothing. ¡°I need support NOW!¡± he shouted. His body was wounded all over the place to the point that Serena quickly started to heal him. With a sigh, she ran over to help him out. ¡°I''m coming so shut it with the screaming¡± she shouted back at Shadow. ¡°Screw you! I''m dying here!¡± Shadow shouted back at her. With a small chuckle she went to support Shadow in his battle. ¡°....¡± But she could have sworn there was something wrong with Sain''s battle. But she had no time to look at it. It might have been her imagination since each of the battles took place so far apart that she could barely tell what was going on in each of them. xXx After the battles.... ¡°Let''s see....¡± Sain looked through all of the messages and said to the group, ¡°I got 5 points in Strength, Agility, Endurance and Fighting Spirit for the fight.¡± Next was Miriel who said, ¡°I got 6 points in Intelligence, 3 points in Wisdom and 5 points in Fighting Spirit as well.¡± ¡°4 points in Strength. 8 points in Agility, 2 points in Endurance and 6 points in Fighting Spirit for my efforts¡± said Shadow next. ¡°I''ve got 4 Points in Intelligence...and Wisdom and another 6 points in Fighting Spirit¡± said Serena revealing the stats she got from this as well. ¡°6 points in Strength and Endurance, 2 points in Agility and 8 Fighting Spirit¡± said Raven as well. Finally Lyndis said, ¡°A total of 7 Strength, 6 Agility, 10 Endurance and 12 Fighting Spirit!¡± with a triumphant look on her face. With that kind of smug look, Shadow could not help but say: ¡°That''s only because you managed to kill a boss on your own...and that was only because Serena helped you and because that was far the weakest boss of them all we just faced!¡± said Shadow making excuses on the stat gain. Lyndis made a humoured look and asked, ¡°Oh and this one was regretful that he asked for my help?¡± ¡°That''s because that thing was really killing me! I was literally dying from blood loss with my wounds seeping out blood as I moved quickly!¡± retorted Shadow. With a clap of his hands, Sain stopped the two from talking for now. ¡°Anyway, moving on, we all gained 4 levels thanks to this fight and partly due to ''Party Scan'' working¡± said Sain. ¡°Yeah I want to ask but why did I only level up once? That Serpent and all the other Boss Monsters were all way above our level¡± asked Lyndis. With a single motion of his hand, he showed the group the skill window of ''Party Scan''.
Party Scan Beginner Level 7 A Passive skill to see the Health of Allies and other information of the party as well. There are several other options that have been revealed and are able to be used with the party as well. - Able to see the health level of the party - Able to see the status window of the party if permitted - Able to see the skill window of the party if permitted - Able to adjust the experience levels of the party - Able to see any messages the other members of the party gets
¡°Basically I adjusted the experience so we wouldn''t gain too much experience and out level each other too much¡± said Sain explaining it. ¡°And the experience? Where did that go? I mean we just killed 4 level 250 Boss Monsters for Christ sake. Only 4 levels is too little for that!¡± Lyndis seemed anxious that her hard earned experience would be gone. ¡°Don''t worry about it. That experience will turn up later as bonus experience from killing monsters for the next couple of levels at least. Basically I''ve done this so some people wouldn''t be so under-levelled compared to the rest of us¡± said Sain explaining that as well. ¡°I wonder who those people were?¡± asked Lyndis not knowing that she and Raven were the reason Sain used this option of the skill. Normally it would be useless, in fact worthless, a demerit but in the case where they really needed all of them to be similarly strong, it was perfect for the long term. ¡°Anyway, let''s see the loot we got off this battle. Four Boss Monsters, there''s sure to be something good in here¡± said Sain looking at the loot they acquired and started identifying them with Miriel.
Damaged Purple Giant Rabbit Fur x3
Green Poison Serpent Scales x15
Green Poison Serpent Fangs x8
Red Moon Bear Fur x5
Red Moon Bear Claws x2
Blue Stripped Panther Leather x2
Blue Stripped Panther Fangs x5
¡°Okay it seems normal so far...material items from Bosses are generally good quality¡± said Sain. ¡°Why is the Purple Giant Rabbit Fur damage?¡± wondered Miriel, ¡°It didn''t look that bad when we finished it off.¡± ¡°Who knows...¡± said Sain continuing onto counting the coins they got. In total it was a sum of 76 Gold, 22 Silver and 19 Copper Coins in total. Not a bad amount but could have certainly been higher. But the biggest prize was that they had gained 4 pieces of equipment thanks to this. One from each Boss Monster.
Phantom Blue Stripped Boots Durability: 80/80 Defence: 15 Dropped from a Blue Stripped Panther that is exceedingly rare to find, this is an unique drop item that many would desire. Due to its light weight, there is no burden in wearing it and furthermore it allows the user to decrease the burden of equipment weight. Restrictions: Level 250 Options: - Agility +30, Movement Speed +10%, Dodge rate +10 - Able to sprint at full speed in half the distance needed - Reduces the amount of equipment burden you have by 20kg
Green Poison Ring of Nature A rare unique item dropped from a near extinct Green Poison Serpent that had the ability to produce a rapid amount of poison all over its body for both protection and to harm other beings. This rings allow poison to be applied onto nature type spells or weapons. Restrictions: Level 250 Options: - Intelligence +20, Wisdom +20, Poison Resistance +15 - Gives the ability to add the poison effect onto nature type spells or weapons - You are less likely to be poisoned when wearing this
Heavy Red Moon Dagger A drop from a Red Moon Bear that was once thought of extinct until the twin moon incident, tis dagger processes the power of that creature in it! It is a heavy dagger that has extremely high piercing power and can be used to block attacks as well. Restrictions: Level 250 Options: - Strength +40, Endurance +10, Fighting Spirit +25 - Chance to block or parry using this dagger +20 - Piercing power +30%, Attack speed -10%
Purple Ring of Moderate Casting Gives the effects of casting with a moderate quality staff of the same level. It is an unique item that is dropped by a mysterious and yet extremely ferocious Purple Giant Rabbit that did not exist on the continent until a century ago by mysterious means. Restrictions: Level 250 Options: - Casting speed +20%, Magic Power +10%, Intelligence +15 - Allows user to cast spells as if holding a moderate quality staff of the same level as this ring''s requirement - Physical Resistance +10%, Defence +10%, Blunt Damage Resistance +5%
Two rings, One Boots and a Dagger. And all of them had really good effects though they were all at level 250 to equip. However they were all unique grade equipment. Once again Sain sighed to think he needed to share all of this. As such was the greed of a gamer that awakened inside of him due to this game. But Sain still stayed calm and said, ¡°Now how to distribute these...¡± ¡°The dagger should be mine then, I was already thinking of getting a new one when I was fighting that panther¡± said Shadow claiming the first reward. Next Raven said, ¡°Boots...¡± Thinking of why Raven would want it, Sain realised and said, ¡°Oh, this ring would greatly increase your speed in more ways than one right? It makes sense since you have the greatest equipment burden of all of us.¡± Sain looked at the remaining two rings and said, ¡°Then I''ll take the Purple Ring then¡± picking it up, ¡°It gives the effect of casting with a staff while equipped which will replace my old one I got from Gen from the beginning.¡± No one complained there. Even if the other effects were good, Sain benefited the most out of having that ring. ¡°Then...¡± Lyndis tried to pick up the second ring but Serena snatched it away quicker than she expected. Patting Serena''s head, Miriel said, ¡°This ring really only works with Serena who can use nature type spells. Plus out of everyone here, you would benefit the least of having it Lyndis.¡± Lyndis silently weeped seeing the unique equipment of the boss monster she slain being taken from her...Sain, Shadow and Raven all got equipment from the bosses so why couldn''t she? But such thoughts were cut off when Sain looking at the carriage said, ¡°By the way...when were you guys going to tell me that Aria was hitch-hiking with us¡± in a cold tone but with a smiling face that gave shivers to the others. Immediately Lyndis and Serena looked away. Raven was expressionless as always but Shadow was whistling like it wasn''t his business. Sain turned to Miriel who gave him a ''sorry'' look to which he could only sigh. ¡°Shadow¡± said Sain. ¡°Why me?! I wasn''t part of this plan at all!¡± retorted Shadow seeing that he was becoming a victim so quickly here. ¡°I need to talk to you for a bit alone¡± said Sain who moved on to the next conversation but the others did not realise yet. ¡°Oh God, are you planning making me dig a hole and bury me in it?!¡± Shadow started to back away rapidly. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind¡± chanted Sain. Several mana ropes bound Shadow in place making him unable to escape. ¡°Why the hell are you trapping me?! Do you wish to torment and kill me that much?! I don''t remember doing anything to piss you off!!!¡± Shadow screamed. ¡°That''s because I feel like you''ll run away from me. I just need to talk to you about something alright¡± said Sain with a sigh seeing that Shadow has ''that'' impression of him now. What did he think he would do to him? ¡°What the hell do you want to talk to me about?! Why don''t you go kiss Miriel over there again! Don''t think I didn''t hear anything back then!¡± Shadow shouted causing both Sain and Miriel to be stunned in shock while Lyndis and Serena were shocked in a different way. Lyndis with an amused look on her face turned and patted Miriel on the shoulder and said, ¡°Miriel, what is this talk of a kiss? Was it was on the cheek? Forehead? The Lips?¡± Miriel turned red at the last one. ¡°Oohhhhhh~~~¡± Lyndis made this extremely strange grin on her face that made Sain want to punch her but Miriel did that first. Hit! However even though Miriel hit her, Lyndis did not react since the punch despite everything was quite weak. And in the end Miriel could only say with a glare to Shadow, ¡°I''m going to kill you...no torture then kill you later.¡± ¡°....¡± With a blank expression Shadow suddenly looked at Sain as if a saviour came and said quickly, ¡°Sain! Quickly take me away already! I don''t want to be tortured and killed!¡± However Sain did nothing for a few seconds thinking of what to do to talk to Shadow without the others listening in. Looking back to the rest of the group, Sain smiled at them as well and asked, ¡°Aren''t you going to tell Aria to get out here? It''s quite hard to hide in a sack or box for a few days.¡± ¡°....¡± Miriel, Serena and Lyndis looked at each other, nodded, got up and left for the carriage that was quite a distance away from the battlefield they were on. Sain had this look that he was going to discuss about something important to Shadow and they acknowledge that though not much on Shadow''s part. ¡°Raven you too¡± said Sain to which Raven obeyed and left them to head with the other three. Now only Sain and Shadow trapped remained here standing silent. ¡°So what is it?¡± asked Shadow bluntly when the others had gone. He took on this attitude immediately making one think what happened before was an act. ¡°Oh...¡± Sain started to say his request to him. ¡°I have a favour for you. I want you to-¡± Shadow could only sigh after hearing the request. xXx ¡°I am really sorry for bothering you!¡± said Aria while bowing down in apology. Sain simply smiled lightly and said, ¡°Don''t worry about it.¡± However Aria persisted in her attitude and further said, ¡°I will do anything to help you find my siblings! If that cannot be, I''ll walk back to Witchelm to wait my judgement and punishment!¡± while bowing even lower. A bit startled now, Sain said, ¡°Like I said, you don''t need to worr-¡± ¡°I understand! You wish to defy my body then. I heard male freemen were especially interested in virgins and would wish to deflower me, but if it is for my siblings...¡± there were several tears in Aria''s eyes and Sain could not help but tell that Miriel was staring at him.
You have sensed a dangerous presence
Again with this message...ever since he got it, it had been appearing often due to Miriel...perhaps one time when he is truly in danger he would ignore it and die as a result... However Sain needed to do something first in order to not be killed by Miriel that had seemed to step her game up and prevent from from escaping her. ¡°Aria I said not to worry about it. I am not mad at you for coming, it just means we need to slow down our travelling speed and adjust some plans when we need to leave for a few hours¡± said Sain. 2 hours in real life is equal to 8 hours in game. That means when they get off the game and back in, day could become night and night could become day. Plus there was now an issue of how to protect Aria when they were not there... Sain guessed he could summon Luna and order him to protect Aria then. Not many creatures would dare attack Luna who was reaching the level 200 point and even more so since he levelled up quite a bit due to the boss monsters fight. Sain was interested in what change would occur in Luna when reaching that point. ¡°Anyway please be careful when we are not here to protect you¡± said Sain in a kind voice. With that, they continued to travel on the carriage. xXx Several weeks later, at most 2 weeks to which the total amount of time they spent in the game reached 3 Years, 8 Months and now 2 Weeks, they had reached Shia city. Still in construction, it gave off an incomplete feel, but it was still a grand sight. Black smoke reached the skies as they approached. They could see the buildings that already reached the fourth or fifth story on the edge of the city and was getting further higher and higher near the centre where an incomplete grand tower was still being built. All sorts of construction related tool and materials were being brought in as they came closer as well. There seemed to be a large amount of dwarves working on this as well. Sain noticed that the buildings were in fact made of concrete which was a surprise. Usually stone or wood were used to make buildings. Concrete was something that was difficult to make in game after all compared to in reality. Plus it did not have a strong physical and magical resistance compared to other materials but again, Sain noticed that they seem to be using runes to counter that fact. Strengthen, hardening, self repair were some of the runes he noticed being used. ¡°This isn''t like any city I''ve seen¡± said Aria in praise liking the city already. Lyndis let out a small laugh and said, ¡°Well this is actually a familiar sight on the other side.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Aria asked astonished at her words. ¡°Where do you think the designs came from?¡± asked Lyndis chuckling now. Out of everyone, it looked like Lyndis got along with Aria the most. Eventually they continued behind some others and to the gates of the city whose walls were still half complete. ¡°Identifications please. No one is allowed in the city without it, Kingdom orders¡± said the guards expecting Sain to give him some papers like the previous people. Another thing was that he said this in an arrogant tone like he was important here and was irreplaceable. Sain did not take out any papers which made the guard think they were highly suspicious. But then Sain took out an emblem. It was a hexagon shape meaning Independent Guild but what surprised the guard was that it was coloured black meaning S Rank. With guard paled a bit and acted more polite and let them in. ¡°What was that about?¡± asked Aria not sure on why the guard looked so panicked and surprised. ¡°Don''t worry about it¡± said Miriel with a slight grin. It was nice to see how others who looked down on them suddenly realised they were above them. With a few laughs they entered the city at last.
You have sensed a dangerous presence
¡°Hmm?¡± Sain was unsure on what this was about. Miriel wasn''t angry at him again right. But the next second... BOOOM!!! To the right, something large hit and exploded on the ground tipping the carriage to the side due to the force. ¡°Damn¡± he cursed while at the same time Lyndis and Shadow together cursed, ¡°Holy Shit!¡± ¡°Lyndis, grab Aria and get ready to run!¡± Sain shouted. A second impact ensured killing the horses this time in one go. The impact also took some of his health out as he moved to protect Miriel from the blast. BOOOM!!!
You took 1515 damage
What was going on? Why the hell were they getting attack here all of a sudden? Now that he thought about it, were there no other people here on this road? Damn. Lyndis grabbed Aria and all seven of them got off the carriage that was half destroyed when another impact hit it. BOOOM!!! This impact caused them to be fling away from the carriage but to a wall instead. Sain couldn''t tell where they were being attacked, let alone who. Another few seconds passed as they tried to gather themselves enough to run but then Sain got another message from the game.
You have sensed a dangerous presence
Damn, it looked like the next attack was going to hit them. But just as he was about to give up... ¡°Damn you brats! Hurry up and take cover already!¡± All of a sudden, a hook, no several hooks in fact grabbed onto them with extreme skill and dragged them in between buildings, in an alley way before the shot was about to kill them. BOOOM!!! The impact seemed so far away with them safe now. Sain looked to see their saviour. It was a dwarf with half grey and half brown hair. He was even shorter than Serena who grew a couple of centimetres since the beginning now. ¡°Thank you¡± said Sain immediately seeing this this person saved them. ¡°Enough bout that damn brat. You part of an Independent Guild?¡± he asked. Sain showed him the black emblem to which he looked a bit shocked. ¡°Tis colour...a Dragon wrapped around the sun and with stars falling around them...you are all Eden''s lot aren''t you?¡± the dwarf. ¡°You know Eden?¡± asked Lyndis. It seemed that a lot of people knew him or were related in some way...all of the strong people they knew were at least whether they were good or evil. ¡°Bout in my grandfather or great-grandfather''s time, my clan was trapped unable to even call for help. Eden helped out then and we were grateful even if he was part of those arrogant Dragon Race. Debt''s been paid now but ye need to get out of here. Tis isn''t a place for Independent Guilds let alone freemen right now¡± the dwarf warned. Sain and the others frowned, the place seemed so peaceful from the outside but then they were shot for no reason. ¡°What is happening?¡± asked Sain, ¡°Surely shooting people aren''t normal in this place right?¡± The dwarf shook his head and said, ¡°Bout few months ago, you freemen and us natives got into a big bout of a fight about how to construct the tower. Long tory short, you freemen took the money and left.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Since then to raise that money, some folks did...horrible things that no dwarf could do. A strange feelin been in this city since then and freemen, especially those from Independent Guilds were being attacked.¡± Sain nodded to those words but then asked, ¡°How were we being attacked? I couldn''t even see the location of the shooter.¡± ¡°Ah those were the camouflaged torrents¡± answered the dwarf, ¡°Hidden magically with runes and such and coloured the same as walls and been set on targets automatically, thought it was a good idea till it was used on us.¡± ¡°I see...¡± Sain was now thinking on a way to get around that or at least avoid those torrents... ¡°You aren''t thinking of fighting are you?¡± asked the dwarf startled now. ¡°I don''t see a reason not to¡± said Lyndis. Shadow nodded and said, ¡°And they fired on us and destroyed some of us stuff.¡± Miriel looked more pale than the rest of them but then angrier than the rest of them saying, ¡°They dare destroy 124 Gold in front of me!¡± ¡°If it is the right thing to do...I''ll fight!¡± said Serena all determined for this mission. Looking at the group and then to the dwarf, Sain said, ¡°Well I can''t do anything about it now. We were attacked...therefore we will strike back at them.¡± ¡°....¡± The dwarf stared at them strangely and said with a small laugh, ¡°Guess I can''t stop you damn brats...I''ve been waiting to give someone this Guild Quest of mine.¡±
Cleanse Shia City of the evil within! Shia City, a place where both freemen and natives of the land sought to build that was greater than all other technological advances had been turned into a place of evil. Innocents lay waste as evils are being committed with no support from the Kingdom and the Kingdom ignorant of such events happening due to tight controls. Even though this kind of thing requires the Kingdom''s help, Hale was determined enough to not let the city''s reputation to plummet due to this and as such requests for the Kingdom to not know until after the said event of cleaning up the city of all its evil nested inside. Therefore you are given the task to stop the evil in this city and take down the leaders of such people that turned the city like this. Guild Quest Rank: C Restrictions: - Most of the people involved with the corruption of the city need to be killed or captured - Shia City must survive at the end of the quest
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8400~ - And the second chapter to be release in a two day period...this is really strange...well at least I''m making progress to the end of the volume. It''s so close now...I''ve been waiting for this part for months. Speaking of months I''ve just realised this series has been going on for 6 months now...yeah....with my writing pace, I expect this series to be complete in a year and a half...damn this is really going to take a while to finish. Hope I don''t burn out. Vol.7 Chapter 9 - Conflict among Friends ¡°We accept¡± said Sain seeing the quest details.
You have accepted the quest
Seeing this, the dwarf smiled and said, ¡°My name is Hale. Just your common dwarf.¡± Sain nodded and said, ¡°Sain¡± and then gestured to the others and said, ¡°Miriel, Lyndis, Serena, Raven, Shadow and Aria.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you. What do you need to know first?¡± asked Hales who had a change in attitude to them when they had accepted the quest. It looked like by accepting this Guild Quest which went completed would completely finished off the requirements of number of Guild Quests to be completed if they finished it with the other one. There were a number of things to talk about. First was a place to stay, others that were with them in their cause and so on. But Sain thought about it and the quest they got from Aria... ¡°The locations of the places where those who have been kidnapped, especially children are sent to¡± said Sain wanting to know that. Hearing this, Hales frowned and then after thinking of it for a bit said, ¡°I may know a few...all tightly guarded though.¡± Hearing this conversation, Aria suddenly interjected in and said, ¡°Then is it possible for my siblings to be here?!¡± Hales looked at Aria a bit wide eyed, ¡°You aren''t...¡± Sain then said seeing Hale''s expression, ¡°She is someone who commissioned a quest to find her kidnapped siblings. There seems to be a chance they could be in this city...plus we have another Guild Quest possibly involving this place as well.¡± Hale stiffened up hearing that this city may be involved in yet another Guild Quest. ¡°Don''t worry, it''s just this city may be involved. We don''t have anything concrete on it at all since this city was really the only lead we have¡± said Sain continuing with his words, ¡°However you don''t need to worry since one of the conditions you have given up is for this city to be intact later on. Plus this kind of thing will take time to even start and to finish as well.¡± As he said that, there were several shouts in the area. The place was being filled with people and it was likely they would be caught soon if they stayed here. ¡°Damn, we need to leave...now!¡± said Hale in a hushed tone gesturing for the group plus Aria to follow him. Therefore for the next hour or so, they had gone through, sneaked through and even pakor through a series of places Sain did not know could even exit in a city like this. Eventually they were up in one of the incomplete buildings near the north-west side of the city that was carefully hidden by a rain net and in a place where the light from the sun did not shine in. Sain and the rest of the group looked around the place. There seemed to be no indication that there were anyone else living with him. There were stacks of cans of food around as well as several large jars as well. ¡°What are those jars for?¡± asked Lyndis curious and pointing to them. ¡°Those store the liquor I''ve made¡± answered Hale plainly, ¡°Too bad the earth essence in this place is below average else I could have bride my way to get rid of those trash of dwarves that think they are above everyone else.¡± ¡°Liquor? Do they really sell that much?¡± asked Lyndis again which caused Hale to simply sigh- Smack! -And Miriel to smack her on the head again. Lyndis looked at Miriel with a pained look on her face that asked ''why?''. As such, Miriel sent back a glare that said ''You should know this already'' but in the end decided to explain since Lyndis wasn''t the type to know everything she knew, ¡°Liquor or alcohol is one of the more expensive things in this game, at least the high quality stuff. Besides taste, they also give you great stat boost as well. Liquor made in a place with good earth essence are several times more valuable than normal ones.¡± ¡°Oh, so basically it''s a really good profit profession?¡± ¡°More or less.¡± With that conversation out of the way, Hale brought up of map of the city that were marked in several places and started to explain. ¡°The first thing you all need to know is that going in a 300 metre radius to the tower is forbidden. Unless you have to be filled with holes by turrets, I suggest you adheed to this advice carefully. This is where most of those smug bastard that horde in money and supplies live.¡± The group nodded. Basically this was something similar to a noble quarter where commoners weren''t allowed to go into. In some places, this was the case though it had been decreasing since Weed didn''t care much about those kinds of things which made him super popular with commoners and not so much with nobles. ¡°Another thing is to not cause trouble, at least trouble that is drawn out. These guys usually have a person that is able to communicate with the guys at the Tower and within a minute, will have everyone they can rushing at your location.¡± Hale held up something that was akin to a walky talky in the real world. ¡°I nicked this from a person before and it took me a year or so to find this place which no one visits which makes this a perfect safe point unless someone does something stupid near here¡± Hale looked at the group expecting them to not do this and cause them to run away from here as well. ¡°Got it¡± said Sain nodding and confirming that they would not do something so stupid. This place was a safe point in a city filled with danger zones all over. Of course they wouldn''t do anything that would risk it. Plus if they did, they would make this guild quest even harder and if they failed... Sain would rather not think of what would happen next if they did. ¡°Besides that, this city is split between 4 sections. We are in the north-west section which is much more friendly with outsiders than the other three which is why I can keep you guys safe here. However even so, there are still some shady things happening here.¡± ¡°In that case, what would happen if we ''cleared'' this section of the city of it?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Don''t. At least not immediately since that will alert others and make it even harder to get to the other three sectors. The central sector with the Tower, main relies on the four sectors around it to maintain order¡± warned Hale. Sain once again nodded. People would notice if one part of the city was no longer under their control at all. They would at least send a large number of people to investigate and could even start a purge of this part of the city. Countless people would die to it. And that could fail their Guild Quest involving this city as well. ¡°Therefore it is better to spread out activities on all four sectors evenly at least at the beginning until you want to make a big move. There are several places, like here and here.¡± Hale pointed to the red markings, ¡°These places needs to be rid of immediately since they are large gathering of scum. It is probably in these place where your siblings may be¡± he continued looking at Aria. ¡°In that case, me and Shadow will search through them slowly. If we can, we could possibly clear them as well and get more people out of this city''s control¡± said Sain looking at Shadow who nodded agreeing with the task. It was then that Lyndis asked, ¡°Why can''t the rest of us go?¡± which was a good question her but an obvious one to Sain. ¡°Because everyone else doesn''t have experience in stealth. Even though I don''t have the skill despite lots of experience in it, I''m better than the rest of you at hiding and sneaking away. ¡°How do you have more experience than us in hiding? I thought you didn''t have the stealth skill¡± Lyndis further asked. Sain answered with a statement, ¡°The guy that gives order will be targeted first. Therefore have you seen me being attacked because of it?¡± and a question at the end. ¡°A few times but less so recently¡± answered Miriel. It looked like she was supporting him on this matter. Remembering of Miriel, Sain could not help but to think of what happened in that alley way...even though part of his memory was lost of what happened afterwards... Ignoring the slight embarrassment he was feeling remembering that event, Sain was still able to communicate with Miriel properly though he was thankful enough that she wasn''t as stuck to him as before. It was either she was confident enough that no other girl would get close to him or that she was embarrassed as well. Either way, it was good news that he could move around more easily when she wasn''t trying to track him all the time now. Looking at the map that Hale provided again, Sain looked at several location in near the place they were in. There were already three in total...two of them seemed to be drug dealers from these notes but one of them was a slave trading place, well at least for in this city. Sain guessed she should start there, extract information and move on if there''s nothing. ¡°Shadow, come with me. Rest of you stay here and get more information off Hale. We''ll be back in a few hours¡± said Sain issuing an order to the rest of them. ¡°Hmm....fine¡± Lyndis agreed to it. Out of everyone, she was really the only one, aside from Miriel that could drive the group in another direction. Basically since Serena and Raven were neutral and Shadow followed orders well enough though complains, only himself, Miriel and Lyndis had power on the choices they would make as a group. However Lyndis was completely different from him. Impulsive, straightforward and easy to understand, Lyndis was someone that most people would get alone with. But at the same time, she didn''t make the best choice at times relying on her instincts and emotions more than her head. This was dangerous for them in a critical situation though could be quite useful when they had no time to think. Sain hoped that there was no incident that would happen due to her for a while. They had already gotten one Guild Quest which lead to another Guild Quest. Completing both would mean they would only need to get to level 300 and do that one personal request from Eden in a year and a quarter from now on. Therefore, it was a large advantage to get these two Guild Quests out of way now while they could. Plus, it was likely that they would get some support if they reported it to the guild. But for now, he wanted to get some more information before telling Eden of the situation here. Sain knew that the group would understand. It was better to appear that they knew more of the situation than they did. Since most of the time, Miriel would agree with him he did not need to worry about her. Lyndis was the only one he needed to convinced to do things his way since rallying up people to fight was not the way to complete the Guild Quest though Sain felt that Lyndis had a different set of views from him that may clash later on. xXx ¡°Three to the left, four to the right, security is quite tough for a minor slave trading place¡± muttered Shadow though Sain felt like he was cursing at them. The location of this slave trading place which they came to was set in between a place that you could only get to through two alley ways, both of which could only fit a small number of people, two at most three at a time. Plus even if they wanted to drop from above, there were still another couple of guys looking around checking if anything like that happened. However at the same time, Sain believed that no one normal could survive a fall from above that high. ¡°From the looks of things, we need to finish this extremely quickly in a short amount of time else they will call reinforcement. Hale said something about those guys being able to communicate quickly¡± said Sain. ¡°But first we need to find who is the one with that ability to communicate. Something like that isn''t exactly common for NPCs to have¡± said Shadow looking down as well, ¡°It''s probably one of the ones in the middle overlooking those people.¡± ¡°Yeah...the only problem is of whether anyone else had one or the risk that someone may run away to tell on us or someone overhearing us fighting¡± said Sain with a sigh. There were simply too many things that may go wrong. Plus there was this other risk of a hidden turret being somewhere to shoot at them. ¡°So how do you want to proceed?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°Well...¡± Sain looked at the layout that they needed to get through again, ¡°For some reason there aren''t that many people that come and go here which is reasonable since this is one of the places that captured people, slaves are gathered.¡± ¡°Which makes it harder to get close to but at the same time gives us an opportunity to exploit¡± said Shadow nodding. ¡°Yeah, we may be able to use a three side attack on this site because of that. You and Luna can attack both alley ways at the same time, while I snipe from up here on everyone else if I can...or I can help you distract the guards at the alley way so you can rush in and kill the rest of them¡± said Sain throwing out some strategies at random. Whatever way they use, the results will be the same but the methods and difficulties depending will rise or lower a bit. And that was enough for a plan to succeed or fail. ¡°Anyway can you make out some blonde haired twins from up here?¡± asked Sain. Before he and Shadow left for here, he had gotten a description of the siblings that she wanted to be saved. Basically they were twins, both boys and were only nine years of age. Quite young to be kidnapped like this. ¡°My eyesight may be better than most but without a direct vision skill to help me, I can''t tell anything, even the number of people they have down there captived. Plus there is another damn problem which is what to do after freeing them.¡± ¡°They will probably be punished if we leave them there...¡± said Sain before realising something, ¡°Or we can simply raid them once to see if they are there...¡± ¡°Won''t they become suspicious if we raided them, killing half of them before retreating?¡± asked Shadow having a bad feeling. ¡°Not if the attack is extremely hurt when getting out or if a person suddenly dropped from the sky and escaped without killing anyone. Their pride and fear won''t let them tell their superiors¡± said Sain with a smile to which Shadow realised what kind of thing he was proposing. ¡°No...NO! Just no!¡± Shadow shouted at once rejecting the idea, ¡°Me being close to death is a bad thing.¡± ¡°But your defence is only a bit lower than mine even without armour on¡± said Sain like that mattered, ¡°Plus you are several times faster than me as well.¡± ¡°Still, I might die!¡± retorted Shadow. ¡°But with our titles, we won''t lose a level or any equipment on death¡± said Sain countering Shadow''s words. ¡°Like hell I''m going to spend a whole day out of the game thanks to you!¡± ¡°Well you have no choice here then¡± said Sain with a great smile on his face. With a simple push, Shadow was thrown off the building. Sain had estimated that he would survive with around critical wounds or something along those lines. Though just in case... ¡°Let the body become harder than all other! Iron Skin!¡± He buffed Shadow''s endurance before he hit the ground after he kicked off the wall to decrease the speed he was falling down. They were only around 10 stories up at most, he could survive based off a level 200 player''s body being new superhuman to begin with. But even with a 50% fall damage reduction from his climbing skill, could he survive a 10 story drop? ¡°Uh oh...¡± Sain just realised the folly in this plan if Shadow were to die like this. However just before he hit the ground, Sain saw that Shadow''s split into several more, around five of them. He used his clones to cushion the fall a by a bit that could possibly save his life. BANG! And he heard Shadow hit the ground. Yep, he was still alive naturally. Sain sent a message to Shadow to ask about if the siblings were here to which Shadow shouted- xXx ¡°LIKE HELL THEY ARE HERE!!!¡± Shadow screamed upwards to that Sain that was watching everything from above there. That bastard actually pushed him off though he was kinda expecting it, he did not believe someone like Sain would do that so casually. If it weren''t for his fall damage reduction from his climbing skill plus him using ''Boost'' to increase his stats and even his ''Real Illusion'' power to make cushions for him to fall on to reduce the damage even more, he would have died instantly. But at the same time, looking around all eyes were on him...literally. ¡°Who the hell are you?!¡± shouted one of the guards drawing his weapon. Shadow tried moving his body to escape now but he figured that some bones were definitely broken. Thank God for that reduced pain system this game has else he would not be even continuous after being dropped for far up. ¡°A guy that was almost killed by being pushed off someone I trusted¡± said Shadow in a near sarcastic manner with a laugh at the end. Checking his health, he was in the critical state, seemed to be bleeding out and what did you know, broken bones everywhere....great. But then a gentle light surrounded his body.
You have been healed 2500 health
Around a third of his health was restore, probably due to Sain. Shadow could only sigh as some of his bones recovered and some of his wounds closed at the same time. But at the same time, his thoughts were less on his wounds and more on the situation he was in now due to Sain. ¡°Shit shit shit shit shit!¡± he repeatedly cursed at him for this. He would need to escape now... Five blades came down on his as he rolled away. Several of the blades chipped him causing him to lose some minor bits of health at a time. Getting up Shadow muttered, ¡°Ow ow ow...damn my body still hurts like hell¡± ignoring that five people had their weapons swinging at him again. Shadow did not even have his weapon draw out yet, with his armour stupidly thin, he had no way to defend. ¡°Take cover!¡± a voice shouted from above, Shadow knew it was Sain but not of the warning. Soon enough, from above, several dozen dark flashes shone from the sky and hit the ground randomly all around him and yet not hitting him at the same time by dumb luck. Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang! It looked like Sain fired off ''Mana Bolts'' to give him time to get out of there. However knowing that Sain actually dared shoot down blind... ¡°SAIN ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME AGAIN?!¡± Shadow retorted loudly at the guy up top. ¡°Wow...what was that?!¡± one of the guards shouted looking up. Another of the guards also said, ¡°Enemy attack? Fuck those slaves, I''m not going to die here!¡± ¡°Get cover, someone call back up!¡± the third person said prompting for the guy next to him to call. However at that moment, a carefully aimed attack, a ''Magic Arrow'' attack among the other arrows hit that guy straight to the head and immediately killed him. Another ''Magic Arrow'' strangely also destroyed that communication device while Sain fired off a whole bunch of them off. ¡°....¡± Shadow realised that Sain had perfect aim even at that distance. How far up was here or did firing from up top become easier than normal? Or was this the effects of his ''All Knowing Eyes'' as well. Of everyone''s abilities with ''Boost'', Sain''s one made the least sense. ¡°Damn, retreat! Call over the guys alread-¡± the guy''s words were cut short as he was under fire again. Of the guards that had surrounded Shadow before, one was dead, two were injured and the other two were hiding under cover. Best of all, the guards at the alley way wasn''t paying attention to this commotion at all. Shadow was not going to let this chance go to escape like this. Though he really wanted to kill someone since he was just pushed off a damn building and almost died here. Either way, it was a good chance that these guys that were running away weren''t as strong as him which was a good thing or bad thing. ¡°Burst Speed.¡± He activated this skill for the 100 mana it cost and increased his speed by three and a half times though with ''Boost'' still active, it was increased to seven times and the cost increased to 200 mana. Now that he thought about about, that Blue Stripped Panther was even faster than him even though his speed was increased by seven times most of the time. That Boss Monster was quite the monster ironically. ¡°Not the time to be thinking of that...¡± Shadow muttered sprinting to one of the two alley ways out of here while some people were running away due to Sain firing upon them. He ran to the one to the left who had only three people in there. Chances of him escaping through that way was slightly higher. Kicking the closest one and knocking aside the other two, Shadow ran out of the alley way with extreme speed. However at the same time, something unknown started to fire at him. Bang! Bang! Bang! ¡°The hell?!¡± Shadow leaped away hearing the shots immediately.
You took 172 damage
You took 105 damage
You took 199 damage
Even though he did not get hit directly, and dodged a fair distance away, he still lost health due to the explosion blast. ¡°Shit!¡± he cursed seeing that this was due to those turrets that Hale mention. You could not determine where they were and Shadow really believed it now. He could not even tell where even one of them was firing on him was. From the directory of the shots...the turrets were up on the walls or where ever it could not, he needed to get of here fast! ¡°Shadow get out of there¡± ordered Sain via a message. Even though he was being attacked, he could still be sent messages. As such, Shadow sent one back, ¡°I''M BEING SHOT AT!!!¡± ¡°The use those clones of yours to escape¡± said Sain again even more calm now. ¡°Right, actually forgot about that.¡± Creating a couple more clones that cannot be destroyed by attacks, Shadow spread his escape route into several directions. He moved in all four directions with 7 clones in total with two on each route spread out just in cast. One of the abilities of ''Real Illusions'' wasn''t just to create clones of himself that could phase in and out of the physical plane but also instant teleportation to any of the clones he made and used. Therefore it was actually hard to even touch him when he could move from one location to the next. Though this ability had a limit in distance of teleporting to other clones was limited to a certain distance; no more than 10 metres. Basically it was like he was using ''Shadow Step'', ''Shadow Play'', ''Become Mist'' and several other skills at the same time but all at once. The only problem was that his clones had these effects and not him which means even though he can shuffle through each of the clones he makes, he can still get hit. Plus this turret or turrets that were firing on him were rapid shooting him. Because of this, Shadow was not an expert in escaping with this skill simply because it was not an invincible skill. There was still a high chance he would be hit. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! However at the same time, he was still being shot at and none of his clones were. ¡°What the hell is this?! Does this thing have auto-aim?!¡± Shadow unintentionally screamed out while dodging attacks. This meant that whatever was shooting at him, it knew where he was. This meant that his ''Real Illusion'' skill was quite useless aside from teleporting around the place. ¡°Damn no choice...¡± Since his ''Real Illusion'' skill wasn''t working...he had no choice but to use something like ''Become Mist'' even though it was kinda risky to use it in a place where wind direction was unpredictable. ¡°Become Mist!¡± Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Body had been converted to a mist state. Due to this, health will be reduced by half for the next 24 hours
Shadow''s body suddenly ''disappeared'' from sight in a both metaphorical and literal sense as he went from the physical state into the mist state. Whatever was shooting him and barely missing thankfully stopped firing due to this. ¡°Lucky...¡± Shadow muttered. It looked like those turret things did not or rather could not target him in this state. But fate was about to toy with him now.... Breeze~ ¡°Hmm? Whaaaaaaa!!!¡± he let out that scream but at the same time he couldn''t scream. All of a sudden, Shadow felt that is no longer physical body was being blown up...into the sky. ¡°What the hell?!¡± he cursed internally. Of all times, he had to use this skill in this kind of place and at the same time, a sudden wind had to blow right where he was. By the time he had the chance to cancel the skill he ended up over a building dropping from the sky again. THUD!
