《Universe Tales: Virtual Log of the Fallen One》 Chapter 1: The Start Chapter 1: The Start Cries of pain and despair rang throughout the battlefield. "NNNOOOO!!!" "Monster! MONSTER!!!" "AGH!! AHhhh..." Dismembered and punctured bodies littered the grounds. Other than the heaps of corpses, there was another eye-catching thing on this deste battleground of despair; the numerous ck feathers that were scattered throughout the area. "Stay away! Stay AWAY!!!" A young man roared in despair as he shed his sword while constantly retreating backwards. The object of his terror was currently standing in front of him, slowly walking over with arge demonic twin-headed war axe that was dripping with blood ced gently over her shoulder. The figure was that of a female wearing priestess garbs with 6 raven ck wings fluttering behind her back. She was staring back at the frightened young man with an innocent face as she closed in on him. "[Detect]" The girl said in her bell-like voice. Her words had caused the young soldier to suddenly lose his bearings as though he was enchanted. [Deftan Soldier Lv. 100] "Only level 100? This quest sure is a downer..." The girl said as she quickly swiped her de down on the youngd. The young soldier was level 100, but he was quickly cut down under the young girl''s demonic axe. This veteran should have been the light of hope that defended the Kingdom of Deftanus. However right now, he was naught but a mere mortal in front of this world''s harbinger of death. [42,874 exp gained.] "[Status]" [Maria Lv. 98] HP: 9,843/10,160 MP: 236,190/480,100 SP: 866/866 EXP: 1,245,683/9,800,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Titles: Fallen Angel of Ruin, Adjudicator of Darkness, World''s End Harbinger, Angel of Death, Kingdom Destroyer EX, Species Eradicator EX, Fallen Priestess, The Unlucky One, Fallen Saintess ATK : 655(+2500) DEF : 1,270 (+1200) M.ATK : 4,801 (+3600) M.DEF : 24,005 (+1550) STR : 121 AGI : 245 VIT : 500 INT : 9,120 (+456) LCK : 10 With a swipe of her hand the Status page box disappeared from in front of her. Maria looked around the deste battlefield with a little disappointment. "This was supposed to be my 4th world...howe the average levels of the guards are so low? Could this be a beginner world?" Maria let out a disappointed sigh. She shouldered her demon axe and spread her ck wings. In the next moment she took off and flew far away from the battlefield. "I should go andin to Deathter...he gave me such a boring quest! What''s so fun about bullying newbies? That''s just boring!" With the harbinger of death finally leaving the battlefield, the people who were left over finally cried out in joy and began thanking the gods for letting them live another day, but in the next moment a dark sh of light suddenly sprung in the middle of the deste battlefield. The dark sh quickly engulfed the entirety of the battlefield in a dome of ck magic,pletely eradicating everything and everyone in its area of influence. Once the dome of ck light slowly dissipated, all that was left of the battlefield was arge crater,pletely devoid of all life. Up in the air... "Phew, I really hate mopping things up...but at least Death had the decency to give me ''Unholy''." The Fallen Angel, Maria, hadpletely wiped out the battlefield. With a satisfied smile, she quickly turned around and flew off towards the Deftanus Kingdom''s Capital City. "Let''s hurry up andplete the quest~ All I have to do is kill that sleaze ball of a King and its over! The next quest better not be so boring or I''ll give Death a few new breathing holes~" With those demonic words being uttered so innocently by the girl, she quickly hastened herself over to her quest designation. As she was flying, Maria''s eyes couldn''t help but be tinged with a little sadness. "It wasn''t always like this..." she mumbled sadly. ********* A year prior, on December 17th 2020, the new Full Dive Virtual Reality Massively Multiyer Online Role ying Game, or FDVRMMORPG for short, Universe Tales or Unitale, was released along with its full dive equipment. The cost was a hefty sum, but it wasn''t much for the young miss of the Heltania family. Inside a bedroom on the 2nd floor of a luxurious mansion, a 16 year-old young girl was currently unpacking a box that had the logo of the Universal Games Company on it. Universal Games was the creator of the new cutting edge FDVRMMO, Universe Tales or Unitale. The game had been in the development stages since 5 years ago and it was only until today, only 8 days away from Christmas was it finally released! Maria Heltania, the first young miss of the prestigious Heltania Family was a part of the shareholders of Universal Games. Her circle of friends have always been talking about the new and uing VRMMO Unitale ever since she had stepped foot in high school. While Maria wasn''t much of a gamer, her best friend Lizzy was a hardcore gamer, despite always cing in the upper rankings of their high school''s semester exams. "Oof...well, here''s the helmet...then the power supply...uhm...what else was there again?" Maria had finally emptied out the box and many foreign looking tools were ced in front of her. She hadn''t been interested in ying the game, but because of her best friend''s constant nagging she had finally relented and pre-registered her very own FD equipment, along with the game of course. "Uhhh...how do I set this up?" Maria wondered. Even while reading the instructions manual, she still had no idea what to do. It wasn''t because she was stupid, no, of course not. In fact, she was actually a pretty bright youngss. She always ced 2nd in her high school, just below her best friend. Unfortunately for Maria, all the equipment ced in front of her were totally foreign to her. She had no idea which was which! Even if the instructions manual said to plug this into that and that into this, she''d have no idea which is which! She''s never used any sort of gaming equipment before so all the terms inside the manual was Greek to her. Fortunately her savior, in the form of her best friend, had finallyeor rather, stormed inside the room like a whirlwind. "Wassup Mary~!" "He-help, Lizzy!" "Ouh?" Lizzy finally noticed the predicament her friend was in. The poor girl was all tangled up with the cables of the gaming equipment. Maria had struggled to try and plug thing in by herself, but it all resulted in a failure and because of her blunder, she was suddenly put into this embarrassing situation where all the cables were being ''plugged'' into all the wrong ''ces''. "Puhahahahat!" "S-stopughing!" "W-what''re you doing Mary?! Hahaha, how could you plug that up your....pfffttt ahahahaha!" "Just help me already!" "Fine, fine~" Chapter 2: Avatar Creation Chapter 2: Avatar Creation With Lizzy''s help, Maria was finally able to sessfully install the FD equipment just next to her bed. "Okay, that should do it!" Lizzy smiled in satisfaction at her handiwork. "Th-thanks, Liz..." "Don''t mention it! Seriously, you''re so hopeless with this! If you wanted my help you could have just asked!" "U-uhhh..." "Like seriously, you can''t even operate your phone orputer correctly, so how can you expect yourself to even try and do this alone?!" "B-but...there was the manual..." "Heh, even with the manual you''re still hopeless!" "...sniff..." Maria started tearing up at her friend''s unrelenting teasing. "Hahahaha~ no crocodile tears will save you this time! It''s a good thing I know you well, or you''d still be in a ''bind'', right now!" Lizzy said as she bonked her best friend on the head. "Ehehehehe~" Maria, who was on the brink of tears, had brightened up immediately. "Jeez, you could have at least yed along~" "And let that old man of yours chew me out? No way, not on your life!" "Hihihi~" "Anyways Mary, you should log in now! The server opens up" Lizzy was looking at her watch, when suddenly her face became pale. "OH NO!!! It''s up in another 5 minutes!!! I have to go home now, Mary! I''ll see youter in game okay!" "Okay, bye-bye!" "Bye!" After seeing her best friend off, Maria immediately returned back to her room. Currently, her parents and siblings were all out. Either working or still at school doing club activities. Maria wasn''t much of an outgoing person, but she wasn''t an introvert. She was hailed as one of the top beauties of Heimweld Private High School. She was smart and pretty. Standing at the height of 165 centimeters, Maria wasn''t too tall nor was she too short. She had a cute face without any blemishes and her eyes were sharp and pale gold in color. Her hair was beautiful and wavy with a tinum blonde color that flowed to her knees. For a high school girl, it was absurdly long, but she simply liked it that way. Her tinum blonde hair was the only remembrance that she had of herte mother. She was also easily misunderstood with her sharp, intelligent looking eyes that seemed to peer into the depths of a person''s soul. Whenever her ssmates call out to her, they''d go through a nerve-wracking experience just from talking with her. It wasn''t like she meant to re at the person, but it wasn''t her fault since she was taught to properly look at a person''s face and eyes when speaking with them. She only followed her family''s etiquette, but because of this she was misunderstood as a cold person. When in fact she was a total klutz! Maria had no sense of direction, she was technologicallyme and she had a hard time speaking up for herself. This was what caused everyone to misunderstand her as an introverted person. It was only Lizzy and a select few of her closest friends that truly understood that underneath all the proverbial ice, was a helpless teenager that couldn''t tell right from left, north from south, and east from west. She was but, a directionally and technologically challenged teenaged girl in the modern age of Earth. And this girl was currently lying down on her bed, getting ready to dive down into the world of Unitale. "Okay...helmet on...power is plugged in...what do I do now?" Maria picked up the instructions manual just beside her and she quickly skimmed through it and looked at the start up instructions page. "Okay...step 1, turn on...done. 2...ce helmet, okay...then...oh! Connection Start!" With those words, Maria dropped the manual on top of her head and her consciousness was sucked into the virtual world. ******** When Maria finally regained her bearings, she found herself inside arge white void of emptiness. "Uhm...Is this, the game?" About 3 meters in front of her a woman in white clothes suddenly materialized out of thin air. [Wee to Universe Tales Online] "Oh! Is this the AI?" [I am the Avatar Creation AI, you can call me Ava.] "Hello, Ava!" At her words, the AI, Ava, only responded with a light smile before continuing her dialogue. [Please create your Avatar!] "...Avatar?" At her puzzled question, Ava immediately answered. [An Avatar is your in-game character that you will use to roam about and explore the world of Unitale. How other''s perceive you will be based on this Avatar and not your Real Life appearance.] "Oh! So that''s how it is!" [Please select your Race!] A list of Unitale''s races popped up in a screen in front of Maria''s face. There were numerous different races, the ordinary humans all the way to supernatural ghosts and evil demons. There were also the beautiful elves and the stout dwarves, the all-powerful dragonoids and the aquatic races such as mermaids, nagas, and sirens. "Ohhh! They even have Angels here!" Maria was immediately smitten by the Angelic race. When she tapped on the race, in front of her arge mirror materialized that reflected her appearance, but with white angelic wings on her back. [Depending on your race, you will be given a limited choice in your starting areas] Maria nodded at Ava''s words. It made sense. Unitale''s production team boasted on how realistic its own game waspared to other previous VRMMOs. The realistic settings in the game were unlike any previous games and it boasted a reality setting of 99%. Beta-testers such as her best friend Lizzy gave reviews on how the beta test of the game was super realistic that they couldn''t even determine if they were still on Earth or whether they were in the game. Only the status screens and HUD was the indication of their body not being in the physical world, but inside of the game. Because of this realistic setting, the numerous yers of Unitale would be given limited starting areas depending on their selected race. The game''s AI wouldn''t clump yers that were demons together with humans. If the AI did do that, then the demons who were hostile to the humans would immediately get attacked if they started out in a human race''s vige. The same went for vice-versa. "Okay, I''m picking the Angel Race!" [Would you like to change your appearance?] Another screen popped up in front of Maria. She didn''t really understand what to do here. Should she let her appearance stay the same? Or should she change it? Judging by the numerous parameters that could be changed in the screen that she was looking at...it looked to be like a huge hassle! "Muuuhh...I don''t get it...it looks soplicated. I''ll leave my appearance as is!" She quickly waved away the box and didn''t bother changing her appearance. [Last confirmation; is this how you would like your avatar to look like?] "Ye~es," Maria replied. [Last step, please select your name.] "My name? My name''s Maria, obviously?" [Inputted, Maria. Final check, will this be your Avatar''s name?] "Hmmm...okay?" [Wee to the world of Unitale, Trainee Angel Maria. You will now begin your adventure in starting vige number 0012.] In the next moment, Maria''s real body began to dematerialize and merge with the Angel Maria''s body. After the two bodies merged together, Maria was able to feel two peculiar bones protruding from her back. "Ohh!! These must be my wings!" She tried moving the bones, but it was much harder than she had thought. The bones were on top of her shoulder des. As a human, she didn''t have the need to ever move her shoulder des consciously. Normally, they moved along with her vicle and arms, but since she had wings she needed to learn to consciously move them. "This looks fun!" While Maria was having fun trying to move her wings, a pulling sensation began to envelop her body. "Huh?" [Go forth, brave adventurer! Your Epic only begins now! The Universe is boundless and neither the sky nor earth is the limit!] With those final words from Ava, the white void around Maria began to vanish and in its ce...was the sky? "Wait wait wait!!! Ava!! I''m in the sky!! I''m in the sky!!!" Even with her yelling like that, the AI didn''t respond to her. She could only helplessly look down as the ground quickly grewrger andrger in her eyes. "NO NO NO!!!" Chapter 3: Despair Chapter 3: Despair As Maria was plummeting to the ground, she frantically tried to move her wings while in the air. "AHHHHH!!!" Just as she was about to have a deep and passionate kiss with Mother Earth, Maria''s body suddenly stopped falling when she was a meter away from the ground. "H-huh?" She looked up and saw that her wings were pping! "Ah! I''m saved! Thank you wi" Maria had the stupid idea of wanting to hug her wings, so when she flipped her body around to try and catch her wings...she immediately dropped down onto the ground. "O-owwie..." Maria rubbed her aching buttocks. She quickly stood up and looked behind her. She recalled the weird movements on her shoulder des just earlier and when she tried doing it again, her wings began to actually move! "W-woah!! They move! They actually move!" With her wings a pping, Maria''s body immediately lifted itself off of the ground. "I CAN FLY!!" Maria was having the time of her life flying and gliding through the air. She didn''t notice however that the yellow bar in her Heads Up Disy or HUD, was rapidly depleting. She was pretty high up in the air when the bar zeroed out. With the bar disying the SP gauge had zeroed out, Maria lost her ability to fly and immediately plummeted towards the ground once again. "W-WHY???!!!" BANG BANG CRACK BOOOM The trees and branches were able to break her bacher fall, so she wasn''t very injured. She escaped unharmed with only her back in pain. "O-ouch..." It was about time that she noticed, but indeed. The pain parameters in the game were obviously too realistic. Maria remembered that Lizzy had instructed her to quickly open up her main menu to adjust the parameters. "Oh yeah...what was it again? [Status]?" [Maria Lv. 0] HP: 100/100 MP: 500/500 SP: 0/30 EXP: 0/1,000 Race: Angel ss: Trainee Titles: N/A ATK : 50 DEF : 25 M.ATK : 5 M.DEF : 25 STR : 10 AGI : 10 VIT : 10 INT : 10 LCK : 10 "Everything''s bnced~ I feel like I''ve aced the test with perfect 10s all across the board!" After taking a quick look at her status screen, Maria finally noticed the Main tab that was just beside the Status tab. She quickly tapped on it and the screen changed from the status screen to the menu screen. She quickly swiped down and found the settings and readjusted her pain parameter from 80 percent to only 20 percent. Lizzy had instructed her to set it to 20 or 25 percent instead of changing her pain parameter to zero like she initially wanted. Her best friend told her that it was better for her since she had very little situational awareness, to which Maria strongly objected to. If say a person was attacking her with her pain parameter set to zero, then she''d have no clue about her situation until she was PKed out of the game! Maria wanted to set it to zero at first and that''s because she didn''t like pain at all, but opted to listen to her friend instead because she was a gaming expert while she was but a newbie. "Okay...now that that''s finished...what do I do now?" Maria had been too busy marveling at her ability to fly through the air that she didn''t pay attention to her surroundings. If she had been paying attention, then she would have noticed that just before she took off flying, she was actually at a training square that was housing all the new yers and NPCs who were trainee angels. The Angel Instructor person had been calling out to her, but Maria''s head was in the clouds, figuratively and literally, that she tantly ignored the Instructor. Now however, she was inside a forest, a lush green forest with multiple level 10 monsters surrounding her. "...Eh?" The monsters surrounding her were level 10 Forest Wolves. They were beginner ss monsters that any newbie could take down once they''vepleted the Instructor''s tutorial quest. Unfortunately for Maria here, she had blindly flew into the forest without any proper preparations. "NOOO!!!" Her cry of despair signaled the wolves surrounding her to pounce out and attack. Maria''s body was being bitten and ripped apart by the wolves. They bit her arms, wings, and legs. They pulled and ripped off a piece of her flesh and feathers. "AHHH!! AHHH!! How, howe it huuurrttsss!!!" She had set the pain parameter to only 20 percent earlier, but she couldn''t understand why the wolves'' attacks were causing her so much pain. She was wailing and crying in pain, but the wolves didn''t let up on their assault. They tore her body apart and because of her high DEF stat, she was only taking 1 DMG from all the wolves biting her. With her HP being 100, this meant that she would need to be attacked a total of 100 times by the wolves before dying. "Help! Mom!! MOMMY!!! WAAAHHH!!! HEELPP MEE!!!" She curled herself up, but the wolves kept on ripping away at her torn up body. Her beautiful white wings were torn apart and tainted red with her blood. Her once pristine body sported many missing areas where her flesh was torn away. In between the gaps of the wolves'' teeth were the pieces of meat and feathers that were once a part of her body. Maria cried and cried, but the wolves still didn''t stop. ''I hate this! I hate this!! It hurts...it hurts!!!'' Her HP had finally depleted until only 20 HP was left and it was then something happened. [Unlocked Unique Skill: Angel''s Rage] A screen popped up in front of her that showed that she had acquired a new skill. She didn''t know what it was, but she quickly tapped on the screen like mad. [Angel''s Rage activated, please specify targets] Maria cried out immediately after she heard those words. "Everything!!! Everything that''s hurting me!" In the next instant, her tattered angel wings opened up and the feather''s on it immediately separated from her wings and struck all the wolves around her. "AAHH AAHHH!!! IT HURRTSS!!" She cried out once again. The feeling of her feather''s being separated out of her wings caused her a great deal of pain. Instead of separation it was more like they were forcibly ripped out. After the pain subsided, Mariaid there crying. She didn''t have the courage or strength to even get up. The previous hell that she went through was still vivid in her mind that she had begun shivering. "Over there! Is that the girl who was crying out earlier?!" "AH! It''s her, that angel trainee who ignored me!" From afar, Maria could hear the sounds of a man and woman approaching her. The footsteps stopped right beside her and she immediately felt a warm arm embrace her. "Little one, are you okay?" A warm female voice asked. "Sniff...I-it hurts...it hurts..." Maria replied feebly. Next to the female angel that had picked up Maria into her arms, the Angel Instructor Basille stared incredulously at the surroundings. The wolf pack that was previously assaulting Maria had all died with numerous feathers puncturing their bodies. Basille could hardly believe that this young trainee had done all this. He felt a stronger presence from deep in the forest quickly rushing over to their location. Basille immediately tried to urge hispanion to quickly bring back the girl with them. "Amilia, we should quicklyoh my God! Her wings!!" At Basille''s horrified exmation, Amilia, the female angel that was currently carrying Maria in her arms turned to look at the angel trainee''s wings. "AH!" Amilia immediately let go and dropped Maria onto the ground. "T-tainted! She''s been tainted!" "It''s toote for her! We should hurry and leave! The forest king ising this way!" The two Angels quickly spread their wings to fly away. Maria who had thought that she was finally saved was left there dumbfounded. "No! Please! Please don''t leave me!!!" She was too scared to even register that she was still inside of the game. The two people had been the light of hope for her, but they had suddenly abandoned her. Maria was too scared to move remembering hertest experience. Was she going to go through that once again? Behind her, the trees parted and arge, ck wolf appeared in the area where she was at. Maria could only tremble in despair at the sight of therge ck wolf. Tears began to fall from her delicate face and she could only back away in horror. "N-no...No...NO!!!" The wolf didn''t pay her any heed and charged right at her. It opened its mouth and quickly chomped down on the helpless girl. Chapter 4: Big Bad Wolf? Chapter 4: Big Bad Wolf? Maria was having a nice dream. She dreamt that her mother was still alive and that she was tightly embracing her in a warm hug, protecting the little girl from all harm. But then, to her horror her mother had suddenly dropped her onto the ground and turned around and left. Then, wolves came out from the darkness around her and began pouncing on her, ripping apart her flesh and hurting her. No matter what she did and no matter how loud she cried and reach out to her mother, her mother didn''t bother turning around, leaving her behind coldly to be ripped apart by those wolves. ***** Maria''s eyes immediately snapped wide open. She felt tears dripping down from the sides of her face. She brought her arm up and wiped her tears away. She smiled miserably and looked up at the night sky. ''Night?'' "...sky?" "Grrrr...Little Miss, you''ve finally awoken." A gravelly voice sounded out from under her and Maria couldn''t help, but robotically turn her head around towards the source. In her eyes, a ck wolf head with green, ominous eyes stared back at her, therge canine teeth that peeked out from under the powerful snout that was releasing white smog with every powerful breath that the wolf made, was scaring her to death. With each passing second she was staring into the ominous green eyes of this mighty ck wolf, she was apparently sitting on, the slower her heart beat in her chest. Seeing the young angel growing paler and paler by the second, the wolf finally came to a realization. "Afraid? Little Miss?" The angel girl on top of him could only nod her head up and down mechanically. The wolf began tough at the frightened angel. "Harharhar...you have no need to be afraid, Little Miss." "B-but...you''re a wolf..." "And?" "And you can talk..." "...and?" "...are you going to eat me?" The wolf immediately stopped in ce and turned to look back at the young angel that was riding on top of him. His brows were furrowed and his ominous green eyes were showing a clear look of confusion. "Hrmm...what makes you think that?" "Th-those other w-wolves...th-they kept hurting me...they w-wanted to e-eat m-me..." Maria began stuttering and her body began to shiver at the thought of those previous wolves ganging up on her and taking a bite out of her body. Speaking of her body, Maria finally noticed that the missing pieces of flesh have now returned to their original ce. Her shivering stopped and she couldn''t help, but wonder if that previous experience was only an illusion. However, the pain that apanied that ''illusion'' was much too real to pass it off as one. "I really was about to be eaten..." She mumbled in fear. "Grrr...don''t worryss, I won''t eat you." "Y-you won''t?" "No, I''m taking you to a ce...a ce where your kind belongs." "My kind? But, I''m an angel...I should head back out of the forest and return to the vige..." "Head back? Grrrr...in your condition, those Angels might just kill you," The wolf growled. "H-huh?" A gust blew from behind her and it was then that Maria noticed something different about her body. A ck feather floated in her vision, she reached out to grab it and she finally caught sight of her wings. "B-ck? When did they turn ck?!" Maria finally saw that the feathers on her wings had turned pitch ck. The wings were no longer tattered and torn from the previous wolf assault, but instead had recovered to their original beautiful shape except that the feathers were no longer white like before. "It''s because of your Angel''s Rage," The wolf responded to her. "Huh?" Maria finally recalled about the skill that she had gained earlier. She immediately opened up her status menu and looked at the skills page. [Angel''s Rage Lv. 1 (43/100) Attack every enemy you designate in an area 10 meters around you with your wings, dealing 200 Pure Damage and an additional (STR x 0.5) damage every two seconds for the next 10 seconds. Costs: 25 MP/activation Warning: Every usage causes a 10 point increase in Taint Value] "T-taint? What''s that?!" At her exmation, it was once again the wolf that answered her. "It means that you''ve fallen." "F-fallen?" "Normally, Angel''s do not acquire the Angel''s Rage skill. If by chance one does acquire it, it''d be in their best interest to never use that skill." "W-why?" "I don''t really care if an Angel uses it or not, because if they''re tainted or not, it matters not to me...but if an Angel bes too tainted from overusing that skill, they''ll fall into bing Fallen Angels." "Huh?" The wolf looked back up at her. This time there was pity in its eyes. "When I found you in the clearing, you were frozen up and in fear. I saw the wolves all dead around you and naturally I wanted to kill you." When the words ''kill you'' came out of the wolf''s mouth, Maria once again froze up. "But then you suddenly fainted, just before I could bite your head off...I noticed that your wings were beginning to change, but then for some reason, even while you were fainted, you had continued releasing the Angel''s Rage skill." The wolf shook its body and numerous ck feathers dropped down. Maria finally noticed the numerous injuries the wolf sported on its body. "It was only when you had finally run out of mana that your skill stopped working. By then it was already toote, your Angel''s Rage skill had already risen to Level 1 and you changed into a Fallen Angel." Maria stared at her status window and it was true, her race had indeed changed into the Fallen Angel race from the initial Angel race. [Maria Lv. 5] HP: 200/200 MP: 500/500 SP: 30/30 EXP: 0/500,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: --- Titles: N/A ATK : 50 DEF : 25 M.ATK : 5 M.DEF : 25 STR : 10 AGI : 10 VIT : 10 INT : 10 LCK : 10 Free Points: 100 Chapter 5: Fallen Angel Chapter 5: Fallen Angel "W-wait! Why?! What happened?" Maria eximed in surprise, how could she have suddenly experienced a race change right at the start of the game. "Grrrr...Didn''t I just exin it Little Miss? You overused your Angel''s Rage skill." "But I don''t get it! How could I have gotten that skill anyways?! I was only level 0!" "Level 0? Grrr, you must have been blessed by the Dark God then." "D-dark God?" "Let me take you to the ce, your questions will be answered there." Maria wanted to say more, but her heart was beating way too fast and she was in a panic. ''Oh no! Oh no! Calm down, calm down Mary...deep breathes...deep breathes...remember, this is just a game! Race change or whatever, it''s all just a game!'' Speaking of the game, she suddenly grew furious. Maria remembered that she had clearly set her pain parameters to only 20 percent, so how could the attacks from the wolves have hurt her so much then?! If that was only 20 percent, then maybe she should have just turned it down to 0 percent after all! Maria never wanted to experience that kind of torturous pain ever again. It was too much to bear. She quickly reopened the settings window and noticed something wrong in the parameters. "Huh? Howe it''s set on 80 percent again?" Maria quickly readjusted the percentage to only 20 percent once again. She then realized her blunder. "...I forgot to press to apply button..." That''s right, this idiot had forgot to press the apply button before exiting from the settings window. This time, she immediately tapped on the apply button and exited from the window. She then pulled out one of her ck feathers from her wings. To her surprise, she only felt a small jolt of paining from her wing. It was like someone had only lightly pinched her back. "It actually works...I can''t believe I was so stupid and forgot about it..." Maria sighed at her stupidity... the agonizing pain and despair that she went through earlier...she never wanted to experience it ever again. This was supposed to be a game right? She was supposed to be enjoying her time while she was in here, not crying and wailing like a baby like what she had done earlier. The wolf and angel continued walked deep into the forest. Maria turned a little restless since the deeper they walked, the darker it got. "Uhm...Mister wolf, where exactly are we going?" Maria asked in apprehension. She felt like they have been walkingat least the wolf hadfor over 2 hours by now. "Don''t worry Little Miss, we''ve already arrived. See that shrine up ahead?" Maria looked up and strained her eyes. It was already night time and it was way too dark in the forest, but she could see the silhouette of a building. Presumably this should be the shrine that mister wolf was talking about. "What''s inside, Mr. Wolf?" "Grrr...You''ll find a teleportation gate inside. Only the Fallen can ess it because this is a shrine of the Dark God." The wolf brought Maria up to the shrine''s staircase and let her down. Maria hesitated a bit, but she decisively walked up into the shrine. She almost forgot one thing and quickly turned her body around to face the wolf. "M-mister Wolf! Th-thank you for bringing me here...and not eating me..." "Hurhurhur! Grrraah, don''t worry Little Miss. Ah! By the way, right now I''m only an AI taking control of this wolf''s body. Once you leave through the teleportation gate, this wolf will turn back into the Epic Field Boss, ck Fenrir Gram." "Fenrir? Gram? Ah! The one from Norse Mythology!" "Aren''t you a knowledgeable one," The AI possessed wolf replied. "Hehe, I''m smart after all!" "Grr...Not from what I saw." "Ugh...a-anyway Mr. Wolf! Thank you again!" "Sure, Little Miss. Just make sure you don''te back here and try to speak again with ''Mr. Wolf''. He''ll only try and kill you again." "Uhhh yeah...I''m not that stupid!" "Sure, you aren''t." "I''m not!" The AI beganughing once more. It found this little unfortunate girl to be somewhat amusing to talk to. "Grrr...the development team shouldpensate you for the traumatizing experience you just went through...this should be reported as a bug, but 80 percent in the initial pain parameter should be readjusted, grrrr..." "Yeah! You people should make it start at a low percentage y''know! If another unfortunate gal like me was to experience that kinda horrible thing, then you''ll go out of business soon!" "Grahahaha, don''t worry Little Miss, you''ll bepensatedter once I''ve reported this to the main AI. You should get going now. You''re already behindpared to the other yers. I wish you well on your grand adventure." The AI possessed wolf lowered its head and turned around to walk back into the forest. Not long after, a long, ferocious howl echoed out from within the depths of the forest. Maria shivered in fear and didn''t dare to linger. She quickly rushed into the shrine and quickly found the gate that the AI mentioned. "Is it not active?" The gate was silent. It only appeared to be a normal archway situated within the middle of the shrine. When Maria was finally within 3 meters of the gate, it suddenly sprung to life. The magic circles that were engraved on the floor of the shrine immediately began to light up. The empty space in the middle of the archway began glowing and a spinning vortex formed not long after. "Uhm...what was it again...[Inspect]!" [Teleportation Gate: Enoch] After a quick inspection, Maria quickly jumped into the gate. Not long after she had jumped in, arge ck wolf with ominous green eyes stalked into the shrine. The light of the Teleportation Gate had only died down, but therge wolf immediately realized that someone had just been inside the shrine. Someone had dared trespassed into its territory! "GRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" Therge ck wolf gave a ferocious roar that shook the entirety of the shrine. It began to sniff around the area and it quickly found a ck feather close to the teleportation gate. It once more roared, but this time not in fury. Instead it was...tion? Joy? Therge ck wolf circled around the archway 3 more times before it finally decided to wrap its body around the small archway and settle down to sleep. The body of the ck wolf began to harden and turn into stone. With the archway surrounded by a stone sculpture of a demonic wolf in the center of the shrine''s inner room, it once more descended into silence. ******** In therge demonic city of Enoch, an Angel with ck wings suddenly appeared in the teleportation building near the east side of the city. Maria felt groggy after stepping through the teleportation gate. "Ugh...I feel like throwing up..." Since the game had only started, there weren''t any yers visiting the teleportation building just yet. Unlike in other games, the use of teleportation gates in Unitale was pretty expensive. The city charged 1 gold coins for every use. For the currently yers, 1 gold coin was a massive fortune. 100 bronze made up arge copper coin, 100 coppers made up a silver coin, and 100 silvers made up a single gold coin. Without realizing the significance of her presence while inside the building, Maria happily walked out right after her grogginess had faded. "Hey, is that girl an NPC?" "Woah! I''ve never seen that kind of race before!" "She''s an Angel, but with ck feathers! So maybe, a Fallen Angel?" "That''s so cool! Howe there wasn''t a Fallen Angel race during the character creation?!" "Don''t forget, she just walked out of the teleportation building! That means she''s already got a gold coin!" "She''s a cheater?!" "No way man! A girl that hot can''t possibly be a cheater...maybe she''s a BT?" Maria''s presence alone had caused a stir and many yers had snapped a photo of her using the in-game snapshot function. Her pic was immediately posted on the Unitale Forum and it caused quite a stir. A race that wasn''t present during the character creation. This means she was a Beta Tester or BT for short, that had secured an early advantage and managed to race change immediately right after the game''sunch! The person in question however didn''t know any of this. Maria was still merrily going about her way. She had already received thepensation box that the AI had promised in her mail. She still hadn''t opened it right now since she was still busy reading the Help menu. "Uhm...so I should go find an instructor? Okay then...but where are they?" Chapter 6: Hidden Legacy? Chapter 6: Hidden Legacy? Maria didn''t know exactly where to go despite looking over the help window. It only showed a picture of how an instructor would look like for every ss. There were a variety of different sses in Unitale, but there were 6 starting sses that everyone could get, namely, the Warrior, Knight, Mage, Priest, Archer, and Thief. There were also hidden sses and legacy sses, but all of these terms were foreign to Maria. She only knew that by gaining a ss, she''d finally be able to start her adventure. Lizzy also said that they should meet upter when they both get their sses so they could party up and go hunting together. "Uhm..." The clueless Maria was helplessly looking everywhere for the instructors. Even when she did ask for directions, she wound up arriving at the wrong ce every single time. She was repeatedly getting lost. So in her frustration, Maria went over to a bench and sat down. "Sniff...no fair...howe I can''t find them?" "Hello there!" "WAH!!!" At the abrupt voice that originated from next to her, Maria jumped up off of the bench in surprise. She quickly turned around to face the person who had startled her. It was a woman in ck, priestess garbs. She had a gentle smile on her face as she looked back at the startled young angel with ck wings. "Fufufufu~ why the sad face earlier?" "Eh? Uhm...I-I couldn''t find...an instructor..." "Hm?" "I-I need to find one fast! So that I can go adventuring with my friend..." "Can I help you? I''m an instructor." "Eh?" Now that the woman mentioned it, she did look somewhat familiar to Maria. When Maria turned her eyes back onto the help window, she finally found out why she was indeed familiar to her. "Ah! You''re the Priest Instructor!" "Ahaha~ I''m d you finally noticed." Maria rushed up to her and grabbed her hands. "Please help me!" "No rush, no rush...would you like to be a Priestess?" "Yes! As long as I can get my ss!" "Come with me." At her words, the Priest Instructor turned around and led Maria into the temple. Maria turned her head up to look at the majestic temple. It looked somewhat like a grand church, but there were all sorts of demonic statues and motifs decorating the exterior. When she got inside, the temple had a somewhat gloomy and oppressive atmosphere about it, but oddly enough, Maria didn''t feel uneasy but instead she felt as if she was right at home. Entering the temple gave her a warm and cozy feeling. She felt safe while inside, like she had returned to her mother''s embrace. The NPC instructor led her all the way to a massive statue in the temple. The statue depicted a young man with long hair wielding a battle axe on his left arm and a shield on his right. Although it was only a statue, Maria could tell that the man had a beautiful face. He had two long horns on the top of his head, long pointy ears, and a serpentine tail that was wrapped around his waist. Inside the statue''s eye sockets wererge rubies. Maria could see that there was some kind of mark engraved on the middle of the statue''s forehead. The gloomy and oppressive atmosphere originated from this majestic statue. Maria was very much intrigued by it and she couldn''t help but give it a long, hard stare. "This is our God, the Dark God, Death!" "Death?" "Child, if you wish to be a Priestess, please show the Dark God your worth!" [Quest: Follow the Dark God The instructor would like you to prove your worth. Complete the Tutorial Quests and receive the instructor''s approval. y 1 Monster (10/1) Complete 1000% Reach Lv. 5 (5/5) Complete 100% Reward: 1 Copper, Initiate''s Robes, Initiate''s Boots, Initiate''s Gloves, Initiate''s Staff] [Update! Quest Completion!] [Quest: Follow the Dark God You have faithfullypleted the quest, speak to the instructor to get your rewards and proceed to the next step and receive the Dark God''s Blessing! Rewards: ss Change: Priestess, 1 Skill Book, 50 Reputation points] "Eh?" Because of what she went through inside of the forest, Maria had unknowinglypleted all of the tutorial quest''s main objectives. Normally, a yer would havepleted this by clearing out only level 1 or 2 monsters so they could get the hang of things. They wouldn''t go through a despairing event like Maria. The game boasted a 99% reality setting. So monsters in the game would attack a yer like how their animal counterparts in the real world would. Take for instance, the wolves that Maria came across. They didn''t roam about the area individually, but instead inrge packs. A level 0 yer would be dead if they ever came across a level 5 wolf pack. After quickly speaking with the instructor once more, she was given her rewards and was told to ce her hand on top of the pedestal just in front of the Dark God''s Statue in order toplete her ss change. After she swiped away the quest window, Maria made her way over to the pedestal. She ced her palm on top of it and the statue''s eyes began to glow. A red ray of light ejected out of the ruby eyes andnded on top of Maria''s hand. [Hidden Requirements met! Quest updated!] [Quest: Be Death''s Envoy Be the messenger of the Dark God, Death, and receive his divine blessing and legacy! y 50 Small Wolves (0/50) y 50 Horned Rabbits (0/50) y 20 yers (0/20) Time Limit: None Penalty: Level -5, All Stats -5, Death''s Gloom Debuff Rewards: Level +1, Hidden Legacy ss: Dark Priestess, 1 Gold, Death''s Legacy Box] [Notice: This is a SOLO quest. Party Function has been disabled until questpletion!] Receiving her new quest, Maria tilted her head in confusion. "Shouldn''t I receive my ss now?" Behind her, the Instructor had already knelt down in prostration. "It''s the Dark God''s Revtion! Child, you are to be the next Envoy! Ohhh, praise be to the Dark God!" "What?" ****** Maria was now at the outskirts of Enoch, the Demon City. All around her she could finally the newbie yers that had started ying the game at the same time as her. Demons, Ghosts, Subi, Oni, and many other demonic races roamed about the fields just outside of Enoch. One thing was inmon was that all the yers were grouped up in 2s or 3s. For the yers who were still by their lonesome like Maria, they were all waiting by the city gates in order to party up with others. The monsters in Unitale were way too realistic and although killing them wasn''t too hard, but it did take some effort. For instance, the rabbit monster that Maria was currently poking at with her staff was a pretty docile creature, but when it was attacked it would jump all over the ce and ram it''s assaulter with its sharp, pointed horn situated on the top of its head. "A, you look so cu~te... why do I have to kill you?" While she was oblivious to it, Maria''s unique avatar was attracting the attention of every yer in her area. She was already pretty famous on the forums for being a yer who had sessfully race changed right at the start of the game. Her unique ck-colored feathered wings were much different than that of the dragonoids'' draconic wings or the demon race''s scaly webbed wings. They were also muchrger and were reminiscent of angel wings. Well, she was originally an angel from the start, but she had fallen because of her stupidity. Being too immersed in flying was pretty fatal for this directionally challenged girl. However, a lot of Angel Race yers have already begun boasting on the forums that they were given the Fly Function right from the start, just after finishing the tutorial quests. It was a unique perk to their race. Other races with wings would have to be at least over level 40 before they could even dream of flying. Not the Angels however. They could fly right from the get-go once they''ve finished the tutorial. Naturally, a ck Winged Angel, or the Fallen Angel Race like Maria, would attract a lot of attention. While Maria was happily poking at the rabbit with her staff and enjoying its fluffiness, a group of yers walked up to her. "Hey! You alone?" "Uwah!" Being called out to; Maria naturally flinched and jumped forward in surprise. Her forward momentum had also pushed the staff she was using to poke at the rabbit. The rabbit registered this as an attack and immediately retaliated. Seeing the rabbit''s horn growing closer and closer to her face, Maria paled and started cowering in fear. She also instinctively moved her wings in front of her body to protect her face. She felt a small jolt of pain hit her wings. Maria waited for the follow up attack, she knew that the monster wouldn''t stop attacking, but for some reason, the pain didn''te. *DING* [Quest Update, y 50 Horned Rabbits (1/50)] *DING* [200 Exp. gained] "Huh?" "WOAH!!" "That was sooo cool! Did you see that skill she used?!" Amazed exmations began sounding out from behind her. Maria slowly parted her hands away from her face and her wings also moved back in ce. Maria finally noticed the oue of the rabbit who had tried to harm her. It was lying there, dead on the ground with multiple ck feathers puncturing its body. Fortunately, she had her wings covering up her face so her cowering and scared expression was hidden from the masses. To the spectators, her wings'' movements were only the precursory action for a skill''s activation. Instead of looking like a coward, Maria looked cool instead! Chapter 7: Cute and Violent Chapter 7: Cute and Violent "Hey! What was that skill you used earlier?!" "Dude, don''t ask her that, you should ask how she even got a skill in the first ce!" "More like you should ask her how to change into a Fallen Angel!" Maria turned around to face the people who were talking behind her. They had startled her earlier and because of that the rabbit she was ying around with suddenly attacked her. Maria was a little disgruntled by it and she began pouting. ''I didn''t want to kill it...actually, how did I kill it?'' She was only defending herself earlier. After the small initial shock of pain she received from the rabbit''s first attack, there was no other follow up and it suddenly dropped dead with feathers puncturing it. "I didn''t activate Angel''s Rage..." That was her only skill. In Unitale, you could receive skills bypleting quests or acquiring them through Skill Books. As for magic spells, anyone could learn it in Unitale! For non-Mage ss yers, all you had to do was visit the library or the Mage Tower and read a Spell Tome to learn it! Of course, it wasn''t easy. First of all, you had to learn the relevantnguage in order to read the tome, and then there was the matter of having enough Money, Fame, and Reputation in order to be granted ess to read those Tomes. Maria was lost in thought. She had a weird habit of pacing around when she was in thought. For the directionally challenged girl, this could be a fatal w during her gamey. "H-hey! Don''t just ignore us!" Maria naturally began walking away while deep in thought, she had totally forgotten about the yers who hade up and startled her. "E-excuse me?!" "Huh?" A person abruptly blocked her way forward and with his shout, Maria finally snapped out of her deep contemtion. "Hello! Do you need something?" The person blocking her way was a boy about her age. He was a demon carrying arge iron sword behind his back. Above his head she could see his name, Straike. "A-ahem, I''d like to know how to be a Fallen Angel, also, how can we learn skills in the game?" "Huh?" "You''re probably a BT right? Considering how far you are in the game already." "BT?" "Beta Tester! Hey, can you please drop the act already? I know for a fact that you''re definitely a BT! The least you could do is helping us newbies out!" "B-but...I''m not a BT?" "Haaahh?!" With Straike bombarding her with numerous questions, the two were starting to attract more and more attention. More yers began to gather around Maria and they too started bombarding her with questions. "Uhm, wait! Please!" Maria tried to speak up in a bid to make everyone stop. "Hey, what level are you?" "Wanna party?" "You''re a cutie~ want to party with us?" "Hey, shut up you fools! She still hasn''t answered my question!" "How''d you get your equipment?" "You''re a BT right?" "Can I have a picture with you?!" She tried speaking up, but the people around her just wouldn''t stop asking her questions. Many were pushing forward in an attempt to get in front of her, but because of this, some of them had even started rough housing with one another and eventually she was caught up in it as well. With more and more people pushing and shoving, Maria was naturally being tossed around as well. She quickly knelt down and covered her head and protected her body with her wings. People started tripping over her and in the next instant she was suddenly shoved away. "Ouch!" FWIP FWIP FWIP FWIP FWIP FWIP FWIP FWIP "AHHH!!" "Wait why?!" "Who''s attacking me?!" "Dammit!!" "FUCK!!!" After a couple of seconds, the screams of pain and cursing died down. Maria was still covering herself with her wings and she finally noticed that the area had quieted down all of a sudden. She lifted her head and noticed that nobody was around her any longer and a quest update window popped up. *DING* [Quest Update, y 20 yers (58/20)] *DING* [7,200 Exp. gained] *DING* [Infamy +580] *DING* [Warning!!! PK status activated!] "Huh?" The name above Maria''s head turned red from the initial white. White signified that a yer was neutral and had no Infamy points. A red name was for yers who had yer Killed or PKed someone. Having killed over 50 yers in an instant, Maria''s name was dark red, signifying that her Kill Count was high and her Death Penalty was high as well. When she looked around, all the yers in the field had scattered far, far away from her. She saw the fear in their eyes. Seeing the oue of her ''victims'', it was natural that all the other yers who were observing from afar wanted to keep their distance. The previous group of yers that came close started bombarding her with questions and in her annoyance...she killed them. At least that''s what they thought. Maria didn''t think much of this and only heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, she was alone again and no one was bothering her anymore. She didn''t understand the reason behind the fear she saw in the eyes of the yers in the distance, but she didn''t care. "I should go andplete my Quest! Too bad I have to kill these cute bunnies...the Dark God sure is cruel..." Maria stepped onto the grasnd once more and quickly found a horned rabbit. Unlike earlier where she was only ying around with them, Maria rushed up to the rabbit, raised her staff high in the air and swung it down furiously. -50 "KIIIII!!!" The rabbit squealed in anger and began jumping around. "[Inspect]" [Horned Rabbit Lv.2] HP: 250/300 One of her hits was able to take away 50 of the rabbit''s HP. If she could attack it 5 more times then she''ll be able to kill the little critter. "S-stand still!!" Maria began swinging her staff at the rabbit, but it was moving much too fast for her. Her attacks kept on missing and she grew frustrated at the little thing. When the rabbit sprung up to attack her, she didn''t cower this time. She got into a batting pose and waited for the rabbit to move into range. "Muh...stop. MOVING!!" THWACK -100! She swung her staff and smashed the rabbit away. Smacking the rabbit square on the head resulted in a critical hit. Maria jumped forward and began beating the little guy who was now sprawled on the ground with her staff. -50 -50 -50 *DING* [200 Exp. gained] Her barbaric way of fighting astounded all the yers around her who was warily observing from a distance. "...Di-did you just see that?" "...she beat that rabbit to death with her cane..." "...brutal..." "Cute..." "Waahhh..." Maria continued roaming around the grass field while beating up the rabbits that she encountered with her staff. If Maria had properly gone through the steps to finish her tutorial quest, then she would have known that the staff wasn''t meant to be used as a melee weapon. The staff and wand could be used by yers tounch ranged attacks at their opponents. Each attack would deplete a point in mana, but this was the proper way to use the weapon. It wasn''t like how Maria was currently handling her weapon. The many spectators around her didn''t mind this though. Seeing a beautiful girl clumsily chasing around rabbits and beating it with her staff was oddly refreshing. A spectator had even recorded the oddity and posted it on the forums, there was also another video that apanied it that showed Maria PKing all the yers around her just because she was ''annoyed''. The title of the post was ''The Cute and the Violent'' Chapter 8: What Happened? Chapter 8: What Happened? *DING* [Quest Updated, y 50 Horned Rabbits (50/50)] "Yay! That''s thest one!" Maria was far off into the grass field. She noticed that there was no one around and that she was already close to the forest. "Forest...we meet again." Maria said as she narrowed her eyes. Her first virtual reality experience was inside of a forest and it wasn''t a pleasant one. Remembering the ravenous wolves tearing at her body, Maria started trembling in fear. "No! I c-can''t be scared now!" While in the grass fields, Maria noticed that she couldn''t find any wolves around. There were only horned rabbits, slimes, and dark sprites roaming about. The other two monsters weren''t in her quest objectives so she naturally ignored them. Since she couldn''t find the wolves, she could only assume that they were inside of the forest in front of her, just like when the first time she had encountered them. Maria gripped her staff tightly to try and ease her fear. She stepped forward and walked into the forest slowly. "Don''t worry...I have a weapon now. I''m no longer that helpless little angel..." "AAAWWWWWOOOOOOO!!!" A wolf''s howl was all it took for Maria to begin shaking in her boots again. "E-e-e-e-ev-v-veryth-th-things...going to b-b-be a-a-alr-r-right..." She did finally learn how to use the staff properly however. While out hunting those rabbits, she did take notice that the yers who were wearing simr looking clothes as hers were also wielding staffs, but instead of going around and beating the monsters with it, they were instead staying at a distance and sending little white orbs flying at the monsters. Maria tried to do the same thing, at first she didn''t understand, but eventually she was finally able to use her staff properly. This upped her hunting speed and it didn''t take long for her to finish the rabbit ying objective. Of course, she didn''t stop going around beating the monsters with it. Maria only used her ranged attack if they were moving a bit too far for her staff to reach them, but opted to strike at the monster when it closed in on her. She grew more and more confident with each monster that she felled. Now that she was inside of the forest however, all that previous confidence had been flushed down the toilet. She carefully made her way into the forest. Ducking down in between bushes and moving around as quietly as possible, making sure she stuck to the darker areas of the forest. She didn''t want tomit her previous mistake where she was suddenly ambushed by monsters. Maria was finally able to meet her first monster while roaming around the forest periphery. It was her quest objective, the small wolf. "[Inspect]" [Small Wolf Lv. 4] HP: 1000/1000 "Good, it''s alone...I can kill it!" Seeing the monster all on its lonesome, Maria mustered up her courage and began channeling her mana into her staff. She pointed her staff straight at the wolf and a white orb of mana flew out of the tip and urately struck the unsuspecting wolf. -25 The damage was pretty weakpared to her normal attacks. This was why Maria opted to go in and strike with her staff instead at times. After being struck by Maria''s attack, the wolf rushed right at her. Seeing the ferocious wolf charging at her, Maria trembled a little before she got into a golfer''s stance. In real life, she was pretty well versed in these kinds of sports, badminton, tennis, golf, horse riding, fencing, and the like. It was mostly because of her family''s social status influencing her upbringing and the fact that people in her father''s social circles having simr hobbies. With her father being ever so doting, he would bring her along with him to attend these social gatherings and her father''s friends would teach her the ropes. Maria gritted her teeth and waited for the wolf to get into range. "I''m. not. AFRAID!!!" THWACK!! Right as the wolf jumped up to bite her, Maria swung her staff straight at the wolf. Her attack connected perfectly, hitting it squarely on its underbelly. Her attack dealt a critical hit and sent the wolf flying back through the air. -100! "Yay!!!" Maria jumped and cheered. The wolfnded back on the ground and reoriented itself. The battle between the wolf and the Fallen Angel was a repeat of the wolf running towards the girl and being punted away with the staff. *DING* [Wolf in! (1/50)] Maria pumped her fist in the air. She had sessfully conquered her fears! No longer was she the angel that would cower at the first sign of danger. Unfortunately for her, her joy was quickly cut off when the furious howls of multiple wolves rang in the surroundings. "Eh?" When Maria looked around, she was surrounded by wolves. "N-no..." She began tearing up at the sight of the numerous wolves surrounding her. Was she going to be eaten alive again? Seeing her cower, the wolves saw this as an opportunity to attack. They immediately charged and pounced onto the poor girl. Maria wanted to face her fears so she put on a strong front, she stopped her trembling and swung her staff at the first wolf she saw. -50 Once she struck the wolf, she chased after it single-mindedly and repeatedly struck it with her staff. She didn''t mind the jolts of painnding on her back. She braced herself and continued attacking the wolf she first struck. To her surprise, multiple ''dings'' sounded in the next instant. *DING* [Wolf in! (2/50)] *DING* [Wolf in! (3/50)] *DING* [Wolf in! (4/50)] *DING* [Wolf in! (5/50)] *DING* [Wolf in! (6/50)] *DING* [Wolf in! (7/50)] *DING* [Wolf in! (8/50)] "Eh?" Her momentarypse in attention gave the wolf she was attacking the time to retaliate. It jumped up and bit at her hand. She flinched at the small jolt of pain, but she finally noticed something shoot at the wolf in the next instant. A ck feather had shot out from behind her and urately struck the wolf, once one feather came, a whole deluge of feathers rained down on the poor wolf until it copsed dead on the ground. "Huh??!" She turned around and observed her surroundings. The wolves that were previously surrounding hery sprawled on the ground with numerous ck feathers piercing their bodies. "...what happened?" Chapter 9: Unique Skill Chapter 9: Unique Skill Standing in the midst of a field of corpses, our little angel was currently deep in thought. Maria had witnessed the earlier events that transpired which led to the wolves'' deaths. After the wolf in front of her had bit her hand, the feathers on her wings had suddenly shot straight at the wolf and reaped it of its life. Maria deduced that something simr had happened to the other wolves that attacked her. "...it has to be because of [Angel''s Rage]...right?" Maria quickly opened the skill window and scrutinized the first skill she gained from the game. [Angel''s Rage Lv. 1 (51/100) Attack every enemy you designate in an area 10 meters around you with your wings, dealing 200 Pure Damage and an additional (STR x 0.5) damage every two seconds for the next 10 seconds. Warning: Every usage causes a 10 point increase in Taint Value (1720/500) Warning: Taint Value has exceeded max index, further increase will cause changes to appearance and to some skills and effects.] "...every enemy I designate...AH!" Maria finally remembered the first time she had ever used this skill. It was during the time when the wolves had been eating at her flesh and she had experienced a pain like never before. She had specified the target of her skill to ''everything that was hurting her''. She hadn''t been paying attention to her skill window after looking at it only once after her encounter with the AI-possessed wolf. Maria now understood why those yers who were once surrounding her had suddenly disappeared and why everyone was now maintaining safe distances from her... "I killed them?!" Upon remembering those bodies that were punctured and ripped apart by her feathers, Maria paled greatly. "B-b-but...I didn''t mean to!" With Maria raising a ruckus like that, more wolves were attracted to her location. By the time she noticed, she was once again surrounded. She didn''t cower however. Her thoughts of remorse for killing those yers were thrown to the back of her mind as she stuck her chest out and beganughing haughtily at the surrounding wolves. "Ha! Ha! ha!!! I have no need to fear you puppies now!" Now that she understood the inner workings of her unique skill, Maria strutted forward arrogantly. "Attack me and have a taste of my feathers!" Maria ran straight towards a wolf and swung her staff at it. The poor wolf was sent into the air and Maria didn''t forget to follow up with a downward swing to strike the poor thing into the ground once again. The wolves surrounding her had rushed up to attack and just like what she thought, once the small jolts of pain hit her, her feathers immediately detached themselves from her wings and retaliated at the attacking wolves. All it took were a few waves of feathers before multiple dings sounded in her ear. *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* *DING* [Wolf in! (20/50) Maria received a sizable amount of experience points from her mini-massacre. She began roaming deeper into the forest, ying any wolves that dared attack her! *DING* [Quest Updated, y 50 Small Wolves (50/50)] Maria had finallypleted her quest, but she was too ted to even register the quest window that had popped up. She simply waved it off thinking that it was just another experience gain message window. She then continued to strut around the forest like it was her own backyard! Eventually a unique chime rang in her ear. *DING-A-LING* [Title acquired! Wolf yer!] [Umon Title: Wolf yer A yer of wolves! Provides a 5% passive increase in damage dealt to all wolf type monsters! Equipped effect 1: Increases damage dealt to all wolf type monsters by 20%! Equipped effect 2: Deters all wolf type monsters from attacking within a 3 level difference!] [Would you like to equip the title? YES/NO] Another prompt was shown and Maria automatically pressed her finger on the [Yes]. "Yes sa~" Above her head, the Wolf yer title appeared just in front of her name in a light blue color. Maria smiled in satisfaction and continued roaming about the forest. With the title equipped, all the wolves in the forest ran away from Maria as if she was the gue. Now, she had literally conquered her fears in both the spiritual and physical sense. There were other monsters in the forest such as small monster boars, birds, sprites, and others. These monsters weren''t affected by her title so they still went forward to attack her. Naturally, they met the same end as the previous wolves. It didn''t take long before a couple of more chimes rang in her head. *DING* [Level up! +20 free stat points!] *DING-A-LING* [Title acquired! Boar yer!] *DING-A-LING* [Title acquired! Sprite yer!] *DING-A-LING* ... *DING-A-LING* ... Maria had been walking around the forest for at least 3 hours by now. On her way she had killed multiple monsters with her staff and her skill, Angel''s Rage. She had gained a couple of new titles, but didn''t bother equipping them. Only one title was allowed to be equipped and she opted to stick with the [Wolf yer] title. She hated the wolves so she kept it equipped. Her [Angel''s Rage] skill had also leveled up during this time. [Angel''s Rage Lv. 2 (11/200) Attack every enemy you designate in an area 10 meters around you with your wings, dealing 250 Pure Damage and an additional (STR x 0.5) damage every two seconds for the next 12 seconds. MP Cost: 50 Mana/Activation Warning: Taint Value has exceeded max index, further increase will cause changes to appearance and to some skills and effects.] "[Status]" [Maria Lv. 6] HP: 260/260 MP: 800/800 SP: 30/30 EXP: 50/600,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: --- Titles: N/A ATK: 50 DEF: 33 (+15) M.ATK: 8 (+20) M.DEF: 40 (+15) STR: 10 AGI: 10 VIT: 10 (+3) INT: 10 (+6) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 120 Maria smiled in satisfaction. She had leveled up plenty today. She also noticed that her quest waspleted as well. Just as the girl was about to head back to the city, she heard a low, menacing roare from right behind her. "Ueh?" Maria slowly turned around to face the monster growling at her and saw arge wolf about two meters in height. It had a coat of dark brown fur with red, menacing eyes peering straight at her. It roared in anger at her and looked about ready to pounce forward. "I-I-[Inspect]!" [Dire Wolf Andar Lv. 10 (Umon/Field Boss) HP: 10,000/10,000 Skills: sh Lv. 5, Lacerate Lv. 2, Howl Lv. 5, Call Pack Lv. 10] Maria stared at the wolf''s status window and couldn''t help but be surprised at its level. It was level 10! Only 1 level away from being affected by her Wolf yer title, no wonder it didn''t turn tail at the sight of Maria. "F-Field Boss?" "ROAARRR!!!" Chapter 10: Class Change Chapter 10: ss Change After using [Howl], the Dire Wolf Andar pounced towards Maria. Its fangs aimed straight for the fallen angel''s delectable neck. Maria raised her wings in front of her and braced herself and sent ranged attacks aiming straight for the pouncing wolf. -25 -25 -25 -25 The damage only tickled the field boss. It didn''t flinch at all and savagely chomped down on Maria''s wings. She felt an even bigger shock of paining from her wings than the ones from the previous monster attacks. Those felt like small needle pokespared to the stinging pain she was feeling right now. -65 The monster''s attack took arge chunk out of Maria''s health bar, but she didn''t cower. Instead she smirked at the pain because her [Angel''s Rage] skill had activated. Her ck feathers immediately countered the wolf''s attack. Dire Wolf Andar immediately yelped in pain and retreated. Each of Maria''s feathers dealt 250 damage to it, taking away arge portion of the field boss'' HP. Maria chased after the boss and swung her staff in retaliation. She kept on swinging and swinging and the wolf''s head was beaten into a pighead. It couldn''t even regain its bearings to even strike back at the girl. It was only when Maria''s SP gauge zeroed out that the wolf was given a moment''s respite. During this time, Maria would back off and run behind a nearby tree. The wolf would chase after her, but she made sure to keep the damage to a minimum. Her [Angel''s Rage] would always activate even at the tiniest bit of damage she received. This girl was like a porcupine to Andar. Even if it had so much as grazed her, the ck wings would retaliate furiously by shooting more feathers at its face. Maria learned about this ''kiting'' method through personal experience. She had beenbating various monsters throughout her trek through the forest. She couldn''t simply rely on her passive recovery to keep her health in safe levels, so she would attract monsters towards her and lead them around a tree, rock, or any kind of obstacle while firing ranged attacks and letting them scratch or graze her. Her wings would do the rest and her health was kept on safe levels. She proudlymended herself for finding such an ingenious method of hunting! "Huhuhu~ I bet Lizzy will be so surprised to know that I''ve managed to kill a boss monster all on my own! But...isn''t this guy a little too weak and stupid?" Maria turned to look at the poor wolf that she insulted. It kept on chasing after her and now its body was in a sorry state. It was full of holes with ck feathers puncturing through it. "Hmmm...[Inspect]" [Dire Wolf Andar Lv. 10 (Umon/Field Boss) HP: 2,725/10,000 Skills: sh Lv. 5, Lacerate Lv. 2, Howl Lv. 5, Call Pack Lv. 10] It was low on health and was about to be killed in another few attacks. It was a good thing that her in-battle mana regeneration was able to keep up with her [Angel''s Rage] skill''s frequent usage. Maria was also a little confused as to why the boss still hadn''t used its level 10 skill yet. She didn''t know this, but this particr boss monster was not meant to be soloed. It would take way too long and no one would have a unique, high damaging skill like hers from an early stage. Not to mention her absurd natural defense that was pretty high in value. Each race had their own unique stat multiplier, so every race had different starting stats. So, the only time when the field boss Andar would use its level 10 [Call Pack] skill was when it was outnumbered. Right now however, it was a 1 vs. 1 so the conditions didn''t lead to the boss monster to use that skill. Maria continued moving around while attacking the boss. It was only after another 5 minutes that she had sessfully felled the monster. [Field Boss in! 120,000 exp gained] Normally, 120,000 exp was enough for any other normal character to level up 1-2 levels, but not Maria however. Her unique race had a different exp multiplier than the rest of the races. It was a disadvantage, but the advantage was that she gained twice the amount of free stat points that the other races got per level. She also had a higher multiplier for her HP and MP. Of course, Maria didn''t know any of this and thought that it was all part of the game, so she just went with it without questioning why it took her so long to level up. [Congrattions to yer, you are the first to sessfully kill the Dire Wolf Andar. Disy name in world announcement? YES/NO] "Uhm...no? I don''t want to be famous~" [Congrattions to yer XX, for the extraordinary achievement of being the first to sessfully solo kill the Field Boss, Dire Wolf Andar. Rewarded: 50 reputation, 1 Silver, 5 free stat points!] "Hmhm~ this is nice~ I''ll go back to the city now and log off! I can''t wait to tell Lizzy about my adventures today!" It took over an hour of in-game time for Maria to finally arrive at the city, her directionally unaware-self had a hard time finding her way back. "Uhm...should I turn in the quest first?" Her presence had drawn many observing eyes to her, but the girl was oblivious. She wanted to turn in her quest before logging off, but she couldn''t see where the temple was from where she was standing. "Ah! If finding the temple on foot is too hard, why not try looking for it in the air?" Maria pped her hands at the idea. She quickly spread her wings and took flight. The spectacle of a yer flying in the sky attracted many astonished pairs of eyes. "S-she''s flying!" "No way!" "That''s so unfair..." While everyone could only express their envy to the young girl in the skies, Maria was busy looking for the familiar shape of the temple. "Ah! There it is!" She finally found the temple at the north eastern side of the city. She returned to the city using the southern gate so it took her some time to find it. Maria quickly made a beeline for the temple and soon arrived in the air just above the entrance. She happily touched down onto the ground and walked inside the temple. To the yers who were aiming to be priests and priestesses hanging around outside the temple, the awe-inspiring sight of a beautiful ck winged angel flying down from the skies and walking into the temple was like the divine descent of god''s envoy. "Holy shit! Did you see that?!" "That was TOTALLY divine!" "Did anyone get a pic or vid of that earlier?" "I did, I did!" "Share please, share please!!" Her entrance caused amotion outside, but inside the temple it was silent and oppressive as usual. Maria saw the pedestal in front of the statue, glowing with a white light. She remembered that the Priestess Instructor had a glow enveloping her when she had finished the tutorial quest assigned to her. Maria reckoned that this was the sign forpleted quests that only needed her to turn in and get her reward. Maria walked up to the pedestal and once more ced her hand on it. Like the previous time she did so, a ray of red light shed from the statue''s ruby eyes andnded on top of her hand. [Quest Completed!] *DING* [Level Up! +20 Free stat points!] *DING* [Received 1 gold and 1 Death''s Legacy Box] *DING* [You have sessfullypleted your ss change quest! Would you like to ss change to Dark Priestess? YES/NO] "Yes sa~" Maria quickly tapped on the [YES] and she was baptized by a red lighting from the statue''s ruby eyes in the next moment. *DING* [ss change sessful! Acquired ss: Dark Priestess] "Okay! Let''s wrap things up for today!" While there was some sort of fanfare going on in the background by the NPC believers. Maria was oblivious to all this and quickly opened her [Main Menu], she tapped on the [Log Out] button and disappeared from the game. "Your Grace, Dark Priestess! The Envoy of our Dark God, Deaeh? W-Where did our Envoy go?!" "Y-your Eminence, the Envoy suddenly disappeared!!!" "AH! She was called upon by the Dark God himself! Praise to the Dark God!" "Praise to the Dark God!!" "Praise to the Dark God!!" "Praise to the Dark God!!" The followers of the Dark God, Death, began celebrating the birth of the new envoy. Theypletely closed off the temple and suspended all on-going quests for a full in-game day! The girl in question however had just opened her eyes in reality,pletely unaware of themotion she had just caused in the game. Chapter 11: The Family Chapter 11: The Family "Oh! Lizzy was right!" When Maria stood up from her bed and gazed at the evening sky just outside her window, she couldn''t help, but marvel at the sight. She had started ying the game around early afternoon and despite all the time she spent inside the game; only a couple of hours had passed outside in the real world. Unitale ran on a 3:1 time difference with reality. 