You took 10 damage
¡°Lucky it was only 10 damage...¡± muttered Shadow seeing this flash of a message in front of him. ¡°You''re right, I expected you to take more damage there¡± said Sain looking down on him who had just crashed from around a few metres from the air to the top of this building. ¡°YOOOOOOUUUUUUU!!!!¡± Shadow got up and grabbed Sain''s collar. If Miriel saw him do this, she would certainly kill him. However Sain did not even react to his threat and looked down from the building and said, ¡°Better get out of here. Seems like reinforcements came through either way.¡± Shadow turned to also look down and found that dozens of people were gathering rapidly. ¡°Damn I am really tempted tp throw you off here as well¡± said Shadow now holding a grudge against Sain for what he did. Now he needed to be careful around him on top of buildings because of what happened earlier. ¡°Not now, we need to leave. Need to hide out for a while until thing settle down here¡± said Sain though also adding, ¡°Also you will be the one who will scout out for information around the city as well.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Unless you want me to come with you of course¡± said Sain smiling at him. Something always seemed to happen when Sain smiled at him with one of his plans at way. As such, Shadow regrettably let Sain go this time and went back to the others with him that Aria''s siblings weren''t there. Later on, they got some complaints that Sain and himself did not save those people but really it was impossible to save them since so many people came in such a short notice. Hale was right that it was difficult to do anything in this city. xXx After this event, a week had passed due to the large swarms of people searching for them. It looked like those at that Tower place put two and two together and figured that we were still alive and the cause of the event. Naturally this was a bad thing. ¡°How much longer we do need to do this?! Might as well stay out of game until we can do something¡± complained Shadow lying on a wall flicking his throwing knives up and down as entertainment. ¡°Shut it, we are all sick of this situation!¡± Miriel didn''t shout but her voice was louder than usual and was much more fierce now with stress. ¡°How exactly did we get into this situation? Wasn''t it because you had to reveal yourself to the enemy and then run away?¡± wondered Lyndis as she continued to maintain her Katana. Since the Boss Battles incident, she found that this sword was powerful but really fragile. She would need to get Sain engrave a run on the sword to strengthen it before battles. ¡°Sain pushed me off a 10 story building¡± answered Shadow with irritation and still some disbelief in his tone. ¡°Yeah I still don''t see how Sain would push you off a building, right Serena?¡± said Lyndis seeing that Sain wasn''t the type of person in her eyes to do such a dangerous and yet entertaining thing. ¡°Mhmm, Sain never put us in danger intentionally¡± said Serena agreeing with Sain. Shadow could only sigh when they find out Sain was precisely that kind of person. ¡°Anyway where is Sain?¡± asked Miriel looking around, they had logged back in the game so he should be here. ¡°No idea¡± replied Lyndis not caring on where he was. ¡°With Hale and Aria¡± said Raven answering the question instead. Miriel nodded and headed there leaving the rest of them alone. It was at that point that Lyndis asked Shadow, ¡°Did Sain really push you off a building like that?¡± ¡°Yeah though he did cast one of his buffs to help me survive and provide covering fire so I could get out of there quickly as well¡± said Shadow. Lyndis looked puzzled and asked, ¡°Why are you defending him now? Just a moment ago you were against him pushing you off a building. You and Sain are strange.¡± Shadow let out a chuckle and said, ¡°You are the one to talk. Plus it''s better to make Miriel think I''m against her instead of with her. I rather not want to make her think I''m the third wheel in her relationship with Sain.¡± ¡°Yeah, speaking of Sain, he''s been acting strangely lately¡± said Lyndis in a low voice to not let Miriel or god forsake Sain listen by mistake. ¡°He has?¡± wondered Serena who found nothing out of the ordinary, ¡°Sain always been like that.¡± ¡°I mean he has been acting...colder and crueller than he usually is. I thought I saw him torturing a Boss Monster back then with that incident coming here¡± said Lyndis with caution again. ¡°But Sain said he would finish it off back then¡± said Serena. ¡°Maybe it had some strange ability which forced him to do things longer¡± said Shadow as well. ¡°Well I don''t know...¡± said Lyndis deep in her thoughts now, ¡°When I think of Sain, I think of all smiles and kindness, that is the kind of thing he lets out.¡± ¡°Unless it''s in a dungeon, then he becomes like Hitler¡± said Shadow with a laugh. ¡°That actually has been getting better right? I mean, now he doesn''t go into his all ''commander'' mode when we go dungeon hunting anymore¡± said Lyndis with a sigh, ¡°Though that was probably due to the effects of the ''Mark'' itself.¡± ¡°Speaking of the ''Mark'', Miriel really has it hard¡± said Shadow with a hint of pity to her. ¡°Why?¡± asked Lyndis and Serena at the same time. Shadow frowned seeing that these two didn''t understand, ¡°I mean, Miriel had feelings for Sain in the game for certain but back in real life she doesn''t.¡± ¡°But she does in real life or in the game¡± said Lyndis confused. Serena even let out a ¡°Yeah¡± and a nod to this as well. Shadow was not sure on what to say to this. ¡°Doesn''t ''Hina'' become super embarrassed and bang her head on the wall every time she does something to Sain in game?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°That''s because Miriel was embarrassed though¡± said Serena. ¡°And the fact remains that Miriel is a shy girl in love¡± said Lyndis adding her comment in as well. Shy girl? In love? That Miriel? That person who pushed the leader role onto Sain to make him a scapegoat and a puppet for her to control the rest of the group? ¡°I guess their feelings are mutual for this to happen¡± Shadow started to sigh again but Lyndis interrupted this asking, ¡°What are you talking about? Sain has feelings for Miriel?¡± with eyes glittering with amusement. ¡°Y-Yeah...he told me when I asked him though did not ask me to hide it thankfully¡± said Shadow. He looked as Lyndis and Serena seemed to be discussing something with each other low voices. But at the same time Shadow could hear them the entire time since they forgot he had TWO listening skills. ¡°Isn''t this a good thing. Miriel can get Sain.¡± ¡°But neither of them confessed to each other.¡± ¡°But still, both of them have feelings for each other!¡± ¡°Yeah, that''s great for Miriel but she said she didn''t have plans on confessing at all.¡± At that last comment by Serena, Shadow spoke up and said, ¡°Oh Sain said the same thing as well.¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± The two seemed surprised as Shadow said those words. He continued to say, ¡°It looks like both of them have the same reasons on not being true to themselves. Both put the group, us above their love lives it seems. Even though Miriel actually kissed Sain in that alley way.¡± ¡°WAIT! KISSED?!¡± Lyndis shouted to which both Serena and himself quickly moved in to cover her mouth. It would be a bad thing if anyone heard them for more reasons than one. ¡°Yeah, after you were knocked out my Miriel due to reasons, she dragged Sain in...said a few things including the line ''You are mine'', kissed him and proceeded to tickle him to the point where he was out of it like you¡± Shadow explained a bit lazily. ¡°....¡± Lyndis and Serena looked down a bit and Lyndis suddenly said, ¡°I need to talk to Miriel¡± before trying to walk off to her. However Shadow grabbed her and said, ¡°There is no need to push the issue.¡± ¡°But their happiness...!¡± Lyndis complained. ¡°That is their own happiness, their choice to what they want with it. Butting in will only make it worse for them since you are trying to control what they wish to do!¡± Shadow said these words to her, ¡°If you wish to, I will stop you since I''m friends with Sain.¡± ¡°Even though he pushed you off a building.¡± ¡°Even though.¡± The two looked at each other, no stared at each other, neither backing off until a few seconds later where Lyndis looked down and back at Shadow and asked, ¡°Just when do you think you''re going to let me go? Do you like to touch me that much?¡± with a smile though her eyes were dead. ¡°....¡± Shadow let go of Lyndis'' arm and did not say anything else simply frowning. ¡°What is it? Why are you backing down? Usually you have some sort of comment about me that is insulting¡± said Lyndis moving closer to Shadow which in turn caused him to try to move further away from her. ¡°....¡± Lyndis made a serious expression then seeing Shadow was avoiding her and even wasn''t even speaking and asked, ¡°Why are you so silent?¡± However at the same time, Shadow was listening in one what was being said a distance away. What he heard made him frown and not speak but rather think of what was going on. He needed to tell this to Sain if he did not know already... ¡°Actually no, I can''t tell Sain yet. There isn''t enough proof and if he finds out...¡± Shadow muttered while looking down a bit and holding his chin with his fingers thinking of what to do. If what he heard was true then.... ¡°Hey, what are you talking about?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Nothing¡± replied Shadow too quickly. As such, Lyndis moved in and grabbed Shadow''s arm and pushed him to the wall. ¡°L-Lyndis!¡± Serena looked panicked as she tried to think of what she could do while Raven remained silent, watching though hands were on his throwing axes just in case. ¡°What is the meaning of this?¡± asked Shadow this time in an angry tone. ¡°Answer.my.question.or.I.will.gut.you!¡± responded Lyndis in the same tone. Kick! Shadow kicked Lyndis away using his leg forcing her face up on the ground and in the next moment, he drew his dagger out and stabbed it down at her with killing intent. His actions were all done in a single few moments smoothly. Whoosh~ Clang! However all of a sudden, a throwing axe moved at extreme speed in front of Shadow''s face which forced him to momentarily pause for a split second before continuing to drop down with his attack on Lyndis. ¡°Tch¡± Shadow realised that he was unbalanced right now and because of that, his aim was off. Bang! And as a result, Shadow''s dagger dug into the ground next to Lyndis'' head. It cut through part of her dark red hair that was spread out on the ground due to the sudden fall. And then the killing intent in her eyes as she realised this as well. ¡°You DARE cut my hair?!¡± she said with absolute hatred in her eyes. ¡°Uh oh...¡± Shadow muttered, he felt that this was bad. And in the next instant, he was right. From that position, Lyndis drew her Katana and slashed at Shadow to which he leaped back to dodge, though barely. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± However Shadow did not back down due to that. He drew his much more powerful short sword as well and took a stance to either attack or dodge. Lyndis seemed to be doing the same as well. Both of them were prepared to fight and kill each other right now. And when both sides charged in for the kill... ¡°Stop! Root Bind!¡± ¡°...!¡± Raven appeared quickly in between the two blocking both attacks, on both sides with both his shields equipped. And when they were momentarily stopped due to that, roots grew around them and stopped them from moving completely. ¡°Raven get out of the way¡± ordered Shadow. Similarly Lyndis said, ¡°Serena, unbind me.¡± However neither did. As such, both of them took matters into their own hands in escaping. ¡°Life Burn.¡± ¡°Become Mist.¡±
Body had been converted to a mist state. Due to this, health will be reduced by half for the next 24 hours
Both of them used their skills. Lyndis''s body was surrounded in flames in exchange for draining her health and being freed from Serena''s vines while at the same time Shadow''s turned into his mist form that allowed him to escape from the physical bindings. Shadow quickly ''moved'' in his mist state behind Lyndis and rematerialised with both blades already coming down at Lyndis with the intent to kill. This was the last straw he would tolerate of her. It was one thing to attack him verbally when she could but a completely another thing to get violent with him and threaten him. Clang! Clang! However Lyndis turned around quickly and stuck at both blades at once in one strike to which he switched from attacking to defending at that moment. ¡°Damn your demonic swordsmanship!¡± Shadow cursed while at the same time shouting, ¡°Divine Shadow Art: Stealth Blade!¡± His blade was covered in black light as he twisted around Lyndis'' guard and struck her hard on the stomach though blocked by armour.
You have dealt a critical blow
Lyndis coughed up blood at that moment but her ''Life Burn'' skill was still active. As such him getting close to her burnt off some health. He lost 10% of his health like that, her fire skills were quite powerful even though he did not like to admit it and she did not like to admit it was more powerful than her swordsmanship. ¡°Dancing Dragon Art: First Slash!¡± BANG! With a single counter-strike, Shadow was blown away in a single shot due to that attack.
You took 741 damage
While the damage was kinda low, the massive knock-back effect was extremely powerful when used right. Especially when it could when timed correctly, stun you for a few seconds. Shadow''s back was to the wall now and Lyndis charged in to attack. ¡°Power Strike!¡± Clang! Shadow barely managed to block that attack though at the same time, he lost a bit of health as well. ¡°....¡± ¡°.....¡± Shadow and Lyndis both stared at each other with deep hatred as they both tried to kill each other several times to the point they were using skill against each other. ¡°Please stop! Blood-¡± Shadow panicked and shouted, ¡°Serena, not that-!¡± ¡°-Burst!¡± ¡°Waaaah!¡± ¡°Ahhhh!¡± Both of them let out a scream as they tripped over to dodge Serena''s attempt to stop them else be killed painfully by her. Thud! And as such, Shadow and Lyndis both tripped over each others'' legs and fell onto the ground. Because of this, they were currently positioned... ¡°That noise, what''s going on over there?¡± called Sain. Shadow realised this kind of position wasn''t exactly the greatest... Miriel also came over with Sain, ¡°Lyndis, are you fighting with Shadow aga-¡± and looked with shock of what she saw. ¡°Wow....never thought I see you two like...¡± Miriel muttered while eyed. Currently, Lyndis was on top of Shadow in a manner that made it look like she was mounted on him though their weapons were scattered around the place since they were quite quick in trying to escape the attack from Serena. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± And Shadow and Lyndis looked at each other at that moment blank minded. ¡°¡°Waaah!!!¡±¡± Lyndis scrambled trying to get off Shadow while at the same time Shadow tried to push Lyndis off of him. ¡°Don''t push!¡± ¡°Get off of me!¡± While they shouted those words at each other, the rest of the group looked in interest. This kind of entertainment was rare to see. And after a few scuffles where Shadow was on top of Lyndis next and the other way again, both of them finally stood up from the ground panting. ¡°....¡± Picking up his weapons, Shadow found that Sain and Miriel were about to comment but he quickly said, ¡°Don''t say anything. Everything you saw was a misunderstanding.¡± ¡°You mean the fact that Lyndis was mounted on you?¡± asked Miriel. Lyndis let out a groan and said, ¡°That was the results from us escaping from Serena''s attack.¡± ¡°Why did Serena attack?¡± asked Sain this time. ¡°Because she with Raven was trying to stop us from killing each other¡± answered Shadow. ¡°And why were you trying to killing each other?¡± asked Miriel. ¡°Because Shadow attack me¡± answered Lyndis though Shadow tried to say something but was stopped when Miriel asked, ¡°You attack as in ''that'' way or ''that'' way?¡± Lyndis looked shocked and with a gasp, ¡°Oh God no!¡± and then with a glare said, ¡°Are you getting back at me for teasing you before?¡± With a slight grin, Miriel said, ¡°You guess right though I also swore that I would make Shadow''s life hell as well.¡± ¡°What the hell did I do?!¡± Shadow retorted seeing that he was being punished for something he did not do. ¡°Eavesdropping and whistle blowing. Raven told me¡± she answered. ¡°Raven!¡± Shadow unintentionally shouted at the ''betrayal'' of Raven who seemed to be so useful in various ways. Though Shadow had no reasons to stop using Raven to get discounts on food and other items from stores, he would from now on be more careful of telling him witness anything. ¡°Leave your grudges back for a while, we all have work to do. We''re raiding a place later on today for you to know¡± said Sain getting in between all of this. ¡°....¡± Shadow swore in his heart that he would get Lyndis back someday and also to avoid Miriel from now on or be extra careful. xXx And so another two weeks passed with the city changing. For starters, there had been word of a resistant movement had formed and was going against the Tower. As such, restrictions on entering and especially leaving was tightened beyond anything else recently due to this as well. There was little chance of anything on getting out of the city, at least for a while until anything ends. Due to this, the Kingdom started watching Shia City and was on the verge was identifying it as a rebel city to be eliminated. There was only so many months left until this verdict was made but only postponed since there had been word that a certain Independent Guild was working on it. And as for Sain who was playing the game in the shadows... ¡°Sain are you done yet?¡± asked Shadow lazily after killing a man stabbing him in the throat. This man was one of the guards outside a building which held a few secrets that Sain wanted. ¡°Just about¡± said Sain. He was standing in front of a dead body which he killed and was currently searching through files that were in this building. For a misplaced shack in this city and place with little security, there was quite a bit of secrets hidden in here. Sain was sure that many of the information he was looking through could be used to blackmail quite a number of people. He was sure that some of this information could be exchanged for Contribution Points for the Guild later on. As for the inside of the shack, it was quite clean. In fact most of it was empty though there were several folders that were hidden at the bottom of a chest filled with potions. One would take the potions and leave the folders under a false bottom as one would not expect anymore. But Sain looked through everything thoroughly and found it. ¡°There''s another couple of set of folders here which is all interesting but I found what I wanted to know. There is or rather was a spy for Little Droplet in this city¡± Sain said to Shadow outside. What he found was that some of the places in this city that they were working to eliminated were originally helped out my Little Droplet but then went solo went they left this city not so soon after they came in. It looked like they were tipped out and left when they could. ¡°So what do we do now?¡± asked Shadow. ¡°We have one Guild Quest in this city and another that is possibly in here as well¡± said Sain, ¡°We can''t leave...¡± Sain picked up another folder and looked through its content. ¡°Hmm....¡± he skimmed through it since it was unlikely that someone would not come as long as he needed to. He would need to hurry up. After skimming through the rest of the folders and the files within them, he found something again. ¡°Uh oh¡± Sain put down the folder and organised it back into the false bottom of the chest, placed the false chest over it and even placed the potions back in there the way he found them and closed the chest. He needed to make sure he didn''t leave any trace of him here. There was a lot of things in here there he should not know. The Kingdom wasn''t as glorious and bright as many think it is. Lots of people, mostly nobles have been doing a well kept series of shady things in the background. And if what Sain read was correct then this was bad. ¡°What is it? I want to get away from this place as quickly as possible¡± asked Shadow. He was worried that someone could come and then alert other people into chasing them out of here. Plus he killed a guard and would be a criminal since this was one of the guards of the city and the city was part of the Kingdom and so on. They were still technically part of the right here. ¡°Found a lead¡± said Sain. ¡°To what?¡± ¡°A spy in our mist. Little Droplet was in this city but left when they found out we were here. However no one knows that we were here except for a few people...¡± ¡°So Hale?¡± wondered Shadow, he was the only one who interacted with them. ¡°Maybe, need to find out. I''m going to report to Eden about this. Perhaps he could find something or send someone who can¡± replied Sain, ¡°Oh and there is another thing.¡± ¡°Which is?¡± ¡°Found Aria''s siblings. Need to make up a plan later, its going to be hard¡± sighed Sain, ¡°This is going to take a while...and probably an even longer time to plan out properly.¡±
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8500~ - This took a while. I wasn''t exactly sure on what I wanted to group to do in the city hiding out, so I decided to do something more about Shadow, the backman to this instead of Sain mainly this time. Lots of chapters and volumes were with the perspective of Sain so it was nice to not write about him this time for most of a chapter. Vol.7 Chapter 10 - Where Light and Dark Meet ¡°You found them? You really found them Mr Sain?!¡± Aria said in shock and joy running up and grabbing Sain so he couldn''t escape without telling her all the news. There was so much joy in her tone and in her face that Sain could not bare to push her away. Doing such a thing might break the sheer happiness that could only be elapsed by actually being united with them. ¡°Thank you, thank you...sob¡± she said tearing up. ¡°Ah...¡± Tears came down her check as she realised that she could be reunited with the remainder of her family. However, even so, she let Sain go after a few seconds as she knew from personal experience that Miriel did not like other girls to be attached to Sain. Sain also knew this and said nothing of it. But he figured that Miriel wouldn''t do anything too dangerous with Aria since she was still one of their quest givers and they were on a Guild Quest currently. ¡°Please calm down Aria. I will tell all about it as well as the information me and Shadow gained due to that tip on that shack¡± said Sain moving a bit away from Aria just in case Miriel was watching. Even though she was less...active if you could call it, the number of stares increased and the number of times his ''Sense Killing Intent'' skill has activated increased as well. The skill after a month or so upon gaining it was almost already at the Intermediate Level though some of it was due to the dangerous acts he and Shadow did for the last 2 weeks. There were some close calls and this skill helped them escape from the ''eyes'' of the turrets. ¡°Turns out it was a treasure grove though Sain refused to remove anything from it¡± said Shadow entering the hideout as well. He had hands on the back of his head and relaxed as he walked in. He had this carefree feeling to him and looked like he was part of the background. It was a good thing for him to be easily hidden from the gaze of enemies but a bad thing when his allies, like himself sometime did not know where he was and therefore had no idea how to proceed. Shadow''s natural lack of presence and his ''stealth'' skill made him near impossible to find when he properly hides. ¡°I see¡± said Aria to what Shadow said though partly not realising that it was him who said it. She really did not care of any news besides that her siblings were found right now. But she quickly realised that Shadow was indeed there and panicked for a split second before calming herself. Aria took a look at Shadow and bowed to him slightly for his good work but did not thank him as well. For what she knew, Sain was the backbone to all the group and he was the only to respect while everyone else was below him which was a bit true if not for the fact that Sain placed the others above himself when he can. ¡°Hmm....nah¡± said Shadow as he looked away from Aria. Shadow did not mind this attitude that Aria took to him and shrugged it off. At least she didn''t completely forget about him despite being told both of them were doing this and the fact that his presence wasn''t that high compared to the others, especially recently. ¡°I did say that there were probably some powerful people connected to what was there right? That level of blackmail material can''t simply be there without a reason and even more so since we were tipped off to it¡± said Sain shaking his head to what Shadow just said before. Shadow had been bothering him for the trip back due that and that conversation was about to be picked up again. ¡°Doesn''t mean we couldn''t loot the place, there were even potions there!¡± Shadow protested as the two of them walked to the meeting place. ¡°To be fair, there wasn''t really anything of value besides the potions¡± said Sain justifying himself again. The two plus Aria who was moving along behind them and not saying anything reached the ''main'' area where they talk to each other. There they met with the rest of the group and Hale who was currently talking to several people and giving them missions. These people were those who the group saved during these last two weeks. There were only a small amount of people but each of them had unique skills that made them valuable enough as they all used to be part of the construction team of the city. ¡°Those potions themselves were probably a trap to see if we would fall for it by taking them¡± explained Sain, ¡°We don''t know what''s in them unless an alchemist told us what was in them. Perhaps they were poisoned or had other effects, even with my identifying skills I couldn''t see anything about the content of the potions. And for we know they were observing us as I ransacked the place and put it back together though there wasn''t much to see in there.¡± ¡°What is this about potions?¡± asked Miriel turning over to hearing the name of that super expensive product. Potions in Royal Road were rare. Not because of the material restrictions, if it were so then there would be other problems but because potion makers hold a monopoly on the supply of potions. This jacked the price up to extremely high even for the most basic potions. But a good potion could easily decide defeat or victory in a battle. Having to recover health instantly, or various buffs that the potion may give could turn the tide potentially or allow one to. As such, everyone desires it but even more so in the later years of the game, potions were an extremely rare product else you were a potion maker or knew one. Even the group only had a select few basic potions that weren''t that useful anymore but would sell for hundred gold each. That was how valuable they were. ¡°Don''t worry about it¡± said Sain automatically since this could derail what he really wanted to talk about. He expected for Shadow to keep his mouth shut about it especially since Miriel was very picky on money and anything about it. There was one time when he left some copper on the ground, not picking it early in the game, about the same time when they were just starting to go out of the city to train and level up. A 2 hour lecture that was thankfully interrupted by monsters attacking them was about money and how important it was even though it was a copper and at most a few copper coins. This continued later on and got stronger as copper coins turned into silver coins and the rare gold coins for their level. According to the Royal Road forum, gold coins were only dropped from boss monster, rare monsters that haven''t been hunted much and higher levelled monsters. ¡°Sain found potions and didn''t take them.¡± And he was wrong. Shadow did talk about it...immediately. ¡°Shadow!¡± Sain raised his voice at him but Miriel seemed to be more concern about why Sain did not take the at least 100 gold each potions with him back here. As such, Miriel was glaring at him and she said one word to him that wanted to know all, ¡°Explain.¡±
You have sensed a dangerous presence
¡°Umm...ah....¡± Sain did not know where to start. The first bit being that he found information under the false bottom of the chest that the potions were in and more on how the shack was almost completely empty besides that chest and that there was so little security to that place as well. There were too many points that led him to believe it was a trap than anything else. ¡°Actually don''t explain¡± said Miriel changing her mind, ¡°You''re here because you found something out right?¡± Sain felt he was lucky that Miriel didn''t kill him there. ¡°Yeah, the location of Aria''s siblings among other more disturbing things¡± answered Sain with a nod. ¡°Good, we can begin trying to save them then¡± said Hale confident that they would be able to get them out wherever they are. Aria nodded and said, ¡°I will be praying for your success¡± encouraging them as well. ¡°Okay, tell us where it is and we will charge in and take care of it!¡± said Lyndis with complete confidence that they will succeed. She had a heroic face that could charm most people with a glance right now. Sain wondered why she didn''t have the charm stat. Lyndis was more than happy to get some action and even more happy that Aria was going to be with her family if they succeed. She and Aria had been getting better along especially since she was a new face and a new person to talk to. Because of this, she took a couple of things such as rope, food and bandages with her as she opened her inventory window to get out her armour and weapon. ¡°What are you doing?¡± asked Sain frowning. He did not like that Lyndis was planning on charging in without a plan at all. Such a thing would be the actions of an idiot that thinks power is everything when they don''t even have power to do anything. ¡°Leaving¡± she replied in turn. She had this determined look on her face. ¡°....¡± As Lyndis got ready to leave immediately, putting on her armour and such already in a matter of seconds not even bothering to adjust it so it fitted her. In such a sloppy shape, Miriel stopped her and Sain stopped her as well and asked, ¡°And what will you do when you reach there?¡± ¡°Charge in, kill lots of bad guys and save the people trapped there¡± Lyndis replied bluntly. ¡°That is a stupid idea of a plan¡± commented Miriel with a sigh. Almost four years and nothing changed in her attitude to plans. ¡°Well it''s better than not doing anything. There might be a chance that Aria''s siblings and other people will be killed before we get there if we stand here¡± Lyndis warned. This caused Aria to pale as a result but in turn Sain said: ¡°And do you know where they are?¡± ¡°No¡± Lyndis frowned. For some reason, she felt that Sain wasn''t going to let her go like that but still asked, ¡°Are you going to tell me?¡± Contrary to her feelings Sain answered, ¡°Yes.¡± Lyndis'' frowned increased as such as she asked, ¡°Why?¡± Sain let out a soft gentle smile that made her be reminded of Alena but at the same time it reminded her that he was mocking her and answered, ¡°Because there''s no point in not telling you.¡± ¡°Basically he''s saying that even you won''t rush in when you know where it is though we hope not¡± said Shadow adding in his own comment of it with a sly tone that made her want to hit him. ¡°....¡± After a moment of silent, Lyndis asked in a demanding tone, ¡°So where is it? Tell me already.¡± ¡°The Tower.¡± ¡°....¡± Lyndis stopped at that moment, Miriel was shocked and Aria was on the verge of fainting now. All of them and really all of them knew that this was extremely bad news. It was like seeing that the sword to kill a boss in a game was given after the boss battle itself. From the three weeks they spent in this city, they knew for a fact that the Tower was powerful. And powerful that they were fit to take on a siege. If getting to those siblings would mean getting through the Tower, then it was near impossible to do. ¡°The Tower as we all know is in the centre of this city. Though incomplete, most of it''s defences were completed a long time ago¡± explained Hale in a solemn tone, ¡°Besides the fact that he is made with the best physical and magical resistant materials the Kingdom has to offer, it has those invisible turrets as well. However the number of them is to the insane numbers and can fell a Dragon in mere moments.¡± ¡°....¡± Fighting against a place that are hiding it''s weapons and could fire at you at any moment in any quantity of attack that can take out a Dragon was impossible to beat normally as well especially when their total numbers only reach a dozen. ¡°So what do we do?¡± asked Miriel. She really had no idea on how to take it on. To this question, he was thinking of it for a while now. There were several things they needed to do before anything else to make this work. ¡°First is that we need numbers. Second, we need information. Until we have these two things, we can''t do anything at all¡± said Sain, ¡°And there are already a few problems with getting that much alone in this place.¡± ¡°The numbers can be gotten via those the Tower pretty much pissed off, capture, tortured and so on to include the slaves as well¡± said Miriel, ¡°However we need to be friendly to the residents since they will be the source of information we need.¡± ¡°But they won''t help us...¡± said Serena in a worried voice. They had tried for 3 weeks on doing this but no one wanted to go against the Tower. ¡°We have no choice¡± sighed Sain, ¡°From what I can tell, there is literally no way in getting into the Tower even with stealth since those turrets see through it no matter the level.¡± Shadow furrowed his eyebrows remembering that his stealth that he was kinda proud of since it was in the Advance level was utterly useless on helping him escape. However the main weakness of the turrets is that they can only target physical beings... But later on he learnt the hard way that there were magical turrets on the Tower that were made to counter his ''Become Mist'' skill or similar. Magic and attacks that attack the soul or intangible was his skill''s weak spot. ¡°Basically nothing will happen even if we charge in and attack right?¡± asked Lyndis now letting go of the plan to attack head on. Even a sneak attack won''t work. ¡°Yeah basically we have nothing even if we know this. Even with more numbers, how do we equip them and how do we feed them. Our supplies for only us can only last us for a few more months at best. With more people this amount will decrease dramatically as well¡± said Sain in a serious and yet hopeless tone. ¡°In that case....¡± said Miriel with a similar tone to Sain, ¡°We need to ask for help.¡± ¡°What help? We have no help here which is the problem¡± said Shadow. With no contact to the outside world...they had no player friends after all, they had no way on even spreading the information they had gain. ¡°What about the Guild then? We can spend some of our contribution points to get some help¡± said Miriel in turn. ¡°....¡± There was some silent. They had around 12 thousand in points, closer to 12 thousand actually in contribution points to the Guild. They were unsure on what they can use these points to but at the same time they had almost 9 thousand contribution points to the Kingdom. That amount of points were due to doing Guild Quests as well. From what the group could find on the forums of the game, Contribution Points were hard to get since the quests involved in getting them were usually extremely hard. But at the same time, you could temporary get the service of powerful allies from the Kingdom, weapons and other treasures as well. You could even use the points to incur favours as well. It''s use is quite large. But for the use in the Contribution Points in the Guild? They had no idea, each Guild had their own way on using the points though the functions are similar to how you would use it with the Kingdom. ¡°Will the amount of points we have be enough to complete both quests?¡± wondered Miriel frowning. An A rank Guild Quest as equal to 10 B rank Guild Quests. A B rank Guild Quest was equal to 10 C rank Guild Quests and so on. Furthermore there were some more difficult Guild Quests on the same rank as well. A C+ rank Guild Quest was equal to a B rank Guild Quest. The only difference of rank is due to the scale of the damage the quest requires you to fix. The group''s fire Guild Quest, the one with the Demon King and army of Demons was a B+ rank Guild Quest. But at the same time, the worth of these +rank Guild Quests are worth 10 times the rank they say, in other words they are equal to the Guild Quests ranked one above them. Because of this, their orders to complete 5 Guild Quests is quite shoddy. Upon seeing it, it looked like it would be better to do higher ranked Guild Quests but it was so much easier to just do 5 easy D rank or lower Guild Quests instead of the higher ones. On the orders, it said a C rank guild was equal to completing C of the lower rank Guild Quests when it was equal to 10 D rank Guild Quests and this only got worse as it got higher. But it was most likely the amount of contribution points to the Guild would vary after completing these Guild Orders as a result. As for contribution points these Guild Quests give, a F rank Guild will give around 10, E rank will give around 30, D rank will give around 100, C rank will give around 1000, B rank will give around 5000 and A rank will give around 10 000 contribution points to the Kingdom. However failing these Guild Quests are extremely bad. Even on a C rank Guild Quest you could lose 500-1000 Fame in one go. But at the same time, they give around the same amount in contribution points to the guild as well. The only reason the group''s contribution points to the guild is higher than to the Kingdom is due to Sain taking other means to increase it. Following Guild Orders will naturally increase the contribution points to the Guild. The Dragon that was wrapped around the Sun with stars falling around it were a symbol of the three Guildmasters the guild had. One of the 5 S rank Independent Guild, failure was not a option at all for them. They had one B rank and one C rank Guild Quests on their shoulders right now. Upon completing it, they would receive around 6000 contribution points and complete one part of their Guild Orders that they still have another year to complete. But how much would they need to spend to complete them for the help? With all of this in mind, Sain sighed and said, ¡°I''m contacting Eden. We need help to complete this or at least advise on what to do¡± and walked out of the room to talk to Eden privately. No one stopped him since it was the only choice. Eden always made people pay off their debt one way or another. They did not wish to rely on Eden more than they could as they may be thrown into things they cannot deal with later on as a result of early favours. xXx ¡°Hello Hello?¡± asked Eden to Sain via messaging in a slightly cheerful tone. This was the exact opposite of what Sain was feeling right now. ¡°I need help and we have no way out¡± said Sain. ¡°Well that was blunt¡± Eden expressed some surprise there. Usually people sugar-coated things before telling him that, ¡°What happened? I noticed you accepted two Guild Quests, quite brave on trying to complete my orders in one go.¡± Sain took a breath in and started to explain. ¡°Basically the first Guild Quest led to Shia City that seemed to be taken over by NPCs who are controlling things from the shadows. The second Guild Quest is to stop this but we hit a problem, no several problems due to this.¡± ¡°Explain.¡± ¡°It looked like Little Droplet was part of the reason of this city turning into...a prison. No one is being let out even though only a few people are let in at a time. There are invisible turrets everywhere and god knows how many illegal stuff going on here. Drug dealing, extortion and even slave trading is being done here.¡± ¡°Ho...that kind of place would never have existed under Kingdom eyes. I''m guessing that communication is restricted due to this seeing that no one else got this news. The Kingdom suspect but only suspect at this point.¡± ¡°Right, another thing is that we got a quest to save some siblings as well and took it since it seemed to be connected to the Guild Quest involving Little Droplet. And I found out that we need to take over the city and complete the second Guild Quest in hopes to even complete it. And the worse of it Is that Little Droplet has a spy that knows what we were doing and left the city as well.¡± At the end he sighed thinking through of what happened. It was one after another set of events that eventually led to nowhere. ¡°And you have no way on doing that which led you to contact me of all things. You have...around 13 thousand Contribution Points to the Guild. That''s not enough to get the help from other members of the Guild you know, each person has a certain amount of contribution points you need to get them to you and the lowest is 20 thousand contribution points. This is also the amount that will be deducted if you fail any Guild Quest though it may go higher, the larger the screw up.¡± ¡°....¡± It was that point that Sain gave up a bit. It takes them so long to gain that much contribution points but getting help from another member of the guild cost that much?! ¡°I''m pulling your leg here. The lowest is actually 10 thousand for something of a C rank Guild Quest. Normally other members can choose to accept a request for help or not but since it''s an unique situation and you guys are new rookies, I''ll make an exception this one time.¡± Now with this, their contribution points could be reduced to around 3 thousand. However Sain had a way to increase the amount of points he could spend now... ¡°In that case, can I contribute knowledge to gain more points?¡± asked Sain. ¡°Sure. Tell ahead.¡± Sain proceeded to tell all the information he got from the folders that were located under the false bottom chest that was filled with potions. And when he did:
You have gained a total of 9022 Contribution Points to the Guild for the information you have provided
Sain was quite shocked at seeing this amount. This was equal to completing around 2 B rank Guild quests and it was ironic that he would be using this to complete a C rank one... ¡°With this amount added on, you have a total of around 22 thousand points you can use now. You can get two members to help you out with this quest¡± said Eden lazily that it reminded him of Shadow a bit when he wasn''t doing anything. ¡°....¡± Right now Sain was thinking of whether to get one other member of the guild to help them or two. With one, he was more than certain they were powerful but at the same time unsure on whether that alone was enough. But he rather not take any chances since if they failed...whether it is with one or two more members, things will get ugly. ¡°I''ll get two thank you¡± said Sain in a polite tone. Even if it is two, if both of them were not suited to the task than sending this much was useless. ¡°Okay then, I''ll send over Eart who is a earth user and Nue who is a string user to your side. Both of which should be beneficial to your quest. They will arrive in...two months I believe. Eart is actually in the Central Continent right now but Nue is currently in the Cursed Forest.¡± Cursed Forest, one of the 10 restricted zones. For a player being in even one of them, they must have considerable skill. Sain was sure both of them would be useful especially since Eart was able to manipulate the earth which meant this entire city was his playing ground. As for the one called Nue...a string user. He was unsure how it would help but since Eden said so... ¡°Now to deduct your points and tell those two to get their asses to you as quick as possible.¡±
You have hired the help of two members of your guild. - They will arrive in Shia City in two months - A total of 20 000 Contribution Points to the Guild has been deducted for this