3 days of in-game time would only amount to 1 day in reality. Maria hadn''t yed for long, probably only for half a day. She did fall unconscious for a while and didn''t check to see how much time had passed. Despite all that, it really amazed her that the 12 hours or so of gamey only amounted to a short couple of hours in reality. "Maybe I can start studying while in the game as well?" *KNOCK KNOCK* "Young miss? Dinner is ready, Master and the others are all waiting for you in the dining hall..." "Oh?" Maria quickly nced at the clock and noticed that it was already 6. She quickly washed her face in the bathroom connected to her room and hastily made her way down to go have dinner with her family. "Ah! S-sorry I''mte..." Down in the dining hall, she could see her father and the rest of her family waiting patiently for her. Normally, she wouldn''t have been sote, but because she was so immersed into the game she forgot all about the time. It was a good thing she logged out when she did. If not, she might have kept her family waiting for her untilte into the evening! "No matter,e, sit with us Maria" Her father said. He was a handsome and dignified middle-aged man with a powerful presence and a charismatic aura around him. He had dark brown hair and pale gold eyes. Maria inherited her father''s eyes as well as his intellect, her mother''s beauty...and cluelessness. Corinthos Heltania was his name. He was a world renowned businessman who liked to keep a low profile, always going around using an alias rather than his real name. Only close friends from his social circles would be well acquainted with him and have the privilege to know his actual name. He was a doting father as well, showering many gifts and praises for his only daughter. That''s right, DAUGHTER. As for Maria''s other siblings, she had 2 older brothers, one being just a year older than her and the eldest being 3 years older. "Hey sis! How unusual for YOU to bete," A brown haired boy asked teasingly. He had a cheerful demeanor. Maria''s brother, Gerald Heltania had his father''s handsome looks and his mother''s tinum blonde hair just like her. "I-I was busy with something, big brother Gerald..." "Haha! I bet you were studying again! You really should get out more, Mary!" "I-I wasn''t studying..." "Oh?" "Hm?" Her family was really astonished to hear this. Her eldest brother, Mikael Heltania, a young man with simr features as their father with the same charismatic aura, quickly asked. "So what were you doing?" "Oh! I was ying a game, big brother Mika!" The family and all the servants in the room were immediately shocked. "G-game?" "What?!" "Could it be...?" Her father seemed to have a hunch on what game she was ying, since he did receive a report from the family''s servants about Maria''s recent activities, and the girl herself affirmed of this. "Yup! It''s the game that father''s been supporting for a while now! Unitale, right?" Maria took her seat next to her father''s side. Before the conversation continued, the family of 4 expressed their thanks and began eating dinner. "Hey Sis, have you seen this video yet?" While they were eating, Gerald suddenly pulled out his phone and showed it to Maria. There was a video of the game, Unitale, currently being yed. "Gerald, mind your manners," Their father warned, but despite this, he too took a look at the video when he noticed a very, very familiar figure being featured in it. "H-hey! That''s me!" Maria immediately knew who the person inside the video was. The ck winged angel inside the video was her very own avatar. It was aption video of some things she did in the city while inside the game. In the video, Maria''s character was first showning out of the teleportation building, then it showed her fighting and ying monsters in the field then the moment when she took off into the air in search for the temple and finally when she had touched down and entered the Dark God''s temple. Her videos on the forums had grown so popr after not even half a day since it had first been posted. Universal Games Company naturally took advantage of this andpiled all of the footage into an edited video for promotional purposes. The scene where she had killed numerous yers had naturally been cut from the video. It was obviously bad for promotional purposes. The PK video had also been taken down by the forum''s moderators at the behest of thepany. Maria''s father had actually already seen this video just earlier before he came home, but he just wasn''t sure whether or not that girl was actually his daughter. Now that the person herself had said so, everyone in the dining hall was once again shocked at the revtion. "W-where did you get this brother?" "It''s all over the inte! Universal Games had decided topile all of the videos about this avatar that was being posted on the forums and turn it into a promotional vid. The girl in the vid looked just like you, but I didn''t think it was actually you, lil sis!" Gerald replied with a cheerful smile while giving Maria a thumbs-up. Finally, their klutzy bookworm of a sister had found something else to do other than holing up in the house reading, ying, or studying by her lonesome! It wasn''t like she didn''t have any friends, but it was worrisome for the family that Maria only focused on studying and doing her own things by herself rather than hanging out with her high school friends after sses were over. Now that she was ying a very popr game, her friends in school will most likely call her out to y together! At least now she won''t be doing things by herself anymore. The family became animated and continued talking about the game while eating dinner. It was mostly Gerald, who was also a yer, and Maria who were talking. Their father and Mikael had be listeners and would asionally ask a thing or two. They were all d to see the only girl left in the family be so happy and animated while conversing with them. "Wow, big brother sure knows a lot! I didn''t know about that SP thingy! No wonder I fell from the sky...or I suddenly wasn''t able to swing my staff anymore...or when I couldn''t sprint to run away from something..." "Wh-what?! You fell from the sky?!" "Ahahaha~ I was too happy flying around, but it wasn''t anything serious though!" The family was dismayed that she had brought her clumsiness into the game, but it was a good thing it was only a game...the men in the family took note NOT to let her up into high ces. They might have to seal up or tear down all the second floor balconies in the mansion now. Even the family''s butler and servants in the room could only break out in cold sweat at their young miss'' clumsiness. Corinthos eyed the butler, David, and he nodded in understanding. He made a small hand gesture to the maids and some of them quickly exited from the dining hall. "Anyway, I can''t wait to tell all about my adventures to Lizzy and the rest tomorrow! I bet they won''t believe me when I tell them that I even defeated a field boss by myself!" Gerald widened his eyes in shock. "S-so that world announcement was because of you?!" "Huh? What announcement?" "..." This girl had done something incredulous only on the first day, but she didn''t know it. Gerald turned helpless at theck of gaming knowledge that his sister had. He didn''t know where to begin exining, so he just dropped it. As long as his sister was happy, everything was A-Okay. Chapter 12: School Chapter 12: School The next day, Maria was driven to school by her brother, Mikael. The 3 siblings would always go out together in the morning. Gerald and she were in the same school, with Gerald being in hisst year of high school and Maria being in her 2nd year. Mikael was in his first year of University so he would drive them to school in the morning before leaving for his morning lectures. "I bet you''re soon going to be poprter, Mary~" Gerald teased. "B-brother! S-so what? I don''t m-mind the attention!" So she said, but in fact she was shaking in her boots. She was normally oblivious to the eyes of anyone in school who looked over, but thanks to her brother, she turned more aware of it. Even now while walking down the school''s hallway, the previous stares that she never felt were all boring holes in her body now. "Well, I''ll see youter Mary...I have afterschool lessons so tell Mika to go on ahead without meter!" Gerald said good bye to his sister and quickly made his way to the school''s west wing where the 3rd year sses were in. Mary''s ssroom was in the east wing. Heimwald Private High was a school for the elite, and academically gifted. Although it wasn''t a school that catered for the middle and lower ss, but they did provide schrships for any enrollee who disyed high academic prowess. When she got to her ssroom, ss 2-B, and opened the door. It was still early in the morning, but there were quite a few of her ssmates already present inside. Even her best friend Lizzy was already inside...except her head was on the table and it obvious that she was napping. Her ssmates who were already inside noticed her and gave her peculiar looks, but like her usual self, she waspletely oblivious to it. Maria''s earlier mindfulness had vanished without a trace and she was back to her oblivious self once again. Maria happily walked up to her friend and patted her on the head and greeted. "Morning!" "Hwah? Oh...morning...Mary...Mary? Mary!!!" When Lizzy finally registered who it was that greeted her, she abruptly jumped up from her seat. "Ueh?!" Mary was shocked at her sudden outburst. She fell back and fortunatelynded on her seat that was just next to Lizzy''s. "Mary!! This is you? Right?!" Lizzy quickly fiddled with her phone and presented it to Maria. On the phone was the same exact video that her brother had shown to her yesterday. "Hahaha~ y-yeah...it is actually..." Maria replied sheepishly. "I knew it! Oh my goodness, I can''t believe it though! You actually found a unique race so early from the start! How''d you do it? Even during the beta, although not all of the races had been fully released, but at least there wasn''t any news about the Fallen Angel race! Even the character creation menu didn''t list it!" Being bombarded with so many questions from her best friend, Maria was at a loss from where to begin answering. "Wait, no! We''ll talk about thister. That race change should remain a secret, but you absolutely have to tell me about it! So, moving on, did you get your ss yet?" Maria couldn''t keep up with the pace of her friend. One minute it was about her race now it''s about her ss. "Ahaha~ well, I only got it yesterday, just before I logged off," Maria replied. "What''d you pick? From the vid, you were using a staff...so, a priestess?" "Yup~ but, the message window said it was a Dark Priestess...a hidden legacy ss?" "..." "Lizzy?" Lizzy had a bright smile on her upon hearing her friend''s words, but she didn''t respond after that. "HOW?! How do you already have a hidden ss?! Even the ss I got from the beta is only a legacy ss! What more, yours is a hidden legacy ss!!" Lizzy immediately grabbed onto her friend''s shoulders and was shaking her back and forth. The unfortunate Maria soon grew dizzy with the repeated shaking. "U-uwaahhh... I-I don''t know, Liz~!" Lizzy stopped her shaking and sighed in exasperation. "I bet you only clumsily stumbled on to that ss...right?" "I...I think?" "I knew it! Well, it doesn''t matter, since we''ve both got our ss, we''ll party upter, okay?" "Sure!" "I''ll call Amanda, Milly and Zackter to party up with us. With you in the party, we''ll finally have ourselves another healer!" "Who''s the other one?" "Amanda''s a shaman, a side branch of the priestess ss. It''s a ss only avable to the elves, orcs, and fairies~" Once more, foreign terms were used once again and Maria could only nod despite not understanding one bit of what her friend was saying. Lizzy huffed at her friend''s ''understanding'' nod. "You don''t understand a word I just said, right?" "No~pe!" "What am I going to do with you?" Lizzy replied while helplessly shaking her. "Doesn''t matter, the only important thing you should remember is that we''re partying upter!" "Okay...but how do we meet up?'' "Ah?" "Uhm...before I changed my race to a Fallen Angel, I was originally at the Angels'' starting vige...now I''m in the demon city, are you also ying a dark faction race? Amanda''s probably a fairy or elf, right? Doesn''t that mean you guys are in the light faction?" "Woah, woah, woah! Where did you learn all that vocabry?" Lizzy eximed at the familiar terms that her friend was suddenly using. This clueless girl shouldn''t know anything about those gaming terms. "I learned about them from Brother Gerald!" "O-oh..." "Well?" "Yeah, you''re right...we ARE in different factions, but that doesn''t mean we can''t meet up and y together." "But I learned from Gerald that the two factions are in opposition? Wouldn''t that mean I''d be attacked if I go to the light faction''s areas and the same would happen if you went to my areas?" "Mary, Mary, Mary...It''s so great to see you grow up!!!" Lizzy began hugging and petting her best friend. It was like she was looking at her own child who had finally learned to walk on her own. "Don''t worry about that! Milly, Amanda, and Zack are also part of the light faction, but I''m from the dark faction!" "Eh?" "Hihihi~ I''m ying as a demon dragonoid, it''s a hidden race that I stumbled upon from the beta~" "Oh!! That means we''re close!" "Hmm...Not really, you''re in the Demon Capital, Enoch. I''m in the Dark Dragon''s capital, Vortigern." "I-is it far away?" "Nope! I have the money to use the teleportation gates, so I''ll quickly go over to you soon!" "R-really? I heard that it''s expensive to use them!" Maria was a little worried, she heard from her brother that it costs 1 gold to use the teleportation gates. His brother wanted to meet up with her, since he too was also part of the dark faction. Gerald was ying as a drow, or a dark elf. It was a shame that their starting areas were too far apart. It would take many in-game days to travel to another dark faction city on foot. So the only usible way was to use the teleportation gate. "It costs one gold coin, but don''t worry! One of the perks in being a BT is that we get to keep all the gold we umted in the beta test, but of course it''s only limited to 100,000 gold coins." "W-woah! You must be really rich then Lizzy~" "Huh? Not really...sure I could do a lot with it, like buynd and make a shop. It''s also easy for me to buy the skill books at the start, but it''s nowhere near enough to make a guild! You need 500,000 gold for that!" "...Guild?" "Never mind about that~ we''ll talk about itter. Well, all I''m saying is that 100,000 gold coins isn''t much!" "Ahaha...okay~" ''I only have 1 gold though...'' Chapter 13: Best Friends Chapter 13: Best Friends The morning sses quickly passed. Just like Gerald said, many eyes were turning towards Maria because of the promotional video. But the girl was too busy conversing with her friends to notice any of them. It was currently lunch time. Lizzy and Maria were both eating at the cafeteria with all their other friends. The previously mentioned Amanda and Milly were also present. Zack was Amanda''s little brother who was still in middle school so there was no way he was present. "So it really was you Maria!" "Ehehehe, yes it was...I''m embarrassed now that you all are making such a big deal out of it~" "Haaahhh...leave it to our clueless missy to go ahead and do something big right from the start!" Amanda and Milly were currently pestering Maria with questions about the game and the video. Amanda Greenich was an athletic girl with short blonde hair reaching down only to her neck. She had light green eyes and was awfully tall for a girl. Her height was precisely 192 cm and she very much minded her height, although it was such a great advantage since she was part of the track and field team of Heimwald Private High. Milly, who was still bombarding Maria with questions even until now, was a wealthy young missy from the Welstein family. Her family was business partners with Maria''s and they were childhood friends. She was also an avid gamer just like Lizzy. Milly was the first to introduce Maria to Lizzy when they were still kids and Maria was ever so grateful for it. "Well, if you guys want to know about it...me changing into a Fallen Angel wasn''t exactly a pleasant experience..." Her friends were pestering her about the new and unique race. Milly was also a BT alongside Lizzy, so she was very curious as to how her friend was able to acquire such a race. It had to be known that in Unitale, a race was not just there for aesthetic and divisional purposes. A race granted many unique perks to the yer and every race''s stat multipliers were different from each other. Take for instance Lizzy''s Demon Dragonoid race. It had high STR, INT, and VIT multipliers so it was a good race to change into for an all-rounder type of game style. The Elves had high AGI, INT, and MP multipliers and also the racial perks were good if you wanted to y the mage, archer, or thief sses. "Ah! I didn''t know about this..." Maria whined. "You can look at itter! Just remember to open your [Status] and click on your [Race], another window will show that''ll describe your race''s advantages," Milly answered. "Okay, now with that out of the way. Tell us how you changed your race!" Lizzy urged. They knew for a fact that their clueless friend here wouldn''t have knowingly changed into a new race. So they wanted to know what she experienced to acquire the Fallen Angel race. Maria naturally told them of her experience and it nearly broke their hearts. "Y-you...you went through such pains..." "Oh geez, didn''t I tell you to change the parameters before moving around?!" "S-sorry Liz...It was just... I was so fascinated in flying through the air so I forgot all about it!" Lizzy and Amanda could only sigh at her thoughtless actions. She always did have a one-tracked mind so it was understandable, but to think it led to her experiencing such a traumatizing event. They were d that she came out of that while still keeping her nerves intact. She could have developed a psychological phobia to any form of pain if things had gone really wrong. "We should report this to the GMs...They should tone down the pain parameters right from the start. A realistic setting is fine and all, but this might hurt the gameter on when they eventually expand the age restrictions...not to mention all the clueless people like Maria here who wouldn''t know anything about the settings..." Milly said solemnly. Maria remembered that the AI-possessed wolf said something simr, but since it was the AI, then maybe those adjustments have already been made? "Well, the AI that I met already informed the Main AI about it...so maybe the settings have already been changed?" "Yeah...but we should still file a report...we don''t want such a good game to suddenly go out of business because of hindsight..." "O-okay..." "Well, anyway. Make sure you keep those parameters low...but to think you can change races from overusing a skill...that''s new." They continued talking about the game and some other stuff until the bell rang and afternoon sses began. When it was time to go home, Maria was picked up by her brother. She bade farewell to her friends and promised to meet up with everyer in-game. Of course she would finish all her homework first before diving into the game. ***** "Huuuuuhh...okay, that''s thest problem for math..." Maria said as she stretched her body. She quickly went to the bathroom for a quick wash up and had the maids bring her a light meal before she jumped once more into the game. "Okay, it''s 5 now. I''ll y until dinner time, log off and eat, before continuing againter." Maria lied down on her bed and gleefully put the FD gear over her head. "Connection Start!" Chapter 14: Once more, into the Game! Chapter 14: Once more, into the Game! When Maria materialized back inside of the temple, the first thing she did was to find a seat and properly take a look at her rewards. First, she still had to open thepensation box that she got from the GM. When she took her seat, it was then that the Priestess Instructor walked back into the temple leading some believers and yers behind her. She immediately noticed the Fallen Angel who was leisurely sitting at the front row benches of the temple. The instructor immediately rushed over while hollering. "Ah! Most respected Envoy! You have returned!!" "Ueh??" Maria was startled by the sudden voice. She was about to turn around, but suddenly the Priestess Instructor had already rushed over to her side and was bowing down in respect. "Envoy! Hast thou returned from the Dark God''s side?" "...what?" The yers who were following behind also noticed the person who the instructor was talking respectfully to. "Oh, it''s her, the girl from the PV!" "Wow! She''s so beautiful!" "I think cute would fit better." "Why''s the High Priestess being so respectful?" Maria didn''t mind themotion that the yers were causing. This was because the Priestess Instructor, who also turned out to be the temple''s High Priestess, was currently glowing with light. From what Maria had previously deduced, this means that the NPC or object was a quest objective or quest giver. "I''m not sure what you''re talking about Miss Instructor...but do you need any help from me?" "Ah! Lady Envoy, please do not act so respectful to this humble one...I am not worthy, not worthy...but yes, I do have some problems that I would like Lady Envoy''s help with!" [Quest: The Envoy''s Might The High Priestess He has encountered many problems with some of the Dark God Temple''s enemies. A young priest candidate for the High God Odin will be on an excursion to the Hignds neutral territory. Kill the priest and his entourage and plunge into despair the High God worshippers and let them know of the Dark God''s might! y Priest Candidate Joseph (0/1) y Guard Captain Heather (0/1) y 50 Guards (0/50) y 50 Novice Priests (0/50) Time limit: 3 days (71:58:29) Rewards: Random ss skill book, random mid-grade pet egg, random Dark God''s blessing, 50 Gold coins, +100 Rep, +200 High Priestess He''s Favor Failure: -1 Level, -100 favorability with all Dark God NPCs, and -50 Reputation points. Note: Quest can be shared with up to 5 people] The quest was just another ying quest. Maria didn''t think much of it and just decided to ept it. It''ll be just like ying monsters! "Okay, High Priestess He! I''ll help you!" [+50 Favor with He] "Lady Envoy! Please, just call me He!" "Okay, Miss He. I''ll see you again in another day or two!" "Yes, Lady Envoy! I will humbly anticipate your glorious return!" The High Priestess He moved away from Maria and walked back to her previous position where she acted as the temple''s Priestess Instructor. The other yers had overheard Maria receiving a quest and grew excited. They wanted to ask more questions about it, but the girl had stood up and moved away. Maria didn''t want to be disturbed again so she walked over to an inconspicuous corner of the temple and looked over her rewards. "First of all, thepensation box from the GM!" Maria opened up her mail and collected thepensation. She opened the box and... [You have received 100 gold coins, 1 High grade exp potion, 10 Full HP potions, 10 Full MP potions, and 1 random Skill Book] Maria didn''t know whether thepensation was good or not, but just from the fact that she received so many things, she reckoned it was a hefty amount and she was very much satisfied. She had received 100 gold as well, so now she too could use the teleportation gate without any need to worry about the price! "Random Skill Book? What do I do with this?" [Random Skill Book Grade: Epic Grants 1 random skill of epic grade and below NOTE: Skill is limited by the yer''s ss and race!] [Use Random Skill Book? YES/NO] Maria quickly pressed on the [YES] and a dark-colored roulette popped up in front of her. There were numerous sections with each of them containing some sort of mysterious symbol. "Oh! This looks interesting!" [Roulette Start... ... ... ...] Another notification popped up and the roulette wheel began spinning. It spun for about 10 seconds before it slowed down and came to a stop. The pointer stopped on the darkest colored section with a red colored eye symbol. Suddenly, a loud fanfare rang in ears. Maria was startled and immediately looked around, flustered that she may have caused argemotion while inside the temple. She heaved a relieved sigh when no one looked over at her. It appears that the noise was only audible to her. [Epic Race Skill acquired! Gehenna''s Eye Lv.1 (0/10,000) Rank: Epic Ignites the target with hellfire, dealing 100+(0.8 x INT) damage. Dispels all buffs and burns the target, dealing 20+(0.5 x INT) damage per 3 seconds for the next 30 seconds. When used on a yer or NPC, triggers Gehenna''s Offering. Gehenna''s Offering: Immtes the mind casting the target into madness, renders abilities useless. 50% chance to seal 1 random skill. 15% chance to seal 2 random skills. 5% chance to seal 4 random skills. 1% chance to seal all skills. Duration: 1 minute. When used on a monster, triggers Gehenna''s Sacrifice. Gehenna''s Sacrifice: Immtes the soul of the target casting it into oblivion, instantly kills the target. 25% chance to activate when used on a lower leveled monster. 15% chance to activate when used on an equal leveled monster. 5% chance to activate when used on a higher leveled monster. When an equal or higher leveled monster is sacrificed, there is a 10% chance to temporarily steal 5% of their attributes to buff the user, buff can be stacked for a maximum of 5 times. Duration: 30 minutes. MP Cost: 300 MP Cooldown: 20 seconds] "Oh! I got a new skill...let''s see here...It sounds pretty powerful!" After giving the skill a quick read, Maria quickly dismissed the skill window. She opened up her inventory and quickly checked her rewards. "Death''s Legacy Box...let''s see what''s inside!" Chapter 15: Deaths Legacy Item Chapter 15: Death''s Legacy Item [Death''s Legacy Box Item rank: Mythic Receive one item from Death''s Legacy ss: Dark Priestess. - Legacy Weapon - Legacy Equipment - Legacy Skill Book - Stat Points Requirement: ss: Dark Priestess] [Would you like to open the box? YES/NO] "Yes sa~" With a quick tap on the [YES] another dark-colored roulette appeared in front of Maria once again. "Hmmm...I wonder what''s with the producers and roulettes?" The roulette was simr to the earlier one that Maria saw, except this time it only had 4 different sections. Each section had a small symbol on it, namely a sword, armor, book, and a plus sign. The roulette began spinning and Maria waited and waited...and waited...and waited... "Hey, what gives, why won''t it stop?!" At her words the roulette began to slow down and the pointernded on the section with a sword on it. "Ohh!! So this time I had to stop it myself!" The box disappeared and arge double headed great axe dropped onto Maria''sp. "Th-this looks heavyOH!" Despite looking awfully heavy, Maria was surprisingly able to lift the axe up with only one hand. "Cool!" The weapon had a demonic wolf head motif in the middle where the tworge des were connected together. The des were ck in color and there were red demonic veins pulsing evilly throughout the entirety of the axe. An ominous ck smoke was also spiraling around the weapon adding onto the demonic and menacing vibe it was exuding. "[Inspect]" [Cmity Lv. 5 ~ 10 Rank: Epic Category: Unique Legacy Weapon Damage: 50 ~ 100 STR +10 VIT +5 INT +20 AGI -5 Weapon Skill 1: [Cmity Cleave]: Cleaves the earth with the great axe, sending shockwaves all around the area. Deals 250 damage and stunning the enemy for 2 seconds, before sending shockwaves in a 5 meter area around the initial impact zone, shockwaves deal (0.5 x STR) damage and has a chance to stun an enemy for 0.5 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Weapon Skill 2: [Reaper''s Guile]: Halves all SP consumption and for every enemy in, the Cmity absorbs their soul energy and grants it to the user, providing a 20% Lifesteal and 10% Manasteal of in target''s total HP and MP. Every kill count increases attack speed by 0.5% and stacks up to a maximum increase of 50%. Duration: 30 minutes. Weapon Skill 3: [Execute]: Beheads the enemy. 1% chance to instantly kill the target. Weapon Skill 4: [Death''s Embrace]: When enemy''s HP falls below 20%, there is a 10% chance to trigger Execute. Upgradeable: Upgrade to Level 10 ~ 15. Requirements: 1. y 1,000 enemies with Cmity (0/1,000) 2. Receive Death''s Blessing (0/1) 3. Feed Cmity with 5 Level 10 rare grade equipment or weapons (0/5) Restrictions: Dark Priestess, Fallen Angel Maria Item Bound Level Requirement: None Description: A Demonic Axe bestowed upon the Envoy of Death, the Dark Priestess, Fallen Angel Maria, who was the first ever Angel to have fallen from grace in the past millennia. The axe craves for blood and destruction, with every enemy in its power increases. The Great Cmity of the ancient era has once again descended onto the mortal ne and it demands its chaotic offerings!] "Uwaaahhh! So many skills! Only the first one is an active skill...the rest...are passive?" Maria stood up and began swinging her newly acquired weapon. She got too excited from the new rewards presented in front of her that the girl had forgotten about where she currently was. Her weapon smashed through the benches around her and created gashes on the floors and walls of the temple. The sounds of destruction rang throughout the temple and naturally people were attracted over. What they saw however...was the horrific scene of a beautiful girl happily swinging and smashing apart the surroundings with her demonic great axe. The contrast between the girl''s happy expression, the demonic great axe, and the destroyed surroundings was a sight to behold. Yet again, another video was going to be posted on the forums. The High Priestess had also walked over to see themotion and was horrified to see their God''s Envoy vandalizing his temple. "L-Lady Envoy!!!" "Hueh?" "D-does something displease you perhaps? Is there something wrong about our God''s temple?" "Huh? Well, no, not really...the atmosphere is a little gloomy, but I''m not one toin. Why?" "Eh? Uhm...then why are you vandalizing our sacred temple?" "Huh?" Maria took a look at her surroundings and noticed the destruction she had caused. Her eyes widened in shock upon remembering where she was and the girl immediately began apologizing. "I-I''m sorry!!!" "No, no. It''s okay, but make sure thawait a minute...is that...the Dark God''s Cmity?" The High Priestess was just about to reprimand Maria for her thoughtless vandalism of the temple, but she suddenly couldn''t help gawking at therge demonic axe currently in the young fallen angel''s hands. "Oh... This?" Maria raised the battle axe and He immediately backed away. "L-Lady Envoy, if you had just asked me, I would have directed you over to the temple''s training grounds!" "Huh?" "P-pleasee with me, Lady Envoy...to think that the Dark God''s Cmity has reappeared in this era...during my time! Ahhh...your un-holiness Death, I thank you for granting this humble one the fortune to bear witness to not only the descent of your Envoy, but also the demonic weapon that has protected your believers from those self-righteous heretics!" Maria was a little confused. She was about to be reprimanded one minute, but suddenly He changed her attitude and instead began worshipping her...or more like the weapon in her hands. "Uhm...Miss He? I, I won''t need the training grounds any longer! I''ll be heading out now toplete the quest!" "Eh? Oh. Yes of course, Lady Envoy...Go with Death''s guidance and may you bring damnation and punishment to all our enemies!" "Uh...yeah! Okay!" Maria quickly exited from the temple in a hurry. She didn''t know where to ce her axe so she carried it over her shoulders and walked out. Even though she already knew about the [Inventory], the girl still didn''t know how to store things in it. Once she got outside the temple, Maria looked around to make sure nobody was too close before she spread her wings and took off into the air. "Hmmm...I should go find Lizzy now...she said she''ll be waiting for me at the teleportation building...wait...where was that again?" *DI-DING* [Iing Friend Request: Lisbet, Lv. 15 Demon Dragonoid. ept YES/NO?] "Oh! That''s her! [YES] please!" Another window popped up and it was Unitale''s [Community] window. In her friend''s list was a single name and this was her best friend Lizzy''s ount. [Lisbet Lv. 15 Demon Dragonoid] "Wow~ Lizzy''s already double my level!" [Iing Call Request: Lisbet. ept YES/NO?] Maria quickly tapped on the [YES] and suddenly a loud voice rang inside her head. "Uwah!" Maria nearly fell from the sky after being startled by her friend''s loud voice. She quickly readjusted herself and quickly found a rooftop. She quicklynded and began talking with her friend. "S-sorry! I was flying earlier! I nearly fell from the sky because I was suddenly surprised to hear your voice!" "Huh?" Maria tilted her head upwards and saw a small floating window with Lizzy''s face on it. "AH! So that''s where your voice wasing from! I thought you were talking inside my head or something!" "M''kay~" "R-really?! I''m so sorry, Liz! I was looking over all my quest rewards andpensation that I nearly lost track of the time!" "Okay! I''ll fly there super quick, but..." "Where exactly IS the teleportation building again? I forgot!" <...I''lle look for you, Mary...> "Ehehehe~ thanks Lizzy!" Chapter 16: Onwards! Chapter 16: Onwards! Maria was sitting on top of a rooftop dangling her feet and humming to Tchaikovsky''s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. She grew up listening to her eldest brother, Mikael, ying ssic songs from Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, and other famousposers on the piano and other musical instruments. Despite being the next heir to the Heltania family business, father Corinthos didn''t restrict his children in learning or pursuing their hobbies. As long as just one of them was willing to inherit the family business, then they can pursue their dreams freely. It could be said that Mikael had taken the bullet for his siblings, but that didn''t deter him from improving on his musical ability. Especially since his siblings dearly loved it when he sat down and began ying. "Ma~ri~a!!" "Hm?" Maria looked down and saw someone calling out to her. It was a girl with curled horns on the sides of her head. She had a scaly ck dragon tail growing from her rump and ck dragon wings on her back. She had reddish ck scales decorating the sides of her face and her eyes were entirely ck with golden pupils. The girl calling out to her looked very familiar too. When she saw the name above the girl''s head, Maria immediately knew who she was and why she was so familiar. "Oh! Lizzy! I almost didn''t recognize you!" Maria dropped down from the building andnded lightly in front of Lizzy. "Really? You just saw me on the video call earlier~" "Ehehehe~ you look so differentpared to the video!" Maria said as she sized up her best friend. No matter how she looked at it, Lizzy''s avatar was the epitome of awesome, while she... "Waaaah~ you look so cute, Mary~" Lizzy immediately hugged her friend who was just so cute to look at. They were friends from real life so seeing the same person, but with wings attached to her back caused Lizzy to just lose it! Maria responded in kind. She dropped the axe she was holding and hugged her back. BANG! The axe broke through the stone pavement of the street and embedded itself into the ground. "Woah!" "Wah!" The two girls both jumped in surprise from the abrupt bang. Maria turned her head back and remembered that she was carrying around therge great axe with her. "M-Mary! What''s that?!" She eximed while pointing at therge axe behind her friend. Lizzy grew intrigued when she saw the weapon. It had ck smoke circting around its entirety and it exuded an ominous aura. "A-Heave-ho!" Maria grabbed onto the handle and once more ced the weapon on top of her shoulders. "I got this from my quest reward!" "Woah!! What grade is this thing?! It sure as heck ain''t just a rare grade weapon!" "Ahaha~ it''s actually an emmphffhrrmmph?!" "Shhh~ not here Mary~ we don''t want others eavesdropping on us! This is confidential info!" Lizzy quickly blocked her friend''s mouth. The clueless girl was just about to blurt out some very important info. Lizzy had already noticed that she and her friend were drawing the attention of everyone around. Seeing two young beauties-in-the-making hugging each other, not many can resist that! She didn''t want her friend''s private information to be leaked out to others. As for calling out each other''s names, Lizzy had long since noticed that her friend''s IGN (In Game Name) was her very own name. She couldn''t help but sigh at this. She should have informed her friend beforehand not to use her real name when creating the avatar. Her IGN was Lisbet, so Lizzy was just an endearing nickname her close friends called her. Her real name was Elisa Bethell, so there were no problems on her side. "Let''s go meet up with the others! Then we''ll talk all about it with them~" "Un!" The two immediately walked towards the teleportation building with Lizzy leading the way. Maria resolved herself to make sure she remembered what the building actually looked like. So that next time, she won''t be so clueless of its location in other cities. Most of the buildings in all the NPC cities had rather simr designs, probably only a small tidbit being different from city to city, but nevertheless they still looked simr. The two soon arrived at a tall building with tworge hourss stone sculptures ced on the sides of therge entrance. There was arge hexagram crest on the front face of the building. Inside the building was a humongous hall with small open rooms that had glowing magic formations in them. Each small room represented a city, fortress, frontier town, or faction outpost. The frontier was the area also known as the neutral territory which separated the two factions of light and dark. Lizzy led Maria over to the farthest end of the halls where the magic formations within the small rooms had all begun to glow red instead of the earlier blue color. "We''re here Mary~ by the way, in order to use the teleportation functions in the building; you can only use the ones that you''ve sessfully fulfilled their level requirements! You can''t be under leveled when using some of these formations, but most of the NPC cities don''t have that requirement." "Okay! I''ll keep this in mind!" "Alright, we''re going to the Torin Frontier Townhere we are!" Lizzy walked over to a small room that had the words Torin written at the top of the doorway. Inside, the magic formation was glowing red and a pedestal with a small orb on top of it was situated at the center of the room. "By the way Mary...why don''t you put that weapon of yours inside your [Inventory]? Isn''t it exhausting to carry that around on your shoulders?" Weapons and equipment all had weight inside the game. So judging from Maria''srge great axe, it seemed very heavy to walk around with it. "Huh? Well, it''s not that exhausting! This thing''s actually pretty light~" Maria said as she once more began swinging therge axe around. "Woah woah woah! D-don''t swing that dangerous thing around Mary! What happens if you damage the formation array? It won''t be usable if you damaged it and you''ll have to pay a hefty fine if you do!" "O-okay! Sorry about that..." "Never mind, just put that away for now okay?" Maria began fidgeting nervously at her words. Lizzy saw her act like this and had a hunch. "Uhm...I don''t know how?" "..." Lizzy silently facepalmed when her hunch was spot on. "Call up your [Inventory]" "Okay~" After a round of exnations, Mary was able to sessfully store her weapon into her inventory, but now that she looked at it... wasn''t Lizzy''s weapon holstered on her waist? "Uhm...Liz? Why do I have to store my weapon and you have yours ced on your waist?" "Huh? Oh that...Well, it''s because your axe attracts WAY too much attention!" "Oh?" "Attention is good and all, but if people see you carrying around such a unique and cool looking thing...wouldn''t they want to try and steal it? The Thief ss is a part of the game y''know, and they acquire the [Steal] skill at level 10!" "W-wah! I don''t want that!" Maria began to furiously shake her head at the thought of her weapon being stolen. It was such a cool and obviously strong looking thing! It also had her name on it, literally, and she didn''t like the thought of it being taken away from her. "Well, enough of that, let''s head over to Torin. Then we''ll have to move deeper into the neutral territory and get to Almester Vige. That''s where we''ll rendezvous with the others~" "Okay!" Lizzy walked over to the pedestal and ced her hand over the orb. After paying the required fee, 2 gold coins, for both her and Maria, the teleportation had begun activating and the two were whisked away to Torin Frontier Town. Chapter 17: Party Play Chapter 17: Party y The two appeared on arge tform in the middle of a town. Like any dark faction town, the inhabitants of this town were all dark faction races. However, Maria and Lizzy couldn''t see any yers around. One gold coin wasn''t something that just any yer could already have at this point in the game. Most of the yers were still starting out in the NPC cities of their respective factions. If there were any yers already roaming around the towns and neutral territories, then those yers were without a doubt BTs, or yers like Maria who have encountered some very fortunate or unfortunate circumstances so early in the game. "Let''s go Mary~ on our way, we can go test out thatrge axe of yours!" "Okay~!" "But, before that!" [yer: Lisbet invites you to join her party! YES/NO] Maria quickly pressed on the [YES] and another window popped up in front of her. [Party joined! 1. Lisbet Lv. 15 (Party Leader) 2. Maria Lv. 7 (Party Member) Loot Distribution: Free-for-all] "Okay, now let''s go!" Once the party was formed, the two girls quickly rushed out of the town. The town they were in was in a beginner area so the monsters'' levels ranged from level 5-10. Maria and Lizzy didn''t bother attacking any of the monsters since it would take too long for them to reach their destination in the neutral territory if they had to go around chopping down every monster in their path. The two bypassed all the low leveled monsters. With Lizzy in the party, these monsters didn''t dare attack them since her level was higher than theirs. They remained aggro-free until the two finally stepped into the neutral territory. [Congrattions! You have discovered the Neutral Territory, Purgatory! Reward: 10,000 exp and 1 gold coin] "Alright, Mary, you can take out your axe now!" "Okay~" Maria pulled out her axe and Lizzy unsheathed her weapon and readied her shield. Her weapon and equipment were all standard items that she bought from the NPC weapon shop. "I''ll tank and you''ll be the DPS!" "Uhhh...what?" "Ahaha~ sorry, Mary! It means I''ll draw the monster''s attention and you''ll attack them from the side or from behind!" "O-okay! Leave it to me!" "Just make sure you don''t identally hit me okay~ Unitale isn''t like any other game! Your attacks can cause friendly fire!" "What''s friendly fire?" "It means you can hurt me if you swing that axe carelessly!" "O-okay...I''ll make sure not to hit youter!" "Do you know any healing spells yet? You should have gotten a ss skill already right?" "...eh?" "...Mary...you didn''t talk to the instructor again after you got your ss, huh?" "I-I did...but she only gave me a quest!" "A quest? Well, at least you didn''t leave empty handed. When we get back, we''ll go to the instructor to get you some ss skill. I did stock up on potions so we''ll be fiyou don''t know what those are either, do you?" "..." Maria blushed in shame. She had no idea what her friend was talking about. All those unfamiliar terms like potions, ss skills, tank, DPS hadpletely lost her. "Tomorrow, Milly and I are giving you a crash course on gaming!" "Th-thanks..." "Well, who cares? It''s not your fault Mary. Here, I''ll share some of my potions with you!" Lizzy traded some of her potions with Maria. She also exined to her about the game''s trade function and the item quick slots. Knowing her friend, the girl might be too clumsy to even pull one out of her inventory and drink it! "Okay, all done?" "Yup!" "Onwards!" Lizzy and Maria began their trek through the neutral territory, Purgatory. It was an odd name for a ce since in real life since it meant a ce of judgment and cleansing. Purgatory''s environment wasn''t as wicked as its name made it out to be. Even the dark faction territory wasn''t all eerie or gloomy. In fact, all of the territories in the game were somewhat simr at the starting areas. Only in thetter half of the game when the yers reached a higher level and explored more of the world would the territories begin to differ. Dark faction had more ces with darker environments and ominous vibes while the light faction had more ces with bright and rxing atmospheres to it. The two girls quickly encountered some monsters in the field. It was a small pack of wolves. [Direwolf Lv.15] HP: 2,000/2,000 "Okay, there''re only 4 of them! We can do this Mary!" "Alright!" "Just like we''ve nned, I''ll tank and you attack them from a safe distance! Focus on the one that I''m attacking, okay?" "Alright! But wait. Let me try this new skill that I just got!" "W-wait, Mary! Let me aggahh, don''t leave me behind!" Maria had already rushed at the wolves. With her [Wolf yer] title the monsters flinched upon seeing her, but they growled angrily soon after. Maria flew into the air and activated her weapon''s skill, [Cmity Cleave]. "HIIYAAAAHHH!!" Once her skill activated, Maria''s axe began glowing with an ominous red light and she mmed her axe down on the wolf in the middle of the pack. -500! -5 -5 -5 The skill dealt a critical hit while stunning the monster for 2 seconds and the resulting shockwave stunned the other wolves for half a second. Lizzy was surprised to see the powerful skill in action. It was an area attack that could also stun! The dragonoid girl was able to quickly catch up to her friend and use [Shield Bash] on the centermost wolf. She then followed it up with a [Double Cut] onto two of the wolves around her and used [Taunt] on thest wolf she didn''t hit. Shield Bash was a warrior skill that pulled up the aggro of the target and Taunt, just like its name, was another aggro pulling skill. Just like this, Lizzy had managed to secure the aggro of all the wolves that Maria had previously damaged. It was a good thing that the shockwave had only dealt a miniscule amount of damage. If not, the Lizzy would have had a pretty tough time securing the aggro from the remaining wolves. "Alright, let''s do this Mary!" "Un!" In order to make sure she didn''t identally hit her friend, Maria used her wings to the fullest. She jumped into the air and cleaved down with her axe onto the wolf that she had hit at the start with her skill. -160 To Lizzy it was an absurd amount of damageing from a support ss yer. Even she had only done an upwards of 200 damage with her [Double Cut] skill, but the 160 damage only came from Maria''s normal attack and her weapon actually did a critical hit of 500 damage with the previous skill. The Cmity that Maria was wielding was just so powerful! Lizzy didn''t feel jealous of this, she only felt happy for her clumsy yet lucky friend for acquiring such an absurd weapon from the start. Once the stun duration had worn off, the wolf suddenly changed directions and begun attacking Maria who was attacking from behind. It thoroughly ignored Lizzy who was attacking and smashing it with a [Shield Bash] to keep its aggro on her. ''Oh no, Maria''s damage is too high and she OTed!'' "Be careful Mary! You''re damage aggroed the monster to you!" Maria was surprised when the wolf suddenly attacked her. She backed away into the air, but then she remembered about her other skill. Maria rushed back in and allowed the wolf to bite her and this was met with a furious counter attack. -250 -250 -250 -250 ... ... Numerous ck feathers pelted the dire wolf until it was on itsst legs of HP. Maria quickly activated [Gehenna''s Eye]. She was clueless about many things, but using skills was no longer one of them! Her eyes changed color from her normal pale gold to an ominous glowing red. In the next instant, the wolfbusted into a ball of ck mes and she had fortunately triggered the extra effect of the skill. [Gehenna''s Sacrifice: yer has been buffed with 5% of target''s stats +1 STR +2 AGI +1 VIT Duration: 29:59] Chapter 18: Absurd Menu Chapter 18: Absurd Menu [Gained 3000 exp (x3 multiplier)] When Maria was about to cleave down with her axe, she was shocked to see that the monster had been burnt into a gruesome heap of flesh. The pile of flesh that was once the monster began to disintegrate, leaving behind some particles of light glowing in the air. Those light particles flowed into her axe and the red veins began to pulsate and her HP recovered by a sizeable amount. +400 +0 Lizzy was worried when the wolf suddenly bit her friend, but she grew astonished seeing the fierce retaliation. The follow-up skill thatbusted the wolf into a ball of ck mes had also shocked her. However, seeing the green and blue numbers pop above Maria''s avatar was even more astonishing. ''She has a lifesteal and manasteal this early into the game?'' Lizzy thought in surprise. She was just about to express her shock, but the wolves surrounding her didn''t give her the chance. Maria quickly noticed her friend''s plight and rushed over to attack another wolf. The two worked together and quickly felled another monster. The third andst wolf quickly followed suit and the battle quickly ended. By the end of it, Maria''s weapon and gray colored clothes were stained with a lot of the monsters'' blood. She had been carelessly waving her axe around so it was understandable. [Gained 9000 exp (x3 multiplier)] The two had obtained a handsome amount of experience. However to Maria, it was only a drop in the ocean. She needed arge amount of experience to level up. Despite having killed off monsters twice her level, and although she had to split the experience with Lizzy, it was but a handful amountpared to the ocean of experience she needs to raise her level. "Mary, did you just use some kind of lifesteal and manasteal skill?" Lizzy immediately asked. "Hmmm...? Oh! That! It''s actually a part of my weapon''s skill! Here, let me show you!" Maria opened her weapon''s information window and showed it to Lizzy. The girl could only stare incredulously at the stats of the weapon. It was an early game growth-type weapon that was totally broken! "...1 active skill and 3 passives...so many absurd stats AND it''s a growth-type weapon...Mary, you could basically act as a tank, healer, and DPS!" "Eheheh~" "Okay, let''s push forward just like this!" "Un!" The two moved onwards to their destination. Any monster in their path was quickly dispatched by the two and they gained hefty amount of experience from all their battles. They reached Almester Vige after 1 in-game day. During this time Lizzy had raised her level by 1, but she suddenly noticed that her friend hadn''t once gone up 1 level despite being only level 7. She was practically getting a bonus for killing monsters above her level so this puzzled the girl. "Hey, Mary...howe you haven''t gone up a level yet? I mean, I''m already level 16, but you''re still level 7!" "Huh? R-really?" "Yeah, like aren''t you getting a lot of exp? So howe you haven''t raised your level yet?!" "Uhm...my exp is only 50% full..." "What?! Okay, pull up your [Status]!" Maria quickly opened up her [Status] and showed it to Lizzy. This caused the girl to facepalm and she chided her friend. "Mary...Make sure you NEVER show your [Status] to anyone...okay?" "Huh? A-aren''t you being a little contradicting right now?" "Yeah! But with the way you just so quickly showed your [Status] to me, it seemed like you''ll just show it to just anyone who asked you!" "I-I''m not that stupid! It''s because it''s Lizzy that I don''t mind!" "Good! Remember, your [Status] is the MOST important and private menu! Don''t let others see it! This''ll only be a one-time thing for me as well, alright?" "Okay!" "Now, let''s see what the problemwoah! That''s such an absurd amount!" [Maria Lv. 7] HP: 317/360 MP: 720/1800 SP: 30/30 EXP: 367,150/700,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer ATK: 100 (+50~100) DEF: 45 (+15) M.ATK: 18 (+20) M.DEF: 90 (+15) STR: 10 (+10) AGI: 10 (-5) VIT: 10 (+8) INT: 10 (+26) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 145 "W-what''s with this absurd menu?! You have 145 FSPs?!" "Huh?" "Also that absurd amount of experience to level up! That''s practically 10 times what I needed at that level!" Lizzy began scrutinizing her friend''s status menu and quickly found the multipliers for her friend. She had high multipliers for HP, MP, SP, EXP, STR, INT, and VIT not to mention Maria''s LCK stat had started out as the game''s current limit! "Mary, you get twice as much FSPs than yers of the same level...I only get 10 FSP per level while you get 20 per level. Now I understand why you have such an absurdly high EXP multiplier..." "Uhm...FSPs...That means Free Stat Points, right?" "Yeah, you have high STR, INT, and VIT stat multipliers, so you should distribute the points in those stats, you could also add some for AGI since if its low, then you''ll Movement Speed and Attack Speed will be slow!" "Okay!" "But, I rmend putting most of that into INT and VIT, since you still are a Priestess after all!" "Okay!" "Don''t just keep saying ''okay''! Ahh, anyway, Maria decide for yourself where you want to put those in, it''s your character after all! I''m just giving you suggestions." "Un!" Lizzy could only sigh at her friend''s questionable luck. She had experienced something gruesome from the start, but it was a blessing in the guise of misfortune. She gained a powerful race, waspensated by the GMs with an absurd weapon, and she still hadn''t asked about the skill she had used earlier. It was actually the other way around though. The GMspensated Maria with a skill, but the weapon she got was totally just because of her luck. Maria began distributing all her points on the spot. She put 75 points in INT, 35 in VIT, 25 in STR, and 10 points in AGI. Her stats were refreshed and she smiled in satisfaction at the high numbers. [Maria Lv. 7] HP: 1,060/1,060 MP: 5,550/5,550 SP: 100/100 EXP: 367,150/700,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer ATK: 225 (+50~100) DEF: 133 (+15) M.ATK: 56 (+20) M.DEF: 278 (+15) STR: 35 (+10) AGI: 20 (-5) VIT: 45 (+8) INT: 85 (+26) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 0] In Unitale, you couldn''t distribute points into your LCK stat as it was fixed from the beginning. The highest possible stat was 10 while the lowest was actually a 0. It could even fall into the negatives if you encountered something really unfortunate. However, Maria thought she was just in unfortunate despite having a 10. She had to experience such a tragedy just as shended in the game, but in hindsight, that led to her bing a Fallen Angel, acquiring the Dark Priestess Hidden Legacy ss, the Cmity and many other rewards. However all she saw was the misfortune that befell her from the start of the game. The following rewards she didn''t have a clear understanding of so she couldn''t tell how lucky she was as of now. "Alright, now that we''re here...where are the rest?" Maria said as she looked back up at Lizzy. Seeing as her friend was finished, Lizzy stood up and replied. "Not sure...Almester Vige is a little closer to the Light Faction territory. That''s why we took a while to get here on foot...they should be here by now!" Lizzy didn''t look at her while she was distributing her stats. She had a gamer''s pride that Maria didn''t understand. So despite being her friend and despite her overwhelming curiosity...Lizzy restrained herself from taking a peek at Maria''s stats. They walked around the vige looking for their friends. However, after taking a fewps around the ce, the 2 couldn''t find them. "What''s taking them so long?" Lizzy raised her voice in dissatisfaction. "They couldn''t have bailed on us...right?" "Huh? Knowing those 2, they wouldn''t do that Liz!" "Yeah...but what''s taking them so long! Arrrghhh!!" Lizzy grew bored of just waiting and looking around for almost an hour or so. It would have been better if they just spent that time hunting around the vige! With Maria''s high damage, the two could hunt just fine by themselves! "Hey, Liz, why not use that video calling thing you did with me?" "I can''t Mary...I don''t have any of them on my friend''s list. Different faction yers can add each other as friends, but they have to meet up and do it face-to-face." "Why?" "The game developers thought that it was necessary. Since there will be guildster in the game, if the yers were able to just wantonly add friends with each other as long as they knew each other''s IGNs then the opposing faction guilds could just nt spies into each other''s territories." "Uhh..." "Never mind Mary, you don''t need to worry about all thatplicated things!" "Okay..." Chapter 19: Fight! Chapter 19: Fight! It took another hour or so before Lizzy and Maria finally met up with Milly, Amanda, and her brother, Zack. Maria was flying around in the air happily, but she didn''t dare stray out of the vige''s airspace. While she was looking around, Maria was able to spot the familiar faces of her two other friends from afar. She quicklynded near Lizzy who was reading something on Unitale''s forum window. "Hey Liz, I saw Milly and the rest just now!" "Oh? It''s about time! Where are they?" "They''re still a distance away from the vige, shall we go meet up with them?" "Sure, let''s go!" Lizzy closed the window she was reading and stood up. "By the way, Mary...can you pick up someone and fly with them?" "Huh? Well...I''m not sure, never tried it!" "Let''s try it now! We''ll surprise them!" "Hihihi~ okay!" Maria got behind Lizzy and ced her arms around her friend. She then spread her wings and took off. She started off wobbling and flying unsteadily in the air, but thankfully it was possible to do so the two didn''tically plummet into the ground. Maria soon got the hang of it and the two flew away from the vige. "Lizzy, look over there! That''s them!" "Yeah, I see them...but why''re they running?" "There are people chasing them!" The two girls in the air saw their friends being pursued by a group of 10 yers! They all had a red name above their heads just like Maria''s. In the light faction, having a red name was a little detrimental. You''d be chased by the NPC guards if you entered a town or city and be sent to jail if they ever caught you. In the dark faction, things were a little bit more lenient. As long as your PK count didn''t exceed a certain amount, everything was still okay. Only rare exceptions like Maria who had a rare ss were exempt from this. It didn''t matter how much Maria killed, the NPCs wouldn''t do anything nor would they even dare to do anything. She was the Envoy of the Dark God. If people were to mess with her, then they''d be offending the entire Dark God Temple. Of course, the girl in question didn''t know this at all. "We should go help them Liz!" "You got that right! So these bastards were the reason why Milly and the rest took so long!" "Yeah!" Maria sped up and arrived in the air just above her friends. "Mary, you can let me down now!" "Huh?" "Don''t worry, I''ve got wings too y''know! I may not be able to fly with them like you just yet, but I can still glide!" "M''kay!" "You smash down with [Cmity Cleave]! Try to affect as much of the yers as you can with the stun!" "Right!" Maria let go of her friend and Lizzy immediately spread her draconic wings. Just like she said, Lizzy began gliding down to the ground in arge spiral. After making sure that her friend was indeed okay, Maria found the area where the yers were grouped up the most and she plummeted down from the air with her axe glowing. On the ground, Milly, Amanda, and Zack had already noticed the two people in the skies. They were a little too small to make out from that height, but when they saw them split into 2 with one of them gliding down slowly just above them and the other falling like a meteor on the yers chasing them, they could finally make out who they were. "It''s Liz and Mary!" Milly eximed in surprise. "W-wait! Isn''t Mary going over to those PKs?!" Amanda yelled in shock and the only boy in the group quickly stopped and rushed back. "We gotta help her Sis!" With Zack already rushing back, the two girls immediately stopped and turned around as well. Even if they were going to die today, they wouldn''t leave their friend behind! "Heee~eey wait up guys!" "Hurry it up Liz! Mary''s in trouble!" Milly called out. "Aahh, don''t worry about her! Look!" BBBBOOOOMMMM "AAAHHHHH!!!" "SHIIT!" "WTF?!!!" Screams and roars of confusion and panic sounded out from the yers pursuing Milly and her party. Milly and the rest immediately noticed the confusing yet absurd scene ying out in front of them. They saw a ck winged Angel constantly rising up in the air and cleaving down with arge demonic axe on the yers that were pursuing them. It was incredulous how the girl was just single-mindedly smashing onto one person and ignoring everyone else around her. She even let the attacksnd on her, but it was incredible to see the ck feathers shooting out of her wings in a counter to the attacks thatnded on her. "Th-that''s Mary?! What is she a porcupine?!" "Ahahaha~ pretty strong right? Let''s hurry though. Her HP won''tst if she battles so recklessly like that! I didn''t teach her how to dodge or evade any attacks yet!" "Does she even need to do that?!" Lizzy and the rest quickly jumped into the fray. With Maria rampaging around the battle field it became easy for them to pick off the red-name yers one by one. The initial confusion that Maria had caused had totally ruined the PK party''s coordination. All they were doing now were trying to attack Maria and desperately trying to avoid the ck feathers that shot out of her wings. It didn''t take long before the entire party of pursuing yers was wiped out. [256,728 exp gained] Their levels all ranged between levels 10 to 18, but funnily enough, they couldn''t even take down Maria who was still only a level 7 yer. "Milly, everyone, I''m d you''re all safe~" She walked over while dragging her bloody, demonic axe behind her which left deep gouges on the ground. The rest saw this and could confirm that the weapon was most likely absurdly heavy, but this girl in front of them had been swinging that thing around like it was a twig! "Haha~ we can finally see our cutie in-game! But you sure are absurd! Swinging that heavy thing around and PKing so many people like it was nothing!" Milly said as she grabbed onto her friend''s arm. She then began curiously stroking Maria''s ck wings in the next instant. "Wow! They''re so soft!" "Hihi~ that tickles!" Milly was a small dwarven girl about 130 centimeters tall with auburn colored cropped hair. She wanted to y as a knight and a cksmith so this suited her well. "Mary, good job out there...let me heal yoeh, what? You''re already full!" Amanda walked over with the intention to heal her friend, but for some reason the girl''s HP and MP bar were already full. It was only until Lizzy told her about the passive skill that Maria''s weapon had that Amanda finally understood. "Hey, Zacky~ you''re ying too!" Maria said happily as she looked at the only boy in their group. "Ehehe~ big sis Amanda and big sis Milly forced me to y with them." Amanda and Zack were both elves. Amanda was a tall elf with light green hair and she yed as a druid, a hidden ss of the priestess branch that was exclusive to the demi-human races of the light faction. Zack was a short elf around 160 centimeters with simr colored hair as her sister. He had a pair of daggers strapped to the back of his waist and a small crossbow strapped on his right arm. It was obvious that the ss he was ying was the thief ss. "Heh! Who forced you? When you heard that your big sis Mary was going to be ying, you practically begged Mom and Dad to buy you the FD gear!" Amanda immediately exposed her little brother. The boy had a small crush on Maria ever since he was still a child. Maria would sometimese over to y when they were still younger and Zack was always attached to her waist whenever she came over. "W-what''re you saying sis?! You guys obviously forced me!" "Hmph~ we both know whether or not that''s true! Back me up here Milly!" "Uwaaahhh...sho shoft...hrrmmmphhh..." The dwarven girl was currently being wrapped up in one of Maria''s wings at her request. She was just standing there enjoying the warm fluffiness of her friend''s wings. "Hey, hey, hey! Let''s stop ying around and do what we came here to do!" "Oh, right!" "Lemme add you 3 to the party!" Lizzy sent a friend request to Milly, Amanda, and Zack before adding them to the party. The 3 also sent friend requests to Maria, to which she naturally epted. "Oh! I almost forgot! I have a quest to do in the neutral territory and I can share it with you guys!" "A quest? Lemme see, lemme see!" Milly said excitedly. Maria quickly opened up her [Quest] window and shared the quest she got from High Priestess He. Chapter 20: Neutral Faction Chapter 20: Neutral Faction [Quest: The Envoy''s Might The High Priestess He has encountered many problems with some of the Dark God Temple''s enemies. A young priest candidate for the High God Odin will be on an excursion to the Hignds neutral territory. Kill the priest and his entourage and plunge into despair the High God worshippers and let them know of the Dark God''s might! y Priest Candidate Joseph (0/1) y Guard Captain Heather (0/1) y 50 Guards (0/50) y 50 Novice Priests (0/50) Time limit: 3 days (71:58:29) Rewards: Random ss skill book, random mid-grade pet egg, random Dark God''s blessing, 50 Gold coins, +100 Rep, +200 High Priestess He''s Favor Failure: -1 Level, -100 favorability with all Dark God NPCs, and -50 Reputation points. Note: Quest can be shared with up to 5 people] [yer: Maria, would like to share the quest! ACCEPT/DECLINE] Once her friends saw the quest, only Lizzy was the one that turned excited. She immediately pressed the ept button and the quest was shared with her. It was then that she noticed something. Milly, Amanda, and Zack had an awkward expression on their faces. "Hey, what''s up? Why haven''t you epted it yet?" Lizzy asked. Milly was the one who replied to her question. "The thing is...we justpleted a quest to escort that priest candidate to the neutral territory..." "Oh! Then this''ll be a snap! We won''t need to waste time searching for the quest target~" "..." The 3 light faction yers could only reply awkwardly at Lizzy''s enthusiasm. "Well, this IS a dark faction quest...so there''s a small consequence if we light faction yers ept it..." "And that being...?" "Well, if this was any other quest then we''d probably be good, but it says here we have to kill the priest candidate Joseph...and a whole bunch of other targets..." Amanda replied. "Which means we''ll be making an enemy out of the church...that''s okay for you guys, but for us the consequences would be the loss of every friendly rtion points and our reputation with the church would fall into the negatives and they''d hunt us 3 down...staying in the NPCs cities is no long viable if we ept the quest..." Milly added with a slight tinge of concern in her tone. If they did ept the quest, then their early game progress might be hindered pretty badly. "Eh?! It''s that bad?!" "Oh no! We can''t have that! Amanda, Milly and Zacky, you don''t need to help with the quest if it''s like that!" Maria immediately replied. "S-sorry Mary...even though we really do want to help..." Milly replied. "Hmmm...We could just y around in the neutral territory..." Amanda said. "Th-that''s right, Sis! We could just stick to the neutral territory!" Zack quipped up. He was a little conflicted earlier as well. The boy really wanted to help his big sis Mary, but the consequences seemed a little severe, at least until his sister reminded him of something. "Huh? Milly and the rest were the only ones who were confused. "Hmhm~ I heard about the neutral territory being just a nk te during the Beta Test. It was only a ce for the light and dark BTs to go and PK with each other, but the official release''s neutral territory is a little different!" Amanda said. "Yup! We did some research about it after all!" Zack added in. "Wait a minute...despite being BTs...You guys didn''t bother researching any further and just jumped straight into the game, huh?" This caused the only 2 BTs in the party to reply awkwardly. "Hahaha~" "Busted..." Amanda sighed and continued exining. "The neutral territory also has NPC cities and towns just like the other factions. Unlike in the Beta where there were only NPC viges and outposts that only had the bare necessary NPC shops." "So...even if we did make an enemy out of the light faction or if Maria and Lizzy made an enemy out of the dark faction...we''d all be safe if we just hung around the neutral area?" Milly asked. "Yup! Honestly, this is pretty convenient for us! It''s practically catered for yers who have friends in opposing factions to meet up and y together without worrying about the NPCs ruining our time~" Maria was happy hearing this. Now her friends could ept the quest and help her! The quest rewards were also the same except that the light faction yers like Amanda and the rest, didn''t receive thest 3 rewards, the Dark God''s random blessing, reputation points, and the rtion points with He. "So, are you guys doing it?" Lizzy asked while waving her [Quest] window around. "I''m in!" Zack was the first to reply. The other girls also epted the quest. Right then, the 3 yers'' name colors changed from red to grey. Opposing faction yers, regardless of whether they were added onto someone''s friend list would show in red when on the field. When Milly and the rests'' name color changed to grey from Maria and Lizzy''s perspective, it meant that the 3 now didn''t belong to the light faction, but rather the neutral faction. "Hmmm...Maybe I should change into the neutral faction as well~" Lizzy pondered. "Uhh...I can''t...it says here that might affiliation is locked with the Dark faction..." Maria had the same idea, but when she saw her [Reputation] window, everything else besides the Dark Faction Reputation was all greyed out. "Probably has something to do with your ss Mary, it''s a hidden legacy ss after all~" Lizzy replied. A legacy ss was usually given to a yer by a high ranking member of a faction. So the yer who did receive a legacy ss with have their affiliations locked onto the faction that gave them the ss. "Oh! I see!" "Well, let''s get on with it. Milly, Amanda! Take us over to the quest targets! We''ll get things done in a jiffy!" "W-wait, wait, wait! We should go do some leveling first before we go!" Milly immediately suggested. "Huh? Why?" "Y-you don''t expect us to fight them with our current levels...do you?" "...what level are our targets?" "They''re all level 20-30! The priest candidate is the lowest, but that''s at 20! The guard captain has the highest level which is level 30! The rest range from 23-28...we can''t fight them with our levels..." Maria looked at the party menu and saw everyone''s levels. [Party 1. Lisbet Lv. 16 Warrior (Party Leader) 2. Maria Lv. 7 Dark Priestess (Party Member) 3. Ama Lv. 13 Druid (Party Member 4. Z Lv. 14 Thief (Party Member) 5. Milya Lv. 16 Knight (Party Member) Loot Distribution: Party Leader] She then looked around. The monsters she could see were all level 10s and 20s. Maria bet that if they entered a forest they''d be able to find higher level monsters too. "Alright then, let''s grind our levels for a bit! There''s a 3 day limit! So we''ll grind for 2 days, andplete the quest on thest day!" Lizzy dered. "Hey! You don''t expect us to be ying for the entire day do you?!" Amanda immediately protested. "Nono~ tomorrow''s a weekend so we can y for a bit, right? Besides, we can just sync up our ytimes!" "Your ''bit'' is a whole day!" "Don''t mind the small stuff Ama~" "Tsk...Well, tomorrow is a weekend...I also don''t have any ns, so I guess I''ll tag along. BUT! We''ll only have a 5-6 hour real time gaming session!" "Yes, yes~" Milly raised her hand and asked something that she and Zack were very curious about since earlier. "So yeah, while you two are already in agreement, hu~ge question I wanna ask! Why''s Maria''s level only 7?!" Chapter 21: Discovery Chapter 21: Discovery Since they were her friends, Maria decided to show them her [Status] window and just like Lizzy, they were shocked to see such absurd stats. "W-what''s with that exp number?! That''s totally overkill!" Milly eximed. "But even then...based on her skills and other factors, you could say that she rivals people who are 2 or 3 times her level, right?" "Y-yeah...but that racial exp requirement is pretty steep!" "However, her racial stats multiplier makes up for that!" Amanda argued. "Humu..." While Amanda and Milly were having their debate, Zack was just expressing his heartfelt admiration for his crush. Of course, he still felt a little worried about the traumatic experience that Maria went through to acquire the race she currently had. "Well, now that everyone knows how amazing Maria''s luck is to acquire such a race...since it clearly shows a 10 on her LCK stat..." Lizzy mumbled out thest part before continuing, "Let''s go and grind our levels now!" "Yeah!" The party members replied in unison and they began searching the nearby area for monsters. Well, it was mostly Maria who was looking around and scoping out the area in the air. Once she found a sizeable group of monsters, she flew back down and led her friends over. "Sure is convenient to be able to fly around like that~" Amanda wistfully said as she stared up at her airborne friend. "I wanna fly too~" "As a dwarf...go create rocket-propelled shoes or something." "Huh? That''s like, kinda impossible?" "Dwarves are inventors so do something about it." "We''re cksmiths!" The group quickly encountered the monster group that Maria had found. It was arge pack of 10-15 Dire Wolves. The party had already agreed on a battle n beforehand. Maria would open up the battle with her sky-diving cleave attack. After that, Milly and Lizzy would quickly rush forward with their [Charge] skills to attract aggro. Then, Maria and Zack will be the DPS and slowly grind away at the monsters'' health while Amanda will be in charge of support and healing. As a druid, Amanda did not only having healing spells, but she had some buffs as well. She buffed the party with a [Nature''s Blessing Lv.1] and [Strength of the Wild Lv.1]. [Nature''s Blessing] gave the party a 5% increase in DEF and HP regeneration while inbat. [Strength of the Wild] gave a 5% increase in ATK. Each of buffsted for 5 minutes. For now these were her only buffs, but it was much better than the skills that the normal priest ss could use. Of course, as a druid she had a lower amount of healing spells than her counterpart, but it was a ss more suited for a party that already had 2 healers anyways. Maria was the second healer despite not having even learnt any ss skills yet...and despite the fact that the girl was happily swinging and cleaving away at the monsters while engaged in a melee, not something a healer ss would normally do. The party was able to take down the entire pack of wolves and each gained a sizeable amount of exp that raised their bars by at least 5-10%, with the exception of Maria of course. Now that the party had grown in size, the split was now not just 2-ways like before, but rather 5-ways. Maria was only able to raise her bar by 0.5-2% with each pack of level 15 Dire Wolves they encountered. It was after a dozen or so monster packs that the party dispatched that Maria soon grew bored of it. "Hey~ let''s go to the forest, yeah?" Maria suddenly suggested. "Eh? W-what''re you saying Mary?" Milly asked. "Well...the highest level monsters around us are only Lv.15 Dire Wolves...they''re way too weak if you ask me..." "Geez, that''s because you have absurd stats and skills. Also, you have the [Wolf yer] title! Actually, how did you even get that?" "Well...I dunno? I killed a lot of wolves and got it?" Lizzy, who was contemting her friend''s earlier suggestion suddenly spoke up. "Hrmmm...What Mary said is right...with us 5 we can totally take on higher leveled monsters. Let''s just go to the forests and scout things out!" "You have a point...and if they''re only at levels 20 at the periphery, we can grind the monsters there and slowly make our way inwards to hunt higher leveled monsters!" Milly immediately agreed after taking a look at the system messages. The exp gained was pretty high for a party of 5, but she felt that they could definitely do better. "Alright, let''s go! There''s a forest not far from us in the north!" Maria quickly led her friends to the ce she discovered earlier. [Congrattions, you have found the Almer Forest Dungeon! Rewarded: 2x Drop rate and 2x exp rate for the next week] Once the notification sounded off, Lizzy and Milly immediately burst out in excitement. "WOAH! We actually found an open-field dungeon!" "We even got the 2x drop and exp rate for a week! Sweet!" "With this, we might even be able to raise our levels higher than what we needed to do toplete Mary''s quest!" Zack added. "...I guess 10 LCK really does have some kinda influence in the game." Amanda chuckled lightly. Maria was pretty lucky to suggest going to a forest and inadvertentlying across a dungeon. Lizzy and Milly were both excited. As gamers, being able to raise their levels very fast was super attractive to them. "Let''s go, let''s go!" "Since there''s a dungeon, then there''s bound to be a boss!" "A Boss..." "Loot...gold...exp...uehehehe~" Amanda could no longer bear to look at her 2 friends'' unsightly behavior. "Hey...you two are drooling and acting creepy...stop scaring Mary." The party quickly readjusted their formation. Since this was in a forest, they obviously couldn''t take advantage of Maria''s flight capabilities any longer. Who knows if there are any monsters hiding in the treetops? They had Zack scout out ahead of them, as it was a proper thing to do for a Thief ss yer, and had Maria, Milly, and Lizzy as the vanguards. As usual, Amanda was in charge of healing and support. "Alright, let''s go! We''ll extract everyst drop of juicy exp and loot from this ce in 2 days! Then we''ll go help with Mary''s quest after that!" The party quickly rushed into the forest and they encountered a group of monsters right off the bat. "[Inspect]!" [Forest Goblin Scout Lv. 20] [Forest Goblin Warrior Lv. 22] [Forest Goblin Mage Lv. 25] Chapter 22: This Things Funny Chapter 22: This Thing''s Funny Once everyone saw the little green monsters, Zack went forth to lure one of them over. These monsters'' levels were in the 20s so they had to do a little probing before diving into battle. Maria didn''t understand what Zack was doing, but she readied herself to rush forward. Seeing her act this way, Lizzy came over to ensure her that everything was okay. "No need to tense up like that Mary!" "H-huh? But, Zack, he''s..." "Don''t worry~ as a Thief he''s already got the [Stealth] skill, it makes him invisible to those monsters and other yers who aren''t in the party!" "Oh! That''s convenient! I wish I had that! Where can I learn it?" Maria immediately asked when she heard about such a convenient skill. She thought that if she had such a skill, then the blunders like being surrounded by packs of monsters wouldn''t happen so often! "Uhh...Mary, that''s kinda impossible..." "Why?" Seeing her clueless friend, Lizzy felt a little bad about bursting her bubble. "Well, Mary...that''s because it''s a ss-Exclusive Skill. As a Dark Priestess, you can''t learn a skill from the Thief ss," Amanda answered. "Heh? Aww...no fair..." Lizzy gave her friend a reproachful look. Her face look read, ''why''d you go and do that?'', to which Amanda only shrugged in response. Before Mary could continue wallow in her sadness, Zack hade back with a singr goblin chasing after him. "He~ey! I got one!!" Zack shouted. Before anyone could make a move, Maria had already rushed forward with a p of her wings. Despite only ying for only 2 days now, the girl had be very adept at using her wings, like it was now second nature to her. Maria dashed straight towards the goblin while she in the air half a meter or so above the ground. Flying felt really nice so she began to involuntarily smirk. Once she got within attack range, Maria swung her demonic axe right on top of the goblin''s head. It was a gruesome sight. The axe cleaved right into the middle of the goblin''s head and green blood began gushing out of the wound. -1,040! (Fatal Strike! x8 DMG) Maria tilted her head when she saw the new, blood red colored damage number. Normal a critical strike would be yellow in color while a normal attack would be white. This new color was new to her. "M-Mary! Wait up!" "Don''t forget out strategy!!" Maria''s friends couldn''t believe how fast she had rushed forward. They had clearly seen her AGI stat, and with such a low stat it should have affected her Movement Speed, but apparently that didn''t affect her Flight Speed. This was something that Maria had figured out during her trip to the Teleportation Building with Lizzy. Cmity gave her -5 stats in AGI, so she felt herself moving considerably slower. She felt royally annoyed when she saw other yers moving past her super-fast while she was walking as slow as a snail. Lizzy had to even slow down and match her snail-like pace. It was only when she began to p her wings in annoyance and move a couple of centimeters above ground that she felt herself moving faster again. Apparently, Flight Speed wasn''t affected by any of the negatives in a stat due to equipment. Maria still hadn''t figured out what affected her Flight Speed, but she was nevertheless happy that she didn''t have to walk at a snail''s pace anymore. It did take up a bit of her SP, but with the half-SP effect from her weapon, her regeneration was more than enough to cover her expenditure. So when she wasn''t in battle, she could perpetually stay afloat for as long as she wanted. "Hmhm~" When her friends rushed up to support her, they could all hear the girl humming happily as she swung her axe at the poor goblin... Large quantities of green colored blood flew through the air as the goblin screeched miserably in pain. SQQUEEEEE SCREEEEE Hearing the screeches, Maria stopped her assault andughed at it while turning to her friends. "Hihihi~ this thing''s a little funny~" before she began attacking the little guy again. The rest of the party immediately halted their steps. "Oh my god..." "M-Mary''s too innocent...she''s literally taking this as a game, but she doesn''t understand that what she''s doing...is a little scary..." Amanda whispered, but with a strange smile. "S-sis...y-you''re making that smile..." "Shut it. Well, shouldn''t you guys go and help her? Quickly end this beau-keheum, appalling scene." "..." "..." Milly, Lizzy, and Zack rushed forward to quickly end the scene of their friend happilyughing as she cleaved away at a miserable goblin. [25,600 exp gained (4x multiplier)] "Ohh! That''s a lot of exp points! Two more of these things and I can level up!" Maria happily said. SQQUUUUUEEE KWWEEEEEE The party suddenly heard a noise approach them from afar. When they turned to look at the noise, it was the rest of the goblin pack that they had spotted earlier. The noiseing from the now dead goblin wasn''t only a screech of pain and agony, but more like a signal for backup and now that backup had arrived in the form of 3 goblin warriors, 1 goblin mage, and 1 goblin scout. It was a standard partyposition that yers used. A Mage acting as the Nuke, A Thief as the scout and DPS, and 3 other Tanks or DPS, well 4 in this case since Maria and the rest had just taken down 1 goblin warrior earlier. "Yay! More!" Maria quipped up happily. "W-wait Mary! That''s not a ''yay'', but more like an ''oh no''!!" Milly immediately replied. "They''re weak! We can do this!" Maria''s eyes changed to red and all the goblins in her vision began to spontaneously burst into ck mes. SCREEEE SCREEEE Sounds of pain and agony were immediately raised by the goblins. Mary wasn''t lucky and didn''t trigger the additional effect of [Gehenna''s Eye] on any of the goblins, but it did cause them to stop their charge and it took away arge portion of their HP bars. "Let''s go!" Once again Maria led the charge and she quickly approached the front most goblin warrior and swung her axe at it. Everyone else didn''t stop in ce like earlier. They had also followed after Maria right when she shot forward. Since they couldn''t seem to control this impulsive friend of theirs, the party just decided to go along with her whims. Lizzy and Milly did as they had nned earlier, attracting the aggro of the other monster''s that Maria wasn''t attacking, Zack was just about to offer Maria a helping hand, but then remembered that there was still a goblin mage waiting at the back. He rushed at the mage-ss goblin and began unloading his skills at the fe. Maria swung her axe and vaulted the goblin warrior she was facing into the air. "Oh!" She quickly gave chase and rose into the air just above it and activated her weapon skill [Cmity Cleave]. Her axe began to glow with a demonic light and she swung it down at the airborne goblin and smashed it back into the ground. "Ohoho~ that was so cool!" [Skill acquired: Arc Swing Lv.1] "Hm?" Chapter 23: Grinding the Goblins Chapter 23: Grinding the Goblins Maria quickly dismissed the window and continued attacking the goblin warrior who was now embedded in the ground below her. She flew straight down just above the monster and smashed it again in the head with her axe. [25,600 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] Maria quickly turned around and saw that the others were having an easy time with their monsters as well. "Maria! Go help Zack end that Goblin Mage quickly!" Amanda immediately shouted when she saw that Maria had finished off her goblin. Maria turned to look at Zack and she could see that he was jumping around in circles around the goblin, evading and jumping away from the balls of fire it was shooting at him. The goblin''s HP bar showed that it only had 30% of it left. Maria flew into the air and dived down straight on top of its head with her axe already swinging down on it. SQUEEELLLCCHHHH -2,080! (Fatal Strike x8 DMG) A sickening sound rang through the air as the goblin mage immediately crumpled into ground with its head no longer intact. Maria''s attack had crushed its skull like a watermelonno, it literally exploded. It was odd however that the blood never sttered onto Maria''s clothes or body. Instead it was all attracted onto her demonic axe. Once the axe absorbed the blood it began to pulsate evilly and a green and blue number popped up on top of Maria''s head. +500 +150 This always happened whenever she personally dealt the killing blow to a monster. Maria looked at Zack with a grin and said, "Let''s go help everyone else~" [28,000 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] *DING* [Level up! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] "Ohh! I leveled up! Yay!" Seeing the golden sh surrounding her body, Zack immediately spoke up. "C-congratz...phew...how was she not fazed by the goblin''s head exploding?" He mumbled thetter half and couldn''t help, but look at this happy-go-lucky crush of his. It was frightening enough to hear herugh in the midst of swinging her giant demonic axe at a screaming monster, but now she wasn''t even fazed when she saw all the blood flying everywhere and the exploding goblin head. The two rushed back to Lizzy and Milly''s aid and quickly ended the battle. [76,800 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] [26,400 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] Lizzy took a look at the battle field and couldn''t help but say, "Hey...weren''t these goblins...somehow weaker than during the beta?" "You noticed that too, Liz? They were much stronger during the beta, that''s for sure! The one''s we faced kept stumbling about and screeching from time to time..." Milly agreed. Despite being girls, but none of them were freaking out at the gory scene in front of them. Well, Milly and Lizzy had experience with this since they were BTs, but not Amanda and Zack nor Maria for that matter. Amanda was okay with it since she liked to watch a lot of horror and thriller movies. Scenes depicting of gore and blood was easily brushed off by her. Zack was the only feeling a little queasy, but who could me him. He was still a middle school student. "Okay, pick up the loot and let''s head on deeper into the forest!" Maria said happily. "Wait a minute Mary... Earlier, did you cause those ck mes?" Amanda asked. "Well, yeah! It''s an epic racial skill that I got aspensation from the GMs!" "Huh? I thought thepensation was your axe?" Lizzy immediately spoke up when she heard this. "No it wasn''t~ it was a reward from my ss change quest~" "W-wow..." "Can I see the skill''s description?" Amanda cut in. "Sure~" Maria quickly brought up her [Skill] window and showed the [Gehenna''s Eye]''s description to everyone in the party. Milly and Lizzy immediately expressed their shock and awe at the skill. "W-what the heck?!" "Cheat! It''s a cheat I tell you!" "Ahhh...so this burning effect exins it." Amanda said. "What does Amanda?" The elf girl quickly shared her analysis of their earlier battle against the monsters. "So you''re saying...that the goblins didn''t get weaker, but because of Maria''s skill, the burning effect affected their performance?" "Most likely, you do remember that they''d begin shrieking at us every once in a while during the battle, right?" "Y-yeah...so status ailments now have this kind of effect in the official release huh? I wonder what would happen if a monster or yer was inflicted with [Poison], [Paralyze], or [Confuse]...that''d be pretty interesting to see!" Milly expressed her intrigue. It''s too bad that the team didn''t have anyone that could cause any other status ailments other than Maria''s [Burn]. "Well, once my little brother gets to level 20, he''ll be able to learn the [Apply Poison] skill." When Maria heard the word ''skill'' she immediately remembered something. "Ah! I almost forgot! I actually acquired a skill earlier!" "Huh?" "Eh?" Maria quickly brought out the description of the new skill she had gained earlier. [Arc Swing Lv. 1 (0/100) Rank: D Strike the enemy into the air with an underhand swing dealing 100+(0.5 x STR). Cooldown: 15 seconds] "Oh, it''s a normal skill! Isn''t this what you used earlier?" Milly said in surprise. She thought that her friend was going to be showing them another absurd skill. "Hm? No? It was after I sent the goblin flying that I got it!" "Hmmm...I did see you frequently sending monsters flying since earlier, Mary. I honestly thought that it was a skill!" "Nope, I just thought it was funny to send the monsters flying helplessly through the air!" "Ugh..." "It''s also pretty cool to fly up and m them back down into the ground! It even triggers a stun sometimes!" "Ohh, this is good info!" "Don''t forget, we also now know that through repetitive actions, the system will grant us a skill that without the need to use a skill book!" Amanda joined in. "Okay guys, Zack and I just finished collecting the loot! Let''s continue!" Lizzy walked over with a pale looking Zack in tow. The party continued their exploration of the forest for another 3 in-game hours. They encountered many groups of goblins on their way. The party had agreed to let Maria open up the battle with her [Gehenna''s Eye] before they charged in. There was one time when the party decided to attack the goblins before Maria used her skill and they were in for a tough fight. Without the burn effect of the skill, the goblins'' movements weren''t impaired and they were able to move agilely and cause a whole bunch of problems for Maria and the others. The goblins were small target and they moved around so fast that it was hard for even Maria to strike a goblin with herrge axe. They managed to take down the monsters whenever Maria sessfully hit them with her skill. From then on, it was agreed that Maria would first use her skill before they jumped into battle. During this time, they also figured out the limits of her [Gehenna''s Eye]. First of all, the skill would target anything in Maria''s field of vision, but it was limited to up to 10 targets. Anymore and the skill would just activate at random on any of the targets in her vision. Second, the insta-kill effect was abysmally low for higher leveled monsters. Not once had it triggered in their 3 hour grind session. Since they were fighting against high leveled monsters everyone in the group gained 3-5 levels, except for Maria, she only gained one level. [Party 1. Lisbet Lv. 19 Warrior (Party Leader) 2. Maria Lv. 9 Dark Priestess (Party Member) 3. Ama Lv. 18 Druid (Party Member 4. Z Lv. 19 Thief (Party Member) 5. Milya Lv. 20 Knight (Party Member) Loot Distribution: Party Leader] Chapter 24: Goblin Den Chapter 24: Goblin Den The party continued their trek through the forest for another hour or so, with everyone except Maria gaining another additional level. "Hey, guys...Up front I just found arge horde of goblins surrounding a cave-like opening that led underground...do we check it out?" Zack had juste back from his scouting and quickly reported. He marked the area on the party''s shared mini-map. "There''s a cave? That means it could be their den or something!" "That means...more XP!" Lizzy and Millyughed happily at the news, but Zack felt a little hesitant on charging in to fight. "I said, there was arge HORDE of goblins," Zack emphasized once again before continuing, "By horde, I mean that their numbers were at least 30-40! I didn''t get a clear look because I saw a Hobgoblin in the middle of the horde." "Ah! It''s this dungeon''s boss!" "It''s definitely the boss!" "Yeah...but before we even try attacking the boss...we have to kill the goblin minions first!" Amanda addressed the main issue here. They found the boss, hooray, but if they couldn''t deal with the 30-40 goblin minions, then the only choice would be to just stare nkly at the boss from afar and leave it alone. Rushing in straight on would be an act only done by brainless idiots. Maria looked at her troubled friends. Hearing the 30-40 goblins and the boss, she too was a little put off from attacking them. If they had more yers in their party or even just one more yer, like say, a decent mage, then their problems would be solved. They could just chip away at the horde of goblins from a safe distance with the mage''s spells and Maria''s [Gehenna''s Eye] and have the tanks block their way forward, but unfortunately for them, no one was a Mage. "Phew...maybe I should have yed a mage if I knew Maria was going to be a Priestess..." Amanda mumbled. "Haha Sis, I don''t think that''ll solve anything! I nearly forgot to mention, but all the monsters in the horde has some sort of buff from the hobgoblin boss. I couldn''t read the description, but all the monsters were level 25 or higher." "What the heck...you might as well just send us over to do Maria''s quest if it''s like this!" Maria looked around the area and saw a whole bunch of trees, she then remembered the times when she took advantage of the area to take down her monsters when she was still going around solo. "Hmm...Zack, isn''t there some way we can take advantage of the terrain to kill the monsters? I did that back when I was still ying alone! I was able to take down packs of wolves by myself!" "Huh?" "At that time I didn''t have the Cmity or [Gehenna''s Eye], but it was awfully easy to the point where I thought that the developers purposefully made the monsters easy to kill...but I guess it wasn''t true since I saw new yers struggling to evennd a hit on a Horned Rabbit..." "Ah! That''s true! I had that thought too...but all I saw were trees everywhere!" "Let me go take a look from the air, maybe I can find something." Maria said. She then took off in the next instant. Before her friends could say anything, she was already gone. Amanda quickly opened her mouth and told Zack. "You should go with her...watch she''ll being back because she doesn''t" "Ehehehe~ Zacky~ could youe with me? I don''t know the ce!" "Hihihi~ told ya~" Zack only stared back at his sister and her friends with a deadpanned look. "...Okay..." The two quickly parted ways from the group and went straight towards the goblin den. "Wow...Mary actually did that by herself, huh?" Milly said with a smile towards her two friends. "Well, she''s not stupid. Once she''s learnt a thing or two about the game, she''ll gradually get better!" "But leave it to her to find a solution for us!" Amanda looked at the two BTs exchanging words and couldn''t help but say, "I bet you two could have said something much earlier!" "Yeah, but Mary beat us to the punch!" Lizzy replied. "Eheh~" "..." Deeper into the forest, Zack and Maria had both arrived at the goblin den, from afar Maria could already see the bobbling heads of the goblins. "Ok, I''ll fly up and take a look around!" "Careful, there might be monsters in the treetops." "Un." Maria took off slowly. She vigntly looked around the trees to make sure there was nothing there to attack her. It didn''t take long before she broke through the treetops safely. She moved in the direction of the goblin den and looked down. "Ohh...If I can carry everyone on top of this small hill then we''d be safe...I think..." Maria noticed the small hill that the goblin cave was dug on. It wasn''t really that tall and if the goblins took a roundabout way, then they''d be able to reach them on top of the hill. Shended and noticed that none of the goblins noticed hering down from the sky. Maria looked down from the other side of the hill and noticed that it was a pretty steep incline, maybe around 60 degrees. "Hmmm... we could attract those goblins into an uphill fight...but that might wear us down...I''ll tell the others first though, then we''ll decide." Maria took off again and made her way back to Zack. Once they met up again, the two quickly rushed back to the party and Maria reported her findings. "A steep hill huh...we COULD fight them there...and considering their small legs we could probably do it." "Yeah...but, if we only had a yer who could do ranged attacks, like a Mage or an Archer ss yer, it would''ve been easier..." "Ugh..." When Maria heard the word ''ranged attacks, she suddenly remembered something. "I should have shown this to you before, but maybe this will help?" Maria brought up her skill window once again and showed them her [Angel''s Rage]. "...What the heck? This thing doesn''t have a cooldown?" Milly eximed in shock. "No rank either...Ah, this taint value...is this the skill that turned you into a Fallen Angel, Mary?" Lizzy asked. "Yup!" Maria answered. "This must be that counterattacking skill, right?" "That''s right Milly~" "Wow..." Amanda was surprised to hear this since it clearly said that the skill attacks every enemy within a 10 meter distance of Maria as long as she designates the target. It should be an active skill not a passive counter. "Hey, Maria...what did you designate as the target for this skill?" "Everything that was hurting me!" Maria immediately replied. "Everything...that was hurting you?" "It''s a bit embarrassing, but I was hurting a lot when the wolves were biting me, so when I heard the skill notification, I only blurted out what was in my head at the time." "I-I see..." Amanda replied awkwardly. She had gone and reminded her friend about that traumatizing experience. "So...can you change the targets then?" "Hm?" "Like, this is supposed to be an active skill. Like that [Arc Swing], [Cmity Cleave], and that [Gehenna''s Eye] of yours...I''m sure you can activate it." "Oh! I didn''t think about that! It always seemed to activate on its own so I never really bothered to care about it anymore~" "Well, if we have this we can probably do this...It deals 250 Pure Damage, so a couple of waves of the attack would be enough to fell a goblin. Not to mention it only uses up 50 Mana per activation and considering Maria''s abundance of mana she could totally keep it up until the horde of goblins all died!" The party immediately realized how great this n was and immediately put it into action. First they tried to test whether Maria could select her target by experimenting on some of the patrolling goblins in the forest. It was a sess and it took around 15-20 waves of feathers to kill a goblin. Also, Maria could just designate all the monsters in her field of vision as targets and her feathers would shoot forward in attack. The only limitation would be the uracy. The feathers would only shoot at the target''s initial location. If they dodged away then the feathers shot out would miss entirely and Maria would only be wasting her mana. It was fortunate that her feathers were pretty fast, but after a couple of waves of her attacks, the goblins would soon adapt to the speed and they''d begin dodging. The only way was to burn them with [Gehenna''s Eye] first before killing them off with [Angel''s Rage] which was a huge expenditure of Mana. "Well, this should do, right?" Amanda asked to which Milly and Lizzy replied. "Yeah, let''s just get things over with. If we can''t do it, the worst that''ll happen to us is we die!" "Since we''re all in agreement; Operation Goblin Extermination, start!" Lizzy dered. Zack and Maria only cheered in the back. Chapter 25: Goblin Extermination Chapter 25: Goblin Extermination The party quickly made their way to the hill. They took the roundabout way to get there since it would have taken them too long for Maria to carry them up the hill one-by-one. Milly and Lizzy quickly exchanged a few words once they saw the hill. "Wow, this IS pretty steep." "Y-yeah...at least now we''ll know that those goblins won''t be able to charge at us." "It also means that if one of us loses our footing..." Everyone gulped when they heard thatst statement. If one of them unfortunately lost their footing and tumbled down...thenter what would greet them would be the goblins at the bottom of the hill, waiting to pounce on them and beat them to death. "W-woah...that''s pretty scary to think about..." "Enough! Let''s get up there already! Let''s get rid of the goblins and head into their den! I bet there are plenty of goodies waiting for us in their den~" Lizzy eximed. The party trudged their way up the hill slowly. When they got to the top, they could see down below the horde of goblins. "Alright, Mary, if you''ll do the honors," Lizzy said as she made way for her friend. Maria stepped forward and jumped down. She activated [Gehenna''s Eye] and burnt a couple of the goblins down below. SQQUEEEEEE She stayed flying in mid-air until she got every one of the goblins'' attention. Before the goblin mage''s could fire a spell at her, Maria quickly sent an [Angel''s Rage] and flew back up on top of the hill again. Maria stayed by the hillside and looked down on the goblins. Screams and screeches of rage could be heard the next instant and many of the goblins actually began rushing to the hillside and climbing up. Only the hobgoblin looked up towards Maria before smirking and turning away. Maria was a little surprised to see this. None of the goblins made a detour around the hill to climb up, but they instead just scaled the hillside from this side. "Uhhh, guys...look, they''re climbing up here..." "What?" The party members quickly looked down at the hillside and saw the scene of the goblins climbing up. "Okay..." "This is an unexpected development, but it works to our advantage. Mary you start burning them! Actually, no. Once they''re two thirds their way up the hill, Mary you fly down and start attacking them. At this height, the fall damage could deal some substantial damage to them!" Lizzy said. "Alright!" "You don''t have to attack all of them! If you let some of them past, the rest of us can just kick them down!" The party began waiting for the goblins to make their way up. Once the first wave of climbers passed the two thirds mark; Maria quickly flew down and began attacking them. She didn''t immediately drop them and thought that it''d be a waste to do so right away. "It''s better to damage them a little and then drop them! This way the fall will kill them!" She chipped away at the goblin she was targeting until it was left with half HP before using [Arc Swing] to send it airborne and plummeting into the ground. [26,400 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] When Maria heard the notification, she was satisfied. She began rushing at the other goblins and doing the same thing. She struck at them and sent them plummeting to their deaths. As for the other goblins that made it past her, Milly, Lizzy, and Zack dealt with them. They saw what Maria was doing and had Zack chip away at the HP bars of the front most goblins with his crossbow. "Uhh, everyone...I don''t have that many bolts. I only bought 200 before we left so I don''t think it''ll be enough..." "Just use them all, we''ll deal with the rest once when we cross that bridge!" Amanda replied. Right now, other than being able to buff her friends, she was a little useless. As a druid she did use a staff and she could send ranged attacks at the goblins, but the damage was so miniscule that it was a waste of mana. The party continued their assault on the goblins and Lizzy always reminded Maria to keep an eye on her SP bar. It would be horrific if the girl didn''t pay attention and suddenly lost all of her SP. She wasn''t only flying, but also using her skills so it was bound to deplete soon. After 10 minutes, Maria came back up the hill and sat down to rest. Her effective battle time was only around 10 minutes. If she pushed it, she could probably go up to 12 minutes, but that would be cutting it close. "Alright Mary, you rest for a bit. Once your SP has fully recovered you can go back and do your thing!" "M''kay~" Maria sat with her legs dangling by the hillside. She stared down at the stupid goblins climbing up. She looked around and spotted the Hobgoblin in the distance. It was wholly uninterested and didn''t seem to care that the party of 5 were killing its own minions. "Hmph! Your turn will soone!" Maria used her [Angel''s Rage] on the goblins climbing and chipped away at their HP bars slowly before she burnt them with [Gehenna''s Eye] which sent them plummeting to their deaths. [26,400 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] [26,400 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] [26,400 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] [26,400 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] The [EXP] notifications kept popping up and it was like music to everyone''s ears. Who would have thought that leveling would be this safe and easy! It wasn''t long before Lizzy and the others gained a level. It took them almost an hour to finish exterminating all of the goblins and by that time the entire party had risen by another 4-5 levels. Even Maria had gained another level from the goblin extermination. [Party 1. Lisbet Lv. 25 Warrior (Party Leader) 2. Maria Lv. 10 Dark Priestess (Party Member) 3. Ama Lv. 22 Druid (Party Member 4. Z Lv. 24 Thief (Party Member) 5. Milya Lv. 26 Knight (Party Member) Loot Distribution: Party Leader] The only problem was the gruesome sea of corpses at the bottom of the hill that was blocking the entrance to the goblin''s den. "Alright, gang. Time for us to kill ourselves a Boss!" With Lizzy deration, the party walked down the hill and moved to the clearing where the Hobgoblin monster was waiting for them. "[Inspect]" [Hobgoblin Ul''moru Lv. 35 (Rare/Dungeon Boss) HP: 100,000/100,000 MP: 12,500/12,500 ATK: 300 ~ 400 M.ATK: 100~200 DEF: 200 Skills: 1. Pummel Lv. 10 Strikes target with 3 Consecutive Blows dealing 200 DMG on the first strike and 50% more damage on the subsequent strikes. There is a low chance to stun the target for 1 second 2. Earth Shock Lv. 5 Casts magic to shake the Earth. Deals 500 M.DMG and has a 10% chance to inflict stun for 2 seconds 3. Bloodlust Lv. 2 If Ul''moru''s HP decreases to 50%, his thirst for blood will take over and he will gain an increased 20% ATK SPD and MOV SPD 4. Forest Deity Blessing Heals 1% of HP every 5 seconds and grants every ally within 50 meters +5 levels Ul''moru is an evolved monster that has received a name. Known for his blood lusting cruelty that even his subordinates fear, this monster also capable of casting earth elemental magic and with the blessing of the forest, he has awakened a regenerative ability that makes him nearly un-kible] "Th-that''s some scary stats!" Milly eximed. "1% regen...that means 1000 HP every 5 seconds or 200 every second...we can do this. It''s probably fast like those goblins. So Mary, please keep on burning him whenever [Gehenna''s Eye] is off cooldown!" Lizzy stated. "Okay!" "Milly and I will keep the boss hunkered down and take turns grabbing its aggro, I have around 3k HP and Milly has almost 5k, so we can do this! Amanda, keep the healing steady on us and don''t over heal. Zack and Maria DPS! Maria, don''t overdo it and get OTed okay?" "O-okay?" Zack quickly exined to her, "She means that you don''t have to keep attacking himter. Just do it in moderation and keep track of the DMG charts...actually just keep your DMG around my amountter and you''ll be fine big sis Mary." "Regte your attacks and make sure you don''t idently grab the aggro!" Milly reminded again. Maria quickly understood and brought up the DMG chart and nodded. "Alright, let''s go!" Chapter 26: Boss Fight Chapter 26: Boss Fight The party charged straight at the boss. Maria and Zack waited for a bit until Milly could establish a decent aggro on the boss. Since she was ying as a Knight, she was the main tank while Lizzy was going to be the secondary tank as well as DPS. Knight''s also had much more skills which established aggro than Warriors. Like they''re Passive Skill [Knight''s Devotion], which literal stacks more aggro onto their characters if they were able to sessfully defend or parry a monster''s attacks. [Knight''s Devotion Lv.2 (22/200) Rank: C Passive Skill A Knight''s unwavering determination, increases defense by 6% while inbat. 10% chance to trigger [Taunt] when a sessful Block or Parry is executed] [Taunt Lv. 3 (2/300) Rank: D Active Skill Taunt''s the enemy into attacking the caster. Increases defense of caster by 1%. If the level of the target is higher, the less effective the skill will be. MP Cost: 10 MP Cooldown: 1 minute] With her buffs to defense, Milly was able to cope with dealing against the Hobgoblin''s assault on her own. Not to mention that in Unitale, that if a yer sessfully blocked an attack they would only take 75% of the damage that was supposed to be dealt. If you parried an attack, then you wouldn''t take any damage at all. Of course, there were different types of ''parries''. If you only held up your weapon and stopped an attack, then it wouldn''t be counted as a ''parry'', but a ''block'' instead. Parrying an attack was much more difficult than blocking one since it required exquisite timing and good hand-eye coordination. If you messed up, the attack might just slip in and hit you. You could also evade a monster''s attacks and this wouldn''t cause any damage at all as well. However, for a Knight, evading attacks was one thing they wouldn''t want to do. After all, their [Knight''s Devotion] Skill wouldn''t activate or proc the additional effect if the yer didn''t get hit. Milly''s [Taunt] and [Knight''s Devotion] was already at level 3 and 2 respectively. Along with Amanda''s asional heals, it didn''t take long before the Boss'' aggro was firmly established onto her. Lizzy joined the fray and not long after, Maria and Zack also joined in. "Everyone, watch out!" BOOOMMM Maria always made her entrance like this. She flew up into the sky and cleaved down on the monster with her [Cmity Cleave] skill. It was lucky since she had also managed to stun the hobgoblin, even if it onlysted half the duration it was supposed to. Since she finally learned how to use her [Angel''s Rage] skill as an active and not a passive counter, she sent a wave of her feathers pelting the monster before backing off. Maria also left behind a present in the form of her [Gehenna''s Eye] and applied a burn debuff on the monster. She made sure she kept her damage at the same level as Zack. Zack had started off by firing his crossbow at the Hobgoblin before unloading most of his skills onto the monster. He stacked bleeding debuffs onto the monster with his [Backstab], [Maim], and [Gouge] skills. The bleeding stacked up his DMG pretty high up, but it wasn''t enough to shift the monster''s aggro onto him. 99%...95%...89%... The monster''s HP continued to whittle down. At times it would m the ground with its arms and send an [Earth Shock] at the party. Everyone was somewhat affected by the skill, but only Maria wasn''t. She was always flying around to attack the monster so she was freed from any DMG and the STUN effect. It was the 3 melee fighters who took the brunt of the DMG and at times, they would be stunned, but with a quick [Heal] from Amanda, it was swiftly resolved. Everyone did try to jump up when the [Earth Shock] skill was triggered by the boss when they saw that Maria wasn''t affected by the skill since she was in the air. However, things didn''t go as nned since they would sometimes miss out on the timing and the activation for [Earth Shock] was pretty random. Thanks to the Bleed and Burn debuffs that Maria and Zack continued to stack on the boss, its movements were impaired and the fight became much easier. It was annoying how the [Pummel] skill of the hobgoblin worked. It totally ignored all aggro and the boss would just jump over to someone and begin smashing its club onto them. This was why the current formation was heavily focused around Milly. No one dared to stray too far away from her since she was the only one in the party that could tank out the skill''s DMG. The first target for [Pummel] was Lizzy so everyone was able to quickly find out about this peculiar mechanic. If it was their healer, Amanda, then the party would have wiped pretty early on. 60%...55%...52%... "Alright, guys! Get ready! It''s almost at half HP! Keep the Bleed and Burn up, you two!" "Yes!" "Right!" Zack and Maria responded, it was a little exhausting since they were facing against this boss for over 10 minutes now. The stupid thing''s HP regeneration was so high that it rendered plenty of their DMG useless. "Guys, its attack pattern will probably change! Everyone should stick close to Milly and Me! Maria you stay in the air and keep sending your feathers at it!" "R-right!" Amanda quickly made her way behind Milly, while Zack and Lizzy continued attacking the goblin. Amanda would asionally heal the rest of the party when they took damage from the monster''s [Earth Shock]. She would mostly save her healing skills for Milly since she was the main tank and took most of the DMG. "Guys! Here hees!" Once the Hobgoblin''s HP went down to 49%, it immediately began roaring. Its green skin began turning red and its fangs grew out. The boss'' green eyes also began glowing and its body buffed up. "W-what the heck?!" It immediately used its [Pummel] skill, but not on anyone. Instead, it used the skill on the ground. When it struck the ground 5 times, 5 [Earth Shocks] were triggered. "SHIT!" "Back off! Back off!" Maria was okay since she was in the air, continuing to pelt the monster with her feathers, but when she saw the situation down below she knew immediately that her friends were in trouble. She immediately swooped down and picked up Amanda. She was the healer of the party and also the one who had the lowest amount of HP. If she took the attack head on like this, then no amount of healing could keep her alive. "Th-thanks Mary!" "No problem!" Maria looked around and found a branch to set her friend on. "Wh-why here?" "Hm? Well, can your healing still reach them?" "Let me try!" Amanda quickly casted [Cure] onto Milly, with her heavy armor, she couldn''t escape from taking on the full brunt of the 5 consecutive [Earth Shock]s and was currently left with only 11% HP left. +480 "Woah!" "Awesome! Now you''re safe to heal from here!" "Yeah! Nice going Mary!" Maria giggled as she swooped down again on the monster. The enraged hobgoblin was smashing its club onto everyone around it. It was no longer affected by the aggro and just attacked everyone indiscriminately. "What the hell!" "Damn, we can''t get close!" Zack and Lizzy cursed. They had been struck by the boss'' previous outburst, but they were able to dodge on or two of the [Earth Shock]s. They took HP potions to heal up so they didn''t really need to rely on Amanda''s heals. "Milly, are you alright?" "I''m fine! But this thing''s DMG is higher than before! This isn''t only a 20% increase!" "[Inspect]" Lizzy yelled out. [Ogre Ul''moru Lv. 35 (Rare/Dungeon Boss) HP: 100,000/200,000 MP: 7,500/12,500 ATK: 400 ~ 500 M.ATK: 100~200 DEF: 200 An evolved hobgoblin whose evolution was catalyzed by the Forest Deity''s blessing and its blood lusting rage] "Ohhh shit! Hey this thing''s evolved!" "What?" "I can''t see its skills anymore and it''s turned into an Ogre!" Chapter 27: Boss Fight 2 Chapter 27: Boss Fight 2 "You have got to be kidding me! It''s HP doubled?!" "...that means the regen..." +2000 "DAMN!" A green number shed on top of the Ogre''s head. The boss monster had evolved and so did its skills. The HP regeneration was so high now that it left the party dumbfounded. Milly continued to tank the monster''s attacks, but you could practically see her HP plummeting even when she was stacked with defense buffs and Amanda''s heals and buffs. "We needed more people to raid this boss! It''s impossible for us now!" The monster''s HP had begun to regenerate. Only Milly, Maria, and Zack were doing any damage to it while Lizzy didn''t know what to do. If she stepped in to attack it, the monster''s aggro would suddenly shift onto her instead! "Hey~ this thing doesn''t worry about aggro anymore, right?" Maria asked while in the air. "Y-yeah!" "Then...I can attack it freely now?" "Huh? S-sure?" Maria smiled happily when she heard this. She immediately swooped down with her feathers still bombarding the boss. Her MP was still at half, but the asional potion she took was enough to bring her MP up by 500 points. The potions in Unitale did not have a cool down. As long as you could open it, shove it down your mouth and drink it, the potion would work. The quick slots that Lizzy had exined to Maria were only about the slots or pockets on her equipment that would let her have easy ess to the potion. This way, she wouldn''t need to bring out the menu and pull out a potion all the time. She kept her MP up to 80% all the time and of course, this naturally burned through her MP potions. Lizzy had traded 20 potions to her and she had already used 5 of them since the start of the battle. When Maria arrived close to the boss, the monster immediately noticed her and waved its club in a flurry. Maria dodged by flying up before abruptly dropping on top of its head with a [Cmity Cleave] -1500!! (Fatal Strike! x8 DMG) The attack immediately stunned the boss. It was struck directly on top of its head and there was no way for it to escape that stun. Maria stayed in mid-air as she kept swinging her axe back and forth on to the stumbling ogre''s head. -165 -165 -165 ... ... Seeing her go at it, the rest of her party immediately jumped into the fray. Maria was either very clueless, or she was just really brave. The girl had just rushed in like that with no preparations and just mmed her axe onto its head. When the stun duration ended, the ogre roared at Maria and was just about to smash its club onto her body, but Maria quickly activated [Gehenna''s Eye] and burn its eyes and face. GROOOOOAARRRR -378! A roar of pain sounded out and the ogre began grabbing its head. "Got it!" Everyone else in the party had been paying attention to its status the entire, so when another new debuff appeared... "Hey! Look! It''s status!" "Blind?!" "You could do that?!" "We should have poked its eyes out much earlier!" "Come on! We can do this! Even if it can regenerate its eyes, Mary, you burn them up again!" "Okay~" The party pushed forward and attacked the monster with reckless abandon. It was still in pain from having its eyes burnt out and was only swinging its club randomly. This made it easy for the melee yers of the party to close in and attack. 53%...49%...45%... When the Ogre''s eyes were regenerated, its HP had whittled down to 35%. It roared in rage and immediately eyed Maria who was in the air. It jumped up and mmed its club down onto the girl. Maria immediately backed up and evaded the attack. Before the ogre fell back down, Maria followed up with an [Arc Swing] which sent it flying into the air once again and she chased after before mming a [Cmity Cleave] on its defenseless body and smashing it into the ground again. "The stun''s up again! GOGOGO~!" Lizzy screamed in excitement. The party once again bombarded more attacks onto the boss and Maria blinded again it by gouging the eyes out with her feathers after failing to burn them with her [Gehenna''s Eye]. They whittled down the boss monsters just like this. It was a very chaotic fight with Maria constantly smashing and bashing the monster around with her axe and her friends were just unloading skill after skill onto the boss. No one cared to keep track of the aggro anymore since the monster had long since stopped operating like a normal monster. 10%...5%... "Alright, it''s almost dead! Ist push go" SCHHHLIIIIICCCCCKKKK -10,000! The fight was quickly brought to a screeching halt when Maria swung her axe and beheaded the ogre and causing a fountain of green blood to spew into the air from the monster''s neck. [800,000 exp gained (x8 multiplier)] [Level up! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your Party has defeated the Hidden Boss of the dungeon Almer Forest, would you like to announce your names in the World Announcement? YES/NO] "..." "...What happened?" Everyone except Maria had gained at least 3-4 levels once the boss fell, but they were all too dumbfounded by what happened. The boss still had 5% of HP left, but all of a sudden Maria had dealt a huge amount of DMG to it and beheaded the thing. "Uhhh...guys, I think my weapon''s [Behead] skill triggered..." Maria answered. "Wait, wasn''t that only supposed to have a 1% chance to proc?" "It''s the weapon''s 4th skill that raises the effect to 10% when the target''s HP is lower than 10%~" Lizzy answered her bewildered dwarven friend. "Oooohhh..." "Who cares? We won! Hahahaha~" The party rejoiced since they won, but then everyone turned their attention towards therge floating window in the middle of the field. "Should we?" "Meh~" "Dun care" When Amanda asked, everyone gave a very uncaring answer and even Zack only shrugged. She then turned towards her Fallen Angel friend who was currently busy letting her axe suck in all of the dead ogre''s blood. +40,000 +1250 Amanda immediately knew that her friend could careless as well. "Well, why not? We can also post it onto the forums to attract attention to us. We n on making a guild right?" "Yeah sure~" "Meh~" After receiving Milly''s okay and Lizzy''s ''meh'', Amanda tapped on the [YES]. [World Announcement: Congrattions to party: 1. Lisbet Lv. 29 Warrior (Party Leader) 2. Maria Lv. 11 Dark Priestess (Party Member) 3. Ama Lv. 26 Druid (Party Member 4. Z Lv. 28 Thief (Party Member) 5. Milya Lv. 29 Knight (Party Member) For the extraordinary achievement of being the first to defeat the Hidden Boss of Almer Forest, Ogre Ul''moru Rewards: Level +1, 50 Gold Coins, 5 FSPs, 1 Random Treasure Chest, +100 Reputation Points] "Sweet!" "Nice, we hit Level 30 Liz!" "Just 20 more levels until we can upgrade our ss!" Milly and Lizzy were ecstatic at the level reward. They didn''t seem to care about the other rewards. Maria was also pretty satisfied. She had gained a lot of levels today despite her absurd EXP requirements. "Hey guys~ let''s go check out that cave! We still haven''t gotten any loot from the boss yet!" Zack called out. Everyone quickly shuffled their way over to the cave and Zack went in to scout. It didn''t take him long to walk out with a beaming smile on his face. "Guys, you shoulde in and take a look! We''ve struck it rich this time!" Chapter 28: L-L-L-LOOT Chapter 28: L-L-L-LOOT The Milly and Lizzy immediately rushed into the cave, not long after shrieks and squeals of happiness rang out. "A-are they okay?" Maria asked. Amanda only massaged her eyes and replied, "Don''t worry...I bet there''s a ton of gold inside..." "GUYS!!! There''s so much gold in here!!" "..." "..." Maria looked at Amanda and his brother and asked again, "Shouldn''t we go in?" "Nah, let them carry out the rewards for us~" "Y-yeah, big sis Milly and Lizzy always loved sorting out through the drops and reward...its best if we don''t interfere..." "Okay?" It didn''t take long for Milly and Lizzy toe out with beaming smiles. "So...what''d we get?" "Here! Lemme show you!" Lizzy was the party leader and the loot distribution was set for the party leader to distribute to the rest of the party. [ - 100,000 Silver Coins - Forest Jewel Cloak x2 - Forest Jewel Hood x1 - Forest Jewel Staff x1 - Forest Jewel Boots x2 - Forest Jewel Skirt x1 - Red Giant''s Maul x1 - Red Giant''s Shield x1 - Red Giant''s Helmet x2 - Red Giant''s Cuirass x2 - Red Giant''s Boots x1 - Skill Book: Pummel x1 - Skill Book: Enrage x1 - Spell Book: Earth Shock x2 - ... - ... - ... ] The list kept going down. They had a very, very abundant harvest. The party got enough Silver to make 1,000 gold. If they split it evenly each member got 200 gold. It was a pretty bountiful at this current stage of the game. Then there were the equipment and skills they got. They also acquired a bunch of other misceneous items such as crafting items for cksmiths, alchemists, cooks, and tailors. They could sell all of this at the market or just keep it to themselves. However all the crafting materials were all rare grade items and it was a shame to just sell them away. Since Milly was already nning to be a cksmith, she took away all the crafting materials for that lifestyle ss. Amanda thought it''d be great to be a tailor for the party since they had 3 leather and cloth armor users. Lizzy could also be included in the count since a warrior could use both heavy armor and light armor as well. She took the tailoring items with her and that left the alchemy and cooking items. Zack was already nning to be an alchemist sine they could also create poisons which were suited for his ss, so he took those materials away. And everyone shoved the rare cooking ingredients to Maria. Despite how she is, Maria was actually pretty decent working around the kitchen. She had free time to herself all the time so she loved to make food for herself. She also had her family''s chef teach her so she became somewhat good at it. "Ohhh! I didn''t know you could be a Chef here!" "It''s a lifestyle ss and you can have up to 2 of these sses! The sses give some boosts to your stats so make sure you take one or two upter!" Lizzy answered. "M''kay~ but what about you Liz? Not taking up any lifestyle sses yourself?" "Hm? Well, I''m going to be a merchant so I won''t be needing any of those...what I''ll be needing are the products that you guys sessfully craftter!" "Ohhh~ so you''re just going to be a trader like your Dad?" "Yep~" Once everything was divided between everyone in the group, they turned their attention to the most important pieces, the equipment and the skill books. "Well, we got 2 full sets of equipment with some extras..." "Set Equipment for warriors, knights, and priests..." [Forest Jewel Staff Rank: Rare Category: Forest Jewel Set Weapon Damage: 75 ~ 125 AGI + 20 VIT +15 INT +35 Weapon Skill 1: [Cleanse]: Purifies all poison rted debuffs on target. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Restrictions: Priestess-rted ss Level Requirement: 30 Set Bonus: 1. 2 Equipment: Increases HP by 2000 2. 3 Equipment: Increases MP by 1000 and INT by 20 3. 4 Equipment: Acquires Skill: [Radiant Heal]: Heals 20% of targets HP 4. 5 Equipment: Increases all healing potency by 10% ] [Red Giant''s Maul Rank: Rare Category: Red Giant''s Set Weapon Damage: 150 ~ 200 STR +50 VIT +30 AGI -5 Weapon Skill 1: [Maul]: Has a 20% chance to inflict a 1 second stun on the target with each attack. Restrictions: Warrior & Knight-rted sses Level Requirement: 30 Set Bonus: 1. 2 Equipment: Increases HP by 2000 2. 3 Equipment: Increases STR and VIT by 40 3. 4 Equipment: Acquires Skill: [Giant''s Fortitude]: Increases DEF by 20% for 60 seconds. Cooldown: 90 seconds. 4. 5 Equipment: Increases ATK and DEF by 10% ] "Well...the Forest Jewel Set should go to either Amanda or Maria, right?" Milly said. "Yup, and the Red Giant''s Set should go to..." "Me!" Milly and Lizzy said in unison. Surprised, they looked at each other in the eyes. Milly was the first to open her mouth. So with clear derision in her voice she said, "Oi, what''re you saying? Don''t you see all those increase in DEF?" "Hah? The equipment all has a pretty high ATK stat and it also boosts ATK and STR, what''re ya, blind?" "Oi, open your eyes a little, you stupid lizard." "What''s that pipsqueak? You wanna go?" "Haaahhh??" "Haaaahhh??" Amanda and Zack were smiling wryly at their exchange. This was the usual pattern whenever they yed together. These two for some reason would always pick sses that were rted to each other and they''d ALWAYS fight over the loot. Maria was happily sifting through her cooking ingredients and thinking about what kind of food would be good to maketer. "Ah! I don''t have any pots or pans...I should go buy themter!" Amanda walked over to Maria and asked, "Mary, do you want the equipment?" "Hm? No, not really...you''re the healer in the party Amanda, so you take them! I''ll be fighting a lotter so I''ll leave my back to you~" "Eheheh~ okay, thanks Mary! There''s still some leftover equipment for us priest ss so you should at least switch out of those~" "Ah...that''s the problem Amanda...did you forget? You need to be level 30 to equip those, right?" "Yeah, soooohh...I see..." "Ahahaha...it''ll take me a LOOONNGGG time to get to level 30! By that time, maybe I''d already found some pretty decent equipment for myself~" "Well, thanks for the equipment then Mary. I''ll sell the leftovers and give the money to you." "Alright~" The Priests in the party had alreadye to an agreement and so did Milly and Lizzy. They settled the deal by using the good old dice roll. "GO!!!" "HAAAHHH!!!" 96... 4... "WHHHHHYYYYYY????!!!!" Lizzy screamed in despair. "UWAHAHAHAHA~" Milly wasughing in delight at her friend''s misfortune. She had rolled a 96 while Lizzy only a 4. The disparity was like a gulf between two oceans and the equipment all went to Milly. Since the girl was already level 30, she immediately swapped out her old equipment and equipped the Red Giant''s Set. "Woah! You look so cool Milly~" Maria immediately praised once the girl equipped the full set. Amanda wasn''t level 30 yet, so she could only store the equipment inside her inventory. Lizzy was still on the ground crying. Milly went over with a smile on her and smacked the Pummel Skill Book on her face. Lizzy looked a little touched at this. "M-Milly...YOU BITCH!!!" "Ahahahaha~" Nope, she was not touched. Seeing the full body set equipment that Milly was unting right in her face, Lizzy couldn''t help but grow envious. [Pummel Lv.1 Rank: C Strikes target with 2 Consecutive Blows dealing 100+(STR x 1.0) DMG on the first strike and 10% more damage on the subsequent strikes. There is a low chance to stun the target for 1 second. MP Cost: 100 MP Cooldown: 20 seconds Requirement: Warrior-rted ss] Lizzy could only stare in envy at Milly, but she quickly patted the skill book on her body and learnt the skill. "This [Earth Shock] is a magic spell...that means only a mage could learn it...or if someone from among us could somehow read thenguage and learn it...but who would?" [Earth Shock Lv. 1 Rank: C Casts magic to shake the Earth. Deals 100+(INT x 1.0) M.DMG and has a 10% chance to inflict stun for 1 second. MP Cost: 200 MP Cooldown: 30 seconds Requirements: Mage-rted ss Optional Requirements: [Linguistic] and [Magic Comprehension] Skills] No one in the party was a Mage so they couldn''t instantly put the book to good use. They could sell it, but no one in the party wanted to do that. Just from how the Ogre Ul''moru had used the spell, it was pretty powerful. Rather than letting someone else buy it off of them and use it against them one day, it was better to just use it for themselves. "Can I have it?" Everyone turned towards Maria who had opened her mouth. "You want it Mary?" "Yeah! I''ll learn how to read it and learn the spell myself!" "You sure?" "Yeah! I wanna cast Magic!" "Eh?" "I read about the Mage ss earlier and I thought it would''ve been better if I became a Mage instead of a Dark Priestess...being able to use magic sounds so cool! Hmmm...maybe I should change my ss?" "NO, don''t you dare!" Lizzy eximed. "Whuh?" "Don''t you see how rare that Dark Priestess ss is?! Mary, you could still learn magic spells from [Linguistics] and [Magic Comprehension]! It''ll take a while, but you can still learn it! Understand?" "Mhm!" "Since you understand, don''t go changing your ss, y''hear?!" "Okay, okay~ Looks like I''ll have to hit the library afterpleting my quest~" "Speaking of that...our Levels are pretty high now, right? Let''s log out to eat and do whatever before logging back in after another 2 hours andplete Maria''s quest, alright gang?" "Yeah, sure!" "Sounds good to me!" "Let''s head back to Almester Vige first!" Chapter 29: I Hate This Chapter 29: I Hate This Everyone logged off of the game and went about to do their things in the real world. Once the agreed time was close, Maria logged back into the game. She took a look around the vige and didn''t see any of her friends around yet. She sat around the vige entrance and decided to open the spell book that she obtained earlier. "Uwahh...I really can''t read a single character from this book!" She flipped through the book and it was all indescribable gibberish with some otherworldly illustrations. "Th-this might be harder than I thought..." While Maria was having a ring contest with the book in her hands, her friends began to materialize behind her one by one. Maria was so focused with the book in hand that she didn''t notice. "Hey guys...watch this~" Lizzy crept up behind Maria. When she got close she immediately lunged forward and grabbed onto Maria''s sides. "KYAAAAHHHH!!!" And up she went. Maria was so surprised that she shot straight up into the air. "Wh-wh-wh-what was that?!" She turned around and saw her friends beaming at her from the ground. "Oh! Everyone''s here~" She quicklynded and smiled at her friends. "Alright, let''s go?" Lizzy brushed off her earlier prank and addressed the team. "Yeah! I''ll lead the way so follow me!" Milly offered. With Milly leading the way, the party made their way northeast of Almester Vige, the direction which Milly, Amanda, and Zack hade from while being chased by the PK party. They travelled for about an hour or so before they saw some smoke rising in the sky. When Milly noticed this, she immediately pointed at the direction of the smoke and yelled. "That''s them!" "You sure?" Lizzy asked. "Yup! The captain said they were going to be camping out in the neutral territory for about a week to meet up with someone before setting off again." "Alright, let''s go then! The difficulty might increase if we wait for them to meet up with whoever they''re waiting for. Hurry, hurry!" The party quickly rushed forwards and got within the vicinity of the campsite. Maria rose into the air from a distance and observed the NPCs moving around the camp. She quickly spotted her main quest targets, the guard captain and the priest candidate sitting together at the center of the camp. She continued observing them and suddenly noticed that the two getting up and moving towards thergest tent. When they disappeared inside the tent, Maria quickly swooped back down and reported it to her friends. "Now''s the time to strike!" Milly and Lizzy said in unison. "..." "..." "Oi...stop copying me," Lizzy demanded, to which Milly countered with, "Why don''t you stop copying me?" "Alright, that''s enough you two...anyways, what you both said were correct. With the 2 bosses gone, we can quickly take care of the small fry." Amanda quipped. "Let''s go!" "First targets are obviously..." "The Priests!" Once the party made their decision, they had Maria scout the camp site again for the location where the priests were most concentrated in. "It''s on the western side of the camp! About 60-80 meters from where you guys are standing!" The party quickly adjusted their positions and snuck to the west side of the camp. Along the way, they were able to avoid some of the patrol squads situated around the camp thanks to Maria''s heads up. "Alright, we''re in position. Maria, you open things up as usual and we''ll rush ahead once they''ve got their attention on you!" Lizzy said. "Yes sa~" Maria once again rose into the air and opened up the party''s assault with her usual dive plus [Cmity Cleave] which sent the priests into disarray once they saw the Fallen Angel appear in their midst. "It''s a monster!!" "Kill it! Hurry up and get into position!" "Oh no you don''t! HIYAH" Maria quickly dashed towards the Priest who was giving out orders and sent him flying into the air with an [Arc Swing] and mmed him back into the ground and burning him with [Gehenna''s Eye]. "It''s the mes of hell!" "Hurry up and put it out! Put it out!!!" "AAAHHHHH!!!" The chaos and panicked cries surprised Maria. She continued to cleave down with her axe and attacked anyone near her, but she began to falter when she saw the NPCs pained and frightened faces. "Ah...but..." "Mary, don''t falter!! Remember this is only a game!" Maria immediately heard her friend''s voice resounding from behind her. Lizzy was shing the NPCs that were creeping up behind Maria who had paused her attack after faltering a little. "Eh...but..." "This is why quests that targets NPCs are the hardest to do! Forget about looking them as humans, but as monsters instead!" "..." "We''re going to fail the quest if you act like this Maria!" "Yeah...but..." "It''ll only be this once! Next time, just don''t take quests with NPC targets alright?!" "O-okay..." "Now, let''s get to it! The faster we finish this, the quicker we can get out of this hell!" Maria''s eyes hardened and she steeled herself. When she was cutting down the NPC Priests earlier, the screams and roars were all too real for her. She actually felt like she was cutting down an actual human, not someputer character. The worst part of it all was that with every swing of her demonic axe, blood would fly through the air and it was dying her axe red. "Okay...they''re just monsters...just monsters...like...those wolves..." Maria rose up into the air again and cleaved down on a Priest. [40,000 exp gained! (x4 multiplier)] [y Novice Priests (1/50)] Maria tried very hard to imagine that the priests were all wolves instead. With this she was able to cope with the killing somewhat and it didn''t take long before she reached half of her quota before the NPC guards arrived to back up the priests who were causing amotion from earlier. [y Novice Priests (30/50)] [40,000 exp gained! (x4 multiplier)] [Level Up! Lv.12 Lv.13! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Skill Level up! [Arc Swing] Lv.1 Lv.2 & [Angel''s Rage] Lv.2 Lv.3] Maria quickly dismissed the message windows and continued ughtering the NPCs. "Guys! The Guards are here! Let''s hurry and wrap things up! The bosses might already be on their way!" Amanda yelled. "Shit! If only we had a mage! This''d be much easier!" Millyined. The party continued ying the priests until they quickly finished the quest objective. [[y Novice Priests (50/50)] [40,000 exp gained! (x4 multiplier)] [Objective Complete!] The priests were a little bit time consuming because they were constantly healing one another, but the party didn''t find the job any difficult because the priests all had very low attack power and couldn''t deal too much damage to the party. It was the Guards that were hard to face against. Although they didn''t have any healers to support them anymore since the party was able to finish off thest of the priests, the guards were well coordinating well with one another and was pushing the party back a little. [y Guards (1/50)] [50,000 exp gained! (x4 multiplier)] "Woah! These guys give lots of exp!" "I''ve leveled up at least a couple of times just from ying the priests! Man, Maria''s quest is a literal exp bomb!" "Let''s go, let''s go! Take me out before the bosses reach us!" The party had leveled up quite a bit from ying the NPCs. Experience points gained from ying monsters and NPCs were vastly different. NPCs naturally gave out more experience points than monsters and right now, Maria''s party was leveling up like a rocket. When the 10 NPC guard was felled, Maria leveled up once again. [y Guards (10/50)] [50,000 exp gained! (x4 multiplier)] [Level Up! Lv.13 Lv.14! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Skill Level up! [Arc Swing] Lv.2 Lv.3 & [Angel''s Rage] Lv.3 Lv.4] Maria was constantly using her skills as well and with the experience gained from using them on NPCs they were leveling up pretty quickly as well. This was the same for the rest of her party members. However, with each guard that Maria felled, the expression on her face continued to crumple and darken. With each swing of her axe, she felt pained when she heard the words of the NPC guards that were calling out to their fallenrades,rades who fell under the de of her axe. "MONSTER!" "KILL HER! KILL HER!!" "HERMES! DAMN YOU! I''LL AVENGE YOU, BUDDY!" "FCK! FCK! KILL THIS BITCH! KILL HER! SHE GOT MILES!" Maria would have long since fled if it wasn''t because of her friends telling to push on and ignore the NPCs. They were justputer data and they were her quest objectives. "Phew...I hate this..." [y Guards (38/50)] [50,000 exp gained! (x4 multiplier)] [Level Up! Lv.14 Lv.15! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] When Maria yed the 40th guard, the 2 bosses, Guard Captain Heather and Priest Candidate Joseph quickly came back to support the remaining 10 guards. "Sniff...I hate this..." "Mary...there''re only 12 left...we''ll get out of here after we quickly finish them off..." "Mhm..." Maria nodded. Tears were already brimming in her eyes and were threatening to fall. [Requirement Achieved! Skill: [Angel''s Compassion Lv. 1] acquired] Chapter 30: Angels Compassion Chapter 30: Angel''s Compassion Maria wasn''t happy to see the message box so she quickly dismissed it. The party braced themselves for a tough fight once they saw the 2 bosses. "Alright everyone...we have to get rid of the healer and mobs first, we''ll deal with Captain Heatherter..." "[Inspect]" [Guard Captain Heather Lv. 40] (Rare-Elite Boss) HP: 500,000/500,000 MP: 50,000/50,000 ATK: 600 ~ 800 M.ATK: 300~400 DEF: 400 Captain of the Sacred Temple''s 12th Division''s 10th Squadron, currently on a mission to escort a Priest Candidate to the neutral territory''s Hollua City] [Priest Candidate Joseph Lv. 35] (Rare-Elite Boss) HP: 250,000/250,000 MP: 80,000/80,000 ATK: 100 ~ 200 M.ATK: 600 ~ 800 DEF: 250 Skills: 1. Cure Lv. 10 Heals the target for 20% of their max HP. Cooldown: 30 seconds. MP Cost: 500 MP 2. Hi-Cure Lv. 2 Heals target for 10% of their max HP and heals all surrounding allies within 10 meters of the target by 5% of their max HP. Cooldown: 2 minutes. MP Cost: 1000 MP 3. Protect Lv. 5 Casts a barrier around the target reducing all iing physical damage by 25%. Cooldown: 5 minutes. MP Cost: 1500 MP 4. Heal Lv.10 Cleanses all debuffs on the target and grants an immunity to all debuffs for the next 10 seconds. Cooldown: 5 minutes. MP Cost 500 MP A young priest candidate heading towards the neutral city Hollua toplete his ascension to a priest] Once Lizzy shared the two bosses stats, everyone except for Maria charged towards the boss. Maria had a different task. She rose in the air and dove down to at 10 remaining guards that were surrounding the two bosses and opened up a path for her friends. While the rest of her party was going to be keeping the boss busy, she would eliminate the remaining 10 guards before joining them. "Captain! SAVE US!" Maria couldn''t help but grimace whenever she heard their shouts. However, this was a quest and she need toplete it. When she remembered the consequences of failing the quest, Maria frowned a little. If she failed the quest then so would her friends, and they''d lose levels because of it. All the hard work they put effort into for today would wind up being all for nothing if they failed. "SHUT. UP!!!" Maria yelled out and cleaved down on one of the guards. [y Guard (41/50)] [50,000 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] Maria continued killing the rest of the guards until thest one fell. [y Guard (50/50)] [50,000 exp gained] [Objective Complete] When Heather saw thest of the guards killed, the NPC immediately bellowed out in rage, "YOU!!! HOW DARE YOU KILL MY SQUADRON!!!" [Warning! Warning! Guard Captain Heather has turned berserk! ATK increased by 50% and DEF has decreased by 70%] Heather locked eyes with Maria and charged at her. "DIIIEEEE!!!" The Guard Captain''s sword began to glow red as it was shing down onto Maria''s body. Maria was surprised to see the Guard Captain almost instantly arrive in front of her, she panicked and quickly backed away with a p of her wings, but the sword was able to hit and slice off the tip of her wing. "AAHHH!!" Maria screamed in pain. For some reason, she actually felt the realistic pain of her wing being sliced off. Heather was just about to charge forward again and attack, but she had to dodge away and parry the ck feathers flying at her. "Mary?! Are you okay?!" "Y-yeah...but...the pain parameter...it''s set on low, but I felt the pain from her cutting off the edge of my wing!" "What?!" "Is it another bug?" "Mary, be careful! Try to avoid all of her attacks! Once we finish off Joseph, we''lle to you!" "O-okay!" "Try to draw Heather away while we deal with Joseph! We don''t want his heals tond on her!" Maria nodded and kept her distance. She drew away Heather from the rest of the party. It was pretty easy since captain was in a berserk state and kept on aiming at her. She didn''t try using any melee attacks and only kept on sending her feathers and a [Gehenna''s Eye] at the NPC. The cat and mouse chase continued for another 30 minutes, before a tragic yell was heard from afar. "NO! JOSEPH!" Heather snapped out of her berserk state when she heard this scream. [y Priest Candidate Joseph (1/1)] [400,000 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] [Objective Complete] The Guard Captain took off the helmet they were wearing. A beautiful face was revealed and tears were running down profusely from her eyes. "You...you demons took away my son!" "Huh?" "My son...my one and only son...Kill...Just kill me..." *DING* [Guard Captain Heather has lost all intentions of fighting. Hidden requirement met! [Angel''s Compassion] activated!] With Heather, who actually turned out to be Joseph''s mother, kneeling down in front of her, Maria was at a loss. Another notification window popped up in front of her. [Heather is pleading for death, will you grant her this mercy or will you let her live in grief and despair? Activate [Angel''s Compassion]? YES/NO] [NOTICE! Your actions will bear consequences in the foreseeable future, please choose wisely!] "..." Maria looked down at the NPC and felt saddened, but...she had to do what she had to do. Maria raised her axe slowly. She aligned it with Heather''s neck. [Would you like to activate [Angel''s Compassion] YES/NO] Maria didn''t answer and straight forwardly cleaved her axe down onto Heather''s neck. SCHLLIIIICCCKKKK [[Angel''s Compassion] activated! Acquired 500 Purity] [Title Gained: Angel of Death] [y Guard Captain Heather (1/1)] [600,000 exp gained (x4 multiplier)] [Level Up! Lv.15 Lv.16! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Objective Complete] [Quest: Envoy''s Might has beenpleted, report to High Priestess He to receive your rewards] Lizzy and the rest immediately noticed that the quest waspleted. They quickly rushed over to Maria''s location and saw her huddling down by herself with her wings wrapping around her. "Mary? You okay?" "...Mhm..." Lizzy couldn''t help but smile at her friend. "Hey, it''s done...let''s go back now." "Yeah...I hate these quests..." "Hahaha~ everyone does! Even us from the beta test...you really can''t get used to the feeling of cutting down someone that looks human like us..." "Mhm..." "Let''s go! Look on the bright side Mary, wepleted the quest and we''ll get our rewards. Also! Since you know about these types of quests, we can just avoid all of them in future!" "Yeah..." Maria stood up and stretched her wings. When her friends saw this, they couldn''t help but exim. "M-Mary! Look at your wings!" "Huh?" Maria turned her attention on her wings and noticed something off. "Th-there''s more?!" Maria noticed that underneath her tworge wings on her back there were two smaller ones closer down to her waist. Unlike the two ck wings, these small wings were white in color. Maria immediately opened up her [Log] and quickly read down the list of messages that she had dismissed earlier and saw something...good? [Hidden Requirement Achieved: Executing Race Ascension] [Congrattions! You have ascended from a low-rank Fallen Angel to a High Rank Fallen Angel! Status Updated!] [Unlocked: Angelic Hierarchy] Chapter 31: Quest Finished Chapter 31: Quest Finished With the quest finished, Maria and the party were making their way back to Almester Vige. They had looted the entire camp and found some ss skills for the Priestess ss. They found a basic [Cure] and [Heal] spell book, there was also a [Hi-Cure] and a [Regen] spell book and finally, a rare priestess offensive skill called [Smite]. Maria naturally took the [Cure] and [Heal] spell since she didn''t have it. The party also let her have the [Regen] and [Smite] spells while Amanda took the [Hi-Cure]. On their way back, Maria was looking over the new information she had just received earlier. [Angel''s Compassion Lv. 1 (50/100) Heals or Damages Target for 20% of caster''s Max HP. Unlocks special events that''ll provide Purity for the Angel which enables them to evolve. If an angel is tainted, providing a higher amount of purity will enable them to revert back to their original angelic form. Purity: 500/1000 MP Cost: 1000 MP Cooldown: 5 minutes] [Epic Title: Angel of Death A cmitous angel that brings forth mercy in the form of death and destruction. Provides a 10% passive increase to damage dealt against enemies. Equipped Effect 1: 10% Soulsteal Equipped Effect 2: Increases the ATK SPD and MOV SPD of the user and all allies within a 10 meter radius by 10%. Equipped Effect 3: Provides a 100% increase in Purity Value gained Equipped Effect 4: Provides a 100% increase in Taint Value gained] [Would you like to equip the Title? YES/NO] Maria pressed on the [YES] since it was a much better title than the Wolf yer. The title on top of her name immediately changed and it was now [Angel of Death, Maria]. "Hehe, that''s pretty cool~" Maria smiled happily and continued, "Next is this..." [High Fallen Angel A higher species of the Fallen Angel race; possesses 2rger wings and 2 smaller wings. The indication of these 2 pairs of wings is an indicator that this particr individual is just about to ascend into a higher race known as a Cherub Requirements for evolution: ???] [Angelic Hierarchy 1. Celestials S-rank 2. Archangels A-rank 3. Seraphim B-rank 4. Ophannim C-rank 5. Cherubim D-rank 6. Angels E-rank The hierarchy of the Angels is absolute. Periodically, missions from the higher strung sses will be given to the yer toplete. Failure toplete the quest will result in major consequences. The higher you move up the hierarchy, the more powerful you be and the more subordinates you may acquire. You are currently an E+ rank Higher Fallen Angel, you may have up to [1] subordinate Angel(s) and [2] Guardians Privileges: 1. Able to Decline [1] Periodic Quest from the Hierarchy 2. ess to Angelic Reputation Shop 3. Receive 10 Angelic Reputation per day ] "Wow, Mary...you sure got a lot from that quest~" Lizzy said as she stared at her friend''s system windows. "Yeah...but some seem sort of confusing," Maria replied. "Hmm...This Angelic Hierarchy thing is pretty unique too...I wonder if all the races have something like this..." "Yeah, but it''s not for our race, instead it''s for our upation," Milly answered. "Do you mean the officials, adventurer, and army ranks?" "That''s the one~" Once again Maria couldn''t understand the iprehensible things her two friends were going on about, but she did get the gist of it. This ranking system wasn''t limited to just her, but it seems that other yers could also ess a simr ranking system based on the upation they acquire. An upation was something like a sub-ss or a society rank. It didn''t provide any stat bonuses, but it did give out other advantages like bonuses to reputation points gained, discounts in NPC shops, easier interaction between yers and NPCs, and other simr things. "Guys...what''s this upation thing?" Maria asked. "We''ll teach it to you when we get to a city Mary~ anyways, it has something to do with a yer''s status in the game''s society!" "Is it like having a noble status or something?" "Yeah, that''s exactly it! Where''d you learn that from?" "My brother exined it to me already, I didn''t understand its use, but I guess it''s pretty important?" "It sure is Mary! I''m trying to apply for a noble status, but I needed to do some sort of mission that''ll contribute to the dark faction before being able to have a chance to receive it! However, this quest we just finished should probably help me get the status already!" Lizzy answered happily. Maria quickly dismissed all her system windows and noticed that not far ahead was the Almester Vige. "Okay, so since me and Mary will be going back to the city...what about you guys?" The party had arrived at the Almester Vige''s entrance and was about to part ways. Since the 3 didn''t need to personally see High Priestess He toplete the quest, they agreed to just hunt and wait around the neutral area. "We''ll go and find the closest neutral city and set up base there, after that we''re logging off. It''s almost midnight and I gotta sleep!" Amanda said. "Puii, you''re such a party pooper~ Zack, what about you?" Zack was just about to open his mouth, but Amanda immediately cut him off. "Zack''s going to sleep! Don''t you dare corrupt my little brother! He''s still young and he needs his sleep!" "B-big sis!" "Shut it! You''re going to bed after we arrive at a neutral city!" "..." Zack turned an eye towards the girls, clearly pleading for help. Maria and everyone else could only smile helplessly at him. They didn''t want toe in between these two squabbling siblings. "Well, what about you Mary? Still up to game all night?" "Sure!" "Alright! Let''s get going then, see ya''llter!" "Wh-what about Milly?" Maria turned towards Milly and asked. "Me? Well, I''ll be going solo for a bit. I still wanna earn my cksmith ss so I won''t be able to apany you guyster~" "Okay..." The party disbanded and split into 2 groups, Milly, Zack, and Amanda were now neutral faction yers and they were going to be heading off to a neutral city, while Maria and Lizzy were going back to hand in the quest. "Let''s get going Mary~ we''ll just bulldoze through all the monsters that stand in our way!" "Okay!" The two swiftly made it back to Torin Border Town and teleported back to Enoch. The two girls made their way to the Dark God''s Temple and handed in the quest to the High Priestess . "Oh mighty Envoy, I knew that you woulde back to us triumphant! Please, ept these humble offerings as your reward!" [Quest Complete] [Rewarded: Spell Book: [Revive], Unknown Egg, Dark God''s Blessing: +10 STR, 50 Gold coins, +100 Rep, +200 High Priestess He''s Favor] [100,000 exp gained] [5 Free Stat points Acquired] Lizzy was ecstatic when she saw the rewards. "Wooohooo! What an awesome quest! It looks like going through all that crap really paid off, wouldn''t ya say, Mary?" "Yeah, sure...though I''m never taking a quest like this ever again..." "Ahaha~ yeah, you shouldn''t! You view this game too realistically sometimes Mary...it''s cool that way, but it''s not really that healthy y''know!" "I-I know! But, I can''t help it! I mean...when they beg and scream for mercy like that..." "I know, I know, you don''t have to say it...even us veterans don''t like taking on those kinds of quests. That''s why most of us stick to monster quests...only the really sick people would find pleasure inpleting those NPC targeting quests!" "T-there''s people like that around?!" "Yup...it''s appalling really, but...ugh...don''t get me started." The two girls immediately walked out of the Temple, Maria didn''t see He glowing white anymore so it seems that for now the High Priestess didn''t have any quests for her. "What''re you going to do now, Liz?" "I''ll be going back to Tartarus, hopefully I''ll be able to attain my noble upation already," Lizzy replied. "So, we''ll be going our separate ways now?" "Seems like it, let''s party together again sometime, okay Mary?" "Sure!" "Oh! Don''t forget, if you''ve got a difficult quest remember to give us a call!" "Okay~" The two girls separated at the city''s center za, Maria decided to head on out to the wilderness and go grind some monsters. Now that she was much higher leveled, there were more ces for her to explore now. "Hmm...I feel like I forgot something important... Oh well, I''ll remember it eventually, now let''s go explore!" Maria shrugged it off and took to the skies once again. The yers around the area were awed once again at seeing someone so freely take off like that. "Oh yeah! I better hatch that pet eggter!" Chapter 32: Lilah Chapter 32: Lh Maria touched down in the forest where she had hunted her first field boss, Direwolf Andar. She found a tree branch tond on and sat down to take a look at her rewards. She opened her inventory and took out the [Revive] Skillbook. She patted it on her body and immediately learned the skill. [Skill acquired: Revive] [Revive Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: B Revives a fallen target with 10% HP and MP MP Cost: 100+(Target Lv. x 100) MP Cooldown: 30 minutes] "Okay, so next is the egg!" [Unknown Egg Rank: ??? An Unknown Egg, who knows what''ll hatch out of it.] [Would you like to hatch the Egg? YES/NO] After pressing the [YES], the egg began to glow in Maria''s hands and she grew excited. When the light died down, a small little fairy had reced the egg in Maria''s hand. It was currently sleeping and Maria swooned at the cute little thing in her hands. "Waaaahhh...it''s so cute! [Inspect]!" [--- Lv. 0 Dark Faerie Rank: C HP: 100/100 MP: 50/50 SP: 25/25 EXP: 0/500 ATK: 50 ~ 50 DEF: 25 M.ATK: 3 M.DEF: 13 STR: 10 AGI: 5 VIT: 10 INT: 5 LCK: 5 Growth Potential: 50 Satisfaction: 100/100 Favor: 50/100 Evolution: Impossible Requirements: N/A] [Please name the monster ______] "Hmmm...What should I name it...? It''s cute and it has long hair so I''m guessing it''s a girl?" Maria took a closer look at the little fairy in her hands. It had a small cute face with long ck hair. There were also two lumps on its chest so it was without a doubt a girl "Yup, it''s a girl alright...I''ll name you Lh!" [Name Granted! Providing Fallen Angel''s Blessing, readjusting status] [Lh Lv. 0 Fallen Faerie Rank: A HP: 400/400 MP: 200/200 SP: 50/50 EXP: 0/500 ATK: 100 ~ 100 DEF: 50 M.ATK: 5 M.DEF: 25 STR: 20 AGI: 10 VIT: 20 INT: 10 LCK: 5 Growth Potential: 100 Satisfaction: 100/100 Favor: 100/100 Evolution: Possible Requirements: Reach Lv. 50] "Hm? It changed a little..." The small fairy in her hand began to rouse awake. It stretched its arms and legs out before yawning. "Mnyah...oh?" A cute voice came from the little fairy and it surprised Maria. The fairy flew into the air and circled around Maria. It flew in front of her and asked. "Art thou my Master?" "Huh?" "I ask, art thou my Master?" "Y-yes?" "Umu...well Master, I thank you for waking up this one. As per your blessing, my name is Lh. Let''s get along, Master~" "L-likewise!" "By the way Master, you seem pretty clueless so I better give you a heads up about my skills...here you go~" Maria was a little surprised at the rude remark that her own pet gave her, but sheughed it off and turned her attention to the Skill Window in front of her. [Pet Skills Lh Lv. 0 Fallen Faerie [Faerie Fire Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: C Decreases DEF stat of target by 25% for 30 seconds MP Cost: 50 MP Cooldown: 25 seconds] [Enchant: Poison Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: C The Faerie enchants an ally''s weapon with the Poison Attribute for 30 seconds. MP Cost: 25 Cooldown: 30 seconds] [Faerie Aura Lv.1 (0/1000) Rank: A The Faerie''s Aura provides a 10% MP regeneration to allies within a 10 meter radius.] "Ohhh, these are some good skills!" She noticed that most of her pet''s skills were in the support category, but just any one of her skills was most likely going to be a great help in her future battles. "Anyways Master, since you know all you need to know about me, where are we headed?" "Eh? Uhm...I''m not sure!" "Eh?" "I just decided to go out and explore, we''ll let the wind guide us on our journey~" "Hmm~ well, whatever you say Master," Lh answered. She didn''t seem to care whether her Master had a n or not. "Before we go on our exploration, let me distribute all my FSPs first!" Maria opened her [Status] menu and distributed her points into her stats. She had 190 FSPs and she distributed 100 to INT, 30 to AGI, 40 to VIT, and the remaining 20 to STR. [Maria Lv. 16] HP: 2,260/2,260 MP: 11,550/11,550 SP: 260/260 EXP: 200,000/1,600,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death (E) ATK: 475 (+50~100) DEF: 283 (+15) M.ATK: 116 (+20) M.DEF: 578 (+15) STR: 85 (+10) AGI: 70 (-5) VIT: 105 (+8) INT: 205 (+26) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 0 "Now that I think about it...my stats are a little absurd..." Seeing that her Master was already finished doing what she needed to do, Lh immediately quipped up. "Master, let''s get going?" "Hm? Alright, let''s go~" Maria took off into the air. Her SP had risen by so much that she could practically fly for forever if she wanted to. "Let''s head deeper into the forest~" They flew for about 10 minutes in one direction before Lh raised her voice and said, "Master, I think I hear a fight going on over in that direction!" Maria turned to face the direction that Lh was pointing at. She thought for a moment and decided to head on over. "Seems fun, so let''s go?" "M-master?! Shouldn''t you be avoiding fights?" "Why~? We can''t get exp that way, y''know~" "Ehhh???" "Let''s go, let''s go!" "W-wait up, Master!" Maria quickly flew through the air and immediately heard the sounds of fighting originating from the forest not long after. She took a look down and saw a party of yers facing off against arge group of wolves. She even spotted the field boss Andar assaulting the party. "Oh...they''re struggling against such an easy boss?" Hearing this, Lh immediately grew disinterested and spoke, "Master, let''s get going. If that boss is easy as you say he is, then it''s not worth it for us to hang around to steal it." "Steal? Why would we steal it?" "Eh?" "It''s theirs right? I won''t go out of my way to steal someone else''s monster! That''s hical!" "O-okay? So, what''re we waiting around up here for?" "We wait until they die then we take the boss for ourselves!" "..." "You''re still level 0, so we can use that boss to push your level up!" Lh couldn''t understand this master of hers. She clearly just said it was hical to steal a monster from anyone, but now she''s just going to wait until they die before taking the boss? Sure, it was much better than stealing, but shouldn''t she at least lend a helping hand if she knows they''re all just going to die? "Master...you''ve got a twisted sense ofmon sense..." "Hm? What''s that Lh?" "...nothing..." Just like what Maria had said, the party down below couldn''t stand up against the boss monster and the wolves surrounding them and were wiped out. Maria cheered and jumped off the tree branch she was sitting on. She pulled out her Cmity from the inventory and dived down. When she got close enough, she activated [Cmity Cleave] and mmed her axe on top of the Boss'' head. However, just before her attack connected, a small white me began to burn around the boss'' body. -8,000! (Fatal Strike x8 damage) "Oh?" She followed up the attack with an [Arc Swing] and mmed the boss back into the ground with a normal attack before burning it with [Gehenna''s Eye]. [100,000 exp gained!] [Exp has been divided between you and your pet] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 0 Lv. 8] "Oh? That was fast~" Chapter 33: New Area Chapter 33: New Area Maria opened Lh''s [Status] and took a look at her updated stats. [Lh Lv. 8 Fallen Faerie Rank: A HP: 600/600 MP: 600/600 SP: 330/330 EXP: 7,500/12,000 ATK: 100 ~ 100 DEF: 450 M.ATK: 90 M.DEF: 450 STR: 50 AGI: 100 VIT: 180 INT: 180 LCK: 5 Growth Potential: 100 Satisfaction: 98/100 Favor: 100/100 Evolution: Possible Requirements: Reach Lv. 50] "Hmmm...That''s pretty high! Looks like her stat points also get distributed by itself...how convenient~" "Master, here''s the loot." [Acquired Direwolf Fang x1] [Acquired Direwolf Pelt x1] [Acquired Direwolf w x8] [Acquired 20 Silver Coins] Lh came over to her and a dialogue box appeared in front of Maria that showed all the loot she acquired from killing the boss. Normally, she never cared to go around and touch the corpses of the monsters to pick up loot so Maria was pretty surprised to see this. "Hey~ you could do that too? How nice~" "Master, I could do a lot of things...you''re just pretty clueless..." "Ehehe~ let''s get going then~" Maria spread her wings and flew away. Not far from where she was, a yer popped his head out from behind a tree and red angrily at her. "Damn, if you were here then at least help us out!" *DI DING* "The boss is dead!" "Some bitch came swooping down from the skies and killed it in one blow! She was capitalizing on the fact we downed its HP to a quarter and just snuck in to steal thest hit!" "W-wait...you mean she" "N-no way!" "B-boss...I...can''t actually do that..." "Well...she just flew off into the skies..." <...Are you sure she was a yer and not an NPC?> "Of course I''m sure Boss! I saw the yer indicator on top of her head as well as her name! I think it was...Maria or something." "Y-yes sir!" "O-okay..." ****** As people were making ns on trying to rope her in, Maria was currently flying leisurely in the air alongside Lh. "Master, where are we going?" "Well, since you''ve grown a few levels, I thought we should head in deeper into the forest! I wanna see what lies beyond this ce~" "Okay." The two flew through the air and asionally, Maria would fly down to see what kind of monsters were now inhabiting this part of the forest. She still didn''t understand the mechanics of the game so it was obvious she was going to be disappointed. The entirety of the forest was only popted by the same types of monsters she had encountered earlier on. The levels didn''t range that far from the previous monsters so Maria didn''t deem it worth it to engage them in battle. Maria grew annoyed at seeing the same monsters over and over again so she just sped past the forest and quickly arrived at the other end. What greeted her was a vast in filled with ox-like creatures withrge tusks protruding from their mouths. [You have found the Lukor ins! Rewarded: 10 Silver Coins and 10,000 exp] "Woah! This is new! [Inspect]!" [Tuskorr Lv. 30 (Common-Elite)] HP: ???/??? MP: ???/??? Maria was too low leveled to gleam any significant information from using her [Inspect], but seeing the level 30 monster put her in a good mood. "Alright! We can totally grind for levels here!" Maria cheered. The monsters were only about double her level so it''d be a piece of cake for her. The level of all the Tuskorr in the area ranged from 30-35 depending on their ranking. Some were Common-Elite, while others were Umon-Elite, or just Rare ranked. "Master, these guys look tough. So let me use my [Faerie Fire] first before you engage them, alright?" "Sure, sure~" ''Goodness, I have such a carefree Master~ now let''s see...let''s go with that one!'' Lh immediately aimed for one of the lower leveled monsters in the area. Once she debuffed one of the monsters, it turned to face her and it grunted in anger before charging. "Oh yay, you lured one over! Nice one Lh! Leave the rest to me!" "Eh? Uhh, yeah, no sweat Master..." She had unintentionally done that and didn''t expect the monster to suddenlye charging at her. Lh was even a little bit frightened, she felt an inexplicable sense of fear overwhelm her after the Tuskorr charged at her. Lh even froze up for a moment before her Master snapped her out of it with that carefree dialogue. Lh immediately understood that the fear that overwhelmed her was most likely one of the monster''s skills, she was just about to inform her Master but was suddenly subjected to the awesome sight of a 3 meterrge Tuskorr being catapulted into the air. It was then she realized something very, very important. "Ah, I see...No wonder she''s like that...Master''s strong..." After the [Arc Swing] which Maria timed perfectly to interrupt the Tuskorr''s charging skill, she chained it with her usualbo of [Cmity Cleave] followed up by [Gehenna''s Eye] and a round of normal attacks. Maria also took to the skies whenever she could to avoid the Tuskorr''s charge and would only meet it head on when her [Arc Swing] was off cooldown. Maria also noticed that she had somehow poisoned the monster, however she did remember about Lh''s other skill, [Enchant: Poison]. It didn''t take very long until she killed the monster and earned a ton of exp for both herself and her pet. [125,000 exp gained] [Exp has been divided between you and your pet] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 8 Lv. 12] Maria looked around and saw the abundant field of monsters. She grinned happily and said, "Lh! Lure in the next one! We''re grinding all night long~" "Yes, Master!" Chapter 34: Realization Chapter 34: Realization [150,000 exp gained] [Exp has been divided between you and your pet] *DING* [Level Up! Lv.16 Lv.17! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] *DING* [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 26 Lv. 27] "Oh! Lh, you finally leveled up!" "Y-yes...honestly, you''re way too low leveled Master..." "Ehehehe~" Maria noticed that a while ago, Lh had begun to stop receiving exp when she hit level 26. She didn''t understand why at first, but now that she leveled up and was informed that Lh had also leveled up alongside her, she understood something. Pets in Unitale couldn''t be more than 10 levels above their masters. It was a bummer for Maria since with all the high leveled monsters she was killing, that huge amount of experience would have power leveled Lh by quite a lot if such a restriction did not exist. After all, the exp multiplier was always in effect since Maria always faced off against higher leveled monsters. Maria had been grinding for only 2 hours now, but she soon felt that it was a little bit boring. All she had to do was ask Lh to lure in a monster or two and she''d just burst it down with her usualbo of skills and attacks. So for two hours straight, it was just a rinse and repeat cycle of [Faerie Fire], [Enchant: Poison], [Arc Swing], [Cmity Cleave], [Gehenna''s Eye], and a couple rounds of normal attacks. "Ugh...I''ll try and get to level 20 before logging off...but...I still feel like I forgot something..." Lh came floating over and offhandedly said, "Hey Master...you''re a Priestess right? So why aren''t you ever healing and always attacking like a warrior instead?" Her words immediately lit a light bulb in Maria''s head. "Ah! Now I remember! I forgot to ask He about the ss skills! A..." "..." ''My Master...she''s strong...but she''s kind of an idiot...'' Lh thought. She didn''t think it was a bad thing...actually, she even thought that her Master was even kind of cute like this. She may be a little forgetful, but her Master obviously wasn''t stupid. From Lh''s observations, the way her Master fought was pretty optimal and she''d always aim at the monster''s fatal spots and took every advantage she could get from her wings, skills and the environment. Her master was just a little ditzy and clumsy sometimes. She was also pretty forgetful, but she did pay attention to the small stuff. Like for instance, this next dialogue. "Hmmm...Master, as I''m your familiar, I''ll take it upon myself to remind you of things just in case you forget!" "Really?! Thanks Lh! Ehehe~ familiar huh...that sounds much better than calling you a pet~" "...Whatever suits your dandy, Master," Lh answered while thinking, was this really what her Master should be paying attention to? "Hmhm~" Maria continued to hunt the monsters in the ins for another 2 hours before she grew bored of it all. She did manage to gain another level and with that, so did Lh. Maria was now level 18 and Lh was level 28. It was about time for her to logout, but she did a quick check of her skills before doing so. [Arc Swing Lv. 3 Lv. 5 (15/500) Rank: D Strike the enemy into the air with an underhand swing dealing 1000+(1.0 x STR). Cooldown: 15 seconds]] [Angel''s Rage Lv. 3 Lv. 5 (480/500) Attack every enemy you designate in an area 10 meters around you with your wings, dealing 500 Pure Damage and an additional (1.0 x STR) damage every two seconds for the next 18 seconds. Taint: 2800/3000 MP Cost: 50 Mana/Activation] Since these two were her most used skills they had obviously gained a couple of levels. [Gehenna''s Eye] was an Epic ranked skill so it was pretty hard to level up despite her using the skills just as frequently as she did the first two. However, she did gain plenty of proficiency points from her continued use of the skill. Maria did have [Revive] and [Angel''s Compassion], but since there wasn''t ever a need to use those skills they obviously didn''t gain any proficiency nor levels. "Hey, wait a minute...now that I think about it...don''t I have [Cure], [Heal], and [Regen]?" Maria immediately opened up her inventory and found the skill books lying around inside. "Ah! I''m so stupid, how could I forget about these?!" Maria made an agonizing face. She remembered to use the [Revive] skill and the Pet Egg, but how could she have forgotten about her previous rewards? "Ah! I also had [Smite]! Gaaahhhh, it''s an offensive skill! I could have grinded for proficiency points during those previous 4 hours!" Maria began to inwardly berate herself, she resolved herself not to be so forgetful next time. Lh sighed seeing her Master like this and she further strengthened her resolve. The little fairy was now going in the direction of bing Maria''s personal secretary instead of her familiar. "Can''t go crying over spilt milk now can I..." Maria pulled out all 4 skill books and immediately patted them on her chest one by one. [Skill acquired: Cure Lv.1] [Cure Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: D Cures the target for 10% of their HP. MP Cost: 100 MP Cooldown: 30 seconds] [Skill acquired: Heal Lv.1] [Heal Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: D Heals status ailments within a 1 level range of the skill''s current level MP Cost: 200 MP Cooldown: 30 seconds] [Skill acquired: Regen Lv.1] [Regen Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: C Regenerates target''s HP by 100+(1.0 x INT) every 2 seconds for the next 10 seconds. MP Cost: 500 MP Cooldown: 1 minute] [Skill acquired: Smite Lv.1] [Smite Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: C Drops a magical hammer on top of target''s head dealing 100+(1.5 x INT) damage. Has a small chance to dispel 1 buff and stunning the target for 0.5 seconds. MP Cost: 200 MP Cooldown: 15 seconds] Seeing the 4 new skills in her [Skill] window, Maria smiled in satisfaction. "I have 2 of the basic priest skills now...I''ll go check if there are any other skills I can learn from Miss He tomorrow! For now, I wanna sleep!" Maria dismissed her [Skill] window and opened up the [Main] window. She was just about to logout before she remembered that Lh was still there. "Uhh, Lh? I''m about to logout...will you be okay?" "Oh? Master will be returning to your world now? Okay, please [Dismiss] me before you head back." "O-okay...I''ll see youter then Lh!" "Likewise, my Master," Lh said as she curtsied in midair. Maria had to say, that small one-piece in ck dress of hers was pretty cute. She decided that next time, once Amanda had be a sessful Tailor, she''dmission a new and stylish ck dress for Lh. "[Dismiss]" At hermand, a small magic circle appeared just behind Lh and it sucked her inside. Once Maria made sure that Lh had disappeared, she quickly hit the [Log Out] button and called it in for the day. [Maria Lv. 18] HP: 2,260/2,260 MP: 11,550/11,550 SP: 260/260 EXP: 77,500/1,800,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death ATK: 475 (+50~100) DEF: 283 (+15) M.ATK: 116 (+20) M.DEF: 578 (+15) STR: 85 (+10) AGI: 70 (-5) VIT: 105 (+8) INT: 205 (+26) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 40 [Lh Lv. 28 Fallen Faerie Rank: A HP: 2500/2500 MP: 4000/4000 SP: 500/500 EXP: 500/42,000 ATK: 400 ~ 420 DEF: 500 M.ATK: 225 M.DEF: 500 STR: 200 AGI: 250 VIT: 320 INT: 550 LCK: 5 Growth Potential: 100 Satisfaction: 98/100 Favor: 100/100 Evolution: Possible Requirements: Reach Lv. 50] Chapter 35: Preferential Treatment Chapter 35: Preferential Treatment Maria logged back in to the game the next day after she had finished all her chores, not like she had many to begin with. The first thing she did when she logged back in was to summon her familiar, Lh. "[Summon: Lh]" A small magic formation appeared in front of Maria and Lh popped out of it. "Greetings, Master. I see you''re doing well today~" "Yup! Let''s continue hunting?" Just as Maria was about to pull out her Cmity, Lh immediately stopped her. "Wait a minute, Master." "Hm?" "Didn''t you say yesterday that we''d be taking a look at the priestess ss skills with somebody named He?" "Ohh yeah, thanks for reminding me! Let''s head back to Enoch then, we''ll meet up with He and learn the ss skills. I should also check out the library and learn the [Linguistics] skill and go to the city''s magic tower to try and get [Magic Comprehension]!" Maria and Lh took off into the air the next second. Their timing was just about right, if they had taken off anyter then they''d be subjected to other yers surrounding them. "Noooo! Why? Just when I finally got through the forest...why are you heading back now?" A certain demonkin yer screamed in frustration. It wasn''t until another 2-3 minutes that a group of yers broke out of the tree line and met up with the yer. "Kris, where is she?" The person who spoke was the same person that Kris had called boss. "She...she..." "What? Spill it already!" "...she took off..." "What? Took off? To where?!" "...I think she might be heading back to the city...I overheard her talking about it with her pet..." "Pet? She already has one?!" "Y-yeah..." "Damn...I thought only those 4 yers were lucky enough to get a pet this early...looks like she has one as well..." The group of yers who had appeared was the same group who had been wiped by the field boss, Direwolf Andar. The yer named Kris had sessfully tailed Maria all the way past the forest and arrived at the Lukor ins. He also bore witness to the extreme sight of Maria taking down monsters double her level and how easily she had dealt with all those monsters. Kris had recorded it all and sent it to his boss. His boss, who was called Briar, had repeatedly watched the video and had grown even more determined to rope in this rare genius. Just as he was about to go out and find her that night, Maria had logged off. They waited until morning before the girl had logged back in so when he received news from Kris, who was in-game since dawn, about the girl logging back in, Briar had immediately jumped into the game despite having just walked out of the shower. Then he was met with the unfortunate news of the girl flying off back to the city. He felt that flying was a cheat, but this further strengthened his resolve to rope the girl in to his guild. "We head back to the city! Hurry, we must make it there before that girl goes off to who-knows-where!" "But boss! What happens if she only made a quick trip back and she suddenly returns here again?" Kris asked. "Then you wait here! We''ll head back first, but in the case we don''t meet up with her and shees back here, you are to make contact with her!" "Uhh okay... but what happens if she ignores me?" "Just TRY and make contact with her you idiot! Is that too much to ask?! It''s not like I''m asking you to rope her in or anything!" "N-no boss..." "Good, we''ll be off then. You stay put and contact me if anything happens..." "Yes..." Kris was once again left alone. Hemented his misfortune because now he had to wait an unknown amount of time for the girl to return, if she would return for that matter. Since he was alone, there was no way for him to grind his levels with the monsters located on the ins or inside the forest... Briar and his party immediately made their way back towards the city. He cursed the developers since they didn''t provide any teleportation scrolls for the game. The party had to travel all the way back to the city on foot. At this stage of the game, City Return Scrolls still weren''t very widespread among the yers. In fact, that kind of item wasn''t widespread anywhere since you couldn''t buy it from the NPCs. At least, that was the case during the Beta Test. The yers in Unitale had to physically get from one ce to another if they were out traveling to leveling areas or anywhere else in the open world. The only teleportation in the game were the inter-city, town, vige, or outpost teleports. Field to town or city teleports wasn''t something the NPCs provided service for. The yers themselves had to create scrolls for those kinds of teleportation. During the beta, there were only 2 known yers who had risen their [Magic Comprehension], [Spatial Magic], and [Inscription] skills high enough to create these teleportation scrolls. One of them happened to be Lizzy''s gaming friend. So in the foreseeable future, Maria would at least be able to snag herself a couple of these scrolls. ***** Back at the city, Maria had just touched down in front of the Dark God''s Temple. She immediately entered by pushing open the double doors leading into the temple. However, she had underestimated her strength and had identally mmed both doors open. BANG "...Oops?" "Master..." Lh facepalmed. Her entrance was really rowdy and everyone in the temple turned to face her questioningly. Maria noticed that there were actually a decent amount of yers inside of the temple today. The yers had all grown to higher levels and had sessfullypleted their job change quests so it was a given. Maria straightforwardly walked towards the crowd of people and couldn''t help but frown seeing how many people there were. "Humu...looks like I''ll be waiting for a while..." Unlike in other games, the NPCs in Unitale could only interact with a yer one at a time. It was a little annoying, but Universal Games wanted to make it as realistic as possible thus led to the long queue of yers lining up to talk to the NPCs. There were manyints on the forums, but Universal Games'' only response was that it was just how to game was developed. Changing things now wouldn''t be usible, but they did answer to the yers'' plea by announcing to themunity about a small patch where they''d add more ss instructors, shop clerks, and other NPCs for better ease of interaction,ter this month. But since the update was forter this month, the NPCs were still being swarmed by yers right now. Maria found a quiet spot to sit, but her conspicuous entrance had already attracted the eyes of the yers inside the temple. Not to mention that she was recently a hot topic on the forums for being the only yer with a unique race and also the fact that she was the yer in the Promotion Video. However, there was now another attraction and that was the flying fairy whizzing in the air around the girl. "She''s got a pet?" "I thought only those 4 lucky yers were the ones who got pets this early...3 of them are light faction yers while there was only 1 from our dark faction..." "This makes two then." "Wanna try asking her where she got the pet?" "Why don''t you go?" "No way, did you see what happened to the yers that tried to approach herst time?" The yers took another look at Maria and saw that she was happily interacting with her pet. She was giggling and smiling, making her seem very approachable. However, the videos posted on the forums suggested otherwise. "Urk...she seems all bubbly, but she doesn''t actually like to interact with people, huh?" "I know right... I mean, if not, then why''d she attack and PK all those yers?" "You guys are just being prejudiced! If you watched the video correctly, you could obviously see that some of the yers were harassing her and she only retaliated in kind!" "She seems nice!" As the yers began murmuring to each other about whether or not they''d approach and make conversation with Maria, a beautifuldy had already made her way over to the girl. "Hey, I don''t think you''d wanna do that!" A yer called out. "Shut it man! That''s the High Priestess! You better not act impolite or she''ll kick you out of the temple!" "Oh shit!" The person who was making her way over to Maria was indeed High Priestess He. The NPC instructor had long since noticed the girl when she had entered. After all, Maria had basically smashed through the doors and directly announced her presence in such a rambunctious way. "Lady Envoy, you havee," He said as she bowed down to the girl. "Eh? Oh! Miss He, are you finished talking to everyone else?" Maria replied with a smile when she noticed He appearing in front of her. She was having a good time talking with Lh that she didn''t notice He approaching. "Oh my, your attention is most unneeded of such persons with little importance. You are the Dark God''s Envoy, so you have top priority when you enter our Temple." "Really? Well, okay then~" Maria answered while totally not understanding what she meant by that. She was a yer as well, so she viewed everyone the same. Their exchange was witnessed by the yers and they couldn''t help but gawk at the superior-subordinate manner of speech the two held. High Priestess He, a person of obviously high pedigree, had bowed down in reverence to a yer. Even when the girl had spoken back to her in such an impolite and casual manner, He only smiled warmly at her and didn''t burst out in anger. Normally, when a yer spoke casually and without respect to an NPC of He''s caliber, they''d just outright get angry and kick the yer out of the ce or just downright ignored them while also deducting favorability points with them. It was a first for any yer to see an NPC act so reverentially towards a yer. "Lady Envoy, what may I be of service for you today?" "I wanted to see all the avable ss skills~ I already have [Cure] and [Heal] so are there anything else for me to learn?" "Yes, let me show you." A system window appeared in front of Maria and when she took a look at the long list of skills she could learn, she gawked at it for a good 5 seconds before eximing, "Wh-what is all this?!" Chapter 36: Preferential Treatment 2 Chapter 36: Preferential Treatment 2 The list of skills that Maria saw in the skill window was a little over the top. Every avable skill that a priestess could learn was listed in the system window, whether or not Maria had fulfilled the level or skill rank requirement, it was all listed there for her to see...and purchase if she chose to do so. "Hmmm...That''s one long list..." [Priestess ss Skills 1. [Cure] 2. [Heal] 3. [Barrier] 4. [Magic Barrier] 5. [Hi-Cure] 6. [Revive] 7. [Meditate] 8. [Haste] 9. [Slow] 10. [Full-Cure] 11. [Hi-Revive] 12. [Restoration Aura] 13. [Rejuvenate] 14. ... 