The amount of contribution points to the guild decreased to around 3 thousand now. Sain sighed seeing years of work disappear that quickly but it was still better than failing. And as if he knew what Sain was thinking, Eden warned one last time, ¡°As part of this guild...failure is not an option. Complete both Guild Quests no matter what.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± Sain was silent for a few more moments and then asked, ¡°Eden, can you do me a favour?¡± ¡°Most people don''t dare say that to me for a good reason.¡± ¡°...Even so I need to ask you to look into a couple of things to confirm something. If what Shadow said was true and what I think is right...then the spy from Little Droplet...¡± ¡°I''m listening.¡± With that, Sain told him what he wanted to know. And with that, he left to tell the rest of the group what happened and what they needed to prepare for in the coming months. xXx And so another 2 months had passed by with the group and with that, the resistant group to the Tower working hard to prepare for the attack on the Tower when those two members of the guild appear to help them. To summarise what happened in the two months, their numbers increased to 200 via them raiding slave trading areas where people were kept. Due to this, they were seen as actively opposing the Tower now and lots of people were hunting them now. But fortunately, the level of the enemies were quite low and they did not need to worry about pissing the Tower off since they were already. But then there was an issue of space. They solved this by setting up several other locations to which they can hide out. In other words, safe zones were being developed under the nose of the Tower. The further away they were from the centre, the less influence the Tower had. There was also an issue of food and other supplies as well. They had raided the supplies of the Tower frequently to solve this but with time, it became harder and harder to do so with less and less locations to choose from and the security increasing to the point that most of them were traps that weren''t worth it. They were reaching their limit here. And even though all of this happened, the other residents of this city refused to cooperate with them, mostly reporting on them even though some looked away as their help. Because of this, Sain was quite thankful on the sudden appearance of two people he ''brought'' to be here. ¡°It''s been a while Sain¡± said Eart in a happy tone ignoring the stares he was getting from being knee deep in the ground as always. It seems his strange ability worked on concrete as well which was a powerful ability here. However his lecherous eyes went on Miriel, Lyndis and Serena as he said, ¡°Ladies, why don''t you-¡± At that moment, the second person that came with him, a seemingly young girl that was no younger than Serena appeared and used some sort of thin rope or string to drag Eart''s face back forcefully. ¡°Perverted acts....will not be forgiven¡± she said cruelly. This person from what Sain knew from Eden was called Nue. With long black hair that was as long as Serena''s, in order words dropping to her legs but was curly or rather fluffy and bright eyes despite being black, one could think of this as a cute child if not for the fact that her hands were equipped with gloves that already looked like deadly weapons. ¡°Little Nue, what I was doing was not perverted but merely a gentleman''s greeting here. You interrupted this greeting no knowing what I was intending¡± said Eart smoothly. ¡°Such acts...will not be forgiven¡± Nue said again while allowing string to shoot out from the fingers of her glove and wrap around Eart even dragging in back a bit. Sain noticed that her eyes turned bright amber instead with her iris similar to a snake''s at this moment. At these times scales seemed to appear around the area of her eyes and on the black of her hands. ¡°A snake eh...¡± Sain suddenly felt a small kinship with Nue now. After all, didn''t the others say that his eyes were similar to a snake or a lizard when he used ''Boost''. ¡°I''m Sain, nice to meet you Nue¡± said Sain in a manner that was extremely polite with his hand out to shake. Nue did not shake his hand and instead said, ¡°Can''t shake. Poison gloves¡± gesturing at small amounts of unknown liquid that was on the sharper end of her glove. Sain took this chance to inspect the glove more closely. The glove was quite unusual since he couldn''t tell what was underneath it though he knew that her hands were being wrapped by string or wires or a combination of both. Furthermore there were some metal rings at parts of around her fingers as well. The mechanics of this, how it worked and how Nua knows how to use this, Sain has no idea. ¡°I understand¡± said Sain while smiling and understanding. Looking around at the place, Eart moved around and said, ¡°It looks like you''re ready. We can do and take down in Tower place any time you want though I don''t understand why you needed numbers when you had us.¡± ¡°Oh there are several reasons and I can''t take all of your time since Eden said he forced you two here¡± replied Sain courteously to them. But when Sain said that, Nue tugged on his shirt and said, ¡°It''s bad to hold back...¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°You can insult Eart if you want. He''s a hopeless pervert¡± said Nue which caused Eart to let out a wry laugh to the side. Eart looked around and he was still getting those stares. He decided to do something about this since both he and Nue were getting strange looks. Well they were both admittedly strange people to begin with. ¡°I think we should introduce ourselves first to everyone here to make them less tense¡± said Eart looking around. Right now, they were all in this room with a large table that has a replica of the city on it. On the walls are detailed maps and other information on people they need to take down as well. Along with Sain, there was also the rest of the group, Hale and those who were freed and took up the cause against the Tower which numbered to around twenty. ¡°My name is Eart 27, a level 741 Earth Slave. Basically I can control almost all earth and use most earth type skills like this¡± Eart raised his hand and from it, concrete started to move to form a orb and a hand grabbing onto it. ¡°Those turrets you hate, I can detect them and disable them from afar as well¡± he added which made several people wide eyed to such a skill. Then they looked at Nue to introduce herself as well. ¡°I''m Nue, level 688 String Master¡± she said in a indifferent tone. There was some shock to this, though it was mainly due to Nue looking so young. As a precaution, Miriel asked, ¡°Nue...how old are you?¡± ¡°Fourteen¡± she replied. She was the same age as Serena who started the game a year ago. Now there were more questions than answers now that they knew this. ¡°And...how long did you start playing?¡± Miriel further asked with some sweat on her forehead. She knew that someone like Nue could instantly kill her right now. ¡°Since I was seven I think. Mum and Dad brought me in and I played around until Eden found me¡± Nue replied nodding her head, ¡°The glowing light magic Eden showed me was really really pretty.¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone was silent as Nue said this. They could not put two and two together to say that this person was extremely powerful. However the group knew this to be true. Everyone in the guild was a monster in one way or another. Even though they had passed the level 200 point, they were as strong as a level 250 in fighting and it took them almost 4 years in game to do this. Nue had 7 years in real life or 28 years in game to get to her point which was not so surprising when you think of it like that. With that done, Sain was about to tell them on what they have to do and said, ¡°Anyway I want you-¡± BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! BOOM!! Four loud impact hit the building causing it to shake. They were in a building that was similar to an apartment. ¡°What''s going on?!¡± someone shouted. Another person looked around, at the crumbling building and shouted, ¡°We''re being attacked!¡± ¡°The turrets are comin-¡± BOOM!!! The last person to speak died when something large and hard hit them and blown him to pieces. Sain was quite shocked here. He did not expect them to find them at this exact moment. It was horrible luck that they attacked now. ¡°Eart! Nue! I want you two to attack the Tower. Eart should disable and destroy as many turrets as possible while Nue should focus on personals that the Tower will send!¡± Sain shouted while holding onto the table as the ground as shaking. He noticed that both of them were perfectly calm and also not even bothered by the shaking ground. ¡°Roger~¡± said Eart in a carefree tone moving to the side of the building. There, it seemed that several turrets shot at him since a volley of attacks went to him. However in an instant, a massive concrete shield appeared to protect him. ¡°Earth Lances~!¡± Eart shouted waving his hand and firing off those attacks through the large concrete shield he made. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Five of those attacks went out judging by the sounds of the impact and there weren''t any more attacks on the building. At this time, Hale was screaming commands out and the group was preparing to battle. Aria was standing there shaking no knowing what to do. Sain left Lyndis or the others to help protect her but realised there was no time for that. ¡°Lyndis! Leave Aria''s protection to Hale! We''re going to attack now!¡± Sain shouted in a commanding tone that even drowned out everything else in sight. His tone had a frightening feel to it as Sain was quite angry that they were attacked out of nowhere. Was his suspicions right? Was there a traitor among them? None of the group were suspected but those who they freed and others were... ¡°Hale! Organise the attack, we''re going to take the Tower in one go, secure a parameter around it and lock it from the rest of the city¡± Sain ordered to which Hale immediately started telling other people what to do. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. This was one of the things they thought up in their attack. The Tower was frightening itself but they also needed to be on guard against enemies attacking them from behind. Therefore the simple way to resolve this is to stop them from attacking you from behind. One way was to eliminate them, another was to distract them and the last was to physically block them. Sain was sure that a large number of people were putting all three ways into practice right now as the group left with Eart and Nue heading directly to the Tower. ¡°Good luck¡± Hale said those last words as he saw the group left. xXx In the way to the Tower, the group and the other two members of the guild ran in formation. Basically Nue was at front, Eart second and the rest of the group third. Though it looked sloppy, it was quite powerful with Nue and Eart at the front though the reason Eart was second was because the girls felt uncomfortable if he was behind them. ¡°Another batch of enemies coming our way Nue!¡± Eart warned while moving forward without running. He was pushing the earth so he was at the same speed as the rest of the group. On his arms were blocks of concrete reformed into arm guards as large as shields to block attacks. ¡°Right.¡± Nue sped up letting loose her string and fling herself forward a few metres over the air in extremely speed that made spider-man¡¯s swinging look slow. There, a group of five enemies, those kinds of guard NPCs this city had ran at them to confront them. ¡°Hanging Wire Net!!¡± Nue said those words and a few wires shot out of her gloves connecting to each other like a net. And as she passed those five guards... CUT! In an instant, no it took a second for their bodies to respond to the attack; their bodies fell apart leaving behind bloody remains as Nue shot pass them. ¡°!!!¡± Seeing this, every last member of the group was jaw shocked seeing this kind of skill and power. Foes that would at least take them moments to defeat with a few skills here and there was instantly killed. Seeing them like this, Eart let out a laugh and said, ¡°Out of everyone, aside from our guildmasters, Nue has the strongest attack against enemies, especially humans and elves who have the weakest defence of all races against extremely sharp attacks.¡± ¡°How is that possible?¡± exclaimed Shadow, ¡°That little girl no younger than Serena is able to do all of that without hesitation. Even Serena is still afraid of blood.¡± ¡°She is someone who can survive in one of the 10 restricted zones alone. Anyone who can do that is a monster in their own right¡± said Eart though at the same time noticing that turrets were appearing at the walls of the buildings they were about to head to. They did not detect Nue since she was too fast and too small as a target. ¡°Don''t fall behind here else you will die!¡± Eart warned the group beforehand. ¡°Earth Lances!¡± he shouted producing that attack from the ground that he passed and shooting them rapidly at the turrets that in turn fired back. Bang! BOOM!! Bang! BOOM!! BOOM!! Bang! Bang! Bang! A series of explosions were taking place with Eart using his ''Earth Lance'' attack as a rapid fire spam type attack and at the same time, from what Sain observed to be preparing for something else. ¡°Shattering Break!¡± From where Eart was, though he was still moving, two rumbling presences went through to the sides of those buildings and onto the walls. BREAK!!! And at the same time as this rumbling presence came about, the wall on the side of the building broke a part causing those turrets that they could not see but yet could tell were there due to them firing fell with the wall. ¡°Waaaah!!!¡± Sain was not sure who it was but someone let out that scream seeing the walls of buildings they were running to breaking down and falling. ¡°Hmp! Earth Walls!¡± Eart shouted again this time causing a series of two pillars to shoot up from the ground diagonally to block the wreckage that was falling down in front of them. Seeing this, Eart let a grin to the group. Sain could only sigh, were every member of the guild this flashy? But still Sain had to ask, ¡°Can you not destroy the city too much? One of the conditions of the Guild Quest we need to finish is to make sure the city is intact afterwards.¡± ¡°In that case be thankful Eden didn''t come. Out of everyone, he specialise in structure destruction even more than me hahaha¡± Eart let out a laugh after saying that as all of them sprinted to the Tower at speeds quicker than before. Miriel''s ''Melody of Sound'' buff boosting their agility, Sain''s ''Swift Legs'' buff that increased agility as well and all of them using ''Boost'' at the same time increasing their base stats and the effects of these buffs made them go four times faster than normal though their stamina was being drained twice as fast. But even so...they were barely keeping up with Eart who was actually only going at a faction of his full speed and was only using part of his full power against the waves of turrets that keep on coming. ¡°Oh there seems to be a large number those turret things that you can''t see up ahead¡± said Eart a bit surprised for once. ¡°That must be a borderline to the Tower. In there, there''s a much higher quantity and density of turrets to the point they can take down a dragon¡± explained Sain with a warning. ¡°A dragon? I can smash a weak dragon into pieces with one blow!¡± said Eart with confidence, ¡°But a higher grade dragon or god forgive a Dragon King? This city would be levelled even with those turrets though normally people were scared enough of a weak dragon.¡± For some reason, the group agreed with this statement. xXx A while later as the group with Eart leading and Nue off somewhere clearing enemies so they didn''t get close Eart stopped all of a sudden and the group a bit stunned also struggled to stop in time without running into Eart. They were already going quite fast and for so long that they were used to running at this speed for now. ¡°Why did you stop?¡± asked Lyndis. She almost tripped over due to the sudden stop. ¡°The reason for stopping is...?¡± wondered Miriel, while Eart was a pervert she wanted to kill, he was powerful and would only stop against powerful foes. ¡°Just wait and see....I''m not sure on what to expect as well¡± said Eart looking serious and not making a joke about something this time. The reason for them stopping, they soon saw. ¡°What the hell is that?!¡± exclaimed Lyndis who was pretty sure she couldn''t beat that. It was so...large. ¡°That can''t be...¡± said Shadow in shock in a different way. That thing that they all saw was...even though it looked really shoddy and incomplete and kinda stupid to begin with. ¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°¡°A Gundam?!¡±¡±¡±¡±¡±¡± Even though it''s colour was off, it was a dull bronze colour, even though it looked more like a giant tank on the bottom half with it''s legs have wheels to move, it''s resemblance to a Gundam was quite high. The hit mecha series that still ran through even now when the show is extremely old with several remakes of the older series with some hits and many defects. And all around it''s body were equipped turrets as well that were clearly visible. It seemed that they didn''t make it so it was invisible though that may be due to the thing being so large. To describe it, only the top half looked like an actual Gundam. The bottom half were more or less two tanks equipped to it as well. ¡°Oi oi oi, where is Nue to deal with this? She can just cut this thing into pieces with her wires¡± asked Eart seeing at that Gundam like machine with a bit of terror. The thing looked frightening enough though it''s firepower was probably quite high as well if they were bringing it out to use against them. ¡°It looked like she circled around that thing and went on¡± said Sain observing the path of cut up pieces of things. He was paying attention to the wrong thing right now. There was a 20 metre tall machine monster in front of them. Bang Bang! The Gundam monster thing turned and faced them now and produced that much noise and impact from just turning. It had started to targeted them. Sain counted there were 4 large turrets on it''s shoulders, another 6 on each leg and a dozen shattered around the main body. It was a walking, firing fortress of death. ¡°So....should I take care of it or should you guys?¡± asked Eart not sure on what to do now. He and Nue were ordered to support the group and not lead them. The decision was up to them to decide. ¡°....¡± He looked up at the mechanical monster and pondered how heavy it was. ¡°We''ll take care of it¡± said Sain considering it. It was a rare chance to take out something that was unknown to the rest of the world. Plus he had a plan though it was mainly centred around Raven if he was right. ¡°Eh?¡± Shadow was surprised, hopefully he wouldn''t need to be bait again. Lyndis on the other hand was excited for this battle. Miriel sighed while Serena and Raven prepared for battle as well. ¡°Shadow be bait¡± ordered Sain immediately seeing that it would be bad news if that thing fired on them right now. ¡°Damn!¡± Shadow cursed and yet created several clones and made them charge in at the Gundam monster. He still obeyed the order even though he didn''t want to. Sain had pounded in complete obedience in Shadow to what he ordered while no one was looking. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! The left shoulder turrets fired at Shadow who was moving at speeds that was barely leaving a shadow behind. It looked like he immediately used ''Burst Speed'' and was switching from clone to clone to avoid hits. His speed increased to the point that he leap off walls to quite a height though it was nothing to the 20 metre tall monster machine they were looking at. It was as tall as the buildings around it. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! All four hits missed Shadow but instead hit the area around him. Even if they did not directly hit which would result in an instant death, Shadow was being damaged bit by bit with the explosions. He would be reaching his limits soon enough. Now that the Gundam monster was distracted and turned around to try and hit Shadow.... ¡°Everyone except for Raven, break it''s legs or at least one of them will do¡± said Sain already chanting his spells. Miriel and Lyndis prepared to use their unique skills while Serena was chanting a spell as well. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± chanted Sain firing off his spell. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Seven Magic Arrows was fired from his hand and hit the Gundam monster''s leg which was a bit thinner as it connected to the main body. However they barely did anything at all. Without using ''Compressed Magic Mastery Release'', was this the limit of his attack even with Boost doubling his stats and doubling the power of his spells? ¡°Leaf Slicer!¡± Serena chanted firing off a series of sharp green blade like things at the same place that Sain attacked. Unlike his attack, it seemed to have a small effect at least making some holes though Sain it''s due to the fact that the spell Serena used was meant to target living creatures instead of a robot. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang....! But the same results was given like when Sain attacked it. It looked like it was highly resistant to most minor attacks. However next Miriel and Lyndis both at the same time fired off their skills. ¡°Take this and Freeze! Rage of the Ice Dragon!¡± ¡°Burn to hell you bastard! Wrath of the Phoenix!¡± From Miriel came a gush of ice that quickly formed into an Eastern Dragon and roared as it moved to attack the enemy and from Lyndis came a wave of flames that formed around her body in the shape of a Phoenix that was breathing fire out at the same enemy BANNNNNGG!!! BOOOMMMM!!! ¡°Eeeck!¡± Serena let out that sudden scream seeing that everything actually went bright out of nowhere from the aftershock of the two attacks. Sain figured that both of them poured most of their mana and stamina into these attacks. One leg of the Gundam monster was covered in ice and thus was prevented from moving and the other leg was being boiled by the flames that continuously surrounded it. It was an unusual sight of both ice and flame working together though there was a clear line on where both attacks clashed. ¡°Damn...¡± cursed Sain silently. He was hoping that this thing would not be that strong and was only large in size. However there was literally almost no effect on the Gundam monster. Thus the attacks were literally in vain. But.... ¡°As expected, this thing can''t be damaged with normal means¡± said Sain with eyes sparkling. For some reason Raven was standing next to Sain and had the same sparkling eyes as well. ¡°Wait why the hell did we attack it then?¡± asked Lyndis surprised that Sain would make them attack a monster they could not beat. ¡°Wasn''t that just a waste of mana and stamina then?!¡± retorted Miriel at the same time as Lyndis. ¡°Just wondering how strong it is to regular attacks¡± said Sain in reply. ¡°....¡± The two stared in disbelief at Sain. Ignoring this, he turned to Raven and then asked, ¡°How many times stronger can you increase the gravity around your attacks?¡± Raven put up three fingers meaning he could increase it three times which was impressive itself. This mean by punching, he would deal three times the damage compared to normal. ¡°Three times eh...¡± muttered Sain but Raven shook his head and said, ¡°Thirty.¡± ¡°!¡± Sain was now quite shocked. Thirty times...no, it made sense since whatever that invisible and transparent thing that was surrounding him right was quite powerful. His punch could increase in range and increase in size and thus power as well. Plus a punch''s damage was quite low but when Raven first used the power, he was able to flip giant monsters that were several times larger than him with ease. It seemed that his and Shadow''s powers were the most unique while Lyndis and Miriel were the most flexible and Raven and Serena''s powers were the most powerful in direct strength. Sain made a mental note to study the abilities they gained with ''Boost'' more deeply. He didn''t before since he wanted to improve their base stats more. Now that they had grown, the effects of ''Boost'' increased as well. But without an actual skill window, he could not tell how powerful these abilities were. However even though Raven''s ''Boost'' abilities were based off gravity, it was unable to make a gravity field. Was there still some room for growth...or is there something missing? ¡°Okay then, please smash that thing before Shadow dies¡± ordered Sain putting away his regrets on destroying such a wonderful machine. It was an enemy right now and frankly it was too big to admire. It being this large meant that whoever made this was unable to completely replicate it in game. ¡°About time!¡± Shadow screamed out of nowhere listening in on their conversation. It looked like he was still alive though at this point it didn''t matter if he lived or not. Sain just preferred that everyone in the group lived. ¡°Yeah yeah, moderate heal¡± Sain sent that healing spell to Shadow to make sure he didn''t die from complete health lost and once again said to Raven, ¡°Attack before Shadow dies.¡± Rave nodded and moved forward. He stood his halberd onto the ground and let go of his shields. It looked like he was able to that power unarmed. Sain made another mental note to later on change his equipment to that preference. Sain felt like something was distorting around Raven''s fist as he threw one out. ¡°Haaa!¡± BANG! A giant impact of a fist was formed on the front of the Gundam monster. The attacks the others used didn''t even leave a dent on it and yet Raven''s attack did... ¡°As expected, Raven seems to have the best compatibility against large foes¡± said Sain praising the power of the attack. ¡°Haaa!!¡± Raven threw another two, three attacks at the Gundam monster. BANG! BANG! BANG!!! Another three impacts hit the Gundam monster but it still did not fall. Even though it took damage and left a noticeable dent on it, it was only to a certain extent and was already adapting to Raven''s attack moving back a bit to reduce the amount of damage it would take by the third hit. It was still a giant machine monster that could kill them by just stepping on them. And it''s turrets were aimed at Raven now. ¡°Uh Oh¡± Sain was about to shouted to Miriel to place barriers onto them all. But- ¡°Earth Shield!¡± Eart screamed raising the ground to block the series of attacks directed at them and the group he was protecting. At some point, Shadow already moved behind this protective shield he made. BANG! BANG! BOOM!! BANG!! BOOM! BOOM!!.....!!! The shield endured but was in bad shape. However Eart started to attack shouting, ¡°Earth Lances!¡± The half broken shield turned into a weapon and shot at the Gundam monster. BANG! BANG! BOOM!! BANG!! BOOM! BOOM!!.....!!! Cracks and large dents formed on the Gundam monster but it wasn''t enough to completely take it out. Even though Eart knocked out one of it''s arms, it was still operational. Then Eart shouted to the group, ¡°I''ll hold that thing here, get to that Tower place or whatever.¡± ¡°Got it¡± replied Sain already figuring a route in. Right now, they were literally in front of the Tower but they had no way to get in without resistant from that machine in front of them. With Eart blocking the way for them, this would be easy. ¡°Ah, Nue is over there¡± said Miriel pointing at the small figure that was coming this way as Eart continued to block the continuous turret attack from that Gundam monster. If there was any time to run for it, now was the time. ¡°See you¡± said Sain running over to where Nue was cleaning up the last batch of enemies outside the Tower itself. ¡°Wait, you''re going just like that?!¡± shouted Eart struggling to keep up his ''Earth Shield'' against the bombardment of turret attacks. ¡°More or less¡± Miriel chased after Sain while Shadow was close behind not saying anything since he was injured. ¡°Don''t you guys have any sympathy to me?! I''m fighting this giant thing here!¡± Eart shouted again. This time, his ''Earth Shield'' was being breached more quickly than before due to pin point attacks and he couldn''t gather more concrete from the surrounding buildings fast enough to build a proper wall. ¡°Not at all~¡± said Lyndis holding Serena and running, following everyone else. For some reason, Sain thought he heard Eart scream before long. xXx With her hair kinds dishevelled due to sprinting so fast and her hands drenched in blood, Nue has this frightening cold feeling around her as she looked at the group. The ones most affected by this were Lyndis who thought of Nue as someone similar to Serena and Serene herself who found herself to be more attached to Nue than others since she was the same age and yet so strong. ¡°Search around the area, make sure there is no surprises hidden away¡± ordered Sain. At this point, there was literally no one else in a 300 metre radius of the Tower. There was no need for that many people to guard this place with the Turrets and the Turrets did not react to Nue even when she chopped whatever guards into pieces. The rest of the group quickly split up at the entrance of the Tower and went inside at different directions to see what was around on the first floor. Theoretically this would be one of the most heavily guarded places but there was no guard or Turret in sight. ¡°What do I do now?¡± Nue asked Sain considering that he was the leader here and the fact that he didn''t signal her to leave to search around as well. ¡°....¡± Sain thought of several plans but the main goal was to get rid of everyone who was an enemy in the Tower and save those siblings and others that were trapped at the bottom of it, hidden away for some reason he did not know. ¡°Go in the Tower, clear it out. Kill anyone who looks like an enemy and quickly to make sure they don''t escape¡± said Sain. ¡°Then...¡± Nue pointed at the Tower that was over 50 metres tall, ¡°Can I chop that in half?¡± ¡°....¡± Sain was momentarily stunned at the suggestion but still considered it. How would the Tower fall down? What would happen to the people inside of it? But according to the information he found, the siblings were trapped at the bottom of the Tower not the top. ¡°Cut it at the middle and make sure it falls at where Eart is¡± said Sain, he was not taking a chance that the Tower would fall down and crush anything under it rather than fall to the side. ¡°Got it.¡± Nue nodded to the order and started to jump on the side of the Tower, using her string to propel herself up higher and higher rapidly. ¡°What is she doing?¡± asked Lyndis who walked over, not knowing the conversation they had after coming back. ¡°Cutting the Tower in half¡± replied Sain before asking, ¡°What''s the situation inside?¡± ¡°Cutting the what? The inside of the first floor is completely empty, there''s nothing in there. No people, not even turrets to defend them at all¡± Lyndis replied while looking up at Nue who continued to climb higher. Thinking of what Lyndis said, Sain considered that those at the Tower did not believe that anyone could breach this far in. Because of it, the so called series of Turrets that could take down a dragon did not even fire at them once. It looked like no one was paying attention to what was happening at the outside at all. Eventually some of the rest of the group returned all saying there was nothing inside at all. They would need to climb higher to search through the Tower but Sain had them stay here. ¡°What''s going on?¡± asked Miriel though then looked up to see Nue rapidly running horizontally on the wall of the Tower where it is the thinnest. ¡°Amazing...¡± muttered Serena seeing this kind of skill. ¡°Wow, I can''t believe someone can move like that in 3 dimensional space like that¡± said Shadow in praise for once. A dozen loops later, all of a sudden a great CRACK sound was heard and then a loud BANG sound was further heard with Nue kicking the side of the Tower making it fall in a certain direction. Fuuuuuuussssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh!!! The tip of the Tower that was cut at the 25 metre point fell from the skies and down onto the 20 metre tall Gundam machine monster. '' BAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!
A large number of corrupt officials of Shia city had been killed, progress on quest has increased
¡°....¡± While the others looked at what happened in shock, Sain read this message and frowned. This meant there were more people they had to kill to finish this quest? And with the Tower collapsing like that, they would all want to run away. However Eden or someone else from the guild or Kingdom would notice this and have the surrounding area guarded. Plus there was Hale with his resistance forces and the rest of the residents that will now probably cooperate with them now. Sain would not let this city be freed just yet in order to complete the guild quest. He didn''t care how long it took or what methods he needed to use to complete it. Then, Lyndis while dragging Raven along shouted to Sain saying, ¡°Hey I found something!¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± Sain looked over as Lyndis dragged the rest of the group with her. Eventually they went through the modern looking corridors to to an isolated door with several locks and chains on it. ¡°This looks to be the place right?¡± asked Lyndis. ¡°Good work¡± said Sain looking to Shadow and asked him, ¡°Do you hav-¡± ¡°No I don''t have a pickpocketing skill¡± Shadow interrupted when replying to Sain who was probably thinking that Shadow should have this skill. He was an assassin! He didn''t need to pick locks to begin with! ¡°Looks like we need to break in¡± said Miriel with a sigh to Shadow''s attitude. She chanted to fire off some ''Mana Bolts'' onto the locks and chains and broke most of them with a couple of shots. ¡°This is taking too long¡± said Lyndis pushing Miriel aside. With a slight run, Lyndis did a jump kick to the iron door. BANG! And smashed through it landing on one knee going through the door, knocking it down in the process. Without a word, Sain followed in with Lyndis and started looking around. This place was dimly lit and there was a lot of dust here like this place was forgotten. ¡°....¡± The group all frowned and found that it looked like this place was abandoned...intentionally. ¡°Let''s search around¡± said Sain noting that the chances of those siblings being alive...was dramatically getting lower right now. After some minor searching, they found some stairs and walked down. Looking around, this place was some sort of prison and in the cells were... ¡°People? They aren''t moving...look pale and aren''t breathing....¡± said Miriel after inspecting one of them. Sain simply nodded and continued walking ahead as the others searched through the cells one by one. Eventually he found two siblings next to each other like they were in sleep, chained together. They looked somewhat like Aria but were really thin and pale. ¡°....¡± He broke open the cell and checked their vitals. ¡°Heartbeats....breathing? They''re alive?¡±
You have found Aria''s siblings, but they are in dire state and are about to die
Sain was shocked and quickly checked their health. It was quite low, on the verge of being critical due to a lack of food and water. ¡°Moderate Heal!¡± Sain chanted using the spell twice along with ''Minor Heal'' to keep them alive. It was strange but healing spells were able to sustain a person a bit even if their hunger levels were rock bottom. Sain quickly took out some breath and broke it into small pieces and forced them to ingest it with a canteen of water each. ¡°I''ve found those siblings! They''re alive but barely! Serena, I need you to cast your regenerative spells on them!¡± Sain shouted back to the others. Serena''s regeneration spells would counter any health decrease that may occur. She quickly did so and Lyndis and Raven carried one of the siblings in their arms. ¡°Now to get them back to Aria¡± said Lyndis a bit tear eyed seeing that these two managed to survive after so long. ¡°Right, me and Serena will continue to heal them...Miriel make sure they eat some more¡± said Sain handing over the bread and canteen of water to her, ¡°So they won''t starve to death. Our healing spells are useless if they die from starvation.¡± Even if healing spells temporary halt death via starvation, it in the end would be too powerful and would take them in the end with certainty. And with that, the group and Nue left to meet back with Aria. Completing the C rank Guild Quest would come after. xXx At the same time... ¡°Earth Eruption!¡± A crater of earth exploded outwards revealing a person who had survived having a tower being dropped on him. Even though that giant Gundam machine monster was destroyed, he still lived! ¡°Where is everyone?¡± But he had to ask that question. He had no idea on where the others were and that he was forgotten. xXx ¡°That...!¡± Aria looked in shock at the two people in the arms of Lyndis and Raven and immediately ran up to them. With tears in her eyes she continuously said, ¡°Thank you, thank you¡± to us.
You have completed the quest: Find the Lost Siblings - You have levelled up x2 - You have gained 100 Fame
With this, they had levelled up to level 215. After a whole six months, half of that was spent in this city and thus they didn''t gain that much in terms of experience with them not hunting monsters for a long time. ¡°Okay, we need to prepare to complete this Guild Quest, everyone, gather information on the state of the city¡± ordered Sain to which everyone left Aria to be with her siblings. Right now, Sain was- ¡°Hmm?¡± ¡°Yo¡± said Eden via a message all of a sudden, ¡°I''ve found the spy.¡± ¡°I see¡± Sain started looking around, there were several people around right now that were culprits. Personally he was thinking that Hale was the spy though this news kinda dampened the joy of siblings finding each other again. ¡°Who is it?¡± asked Sain to Eden via a message. ¡°After a long study of every person that could it possibility be, I''ve narrowed it down to several people and in fact it was near impossible to find the Little Droplet spy since there was so little to go on. However I have found that a person exchanged for being a spy...¡± Sain was shocked on what Eden said afterwards. He felt betrayed, that person played them as a fool. All along, now that he thought about it, that person was quite suspicious. Every action had malice intent behind them. Every word was one that made sure that person did it''s duty to Little Droplet. All along, that person was to not be trusted no matter what. Sain drew his spear and raised his hand gathering mana. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± He fired seven magic arrows.....at Aria. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Three of the Magic Arrows hit with four of them missing due to his rage. She dared betray them, no she was a traitor from the very beginning! Making sure that they could not take tail to Little Droplet! She sold thousands of lives to be tortured! Even if it was for her siblings, they almost died as well! No, it was more probably that she sold them out as well to lead them here, to trap them! Aria coughed up blood after she was blown away from the attack. Several people turned their heads seeing what was going on but Sain didn''t care. Aria started to try and crawl away from Sain. From where her siblings were. ¡°Ha!¡± Her true intents were revealed on near death. She didn''t care of them, anyone but herself! She a person was a danger to the group. DANGERS WERE TO BE EXTERMINATED!!! ¡°I wondered how those siblings survived in a near death state when everyone else we found were death for days. I wondered how we found information of them in the first place where you directed us. And I wondered why the organisation [Little Droplet] who created this damn situation in this city in the first place escaped the city exactly the moment we came!¡± Saying those words, Sain no longer hesitated in his decision. Such a person could not be forgiven. Standing above her crawling and injured body, Sain stood there like a God of Death to her. She needed to die. ¡°Die!¡± His spear that was beautiful and clear was strained with blood as he stabbed her in the neck, killing her instantly.
You have killed a [Little Droplet] spy! - Contribution Points to Kingdom increased by 500
When that message flashed before him, Sain knew he was right and smiled. He was quite happy that this hole was plugged now though he had no idea on what to do with those siblings. Well he had to figure it out later. ¡°SAIN!¡± But first he turned to see Lyndis angered and charging at him shouting: ¡°WHY THE HELL DID YOU KILL HER!!!¡± Her sword was drawn covered in flames as in a matter of a second, she moved next to him and slashed down. BANG!
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 12000~ - Maaaaaan that took way to long to write, it went all the way to 27 pages as well. Guess that means a bit more to read... - I think I did find on what Sain was thinking when...both sides of him clashed when thinking of what to do and deciding on what he needed to do. Tomorrow, I''ll write up the epilogue to this cliffhanger ending... - Two reasons why this took longer than expected. One, I was reading and watching anime a lot and two I wrote a story for the valentine day''s contest thing which stopped me writing on this chapter for a while. Vol.7 Epilogue - Where they Part ¡°WHY THE HELL DID YOU KILL HER!!!¡± Her sword was drawn covered in flames as in a matter of a second, she moved next to him and slashed down. BANG! However Sain expected her attack the moment she started to charge at him. She was always hotheaded and true to her feelings, something that made him irritated when she ignored his orders and the past but at the same time made her likeable as a person. Sain slipped through her first attack which hit the ground. Her Katana was quite powerful, even more so than his spear in pure power, if he were hit... A second attack came with the sword rebounding off the ground to him once again. This time he could not dodge...but... Clang! Sain had used his spear to block the attack perfectly. Timing and strength to the exact moment were required to block Lyndis who had twice the strength he did which was only possible since he knew everyone''s strengths and weaknesses to heart. If he could not do that, how could he lead them? Both weapons grinded against each other as Lyndis pushed forward and Sain not backing off. ¡°She was our friend! She needed up to help her! She was weak and defenceless! So why the hell did you kill her?!¡± From the looks of things, flames were coming out of Lyndis'' body. This was either two things. One was the skill ''Life Burn'' which did that or the more frightening ability of her ''Genesis Flame'' which allowed her to use a similar effect without the same costs. However Lyndis'' health was decreasing which meant she was using the first thankfully. First he needed to take some distance else he would not be able to dodge the flames at this range. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± he chanted sticking his hand in her direction and fired. Several tens of shots fired though from this range, it was easy to dodge with enough speed. Another clash ensured with Sain taking some damage from the flames though they were on a low level. Thus he decided to talk to Lyndis at least. To make her see her wrong. ¡°She was not our friend but an enemy. She did not need us to help her, she used us for her goals. She was a spy for [Little Droplet] and endangered us all. That was why I killed her!¡± he said in a shout at the end. He activated D.B Enchanting and poured his Intelligence and Wisdom stats into his Strength and Agility stats and whacked Lyndis away with strength that surprised her. Right now, aside from her use of fire as a weapon, he was even with her. However he noticed she was shaking...in anger now. ¡°IS THAT WHAT LIES YOU CAME UP WITH?!¡± she shouted now using ''Boost'' and activating ''Genesis Flame'' as well. With a curse he did the same and used ''Boost'' along with his ''All Knowing Eyes'' as well. ¡°BURN!¡± A great inferno of a fireball appeared in front of Lyndis and threatened to melt everything away as it came close to it. At this range, he could no escape. He silently cursed as he activated D.B Echanting and poured all of his stats save Vitality, Endurance and Stamina into Agility and sprint away to the side. He barely did not make it with the giant fireball that was the size of a building coming up and about to consume him. ¡°Barrier Queen Art: Flow Diverting Barrier!¡± With that shout, all of a sudden the fireball that was about to consume him went around him like he wasn''t even there. It quickly disappeared as it passed through as well. It looked like Lyndis did not want to do any damage to the surrounding area and prevented it from exploding. However Lyndis screamed, ¡°Miriel! Why the hell are you helping him?!¡± seeing that Miriel protected me. ¡°Why the hell did you attack Sain all of a sudden?!¡± Miriel shouted back, it looked like she was prepared to attack Lyndis at any moment. Soon enough, the rest of the group came seeing there was a fight going on, though they did not expect it to be with Sain and Lyndis of all things. ¡°What''s going on?¡± asked Shadow looking around as well. He too was shocked that Lyndis would attack Sain. Serena then asked, ¡°Why did you attack Sain?¡± ¡°....¡± However Lyndis was silent on the matter but only pointed to the corpse of Aria. ¡°That''s...¡± A combination of Miriel, Shadow and Serena gasped seeing her dead all of a sudden, only after she was reunited with her siblings. Even Raven was frowning right now as they all looked to Sain. ¡°....¡± However, like Lyndis, Sain refused to say anything on this matter. But he did say, ¡°There are a lot of things to be explained. So much that a few words cannot summarise them.¡± ¡°You mean what I am feeling towards you right now?¡± asked Lyndis sarcastically, ¡°Hate, Disappointment, Disgust? Indeed a few words cannot say what I really feel like now.¡± It looked like she calmed down for the most part but those words really stung him, after all he did for her. ¡°You know what pisses me off the most? The fact that you are calm. You were so calm when you killed her. So calm when I attacked you. Even now you are so calm like it all doesn''t even matter to you¡± she said in a strained tone that was already breaking down, about to betray her feelings on all of this. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°....¡± ¡°Look, why are you so silent? You don''t even want to defend yourself, how can I even trust you now?¡± she asked to which Miriel could only say, ¡°Lyndis..¡± in response. This kind of thing should not fall into the ears of others thus she already casted ''Muffletone'' around them. ¡°Let me ask you all this¡± said Sain suddenly causing the rest of them to react in different ways, ¡°How much do you know about me? After 4 Years in this game how much?¡± ¡°....¡± No one was about respond to that question Sain asked them. He looked at Shadow and Miriel first. ¡°I know that Shadow, you are a person who fears to be forgotten, how could you not making those remarks for that purpose. How you fight, express yourself and act are all based around this lone fact that you don''t want to be alone. I also know that despite the coldness Miriel showed us, she is warm and kind inside to the point where she strains herself finding information that may be useful to us. All her efforts were on supporting everyone as best she could.¡± Next he turned to Raven and Serena. ¡°I know that inside and without talking, Raven you are in fact afraid of a lot of things and your kindness stems from there. Even your anger issue that has finally calmed down a bit as well. Serena, you are one of the most determined people I have ever met, working hard to overcome your fear. You will definitely be a strong person one day.¡± He finally looked at Lyndis who looked all shocked right now. ¡°I know that Lyndis, you are a hard worker making up what you lack with hard work. How you are hotheaded and decisive around your emotions is your greatest gift and greatest fault. You are unable to look pass something you are set to see. That is why you missed what Aria did from that first moment you went to save her.¡± And now he looked at all of them at once. ¡°Now what do you all know about me? After all this time I know all of you, but do you know me?¡± he asked them once again. ¡°I...¡± Lyndis looked at him conflicted shaking her head, ¡°Don''t know you...¡± Everyone took a glance at her but Sain knew what was going about in their hearts about him. The kind natured, good willed and trusting man to a fault was a lie. Even if they did not see it, even if they did not wish to see it, it was still a lie. ¡°I cannot stay with you anymore¡± Lyndis finally shaking her head unsure on many things right now.
Lyndis has left the party
With that, she started walking away...one...two...three...more footsteps followed her as well.
Serena has left the party
Raven has left the party
Shadow has left the party
And with three messages that confirmed what had happened. He in the end took one last glance at them and then turn around not looking at Miriel and back to the city. ¡°We still have work to do. We need to clear out this city of any enemies to the Kingdom and finish the Guild Quest. The others will get experience and contribution even if they have left¡± he said to Miriel in a neutral tone, hiding anything, everything away now. Miriel did not blink or say anything but nod to his words. Since back then, she decided on one thing. She would stay by his side no matter what, even if that path would ruin him. She would not allow him to suffer alone. ¡°....¡± Sain looked up in the skies that were so clear. So why did it feel like raining? ¡°Ahh....in the end they could not accept it...¡± He let those words out hiding the pain he was in now. Everything would be all right in the end. But could he be allowed back into that? Before that, how more could he endure in this world where even now he would not be accepted by those he protected?