15. ... ... ... ... 30. ... Dark Priestess ss Skills 1. [Dark Ray] 2. [Enfeeble] 3. [Drain] 4. [Curse] 5. [Mana Drain] 6. [Dark re] 7. [Unholy] ] There were 30 Priestess ss skills altogether. Most of them were just upgrades from the lower ranked skills, so in order for someone to learn them, they needed to have a sufficient proficiency level and rank on the lower ranked skills. However there were only 7 Dark Priestess ss skills for Maria to choose from. "Hmm... I could learn them all...as long as I have the money to buy them, right?" "Yes, Lady Envoy," He replied to her mumbling. "Eh? Oh, thank you He." "It''s my pleasure." Maria tapped on the [Barrier] skill and took a look at its details. [Barrier Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: C Conjures a barrier that can withstand 100+(INT x0.5) DMG MP Cost: 100 MP Cooldown: 30 seconds Cost: 50 Silver Coins Level Requirement: Lv.15] "Oh! It''s only 50 Silver!" Maria then tapped on [Cure] and saw its price. It was only a measly 1 Silver coin and it was the same for the [Heal] skill as well. Maria then clicked on the [Hi-Cure] skill and looked at its description. [Hi-Cure Lv.1 (0/1000) Rank: B Cure the target by 30% of their HP and regenerates 3% of their HP every 2 seconds for 20 seconds. MP Cost: 1000+(INT x 0.1) MP Cooldown: 30 seconds Cost: 50 Gold Coins Level Requirement: Lv.40 Skill Rank Requirement: C-Rank Cure Lv. 10] "I guess beginners can only get these two skills at first...let''s buy all the base skills. Once I''ve leveled them up, I''lle again and buy the rest~" Maria made up her mind and began purchasing all the low ranked skills. She bought [Barrier], [Magic Barrier], [Meditate], [Haste], and [Slow] since there were no skill rank requirements for them, this meant that the skills were the base skills that needed to be upgraded. [Barrier] and [Magic Barrier] both cost 50 silvers while [Meditate], [Haste], and [Slow] each costs 1 Gold Coin. Since Maria had a pretty decent fortune she didn''t hesitate at all. The total cost was only 4 Gold Coins so it was pretty cheap in Maria''s opinion. Once she got the skill books from He, she immediately learned [Barrier] and [Magic Barrier]. As for the other 3, Maria still wasn''t high enough level to learn them. [Meditate]''s level requirement was Lv. 20, while [Haste] and [Slow] was Lv. 25 and 30 respectively. It wasn''t long until Maria could get to that level so she decided to buy them beforehand, this way she didn''t need toe back to the Temple to buy it. She experienced it for herself, the long back and forth trip from the city to the ins and vice-versa. She loathed doing that again. Although Maria enjoyed flying, it was still exhausting to constantly be pping her wings while in the air. Maria put away the 3 ss skills and then turned her attention to the Dark Priestess exclusive skills. Apparently, she could just buy all of them on the spot since for some reason; they were all ''cheap''. There were only 7 Skills and they each costs 20 gold coins. The total amount was 140 gold and Maria had enough to buy all of them so she just did. They didn''t have any skill rank requirements only level requirements, but the level requirements were pretty demanding. [Dark Ray Lv.1 (0/2500) Rank: A Fires a deadly beam of ck energy at the target, reaping away 10+(INT x 0.001)% of the target''s HP with a 10% chance to inflict [Blind]. MP Cost: 2000+(INT x 0.01) MP Cooldown: 5 minutes Cost: 20 Gold Coins Level Requirement: Lv. 35] The first skill on the list, [Dark Ray], had a level requirement of 35. After that the level requirements leaped up 10 levels higher for each subsequent skill. The MP cost of each skill was also sky-high and the required proficiency points to level them up were also very high. However, the DMG and effects of the skills were amazing. Every skill of the Dark Priestess ss was a damage dealing skill that had an additional status ailment effect. Maria smiled brightly when she saw all the skill now in her possession once she had bought all 7 of them. Now all she needed to do was level herself up and learn the skills. Best of all... "Almost all of them are Magic-rted too! Hihihi~ looks like I''ll be able to use magic soon~" Now that she could use magic in the near future without the need to get [Magic Comprehension], she needed to do something about the [Earth Shock] skill that her party entrusted to her. "Hmmm...What to do...Ah, who cares, more magic the better right? I''ll just go get [Magic Comprehension] and learn [Earth Shock] as well~" Lh had gotten used to hearing her master mumble on asions when she was deeply in thought. He was still waiting in front of Maria so the little fairy thought it''d be best to snap her master awake from her self-reflection. "Master, Miss He is still here." "!" He smiled when Maria''s attention was brought back to her, she opened her mouth and asked, "Lady Envoy, will that be all?" "Yes, yes! That''s all~ Oh! I still have a question, however!" "Yes?" "Where are the Library and the Magic Tower?" "The Library and Magic Tower...Hmm...Lady Envoy, are you perhaps trying to learn [Linguistics], [Book Keeping], [Magic Comprehension], and [Magic Deduction] by any chance?" Maria was surprised at the question. She did hear the 2 lifestyle skills she wanted to learn so she just nodded in agreement. "I see, well let me take you there. Those old fogies will probably give you a hard time if you went alone. I''ll drop you off and have a word with them." "Thanks, Miss He~" "Anything for you, Lady Envoy," He bowed respectfully to the girl. "Y-you don''t need to do that, Miss He..." "Ahaha~ please don''t mind me, Lady Envoy." "O-okay..." He immediately went back towards the crowd of yers and loudly dismissed them. This earned a lot ofints, but He didn''t even bat an eye towards the yers before making her way back to Maria. "Shall we go now, Lady Envoy?" "Y-yes..." He walked past Maria and the girl followed after her. Maria turned her head back and couldn''t help but cast an apologetic look at the abandoned yers. ***** When the yers saw Maria and He both exiting from the Temple, they couldn''t help but discuss among themselves. "High Priestess He just said she was going to do something important...could that girl have triggered a quest?" "Did you even hear what they were talking about earlier? It was more like High Priestess He was the one going on a quest FOR the girl!" "Jeez...now we have to wait for the High Priestess toe back before we can learn our ss skills...just what the heck''s up with the Fallen Angel girl? Shees in and acts like she owns the ce and He doesn''t even scold her, but instead she butters up to her!" "..." Away from the group ofining yers, a party of 4 female yers and 2 male yers were gathered together looking at the receding back of Maria and He. "That girl...she''s the one from the Promo Vid, right?" A purple haired subus girl asked. "Yeah, she''s definitely the one, but howe she''s getting treated like royalty while in-game? Is she a GM?" Another girl asked. "No way, there are no GM ounts in Unitale. She''s just another yer like us." "A LUCKY yer, just like you Lilith~" Arge, bulky demon said. It was one of the two male yers in the party. Judging by his equipment, he was a Knight-ss yer. The purple haired subus who was called Lilith only snorted in response. "I was just lucky to get the Sorceress ss...but I think that girl also has a unique hidden ss as well...it''s probably got something to do with the priestess ss." "Just like how you''re Sorceress ss is rted to the mage ss?" "...yeah, over at the Magic Tower, I''m treated like some sort of esteemed guest, but that girl...her treatment here at the temple is even better than mine while I''m at the mage HQ..." Her words made everyone in the party even more curious about the Fallen Angel yer. Lilith even had thoughts of befriending the girl if given the chance. However, thinking back to the PK video that was posted on the forums that featured that very same Fallen Angel yer, Lilith thought that it might be hard to try and approach her. She didn''t want to get attacked for no reason. Lilith also noticed the blood red name that Maria had sported above her avatar and this testified to the fact that she had been out PKing. "Haaahhh, whatever... Felice, we''ll get the ss skills some other time...or we can just buy it from the auction house, is that alright with you?" Lilith asked the only priestess ss yer in their party. The priestess girl in their party only looked at the doorway of the temple and furrowed her brows, she was a little annoyed since she and her party had been waiting for a long time. It was almost their turn, but He suddenly went to serve Maria and then she disappeared alongside Maria to who-knows-where. "Yeah, sure...still this kinda sucks..." Felice said in an annoyed tone. "Leave it. The NPCs here are obviously much more different than all the other VRMMOs we''ve yed before..." "Yeah..." "Let''s go over to the Library, we still have to turn in the quest and get the [Linguistics] skill." The party of yers immediately head out of the temple and went in the direction of the city''s library. Their encounter with Maria was going toe much sooner than they had expected. Chapter 37: An Unexpected Friend Chapter 37: An Unexpected Friend Once the two made it out of the temple, High Priestess He escorted Maria to the northwestern part of the city and quickly arrived at the city''s Library. "This is the library, Lady Envoy. Down the road to the left you will see a tall spire. Look, you can see it from here," He said as she pointed at a tall ck spire with a colorful magical wave of light constantly orbiting around it. There was arge ck orb floating on the very top of the spire with 2 small rings and 3rger rings rotating around it. Once she got a good look at it, Maria immediately knew that was the Magic Tower. "That''s the city''s Magic Tower, the haven for all mage-type sses. Once I''ve had a word with the Library''s Director, I''ll go ahead and talk with the Magic Tower''s Arch Mage." "Th-thank you... Miss He!" "It is nothing, child, for you are our God''s Envoy. This is the least I can do." The two quickly made their way inside the library and He went off to talk with the Library''s Director. Maria was left alone at the lobby, so she decided to go find some books and try to read them. The librarian didn''t dare to stop her despite the girl not having an entry permit. In fact, High Priestess He was basically her entry permit at this point! So Maria was free to roam about the library. She took a thin book down from the shelf and opened it, but when she flipped to the first page of the book, all she saw were iprehensible symbols and letters. [You do not have the required skill to read this book!] "Figures..." Maria pouted a little before cing the book back on the shelf. She went around picking more books up, but she couldn''t find a single one that she could read. "Muuuhhh...I feel stupid..." From afar, a party of yers was currently witnessing the peculiar scene of an angel going back and forth between shelves, taking down a book before pouting in dissatisfaction and returning it. It was kind of hrious and it didn''t suit the image that this particr angel had on the society. The party''s leader went over to the girl and called out. "Hey! Aren''t you that Fallen Angel girl, the one from the Promo Vid?" Maria heard a girl''s voice from behind her. She turned around to face the person since obviously, the only fallen angel yer in the game was currently just herself. She saw a group of yers with a subus girl leading them. "Hm? Do you need something?" Maria politely asked with a smile. "Eh?" "Woah...she''s actually pretty approachable!" One of the yers behind the subus girl said. "..." As the yers gawked at Maria''s rather friendly personality that went opposite of what the rumors depicted her to be like, Lilith stepped forward and immediately struck her hand out. "Oh?" "My name''s Lilith! You''re pretty interesting, wanna be my friend?" Maria''s eyes widened a little and she "YES! Yes, please!" Maria immediately took her hand and shook it furiously. This was her first potential in-game friend! There was no way she''d miss this opportunity. "O-oh...geez, you sure are much different than what the rumors say you''re like!" "Hm?" "Ahaha~ never mind. Let''s add each other to our [Friends List]?" "Yes, please!" The two immediately added each other as friends. Maria was smiling brightly when she saw the additional name in her [Friends List]. Now the total number of people in the list was now 5. "So Lilith, did you need something from me?" "Hm? No, not really~ I just thought you were interesting so I just wanted toe over and talk to you!" "Eh? Ahahahaha~ that''s an odd reason to go befriend a stranger," Mariaughed. "Well, you have to start from somewhere, right? Hey, if you''re not busy, wanna go grind some monsters with us? Maria?" Lilith asked. "Sure!" It was an immediate response, followed up by an immediate rebuttal. Lh who was floating next to Maria immediately quipped up right after hearing her response. "Master, we''re here to learn [Linguistics] and [Book Keeping]! Please don''t go off to somewhere and leave Miss He here! That''d be rude since she went out of her way to help us!" Maria was caught up in the moment and nearly forgot about why she came to the library. She was just that happy to make a new friend. In real life she didn''t have many friends apart from her small little group, so any new friend was something she very much weed. Of course, she had a pretty discerning eye for people so she wasn''t easily tricked. It was also because of this trait of hers that she had a small amount of ''true'' friends. Maria felt the same vibe she got from Lizzy and the resting off of this neer, Lilith. "Ah...sorry Lilith...I''m a little busy right now, so maybe next time?" "Yeah, sure, sure~ we just came over to hand in our quest. Looks like you''re after the [Linguistics] skill as well, huh? Well, if you need help for the quest, we can help you out!" "There''s a quest? Aww...this is gonna take a while then..." Lilith saw the dejected look on Maria''s face and found it funny. Normally, a yer would be ecstatic upon receiving a quest, but Maria looked like she loathed doing any sort of quest. "Well, just give me a message if you need help! See ya around, Maria~" Lilith said before turning around and walking back to her party. Maria was just about to turn her attention towards another book but suddenly heard a voice call out to her. "Lady Envoy?" He hade back and there was an old demon next to her. "Lady Envoy, allow me to introduce to you, Zelundo, the Library''s Director. He''ll be the one teaching you the [Linguistics] and [Book Keeping] skills." "Quiet girly! I did not agree to anything just yet! I only came down to see whether this little missy is worth my time to teach!" "Zelundo! I do respect you, but do NOT disrespect our God''s Envoy!" "Yeah, yeah, pipe down girly!" "Y-you!!" The old demon ignored the fuming He and walked up to Maria, he scrutinized the girl for a bit while grunting and mumbling about something. When the old demon saw the small pair of white wings on Maria''s back he raised an eyebrow and nodded. "I''ll teach the little missus...however, do remember what you promised me, girl." "Just make sure you teach her properly, you''ll get what you want once our Lady Envoy is satisfied!" "Yeah, yeah...e ''ere missy!" Zelundo flew up to the higher floors of the library and waved for Maria to follow after him. "Thanks again, Miss He, I guess I should go?" "Yes, Lady Envoy, I''ll be off to the Magic Tower now. You can visit and learn what you''d like after you''ve finished with that old geezer." "Ahaha~ okay~" Maria spread her wings and flew up to follow after Zelundo. ****** "Did you guys see that?" Arge demon knight said. The name disyed on top of his avatar was Exel. "Yeah...even in here, with the help from High Priestess He, she''s being treated like royalty again...just what kind of status does that girl hold to be treated like that?" The other male yer in the party said. From his equipment, he was an Archer-ss Drow/Dark Elf and the name disyed above his avatar was Curio. Lilith and the rest of her party could only stare at the girl as she flew up to follow behind the old demon. "That''s the Library''s Director..." Lilith said. "Hey, Lily~ did you really manage to be friends with that girl?" said a pink haired demon girl whose name was YuNotCute. "Yeah, she was actually pretty friendly. She wasn''t standoffish or anything the like. In fact, she seemed a little...absentminded...or should I say, airheaded?" "Pfft, airheaded? Seriously?" "Earlier, weren''t you guys listening in on us? She actually had an appointment with the library''s director, but when I asked her to hunt with us she immediately replied with a yes! It was only when that small fairy reminded Maria of her previous engagement that she reluctantly declined..." "Wow..." "Who would have thought, huh?'' "That was quick. You two are already on a first name basis!" "Are you stupid? What else would we call ourselves other than our IGNs?" Lilith replied. "Hey! Since she has a good rtionship with He, maybe we can ask her to help Felice out with learning the ss skills?" the pink haired demon girl said. "Hey Yuno, don''t go bbering on like that. I don''t wanna owe her anything! Seriously, how can you be so shameless?" "Felice! Don''t go around spouting my real name! I''m not an idiot like you and Lili to actually use my real name as my IGN!" "Yeah sure, and yet your name is still in your IGN," Felice rolled her eyes at her. "Hmph! At least I''m not using it outright like you two!" ***** Up on the Library''s upper floors, inside of arge office, Maria was sitting down on a wide desk currently stuffing her face into a pile of books. She was able to read the first few pages of the book with Zelundo''s guidance, but immediately a quest had popped up in front of her. [Learning How to Read 1 You are currently illiterate, but you had the brains toe to the library to learn to read! With the help of High Priestess He, you have been given the chance to learn directly from the Library''s Director! Learn the [Linguistics] skill from his guidance! Objective 1: Learn [Linguistics]: Progress: 1/100% Hint 1: Spend 1 hour reading to raise the progress bar by 0.1%! Hint 2: Reading Higher Difficulty books will grant you a higher progression rate! Hint 3: Ask Zelundo for help when you don''t know the word! However, if you can manage to decipher the word by yourself, there will be arge bonus progression rate added to the progress bar! Time limit: 7 days Rewards: [Linguistics], +100 Zelundo''s Favor, +50 INT, Magic Quill x1, Scroll x50 "I can''t believe this...in order to learn [Linguistics] I actually have to study..." Chapter 38: Basic Language Mastery Chapter 38: Basic Language Mastery "Ugh..." "Master noints! Continue reading." "Nooo..." "Master!" "..." Maria didn''t like this quest one bit. She thought she had escaped the hell of studying, but now she had to do it while in-game? This was totally ridiculous. "What kind of game forces you to study? This is BORING!" Hearing her umpteenthint, Lh only continued to reprimand her. "Well Master, if you didn''t want to study so much, then why did you even want to learn [Linguistics] then?" "Because I want to learn magic~" "...you do know that you have to STUDY to learn magic." Lh said with a deadpanned expression. "Eh?" "..." Seeing Lh''s face, Maria paled and moaned, "Noooo~" "Lessining, more reading!" A gruff voice yelled out at the girl. "Ueh?" "Hey missy, I''ve got an agreement riding on you! So you better learn these skills or I''ll make you regret it!" Zelundo roared from behind Maria. He was currently writing down on a piece of parchment paper behind a desk with numerous books scattered all over. It seems like he was researching something, but Maria''s constantints had been distracting him. "If I knew you were like this, I wouldn''t have bothered going out of my way to teach you!" "Master, look, you''ve caused the old man to be angry at you! So hurry up and learn this [Linguistics] skill!" Lh quipped. "Uuuhh..." Maria began whining, but this only further annoyed the old demon. "Tsk,e here missy! Just what exactly don''t you understand?!" Maria immediately shot up from her seat and bolted right in front of Zelundo and eximed, "EVERYTHING!" "!" Zelundo was surprised at her quick response, but his face immediately darkened when he heard it. "I can see that you''re a Fallen, but how are you this stupid?!" "Huh? Hey! You can''t call me stupid! If anything, I''m pretty smart in my own right!" "Hah! Then howe you can''t do the simplest thing like reading?" Maria was immediately incensed at his insult. "Hey! It''s not my fault I can''t understand these weird symbols! You didn''t even provide me any basic reference materials for me to learn from! And now you expect me to read a book?!" "..." "...Master does have a point there." Zelundo only eyed the fuming girl and scoffed, "Well, I''ll only help you just this once!" He picked up the pile of documents to his right and waved them at Maria. The old demon had been writing since they had entered the office and thoroughly ignored Maria, but it looks like he had a reason. "I''ve written the basguage materials in these documents." "Gimme!" Maria was just about to snatch the documents out of the old demon''s hands but he whisked it away just before she could. "Wait!" "What? Don''t you want to fulfill the agreement with Miss He quicker? Hurry up and gimme!" "Tsk, wait a moment, you ungrateful little thing!" Zelundo walked up in front of Maria and poked her forehead. *DING* [Zelundo wants to bestow upon you [Basic Language Mastery]. ept? YES/NO] *DING* [If you ept, then the quest [Learn How to Read 1] will be canceled] Maria didn''t care about the second notification and just pressed on the [YES], something that she would soon regret doing. [Basic Language Mastery (0/100) Rank: E Elementary understanding of themon demonguage, able to read basic words and sentences Upgradeable: Advance Language Mastery E Requirement: Basic Language Master A] *DING* [The Quest: [Learn How to Read 1] has been cancelled! No Penalty applied] "I''m only helping you this once, missy! Once you''ve acquired Basic Language Master A, you''ll be able to fulfill the requirements to BEGIN learning [Linguistics] and [Book Keeping]! Now go, don''t be wasting my time now!" "Yay!" After receiving the documents, Maria floated back to her desk happily and sat down. When she turned her attention to the papers that Zelundo gave her, she was able to understand a portion of the information ced only on the first few pages, but as she kept on reading, system notifications rang in her ears and hernguage proficiency shot up. [You have read and understood Zelundo''s Basic Language Materials, Proficiency +10] [You have read and understood Zelundo''s Basic Language Materials, Proficiency +10] [You have ...Proficiency +10] [You have ...Proficiency +10] [You have ...Proficiency +10] It didn''t take very long until Maria''s [Basic Language Mastery] ranked up. [Skill Rank Up [Basic Language Mastery] Rank E D] [Basic Language Mastery (0/1000) Rank: D Understanding ofmon demonguage, able to read basic words and sentences Able to read 1-line incantations and write basguage functions Upgradeable: Advance Language Mastery E Requirement: Basic Language Mastery A] "Ohho~ this is easy~" "Sure it is Master..." Maria continued reading the papers that Zelundo gave to her and the notification sounds were like music to her ears. When she went through half of the documents that Zelundo handed to her, the notification sounds had stopped, but her skill rank was already at C. It got harder for Maria to read the documents and she had to go back to the previous pages to reference some of the words she had previously read. It was easy at the start, but now that she hadn''t properly memorized any of the words she had previously read, it came back to bite her in theter pages of the documents and this very much annoyed her. She continued trying to force her way through, but it only got harder and harder to the point where even she grew amazingly frustrated. "...Fuck..." "Master, don''t you dare start using such foulnguage!" "..." Maria rarely ever cursed. She was normally never this angry at something to the point where she would begin swearing. "I can say whatever I want to say! Ugh...now I have to go back and properly memorize those stinking words..." "And you said that it was easy..." "Stop making fun of me~!" Lh only snickered in response. Seeing her Master whine and act like a child was always refreshing. Maria went back to the previous pages and this time, she took her time to actually read and memorize the words. She even asked for some stationery from Zelundo so she could write out the English trantion next to the words of the game''snguage. With the help of the [Basic Language Mastery] skill''s correction, she was able to understand the words and write out the English word next to it. This further increased her skill proficiency gain and it made things easier for her. "Okay...so this means ''force''...and this is ''water''...this means ''fire'' and that is ''ground''..." Lh continued circling around Maria who was fastidiously studying. She had nothing better to do besides observing her master and making sure she wasn''t being distracted by anything, but seeing how serious her master had be, Lh felt shocked and relieved. Her master''s earlier outbursts of childishints and whining seemed like a lie when she looked at how serious her master was now studying. Maria didn''t want to bring in her habits from the real world into the game so she never explored the ces like the library and whatnot while inside the game. She kept her ying area in the fields where she could let loose and grind some monsters. Now that she was forced to study even while in the game, her seriousness and devotion to it had taken over and she was fully immersed into studying the materials presented in front of her. She found it fun to do and she very much enjoyed it. With her mindset like this, she had totally blocked out the numerous system notifications that informed her of her proficiency gains and her skill rank ups. Zelundo walked over to Maria and observed her progress, thinking that he''d lend a helping hand if she was stuck on something. He was contradicting himself when he told the girl that giving out those documents was going to be the first andst time he helped her, but when he saw the girl being so serious, he couldn''t help but grow curious and take a look at what the girl was doing. "Oh? She''s already near the end? That was fast...I guess she wasn''t just boasting when she said she was smart!" Without her knowing it, Maria had already arrived and begun deciphering thest pages of the documents that Zelundo had handed over to her. When she finished the veryst page and fully understood what was written on it, a loud notification snapped her out of her focused mind state. *DING DING* [You have finished reading and havepletely understood Zelundo''s Basic Language Materials, Skill Rank +1, INT + 10, EXP + 1,000] *DING* [Skill Rank Up [Basic Language Mastery] Rank A S] [Basic Language Mastery Rank: S Complete understanding ofmon demonguage, able to read 3-line incantations and writenguage functions and structures Upgradeable: Advance Language Mastery E Requirement met: Would you like to Upgrade the Skill? YES/NO] Chapter 39: Study Time Chapter 39: Study Time When Maria saw the notifications, she was immediately ted. "Yay!" She quickly pressed on the [YES] and her [Basic Language Mastery] was upgraded to [Advance Language Mastery] [Advance Language Mastery (0/10,000) Rank: E Complete understanding ofmon demonguage and elementary understanding of all othernguages, able to read 3-line incantations and writenguage functions and structures Upgradeable: Linguistics E Requirement met: Advanced Language Master S] When Maria saw the [Linguistics] skill being the upgradeable skill after [Advanced Language Mastery], she immediately began to tear up. She looked up at Zelundo who was next to her with tear-filled eyes. Zelundo only smirked yfully and patted her head lightly. "YOU''RE SUPPOSED TO CONSOLE ME!" "Ahahahaha~ you''re one interesting little missy! Go on, start reading those books!" *DING* [Zelundo has tasked you with reading the library''s books!] [Quest Received: Study Time Read every book inside of the library. While this quest is active, proficiency and EXP gained from reading is doubled. Time Limit: 29 Days Penalty: -100 FAV with Zelundo Rewards: +1000 FAV with Zelundo, +100 REP, +50 INT, [Book Keeping], 100,000 EXP] "Uhh..." "Hey, you get some benefits if you''re able topletely understand those books! Now hurry up and get started! Try and get the [Linguistics] skill before the month has ended, okay?" "A MONTH?!" "Hey, that''s the shortest time you could take to learn [Linguistics]! No cking off now, hurry up and begin reading!" "Nooooo!!!" As Maria''s despaired ridden voice echoed throughout the library, He had juste out of the Magic Tower with a light gait in her steps. She had finally one upped the stupid Arch Mage geezer in the tower and they agreed to a bet that he would teach Maria about [Magic Comprehension] and [Magic Deduction] if she could learn both [Linguistics] and [Book Keeping] from Zelundo before a month had passed. "Hehe, just you wait you stupid geezer. Our Lady Envoy will be able to learn those skills with time to spare! A million gold, a favor, plus that 5 century-old wine are in the bag, OHOHOHOHO~!" He roared inughter. It was a good thing no one was there to witness her out of character moment, she quickly cleared her throat in embarrassment and skipped happily back to the Dark God''s Temple. ****** 3 in-game weeks had passed since Maria was given the [Study Time] quest and she was floating through the air while reading a book at her leisure. The yers who hade to the library to receive a different quest had grown used to seeing the girl floating through the air while reading a book. It was a unique sight, but it was weed since she also sometimes helped yers search for the specific book that they needed toplete the quest they got from the library''s receptionist. yers even began calling her the Library''s Angel. "It''s almost been a month...just a little bit more..." Maria said as she finished reading another book. If Maria knew this was how long it would take to learn a skill, she wouldn''t have bothered asking He anding over to the library to learn anything. What she didn''t know however, that there was a simpler way to learn the skill. All she needed to do wasplete the library receptionist''s chain quest and acquire the [Linguistic] skill book from that. However, the process of learning the skill which granted bonus stat points to a yer''s stats was left out. So in a way, Maria had stumbled upon the greatest method of learning skills, which was the manual, hardworking way. The process of learning skills in Unitale was divided into 3, creating the skill through repeated usage or understanding, acquiring it from a skill book, and learning it through mentorship. Maria has already experienced 2 of these methods and now she was going through the hardships of the third method. It was time consuming, but the rewards brought by the process of learning the skill in this way were abundant. Just from finishing [Zelundo''s Basic Language Materials], Maria had gained 10 INT. So if she finished reading more books, then the stat bonuses she would gain would be enormous, of course, it wasn''t like every book she read gave her stat points, only a select few did. From a gamer''s perspective, all that hard work was worth it. It was just like grinding for experience points, but instead this was for grinding stat points. Every addition to one''s stats was a big boon. This was especially so since Unitale heavily relied on stats and currently, the only known way to gain stat points was through leveling up, fulfilling special quests and objectives that rewarded Free Stat Points. So this mentorship was an unexpectedly great find. It had to be mentioned that in order to be eligible to learn from a mentor, one needed a High Ranking NPC''s rmendation and personal referral. In order to get that, a yer needed to have high favorability with a High Ranking NPC, something that Maria had already acquired so early in the game. High Priestess He practically worshipped Maria for being the Dark God''s Envoy. Her favorability with the NPC was already elevated to a high value and she was still earning more through interaction and bypleting her quests. For now, only Maria had learned about this mentorship function that the NPCs provided, but she didn''t understand the significance of it yet. ****** "Hey Mary, let''s go questing and huntingter~" Lizzy said while the girls were eating lunch in the school''s cafeteria. When Maria heard her, she couldn''t help but cast Lizzy a sad look and say, "Sorry Liz, I can''t...I''m stuck learning the [Linguistics] and [Book Keeping] skills at the library..." "Huh? It''s already been over a week and you still haven''t learned it?!" "...please don''t remind me..." Maria replied inplete dejection. Maria still hadn''t earned enough proficiency to upgrade her skill to [Linguistics]. She was also only a couple of books away frompleting [Study Time] and getting [Book Keeper] as well. Even until now, Maria didn''t understand what the [Book Keeping] skill was for, but since the requirement to finish the quest was to actually read ALL of the books inside the library, she could only continuing trudging forward. She enjoyed reading the books, but whenever her friends talked about hunting and grinding their levels while at school, Maria couldn''t help but feel dejected and left out. Her friends had already broken past level 50 and had already gone through their ss advancement quests and upgraded their sses. "Mary...what quest are you doing? Y''know, on the forums in the guide section, the [Linguistics] quest was fairly easy and you could practicallyplete it in 1 day!" "Huh?" Lizzy pulled out her phone and opened up the Unitale Forums. She opened up the yer made guides and quickly found the [Librarian''s Request] quest and showed it to Maria. "Hm? I didn''t know about this..." "Really?" Amanda looked at Maria and asked, "What quest are you doing right now? It''s obviously not this, right?" "Y-yeah...it''s called [Study Time]..." "[Study Time]? That''s new, so who''s the quest giver?" "The Library''s Director, the old geezer Zelundo!" Maria said in anger. "At first it wasn''t [Study Time], instead it was something called [Learn How to Read 1], but that stupid, lying, oppressive" Amanda eximed when she heard Maria''s words. "Library Director? No way! You normally wouldn''t be able to meet him unless you have a high reputation and a huge amount of favorability with the Library''s Receptionist!" Maria tilted her head in confusion and said, "Really? But I met him right when I entered the library! Of course, Miss He was the one who brought him down to meet me and I just followed after him to the library''s upper floors and he issued out a quest to me..." "R-really? And the quest reward is [Linguistics], right?" "Yeah, and something called [Book Keeping], not sure what that is...he also gave me the [Basic Language Mastery] which could upgrade to [Linguistics]...I just need a little bit more proficiency, but it took 3 in-game weeks just to get over 98,000 proficiency points, dammit!" Maria burst out in anger. She had been reading numerous books for the past week and hasn''t been able to go out and grind some monsters. Zelundo had basically locked her inside the library at this point. She keptining that it was imprisonment and a vition of human rights, but Zelundo scoffed at her and told her she wasn''t even human to begin with so it didn''t even matter! By now, Maria had nearly read all the books inside the library, only a couple tens of books left before she finished the [Study Time] quest and maybe raise her [Advanced Language Mastery] to S rank. She did gain a whole bunch of INT and experience from finishing a book. The experience she gained had even leveled her up twice and her INT value had grown to an absurd amount. However, Maria still hadn''t opened her [Status] window so she didn''t know of this just yet. "I''ll probably finishter today, so I''ll contact you once I''m able to leave the library!" "Okay, that''s good. By the way, you should join our guild already! We finally pooled enough funds together and we sessfully created our guild!" Chapter 40: Not Over Yet Chapter 40: Not Over Yet When Maria heard about the guild, she immediately grew excited. Her friends had already given her a crash course of gaming know-how so she understood the significance a guild held in Unitale. "I can''t wait to join! Just let me finish up my quest and be freed from that stupid, lying, oppressive, demonic geezer!" "Ahahaha~ who''s that? The Library''s Director?" Lizzyughed at her friend''s description. "Yeah!" "R-really?" "He''s a stupid, lying, and oppressive old man! I hate him! He actually locked me up in the library to read all of the books inside! It''s because of him that I can''t go out and level with you guys!" "Eh?" Maria''s friends were stunned to hear this, they grew a bit worried at how weird all of Maria''s quests turned out to be. First was the High Priestess'' Quest that literally put a person''s morals to the test, now her quest had her imprisoned inside of the library. "M-Mary...you really have strange quests issued out to you...have you ever experienced any normal quests?" Milly asked worriedly. "Huh?" "Well, not many quests would confine a yer to a specific area until itspletion..." "..." "Phew...you should really refrain from taking any more of those weird quests. It''s not like you can''t decline, right?" "...actually...I wasn''t given the option to decline..." "..." "Th-there are those kinds of quests after all... Remember that quest for us to gain citizenship in the neutral cities, Milly?" Amanda immediately voiced out. "Yeah...we couldn''t even decline and we were forced to exterminate some high leveled monsters in the field..." The bell rang in the next moment which marked the end of lunch break. "Well, just quickly finish your questter, okay Mary? Message us when you''re finished." Lizzy said as she got up. "Okay~" ****** Maria logged back into the game and was greeted with the familiar sight of the library''s interior. "...Let''s get started...I don''t want that stupid geezer to yell at me again..." Maria flew over to thest section of the library which books she hadn''t read yet. She picked one up and immediately began reading. She didn''t forget to summon Lh. Maria loved herpany more than ever now. With her current confined state, she didn''t have many people to talk to. Lh was her only respite, but most of the time was spent in silence since she was reading, but the little fairy was there to remind her of when to eat or if there was anyone in the library that needed her help. If she helped out in the library, the receptionist would reward her with a few coins and experience. It also added points to her proficiency so she did all she could to quickly help out the yers. "Master, there''s someone down there!" "M''kay, wait a minute lemme bookmark this page." After she ced her bookmark, Maria put the book back and flew down to the first floor of the library and approached the yer in need. It turned out to be a familiar face. "Oh! It''s Lilith!" "Hm? Maria, you''re still here?" The person who was looking around the library''s first floor was actually Lilith, the new friend that Maria had made a while back. They hadn''t been in contact after their initial meeting, but now they''ve encountered each other once again. "Ahaha~ how''re you Lilith? I''m now acting as a part-time librarian here!" "I''ve been doing great! You''re a librarian? Hahaha~ I knew it, you really are interesting!" Maria smiled at her and asked what she was doing here. "I need a specific book, it''s called Deklorian Mythos? It''s an item for my ss specific quest that I got from my instructor. It took me a while before I found the clue that I could actually find it in the library..." Maria was surprised, that book was the exact book she had just finished reading before she had logged outst night. "Follow me! I just finished reading that bookst night! I got a decent amount of INT and EXP from finishing it~" "Hm?" This was a first for Lilith, she never heard about receiving any stat boosts just from reading a book. "Hey, Maria!" "Hm?" "What do you mean by getting a decent amount of INT and EXP?" Maria was a little surprised when she heard the question. She thought that everyone knew about it already. "Well, if you read a book and finish it all the way to the end, you could gain EXP and INT! Doesn''t everyone know that?" "R-really? This is the first time I''m hearing this..." "Oh...well, now you know!" "Y-yeah..." Maria brought Lilith up to the 3rd floor of the library and she quickly found the book her friend needed. "Here you go!" Maria handed the book over to Lilith. The girl looked delighted and checked to make sure it was the one she needed. "Thanks, Maria! This is definitely the book, alright. I can''t read the title, but this book is definitely the same with the one shown in my quest!" "Hehe~ anything for a friend~ I''ll be heading back to the top floor to continue my reading or that stupid old geezer will yell at me again..." "Eh? Okay, I''ll see you around Maria. Let''s party up next time!" "Sure!" Maria saw off Lilith before going back to the top floor to resume reading thest of the books she hasn''t read yet. It took her half of an in-game day before she finally finished the veryst book. *DING* [You have aplished an extraordinary feat by reading all the books in the library in under a month! Reward: +100 INT, 1 Gold Coin, +200 REP, 10,000 EXP] [Title Gained: The Knowledgeable One] [Unique Title: The Knowledgeable One You are well learned and have immense knowledge in all sorts of fields. Provides a passive 5% boost to INT stat. Equipped Effect 1: Increases INT by 10% Equipped Effect 2: Increases Skill proficiency gained by 50% Equipped Effect 3: Decreases time needed when deciphering ancient documents] [Would you like to equip the title? YES/NO] Maria decided not to equip the title, the 5% passive boost to INT was enough and her [Angel of Death] title was better for grinding higher level monsters. Maria didn''t understand what the 3rd effect could be used for, but she did think that the 50% increase in skill proficiency gained was pretty neat. "I''ll use that when I''m grinding monsters, and I''ll have the [Angel of Death] on when fighting bosses or rare monsters!" Titles were easily interchangeable so why not just use them when the situation called for it? Maria thought it was pretty smart so she made sure to tell Lh to always remind her just in case she forgot. "Now...let''s go visit that stupid geezer!" "Master, calling the Library''s Director stupid is a bit..." "Hm? You say something Lh?" "...nevermind," Lh replied awkwardly when she saw the old demon standing behind the oblivious Maria. "So...I''m stupid, huh?" "!" Maria jumped in surprise when she heard a very familiar voice call out from behind her. "M-M-Mr. Zelundo! How are you? Fine day isn''t it?" Maria said trying hard to pretend she didn''t say what she just said earlier. "...You ungrateful little brat... whatever, youpleted my request so I''ll give you your due credit!" "Ehehe~ thank you~" "Don''t act all cutesy with me, missy! Don''t think I don''t know what you''ve been saying about me behind my back!" "Ack!" [Quest Completed: Study Time! Rewards: +1000 FAV with Zelundo, +100 REP, +50 INT, [Book Keeping], 100,000 EXP] When she received the quest rewards Maria smiled and felt really relieved. "Thanks Mr. Zelundo!" "Yeah, yeah,e visit sometime whenever you''re free, this library''s always opened for you," Zelundo said as he handed Maria a card. [Received: Library Diamond Pass x1] It was the item required to gain ess to the library''s higher floors. Normally the library passes that a yer would receive when theypleted the receptionist''s quest would award a basic library pass that granted a time limited ess to the library''s first floor, but the diamond pass granted Maria unlimited ess to the entirety of the library. "Thanks!" "Remember to drop by sometime! I''ll prepare some new books for you to read, little missy!" "M''kay~ I''ll get going now!" "Ah, wait a minute." Zelundo called out to her just as the girl was about to take off. "Don''t forget to go to the Magic Tower. That girly, He, had already ced arrangements for the old guy in the tower to teach you the skills you want." Zelundo left behind those words before returning to his office. "...I have a bad feeling about this..." Maria was just about to inform her friends that she was finished, but it looks like things still weren''t over for her. Chapter 41: Stupid Idiotic Jerk Chapter 41: Stupid Idiotic Jerk Before Maria flew over to the Magic Tower, she first did a quick check on her [Status]. [Maria Lv. 20] HP: 2,260/2,260 MP: 76,800/76,800 SP: 260/260 EXP: 216,000/2,000,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death, The Knowledgeable One ATK: 475 (+50~100) DEF: 283 (+15) M.ATK: 768 (+20) M.DEF: 3,840 (+15) STR: 85 (+10) AGI: 70 (-5) VIT: 105 (+8) INT: 1510 (+26) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 80 Maria took a look at her stats and was dumbfounded. "Eh?" "What is it, Master?" She rubbed her eyes just in case she was seeing things, but when she re-checked her stats, it was the same absurd number that she saw earlier. "..." "Master, what''s wrong?" "I''m just gonna pretend I didn''t see that! Now, let''s take a look at my [Linguistics] skill!" "..." Lh could only cast a confused look at her Master. Maria dismissed her [Status] and brought up her [Skill] window. She scrolled down and found the skill she wanted to take a look at. [Linguistics (0/100,000) Rank: E Complete understanding of everymonnguage and an elementary understanding of ancient tongue, able to read 5-line incantations and write advancednguage functions and structures Upgradeable: ??? Requirement met: Linguistics S] Maria guessed that the 5-line incantations probably had something to do with learning and chanting magic spells while thetter half of the skill which enables writingnguage functions and structures was something she still didn''t quiteprehend. If it was just writing, then she was totally able to do it. She didn''t understand what the advanced functions and structures meant, but Maria didn''t care. "Finally, I''ve got it! Ahhh, it feels good. I''m finally free from that old geezer! Now let''s check out what that [Book Keeping] skill is all about!" Maria took out the [Book Keeping] skill book from her inventory and read its description. [Book Keeping Lv. 1 (0/100,000) Rank: A Enables the user to make copy of books and opens up a subspace for the user to store books in. Books that can be copied: - Rank E-D Books - Rank E-D Scrolls Subspace: 10 Slots MP Cost: 1000 MP/Book or Scroll (Scales with Book or Scroll Rank) Limit: 5 Books/week, 10 Scrolls/week] Maria patted the book on her chest and learned the skill. [Skill acquired: Book Keeping Lv. 1] *DING* [Inventory Subspace acquired] "What does this subspace mean?" Maria quickly opened up her [Inventory] window and noticed that a new tab was next to her main tab, it had thebel [Book] on it and when she switched to that tab, she only noticed that there were 10 inventory slots in it. When Maria tried to move items into the slots, she was notified by the system that only book-type and scroll-type items could be moved into the slots. "Oh, that''s convenient. I can free up some of my inventory slots now!" Her [Inventory] only had 30 item slots. yers could add more slots if they acquired higher ranked backpacks. Buying one from the NPCs was expensive and they only added 20 item slots. She heard from Lizzy and Milly who yed during the beta test that there were backpacks that added more slots, but they had to be acquired through dungeon raids. Maria moved all the skill books from her main inventory tab to the book tab. 9 of the avable slots were immediately filled up. She was about to put the [Meditate] skill book into thest slot, but remembered that she had reached level 20 and could now learn the skill. She quickly patted the skill book on her body and another new skill was added to her [Skill] window. [Meditate Lv. 1 Rank: E When out ofbat, the user can meditate and quickly regain MP, boosts MP recovery by 100% when out ofbat. While inbat, boosts MP recovery by 2%.] [World Announcement: Congrattions to the Guild: Fallen Angels, for getting the First Clear to Hell Mode Dungeon: Arachne Lair!] [Rewards: +100 Guild Reputation, +50 World Reputation, 5x Random Equipment Box, 10 Gold, x1 Rare Rank Building Design] "Hm? Dungeon? What''s that?" Maria was puzzled by the system announcement, but she thought nothing of it, it wasn''t rted to her anyways. "Okay, let''s head on over to the Magic Tower~" Maria, along with Lh, flew over to the magical tower towering high up into the sky. "Miss He was right! That tower really is hard to miss!" When she arrived at the entrance of the tower, there were a lot of mage yers going in and out of the tower. Maria quicklynded and made her way into the tower. As usual, her appearance and entrance caused many yers to gawk at her. Maria couldn''t help but notice that while she was flying through the sky earlier, there were many more yers roaming about on the streets. Even the magic tower was so congested with many yers that it was hard for her to move around, especially since she had arge pair of wings behind her. She wrapped the wings around her body and moved forward. It really was ufortable when people identally bumped into her wings and sometimes she almost fell over. "Muuh...having wings really isn''t all that great... More importantly...who am I even looking for right now?" Maria didn''t even know who she was looking for, but suddenly the sea of yers around her began to part ways and a mage-like character approached her. The person stopped just a few steps short from her. When she saw the person, he or she was fully covered by arge cloak and the hood on their head was covering even their face so she couldn''t tell whether it was a man or a woman who was standing in front of her. "Are you that girl?" An androgynous voice sounded out from under the hood. "Huh?" There were many girls around her so Maria looked around, but then the person in front of her spoke up once more. "I''m talking about you, the halfwit with the wings!" "H-halfwit? Hey, I''m not a halfwit!" Maria yelled back, feeling totally incensed at the unexpected insult. "Hmph, from what I see, you are a halfwit!" "Haaahhh?! What kind of jerk insults a person they just met?!" "Come with me, halfwit." "Shut up! You stupid jerk! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Idiot! Stupid!!!" The cloaked person stumbled just as he or she was about to turn around. "What did you just call me?" "I called you a stupid idiotic jerk! Not only are you stupid, but apparently, you''re also deaf!" The cloaked person was probably fuming under the hood when he or she heard Maria insult them again. Maria didn''t care about the crowd of yers witnessing the odd exchange that she was having with the cloaked stranger. The cloaked person cleared his or hers throat and tried to retain theirposure. "Halfwit, is that really what you should be saying to your new Master?" "Master? Hah, an idiotic jerk like you has no right to be MY master!" "..." The cloaked person waved their hands and a surge of magical energy rushed straight at Maria. Maria widened her eyes in shock when she saw the person suddenly send an attack at her. She hastily pped her wings and flew up. Maria then reflexively pulled out her Cmity and was just about to dive in to retaliate, but she noticed that she couldn''t move properly while in the air. "W-what?!" "Haha, you''re a halfwit through and through," the cloaked person chuckled. "Hey! What''d you do?!" "Shut it, you''reing with me." The person waved their hand and Maria floated over in the air just above the person''s head. "Hey! What''d you do?!" "I just cast a [Levitation] on you, no need to fret." "Really? Then, PUT. ME. DOWN!" Maria began swinging her axe and thrashing around in the air, but it only caused her to spin in ce. Gradually, she began to grow dizzy and the cloaked person onlyughed and mocked her once again. "Careful! You''re going to make yourself sick! Hahaha!" Lh wanted to do something, but she felt a strong sense of danger radiating from the cloaked individual who was toying with her master. "D-dammit...How dare you humiliate my Master!" Lh gritted her teeth and rushed straight at the cloaked person. However, in the next instant she was frozen in ce when the person suddenly waved their hand at her. "?!" "Sleep, little fairy." "Huh? N-no...mas...ter..." At his words, Lh immediately fell asleep and floated straight into their hand. Seeing this, Maria grew furious and roared, "Hey, jerk! Stop messing with my fairy!" "Hahaha! You''reing with me, I like you." "Huh?" A magic circle formed under the cloaked person and in the next instant, Maria, Lh and the cloaked person disappeared from the Magic Tower''s first floor in a sh of light. "...What just happened?" "Was that some sort of event?" At the staircase to the second floor, Lilith was standing there in shock. She didn''t expect to see her friend, Maria, and her ss instructor, the Magic Tower''s Arch Mage, together. Not only that, her instructor had actually straight up and abducted her friend! "Holy shit, what did you do Maria?!" Lilith immediately rushed back up the tower and made a beeline towards the Arch Mage''s researchboratory. It was the only ce where anyone with enough reputation could meet the Arch Mage. Chapter 42: You Really Are A Jerk Chapter 42: You Really Are A Jerk When the light faded from Maria''s eyes, she looked around in bewilderment when she noticed that she was in apletely different location. "WhaOUCH!" When the cloaked person dispelled his [Levitation], Maria was harshly dropped onto the floor. "Hey jerk! What was that for?! That''s not how you handle ady!" "Ady?" The cloaked person began looking around before saying with a chuckle, "I don''t see one." "So not only are you deaf, but you''re also blind! There''s ady right in front of you!" "Hmph, all I see... is a halfwit!" "Why, you!!!" "Here." The cloaked person tossed something over to Maria. She was just about to swat it away, but quickly noticed that it was actually Lh and immediately caught her. "Hey!" "Shut it, you halfwit...because of you I lost something very important...and 1 million gold!" "Huh?" The cloaked person moved back their hood and a beautiful face of a girl? Or a boy...was shown to Maria. "...What are you?" Maria asked immediately. "...Now that was rude...can''t you tell that I''m a great demon?!" "A demon? All I see is a boy!" Maria retorted in disbelief. The androgynous person in front of her, who dered that he or she was a great demon, was no more than a pale young boy with a small demon tail and 2 two small stubs on the top of his forehead that were supposedly horns! The only reason why he appeared so tall was actually because he had cast [Levitate] on himself and had worn that overlyrge mage robe of his! "What?! A boy?! I''ll have you know that I''m well over 1000 years old!" "Huh?!" Maria thought deeply when she heard this and immediately came to a conclusion. "So, let me get this straight...you''re a grown man?" "Yes!" "...A man who disguises himself as a young boy...so basically, you''re a pervert who''s blind, deaf, idiotic, and stupid?" "..." "Oh! Not to mention, you''re also a jerk!" "..." The man boy''s face began to twitch incredibly when he heard Maria''s words. "Hey~ you okay there?" "Ugh...you and that girl are BOTH exhausting! I can''t believe my luck... the only two people who I''ve taken a liking too are both annoying halfwits!" Maria ignored the child and took a look around the room. When she saw all theplicated magic tools and spell tomes, she was immediately reminded of something and turned towards the self-proimed over 1000 year-old and asked, "Hey, I remember you saying that you''re my... Master?" The child looked up at Maria as if looking at an idiot. Did he not make that clear not so long ago? In fact, it was only 5 minutes ago that he told her! "I told you that on the ground floor you halfwit!" "That means you''re the Magic Tower''s Arch Mage!" "Oh, so now you get it?! What of it?" "Ohhh~ I didn''t think you''d be so young! I guess being mage isn''t all about age huh?" "...Did I take in another idiot as well?" The Arch Mage rubbed his forehead exhaustingly. Maria found it kind of cute when the little boy was trying so hard to act like an adult. "Huhuhu~ you''re so cute, so I''ll forgive you! Also, I''m really sorry for calling you names! But what you did earlier was really mean y''know~" "Don''t care. I do what I want... Also, that was a little test of sorts. If you didn''t move to save your fairy, I wouldn''t have taken a liking to you and I would''ve sent you off after tossing you some spell tomes~" "...You really are a jerk, you know that?" Maria walked around the room and picked up a spell book and read the title. [Spell Book: Teleport Notice: You do not meet the necessary ss requirement! You do not possess the necessary requirements to initiate Manual Learning] "Hey, Arch Mage boy~ is this spell what you used earlier to bring us here?" "Gah! I''m not a BOY! Also, my name is Paimon! The Great Demon Paimon! Do remember it!" "Okay Paipai~" "P-Paipai?! I''ll have you know that you''re talking to one of the 7" "Paipai~ you''re so noisy~" "You...little..." Maria secretly used [Inspect] on Paimon and there were many question marks all over. [Arch Mage of the North Paimon Lv. ???] ss: Arch Mage HP: ???/??? MP: ???/??? Titles: ???, ???, ???, ???, Arch Mage of the North, ???, ???, ???] Maria was inwardly amazed, but she didn''t express it. No matter how she looked at the NPC, he was only a young boy ying grown up. Even now he was still pouting and fuming at Maria for calling him with such a cute nickname and cutting him off. "Gah! You and that girl are so exhausting!" "You keep saying ''that girl'', but who''re you talking about?" "Who else?! It''s that stupid,zy, alcoholic thief, He!" "W-what?! Hey! Don''t you dare disrespect Miss He!" "Y-you! You speak so formally about that alcoholic thief! But to your new master you actually" "Shut up Paipai!" "Gah! My name is Paimon, not Paipai!" "No~pe, you''re Paipai to me!" "Give me some respect, you little ingrate!" "Not until you stop disrespecting Miss He!" "...fine!" "Hihihi~ that''s a good boy~" Maria began rubbing Paimon''s head and this only further agitated the Arch Mage. "GRRRR...Haaahhh..." ''No matter what I do or say, this stupid fallen angel just doesn''t get it!'' "Agh...whatever, what''d you say your name was again?" "Maria!" "Okay then Maria, let''s get down to business." Paimon waved his hand and a chair and table flew over andnded right in front of Maria. "Sit." "Thank you Paipai~" "..." Paimon waved his hand again and a couple of books flew off from the bookshelves inside therge room andnded on top of the table in front of Maria. "Read all these." "...Huh?" Paimon only gestured for her to go ahead and Maria eximed in horror, "More studying?!" "What''d you expect? Did you want me to serve [Magic Comprehension] and [Magic Deduction] to you on a silver tter?" "...yes..." Maria shamelessly replied. "Idiot, there''s a clear reason why those two skills have such names!" "...uhhh...but I dun wanna...I wanna hunt...and fight~" "No whining, hurry up and start with the basics. Before you''ve stepped out of this tower, I''ll mold you into a fine mage!" Hearing those words, Maria was horrified. "NO! I don''t want to be imprisoned!" Maria leaped out of her chair and made a beeline towards the door, but suddenly "OWWWIEEE!" "...hey, halfwit...did you honestly think that I didn''t set up a [Bounded Field] yet?" "B-bounded...field?" Paimon approached the fallen Maria and smiled gently at Maria. He then said slowly, "You''re. Not. Getting. Away~" His smile was so gentle, but Maria only saw it as a sadistic and evil smirk. "You really are a jerk, Paipai!" "Enough with the Paipai!!!" Chapter 43: First Spell Chapter 43: First Spell "Hey Mary~ are you going to join the event?" "...what event?" "Unitale''s first ever in-game event, silly!" "Oh?" All the teachers and staff were currently having a meeting so the students were put into a self-study session. Of course, no one was studying so it was basically free time for everyone. Maria currently had her head down on top of the desk when Lizzy asked her about the event. She of course didn''t know about it since she was busy with something else. Lizzy exined all the ins and outs of the game event to Maria. The gamepany behind Unitale wanted to spice things up for the global release which would be happening a weekter alongside with the update. The event that Lizzy was talking about was a gathering and drop rate bonus for in-game currency, crafting materials, and equipment. Special boss monsters would also spawn randomly in the field and dungeons which will drop random gift boxes of different grades for the yers to collect. There will also be a ranking for whoever obtained the most special boss kills disyed on the game''s main website and the number one to ten spots will receive an exclusive prize from the gamepany. "Howe I''ve never heard about this?" "It was broadcasted in the [World Announcement], Mary! What exactly have you been doing for the past couple of days? You told us that you were finished with your [Study Time] quest, so why haven''t you contacted us in-game yet?" Lizzy said a little unhappy. She looked forward to ying again with Maria. It wasn''t every day that this friend of hers would pick up interest in a game so she wanted to make sure that Maria was still hooked into ying and not give up mid-way. "...Ugh...I was imprisoned again..." "What?!" This was bad news for Lizzy. If all Maria ever did while ying the game was getting imprisoned then she might quickly lose interest in the game! "Exin! How''d you get yourself into another mess?" "Y-you see...after the library quest..." Maria began exining all about what happened after the [Study Time] quest to Lizzy. The girl was appalled when she heard about the very demanding quest that was generated from the Magic Tower''s Arch Mage. [Quest: A Mage''s Path Learn the way of the mage from the number one mage of the north, Arch Mage Paimon. Under his tutge you will walk down the proper path of a first-rate magus! Objectives: - Follow all of Paimon''s instructions (9/10) - Acquire [Magic Comprehension] (1/1) - Acquire [Magic Deduction] (1/1) - Acquire [Magical Affinity] (1/1) Rewards: +1000 FAV with Paimon, Paimon''s Magic Tome, +100 INT, +500,000 EXP, Spell Book: Ruin Penalty: -1000 FAV with Paimon, Ban Entry: Northern Magic Tower, -100 INT, -1 Level, Spell Book: Random Toad Time Limit: None] Maria had connected her Unitale ount to her phone''s Unitale App. The app was basically just like a Unitale newspaper. It contained all the new updates and events while also granting easy ess to the forums. You could also ess your in-game characters stats, quests, and everything on the app as well. Maria had opened up her [Quest] menu on the app and shown Lizzy the quest she got from Paimon. "Woah! What''s with these absurd rewards Mary?!" Lizzy was pretty infuriated earlier upon knowing that her best friend was once again trapped somewhere because of a quest, but when she looked at the quest rewards, she felt a little envious. "500,000 EXP is enough to raise my level by 1 or 2! Also, what''s with this way of learning skills? You get 3 passives frompleting the objectives and you get a spell book as a reward!" Lizzy was totally floored with the quest rewards. The plus 100 to INT stat was also very much appealing, that was like getting 10 free levels for a normal yer! She also deduced that Paimon''s Magic Tome was likely a special item that was bound to have incredible effects. After all, it was a Magic Tome from the Arch Mage himself! "And what''s with that 1000 FAV?! That''s enough to raise your rtionship with the NPC to [Like] or above!" Lizzy eximed in shock. "What''s that?" Lizzy began exining to Maria about the NPC favorability function and ranks. There were 9 ranks in total. From the lowest it was: [Nemesis], [Enemies], [Dislike], [Indifferent], [Neutral], [Amiable], [Like], [Friend], [Intimate]. Every yer started with a [Neutral] rtionship with all NPCs of their factions and the neutral faction. As for their opposing faction it started out with [Dislike]. A yer could raise the FAV stat bypleting quests and interacting with an NPC regrly. This applied to every NPC in the game, which means a yer could raise the FAV stats for NPCs of opposing factions if they wanted to. Having a higher FAV stat with an NPC allowed you to get more benefits when you talk to them and if you have a high enough FAV stat, you could actually have them apany you on quests or hunts for a period of time! "Oh! That''s neat!" "It sure is! I think I''d be okay with this kind of quest...but how''re you holding up, Mary? You think the game''s boring?" "What? No way! I think it''s actually pretty fun! I get to learn new things and interact with many people; I also got a new in-game friend y''know! I also have fun teasing and talking to Paimon too!" Maria began fiddling with her phone and showed the screen to Lizzy, "Here, this is how he looks like!" On the screen was Paimon''s character menu. "Woah! He''s so adorable!" "I know right! Hihi~ he tries to act like a grownup, but you can easily please him if you just listen to whatever he says, make him tea, and give him sweets!" "Ahahah~ what''s with that? It says here he''s over 1000 years old, but from the way you say he acts, he sure doesn''t seem like an old grampa!" ****** "So, my friend and I were talking about how cute you were Paipai!" "...you really are a disrespectful apprentice...just like that He girl." "Hihi~ so, what''re we doing next?" "Magic Combat... since you already have all 3 of the basic mage skills we''ll have you learn the basic [Fire] spell and defeat some monsters while only using magic." [Magic Comprehension (10/10,000) Rank: C Intermediate mastery of magical equations, incantations, spell forms and structures, enables theprehension of C ranked spells and below Provides a 5% increase to INT and 10% increase in Mana Recovery outside ofbat Upgradeable: Magic Mastery E Requirements: Magic Comprehension S, Magic Deduction S, Magical Affinity S] [Magic Deduction (2/1,000) Rank: D Low-level mastery of spell construction, invocation, and execution, enables the casting of D ranked spells and below Provides a 5% increase to Mana Recovery while inbat Upgradeable: Magic Mastery E Requirements: Magic Comprehension S, Magic Deduction S, Magical Affinity S] [Magical Affinity (0/100) Rank: E Basic affinity with the elements enabling the use of basic fire and water elemental spells Provides a 10% increase to all Elemental Resistance Upgradeable: Magic Mastery E Requirements: Magic Comprehension S, Magic Deduction S, Magical Affinity S] After looking over all three of her newly acquired skills, Maria cheered happily, "I can finally learn magic, yay!" "Here''s the [Fire] Spell Book. Since you aren''t a Mage, you''ll have to learn it manually." Maria immediately took the book from Paimon and thanked him. She quickly opened the book and began reading. Maria didn''t even bother to find a chair to sit in before reading. Ever since she began reading in the library, she would unconsciously start pping her wings and float in the air and just read her book like that. Airborne reading was now one of Maria''s favorite past times! The door to the research room opened and Lilith walked in. "Oh? She''s at it again?" Paimon turned towards his in-name apprentice and said, "Yes, she''s finally reached thest phase to her basic training...and what are you here for, Lilith?" "You know, Arch Mage, I may just be your in-name apprentice, but howe you treat the two of us so differently?" "I treat you both how I want to! It''s just that you''re easier to deal with than that clueless airhead of a fallen angel! It''s really hard to deal with a halfwit!" "...Somehow, I feel kind of defeated...anyways, I''m here to turn in the quest fromst time." "Ah, thank you for this. Here''s your reward." Paimon waved his hand and a Spell Book flew from one of the bookshelves towards Lilith. She stretched her hand and grabbed it. "Phew...finally got [Levitation], is there anything else you need from me, Arch Mage Paimon?" "Hmmm...you''re still a little low in e back when you''re level 50 and I''ll give you another quest as well as your ss ascension quest!" Lilith nodded before backing out of the room. She took onest look at Maria before walking out. "Phew, she''s been like that for almost 10 in-game days...doesn''t she get bored?" ****** Back in the room, after Maria finished reading through the book and chanting the incantation she found within, she was able to learn the Fire spell. [Spell acquired: Fire Lv.1 Fire Lv.1 (0/100) Rank: E Ignites enemy with fire, dealing 50+(INT x 0.5) M.DMG with a small chance to inflict [Burn] for 5 seconds. MP Cost: 100 MP Cooldown: 10 seconds] "Hooray, my first spell!" Maria activated [Fire] and arge me was conjured on top of her hand. She stared in marvel at the ball of mes in her hand and just as she was about to throw it, Maria thankfully remembered where she was. "Oops, better not. Paipai will yell at me again!" "You got that right! What were you thinking, trying to throw that fire spell while indoors?!" "Ehehehe~ sorry Paipai~ let''s continue with the Magic Combat!" "Sheesh...you''re so troublesome...Hey, you better not thoughtlessly use magic from now on! I do NOT want to hear about some idiot fallen angel burning down half the city, okay?!" "Hey! I''m not that stupid! I''ll only use it on the monsters!" "You better! Come over, we''ll teleport to the site." Maria flew over next to Paimon and the Arch Mage waved his hand, teleporting the two out of the room. Chapter 44: Magic Is Awesome! Chapter 44: Magic Is Awesome! When Maria looked around after the teleportation, she was at a very rocky, mountainous area. "We''re here." "Where are we~?" "In the nearby Enoch Mountain Range," Paimon replied. "But, why in the mountains?" "Because...if we did this in a forest or the ins...YOU''LL BURN THE WHOLE PLACE TO THE GROUND!" "Ueh?!" "That big me of yours will burn everything down!" Paimon said her me was big, but his words confused her. "Big? How was it big?! It was obviously small!" "Small? You call THAT small?!" "Of course, it wasn''t some inferno or anything! It was only the size of a watermelon!" "And that''s not big?! What is wrong with you?!" Paimon eximed in shock before continuing, "Why don''t you try using that again?" "Fine!" Maria quickly chanted the [Fire] spell''s incantation and a sizeable me, muchrger than the one she conjured in Paimon''s researchb blossomed on top of her hand. Although it was bigger, Maria still thought that it was small...or at least medium sized. "See! Look! It''s sma" Before Maria could finish, the me immediately began to tremble and suddenly, it blew up in her face. "WAAAHHH!!" Maria quickly shielded her face, but the pain didn''te. She lowered her arms and noticed Paimon staring at her scornfully. The Arch Mage had snuffed out the me with a wave of his hand so no harm was done to Maria. "W-what happened? Earlier in yourb...it didn''t explode!" Paimon shook his head at her when he saw her confusion. "Listen here Maria, myb has a suppressing formation that suppresses all types of magic if it''s not cast by me! That''s why your [Fire] spell looked ''small'' earlier and didn''t explode! As for why it''s like that, even an idiot could tell that you have a ton of INT. From what I see...it''s well over 1000!" "Eh? How do you know that, Paipai?" Maria eyed him suspiciously. She hadn''t once opened her [Status] window while learning magic from Paimon, so she wondered why he knew. "Naturally, that''s because I''m THE Arch Mage!" "I know that, but why?" Paimon waved his hand and a system window popped up in front of Maria. [Fire Lv. 1 (0/100) Rank: E Ignites enemy with fire, dealing 50 M.DMG MP Cost: 25 MP Cooldown: 5 seconds] It was the [Fire] spell that Maria learned, but when she took another look at it again... "It''s a little" "Different, right?" Paimon finished. "Y-yeah...but why?" "Because the [Fire] spell you learned was reworked and modified version improved by yours truly! Wahahaha!" Paimon dered with his nose pointed to the sky. "S-so...that''s why it nearly blew up in my face?!" Maria grew incensed when she heard him dere it so smugly. "Is this payback for me calling you Paipai, Paipai?! I knew it! You were just a jerk! How could you! I was really looking forward to using magic! But if all it does is blow up in my face...then what''s the point?!" Maria began whining andining. She looked as if she was about to burst into tears on the spot. Only Lh was there next to her trying to console the girl, telling her that Paimon may have a reason for giving her the modified version of [Fire]. "Oh, can it, you halfwit! Even I''m not that despicable of a demon! Just so you know it''s YOUR fault!" "How is it MY fault?! It''s obviously yours, Paipai! Deceiving me with a defective spell..." "What''d you say?! Did you NOT hear what I just said earlier?! You''re INT is pretty high and you do remember that my modified [Fire] spell''s output scales on your INT?!" Upon hearing his words, Maria immediately opened up her [Fire] spell''s skill window and checked it once again. When she saw the 50+(INT x 0.5) M.DMG, she immediately paled upon remembering her own absurd amount of INT. "Th-then...why couldn''t you just give me the normal spell!!!" Maria wailed. "Pfft, like I''d allow my disciple to learn such a low-leveled spell!" "Ueh?" "My disciples naturally deserve the best of the best! I won''t allow you to tarnish my name by using those inferior spells!" Paimon said in a matter-of-factly tone. "S-since it''s the best you say...why''d it blow up in my face?" "Tsk...I already told you it''s because of your high INT... And also the fact that YOU, being the halfwit that you are, didn''t even botherunching the spell away! So of course it''s gonna blow up in your face, you dolt!" "Eh?!" "Try again. And this time, aim for that rock and not your face, okay?" Paimon said in exasperation as he pointed at therge boulder a couple of meters away. He then continued, "You aren''t high leveled enough to be dying the activation of your spells just yet!" Paimon conjured arge me on his hand and it just floated there calmly, without exploding. "W-wow!" Maria''s eyes sparkled in awe at therge ball of fire floating calmly above Paimon''s hand. "Be in awe, young one! You''ll eventually reach this stage so practice hard! But for now, it''s target practice time! I want you to aim your [Fire] on that rock! Hurry up!" Maria was immediately pumped up again. Her earlier gloom and doom was washed away and she became highly motivated. If she kept on practicing to the point where she could calmly conjure a [Fire] on top of her hand without it exploding like Paimon, it would be great! Maria chanted the [Fire] spell and this time, she didn''t leave it hovering above her hand, but she sent it flying over to therge rock some meters ahead of her. Arge explosion ensued when the spell made contact with the rock and said rock was reduced to a pile of rubble. "SO COOL!!!" Maria began cheering happily. Normally, no idiot would shout ''so cool'' when they destroyed something...but apparently, not her. "[Fire]! [Fire]! [Fire]! This. Is. Awesome!!!" Maria squealed in excitement. The girl kept on chanting and casting [Fire] whenever it was off cooldown. She continued blowing up all therge rocks and boulders around her, desecrating the untouched environment. Paimon had already cast [Levitation] on himself and was observing Maria from the skies. "...So predictable, I knew this idiot would act like this...good thing I brought her into the mountains..." Paimon raised his head to look to the east, and he smirked. "Well, well...a fine target just appeared. Its resistance is pretty high, but considering that girl''s INT, she''ll probably be fine. However, this girl will probably have a hard time finishing it off with just [Fire]! Hmhm~ let''s see you put on a performance for me!" Not far from where Maria was rampaging around with her newfound [Fire] spell, arge moving pile of rocks was slowly heading over to her location. When it got closer, Maria began to feel the earth tremble under her feet and she immediately stopped firing off her spell randomly. She looked around and noticed the source of all the rumbling. "Oh, a perfect target to practice on!" The girl eximed in delight. Instead of being afraid of the 5 meterrge golem heading her way, Maria instead grew excited. "[Inspect]" [Golem Lv. 35 (Umon-Elite) HP: 100,000/100,000 MP: 10/10] "I''ll turn you into ashes! Gather, mes of destruction, and bring ruin upon my enemies[Fire]!" Once the incantation finished, Maria quickly sent the spell flying straight at the monster,nding a direct blow on the gem like object on the center of its chest. -1,560! (Critical Hit x2) Seeing the high damage, Maria smiled widely. "I knew magic was awesome!" ''Okay, since I need to take care of this using only magic, I''ll have to slowly whittle it down!'' With that thought, Maria quickly took to the skies before the golem could reach her. She then began raining [Fire] on the golem whenever the spell was off cooldown. When Paimon saw this, he immediately smacked his head hard. "Damn! I forgot she could fly!" Now his n of watching Maria dance around like a hapless was scrapped. The girl was just leisurely flying in the air while bombarding the monster with spell after spell. There was nothing amusing about it. "Argh! There goes my entertainment!" "I knew it! You really were just a jerk!" "How can you hear me?!" Chapter 45: Magus Chapter 45: Magus As Maria was continuing her bombardment on the golem, not far from her location was a group of yers making their way up the mountain. "So, Kris, there''s still no info on that girl?" "Yes, boss...for some reason, after she arrived at the city she suddenly disappeared. Then after a week or so she reappeared in the Magic Tower briefly before being abducted by an NPC. Until now there''s still no info about her whereabouts..." "Damn...but, it''s not like we can recruit her anymore. I hear that she''s a part of the Fallen Angels guild." "Yes, boss. From what I hear she''s even the founder and the current guild leader is only a stand-in." The two who were talking were Kris and Briar, the man who wanted to rope in Maria into his guild. On the two''s shoulders was a guild insignia depicting a demonic hand grasping onto an orb. This signified that the two were already in a guild. The name of their guild was Demon Hand and it was a guild that housed a number of beta testers. It was one of the leading guilds in the dark faction. Currently, there were 5 powerful guilds in the dark faction due to them having many beta testers in their ranks. Briar''s Demon Hand, the Fallen Angels, Dark World, Eclipse, and the Lunar Temple. For some reason, these two had the misunderstanding that Maria was the one who created the Fallen Angels guild. Maria was indeed a Fallen Angel, but she had no affiliation with that or any other guild. Other than seeing them that one time on the World Announcement, she had no idea who they were. "Well, it doesn''t matter now. Just one person isn''t enough to change anything in this game. Let''s just go help the newbies grind some levels and run the Enoch Mountain Summit Dungeon." "Okay...but boss, I wonder...what''re you doing here? Don''t you have more important things to do?" "Uhh, well, I thought I''d build up my image to the newbies. Every day there are more new yers joining the game so if people know that I have a good image as a guild leader, then more people will flock to join our guild!" "Y-yes...but shouldn''t the guild master be at the frontlines leading the dungeon raids alongside our core members?" "Don''t worry about that. Darkde has it covered." "Vice? Well, if you say so. Thanks for helping me out with today''s dungeon run then." "Let''s just say I owed you from back then. Consider this as payment." "Sure." A newbie member of the guild walked up to the two leaders and hesitantly spoke up. "G-guild Leader and Captain..." "Yes?" Kris replied. "Uhm...what''s that in the air? It looks like a yer, but I''m not so sure..." "Huh?" Kris and Briar immediately turned their attention to what the newbie was pointing at and saw the object of their previous conversation. "It''s that girl!" "B-boss, look, she''s using magic!" "What?! I thought it was reported that she was a priestess?!" "Remember boss...in Unitale, anyone could learn magic..." "I know that, but this early?! Are you kidding me?!" They looked up at the absurd scene of the girl throwing down fire balls in set intervals at whatever it was she was targeting from the air. The group slowly moved closer to Maria''s location and saw that she was attacking a golem. "She''s soloing that?" Briar said in a hushed tone. "Damn...she''s not even using that axe of hers...is she nning to kill it with just spells?" "It must be a higher ranked spell than [Fire] and [me Bomb]. Look at how much damage she''s dealing." It wasn''t long before Maria finished off the golem with only her [Fire] spell andpleted Paimon''sst request and her main quest, A Mage''s Path. [80,000 exp acquired (x4 multiplier)] [Objectivepleted: Follow Paimon''s Instructions (10/10)] [Questpleted: A Mage''s Path Rewards received: +1000 FAV with Paimon, Paimon''s Magic Tome, +100 INT, +500,000 EXP, Spell Book: Ruin] When Maria saw that her quest waspleted she cheered happily in the air. She was just about to rush over to Paimon, but Lh quickly appeared in front of her and a message window appeared. [Acquired Golem Core x1, Iron Ore x10, Copper Ore x15, Earth Crystal x1, Spell Book: Earth Spike] "Thanks Lh!" "It''s a pleasure Master. I think we should head over to Paimon now." "Yes~" Once Maria arrived next to Paimon, the Arch Mage only looked back at her with a wide smile. "Hehe~ I knew that you could do it. With this your training isplete." *DING* [Paimon is rewarding you with the Sub-ss, Magus. ept YES/NO?] [Warning: Choosing the Magus sub-ss locks the special ss in ce and you cannot change itter.] Maria didn''t see any harm in bing a Magus. She quickly pressed [YES] and a sub-ss was added to her [Status]. "Hm, you sure didn''t disappoint. I''ll be heading back now." Paimon said with a satisfied nod. "Okay~ see yater Paipai~!" "Yeah, sure..." Paimon smirked at her and quickly activated [Teleport] and disappeared. "Alright...now let''swait a minute...did...did Paipai just leave me here?" Maria said when she recalled Paimon''s previous smirk. "It would seem so Master..." "That...that stupid jeeeerrrrrrkkkkk!!!" Maria screamed. Her scream echoed in the mountains and the yers below her couldn''t help but stare incredulously at her. From their perspective, what they saw was the girl finally destroying the golem single-handedly before rushing off to a different direction and began talking to herself in mid-air and then began cheering about something. After that she started screaming in anger and this caused them all to look weirdly at her. The yers couldn''t see Paimon since the Arch Mage had casted [Invisibility] on himself. "W-what an entric girl..." "Boss...do you see her shoulder." "Hm?" "There''s nothing there! She''s not affiliated with any guild! Those Fallen Angels bastards were lying to us!" "What?!" When the two yers focused their eyes on Maria''s avatar, they noticed that she indeed did not have a guild insignia on her shoulder. "This is our chance then! We can recruit her! Hurry Kris, call out to her!" "S-sure... but...that girl disappeared again..." "What?!" "Look, she''s gone..." "Which direction did she head off to?" "I''m not sure. She was just circling in the air for a while before flying into a cloud and disappearing." "Dammit...let''s hurry up and finish the dungeon run. I''ll have the rest of the guild stay alert for her." "Yes, boss!" ****** High up in the sky, Maria was currently busy running away from a flock of bird monsters that had suddenly attacked her. When she had identally flown into a cloud, Maria was surprised to see a flock of monster birds called Iron Hawks inside of it. The monsters were level 40, exactly double her level. Around 10 of the monsters from the flock aggroed onto Maria and began chasing her. Maria wasn''t stupid and she knew that if she were to try and attack these monsters, there wasn''t going to be a good end for her. "Ugh...just my luck! After Paipai abandons me, these stupid birdse and attack me!" "M-Master, more flying, less talking!" "Y-yeah!" The two quickly fled like headless flies, running around in random directions. She wanted to try and use a [Fire] spell on the birds, but she was too flustered to sessfully chant and activate the spell. She tried a couple of times but the spell failed to activate. "Why is magic so hard to use?!" "F-first of all master, you can''t be flustered and you MUST calmly chant the incantation! If you''re all panicky like this, you''ll fail to activate the magic no matter how many times you chant!" "Agh! This is so stupid!" "M-master...how about we call for help! Actually, we can even lead these monsters to some other yers and use them as bait so we could run away!" "W-what?! That''s so mean!" "It''s better than us dying!" Maria couldn''t help but gawk at her fairy''s cruel suggestion. When she looked down and saw multiple groups of yers down on the grass field below her, she couldn''t help but be tempted. She didn''t want to die after all. "Actually wait...let''s slowly grind these monsters down! I have more skills than just my spells!" "?" Maria turned around and began flying backwards. It was much slower than flying normally, but she needed to do this in order to catch all the birds in her field of vision. As the birds drew closer, Maria was able to see only 7 birds chasing after her. After flying for so long, the original 10 was reduced to only 7 since she had moved away from their aggro range. She activated [Gehenna''s Eye] and ck mes immediately burst onto the monsters. The monsters all shrieked in pain before plummeting to the ground. "Yes! We can do this Lh! It''s our turns to be the hunters! Let''s gogogo!" Maria pulled out her Cmity and dove down to attack the falling Iron Hawks. She sent her feathers to attack and chanted the [Fire] spell. This time around, she was able to activate it. The monsters were plummeting too fast to the ground. Just flinging her spell was nowhere fast enough for it to reach the bird before exploding and dealing no damage to the monster, she had to think of something else or else the spell will just blow up in her face again. She eyed her Cmity before a light bulb lit up in her head. She quickly tossed the me into the air and swung her axe after taking aim. The axe smashed the me into the closest Iron Hawk that was affected by Lh''s [Faerie Fire] and the spell blew up right as it made contact with the monster, dealing arge amount of damage. -3,580 "Ohohoh! That''s possible too?! That''s so cool!" Maria yelled in excitement and activated [Cmity Cleave] on the hapless bird and sent it smashing into the ground. -475 BOOOM -25,000 Falling from such a height was deadly and the monster was immediately crushed to death by the fall. [Acquired 100,000 exp (x4 multiplier)] The surrounding yers who were happily hunting the monsters on the ins were startled at therge explosions that urred mid-air and then on the ground. Maria continued to conjure [Fire] spells and bombard the birds who were struggling to get into the air again. All of them sustainedrge damage from the fall and her [Gehenna''s Eye] so they were struggling to p their wings and take to the air. If one of them managed to do so, Maria would just send a [Fire], [Angel''s Rage], [Arc Swing], or a [Cmity Cleave] at it and smash it back down into the ground. "Hahaha! Take this you stupid birds!" Chapter 46: Her Gains and Losses Chapter 46: Her Gains and Losses As Maria was having the time of her life finally being able to go out and hunt some monsters with her newfound abilities, the yers around her were backing away hastily from the mad, but cute arsonist. Maria was sending [Fire] spells all around her. Since she was lower leveled than the monsters on the ins, she naturally attracted their aggro. Maria had long since noticed the monsters heading her way and she responded by chucking [Fire] spells and feathers from her [Angel''s Rage] at them. Whenever her [Gehenna''s Eye] was off cooldown, Maria would rise into the air and take in as many monsters in her sights and set them aze. She would then swoop down to attack them. Of course, she didn''t forget about the remaining birdies that she hadn''t disposed of yet. Once she finished off thest of them, she quickly moved onto the additional monsters that had aggroed on to her. She would have left them alone, but they were the stupid ones that attacked her first. With Lh''s support she was able to quickly clear away all the monsters around her and even raise her level by 1! [Level Up! Lv.20 Lv.21! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 30 Lv. 31] [Acquired Iron Hawk Talon x20, Iron Hawk Feather x95, ... ... ...] Lh brought back all the drops she could get and Maria giggled in delight. Her cute giggle was perceived as a sadistic snicker by the yers around her. They had never seen such a violent yer before that wantonly caused destruction and paid no mind to anyone around them. If Maria wasn''t euphoric about retaining her freedom and being able to hunt again, she would have noticed that just like Paimon feared, she had indeed thoughtlessly set the ins aze with her mes. Maria looked around before smiling at everyone and taking off into the air, once again going off to some random direction. She meant to head for the city, but with how directionally challenged she was, Maria just went off somewhere randomly once again. "S-scary..." "Thatst smile...w-what did she mean by that?!" "Hey, if any of you recorded her earlier you all better erase it! Thatst meaningful smile was probably her warning to us!" "Sh-shit...I thought the Fallen Angels were a cordial bunch, but who would have expected that their ''hidden'' guild leader was actually a psycho!" "Hey, idiot, don''t you dare defame the Fallen Angels! Didn''t you see that girl didn''t have a guild emblem?" "..." Although Maria didn''t mean anything with her departing smile, the yers took it the wrong way. Some erased their recording of her, but some of the braver ones posted in on the forums. A few were expressing theirints while more expressed their admiration of her abilities. When Lizzy and the others saw the video, they couldn''t help but smack their heads in exasperation. "W-what did she do this time?" "...she just burnt the ins down...most importantly, when did she learn how to use magic?! She was clearly chanting earlier!" Milly eximed in excitement. "Let''s go find her! Knowing Mary, she''s probably trying to find her way back to her city and we all know how bad she is with directions." "You can''t take us since we were once from the Light Faction, but take some of the other guild members with you." Amanda said. She immediately called up some of their guild members to go head out with their Guild Leader, Lizzy, and search for Maria. Amanda was really good at managing things so she was the guild''s secretary while Milly was the Vice Guild Leader. "M''kay~" "Anyways, how''d she end up all the way over there?" Milly thought aloud. Zack who was on the side was already preparing to head out with Lizzy. ****** High up in the air, Maria was taking a look at her [Status] and distributed the 100 FSPs she had into her stats. She put 15 into STR and VIT, 30 to AGI, and the remaining 40 into INT since her [Fire] spell''s damage scaled on her INT. [Maria Lv. 21] HP: 2,560/2,560 MP: 87,925/87,925 SP: 320/320 EXP: 190,000/2,100,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Sub-ss 1: Magus Sub-ss 2: - Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death, The Knowledgeable One ATK: 550 (+50~100) DEF: 320 (+15) M.ATK: 879 (+20) M.DEF: 4,396 (+15) STR: 100 (+10) AGI: 100 (-5) VIT: 120 (+8) INT: 1650 (+26) (+80.5) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 0 She was still unaware of how absurd her stats were, but ignorance was bliss and Maria wouldn''t care even if she knew. The girl opened up her inventory and giddily took out the Spell Book: Ruin and Paimon''s Magic Tome. As per her habit, she began reading the spell book and not long after she learned [Ruin]. [Spell learned: Ruin Lv.1] [Ruin Lv. 1 (0/10,000) Rank: B sts a 5 meter area with Non-elemental energy, dealing 100+(INT x 1.0) M.DMG with a 5% chance to dispel all buffs from enemies struck by the spell MP COST: (INT x 0.5) MP Cooldown: 120 seconds] "The chant is a little long, but that''s fine~ I got a new spell and that''s what matters! Now, time to look at Paipai''s book!" [Paimon''s Magic Tome Rank: Epic Equipment Slot: essory Effect 1: Enhances all spells of the owner, increases Spell Damage and proficiency by 10% and reduces cooldown and MP Cost by 10%. Effect 2: Stores up to 4 teleportation locations [EMPTY] [EMPTY] [EMPTY] [EMPTY] Effect 3: Enables user to learn magic spells of Paimon''s designs when fulfilling specific conditions. Next Spell: [Ice], Requirement: [Fire Lv.1 Rank B] Effect 4: Summons a random familiar that''ll help you in battle for 30 minutes. Cooldown: 6 hours. Effect 5: Increases EXP acquisition by 100% Item Bound Restrictions: Fallen Angel Maria, Paimon''s Second Disciple, Paimon Level Requirement: None Description: Paimon''s Magic Tome that he hands down only to his prized disciples and there are currently only 2 in existence. The tome holds the many magical forms and spell theories that the Arch Mage of the North has developed and researched for the past centuries. It is an extremely valuable piece of equipment held in high regard to all mages that are worth their salt.] "Oh! I can learn Paimon''s spells from this thingy? Cool! Thank you Paipai~ I guess I''ll forgive you for abandoning me!" Maria immediately equipped the book into her essory slot and it disappeared from her hand and reappeared on her hip bound to a nifty and stylish chain. "Hmhm~ eh, wait a minute!" Maria was humming and flying happily before she immediately realized something and stopped dead in the air. She looked around calmly before asking Lh, "Where are we?" "...Oh, Master..." Chapter 47: Lost, but Found Chapter 47: Lost, but Found Marianded on the ground and looked around her. "Everything looks so different~ what happened to the ins?" "Master...we passed the ins a while ago..." "Oh~" Maria and Lh were back at a mountainous area, they had essentially returned to the Enoch Mountain Range, but instead of the East Summit area where she was at earlier, she was now at the West Summit area. The East Summit was where the level 20-30 monsters gathered, here however... "Oh! It''s those birdies!" [Iron Hawk Lv. 40 (Common-Elite) HP: 30,000/30,000 MP: 5,000/5,000] "Hmm there are only 2 over there~ let''s go kill them?" "Sure Master." "Let''s hunt here for a bit~ these guys give me lots of EXP!" With that decided, Maria pulled out her Cmity and activated [Gehenna''s Eye] on the two unsuspecting birds. -1,450 When theybusted into mes and began screeching in pain, she quickly cast [Fire] and was about to hurl it over at the birds before she had a thought, ''What happens if I send my feathers through those mes? Will they just burn up or'' An [Angel''s Rage] quickly followed after the [Fire] and once the feathers passed through the mes, they didn''t immediately burn out, but were instead caught on fire and continued flying forwards, striking the 2 Iron Hawks. -650 -650 -650 The damage it did was higher than the usual [Angel''s Rage] so her little experiment worked. "Woohoo~! It worked!" Maria cheered before she happily flew up and cleaved down on the monsters. -1,100! With a round of her usualbo, Maria took out over a fourth of the monster''s HP. She should have waited for Lh to finish casting her [Faerie Fire] first before attacking so she could deal more damage, but she had little concern for that. Since Lh''s debuff was now applied to one of the monsters, Maria focused down that particr monster. As for the other one, she let it be and allowed it to asionallynd a hit on her. She wanted to start using her [Cure], [Heal], and [Regen] skills so she could at least level them up a little. She didn''t like pain, but with the monsters she was facing weren''t those weird ones like Guard Captain Heather that bypassed the [Pain Settings] of the game. Since, Maria had set the setting to 10%, she only felt a little shock or nudge whenever she was hit. Up until now, Maria had never once used those 3 skills despite having learnt them. She had been relying on her Epic-ranked title''s Soulsteal effect and her weapon''s Lifesteal and Manasteal in order to heal herself up after a battle. This girl didn''t need any potions because of how self-sustaining she could be due to all her abilities and extra effects. It was something any gamer would envy, but Maria didn''t care for that. As long as she could hunt, that was all it took to make her satisfied. [Acquired 100,000 exp (x4 multiplier)] Maria easily dispatched the monster and moved onto the next one, but she encountered some difficulty in the second battle. Maria wanted to try learning how to cast spells even while moving around in battle. Since she didn''t need to be stationary in order to chant, Maria tried using spells while evading the monster''s attacks. It was a hard to do and she failed throughout the entire battle, but she was optimistic and thought that she''ll eventually get the hang of things with a little more practice and experience. [Acquired 100,000 exp (x4 multiplier)] Once thest monster fell, Maria quickly moved on to look for other birdies. Lh was her automatic loot grabbing pet so she didn''t need to go touch any of the monster corpses and just continued on her way. She quickly found a lone Iron Hawk and immediately engaged it in battle. As usual, she started the battle up with [Gehenna''s Eye] but this time, she didn''t follow it up with her usual [Smite] + [Angel''s Rage] + [Cmity Cleave]. She instead used [Fire] and followed it up with a [Smite] and tried finish it with a [Ruin] spell when the monster was sessfully stunned by her [Smite]. The [Ruin] spell was interrupted half-way through the chant by the Iron Hawk, but Maria persisted on using a mix between [Smite] and those 2 spells along with normal attacks to take down the monster. She was able to sessfully cast [Fire] a couple of times during the battle, but never once had she been able toplete [Ruin]. It vexed her immensely and she continued finding other monsters to continue practicing her new battle style. "Oh look, that''s new." After taking care of another 6 Iron Hawks, Maria was roaming around and encountered a new kind of monster. [Mountain Ligor, Gitlior Lv. 50 (???-Elite) HP: ???/??? MP: ???/???] It was monster that was a mix between a lion, a tiger, and a goat. At least, that''s what Maria thought it looked like. It had a mane just like a lion, a strong striped body like a tiger, and the curled horns of a goat. "Well, I think that''s a boss...it has a name so it has to be a boss...let''s go kill it!" Maria quickly brandished her Cmity and was about to charge in, but Lh immediately pulled on her hair and stopped her. "Wait, Master!!!" "O-ouch! What is it Lh? That kinda hurt y''know!" "L-let me buff you and debuff that monster first, okay? That thing is a BOSS! We can''t just rush in like that!" "I guess~ hurry up and buff me then! I wanna go attack that thing before it runs away!" "...Master, that thing''s just sleeping...by the way, please apply a [Barrier], [M.Barrier] and [Regen] on yourself first!" "Oh~kay~" Maria quickly applied the 3 buffs on herself and Lh applied [Enchant: Poison] on her weapon, she then began casting [Ruin] and Lh waited until she finished activating the spell before quickly applying [Faerie Fire] on the Liger. "destion to those who sought thy wrath, [Ruin]!" Once Maria''s bolt of non-elemental energy made its way down from the heavens to strike at the Mountain Liger, Lh immediately invoked [Faerie Fire] and lowered its defense. -765 Maria knew that [Faerie Fire] lowered the DEF of the monster and not the M.DEF, but she was a little surprised that her [Ruin] only dealt so little damage to the monster. The Liger was startled awake from the spell and roared in anger. Maria swiftly rose into the air and began casting [Fire] before swooping down with a [Cmity Cleave]. When the hit connected, Maria threw out her [Fire] onto the beast and followed it up with an [Arc Swing] sending the monster into the air. She activated [Gehenna''s Eye] and pelted the monster with [Angel''s Rage]. When she saw the numbers popping on top of the monster''s head, Maria couldn''t help but exim, "Wow~ this thing has high DEF and M.DEF! Let''s try out its attacks~" Despite having its DEF lowered by [Faerie Fire], Maria''s physical attacks did much lower damage than she expected it to do. Maria stopped in ce and waited for the monster to finish rolling and tumbling in the air. She didn''t know it yet, but being able to send a monster airborne for a good long while was a pretty high ss technique. Once the Liger fell down to the ground it quickly picked itself up, roared angrily at Maria and charged at her. The girl only raised her weapon to defend against the monster''s charge, but that was a mistake. She wanted to test out how strong its attacks were, but when the monster collided into her, she was sent flying away. She smashed into the mountain wall behind her. -1,550! -100 "Ack, that was stupid..." Maria quickly saw her HP bar deplete real low. She quickly cast a [Cure] on herself and pulled her HP up by 10%. "Phew, this thing has high ATK and DEF, but it''s kinda slow. Let''s hope this thing doesn''t have any magic attacks..." Once she roughly gauged out the monster''s stats, Maria began her attack once again. She still wanted to try out her new battle style, so she kept on practicing to chant her spells while evading the monster''s attacks and also dishing out counterattacks herself. It was a good thing that the monster was pretty slow for its level and she was able to invoke [Fire] and [Ruin] multiple times after she got the hang of it and adapted to the monster''s speed. During the battle, some of her skill levels rose. [Skill Level up! [Arc Swing] Lv.5 Lv.6 [Angel''s Rage] Lv.5 Lv.6 [Cure] Lv.1 Lv.2 [Smite] Lv.1 Lv.2 [Barrier] Lv.1 Lv.2 [Magic Barrier] Lv.1 Lv.2] While she was fighting, Maria was unaware of the unsuspecting group of yers that happened to arrive in the vicinity of her battle. "Hey, isn''t that..." Chapter 48: Lost, but Found 2 Chapter 48: Lost, but Found 2 "Hehe~ I''m getting the hang of this~" *DING* [Skill acquired: Mobile Casting Lv.1] "Oh?" [Mobile Casting Lv.1 (0/10,000) Rank: A A high level technique that enables magic casting while moving, 90% movement speed and attack speed while casting magic Upgradeable: No] Maria did notice that while she was attacking and casting magic at the same time, she would indeed slow down a bit. With the new skill, Maria could feel that she was able to move faster and more freely while casting magic. "Oh~ this makes things a whole lot easier!" With [Mobile Casting], Maria was now basically toying with the high-leveled boss monster. It was slow for a boss and it couldn''t catch her anymore now that her speed was improved during the lull in her attacks when she was casting magic. [Fire] and [Smite] kept on bombarding the monster''s body and whenever [Ruin] was off cooldown Maria would strike it with the spell and deplete arge amount of its HP away. 80%...75%...70%... A bit a ways away, the group of yers who had run into Maria while she was fighting the boss monster hid themselves and continued to observe her fight. "Is this really happening?" "...she''s soloing that boss..." "..." The yers hiding were people who Maria had never once met before. What were uniform about them were the dark moon guild emblems on their shoulders. It was the emblem of the Eclipse Guild. "She''s that chick from the PV, right?" "...Yeah." "She disappeared a while back, but here she is, grinding monsters non-stop, by her lonesome. Look, she''s doesn''t even have a guild emblem...the rumors that she''s a part of the Fallen Angels is false it seems." "Hm...She''s pretty strong, I thought she was a Priestess, but look, she''s swinging around thatrge axe AND she''s using magic..." The party continued to observe her and the HP bar of the boss quickly depleted below 30%. No matter what kind of skill or attack it dished out, the monster couldn''tnd an effective hit on the girl. It also had to be clear that while Maria was attacking the monster with her weapon, she would slowly gain back the HP she had lost when she took a hit. Also, she was restoring her HP with [Cure] from time to time. The small fairy that was moving around the battlefield was also constantly sending out small bolts of ck energy at the Mountain Liger and damaging it as well. When the monster''s HP fell below 15%, a member of the party that was observing Maria quickly spoke up. "Are we going to steal the boss?" "Yes." "Just wait until its HP falls below 10%, and then we''ll take it. She''s only a single person. She can''t beat all 10 of us." The current party of 10 people from Eclipse was among the elite members of their guild so they had confidence in their abilities. But what they were about to do was a mistake. "Aim for the fairy first. Then we''ll take out the girl." "Yes sir" The party immediately prepared for their assault and the 2 archers and mages quickly readied their attacks and aimed it on Lh who was flying around. "Lh! Just a little more, and we" Maria''s words were caught off when she turned around and saw some yers raising their weapons and aiming it at Lh. "Lh! Watch out!" "Hm?" It was toote, when the yers noticed that Maria had seen them, they immediately released their attacks. "AHHHHH!!!" Lh was pelted and struck by multitudes of spells and arrows, she wasn''t instantly killed because of her high HP, but Maria paled when she saw Lh fall out of the sky. "YOUUUU!!!" Maria turned around and red at the yers and saw that there were 3 others that had suddenly appeared from nowhere. From what she could see, the 2 of them were warriors and 1 of them was a knight. Shepletely forgot about the monster behind her and immediately bolted into the air and began casting [Fire]. It was lucky for Maria because right as she took off, 2 yers had materialized at her previous location with their des out. The 2 were thief ss yers and were trying to ambush her. She barely dodged a bullet, but was too angry to even notice. She aimed her [Fire] spell on the long ranged yers at the back. She didn''t throw her spell, but rather smacked it at the yers with her Cmity. She then followed it up with [Angel''s Rage]. The feathers passed through the ball of mes and ignited. The attacks were blocked by a [Barrier] and [M.Barrier] cast by the party''s Priest, but they were immediately broken apart because of Maria''s high damage. Maria was a little blinded by anger that she didn''t do her normalbo of swooping down from the sky with a [Cmity Cleave]. She instead activated [Cmity Cleave] and threw her weapon at the people below, before quickly casting [Ruin]. Whether she intended for it or not, but Maria''s [Angel''s Rage] and [Fire] had coincidentally gathered together the long ranged units behind the Priest''s barriers. When the Cmity arrived on top of the yers, they were all caught inside [Cmity Cleave]''s AOE stun. "Shit! We forgot she could fly!" "Damn, how''d she stun them like that?" The yers who were dashing back towards their long-ranged party members yelled. They had forgotten about this small detail because they had been observing Maria fighting and she hadn''t once taken into the air. "[Ruin]!!!" The yers all heard Maria''s furious shout, and in the next instant a white ray of energy fell from the skies and struck the long ranged yers andpletely erased them from existence. Maria quickly flew down from the skies and grabbed her axe before immediately charging straight at the dumbfounded yers who were still processing theplete wipeout of their party members by the girl''s single spell. "DAMN! We''ve underestimated her!" "RUN!" "OH, I DON''T THINK SO!" Maria yelled and activated [Gehenna''s Eye]. Just before the Thieves were able to disappear back into [Stealth] they were struck with the skill. "SHIT! My skill''s been sealed?! What is this?!" Maria''s [Gehenna''s Eye] was able to seal others'' skills for one minute. She was lucky enough to have it proc on all the yers struck by her skill this time around. She immediately moved to the closest Warrior and struck him with an [Arc Swing], sending the poor fellow into the air. She sent her feathers chasing after the yer before cruelly mming him back onto the ground with her axe. [Fire] was thrown at one of the Thieves and it was a quick one-shot. When the other tried to run, Maria threw her axe at him. "How dare you hurt Lh!" The boss was still alive, but waspletely ignored by Maria. It was just about to chase after her, but Lh had flown back up from the crevice in the ground where she was stuck in and once more began attacking the monster. She looked around, wondering where her master was at and immediately saw the girl torturing the yers that had attacked her earlier. "M-master?!" Maria was fleeting around the yers while constantly sending [Angel''s Rage], [Smite] and [Fire] at them. It didn''t take long before the final yer fell to her attack. "Master, I need help here!" "Huh?!" Maria turned around and saw Lh still alive and kicking, well for now at least. She was currently being chased around by the Mountain Liger with her HP dangerously low. Mari quickly cast a [Cure] on her. She then activated [Cmity Cleave] and threw her axe at the monster. It was a pretty handy to use the skill like this since she could now stun others from afar and throw a spell at them while they were stuck in ce. "You''re okay Lh!" "O-of course! I wouldn''t fall from such weak attacks!" "You almost did, though..." "No! That''s because while Master was busy tormenting those helpless whelps that the boss was able tond a few attacks on me!" "O-oh...s-sorry about that...I thought they killed you..." "...I appreciate the sentiment Master, but please have a little bit more faith in me! I''m not going to fall from such weaklings!" Lh said while puffing her chest out. "GROOAARRR!!!" The Mountain Liger was still there and it began roaring in anger when it saw the two peoplepletely ignoring him. "...Let''s get rid of this annoying cat first...I''m done experimenting and I''ve learnt a lot of knew things so we can kill it now~" "We would have been finished long ago if Master didn''t insist on using [Cure], [Heal], and [Regen] on it!" "Hehe~ sorry~, but I wanted to level them up and lookie~ they''re all level 3 now! And, and, [Fire] as well as [Smite] are level 4 now!" Maria said cheerfully as she showed Lh her [Skill] window. Lh sighed seeing her carefree Master. She applied another [Faerie Fire] on the boss and the two quickly took care of it. [Level Up! Lv.21 Lv.22! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 31 Lv. 32] Chapter 49: Somewhere in the Mountains Chapter 49: Somewhere in the Mountains [Acquired Liger Tooth x10, Liger w x20, Liger Mane x1, Tiger Tail x1, Liger Bone x45, ..., ...] [Acquired 38 Gold Coins] [Acquired West Summit Hell Dungeon Pass x1] Other than the usual materials and gold coins that Maria would get from killing a boss monster, there was a new item this time from the drops. "A dungeon pass? I think this is used to enter a dungeon?" [West Summit Hell Dungeon Pass Rank: Rare Use to unlock Hell-mode difficulty of the Enoch Mountain West Summit Dungeon. Uses: 1 Level Requirement: Lv.55] "Aw, there''s a level requirement to use this thingy~ too bad then~" Maria tossed the pass into her inventory and continued to head even deeper into the mountains. Whenever she came across a monster, she would immediately attack it with a [Fire] and then follow it up with her newbo, an axe throw + [Ruin]. She was beginning to enjoy throwing around thatrge axe of hers because it was satisfying to see the monsters scrambling around or just outright getting hit by therge projectile. Maria was also relying more on her magic spells rather than her normal attacks or skills now. She remembered about the [Earth Shock] spell book in her inventory, but unfortunately for her, she still couldn''t learn it. She needed to raise her [Magical Affinity] skill''s rank in order to have affinity with more elements. With her skill only being rank E, Maria could only learn fire and water elemental spells. Even the [Ice] that she would get from Paimon''s Magic Tome would have to be shelved until her [Magical Affinity] rose in rank. "Ugh...how do I raise the skill rank?" [Magical Affinity (14/100) Rank: E Basic affinity with the elements enabling the use of basic fire and water elemental spells Provides a 10% increase to all Elemental Resistance Upgradeable: Magic Mastery E Requirements: Magic Comprehension S, Magic Deduction S, Magical Affinity S] After separating from Paimon, the skill had only risen by 6 proficiency points until now. Even after facing off against a strong boss monster and multitudes of other mobs while mostly using magic, it only rose by so little. "Muh...if only my normal attacks were based on my M.ATK and not my ATK stat..." Maria mumbled before pulling up her stat window. [Maria Lv. 22] HP: 2,560/2,560 MP: 87,925/87,925 SP: 320/320 EXP: 75,000/2,200,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Sub-ss 1: Magus Sub-ss 2: Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death, The Knowledgeable One ATK: 550 (+50~100) DEF: 320 (+15) M.ATK: 879 (+20) M.DEF: 4,396 (+15) STR: 100 (+10) AGI: 100 (-5) VIT: 120 (+8) INT: 1650 (+26) (+80.5) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 20 "Oh yeah, I leveled up earlier...let''s just add all 20 FSPs into STR." Maria was prettyckadaisical with her stat distribution. She just put in her FSPs in whatever stat she thought was best and didn''t go to the forums to see the rmended stat distributions for a yer with her ss. Actually, that''d be pretty pointless as well. After all, Maria just made-do with whatever skills she had and didn''t actually conform to any y-style. She wasn''t the stereotypical Priestess that only focused on healing. Technically, she was a Priestess, but a Dark Priestess to be exact. And judging by the ss skills she had tucked away in her inventory, a Dark Priestess leaned towards dealing damage and debuffing enemies with status ailments. Unlike the normal Priestess which would to the opposite, healing and removing status ailments. It was still a long way for her to get her first ss skill since she needed to be level 35, but she didn''t mind that and thought that it''d be better to go at her own pace. ****** Maria and Lh were flying through the mountains and killing any monster that she caught within her bird''s eye view when a request window for a video chat popped up in front of her. When she saw that it was Lizzy who was making the request, Maria immediately epted it. "Ehehe~, sorry Liz, I got sidetracked! "W-wha?!" "I am" Maria took a quick look around. She didn''t know the name of her present location and only saw mountains all around her. "somewhere in the mountains!" Maria quickly looked at her minimap on her HUD and saw the string of numbers and quickly informed Lizzy. "It''s 523,221,211!" Lizzy eximed when she re-checked her friend''s level on her friends list. "Hehe~ I dunno~ I was only flying and suddenly I wound up here for some reason!" Maria replied with a shrug. Lizzy shook her head helplessly on the screen and quickly bade farewell to Maria. She also made sure to tell the directionally-challenged girl to stay put and not move around so much. Maria only gave an okay sign before she disconnected the video chat. Maria was only able to wait in ce for about 10 minutes before she could no longer take it. "Let''s walk around a bit~" "Master...didn''t your friend say to stay in ce?" "It''s only a little bit~e on, I''m bored!" "...That''s up for you to decide Master. I listen to whatever you say," Lh responded. "Alright, let''s get going then!" Maria began walking around while reminding herself not to stray too far away from her current location. But that wasn''t going to happen because if she didn''t want to stray too far away, she could have just walked around the area on FOOT. Instead, she stupidly decided to take off into the air. After Maria had moved quite a bit away from her previous location, she spotted a couple of mobs on the ground and immediately engaged them in battle. ****** It took Lizzy and her guildmates another 30 minutes after Maria left her previous location to arrive at the base of the Enoch Mountain Range. "Alright, the coordinates say she''s at the West Summit Area, this should be a cakewalk for us since the monsters are lower leveled than us! Let''s hurry, knowing my friend, she''s bound to have wandered off somewhere despite me telling her to stay put!" "Ahaha~ what''s with that Guild Leader? Does your friend have ants in her pants or something?" A guild member called out. It was a yer named ShootfortheMoon, a Ranger at Level 52. Ranger was the second tier ss after an Archer. In the Beta, the testers were only able to make it up to the third tier ss so it wasn''t known how many ss tiers there were in total. The developers didn''t give out any info so the yer base only spected that there were probably 4-5 tiers altogether. "Nah, that''s just how she is. She''s the type who just can''t sit around and do nothing. Once we''re inside, I''ll call her again." Lizzy said in reply. Her group proceeded into the area and immediately came across some Iron Hawks, Iron Moles, and Iron Tigers, all of them monsters unique to the area that ranged from level 35-45. "Hey, Lead! I thought you said your friend was only level 22 earlier? What''s she doing in a ce like this?" Even Lizzy was wondering about that. She had no clue at all what the girl could even be doing here. "I dunno...the only thing she told me was that she was flying and suddenlyPoofhere I am." Her guild members could onlyugh at the reply. They began to look forward to seeing this entric friend of their guildmaster''s. "Okay, enough chit-chat, let''s hurry up and go find my friend." Chapter 50: Somewhere in the Mountains 2 Chapter 50: Somewhere in the Mountains 2 After taking down another group of monsters, Lizzy and her guild party continued advancing deeper into the mountains. The problem with the mountain regions was that there were plenty of monsters that would spawn in one ce and group together to attack the yers. Maria hadn''t faced these problems since she was able to take to the skies and carefully pick out her targets. Lizzy''s group however, did not have this luxury. "Hey, Leader, why don''t you go ahead and just fly around to look for your friend? It''ll take us forever to look around if we move on foot!" A party member said. Lizzy contemted on it for a moment before shaking her head. "I better not, and didn''t I tell you earlier? That friend of mine wouldn''t willingly sit around all day just to wait for us. If I know any better, she''s most likely moved away from her earlier location." "Couldn''t you just ask her again?" "I could, but do you think I can get past those things up there by myself?" Lizzy replied while pointing at the small groups of Iron Hawks flying around in the air. "Ah...I see, but wait...wasn''t your friend" "Her skill set enables her to fight while airborne more effectively than me. AND, she''s been flying since day one! She''s much more adept to it than I am. I was only able to fly recently afterpleting that racial quest." "You have a point there." "Let''s hurry, even though my friend is a little over-powered, but if she gets surrounded by arge horde of monsters, even she''d go down." The group hastened their pace and advanced further into the mountains, avoiding monsters they could avoid while only fighting the ones they couldn''t. ****** While her best friend''s group was hastening their pace to where she was at, the girl in question was happily flying around, striking down monsters at her own leisure. "Hmhm~ magic so fun~ so fun~" Maria really regretted not ying as a Mage from the start. She didn''t understand what went through her mind at the time when she decided to y as a Priestess, not like she yed the priestess-ss like a normal yer would. "Ah! It was only because Miss He was the first instructor I met! But it was thanks to her that I''m also able to use magic now~ so all is well~" Maria ''sang'' her incantation and threw down a [Ruin] and a [Fire] on the monsters she was facing. Lizzy''s earlier concern of not being able to fight against arge pack of monsters was a little bit unfounded. Maria had gained a lot of AOE attacks coupled with her reallyrge mana pool, she was able to handlerge groups of monsters with ease. Like this, her EXP gain was shooting through the roof. *DING* [Level Up! Lv.22 Lv.23! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 32 Lv. 33] *DING* [Level Up! Lv.23 Lv.24! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 33 Lv. 34] *DING* [Level Up! Lv.24 Lv.25! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 34 Lv. 35] *DING* [Skill Level up! [Arc Swing] Lv.6 Lv.7, [Angel''s Rage] Lv.6 Lv.7, [Cure] Lv.4 Lv.5, [Regen] Lv.3 Lv.4, [Smite] Lv.6 Lv.7, [Barrier] Lv.3 Lv.4, [Magic Barrier] Lv.2 Lv.3, [Fire] Lv.6 Lv.7] After a long grinding session, Maria was ted to see her gains. They were substantial! A lot of her skills rose in level and most importantly, she finally hit level 25. "I can learn [Haste] now!" Maria immediately took out the [Haste] skill book from her inventory and patted it on her body. [Haste Lv.1 (0/1,000) Rank: C Quickens the target''s MOV SPD, ATK SPD, and raises AGI by 10% Duration: 30 seconds Cooldown: 5 minutes] Maria began humming happily before a call request appeared once again in front of her. Seeing that it was Lizzy who was calling her, she immediately epted it. "Hello~?" "UWAH!" With her friend''s explosive shout, Maria was immediately surprised and had nearly fell from the sky. "W-what''s wrong, Liz?" "B-but...it got boring...?" "Ehehe, sorry, here ya go~" "M''kay," Maria said while nodding cutely. Seeing her like this, Lizzy could only sigh helplessly at her friend. Just who could stay mad at such a cute person? To kill time, Maria pulled out her Cmity and checked the status on the upgrade. Upgradeable: Upgrade to Level 10 ~ 15. Requirements: 1. y 1,000 enemies with Cmity (1,000/1,000) 2. Receive Death''s Blessing (1/1) 3. Feed Cmity with 5 Level 10 rare grade equipment or weapons (0/5) She had alreadypleted the first and second requirement so all she needed to do wasplete thest one, but she didn''t know where to get the 5 level 10 items. "Hmmm... I''ll just ask Lizzy when she gets here. I''m sure she''ll know what to do!" Seeing that her friend still wasn''t here after waiting for another 5 minutes, Maria immediately began to grow restless and impatient again. "Guh...I don''t want her to yell at me...but it''s so boring!" Something clicked in her head and she thought it would be better if she tried to learn a skill instead of just waiting around. "I learned [Arc Swing] by repeatedly going through its motions, maybe I can learn something like Axe Throw or whatever if I continue throwing my axe around!" Maria quickly got to it and began flinging her axe everywhere. She found it both fun and annoying at the same time. She wished that she could get a skill that lets her summon her axe to her side after throwing it. It was kind of funny, but the moment she had this thought in her mind, the axe that she had thrown immediately swiveled back to her. Maria was caught off guard and nearly had her neck cleaved off. "UWAH!" BANG After Maria had ducked down, the axe continued flying and struck the tree behind her. "Eh? It flew back?" Maria tilted her head in confusion at this. She didn''t see any message windows so she didn''t gain a new skill. "Hmmm... could it be?" Maria immediately thought about retrieving her axe. In the next moment, she saw the axe lightly vibrate a little before dislodging itself from the tree and flying straight at her once again. This time she was prepared. She didn''t want any mishaps to happen, so she flipped into the air using her wings and caught the axe with one hand. When shended, Maria immediately began to giggle. "THAT WAS COOL!" Therge tree that was struck by her axe immediately fell and Maria only continued to giggle in delight, she turned towards another tree and immediately threw her axe. Once more, the axe struck the tree and when she willed it, the weapon dislodged itself and once again flew back into her hands. She flipped into the air, caught the weapon, and then once more threw it at another tree while still airborne. Maria was so excited that she kept on throwing and retrieving her axe. She didn''t know that she was causing argemotion by chopping down therge trees around her. From afar, Lizzy and her group could see the tall trees falling one by one. "..." "Leader...could that be..." "Yup, that''s her..." Chapter 51: West Summit Area Boss Chapter 51: West Summit Area Boss Lizzy and her guild party immediately rushed towards the area where the trees were toppling over one by one. Lizzy was able to see her friend currently performing acrobatics in the air while throwing and retrieving her weapon. She was just about to call out to her, but before she knew it, arge, spinning axe was heading in her direction. "WAH! Mary~!!!" "Oh?" Before therge axe was able to reach Lizzy''s position and chop her head off, it stopped in mid-air just half a meter away from her before flying back towards its owner''s hands. In the next instant, someone had rushed into her arms and began hugging her. "Lizzy~" "Hoooh...Mary...I thought I was just about to kick the bucket back there," Lizzy said while patting her friend''s back in relief. "Ehehe~ sorry about that~ I felt something approaching and instinctively threw my weapon over!" "..." Maria immediately let go of her friend and turned to look at the people behind her and greeted. "Hello~" "Ah, hey." "Hi there." "Hello." The yers behind Lizzy began to greet the bubbly girl awkwardly. One second she was throwing an axe at them, the next she was all smiles as if the previous thing didn''t happen. "What''re you doing all the way over here, Mary?" "I was hunting!" Everyone could only stare incredulously at the girl. What did she mean by ''hunting''? She was obviously only level 25, but she actually had the nerve to hunt in a level 40 region? "I was trapped for so~ long in that stupid quest so now that I''m free, I wanted to let loose for a bit! Those birdies were asking for it so I gave them the good ol'' one-two!" Maria said while punching out. "O-Okay...well, let''s head back now, alright? We''ll help you find a better ce to grind! By the way, how you like the look of this?" Lizzy grinned while pointing at the emblem on her shoulder. It was an emblem with 2 dark wings on either side encircled by arge ck halo. "Oh~ that''s pretty cool! What''s it for?" "This is a guild emblem, Mary! My guild is called the Fallen Angels! Me and the girls named it after you!" "Oh! That''s a little embarrassing, but that means you''re the guild who defeated that hell mode dungeon!" "That''s right! Haha! Isn''t my guild awesome! Let''s go run a dungeon right now Mary!" "Sure, sure~ actually wait, I almost forgot I had that thing." Speaking about dungeons, Maria nearly forgot about the hell mode dungeon pass in her inventory. She quickly took it out and gave it to her friend. [West Summit Hell Dungeon Pass Rank: Rare Use to unlock Hell-mode difficulty of the Enoch Mountain West Summit Dungeon. Uses: 1 Level Requirement: Lv.55] "Woah! You actually got this?" "Yep~ is it important?" "Of course it is! We were able to acquire only a few passes, but we haven''t actually tried to attack the dungeon. The level requirement is pretty steep and in the guild, I''m the highest at level 55 so we can''t do it just yet. At least, not until more yers in the guild reach level 55." "Really? That''s too bad...I wanted to enter it with you and the rest since it looks fun." "Ahaha..." Lizzy''s elite guild members were a little astonished at Maria''s casual and thoughtless words of going into a hell difficulty dungeon just because it looked ''fun''. The girl was only level 25. She thinks that a level 55 hell-mode dungeon is going to be ''fun''? She was either delusional or just very clueless. "We can try entering the dungeon at ater time Mary. When you''re level is a bit higher." "Sure~ by the way, you can keep that. I won''t be able to use it and by the time I''m level 55, that thing will be of no use to me~" "S-sure..." Lizzy understood just how over the top her friend''s character was so she didn''t question her words and just stored the item into her inventory. Her guild members however were a little apprehensive at her words. "She''s either ignorant or brainless." "Hey shut it, you shouldn''t talk like that. Do you want to anger that angel over there?" "So what? What she gonna do? Fight me? She''s only level 25!" "Yeah, but our guild master will beat your ass. Can''t you see those two are really close? They probably know each other IRL." "Tsk..." "She''s a little thoughtless and ignorant, but she''s cute." "Yeah...haha~" As the guild members were quietly talking, Lizzy pped her hands and immediately grabbed their attention. "Alright everyone missionplete! You''ll be rewarded 100 Guild Contribution Points once we get back to our guild headquarters!" The guild members of Fallen Angels cheered at their guild master''s words. A simple SAR mission had earned them 100 GCPs. They could use that to exchange for some items from the guild warehouse. "Mary, let me add you to the party, then we''ll head back!" "M''kay~" After adding Maria to the party, the group was just about to head back before loud quaking sounds began approaching them from the distance. "Eh?" "W-woah!" The trees in the distance, just opposite from their location began to topple over by the numbers and from the parting tree line, arge monster appeared. It gave a loud, sonorous roar as it immediately noticed the party of yers just ahead. "C-crap! That''s the West Summit''s Area Boss, the Lv. 60 Abyssal Golem!" [Abyssal Golem Lv. 60 (Rare-Elite Boss) HP: 500,000 MP: 100,000] "L-leader, we have to run! Last time, those bastards from Dark World were immediately wiped out when they tried to raid this thing! They had twice our numbers!" The guild members began to back away slowly while persuading their guild leader to run away as well. The Abyssal Golem was the Lv. 60 area boss for the West Summit region of the Enoch Mountain Range. It boasted a really high ATK, DEF, and M.DEF stat. Although it was rather slow, the monster made it up with its powerful long range attacks and magic spells. "M-Mary...we have to retreateh, where is she?!" "G-guild master!!! S-she''s..." "She''s attacking the golem!" "Oh my god!!!" That''s right, to their despair, the Fallen Angel had actually rushed up to attack the monster with her axe. When the golem had first appeared in Maria''s field of vision, she immediately rushed into the skies while Lizzy and the guild members were still stupefied. "Ahahaha~ how great! It''s a boss! Lh, make sure you use that new skill you got!" "Yes, Master." Upon reaching level 35, Lh had acquired a new skill. [Faerie Spark Lv.1 (0/1000) Rank: C Decreases M.DEF stat of target by 25% for 20 seconds MP Cost: 50 MP Cooldown: 25 seconds] It was another debuff skill and this time it was for the M.DEF of a unit. This was exactly what she needed since Maria had been mostly using spellstely. Lh cast both [Faerie Fire] and [Faerie Spark] on the Abyssal Golem and once the spell struck the golem, Maria immediately flung her axe at the monster, sent an [Angel''s Rage] while also igniting it on fire with [Gehenna''s Eye]. She also cast [Ruin], [Fire], and [Smite] in quick session and sent it towards the golem. When Maria''s rain of spells and skills bombarded therge body of the monster, it roared in pain and toppled over. Many high damage numbers popped up above the boss monster''s head and Maria cheered happily when she saw them. "Ahahaha~ take that!" Maria willed it and her axe flew back into her grasp. She readied herself and struck down from the sky with a [Cmity Cleave]. Standing in the distance, Lizzy and the rest of Fallen Angels were once again stupefied. This time, it wasn''t from the golem, but from the absurd scene of that dainty little girl toppling therge monster with a wave of her attacks. "H-help her! We gotta attack that thing!" Lizzy immediately roared. "S-shit! L-let''s go!" "If she''s not afraid of dying, then why are we?!" "GOGOGOGO!" Under Maria''s reckless lead, Lizzy and the Fallen Angel''s immediately rushed forwards to attack the toppled monster. "M-Mary! We''re here to help! Gosh, why''d you have to be so reckless?!" Lizzy eximed in exasperation at her reckless friend. "Thanks~" "Before that, join my guild first!" Lizzy extended an invitation to Maria and the girl quickly epted. *DING* [You have joined Fallen Angels] [The following guild buffs have been applied: Guild Buff 1: 1% ATK Guild Buff 2: 1% DEF Guild Buff 3: 1% M.ATK] The same guild emblem on Lizzy''s shoulder appeared on Maria''s shoulder. Maria grinned and continued her assault on the monster, while Lizzy began to direct her guild members. "TANKS up front! DPS make sure you rain hell on that thing! Healers, stay at the back and keep a watch on all our HP bars!" "Yes!" "Roger that!" "We''re taking this thing down today! Also, someone, call for back up in the guild channel!" Lizzy ordered. "They might take too long to get here, leader!" "Who cares! As long as we can hold on long enough, they''ll surely be able toe! Mary, the aggro is on you, so stay alert! Try to lure this thing back down the summit!" "E-eh? Okay?" "Just lead him to where I''m standing, okay?!" "Okay!" With their battle n set, Maria continued sending down her spells and skill on the monster while slowly luring it to where Lizzy was. The tanks looked up in the air to see the lone angel smoothly dodging all the spells and attacks sent at her while also counterattacking with her own spells and couldn''t help but think. "Isn''t that cheating?" "You don''t say?" "Man...she''s tanking this thing all on her own!" Maria slipped up a bit and was struck by an ordinary attack from the monster. Her barrier had withstood a portion of the damage, but being only level 25, she had her health cut to 18% from just one attack. "Oh shit, she got hit!" A Priest eximed. Just as she was about to heal the girl up, green numbers began popping up on top of the girl''s avatar and her health bar was quickly pulled back up to full. "S-she''s a Priestess?!" Maria pulled her HP up with [Cure] and [Regen]. She also continued to rain attacks on the boss which also helped heal her HP back up. With her health back to full, Maria sent more spells onto the boss and taunted. "Over here big guy~" Chapter 52: Reinforcements Chapter 52: Reinforcements As Maria continued to attack therge golem with her spells and skills, she lured the monster down the mountain following Lizzy''s lead. The mob monsters down the way were taken care of by Lizzy and her group, while Maria focused her full attention on the boss. She didn''t hear it, but a level up notification rang in her ear just once while they were making the trip down the mountain. No matter how many times they saw it, the guild members of Fallen Angels were in awe at the spectacr performance that Maria was doing. Her one-man show of tanking, attacking, and healing was a sight to behold. All of her attacks struck right on the mark and either caused the monster to stumble or fall over. Her flying axe and multiple spells which she was somehow was able to cast while on the move coupled with her uncanny healing ability that kept her HP up to full throughout the entire fight was just too much for the team. There was also that weird buff that constantly supplied mana not only for Maria, but also for the entire team. They soon found out that it was the small fairy called Lh''s skill, who was apparently Maria''s pet, or what she liked to call, familiar. One of the members of the guild was even recording the fight and was nning to post it on the on the guild''s web page and YuTube channel for promotion. "Once I''m done editing the vid, this''ll be a huge hit!" A yer called VisuallyInept cried out in excitement. VisuallyInept was a Beta Tester as well as a livestreamer and content creator for Unitale. He was both a skilled yer as well as a skilled video editor. He along with his associates for his livestream and YuTube channel were at the forefront in creating gamey videos of Unitale. It was very lucky that this person took an interest to join the Fallen Angels Guild, so every now and then, the Guild''s raid or dungeon videos, which were beautifully edited by VisuallyInept, would be uploaded onto the Guild''s YuTube channel or on their website for promotion purposes. "Hey, Vis, send me the vidter. I really can''t believe what I''m seeing. Just how can she use magic while moving around like that? I heard from the Guild Master that she''s not even a mage, but a Priestess..." "It''s probably a skill! As for why she can use magic...she most likely learned it manually after getting [Linguistics] and [Magic Comprehension]." Visual answered. "Damn, I thought you needed more than just those 2 skills in order to learn magic that way...my friend''s been going at it but he''s only managed to learn the basic magic spells and they aren''t all that impressive." "Don''t forget about that axe throw...is that also a skill? I mean, she''s throwing it and retrieving it like a boomerang!" Another guild member quipped in. "..." "..." Even while they were in awe of the girl''s abilities, they still didn''t neglect doing their duty. Any monsters that were in their path as the guild lured the boss down the mountain was quickly dispatched by their wless teamwork. "Mary, how''re you holding up?!" Lizzy called out. "F-finewoah!" "It won''t be long now! My other guild members are on their way so just hold on!" "Y-yeah!" Maria had charged in head on earlier in high spirits, but she was now beginning to regret it. Even after half an hour of luring and attacking the monster down the mountain, she hadn''t been able to reduce its HP bar! Her attacks were indeed effective and thanks to Lh''s debuff the whole guild party was able to contribute, but the battle recovery of the monster made up for all the damage that she and the party had done to it. The battle recovery was so high that after bombarding it with constant skills and magic spells, it would only heal up to full right away. This was a monster that couldn''t be soloed and needed the help of many people in order to bring down. Maria''s damage was pretty high, but in this battle, quantity was needed and not quality. She had been wondering why the monster was so slow and dumb, but the b of rock was just a huge punching bag that wouldn''t die and this really aggravated her to no end. "Ugh...this is getting ridiculous...how is it that this STUPID THING won''t lose any of its HP?! That''s just cheating!!!" Maria cried out in frustration as she once more activated [Cmity Cleave] and threw her axe at the monster. On the side, Lh quipped up and said, "Master, that''s because it''s healing just like you. Don''t you think that you''re also cheating? You''ve taken on quite a number of its attacks, but even now you''re HP bar is full..." "O-oh...you got a point there..." Maria didn''t want to admit it, but she had no right toin and vent her frustrations for she too was doing the same thing the golem was doing to her. "Well, Master''s friend''s idea is right. We should lure it down the mountain, so it''ll be closer to the base, this way those reinforcements that she was talking about would be able to back us up much sooner." "Hehe~ my friend is a genius, right?" Maria said proudly. "...Master, that''s not even you so why are you acting so smug?" "Hmhm~ that''s because she''s my best friend!" "T-then what about me?!" Lh immediately asked. "Huh? Aren''t you my familiar, Lh?" "O-oh..." "My best familiar!" "Oh!" Lh''s dejected look earlier immediately brightened up at her words. Maria was amused to see how easy it was to appease her little fairy. It wasn''t the time or ce, but these two were still in the mood to banter around a little. It didn''t take long before the golem was sessfully lured close to the base of the mountain. They wanted to go down a bit more, but the golem would only stop chasing after Maria and send ranged attacks at her when it got to a certain point. They could only lure it up to here and scout out for a better ce to fight it. Lizzy immediately ordered for the thieves to go around searching for a better spot for them to fight the boss while the rest assisted Maria and continued to rain down attacks on the boss. At the ce they were at now, it was much too narrow for arge group of yers to attack the boss effectively. "Guild Master!! We''ve found a good spot nearby! To the west at 523,210,557!" A thief shouted in the party chat. "Alright, we''ll lead the monster to it; inform the rest of the guild those coordinates." "Roger!" "Maria! Over here!" Lizzy immediately signaled for Maria and the rest to follow after her and they immediately began to make a break for it and run after Lizzy while at the same time still sending attacks at the golem to lure it after them. The boss gave a loud, angry roar at the ants that kept on pelting it with insignificant mosquito bites and chased after them. It hurled trees, boulders, and chunks of earth while in pursuit of Maria and the others. "Everyone get back! Let Maria handle this! You''re only going to be coteral damage if that monster''s attacks hit you!" Everyone else scattered away and the golem continued chasing after Maria since its aggro was still locked on to her. Even while retreating, Maria had been constantly pouring all her attacks on the monster. She didn''t need to worry about a shortage in mana since her in-battle mana recovery coupled with Lh''s [Faerie Aura] was more than enough to sustain and recover her mana despite the girl constantly using [Angel''s Rage] like no tomorrow. If this wasn''t a game and Maria was a literal angel, then she would have long since be a featherless angel instead of a fallen angel. "This is it! We''ll hunker down here and wait for reinforcements! Everyone be preparedter. I know that there are spies in the guild and there''s no doubt they''ve informed their masters about our raid. Don''t let them catch us off guard! Understood?!" The Fallen Angels immediately responded with a shout and began rearranging themselves into formation to fight the boss. Thanks to Maria''s assistance and role as a tank, the guild''s tanks could now also act as DPS and not focus too much on defense since the boss'' attacks were only aimed at Maria. Heck, even the guild''s priests could act as a DPS now since they didn''t have to worry about healing anyone. "Rain hell on this thing!" Lizzymanded as she too opened her wings and took to the skies. She circled around the monster and steered clear of all its attacks before beginning to unload all of her skills and attacks on the boss. "Keep it up guys! Healers, keep casting [Illumination] around us! Snuff out any enemy thieves and make sure they can''t jump the gun on us! Scouts, you''re in charge of keeping the area clean while only the Assassins are to continue acting as DPS!" Lizzy ordered. There were many level 50 and above yers in Lizzy''s guild. Many of them have already advanced sses so there was a more clear depiction of their roles now. Thieves who had advanced their sses to the second tier became either an offensive thief known as an Assassin, while the other, a Scout, was more of an explorative and trap-orientated thief. Warriors like Lizzy could advance to be Berserkers, who wielded Axes and polearms, or Swordsmen/women, who wielded a variety swords and shields. She had opted to go for the Swordswomen ss. Lizzy made sure that her guild had a bnce between each advance ss, but of course it wasn''t like she forced any of her guild members to choose a particr ss. She let them choose however they wanted and would try to counterbnce it by recruiting yers with advance sses that the guild was currentlycking in. "Keep the heat up guys! Reinforcements wille in 30 minutes!" Unlike the time when Lizzy and the rest had to dive all the way into the mountains to find Maria, the guild reinforcements would only need to walk up a little bit into the mountains to get to their location. It did take a while for them to lure the Abyssal Golem down the mountain, about an hour or so since they had to rush down the mountain while clearing away some mobs, but it was worth the effort since this was a boss monster that hasn''t yet been taken down. The first clear rewards were going to be abundant since the monster was a level 60 Rare-Elite Boss. The team waited and endured a hellish 50 minutes before their guild reinforcements arrived. "Lizzy~ Mary~" A voice called out from afar. Lizzy turned to look at the source of the familiar voice and scoffed in disdain. "Peh!" The person from afar saw this and only ignored her before announcing. "Yours truly, Milly is here! Nahahahaha~" Chapter 53: The Pets Chapter 53: The Pets With the guild reinforcements having arrived, Maria was finally able to catch a break. The tanks quickly moved in front to block the monster and began pulling aggro away from her. She''s been at it for almost 2 hours now and it was taking a toll on her. The girl was relieved that she could finally stop and rest for a bit. Marianded on the ground and just sat there, resting on top of a rock. Amanda walked up next to her and apologized. "Hey Mary, sorry for the wait, we got here as fast as we could." "Ahaha~ it''s nothing. If anything, it''s sorta my fault. I didn''t think the boss would be so hard!" "Well, most area bosses are like that. Some are weaker when you have less people fighting, while others require more people to bring it down. This would be a prime example of a monster that you can''t possibly solo." "Hm~ this game isn''t all too single-yer friendly, is it?" Amandaughed at her words and continued, "The gamepany made it fair for all aspects of gamey. If every boss could be soloed, it wouldn''t be much of an MMO now would it?" "Good point there~" "Master, are we going to wait around here, or are we attacking?" Lh quipped up from the side. Amanda leaned in closer to observe the small fellow. "Wow, so this is your pet, Mary?" "She''s my familiar! I don''t like that word pet, it just doesn''t suit Lh!" "Ahh, I see. Since she has sentience, a ''pet'' wouldn''t be appropriate. Well, this little fellow here is my pet." Amanda said as she did a gesture and arge magic formation formed just behind her. It began glowing and out popped arge 3 meterrge lion...with wings. "His name''s Leo." "A Winged Lion?" "Yep~" "How is this guy SMALL?!" Maria eximed as she began to curiously circle around therge monster. She was ''oohing'' and ''aahing'' while asionally petting therge creature. She especially loved to stroke therge mane of the lion. Amanda smiled wryly looking at her friend''sck of fear for her pet. Most of the people that she showed her pet to would at first be a little afraid of it before finally knowing that it was quite docile and aloof while out ofbat. "He was an adorable little kitty a while ago, but when he hit level 50 and evolved, he turned into a big guy!" "Aww, I wish I could have seen him when he was smaller~" "Well, that''s what you get for trapping yourself in another one of your odd quests." "Pui, this is Paipai''s fault!" Back at the Magic Tower in Enoch City, Paimon who was busy writing down notes to his research suddenly sneezed and toppled over the ink pot next to him. All the ink spilled onto the document he was currently working on. "AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" He quickly did all he could to salvage what could be saved, but most of the documents were ruined. "Ah crap... great, just great! Now I have to do it all over again!" Paimon cried out in frustration. After Maria had her fill of petting therge cat, she quickly turned her attention back to the battlefield. There were 2 other pets roaming around the battlefield dishing out attacks or giving support buffs to everyone. She saw an eagle flitting around the battlefield and sending gusts of wind at the Abyssal Golem. There was also a butterfly flying around the backlines constantly showering some sort of yellow powder onto the priests and mages. From the side, Amanda immediately began talking. "The bird is a ck Wind Eagle, its Milly''s and she named it Horus. It''s an attack type pet like my own. The butterfly is actually Zack''s pet" "The butterfly? Ahahaha~ that just doesn''t suit him!" Mariaughed as she heard this. "Well, that''s true if you''re talking about aesthetic purposes, but in a gamer''s perspective, that butterfly is pretty suitable for him." "Hm?" "It''s an Illusion Butterfly that he named Ae, an auxiliary-type pet. It enhances stealth rted skills and it even has a skill that breaks invisibility. See that yellow powder it''s spreading across the backlines? It''s called [Illumination Powder]. It reveals and shocks yers who are cloaked, invisible, or are in stealth for a short instant." "Oh! So it''s a good counter for those Thief ss yers!" "Yup and right now, we''re raiding a boss for the first clear, we don''t want any other guild or poachersing over to try and steal the achievement away from us." "Poachers?" "They''re a group of yers or just a solo yer that steal monsters away from other people. Basically, they''re unscrupulous bastards that try to steal the hard work of other yers for themselves." "Uwah, that''s bad!" "It sure is! Remember to not do something like that, okay Mary? That kind of behavior is frowned down upon! Of course, no one can stop you from doing so, but at least think with your conscience about whether or not what you''re doing is right or wrong!" "Don''t worry about me, Amanda~ I wouldn''t do something so horrible like stealing other yers'' hard work!" That one time when she killed the wolf area boss after that party of unfortunate yers were wiped out did not count. At least that''s what she rationalized in her mind to alleviate a little bit of the guilt she felt when Amanda began hating on those ''poachers.'' ''I''m not one, no way! That time didn''t count! Those people had already died and I just killed it on my own. Yup, I''m no poacher, hmhm~'' "Master...didn''t we do" "No Lh, we did nothing of the sort! That did NOT count." "But..." "They died first and we killed it, so it did NOT count!" "Well, if you say so Master..." Amanda tilted her head in confusion at her friend''s discussion with her ''familiar''. "By the way, where is Lizzy''s pet?" "Lizzy''s? Oh, you see that armor she''s wearing?" "That ck skeletal armor with all those demonic skull decorations? It''s really cool!" "C-cool, you say? More like frightening! That armor is her pet." "Eh?" "Her pet is a Living Armor and just like you, she doesn''t call it her pet, but instead her ''partner''." "Oohh~ Lizzy''s partner is so cool!" "She named it Styx. Lizzy could have it fight on its own, but the big guy is a little slow. She grew frustrated at one point and suddenly had the bright idea to just wear him instead." "Hohoho~ that''s so cool!" "And smart too. Styx can adjust his size to fit appropriately onto Lizzy. It has its own health and defense so it''s like Lizzy has a secondary health bar, it''s so ingenious." "So that means her partner''s health is pretty high?" "Living Armor has innately high HP, DEF, and M.DEF. What itcks is SPD, AGI, and M.ATK. It has a pretty high ATK stat, but it''s not gonna be of use if it''s so slow and keeps on missing its attacks, but luckily for Lizzy, her partner actually acquired a skill called [Synergy] very early on that lets it share a portion of its stats with Lizzy whenever she has it equipped." "Wow! That''s so cool!" Maria was in total awe of her friend''s awesome pet. She turned to look at Lh, but noticed that Lh herself was pretty unique as well. Up until now, she was the only pet who had enough intelligence to be able to actuallymunicate with its owner verbally. "But my Lh is also pretty cool too! She can talk, has many debuffs and even provides a Mana Regen Aura!" "Ah! So that''s what this [Faerie Aura] buff that I keep seeing on my HUD! 12% Mana Regen...that''s pretty overpowered. No wonder you never seem to be running out of mana, Mary." "Yup, and it''s all thanks to her!" Maria dered proudly. On the side, Lh was pushing her chest out at her master''s praise. She immediately flew forwards and once more cast [Faerie Fire] and [Faerie Spark] onto the boss. Exmations of amazement began to spread across the entire battlefield in the next moment. "Woah! W-what''s with these debuffs?! My damage is shooting through the roof!" "Guild Master! Are you seeing this?! The golem''s DEF and M.DEF have been lowered!" "I see it! Ya''ll better thank my friend for this! Let''s hurry up and take it down! Let''s settle this before any other guild tries to interfere!" "OUH!" "YEAH!" With the boss'' HP plummeting down even faster than before, all of Fallen Angels'' members attacked the monster with renewed vigor. Multiple skills and spells rained down on the boss. The monster roared out in anger at the attacks and it was constantly stumbling around. It couldn''t even properly attack anyone and could only randomly rupture the earth with its skill and randomly send magic spells everywhere around it. It had entered a stage where aggro was no longer affecting it, but that didn''t matter. With how random and un-concentrated its attacks were, the tanks were able to maneuver around and tank its attacks, while the mages dealt with the randomly flying magic spells with their [M.Barriers]. From what Maria could see from the back, the fight seemed to have been decided, it was the Fallen Angels'' win. Chapter 54: Its Those Bastards! Chapter 54: It''s Those Bastards! Once Maria had rested for a bit, she and Lh immediately joined the fray. After around half an hourter, the Abyssal Golem''s HP was sessfully brought down to 13%. Just as the guild was about to make onest spurt to quickly down the monster, one of the Guild''s Scouts began to holler out in the guild chat. "ENEMY ATTACK! ENEMY ATTACK!" "Hm?!" "As anticipated," Lizzy sneered, she quickly began issuing orders into the guild chat and the guild made adjustments to their formation. She divided the guild into 2 groups. One groupposed of a few tanks and support ss yers from the guild with the majority of the yers being DPS. They were tasked with the job to quickly take down Abyssal Golem and Maria was included in this group, she would act as the tank, DPS, and support all at once. Since it was boss-killing, Maria was more than happy to take up the job. The other group was the rest of the guild whichposed of mostly support and tank ss yers. They were tasked to hold off all enemy attacks. Some thieves tried to break through the blockade that the Fallen Angels had setup beforehand, but thanks to Zack''s pet, none of them could breakthrough. Once they were exposed to the powder, they''d be shocked out of stealth and were immediately bombarded by an array of magic spells from the guild''s mages. Maria was attacking and firing off all of her spells and skills at the golem when she noticed from the corner of her eyes therge group of yers that were charging straight at her guild. "They...look a little familiar..." Maria said as she cleaved through arge bouldering straight at her. "Hmmm, that emblem on their shoulders...where did I see that before?" Maria continued shing through the attacks of the golem while quietly scrutinizing the guild emblems on the yers attacking the Fallen Angels. Lh only took one nce and immediately informed her, "Master, that''s the guild those yers who attacked us earlier today are from. I won''t forget that dark moon emblem any time soon. Their attacks hurt!" "AH! It''s those bastards!" Maria immediately red up in anger. Even though the yers that attacked her and Lh hadn''t actually been able to kill either of them and steal their boss, but Maria held a grudge because they had the nerve to attack her precious familiar. "Lh, we''re switching targets! We''re taking down those bastards! How dare they, they not onlye mess with me once, but twice in a single day! Don''t think I''ve forgiven them for what they did to you!" Maria said as shepletely abandoned the Abyssal Golem and charged towards the mob of yers rushing to attack her guild. The guildmates that Maria left behind were suddenly dumbfounded and at a loss. They didn''t know what to do next! The Abyssal Golem''s aggro was locked onto Maria and it chased after her,pletely ignoring them. She had been dishing out attacks and healing for a good long while, so the boss'' aggro had locked onto her! The tanks in her group were few, and no matter how many [Taunt]s they sent, it would only affect the boss for a short moment, before it resumed chasing after Maria. "W-wait! Where are you going?!" "H-Heeeeyyy!!! The aggro! The aggro is still on you!!" Maria didn''t hear their shouts and kept on charging towards the Eclipse yers that were attacking. She soared high up into the air and flung her axe down onto the front most yers with [Cmity Cleave] already activated. Just as the two guilds were about to sh with one another, arge axe suddenly smashed into the frontlines of the Eclipse guild, overturning the ground from its impact and sent shockwaves in a 5 meter area around the axe which stunned all the yers that were hit. "M-Mary?!" Lizzy eximed in shock when she saw the familiar looking axe. When she looked up, she immediately saw her friend send arge ray of white light smashing into the Eclipse guild yers which cleared out arge patch of the crowd. And then, multiple ming feathers began to bombard the yers in the next instant. The Eclipse guild was sent into chaos and so was the Fallen Angels. From the backlines of the Fallen Angels, many yers began to scream and yell to those in front to clear the way, the Abyssal Golem was still chasing after Maria and it was causing havoc among the yers in the backline. "S-shit! Mary, what''re you doing?!" Lizzy called out. "Lizzy, why didn''t you tell me these weirdos were the ones attacking us? I still have a grudge to settle with them!" "A grudge? W-wait a minute, what about the golem?!" "Golem...? Oh..." Maria immediately remembered what she was supposed to be doing and saw the chaos she had induced in her own guild. "Ehehehe...? S-sorry..." Maria replied apologetically. The girl knew she made an awful mistake. She was prepared for a good earful from her bestie, but for some reason it didn''te. Lizzy was holding her head trying to suppress the turmoil in her mind. She wanted to get mad and yell at her friend, but didn''t have to heart to scold the clearly remorseful girl in front of her. "N-nevermind, let''s just use the golem to our advantage then. Since we aren''t attacking it so much, the battle recovery will gradually fill up the monster''s HP bar, you fly around the Eclipse backlines and lure the golem around and try directing all its attacks onto the Eclipse yers." "O-okay! I can do that, easy-peasy!" "I''ll be counting on you, we''ll resume the raid once we''ve cleared out the enemies, remember to be careful!" "Roger!" Maria''s spirits were once again lifted and she quickly flew into the air. She sent a [Fire] and [Smite] onto the golem and began luring it into the crowd of Eclipse yers. Over at the Eclipse guild''s backlines, the guild leader, a Lv. 54 Dark Elf ck Mage called ckMoon, was intently observing the ongoing situation. He couldn''t help but smirk when he saw the Fallen Angels decide to lure the boss into their ranks to try and cause havoc. The crux of the strategy seemed to rely on the Fallen Angel girl who was now roaming in the skies above their guild. "We have to take down that girl. Once she''s out of the picture, the golem''s aggro will be reset and we can lure it away." Next to him, the Vice Guild leader spoke up, "Can''t we just [Taunt] it?" "Do you see any [Taunts] working?" ckMoon replied instantly. "...for now, no..." "That''s because the girl''s aggro on that thing is pretty high. The [Taunt] skills could only temporarily attract the boss'' aggro, but right after, it''ll continue chasing after the angel." After a moment, ckMoon looked like he had a n in mind and began ordering in the guild chat. "THE TANKS AND EVERYONE ELSE, PROCEED AS PLANNED!" He then turned towards his vice guild leader and said, "Sun, you go bring our aerial unit and deal with that girl. She''s not the only one who can fly now, just make sure you don''t underestimate her. I heard from Darius and his party that the girl had single-handedly taken them all down. Take at least 15...just for insurance." The Vice Guild Leader of Eclipse, DarkSun, only nodded his head. He walked to the back of therge guild party and began picking out all the yers that had flight capabilities. Most of them were Vampire, Subus, and Demonkin race yers. Once he gathered 15 of the guild''s elite yers, which he for one thought was overkill, DarkSun immediately led them into the sky. "Our only objective is to quickly bring down that girl. The guild leader implored us to not underestimate her. She did take out Team 1 from the Elite Division all by herself so she''s got some spunk to back up all the shy things she''s been doing on the forums." A pale vampire yer only sneered in response. "That''s because they were too cocky and thought they could take down a flying yer with only ground units, pfft, idiots!" "Talk after you''ve dealt with the girl, Paldir. It''s not like you could perform the same feat as her just because you can fly!" A demonkin girl quipped up in disdain from the side. She rather admired Maria for being able to pull off such a feat. "Don''t underestimate her." DarkSun said once more before staying silent. On Maria''s side, she had immediately noticed the flying yers heading her way. She was a little astonished at this fact. The skies were her domain until now, but suddenly more and more yers were able to fly. The level 50 threshold was arge turning point in the game and now she was no longer the Queen of the Skies. "Ugh...I better be careful...they look like they mean business." Maria quietly mumbled. Behind her, arge chunk of earth was thrown by the golem and was heading her way. Maria hadn''t noticed it yet and the yers flying ahead of her were a little shocked that they stopped for a moment. "Heh, looks like we won''t need to do anythi" Just before Paldir could finish his words, Maria spun around and shed the chunk of earth in two. The two chunks lost their momentum and fell straight down to the ground, smashing into their guild''s yers. They didn''t die, but lost a substantial amount of HP from the falling debris. "..." "Hoho~ she''s strong!" "...Impressive..." "Get your heads together! Stay in formation and remember the battle n! Even if we can''t kill her, we''ll at least block her from interfering with our ground yers stealing away the golem''s aggro!" DarkSun immediately rushed towards Maria and swung hisrge two-handed broadsword at the girl. Maria readied her axe and easily met each powerful stroke of DarkSun''s sword. "Ehehehe~ you don''t hit as hard as the golem~" "H-how?! I used [Quadra-sh]!" Maria didn''t know what [Quadra-sh] was, but it was probably a warrior exclusive skill. It sounded pretty cool and she wondered if she could get the skill as well. Although the yer in front of her was pretty powerful, judging from all the cool equipment he was wearing, she felt that he wascking somewhere. Maria darted around in the air before quickly shing in front of DarkSun, she activated her [Arc Swing] and flung him backwards, making him collide with one of the flying yers that were charging at her. When DarkSun mmed into his teammate, the two lost control of their wings and plummeted to the ground. Maria raised her axe and smiled at the remaining 13 yers. "Hihihihi~ this''ll be