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - This took way to long to write for reasons simply because I spent most of the time today reading and not writing Vol.8 Prologue - Lost and Alone As she walked away from that city, three sets of footsteps followed behind her. Right now she did not care about who was following her, she was too confused on too many matters. First was, why did Sain kill Aria? He said she was not their friend but their enemy. She did not attack them, how could she be an enemy? The first time she had seen Aria was when she was being chased some 6 months ago. She needed our help, for her siblings as well. How could someone who only wanted to save her siblings use them!? Everything else he said must have been an excuse. A spy? Like hell such a person like Aria could be one! Second was, why was he so calm in everything? Only rarely did he ever be angry, heck agitated when things were going on. All those times, he was fine for him to be angry. But so many times more did he not be angry. Like the time she charged in and almost got them all killed by attracting too many monsters. He did not get angry then. ¡°Lyn...¡± Like the time she unintentionally killed those men chasing after Aria, he was calm in telling her to calm down as well when he bound her with his spell. He did not get angry there. ¡°Lynd...¡± The only rare time she could think of with Sain getting angry was a long time ago when she unintentionally spend too much money on food which caused Miriel and him... ¡°Lyndis!¡± A voice behind her awakened her from her thoughts and at the same time causing her to turn around to see the three people that followed her in the end. She noticed that Miriel was not among them. The one who called her, Serena asked worryingly, ¡°Are you okay? You look pale and were muttering things without responding to us.¡± Lyndis felt an urge to pat her head and to say everything was all right but couldn''t. ¡°We were worried that you were going crazy¡± said Shadow who didn''t even looked one shade worried about her. Her mouth pouted slightly seeing him of all things here. ¡°I''m surprised that you of all things came with me. Weren''t you and...Sain close?¡± she asked him though she was still no done over thinking about Sain. Shadow let out a ¡°Pa¡± sound and said, ¡°Rather than spend the next few months cleaning every corner of that city almost literally, I rather go somewhere unknown and exciting with you being all lost and such.¡± Lyndis frowned hearing this. How much did this guy want to piss her off? But her thoughts fell onto the words Sain said about him. How he did not want to be forgotten. Lyndis somehow produced some sympathy thanks to that even though she did not want this to be due to Sain as well. As such she asked, ¡°How the hell am I lost? All I did was leave.¡± ¡°And three people followed you all worried¡± he replied with a smug look on his face, ¡°Aren''t you lucky there are so many considerable people around you? After you without warning attacked Sain. Blamed Sain for everything and left without explaining everything and pushing it all on him.¡± ¡°....Want me to hit you?¡± Right now Lyndis was enduring so much in not punching this freak of a mouth breather. ¡°Anyway it looks like Serena wants to say something to you so I''ll shut up for now¡± said Shadow moving and pulling Serena in front of him as some sort of shield. Lyndis resisted the urge to draw her sword and cut him down right away. Isn''t this what Sain implied to say to her? Even though he was beating around the bush quite a bit, in all he was saying that her actions caused trouble. Grinding her teeth she could not believe to think he was right at all! But drawing now would prove him right but not would be listening to him! ¡°Lyndis?¡± asked Serena again seeing that Lyndis was deep in thought and in conflict there as well, ¡°You have to let it go. Sain only meant well.¡± ¡°WELL?!¡± Lyndis snapped hearing those words come out of Serena''s mouth and shouted, ¡°HOW CAN KILLING SOMETHING HE DIDN''T EVEN KNOW WAS GUILTY BE HIM MEANING WELL?!¡± At the same time she grabbed onto Serena in the spur of the moment which shocked her and scared her greatly. ¡°Let go of her or I will remove you even if Sain decided not to¡± said Shadow calmly. His blade was stuck next to her neck as he tried to pull Serena away from her. Seeing this, seeing that bastard being the one to protect her from HERSELF of all things... ¡°Ah...sorry...¡± Lyndis backed away not sure on what to do now. She had already pushed two people away with her actions though three followed and now she was doing the same to the rest of them. She was feeling like there was something inside of her cracking now. Her mask was coming apart. Her fears were coming out. She did not want to be like Sain. Only that it hit her. She did not know what to do, Sain did all of that for her. All she did was hitch a ride that he maintained. She was not like Sain, he was above her who did not know what to do. ¡°What the hell am I doing? I''m like a lost child here...¡± she muttered to herself holding back her tears of frustration with her hands forcefully. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Don''t cry on my account¡± said Shadow. Even though her eyes were covered, she could still see that extremely irritable face of his and simply said, ¡°I don''t know what to do. I don''t know what Sain wanted to do. And now I don''t know how to know what to do¡± instead of hitting him. This made those three extremely worried about her now. She was unstable and was prone to do anything right now. ¡°The answer is to ask¡± said Raven in his rare words of wisdom. Lyndis was so shocked that Raven actually talked to her that she immediately removed her hands from her face and looked at him in surprise. However she realised she did not want to ask. She did not want others to tell her what to do as well since she never did that before. She did not want to take away their will or freedom for her own sake. Was this what Sain felt? Why was she sympathising with someone who murdered a friend of hers? Did she care too little of Aria or did she just needed an excuse to leave all this time? She did not know. But she did know one thing. She was running away again. She did not want to face their expectations. She could not answer their expectations. She did not want to feel that again. But what did she want? ¡°Lyndis, it''s becoming night quickly. We should hurry somewhere¡± said Shadow. He noticed that it was becoming night quickly. Serena nodded and also said, ¡°We need to get to a safe place to rest when night comes.¡± Words had opinions. Now that she was leading them though not in her will, those opinions were placed on her. Like what she did with Sain all the same. Like he was forced to be leader on day one by Miriel. How could he endure this feeling when one wrong move could make others lose trust in you through their expectations? Lyndis was afraid. She was afraid of leading other people now. Four years ago in this game it may have been fine since they were all new and could figure something out. But now it wasn''t; they all grew stronger, knew good from bad and Sain was on the good side on leading them while she was not. She had depended on Sain too much. Her mind was slipping on what she should do to make right with others. Before she could see the intent of others. Now there were shadows on their faces, unknown shadows that scared her. What if they thought she was selfish, a liar, a monster that used other people for her own gain? Could she endure those looks again? ¡°No...¡± She shook her head. Being with other people was bad right now. Everyone was a stranger right now. She could not even trust herself right now, how could she trust others. She never once opened her heart completely to them but they, Sain at least saw through some of her already. If they dig deeper than she would see what was inside of her as well. She at least needed to make sure she knew who she still was in the end. The issue with Aria...the issue with Sain, she would investigate it herself. Whether Sain was lying or not, whether his intents were good or not and where his true goal lies. She made a small vow to at least find out who was Sain. She did not trust him...or anyone else right now....so she wanted to know at least first. Then..whether he was right or she was right did not matter. Only by her own efforts would she find what she was looking for. And only by her own efforts would she see where Sain''s motives, actions and thoughts led him. Yes, only her efforts never betrayed her. She needed to be calm right now and think this all through. ¡°You can return to Sain and Miriel. I''m going alone¡± she said to the three people that stood there shocked at her words. She looked over to the forest nearby. There would be a good place to at least allow her to collect her thoughts as well to get stronger than before. Other people will just interfere. She did not need other people. ¡°Don''t follow me or I will cut you down¡± she threatened them before leaving them. She needed to be alone again. The warmth she felt with the others was gone. There was only endless coldness from being with them now.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Lots of things I want to say but most of them are spoilers. This volume much to some people disliking Lyndis, is going to be mainly about her. My goal? To break her. Things had been going too well for the group and I have a long way to go till the end. Frankly I need to build of the other characters in the group since Sain had been getting too much attention. - I have a feeling I need to put the mature tag on later due to this volume though... Vol.8 Chapter 1 - Weakness ¡°So...what do we do now?¡± asked Serena to the tall and yet thin and almost invisible man and the similarly tall handsome man with no expression. They had left Sain leaving Miriel with her and now Lyndis left them leaving her with only these two. She felt that she could not return to Sain and Miriel right now. That would mean her resolve was only to that level. Plus she was more worried that Lyndis decided on something rashly again to leave them like that. ¡°Well I''m going to follow her¡± said Shadow calmly with a shrug. His laid back attitude made Serena shocked and prompted her to ask, ¡°Aren''t you worried about her?¡± ¡°That is why I said I''m going to follow her¡± he said as if it was obvious. Lyndis was was emotionally unstable right now. She had a fight with Sain and left. That sounded so simple but she must have felt extremely hurt to the point she could not stay there. Thus Serena worried seeing that Lyndis was hurt. Raven most likely followed for that reason as well. But Shadow did not look like he was worried about Lyndis at all. In fact he looked amused of her being hurt and yet annoyed that he sticking near her. ¡°Why are you here?¡± Serena asked him. ¡°Why not?¡± he asked with a smile in return. Before she was scared of him...and frankly a lot of people. But now, Lyndis was hurt and she would not let it become worst due to Shadow! ¡°Why are you here?¡± she asked again with a determined look on her face. If he was not going to tell this time...she would use ''other'' methods. ¡°Because Sain wanted me here¡± he answered with a grin seeing my shocked expression right now and continuing to do so saying, ¡°I''m on orders here so I can''t leave her.¡± This man...Serena once again...no rather finally understood why Miriel and Lyndis hated him. He played on others feelings for his own amusement. How could such a person be accepted by both Sain and Raven? Both were kind despite what the former just did. Serena could tell on how he treated everyone gently making sure no harm came down on them when he could. Someone who had such gentle eyes could not be what Lyndis thought he was. ¡°Why did Sain want you here?¡± she asked. ¡°Don''t know, maybe he expected this a few months ago? Or he just wanted me to keep an eye on her. Well if it helps, he was partly my responsibility that Aria died as well since I told Eden and not Sain of what I heard her say.¡± ¡°What?¡± She could not understand what he was saying. ¡°Aria was indeed the spy, there is no doubt about that but would Sain really kill a person that might have some guilt in them or when they were not at fault?¡± Shadow let out a small laugh. Serena was gripping her staff right now and looked at Raven who did not. It really looked like Raven either knew or did not care. ¡°But I bet the real reason he gave me this troublesome order was that he was worried about her and....that I would follow it either way¡± he let out a sad smile which was completely different from the one before followed up by a sad laugh that Sain figured him out. Serena was even tempted to think that Shadow was worried about Lyndis. Except that he was really good at acting to the point she doubt even Sain could tell what his true intentions were. She had no idea where his feelings lied at all. ¡°That reminds me, what happened to that shy and timid act you always had on?¡± Shadow asked mocking her again. ¡°....¡± ¡°Or is it that you don''t need to use that act anymore?¡± asked Shadow once again. ¡°There is no need to hold my words back on you. That''s all¡± Serena replied. She got along with Miriel and Lyndis. However she hated Shadow enough that it had the same effect on her speech with him. Then there was Raven who she really didn''t talk to. Without him talking back, there was no reason for her to be nervous around him. But then there was finally Sain...unfortunately Serena was not that close to him. Thus with him, that shy and timid Serena would come out even when she did not want to. ¡°That''s quite harsh. You hate me that much eh? Well I don''t really care as long as my objective is in sight. What should we do now Miss not shy and timid Serena?¡± asked Shadow one finally time with a grin. ¡°In that case...¡± said Serena determined to figure him out later on, ¡°Shall she follow Lyndis for now?¡± xXx Lyndis continued to walk. She did not hear footsteps behind her which really meant that they were not following her. Now that she thought about it, they hadn''t been following her from the beginning. It had been a while since she went into this forest to the point that it had been almost exactly 4 years since she started this game with the others and it had been a few days since she entered the forest though there seemed to be no end to it. ¡°Where should I go...?¡± she wondered looking around. She did not know where she was, where to go and was in a forest right now. Was there any other words but lost that could describe her situation right now? Such a pathetic thing for her to be in after all this time. Rustle Rustle. It was then that she heard of something coming. Drawing her Katana immediately, she was ready to cut anything down. It looked like her training alone would start already. Becoming stronger was one of her goals and she would not like anything interfere with that at least. ¡°Come out and face me already!¡± She was quite impatient. The reason was that when she fought, she would focus everything on fighting and nothing more. Thoughts on anything would be suppressed which was a good thing for her right now. However what came out was not a monster. ¡°Huh?¡± But a child, injured and was running away from something. ¡°Waaaa!¡± The child who she noticed was a young boy in some plain clothes covered in blood and with cuts all over the place. There was this one large cut on his forehead as well. Catching him, the child looked around frightened until he saw Lyndis. ¡°Help me!¡± he shouted but before he and Lyndis could say another word, a wolf came out of nowhere. It was large and its fangs were covered in blood, this child''s blood. Thus Lyndis'' blood also boiled seeing that this creature would dare harm a child. She had enough of people dying already and thus was not going to hold back on protecting this child at least. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± she shouted forming a spear of fire and shooting it at the wolf. The wolf could not even react due to the speed and power of the attack and perished immediately, turning into ash in one blow. That wolf was at best level 50 while Lyndis was four times it''s level. This kind of result was only natural. Even a single strike from her sword could kill this wolf in one shot. ¡°It''s okay now, the wolf is dead¡± she said to the boy. However there was still a hint of fear in the boy''s eyes. ¡°Please help me!¡± he shouted pleading to Lyndis. ¡°....¡± Lyndis frowned, was this the start of a new quest? ¡°My parents were captured by a troll with the rest of my village! They''re in a cave nearby...you have to save them before they get eaten!¡± the boy shouted crying.
Save the Parents of the Child A child had come to you requesting you to save his parents after showing your power to him. The enemy is a troll that had kidnapped an entire village only to eat them one by one. Kill the troll, save the parents and any other survivors. Quest Rank: E Restrictions: Must save the parents before the troll eats them Reward: Unknown
¡°I accept¡± she accepted the quest without hesitation. It was only one foe and plus it was an E rank quest.
You have accepted the quest
Since she accepted the quest now, she needed to go all the way. Plus as someone who had a the class called Flame Samurai, she could not not help other people in need. However there was one basic problem first... ¡°Where is the cave?¡± she asked looking around and yet not seeing a cave. ¡°I''ll show you..¡± said the boy though he was already shaking of the thought of being near that place. Seeing this, Lyndis felt some sympathy to this boy. She patted him on the head gently and said in a assuring voice, ¡°Don''t worry. Everything will be all right.¡± The boy nodded seeing the confidence that Lyndis was showing. The amount of strength that Lyndis showed him, frying a wolf that almost killed him in an instant made him think that she would be the one to help him. Soon enough, the boy guided Lyndis to the cave. ¡°....¡± There was this oppressive feeling coming from the entrance that made even her to consider on whether to go in at all. However the though of fighting came into her head again. To fight, to forget that was what mattered right now. ¡°Is it in here?¡± she asked to which the boy nodded. ¡°Wait here¡± she said starting to walk into the cave but stopped and returned to the boy saying, ¡°Make sure you hide from any enemies. I don''t want to return with your parents to only find you were dead.¡± ¡°Okay big sis¡± the boy nodded and ran off into the bushes, to hide. With that done, she entered the cave this time. The first thought she had with it was that it was dark. Really dark to the point she couldn''t even see anything a few metres in already. However she had a way to counter this. ¡°Pocket Fireball¡± she chanted creating a small ball of fire that really had no use but to light small fires and light up dark places. She let it hover a bit further in front of her to show her the place. Looking around, though there wasn''t much, there weren''t any enemies around. ¡°Be wary, there may be enemies around where you aren''t looking even if they don''t attack you.¡± Sain''s words of wisdom was stuck in her head after so much. It pissed her off that even now, he was ''with'' her with his advise even if it was a good one. Was the troll the only enemy? She had hoped so since this darkness was dangerous enough for her to consider even backing out to get some supplies like torches to light the way. ¡°What am I joking, I''m a fire user so I am literally a torch here¡± he laughed at that thought. There was no one to counter her words or thoughts right now. ¡°Supplies are necessary since one person or a group of people cannot do everything.¡± Once again Sain''s words were in her mind. She should have asked for directions for a nearby village or town first even if there was a time limit on this quest. If she died...well she would die and just that. There was no penalty except for lost time for her upon dying now. ¡°Dying even though there is less penalty than other is-¡± ¡°Shut up!¡± She banged her head on the wall to get ''him'' out of her mind. His words filled with wisdom were like poison due to recent events. She did not want to follow him anymore. And so the words never came back. ¡°...Hahahahaaahaaha!¡± What she was feeling was freedom from so many things. She could not express how happy she was to be alone. No more need to be friendly, no more need to consider her relationship with others. Now all she had to do was kill the troll and save those parents and return to the child with them. How simple was that? There was little planning it was so straightforward that even a child could tell. She would complete this quest and move on, like so many things right now. This would be a good distraction for her. xXx ¡°What is with this smell...rotting flesh?¡± she wondered though she could not find the source of it. This cave was one path only so the source must be deeper in. She walked in for around 10 minutes but this cave already seemed endless. Eventually she reached the end of the cave. Her health was naturally at 100% but her mana levels through using ''Pocket Fireball'' so much was reduced to 90%. However she was still in top shape or so she thinks to face this monster. ¡°Come out you big ugly thing! You better not have eaten those parents that I need to save!¡± she shouted trying to provoke that troll to come out. If it were Sain, perhaps he would have laid a trap first. But that was the act of a coward. Fighting head on, without mercy, without fear was her style. The walls of the cave rumbled. The ground as well. The troll was here...and was very large. ¡°Wow.¡± Sitting at almost 4 metres tall, this was one of the larger creatures she had to face. Most of them were at best 3 metres tall with few exceptions. However the most important thing right now was that there were two figures it was holding in it''s hands. Lyndis bet that those were the parents she needed to save. ¡°Hohohoho, little human. Little female human. Good to eat, good to eat!¡± the troll cried in happiness to see her. As a man eater, it found eating females humans much better than males. It immediately threw away both people in it hands and prepared to capture her as well. Those two people did not move even though they were thrown aside like that... She hoped they were still alive... ¡°Let''s do this!¡± she shouted drawing her sword, ¡°Fire Bl-¡± BANG! She was sent flying back with a punch she did not see. What was going on? Was the troll that fast?
You took 444 damage
She had a total of around 8800 health by being at level 215. She had just lost 5% of her health which was not a big deal but what surprised her was that she was hit without her realising it. What was going on? It didn''t matter, such a thing could not happen if she was right next to this troll. Larger creatures have more trouble attacking what is next to them than smaller creatures. ¡°Hohohoho, slow human.¡± The troll sent out another punch, but this time Lyndis reacted and spun out of the way. BANG! She barely dodged it even though it was a simple punch. Was it because of her not being able to see right? She needed to brighten this place up. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± she shouted sending a spear of fire at the troll. She aimed at the face of that monster. The giant beast used its arms to block the attack and flames shattered around the place. Lyndis thought of it as strong right now considering it took on her attack like that. ¡°Flame Strike! Flame Strike!¡± she fired off another two rounds but both of them were blocked as well. However with the attack allowed her to see due to the remains of the flames being all over the place and then allowed her to realise something. The troll in front of her was completely covered in dry blood and bits of rotted flesh! What the hell was going on here, how many people did it eat and for how long as well! ¡°Pitiful flammmmmeeee!!!¡± The troll laughed leaping at Lyndis and slammed its hands down on her. BANG! She dodged this attack, it seemed her agility was high enough to not get hit yet but the entire cave trembled to the impact. ¡°This troll is definitely strong...the rotting smell comes all the people it ate...¡± she muttered. It was time to get serious since she definitely needed to save both those parents and she didn''t think she could carry both of them away at the same time. Using ''Speed Stance'', Lyndis was 50% faster and moved quickly in between the legs of the troll. ¡°Fire Blade! Power Strike!¡± she shouted as she swung to hit the legs. She missed with the troll jumping in the air and then kicking her deeper into the cave. It looked like it didn''t intend to let her escape. BANG!
You took 1732 damage
She was knocked back shamefully like that and didn''t even get one proper hit in. From just looking at both sides, you could tell who was superior to the other. ¡°DAMMMMNNNNN YOOOOOOOU BOOST!¡±
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Lion'' is now active. ''Genesis Flame'' is now active.
Her body covered in flames, the entire section of the cave lit up brightly causing the troll to cover it''s view of her in fear of blindness from the sudden light. ¡°BUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRNNNNNNNN!!!!¡± In rage now, Lyndis sent out flame after flame at the troll making it seem like a series of flame-throwers were being shot at once at the troll. However it looked like her flames had little to no effect on the troll. ¡°What?! Impossible!¡± she shouted seeing the troll fine after taking a direct series of hits from her flames. Even a Boss Monster of level 250 was threatened by it thus she could not believe that a mere troll could not be harmed by it. However what Lyndis did not know was that a troll''s regeneration was truly frightening. It''s high speed regeneration was so fast that sword wounds would in mere seconds close up. What''s more is that their muscles were extremely tough as well. Mere flames that could only start by burning the skin would heal even faster than sword wounds, almost instantaneously. Thus only truly powerful flames over a long period or dense flames could harm it properly. But Lyndis did not know this, all she knew was her flames were useless. Plus there was a good chance she would kill the mother while attacking with flames this intense as well. ¡°Weak fire, weak fire!¡± the troll chanted angering her even more. ¡°But I still have my sword! Flame Coating!¡± she screamed as she charged head on covering her body in a protective flame barrier. If the troll even got near her, it would be burnt. Another fist came at her which she had to blend in a difficult position to dodge. There was no point in not using all her skills right now. It was foolish enough she realised to even hold back against this monster that she found strong. ¡°Dancing Dragon Art: Fourth Slash!¡± she shouted the name of the skill allowing it to activate. All of a sudden, Lyndis'' body blurred and turned into several illusions that attacked the troll on all sides. However this was merely an illusion and there was only one true body in the end. Unfortunately, another thing that Lyndis did not realise was that everything in the cave smelled like rotting flesh but she did not. The troll''s sense of smell was enough to allow it to track her down. BANG! A giant fist hit her stomach unexpectedly for her.
Critical Hit!
You took 2509 damage
The damage she took was doubled due to the attack she did not predict to happen and thus her health fell to below half now. ¡°This is bad...¡± She didn''t get a proper hit in and yet she was getting trashed. She held her stomach with her left hand as she pointed her sword in her right hand. She felt that her legs were about to give in right now. But she could still fight! ¡°Fire Bomb!¡± A single glowing ball of flame appearing in her hand and landed next to the troll when it exploded. BANG!! The explosion caught the troll in surprise as she took this chance to attack. ¡°Speed Strike!¡± she sprinted and attacked while running around the troll. Her high speed and the fact that she was a relatively small target made her hard to hit plus with only one arm to use with the other holding the second person she needed to save. Plus she had seen enough to see through the troll a bit. However each strike that hit Lyndis took down at least 5% of her health. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! And it was extremely hard to not get hit when the troll was rapid firing attacks at you and at the same time, he sworn that she was being hit when she clearly dodged. But eventually her health decreased to around 10%, just high enough that she wouldn''t lose health but low enough that a hit would get her to critical health or a critical hit would kill her. ¡°.....¡± Lyndis figured there was little chance on winning against this troll and needed to complete part of the quest at least. However the troll didn''t allow her to even do that. Seeing Lyndis in her current state, it didn''t even look at her as an enemy anymore; it picked up the woman and crushed her before eating her. ¡°Ahhhhh!!!!¡± Lyndis was in complete shock seeing this. This was the kind of thing that would give you nightmares. It did the same with the man though was more rough with him. He died before being eaten.
You have failed the quest
That ringing sound of when the game messaged her snapped her out of it. Since she failed the quest, since she had no reason to be here anymore, she didn''t need to fight. ¡°Right, there''s no point in fighting anymore....¡± But it looked like the troll wouldn''t let her go. Plus there was another thing she realised. She was alone and therefore she would die alone...there was no one to help her, no support, no tank and no advise for her. Lyndis had no idea how to beat this troll...at the very least she should find those parents and save them at least. ¡°ROOOOOOOOOARRRRRRR!!!!!¡± The troll suddenly let out a roar and beat it''s chest and puffed up it''s muscles and seemed to have gotten larger. ¡°No...when was it this big?¡± Lyndis quickly realised that it only seemed to have gotten bigger when in reality it was the same size though it''s muscles were a bit bigger. This was one of the known effects of fighting spirit. She was scared now even though she knew this. To her, it grew a size larger and had this menacing aura around it. To be beaten. To be eaten. There was nothing to gain here but her pride and even that seemed useless right now. Her health was low, she could barely swing her sword with her hands shaking. Therefore she had to choose the one option that would allow her not to suffer from all of this...else the one with the least suffering from first glance. Therefore she chose to run away. Turning around, not even bothering to look at that troll that was much stronger than her, she ran. She ran without fighting. She ran without giving it her all. It was a disgrace to her to be forced to do this. But it felt like she was willingly running away like a coward. Her efforts did not work, she failed and ran away. But did she give it her all in the first place? ¡°What if my last attack couldn''t kill it?!¡± she shouted to no one in particular. Her final attack, Dancing Dragon Art: Final Slash was the most powerful attack she had. It could be equal to a Dragon striking at you directly and exploded in all directions. But it cost almost all her health and all her mana and stamina in return to use once. It was literally a last shot attack. But as she ran away, the troll followed her and it was damn fast when it wanted to be. ¡°Damn...get away from me!¡± she screamed in desperation at the troll as if it could understand her. She directed her flames that was coming out of her body at the troll again but like before, it had no effect on it. Just how strong was this thing? Or...was she that weak? She heard that trolls level ranged from 200-300 on average. Since this was a generally weak area, the troll should be weak right? Around level 200 was her thoughts when she first came in this cave. However with her stats and boost on, her abilities should be around level 250. Does it mean that she was weaker than a level 200 foe? She grinded her teeth thinking of this possibility. However she needed to get the troll off of her. Remembering the cave shaking from one of the troll''s attacks before, she decided to make a cave in. ¡°Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb! Fire Bomb!...!¡± She used this skill as many as she could exhausting all of her mana in the process and threw them at the walls a bit in front of her so they would explode a bit after she passed them. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. BOOM! BANG! BOOM! BANG! BANG! BOOM! A rapid series of explosions was heard behind her. She did not even dare to turn around to see if the troll was still chasing her. All she wanted to do was get out of this cave. ¡°It might follow me via sight...¡± she looked around and found herself still using ''Boost'' and was lit up like a candle. She deactivated it and continued to run. Trip! However not seeing and without a way to see since all of her mana was used up, she tripped on something and hit her head on something sharp. She felt something warm come out of her forehead... ¡°Blood...I''m bleeding...¡± she muttered, ¡°Need to stop the bleeding..skill...bandages...¡± In the deep darkness of the cave she took out some bandages from her inventory and wrapped it around her forehead closing the wound.
Bandaging used, bleeding will stop, health increased to 15%
With the bleeding, her health increased a bit as well. If she used another 15 or so rolls of bandages on herself, she would probably be at full health though will look like a mummy. However even though her health increased, she at the same time calmed down and regained some of herself. ¡°I failed the quest.¡± She stopped attacking and the troll took the chance to eat those two people in front of her. ¡°I ran away.¡± She had no choice but to do that. She was too weak both physically and mentally against that thing alone. Facing a man eater that wished to capture you and eat you while it being stronger than you was extremely stressful. ¡°I didn''t give it my all...¡± Her hands and body were shaking when she faced the troll after it''s roar of dominance...she could not endure it and thus ran away. ¡°Ha...puhahahahaha.¡± Thus she let out this laugh at herself. Four years of constant hard work and it ended up like this the moment she left the others. What ''I will leave alone''? She couldn''t even kill a simple monster alone at all! Furthermore, this was the group''s first failure, no HER first failure. There was no one to back her up, this was all her fault in the end. She was a failure in the end, hard work simply did not mean results. And without results, she could not be recognised for her hard work. Once again, like the time her image as a genius back then, something inside her was in pain. Tears came down her face the more she thought about it. The results were everything and Sain displayed results no matter what. She on the other hand went with her own methods and lost. If that was the case, Sain was right and she was wrong. ¡°NO! That can''t be right!¡± she hit the wall with her fist causing it to bleed as well. She thought her path was right. Other people different paths than her but she thought this was the right one for her. ¡°Are you all right? Do you need me to heal you?¡± ¡°Hurry up and get on with it! We can''t wait for you forever.¡± ¡°Do you need any help? If so, you can always ask for it.¡± Lyndis looked around but saw no one. There was no one around but she still heard their voices even though she left them. It had not even been a full day and she was already in this state. She could not endure it any longer and simply sat down on the wall of this cave. ¡°I don''t know what to do...what to do....¡± she sobbed not sure on how to get out of this state and how to proceed forward. Everything seemed pointless right now ever since she left them. What was the point for her to work hard again? ¡°....¡± She looked to the entrance, it was near now. ¡°Right...I need to tell that boy..that-¡± she failed and it cost them her parents lives. She did not want to say this. Not for the child but for herself. She failed and it cost lives and she had to say this, admit this to the world that she failed. She did not want to do that. However she had to...it was her responsibility to do so. Therefore when she walked out of the cave, the appearance of that boy was not a happy thing for her to see. He was all dirtied and such from hiding for so long. And filled with so much hope that it would pain her to break her. ¡°Sis! Where are my parents? Are you fine?¡± the boy asked with those innocent eyes that pained her heart even more. She took a few deep breaths in and said, ¡°They...died.¡± ¡°....¡± The boy looking stunned simply stared at Lyndis. He had just lost his parents for a ''second'' time. The first when he had to escape from the troll leaving his parents and the second was right now when Lyndis told him they were truly dead. ¡°Why?¡± The boy asked with tears finally flowing down his face. Lyndis would cry with him but all of her tears were gone already. ¡°WHY?!¡± The boy hit her dealing some slight damage. The level difference was too much to do any damage. He hit Lyndis again shouting at her, ¡°Why did you let them die?!¡± He continued to hit her. His punches were extremely soft but hurt so much more than the troll itself. Lyndis simply looked up in the sky....and said, ¡°That troll was just...stronger than me...¡± Finally after hitting her for a full minute, the boy lost his strength and fell onto the ground weeping. Regret, that was the thing that was stabbing her seeing this. Regret and hatred to herself on causing this. ¡°....¡± With no words, she left the boy and headed further into the forest, to see if she could find something else, now that there was no meaning on her staying here. She was alone. And she was weak. xXx Shadow watched from the trees of Lyndis walking out and confronting that boy. Her forehead was wrapped with a bandage that was dyed red with her blood. Her hair was messy and the state of her body was bruised and injured. He and the other two watched as the boy screamed and shouted at her and even attacked her before he started weeping and Lyndis leaving him. ¡°What do we do now?¡± wondered Serena, she had an unease look on her face. ¡°....¡± Shadow got down from the tree and said, ¡°Don''t speak and don''t follow¡± as he walked to the boy. He waited a while for the boy to stop wailing his voice out, something he found highly annoying in fact before the boy realised Shadow was there. ¡°W-Who are you?!¡± the boy screamed crawling back away from him. The boy didn''t seem to trust anyone right now, maybe due to Lyndis'' failure in that quest or maybe because he appeared out of nowhere to the boy like a ghost. Shadow pointed at the cave and asked, ¡°What''s in there?¡± All he knew was that Lyndis went in fine, went out not fine and failed a quest judging from it. ¡°....¡± However the boy did not speak. But eventually the boy asked, ¡°Will you help me on something?¡± Shadow did not nod and asked again, ¡°What''s in that cave?¡± while frowning. He did not like where this was going. ¡°I asked that person to save my parents from that troll. But she failed and my parents are dead. That person is a murderer. That person should die! Kill that person for me! You are an assassin right?!¡±
Take Revenge for the Boy A child had come to you requesting you to take revenge for his parents after another person saw that they would save his parents from the troll and failed. Quest Rank: D Restrictions: Must kill the player that failed the original quest Reward: Unknown
¡°....¡± Shadow stared at this quest. The target in this case would be Lyndis right? However this quest must have be due to 1. Lyndis failing that quest and 2. Himself being an Assassin. ¡°So there''s a troll in there that Lyndis couldn''t beat...¡± Shadow wondered. She was someone able to solo a level 250 Boss Monster...how powerful must this troll be for her to be forced back? ¡°KILL HER! TAKE REVENGE FOR ME!¡± The boy shouted all of a sudden. He was latched onto Shadow¡¯s side and would not let go. It seemed that he was quite stubborn. However the bigger problem was he was trying to cause trouble with Lyndis...someone part of the group even if she thought she left. In his mind, the only way to leave this group was to leave the guild and that meant leaving the guild...and Eden would not let them go that easily. Therefore someone causing trouble with Lyndis would cause trouble for the guild... ¡°I refuse this request¡± he answered.
You have denied this quest
The moment he did that, the boy''s eyes flared with hatred towards him as well. Shadow could tell that this boy was about to cause tolerable for him as well. This one was nothing but a brat that had no power and could only beg. It was better for everyone if this boy was dead though it didn''t matter since he ''died'' the moment Lyndis left without him-no, the moment his was forced to give a quest to Lyndis who was in no state to do anything right now. ¡°Backstab.¡± His dagger went to the back of the boy and stabbed through, killing him in one shot.
Critical Hit!
You have killed an Innocent Person! Infamy increased by +100
¡°....¡± He looked at where Serena and Raven were when they came out. Serena looking pale and panicking picked up the child and checked for signs of life. ¡°Don''t bother, he''s dead¡± said Shadow in a colder tone than he thought. Serena shot a glare at him before asking in a shout, ¡°Why did you kill him?!¡± ¡°Would you rather have him hire people to kill Lyndis?¡± he asked back in return. This woman was truly a child thinking that there would be no repercussion for failing a quest. Naturally people who had lost people after some hope of recovery would want revenge on those who failed them. A Hero that failed was no Hero in the eyes of the people but only when they succeed at everything. ¡°....¡± ¡°Don''t glare at me like that, I''m an Assassin remember. I do kind of thing as my job.¡± Serena let down the child and offered a small prayer to him and then asked, ¡°So do we continue to follow Lyndis or take out that troll?¡± ¡°Take out that troll? You mean that one that caused Lyndis to even run away. Seeing her come out, I bet that hurt her pride a lot¡± said Shadow in a mocking tone though said, ¡°She must be extremely hurt though...but getting near her again so soon would only make her push us away.¡± Shadow looked at the cave and then said, ¡°We have time to kill...I got a nifty item from Sain that allowed me to track down a target for a certain distance or general direction. It''s only has a 10 Kilometre range though.¡± ¡°Isn''t that a rare item?¡± ¡°Yeah...Sain made me do some really annoyingly difficult tasks for it though. Worth it since I can still track Lyndis with this.¡± ¡°Seems like a stalking tool...¡± said Serena with a frown. Shadow laughed and said, ¡°It IS a stalking tool.¡± With that, the three went into the cave where Lyndis failed to kill a troll. The first thing they all noticed was that this place was really dark. Only Shadow who had night vision skills could see at all and eventually he took out a torch and lit it up. ¡°Because not all of us are able to be a human torch¡± he said while handing it over to Serena to hold. He and Serena were the only ones to hold a torch since Raven needed to have both arms in case they needed to fight. Plus Raven was sticking next to Serena while Shadow was at the front of the formation. This was mainly due to Shadow''s own confidence that he could dodge whatever would come at them. A few minutes in, they found part of the cave to be caved in. There were definitely marks of a battle all over the place. ¡°So Lyndis fought here...?¡± Shadow touched the side of the wall and muttered, ¡°Seems to be still warm from her flames...¡± ¡°The troll seems to be stuck on the other side of the cave. I think we should leave¡± said Serena turning around to get out of the cave and to get back to following Lyndis. ¡°I don''t think it is that easy¡± said Shadow to which Serena turned to see why he said those words. And then she saw it. A large hand was not completely covered in the debris of the cave in and furthermore it was twitching. ¡°It''s alive?¡± said Serena in surprise, she took out her staff which made it harder for enemies to target her as Raven went to stand in front of her. The hand moved and then a large body crashed up from the debris showing it''s tall figure. It was 4 metres tall and had little burns here and there but otherwise was completely fine. It looked down on the three and then saw Serena... ¡°Female snack! Female snack!¡± It clapped it''s hands happily seeing more food in front of it. ¡°Damn we just had to go in when it was about to wake up¡± Shadow cursed his luck and drew his weapons. Raven did the same though his main objective right now was defending Serena from the troll if it decided to try and snatch her. ¡°No need to hold back on something like this! Boost!¡± Shadow shouted attracting the attention of the troll.
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Reaper'' is now active. ''Real Illusions'' is now active.
His body flickered with shadows going in both directions as the troll attacked him. There was certainly a grin on his face as he saw the speed of the attack. All he could think of was slow...but he didn''t even move to dodge it. BANG! The troll hit empty ground as Shadow switched places with one of his clones. ¡°Be careful!¡± Serena shouted, ¡°This creature was strong enough to beat Lyndis! Boost!¡± She also activated ''Boost'' and her ''Sage Mode'' power that increased the strength of her body and nature based spells. Likewise, Raven silently activated ''Boost'' as well and that powerful ''Gravity Force'' ability of his. The three started to battle against this troll that even Lyndis could not beat. But... ¡°Take this!¡± Shadow threw the torch he had in hand at the troll and as expected, it moved to hit it away. ¡°Divine Shadow Art: Assassinate!¡± Shadow''s body moved quickly and as he passed the troll''s body that seemed to have been frozen to him, he slashed at one of it''s vitals.
You have dealt a fatal blow!
¡°Roooar!¡± The troll let out a scream of pain though Shadow knew that he barely touched this troll''s vitals. It''s muscles were simply too thick for him to get a proper hit in. ¡°Root Bind!¡± chanted Serena at the same moment, the troll''s defences were down. Several vines sprang to life and charged at the troll and wrapped around it. There, Raven started to charge at the troll head on with his halberd already in the position to strike and said, ¡°Double Strike¡± attacking twice and causing two sharp cuts on the chest of the troll before retreating back with that attack. But three seconds later, the wounds completely disappeared. ¡°Looks like it''s true that a troll has an insane amount of regeneration¡± commented Shadow. He moved behind the troll since it foolishly decided not to pay attention to him and used ¡°Backstab¡± to dig his short sword into the back of the troll. STAB!
You have dealt a Critical Hit!
The troll let out that same reaction, that scream but this time at the moment Shadow''s attack went in it, the troll suddenly leaped backwards towards a wall. ¡°Ah shit!¡± Shadow quickly moved to one of his other clones to avoid the damage. BANG! The troll slammed the wall with his back and the cave rumbled a bit. Shadow felt a sweat seeing the impact of that body slam. If he didn''t move out of the way in time...would he have even survived? ¡°Powerful...¡± Serena realised this as well and said, ¡°No wonder why Lyndis was forced back. This creature is not ordinary at all.¡± ¡°I''m guessing it''s over level 250 and also a boss class monster as well. Considering Lyndis once soloed a level 250 boss monster....plus there''s compatibility between her and this guy as well. I say that this guys is-wow!¡± Shadow dodged using one of his clones again and teleported to it as the troll attacked him using a rising uppercut from that insane position. Woose~ Next it turned it''s body in mid air and did a descending drop kick down on Raven who blocked using his Tower Shield and his ''Gravity Force'' as an outer layer as well. BANG! ¡°-the worst thing for her to fight alone. Man that troll is rude¡± said Shadow continuing before he was cut off. ¡°Critical Eyes¡± muttered Shadow moving back into the shadows with his ''Dark Deception'' skill that made it harder for him to be detected in the dark. In this cave, other than the light source with Serena, there was no light at all. Meaning this troll probably had bad vision to begin with. But none of us had a way to use a sudden flash of light so that kind of thinking was useless. Shadow guessed they had to do this the old fashion way. With his ''Critical Eyes'' skill, he saw several weak spots on the troll. Unlike a certain panther, this creature did not look impossible to get a fatal wound or two in. ¡°Divine Shadow Art: Triple Slash!¡± said Shadow while moving in onto the troll while it was once again not paying attention to him. Man this stupid creature should really learn how to pay attention to people. As such, he easily slashed at three different fatal points at once with ease. Even if the muscles are thick, when relaxed they aren''t that much compared to normal fat.
You have deal a Critical Hit!
You have dealt a triple fatal blow!
A critical hit doubled damage and a fatal doubled it again plus reduces the ability of the enemy in a certain way. This time, Shadow hit the backs of both legs where it was weak as well the side of it as well. This way, it''s movements would be a bit slow- BANG!
You took 924 damage!
¡°Wah?!¡± Suddenly, Shadow was hit from an unknown direction. It didn''t use any of it''s arms or legs, heck none of it''s limbs. So why the hell did it feel like he was punched by it?! ¡°Moderate Health Regeneration!¡± Serena chanted quickly seeing Shadow being hit.
Health will regenerate for 11000 Health over 100 Seconds
The first thing Shadow thought was that this skill combined with her Mastery was way overpowered. He believed that Sain said before that her spells were several times stronger due to both her magic mastery and nature magic mastery skill. This only made him realise how useful Serena was. But... ¡°Isn''t this a bit overkill?¡± he shouted at her. Thus Serena shouted back ignoring Raven being crushed in front of her, ¡°This is when you get hit again.¡± Something spiked in Shadow at that moment. Did she mean that he would get hit due to his lack of skill? Impossible, it was an attack that even he could not predict that hit him...else his eyes might have wavered a bit for a moment. ¡°Let''s finish this guy off in one go!¡± Shadow suddenly decided and shouted as he prepared to use ''that'' skill. Raven used his ''Gravity Force'' to knock the troll off it''s feet literally and flipped it off the ground. There, Shadow found the chance to attack. ¡°Divine Shadow Art: Final Assassination!¡± Shadow teleported at the perfect position and at the perfect place to attack. Namely the largest weak spot of the troll. The eyes. STAB!
You have dealt a Critical Hit!
You have dealt a Fatal Blow!
A 4 times increased in damage from these two effects of his attack plus the 5 times increased in damage from the skill itself combining to a total of 9 times more damage than normal. It was certainly a frightening move to be hit with all of a sudden. But at the same time, his health decreased to 1 which at the same time increased bit by bit due to Serena''s regeneration spell, mana went to zero as well as stamina. ¡°Finish it off!¡± shouted Shadow while falling to the ground like that. Serena already started chanting that spell when Shadow shouted he was going to finish this and chanted, ¡°Blood Burst!¡± A red orb shot out and hit the troll at several places before... BANG! Burst into pieces with blood going everywhere, the troll was extremely injured with no way to block the spell. Even if it was made of mainly muscle, it still had lots of blood in it''s body which meant this was a deadly skill to it or any living and large creature. With Serena chanting to use a Stamina Regenerative spell on Shadow, the three took their time to finish off the troll that could no longer move or fight. And when he dealt the final blow...