fun~" Chapter 55: Difference in Experience Chapter 55: Difference in Experience Maria lightly smiled at the yers surrounding her. She readied her axe and waited for any one of them to charge at her, but she started frowning after seeing theirck of response. "...noting?" Her words startled the yers. They had been regarding her too lightly and now that they were trying to take her more seriously, they tensed up at her words and waited for the girl to make her move. "Hmm... guess I''lle to you." After saying that, Maria quickly darted towards the closest yer near her. The other long ranged yers quickly responded by back away and taking aim at the girl. 2 archers readied their bows and the single mage in the aerial party immediately began chanting a spell. Maria smirked seeing this. Her charge was only a feint. She immediately activated [Cmity Cleave] and threw her axe straight at the mage. Whether it was because of baseless confidence or just that Maria didn''t care, she immediately backed away and begun chanting the [Fire] spell without confirming whether or not her attack had sessfully hit her target. Arge sonic boom was all that she needed to confirm whether or not her attack had struck. Unlike on the ground where arge shockwave would be the resultant oue of her skill activating its AOE stun effect, in the air, arge sonic boom would rece that. Once she finished casting [Fire], she sent the spell flying towards the mage who was stunned by her skill. A warrior yer saw that Maria was trying to snipe their mage so he quickly began yelling towards the yer closest to the mage. "BLOCK THE SPELL! BLOCK THE SPELL! WE CAN''T HAVE OUR MAGE DY" Maria let out another ''evil'' smirk and sent an [Angel''s Rage] flying into the ball of mes currently heading towards the mage. One of the yers closer to the mage, who was Knight, flew forward to tank her spell, but that was a miscalction on their part. They underestimated therge difference between her [M.ATK] and their tank''s [M.DEF]. Not to mention that Maria''s high INT stat directly affected the damage of her [Fire] spell, so they weren''t prepared for what wasing. Once the [Fire] struck the shield of the Eclipse yer who was going to tank the spell in the mage''s stead, it immediately exploded magnificently and raised arge number value on top of the yer''s head which was followed up by a long string of numbers that dropped the yer''s HP bar. -13,560! -980 -980 -980 -980 ... ... Maria''s spell depleted over two thirds of the yer''s health bar and it quickly depleted to nil after being struck by multitudes of Maria''s ming ck feathers. After the tank fell, the ming feathers continued on and quickly struck down the mage hiding behind the tank. Once again, Maria had quickly dispatched 2 yers from the opposing team. Seeing another 2 of their teammates quickly falling to the angel in front of them, they couldn''t help, but think that this task was a little too big for them. They still had 11 yers, but their earlier confidence was shattered at how easily Maria was able to quickly take care of them. The girl didn''t even look strained or troubled. Instead, she had a wide smile on her face as she looked around at them who were surrounding her. It was like they were the ones being surrounded instead of her. "Sh-shit...tell the captain, notell the guild leader that we need back up! We''re going to be wiped out by her!" "D-damn...I''m still not used to fighting in mid-air so I can''t even dodge properly!" One of the 2 archer ss yers in the party said in the chat and the other couldn''t help but agree in silence. Maria''s quick transition from a charge to a throw was too sudden. It left them with little time to respond and by the time they knew it, her skill had already struck and sessfully stunned them. If this was on the ground, then maybe those two wouldn''t have been caught in Maria''s AOE stun which caused them to fail in activating their skills and interrupting Maria''s chant. These yers finally had their wings, but they didn''t have them since the start of the game. Naturally, Maria who had been using them from the start was much more adept to aerialbat than them. "Hihihi~ this is fun~ well, there''s still 11 of you left, so let''s dance?" Maria''s axe flew back into her hand. She smiled happily and once more readied it. Letting loose after being confined for so long totally felt good. Whether it was on monster mobs or yers, she didn''t want to miss this chance! Eclipse guild''s ground yers were supposed to be providing the aerial unit with long ranged attacks as back up, but unfortunately for them, Maria was too high up in the sky for their spells or projectiles to reach her. She had experience dealing with spell casting and long ranged ground monsters so she knew how to keep herself safe. "Hihihi~ let''s dance, shall we?" Her words caused the yers around her to pale in fright. Just how could this cute girl say such a cute thing in a terrifying manner? The sounds of Maria singing her incantations and explosions rang out in the air far above the ground where the Eclipse and Fallen Angels were currently fighting their all-out war on. ******* Back on the ground, the Abyssal golem continued to wreak havoc in the battle lines of the Eclipse Guild. It would also asionally look up at the sky and send arge boulder or a chunk of earth at the little angel who still had its aggro. Eventually however, its aggro was snatched away from Maria by the Eclipse guild. The guild leader had received news that the aerial team was being massacred and that his vice-guild leader had plummeted to his death. He was revived by one of the guild''s priests, but things weren''t looking good for the rest of the party members. Even now, his subordinates were receiving the aerial party''s death notifications. Not much time had passed since Eclipses'' guild master had dispatched the aerial unit to tie down Maria, but already, more than half of the party had been killed. "Shit, she has more experience than us, but how is it that 15 yers can''t even beat one?! Surely, numbers can trump experience in this regard!" A guild member approached the brooding guild master and reported, "Leader, we''ve sessfully taken the aggro of the boss, should we proceed as nned?" Hearing this, Eclipse Guild Master, ckMoon, could only respond with an affirmative despite being somewhat vexed at the thought that his aerial unit,posed of his guild''s elite yers, couldn''t even handle one girl. They alreadypleted their objective to steal the boss'' aggro, so in a way, it was their win. "...Yes. Lure the monster away from the battle. Have division 2 set up the blockade and keep the Fallen Angels at bay. Also, send more of our aerial units to support Aerial Team 1! We can''t have that girl getting in our way!" "But sir...what about the Fallen Angels'' aerial yers?" ckMoon had already understood why his yers were losing to only one girl. It was the disparity of their experience. Other than the Angel Race and Devil Race yers who could already fly from the start, the rest of the yer base was probably in a simr situation. Only Maria was most likely an exception because unlike the 2 flying races, who were still cordoned in Unitale''s Higher nes, Heaven and Hell, she was roaming free on the. They did have more numbers, and higher levels, and he first thought that this would more than make up theirck of experience, but for some reason, this wasn''t the case. Maria''s level was only 25 from what the yers reported, but her stats were way too high. He deduced that probably because of her unique race, the girl had a hard time leveling up, but he understood that each level up would boost her stats much higher than a normal yer''s of the same level. He had to treat that level 25 girl on the same measure of those at level 50...or maybe even higher. As for Fallen Angels'' other aerial yers... "They''re in a simr situation as us. They''ve only just begun learning how to fly! Only that Fallen Angel girl is a real threat! We have to hold her down UNTIL we can kill the boss!" "Yessir!" Having received the order, ckMoon''s subordinate quickly ryed his orders to DarkSun and had him rally more flight-capable yers to go gang up and tie down Maria. ****** In the air, Maria was having the time of her life. She had forgotten about her earlier objective to lead the boss around and had begun smashing her way through the flying yers who were constantlying at her. "MARIA!!!" Just as another victim was added to Maria PK list, she heard Lizzy calling out to her from behind. She turned around and saw her friend flying towards her with some other yers following behind "Hm? Something wrong Liz?" "...Mary...you lost the aggro..." "...Eh?" Maria flinched and quickly looked around. She saw the golem being led far away by the Eclipse Guild yers. "AHHH!!! THIEVES! COME BACK HERE!" "W-wait, Mary" Before Lizzy could get another word in, her friend had already abandoned allbat notions and made a hasty pursuit of the runaway golem. "..." "..." Seeing how fast she was flying, everyone in the sky was a little dumbfounded. Didn''t they all have wings, so howe she was flying like a rocket while they were flying like a pigeon? "Uhm...so like...we''re here to like...stall that girl...since she''s not here...we''re going to take our leave." DarkSun said while slowly backing away from Lizzy and the other Fallen Angels. He was quickly telling everyone in the chat to hurry up and chase after Maria who had escaped, but from behind him, Lizzy immediately spoke up. "Oi...where do you think ya''ll going? Hah?" "..." "Ya''ll staying here, we won''t let you get in the way of our trump card~" DarkSun who was busy rying the orders in the chat saw that there was no way they''d be getting out of this fight. "...shit, all hands prepare to engage. We''ll take care of them first before we head back to back up the Guild Master." "Take care of us? Hahaha, I think you''ve got it wrong, buddy. We''ll be taking care of you!" Lizzy said as she rushed straight for DarkSun with her sword raised. "Take this!" ****** Over at Maria''s side, she had let out a sigh of relief after she noticed that Lizzy didn''t chase after her and was instead keeping the yers who were besieging her earlier at bay. "Phew...I knew I made a blunder, but I did NOT want to get scolded by Lizzy again!" "Master, next time, let''s not get sidetracked when you''re fighting? We had one job, just one job, and we actually failed it. Not just once, but twice." Lh said while sitting on top of Maria''s shoulder. "Ughh...I''m sowwy..." When Lizzy had called out to her earlier and reminded her of their objective, she had immediately snapped out of her battle frenzy and immediately knew that she had messed up. When she saw the boss already in the distance and Lizzy''s face that looked like it was about to explode, she decided to y her ''airhead'' card and chased after the golem, quickly escaping from her punishment. "Uuuhhhh...let''s steal the monster back from them...actually wait, it was ours to begin with so we''re just taking it back!" "Master, let''s just wait for them to lower the boss'' HP while in the air. We''ll hide in the clouds and when it reaches low HP, you send a [Ruin] at it and we''ll swoop down and take the lootter!" Hearing Lh''s ''evil'' n, Maria immediately nodded in excitement and agreed. "Yes, yes! We''ll do exactly that!" "Master, look, there''s a cloud ahead, head in and let me do the scouting! Since I''m small, they probably won''t be able to see me from so high up, I''ll tell when to move and which cloud to head into next! We can''t let ourselves be spotted by those people or our n will be ruined!" "Okay~ okay~!" Maria excitedly cheered. She resolved not to mess this one up because if she did, she''ll definitely be scolded by a very scary Lizzyter today. Maria quickly went into the cloud and prayed that there were no Iron Hawks hiding inside. She didn''t want a repeat of what happened to her the first time she encountered them. Chapter 56: Kill Steal Chapter 56: Kill Steal As Maria and Lh were making their way stealthily in the clouds, ckMoon had just received word that his aerial team was being hindered by the Fallen Angels and Maria was currently chasing after them. He trained his sights in to the skies, but he couldn''t find the silhouette of the girl. He ordered his men to keep a vignt watch of the skies and their surroundings. They had already lured the Abyssal Golem to their intended hunting spot and the guild members were currently doing their best to burst the thing down. Despite having people watching the skies, most of them were still focused on the battle against the boss and would only asionally take a look up at the skies in turns, but thanks to Lh''s pinpoint instructions and timing, Maria was able to hide herself from view in between the clouds and was never spotted. Lh told her to maintain her current altitude and stay put where she was. Maria''s current location was just right above the Abyssal Golem. asionally, Lh would tell her to shift her position as the cloud below her passed by and she''d have to find cover somewhere else. However, Lh made sure that her master''s position stayed right above the Abyssal Golem''s location. When the HP of the golem reach 8%, the Fallen Angels had finally caught up with them and the Eclipse guild had to spare some of their manpower to hold them off. The damage on the boss was cut down to some degree, but the HP bar was still going down nevertheless. "Hihihihi~ how dare you imbeciles take something that belongs to my Master, let''s see how you''ll like it when it''s taken away right before your very eyes!" Lh evilly chuckled. When she saw the HP of them golem hit 3%, Lh immediately informed her master to get ready for the spell. "Master, the boss'' HP is at 3%! Get ready!" "Alright!" Maria immediately grew excited when it was finally time for her to get into action. She held her axe aloft and began her chant. "Master, NOW!" "[RUIN]!" The boss'' HP had hit 1% and it just coincidentally coincided with the finish of Maria''s incantation. Down below, ckMoon and the Eclipse Guild were busy dealing with the Fallen Angels and were hastily trying to bring down the boss. "It''s almost dead! We win this one!" ckMoon hollered. He turned to look at the Fallen Angels'' guild master, Lisbet, and couldn''t help but smirk derisively at her. "Hah, you took the dungeon record away from usst time, now it''s our turn to one up you guys." "Fuck..." Lizzy couldn''t help but swear under her breath as she quickly cut down another Eclipse yer blocking her way. "Tsk, shit. Fuck you ckMoon! You just wait! Don''t think we''ll be taking this lying down!" Lizzy was just about to spew out more profanities and threats to ckMoon, but suddenly, arge ray of light descended from the skies andnded square on the Abyssal Golem and everyone 5 meters around it. While all the yers who were tanking the golem hadpletely died, the monster itself still had a sliver of its HP bar still intact. While everyone was stunned by the sudden wipe of their tank yers, a demonic axe descended from the skies. A silhouette of the grim reaper apanied it as it shed down on the Abyssal Golem''s body. Therge axe cut straight through the golem''srge body from top to bottom and it bisected the monster entirely. [Execute has been activated] [26,790,000 Exp received (x10 multiplier)] [Level Up! Lv.25 Lv.26! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Level Up! Lv.26 Lv.27! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Level Up! Lv.27 Lv.28! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Level Up! Lv.28 Lv.29! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] ... ... [Level Up! Lv.32 Lv.33! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 34 Lv. 43] There wasn''t even a howl of defeat or death. The monster just copsed in two parts onto the ground and the demonic axe that was stuck on the ground began radiating an ominous aura as it channeled the life force and mana from the monster into its master. The drops from the monster began to materialize all around the axe and before anyone could react, multitudes of ming ck feathers rained from the skies and struck everyone that was about to lunge for the loot. ck mes also engulfed some of the yers around. The sudden attacks that were raining down from the sky immediately killed the yers or cut their HP bars down to dangerous levels. This deterred anyone from making a move on the boss'' drops. [World Announcement, congrattions to the Fallen Angels Guild for being the first to clear the area boss, Abyssal Golem of the West Summit, your achievement will forever be recorded in the annals of history.] [Rewards: Level +1, 100 Gold, Random ss Skill Book, Random ss Equipment Box, Weapon Enhancement Gem x5, Equipment Enhancement Gem x5, FSP +10] [Level Up! Lv.33 Lv.34! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 43 Lv. 44] Maria descended from the skies andnded just next to her axe. She smirked at everyone around her said, "Hihihi~ it''s bad to steal y''know~?" Everyone from the Eclipse guild wanted to shout ''Like you''re one to talk, you freaking thief!!!'', but they couldn''t since she had her wings poised to attack. One of the braver fellows peeped a little, but was suddenly struck down by multiple ck feathers in the next instant. Lh began to collect everything on the ground and it all went into Maria''s inventory. The girl began smiling happily when she saw that she had grown 10 levels from killing the boss. Antagonizing that level 60 boss monster was totally worth it! "Now" Maria stomped on the de of her axe and flipped it into the air before lightly catching it, "shall we continue our dance?" Maria readied her axe and was just about to attack, but Lizzy immediately yelled at her from afar. "Mary! That''s enough! We''ve got the monster so we should head back now!" "Hm?" ckMoon was incensed at seeing his guild''s monster being stolen from him. He immediately began roaring out orders to his guild. "Kill her! Kill the girl and make her drop the boss'' loot! Aerial unit lockdown the skies, don''t let her escape!" "Ohohoho~ so we''re fighting? We''re fighting?!" Instead of being scared, Maria was ted at the prospect of fighting all these yers. She was growing bored with the gametely, so the subsequent exciting events which were happening to her in the span of 1 afternoon were very much weed. "Mary, no! Get your ass over here before I get angry! Or do you need me to shove my foot up your ass before dragging you back with me?!" Lizzy called out half in exasperation and half in anger when she saw the girl readying her axe once again. "Aww...alright..." Being reprimanded and threatened by her friend, Maria had to drop it. She was a little scared of having Lizzy''s foot up her ass. "Th-there''s no way it''ll fit..." Maria looked at Lizzy''s boot before grabbing her butt and grimacing. Once Lizzy saw that Maria had put away her axe, she immediately called for everyone to make a retreat down the mountains. Maria didn''t force herself to follow after them. She was surrounded so she instead took to the skies and left the Eclipse yers behind in the dust. The flying yers couldn''t keep up with Maria''s flight speed and were gradually left behind. Lizzy kept instructing her in the chat to stay close to therge mass of blue dots on her minimap so she wouldn''t get lost. The flight speeds of yers in Unitale were dependent on their AGI stat and how well they manipted their wings. Maria''s AGI was high for a priest and depending on how she used her wings she had 2 types of flight mode. Her high speed mode which required her to beat her wings until she gained a certain speed before folding them and shooting away in a single direction. And finally, her normal mode which even then was still faster than the inexperienced yers. In her high speed mode, she couldn''t turn nor move around agilely so she would use this to swoop in for an attack or run away. She learned this by copying the bird type monsters that she fought inside the game. She also read up on the inte and in her school books about how birds fly and the mechanism of their wings. Maria was smart so she had long since tested these things out in-game already which thus led to her superior flight speed and aerialbat experience. The Eclipse guild were pursuing the Fallen Angels, but after quite some time, they eventually gave up and decided to just head back to the city or split up and grind some monsters. Today''s operation was a total failure, but this cemented the antagonism the Eclipse Guild had for the Fallen Angels. Since it was like this, both guilds had dered each other enemies. So as the situation stands, the two guilds would probably be at each other''s necks when their members meet each other out on the field. ****** In a Neutral City near the dark faction''s territory called Zerzura, the Fallen Angels were all gathered together in arge building that had their guild emblem decorating the face of said building. This was the Fallen Angels'' headquarters. Since some of the yers inside Fallen Angels weren''t all dark faction yers, but also some from the neutral faction, they had to have their Guild Home situated in the neutral territory to amodate for everyone. Currently, inside of the guild leader''s office, Maria was kneeling down withrge bs of stone squares piled up on herp. "I''m sowwy..." "Mary, you''re my dear friend, but your actions today nearly lost us the boss." "...uuuhhh..." "Well, it''s been 30 minutes, you can stop now Mary." "Uwah, finally~" Maria immediately stood up and stretched her legs a little. The rest of the Fallen Angels'' higher ups were staring incredulously at this girl. She was like a war goddess on the battlefield, but she was nothing more than a meek girl in front of her friends. She was also a little airheaded at times and yes, she almost lost them the boss, but she had turned things around and let the Eclipse guild have a taste of their own medicine. "Now Mary, since you''ve also contributed a lot to the guild on your first day, I''ll overlook the other mess ups. So, let''s confirm our rewards!" "Alright!" Maria immediately opened up her inventory and dumped all the loot she acquired earlier onto the table in the middle of the office. Chapter 57: The Boss Loot Chapter 57: The Boss'' Loot Maria and Lizzy began inspecting the loot they found. Lizzy had already decided to let Maria pick 5 of the drops for her own since she did most of the work. She did mess up a little, but the girl had the most contribution and yed the most crucial role in this boss raid and in the end she had managed to retake their boss kill and their entire guild was once more broadcasted in the World Announcement. It was already discussed earlier beforehand, so the rest of the guild members inside of the room already prepared themselves. They could only hope that Maria would leave some of the better drops behind for them and the guild. Without the guild, Maria wouldn''t have been able to take down the boss by herself so she didn''t have any thoughts of keeping the loot to herself. "Okay Mary, despite you making a few blunders in the raid, you''re also the person who made the most contributions! So we''ve decided to let you choose 5 items from the loot for yourself! Go ahead, no need to hold back," Lizzy said as she pushed her friend forward. Maria was a little surprised as she didn''t expect to receive such a nice reward after being scolded. She didn''t hesitate and began looking through the list of drops from the Abyssal Golem. [Abyssal Shard x100 Abyssal Core x1 Abyssal Mithril Ore x5 Orichalcum Ore x10 ... ... ... Spell Book: Terra Lance Skill Book: Rupture ... ...] There were a lot of things on the list that looked very eye-catching, but one thing was for certain, she wanted that Spellbook! That was already on her list so she needed to pick 4 more. Too bad the [Rupture] skill book was a Knight and Warrior ss skill. It sounded cool and if she could, she wanted to learn that skill. [Rupture Lv.1 (0/10,000) Rank: A Ruptures the earth with a strong blow dealing 500+(0.5 x STR) DMG and inflicts stun for 1 second on enemies in a 5 meter radius around the impact zone. Cooldown: 45 seconds Rage Costs: 70 Rage Learning Requirements: Warrior or Knight] She didn''t have rage since it was a Warrior, Knight, and Thief ss exclusive resource. She only had Stamina and Mana. Everyone in the game had Mana and Stamina so it could be said that those 3 closebat sses had unique resources only avable to them. She didn''t have time toment on this so she quickly picked the other 4 items that she wanted. "I''ll take the [Terra Lance] Spellbook, Abyssal Core, the Abyssal Earrings, the ''A Journey through the Mountains'' book, and the ''Enoch Unique Recipes'' Book!" Once she picked out all the items she wanted, some of the yers in the room were looking at her weirdly. They could understand why she chose the Spellbook and the essory, but they couldn''t understand why she wanted the Abyssal Core, a crafting material, and 2 books which could probably be found in a city''s library. Lizzy already knew how entric her friend could be, so she didn''t question her choices, instead she picked out a ne from the pile of loot and tossed it over to Maria. "Mary, catch!" "W-woah!" Maria clumsily caught the item that was suddenly tossed to her, when she saw that it was actually the Abyssal Ne that she had given up on earlier, she immediately tried returning it back to Lizzy. "L-Liz, what''s this for?!" "Idiot, the ne and the earrings are a set! If you take one, you have to take both!" "O-oh...I-I''ll return one item then..." Lizzy immediately took out the book ''A Journey through the Mountains'' and the Abyssal Core. She weighed it on her mind for a bit before she tossed the Abyssal Core back into the pile of loot which was a huge shocker to everyone in the room who wasn''t a close friend of Maria''s. "S-she just threw away the Abyssal Core in favor of that book?" "You could probably find that in the library!" "...Just like leader said, she really is entric and apparently, she really loves books. That''s the library''s goddess for you!" Maria carefully stored her book inside her [Book Keeping] Inventory. It was kind of funny when a small bookcase suddenly poofed into existence in front of Maria and she ced the 2 books she just got into the case. She also remembered that she was level 35 now so she could finally learn both [Slow] and [Dark Ray], her first unique ss exclusive skill! She took down the two skill books and immediately patted it on her chest. She learned [Slow] normally, but when [Dark Ray] was patted on her chest, arge dark ray of light prated the sealing and enveloped Maria before arge silhouette of the Death God materialized in the air just above the girl. "W-woah!" "What the hell?!" The Fallen Angels yers began backing up and even Lizzy was startled at therge cinematic. Therge silhouette asked Maria. Warning signals began ringing inside Maria''s head. Mind you, this wasn''t the game''s doing, but it was more of her own instincts screaming at her that ''This is bad! This equals imprisonment! No go, abort! Abort!'' Maria immediately began to shake her head frantically from side to side. She did NOT want to get imprisoned inside a quest again. She had just escaped so she wanted to revel in her freedom before being forced into another one of those stupid quests. She now loathed doing any quests and if she had the option, she''d immediately decline it with the exception of a quest from Miss He. She was the only NPC who hadn''t given her a quest that locked her up somewhere. With her declining like that, the silhouette of the Death God immediately faded away. Maria heaved a relieved sigh knowing that she had just escaped a bullet. "M-Mary? What was that?" "Uhh...the Death God...he was just about to trap me inside a stupid quest, I could feel it." "But, that was triggered from you using that ck skill book, right? Can I see it?" "Oh, this thingy?" Maria said as she waved around the [Dark Ray] skill book, "It''s just my unique ss'' skill book." She was about to pass it over to Lizzy to show it to her, but suddenly a system message popped up. [Item unable to be transferred! Bounded to yer: Maria] "Eh? Aw, too bad, I can''t show its contents to anyone. It''s bounded to me." "It''s alright Mary, I was just curious. It must be a pretty powerful spell if you need toplete a quest in order to learn it." "Yeah...but I''m not going to be doing any quests any time soon! I love my freedom and I''m not going to let some stupid NPC take it away from me...again!" Hearing the word ''again'', the other yers in the room couldn''t help but gawk at her. So being trapped in some area due to a quest wasn''t a first for her. Lizzy immediately dropped her curiosity about the skill book to the side and turned her attention towards the floating book case next to Maria. She saw the girl put the ck skill book onto the small case, and everyone could see that there were other books on there. There was an additional 6 ck skill books present on the case as well as 4 other books including the new book she had just gained earlier. There was also another book strapped to the girl''s waist and they couldn''t help but think that the clumsy girl in front of them was one bookworm. She had books everywhere. She even picked a book over a high grade crafting material item as a reward. Before Lizzy could ask about that bookcase that poofed in and out of existence, Maria cheerfully asked to be dismissed, "Well, since I''ve picked my rewards, the rest are for the guild! I''ll be going now Liz, I wanna hunt!" "Eh? Oh, sure Mary. Are you going to be partying up with anyone?" "Hm? I guess not." "How about you help power level some newbies?" "Sure~ as long as they don''t get in my way!" "Hahahahaha, they won''t, just make sure you don''t do anything too crazy, alright? Make sure you contact me if you''re ever in trouble or if you need help with something!" "M''kay~" "Go wait by the guild building''s entrance, I''ll send the group over. They''ll be yers around the same level as you, so take good care of them!" "Yes sa~" Maria exited the room in high spirits. She came and went like the wind. "Alright, now that my friend''s rewards are over with, send the rest to the guild warehouse and let all the participating members have first dibs on picking the items. Also, tell squad 12 to meet up with Maria at the entrance and make sure the captain goes along. I need someone to watch over Maria. She gets lost way too easily." "Y-Yes, boss." "Alright, so let''s get to the main point today. We''re now at war with..." ****** As Lizzy continued her meeting with the guild''s core administrative members, Maria had flown down from the building''s top floor to the Guild HQ''s entrance. She waited for the yers that would be grouping up with her and while she did so, she took her time to appreciate the sight of her guild''s HQ. It was arge courtyard with the main building being 3 stories high which also signified the level of her guild. The more floors a Guild HQ had, the higher their level. From the info Maria saw about her guild, they were only a sliver away from being able to promote to a Level 4 Guild. The HQ also had left and right wing buildings that were connected to the main building and from what Maria could see, the left wing was the crafting yers'' area while the right wing was where yers would gather together to form parties, hawk items with one another, and ept guild quests. It didn''t take long before a group of 11 yers approached Maria while she was curiously looking at the right wing building. As usual, she had her feet off the ground and was floating in the air with her wings. "Uhm, Miss Maria?" "Hm?" The captain of the party called out to her. When she turned to look at the person, it wasn''t anyone she recognized. "Hello?" "Ah, we''re the party that''s supposed to be going with you." "Oh! Okay, let''s go then~" "Uhh, let me invite you to the party first. Would you like to be the leader?" "Up to you~" "Alright." [GrimWing has invited you to a party! ept? YES/NO] Maria quickly tapped [YES] and joined the party. [You are set as the PARTY LEADER. Select PARTY LOOT DISTRIBUTION 1. Leader 2. Free 3. Roll ] Maria immediately pressed on the [Leader] option since that was the only one she was familiar with. It was the configuration used thest time she joined a party with Lizzy and the rest from a while back. "Alright, let''s go!" "Where are we going?" GrimWing asked. "I dunno! You tell me!" Maria replied instantly. "Eh?" Chapter 58: Cashing In Chapter 58: Cashing In Maria didn''t know where to go, so she asked Amanda for a good leveling spot. She didn''t want to bother Lizzy because she remembered that her friend was in a meeting with the guild''s higher-ups. "You should probably go to the ck Marshes, the levels of the monsters are around 40-50 so it''ll be a good spot for you," Amanda suggested. "Okay! But Lizzy told me to help some of the newbies grind, is it a safe ce for them?" "Hmm...I guess it wouldn''t be safe for them, but you could still go there, just stay in the periphery area. There are a lot of level 30-40 monsters there, just perfect for the rest of your party to grind their levels at." "Hmmm... if all 10 go against one monster... Okay! I''ll go there then!" Maria replied after taking a few nces at the party members'' levels. All the members in her party ranged from level 27-35. It was just perfect for them. With Lh''s debuffs, even the low leveled yers could deal some damage to the level 30+ monsters. She immediately addressed the party and informed them that they''d be going to the ck Marshes Outer Area to grind! GrimWing was a little concerned, but seeing as Maria was already setting off after she checked her map, the party could only follow after her. "M-Maria? That''s the wrong way!" GrimWing called out to her. Maria turned back towards GrimWing and ordered him to lead the party to the ck Marshes. GrimWing''s only thought was that their guild leader was totally correct about her, she had no sense of direction at all. Even after checking the map, she still somehow went in the wrong direction. ******* About an hourter, inside the ck Marshes Outer Area a party of 12 yers was attacking the field boss of the area. Maria was currently flying around and sending ming feathers at the monster while asionally throwing down arge ball of fire on the monster. "[Inspect]!" [Buraks Frog Prince, Ly Lv.40 (Umon-Elite Boss) HP: 3,205/125,000] "Alright everyone, just one final push! Go go go!" Maria called out and encouraged the party. She looked around to make sure that there was no one else around before she refocused on the battle. She did not want to have her boss stolen on thest minute. This was why Maria would asionally bombard the area around her party with feathers just to make sure there were no thieves hiding. 10%...5%...3%...2%...1%... Once the boss died and arge amount of loot began falling out of its dead corpse, Maria finally put her guard down. Lh quickly picked up all the loot and she began letting the party members divide it amongst themselves. She didn''t really understand how to distribute loot she just left things to the party to figure things out. GrimWing was also there to monitor the situation so no disputes arose. Maria herself didn''t care much about the items. She already had her split of the money the party earned from the monsters they killed so it was all good for her. The party continued to grind there until the lowest level member of the party reached level 30. It was pretty fast because Maria did most of the work. The party members would lure in monsters and she would clean them all up with her skills all at the same time. The only time they actually cooperated in a fight was during the area boss raid. It wasn''t a first clear since others had already cleared it before, but just finding a boss was already very fortunate for everyone. Maria didn''t think much about this because she''d always stumble upon a boss unawares. After about another 3 hours, she finally put a stop to the grinding session and called it in for the day. She herself hadn''t gained a level, but many of her skills had grown. [Fire Lv.1 (10/2000) Rank: D Ignites enemy with fire, dealing 500+(INT x 0.8) M.DMG with a small chance to inflict [Burn] for 6 seconds. MP Cost: 200 MP Charges: 2 Cooldown: 10 seconds] [Magical Affinity (5/1000) Rank: D Basic affinity with the elements enabling the use of basic fire, water, earth, and wind elemental spells. Provides a 10% increase to all Elemental Resistance Upgradeable: Magic Mastery E Requirements: Magic Comprehension S, Magic Deduction S, Magical Affinity S] The notable ones were her [Magical Affinity] and [Fire] spells leveling up in rank. Her [Smite] rose to max level, [Angel''s Rage] gained a level, reaching level 8 from level 7 and the same was with her Arc Swing which was now also at level 8. Every one of her other ss skills rose a level or two. Only her magic rted and other non-ss skills didn''t gain any levels, of course with the exception of [Magical Affinity]. More importantly, now that her [Magical Affinity] had risen in rank, she could now learn more spells of different elements. The [Earth Shock] and [Terra Lance] spell books that she had tucked away inside her [Book Keeping] inventory was finally going to find a ce on her skill list. She immediately took the 2 books out when the party had arrived back at Zerzura City. She found a quiet spot in the guild building and began reading through them. [Acquired Spell: Earth Shock Lv. 1] [Earth Shock Lv. 1 (0/1,000) Rank: C Channel mana into the ground causing minor quakes for the next 5 seconds in a 10 meter area around the caster dealing 100 DMG per second and inflicting [Slow]. Cooldown: 1 minute MP Cost: 200MP/second] [Acquired Spell: Terra Lance Lv. 1] [Terra Lance Lv. 1 (0/1,000) Rank: C Formsnces of earth to strike the enemy, eachnce deals 200+(INT x 0.5) M.DMG. Can create 2nces at once Cooldown: 15 secondsnce MP Cost: 500 MPnce] Maria was very satisfied with her new skills and the gains she got through today''s gaming session. So much happened and she was finally free from her stupid quests. She called it a day and immediately logged out. ******** A couple of dayster in the real world, Maria and her brother, Gerald, were out shopping together. "So Mary, after a month of ying Unitale, how''re you doing? Still enjoying the game?" Gerald asked. "Hm? Yeah, it''s alright. I get to y with Liz and the rest so it''s fun. Oh, I also joined their guild so I have more friends to y with now! Everyone in the guild is so nice~" "A guild huh... the Fallen Angels, right?" "Yup, that''s the one~" "Phew, you guys are topping the charts for most boss kills during this event. The difference in score between you guys in first ce and second ce is almost over 20 bosses. What the hell do you guys do every day?" "I dunno...I just keep stumbling upon those annoying things and I call the guild toe help me kill it. Honestly, they''re so annoying! Popping out from nowhere like that andpletely destroying my leisure hunting session!" Maria pouted in dissatisfaction when she remembered about the event bosses. She didn''t want to think about it so she quickly chose a set of clothing from the store they were currently in and immediately went to try it out. This was the 4th or 5th clothing store the two had visited already and Gerald was already beginning to regret bringing his sister out to go shopping. He was just worried that Maria was holing herself up in the game too much for thest half month or so and decided that she needed a change of pace. She''d go to school,e home and do her homework before immediately jumping into the game for the rest of the day until dinner time. It wasn''t good for her health so Gerald decided to bring her out. Father was too busy with thepany while Mikael was busy with his university studies. So it fell to him to take their very spoiled sister out. Now he was regretting it because he had to carry a shit ton of bags. It was a good thing that their butler hade along to share his burden. "D-David... Remind me next time to bring Maria out to an amusement park instead..." "Y-yes, Second Young Master...the Young Miss... She''soh no... There''s more..." "Ah crap..." Maria came out of the changing stall and immediately pulled out her credit card. It was one that her father gave to her which she rarely used. Today, father Corinthos was going to have a real shock to see that her daughter had used up a couple thousand dors in one shopping spree. As for why Maria was doing this, it was more or less for stress relief. Ever since the updates and the first ever global event for Unitale began, she and her guild had been running around the game in search for event bosses from sun up to sun down, in-game of course. Now that she could take a break from all that grinding and searching, she did whatever she wanted. Most importantly, she did what she had never done before, waste her father''s money. "Ufufufu~ this is kinda fun!" Maria hummed as she skipped away. Behind her, Gerald and David were pulling carts filled with shopping bags, all full of clothing and other stuff that Maria bought today. "Never again are we going to a shopping mall." "Yes, Young Master...should I inform the First Young Master and the Master about this?" "NO! They have to suffer as well! Next time, when it''s their turn, I pray they make the same mistake as us two!" "R-right..." David could onlyment in his heart at his misfortune. ''Next time'' would include him as well so he would most likely experience this ''hell'' one or two more times. Chapter 59: Weapon Upgrade Chapter 59: Weapon Upgrade When Maria logged back into the game, she immediately set off into the field. During the past few days she had been going around with her guild, but this time she went about solo. It was a first in a long time since the event started and fortunately enough, she was able to get permission from Lizzy. It wasn''t like she hated being tied down to a guild, but there were times where she''d rather just go at it alone. Lh appreciated the alone time she could finally have with her master. Honestly, ''babysitting'' her Master''s guildmates didn''t quite please her all too well. Because of how cautious everyone was, they didn''t let Maria wreak havoc like she normally would and the monsters they would hunt were always ones close to their levels so they were ''weak''. Maria herself didn''t have anyints, but Lh had grown tired of killing scrubs. The only good thing about them hunting those low leveled monsters was because they could kill them inrge groups which earned them plenty of EXP. Maria was able to rise to level 38 and her stats became even more absurd. [Maria Lv. 38] HP: 4,560/4,560 MP: 93,700/93,700 SP: 540/340 EXP: 0/3,800,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Sub-ss 1: Magus Sub-ss 2: Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death, The Knowledgeable One ATK: 650 (+50~100) DEF: 570 (+15) M.ATK: 937 (+20) M.DEF: 4,685 (+15) STR: 120 (+10) AGI: 200 (-5) VIT: 220 (+8) INT: 1760 (+26) (+88) LCK: 10 Free Stat Points: 0 Because with each level that she grew, the more boring she felt the game was turning to be. The constant hunting of monsters of simr levels to her had be too mundane and it wascking the usual thrill she felt whenever she went around to hunt alone. It was due to this that Maria had asked for some alone time and was currently flying around the neutral territory in search of high-level monster areas. She had received some directions to level 50 hunting grounds from Lizzy so she was currently making her way over to the ce. Her navigator, Lh, was humming happily in the air as she led the way for her Master. "Hmhm~ Hmhmhm~" "You seem to be in a good mood Lh! Something good happened?" "Yup~!" Lh said as he grinned back at her master, "We can finally hunt alone again! Honestly, babysitting those greenhorns and searching for those event bosses was beginning to be boring!" "Ahaha~ yeah, you''re right." "That''s why I''m happy we can finally go and search for opponents more worthy to be cut down by your ax, Master!" "Hihihi~ Lh, sometimes you say the most scariest of things~" As the two were bantering yfully in the air, it didn''t take long before they arrived at the hunting grounds that Lizzy had informed them about. "Alright, Lh, let''s release our pent up frustrations and kill some monsters!" "Yes!" The two swooped down from the air when they saw a pack of level 50 Gnolls and immediately engaged them in battle. Using her normal cycle of skills, Maria immediately engaged in a melee once she cycled through her entire magic spells. Once thest gnoll fell, a loud notification sound rang in the air. [Cmity has fulfilled all requirements for upgrade: y 1000 enemies with Cmity, Receive Death''s Blessing, Feed Cmity with 5 Level 10 rare grade equipment. Would you like tomence the upgrade? YES/NO] Maria widened her eyes in surprise at the notification window. Finally, after for so long, her weapon was able to upgrade! The other requirements were easy to fulfill, only the y 1000 enemies with Cmity was hard. The enemies had to be those of higher levels than Maria herself and sometimes, she would y the enemy using her skills and spells instead of with the Cmity which had majorly dyed her from upgrading the weapon. It would have been easier if she had just focused on using Cmity during her battles, but she had gotten so ustomed to using her spells and skill that she neglected to use her weapon to deal the finishing blow sometimes. Maria quickly pressed on the [YES] and Cmity immediately began to glow in her hands. [Upgrade Complete! Cmity Lv.5 Lv.20] [Cmity Lv. 20 Rank: Epic Category: Unique Legacy Weapon ATK: 200 ~ 300 STR +80 VIT +20 INT +40 Unique Weapon Skill: [Form Change]: Changes the Cmity''s form. 1st Form: Axe. 2nd Form: Reaper Scythe. Weapon Skill 1: [Cmity Cleave]: Cleaves the earth with the great ax, sending shockwaves all around the area. Deals 1000 damage and stunning the enemy for 3 seconds, before sending shockwaves in a 5-meter area around the initial impact zone, shockwaves deal (1.0 x STR) damage and has a chance to stun an enemy for 1 second. Cooldown: 4 minutes. Weapon Skill 2: [Reaper''s Guile]: Halves all SP consumption and for every enemy in, the Cmity absorbs their soul energy and grants it to the user, providing a 20% Lifesteal and 10% Manasteal of in target''s total HP and MP. Every kill count increases attack speed by 0.5% and stacks up to a maximum increase of 50%. Duration: 30 minutes. Weapon Skill 3: [Execute]: Beheads the enemy. 1% chance to instantly kill the target. Weapon Skill 4: [Death''s Embrace]: When the enemy''s HP falls below 20%, there is a 10% chance to trigger Execute. Upgradeable: Upgrade to Level 30. Requirements: 1. y 2,000 enemies with Cmity (0/2,000) 2. Feed Cmity with 10 Level 20 rare grade equipment or weapons (0/10) Restrictions: Dark Priestess, Fallen Angel Maria Item Bound Level Requirement: None Description: A Demonic Weapon bestowed upon the Envoy of Death, the Dark Priestess, Fallen Angel Maria, who was the first-ever Angel to have fallen from grace in the past millennia. The weapon craves for blood and destruction, with every enemy in its power increases. The Great Cmity of the ancient era has once again descended onto the mortal ne and it demands its chaotic offerings!] Seeing the changes to her Cmity, Maria immediately grew curious at this [Form Change] option that was newly added. "[Form Change: 2nd Form]!" Her ax began to glow and the de began to elongate into a thin curved de. It had an ominous design and the entirety of the de was blood red with ck veins pulsing along it. Maria curiously began to swing the de and immediately grew fond of its new form. "Ahahaha~ this looks fun!" She began shing around while changing her weapon''s form from time to time. Using her head, she was able toe up with a variety of attacks while using this new function of her weapon. If she could time things right, she''d be able to catch her enemy off guard when she was attacking. Another thing that had to be noted was that her weapon skills had different effects in each form. Weapon Skill 1: [Cmity Cleave]: shes out twice with the scythe, sending dark energy waves in front of the caster. Each energy wave deals 500 DMG and stuns the enemy for 1.5 seconds. When the energy waves strike a target, the wave splits and flies out in all directions around the target, dealing (1.0 x INT) damage to all enemies hit and has a chance to inflict bleed for 10 seconds. Cooldown: 4 minutes. Weapon Skill 2: [Reaper''s Guile]: Halves all SP consumption and for every enemy in, the Cmity absorbs their soul energy and grants it to the user, providing a 10% Lifesteal and 20% Manasteal of in target''s total HP and MP. Every kill count increases movement speed by 0.5% and stacks up to a maximum increase of 50%. Duration: 30 minutes. Maria tried out her Cmity Cleave while in her weapon''s second form and saw that she had the option ofbining both her shes into one, dealing arge amount of damage to an enemy, or she could split it into two and deal more damage on a wider scale. If any of her shes strikes an enemy, it would explode and split into smaller waves of dark energy which would strike everything around her initial target, and because of her high INT stat, the secondary attack DMG of her skill dealt more DMG than the main attack. She also noticed that while in 2nd form, her scythe aided her in finishing her spells much quicker than usual and the DMG dealt was also far higher. When she rechecked her weapon, it turns out the DMG output had increased because her 2nd form provided a boost to her M.ATK instead of her ATK. Maria was immensely satisfied with the new upgrade because she had be much more magic orientated in battletely. The increase in M.DMG was something she very much weed. Hoisting up her weapon over her shoulder, Maria looked every bit of a grim reaper. All she needed was arge ck cloak with a hoody and she''d fit the role quite well. The new grim reaper continued roaming about the leveling area and began reaping the lives of every monster she saw. Chapter 60: Vampire Chapter 60: Vampire As Maria felled another monster, her EXP shot up and she had once more leveled up. [Level Up! Lv.38 Lv.39! Acquired 20 Free Stat Points] [Your pet [Lh] has leveled up! Lv. 48 Lv. 49] Still, in its second form, Maria''s demonic scythe was pulsating darkly as if it was screaming that it still wasn''t satisfied. It trembled in her hands and when Maria finally took notice of the oddity, she merely waved her scythe around wondering what was up. The trembling only intensified as the Cmity was only swung around. Maria took a look at the de and saw that it was pulsating oddly so she knocked on it. This only caused the weapon to tremble even more fiercely which only caused Maria''s frown to deepen, she took a swung at it with her fist, and the weapon immediately ceased its odd movements. "Hmph, weird," Maria shrugged and shouldered her scythe as she once again started looking for more monsters. Being so immersed in fighting, Maria took a look at her surroundings and noticed that she was no longer in her previous location. "When did I enter a dark forest?" The trees all around her were of dirty gray colored and some were even ck as if they were scorched by mes. The atmosphere was also a little ominous, but Maria had already gotten used to the ominous and gloomy atmosphere of the Dark God''s Temple so this was nothing. Specters and Ghosts began popping up and they were around level 55-65. Seeing these high-level monsters only brought a smile to Maria''s face and she immediately moved ahead to engage them. As she moved deeper and deeper into the forest, the lighting and the atmosphere only grew darker and darker, until eventually the sun was obscured from view and it was like night had descended. She had night vision so the absence of any light sources didn''t bother Maria too much. "Master, should we keep going?" Lh asked. "Hm? Yeah, let''s keep going, the monsters here are just the right level and I feel prettyfortable fighting here~" Maria didn''t notice this, but her Taint value was increasing in value much higher than normal and her new pair of wings that were once white had turned gray. It wouldn''t be long until theypletely turned ck like her other pair. During her time inside this dark forest, the Cmity kept on trembling and Maria felt like the thing would fly out of her hands if this continued. She was only able to stop it from acting up after smashing it with her fist and on a few trees. "Jeez, this thing is bing so troublesome!" While Maria was busy dealing with her weapon which was somehow acting odd, she tripped over something and fell hard onto the ground face first. "OW!" Maria sat up with tears in her eyes, her face hurt. "What the hell just tripped me?!" She immediately turned around and her breath caught into her throat. The thing that had tripped her was an unconscious person. The person was currently leaning on a dark tree with his eyes clothes seemingly unmoving. Maria couldn''t tell whether the person was dead or alive, the person had silky ck hair that reached to their waist and they had a very beautiful face and if Maria wasn''t mistaken, it had a little bit of masculinity in it, so this person was probably a male...probably. The ''man'' was honestly too beautiful and Maria couldn''t help but be entranced when she looked at the beautiful person. He seemed to be asleep since he looked like he was breathing, but his face and skin was awfully pale like it was devoid of all blood. Maria was a little curious so she poked the man''s face with her finger and felt that his body temperature was awfully cold. Seeing no reactioning from the beautiful man, Maria continued to poke at him curiously with her finger. "M-Master, are you sure that''s appropriate? He''s sleeping and I don''t think we should bother him." "Hihihi~ no worries Lh~" Maria continued poking him and even tried to call out to the man. "Hey~ hey~" After a bit, she found a subtle reactioning from the sleeping man. Maria continued poking and calling out to him and suddenly, the man''s eyes snapped open. "..." "...Morning?" "..." The man continued to silently stare back at Maria and this caused her blush. Her finger was still touching the man''s cheek and being under his silent gaze, Maria lost the chance to retract her finger as she just froze there, crouched down on the ground beside the man. "You..." "Ah, yesh?!" "..." Maria''s response to the man''s beautiful and elegant voice came out a little wrong since she bit her tongue. She was about to back away in embarrassment, but suddenly, the pale young man pulled her into his embrace. "EHHHH??!!" Maria let out a startled voice, but she was a little puzzled at this man''s abrupt actions. He suddenly hugged some stranger he suddenly met and Maria could feel his hands wandering around her body. She wasn''t used to being touched so intimately by a man so she froze up in response. The pale young man suddenly bit her ear and this caused her to flinch before she heard him whisper something into his ear. "Thank you for the meal." "Huh?" Maria suddenly felt a prickling pain on her neck. When she turned her head to the side, she saw that the young man had bit down onto her neck and it looked like he was drinking something. "Ah, wait... you''re drinking my blood! Ahahaha~" "Master...I don''t think this is aughing matter," Lh said in exasperation when she saw that all her master did was to continueughing even though she was suddenly being attacked. "AhahahYOU''RE A VAMPIRE!!!" The man ignored Maria''s scream and continued to suck out her blood. It was then that Maria finally noticed that her HP bar was slowly trickling down. There wasn''t any status effect, but when she tried to push the man away, she found that he had firmly wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace so she found it hard to pry her way out. Maria kept her eyes on her HP bar and waited for the young man to finish. "Hey~ are you done yet?" Maria asked when she grew bored just sitting there in the young man''s embrace for about 10 minutes. She had been worried at first that this man was going to suck until her HP bar ran dry, but she quickly noticed that even as her HP was falling, she wasn''t put into abat status so her natural recovery supplemented her HP loss. At this rate, her HP wouldn''t even fall from full so since it was like this, Maria decided to wait, but it was honestly taking way too long so she grew bored and annoyed. The young man was shocked to hear her voice and he couldn''t help but stop. Seeing that he was finished, Maria rubbed her neck in annoyance. It wasn''t pleasant having one''s blood sucked away by a vampire. She''s read a lot of romance novels of humans and vampires. There were even some that described a vampire''s bloodsucking to be a wondrous and enjoyable thing to a woman, at least, that was until she died from having all her blood sucked out, but when it happened to Maria, she felt nothing but the lingering difort from having her neck bitten. Lh had also pointed out that the ce where the young man had bitten was red. This unknown man had just given her a hickey and Maria couldn''t help but blush furiously at this. "Y-You... aren''t affected?" When she heard the man''s words, Maria red at him and said, "Hey! Don''t you owe me an apology and a thank you?!" "Eh?" "Also, how long are you going to hold me like this? It''s really cold!" "O-Oh?" The vampire released his hold on Maria and could only stare back at the girl in amazement. Instead of freaking out and attacking him, as a normal creature would, the young girl had instead let him suck her blood for a while before she grew annoyed. "Well? Where''s my thank you?" "U-Uhm...Thank you?" "Thank you?" Maria replied with a raised brow. The man saw her unsatisfied expression and gave Maria a once over before finishing, "Thank you, Little Miss?" "Hmph, at least you know how to show some gratitude! Now, where''s my apology?!" The apology for sexually harassing her since even while the young man was sucking her blood, his hands were constantly wandering around her body, feeling her up. It was embarrassing at first, but after a while, all Maria felt was the odd sensation of having a stone-cold brick move up and down her body. "Feeling me up...that''s sexual harassment y'' know? And it was unpleasant! Like some cold brick was moving up and down my body! If you were going to harass me, do a better job at it! At least make me go ''kyaa'' or something! Even the harassed has feelings!" "..." The young man''s face immediately went dark, he somehow felt that his pride as a man had suddenly been attacked and taken arge hit. "Tsk, nevermind. So tell me, why were you copsed out here?" Maria had long since noticed that the vampire in front of her wasn''t a yer but an NPC. There was no yer indicator above the man''s head and even his name was obscured under question marks. "I...what was I" The man looked to be a little at a loss before it seemed that something had suddenly clicked in his brain. "That''s right! That goddamned bastard! Where is that prick! He sealed me here! He stole everything from me!" "Hm?" Seeing the man roar out in hysteria, Maria scratched her head in confusion. "Jeez, not only is he weird, he''s insane!" The vampire suddenly locked his gaze onto Maria, but she noticed that his eyes were a little different. He was staring at her dangerously with a red glow in his eyes. Seeing the hostility in his gaze, Maria immediately grew incensed. She had just allowed him to suck up to her blood for a meal and he didn''t even thank her until after she demanded him to do so. There was also the ount of his sexual harassment so she should be the one that was hostile, not the other way around! Since the man was an NPC, Maria was hoping that she''d be able to get a quest from him or something, but all she got in return was his hostility. Maria marched up towards the vampire, flew up, and swung her fist down on his head, smashing him face-first into the ground. "GAH!" "So...this is how you''re going to repay me? Hahaha, it looks like I''m gonna have to teach you some manners!" Maria said menacingly as she reached out with her hand. Her Cmity flew into her hand and she immediately moved to slice down at the vampire. "W-wait!" "Hm?" "L-Little Miss, please forgive me!" "Huh?" "I was not in my right mind just now, so please forgive my offense and lower the Death God''s Cmity!" "Toote, this is also payback for you sexually harassing me~" With those words, Maria swung her scythe down onto the vampire''s beautiful face. Chapter 61: Ash Garm Chapter 61: Ash Garm As the scythe was heading straight for the vampire''s neck, time seemed to have stopped for Maria and a message window appeared in front of her. [Angel''s Compassion Lv.1 has been triggered. Are you willing to spare Vampire Ash? YES/NO] ''Nonononono!!! Why?! Why is this stupid game stopping me from killing again?'' Maria screamed inwardly. Her [Angel''s Compassion] had triggered and this meant that she''d get another chance to evolve her race again. She was angered by the vampire''s sexual harassment, but Maria was currently debating which was more important her dignity, or the chance of evolving her race. "Dammit...this is only a game and this vampire is just an NPC, so technically, I wasn''t sexually harassed by anyone!" Maria reasoned with herself before she ultimately chose [YES] to spare the vampire''s life. [Skill Level up! [Angel''s Compassion] Lv.1 Lv.5] "Oh, it leveled up by 4!" Maria quickly brought up her skill''s information window and looked through it. [Angel''s Compassion Lv. 5 (0/5000) Heals or Damages Target for 25% of caster''s Max HP. Unlocks special events that''ll provide Purity for the Angel which enables them to evolve. If an angel is tainted, providing a higher amount of purity will enable them to revert to their original angelic form. Purity: 1800/5000 MP Cost: 1500 MP Cooldown: 5 minutes] "Ah! I almost forgot this could heal and deal damage! Why haven''t I''ve been using it more often?" Maria grumbled. She had a good memory, but even she would forget about things sometimes. The vampire was still groveling on the ground, but noticed that his head was still attached to his neck. He couldn''t help but look up and saw the Fallen Angel crouching and looking down at him in disinterest. "So...I spared your life. Mind telling me more about yourself?" "..." The vampire could only stare back at this girl with some fear in his eyes. She had a really weird character and her mood was all over the ce. Earlier, it seemed like she didn''t mind him groping her body but after only looking at her funnily, she wanted to kill him, and then for some reason, she now spares his life and wants to get to know him better. ''Just what does this dangerous girl want?! She has Cmity and is most likely the Death God''s Envoy, but what the hell is wrong with her head?!'' Seeing the vampire''s already pale face turn even paler at her question, Maria frowned and lifted her scythe and nudged the de on his face. "Oi~ you listening or not? I didn''t kill you so this isn''t heaven or hell~" "L-Little Miss, p-please keep the Cmity away from me... this demonic weapon might just kill me if you identally" "Rx~ I decided to spare your life. I won''t kill you!" "O-Okay..." "Good! Now where were we...? Ah, before you looked at me with a pair of murderous eyes, you were shouting something about someone sealing you here and taking everything away from you. Mind telling me more about yourself and the person who did this to you? I''d like to help you out if you''re the one who was wronged!" "Th-thank you Little Miss, but I don''t want to impose on you" "Don''t worry~ you''re not imposing on me in any way! I''m just a little bored from culling monsters so I thought I''d go do a good deed today~" Maria said as she inwardly cursed this stupid vampire. ''Hurry up and give me the quest you idiot! Don''t let my sacrifice go to waste! I want my evolution quest now!'' Seeing the forced smile on her face, the vampire fearfully chose toply with her ''requests'' and began exining more about himself. The vampire''s name was Ash Garm and he was a Vampire Duke. so he was pretty high up in the rankings for vampires. He was only 1 rank below that of Vampire Lord. The most intriguing thing was that he wasn''t part of this world. He was instead from the, Vanhal. In his time, the current Vampire Lord had just been extinguished and the battle to be the next Lord was about to ensue. Ash wasn''t vying for the spot because he was already content with what he had, but unfortunately he was the strongest Duke back then and many thought he had eyes on the throne. So, the other vampires banded together and began plotting against him. His long-time rival, who was now his archenemy, was another Vampire Duke called Siegfried and he was the person who had sealed him away in a moment of negligence on his part and had banished him from Vanhal. Of course before all that, Siegfried hadid waste to Ash''s territory and had killed most of his family. The vampire had beheaded Ash''s sons, daughters, and grandchildren. And the most dastardly thing was that Siegfried had even defiled his wife right in front of him before casting a magic which wiped out her mind and enved her. Although Ash was exining all this to Maria, she wasn''t listening, but instead she was seeing the events that Ash was describing through a shback cut-scene. She couldn''t help but tear up and nearly retch when she saw the process of Ash''s children being murdered in cold blood and when they had their heads impaled on stakes. She also cursed the developers for actually showing her the scene of when Ash''s wife was being defiled by Siegfried and the moment she was turned into a ve by the bastard''s magic. Maria saw all this from Ash''s perspective so it felt like she was living through all those horrid events that Ash had experienced. Maria was able to fully understand the helplessness, despair, anger, and rage that Ash was feeling as he recounted these events. *DING* [For listening to his story, Ash''s FAV has risen by 100] Once the cut-scene was over, Maria''s eyes were red, and tears were streaming down her face. Ash finished his exnation and when he turned his gaze back onto the girl who was willing to listen to his story, he couldn''t help but reel in shock at the mess the beautiful girl''s face was in. "Ah! Little Miss, why are you crying?" "I-it was such a sad story. Sniff...hic..." Ash smiled helplessly at this and he took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped away Maria''s tears. "...You said you were willing to help" "Yes! I''ll help! Let''s go get your revenge and enact justice for your family!!!" Maria''s tears and sadness had immediately flown away as anger and eagerness had reced all of it. "O-Okay?" [Ash Garm''s FAV has risen by 10] [Quest notification! Vengeance and Justice Rank: S Chain Quest After listening to Vampire Ash''s story and seeing all these injustices delivered upon him, you are willing to help Ash get back to his world and deliver justice to the person who had taken away his life. Objective 1: Gain Ash''s Trust (Completed) Objective 2: Find a way to Vanhal Objective 3: Kill Siegfried Time Limit: None Rmended Level: Lv. 70 or above Rewards: ??? Warning: This is a solo quest! You are not permitted to form or join a party with any other yers as long as this quest is active!] Seeing the level rmendation, Maria couldn''t help but frown a little. The rank of the quest was S and the level required to clear the quest was level 70, at least for ordinary yers. Maria felt that her level was a little too low. She wanted to get to level 50 or 60 before she worked on this quest. There was also the fact that Lh would soon fulfill the level requirement for her upgrade so Maria quickly tried toe up with an excuse to level up before embarking on the quest. *DING* [Vampire Ash Garm Lv. ??, has been added to your party!] "Oh!" Ash was suddenly added to her party and Maria quickly took a look at his status window through the party menu. [Ash Garm Lv.65 HP: 100%/100% (Weakened) MP: 100%/100% (Weakened) SP: 100%/100% (Weakened) EXP: 4%/100% Status: Weakened Due to being sealed for a long time, Ash can''t disy 100% of his power. Race: Vampire Rank: Duke Titles: Lord of Blood, Species Eradicator A, ???, ???, ???, The Knowledgeable One, ???, ??? FAV: Amiable (110/500)] ''Oh! He''s strong!'' Maria eyed the handsome looking Ash and she smiled at him. Maria''s smile was a little enchanting for the vampire and he was momentarily entranced. Ash quickly snapped out of his stupor and hastily turned his head away. The littledy''s beauty rivaled that of his wife, so he couldn''t help but be entranced for a moment. What he didn''t know however was that Maria''s ''enchanting smile'' was the smile that she showed whenever the girl began plotting something. Right now, in her mind, Maria was plotting on how to take advantage of this Level 65 vampire. She wanted to use him to help herself power level in higher leveled maps. Ash had tried hard to keep his gaze away from Maria, but his eyes would constantly wander back to her face. Ash couldn''t help but be drawn in by Maria''s beauty and when he looked at the girl''s neck and saw the two small holes on it, he couldn''t help but lick his lips. Earlier, when he had sucked Maria''s blood, the taste was so sweet and nostalgic that he had mistakenly thought that the woman in front of him was his wife. In his stupor, he had begun groping around which led to the oue of him being almost killed by the youngdy. Remembering this, Ash silently reminded himself, ''She''s beautiful...but she''s dangerous. I can''t let myself fall for her...and, I already have a wife...'' Ash frowned when he thought about his wife. She was helplessly defiled right in front of him and he didn''t know the condition she was in. He didn''t know whether she was still alive or had already been killed by his arch-nemesis. "Little Miss, what year is it?" Ash suddenly asked. "Year? I dunno," Maria replied with a shrug. Naturally, what Maria meant was the year inside of the game. She never really paid attention to small details like that in the game, so she wouldn''t know. "Eh?" "Also, you shouldn''t be thinking about that for now. You''re from a different, so wouldn''t the time that''s psed be different from here and there?" "...That makes sense, Little Miss." "We should use this time to get to know each other better! How about you join me in hunting some monsters?" Ash was a little troubled by this, he wanted to rush back and enact his vengeance, but what Maria said right after made him reconsider. "We don''t know how to get back to your world, y'' know," Maria immediately said when she saw Ash''s conflicted expression. "Just listen to me, what happens if we find a clue somewhere around here while hunting? This is the ce that Siegfried, your enemy, had sealed you in. So there''s bound to be some kind of clue which could help us get back to your world, right?" Ash was still a little bit unconvinced, but there was merit to Maria''s words. Maria saw that he was almost convinced by her words so she quickly gave him thest push by saying, "Besides, if you go back now in your weakened state, wouldn''t Siegfried just defeat you again? Do you want things to just be a repeat of the past?" Hearing this, Ash immediately denied her words furiously, "I was poisoned by him at that time! If he hadn''t schemed against me then I wouldn''t have lost to him in a fight!" Maria smirked at him before she quickly knocked him down with a single sweep of her scythe. Ash was shocked when he was suddenly toppled over by the girl, but the girl had already crouched down next to him and lightly said, "See, you''re weak. I''m only level 39, but I can easily knock you down! What do you think will happen if you face Siegfried in your current state? Hmm?" "..." "Come on Ash, if you want vengeance, you should at least work hard for it! I''m lending you my help, but I''m only level 39. Your enemy probably has a high level and we''d just lose to him! Also, don''t expect your nemesis to remain stagnant while you were sealed away! If his character was just as scheming and cunning as you''ve described him, then Siegfried would probably have anticipated the day you broke out of your seal so he''s probably been training for that eventuality this entire time!" *DING* [Ash FAV +200] Ash slowly stood up and faced Maria. He eyed her with determination before he respectfully and subserviently knelt and said, "Then please guide me, Death''s Envoy." Maria smiled widely at this and Ash who was staring intently at her couldn''t help but be entranced once again. Maria stood up and immediately walked deeper into the forest while humming happily. "Let''s go, Ash~ we''ll kill everything we see and help you get back to full strength! After that we''ll grind some more and make sure that you''re at a high enough level to be able to take down that bastard, Siegfried!" "Yes, my Lady!" Seeing the vampire being firmly wrapped around Maria''s finger, Lh only shook her head helplessly on the side as she eyed the vampire pitifully. During the past times when Maria was helping others grind their levels, she would wait in ce while she sent her party members around to attract monsters to her. She''d then have the easy job of crushing all the monsters into EXP with a few rounds of her skills. Once she was done with one wave, she''d send her allies off to look for monsters once more while she took her leisure time to sunbathe or read a book. ''Master''s gonna work this idiot into the ground.'' Chapter 62: Marias Trial and a New Companion Chapter 62: Maria''s Trial and a New Companion Maria went around the area with Ash and Lh. The triopletely decimated the monsters that they found in record time. Although Ash was weakened, all of his unique skills and vampire magic were a great help to Maria. It wasn''t long before Maria hit level 40 and Lh herself had advanced to level 50. "Master, I can undergo an evolution now!" "[Status: Lh]." [Lh Lv. 50 Fallen Faerie Rank: A HP: 11,000/11,000 MP: 18,500/18,500 SP: 700/700 EXP: 75,000/75,000 (MAX) ATK: 702 DEF: 990 M.ATK: 740 M.DEF: 1,180 STR: 390 AGI: 460 VIT: 550 INT: 925 LCK: 5 Growth Potential: 100 Satisfaction: 99/100 Favor: 100/100 Evolution: Possible Requirements: Reach Lv. 50] [Evolution Requirement has been met! Would you like to evolve your pet? YES/NO] "Yes, sa~" Maria quickly clicked the [YES] and another message window appeared in front of her. [Fallen Faerie''s Plight Evolution should be simple, but not for the Fallen. Your pet needs toplete the following trials to advance her race. Trial of Darkness: Defeat a creature with a dark core and assimte it to your pet (0/1) Trial of Shadows: Defeat a creature with a demon core and assimte it with your pet (0/1) Time Limit: 30 days Penalty: -10 levels for Pet: Lh Rewards: Lh''s Evolution, Unique Pet Skillbook x1, Evolution Crystal x1] "It''s another monster hunting quest, yay! Let''s get going, Ash~" "Y-yes, Mdy..." Ash said hesitantly. Seeing his hesitation, Maria began to pout. "What? You don''t want to?" "N-no, it''s just... you need a dark core and a demon core... we could easily get a fused core of both dark and demonic if we defeat a vampire that''s count-ranked or above." "Oh, really?! You mean, a high-ranked vampire like yourself?!" "Yeswait! I don''t mean that you can hunt me!" Ash said in a fluster when he noticed Maria inching closer to him with her scythe at the ready. "Hihihi~ I''m just kidding! Anyway, I think it''d be better if we just go and find a way to your world then, Ash. We''re going to be attacking all the people who have wronged you back then so we''re bound to fight against a high-ranked vampire. This way, we can kill 2 birds with 1 stone!" "Y-yes... but didn''t you say that we should strengthen ourselves first?" "Of course, look here, I have this skill book that I can use, but I was a little afraid of using it before because I was worried I wasn''t strong enough! But now that I have you, I''m sure I can pass the trial to learn the skill!" "Okayoh, isn''t that a legacy skill book?" Maria didn''t bother replying to Ash and instead opened up the [Dark Ray] skill book. The same ck ray of light shown down on Maria and Death''s Apparition immediately appeared before her. "Child, would you like to take the trial to learn this skill?" "Hello, Mr. Death! Before I go and take this trial, I''d like to ask! Am I allowed to bring in mypanions with me?" Death''s apparition eyed both Lh and Ash before responding, "You can bring the fairy, my child, but the Vampire...he is not your familiar nor is he your champion or subordinate. He cannot be brought into the trials." "Huh? So, how do I make him my subordinate?" "You may form a contract or pact with him," Death''s Apparition replied. "What''s the difference?" The apparition immediately began exining to Maria the differences and she soon got the gist of things. Contracts were used to form temporary bonds with a person and make them your subordinate while Pacts were used to form a permanent bond which makes the person she was forming a pact with her Champion or Familiar. If they were monsters, forming a pact would make them her Familiar while an NPC like Ash would be her Champion instead. Death also taught Maria how to form a Pact and a Contract. Once she learned how to use the Pact, she immediately walked over to Ash and dered, "You''re forming a Pact with me, now!" "M-Mdy?!" "Hurry up, we''re forming a Pact, I don''t care what you say, you''re going to be my Champion." "Eh?!" Maria started forming the magic circle for the Pact on the ground where she was standing. Once she was finished, she immediately pulled Ash into the magic circle with her. "Alright... now what do we do?" Maria turned to Death''s Apparition and asked. "Speak thy words and the pact shall be formed." "What worohh!" A message window soon popped up in front of Maria. [A Pact Formation has been detected. Scanning for requirements ... ... ...] [Scanplete! Pact Master: Maria Lv. 40 Fallen Angel, Pact Champion: Ash Garm Lv. 65 Vampire Duke ... ... ... Requirements have been met!] [Please say the following ... ... ... ...] "Ahem, ahem..." Maria cleared her throat and began saying some cringe-worthy words. "Almighty Death, lord of the dark and the forbidden, I beseech thee, please bear witness to" Once she was finished, Maria started blushing furiously in embarrassment. ''Phew, good thing none of my friends are around or else they''d be hounding me for days on end...'' She looked up and saw that Ash was standing stock-still with a conflicted look on his face. "Hey! Hurry up already! Don''t you wanna help me get stronger so we can hurry up and get your revenge?" "Y-yes...but..." "But what? You''re not happy with forming a pact with me?!" "N-No Mdy, if you''re fine with it...then please wait a moment." Ash immediately began reciting the same words Maria had just recited earlier, except there were some differences to his chant. Once he finished his words, the magic circle under the two began to glow in an ominous red light. It continued to glow like that and Maria was beginning to grow confused when nothing happened after a few seconds had passed. "Is that it? Are we done?" "N-No, Mdy...we still have to seal the Pact." "Seal?" "Y-yes..." "Ohh... what, do you have to seal it with a kiss or something?" Maria joked. "Y-yes...Mdy." "Hah?" "It''s alright! A simple kiss on the hand will immediately count as sealing the Pact!" "Ugh, I''m not letting YOU kiss my hand! Thest time I let something simr happen, you started groping me!" "..." Ash''s face immediately turned ck at her words. "Hmm... oh, here, kiss my feet," Maria said as she offered Ash her foot. Ash''s face turned even darker at her words. Maria saw his expression and thought that the vampire didn''t want to bend down to kiss her feet, so she instead levitated a little in the air and brought her foot right up to his face. "Here~" "...M-Mdy..." "Hurry up, idiot!" "..." "Gosh, you''re so demanding!" Maria said with a pout. She immediately unequipped her boots and her dainty bare legs were now present in front of Ash. She raised her foot to Ash''s face again and gestured at him to kiss her foot already. "..." "Still don''t want it?" Ash only sighed in defeat and carefully held onto Maria''s foot and kissed it. The magic formation below them began glowing even more intensely and a small magic circle began forming on Maria''s thigh. [Pactpleted! Ash Garm Lv. 65 Vampire Duke has now be your Champion!] "Heeeh~? Now I''m getting tattoos everywhere! Daddy''s not going to like this!" Maria already had a magic circle marking her pact with Lh on her hand which she covered up with her gloves, but now she had one on her inner thigh area. It was a little unbing of her, but it wasn''t like she had any control over where it appeared. The only respite she had was that all her new tattoos were able to be easily hidden away from sight by her equipment. She was just about to take back her leg but noticed a prickling feeling on her foot. Maria looked down and saw her vampire biting down onto her dainty foot and sucking up her blood. She immediately kicked Ash''s face with her other leg and sent the perverted vampire flying. "Hey pervert! Who permitted you to suck my blood?!" "W-wait, Mistress, it wasn''t my fault! You offered your leg to me!" "I offered what?! I only permitted you to kiss it, not suck on it! Bastard looks like you need some disciplining!" Maria bellowed and readied her scythe. "Mistress, please wait! Aren''t we supposed to be heading into Lord Death''s trial now?" "...Hmph, don''t think I''ll forget about this..." Maria glowered at him. She immediately reequipped her boots and turned her attention towards Death''s Apparition. "Okay, Mr. Death, he''s now my Champion so can we head in now?" "Yes you may, child..." The apparition began to spin around in ce and a ck portal soon appeared in its ce. "Alright, let''s get going. Pervert vampire, you better work twice as hardter! I already let you suck my blood!" "Yes, Mistress..." Lhnded on Maria''s shoulder and along with her master, disappeared into the portal. Ash quickly tidied up his clothes before following after the two. ****** When Maria exited from the portal she immediately looked around and saw that she was in a field full of skeletons. "Hm?" *DING* [Death''s First Trial The dead have longed and thirsted for the aura of the living! They have suddenly detected your life energy and are now craving for it. You can run or hide, but the dead will find you! Survive in this wastnd of death for 3 days and you will have sessfully passed the trial! Remaining Time: 71 hours 59 minutes 50 seconds] "All we have to do is survive? That''s easy!" Before Maria could continue being happy with herself, all of the scattered skeletons on the field she was in began to stir and soon they all stood up from their spot. One by one the skeletons eyed her, the ghost mes burning in their eyes focused on Maria and this caused a chill to run up and down her spine. "Eheheh~ take it easy boys...there''s only one of me and a lot of you..." Maria said as she slowly backed away before she bumped into Ash. "Ash, what''re you doing? Back away slowly, right now!" "M-Mistress... I don''t think I can..." "Huh?" Maria immediately turned around and saw a sea of skeletons staring back at her. She began looking around before a realization hit her. "Oh! We''re surrounded!" "..." Ash silently facepalmed. His mistress was cute, but this was hardly the time to act cute. "Master, I don''t think this is the time to be sounding so happy..." Lh quipped up. "Hahaha~ we''ll see about that!" Maria quickly flew up into the air and began casting [Ruin]. A few bone arrows flew at her, but she deftly dodged every single one of them and finished her chant. She immediately sent her spell into the crowd of skeletons and erased arge batch of them [1,000 Exp Gained!] [1,000 Exp Gained!] [1,000 Exp Gained!] [1,000 Exp Gained!] [1,000 Exp ...] [1,000 ...] ... ... ... A long stream of message windows appeared in front of her, but Maria quickly went to her [Log] and muted all iing messages and notifications. She swung her Scythe-form Cmity and sent arge wave of dark energy at the skeletons below her, once again erasing arge patch of them. "Get to work Ash!" "Yes, Mistress..." At her words, Ash immediately burst into arge swarm of bats and swept across the skeletons around them. Maria lowered her altitude until she was only a few feet above the ground. The skeletons at the farther end of the horde had spotted her in the sky and had begun shooting way too many bone arrows at her. She didn''t want to be struck by any of the arrows so she wisely chose to descend. The bone arrows from the back of the horde continued flying towards her party''s general location, but most of them were blocked by the [Barrier] Maria created. Lh was going around sending small bolts of magic at every skeleton around. Her damage was high enough to easily destroy one skeleton. Maria noticed a small peculiarity when they destroyed a skeleton. ck smog was flowing out of the broken skeletal remains and began lingering in the air around them. A few minutes into the fight, Maria and Lh felt a bit worn out. "This is odd...howe I feel tired already?" Maria immediately checked her [Log] and saw the reason why she had grown sluggish. [You have been affected by the undead''s [Death Aura], resource and stamina depletion has increased by 50%] "Mistress, the undead''s [Death Aura] has umted too much in this area. I''m afraid we have to relocate." "A-Alright...Hey, howe you aren''t affected?" "Mistress, I''m a vampire. Technically, I''m also an undead..." "Ah, so that makes you my enemy?" "...Please don''t joke around Mistress..." "Ehehe, let''s go then. We''ll