You have killed an unusual and rare Shadow Arm Troll
¡°Hmm?¡± Shadow looked at this message and sighed, ¡°This wasn''t even a Boss...but was so strong at the same time.¡± Serena inspected the troll corpse and said, ¡°This troll seemed to be able to use Shadow Magic to make an extra arm to attack...¡± ¡°Seems useful¡± commented Shadow thinking of having an extra arm to suddenly attack while moving, ¡°But for Lyndis to lose to this thing...from it''s reaction to the battle it may be only about level 250.¡± ¡°Hey it took the three of us to kill it and we almost died several times in the process!¡± snapped Serena back at him for insulting Lyndis. ¡°You mean who me and Raven almost died several times. Raven like a good boy always guarded you¡± said Shadow that made Serena growl at him. The three collected the loot they got which wasn''t much and went out of the cave to chase after Lyndis again. xXx At the same time... ¡°Tree...more trees....¡± sighed Lyndis wobbling a bit as she walked. With her fight and running away, her stamina was quite low already and her health was still at a low level. She needed to eat but her food supplies was quite low to begin with. There was only enough food for her to last another small meal. At this rate she would starve to death if she didn''t find a food source. But then she saw a rabbit...But it was large...taller than her at least. A giant rabbit and... ¡°Purple?¡±
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8300~ - First chapter done...at last...finally... - Also, Uni is coming really soon for me...therefore my writing speed will decrease at certain times. Well it shouldn''t drop too much. Vol.8 Chapter 2 - Struggle Lyndis looked up at the Purple Rabbit and it looked down at her at the same time. But the first thing that came up in Lyndis mind was- ¡°FOOD!!!¡± Hunger can really get to people and Lyndis was no exception. She was almost literally starving right now and needed to eat. Her health was only at 20% and her mana levels even lower not to mention her stamina that was near rock bottom. As such she drew her sword immediately to slay this creature and cut up to cook! She had all the necessary tools to do this already. All that she needed to do was to kill this creature and eat it! ¡°Come! Fight me and give me your meat!¡± she shouted like a crazed man who was completely obsessed with food. However this purple rabbit sensed the killing intent of Lyndis and furthermore the desperation she had right now. Combined with the fact that it was weaker than the one Sain had to face during the Boss Battle struggle from long ago, it chose to flee. ¡°What?!¡± Lyndis was surprise that it would run away and immediately went to chase after it. ¡°Wait up! I just want to eat you!¡± However before even 10 minutes of chasing it, her stamina went down to an extremely low value and this message appeared in front of her.
You are Exhausted Strength left you because you haven¡¯t rested for a long time. Your Stamina, Strength and Agility attributes are reduced. You are suggested to rest. If you don¡¯t do it, you may lose consciousness because of exhaustion.
¡°....¡± She blankly stared at this message and felt that her body was extremely heavy and did not want to move. The purple rabbit disappeared from sight as well as her food source. ¡°Damn!¡± She had just lost a good source of food here and was going to eventually starve. However she had a piece of Rye Bread still in her inventory and took it out and munched on it. Her hunger bar increased a bit and her stamina was recovering better than before. But still, there was this horrible grumbling feeling in her stomach demanding food. But right now...Lyndis did not want to move, it was going dark and she did not have enough energy to move let along do anything. Thus she lied on the side of a tree and fell asleep... xXx ¡°Night''s about to happen...¡± said Sain looking at the setting sun, ¡°Better clear this last batch of enemies up then.¡± Sain looked at the last sanctum of those who opposed this city now. It was just a small floor in a certain building that housed some people in it. It was up high above the ground and was isolated in that there were men surrounding the area just in case. Frankly, even if they had a way out, there was no escape from him. ¡°Ready?¡± asked Miriel by his side. There were several other people behind him but he and Miriel under his plan would rush in first. Sain nodded and then signal everyone behind them to prepare. With them were 5 armed NPCs with swords that weren''t that weak. 3...2....1.... KICK! Sain kicked down the door and looked around quickly and identified enemies. ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± he chanted causing chaos among the enemy ranks. Miriel did the same and the NPCs that were with them charged and attacked the enemy. In a matter of seconds, the place was taken over by them. There weren''t that many enemies that could fight back and all the others surrendered to them quite quickly. Tying the last person up, a message that he had been waiting for appeared.
You have completed the Guild Quest: Cleanse Shia City of the evil within! - You have levelled up x8 - You have gained 800 Fame - You have gained 1500 contributions to the Kingdom - You have gained 1200 contributions to the Guild Collect reward from Hale
Sain was quite surprised since he suddenly gained 8 levels at once. As expected from a C rank Guild Quest, it was equal to a B rank quest on difficulties plus this quest took them....him a slow few months to complete as well. Plus Sain felt that this was also due to him being in the early level 200s as well which gave him a large boost in levels gained this time round. With the ranks determining the difficulties of quests, they also give a general range of what level you need to be to complete them. A B rank quest which this quest was equal to in difficulties was something a level 300-400 would do. There level difference gave made it so the experience he gained from completing them quest to seem higher with more level ups. At this point he was at level 223 now and expected everyone else involved in the quest to get that amount of experience as well...even the ones who left. ¡°Eight level ups at once...these past months haven''t been a waste after all¡± said Miriel next to him. Sain nodded and said, ¡°Yeah though right now I''m more interested in the reward Hale will give us for this.¡± ¡°It better be good since...¡± Miriel looked darkly at the city. Due to being here and the events that occurred, the group they were in were split up. ¡°Don''t worry about it. Lyndis just needs time to cool down¡± said Sain patting her shoulder and shaking his head on the anger she felt. ¡°But she still...telling me to not do anything to that Lyndis after she hurt you and just left like that. What on earth was she thinking of?¡± she asked to no one in particular. ¡°Something along the lines of ''I can''t trust anyone and I want to leave'' I guess¡± sighed Sain, the biggest problem he had to think about was on how to get Lyndis back to fight with them when the time comes. Out of everything, trust was the most important thing a group could have and that was fractured right now. ¡°Well time is the best solution for these kinds of things¡± said Sain before saying, ¡°Better go back before Hale decides to sleep.¡± As such, the two figures left the buildings and went towards where Hale was. There, they were greeted with cheers from several groups of people, but Sain ignored that and went straight for Hale. Hale, who looked old seemed to have aged younger a few years all of a sudden, it seemed that the relief of stress caused his body condition to get better. ¡°Oh Sain! Miriel! Welcome, welcome. Thank you for all your efforts!¡± Hale let out a cheerful laugh and said, ¡°We can finally start finishing constructing this city at last! Thank to your group!¡± ¡°....¡± Sain only gave back a wry smile to Hale. He would like to get the reward now since there are others things he wanted to do than be in this city for any longer. ¡°Right right, the reward. I know this isn''t much but it is the best we can at least do since you and your comrades spent a long time helping us retake this city¡± said Hale holding out a ring. Sain smiled and took the ring and identified it.
Ring of Blind Righteousness A ring that can only be worn by one that had committed oneself to benefit of others. While wearing this ring, any criminal act will produce half the infamy and over time, every hour 10 infamy will automatically be reduced. But do know that this ring will be destroyed if the wearer commits an unforgivable crime. Restrictions: Level 240 Options: - Halve the gain of infamy - Reduces the wearer''s infamy by 10 once every hour
Jackpot! This was literally the best reward he would get right now. For him who had been doing certain acts without anyone knowing, gaining Infamy was one of the things that he feared the most. But now, he didn''t need to fear it as much thankfully enough. The only thing was that he needed to be level 240 to equip and was only level 223. ¡°As for Miriel here...this necklace was found in the ruins of the Tower and I believe it would suit you quite a lot¡± added Hale handing her a necklace that had a ruby at the centre of it. Miriel identified it and allowed Sain to see it''s stats.
Necklace of Blessed True Aim A necklace with a gem at the centre of it that had been blessed at an unknown time to allow the wearer to more accurately hit where they intend. It is said that this had been in the procession of many skilled bowmen in the past. Restrictions: Level 230 Options: - Increase Aim by 30% - Minor Resistance to Blindness and Darkness
Likewise, Sain thought that this item was really good even compared to his own ring. Not only did it make aiming easier, it also gave some minor resistance to two annoying status effects. More than that, it''s level requirement was only level 230. Though these really did not compare to the unique class items they got from the boss monsters from before, they were still powerful rare items that many would want. Sain nodded to Hale and thanked him for these rewards. ¡°Don''t worry about it. I would have more rewards but those comrades of yours left you two to finish off the quest. I can''t say if they abandoned it or not!¡± Hale snuff the air thinking of those who leave quests on their own. Sain shook his head again hearing this and said, ¡°They just need some time off.¡± Plus and he was thankful that this was a Guild Quest which meant they were rewarded for their efforts being in the same Guild whether they were here or not. Soon enough they said their goodbyes to the city and were at the gate where a large number of people passed by. There, Sain and Miriel met with Nue and Eart who had helped them for a while on this Guild Quest. Sain bowed slightly to them as to respect and said, ¡°Thank you for your hard work.¡± Nue nodded but said, ¡°No need to thank us. We were on orders and Eart was mostly useless.¡± Eart made a distressed look and said, ¡°Hey I did my best to protect them over and over again¡± to Nue protesting on his treatment even now. For starters he was forgotten until now by Sain and the rest of the group. ¡°That is why I said mostly useless¡± said Nue, ¡°I didn''t see you when we left that day.¡± ¡°I was buried under so much rubble from that Tower falling on me!¡± retorted Eart. It had been a few days since that day but still he managed to survive that hit which was a big surprise to Sain at least. A higher level might make you seem superhuman but not invincible. Falling from a great height or something heavy landing on you would usually kill you. ¡°Anyway we...I will be going back to the Cursed Forest then¡± said Nue nodding to both Sain and Miriel and leaving. Eart also said, ¡°I will also be going wi-fast! Where the hell did she go?! I wanted to spend some time travelling with a cute girl!¡± In an instant, Nue disappeared and Eart sped off at an alarmingly fast rate to catch up to her. Sain and Miriel both felt that that won''t be the case. With this, one part of their task had been finished and because of that, Miriel asked, ¡°Well...what do we do now?¡± ¡°Train, find information on [Little Droplet] and meet up with our masters on what to do?¡± wondered Sain, ¡°We have another year to finish several things so I guess we can train while travelling back to Witchelm City then.¡± Miriel nodded and grabbed onto Sain''s arm, she would be using this time greatly to further her relationship with him. ¡°....¡± Sain could only sigh at the more open affection Miriel was showing him. xXx Hours later...no, was it minutes instead? Lyndis was not sure at all but she knew one thing. Her arm was in pain. ¡°Ouch!¡± Lyndis'' eyes sprang open and saw that a purple rabbit was...chewing onto her arm. Several emotions came up in her. Surprise, Disgust and most of all, Fear. ¡°GET OFF OF ME!!!!¡±
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Lion'' is now active. ''Genesis Flame'' is now active.
Without even intending for it to activate, Lyndis used ''Boost'' and covered her body in flames, especially around that right arm that was being chewed on. BOOM!!! A burst of flame exploded outwards with her at the centre and blasted that purple rabbit away. Looking around, Lyndis had noticed several things. The first it was raining. The second it was still night. And the third was that she was surrounded. She moved her right hand to try to draw her sword but she felt numbness and pain from it. Looking at it, her right arm, her dominant arm had been bitten through quite badly to the point she couldn''t even control it anymore. ¡°Tch.¡± With some difficulties, she drew her Katana with her left arm instead and held it like that wobbling a bit since using one arm for a two handed sword was unbalanced. Lyndis also checked her status, her health was a bit higher at 30% but that attack definitely lowered it before she knew. Her mana was sitting at 50% thankfully and her stamina increased to the same level as her health. ¡°Good, I can fight using my fire still...¡± she muttered looking at the injured purple rabbit she just attacked, if not for the dimming fire that was being put out by the rain, she would not be able to see it at all. ¡°No choice, Pocket Fireball¡± she chanted creating a ball of fire that was three times the size of it''s usual size without ''Boost'' and made it hover near her. This would be her light source for now. Using her flames with ''Boost'' without skills consumed an equal amount of mana and stamina at the same time. But if she used her fire skills with ''Boost'' then it would only consume stamina, the same amount as the mana cost. Frankly using fire skills with her ''Boost'' ability was far more efficient mana and stamina wise but was a hassle compared to just blasting fire everywhere. But right now she had a more concerning thing she needed to deal with. ¡°How many enemies are around me?¡± she wondered guarding in all directions. Her blast of fire from earlier destroyed the tree next to her which was a bad thing since her back was unguarded. But Lyndis did not pay attention to that and payed for it. MUNCH! ¡°Ahhh!¡± she screamed as there was a sharp pain in her left shoulder. She sent out another wave of fire using ''Genesis Flame'' and consumed quite a bit mana and stamina. Already her mana levels dropped to 30% and stamina at 25% from before. Swinging her Katana to the enemy behind her in a blind panic, she missed and hit the remains of the tree instead. ¡°Grrrr....what the hell is happening?!¡± she shouted seeing many eyes pop up all around her. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± she shouted creating large spear of fire and firing it. Due to the rain, it''s power decreased by half before it even hit. But the most damning thing was that her attack was dodged and she wasted 1% of her total mana like that. In a battle that may take a long time, saving every scarp you can could make or break you in the end. ''Flame Strike'' cost 20 mana and was a relatively low cost skill but was at best a medium strength fire skill at best leaning towards a low rank. Even with ''Boost'' and ''Genesis Flame'' active as well as her ''Fire Circulation'' skill increasing it''s power, it was only a medium strength fire skill that got degraded back down to a low strength fire skill with the rain. But naturally only Sain would have thoughts like this, Lyndis didn''t pay attention tot his fact and rapidly shot out a ''Flame Strike'' to keep whatever enemies that was attacking her away every 5 seconds which was the current cool down of the skill in the Intermediate Level. Every time a skill advanced a stage, the cool down will decreased by half! A skill that had a cool down of 10 seconds would go down to 5 seconds in the Intermediate Level and then to 2-3 seconds in the Advance stage. To be able to fire 2-3 more attacks than another person with the same skill could make the skills extremely powerful. Soon enough, the enemy which Lyndis concluded to be a pack of 5 purple rabbits got the timing down to avoid her ''Flame Strike'' attacks. There were gaps in her defence and they rapidly attacked her due to that. ¡°Wa-Power Strike!¡± Combined with ''Precision Stance'' since she couldn''t aim well with her left hand, Lyndis struck down on the purple rabbit and heavily damaged it. Even though she was extremely weakened with a lowered condition than normal, unable to use her right arm and was outnumbered amongst many things. There was still a good 50 or so level difference between her and the purple rabbit! The purple rabbit retreated so it''s comrades could attack her instead. ¡°Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike!¡± She was rapidly attacking in all directions pushing those purple rabbits that were a big taller than her in size with her sword alone. However fate was really not kind to Lyndis.
Durability of Sharp Katana of Flame is at 10%, using it any more may break it
¡°....!¡± Even though her Katana was extremely powerful, dealing more than twice the damage of her old on minimum, it''s maximum durability was still at 60 compared to the Iron Sword''s 80. Plus she had been fighting with it for a while including against the troll that her strikes did little to no damage to it, it was no wonder that her Katana was reaching its limits. Lyndis knew that Katanas were one of the stronger sword types weapons but had a pretty bad durability due to it. In her mind, she compared dying to these rabbits or losing the Katana. ¡°Need to save the Katana!¡± she decided with a shout. She did a leap kick to the purple rabbit''s face that was nearby and stored her Kanata in her inventory in the next moment. Now without a weapon, her offence decreased quite a bit. However her strength and agility stats were quite high, equal to a player that had only invested in strength and agility of the same level. This was mainly due to two of five stats per level up being placed in Intelligence that increased her fire skill power and mana and vitality that increased her health. But at the same time she also trained in hand to hand combat with Alexandra''s combat training classes with the others. Thus there wasn''t that much of a drop of ability in losing to use her Katana. BANG! Lyndis'' left fist shot out and hit the nearest purple rabbit square on and seemed to have stunned it. The remaining four purple rabbits each let out a scream and charged at her. With only three limbs usable even if she wanted to or was capable of attacking in all four directions at once, she was unable to. ¡°Thus charge head on at a single point!¡± Deciding that was the best way to do things, she sprinted and kneed one of the four purple rabbits charging at her and with flames covering her body shouted, ¡°Burning Touch!¡± Like the rest of the older skills she got, it was in the Intermediate Level and thus transformed a bit. It was no longer a simple technique to light things on fire but something that burnt others with a single touch. And with her current skills active, this effect was even larger and more prominent than before. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrnnnnn!!! The purple rabbit she just attacked let out a scream before backing off. ¡°Flame Strike!¡± She took this chance and fired that attack at the same purple rabbit making it even more wounded and was about to use another skill to finish off but the other rabbits, including the one she attacked first came down on her. Punch! Punch! Punch! Punch! A series of punches came through from the non-burning purple rabbits. Her health rapidly decreased to 20% due to this before she managed to escape. Cursing she was considering to run away but then saw how they were all together. ¡°I feel sorry for my meat supply but...Fire Bomb!¡± A small red ball of fire appeared and ticked down as she threw it and it softly landed in front of the purple rabbits... BANG! The explosion instantly killed the nearest two purple rabbits and injured the other two. The last which was still burning was killed when Lyndis shot another ''Flame Strike'' at it. It was too bad she just lost two purple giant rabbits worth of food and another one is getting burnt. Lyndis quickly stumped the last two purple rabbits to death and took out a butcher knife to cut out the meat. If its tools in cooking, she was already prepared in it. It took her no more than 5 minutes to harvest the meat of three of the edible purple rabbit. Feeling happy, she let out a hum, ¡°Good, I can live off this for a week at least~¡± But then, at that moment, she felt that there were more presences around her...and more purple rabbits came out to see her in between the corpses of their breathen... ¡°Hey...wait....SHIT!¡± Thus Lyndis was forced into another battle. xXx ¡°Yeah...she''s still fighting here...no she doesn''t seem to be dying.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°What can I say? She actually not bad in hand to hand combat...though the enemy are giant rabbits of the purple kind.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Yes I did say purple rabbits and also giant in there and no I am not lying to you. It''s good that you trust me to that extent.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, I know. Don''t interfere even if she dies. I doubt she''s going to class with us anymore since she missed a couple of them already. I bet Eden and the other two have been wondering what the hell is happening.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°Got it, one of us will keep tabs on her at all time, the other two will search for information on [Little Droplet].¡± With that, Shadow looked at Serena who had a complicated expression on and Raven who seemed perfectly fine to the point one could think he was hollow inside, completely emotionless on the face but not in actions. ¡°Well then, who wants to see Lyndis struggle and in pain?¡± he asked the two with a smile. Serena could not help but to think that smile was creepy as hell. ¡°....¡± Shadow tilted his head strangely and asked, ¡°What''s wrong?¡± which caused Serena to frown again. Thus she had to asked in a condensing tone, ¡°Who were you talking to?¡± ¡°You know who. I did tell you that I was here on orders.¡± ¡°Sounded like you had quite...an engaging conversation with him.¡± ¡°Trust me when I said I made more of an effort to make it sound like that. Miriel seemed to be sticking next to him closely again so I wanted to tease her a bit though that depends on Sain''s reaction to my words¡± Shadow said with a grin. Serena shook her head saying, ¡°Why does it seem you are acting?¡± ¡°Is it too obvious? Well there''s a need for a cheerful one now that Lyndis ended up like that¡± he explained, ¡°Though I''m not the only one doing this. Sain is really good at acting you know, well to the point you wouldn''t think he was acting.¡± ¡°....I still don''t like your tone.¡± ¡°Well you can''t do-ah, Lyndis started to bite now¡± Shadow moved his head to look at Lyndis. Serena and Raven were not able to see perfectly in the dark but Shadow was able to. With Serena''s ''Blessing of Invisible Torments'' buff, all three of them had stealth on though Shadow already had the skill to the advance level. This was to make sure that they, three in total would not be attacked by any enemies that would spot them normally while they were spying on Lyndis. They continued to watch as she struggled alone. xXx Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°This....was....way to much!¡± Lyndis huffed out a puff of air as she fell onto the ground now out of breath again. In her left hand was her old iron sword that she barely managed to get out of her inventory. During the taking of the iron sword out of her inventory, it was knocked off by an attack by the purple rabbits. After that, she had to resort to biting in order to cause some damage and such to get to that iron sword. Now that she thought about it, she was really lucky to get out of this alive. Her health was really really low right now. She hurriedly took out some rolls of bandages to restore her health.
Bandaging used, bleeding will stop, health increased to 7%
Bandaging used, some injuries will be mended after some time, health increased to 15%
Bandaging used, some injuries will be mended after some time, health increased to 23%
Bandaging used, some injuries will be mended after some time, health increased to 30%
With her health to a level where she would probably not die in one hit from a random attack, she checked the state of her weapon that she was currently using.
Long Iron Sword Durability: 70/80 Damage: 32-38 An iron sword that is longer than normal. As such, the damage it produces is higher than normal but at the same time the durability increased due to the good tempering of the blacksmith. It''s long blade surprisingly does not make it heavier than other swords. Restrictions: Level 140 Options: - Damage on living creature increases by 10% - Light weight and balanced at the same time despite it''s true weight - Sword skills are executed twice as fast
When she pulled it out, it was at full durability and now it decreased by only a little bit but at the same time she by estimate had another seven battles with his sword until it breaks since she doesn''t have the repair skill which is something Raven learnt. ¡°....¡± There were some thoughts on how useful he would be right now but she put it behind her. Many players, groups and even guilds didn''t have a person who had the repair skill. They just went to a blacksmith to get things repaired and payed a cost instead. Another thing was that she looked through her armour. It was in a rough shape but was not as bad as her weapons in losing durability. She knew for a fact that she attacked more than she was hit and thus the durability lost on her armour wasn''t that bad. However she would definitely need to visit a blacksmith else downgrade to her older gear. ¡°Speaking of older gear...how much do I have of that stuff?¡± she wondered. Other than the current Iron Sword, she still had the one that Ron gave her as well as an old leather armour set...and that was it. Both were on an even lower level than her current sword that would be considered low levelled to her right now. ¡°That reminds me...I wonder if I levelled up during that battle...I didn''t pay-huh? Why is my level 223 instead of 215?¡± Surprised, Lyndis scrolled through recent messages and found that the Guild Quest concerning Shia City was finished. ¡°....¡± Lyndis had a complicated feeling about it. One, she was happy of the experience gain and the level ups but on the other hand it was Sain who completed the quest...without her. ¡°Wonder how Miriel was...considering that those three left with me, she would have had quite some time with Sain alone...¡± A smirk gradually came on Lyndis'' face but she then remembered that she was hungry and needed to eat. ¡°Right...might extract the meat from those rabbits later and cooks some now¡± she muttered to herself taking out some dry sticks and stones to make a small campfire and lit it up with her ''Pocket Fireball'' skill. Next she took a lump of rabbit meat and stuck it on a stick. ¡°Might taste bad, might be chewy but I need that hunger to be gone.¡± She did this to another two lumps of meat and waited for it to be cooked. Eventually, when she felt like it was done, she took it and took a bite out of it.
You have tasted a Well Cooked Disgusting Purple Giant Rabbit Meat! - Due to bad taste, will cause some minor negative status effects on movement
¡°Pah!¡± Lyndis immediately spat the meat out of her mouth and tried to wipe her mouth clean of it. She stared at the lump of meat on the ground silently and looked at the other pieces of meat...and finally checked her hunger metre. She would need to eat a total of six sticks of this meat to get to full. ¡°I don''t need to completely fill it up...I can half fill it to survive for later...¡± she reassured herself before taking another bite into the meat that made her want to vomit. The same message appeared and she ignored it, continuing to eat all three sticks of meat to make her half full...though she wanted to vomit everything else to be done with it even if she starved to death. ¡°Now to collect the res-you got to be fucking kidding me¡± she cursed seeing more enemies around her again. Another batch of Purple Giant Rabbits to fight...sigh. xXx Another day passed and she eventually found a large village which was surprisingly close by which caused her to internally curse again. ¡°Hmm...this seems like a nice place¡± she muttered looking around. She could tell that this place was half way to being a small town in fact. Walking around, she moved to where the smoke was and found... ¡°A restaurant?¡± There was a large sign that said the name of this place was called ''Lonely Den'' which made her smile a bit. However looking through her inventory, she only had a few silver coins and had to save that to repairing her gear. ¡°Damn should have taken some gold when I left...¡± She was never trusted with money after that incident where she spent several gold on some food and now she was paying the price. Moving along, she after some hours of searching and asking around finally got to a blacksmith. She cursed on the fact that why this place only had one blacksmith and it was hard to find. Walking in she saw that there was no one inside. ¡°....?¡± Looking around, this place seemed to have been used by a person recently. She could even see that the furnace thing that blacksmiths used was still hot and burning. ¡°Hello Lyndis.¡± ¡°Eck!¡± She immediately drew her sword and attacked. BANG! She hit something solid and then looked to see who she actually attacked. She looked in horror to that person even though he seemed to be extremely relaxed and carefree as he caught the blade with his bare hand. ¡°You are slipping you know. I don''t remember you attacking anyone that called you and your swings to be this...dull.¡± ¡°Eden¡± she called that person''s name and he walked out. Dressed in gear that seemed good for travel but still could not hide the unparalleled beauty he had..as a woman that is even with his hood up. She felt something heavy on her heart thinking she had lost to him already in some area as a woman. ¡°Hey, why the hell are you pouting like Alexandra when looking at me?¡± asked Eden. ¡°....¡± For some reason Lyndis thought that Alexandra felt the same way as her sometimes... Before long she asked, ¡°Why are you here?¡± to which Eden finally smiled and said, ¡°You are finally asking me something important.¡± Taking off his hood, he let loose his long and shiny silk like black hair. Lyndis could only ask automatically without thinking, ¡°How do you take care of your hair so well?¡± Letting out a small chuckle, Eden moved the conversation by asking, ¡°So why exactly were you angry with Sain?¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°And are you angry with me?¡± ¡°...I don''t think so? How were you involved with the case with Aria?¡± asked Lyndis with a pondering face. ¡°I believed I told Sain of what I found when looking into Aria for him when he asked and immediately after he killed her¡± he answered with a frank tone. ¡°And...?¡± However Eden smiled and shook his finger and said, ¡°You need to and my question first.¡± ¡°Oh I simply admiring your looks before I remembered you were a guy and got a bit depressed as a woman¡± Lyndis answered however looked away when Eden started to stare at her. ¡°You''re still a brat to me and answer the other question¡± said Eden in a sudden change in tone. The air around them went cold and Lyndis'' instincts that were particularly more active than before recently told her to run away. ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± The two looked each other silently. It is to note that Eden had gained a lot of patient over the years though Lyndis did not know that anyone that did not answer him immediately in the past were tortured slightly the longer they took with his magic. ¡°You won''t get any service with the blacksmith to repair your gear unless you answer you know¡± said Eden in a slightly kind and yet slightly threatening tone. In her mind, Lyndis weighed a lot of things and decided to say, ¡°I don''t want to say.¡± Eden let out a sigh and said, ¡°Well you won''t get any repair service from him then. Not going to stop you from buying anything though. Now to deal with an old enemy that''s in the area...¡± With that, Eden nodded to the back of this dusty old blacksmith store and left which left Lyndis to look and stare at him wondering what the hell was that since he didn''t do anything to her at all. The Eden she knew wouldn''t dare let anyone off. Else..she didn''t know him that well to begin with. She only thought of someone who led the guild she was in to begin with. ¡°Young lady, if you are not here to buy anything, I suggest you leave else you''ll waste time¡± said an old man that appeared all of a sudden. If not for the fact that this old man was probably the blacksmith, she would have drawn and attacked him as well. However even knowing that, Lyndis was still clearly startled not taking well to surprises. ¡°Yes! I mean...uh...repairs?¡± she finally asked in the end. The blacksmith shook his head saying, ¡°That one told me not to to you no matter what and payed a good price for it. I can live through the winter fine with this extra money I got now¡± with a bitter smile to Lyndis. ¡°Ha...¡± Lyndis let out a sigh and then asked, ¡°How much does some of the cheaper swords you have cost?¡± ¡°Level 10 cost a silver, level 30 cost 3 silvers, level 50 cost 10 silver and level 100 cost 50 silver. Those four are the cheapest.¡± Lyndis checked to see that she had 38 silver on her right now. She could not even afford weapon that was half her level? ¡°Not enough money...¡± she muttered. Seeming concern for her, the blacksmith said, ¡°If you''re low on money, there is that nearby dungeon or you could take on a quest from the village leader to do something about those purple giant rabbits.¡± With another sigh and not listening to the blacksmith, she left the blacksmith store and went back to that restaurant that she passed by before. At least she could get something good at eat since she didn''t feel like cooking anymore. ¡°....Closed.¡± However when she reached there, the place was closed down for the day. Looking around, it was already night now. ¡°Need to get to an inn...¡± She looked around but had no idea where one was. Theoretically an inn would usually be near the entrance of the place in order to let people enter and leave the place quickly. Thus Lyndis went to the entrance of the village and looked around for an inn and found...nothing. She wondered where she would sleep for the night since she didn''t want to log off, however she rather not sleep in the cold. ¡°....¡± Dashing over around the corner of a certain house nearby, she quickly scanned the area...and found nothing again. ¡°Hmm....¡± She could have sworn that someone was spying on her. Her instincts to detect these kinds of things were getting quite good now. Therefore, she took the mind to think and decided to log off. She rather not have someone do something unspeakable to her while she slept after all. xXx ¡°Damn that woman is super dangerous¡± Shadow muttered a curse wishing she would be more human in her detecting abilities. If not for the fact that he was still in stealth and that he quickly hid in the shadows and a distance away from her at that moment she ran over, he would have been found out. ¡°My my a woman''s instinct is quite frightening you know.¡± ¡°Yeah I know, my stealth skill is on the advance level and she still fo-huh, why the hell did you appear Eden?¡± asked Shadow to the being that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. ¡°Not exactly the tone I would want you to use with me but I don''t mind. More to the point, Lyndis is really on the edge here but at the same time it caused her to be even more cautious than before like a wounded beast being more sensitive to dangers¡± said Eden look at the spot that Lyndis logged off at. ¡°....¡± Shadow silently listened to what Eden had to say. Why wouldn''t he, Eden was the guildmaster...or one of them and Shadow was a lowly member. ¡°Anyway, how long do you think she will mop around with? Spilled milk is nothing to be mopy about though in this case it''s more like spilled blood¡± said Eden with a humoured tone like he was enjoying this. ¡°How would I know? I don''t even know her enough to even answer that¡± said Shadow in a ride tone in return. He really needed to be cautious around Eden. It''s like a rabbit suddenly wandering into a wolf''s den and the wolf was looking at the rabbit with amusement and not just killing and eating it immediately. ¡°I''m asking you since it seems you know her more than the others do. Well you also know more about Sain than the others do at the same time¡± said Eden taking out a small knife that was covered heavily in blood. ¡°...I don''t know what you are talking about¡± replied Shadow staring at that blood covered knife. What on earth did he cut up for it to be drenched that much in blood? ¡°I suppose you don''t want to talk about Lyndis but are more comfortable with Sain since he''s a bit more similar to you than Lyndis is. Considering that Lyndis is the complete opposite of you¡± a frank smile came up on Eden''s face which caused him to want to run away right now. He was trapped in a wolf''s-no tiger''s-no dragon''s den and had no way to escape now. ¡°What is there to not like about Lyndis at first glance. Bright, cheerful and a hard worker that gives results. A bit dull on the decision making side but is emotionally invested into what she wants to do.¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°On the other hand you are dark, creepy in mood and someone''s whose hard work can only give results in ways that others cannot see. Even in appearance, people would immediately go to Lyndis first compared to you who most of time doesn''t seem to exist.¡± ¡°....¡± Shadow glared at Eden who pricked at the wrong places at the wrong time. He was enjoying seeing Lyndis in that state. ¡°Well there''s nothing wrong with that since you envy her.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Shadow also shouted that if not for the fact that he was used to hushing his tone and words down, ¡°What the hell are you talking about?!¡± ¡°On a scale Lyndis is on the end extreme end of flashiness in your group while you are on the polar opposite with your stealth based attacks that leave little to be seen at first. Frankly you have been developing in a strange way of trying to be flashy and yet still use your stealth skills at the same time.¡± ¡°Where the hell are you getting this from?¡± asked Shadow who had no idea what he was talking about. ¡°From Sain of course. You know he reports in to me once in a while of what happened and everyone''s development and even how you look at Lyndis with some envy¡± said Eden as a matter of fact. ¡°That bastard...¡± Shadow cursed him in his heart at once. ¡°No matter what, I think feeling envy to another is perfectly normally you know. I mean I envy Alexandra''s ability to heal others which I cannot process and the fact that she can be healed by others as well¡± said Eden looking down on his arm and cut it with the blood drench knife. His wounds quickly healed as the blade left his flesh. ¡°I only process one healing ability and it is the most powerful kind that makes me near immortal else for some concerns. I do not need people to heal me, to help me for a very long time.¡± Eden looked sadly up at the starry night and continued to say, ¡°And I also envy Alexandra''s ability to get along with people easily. It gets quite lonely when there are only so many people that are willing to talk to you as equals and not feeling inferior or wanting to run away from me.¡± There was a hint of sadness and even more so of a hint of insanity in his tone as he said that. But for some reason Shadow understood that. To be alone in a world filled with people who can talk and laugh at each other was painful. For an existence that was not noticed, and an existence that was avoided, to be lonely was normal. ¡°By the way¡± said Shadow asking a question, ¡°Why are you really here and what''s with that blood drenched knife.¡± ¡°I''m bored and preparations are half done so I wanted to take a break and see what was happening with that group of your splitting up¡± he explained in a bored manner. ¡°And the knife?¡± ¡°This thing?¡± Eden immediately gripped it ''slightly'' harder and it broke to pieces, ¡°Just used it to get rid of some pests that had annoyed me from the very beginning and I can''t seem to completely get rid of them no matter what I do.¡± Eden moved from the wall where Shadow was and went under the moonlight and turned to him. ¡°Might as well return before Alexandra notices that I''m stirring up trouble again. Oh and some advice from an old man like me.¡± Shadow really wanted to retort on that last word. ¡°Right now you are the only one capable of standing next to Lyndis¡± he said which made Shadow fill complicated, ¡°And the only reason why is that your existence is one that she doesn''t notice unless you provoke her intentionally to like before.¡± ¡°I know.¡± ¡°Also your acting is really good you know. You look like as if you actually care about her¡± Eden hummed those words out and took a step before Shadow could say anything back. With that, Eden disappeared from sight like he wasn''t even here to begin with. ¡°....¡± Taking a moment, Shadow hit the wall with his fist. ¡°I know already...that''s why you assigned me to help Sain and now to Lyndis.¡± Gritting his teeth, Shadow could only think of that he needed to kill his presence in order to stay by her side, to protect her in the end. ¡°Will I only remind a shadow in the end....?¡± Muttering that, he decided to vent on some monsters since he couldn''t find anything else he could vent on. Serena and Raven went to train by themselves while they waited but Shadow now had no intentions of giving the role of looking over to Lyndis now. He also cursed Eden for stirring up emotions that he thought he had buried already long ago. ¡°This is not an act...this is the real me...this is not an act....things won''t turn out like that time...¡± he continued to mutter to him, reassuring himself as he left the village. ''That'' won''t happen again, not this time. xXx In a manner that showed him to be sneaking, Eden walked back in the hideout which was prepared for the preparations of the attack on the Warrior King. However just as he opened the door, on the other side was a blonde woman he knew as his wife. ¡°Where were you?¡± she asked but did not let him answer and continued to say, ¡°You know that you have to be here to supervise the creation of the mass teleportation device.¡± Eden needed to prepare to teleport five thousand players of all kinds to the place where the Warrior King was to attack him. However there were three things that needed to be done. The first was to find the location of the place which was done. The second was to go to that place and secure a place to teleport people over. The third and last thing was to make a magic circle or series of them to teleport five thousand people over there at once or bits at a time. Eden had already sent a number of people over to help with the second and it was almost done. Now all they had to do was wait on Viv to construct a powerful enough magic circle with Eden to teleport those people and power it. All of this would be finished in another half a year or so and the attack would happen then. However for the construction of the magic circle, both Eden and Viv need to understand every part of it thus it was inexcusable for him to sudden leave without warning. Right now they were literally on a floating island hiding out beneath the Warrior King with a few key others. ¡°Is Eden back?¡± asked another woman coming out, Eden said politely, ¡°Oh Seoyoon, I''m back¡± to her to which Alexandra slapped his face in anger. ¡°So where were you and why did you leave?¡± asked Alexandra again with a glare telling him to answer it. ¡°Oh those kids have broken up due to a fight and I was seeing on what to do to fix it. That and I went to exterminate some old enemies¡± he replied. Alexandra frowned and then said, ¡°What the hell happened? This wasn''t due to you...I hope.¡± Even though she said that in a worried tone, her fist was not worried at all and was prepared to attack Eden at any moment with the wrong answer. ¡°Nah it''s more like Lyndis was overreacting to something Sain did and so lots of things happened, three people started to stalk her...you know the usual for kids to do at that time of their life. I actually payed all of them a visit each wanting to know what''s on their mind and gave them some advise.¡± ¡°....¡± Alexandra was really tempted to hit Eden right now but then Seoyoon asked, ¡°Will they make up?¡± ¡°Eventually though I don''t intent for them to for at least a while¡± said Eden. Alexandra nodded her head understanding what Eden was doing and said, ¡°Keeping them away from each other to make them grow individually then.¡± ¡°Yep¡± Eden smiled seeing his wife was so understanding that her fists weren''t beating him to death right now. ¡°However¡± said Alexandra suddenly with the two looking at her, ¡°If any of them are traumatised due to what you said to them...¡± Eden smiled wryly at her. He couldn''t say that he thought it already did to some of them or at least made it easier for that to happen.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8300~ - Second chapter finally out...and barely on time on my due... - To be honest, I had a bad time trying to think of ways to make things difficult for Lyndis but I just decided to make it so...spoilers. In other things to talk about, Purple Giant Rabbits, even after a century they still live on...Eden was never able to get rid of them. More of them next chapter I think. Vol.8 Chapter 3 - Pre-Invasion ¡°I''m out again...to think I was being followed or at least I thought I was...¡±Maria sighed as she logged off the game. The first thing that she did was to check the lock on her door and to lock it so no one could get in. She knew what time it was and the others if they logged off could talk to her through a locked door. The second was to get some clean clothes to change into. Even though she was in the game capsule for most of the time and didn''t sweat, she did spend hours in the same clothes and would prefer to take a shower immediately to get the smell off her. However taking a shower would make noise and that would mean the others out the game had a chance to know she was there and try to seek her if they wanted. That was something that she did not want to happen especially right now when she needed time to think for herself. And right now, the only reason she left the game was that she didn''t feel safe to sleep on the side of the street. There was someone watching her, she was completely certain of that. However she didn''t have the means to seek whoever that was at all. Looking at the time, it was a few hours till morning. ¡°Might as well get some sleep¡± she muttered not even bothering to take a shower but to simply change her clothes and lie on the bed with her eyes shut. She would log back in latter to do something. She needed something to do else she would shut down completely. xXx Approximately some time before Eden went to see Alexandra.... ¡°Hello there~¡± said Eden waving his hand to Serena and Raven who were waiting for Shadow to come back. Both of them looked at Eden at that moment and saw him with one of his hands dragonfied and dragging a large crushed and dead creature with him which covered him in enough blood to see even though it was a bit dark. ¡°Eccccccccckkkkk!!!!¡± Serena let out a scream at the horror like elements she was seeing and went to run but Raven grabbed and stopped her. ¡°Raven, why are you condemning me to die?!¡± she screamed before grabbing and flipping Raven in turn which made Eden''s jaw drop. ¡°Wow...Alexandra really did teach you quite a bit there...¡± he muttered looking and Raven who let out a small groan of pain. ¡°Help¡± said Raven pleading a bit to Eden looking him with a pitiful gaze. Raven''s pride was quite hurt right now with Serena managing to flip him like that and so easily...even though he knew of her capabilities, the shame did not go away. ¡°Oh I''ve learnt a long time ago that you cannot beat girls in these kinds of matters, especially when it comes to their hair, gossip and violence¡± said Eden dropping what he was dragging along and turned his arm back to normal. However in turn and since Eden looked less threatening, well he was practically a woman in appearance of the same age a bit older than Miriel and Lyndis, Serena thus glared at him for frightening her. ¡°What do you want?¡± she asked. With an eyebrow raised, Eden said, ¡°So you finally graduated from the shy act? Good timing since that shuttering was driving me nuts.¡± ¡°....¡± Serena proceeded to step and kick Raven who was still on the ground. ¡°Looks like your sadist side is developing nicely and Raven''s masochist side as well~¡± ¡°....¡± ¡°....¡± Both Serena and Raven proceeded to glare at Eden now though even so, Raven did not seem to want to stand up and allowed Serena to kick him a bit more. Eden knew Raven was somewhat kind and practically felt little pain but people shouldn''t like being hit right...? Various images of Weed and those Gemchis intentionally being hit bare chested to raise their stats popped up in his mind. Yeah..that was not what he wanted to remember right now. ¡°Anyway I''m here to tell you that you two should train rather than stalk Lyndis like the stalkers you are¡± said Eden which raised some more eyebrows though Serena was still stepping Raven right now. Really was this some sort of play he never heard of before? One was 15...no a year passed so he was 16 now and the other was now 14 as well, wait that just made it worse since Eden could not associate with the age-innocences graph. ¡°Anyhow, I''m going to say this once. Don''t follow Lyndis anymore.¡± ¡°Why?! She''s our friend!¡± Serena retorted. Eden snickered and said, ¡°You mean how she pushed everyone and everybody away? Well if she wants that...¡± he looked at the thing he dragged with him and grinned thinking of something evil. ¡°Well I''m going to follow Lyndis no matter what! She looked so...so...¡± ¡°Lost, distressed, confused are some of the words I could have describe her. I mean she did attack me the moment she saw me¡± Eden pointed out to which Serena gasped a bit thinking Eden had punished her in some ways. ¡°Oh don''t worry, I''m not that bored to punish Lyndis on that...yet.¡± ¡°Is that all you wanted to say?¡± asked Serena looking quite strangely at Eden again. Oh she must have noticed the thing he dragged wasn''t actually dead, bless or curse their regenerative powers. Ever since that first one that actually tried to eat him, Eden did not get along with giant rabbits and especially purple giant rabbits. Else it might be the fact that he was about to traumatise her either way. ¡°More or less¡± said Eden snapping the neck of this ''foe'' of his and took it with him disappearing. xXx ¡°Yo, I just met with everyone else and you two are the last on my list to meet¡± said Eden popping out of nowhere. However he did not get the reaction he wanted to from both Sain and Miriel who seemed calm with only an eyebrow raised. ¡°What is it?¡± asked Sain not even frightened of him and even Miriel was like this...though Eden suspected she was considering being frighten to have an excuse to hug him even tighter. Oh misguided youth in love...Eden sometimes...often would want to escape from Alexandra but that was impossible in too many ways. ¡°I''m here to give you the ''talk''¡± he said in a grim tone though was expecting a good reaction of some kind. ¡°....¡± But there was little to no response to them. Seeing this, he sighed at the two wanting a better reaction, even being attacked like with Lyndis or shock with Shadow though not a high pitch scream like Serena. Well that was nothing much he talked with those four about-though he may have screwed with their minds a bit in boredom. ¡°You two are no fun unlike the others. I can actually toy with them a bit without Alexandra''s wrath coming back on me¡± he sighed. ¡°I''ll remember to report that to her that you said that then¡± said Miriel to which Eden expressed on horrified look at her though she added, ¡°Unless you pay the price of course.¡± ¡°....¡± Giving up a bit, Eden took out a gold coin and gave it to her to which Miriel beamed happily and whispered to herself though Eden could still hear due to his skills, ¡°Thank god my first time doing this worked.¡± ¡°....¡± Eden could not believe her first attempt to blackmail for money was on her guildmaster and furthermore on him! He wanted to punish her and with her, Sain as well for this! But he had better things to do. But Sain and Miriel were different from the others in strange ways. Well to be precise Sain but Miriel was sticking around him rather than leave with Lyndis so Eden counted her as weird as well. But that might be just love he thought in his mind as he grinned at them who were close to each other. ¡°Anyway I''m here to tell you to expect a mission, well an order from me in around...6 or so months¡± he said to which the two did not look surprise at all. ¡°What? No reaction? Even Raven was more interesting than you two and that''s saying something¡± said Eden in disappointment. At least Serena screamed and Lyndis actually dared attack him. ¡°Did you tell this to the others yet?¡± asked Sain to which Eden remembered he actually didn''t. Well when they make up then those two can tell them anyway. ¡°What do you want?¡± asked Miriel to which Sain added, ¡°And why are you here?¡± ¡°Here to talk about a few things. Namely since it had exactly been a year-well in real life that you started the game¡± said Eden a bit excited. ¡°....¡± Sain thought about it and it was indeed a year since that day where the six of them had been brought to that mansion and practically forced to start to play with game, though he was thankful enough for it. ¡°Did you talk to the others yet?¡± Sain asked. ¡°I already told you, you two are the last two on my list though I didn''t mention that other detail for the others since I kinda forgot about it and now it seems like a good excuse¡± answered Eden bluntly not caring that much. ¡°....¡± ¡°Anyway unlike Serena and Raven, and the other two, I don''t need to mention you lot need to get stronger¡± said Eden, ¡°And get to level 300 before the year ends and also get rid of that [Little Droplet] organisation that had been a pain for a while.¡± ¡°We know¡± said Miriel, ¡°That''s why we''re searching for information on our off days in the game in between training.¡± Eden took that moment to look around. They were literally in front of a dungeon, one that was practically harmless to him but quite a challenge for those of Sain and Miriel''s level and with just the two of them. From what he could remember...this place was a good place for level 250s to train since it had good experience though crap loot drops. The enemies...he thought it was some generic monsters like goblins, imps and so on. Not that dangerous when you are properly levelled and equipped. But then, Eden thought it was too annoying for them to not worry so much compared to the others. Even Serena and Raven while not worried were at least shocked for one reason or another he forgot to remember. Thus he said the following: ¡°Hmm....just a reminder to solve the issue of Lyndis else I might have to kick her out if the worse happens¡± said Eden which caused both Sain and Miriel to flinch before saying, ¡°That reminds me, I was having a talk with Park and he said that you two discuss something of learning a skill I had.¡± ¡°....¡± Sain frowned and tried to remember but could not. Did this really happen or was it buried within his memories for some reason? ¡°Anyway this is actually a good skill to use especially for you and quite powerful if used correctly. If you wish to learn the other skills in this set, come talk to me and we can discuss it¡± said Eden before giving Sain a golden skill book, A rank and disappearing. ¡°....What just happened?¡± wondered Miriel looking at the skill book in Sain''s hands wide eyed. ¡°I''m...not sure¡± replied Sain who was truthful. xXx Some time later when Serena and Raven decided to adheed to Eden''s words and train for a bit. ¡°Raven, please endure a bit more!¡± said Serena gathering the remains of the mana inside of her as much as possible to use a spell and trying to encourage Raven at the same time. Raven was in front of Serena enduring several attacks at once by armed lizardmen that counted four. Right now they were in a surprise attack battle with Raven moving to block attacks for Serena when the lizardmen attacked them. His armour was getting battered and sometimes were bent out of shape with each hit the longer the fight went on which was a short while but at the same time it allowed Serena time to chant her spells to support him. ¡°Heartbeat Healing!¡± she chanted which was the most basic and fundamental and powerful overall healing spell she had.
Party in range has been buffed with the spell ''Heartbeat Healing''
Health will regenerate for 70 points every second for 10 minutes
Due to her ''Magic Mastery'' and ''Nature Magic Mastery'' skills were both at the Intermediate Level 3 point, it gave her nature spells a total of 3.4 times greater power than normal. Adding this to the health gain of ''Heartbeat Healing'' which at the Intermediate Level 2 point and usually gain a total of 16 points of health a second for 10 minutes. Combined with the bonus of the first two skills, both of them would boost this skill would increase the health gain per second to 70 points. That meant a total of 42 000 health which was enough to fill his health almost three times over. However with the rate this battle was going, Serena doubt that could completely support him. Thus she took the time to cast another healing spell on him. ¡°Moderate Health Regeneration!¡±
Moderate Health Regeneration has been applied, 2500 health will regeneration over 100 seconds
With this set up, Serena did not need to worry about Raven dying quickly without warning, at least without him being instant killed. Moderate Health Regeneration would pretty much add another 250 health points onto Raven for the next minute and two thirds. Serena could see Raven''s health that went down steady was now increasing instead. ¡°Footwork!¡± said Raven moving quickly around the attacks of the lizardmen. Serena did not particularly like the fact that Raven was kinda ignoring her in favour for the battle unless he had to defend her even though it was his role and both of them knew it. But now she started to chant a spell to attack with Raven distracting the four lizardmen at once. ¡°Leaf Slicer!¡± she chanted using the leaves around them as a catalyse for the spell itself and thus increasing it''s power. Several hundred small blade like things covered in an green aura flew from Serena to the four lizardmen. Serena made sure to avoid hitting Raven but figured that his armour that was pretty good would block most of the damage and her spells would have recover the damage even if she accidentally attacked him. But due to the scales of the lizardmen which automatically blocked weak attacks, a feature of most scaled monsters; this attack wasn''t as effective as it should be causing only minor damage to them. ¡°Anchor Howl!¡± Raven shouted drawing whatever aggravation the lizardmen had to Serena to him in an instant they started to move to her. But this was the only attacking spell Serena knew other than ''Blood Burst'' which was on cool down still. With now choice Serena immediately changed her tactics and shouted, ¡°Beast Transformation Art: Rabbit Shift!¡± Two bunny ears appeared on her head as a small rabbit tail appeared on her butt and her legs transformed being covered in thick white fur in a form that resembled her wearing fur boots that reached her knees.
Rabbit Shift as been activated, Increased agility and kicking strength
With this, Serena leaped from the ground and into the air and did a drop kick much to her surprise successfully on one of the lizardmen that was attacking Raven. BANG! The lizardman she attacked blocked the attack and the other three lizardmen, in total four lizardmen in total as enemies stabbed their spears at Serena to attack her. However, at that moment, they were all suddenly blown away by an invisible force. BOOM! Raven activated ''Boost'' and ''Gravity Force'' to block the attack for Serena. ¡°Battle Aura!¡± he shouted activating his aura around his body and increased his stats by a little bit since the skill was still kinda weak in the Beginner Levels. He would need to use this to make the skill stronger than before. The lizardmen knocked back immediately regained their stances growled at the two. The four immediately moved to surround the two in a quick timing. ¡°Fighting really got harder¡± muttered Serena looking at two of the lizardmen at a time. Before there were six of them, half of them would attack and the other three supported with various things. But now there was only herself and Raven and they were really suffering from being surrounded and attacked on all sides. Since she wasn''t used to commanding others and Raven really didn''t do his own thing a lot, Serena could only say, ¡°Do what you think is right¡± to him to which he immediately abandoned protecting her and started to attack. ¡°....¡± Because of that, two of the lizardmen bypass Raven and attacked her. She immediately regret this and cursed Raven for doing this to her but she had bigger problems right now! ¡°Eck!¡± Dodging the attacks thankfully due to training from Alexandra, she was able to take only a few hits without dying. Due to her shorter height, she was unable to attack properly with kicking...or punching by any rate. ¡°My staff...!¡± Even her staff took a few hits while she used it to defend herself as well. It took a beating when she used it to protect herself since staffs weren''t to be used to defend yourself against attacks. It had cost her several hundred gold to buy and now looked a bit battered. The thought of Miriel''s face when she would find out that Serena''s broke her staff in close combat of all things...she could not let whatever Lyndis suffered from come to her! ¡°Root bind!¡± Serena chanted that skill for the three seconds it took her to to which she barely dodged the second lizardman which was not bound due to her spell. Retreating back she continued to say, ¡°Beat Transformation Art: Bear Shift!¡± The rabbit features disappeared and two bear ears appeared on her head and her arms turned into bear claws.
Bear Shift as been activated, Increased strength and claw damage
Due to this, her speed decreased but in exchange her strength increased. But she was not done yet and she said, ¡°Berserk Conversing¡± activating the skill turning the 600 points in both intelligence and wisdom to 200 points in both strength and agility due to the 1:3 conversion ratio of the skill. Moving due to this, Serena dodged another stab from the free lizardman that attacked her and then shouted, ¡°Berserk Instincts¡± activating the skill and letting the skill control her body to fight. ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± BANG! Immediately her right fist that was surrounded and protected by an iron claw went and crushed one of the arms of the lizardman it was followed up by a kick where Serena suddenly went back into ''Rabbit Shift'' before another series of kicks that took that lizardman down to the ground in seconds. Next was a series of hits using the staff to which she silently and internally weeped of the possibility of the staff breaking. But in the end, she was able to kill the lizardman before the effects of her ''Root Bind'' spell wore off on the other lizardman. Thus her body started to attack the bound lizardman as well going back into ''Bear Shift'' for the increased damage. After that, Serena waited for Raven to finish his battle against the two lizardmen he was facing. Upon him defeating those lizardmen, Serena said, ¡°We need to have a talk on teamwork.¡± ¡°....¡± Raven was silent but still nodded as Serena said, ¡°Between you and me, I seem to have a better offence while you have a better defence seeing that I really can''t take a hit.¡± ¡°....¡± Raven nodded again. ¡°But it looks like your ''Gravity Force'' ability doesn''t really work against foes that aren''t...large. Well nothing to that...umm...I mean we, well I need to fight along side you. Wasn''t fun trying not to be hit and instant killed there. Your health is more than three times mine and your defence...even more¡± Serena started to blab seeing that between the two, only she would talk. ¡°A-Anyway we should find some more enemies after we both recover completely¡± she said while thinking on where the hell Shadow was. She was not used to commanding people at all and Raven was just too obedient to the point she almost couldn''t trust him. It was bad enough that the shuttering was coming back... xXx An hour later, while Serena and Raven were training and grinding some experience for their level and skills, Shadow watched the two from above, without them knowing of course. He didn''t even say a single word or let a sound out of his mouth ever since Eden visited him to talk. That talk made him think of several things he didn''t want to, but in the end his decision was the same. There was no need for other people to keep track of Lyndis since there was no point if he could do it alone. Even though he knew they were certainly worried about them, he couldn''t just risk her finding out among other things he thought to himself. Other than that, Lyndis finding out that they were literally stalking her would make her lose any trust and chance they had with her coming back. ¡°....¡± Looking down, the two were doing some basic combination attacks on a single lizardman with some of the other enemies already dead. He said basic since Serena was a complete beginner in these kinds of things and usually stayed back and supported. ¡°Almost done!¡± said Serena encouraging herself as she dodged an attack and let Raven counter attack for her. Raven''s Halberd sliced down and chopped an arm off of the lizardman and it was followed up by Serena using that iron claw thing on her right arm to pierce the chest killing it. ¡°Haa...finally done. I''m still not used to battling like this. How do you deal with it?¡± asked Serena to Raven but he did not respond. The two or rather Serena started to talk to Raven about some things. Mostly about how she could improve or what to do next. But Shadow noticed something strange. ¡°Critical Eyes.¡± The place lit up and several things including Serena and Raven had their weak spots shown to him. But at the same time, a lizardman whose suppose to be dead also lit up for him. It was still alive. ¡°No choice then, might as well make it flashy¡± and make an impression on them. Shadow leaped from the tree and immediately impaled the lizardman that was playing dead and caused it to let out a groan of pain before dying. ¡°Whose the-Shadow?¡± Serena blurted out seeing that she actually wished for this person to appear a few hours ago and even messaged him and only now he appeared. ¡°Yeah it''s me...¡± said Shadow though his tone was still on the topic that Eden brought up. Was this really an act in the end? He badmouthed others in order to at least make a better-well worse impression on them. You don''t forget the people you hate that easily. ¡°Okay...? Before you said you were happy to see Lyndis depressed and now you come back depressed of seeing Lyndis depressed?¡± asked Serena in her confusion. She really didn''t know much. Thus Shadow said, ¡°First of all, did Eden visit you as well?¡± ¡°Yeah...why? Did he have that all, you need to train some more talk with you?¡± she asked. ¡°Uh..maybe among other things he said¡± he replied. ¡°What did he say?¡± she asked ¡°Not telling. Quite personal you see¡± Shadow let off a fake smile and then said, ¡°Also, you two won''t be needing to keep track of Lyndis. I can take care of that job by myself since you two are a burden.¡± Serena and even Raven had an expression of shock right now. They did not or at least tried not to understand what Shadow had just said to them. ¡°How exactly am I and Raven a burden?¡± she asked irritated and annoyed right now. What on earth was he thinking? Shadow shrugged and then said, ¡°One is a near useless healer that can barely defend herself while the other is a lump of walking metal that can only block and rarely attacks.¡± ¡°....¡± Both Serena and even Raven frowned to this comment. ¡°I can attack you know and bind and Raven has those throwing axes as well¡± said Serena. ¡°But you two aren''t used to doing that. I was actually watching you fight you know, you rather dodge than counter-attack and Raven didn''t even have a chance of using his throwing axes, well not that I actually use a bow that much. I mean we are so specialise that learning new ways to fight is actually hindering us¡± said Shadow in a dramatic tone. ¡°Of course it is, you can''t do everything at once. It''s about the circumstances and the chance to do so¡± said Serena in turn. Shadow thought Serena was right which was why they needed to train and focus on training in order to be good at attacking and such. It was for the best in the end. With a devilish grin, Shadow decided to do that for their sake and the sake of the group that will come back together one day. ¡°Both of you don''t have the speed nor stealth among many things to basically keep track of Lyndis and make time to train properly. So basically bug off until you get a bit stronger else if I find you two near Lyndis when I don''t want you to...¡± Shadow silently used a combination of skills at once but the result that he almost looked like he teleported behind them as he warned, ¡°I won''t be letting you off.¡± Shadow backed away as the two flinched and looked at him with great speed and smiled saying, ¡°Well get along you two. Hopefully you won''t disappoint me when you come crying that you are unable to fight alone¡± with a sneer. With that, Shadow disappeared from their sight. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. xXx A few minutes later when he was sure they were in no where in range to hear him even by chance, Shadow muttered to himself something. ¡°You could have told me that you wanted us to train more individually damn Guildmaster, I almost thought you wanted me to stalk Lyndis without a good reason.¡± Shadow sighed and let out a chuckle that those two won''t be liking him that much for a while, the way he liked it. Everything was fine and in the plan at least for now. xXx With Shadow''s disappearing figure...well gone, Serena was quite shocked in more ways than one. She looked at Raven with an astonished looked and knew what he was thinking but still asked, ¡°Did Shadow just inadvertently say to train and leave the hard work with Lyndis with him?¡± Raven nodded as Serena put things in her mind to pieces. ¡°So...Shadow wants us to get stronger and not chase Lyndis who doesn''t want us to be with her which is what Eden said and Shadow takes orders from Sain who takes order from Eden. xXx At the same time...out of the game and in an certain office that was filled with too much paperwork, three people sat looking at each other. They had logged out seeing that they wanted to discuss something and didn''t want some other people to know about certain personal details of some people they took in a while back. Unicorn had some power over them though the Goddess AI helped since it was using them either way. ¡°So when will you be finished with that pile of paperwork? I mean there has been a lot of complaints of certain activities between students and not the nice and fluffy kind I mean¡± asked Alexandra pointing to the ever growing stack of complaints he was getting as chairman. Eden sighed and then said, ¡°You know more than me that I was busy. All you do is guard and stare at the sky-¡± ¡°-While me and Eden work on one of the most complex magic circles in the world to use in another half a year¡± added Viv. ¡°I don''t like how you two are getting the all ''I know each other thoughts'' vibe¡± said Alexandra with a frown, ¡°It feels like Viv is stealing away Eden from me.¡± Viv went a bit red and then said, ¡°Both of us need to be on the same mind, teleporting 5000 or so people isn''t that hard. The problem is the distance-¡± ¡°-Which is a nightmare-¡± ¡°-And the fact that we need to do so without them upstairs noticing-¡± ¡°-Though they might already know and are just waiting and watching traps or not.¡± Alexandra shook her head and then said, ¡°Yeah, never do that again else I might jump off that island in the sky to get away from it all.¡± ¡°You will be shot down¡± Eden pointed out, ¡°Getting there was hard enough without a bunch of giant birds trying to-well in my case they actually ate me once.¡± ¡°Before you actually went Dragon King Mode inside of them and made them go boom¡± pointed out Viv. ¡°Not exactly a pleasant slight when you are directly under the exploding one as well might I add¡± said Alexandra as well, ¡°Did not like giant bird guts on me all of a sudden.¡± ¡°You literally burnt it all before it even touched you!¡± retorted Eden before scowling and remembering why they were here talking to begin with, ¡°Better start with what we wanted to talk about else we will never get there.¡± Viv nodded and said, ¡°Yeah, for some reason something else always interfere with what we want to do. I mean when we took a stroll down a peaceful, a Heretic God attacked us out of nowhere.¡± Alexandra sighed and said, ¡°Don''t make me remember that...to think a God like that, A God of the Sea could turn into a Heretic God of Panties....¡± ¡°That guy even mistaken me as a woman and...¡± Eden was pale but then realised the conversation was going off again, ¡°Right, time to talk about those kids we took in almost a year ago now.¡± ¡°Right¡± Both Alexandra and Viv nodded. The two turned to Eden and Viv asked, ¡°Since you''re the one who had been keeping track of them most of the time, what are their progress?¡± From the top of Eden''s head through his stalk-investigations he said, ¡°They have another year to get to level 300 and are a quarter there from level 200 now.¡± ¡°Is that good or bad? I can''t remember since we kinds blast through the first 400 levels kinda quickly when we started¡± asked Alexandra. ¡°So-so progress, though impressive considering that they were locked out of the game for a month and a half and spent almost the same time trapped in a city¡± said Viv in slight praise answering her question. ¡°Either way, they have another year in game to gain 70 or so levels which isn''t too much especially and since they need to complete a B rank Guild Quest which brings me to the next point. Those brats we trained are helping those kids in the Guild Quest which I say is a good thing for what it''s worth¡± added Eden. ¡°True, I never expected them to get along with anyone younger so well¡± chuckled Alexandra, ¡°All of them had their small issues but they are quite good as a group.¡± ¡°That may not be the case with the kids right now¡± said Eden in a blunt tone. ¡°What? What happened?¡± asked Alexandra who did hear with Viv about the group splitting up a bit due to a fight, ¡°Don''t tell me you did something after disappearing a bit after returning to the hideout.¡± She was prepared to attack Eden right now but decided not to since these bodies of theirs, man made were quite expensive and were made when they were employed by Unicorn for some certain matters. ¡°Hey, after Lyndis and her mood and telling Shadow to keep an eye on her, I came back. After I disappeared, I told Serena and Raven to train some more and went to Sain and Miriel to give Sain a skill that I heard Park promise him¡± said Eden defensively, ¡°There was nothing bad happening like you feared.¡± An eyebrow raised by Alexandra was enough to say to him that she didn''t believe it. But Viv in turn said, ¡°Al, don''t seek them out. Eden is the only one who can do so like that and both of us are needed for the current task.¡± With a sigh, Alexandra had to let it go. But still she said, ¡°There better not be any damage due to this.¡± ¡°Whether or not there are damages due to me I can''t say but they were originally damaged to begin with. Every last member of our guild is in a certain way though the trial thing I gave them earlier on was to see if they were trustworthy...mostly¡± said Eden which caused Alexandra to slap him hard in the head. ¡°What about their skills?¡± asked Viv who was the type of person to be more interested in that. ¡°Due to Sain, most of them are in the Intermediate Level with the newer ones still in the Beginner Levels though it has to be noted that Shadow has the ''Stealth'' skill to the Advance level already¡± said Eden pleased that one skill was abnormally high. ¡°Wasn''t Shadow the kid who obtained and raised the skill to mid Beginner level in the first day? Impressive considering not even us managed to do that¡± said Viv. ¡°Though must I point out that we were kinda forced into the game¡± added Eden. ¡°So were they!¡± retorted Alexandra. Viv shrugged again and said, ¡°And so they were like us though many good and bad things came due to that. Life isn''t exactly fair and in my opinion they were quite fortunate that they met those six at the same day.¡± ¡°Though I was kinda involved with giving Serena and Mel back then since she kinda fell unconscious due to me and I had to throw her somewhere¡± Eden pointed out. ¡°....¡± Both Alexandra and Viv look at each other and to Eden strangely and asked, ¡°What exactly happened back then?¡± ¡°Yeah, this is news to me you damn prat¡± added Alexandra. ¡°When have you called me a pr-¡± Eden then saw her glare, ¡°Never-mind. I heard that the other five took in those other kids and didn''t want her to be left out. Plus Mel is the indoors and research type person so taking someone in was good for her.¡± Alexandra glanced at Eden and smirked saying, ¡°Never knew Eden was a the Tsundere type and I''m married to him!¡± ¡°Hey!¡± Eden shouted. ¡°It''s true though right? I mean you actually didn''t go a way to divorce me no matter what¡± said Alexandra. ¡°That''s because I didn''t to!¡± retorted Eden. Alexandra smirked again and said to Viv, ¡°See, a Tsundere. He acted as if he didn''t want to all the time.¡± ¡°Can we get back on topic?¡± asked Viv with a sigh and then gave the two a chilling feeling again. The two instinctively straightened up a bit more and did not speak when Viv did this. One must know that Viv was a Grandmaster of Torture which was already a rare skill due to it''s unpopularity with other users. ¡°Enough of those kids¡± said Viv with a hardened look, ¡°I think we have another topic we need to discuss that was unfinished.¡± All three of them went silent and did not look at each other. This was a topic that they rather not talk about since it was quite sensitive and was about them. But Alexandra who worried the most about this, started speaking first. ¡°So what will happen after...everything is done?¡± asked Alexandra, ¡°Will we continue to...exist or something else?¡± She did not want to say ''die''. ¡°Eden?¡± asked Viv, ¡°Last time we had this conversation you were undecided.¡± Eden closed his eyes to ponder and remembered everything that had happened over the years, decades and now century. He knew that everything had to end one day, he knew that it was very likely that he will not have a good ending if fate allowed it. But to...continue for centuries more without end? He though of his daughters and how he and the two raised them which was some of the happiest days in his recent life. ¡°I think...¡± and he hesitated to say this, ¡°We should end after this last journey...after everything is done we will disappear for good, death has been waiting for us for a while now.¡± He would rather not see his descendent die before him since he and the two did not age or were able to permanently die without Unicorn''s...the Goddess AI''s help. A bit shocked and startled at this statement, Alexandra asked quickly, ¡°Then what about Alena and Risene? Ares, our grand-kid as well?¡± Eden sighed since he was thinking of them as he made his decision. ¡°They will live and then die sometime, we can''t interfere with their lives too much unlike those kids we took in since we are still ''players'' and they are ''NPCs'' no matter how close the two are. You know that we were originally dead to begin with though we have no memories before the game. And only by chance and ironic fate that all three of us were brought from the dead, lost our memories when we were alive and stayed together this long doing a number of things¡± said Eden. Viv let out a sigh and then said, ¡°I was hoping that we could something like retirement before that.¡± Eden shrugged and then said, ¡°We might if we have time but I don''t think we have that option. Well I say after the stuff with the Warrior King we should go into semi-retirement. No more directly helping the Kingdom when we can.¡± ¡°Don''t we do that already? I mean the Guild we set up was practically made for the end game when it comes¡± asked Alexandra, ¡°So nothing will actually change that much.¡± She smiled thinking of this. ¡°Could set up a hut, a small home to relax in and not do much near enough that Alena, Risene and Ares could visit once in a while. It''s going to take a while until end game truly begins¡± suggested Viv. Eden and Alexandra nodded and Eden said, ¡°Yeah, that would be nice...why do I have the feeling that something will appear and destroy that place?¡± Letting out a chuckle Alexandra said, ¡°We can always set up a place again. It''s not like your bad luck outweighs our ability to handle it.¡± Eden let out a groan of pain remembering all the times when his bad luck acted and they were thrown into things they weren''t prepared to handle. Most of the time they got out alive, though they ran most of the time. He still remembered the time when he actually gained a ''Face-Sliding'' skill which caused him to immediately delete it. With a sigh he muttered our unintentionally, ¡°Death is the next great adventure.¡± ¡°What was that?¡± asked Alexandra not sure on what he said and why. It was only then that Eden realised what he said as well and the irony of it. He chuckled thinking of it. They met with death once though came back in a weird way, so was this their great adventure? In that case, what would happen after the great adventure? xXx Several more days passed in game as Lyndis or rather Maria was outside the game and in reality thinking of what to do. By the time she logged back in, she realised the state of her body which was in one word, disordered. ¡°I need to get myself cleaned up¡± she said to herself seeing that there was lots of dirt on her armour and clothes and her hair was now...fuzzy since she didn''t comb or tie it in a while. Looking around, it was the near morning and there were some players that looked at her curiously. This thought of them looking at her in this state sickened her a bit and reminded her of the past. Therefore she immediately made her way into a inn that she couldn''t find yesterday without directions. It was surprising how easy it was to find when you searched up the directions online. Walking up, she made conversation with the receptionist and payed to use one of the rooms. Another hour passed where she finally looked the way she was before. Seeing the large differences between her disordered state and current state she sighed. ¡°A week or so in the wild and I ended up like this? I need some sort of beautifying skill....¡± Even though she didn''t care that much of make-up and such, she was still a girl in her prime and wanted to look good in all ways. However she really did not want to take an hour every time she wanted to look good each morning. Thus she decided to do what she used to do and just made sure she looked ''fine''. Plus if Miriel saw her in her disordered state, she would never hear the end of it. With that thought and not going to think about Sain or anyone else, she decided to leave the inn and start training. However she did not even notice that a certain person was looking at her at a distance. xXx ¡°About this she got out...almost didn''t recognise that fool¡± muttered Shadow cursing that he had to stay like this for a good hour waiting for Lyndis to appear. He was currently a good distance away from the inn she went into and out, to be precise he was around 400 metres away from her on a building. Due to this, he found it difficult to stalk-follow her but without this distance, she may be about to track him through that frightening instinct she has. ¡°I better get a skill out of this¡± he muttered again. He knew repetitive actions may lead to skills. Therefore he better get a long distance vision skill out of this. However at that moment, Shadow noticed something outside the village/town they were in. Something large and in numbers was approaching this town. ¡°Damn...!¡± he cursed again thinking of what is to come. However he had no intentions of helping at all. xXx At the same time as this, Sain and Miriel were currently training in a dungeon together. After some time with weaker monsters as a test, the two got used to the fact that it was only two instead of six while fighting with each other. The reduced numbers made it much harder to attack and defend and several roles were shifted due to this. Miriel took on mid-range attacks with her whip as well along with her support magic and long range ice magic as well. Meanwhile Sain had to cope with being the tank, main healer and main attack of the two at the same time. However with the new skill Eden gave him, two of those two new roles he had were made much easier than it used to be. ¡°Haa!¡± Dodging a blow from a skeleton knight with it swinging a large but slow bastard sword, Miriel moved to attack it''s limbs using her whip. Following up on this, Sain shouted the name of the skill he gained due to Eden. ¡°Burst Strike!¡± His body accelerated in extreme speed in one direction and his stab with his spear burst forth into the skeleton knight blowing it into pieces. BANG!
You have gained experience
With that message the battle ended like that. ¡°I must say, that skill is really like cheating¡± said Miriel still amazed by the power of that A-rank skill. She guessed that that''s what makes them powerful in the end. Sain nodded and said, ¡°It''s powerful but gives a very large opening if I miss or after the skill is used which counters it''s use in certain battles.¡±
Burst Strike Beginner Level 3 A powerful skill from a branching set of skills known as the Impaling Strike Technique. It pushes the body and weapon to it''s limit as it explodes a large amount of power into a single strike with increased speeds. Due to the power of the skill, you are only able to travel in one direction with the skill currently. Damage increase: 30% Speed increase: 30% Mana Cost: 100
With each level of this skill, it''s power and speed increase by 10% each time which would be extremely powerful if mastered. If what Sain thought of this skill was right, it would increase his power and speed several times when mastered though the mana cost was a bit higher than he was used to though still not on the high side since his mana was quite high for his level either way. ¡°I have to keep on using this skills until it gets to the Intermediate Level. By then, I hope the disability to move in more than one direction with this skill active would be gone¡± said Sain with Miriel nodding. ¡°Ice Bolts!¡± she suddenly chanted killing and luring in some more enemies from a distance. Looking at four skeleton knights that were similar to the one they had just battled, Miriel commented, ¡°it''s good that these guys are easy to battle even though they are around level 200.¡± ¡°In that case, we should go deeper in to find some death knights to battle as well¡± said Sain holding up his free hand aimed at the skeleton knights. Miriel did the same with her staff and both chanted at the same time, ¡°Mana Bolts!¡± A large number of ''Mana Bolts'' were shout out from both of them hitting the four skeleton knights rapidly as they continued on using the spell on them as they charged with the distance decreasing. There were two reasons for this. The first was to weaken and damage them if possible and the second was to slow them down. Sain stopped his attack using ''Mana Bolts'' earlier than Miriel as he moved to use a different spell. ¡°Slow! Weaken!¡± she chanted and used the two skills on a single skeleton knight causing it to fall behind from the other three as the distance between him and the enemy reached 20 metres. For a creature over level 200, this distance could be covered in no more than 3 seconds which left many who had poor reaction times to be unable to reach a higher level without fighting weaker and more importantly, slower foes. In fact, it was rare to find a skeleton based dungeon with mostly skeleton knights at this level due to skeletons often being upgraded to death knights by level 200. However the two were only still at the beginning of the dungeon. ¡°Evil Rule Art: Astral Bind!¡± chanted Sain for a final time binding a skeleton knight in it''s place before the two remaining skeleton knights attacked him at once. ¡°Barrier Queen Art: Guard Point Barrier!¡± Miriel quickly chanted using her small and yet powerful barrier to deflect one of the skeletons attacks back like a parry while the other attack still went through. Clang! Sain blocked the attack with his spear but was pushed back with power alone and took some damage due to that. However Miriel used her whip to attack and momentary disturb the flow of the skeleton knight''s attack. ¡°Burst Strike!¡± BANG! Sain''s attack though not picking up much speed knocked the skeleton knight back in time for Sain to dodge the attack of the skeleton knight whose attack was deflected due to Miriel''s barrier. Sain saw how the fourth skeleton was coming close while the other skeleton knight was about to get out of his bindings. ¡°Magic Arrows!¡± he shouted firing on one of the skeleton knights as Miriel did the same with her ''Ice Bolts''. In an instant, that skeleton knight died leaving another three left. The two continued to fight while retreating often to attack from long range and eventually won after that.
You have gained experience
Looking at his experience bar, Sain sighed seeing that they would need another couple dozen battles like this to even level up once. With the combined effect of the group, they were able to fight stronger foes and thus level up faster even with the experience split between them all. ¡°Hopefully there won''t be any skeleton archers or mages in the mix¡± muttered Sain thinking of how much worse the battle would be if they encounter those foes as well. xXx As Lyndis walked outside the inn and was about to leave the village itself, she felt the ground rumble. ¡°W-What''s happening?!¡± one player nearby shouted in confusion. It was like a mini-earthquake was coming through. However there was no such thing as the mini-earthquake like thing was caused by a large number of enemies rushing to them. Or to be precise, hopping to them. ¡°Giant Rabbits! Purple Giant Rabbits!¡± someone else shouted causing many people to pale at once. Some started to run, some started to hide but only a foolish few dared at stand and no do anything. ¡°Hey, what''s the big deal with this reaction?¡± asked one of the newer players in this village no knowing what was up with everyone. A NPC answer the player as Lyndis was listening in and said, ¡°The Giant Purple Rabbit is dangerous.¡± The player snorted and asked, ¡°How so? The Giant Rabbit race is known to be friendly and harmless.¡± ¡°This is their cousin! The man eating and brutal kind that can rip you into pieces like a bear, his speed like a wolf and can leap over tall walls in one!¡± the NPC shouted before running away as well leaving the player confused and pale until he decided to run as well. ¡°....¡± Looking at this, Lyndis really didn''t know what was the big deal about them. Sure those Giant Purple Rabbits were powerful she must admit but they weren- ¡°Holy Shit on a cracker¡± she blurted out seeing their numbers. ¡°How many is that?!¡± she wondered, ¡°A hundred, maybe a thousand?¡± counting them in estimates. Their total size was large enough that it looked more like a purple wave coming down on them then anything else. Lyndis wanted to run...but her pride didn''t allow her to though a strategic retreat was in mind. Against those numbers...even if they were only level 50s, weak, Lyndis would for sure die. If they were even a tenth as strong as her...she would still die. The quantity of enemies of too overwhelming to the point she just blanked out. xXx Elsewhere... Eden was thinking of something and was forgetting something important which could waver the lives of many many people that he was due to protect. He had just slaughtered a large number of those pesky Giant Purple Rabbits. ¡°Let''s see...characteristics of that race include high stats everywhere, man-eater and...extremely high reproductions when mass wiped out with survivors...¡± He wondered if he missed anything. ¡°Nope, doesn''t seem like anything bad is happening at all¡± he said sure some poor town was (not) being attacked right now.
Onwards?
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Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 8800~ - This took...so long to write. Many because I wasn''t actually writing most of the last week or so in fact. I went from being more about writing in my spare time to reading...mainly since I''m going through fanfiction.net for stories I want to read. Yeah, not a good way to write when you are reading into the night and almost morning for a week with less hours of sleeping as time passes... - As for the updates...I cannot make any promises. With Uni and my reawakened reading cravings, I might not have a chapter out for next week perhaps. Well I know that this series is going to be long and is going to take long to write but it''s going to take longer to finish this series then....damn I''m turning into Ninnin with my writing speed now. Vol.8 Chapter 4 - Invasion Time & Afterwards The countless stream of purple and an earthquake that continued to get louder and louder came rushing down to the town. At this point, there were only a few players including Lyndis who actually saw this since everyone else escaped into hiding already.
Invasion Event has started A massive number of Giant Purple Rabbits are coming this way. Defend the town else try to survive.
When that message appeared, Lyndis snapped out of shock and immediately considered what she wanted to do. ¡°Damn, not going to die here!¡± she shouted leaping to the side of a building and pulling herself up to the roof to get out of the way as the Giant Purple Rabbits which were each the size of a large bear each charge through. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG The sounds of too many things happening caused Lyndis to be dizzy as she felt something hit her back all of a sudden and her falling off the roof to the gap in between the buildings, small enough she was safe.
You took 10 damage
¡°Ow!¡± she complained looking around to see who dared knock her off the building like that until she saw purple rapidly rushing forth from the roof as well. Lyndis paled seeing this realising how close she was to dying just then. And another remainder that she was weak and couldn''t do anything to even try and stop this. ¡°....¡± She had to get stronger, no matter what. xXx Shadow had just saved Lyndis'' life there...and he was immediately regretting it. ¡°DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMNNNNNN!!!!¡± He immediately activated ''Boost'', ''Burst Speed'' and any other skills that would allow him to escape. Splitting his body to form several more clones that numbered a dozen which was straining him in doing so, each of them leaped to escape in some way. But most were destroyed immediately as the Giant Purple Rabbits went for him viciously. What he did not know was using ''Boost'' was a bad idea. Simply put that ''Boost'' allowed Eden''s powers to flow in him making those Giant Purple Rabbits think Shadow was Eden who nearly wiped them out again. As such it was no surprise that Shadow was soon caught up to with the Giant Purple Rabbit''s rage increasing their stats several times and pounded him to death.