follow behind you Ash, please open up a path." "Yes." Ash once more turned into a swarm of bats and he rushed into the horde of skeletons and began carving a path for his Mistress. "Phew...I''m d I brought Ash. He''s perverted, but at least he''s useful!" "[Status: Ash Garm]" [Ash Garm Lv. 65 HP: 77,500/77,500 MP: 16,000/16,000 SP: 2,500/2,500 EXP: 431,000/6,500,000 Race: Vampire Rank: Duke Titles: Lord of Blood, Species Eradicator A, Blood Father, Head of the Garm House, The Progenitor''s Right Hand, The Knowledgeable One, World Traveler, Maria''s Champion, Pervert ATK: 2,250 DEF: 3,875 M.ATK: 400 M.DEF: 2,000 STR: 450 AGI: 500 VIT: 1,550 INT: 800 LCK: 7 FAV: Intimate (100,000) Skills: [Blood Wave Lv. MAX Rank: A Sends a wave of blood magic at an enemy, dealing 10,000+(INT*2.0) M.DMG in an area 10 meters in front of the caster. Restores caster''s HP by 10% of damage dealt HP Cost: 20% of Total HP MP Cost: 2,500 MP Cooldown: 5 minutes] [Red Ray Lv. 5 (55,650/500,000) Rank: S sts a target with a concentrated beam of me and blood energy, dealing 100,000+(INT*2.0+STR*2.5) DMG which prates 50% of the enemy''s DEF and Burns the target for 30 seconds, dealing 10% of initial DMG dealt per second. HP Cost: 50% of Total HP MP Cost: 10,000(INT*1.5) MP Cooldown: 5 minutes] [Predator of the Night Lv. MAX Rank: B Transforms into a swarm of bats, each bat deals (STR*0.1) DMG/second and heals caster by 10% of total DMG dealt. Randomly inflicts Bleed or Poison on targets for 10 seconds and ignores 20% of the target''s DEF. MP Cost: 1,000 MP/Transformation Duration: 10MP/Second Cooldown: 5 seconds/Transformation] [Blood Bank Lv. 3 Rank: A Converts HP into MP at a ratio of 7:1 Cooldown: 30 Seconds] [Vampiric Aura Lv. MAX Provides allies with a 20% life steal aura Area of Effect: 10 meters around the caster] [Champion''s Duty Lv. 1 (0/100,000) Rank: S Teleports to the Pact Master''s side regardless of distance MP Cost: 10,000 MP Cooldown: 7 days] [...] [...] [...] Maria was surprised to see the updated [Status] menu and [Skill] menu. All of Ash''s stats were refreshed and the [Weakened] status was no longer there. She was especially astonished to see the long list of skills that Ash had at his disposal. "Well, well, it looks like Ash''s stats are all back to normal! There''s no weakened status anymore! With all those skills, he seems much more useful than before, but what''s with that favorability? Intimate? When did we be intimate?" Maria clicked on the FAV stat and another message window opened up. *DING* [Max Level of Affection has been reached: Intimate Possible Marriage Partner: Ash Garm] "..." Maria eyed the message window disdainfully and quickly dismissed it. "Perverted Vampire." "Is something wrong, Mistress?" Ash asked as he suddenly appeared next to Maria. Maria only eyed him scornfully before asking, "Are you done carving out a path for me and Lh?" "Follow me, Mistress..." "This ck aura is annoying. Let''s hurry out of here." "Yes." Maria, Lh, and Ash started moving around the battlefield full of skeletons. All of the monsters were very weak with only a few variations within their ranks which were stronger than the normal skeleton, the only thing they had going for them was their absurd numbers that seemed to be limitless. After a few hours of fighting and roaming around, Maria still couldn''t see the end to the sea of skeletons. The party couldn''t even catch a break since the skeletons kept on swarming at them from all directions. If it wasn''t for Cmity''s [Reaper''s Guile], Ash''s [Vampiric Aura], and Maria''s [Angel of Death] title, the group would have long since spent all of their resources. Not even potions would have helped in their situation. They were constantly using their spells and skills which drained their MP and SP like a water faucet while also taking damage that depleted their HP. Maria''s sustainability in these types of situations where she had to face a multitude of enemies was an advantage she had in this trial, every monster around her was a source of HP, MP, and EXP. As long as she could kill something, she''d be able to maintain her life. Ash''s [Blood Bank] helped him sustain his MP bar so he could keep using his skills and spells which had effects that could also fill up his HP bar. The only problem was the party''s SP consumption. The only way to restore SP was to sit down and take a break which was something the party didn''t have the leisure of doing inside this chaotic battlefield where swarms of skeletons kept on attacking them from all directions. They did try taking turns resting, but the recovery was always interrupted. Maria, Ash, and Lh continued roaming around the deste battlefield and soon they found arge mound of piled up boulders. Maria saw an opening and also noticed that the deathly aura emitted by the skeletons wasn''t present inside therge mound of boulders. This could only mean that there weren''t any skeletons inside the mound of boulders. "Ash, Lh, we''re heading straight for those boulders! I can''t feel the undead''s [Death Aura] inside that mound so it could be a safe zone, maybe!" "What happens if there''s an even stronger monster waiting inside, Master?" Lh asked cautiously. "That could be the case, but it''s better than staying out here and being swarmed by all these skeletons! Also, if it''s a boss, I say bring it on!" "Let''s go, my Mistress. I''ll protect you when we are inside..." "I''ll count on you then Ash, let''s go Lh, with Ash tanking the monsters for us, we can just sit at that back and cheer him on!" "Alright, Master!" "..." Ash''s face darkened when he heard his Mistress'' heartless words. However, he didn''t back down from the task Maria gave to him and began carving a path towards therge mound of boulders. When they reached the opening that Maria saw, the party had to fly up a little to reach it. Once they walked into the opening a message window appeared in front of Maria. [You have entered the dungeon: Greed''s Heart WARNING: Please proceed with caution!] "Oh! It''s a dungeon~ alright pervert, let''s go!" Maria pointed forwards andmanded. "P-Pervert?!" Ash said in shock. Maria only looked at the dumbfounded vampire and gestured for him to quickly head into the dark dungeon. Ash could only sigh dejectedly and walk into the dungeon. Maria happily followed after him while Lh created a light source for the party and sat down on her Master''s shoulder. "Hmhmhm~ I hope the boss at the end is strong~" Chapter 63: The Trials Dungeon Chapter 63: The Trial''s Dungeon As the party headed deeper into the dungeon, they soon encountered some monsters. Unlike the undead skeletons from outside, this dungeon was filled with different types of undead which were ghosts and wraiths. "Hehe, it''s just some undead, time to eat my scythe you stupid ghosts!" Maria rushed forward and began trying to slice up the monsters in front of her. When she shed down on the Lv. 35 Ghost Soldier, her weapon only passed through the monster and struck the floor. "Eh?" "Mistress, get back!" Ash rushed forward and immediately pulled Maria back and got struck by the Ghost Soldier''s attack. "Hey, howe my attack didn''t work?" "Mistress, these ghosts are astral beings, you can''t attack them using physical attacks. You must use energy attacks or magic spells to hurt them," Ash patiently exined. "Well, why didn''t you say so, stupid?" "...M-Mistress..." Ash had no time to feel sorry for himself because the Ghost Soldier had locked its aggro onto him and began its attack. Maria stepped back and began casting her [Fire] spell. Once it wasplete, she switched her Cmity back into its ax-form and tossed the spell into the air before batting it towards the Ghost Soldier. The attack struck urately on the monster and immediately depleted half of its HP. "Oh yay~!" Ash quickly finished it off with one of his Spells. The party continued into the dungeon and numerous amounts of ghost-type monsters blocked their way and obstructed them for continuing forward. Maria continued using her spells to attack and quickly take down the ghosts attacking them. She would asionally change her Cmity into its scythe form and send a [Cmity Cleave] at the monsters and clear up the way forward. She remembered a little bitte that one of her weapon''s forms was a scythe and it was magic-based. Maria would switch her weapon''s form whenever her skill was off cooldown and fire it off before changing it back and batting her [Fire] spells at the ghosts with her weapon whenever it was off cooldown while cycling through [Ruin], [Smite], [Earth Shock] and [Terra Lance] in turns. "I could be a good baseball yer if I keep this up~" Maria said in a sing-song voice as she continued to slowly delve deeper into the dungeon. Seeing their master having the time of her life, Ash and Lh kept to the back and only assisted her whenever too many monsters had gathered together. The dungeon''s structure was pretty straightforward, there were only a few twists and turns on the way with the asional branching pathways that led to a dead end. If they happened to go down a path that led to a dead-end, all they had to do was go back and take the other path. The only problem was the numerous monsters that would flood the tunnels whenever they had to turn back. It was already grueling enough the deeper into the dungeon, so it was frustrating whenever they came upon a dead-end and had to turn back. Maria''s only respite was that at the end of the pathways which lead to dead ends were treasure chests that had some really good items in them. "Agh! Another stupid dead-end!!!" Maria screeched in anger. She stomped her way over to the gold-colored treasure chest and kicked it open in annoyance. "Hmph!" "..." "...Master''s irritated..." Lh said worriedly. "Well, those ghosts keeping to harass us with their screeches and moaning..." Ash replied. "Now master''s screeching just like those ghosts..." "...the young Mistress is easily irritable." "I wanna get out of here quickly... those ghosts are getting to me as well..." "I agree, so let''s help her out now. We''ve let the Mistress have her fun, now we should just get out of here before she gets too irritated and starts taking it out on us!" "You mean, on you~" Lh smirked teasingly. "..." Ash only responded sullenly with a [Blood Wave]. He easily cleared out a huge amount of ghosts and this caused Maria''s eyes to brighten. "Ash, you''re pretty useful!" "M-Mistress...wasn''t I always useful?" "Let''s go, Lh~" "Yes, Master!" Being tantly ignored by his Mistress, Ash could only dejectedly chase after the girl and the fairy. Maria quickly rushed forward in the empty pathway but it didn''t take long before more ghosts once more filled up the path ahead. Listening to the ghosts'' screeches and wails was torturing to her ears and she couldn''t help but screech and wail back at the monsters. "AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Maria screamed out in annoyance, "How do you like it if I screeched at you?! SHUT UP ALREADY!!!" Maria shed out with another [Cmity Cleave] and cleared the path ahead. She had learned something handy with her numerous usage of the skill. After sending out a dark energy wave, she was able to withhold her second energy wave for 5 seconds after sending the first wave out before her skill was canceled because she didn''t use her next sh. By abusing this mechanic, Maria was able to clearrger hordes of ghosts and cover more ground. She used the 5-second intervals to dash forward using her wings before shing out with another energy wave until she used up all 3 of her shes. However, the stupid monsters still didn''t let up, and their wailing and screeching only added to Maria''s stress levels. "Ash, I no longer want to hear those monsters'' incessant wailing... do something about it!" Maria yelled in frustration. "...This''ll deplete a lot of my HP, Mistress." "I don''t care! Just get the job done. I''m through with these stupid ghosts!" Ash helplessly obeyed his mistress'' orders and began repeatedly using his Blood Magic on the monsters. His HP bar was moving up and down like a roller coaster. Whenever he used a spell, it took away a portion of his HP, but as he killed more and more monsters, his HP would immediately be restored due to his [Vampiric Aura] passive skill. Maria followed after Ash from the back and would asionally send a [Cmity Cleave] or one of her spells to assist him. "Master, while Ash is dealing with the ghosts, I think we should check our loot?" Lh suggested while she sat rxingly on Maria''s shoulder and swung her two little legs back and forth. "Oh yeah, that''s a good idea. [Inventory]" Maria quickly sorted out her inventory and was a little bit surprised at the items she got from the chests she opened while inside this dungeon. [Dark Priestess'' Battle Dress (0) Rank: Epic-ranked Set Equipment (1/7) DEF: 50 M.DEF: 250 VIT + 10 INT + 75 Restrictions: Dark Priest, Dark Priestess Level Requirement: Lv. 35 A piece of equipment crafted solely for Death''s Envoy. It changes shape per the user''s preference. The equipment absorbs the aura of the deceased personally felled by the user. For every 1,000 creatures killed, the user''s stats are increased by 0.1% (Max. 10%). The kill count and increased stats reset every time the equipment is upgraded, unequipped, or whenever the user enters Death''s Domain. Upgradeable: Upgrade to next Tier. Requirements: Gather 10 Devil Cores (0/10), 5 Doom me Phoenix Feathers (0/5), 1 High Demon''s Heart (0/1), and 1 God Crystal Fragment (0/1) Set Bonus: 1. 2 Equipment: Increases HP by 30% 2. 3 Equipment: Increases MP by 20 % 3. 4 Equipment: Acquire Passive Skill: [Unholy Aura]: Boosts All Stats of dark-aligned allies by 15% and decreases all enemy Stats by 5%. 4. 5 Equipment: ??? 5. 6 Equipment: ??? 6. 7 Equipment: ??? Description: The first piece of equipment Death''s Envoy can acquire when they attempt Death''s Trial. If you are fated, then you will find this. If not, then it was not meant to be. A trace of the Death God''s aura can be felt. While it invigorates those of the dark, it is an unpleasant feeling for those from the light.] "The other stuffs are only misceneous items, equipment, and some skill books, but this one''s just like the Cmity!" Maria quickly swapped out her equipment and quickly donned the Dark Priestess'' Battle Dress. She adjusted the appearance a little and made it look a little bit simr to her school''s uniform except it had a darker color scheme and had some gothic motifs to it. "Hmm~ I guess this is cute, right Lh?" "It''s a little peculiar but it oddly fits Master to a tee," Lh replied. "I wonder if I can get any more of the Dark Priestess'' unique equipment..." "Anyway Master, I think you should just swap out all of your current equipment. The ones we found in the chests are much better!" Maria nodded in agreement and began swapping out her equipment for the new ones she just got. Maria made sure to not be too preupied with her inventory because she didn''t want to get left behind by Ash who was still rampaging around in the front with his skills. "Master, did you check any of the skill books and find one that you like?" "One sec, let me look through them," Maria replied after taking a short nce at Ash before she turned her attention back to her inventory. After taking a brief look at them, Maria was a little dismayed at the fact that most of the skills were race and ss-specific ones. She clicked her tongue and grumbled, "Tsk, this is supposed to be MY trial, so howe the rewards aren''t favoring my ss?" Maria began to take out each skill book and thoroughly read their descriptions, she found an interesting one out of all of them. Too bad for her, she couldn''t learn it. "Aww, this one looked pretty interesting..." [Scream of Agony Lv.1 (0/3000) Rank: C Let''s loose a terrifying scream that damages everyone within 3 meters around the user. Deals 300+(INT x 0.3) M.DMG with a 30% chance to inflict [Fear] or [Silence] for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds MP Cost: 300 MP Restrictions: Ghost Race or Shaman-type ss] "I''ve seen a few yers ying as the ghost race... The only shaman-type yer I know is Amanda. I guess I''ll give this to herter..." "M-Mistress..." When Maria suddenly heard Ash''s voice, she quickly turned her attention back towards the front and immediately started looking around. She noticed that there were no longer any ghosts wailing and shrieking anymore. The area waspletely silent and they had suddenly arrived at arge room with some kind of demonic altar situated in the middle that was bound by thick, ck, ominous chains. "Is this the boss room?" Lh flew around for a bit before returning, "It seems like it, Master. I sense a strong presenceing from the altar..." "I believe something is sealed within that altar, my Mistress," Ash quipped up. Maria nonchntly walked up to the altar that was bound by chains and circled it a few times. The boss still hadn''t appeared so there was only one way for it to appear. It was a little risky, but after thinking it over for a moment, Maria immediately came up with an answer. "Hmmm... let''s unseal it!" "Master?!" "Mistress?!" Her twopanions could only gawk incredulously at her suggestion. The being sealed within the demonic altar was sealed for very obvious reasons! What kind of fool would try and break this seal to fight with it? "Hey, you two thought something bad about me, didn''t you?!" Maria immediately red at Lh and Ash when she saw their dumbfounded expressions and the incredulous look on their faces. "N-No we weren''t, Master!" "Mistress, we wouldn''t dare!" "Su~re, you totally thought that I was some kind of fool trying to unseal this thingy..." "..." "..." Since the two became silent and didn''t respond, Maria only harrumphed before she raised her axe high up in the air. "Hmph, anyway, get ready for battle you two. Lh immediately cast your debuffs on the monster when it pops out. Ash, I don''t care what you use. You immediately start bombarding the sealed bastard once it pops outter, alright?" "Yes, Master!" Lh energetically replied. Ash, however, responded a little hesitantly, "O-Okay, Mistress..." Maria checked his HP and saw that it was full, but now that there were no more ghost fodders that could act as his HP bank, Ash''s HP would undoubtedly deplete to dangerous levels after he used a few rounds of his skills. "You can suck on my blood whenever your health gets too low!" Maria reluctantly said. "R-Really? Thank you, Mistress!" Before Ash could even rejoice at Maria''s concession, the girl immediately opened up her mouth and continued saying, "You better not suck out too much! If you hinder meter, I''ll cut you down as well!" "O-Of course!" "Alright, get ready you two!" After making sure that both herpanions were thoroughly prepared to strike, Maria applied a [Haste] buff on her entire party before she immediately swung her Cmity down onto the altar. "Wakey, wakey~!" Chapter 64: Greed Chapter 64: Greed Once she severed the chains bounding the dark altar, ominous ck smog began pouring out of the altar from all sides. Maria quickly jumped back and when she noticed her HP falling by the second when she came into contact with the ck smog. "Be careful of the smog! It deals damage if you''re caught in it!" "Yes, Mistress!" "Noted, Master!" Maria''s twopanions responded. The ck smog continued to pour into the surroundings until everything inside the small space they were in was thoroughly permeated with it except for a small area around the altar. "It looks like we can''t run away from this battle," Maria mumbled as she nervously gripped her Cmity. It didn''t take long before the smog started forming the silhouette of a person on top of the altar. It slowly began to congeal and the smog solidified into a gray-skinned human-like monster. It didn''t have any lips and Maria could see the gums and sharp teeth of the monster that''s standing in front of her. It had wings bound by ck chains and there were bandages wrapped around its eyes. Its arms were also crossed on top of its chest and were restrained by tightly-bound ck leather wraps. The long ws that were attached to its abnormallyrge hands were also frightening. Then there were its legs. Luckily for Maria and her party, its legs were also bound by the ck leather wraps and chains. On the monster that Maria assumed to be a demon, there were all sorts of cryptic and demon-like tattoos decorating its body. After carefully observing the demon for a bit more, Maria finally noticed that the source of the ck smog wasing from the demon''s hands. There was some sort of hollowed-out cavity on its palms that was constantly leaking out the ck smog. Maria was immensely repulsed by the ominous-looking demon and how grotesque it looked. She shifted her steps a little and immediately, the demon quickly turned its body to face her. It opened its mouth and the corners of its mouth rose a little in what Maria assumed to be a smile. The demon didn''t have lips since it seemed like they were cut out so she couldn''t tell. However, the sudden movement immediately caused Maria to freeze in ce and chills began running up and down her spine when she noticed that the demon was seemingly ''looking'' at her. "Rahahaha, I smell your fear..." the demon said in a baritone, raspy voice. The demon''s voice was grinding to Maria''s ears and she couldn''t help but grimace. "Hey, you disgusting thing, keep your damned mouth shut!" "D-Disgusting?!" The demon cried out in rm. "Hey! Didn''t I tell you to keep your mouth shut?!" "Why you insignificant little worm!!!" The demon roared out. To Maria''s surprise, the roar actually chipped away a little bit of her health! She readied her weapon and poised to attack but she was a little scared of approaching the repulsing monster when she saw the ck chains binding it levitating around the demon protectively. "My Mistress, allow me!" Ash said before sending one of his vampiric spells at the monster. He conjured a [Blood Lance] and flung it at the monster. The chains surrounding the monster immediately started moving to defend it and the [Blood Lance] was repelled by the numerous chains that formed a shield in front of the demon. "Fools, you dare break my seal! Get ready to perish!" Maria grimaced at the demon''s voice but she quickly changed her axe into a scythe and sent a [Cmity Cleave] at the monster. She didn''t hold back and immediately used all 3 of her shes but she flew around and sent them at the monster in 3 different angles. "Take that!" "Meaningless!" The chains unbound from each other and began forming 3 separate shields and blocked all 3 of Maria''s shes. Before Maria could continue attacking, she had to quickly dodge away when she noticed the chains rushing towards her in an attempt to bind her up. Lh had already cast her [Faerie Fire] and [Faerie Spark] on the demon but for now, it was useless since no attacks had managed to connect onto the demon. She could only fly into Maria''s clothes and send normal attacks at the chains in an attempt to divert them away from her Master. Her small actions staved off a little bit of the pressure surmounting onto Maria. Ash was also having a little bit of a hard time. He was moving around and dodging the numerous chains attacking him. However, he was constantly sending attacks at the demon whenever he had the chance. "[Inspect]!" [Greed Lv. ?? (Unique Boss) HP: ????/???? MP: ????/???? ??? ??? ??? ??? Description: A legendary devil sealed away in Death''s domain. No being should ever think about releasing this creature from its seal. Only the foolish and ignorant would attempt to even fight this devil which personifies the greed of the universe.] "C-crap, I guess I was being foolish and ignorant..." "M-Master...this might be bad for us..." "I-I know! I can''t even see that thing''s level and stats... It has to be 20 or more levels above mine..." "What should we do, Master?" Lh urgently asked as she sent her attacks on the chains that were approaching them. Maria began using her [Angel''s Rage] to repel the chains attacking her and she sent a [Gehenna''s Eye] at the devil Greed and was able to inflict a bit of damage on the monster. The ck mes of [Gehenna''s Eye] immediately startled Greed and he turned his body to face Maria after quickly extinguishing the mes burning his body. "Th-that eye! You have that Eye!" "So what, you disgusting bastard? Why not have a little bit more [Fire]!" She sent flung a [Fire] and [Smite] at Greed before quickly chanting the incantation for [Ruin]. After sending a [Ruin], she continued with a [Terra Lance] and an [Earth Shock]. Maria didn''t only send her [Angel''s Rage] to defend against the ck chains attacking her, but she also sent some to attack Greed''s body. It was a little infuriating to see many of her attacks blocked by the chains but she knew that her attacks were slowly chipping away at the devil''s HP. The HP bar above Greed''s head was slowly but surely dropping as time passed, but the worrying thing was whether or not her HP and MP wouldst until Greed perished. Ash was also another cause for concern since he was using his HP to power his spells and skills. He would asionally drift over next to Maria and suck away at her blood to fill his, but this only lowered Maria''s HP in return. She did use her potions topensate for this loss of HP however, the fight was dragging on for so long and Maria was growing tired of hearing Greed''s ear-piercing voice. In a moment of negligence, she was suddenly struck by one of the chains which resulted in her losing some HP but the worst part about it was that the pain limiter didn''t apply to Greed''s attacks. Maria had to experience the full brunt of the attack and she couldn''t help but scream out in pain when she was struck in the abdomen. To her surprise, Greed also began screaming out in agony after she had screamed out. She also noticed that some sort of sonic wave came out of her mouth and struck Greed''s disgusting head. "Lh, Ash, defend me! I need to see something!" Maria ordered. She opened up her [Log] and noticed the long stream of messages that she had neglected to listen to or look at. She noticed that a good number of her skills had leveled up and she herself had leveled up 5 times. "Oh! So this is why!" The origin of the sonic wave that came out of her mouth was actually because of a skill that she had acquired just recently. [Scream of Pain & Agony Lv.1 (0/5000) Rank: B Scream of Pain (Active): Let''s loose a terrifying scream that damages enemies within a 5-meter radius around the caster. Deals 500+(INT x 0.5) M.DMG with a 50% chance to inflict [Fear] or [Silence] for 5 seconds. If Scream of Pain is on cooldown and the caster is attacked, activates Scream of Agony. Cooldown: 60 seconds. MP Cost: 5000 MP Scream of Agony (Passive): Releases a piercing cry which reflects 50% of damage received to enemies that are within a 5-meter radius around the caster. Cooldown: 12 seconds. MP Cost: 5000 MP] "Did I get this after screaming over and over again at the Wraiths and Ghosts?" Maria cocked her head in confusion. "Ah, who cares? As long as I''ve got a new skill, all is well!" Maria quickly rejoined the battle and made good use of the new skill she had just acquired. All she had to do was get within 5 meters of Greed or let herself be attacked by the chains before activating the skill. As the battle dragged on, Maria soon began to notice that the pacing and tempo was slowly but surely rising. It was to the point where she had to fully concentrate to continuously chain her skills and spells without missing a beat. If she became distracted and messed up even a little bit, Maria would without a doubt be struck by Greed''s numerous ck chains. [Fire] spells, [Terra Lance] spells, [Ruin] spells, [Cmity Cleave], and Maria''s ck feathers from her [Angel''s Rage] skill constantly struck Greed''s body or his chains. She would sometimes let a chain strike her and rebound the attack back onto Greed with her [Scream of Pain] skill and luckily for her, Ash''s [Vampiric Aura]pensated all of her lost HP. When Greed''s HP dropped to below 50 percent, Maria didn''t know how much time had passed by. However, a change had finally appeared on Greed. The numerous ck chains began breaking apart one by one and it started howling in excitement. "HAHAHA FOOLISH MORTAL, YOU''VE FREED ME OF MY BINDINGS!" Just like Greed said, Maria''s attacks were constantly breaking apart his chains and the leather bindings on its arms and legs were also loosened. Soon, Greed broke free all his bindings and it crouched down on the altar. Maria, Ash, and Lh didn''t stop attacking it, but with a sweep of the monster''s hand, a ck wind kicked up and numerous wind des flew straight at her party, dispelling and diverting most of their skills and spells. The ck wind des continued flying straight towards Maria and herpanions. She quickly cast an [M.Barrier] and countered with her own [Cmity Cleave]. Ash also used up a bit of his HP to cast a [Blood Wave]. Theirbined attacks immediately blew away Greed''s wind des and continued flying towards the monster''s body. He took a direct hit against Maria and Ash''s attacks and started howling piercingly in pain. "Damn this stupid demon, my ears hurt!" "It''s just a little bit more, Mistress, hang on!" Ash calmly said while he covered his Mistress'' ears. "Hey! Mine too Ash!" Lh said. "Just hide in Mistress'' robes until the demon stops howling." Maria found it quite odd that Greed had continued to howl even after some time had passed. She noticed something else, the monster''s HP had only declined by a percent or two after being struck by theirbined attack so it couldn''t have hurt that much. "What the hell? Is this thing just a sissy? That should hardly hurt for himeh?" Greed''s howl began causing the cavern they were in the rumble and the ceiling began copsing onto Maria and her party. She struck out with her Cmity and cleaved away all the debris falling on her. When Greed stopped howling, Maria soon noticed a small hole in the ceiling where Greed was standing under. "Oh no, it''s just trying to get out!" "Rahaha, it''s toote, little girl!" Greed opened up his wings and immediately shot up into the air. It flew into the hole and continued upwards. Maria quickly followed after him through the hole with Ash following closely behind her. Greed wasn''t too far ahead of her and when the monster noticed the two pursuers, it smirked and began wing the sides of the hole as it flew up. "Stupid demon, y fair!" Maria shouted. The hole began copsing ahead of them due to Greed''s ws. Maria could only sh away at the debris to open up a path forward but it was hindering their flight speed. Ash quickly shot forward and grabbed onto Maria. "Pervert! What are you doing?! This isn''t the time to be ying games!" "Let me handle this, Mistress," Ash solemnly said. He raised a hand forward and shot a [Red Ray] in front of him. The skill immediately disintegrated the copsing debris and pierced into Greed''s body which caused the demon to cry out in pain. Ash was able to strike and burn the base of Greed''s wings which affected its flying speed. However, the skill used up over 50 percent of his HP and he was put into critical condition since he only had around 60 percent of his HP. "Good work, Ash!" Maria eximed gleefully. She quickly grabbed onto Ash''s cor and dragged him with her. With her now carrying some luggage, her flight speed was naturally impacted and she slowed a little. However, Greed was in the same situation as them due to its injury. Greed was having it much harder since it was struggling to even fly stably. "Hahaha! Take that you stupid demon! Here, I,e!" "N-no! You little wench!" Maria quickly closed in on Greed and shed upwards with her Cmity. She had changed her weapon into the axe form and her blow directly struck Greed''s body. "Damn you, girl!!!" "Hahahaha, take this, this, and this!!!" Maria continued to happily swing her axe at Greed. The monster tried to fly backwards to defend against Maria''s blows with its ws, but this only served to slow it down even further. Maria smirked when her objective was reached and she quickly shouted at Ash. "Hey, pervert! Hurry up and take my blood and help me out! Lh, continue stacking your debuffs on him and attack!" "Yes, Master!" Lh responded and began casting her debuffs onto Greed while sending her normal attacks at him. Ash was still feeling a little feeble but he quickly responded, "R-right away, Mistress..." "Hey, idiot, better watch what you''re touching! I''ll kick you down if you do something inappropriate!" Ash nodded and carefully clung onto Maria before he quickly bit down on her neck. After taking a bit of her HP, Ash was about to let go, but Maria quickly said, "Fill it up you fool! I''ve got potions so hurry up!" Maria chugged down a high-grade potion that she just got from within the dungeon and her HP bar quickly filled up after being drained by Ash. She turned her attention back onto Greed and continued shing away at him and sending skills and spells at him. Once Ash''s HP bar was filled up he quickly let go and started flying on his own. From behind Maria, Ash started sending his skills and spells at Greed. However, it was only his low and mid-ranked skills. He didn''t dare use a high ranked skill like [Blood Wave] or [Red Ray] since it''ll put him in a position that''ll only turn him into a burden for his Mistress in their current situation. Maria had used up quite a bit of her potions but she didn''t particrly care since she only ''picked'' them up off the ''ground'' in the dungeon. They didn''t cost her any money so they were dispensable. She couldn''t help but frown when she felt the lingering pain on her neck. However, she refocused herself and continued striking at Greed. The monster however had soon recovered from its injuries and began flying normally again. Due to its momentary loss of speed, Maria was already right behind it and was only a few centimeters away from her striking range but she didn''t dare try to attack. If she missed, then it''ll only open up the distance between her and the monster. Now, even if Greed tried to strike the walls around them, it wouldn''t affect her or Ash anymore. "Tsk, it looks like we can only take this fight outside...but...those bone dragons and flying skeletons..." Maria grew worried when she remembered those colossal flying skeleton monsters. "Maybe we can try pulling him back into the dungeon..." Maria mumbled. However, this notion was immediately debunked by Ash who called out to her. "Mistress! We have to move faster!" "Huh?" Maria looked down and saw the ck smog that was previously surrounding the room they were in now chasing after them from below. "Ah, crap!" It didn''t take long before Maria, Ash, and Greed flew out of the dungeon. Maria was amazed that Greed''s long howl was able to form a sonic wave that crushed through the thickyer of earth and stones that formed the dungeon. It had reached all the way outside. Once in the air, Greed began chuckling and startedughing madly. "I''m free! I''M FINALLY FREEEEEE!!!" "Oh no, you''re not! You''re finally going to be a dead body now!" Chapter 65: Almost Chapter 65: Almost When the demon heard Maria''s words, it screeched menacingly at the girl. "Is that all you can do? Screech like a broken tape recorder?! Why don''t you man up and fight me!" "Mortal, you dare insult me?! Prepare to die!" "Now that''s more like it you greedy little demon!" "I am not little! Let''s see you talk after I''ve gauged out your innards!" Greed opened his wings and rushed straight for Maria who was already readying her scythe. Ash however didn''t wait for Greed to get closer to his Mistress. He rushed at him and blocked his way forward. He sent a [Blood Wave] at the demon before rushing ahead and engaged the monster in a melee. Lh had already ced her debuffs on the demon and Maria also rushed forwards to attack. Maria sent a [Cmity Cleave] and a [Fire] at the demon without minding whether it hit Ash or not. The vampire was smart enough to lock the demon in ce before shing away right when the attacks were closing in on them. The attacks struck true and Greed roared out in pain but Maria didn''t stop there. She rushed forward, switched her weapon''s form and swung out with an [Arc Swing]. She swung down and sent the demon hurdling down to the ground. She immediately began chanting her spells and sent them down on the demon that was pushed further down by the attacks and eventually mmed heavily into the ground. Maria smirked and activated [Cmity Cleave] once again. Because it was in its axe-form the cooldown of the skill was separate from its scythe-form. She threw her axe down onto the demon before she started bombarding the fallen demon even further with her [Angel''s Rage] and magic spells. Seeing the overly enthusiastic mistress raining hell down on the demon, Ash shivered a little before following suit. He began casting his Blood spells onto the demon and made sure to cast the ones that could stun only after a simr effect had finished afflicting the demon. Maria didn''t know if this was a bug or not, but with the help of Ash, she was able to cycle through her skills and lock the demon down onto the ground. Whenever it tried to get back up, she would just pull back her Cmity and send forth another [Cmity Cleave] onto Greed who had just finished recovering from the bombardment of spells and skills that she and Ash delivered to him. Of course, there were times when it was able to evade when there was a slight lull in their chain but Maria would just repeat the actions of sending the demon down to the ground with her Cmity and lock it back down with her skills. This continued until Greed''s HP fell below 25 percent. The demon roared out in anger and sent a dark beam of mana into the sky, sting through all of Ash and Maria''s skills. The two quickly evaded the beam and tried to continue sending more skills and spells on the demon. However, the ck beam of energy began turning towards Maria''s direction and she had to stop her chanting to quickly dodge away. She didn''t want to know how it would feel to be struck by that attack. She had a hunch that she would experience 100 percent of the pain generated by the attack if she was struck by it. It felt like an attack that bypassed the system''s pain configuration system. Maria didn''t like that so she made sure to be careful and not be struck by it. This resulted in the lower output of damage on her side. Also, there was a barrier that appeared around Greed so Ash couldn''t attack him from the air. He had tried to but the barrier nullified all of his attacks. The only way was to head down and attack Greed who was behind the barrier. "Ash, you go down and attack that stupid monster! He''s currently focused on me! I''ll be the bait, so you and Lh go and attack him!" "Yes, Master!" "Yes, Mistress!" The two quickly flew down and passed through the barrier. They met some difficulties when they passed into the barrier. Greed''s chains began flying at them, trying to cut them off from being able to reach his body. The chains weren''t as sturdy as before when they were back in the dungeon so Ash was able to strike them down and breakthrough them to reach Greed''s body. He and Lh immediately began their attack and sent their skills at him. Lh reapplied her debuffs on the demon while Ash resumed sending his Blood Magic Spells at him. He didn''t dare use any spells that would consume too much of his HP since his precious mistress who also doubled as his ''blood bank'' was currently up in the skies. Maria was growing a bit frustrated because she wasn''t able to help out and was stuck flying around in the air desperately trying to dodge the demonic beam of ck mana that was chasing after her. "Tsk, this stupid thing...making me use up, so much, effort!" She grumbled while flying away from the beam that was ardently chasing after her. The only good thing was that she could see Greed''s HP slowly falling which means her underling and familiar were doing their jobs. But, as the demon''s HP fell, the faster and more furious the deathly beam of energy chased after Maria. The beam even split apart and started chasing after her. When the smaller beams split apart and got close to her, they exploded and caused Maria to nearly fall from the skies due to the unbelievable pain she felt from the sts. "Dammit, I knew those stupid beams would hurt!" Maria kept away her axe and began focusing her full attention on the beams that wereing at her. She saw at least 10 of the split beamsing at her. She started darting around the sky, falling, rolling, and rushing in all directions so that she would not be caught in any of the beams'' attacks. The first time she was hit, she had already noticed that her flying speed had slowed down so she made sure not to get hit again because if her speed continued to fall, it was only a matter of time before the beams of death overwhelmed her and eventually killed her. The paining from the beams was already so hurtful so thinking about what it would feel like to be hit by multiple beams until her HP zeroed out gave her the motivation and focus to dart around the sky and fly in between the of beams that continued to assault her. As time passed, she noticed that the beams seemed to grow more and moreplicated in their patterns of attack. Maria was identally hit once but she used this moment to drop down from the sky and fall into the barrier surrounding Greed. "Screw those beams, I don''t care what happens, I''m not getting hit by them again!" When she fell into the barrier, Maria soon saw Ash and Lh running around and escaping from the grasps of the numerous ck chains that were surrounding and protecting the demon, Greed. The HP bar of the monster was already just below 15 percent and it continued to stagnate there because the 2 didn''t have any time to send an attack. "M-Master!" "Mistress!" Lh and Ash immediately eximed once they saw her. Maria only responded with a yell, "Don''t worry about me! Just don''t get caught by those chains!" "D-did you take care of that ck beam from before?!" Ash asked. "Who cares about that?! Just hurry up and attack that guy!" "That''s the problem, Master, we can''t!" Lh immediately replied. Maria frowned when she saw how the two were struggling. She still hadn''te into range of those chains so she was still safe for now, however, she did notice that Greed was no longer spewing out that ck energy wave from his mouth anymore. He was instead eyeing her like a piece of meat. This caused a chill to run up her spine. It was like the monster wanted to physically eat her or something. "Your wings... your abilities... I crave for them..." The demon uttered in a grating tone. "Hmph, you can crave for them all you want, but it''s not like you can get them!" "Come here, little one. Come here and let me give you a taste of my power!" "Blergh, why would I go over there, you creep? Why don''t youe here?" "...As you wish." After his reply, Greed immediately disappeared from his spot and shed right in front of Maria. This caused the girl to widen her eyes in shock. On reflex, she immediately pulled out her Cmity and swung it at the demon. Greed frowned when he saw the axee flying at his face. He backed up a little and barely dodged Maria''s swing. The girl immediately signaled for her twopanions to take this chance to attack Greed after the monster had voluntarilye into their range. The two didn''t even need her signal. Once they saw Greed appear right in front of their master, Lh and Ash were already rushing towards her. The vampire had readied his [Blood Wave] and [Red Ray] at this point and only needed to get into range in order to strike down Greed. The amount of damage he would deal using these two attacks would at least whittle down the demon until it was probably just enough for Maria to finish it off with the 3 strikes for her scythe''s [Cmity Cleave]. Maria had also noticed that Ash''s HP had depleted until it was below 10 percent and knew that one of his finisher skills wasing. She immediately switched her Cmity into its scythe form and began wildly hacking at the demon, trying her all to keep the damned monster in ce. "It''s useless, you cannot hit me." "I don''t need to because he can!" "?" Once Ash got into range he immediately sent the two attacks flying at Greed. The monster pulled over his chains and impaled the vampire into the ground while they chased after both of Ash''s attacks. Greed saw that his chains wouldn''t make it in time to block the attacks for him so he immediately prepared to dodge, but in the next instant, Maria flew in and attacked him. "You...are you not afraid of death?!" Greed roared out angrily. If Maria continued to stay where she was, the attacks would also hit and kill her. The damage output of Ash''s [Red Ray] and [Blood Wave] far exceeded Maria''s MAX HP. Maria knew this but she onlyughed back at Greed and said, "Don''t you know who I am? I am Death''s Envoy! So why should I fear death?!" "You insane woman!" "Worry more about yourself and not about me!" Maria yelled out as she immediately activated [Cmity Cleave] and sent 3 waves of death energy at the demon, firmly locking any way for him to escape. "Fool! Only you will die today!" Greed roared as he was engulfed in the wave of deadly attacks. First, the [Blood Wave] hit him, followed by Ash''s [Red Ray] and Maria''s 3 hits of [Cmity Cleave]. Maria smirked when this happened, but she immediately sighed once she saw Ash''s [Red Ray] continue shooting towards her. She couldn''t escape because she had just finished using her attack and couldn''t get into motion just yet. She was struck by the attack and all of her HP depleted until it nearly zeroed out. Her HP bar waspletely empty besides the fact that only 1 HP was left in it. Maria was puzzled by this so she opened up her [Log] and saw what caused this. [Pact Ability activated [Shared Life]: Your HP bar is shared with your Champion] She tapped on the ability and read up on what it did. [Shared Life (Pact Exclusive Active Skill) The link between the two individuals of a Pact indicates that their lives are intertwined. Shares the HP between the parties of a pact, once one side''s HP lowers down to 1, the other side will take damage in their stead until both individual''s HP is lowered down to 1. If both individuals of the pact die, 1 Level will be deducted from the Master and 2 Levels will be deducted from the Champion. Cooldown: 6:23:59:40 Note: This skill can be activated from both sides of the Pact] Maria looked over at Ash and saw that his HP only had around 1-2 percent left. Since she didn''t know anything about the skill, the only conclusion was that Ash had activated the skill, knowing that once his [Blood Wave] skill hit his Mistress, the little bit of HP his Mistress had along with the remaining HP he himself had after using 2 of his ultimate skills was enough to let her tank out all of the damage without either of them dying. Maria immediately heaved a sigh of relief and plopped down onto the ground. She was just about to close her [Log] before she noticed that she hadn''t received the notification for ying Greed. She hurriedly got to her feet but before she could do anything, a chain flew out from the smoke caused by the aftermath of their attacks and struck her right in the face. The attack sent her flying up into the air and she screamed out painfully beforending on her back. Her HP remained at 1 HP but Ash''s HP depleted until it was nearly empty. If either of them took another attack, both of them would die. Maria immediately took out a potion and downed the entire vial. She also started casting [Cure] and sent it over in Ash''s direction. It was then that she heard the demon''s appalling and grating voice. "I told you it was futile. Only you will be the one dying today!" Greed roared as he stepped out of the dust and smoke. Maria soon saw how wretched his body had be after taking all of their attacks. Just a little bit more would be enough to send the demon back into hell so she immediately picked up her scythe and was just about to rush forward to attack the demon but multiple chains burrowed out of the ground and wrapped themselves around her body. "W-what?!" The chains rose up and suspended her in the air. Her arms and legs were firmly locked and spread apart. They pulled on her appendages tightly and she felt like they were threatening to be pulled out of their sockets. "AAAHHHH!!!" "GRAHAHAHAH! FOOLISH WOMAN! I TOLD YOU THAT YOU WOULD BE THE ONE TO DIE!" The chains continued to pull on Maria and she let out a pained groan. "Come on, SCREAM FOR ME!" "Grrh...." "You did not take my offer, now, you will die!" Greed raised his arm and was just about to sh down on Maria''s body but a cute scream immediately stopped him. "Get your filthy chains off my Master!" Lh, who hade together with Ash but waste for the party, had finally arrived and she immediately kicked Greed right on his head. The pitiful little kick only caused Maria to nk out for a moment but Greed had a different reaction. Lh''s kick had depleted the small speck of color in his HP bar and he immediately roared out in pain. "NOOOO" His shout was cut short because he soon began to disintegrate into dust. The chains that were binding Maria lost their power and immediately fell to the ground, along with her. "Ouch!" Marianded hard on the ground and she rubbed her butt in pain. Lh immediately came over and she worriedly asked, "M-Master! Are you okay?!" "I-I''m fine, Lh...good work, thanks to you, that evil demon died!" "Ehehehe~ don''t mention it, Master," Lh replied bashfully. The little fairy immediately began blushing and dancing around in the air happily at her Master''s praise. "I think we should go check up on Ash, Master." "Hm? Oh, don''t worry about him. He''s fine." "Urgh..." Ash let out a painful groan from where he was lying down at, indicating that he was clearly, not okay. "See, told you he''s fine," Maria immediately said after she heard her champion let out a voice signaling to her that he was still alive. Maria cast a few [Cures] on herself and brought her HP back to full. She then went over to Ash and began healing him as well. "Good job Ash, although you did flop on thest part, you did well!" "..." "A, what''s with that sad look? I''m praising you aren''t I?" "Y-yes...of course, my Mistress." "Haha, I''m joking with you, Ash! I''ll let you suck my bloodter as a reward, okay? First, let''s go look at our loot and get out of here!" Ash nodded, his countenance having visibly brightened after he heard that his Mistress was going to reward him with her delicious blood. Maria hadn''t closed her log yet so she soon saw that she had leveled up 5 times after defeating Greed. This brought her level all the way up to 50 and she was beyond ecstatic to see this. "Alright, I finally got to level 50!" Chapter 66: Unaffiliated Chapter 66: Unaffiliated Maria quickly began distributing the 250 Free Stat Points that she umted before opening up her [Log] and [Inventory] to take a look at her loot. [Devil Greed has been defeated! Acquired 25,000,000 EXP] [For aplishing this incredible feat, you have earned the title [Saintess] and [Divine Priestess (Dark)]] [Saintess Epic Ranked Title You have aplished the impossible by destroying the Sin of Greed! Your reputation in both the dark and light faction churches will reach the [Intimate] level. You receive the recognition of all factions. Reputation set at [Like] by default.] [Divine Priestess (Dark) Epic Ranked Title You have been acknowledged by the Gods of the Dark Faction for your incredible feat. You will be worshiped by all citizens of the dark faction. Reputation set at [Worship] by default] "Reputation rted titles...I guess I''ll get better treatment now?" Maria mumbled to herself before continuing to look down her [Log]. [Acquired Items: Shackles of Avarice and Charity x1 Devil of Greed, Asmodeus''s Soul x1 666,666 Gold] "Oh, isn''t this that guy''s chains? [Inspect]" [Shackles of Avarice and Charity Rank: Epic Lv. 50 (Upgradeable) ATK: 800 ~ 1705 Random Stat: +100% Restrictions: None Bound Level Requirement: 50 Description: These shackles were originally the Holy Shackles of Charity. It was used to bind the devil of Greed, Asmodeus, after he was sealed away by the Ophanim of Charity, Azariel. However, due to being exposed to Greed''s aura for so long, the holy shackles have been tainted by the sin of greed and have thus been transformed.] "Oh...that''s weird. The stat boost is random..." [Equip the Shackles of Avarice and Charity? YES/NO] "Yes sa~" [Intelligence has been selected. The Shackles will now boost your INT stat by 100%] [1,880 INT 3854 INT] Maria was too preupied with looking at the chains that had been binding her earlier so she didn''t pay too much attention to her [Log] to see that her INT stat had rose to an absurd level. After a while, she nodded happily before she began swinging them around. "Hmm...I can probably use this as a weapon orOh, I know!" Maria retracted the chains and wound them around her dainty arms before locking one of the shackles onto the handle of her Cmity. She startedughing and then began spinning her weapon around using her newly acquired chains. "Hahaha, I''m a genius! A chain-scythe or axe! This''ll open up a broader way for me to attack!" "M-Master, please stop swinging that dangerous thing around!" Lh yelled. "Oh, sorry. Anyway, now that I can use the Skill book, let''s learn Dark Ray now!" Maria pulled out the Dark Ray skill book and quickly pped it onto herself. This was the objective of this entire trial so she was d that it was over with and she could finally learn the skill. She only hoped that the skill was worth all the trouble that she went through. [Dark Ray Lv.1 (0/2500) Rank: A Fires a deadly beam of ck energy at the target, reaping away 10+(INT x 0.001)% of the target''s HP with a 10% chance to inflict [Blind]. MP Cost: 2000+(INT x 0.01) MP Cooldown: 10 minutes] "...what''s with this skill? It deals damage based on my target''s health percentage? The cooldown''s a bit long, but it''s still really strong even at level 1!" Maria eximed in shock. She was really pleased with the skill. The shackles that she got were already a pretty good item so now that she got another good skill on top of that, all the trouble that she went through inside this ce was all worth it. "I also got so much gold! Though the number is a bit dubious, but it''s still gold!" Maria cheered happily. She also didn''t forget about the final item that she got, [Devil of Greed, Asmodeus''s Soul]. Maria wasn''t sure what it was but since her other items were awesome, that too would bound to be awesome as well. Maria couldn''t find the item inside her [Inventory] so she went over to Greed''s corpse and looked around. It didn''t take long before she noticed a blinking light within Greed''s chest. She stabbed her hand into the corpse and quickly grasped the blinking light before pulling out her hand. Within her grasp was a ck crystal that was pulsating with a dark light. "Is this that devil''s soul?" *DING* [Essence of Life detected, would you like to absorb? YES/NO] Maria tilted her head and mumbled to herself, "Huh? What''s this?" Ash walked over to her side and took a look at the ck crystal before answering his Mistress''s question. "My Lady, this crystal is the core or [Essence of Life] of the devil that you just killed earlier..." "Hmm...So it''s his soul?" "Yes, My Lady. It''s Greed''s Soul..." "It says that I can absorb this thing...should I do it?" Ash widened his eyes in shock before he eximed, "Master, are you crazy?! If you absorb that devil''s soul" "Will it make me stronger?" Maria cut off and asked. Ash was a little skeptical at the question, but he still answered her, "Y-yes, but doing so would be highly risky! Your body and mind may be affected by Greed''s soul!" Maria smirked when she heard Ash''s words. In the end, Universe Tales was still just a game. Even if she did consume the item in front of her, at most, it will affect her in-game character''s body, but not her mind. It''d be a pretty wed and dangerous game if an in-game item was able to influence a yer''s mind. The pain receptor of the game was already too much for most yers so if there were items that directly affected the mental state of the yers, UT would be quickly put out ofmission. While Ash was giving his long tirade, Maria had made up her mind so she quickly popped the small crystal into her mouth. "Also, there are the repercussions from the God''s that need to be taken into ouMY LADY!!!" "MASTER!" Ash and Lh screamed together in horror. Maria frowned a little when she felt the sharp texture of the crystal in her mouth. She quickly swallowed it down despite her twopanions'' protest. "Ah, rx you two. It''s an item that''s meant to be used! What''s the worst that couldEh?" [You have consumed Devil of Greed, Asmodeus''s Soul. You will now begin absorbing his Essence of Life] Maria began feeling her body heat up all of a sudden after the message window popped up in front of her. It felt stifling and ufortable, but still manageable. "T-this feels weird..." "Master, are you okay?" Lh asked as she moved around her and checked Maria''s body from all angles. Ash didn''t dare get too close or touchy with his mistress since he was quite afraid that she would smash him away. He could only send her a worried look. "Mistress, we should get out of here. It''s dangerous if we linger here any longer," Ash said. "Yeah...we should get going" [Would you like to leave Death''s Realm? YES/NO] Maria tapped on the [YES] and her body was sent out of the instance along with her pet and champion. After being teleported out, Maria looked around and saw that she had been transported back into her original ce before she went into Death''s Trial. "Phew... damn, I''m feeling really, really hot..." Mariained. [Time left until Essence of Life is fully absorbed: 65:55:36] "...Do I have to deal with this stupid heat for almost 2 dayAHHH!!!" [Due to your race, absorption has been elerated! Remaining Time: 44:36:01] [Due to absorbing the Devil Greed''s Soul, your taint value has increased. WARNING! Taint Value has risen by 66,666 units! Your Taint Value has exceeded the 50,000 unit threshold. Your body will be greatly affected and changed!] "OW! It hurts! Guhhh" "Master!" "My Lady, w-what''s wrong?!" "Hey Ash! Don''t just stand there, do something!!!" Lh hysterically screamed. "W-what can I do?! It''s definitely because of that [Essence of Life] that master consumed earlier! It''s causing her body to change!" "Then why is she in pain?!" "How am I supposed to know?!" Lh tried to approach Maria who had now copsed in a fetal position on the cold, forest floor, but an energy barrier had formed around her and prevented anything from getting too close. "AHHHHH!!! OWWWWWW!!! HAHAHA, IT HURTS! IT HURTS!!!" Amidst her screams, Maria''s avatar was slowly changing. Her white wings which were turning a little bit gray were immediately washed in ck and the two smaller wings on her lower back immediately grew to the same size as her primary wings. Her nails began changing into ws and a long bone sprouted from her lower back. It was quickly wrapped around in flesh and skin at the same time that another pair of ck wings sprouted from her back. Those were the only visible changes that urred but even after the transformation of her avatar''s body seemed to have stopped, Maria continued to lie on the ground while asionally groaning out in pain. The pain receded only after another half hourter. Maria opened her eyes and quickly jumped to her feet as if nothing happened. "Phew, I''m d that''s over~" "M-Master! Are you okay?!" "My Lady!" Maria''s twopanions quickly rushed over and asked in unison. Concern and worry was apparent in both their eyes. Maria looked at the two and grinned. "Hehe, no problems here~ I''ve undergone something even more painful than that so I''m fine!" "..." "..." The two didn''t seem so convinced since just a few moments ago, Maria was just screaming out in pain. It didn''t seem like she was used to that sort of excruciating pain at all. "Stop looking at me like that. Anyway, there''s some good news from this, I did get stronger!" *DING* [Partial Assimtion of the Essence of Life has beenpleted! All skills +1 Skill Level and all stats have been adjusted. Skills: [Angel''s Compassion Lv.5] [Fallen''s Cruelty Lv.1] [Angel''s Rage Lv. 9] [Angel''s Rage Lv.10] [Gehenna''s Eye Lv.1] [Gehenna''s Eye Lv.3] [Arc Swing Lv.9] ... ... ... ... ...] [Changes have urred to your titles due to your actions. Titles: [Saintess] [Fallen Saintess] [Divine Priestess] [Fallen Priestess] WARNING! Due to some changes with your title, your Affiliation has been changed from [Dark] [None]!] Maria was rather pleased seeing the first message window since all of her skills had leveled up but she frowned when she saw the second message window. For some reason, her affiliation had suddenly changed and it was because one of her titles had changed. She quickly opened up her [Titles] menu and tapped on the two titles that had changed earlier. [Fallen Saintess Un-Ranked Title You, who were once a Saintess, have done the unthinkable by absorbing the [Essence of Life] of a corrupted being which in turn, has corrupted your soul. All factions curse and resent you for your decision but they fear the power that you now hold. Affiliation set at [None]. NOTE: Due to the title, you cannot change affiliations and you are unweed by every faction.] [Fallen Priestess Un-Ranked Title The Gods of both Factionsment at the unthinkable decision that you have made. You will be feared by the citizens of every faction. Reputation permanently set at [Special: Feared] by default] "W-what the hell?" Maria quickly tapped on her reputation and quickly read the description. [Special: Feared You are feared by all intelligent and faithful beings. No merchant will wish to trade with you. No organization will wee you and any organization that you were once a part of has now begun to shun you.] [WARNING! You have been forcefully kicked out of the Guild [Fallen Angels]] [WARNING! You are unweed in any [Dark], [Light], and [Neutral] Faction territory.] "W-what the hell?!!" Chapter 67: New Update Chapter 67: New Update Once the system kicked Maria out of the guild, what ensued were naturally the numerous pings and messages from her friends and former guild members whom she had grown close to. <...> <...> The incessant amount of messages she got was annoying her so she just dismissed and muted every single one except for the ones that came from her best friends. Maria opened up the chat window with Lizzy and was about to reply to her message but then her voice chat began ringing. When she saw who the caller was, she immediately answered. "Sorry, Liz! I don''t know why but the system suddenly kicked me out!" Judging from how flustered her friend looked, Lizzy deduced that Maria wasn''t lying at all. It was already on her friend''s track record to be screwed over by the system so Lizzy wasn''t all too surprised by what Maria said. <...I just tried inviting you again, but for some reason, the system said that targeted yer can not be invited...it really is the system...> Lizzy let out a frustrated sigh at this. "W-what do I do now?" "Alright." "Hm?" "Oh? Well, I did beat a monster that called himself Greed. It was pretty stupid but good thing I got Ash on my side!" <...Because of what you did, the game is going into maintenance.> "What''s that?" "Really?" <...Anyway, we should meet up. Come over to the Guild''s HQ after the maintenance.> "Alright~" [Announcement: Maintenance willmence in 01:29:04!] Maria went through her [Log] and checked further up and saw the announcement from when she had finally struck down Greed. [You have aplished the amazing achievement of destroying Asmodeus, the Devil of Greed. You have been rewarded: 5000 World Reputation Points, 10 FSP, 500 Gold, Advanced Weapon Enhancement Stone (x10), Advanced Equipment Enhancement Stone (x10)] Maria quickly opened up her [Inventory] and saw the unfamiliar items that she had just acquired. She picked up one each and inspected them. [Advanced Weapon Enhancement Stone Rank: Heroic Item used to enhance Heroic Rank weapons and below.] [Advanced Equipment Enhancement Stone Rank: Heroic Item used to enhance Heroic Rank equipment and below.] ''What''s an enhancement?'' Maria thought to herself. She shrugged and just tossed the stones back into her inventory. She turned towards Lh and said, "Lh, bring us back to the city!" "Alright, Master. Follow me..." With Lh leading the way, Maria and Ash followed after her in the direction of the Neutral City that housed the Fallen Angels Guild''s HQ. They were flying so it wouldn''t take too long before they would arrive. However, even then it would still take a while so just before they could arrive, the timer on the maintenance had reached zero, and Maria was forcibly logged out of the game. ***** Back in the real world, Maria quickly took off the VR equipment on her head and began stretching her body. "I forgot about the maintenance. Too bad I couldn''t reach the city and log out there..." Maria mumbled and continued to stretch. "Huah, alright, let''s go eat!" She said after checking and seeing that it was almost dinner time. When she arrived downstairs, the family butler was just about to go upstairs to inform her that dinner was ready so he was quite surprised that the youngdy was already out. "My Lady, dinner is ready and everyone is already in the dining room. They are only waiting for you now." "Alright, thanks, David~" David led Maria down to the dining room and the food was immediately served. While they were eating, Gerald, who was active in Unitale immediately opened up his mouth and asked Maria about her recent activities. Just like he thought when he saw the World Announcement earlier before the maintenance, it was indeed her little sister that did something. It was honestly quite surprising to him that many of the recent World Announcements and hot news were all something that revolved around his sister. "Sister, because of you killing that Devil or something, UT''s AI decided to quickly implement the Currency Exchange and new expansion update. Now, more people will be looking to y UT." "Currency Exchange? What''s that Gerald?" their father asked. "Ah, it might be a good business opportunity dad. From the patch update that I just read, the Currency Exchange is an in-game function that will allow you to trade real money for in-game gold and vice-versa!" "Oh?" "Since gold will be obtainable inside the game, it''ll be a new form of cryptocurrency! I''m not sure about the exchange rate, but it''ll be a great investment, don''t you think, dad?" Gerald happily exined. "Hmmm... I''ve been receiving a lot of requeststely from gamingpanies and groups for an investment. I didn''t really see the need since it was only a game, but if it''s like this then it might be worth looking into," Corinthos said with a thoughtful expression. "It''s definitely a venture you should look into dad! In the future, the VR world will dominate the markets since people can work in thefort of their own home while also enjoying their time ying a game! You should invest dad, how about starting with my guild?" "...I''ll think about it." "The clock''s ticking dad! You have to be quick about this before otherpanies start investing ahead and im a bigger slice of the pie!" "Alright, alright... I''ll give you an answer tomorrow after the Currency Exchange goes live inside the game." "Awesome!" Corinthos shook his head at his enthusiastic son and turned to look at his only daughter who was ''elegantly'' scarfing down the food in front of her. "What about you, Mary. Are you still enjoying the game?" "Hrmm?" Seeing as her father was directing a question at her, Maria quickly swallowed down her food before answering. "It''s fun and something interesting just happened. Anyway, you don''t have to worry about me! If anything, think about investing in Lizzy''s guild! We''re currently the top guild in the dark faction~" "Hehe, you''re sounding more like your brothertely. Anyway, just y and have fun. You don''t need to worry about all that stuff." "M''kay~" ***** After the meal, Maria went back to her room and went to do some research about the game. She read through the new expansion patch notes and the updates that were going to be implemented before continuing to try and find information about world traveling since she needed it for her quest with Ash. While she was looking through the information, she inadvertently stumbled upon information about factions and affiliations. Maria remembered that her affiliation had just changed so she clicked on the topic and looked through it. "Eh? What the hell is this?!" [Affiliations and Factions In Universe Tales, there are divisions among the game''s NPCs. The known divisions are split between 4...] As she continued looking through the page, Maria grew more and more dismayed by what she saw. Apparently, the affiliations were split between 3. The Light, Dark, and Neutral Factions, then there was the fourth affiliation which was having no faction at all. This was the division that Maria was in. What it meant to have no affiliation was that the yer was a standalone, having no rtions with any of the 3 factions and would also be shunned by them if they were ever to go into any of the 3 factions'' territories. ''Shunned'' in the game had a rather broad meaning. For one, it meant that the yer with no affiliation would no longer be able to trade with any of the factions'' shops or merchants. They wouldn''t be able to ess any of the cities, towns, or viges and the guards and NPCs would immediately kill the yer on sight. This worst part had to be that Maria, who now had no affiliation, would be viewed as a monster by all of the yers. In other words, having no affiliation indicated that she would be in the same league as a yer with a red or PK status. Even then, a red yer would be more fortunate than her since only the heinous of criminals would lose their status as a member or citizen of a faction. If a red yer umted enough PK points, they''d be banished from their present faction if they were a Dark or Light faction yer and they''d be forced into the Neutral Faction by default. Then, only the dumbest or bravest of red yers would continue to umte PK points to the point where even the Neutral Faction would no longer amodate them and kick them out. When Maria read up to there and gave it some thought, she couldn''t help but widen her eyes in shock and eximed, "Doesn''t this basically mean that I''m some sort of heinous criminal?!" Maria could only confirm whether this was true or not once the game had finished updating. She didn''t want to do any more research and quickly went to bed. ***** The next day, Maria logged on into Unitale and she appeared in a leveling area close to the Neutral City that the Fallen Angels'' Guild HQ was at. She looked around and noticed more and more yers logging in. It was relief that the log out was due to maintenance because if she had logged out in the wilderness, she might have been killed by some monsters. Of course, she didn''t need to worry so much about it since she had Ash and Lh to guard her body. "Oh no... It is true..." Maria mumbled to herself. "W-what the hell? Guys, there''s a red yer here!" "She''s alone! Hurry up and attack her! Don''t let this bag of money escape!" The yers that had logged in around her quickly took notice of Maria''s status and immediately tried attacking her. Maria scoffed and quickly pulled out her scythe, but Ash had made his move first. "My Lady, please let me handle this rabble." "...Make it quick. We still got to head into the city and find Lizzy. Hopefully, the situation will be straightened out after I find her..." "Yes, My Lady," Ash replied with a polite bow. He turned towards the yers that were rushing at them and his lips arched into a sadistic grin. "You''re all courting death for daring to attack my Mistress." Chapter 68: Public Enemy Chapter 68: Public Enemy Maria and Ash left a long trail of blood behind them as they continued to strike down any yer that tried to attack them. It started to annoy her that every single yer who had just logged on would suddenly attack her from out of nowhere. Even though their affiliations were no longer the same, couldn''t they have at least recognized her for being a yer of the neutral faction since she was active around the area before? Maria, unfortunately, forgot about the fact that her absorption of Greed''s Soul had made her go through a few changes to her avatar''s body. She was no longer the half white and half ck four-winged fallen angel that she was before. She was now a six-winged fallen angel whose presence was so menacing that it even caused the monsters on the field to automatically aggro onto her. Ash wasn''t dealing with just the area''s yers but also the monsters. Since it was getting annoying, Maria quickly spread her wings and took to the skies. Of course, she didn''t forget to leave behind a present for the yers that continued to harass her with their long-ranged attacks. She sent an [Angel''s Rage] at them and caused the other yers to stop attacking. Their momentary lull gave her the time to quickly get away from the area and fly higher into the sky. Ash and Lh followed after her and the trio quickly made their way over in the direction of the city. Lizzy was already waiting for her at the city''s gates. She had just received a message from her friend that she was being attacked by the yers so she came out to make sure that her guild members didn''t identally attack their friend. "Hmmm... just where is that troublemaker?" Lizzy mumbled to herself as she strained her eyes looking up at the sky. "To the northeast, 2 figures are approaching the city from the sky. I think that''s them, Guild Leader?" An archer reported. "That''s her. Maria did say that she brought a subordinate along." "Uhhh, leader... I can''t see any of their names, but I assume that 6-winged angel is Maria?" "Huh? 6-wings?" "Y-yeah, they''re also all ck...are you sure it''s her?" "...Well, there''s no other fallen angel yer is there? So I''m sure it''s her." As Maria got closer, she quickly saw her friends waiting for her down below. There was also arge number of people gathered around but she quickly noticed that they were all Fallen Angels yers. She and Ash quicklynded but her friends couldn''t help but put their guards up. "Mary, is that you?" "Huh? Of course, it is! What''s up? Are you guys going to attack me too? Jeez, I keep getting attacked for no reason! This is so notWoah!" Before Maria could say anything, arge ballista flew straight towards her head and she quickly dodged away. "Mary?! What the hell, who attacked?! Stay your hands, this is Mary!" Lizzy roared out. She had already confirmed the name of the person in front of her and it was indeed her friend. The only thing she found odd was the fact that the naming was a little off from how a normal yer should be. Instead of just disying the name, ''Maria'', it was instead disyed as, ''Fallen Angel of Greed, Maria''. It was disyed like a typical field boss monster''s name. "B-boss, no one attacked...the ballista bolt came from the city wall..." A yer immediately answered. Maria quickly gazed up at the city walls and saw that all of the ballista and arrow cannons were turning to face her. "W-what the heck?" The sound of the city gates closing interrupted her. Everyone was already shocked to see the city''s defensive weapons attack Maria, but when they looked over at the city gates, they were even more shocked to see the city guards marching out. They were heading straight their way and they didn''t look friendly. "M-Mary, I don''t know what you did, but you have to run away now!" Lizzy yelled. She immediately rushed over to her friend and started pushing her away. "Go, now! The city''s NPCs are definitely after you for some reason!" "O-Okay!" Maria quickly spread her wings and flew into the air, however, before she could fly any further, the arrows and ballistae on the city walls immediately began firing at her. "My Lady, get behind me!" Ash quickly said before conjuring arge wall of blood in front of them. "W-why are we being attacked?" "I''m not sure, but we should first run and ask questionster. It''s already apparent that we''re not weed here." "Master we should go! I can see some mages in the back preparing some sort of spell! I''m afraid it might be a space-lock spell!" Lh eximed in a hurry after she looked towards the back of the knight formation which was quickly getting closer and closer to them. "..." Maria didn''t linger and quickly turned around and quickly shot into the distance. Ash and Lh followed after her and they were soon far away from the city. When she looked behind, Maria saw that the soldiers were still chasing after her. "Tch, this is so stupid. Lh, lead us to somece that has no yers and no NPCs!" "Follow me, Master!" ***** By the city walls, Lizzy and everyone else could only look on in dismay as their friend was chased away. It was the first time the NPCs of the city acted so unweing to a yer. "I want to know what happened! Also, did someone video all of that? We''ve gotta file aint to the gamingpany! Our friend was just forcibly kicked out of the guild and we can''t invite her back. Not to mention that even the system''s NPCs are screwing around with her!" ***** Maria and Ash continued to follow after Lh for quite some time. They quickly arrived back at their previous hunting grounds and theynded deep into the area where there were no yers due to the high-leveled monsters that were roaming about. After clearing the area of a few monsters, Maria sat down in frustration and quickly gave Lizzy a call. "Lizzy, did you find out why the NPCs were acting that way?" <...We did, and it''s not any good news.> "Why?" "What thehowe?!" "...Uhm, I defeated a boss?" Lizzy sighed heavily before continuing, "Alright, I''ll be going ahead with a mission anyway so I probably won''t see any of you guys in a while." "Bye-bye." Maria quickly ended the call and turned towards Ash. "Alright Ash, I''ve postponed your revenge quest for a while. Let''s do it now!" "Thank you, Master." "Alright. So~ how do we get to your world?" "Well, it won''t be a problem anymore. I''ve been able to recover some of my strength and the seal in my memory has been somewhat lifted." "You had a seal ced in your memories? Why didn''t you tell me?" Maria frowned and asked. "S-sorry, my Lady, it''s not like I didn''t want to tell you, but it''s because even I didn''t know until after we defeated the Devil Greed and I was further strengthened. Because of that, the seal on my mind was lifted somewhat and I became aware of it." "Oh...is that so?" Maria quickly checked Ash''s [Status] and there were indeed many changes to it. [Ash Garm Lv. 75 HP: 85,000/85,000 MP: 20,000/20,000 SP: 2,950/2,950 EXP: 127,500/7,500,000 Race: Vampire Rank: Duke Titles: Lord of Blood, Species Eradicator A, Blood Father, Head of the Garm House, The Progenitor''s Right Hand, The Knowledgeable One, World Traveler, Maria''s Champion, Pervert ATK: 3,000 DEF: 4,250 M.ATK: 500 M.DEF: 2,500 STR: 600 AGI: 650 VIT: 1,700 INT: 1000 LCK: 7 FAV: Intimate (100,000) Description: A seal has been recently found on his mind. As he gets stronger, the seal will slowly loosen and he will slowly gain back all of his sealed memories and abilities.] "Well, that''s new... Also, you''ve gotten a lot stronger, huh?" "If it pleases you, My Lady, indeed I have." "Great, so how will we go back to your world?" "Originally, My Lady, I was the one who transported me and that bastard, Siegfried, over to this." "Oh?" "I didn''t want our battle to affect my original world, but unfortunately, due to his schemes, I lost and was sealed here. Since I can transport myself here, I naturally can transport us back to my, Vanhal." "Alright, what are you waiting for then? Let''s get going!" "My Lady, I have to be sure first. Are you really willing to apany me back to my and help me seek revenge?" "Yeah, yeah, let''s get going already!" "My Lady, if we do travel to my world, the barrier surrounding this one might close and it might be hard or maybe impossible for you to get back here..." "Hmm... well, whatever. This ce doesn''t seem to wee me anyway, better to find a new ce to live in. Let''s get going already. We''ll deal with the problem of me going back or not when I do wanna go back!" "Alright, I''ll open the portal then." Ash waved his hand and cut a dimensional crack in front of him. Maria curiously looked into the crack and nced back at Ash. "Are we going to walk into that?" "Yes. Let''s get going, my Lady," Ash said and offered his hand to Maria. Maria grabbed his hand and Ash pulled them both into the crack. "W-wait for me!" Lh eximed before quickly grabbing onto her Master''s wing. After the 3 disappeared into the crack, it immediately began closing. Before it waspletely closed, a ck figure suddenly materialized out of nowhere and observed the crack for a moment. "Hmmm... it looks like my child has decided to forego this world. Perhaps it''s for the best. Kukuku, you have my full support, little one." After the crackpletely disappeared, the ck figure quickly disappeared as well and Maria, who was currently on her way to Ash''s world, suddenly received a system prompt. *DING* [You have performed an incredible feat by crossing through dimensions! Rewarded the title: World Traveler] [Death has issued you a quest!] [Death''s Word Rank: SSS As the envoy of Death, you are tasked with the honorable job of spreading his word and presence. Spread the word and faith of Death in the new world that you will descend upon. Objective 1: Build a Church of the Death God on Vanhal Objective 2: Acquire 2,000 believers Objective 3: Establish an Altar of Death upon the main lifestream of the, Vanhal. Objective 4: Reap the lives of 100,000 inhabitants of Vanhal. Rewards: Unknown Time limit: None] [As Death''s Envoy, you are not allowed to decline this quest] Chapter 69: Planet Vanhal Chapter 69: Vanhal In a vast in of tall, red-colored grass, a dimensional crack suddenly opened and out walked a beautiful looking man. His hand was still inside the crack and as he pulled on it, a dainty arm emerged from the crack and soon a delicatedy with 6 ck wings emerged from the crack. The beautiful man bowed lightly and addressed the youngdy respectfully, "My Lady, we have arrived." "Oh...so this is your? Looks a little red, hahaha~" Maria said after taking a look at the surroundings. The atmosphere and vibe of the new she just stepped on was rather dark and it was further enhanced by the fact that the normal colors of the nts, sky, and other things weren''t like that of the starting she was on. The skies were red, the grass was red, and the ground was not a dirt-brown color but was instead ck. It wasn''t just that. Many things were different totally different from the previous she was on. It was a marvel for her because she was a human who was trapped on a single called Earth, but she was now able to experience the novel experience of being teleported to another. "Normal in those novels, wouldn''t the hero get some kind of power of something? I, instead, get a task to destroy this..." Maria mumbled with a grimace. She pulled up the quest that she just got earlier and sighed. [Death''s Word Rank: SSS As the envoy of Death, you are tasked with the honorable job of spreading his word and presence. Spread the word and faith of Death in the new world that you will descend upon. Objective 1: Build a Church of the Death God on Vanhal Objective 2: Acquire 2,000 believers Objective 3: Establish an Altar of Death upon the main lifestream of the, Vanhal. Objective 4: Reap the lives of 100,000 inhabitants of Vanhal. Rewards: Unknown Time limit: None] "Hmm, no time limit. I guess I''ll just go kill anything in sight and slowly do this quest. Seems pretty easy enough since I only need to force people into believing in Death... I thought the guy would abandon me after I switch affiliations, guess not." Maria shrugged and began walking in some random direction. She quickly pulled out her Cmity and began waving it around, cutting down the tall grass in front of her which was over half a meter taller than her. "...Should I just burn this ce to the ground?" "M-My Lady, I advise you not to do that. If I''m not mistaken, we''re in the Crimson de ins. There are many powerful monsters here and I''m sure they wouldn''t take it too kindly if you started setting fire to their home..." "Strong monsters? Perfect! I needed to relieve some of my stress! I hate running away, but I had no choice earlier because those NPCs were stupidly strong!" "Uhh" "[Fire]," Maria chanted before quickly flinging therge ball of mes in her hand in front of her. "M-My Lady!!!" "Nahaha~ Come out my precious exp bags!" ***** A few momentster, Maria and Ash were currently dashing away from arge group of monkey and ape-like monsters. Most of the monkey-like monsters that were chasing after them were level 70 while the few ape-like monsters were level 80. [Blood-sucking Orangutan Lv. 72] [Blood-sucking Orangutan Lv. 70] [Red-back Gorillorc Lv. 81] [Headhunter Gorillorc Lv. 85] Maria had a smile stered on her face as she fled. She would sometimes throw her chain-attached Cmity back at the monsters and send a few magic spells and skill back at them which would only cause them to cry out in rage at her antics. "Nahahaha~ this is fun!" "M-My Lady, I thought you said you didn''t like to run..." "I''m not running. I''m just retreating while attacking them. This is a strategy! Don''t you dare try to patronize me, Ash!" "...Yes, my Lady..." "Lh, continue to stack debuffs on them and Ash, you better get busy before I kick you into that group of monsters!" "Yes, Master!" "...