You have dead
This message only continued to mock him even later on. xXx BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG! Lyndis could feel the buildings that were literally separating her from life and death being hit and broken down bit by bit. She could feel death coming sooner and sooner due to this. There were simply too many enemies even if most of them skimped around the town rather than through it. Either way, most of the population in the town was dead. And so was she if she could not get out of here. ¡°Damnit, this isn''t how I wanted to die...even if it''s in a bloody game¡± she cursed still seeing the purple stream out of the cracks of her small protective space. If the walls were a bit tighter, she was sure she would have died out there. And she wondered if her luck falling in here was good or not? Several minutes...or did an hour pass already that this attack happened and there was still signs of no end. ¡°....¡± But then there was silence. For the first time since this invasion attack, there was actually silence. ¡°What''s going on?¡± she wondered moving bit by bit through the tight opening she was in to see the outside. What she saw...could not be unseen. The town was...ruined, if you could even call it that. Buildings were...trampled into pieces and ruins were too. The walls were gone, the people were dead and here she was looking at the two walls that miraculously survived for her to live. ¡°....¡± Looking around, there seemed to be no one alive if she counted humans and other humanoid races. But there were some living creatures around, not the kind she wanted to see and the kind she liked in fact. ¡°That''s...¡± She looked to see a Giant Purple Rabbit that seemed to have stayed back. It was oddly dirty and was covered in....blood holding...a human corpse....eating it... If things did not set in right now, it did at this moment. The town was more or less destroyed, she did nothing to protect it though it was impossible for her to even foolishly consider that but right now, she had the power to stop what was happening in front of her. She drew the new swords that she brought and charged straight at the Giant Purple Rabbit without thinking about it. ¡°YOU BASTARRRRD!!!¡± She sword was like a line of light in her eyes as she leaped and cut off the arm of the enemy that was almost as large as her in one go. ¡°Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike! Power Strike!¡± With a rapid series of attacks, she almost killed the beast. However she wanted to punish it even more, and what better way to do so at full strength. ¡°BOOST!¡± she shouted allowing the power in the ''Mark'' she had to flow through her body.
Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double
Effects of the ''Mark of the Lion'' is now active. ''Genesis Flame'' is now active.
However like what happened with Shadow before, though she did not know it, this was a big mistake since a certain someone was the Giant Purple Rabbit species, eternal enemy. As Lyndis'' body started to be covered in flames due to the effects of ''Genesis Flame'', the natural instincts of the Giant Purple Rabbit flared up as well increasing it just as strong. BANG! A large fist from the once near dead Giant Purple Rabbit smashed Lyndis away from it with surprising power.
You took 214 damage
However the creature no matter how angry or powered up it was was still much lower levelled than Lyndis dealing on a fraction of her total health even with a surprise attack. Lyndis landed on her feet thankfully since she leaped back when she felt something wrong and immediately went to charge in at the Giant Purple Rabbit again. BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG Several strikes later and the Giant Purple Rabbit was back to it''s near death state and this time, it had no power to defend itself as Lyndis finished it off.
You have gained experience
Though she was happy to gain any experience at any time, she was not happy about the circumstances around it. ¡°....What now?¡± she wondered. xXx Elsewhere...the legion of Giant Purple Rabbits whom were about to attack another town all stopped at once feeling something behind them as their instinct alerted them to it. The presence of an eternal enemy that is. However they had sensed this before and killed it. Therefore it did not take long for them to leave believing that their senses were wrong for a moment and thus sparing Lyndis from death ironic as it was. However some were still in that area she they had expected for it to be dealt with either way if there was something left of there. xXx ¡°Aggh!¡± Peter heard a scream coming from the capsule that Ian was in. It seemed that he had just died though he would not comment on it since dying in game no matter what reason was irritating for any person to go through. Plus Peter had a good idea on why he had just died judging from what was being said on the screen in front of him and the others that were with him with the exception of Maria who had locked herself in her room and was either ignoring them or was in game. Really, almost a month passed, well a week in reality passed since ''that'' incident and she was nowhere near ready to talk about it. Peter sighed seeing the state of his comrade and sighed again thinking of the time it would take to recover the same level of teamwork between them all. But right now he was more interested in this ''Invasion'' of some forth. ¡°More news on the recent emergency that the Kingdom had place on the sighting of the Giant Purple Rabbit species¡± said a reporter that looked like a model, ¡°The outbreak had been reported to come from in between the areas of the central and western continent. Players in that area are advised to take care of the colour purple from a distance.¡± ¡°Wow this person must think everyone is really dumb¡± Hina blurted out, she was sitting as far away from Peter as possible when making that comment. Nether, Peter, Grace or Mark responded to her as they were focusing on the words the reporter was saying which left Ian who just came in to hear those words. ¡°What she said is the right thing you know¡± said Ian stepping into the room with his words only now alerting the rest of them of his presence. Hina hid her surprise of him appearing out of nowhere since she thought he was still stal-following Maria around in game though she did have to ask, ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I died just then due to those Giant Purple Rabbits though Maria seemed to be lucky enough to survive I think¡± said Ian before saying, ¡°There were roughly a few thousand of those Giant Purple Rabbits rushing in a wave at the town I was in. Even I couldn''t escape from them; their power, speed and even viciousness are high.¡± ¡°....¡± The four looked at Ian with some surprise since he in game was the fastest of them all and if he couldn''t escape... ¡°How did Maria survive then if you died?¡± asked Peter the question that was on everyone''s minds right now. Ian shrugged and said, ¡°Pushed her into a gap between buildings before she was about to face that wave of enemies head on.¡± Several people sighed for many reasons. Hina even let out, ¡°That idiot is still the same¡± though was grinning a bit which she did not notice. ¡°I hope she is okay...after well let''s say she was not in a good state after...¡± said Grace in worry. Right now she was 14 years old, though always the youngest of the group and somehow more mature than Maria who was suppose to have 17 right now, a year off being an adult along with Hina. Meanwhile Ian and Peter were both adults, 18 years of age and the oldest of them all. However both of them took on different roles in the group as the role models of everyone else. If Peter was the light then Ian was the shadow which was kinda ironic. Either way, they all focus on the next words of the reporter since they were the most important. ¡°The Kingdom has responded to the situation with this outbreak of Giant Purple Rabbits, with the Emperor issuing a mission to all Independent Guilds in the area to wipe them out. Other Guilds and players can get a quest to do so as well. The Guild Quest in question is ranked B and Quest is ranked A¡± the reporter said. ¡°Well it looks like we got another Guild Quest again though this may be a good thing¡± said Peter with Hina nodding in agreement. ¡°Why?¡± asked Ian. ¡°The other B rank Guild Quest we have is the one with Little Droplet which me and Hina are working on¡± said Peter in a calm tone near emotionless, ¡°However due to recent events their tracks are covered and we may not be able to get them by the time the year ends in game.¡± ¡°Which means this is a way to complete those guild orders we have at least¡± said Hina, ¡°Besides reaching level 300. I think most of us are a quarter there already as long as we train quickly enough.¡± ¡°Hey what about me who has to keep an eye out for a constantly PMSing comrade?¡± asked Ian pointing to himself. ¡°Deal with it!¡± snapped Hina not liking how he referred to Maria though she was the first to leave taking almost everyone else with her since they were worried about her state of mind. ¡°Looks like another person is-¡± before Ian could finish that sentence, Hina already moved to attack him. Grab! However at the same moment, Peter grabbed onto Hina''s arm and pulled her to him to prevent her from attack Ian, especially since they were out of the game. Hina sent a glare at Peter who raised an eyebrow in response to which Ian smirked as well. Ignoring the glances he was getting, Peter proceeded to talk about something the others did not want to. Basically more training. ¡°All of us including Maria who isn''t here is at the level 220 or a bit higher point right?¡± he asked with the others here nodding their head like sheep without thinking about it much. Peter nodded back to them and remembered that they needed to get to the level 300 point by the end of 11 more months in game. ¡°You know how we need to get to level 300 by around 11 months in game? Don''t focus on that too much. Focus more on gaining some new skills and spells while you can. I have a feeling that we need more skills that are useful to survive better since Eden and the others have been pretty tame to us for a long time¡± said Peter. ¡°Tame?!¡± Ian retorted, ¡°Months of torture they call training along with the other crap we went through was tame?!¡± he snapped at the end. ¡°....¡± A gruesomely bad silence came before Peter unfortunately nodded and said, ¡°From what they talked about in their stories, I have a feeling that we need more than we have to survive in the Guild....¡± ¡°....¡± Everyone present thought about the incident with the Demons and Demon King and still thought they had no more chance of surviving that again now than back then when they were significantly weaker. ¡°He has a point¡± pointed out Hina saying, ¡°I think what we lack the most right now is a proper set of defence based skills aside from Raven. I mean I know there is this ''Mana Shield'' spell that is basic to learn but with many levels of power and variants but none of us have it which is kinda sad. Plus I think there may be more to those ''Circulation'' skills we got from Alena then said. If any of you guys figure something out with that skill then contact the rest of us, even Maria on what you found.¡± Peter then looked at Ian and said, ¡°Meet up with Maria in game and train with her¡± in a blunt tone that left little to none to negotiate. ¡°What?!¡± Ian immediately rampaged in shock and rage that Peter was forcing him to do this, ¡°Why the hell do I have to train with that-¡± ¡°Because I told you so¡± said Peter in a cold tone. Any warm in Peter''s eyes left them when he said this in a commanding tone as he explained, ¡°Both of you have a much higher chance to survive if you train with each other, plus everyone else is in pairs already so you have no choice.¡± Ian raised his eyebrow and asked, ¡°And if I don''t?¡± ¡°Then you probably will be weaker than the rest of us along with Maria when it comes to it¡± Peter closed his eyes and then added, ¡°I''m not forcing you to¡± Everyone else in the room thought differently, ¡°But fighting alone may have some benefits but unless you are an all round character that can heal, fighting with Maria is the best option.¡± ¡°....¡± Ian thought about it and it made sense to some extent but still said, ¡°I doubt Maria will let me immediately.¡± ¡°Then bother her until you can¡± said Peter as if that was an easy thing. Maria shut herself off to everyone else right now and it would take a long time until she opened up...well it would maybe take him a month or so if he didn''t blab his mouth which is unlikely to be honest. With that, Peter looked at the clock on the wall and said, ¡°We need to get to class¡± remembering that those three guildmasters of theirs are literally threatening them to go to class now and it was unwise to oppose them. ¡°What about Maria?¡± asked Serena as the voice of concern right now. Peter simply shook his head and said, ¡°Don''t bother, it''ll take too long to even try to get her to talk to one of us, especially me.¡± With that, the five went to class where the teacher, who was suppose to be Eden right now was mysteriously not there and was replaced by video of him talking instead. xXx ¡°Hmm?¡± Eden looked over to the projection of the classroom he was supposed to be teaching in but instead recorded the lesson instead while in game. He noticed that Maria was not there and figured that would happen. ¡°Well not my fault she doesn''t follow the rules. I''ll punish her later¡± he muttered while drawing his attention onto the damn magic circle he was working on which he redrew once again. ¡°This is going to be a long 6 months....but I only have bloody 5 months to do this now¡± he cursed seeing that he needed to fix it up to that deadline. xXx Lyndis still in game was struggling more than ever since the effects of ''Boost'' she found was not worth it with the extra aggression from these Giant Purple Rabbits whenever she used it. Plus her stamina and mana levels dropped quite a bit when she used it over long periods of time. However she still gripped her sword, which was frankly something she took from the blacksmithing store that was around her level, well at least level 200 compared to the other weapons she had on her since the place was destroyed and the store guy, dead. She felt sorry that he died but frankly life was going to be more difficult with her moping about stuff and having sub-par weapons to use. For a swords-woman like herself, the sword came first and it didn''t help that her defence wasn''t that great compared to the heavy hitters and tanks with full plated armour everywhere. Even though her armour was half plated, the defence potential compared to full plate was really too much to look at and much much more expensive as well. ¡°....¡± She continued to look around in this ruined town and found a place to lay low, at least to not get caught at the open and looked at the message she got.
Kingdom Guild Quest Alert A wave of Giant Purple Rabbits have been seen in certain areas of the Western Continent and see to be spreading from locations southwards from the point of origin. It is highly recommended that players to not face this wave alone and group up. Else all other Independent Guilds are hereby ordered to stop this purple wave as much as possible and eliminate it. It is essential that players cooperate with each other to take care of this. Guild Quest Rank: B Reward: Gold and Experience based on number of kills of Giant Purple Rabbits Current number of kills: 7
Looking at this message, she figured that the kills she got before the whole purple wave incident which she and the rest of the town was a victim was did not count. She let out a sigh thinking of the slight advantage she could have gotten with those previous kills. However out of instinct she asked, ¡°Hey Sai-¡± and immediately stopped herself in the middle of it shaming herself by even thinking, or rather not thinking of what she was doing. Sain was not here, she should hate Sain but with time all she could think of was that she was wrong and Sain was right. That shame, the embarrassment of apologising to him was not something she want to even think about. She had much more pride than that. Right now she didn''t want to see anyone and risk it, not even the others that left with her. ¡°I wonder what they were doing...¡± she muttered before turning to find another stray Giant Purple Rabbits out in the open. With a small grin as she felt some excitement in fighting until some people she knew cough Raven cough, she went and stood a good distance from the enemy to let it spot her, to attack her and to fight her. ¡°Grrr...¡± The Giant Purple Rabbit that she remembered to be as large as a bear and several times more vicious and power looked at her like she was prey. She drew the sword she had and let a second sword hang on her. Remembering what happened with one of the other battles, she knew it was important to have a second or even third weapon on her. Unfortunately, her unarmed combat skills were not as good as Serena''s nor did she had the mana to spare to attack at range as well like Miriel or Sain-damn she had to stop thinking about him right now. Guilt was not getting her anywhere. Pound! Lyndis dodged the first punch but it nicked her and decreased her health either way. With a flash of her wrist, her sword made a moderate cut on the arm of the Giant Purple Rabbit before she rolled backwards to dodged a second strike and a third and a fourth and so on until she had to shout: ¡°Flame Strike!¡± A burst of flame from her hand hit the arm of the Giant Purple Rabbit that was to attack her and burnt it quite well since fur was good to burn she found. However this only increased the aggression levels of this particular enemy, not that she blamed it since being burnt like that was quite painful. Anyhow, she dodged another set of attacks that were becoming easier to read since she fought it''s kind enough to see a pattern and went fought with a standard hit and run tactic which often involved her shooting flames in how many directions when she could. It took her another 10 painfully stressful minutes for her to take down the beast in question which made her wonder what level it was since the ones that were only around level 150 were easy enough but the ones she faced after the ''purple wave'' were a bit stronger than the standard ones...which was probably why that message plus that order from the Kingdom on the Guild Quest stated for only the strong ones to fight since from what she could tell, one Giant Purple Rabbit was quite strong for the average player and when they swarm at you...she did not even want to think about it. With the battle done, she looked at the message that said that she gained such experience and noticed a good gain despite her being a bit over level 220 right now. And with another sigh since there was so much to think about with only her to actually think of it, she checked her skill window.
Skill Window - Sword Mastery Intermediate 3 (22/100) - Katana Mastery Beginner level 2 (0/100) - Fire Manipulation Mastery Intermediate Level 2 (58/100) - Fire Blood Circulation Intermediate Level 1 (0/100) - Cooking Beginner Level 6 (28/100) - Bandaging Intermediate Level 3 (42/100) - Sword Dance Intermediate Level 1 (211/3000) - Power Strike Intermediate level 2 (1440/2600) - Speed Strike Intermediate level 2 (1470/2600) - Power Stance Intermediate level 2 (1460/2600) - Speed Stance Intermediate level 1 (1310/2400) - Precision Stance Intermediate level 1 (1355/2400) - Pocket Fireball Beginner level 6 (154/900) - Flame Strike Intermediate Level 1 (1523/2400) - Burning Touch Intermediate Level 1 (822/2500) - Fire Blade Intermediate level 4 (873/3000) - Life Burn Beginner level 7 (410/1100) - Fire Bomb Intermediate Level 2 (513/2600) - Flame Coating Intermediate Level 1 (1238/2500) - Dragon Dance Art (Proficiency: Low) - Battle Buff Beginner level 4 (0/100) - Fire Dance Beginner level 2 (0/100)
While most of her skills were in the intermediate levels due to Sain...she guessed she could think of him without much regret and other complicated emotions, none of her skills were in the advance level though only Shadow did and that was with the ''stealth'' skill which he frankly got almost to the intermediate level in the same day he got it for what she knew. Sword and Katana mastery needed to go up but it would naturally grow as she fought either way. Both these skills stacked with each other when she was using her Katana which was almost broken and reminded her that she needed to find a blacksmith to fix it. Most of her skills were at a fair level like the power and speed strike which at the intermediate level upped her damage or speed by 100% instead of 50% of the beginner level. Likewise it was the same with the three stances skills she had as well. Otherwise there were all those fire based skills that she used though not as much as she first thought she would that were at a good level and used in a number of ways though limited in flexibility compared to ''Genesis Flame'' that allowed her to use any type of fire skill though the drain is much higher. In all, Lyndis was certainly not at the bottom of the pack but not at the top either. For all she knew, she was in the upper middle class of players at her level though in reality she was in the middle upper class of players her level though barely touching the middle point of players overall. There was only so much that pure skill could do against stats, experience and well...more skills. And without anyone to speak to, she continued to just think to herself rather than actually talk. It had only been a month and she was becoming anti-social quite quickly now. ¡°Now....where to go¡± she wondered aloud as there was no one else around thinking of what to do now. She could for starters follow the ''purple wave'' though she rather not face that wave of death when it heads to her. She made a mental note to go the opposite direction...no to the east instead since to the north would probably be wasted for a while. Second, she would need to find another town with a blacksmith or a city to go to but there were no nearby cities aside from ''that'' one which she did not want to go to. Third was that she needed to find a place to train...a dungeon in the level 250 range would do. ¡°Damn this is annoying to think about. How the hell do Sain and Miriel deal with this?¡± she asked herself not knowing that she was focusing less on her ''hatred'' to Sain and more to on what she needed to do now. Unlike other games, you made no maps unless you brought one and could actually use it as a proper map. This made it so that unless you wanted to get lost, you needed to learn to navigate around and learn directions even in a general way. Thankfully, Lyndis had good enough instincts on directions that she shouldn''t be too bad off even in a relatively new area. She already knew that this area was the standard generally flat forest lands. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Looking at the sun for directions, she went to the east where she hoped to find another town. xXx Meanwhile at the same time or rather after class which meant only most of the day passed in game, Serena and Raven got back into the game along with Sain and Miriel though they were at different locations and didn''t intend to meet up for now or for a while. Shadow was naturally still out since he died and needed to wait a while longer to get back in. ¡°So...what should we do now?¡± asked Serena to Raven though he didn''t say anything she continued on as if he talked, ¡°I guess we need to find a place like a dungeon and fight...there are monsters here but the spawn rate is so bad that it''s just better to find a dungeon to hunt in first.¡± Raven nodded and Serena sighed seeing no differences in his attitude and said, ¡°Why can''t you speak like a normal person? I''m quite tired of trying to tell what you want from your body itself...¡± while crouching down a bit. Even though it had only been a month and a bit since...well they started to train together, Serena was still not used to being the only one to speak. ¡°....¡± Seeing that Raven was in no way going to speak unless he had to, Serena simply made a note on where they were going to train, a dungeon which had some high levelled werewolves over level 200 which was nearby. ¡°Hopefully it won''t feel like I''m speaking to a wall later...¡± she muttered as she led the way with Raven following her like a silent guardian. xXx ¡°What the bloody hell...¡± muttered Lyndis looking around and swearing to whatever deity that was nearby that she saw that same tree seven times now... A week passed since her decision to head to the east making it the 4th year, 1st month and 1st week since she started the game, don''t ask since Sain reminded her for his calculations on progress too much that she unconsciously knew by now. And she was hopelessly lost. Remember when this Lyndis thought that it would be a good idea to head just to the east and hoped to find a town to get to? She was wrong, deadly wrong in fact for even thinking about that without getting even a hint on where she was going to. It also did not help that she entered some strange forest and a message appeared which she immediately ignored and went on like a lost puppy into danger. The name of this place was called the Cursed Forest of Leaves otherwise nicknamed as simply ''the damn place I want to burn down'' by her. It also did not help that this place was literally like a dungeon itself with high spawn rates for skeletons, zombies and ghosts that she could only could kill with fire. Right now, she made it to this half ruined church that looked haunted...and probably was given her and the others in the group she currently identified with since a month ago in getting into these kinds of situations. Seriously, of all the places she could find herself into, it had to be a place that was more than likely to be haunted leaving her to fight some series of battles in a life and death situation. Thinking of this, Lyndis said, ¡°Meh...might as well get onto it then¡± while walking into the ruined church looking around to see if something or anything would spring up to attack her. So far...noth- ¡°YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!¡± ¡°Holy son of a bitch in a cracker! Fire Bomb!¡± Lyndis shouted with her head already getting dizzy from the scream, throwing a ball of fire into the ruined church and slamming the door in. BOOM! ¡°....¡± With even greater caution this time...Lyndis opened the door hoping that nothing will scre- ¡°YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!¡± ¡°...Fire Bomb.¡± A series of actions that were the same as before occurred. BOOM! Before Lyndis opened the same door again and be proclaimed insane since she took the same action three times in a row without doing anything else, she moved to see if there was some other way to get in....which did not involve injury to her ears. She chuckled a bit thinking of what would happen if Shadow was here with his hearing abilities, Lyndis suspected that he would literally take damage from the level of sound itself though she was a bit lonely without his constant string of insults for some reason. Piece and quiet was one thing but complete silence was another which she did not like at all. Patrolling around the place, she noticed there was strangely no way to get into the place aside from that threat to eardrums. ¡°....I don''t like this at all.¡± However without a choice here, she kicked down the door to the entrance to the ruined church bracing herself to another scream. ¡°Well that wa-¡± Something moved at high speed towards her head... ¡°SHIT!¡± Lyndis narrowly dropped herself onto the ground to dodge that attack which she identified as an arrow trap of some sort...before she opened the door half way and got the scream and now kicking the door down she got an arrow shot at her. With a sigh, she looked around the inside of the ruined church and found two distinctive scorch marks from her earlier two attacks. ¡°Well nothing seems to be here...¡± she muttered entering the place to get a closer look to find the door close on her with a click. Looking at the door in question, she tried opening it, kicking it and even throwing flames at the wooden thing but nothing worked causing her to swear, ¡°Shit...¡± seeing that there was no way out...literally now. Cursing her luck and the fact she entered the place, she walked down to the alter which had this strange red button.... ¡°I know I shouldn''t touch this obvious trap trigger....but who can resist a big red button?¡± The next second, a trap door open from underneath her as she screamed to no one in particular, ¡°I regret nothing!¡± Several minutes and eventually hours later with Lyndis and a tunnel ride that would make most people vomit out their lunch within a few seconds.
You have entered the Lab of a Forgotten Cursed Priest
¡°Ow....my butt hurts...the hell is this?¡± she wondered scrolling down the informations he was getting from the game not noticing that there were shadows moving about...
This place is a lab that was created hundreds of years ago by a priest that was studying incurable diseases in order to cure them. Beckoned by this attempt to help others, a God gave the priest the power to manipulate life to a small extent in order to help the effort. Soon, following this, the attempt to cure others became a desire for immortality and eventually kidnapping of countless and experimentations to create monsters. Due to this, the forest area around this lab was cursed with life being drained from it...
Spawn has been set in the Ruined Church, you cannot leave until you completed this dungeon
¡°So...another lab with creepy monsters....again. Great. Wonderful. And I''m literally forced here now. What is the worse that could happen? ¡± As if plot demanded it, her question was answered in a rather extreme way. Blob Blob Blob.... A massive lump of...slime? Meat? Flesh? She did not know but it was the size of a extremely fat...well overweight...fat is the right word right now person. It looked like one of those creatures in one of those old games about four survivors in a zombie apocalypse setting that...exploded. And upon seeing Lyndis who was only a good 10 metres away from her and the corner where it appeared....BOOM! A large amount of...whatever it was made of, spattered all over the place and including onto her as well. ¡°Yuck! I hate exploding things!¡± she screamed in irony as she has a skill that was pretty much throwing a flaming bomb. However she did not have time to think as there was a stampede of creatures heading her way in large numbers. ¡°What the hell?!¡± She turned and ran...from a horde of zombies and at the same time throwing those ''Fire Bombs'' of hers at them as much as possible. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! After some time where the numbers were down to the point she could take them on without resorting to a massive amount of explosions, she found that each of these zombies were actually moderately strong and were about level 200 in strength....and with their numbers and without her resorting to ''Boost'' once again, she would have died in seconds. This caused her to have cold sweat thinking of how easily she could have died then with her massive destruction based fire skills. ¡°Now that I think about it...I really need some crowd controlling skills....¡± Looking around the room she was in, there was a distinct smell of burnt flesh which she was still not used to. In fact, she figured the moment she was used to such a smell was the moment she needed to be checked out for physiological help. Thankfully she was not at that point....yet. With a sigh, she checked the number of swords she had and could use. They numbered to only 10 which was not bad but with time this number would decrease to the point she needed to repair them all which would be a few silver coins each which she currently did not have compared to before since she only had a few gold coins left. Basically for someone at her level, having only a few gold coins means near bankrupt...it did not help that most of her gold was with the others since she could not be ''trusted'' with it. Aside from that, all the money she gained from hunting went to repairing her gear and to be saved up to buy new gear in an endless loop of needing more and more money...basically she was poor as hell and she knew it. ¡°Well...¡± she looked around to see that there were no more enemies around, ¡°At least I can rela-AGHHH!!¡± All of a sudden, something was shot out and wrapped around her neck along with dragging her back from behind. Lyndis naturally grabbed the thing that was wrapped around her neck and dropped her sword in the process. With a look back, she saw this strange creature with really long arms and a mouth full of fangs. She really did not want to be bitten by that thing. ¡°F-Flame Coating.¡± With those words, her arms were covered in flames with the skill causing burn damage to whatever she was touching. She also made sure that the skill in question also activated around her neck as well. In a manner of 5 seconds, the arms that wrapped around her neck burnt/melted away leaving a bad smell in the air. Rolling away from the thing trying to bit her and near her sword, Lyndis shouted, ¡°Flame Strike!¡± throwing the attack right in the face of the thing in question. Naturally as whatever it was, it was classified as some sort of zombie creature. And zombie creatures burnt quite well and quickly. In a manner of 3 seconds of more ''Flame Strikes'', the thing died leaving nothing behind...though this may be a good thing since she rather not think of what disgusting things she would need to pick up if they actually dropped anything. ¡°Hmm?¡± However fate and luck were not on her side as she spotted something on the ground where the creature was. Picking it up, she looked at it and wondered, ¡°Why does this look like a shotgun?¡± xXx 3 Weeks later with Sain and Miriel, they had finally reached the level 230 point after raiding several dungeons that were around level 250+ with only the two of them, well three or four if you count the wolf summon Luna in there as well. Speaking of Luna, Miriel looked over to see that Luna had doubled in size and now looked more like a boss wolf monster than a unusual one. It was now up to her shoulder in height and she was pretty sure it...well since Luna was technically was of both genders. From what both Sain and Luna (tried in this case) told her, Bright Luna was now split into two entities in one body. ''Bright'' which was the white wolf which held the element of light in it and was good at direct physical damage and ''Luna'' which was the black wolf which held the element of dark in it and was good at range attacks with that strange shadow like skill it it. ''Bright'' was the male while ''Luna'' was female which was fine with her since she spent more time with ''Luna'' either way. Both of them were the same size as before when split into two, perhaps a bit larger but when combined into the black and white wolf form, it was what she saw right now. This Luna (since she rather called it with its everlasting nickname rather than the full name), was the size of a horse...and she didn''t doubt it wouldn''t grow even more with time. Honestly if this was what happened when Luna reached level 200, what would happen when it reached level 300 or more? ¡°Miriel. Luna. Enemies up ahead, there are seven of them though regular monsters. Set up your ''Mana Shield'' Miriel and cast a ''Fortified Shield'' on me as well and split into two again Luna¡± ordered Sain. Miriel looked over to see that Sain had changed in appearance...well by a bit. Now, he had an eye-patch over the right eye that could not longer see. When she asked, he simply said that it would be easier to control his enemies when they believe that his right side was weaker than his left. Nodding to the command, Miriel chanted, ¡°Mana Shield¡± along with Sain who had the same spell learnt as well. ¡°Fortified Shield¡± she further took the time to chant as well giving Sain an extra layer of defence as well. A near transparent bubble shaped like an oval vertically formed around both of them. Her sight blurred a bit when the shield came up but its effects were more than worth it for all mages.
Mana Shield Beginner level 5 One of the basic skills that a mage can get after a certain point in their skills. This is one of the most basic and most used defence skills that a mage can have to protect oneself. By gathering mana into the air and forming a protecting sphere around oneself, attacks are deflected away to a certain extent allowing the caster to dodge further attacks or attack during that time. There are however, many variation of this skill and this one is one of the more basic forms capable of only creating one sphere of protection at a time which can absorb damage and nothing more. Shield Health: 2500 Mana Cost: 100
Thankfully for both of them, this was one of the instant cast type spells that were weak in power but quick in casting. Due to this, Sain had practise on recasting the spell when it broke and went further in levelling the spell than her. She believed that Sain had the spell to the Beginner Level 8 point already and was nearing the Intermediate Level though it was naturally quick to level since it was one of the weaker basic spells you could get. Miriel silently thought of Sain as a workaholic but decided to focus on the upcoming battle. Luna had already split itself into it''s two forms and Luna went to protect her while Bright went to fight with Sain. She looked ahead and the enemy were simply seven hobgoblins that were around ? the size of an average human. She would not even need to use some of her more powerful spells for this. However spells were still spells and she didn''t want to make a habit of not using them and underestimating others when she thought they were weak. As such, she casted one of the other spells she learnt during these two months with Sain who rather focused on levelling his skills and spells first. ¡°Demonic Turnover!¡± she chanted for 3 seconds and immediately seeing the effects already. The hobgoblins looked around like they spent a week on a rocky ship in a storm and started to tip over the place. This was one of her rare, few and effective illusion based spells she had and the only one as well since she found that illusion spells cost quite a bit to buy and learn. Seeing the opportunity, Sain and Bright charged in and attacked with spears and fangs. The first two hobgoblins unable to balance properly died quickly while the other five started to attack them. Luna shot out those black shadow spike things from her tail to the hobgoblins, not enough to kill them but enough to distract them. ¡°Burst Strike!¡± Sain shouted moving in one direction and stabbing and blasting another hobgoblin away with a single strike. With three hobgoblins attacking Sain now since Bright was taking care of the other one that remained as much as possible, Miriel chanted, ¡°Shriek!¡± Shrieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! A piercing sound (to the hobgoblins), resounded in this almost narrow corridor and caused the hobgoblins to drop their weapons which were short swords and shields onto the ground while gasping for their ears. Ever since the spell went to the Intermediate level, she noticed that it was more effective in areas that reflected sounds easily and something caused more stun time and damage to certain foes that had good hearing. Bats at one point literally dropped dead when she used this spell in a cave though a giant Bat Boss came out as a result which Sain thankfully was glad for since it was part of a quest they were on to kill it. With another few seconds, Sain had already using his spear again along with some magic killed the rest of the hobgoblins with Bright and Luna supporting him in some way. Sain looked over to her causing her to blush a bit due to the attention and that gaze....and immediately asked in a cold tone, ¡°Any more enemies around?¡± ¡°....¡± With a sigh, she tapped her staff onto the ground activating another skill she had.
Echo Locating Intermediate Level 1 An interesting skill that uses sounds and vibrations on the ground to detect anything that is moving around in a certain radius around the user. This also allows the caster to detect the layout of the place he or she is in currently as well to a certain extent and may reveal traps or hidden devices.
Sometimes she wondered if it was right to learn this skill even if it was useful. Ever since she did, all Sain had asked from her while in a dungeon which was more often than she liked, of where the enemy were and which paths they could take. ¡°There''s...three groups around us. The one with the most numbers...around a dozen is to our 7 o¡¯clock in about 30 metres away¡± she replied with her eyes closed to ''see'' better. She opened them to see the crazed look on Sain''s face at times when he thought she wasn''t looking which seeked battle and blood. Miriel wondered again on why Sain looked good with that face and how the hell did she fall for him again. She made another mental note on asking for some therapy for Sain later on. He was slowly becoming dangerously...anxious and cold recently. xXx Walking down the street filled with a number of refugees with Serena, Raven looked to see that the town in question they got to was unusually filled with...injured people with dead eyes. Not dead themselves but their spirit had been crushed quite a bit. It was the same eyes he saw himself with previously in the past when the worst happened...not that he would speak about that time to anyone. ¡°Raven, can you help up carry these people to a better place for me to heal?¡± asked Serena though it was more like an order than anything else. She looked around and placed her palm on one of the more injured people that was slowly bleeding out even with bandages covering most of his body and started to heal him. Aside from gaining the ''Mana Shield'' spell like Sain and Miriel in this pass month, Serena had also gained some other spells as well. One of them was an attack spell called ''Wood Spike'' that fired a moderately powerful piece of wood which increased the higher levelled the spell was and turned it into a machine gun like spell and the second was the healing spell ''Healing Palm'' that was used more to treat injuries than heal a person. From what Serena told him, the spell was designed to heal injures but as a side effect of course, it healed health as well though the ratio was quite bad but enough to sustain a bleeding person until the spell could heal them enough that they weren''t in danger of dying. Without much of a word of complaint or a word itself, Raven easy picked up a patient and placed him near where Serena can coordinate her efforts in saving enough people. There were at least two dozen or more people doing the same as Serena but the number of people who needed to be healed was too much for anyone to take another glance before heading off to carry the healed and those who need to be healed. ¡°....¡± Raven continued this cycle for a couple of hours and noticed that he was getting some strange glances, most likely due to his appearance. It was an unusual sight for someone to have two shields equipped on him and adding on the halberd and the fact that he was carrying people to be healed, it was no big brainier that Raven would be noticed. Not that anyone else could not help but to stare at Serena as well. A young girl that is barely in her teens in her unusual outfit was enough to get some heads to turn, mostly looking at her equipment. However Raven doubted that anyone would be stupid enough to try to take her equipment from her- ¡°Hey little missy there!¡± some idiot shouted in the top of his voice with two others. Oh how Raven hated how things seem to turn bad when he thinks otherwise. As an act of instinct, Raven moved in between Serena who promptly ignored the three who were staring at her and the three ragged looking people who looked more like bandits than anything else. Raven noticed their equipment were mismatched and they already had a beaten look on them. He wondered how strong or weak they were even if it seemed that they were not at full power. Either way, Raven was itching a bit to test...some of his more extreme skills he acquired recently in the two months of travel with Serena. Out of everyone in the group that was split up right now, he had the least number of skills after Shadow. Activating ''Knight Presence'' causing the three people along with some others in the area looking at what was happening, Raven in his rare act of speaking aside from saying skill names ordered, ¡°Leave.¡± After a moment, the first idiot with his two goons laughed and said, ¡°OH this is great! A little boy playing Knight! Why won''t you donate some of your stuff for the big guys to use instead¡± while drawing his sword with the two others who had similar expressions on their faces while everyone else either looked shocked or prepared to interfere even if they were injured. Raven''s face didn''t even register any sights that he was listening as he turned to see what Serena wanted to do...when the guy swung his sword at him when his back was turned. BANG! In the next instant, the guy was kicked by Raven and was sent flying a bit to his two goons metres away. ''Full Body Speed Burst''. Along with two other skills he gained recently, this one was the most powerful, most difficult to use and the most dangerous on both sides. For a fraction of a second, his body would go on overdrive and unleash it''s full power without restraint meaning he becomes several times faster like what Shadow does with his ''Burst Speed'' skill but without mana costs. The side effects his that his body will ache after using it and causing his performance to decrease when overusing it, not that a single use would affect him that much. ¡°Bastard! Kill him!¡± the man shouted getting up and charging with his two goons at the same time. Raven mentally sighed seeing how...slow and dull they were. ¡°Tower Slam...¡± The large Tower Shield equipped on his left arm was slammed down on it''s bottom causing a great shake of the ground as the three enemies were momentarily stunned and put off balanced. Rushing forward, Raven pushed one of the three, he wasn''t sure which one it was away from the other two and when they were all in range but far enough they wouldn''t get killed he simply stated, ¡°Full Circle Cyclone Slash¡± holding his halberd which was glowing a yellow light. Slash! Raven spun away in high speed once and caused an alarming large cut on all three at the side which wasn''t enough to kill them but enough to stop them. He turned to look at a sighing Serena who said, ¡°Great, more work to do¡± before using her ''Grow Roots'' spell to drag them to her to heal instead of asking him to carry them to her. Naturally to cause them more pain than anything else... xXx A month later... ¡°What the hell are you doing here?¡± asked Lyndis while pointing her sword at said person. That said person shook his head seeing this and pushed his long black hair that was shoulder length now from his eyes and looked at her. ¡°Why I got stuck with babysitting you. Didn''t help that it took me a month to track you down even with gaining a tracking skill¡± said the person. ¡°....¡± Leaving his words in the air for a while, Lyndis asked, ¡°Your spawn was set to that Ruined Church place as well wasn''t it?¡± ¡°Yep...¡± With both of them sighing at the same time, Lyndis muttered, ¡°Welcome to the group Shadow....you''ll need all the luck you can here.¡±
Author''s Notes: - Word Count: 9200~ - I''m Back! After so many bloody weeks, a full month in fact, I finally have time to write! Whoo! Now I''m crying thinking of all the content I still have left to finish this series... - Anyway if anyone noticed, at some point the writing style changed a bit which is basically me taking a very large break before writing the rest of the chapter. I''m not sure if this is good or not but trying to change one''s writing style is quite painful to think about. - Anyway I decided to change some things in the plot as well since this was mainly going to be every MC facing the invasion but I decided not. Trying to remember what I wanted to write a month ago is hard...plus I started to renew my efforts on the collab thing with Ninnin but both of us have other commitments and assignments to do at the same time... Status update + Partial hiatus note Hey guys, its been a very long time so its best to get this done with. First of all, is that I''m stopping on writing this series due to multiple reasons; writer''s block is the main one here. However its not going to be a complete hiatus. In a previous post I outlined that I''m going to write summaries for the rest of the series. So far I did so for the volumes 8,9 and 10 and started on volume 11. However with the detail I placed in the summaries, it will take weeks to complete the summaries at my current pace with me writing other stuff as a main instead of this. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. So, there are three choices I want opinions on. The first is to finish the summaries slowly all the way. The second is the same except that I write the last two volumes. The third is I post what I have now which is basically what I said, a paragraph for the rest of the volumes and some more details on the last few volumes. Volume 8 Summary Volume 8: The Arrival of the Warrior King Anyway this is the first of many summaries coming, this is a slow work in progress and this is actually one of the longer ones due to the added more detailed segments in the middle and at the end since I wrote them before I started on the volume. I think I''ll update once every week, maybe on Sunday for me that is. Anyway I''ll be posting the rest of what I have after this.
Start: 4Y 3M
  1. Upon Shadow finding where Lyndis was, they fight due to the fact that Shadow once again taunted Lyndis which resulted in her revealing that she could track him using a heat sensing ability. However Shadow can use [Substitution] to avoid her attacks even if it uses quite a bit of mana a time when he does. Furthermore, Lyndis made a [Burning Napon Trap] skill that is similar to long ranged bombs that were planted. It is also revealed that Shadow had learnt the [Sonic Edge] skill that increases that width of the cuts he makes. Moving on, there is a flashback where it shows Lyndis finding out that some zombies drop repair crystal which are rare to get and she used them to gradually repair all of her gear to a proper level. The two unwillingly team up to try to clear the dungeon they were in which is the remains of a forgotten and haunted lab.
  2. On the other side, Sain and Miriel are travelling from place to place with Sain telling Miriel to focus on training some of her newer spells that she gained compared to him since he learnt less spells in the same time frame though he also focused on close combat training. Eventually Sain decides to take up some long term guard duty to protect a travelling merchant figuring that it will be good experience and a good way to travel with attacks once in a while to train some skills when he''s not in a dungeon. Miriel comments that he chose the quest since he couldn''t figure what to do now or where to go. The two take up the quest with two full parties with them as well and being mostly isolated as they together guard 15 caravans at once. The time frame for this quest is about 6 months.
  3. Serena and Raven on the other hand are focusing on the Purple Wave event with the Giant Purple Rabbits and are helping out taking them out and healing the wounded. It is revealed that this event happened before and on a large scale at some point that the Kingdom knows what to do to contain it at least. Several guilds and the Kingdom guards and knights band together to make a parameter and slowly compresses the Giant Purple Rabbits into a small enough area and mages and otherwise bombard them into pieces in a quick series of attacks to prevent them from repopulating at all. Due to the large area, this tactic is done several times and Raven is noted by others to be fearless, suicidal in some case and merciless in killing them. Serena on the other hand is known as a kind hand in helping others though when she snaps, she snaps hard and at once point turned into her Wyvern form and broke several of the rabbits at once with rapid fire tail sweeps.
  4. Knowing that Purple Wave event was kinda, no entirely his fault to begin with, Eden dreams of a event that happened in the past. Extract below:
Segment of the Destroyer''s Broken Dream He stood unrivaled till the very end, Using a forbidden power that consumed even the heavens. A lone monster that had nothing else, His desire to protect turned to destruction, Yet despite his strength his soul still suffers, Unable to live nor to die as he is eternal, And thus the eventual end to the world. His powers fragmented through time and space, Collecting power until the end, Waiting for forever and forever, When he can finally disappear from existence itself. xXx He stood alone in the newly made battlefield drenched in blood. His breath was more ragged than anyone could expect, far filled his eyes and pain filled his heart. No, no he cried reaching for the place where he laid his ''heart'', his hope. A place that his peace could be found for a sort time. A place that once filled with happiness only brought him despair in the end. And yet, another part of him felt it was not enough. There was no enough blood. There was not enough cries. He did not do enough to torment, torture and kill those who took away those who were precious to him. ¡°Eden...Eden...¡± the blond woman cried, hugging him trying her best to distract him, ¡°It''s not your fault, none of this was your fault.¡± He did not look at her, only to gaze at what was left of their small dream, their small hope in this cruel cruel world. Even if they were not real in the most cruel way, their laugh, their smiles forever remained in his eyes, even if theirs no longer reflected anything. They were dead. His eyes held no confidences no longer, no energy for there was no longer any kind of innocence in them. They were old from the years of battle, tired of the endless battlefields, weary of the hidden enemies , sad of those he had lost over time and finally defeated in the end. And absolutely devoid of all hope. He could only blame himself for this, since he could only bring misery to the world, as he was the Elemental Chaos, the Destroyer of Sovereigns, Dreamer of Misery and now...the Crushed Hope.
  1. When he wakes, he finds that Alexandra is concern about him, in a twisted way with her threatening to throw him off the floating island they were hiding on but concern nonetheless though he noted that she was more tempered than usual. After some arguing with Viv telling him to just go since it would actually speed things up compared to their current rate, Eden decides to see if he can help and hopefully no cause bad things to happen. Of course, he decides to play it in the shadow not informing anyone else on what he is doing.
  2. Back with Sain and Miriel, Miriel is completely bored out of her mind with the quest both of them has. It didn''t help that Sain was more silent and isolated from everything than usual. He would train, think and then train again without a word and with everyone else not talking to them, after a certain incident where her ''Queen'' trait and Sain''s ''Commander'' got out of hand, she was being driven nuts with people avoiding both of them. However things gets at least interesting with some strong, level 250 player bandits coming out. Most of them are red named though the ones who were not were a concern. Sain tells Miriel to deal with it on her own before jumping to simply watch what the others do with him using some support spells at time. Miriel attacks as usual but realises after 10 minutes of battle that the enemy numbers were too great with their own and with the two other parties not as strong individually as them. This gap caused 2 of the caravans to be destroyed while Miriel had to use Boost and Living Ice to summon two large Ice Lions into form with Sain summoning Bright Luna to help support and take out most of the red named players before they retreated. Sain sighed seeing that he was bored with Miriel thinking something similar even though they still had a hard enough time.
  3. Months pass with Lyndis and Shadow being about to reach the final boss room...in between a safe area they barely made with a massive amount of zombies around them. In a nutshell, they are outnumbered to the point that they couldn''t even escape now though Lyndis is convinced with enough explosives things will be find with Shadow being not fine with that since he would probably be blown up as well. Both of them resort in using Boost immediately with Lyndis making a large opening to the boss room doors while Shadow trying to maintain that opening with his clones for both of them to get through. They do though somehow Shadow regrets it seeing the actually Boss monster in question. It was a large 5 metre tall hulk like creature with arms taking half its width and with a small head that looked misplaced or stuck on later. The two fight it immediately and it is surprising and near impossibly fast for its size. Lyndis is tempted on using Mankai to finish it off in one go but Shadow tells her that only Sain knew what to do to use it and was it worth sacrificing something for something on this level. The two target the boss'' legs but find out that it can also ''walk'' using its arms like a gorilla and a roar can stun them for a second which was usually enough to kill them in one hit. Naturally they do this over several deaths and retries fighting the boss monster and eventually with a combination of lots and lots of Burning Napon Traps, the Boss dies and leaves a journal and a book on all forms of life and a way out. Lyndis thinks both of them are a waste of time and the two split ways at last.
  4. Some more time passes with each member of the group group gradually getting stronger by levelling up and increasing their skills and spells'' levels. In the mist of this, a certain Luke in reality had found Lyndis in game and had taken it to himself to ''conquer'' her since his efforts in reality wasn''t much in that department. By stalking and hiring other people to stalk her, Luke goes in when Lyndis is in trouble with some monster to try and save her. Lyndis being herself, easily dispatches the enemies quickly by the time Luke was struggling to get to her while afterwards making an off comment that he was kinda weak. This infuriated Luke to no end and damaged his pride, especially since Lyndis was suppose to be lower level than him and thus weaker. As such, he hired some relatively high levelled player to kidnap Lyndis to prove he was stronger than her by ''saving'' her after she is captured. A week later, Lyndis is knocked out by several of the players Luke hires and is brought into a castle that Luke''s Independent Guild manages.
  5. Shadow gets wind of what happened and with great annoyance, contacted Sain to ask on what the hell he should do. Sain replies on whether Shadow can just save her on his own and Shadow replies that even with his stealth skills, getting in was extremely difficult and getting out, especially with Lyndis was next to impossible. However the good thing is that Miriel finds out that the Independent Guild is relatively new and has an average level of around 250 with only some above level 300 and fewer above level 400. Due to this, Sain contacts the rest of the group and they all meet around a few kilometres from the castle and discuss the plan on saving Lyndis with Miriel not really wanting to, Sain in a blank expression, Raven being silent, Serena being worried and Shadow stressing out more than he liked. Both Sain and Miriel commented that they had to end a guard duty quest early thanks to this. Sain asks and finds out that their average level was around 240 at best. He tells them that they need to train to at least level 260 since facing level 400 players would be that much harder even if they were money based players that lacked true skills and depended on items brought with cash for their strengths.
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  6. Meanwhile, Lyndis woke up to find that Luke was the one who ordered her captured. She hears him rant about something about not going to plan and how she screwed everything up in a high pitch voice. Listening through, Lyndis had little chance to getting out by herself and logs off when she could even though she was trapped and bound in a cell. Outside the game, the group meet up where Maria express that she was captured and is in a castle. Much to her surprise, no one was surprised at this news and said that they were working to get her out of there. Hina points out why Eden or other members help out while Shadow snorts that level since they reached level 200, the hand holding stopped and it would cost them. Maria shouts on why they are being nice to her and not being angry at her and Peter immediately says that she''s the one who was angry at him and not the other way around. He express some regrets on what happened when they last met but pretty much pulled it under the rug. Maria still unsure decides to wait until whether they save her or not to trust them, or really just Peter again to at least the level when they first met.
  7. A month later with Sain''s extra special hell grinding trip in a level 350 dungeon, the group save Lyndis who pretty much decided to stay logged out until near when the rest of the group would come. The group met up near the castle at near dawn since people would relax and let their guard down the most at that time. The five went in quick smoothly and straight to Lyndis thanks to Shadow and Miriel being able to detect people around them. Plus Miriel has a silencing spell so it just made it so much easier to get around undetected.
  8. On Lyndis'' side, Luke made another round at Lyndis by screaming at her on how everything was her fault and that his genius was wasted on such a useless person. Although unable to move or use most spells, she still had her thermal sensing skill and felt five people storm into the room knocking Luke out quite easily, too easily if Lyndis had anything to say about it. All of a sudden, a trap door appeared where there shouldn''t be as expressed by both Miriel and Shadow who kept track of those kinds of things and all five fell down into a pit where there were strange monsters about. Seeing this along with all the stress she had thanks to Luke, Lyndis shouts out and explodes into flames activating Mankai with anger and turning into a temporary level 1000 player. In a manner of a minute, the castle burnt down into ashes and the sky was turned bright red and not due to the sun.
  9. Seeing this kind of power, everyone except for Sain was surprised who just said this was the power of Mankai though with some displeasure. Several more minutes, the flames continued until it finally died out with Lyndis screaming about something. All five of them ran to Lyndis worried where they saw...Lyndis stuffing various pieces of food in her mouth and screaming how she couldn''t taste it anymore. Shadow and Miriel immediately start laughing at her with Serena giggling. Raven had a slight smirk on her face and Sain just patted Lyndis on her shoulder and said that it seems the cost of using Mankai that time was her sense of taste.
  10. Epilogue on Eden''s side of things. It had been 3 months since he and the others had activated the transfer magic circle and allowed 5000 people, with all players paying a sum to even come thanks to Weed, they had finally made it to the final boss room where Arthur, Solomon and Kyoshiro guarded the Warrior King. With less than a hundred men left, the battle continued with Arthur, Solomon and Kyoshiro being slain by Alexandra, Viv, Weed and Seoyoon who were some of the strongest players around. Eden took this chance to get a rematch with the Warrior King along with Weed.
¡°Great Firestorm!¡± Eden shouted casing the ground and air to be consumed by a violent flame that could even bring dragons into ashes. He was not holding that much back anymore, or at least in terms to his limits in the mortal realm at least. ¡°Eden!¡± Alexandra shouted worriedly seeing Eden using one of his ''bigger'' moves immediately and dragged some of the few remaining alive players under some protection spells and barriers. ¡°Moonlight Armour! Moonlight Sculpturing Blade!¡± Weed shouted covering himself in a dazzling series of light that wrapped around his armour and sword to such an extent that Eden''s flames that little effect on him with ''Stone Skin'' also active. BANG! That sole sound resounded around the room as something unexpected happened. Weed''s sword was blocked, the flames were gone...and the Warrior King was there unharmed at all. Furthermore he looked amused. ¡°Surely this can''t be all? Last time you all made more of an effort to harm me¡± he commented with a slight smug look on his face. Weed stayed calm though ticked at the Warrior King. Alexandra on the other hand... ¡°Fuck off! Sword Wave!¡± A brilliant wave of light came off her sword and flew to the Warrior King and...disappeared before it even got to him. Alexandra was wide eyed at what just happened as an invisible bullet shot and hit her back along with a couple other players at once. Seoyoon not to be undone, moved in a flash and stuck from behind the Warrior King but her sword, or body refused to move at all just before she could hit him and was flung back. Seeing this, Eden threw some Lightning Bolts at the Warrior King for it all to just move around him. This was not the same ability that negated his attacks before...this is- ¡°Absolute Air Control¡± the Warrior King answered Eden''s thoughts. Eden gritted his teeth on this revelation and asked, ¡°How? Your ability should be Negation am I right? Or at least it was when we first faced off.¡± With a smile and immediately restricting the air in the room causing everyone to have trouble even breathing let alone moving, the Warrior King simply said, ¡°Oh, just another ability this sword granted me at times¡± as a sword he recognised turned into, or back into in this case of a broken shard of a sword appeared floating above his open hand. Eden immediately felt fear coming from that shard of a sword even though it should be more deadly when morphed into a complete sword. ¡°This shard...of a weapon that was once of the greatest of Kings and of Heroes is powerful...more powerful than anyone would like to think¡± the Warrior King explained to no one in particular though everyone was listening in, ¡°Yes, a Destroyer like yourself should fear this since it is one of the only effective weapons against your kind...and to llyfr as well though his curse is sometimes...to almost always too much for even this shard to compare with.¡± The Warrior King smiled sadly to Eden and approached him and said, ¡°To think I would meet a Destroyer when my ''world'' is long gone now¡± the shard turned back into a sword as he said, ¡°Such pity since in the end we are all playing in the hands of Gods.¡± Stab! The sword went into the left hand of Eden and he felt something...invading him! ¡°AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!¡± His body immediately reacted to the shard, the shard of the sword that once belonged to the Hero King, one that defied the Devourer though failed in the end. A sword that was the beginning of countless legends. Everyone watched as the golden aura around Eden fluxed and changed several times and several manners before chains spouted out lashing at the Warrior King. ¡°What?!¡± The Warrior King was surprised was an understatement. He didn''t know this would happen. How could he when he never faced a Destroyer before and never stabbed the shard that once belonged to the Original Destroyer in one who processed the part of the power of one. The sword soon was absorbed into Eden''s body as countless chains burst out of his body, all while Eden was screaming, wailing in the pain that it was causing him. ¡°Eden!¡± ¡°Eden!¡± Both Alexandra and Viv shouted in concern. They knew that Eden had an unhealthy tolerant of pain to the point they figured him to be at least an extreme masochist at one point. But it had been years, decades or to some degree a century since he screamed like this in pain. The chains came and went as they broke apart of the giant castle that was on the floating island in the sky. The Warrior King stared in disbelief for a few seconds before making a look in realisation and then understanding. ¡°So that''s how it is...that is my role in all of this eh?¡± he pondered but still said, ¡°But I won''t make this easy, at least it would prepare you all for the rest.¡± Golden Chains continued to erupt from Eden''s body but soon started to go BACK IN him causing him even more pain. Even Weed was a bit pale at the sight of Eden being ripped apart literally thanks to the chains. An hour, a very long hour passed until Eden stopped shouting, screaming and begging for mercy, for death and the chains to stop and to disappear. Several worried people came to Eden''s side immediately while some others avoided him in fear. Weed on the other hand ignored all of this and looked to find where the Warrior King was since at the same time as the chains stopped from Eden, the presence that forced them to not move was gone. Weed saw an opportunity, an unguarded and unprepared Warrior King. He took it, stabbing his sword into him. ¡°Hahahahaha, do you think it is that easy? Why I am...in many locations right now if you believe it¡± the Warrior King laughed while disappearing into golden dust before Weed''s eyes. And just as he was about to think of what happened- Ding!
The Million Warrior Kings The Warrior King used his last resort fearing for his life. Using an ancient and powerful ability, he split himself into a million copies and spread them all about the continent though each copy is slightly different from each other in ability and strength and much weaker than the original. Slay the original for the Trial of the Emperor to end. Rank: Unknown Requirement: - Kill every last Warrior King copy - The Kingdom must last before this quest is done Reward: - Artefact from the Gods
Weed could not help but scream in fury and frustration of this situation. A million of that bastard was running around HIS Kingdom right now! Things became even more unfortunate in the end for him. End: 4Y 9M
Author''s Notes: The main thing I wanted in this volume was a separation and renewal of bonds. This was naturally done by Lyndis leaving and the rest of the group breaking off for a while. You can say the ending of this volume is the start of a newer and stronger bond between the group resolving their trust issues. Plus reading this now, I was kinda tempted to do a reboot of ''The Unfortunate Fool'' since Eden is easy for me to write. It comes out naturally for me. Volume 9 Summary Volume 9: The End of the Trial Start: 4Y 9M
  1. The group gets a message from Eden that they are to help with a certain task of his. Worried for the most part, even though they had just saved Lyndis...kinda a few minutes ago, Sain asks what is to be done since other than getting to level 300 to which everyone aside from Lyndis who was still level 240 was level 260 now; they still needed to get through one order from Eden to stay in the guild. The order was simple, kill every last fucking Warrior King copy you can find to which they even got a quest for it...and so did every last player in an Independent Guild and even more in Guilds as well.
  2. Due to the fact that they are partly tasked to help out in wiping out these Warrior King clones that numbered to a million, Sain took it up to himself to make sure they were strong enough to deal with them and had a goal of them killing at least a dozen of them in 3 months time. Eden hearing this was slightly pleased enough that he gave them a device that allowed them to track where each of these Warrior King clones were. Much to Sain''s delight in fighting one so soon and much to everyone else''s dismay, there was one nearby in a level 300 dungeon. The group led by Sain with everyone else somewhat unwilling since this was a foe that caused trouble for Eden, went into the dungeon and spent a few days re familiarising themselves with each other as well as making sure Lyndis levelled up a bit more than everyone else to catch up faced the first Warrior King Clone they would meet.
  3. The group tense up feeling that this Warrior King Clone was strong, stronger than the average boss at least, Raven and Lyndis immediately charged up to attack the Warrior King Clone and see it''s strength as fast as possible to avoid any wide spread attacks on the rest of them immediately. Dodging the blows from the two, the Warrior King takes out a sword and swings and slams both of them away easily. Sain and Miriel cast supporting spells on everyone while Serena heals Raven and Lyndis. Shadow reappears to backstab the Warrior King clone but fails barely dodging a one hit kill decapitation strike in that moment. Serena cases Root Bind but it fails since they are all cut up easily before they even get close. Sain then notices that the Warrior King Clone was using some sort of extended wind blade move to attack further than they could see. Due to this, Sain and Miriel try to bombard the Warrior King Clone using Mana Bolts in bulk to try and wear him down. Shadow and Raven both activate Boost and use their powers to slow down the Warrior King clone while Shadow attacks with clones on all sides. They cause some damage but is pushed back with a burst of air. Lyndis activates Boost at that time and spams her napan bomb trap skill using boost to power it up even more. With an explosion, the Warrior King is at half health just like that. Sain realises that the clone is weak against wide area destructive attacks and cooperates with Serena using Root Bind with Astral Bind to stop the Clone''s movement for a few seconds while everyone else uses their strongest moves with boost to deal as much damage as they can. They succeeded and the clone dies with everyone gaining a lot of experience at once.
  4. Among the items that they gain, one of them peaks Sain''s interest. It is a rare magic passive skill that can either cause the body to gather mana from an external source causing the user to have much more mana than what is contained inside the body or to restrict the amount of mana in the body to the point that magic spells are near worthless except when released to be multiple times stronger. Sain thinks of the second option as what is happening to him currently but is more inclined to the first option since his magic would be stronger than before due to it being restricted currently though losing the temporary boost in power when released which wasn''t that much of a bad thing when he considered to be able to use higher costing magic spells more than others. He learns the first option and loses [Compressed Magic Mastery] for it to be turned into [Free Flow Magic Mastery].
  5. A week passes and the group killed another two of those Clones causing them to be around level 265 with Lyndis at level 255 with her gaining more experience than normal due to Sain''s party scan skill letting her gain half of all the experience the others gain from them. There were no skills or spells dropped from these two clones this time but the group decided to visit Lily City since they are nearby and want to see Alena again. They spend a couple of days to get to the city and meet with a surprised Alena who was with her son, Ares and sister Risene. Miriel, Lyndis and Serena were immediately taken by the sisters for some shopping while Sain, Shadow and Raven were left with Ares who wanted to explore more of the city causing the three to be on babysitting duty. The three soon found out of the Ares had the tendencies of getting into trouble and danger and the three spent most of the time making it up to others that Ares angered or saving him from dying right in front of them. In one case, Shadow had to take a nasty hit being impaled to save Ares. When the girls come back and find the three worn out and Shadow bleeding to death with the top of a fence in him, Alena and Risene immediately apologise to them wanting to make it up to them. Sain takes this chance to ask them to teach them a good defence skill.
  6. Alena though surprised asks Sain on why he wants them to learn such a skill since other players aside from tanks didn''t learn much defence skills. Sain comments that learning such a skill no matter what class it is would increase their survival rates against strong foes. Alena ponders a bit but Risene immediately tells they that their circulation skills could be adjusted to allow them increased defence or attack or speed depending on their preference. Surprised, Miriel asks on how they would do this and Risene tells them that this was a method that Eden used to attack, defence and move faster than others even though his body type wouldn''t allow him to. As such, later that day, Serena and Sain''s circulation skill now increased his attack, defence and speed by a further 10%, Miriel and Shadow with defence and speed by 15% each, Shadow and Lyndis and Raven with attack and defence increased by 15% each. Thanking them, the group leaves to hunt down more of those clones.
  7. A month in total passed since that order and the group killed a total of 5 Warrior King Clones leaving them at the level 270 point and 4Y 10M point. Seeing that they have another 2 months in game to kill another 7 Warrior King Clones, they check the quest that most players got on how many are left. Though it was not that surprising with so many players working together as one, there are less than less of the clones left though for some reason, Sain felt that certain players, otherwise known as their Guild caused at least a tenth of the kills on their own. However due to the decreased number of clones to kill, the weaker ones were more or less wiped out leaving ones that were on average level 500 or 600 and above in areas that most people would not like to travel to. Locating one such place, the group went to the mountain range north of Lily City where there are rumours of an ancient city made by dark dwarves, dwarves that had turned their back on everything but themselves for power. It took a few days but with the group''s pace which they did not realise but was becoming more and more inhuman compared to other players, they entered the ancient city to find that the dark dwarves are still alive...though enslaved by that particular Warrior King clone.
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  8. Upon seeing this, the group is ambushed by falling dwarves where Lyndis and Miriel are instantly killed by fatal blows. The others are low on health due to this and activate Boost at the same time before destroying the floor and dropping to safety. Shadow causes decoys to make sure less dark dwarves are on them, Serena set up vines to stall those who came, Raven uses his gravity to blast any that get close away and Sain tries to find a safe spot to hide in. After some hours of constant battle, and Raven were out of mana with Serena and Sain close to it. However they managed to find a place to stay low and recover hiding from the dark dwarves which Sain estimated to be level 400 on average. Trying to figure out how to get through this in one piece, Sain develops a skill that allows him to grind through the mountain side to the outside world. The skill is called [Material Grind] which allows him with contact with his hands, turn things into dust. Due to his [Free Flow Magic Mastery] skill which allows him to passively absorb mana from around him in the air to rapidly accelerate his mana regeneration to a near extreme level. It took him a couple of days but he managed to make a hole in which they could come in and out from. Rejoined with a revived Miriel and Lyndis, Sain commanded them to get some people to help them out to get rid of the controlled Dark Dwarves. Upon the posting of the help, along with the fact that one of the Warrior King''s clones being there, 3 parties appeared in time to be of help. Two of the parties were level 300 on average while the other was level 400 on average.
  9. Seeing that the group was lower levelled than them, the level 400 party decides to go on their own with one of the other parties joining them. One party of level 300 joins with the group to balance things out to hunt down the dark dwarves. The two separate joined groups worked on different ends of the same path, cutting through a way to the clone in question that needed to be slain. During these series of battles which resulted in several deaths, the group barely managed to keep everyone including the other party alive when they faced the clone. The other group of 12 were wiped out despite them being high level on average. Seeing the clone, the group immediately used Boost and their various skills to set up the battlefield to their advantage. The level 300 party went to charge at the clone while the group supported them at the beginning. Sain, Miriel and Serena along with 2 priests from the other party set up multiple buffs on everyone. When two members of the other group were slain via mind control making them attack each other, the group stepped in showing they were not affected by the skill since it was simply prompting the targeted to attack. The group with the torture Eden put them through would rather die than to have Eden find out that they were controlled so easily. With it''s main power ineffective against the group, the clone targeted the other party and brought in more dark dwarves to attack the group. Surrounded, Sain shouts to use their strongest attacks at the clone to kill him quickly. Using their Art skills, they all execute their strongest attacks with Sain causing debuffs, Miriel placing the strongest barrier around Serena, Serena using her Wyvern body to block most of the attacks to the group and Lyndis, Raven and Shadow using their final moves at the clone.
  10. The result of the three fatal attacks at the same time caused the clone to be half destroyed though still alive. However before it could command the enemy to attack again, Sain throws his spear which head shots the clone thus killing it. Sain unknowingly activated [Awakening] which is the third stage of the Marks Eden gave them in a split moment in one attack. Eden on the other side feels that Sain had achieved this and laughs thinking of how similar he and Sain are for him to progress this quickly. Seeing this, Eden decides to reward Sain in particular with the rest of the group later. Due to killing the clone which was level 500, the group gained 10 levels each. With a month left and level 290 each, the group decides to continue hunting down the dark dwarves since they were still attacking them to get to level 300. The battles continue with the group completing quests to help those in need along the way. Eventually when all of the fakes are destroyed it is revealed that those fakes were his seals and that they had released him. Smiling at this Eden along with 500 of the top players attack the real warrior king and his servants together. Eventually Weed gets the final hit in killing the warrior king and the trail ends giving him a special item that can restore anything as long as you pour enough mana into it, even the entire Kingdom. Eden is forced to take up this role and is trapped until the entire kingdom is restored perfectly which may take years to finish.
End: 5Y
Author''s Notes: There actually isn''t that much development in this volume. Most of it is just the group hunting, growing in level as well as Sain getting a new skill replacing his old mastery skill which was kinda either overpowered or underpowered depending which was kind annoying to write. As for the ending...writing it would have been fun seeing how Weed basically is using Eden as a literal mana battery now due to all the damage he and his guild had caused for a long time. Muhahahahaha, Weed would probably have obtained a way to seal off Eden''s magic and skill before he did this of course while Alexandra and Viv would have immediately abandoned him on basis of entertainment and fear of Weed doing something horrible to them as well. Volume 10 Summary Arc 4: The Descent of the 7 Gods Due to the events of the previous arc, the next stage of the game is revealed where 7 demon kings rises each representing each of the 7 deadly sins. They come from the six corners of the continent and the centre and set up their bases much to the despair of Eden who was in the process of repairing those places. Volume 10: The 7 Battles of Kallamore Begin: 5Y 1. With one thing done, the group waits for the next set of orders that Eden will give them. As such, they are promoted into trusted members of the guild from simply regular members since they had proven their worth to a certain extent. Due to this, they are given access to the ''Hub'' which is a place where independent guilds can pick up lesser jobs exclusive to them. In this ''Hub'' which is a place external to the continent and can be accessed at certain places, it is revealed that it can connect to points all over the continent making it easy for those in Independent guilds to move about the place when they have a job. The masters of the group appear and guide them to the section where their guild base is located. Sain questions why they have bases on the continent and Gen answers that it is good to have bases on the continent and second to trick people into thinking there wasn''t a secret place where those in independent guilds can access. Furthermore, this place can only be accessed by those in at least a B rank independent guild or higher to trusted members. After some more talking on the skill sets of the group and how to improve in some areas; there are comments on whether Sain wants to be a all rounded character or specialise in something, Miriel to go with rapid fire attacks or single strong attacks, Lyndis focusing on her sword skills or fire skills, Raven focusing on defence or attack, Serena on healing or support magic and Shadow being an assassin or trap expert. While they are discussing the possibilities, they enter the true base of the S.S Centre. Lyndis asks why this was the true base and not the other. Ron explains that this is the place where all the other members usually stay when not on missions. As such they see some of the rest of the members. They see Eart and Arch who they are familiar with as well as Nue who nods to them. Several of the female members tease them while most of the male members nods to them while trying not to traumatise such young members too early. 2. After the meeting with the rest of the guild who were now getting to work, doing missions that payed a bit more since their success rate was much higher than normal players and such, the group and their masters meet with Alexandra and Viv again. Mel questions where Eden was and Alexandra grins saying the prize of killing the Warrior King was an item that can restore other items and buildings if you pour mana into it. Namely Eden became a mana battery for a while. Some of the group questions why and Viv tell them that his base man is half a million and adding onto his buffs and active skills multiples it into the millions. Though a bit shocked, Alexandra explains some things on how they will need to take missions which is basically a more stable way of doing guild quests though most of them are either too easy or too hard. This time, they are required to do 20 guild quests in a year, 30 for the year after get to level 350 by 2 years time if they can. However Alexandra tells them that they will do some more advance training first. Alexandra explains that in around a year, a new power form the mark will come forth called [Awakening] which basically boost their racial characteristics. In order for it to actually develop though, they need to change their race which is difficult. For starters, the method the guild uses is to select a stone which will be bound to the player and will change them over a year. Side effects includes sudden pain/dizziness as well as increase or decrease in skill and power. The second thing with the mark is that it will get more potent with changing classes and will affect their emotions more when used. Due to this, while changing races, they need to allow the power of the mark to spread without being consumed by it. Alexandra calls this the Sin Curse stage. Another thing is that Boost is unavailable to them during this time as well. 3. However there are some good things that will come out of this. For starters while boost is out of their reach, a lesser version of it can be used though the powers that come with boost such as double stats and effects won''t come, their other powers like Living Ice and Genesis Flame will be available though weaker than they remember. When the group accept this and choose the stone that will allow them to change races, Sain chooses the Blood Stone, Lyndis the Lion Stone, Serena the Chaos Stone, Miriel the Moon Stone, Raven the Wrath Stone and Shadow the Dark Stone. Next thing Alexandra and Viv discuss with them is their choice of how things will play out on how they will fight from now on. Unlike before where they can get away with it generalising their skills, they need to specialise their skills more than ever to survive enemies which they discussed with their masters. Lyndis immediately decides to focus more on her sword skills since she likes it and goes with Ron to train with him much to her displeasure. Ron tells her that he will teach her how to focus her flames more into her sword. Not to be outdone, Shadow goes the assassin route with Anna who tells him he will be able to fight with those Shadow Clones much better when she is done with him. Raven is the next to go deciding on a more offensive style is best with Park agreeing since Raven had always been more aggressive but forced himself not to. Serena goes with the mixed route of healing and support with Mel being happy to help with some healing spells and a larger number of support spells that will help out. Miriel goes with the strong ice attacks, rapid barriers and support route which will be difficult but Jenny will help her cope with it. Sain lastly decides to drop his support skills in favour of curses and go with mid range battles with his spear and magic. Gen thankfully has a similar style and helps him with it. The group spends a month learning some new skills as well as adapting a new style of fighting. The effects of changing their races slowly were also coming about as well. Sain was feeling a bump at the back of his head, Miriel''s hair was turning white, Shadow''s skin was turning pale, Lyndis was feeling bumps on her head as well, Raven was growing taller, Serena''s ears were changing a bit as well turning to fur. 4. In terms of skills, Sain didn''t learn much except for changing his style of fighting though learnt [Mana Fist] and [Mana Spear] for more power. He also got used to fighting with Luna and learnt when to use his debuff skills effective and his D.B skill as well. Miriel learnt the [Ice Spear] and [Ice Hammer] spell as well as [Barrier Overlap] and [Double Barrier] passive skills that allows her to double or quad-triple the number of barriers placed with a single cast. Serena increased her skills with her current spells though added [Healing Aura] which made those around the targeted to heal wounds and [Accelerated Healing] which healed the targeted a certain amount each time they are hit. For support spells, she also learnt [Dust Cloud] for blinding to escape, [Poison Ivy] which added the poison and paralyse effect on her vines and [Second Mind] which allowed for low intelligence in the vines for auto defence and attack. For Lyndis she learnt [Fire Sword] which was a upgraded Fire Blade, [Flame Burst] which unleashed a burst of flame where she swung and [Fire Wave] which was like Sword Wave but fire in nature. Her sword skills also reached the Advanced level as well. Raven got the passive skill [Double Revenge] that doubled damage to those who attacked him per hit, [Closed Eyes] that increased defence and pain resistance when eyes closed and [Iron Skin] which increased defence a good bit. Park changed Raven''s style to have more offence and focused more on attacking and countering attacks while pushing pressure on them. Shadow got focused training on teamwork with his shadow clones and increased his skill with all his skills. He got the [Dark Blade] skill that increased attack in the dark as well as the [Fade Away] skill that increased stealth when enemies aren''t focused on you. [Light Step] was added in to decrease detection as well. 5. With the training done, the group started doing guild quests left and right for a while. 2 months passed like this and they had completed 5 guild quests of the D and C rank already. Due to this, they got quite a bit of money again and decided not to upgrade their equipment until their race change finished since their bodies were changing and they would need to buy new equipment again. They also noticed how people changed in reaction to them as their races changed. With both Sain and Lyndis having small horns that were barely noticeable, some people were more withdrawn from them in the NPC department. Lyndis was noticed more from males and Serena with females. People generally avoided Raven and Shadow who were becoming larger, more muscular on one hand and the other being more pale and growing short fangs. Due to this, there were some problems with members of minor churches in the area that didn''t like this change but didn''t speak up since they were part of an Independent Guild It didn''t stop them from trying to increase costs and decrease relationship with those close to churches. Because of this, the group had somewhat been more isolated than before with NPC and players since they didn''t want to lose relationship as well. Deciding to counter this a bit, Sain signs the group to a dungeon raid of a level 350 dungeon that needed some members. Seeing the skill the group had which was enough to handle some of the weaker level 400 mobs, they were accepted in by the leaders of the party who see the worth of them joining since they had a good reputation in their skill and connections even though some minor churches don''t like them. This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it 6. After spending a good month in the dungeon raid, the group gets along with most players though there are some that are jealous of the group due to their performance. One such player challenges the group in a duel to see how they fair against other players. The group looks at each other and uses rock- scissors-paper to determine who will fight. After a couple rounds of this Lyndis wins the chance for the duel much to the grumbling of the others since she seemed to have the best luck most of the time for some strange reason, even higher than Shadow who had the highest luck stat in the group. Lyndis faces off against a knight with heavy armour with the standard sword and heavy shield. She immediately uses [Sword Dance] and [Fire Dance] together to bring out a lethod series of sword strikes along with her other skills rapidly. Seeing the barrage of attacks that lasted almost 3 seconds and 10 strikes in that time period, the knight was knocked back with his shield heavily damaged. The knight throws away his shield and charges using several skills to keep the pressure on Lyndis but the group aren''t worried. Lyndis wasn''t taking this seriously even though she and the knight were around the same level at a bit over level 300 each though Lyndis gained 5 levels due to the dungeon raid. After another minute, Lyndis knocks out the knight and wins the duel. The other players sees this and challenges Lyndis as well, mostly knights since winning duels will gain them honour for their class. Lyndis fights and wins another 5 fights before Raven tags in when Lyndis was going for another match when tired. Facing strong opponents was one thing but continuous battles against those over level 300 were difficult even if their skill level were lower. A dozen battles with Raven later and no one wants to fight any of the group anymore. All of a sudden Sain gets a message from the guild to get their asses to Kallamore since demons were invading them. 7. The group quickly rushes to Kallamore on their orders, spending a bit of time in the Hub and transferring to a location where it takes a week to get to Kallamore. Another thing is that many other independent guilds were called up as well and by the time the group got to the hub, there were a thousand powerful Independent Guild members to be deployed to Kallamore in an emergency. What they find, is a large scale battle between knights and demons. The knights defending were being overwhelmed bit by bit. The independent guild members rushes in from the edge and back of the demon army for maximum damage with the group joining in. The demons averaged at level 300 but there were those whose level reached 500 or even 600. Those demons were taken down via lots of players were just the strong ones alone. The group didn''t face those demons and focused on the weaker ones. After 5 hours of battle, the independent guild members lost a third of their numbers and reached the edge border of Kallamore where the knights are thankful though still panicked about the situation. Not only were there demons, there were even more monsters in the mix. Even though they were only level 100-200, their numbers overwhelmed the knights and forced the Kallamore knights to split up to protect all of their borders. But for now, the area was safe and it will take another 3 days until the demons attack again. Walking around, the group examines how close Kallamore was truly to be destroyed. The walls were almost gone, most of the buildings were damaged, the clerics and priests were being overworked to save lives. With a sigh, the group knew this was going to be a pain. 8. 3 days later, several churches sent their troops to help out since Demons were enemies of their God. Due to this, the size of the army for Kallamore doubled in size with the average level of each person to be around 250 which was quite low but they were strain for numbers either way. The enemy numbers however were at least 3 times higher than the Kallamore forces. The group went in battle once again and with the forces armed to defend Kallmore, pushed them back. This allowed for them to recover and repair as much as possible in three days when the demon army came back. In each battle, a Demon General appeared and until that demon was killed, the enemy won''t retreat. As such, it was at the most importance that everyone worked together to take down this general at all times. Most of the time these generals were at the middle of the enemy formation making them hard to kill but sometimes they were at the front making them stronger than the rest of the demon army or at the back enhancing the demon army. All three options were difficult to deal with and the Kallamore forces suffered great loses due to this. 9. This repeated itself 5 more times totalling up for 7 battles for Kallamore. At the eve of the seventh battle, a High Demon, a monster that was level 700 appeared with resistance to fire, darkness and most physical and magical attacks. Due to this, most of the Kallamore forces were wiped out in a matter of minutes since a level 800 monster that was also a boss was something of a legend. The demon shouted its name as the demon general Bebel. The group seeing this demon gets a message from their guild to eliminate Bebel which turned into a B rank Guild Quest which meant A rank in normal circumstances. With a sigh, Sain analysed their group again. Due to the battles, they levelled up quite a bit due to a constant stream of monsters to kill thus increasing their level to 320 which made the Demon over twice their level. However they each had a trump card to use otherwise known as Mankai though they will sacrifice one of their senses or worse to use it. It is at this time that Bebel attacked them as well with them activating Boost at the same time drawing its attention to them. In 3 seconds, both Lyndis and Shadow are killed with a swipe and Miriel placed her strongest barrier onto Raven as he activated Mankai. In the next second, gravity around the Demon General increased 50 fold forcing it to slow down enough for the rest of the group to dodge. Sain tries to use his Art skills on the demon but it is ineffective and this causes him to be killed as well with a stab. Raven charges in with his body boosted further by his Gravity Force making him several times stronger and the enemy several times weaker with the use of Gravity. Raven after a minute battle where his powers were running out, uses his most powerful skill [Meteor Burst] to kill the general gaining him 15 levels from the final kill. 10. Epilogue of Eden viewing the battle between the group and the demon General. He is pleased with the growth that they can take on something of that level even with Mankai. Though the majority of the group are around level 320, their stats were something closer to level 350 and with boost this increased their ability to a level 400. However Eden was quite saddened that single hit from a level 700 boss monster could still kill him. He would need to correct that for the future battles. But for now, Eden took away Raven''s sense of pain not that he needed it to function in the first place. End: 6Y
Author''s Notes: This is the last summary for a while since I haven''t finish the next volume and won''t for a while. I kinda love not have a schedule since there is no pressure on me to write anything. Anyway with the start of the arc means the start of some sort of training for new skills and such for the rest of the arc. In this case, it''s for the group to battle an army of demons along side an army of knights and others. Might have been exciting if I wrote it in whole might not be but I like how Raven gets the final kill. Raven of all the MCs seems to be the most dull next to Sain since everyone else has a good distinct personality. Anyway, until the next one...