[Blood Wave]." The three continued to kite the monsters in a circle while slowly chipping away at their health with their long-ranged spells and skills. Maria would sometimes recklessly dash towards the group of monsters and use a [Cmity Cleave] with her axe-form Cmity before slipping away by throwing her chain at Ash who would then pull her away from the monsters. "Master, the Head Hunter Gorrilorc seems to be a boss! It''s much stronger than them and it''s always the one running ahead of the pack! I''m sure we''ll get some pretty good stuff if we kill it!" Lh said in anticipation. "There''s only a little bit of his underlings left, let''s take care of them first before we attack it," Ash advised. "[Inspect]" [Headhunter Gorrilorc Lv. 85 (Rare-Field Boss) HP: ??? MP: ???] Maria''s eyes lit up when she saw the Rare Field Boss description on the monster, but she frowned a little when she couldn''t see any of its other stats. She was only level 50 so it was a given that she couldn''t get any information from a monster that was 35 levels higher than she was. "Let''s hurry up and kill the others. It''s a good thing that my attacks are able to pierce through their defenses and Ash is much stronger than before," Maria said before sending a [Ruin] spell at the monsters that were rushing at them. A few minutester, Maria was able to quickly kill off the smaller mobs and only the boss was left. During the entire cat and mouse chase, the Headhunter Gorrilorc was the only one that kept throwing trees and rocks at them. It was also the only one that used a charge skill to quickly get close to them. It was a good thing that Maria and Ash could fly away whenever it did this. Maria also found a peculiarity with this world. The gravity seemed to be much heavier here than her previous world. Whenever she took to the skies, she felt a heavy weight wash over her entire body and it caused her to struggle to maintain her flight. Maria calcted that at most, she would only be able to stay in the sky for 30 seconds before she grew too exhausted to continue pping her wings. Since it was hard to stay in the air, Maria and Ash decided to stick to the ground to fight the boss. From Maria''s observations, the boss was rather stupid. She had been leading it around in circles for the past few minutes and instead of learning, it stupidly continued to chase after her. "Ash, we''ll kite this monster around and slowly chip away at its health. I just saw earlier that its attack power was pretty high. When one of its skills identally struck one of the mobs that was chasing after us and the skill was able to shave away over half of the monster''s HP." "It''d be dangerous if you got struck by one of its skills, my Lady." "That''s why I''ll be using you as a shield if it ever sends a skill at me~" "..." "Enough chitchat, let''s get the party started!" Ash immediately struck out with a [Red Ray] and immediately pulled the aggro of the boss onto him. He pulled out a slim sword from his cape and began striking at the monster in a sword dance. Maria''s eyes lit up when she saw this and she couldn''t help but ogle at Ash who was elegantly dancing around and striking the monster. Ash was wondering why his battle-hungry mistress wasn''t attack so when he looked around and saw his mistress only staring nkly at him, he couldn''t help but ask her in a somewhat loud voice, "M-My Lady...why aren''t you attacking?" "Oh~ right, right. Sorry, it looked like you and the gori were having a ball so I didn''t want to interrupt~" Maria teased before she struck out with a [Cmity Cleave], [Gehenna''s Eye], and [Angel''s Rage]bo. -3,454 -3,355 -3,603 -9,004! -900 -900 -900 -900 A long string of damage numbers rose from the boss as it was struck by Maria''s skills and pelted by her [Angel''s Rage]. "Oh yeah, I''m pretty sure I got that new skill... [Fallen''s Cruelty]!" Maria aimed the attack at the Headhunter Gorillorc and white wisps of light began surging out of the monster''s body as it cried out in pain. The wisps of light gathered on Maria''s palm and the Gorillorc took arge amount of damage. -200,000 "W-woah!" Maria eximed in shock when she saw therge damage number. *DING* [Taint Value has risen by 425] The ball of light remained on her palm and Maria was at a loss as to what to do with it. She looked towards Ash who had lost quite a bit of his HP due to tanking the monster and she sent the ball of light at him. +100,000 "W-what the hell?!" "Haha! Thank you, My Lady!" Ash eximed as his HP and stamina was quickly restored. He then rushed forward and began striking out at the Headhunter Gorrilorc with renewed vigor. The boss monster had shifted its aggro onto Maria after her previous attack, but Ash was doing his all to keep the monster from getting anywhere near his Mistress. "That''s it Ash! Keep it up! A little bit more and this thing''s dead!" A few minutester, the boss copsed onto the ground. Its body was thoroughlycerated and the blood wounds on its body repelled Maria from getting anywhere near it. Ash had gone overboard with his attacks and had been carving out its body little by little. [Acquired 991,578 exp!] "Ash, you go and get the loot. Ugh, that looks awful..." "Yes, my Lady." [Acquired 120,000 Blood Gold Acquired Hide of the Headhunter x10 Acquired ws of the Headhunter x20 Acquired Gorillorc Meat x5] Ash returned with the loot and Maria let out a pleased hum. "Alright Ash, next is to go wherever this Siegfried is at! Let''s go kill him!" Ash frowned before replying to his Mistress, "My Lady, I think it would be better to build our power first before we go and attack Siegfried." "Hm?" "Strength, bloodline, and rank mean everything to us vampires. Because of that, high-ranked vampires like Vampire Duke Siegfried would normally have many vassals and followers with him." "So you''re saying that if we want to fight Siegfried, it wouldn''t only be against him, but against his entire faction?" "Yes, my Lady, that''s exactly what I mean." "So what do we do?" Maria asked. "I''ve lost everything before, but it doesn''t mean I can''t get it all back. If we''re going to fight that bastard, we have to do it in the vampire''s way." "Ah, so we have to go build our forces first?" "Yes." "And how do you propose we do it?" Maria lifted her brow and asked. "Hmhm, with my Lady''s charm and strength, I''m pretty sure we can quickly garner a group of loyal followers." *DING* [Quest Update! Vengeance and Justice In order to help Ash have his vengeance, you must defeat the Vampire Lord Siegfried! As a Lord, Vampire Siegfried has many subordinates around him and it is impossible for you to fight him alone! Build your own forces on this and help Ash get his vengeance! Objective 1: Gain Ash''s Trust (Completed) Objective 2: Find a way to Vanhal (Completed Objective 3: Kill Siegfried (Progress 0%) Sub Objective 1: Establish your own faction in Vanhal (0/1) Sub Objective 2: Gather 200 followers (1/200) Sub Objective 3: Promote 20 followers to the rank of Baron (0/20) Sub Objective 4: Promote 15 followers to the rank of Viscount (0/15) Sub Objective 5: Promote 10 followers to the rank of Count (0/10) Sub Objective 6: Promote 5 followers to the rank of Marquis (0/5) Sub Objective 7: Promote 2 followers to the rank of Duke (1/2) Time Limit: None Rmended Level: Lv. 70 or above Rewards: ??? Warning: This is a solo quest! You are not permitted to form or join a party with any other yers as long as this quest is active!] ''Vampire Lord Siegfried? Does this mean that he''s no longer just a Duke anymore?'' Maria thought to herself inwardly. She turned towards Ash and gazed at him worriedly before asking, "Ash...what happens if your nemesis is now a Vampire Lord and not just a Duke?" "...It''s possible. A long time has passed since my loss at his hands. There were only 2 other Vampire Dukes after me and him. Since I was the strongest and he was able to defeat me, albeit using underhanded means, it wouldn''t be a stretch to say that he was able to defeat the other two and ascend as Vampire Lord while I was away." "...You don''t seem too worried?" "Why would I be? I''m sure that you, My Lady, would be able to quickly build a force that could rival or even surpass his! And once that happens, we''ll be able to capture that foul creature, slit his puny little neck and push a stake through his ck and putrid heart!" "...Okay..." Seeing the disgust written all over his Mistress''s face, Ash quickly cleared his throat and rposed himself. "Ahem, my Lady, since I''m quite familiar with this area, I shall guide you to the closest barony." "...Okay..." "Hopefully, not many things have changed. What I remember is only things from a bygone era!" "Whatever, let''s just get going." "Right." While the two finally finished making ns for the future, Lh was at the back counting the Blood Gold that they just acquired from the boss monster. "Hehehe~ since we''re going to recruit people, we''ll naturally need money!" Chapter 70: The Ruined Town Chapter 70: The Ruined Town Since Ash was most familiar with this world, Maria simply let him take the lead. She quickly checked her mini-map, and from the looks of it, they were currently traveling in the southwestern direction of their current location. Maria was a bit disgruntled at the fact that she couldn''t travel by air anymore. It was much too strenuous for her to stay in the air for too long so she and Ash could only travel on foot. The journey was rather eventful as there were plenty of monsters here. Unlike her previous, Vanhal''s monsters were all really aggressive. Even the low-leveled ones would unconditionally attack them if they so much as stepped a single toe into their aggro range. At first, it was rather fun for Maria since she really liked swinging around her Cmity and cleaving apart all of the monsters in her way, but very soon, it became more of a hassle as they continued to encounter more monsters along the way. "Hey, Ash, are you sure this is the right way? Since we''re going to a ce with civilization, shouldn''t there be fewer monsters? HoweURYAHthere are more instead?" Maria asked as she swiftly cleaved a level 40 Blood Wolf in two. "I''m not sure, my Lady... we should be close by now and I''m sure the lord of the barony wouldn''t let this many monsters roam free in theirnds..." "Hundreds of years have passed, Ash... maybe the barony that you know of no longer exists?" "My Lady, we vampires are a long-lived race. Well, I''m sure you understand this since you''re a Fallen Angel, an existence with an immortal lifespan, so the time of only a few hundred years shouldn''t warrant such drastic changes for us, no?" "R-right, good point! Ehehehe..." Maria could only chuckle nervously at Ash''s words. She was no angel, she was just a human. To her, a few years were enough for many things to happen, let alone a few hundred. ''This game is just too realistic, sheesh. I''m not an angel, I''m just a human... but I guess this is the ''role-ying'' part of this game, huh?" Maria inwardly thought. They continued their walk and while Maria, Ash, and Lh were clearing away the monsters that confronted them, Maria was thinking about the reason why the monsters were so abundant in an area close to civilization. Since the vampires were a rather sophisticated race, it was only natural that they''d have the capability to build cities and settlements. Since Ash was saying that he was a duke, the concept of kingdoms shouldn''t be foreign to the vampires. "Ah, Ash, maybe the barony was simply moved!" Maria called out to Ash who had suddenly stopped in ce. "...My Lady...I guess you were right...the barony is no more..." "Huh?" Maria quickly rushed forward and looked down the hill they were currently on. A distance away, Maria could see the ruins of what seemed to be a town or a vige. "...Uhm... maybe they moved away?" "Not likely, my Lady. Low-rank vampires don''t tend to move away from their territories after they''ve established a Blood Fountain." "Blood fountain?" "My Lady, I''m sure you''ve heard legends of how our race is weak to sunlight. The low-ranked vampires are naturally very weak under the sunlight to the point where they might even die from it." "Y-yeah, I''ve heard about that. Howe you aren''t though?" "As we grow in strength and rank, our immunity to our weaknesses naturally strengthens and we''re no longer burdened by it. Yt, the vampire who should be governing this area, is a baron-ranked vampire so he wouldn''t have the tolerance or strength to withstand our''s sunlight. That''s why the low ranks establish a Blood Fountain to alleviate the effects of the sunlight which will give them and their kin a slight resistance to it," Ash exined. Maria thought for a moment before saying, "Hmm... so the ruins down there can only mean one thing then." "Whether it was done by monsters or another vampire, Baron Yt and his kin were driven away or are now dead." Lh had also taken notice of the ruins down below and added in, "Judging from how worn out it is even from this distance, it''s probably been like that for a couple of hundred years now~" Ash had a rather pained expression on his face when he heard Lh deduction so Maria couldn''t help but ask, "Hey, Ash, who is this Yt to you anyway?" "...Yt Garm, he''s my young yet feeble little brother. Unlike me who was born with unimaginable talent and strength, he wasn''t as blessed. Even after a hundred years, he was only able to rise from a knight to a baron..." "..." "I guess Siegfried didn''t spare anyone who was rted to me..." "We should still go check out that ce. Maybe we''ll be able to find something?" "...Alright." Maria ran and jumped off from the hill and glided down towards the ruined town. Ash and Lh followed suit and the group quickly arrived at the town''s entrance. There was a wall surrounding the town but it was thoroughly aged and ruined. "...It seems that a few hundred years did pass by since this ce was destroyed..." Maria mumbled. She wasn''t an expert, but from what she saw, this ce was practically ancient to her. *DING* [You are under the influence of a Damaged Blood Fountain!] The notification popped up just as she walked past the town''s walls. "...Ash, are Blood Fountains able to survive hundreds of years even after they''re damaged?" "What?" Ash quickly walked through the town''s entrance and his eyes widened in surprise. "How is this possible?" "Let''s go look for the fountain!" Maria said before quickly dashing into the ruined town. "My Lady, follow me, I know where it is," Ash quickly said as he dashed after her. "Alright, lead the way." The trio rushed into the town and quickly arrived at the most majestic, yet ruined, building in the town. From Maria''s observation, this building was most likely the baron''s estate. "This is Yt''s house. The Blood Fountain should be inside." "Let''s go, let''s go~ I''m pretty curious to see what the fountain is like!" Ash pushed opened the gate, which immediately copsed after a slight nudge, and led the group into the estate. They entered the mansion that looked like it was nearly on the brink of copse and right as they entered "My Lady, watch out!" Ash quickly stepped forward and was about to shield Maria behind him but the little girl quickly took action and pulled out her scythe. Maria swung it furiously in front of her and repelled the shadow that had suddenlye rushing at her when she had stepped into the mansion. "UWAH!" "Hehe, are you trying to pull a fast one on me? I don''t think so~" Maria giggled before she immediately rushed forward in pursuit of the shadow that had attacked her. "M-My Lady, wait" "NO! Please!" Hearing the voice, Maria quickly stopped her attack. She was already in mid-swing so the de of her axe was narrowly pressed against the face of her attacker. When Maria took a closer look at the thing that had tried to attack her earlier, she noticed that it was a pale and skinny young girl. The little girl, whose head was almost cut in half by Maria''s axe, had already stiffened up in fear with tears streaming down her face. "Oh, it was a little kid! [Inspect]!" [Alexa Garm Lv. 5 Race: Vampire Rank: Knight HP: 145/500 MP: 20/80 Status: Terrified] Seeing the Yellow highlight of her name, Maria immediately knew that the girl wasn''t a monster but an NPC. She was a little surprised to see the name, however. "...Hey Ash, howe this" "Y-you...you have a familiar scent..." Ash said as he quickly approached the little girl. Maria quickly retracted her weapon and the girl copsed onto the ground. "Hmm, I nearly killed her~" Maria raised her hand and aimed a [Fallen''s Cruelty] at Ash. "Ack!" She took away 25% of his HP and quickly transferred it over to the terrified NPC girl. When the healing light of Maria''s [Fallen''s Cruelty] was injected into her body, the little girl''s countenance brightened, though the paleness of her face didn''t go away. "There, all better now! Sorry about earlier, you really shouldn''t surprise people like that!" Maria said after healing the little girl. The girl was still a little guarded, but at least her status showed that she wasn''t terrified anymore. "..." "Hey, Ash, why are you copsed on the ground like that?" ''This was your doing, my Lady!'' Ash screamed inwardly. He didn''t have the gall to actually say it out loud. "S-sorry, I tripped earlier..." "Oh! Well, continue what you were saying earlier. You said this little kid has a familiar scent?" "Y-yes...she smells like...me..." "Huh?" The girl turned to look at Ash, but her expression was still distrustful. She bared her fangs at him, but after looking at Maria, she immediately turned timid. "Hey~ mind telling us who you are?" Maria asked. "...I''m Alexa..." "Nice to meet ya, I''m Maria. This dude is Ash, and this fairy is Lh. Do you mind telling us why you''re here?" "...My home..." "Hm?" "This is my home..." "O-oh..." Maria scratched her head when she heard this. Now, it wasn''t a surprise why the girl had attacked her. They had trespassed into her house after all. "Well, sorry for intruding. If you don''t mind me asking, but do you know what happened here? Howe this ce is in total ruins? This idiot champion of mine insisted that there was a town here, but all we found were ruins!" Ash only coughed to hide his embarrassment and slightint while Lh onlyughed at him. The little girl who looked no older than 10 years old remained silent and guarded. Maria looked at her with pity and noticed how malnourished she was. Maria took out some food from her [Inventory] and offered it to the girl. "Here, you look like you haven''t eaten in a while!" The girl''s eyes immediately brightened when she saw the food presented to her. Her mouth began to drool and her expression was quite cute. She was just about to reach out to take but quickly took her hand back. "..." "It''s okay, you can have it," Maria approached the girl and took her hand. She ced the food into her hands and stepped back. In all honesty, the little girl wanted to run away when Maria had suddenly begun walking towards her, but she felt her feet rooted in ce. She couldn''t forget the fact that she had nearly been cleaved in two by the 6-wingeddy in front of her. After Maria stepped back, the girl looked down at the food in her hands and looked back up at Maria who had ced it into her hands. Seeing thedy smile gently at her, Alexa immediately started to eat it up. "Huhuhu~ she''s so cute~" Maria giggled delightfully. She wasn''t so sure before with Ash, but now that she found another vampire topare with, Maria quickly deduced that the vampire race all had a default beauty attribute to them. Even though the little girl in front of her looked severely malnourished and dirty, it couldn''t hide her extremely beautiful and cute face. "I''ve decided, you''re going to be my first follower!" "Hrm?" Chapter 71: Custom Quest Chapter 71: Custom Quest *DING* [FAV with Alexa Garm has increased by 20] "Hrm?" Hearing Maria''s deration, the little girl tilted her head in confusion but felt a little bit endangered when she saw Maria''s somewhat...passionate gaze. The little girl felt a little ufortable by Maria so she quickly turned around and continued her meal while avoiding Maria''s gaze. "Huhu~ she''s so cute~" After finishing her meal, Alexa looked around before noticing that thedy who had offered her food still had their eyes on her. She mustered up the courage to speak and quickly thanked her benefactor, "...Th-thank...you..." "Oh my~ not only is she cute, but she''s also polite!" Maria squealed gleefully. She quickly approached the little girl and pulled her into a tight embrace and began rubbing her face on the little girl''s somewhat gaunt face. "U-Uwah!" The girl was surprised but Maria didn''t let go of her. "Heheh~ don''t worry little one. With big sister here, you no longer have to worry about food!" "U-ugh...s-stop..." Maria quicklyplied with her request and put Alexa down. The little girl was clearly very flustered but she didn''t run away and just stayed put. Maria crouched down in front of her and offered the girl her hand, "Hehe, let''s introduce ourselves again. My name is Maria! It''s nice to meet you!" "...Alexa Garm... th-the food earlier...thank you..." "Garm...hmm, are you perhaps rted to this vampire here?" "?" Alexa turned to look at Ash who was intently staring down at her before she stepped back and hid behind Maria. Seeing her act this way, Maria used one of her wings and pped Ash across the face. "Cut it out. You''re scaring the poor little girl!" "Ugh...M-My Lady..." "Anyway, you heard her earlier. She said her name is Alexa Garm. She has yourst name. Are you rted?" "...She may be my brother''s daughter." "Oh! So she''s your niece?" "...Probably...she has a familiar scent." "I''m not sure how you vampires identify your kin, but since she maybe your niece, we''ll take her in!" "Y-yes?" Maria ignored Ash who looked like he wanted to say something else and turned towards the little girl who was hiding behind her. "Hey there, Alexa! I''m wondering, but would you like to follow us?" "Eh? Uhm..." "Hehe, don''t worry, we won''t force you! However, if you follow us, you won''t have to worry about being attacked or going hungry!" "...Okay..." *DING* [You have persuaded Alexa Garm to follow you! Congrattions on getting your first follower!] [Quest Update! Gather 200 followers (2/200)] "Alright!" "Little girl, would you mind telling us your background?" Ash asked after he approached the girl. The little girl was still guarded towards Ash, but after Maria continued coaxing and persuading her, she eventually told them about herself. She didn''t know much about her background except for her name. Her earliest memories were that of waking up in a cave not far from the town as a toddler. As a vampire, she didn''t really need food to live and as long as she was able to eat something for a day and made sure to stay away from the sunlight, she would be able to survive. It had only been a few years since she first left the cave because of the monsters that came to upy it. After leaving, Alexa exined that she had been spending thest 5 years or so in the town since no monsters wandered here and because she was attracted to the Blood Fountain. Because of the fountain, she was able to survive for so long even if she wasn''t able to eat something for days on end. Maria saw that her level was really low so it wasn''t a surprise that she couldn''t hunt any of the monsters in the area. Maria was rather touched and moved by her story. She felt that the game was too cruel to let an NPC child have such a tragic background. When Maria asked Alexa about the town, the little girl could only reply that it had been like this for as long as she could remember. "Hmmm..." "Is something wrong, my Lady?" Ash asked after seeing that his mistress was pondering over something. "...I was just thinking, but since this ruined town doesn''t belong to anyone anymore. Why don''t we establish our base here?" "Hm?" "Since we''re going to be building our own power anyway, we naturally need to have a base!" "Okay, but I don''t see the merit in doing that since we only have one other follower besides me..." "Ah, don''t worry about that. You said so yourself, the vampires respect the strong. We''ll slowly build our base and since some vampires doe around here from time to time, we''ll just subdue them and force them to join our side!" "My Lady, how do you know there are other vampires thate around this deserted ce?" "I looked around the mansion earlier with Alexa and when she showed me her room, I noticed that she had some peculiar ''treasures'' with her." "Oh?" "There were some clothes, Blood Gold, and other goods amongst her stash. It most likely came from a merchant or a group who were unfortunate enough to be attacked by monsters." "...Can you be certain it''s not the girl who" "I saw the w marks and damages done to the goods. There''s no way Alexa would be able to do it and her level is too low," Maria immediately refuted. Also, when Maria checked out Alexa''s status after she became her follower, a new stat appeared which was called loyalty and it was quite high at 80. She checked both Lh and Ash''s loyalty and they were at 100 so Alexa, who had 80, was pretty high, although she had just recently joined their small little family. Maria had read the description of the new stat and found out that wi a loyalty of over 80 guaranteed that the person wouldn''t leave her or lie to her. "Anyway, we should just focus on rebuilding this ce!" "Alright, so how are we going to do that?" *DING* [Custom Quest Generated! Warning! Continuing with this quest will have some effect on future gamey! Will you proceed? YES/NO] Maria didn''t hesitate to press the [Yes] and the quest immediately revealed itself to her. [Pioneer of the Universe SS-ranked Chain Quest You havee to a new world after being chased away from your previous one. With no faction or affiliation, you have decided to establish your own! The first step to establishing yourself as an independent force is to first construct a base! Main Objective 1: Rebuild the ruined town and turn it into your faction''s stronghold! Sub Objective 1: Rebuild the Lord''s Mansion (0/1) Sub Objective 2: Rebuild 5 Houses (0/5) (Locked) Sub Objective 3: Rebuild the Farms (0/2) (Locked) Sub Objective 4: Rebuild the Walls (0/4) (Locked) Sub Objective 5: Rebuild the Market (0/1) (Locked) Sub Objective 6: Rebuild the Clock Tower (0/1) (Locked) Main Objective 2: ??? (Locked) NOTE: Subsequent quests will be unlocked after youpleted the previous quest. Take notice that this quest is subject to interference by other factions and counter-quests will be issued against your quest! Time Limit: None Rewards: Faction Surprise Box (x5), Crown of the [???], 1,000,000 Universe Gold NOTE: Rewards will be received and changed afterpleting the Main Objectives] "...Well, this is new. A custom chain quest, huh? Sounds fun. Now, how do we rebuild the Lord''s Mansion?" Maria quickly tapped her quest log and quickly found the requirements to rebuild the mansion. [Lord''s Mansion (Damaged) Repair? YES/NO] "Yes, sa~" *DING* [You need 500 Basic Wood, 500 Basic Stone, and 500 Blood Gold! Youck 500 Basic Wood and 500 Basic Stone!] "...Hmmm," Maria thoughtfully looked at the system window before an idea popped up in her head after looking at Ash. "Here ya go, Ash! Go and cut down some trees for me!" Maria said as she tossed her axe-form Cmity at Ash. "W-Woah! My Lady, what do you mean?" Ash questioned after he quickly caught the axe. He couldn''t stand the weight behind the weapon and it mmed into the ground. "Urgh..." Maria waved him away while saying, "Go cut some trees with the axe. I''m gonna go explore this ce and find some stones. Hurry, hurry~" "..." Ash was rather perplexed at her orders but he didn''t go against it. The only problem was that the axe his master had handed to him was much too heavy for him to carry. He couldn''t help but wonder how in the world his master could lift such a heavy thing with those dainty arms of hers and wave it around like a twig. Ash dragged the axe with him outside of the ruined town and looked for the closest forest before he dragged himself over there. Back in the town, Maria was walking around with Alexa. The little girl guided her around the empty and ruined town. After looking through the whole town, Maria was able to inspect every building and see what kinds of materials were needed to repair them. There was a requirement that she needed to repair some buildings beforehand for a few of the buildings she inspected and there was also the fact that some buildings had different materials than just the basic wood and stone that she needed for the Lord''s Mansion. Also, the amount required for some of them was astronomical. If it was just her and Ash, it would take ages before they could finish rebuilding the entire town. What more, she wanted to expand it and create a majestic city from these ruins. When she thought about the absurd amount of materials needed to aplish this, Maria couldn''t help but frown and think that she needed more people. "Hmmm, anyway, now that I''m done looking around, I guess we should go hunt? I think I''ll be able to find some stones in that mountain over there~" Just before Maria could go out, Alexa quickly spoke up, "B-Big sis..." "Hm? Something you need?" "Uhm...i-if you need stones... there''s a lot in the cave where I used to live..." "Really? Then let''s go there!" "B-but...there are monsters..." Maria smiled brightly before saying, "Don''t worry, big sis is really strong~" "...O-okay..." "Ah, now that I think about it...my Cmity is with Ash...hmm, I guess I''ll just use these chains~" Alexa didn''t say anymore before she quickly led Maria out of the town and towards her former home. Chapter 72: Mid Quality Mine Chapter 72: Mid Quality Mine Alexa led Maria in the direction of her former home. Along the way, any monsters that they encountered were immediately taken care of by Maria. She didn''t have her Cmity with her, but using Greed''s Shackles and her skill [Angel''s Rage] was more than enough to take care of some mobs. She had been constantly using [Angel''s Rage] for a long time now and she was able to find some peculiarities of the skill. Maria was able to find out that her somewhat broken skill had some restrictions on it. She hadn''t noticed it before, but there was a limit to the number of feathers she was able to shoot out. The limit for each of her wings was 10 feathers per activation, which means that because she now had 3 pairs of wings, Maria was now able to shoot a total of 60 feathers per skill activation. The total amount of damage dealt on one target would be 6300 Pure Damage. Although there seemed to be a limit, there was still no cooldown on this particr skill of hers. The only cooldown would be the time it would take before all 60 of her feathers disappeared after having struck her target. "W-wow! Big sis, you''re strong!" Alexa eximed in awe. All of the monsters that she would normally avoid were now being dealt with single-handedly by the big sister that she decided to follow. Seeing her awe, Maria looked back at her and asked, "Do you wanna grow stronger like me?" "Y-yes!" Alexa eagerly replied. "Good! Here, take this!" Maria pulled out a weapon that she got from a random drop from all of the monsters she killed before and gave it Alexa. Naturally, the weapon was only a level 5 Wolf Tooth Dagger, but it was enough. She tried adding Alexa to the party and fortunately, it worked. Maria quickly looked for another monster and after finding one, she quickly lowered the HP of the monster and pinned it to the ground with her feathers. She turned towards Alexa who was waiting behind her and said, "Alright, now go ahead and kill this thing!" "O-Okay..." Maria didn''t need to do this, but if Alexa didn''t take thest hit, she wouldn''t get any EXP due to the level difference between them. It wasn''t like this before but after the recent update, high leveled yers were disallowed from ''power leveling'' any low-level yer. Since more and more yers were constantly joining the game, ''buses'' or more specifically, the act where newbies would join a party to quickly level up, had be a norm recently. The devs for some odd reason didn''t quite take a liking to this. In the recent update, they added a restriction for leveling where if a monster was killed by a party of yers, the EXP distribution would only ur between the yers who didn''t exceed a 20 level difference between the yer who took thest hit. So this meant that if a high-level yer took thest hit of a monster that their party was hunting, the yers in that party who had a level difference of more than 20 levels wouldn''t be able to gain any EXP, and the same worked in vice-versa. If the low leveled yer took thest hit, then the higher leveled yers wouldn''t be able to gain any EXP. Of course, it didn''tpletely abolish the concept of ''power leveling'' for the newbie yers, but the increase in levels would at least be regted and there wouldn''t be any cases where new yers would be able to get to a high level overnight. The average level of yers at the current stage of the game was around level 40 to level 50 and the main story of the game still hadn''t quite progressed that far despite many yers constantly searching andpleting many ''main'' storyline quests. The game''s story would slowly reveal itself the higher the yers'' level became. The devs didn''t want the high leveled yers going back to low-leveled areas to help their friends and instead focus more on their levels and quests so that the game would progress. Maria was eagerly waiting for Alexa to quickly kill the monster, but she had forgotten one slight problem. "Hmph!" -0 -0 "..." "..." Maria and Alexa looked at each other rather oddly. It was a momentter before Maria suddenly realized why this was happening. The monster was too high-leveled. Alexa was only level 5 and the weapon she was using was only level 5 as well. There was no way that her damage at that level would be able to bypass the defenses of the level 50 monster in front of her. The stat difference was just too big. Even if Maria lowered the monster''s HP to 1, Alexa still wouldn''t be able to kill it because the damage she dealt was 0. "Ugh...I''m an idiot... I forgot about the stat difference..." Alexa was still quite adamant at trying to kill the monsters so she continuously stabbed the knife in her hand into the monster but it couldn''t even pierce through its skin. After a few more stabs and seeing that she couldn''t even damage it, Alexa naturally slumped down in dejection. She gritted her teeth in frustration and was about to resume stabbing the monster in front of her, but Maria quickly grabbed her wrist and stopped her. "Stop it, Alexa." "B-but" "It''s pointless because you''re too weak right now. We''ll go look for some weaker monsters for you to fight. You don''t need to feel bad. However, you should remember this. Remember that you''re weak and remember your frustration because you''re weak. Use it as motivation to get stronger, okay?" "Y-yes big sis..." "Hehe, I was like you before. However, instead of frustration, I felt despair~ Anyways, dry your tears, Alexa, we''ll go huntingter! First, we should reim your old home!" "Y-Yes!" The duo continued along their way and Maria took care of all the monsters in their path. *DING* [Your follower, [Alexa Garm Lv. 5], has gained absolute admiration of your strength and is now determined. FAV+200 Loyalty has increased by 1 point!] *DING* [Your follower, [Alexa Garm Lv.5], has learned the skill [Tenacious Spirit]] [Tenacious Spirit Rank: A Passively increases all stats by 5% and increases the rate of EXP gained by 10%.] "W-what the heck? I want this!" Maria eximed in shock after reading the description of Alexa''s newly acquired skill. She felt that it was a cheat that all of her stats were passively increased by 5% and her EXP rate was increased by 10%. The 5% increase to all stats didn''t matter too much to Maria, but the 10% EXP rate did. The absurd amount of EXP she needed to gain even 1 level was harrowing so any kind of boost was wee for her. It was too bad that it was her that gained the skill but her follower. "Haaahh...I wish I had it..." Maria mumbled jealously. "Grrrahhh!!!" Maria looked up and saw a monster rush at her. She flourished her wings and sent a flurry of feathers to strike at the monster. She then flung out her Greed''s Shackles and constricted the monster. She then proceeded to take out all of her negativity on the monster by swinging it around and smashing it against the trees, rocks, and monsters that woulde to block her way. [You have gained 55,674 Exp!] When the monster finally died, Maria let out a breath and happily said, "Phew! I feel much better! We should hurry though, night is about to fall!" After spending quite some time on this new, the day was finally about to end and the night was approaching. Alexa also saw this and she started rushing ahead. It seemed that she was quite afraid of the night. Maria chuckled when she noticed this, a vampire who was scared of the night. It was hrious. "Wait...didn''t Ash say that low-ranked vampires have low-tolerance to sunlight? Then how" "Big sis, the cave is just past that n-shaped rock over there!" Alexa yelled and pointed towards the distance. Ahead, there was arge rock that resembled an archway and past it, Maria could see a cave. They had finally arrived at the cave where Alexa used to live in. When they stepped past the rock archway, a notification prompt immediately popped up in front of Maria. [You have discovered a Mid-Tier Mine! Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to upy it! (0/100)] "Ooh! It''s hunting time~" Maria was just about to enter the mine but stopped short of the entrance. ''Since the game is so realistic, let''s try something.'' Maria thought before turning around and telling Alexa to step back a little. The little girl naturallyplied and stepped back until she was just under the rock archway. Alexa was a little bit puzzled at what her big sis was going to do that even she needed to back away from her. "Alright, let''s try it." Maria readied herself. She took a deep breath and "KYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH~~~" activated her skill, [Scream of Pain], and directed it into the mines. Thankfully for her, things went as she had hoped it would and a stream of damage numbers popped up in her [Log] as well as the counter to her conquest of the mine increasing. [Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to upy it! (47/100)] "Hehe, I''m d that worked. Time to take care of the rest~" Chapter 73: Its Mine! Chapter 73: It''s Mine! After clearing nearly half of the quest objective, Maria took Alexa with her into the mine. The interior of the mine was pretty spacious and dark but thankfully there were glowing ores on the ceiling of the mine which served as illumination. Maria fearlessly strutted into the cave with Alexa in tow. She had her Greed''s Shackles at the ready and there was a [Fire] ready in her hands. Her magic-rted skills had all experienced a level up due to absorbing Greed''s Essence of Life so she was now able to dy the full activation of her spell and keep it at the ready like this. The timer to thepletion of the absorption was still over 30 hours but she couldn''t wait to see how much of her skills and stats would change due to it. A partial assimtion already leveled up all of her skills by 1 level so she anticipated theplete assimtion. Of course, there was a stat that kept on increasing every minute and that was her Taint Value. She was rather perplexed at what this stat even did. Until now, the Taint Value only changed her avatar''s appearance which was apanied by arge pain that followed, but there had been no increases to her abilities. Well, actually, since her Taint had risen, she had grown an extra pair of wings so her [Angel''s Rage] skill had experienced a jump in damage but that was it. "Hmmm... it''s already over 70,000...I wish there was something more it gave other than just changing my appearance. Though I can''tin since I look pretty cool now~" That couldn''t be any truer and she quite liked the changes to her avatar. While she was reveling in the changes to her avatar, the monsters inside the mine had unknowingly surrounded her. Alexa already had her guard up but she immediately became worried when she noticed that her big sis was just staring ahead of her with no notions of stopping. "B-big sis?" "Hm? What is it, Alexa?" "W-we''re surrounded..." "Oh?" Maria stopped looking at her [Status] screen and looked around. "Oh! We are surrounded, hahaha~" "B-Big sis! This isn''t the time to beughing!" Alexa eximed in distress. "Rx~ there''s always a time tough~" Maria chuckled before flourishing her wings and sending an [Angel''s Rage] at the monsters surrounding them. She didn''t forget to throw her [Fire] spell at the monsters and swing her Greed''s Shackles at one of the monsters. After constricting one of the monsters, she pulled and mmed the monster onto another monster next to it. "Hahahahaha~!" With her feathers shooting out all around her, the monsters quickly began falling. They were only level 40 to 45 so they weren''t even considered a threat to her. "Hey, Master. Aren''t these guys a little too weak?" Lh asked. "I dunno, but isn''t it that they die pretty easily? I mean, I get easy EXP this way~" "Hmm..." "Anyway, let''s keep going. We''ve got quite a few more monsters to kill before we can upy this mine. Once we''ve got this ce, we can acquire a good amount of Stones for our rebuilding quest!" [Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to upy it! (69/100)] [Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to upy it! (78/100)] [Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to upy it! (94/100)] Maria continued her way into the mines while killing all of the monsters that she encountered and soon enough, she reached the end of the mine. She was a little puzzled since there were only 6 monsters left but there were no more monsters in sight. "Huh? That''s weird" "Y-you! What''re you doing here?!" Maria quickly whipped her head around when she heard someone speak up from behind her. There, she saw 6 humanoids approaching her cautiously. "...Who''re you guys?" Maria asked. "That''s what we should be asking! We were just about to clear these mines for our Lord, though it looks like we won''t have to do it anymore since you''ve done the heavy work for us!" The person who just spoke up was a pale looking man, and from his attire, Maria deduced that he was most likely an adventurer or something. The others around him were also dressed up as warriors and from the looks of things, they were hostiles. "Since you''ve done the work for us, we''ll be magnanimous and let you leave this ce alive. Now get lost." Maria''s face darkened when she heard the man''s words and she began chuckling darkly. "Hahahaha..." "?" "Hahaha..." "What''s so funny?!" The man roared after seeing that Maria was onlyughing instead of skedaddling. "Walk away while we''re asking nicely!" Another one quipped up in annoyance. "Haaahh... this is funny. A puny little man like you is actually threatening me?" "Hah?" "Listen up you bastards. I cleaned this ce up because it was once my follower''s home! Now, I''ll tell you guys toactually wait... I''m in need of workers right now... shouldn''t I just enve these bastards and force them to work in the mines?" Maria said thoughtfully. She wanted to just do away with these ignorant fellows but after remembering that she needed more people to help rebuild her town, she decided against killing them. "Yeah, let''s do that!" Maria whipped out her Greed''s Shackles and immediately began attacking the party of 6 without notice. "Dodge! This bitch, how dare she" "Ahhh!!" The people Maria had attacked were rather nimble on their feet and they quickly dodged away from her attack but unfortunately for them, one of their members was hit by her chain and she quickly entangled it around the person. The man, who appeared to be the leader among them didn''t panic and quickly beganmanding hisckeys. "Break the chains! You two go and attack her! She''s only 1 person!" "Yes boss!" Maria smirked when she heard this and began quietly casting her [Fire] and [Earth Shock] spells. "Die you winged bitch!" "Hraaaahhh!!!" "Hihihi~ why don''t you two... burn?" She sent her [Earth Shock] spell at them and destroyed their bnce before she tugged on her chains and sent the one she entangled colliding with the enemies who were rushing at her. The entangled enemy struck the ones at the front who had lost their bnce due to her [Earth Shock] spell and she immediately threw her [Fire] spell at them before sending a shower of her feathers at them. -10,580 -18,500! -9,805 -900 -900 -900 She made sure not to kill them. After she depleted their health to minimum levels, she jumped back and dodged the axe that was swinging down at her. She didn''t dodge too far back and used her wings to p the enemy who had just attacked her into the air. Maria quickly chanted a [Terra Lance] and shot it towards the airborne enemy. -12,780 "Hahaha! You''re all weak and you want me to scram?!" "How dare you" "Quiet!" Maria sent a [Ruin] spell at the leader and the remaining enemy who were keeping their distance. She already saw that they were both using crossbows. After the two dodged, they immediately began shooting their arrows at her. Maria responded by sending her feathers at them. "Dammit! Valenti, you go back and inform the lord!" The leader hastily ordered after seeing that they were being overwhelmed. "Y-Yes sir!" "Go, now! I''ll hold this monster off!" "Hahaha~ I don''t think so!" Maria quickly took to the air andnded just behind the two men. After cutting off their escape, she grinned evilly at them. "You''re not going anywhere~" "Yeah? We''ll see about that!" The leader yelled and pulled something out of his bag and throwing it at her. "Close your eyes!" It was some sort of sk and before it even hit her, the sk blew up and arge sh of light apanied it. "Tsk!" Maria closed her eyes and jumped back. She felt someone pass by her but before she could do anything, she felt danger in front of her so she used her wings to shield her body. "Gotcha!" "Hmph!" Maria felt multiple impacts on her wings but she didn''t cower and instead shot her feathers in the direction ahead of her. She quickly regained her vision and saw that the leader bleeding and pinned to the ground by her feathers. The other one, however, had escaped after she was blinded by the sk the leader had thrown. [Clear all of the monsters inside the mine to upy it! (95/100)] "Hmph, so these guys were thest of the ''monsters''..." "Master, one of them escaped!" Lh quickly informed. "Never mind him, we''ve already cleared this ce so it''s ours now. I''ll just have to reform these bastards and make them our ves." "Uhh, okay?" "Why the long face, Lh? They attacked us first and instead of killing them, I decided to spare their lives! Didn''t we need more people anyways?" "Yeah, you''re right Master, but are these guys reliable?" "Probably not, but we can change that~" "Okay, should I go get Ash?" "Yeah, bring him here. After I''m through with them, I''ll have Ash continue their... education." "Okay!" The leader and his beaten-up party heard their conversation and shivered in fear. "Y-you...what do you want from us?" "[Inspect]." [Markus Pelio Lv. 55 Race: Vampire Rank: ??? ss: Ranger HP: 2/100% MP: 67/100%] [Emil Herr Lv. 50 Race: Vampire Rank: ??? ss: Warrior HP: 1/100% MP: 100%] [Metil Jahn Lv. 51 Race: Vampire Rank: ??? ...] The remaining people who Maria had just defeated had rather decent levels. It was a shame thatpared to her raw stats, they were very muchcking. Maria''s level 50 stats could rival that of an average yer in their 70s or 80s. The nearly 30-level difference in stats was enough for Maria to treat the level 50 monsters and NPCs she encountered with impudence. Only semi-recovered Ash was probably a threat to her but since he was her subordinate, Maria had no worries about him. "Now, it''s time for you fools to change masters!" "Our loyalty to our Lord will not be shaken!" "If you think you can enve us, then give a crack at us!" "I''d rather die than serve you!" An hourter, just before Ash and L returned to the cave, the 5 vampires who were once adamantly rejecting Maria were now groveling at her feet. "...What''s this?" "Master wanted to enve them! So I guess everything is going well?" "W-what? Enve?!" "Well, we need workers Ash! These people just decided to deliver themselves on a silver tter, it was only obvious that we wouldn''t reject their ''kind'' offer~" Maria quipped up. Ash grimaced when he saw the pitiful state his fellow kin were in because of her Mistress. "My Lady, let me take care of things from here." "Alright, Ash, I''ll leave it to you. I want these bastards mining this cave as soon as possible! Also, what about the lumber I asked you to collect?" "I''ve only collected half of the amount for the repairs..." "Tsk, so useless! I even lent you Cmity, why couldn''t you finish it?" "I-I''m sorry my Lady..." "Never mind, take some of these idiots and go collect me some resources! I want to rebuild the estate before night falls! I''m not sleeping on the ground tonight!" "We''ll get things done, my Lady," Ash quickly said. Maria was pleased with his answer and she replied, "Good! I''ll be going back to the town now. I wanna find some weak monsters and see if I can help Alexa level up. She''s too weak as she is now and quite frankly, quite useless as well." "Alright, I''ll make sure to deliver you the good news soon." "Mhm," Maria nodded at Ash before turning to Alexa and beckoning for her to follow, "Let''s go, Alexa, we''ll go search for some monsters you can kill!" "Okay, big sis!" Chapter 74: First Step Chapter 74: First Step Maria brought Alexa and Lh back to the town and began scouring the surrounding area for low-leveled monsters. It was a bit disappointing but the lowest level monsters they found in the area were level 40. There wasn''t a single monster that was below level 30 let alone a single-digit level monster. Alexa''s future was looking a little bleak at the moment. If they don''t move away from this area and look for a lower level area, then she wouldn''t be able to level up safely. As for how she was able to survive in such a daunting ce for so longpletely eluded Maria, but that was the least of her worries. She needed to find a leveling area for Alexa but their current location just didn''t permit that. "Do I have to leave this ce for now?" The day was about to end so Maria decided to stop their futile search and return to the town. She''d think about their next course of action tomorrow. The more important thing right now was to finish rebuilding the lord''s estate. "B-Big sis... what''ll we do?" Alexa asked worriedly. "Don''t worry about it, Alexa. After we rebuild the town a bit more, we''ll go explore areas further away from here and look for suitable monsters that you can defeat." "...Okay...thank you, big sis..." "No problem~ it''s the least I can do for my favorite follower~" Maria replied. She quickly picked the little girl up and began rubbing her face on Alexa''s. "U-Uhm..." "Eheheh~ so cute~" "... Master..." It was the first time Lh was seeing her Master act this way and she couldn''t help but smack her forehead in embarrassment. She decided to make sure that from now on, no one else saw her Master''s shameful behavior. ***** The 3 quickly arrived back in town and walked towards the lord''s estate. When Maria walked past the gates, she was happy to find arge and neat pile of rocks and lumber on the side. "Master, we''ve finished collecting all of the required materials," Ash quickly came forward and reported. *DING* [You have fulfilled the required amount of resources needed to repair the [Lord''s Manor] Would you like to proceed with the repairs? YES/NO] "Yes, sa~" Maria immediately tapped on the [YES] and the resources in front of her disappeared and the Lord''s Manor began to slowly repair itself. [Time remaining beforepletion: 00:59:57] "I have to wait for an hour?" Maria looked at the in-game clock and saw that it was alreadyte in the evening and the skies itself were already dark. By the time the mansion waspleted, it would be quitete already. However, it wasn''t like she couldn''t speed up thepletion. Maria read further down the system prompt and saw that she could speed up thepletion by providing more resources and having her people participate in the construction. Right now, all she saw were construction tools moving about on their own as if they had some kind of magic spell cast on them but if workers were doing the work, thepletion time could be sped up. Also, if any of the people she assigned to work had any construction-rted skills, it would help with thepletion rate. "Alright, I want you guys to go back and acquire more materials! I want this done in half an hour! Hey, you two idiots over there! You go and grab some tools and help repair the manor! Ash, take the other three and go get some more stones and lumber!" "Yes, my Lady," Ash didn''tin and gestured with his head at the remaining people who were kneeling on the ground not too far away from them. They immediately saw it and quickly scrambled to their feet and followed after Ash. The other 2 vampires quickly scrambled towards the manor and randomly took the closest tool they could get their hands on before continuing what the tool was previously doing but at double the speed, it was going. Maria grinned happily at how eager her new underlings were being. She looked around and quickly found a t rock in the vicinity and sat down on top of it. A few minutester, Ash and the others came back with a lot more materials and besides Ash, the other underlings began working on the mansion. Maria was always tyrannical towards Ash, but even she deemed that it was beneath the Vampire Duke to work the repairs of the mansion. It was as if Lh knew what her Master was thinking and couldn''t help but mumble to herself, "And yet Master, you send him to go lumberjacking and stone mining..." "What''s that Lh?" "Nothing MasterAh, more importantly, isn''t it great that our house is almost finished?" "Haha, yeah~" Maria turned towards Alexa and said, "Hey, Alexa, now you no longer need to sleep on the floor or in the cold! You''ll be able to sleep on a proper bed now!" "Uhm, thank you...big sis..." "Hehe~ it''s nothing my little cutie~" "Ahem, Master, please be a bit more appropriate. Your underlings are over there," Lh quickly warned after seeing that her Master was going to do something. "Heh? O-Oh...Okay, Lh..." "Please pay attention to your image a bit more, Master. It might be okay if I or Ash saw you, but please refrain from acting out in front of everyone else. You''re going to be the leader of a faction real soon so you should pay attention to what you do!" Being reprimanded by her usually loyal and yes-man fairy, Maria felt a little bad and took heed of her words. "I''ll keep that in mind, Lh~ but why so serious? I mean, we haven''t even established our fac" *DING* [The [Lord''s Manor Lv. 1] has been sessfully repaired!] [Quest Update! Sub Objective 1: Repair the Lord''s Manor, has beenpleted! Reward: 1,000 Stones, 1,000 Lumber, 1,000 Food, 1,000 Ore, 1,000 Universe Gold] *DING* *DING* [Your Faction''s HQ has finally been established and you have enough followers! Minimum requirements to create a faction have beenpleted! Please select a name for your new faction: ...] "Eh?" "You were saying, Master?" "...Never mind..." Maria sighed before thinking long and hard about what she wanted her faction''s name to be. She found a good name and inputted it into the name window. *DING* [Take heed, you cannot change the name of your faction after it has been established. Would you like to proceed? YES/NO] "Yes, sa~" After tapping on the [YES], a world announcement was immediately aired to all of the yers in the game. *DING* *DING* *DING* [World System Announcement: yer ''Maria'' has sessfully established her faction: [The Dire] For aplishing this incredible feat, yer ''Maria'' will be recorded in the Universe Tale Hall of Fame and she is rewarded: 500,000 Universe Gold, +5 Levels, +50 FSP, Seal of the Dire (x1), and the title [Queen of the Dire]] Maria remembered the name being quite a famous faction for a game his big brother used to always y during his elementary and middle school days. The name was rather fitting for her current circumstances so she chose it without hesitation. Also, it sounded really cool. "Hey, cool. I''ve got another title!" [Queen of the Dire Rank: Epic Title awarded to the founder of [The Dire]. All stats increase by 5%. In your presence, all allies of the same faction will have their stats increased by 10% as long as they are within 100 meters of yourself. The buffsts 10 minutes on an ally after you or they have moved away from the buff''s area of effect. NOTE: This Title is transferrable in the event the holder permits it or if the Throne of the Dire is wrested away.] "This ring... is exactly what I needed!!!" Maria eximed in jubtion before she immediately equipped the ring. [Seal of the Dire Lv. 55 (Level equivalent to the [Queen of the Dire] title holder''s level) Rank: Mythic Category: Faction Exclusive Ring LUCK +10 Effect 1: Plus 100 additional Quick Inventory Space Effect 2: Plus 1 Skill Slot Effect 3: 50% Increase to EXP rate] Maria didn''t particrly care about the other effects of the ring except for the third effect. She had always been miffed about the absurd amount of EXP she needed to gain a level so she was always looking for any items, skills, or titles that''ll help her gain more EXP. Before, she could only watch as her follower gain an EXP boosting skill and felt bitter about it, but now that she had an EXP boosting item, she was on cloud nine. She could now at least level up at the same rate as normal yers...probably. Maria still didn''t know this, but the skill slots in Unitale were limited. She had been learning skills left and right from the start of the game, but she didn''t understand the significance of the skill limit just yet. There was a 30 number limit on how many skills a yer could learn and by now, Maria had already used up 25 of those skill slots. It was already quite clear how important an additional skill slot was in the game, but she didn''t know about it yet. If Maria did ever reach the limit, the only way she could learn more was to delete her other skills and make room for the new ones. Of course, the game did have more powerful versions of the basic skills that she already had, but the only way she could learn it now was if she was lucky enough to find a skill book since she could no longer buy it from a ss instructor. For now, none of that concerned her because her home was finally finished. "Hehe~ let''s go inah wait, a minute. I gained a few levels so I should distribute my FSP... [Status]." Maria quickly distributed her FSP from her level up and rewards and her status screen now looked even more broken. [Maria Lv. 55] HP: 7,300/7,300 MP: 211,300/211,300 SP: 746/746 EXP: 0/5,500,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Sub-ss 1: Magus Sub-ss 2: - Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death, The Knowledgeable One, Fallen Priestess, Fallen Saintess, World Traveler, Queen of the Dire ATK: 714 (+200~300) DEF: 958 (+15) M.ATK: 2219 (+20) M.DEF: 11,093 (+15) STR: 126 (+10) AGI: 263 (-5) VIT: 357 (+8) INT: 4200 (+26) LCK: 11 Free Stat Points: 0 Universal Currency: 667,412 Gold 54 Silver 11 Copper Vanhal Currency: 14,600 Blood Gold Faction Currency: 501,000 Universe Gold] "Hmmm... it looks much longer than before..." Maria said after taking a look at her long status screen. "Well, whatever. Let''s go look at our new house~" Maria cheered and immediately skipped her way towards the newly refurbished mansion. Her 5 new underlings were sitting near the entrance of the mansion in exhaustion. When they saw hering, they immediately stood up at the ready and weed her. "M-My Lady..." "You guys can sleep outside for now! Or you can look for a not-so-broken house in the town and stay there! Remember, if you try to escape..." "N-No, my Lady, w-we will never do that!" "Yes, my Lady, we''re forever loyal to you!" "Y-yeah!" "What he said!" "Please believe us!" Maria red at them before smiling and saying, "Okay!" After she said that, she skipped into the house and began looking around. Behind her, the 5 underlings all released a relieved sigh and went to find a house in the town. Chapter 75: Turmoil Chapter 75: Turmoil While Maria was ted at her new house, elsewhere in the game of Unitale, the yers were all sent into an uproar when they heard the system announcement which was triggered by Maria. They all thought that the girl had finally stayed silent since she had suddenly disappeared for over a month, but now she suddenly came back with her guns zing by triggering 2 World Announcements back to back. First was the World Announcement of her solo killing a world boss. Now, after the update, she came back again with another announcement stating that she had established her own faction. At the moment, no one really knew the benefits of forming their own faction. To most of the yers, Maria''s faction establishment was just another grand way to announce that she had created her own guild. They couldn''t be any more wrong at this point because unlike a guild, which only epts yers and provides some services to said yers, Maria''s faction could ept and take in anyone, both yers and NPCs. Of course, a guild could establish their own NPC army and recruit some lifestyle NPCs for their guild, but to do that, they had to go through a long chain of quests that will unlock that feature. There were even some lifestyle NPCs whose chain quests were so long, it was nearly not worth doing at all. Some of the quests would also prove to be difficult and nigh impossible for the yers at the current stage of the game. Maria''s faction however didn''t have such limitations or boundaries. She could literally take in all yers and NPCs if she chooses to. Whether it is by eptance, persuasion, or by brazenly forcing them to join, just like how she had done to her 5 new underlings, Maria could do it all since she was the ''Queen'' of her faction. She could even ept monster NPCs if she wanted to. Of course, the littledy didn''t know about this so she just stuck with trying to recruit normal NPCs. Maria did however find out that she was able to forcefully convert others into her faction and she nned to do things the forceful way. The original n was to overtake Vampire Lord Siegfried through force and with her [Death''s Word] quest, she needed to kill and convert some people to Death''s faith so her forceful method of recruitment didn''t collide with any of her objectives. Although it didn''t collide with any of her objectives, Maria was left with a bad taste in her mouth whenever she saw the 5 idiots greet her in an overly fanatic way after her faction was officially established. ***** "Jeez, Mary sure is pretty activetely~" Milya, aka Emily, said. Everyone had been worried about their airheaded friend for the past few hours, but seeing as she seemed to be doing well, Lizzy immediately spoke up. "We don''t know what happened to her after she left and those NPCs gave chase, but we can assume that she''s doing pretty well on her own now." "That''s a relief, but unfortunately, her in-game coordinates aren''t showing up on any of our maps...did any of you manage to contact her?" Amanda worriedly said while scrolling through all of the known maps. "No...I can''t even call or whisper her..." Seeing them so worried, Emily furrowed her brows a little and said, "She''s probably off leveling in some high-leveled map because she got lost. As for why we can''t contact her, this isn''t the first time something like this happened, right?" "..." "Yeah...but still" "Come on, instead of worrying about her, let''s just hope she''s still enjoying the game. We can just give her a call in real life! It''s not like she''s disappearing or anything. Besides, we have some other things to worry about in-game." Lizzy shook her head and sighed, "Emily''s right, Amanda. Thanks to Mary''s help while she was still in the guild, our low-level rookies were able to power level themselves before the new update kicked in and our guild''s average level shot up incredibly!" "And because of that, some investors are looking to take a slice out of our big pie... other than Uncle Corinthos''spany, we should look over the rest and see what they have to offer," Emily continued. Amanda stopped looking for Maria and immediately took something out of her inventory. "Here, I alreadypiled all of the investors into these files. Look them over and pick the ones you find trustworthy. I rmend Gravity Tech Industries and Dagger Gaming Company." "...why would a rocketpany be willing to invest in a game?" Lizzy asked. "They''re the ones who are manufacturing the new capsule model VR gaming equipment that''ll being out in a month or two. Unitale is basically an open market right now so every kind ofpany, who are looking to expand and invest in something new, will naturally turn to it now that the Currency Exchange function is online..." Amanda exined. Lizzy sighed again before saying, "My family owns argepany of our own, but I''m really not into business... Isn''t this you''re thing, Amanda? Please manage our guild''s finances and business rtions, okay?" After giving it some thought, Amanda nodded her head. "...Fine, but I seriously think we should get or hire someone to overlook our guild''s business side. Many of thepanies are eyeing our guild not just because we''re currently the leading Dark Faction guild, but precisely because the ones managing the guild, that being us, are only high school girls... They only see us as raw fish on the chopping block...we''re basically greenhorns in their eyes!" "Tch... Just because the game is now open to the economic market, it doesn''t change the fact that the driving force is still going to be us gamers! Seriously, I wanna y games just to have fun, but Unitale''s management just had to fuck us over with this new update and make things so serious," Emily said in annoyance. "What''s wrong, Em? Are you getting med by your parents again?" Lizzy teased. "..." Seeing her friend remain silent, Amanda smirked and said in a teasing tone, "Well, now that they''re precious, youngest daughter, who was notoriously known for being a shut-in gamer, has now finally made it big" "Shut it, Amanda! It''s not me that they want, it''s Mary!" Amanda grinned before shrugging. She thought for a moment before opening her mouth and saying, "Well, it''s probably not just your folks. I''m pretty sure manypanies who are looking to invest want to invest in a yer like her. Constantly getting world announcements and not to mention that she could be the face and spokesperson of apany because of her unique avatar...anyone would want her, and she could serve as a real-life advertisement as well since Mary made her in-game avatar the same as her real-life self." Emily nodded at her words before saying, "Did you see the changes to her appearance just recently? She suddenly became a 6-winged fallen archangel!" "She by far has the coolest and most attractive avatar in the game... Ah, I really envy her~" Lizzy said. Her two friends looked back at her with a scornful look and inwardly, they both thought, ''Like you''re one to talk! You''re the only dark Dragonoid in the game!'' "What?" "...It''s nothing..." "Yup, totally nothing, I mean, Maria sure is cool, huh? Being the ONLY Fallen Angel in the game...us two, we''re just an elf and a dwarf!" Emily said with an all too obvious meaning behind her words. Lizzy looked down at herself beforeughing nervously at her friends. "Eheh...eheheh... guys?" "Ahhh~ it''s so good to know that there''s SOMEONE that could take Mary''s ce now that she''s gone." "Yup, even with Mary gone, we don''t need to worry about our guild''s face!" "..." ****** In thepany Headquarters of Universe Tales, a small team of their leading developers and monitoring team was taking a look through the AI''s log and records. The gamepany''s personnel weren''t actually the ones that could implement any sort of update on the game. Only the game''s Main AI, Zeus, could implement any sort of change to the game. Also, since the developers of the game wanted to make the game super-realistic, they only allowed the AI to make changes and not them because the developers wanted the game''s flow and events to be manipted, controlled, and influenced by the yers themselves. The only time they would directly interfere and have the AI forcefully implement an update was during a patch, like the recent EXP fix, any IRL rted changes, like the Currency Exchange System, and if they needed to fix any bugs which were reported by the yers. Of course, most of the bugs were already fixed after the beta test so they didn''t receive any sort of bug reports and if they did receive, it was mostly just aint or someone trolling. Another time when the developers would directly interfere with the game by using the AI would be during the holidays when they wanted to host an in-game holiday event for the yers. The recent boss-hunting event which wasing to an end would be the one-month anniversary event since the game''sunch. Now, this small team of Unitale staff members was sitting together, reviewing and monitoring a certain yer who had recently been making huge waves in the game, waves which weren''t supposed to happen at this stage of the game. Leading the discussions was the Leader of the Monitoring Team, Adrian Macintosh. After reading the reports of the yer currently under review, he threw the documents back onto the table and said, "The yer, ''Maria''...just what the hell is she?" A member of the team quickly stood up and said, "She is the yer that has the unique Fallen Angel race which is a race that was originally supposed to appear in the ''Heaven''s Collide'' patch once the ''World Travelling'' system was implemented" "I know that! But can any of you tell me WHY she now owns her own faction and is on another?!" "..." "Not only that, but she also solo-killed the SSS-ranked world boss, Asmodeus, the Devil of Greed, which was supposed to be impossible to face because the damned boss shouldn''t even be in the game right now! Also, how in the hell did a yer, at this stage of the game, get kicked out of their faction? I''ve read her PK points and it''s not even that high!" Y Park, another member of the team, quickly reported, "From the logs, it states that the girl chose to devour Asmodeus''s Life Essence instead of turning it into her faction and because of that, she was booted by the system for having a Taint Value of over 50,000 after her partial assimtion. Taint is also an equivalent of the PK points so there''s nothing wrong with the system." "Thank you, Y. Taint Value... the ''Fallen'' races haven''t evene into the picture yet... she''s a Fallen Angel so I''ll overlook that, but how did she even fight Greed? It''s not in the game yet, right?" "Mr. Adrian, please remember that although the monster is not ''in'' the game, it''s still actually there," One of the developers present said. "...You devs and your stupid dreams. What''s that system called again?" An old man walked into the room before loudly dering, "The Universal Code! All beings in the game have their own personalities and they all have a natural lifespan ording to their in-game script! Time flows for the NPCs just as it does with the yers and thus, there is nothing ''locked'' within the game. The yers are only limited by their levels so any quest, areas, or features are only considered ''locked'' and ''unavable'' because the yers can''t get to it when in fact, they already have full ess if they just chose to take a ''harder'' path." "..." Everyone in the room quickly stood up and bowed towards the elderly man. The old man quickly took a seat and continued speaking. "It doesn''t matter what ''stage'' the yers are in. It won''t change the fact that everything in the game is already avable to them. How they get there is up to them. In my honest opinion, this girlie that was able to jump to another and avoid being locked and chained up by the Light and Dark Faction on the starting, Eur, is pretty impressive." After taking his seat, everyone else quickly followed suit and sat back down. Adrian, who was the leader of the team monitoring the yer in question, quickly beganining to the old man. "Tsk, that''s only because you don''t have to deal with the massive amount ofints and inquiries about the yer! Some say she''s cheating while others want" "When did we care about what others want? Let her y the game as she wants just like the others of her peer! We''re not restricting or favoring any yer in the game so why should we care if peoplein about her?" The old man interrupted. "Ugh...Mr. Lindow" Seeing him still trying to voice hisints, the old man named Lindow, waved his hand in annoyance and said, "Enough, I made this game to give the yers a new world, a new universe to enjoy. You nor I, nor anyone for that matter, has the right to restrict any yer just because they''re ''ahead'' of everyone else. It all depends on effort and luck, just like how real life is! And from what I see, this girlie has that luck AND she has that effort!" "..." Chapter 76: Expanding Chapter 76: Expanding The room soon turned quiet after the old man voiced out his opinion. Adrian sighed in defeat and had Y continue with her report. "How was she able to jump to a new world then?" "She was able to acquire the Vampire Duke, Ash, as an NPCpanion, and through him, she was able to open a portal to the Vampire Duke''s original world, Vanhal," Y reported. "How was the Duke even awakened?" "From the logs, we were able to find out that yer ''Maria'' gave her ''blood'' to the vampire and awakened him." Adrian was rather fond of the supernatural so ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and other fantasy-esque subjects within the game intrigued him. As a staff member of UT, he wasn''t allowed to y the game with the other yers, but he and everyone else in thepany had theirpany-dedicated server which allowed them free rein to y whatever storyline or quest they decided to y. Vanhal, the world of the vampires, incubi, subi, nightstalkers, and werewolves was something Adrian frequented during his free time. He knew a bit about Vampire Duke Ash. The Vampire was the trigger to the Dark Faction yer''s leap towards Vanhal. Adrian thought for a moment about the NPC before he remembered something crucial and asking, "Once awakened, wouldn''t the Vampire Duke attack the yer who awakened him and thoroughly suck out their blood, or rather, their HP? How did she even" "Well, it says here that she defeated him so..." "..." "Hahahahaha!" The old man named Lindow, the main developer, owner, and creator of Unitale and the AI that managed it, Zeus,ughed uproariously in amusement when he heard Y finish her report. "Not only is she lucky, but she''s also skillful! Hahaha!" "...Continue monitoring her... We can''t directly interfere with her gaming, but the least we can do is make sure that there are no bugs that she''s unknowingly or knowingly making use of," Adrian said before dismissing the team. "I hardly doubt she''s exploiting any bug. All of such things were corrected and fixed during the beta," Old Man Lindow said before getting up and walking out of the room. Adrian leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath before releasing it in a huff. "Ugh... so exhausting..." ***** Back on the starting, Eur, Gerald, Maria''s sister, was currently showing around a level 1 yer to his guild. "Hehe, what do you think, Father? Pretty neat, right? Everything''s so realistic!" "Mhm," The middle-aged man nodded slightly in agreement. The man was Corinthos Heltania, Gerald and Maria''s father. He had decided to dive into the game to see what all the hype was about. He was an investor of the game but he hadn''t once tried ying it like the other investors. This was his first time diving into the world of Unitale and he was quite impressed by it. Corinthos could now understand why his daughter was immersed in the game. She had abandoned all of her old and somewhat worrisome habits in real and had begun investing her time into the game. From what his son Gerald had been saying, his daughter was a really proactive yer that was always performing some pretty incredible feats in the game. Her multiple first clears with the Fallen Angels Guild and the promotion video about her then there were the two recent World Announcements. Corinthos couldn''t help but feel a little proud of his daughter and he also felt grateful that she was finally being proactive in something that didn''t require her to do things alone. Corinthos knew that ying a game as vast as this required ''team y'' and interactions with other human yers. He was d that his daughter was not being so introverted anymore. Of course, he didn''t yet know that Maria had actually been doing things alone most of the time and is now doing things by her lonesome because she was the only yer present on her current. If you discounted the number of NPCs that were always interacting with her, then she was mostly ying alone. Anyway, ignorance was bliss and Corinthos now didn''t mind that his daughter was spending most of her time in the game. "I''ll invest in your Guild, Gerald," Corinthos suddenly said after taking a look around the guild headquarters. "Alright!" "I''ll also be investing in your sister''s guild. What was it called again..." "The Fallen Angels!" "Yeah, that one," Corinthos said with a nod. "Well, it''s a good investment as well. They''re the current leading guild in the Dark Faction," Gerald said. "Then you should hurry up and do something about your guild! Don''t you pride yourself as being someone well-versed in games and yet, your sister is beating you!" "U-ugh..." "Anyway, you better watch out for your sister. I know that you two are in opposing factions, but that doesn''t matter." "Don''t worry, father. I''ll make sure to keep an eye out for Maria." "Good. I''ll be logging off now. I have things to prepare for thepany. I''ll see youter at dinner." "Yes, father." ****** Back on Vanhal, at the Dire''s faction headquarters in the Lord''s Manor, Maria, who was just satisfied after taking a look around the ce, was now sitting on a make-shift stool with a discontent look on her pretty face. Ash, who had just finished amending and upgrading the Blood Fountain within the manor, quickly walked over to her side and noticed his Lady''s discontent expression. "My Lady, is there something you''re dissatisfied about?" Ash worriedly asked from the side. "Hnnn..." "My Lady, please voice any discontents that you may have. I''ll make sure to rectify it!" "...There''s nothing here..." "Hm?" Ash looked a little bit confused and Maria waved her arms around grandly and loudly said, "I''m saying, that there''s nothing here!" "What do you" "Are you stupid, Ash?" Maria eximed in exasperation at how slow her vampire was. "Uh..." "The manor''s been rebuilt and repaired, that''s good and all, but the inside is empty!" "..." "We don''t have a sofa, a bed, a TV, or anything!!!" Ash quickly got the message. There was no furniture or decorations in their vast mansion. It was just an empty shell at the moment. Seeing as his Lady needed a few things in the house like a chair to sit on and a bed to sleep on, he quickly thought of something and immediately asked Maria, "Shall I get you some furniture, my Lady?" "Yes! And I want them now!" "I''ll get them right away, my Lady! Lh, go call those 5 idiots and extract their former lord''s base!" Ash said in an imposing tone. Lh, who was suddenly caught by surprise by Ash''s imposing attitude, immediately replied, "A-alright!" She dashed straight out of the mansion and went to find the 5 vampires who were probably out searching for a hospitable house in the town. ''W-wait...why do I need to go find them? Ah, that stupid vampire, how dare hemand me!?'' Lh inwardly roared in fury. She then clicked her tongue and mumbled, "Whatever, I''ll let it slide this time because Master was upset..." Back inside the mansion, Ash quickly bowed toward Maria and said, "My Lady, I will immediately get to work. Please wait here." After finishing his words, Ash was just about to walk out of the mansion but Maria quickly stood up and blocked his way before saying, "I don''t think so, I''ll being!" Maria stretched her hand out and her Cmity which was resting on the wall of the manor immediately flew into her hand. She flourished it and red up at Ash. Being pressured by her gaze, Ash gave into his Lady''s demands. "Of course, my Lady, it will be my honor to have you apany me. Although, it would be much better if you just waited here and let us do the dirty work..." Ash respectfully said with a slight bow. "Hmmm, well, I''m bored right now so I wannae. How about this, I''ll just follow and let you guys do your thing~" "Okay, my Lady. You just sit back and watch the show." "Huhuhu~ I''m d we''re on the same page for once, Ash!" Maria said with a cheerful smile. Ash smiled and bowed to her once again. Lh immediately rushed into the mansion and asked, "Master, what page are you talking about?" She had quickly found the 5 underlings idling about just outside the estate''s gates so she quickly brought them over. Just before she could enter, Lh had overheard Maria and Ash''s conversation so she couldn''t help but ask in suspicion. "Well, Lh, since my mansion is empty, I obviously want to fill it up. What better way to do so than by going to the city or town these 5 stooges are from and robI mean, buysome of the furniture avable over there?" Maria said in a cutesy way. Lh had an odd expression on her face when she heard her Master''s words. She couldn''t help but cast a re at Ash who was following along with her bad intentions. "...Ash..." "I''m just following my Lady''s orders..." "..." Seeing as there was now an opportunity to lick their master''s ass, Markus Pelio, one of the vampires who was subdued and forced to join the Dire Faction by Maria, immediately spoke up, "My Mistress, w-we can quickly lead you to our former lord''s town! F-follow us! The night is about to fall so we''ll be able to pi" Maria quickly cast a re at Markus Pelio, and the vampire immediately corrected himself, "I-I mean, buy, some of the furniture on sale there! Yes, we''ll buy them! I know plenty of stores! Theres even a very famous one right at the heart of the town where you can get many high-quality furniture from!" Maria''s eyes immediately brightened when she heard Markus''s words, but Lh felt like there was some sort of double meaning behind his words. "Anyway, Lh, let''s get going! I wanna go meet people too!" Maria cheered before quickly dashing out through the door. "W-wait, Master!" "Come on,e on~ before it gets toote~" Like this, Maria and her ''crew'' began trekking through the forest and making their way over to the 5 stooges'' previous lord, Vampire Baron Russo Glemen''s barony. Chapter 77: The Show Chapter 77: The Show Maybe it was because night had fallen, but the vampires were moving at an incredible speed through the dark forest. Even Maria had to put in some effort to keep up with the 5 Vampire Knights who were leading the way towards the Glemen''s Barony. Ash was bringing up the rear, keeping their backs safe from monster attacks. He was also carrying Alexa with him but it wasn''t like the small girl would be a hindrance to his speed. Ash just did this to keep his Lady safe. Maria just noticed this before they set off earlier, but all of her subordinates, new and old, were being much more respectful to her after she had established her faction. The change in attitude wasn''t apparent for the 5 new followers since they were always scared of her from the start, but the change in attitude was pretty drastic for Ash and Lh. Although Lh would sometimes advise her from doing something, she didn''t outrightly tell her to stop doing something like before. If it was the old Lh, Maria was sure that she would try to stop her from going over to the Glemen''s Barony just to ''buy'' something. Maria knew that Lh wasn''t stupid. Her fairy knew fully well that they were going there not to buy some furniture but rather to pige the entire barony of valuables, materials, and residents. It was a rather tyrannical way of doing things, but Maria wasn''t one to care. To her, it was much better than doing some long-winded quest to earn the trust of some vampire. Even the way she earned Ash''s subordination was because she forced it upon him to be her champion. She thought that since it worked the first time, why not just do something simr to recruit more NPCs into her faction? It was efficient and she also didn''t have to go through much trouble while being able to do what she found most enjoyable in the game, fighting. Throughout the entire journey, Maria didn''t lift a finger to fight. Ash and the other 5 vampires were the ones who took care of any monsters in their way. It took them about an hour to exit the forest and another few minutes to arrive at the barony. The Vampire hierarchy in Vanhal was really strict so although a Baron had a ''barony'' they were limited to having only 1rge town and 2 viges under their management. Only if they had a higher rank would they be able to own more towns. Once someone became a Count, it was then that they could upgrade one of their towns into a city. Maria found the system quite simple and to her liking. It wasn''t anything tooplicated and it was easy to understand. If Maria was able to take over this entire barony, she''d be able to get a town and 2 viges'' worth of people, materials, and other valuables. While Maria was busy calcting her gains, Ash silently walked up to her and said, "My Lady, this Russo Glemen...I''m sure back then there weren''t any vampire barons with his name..." "!" Maria felt a bit surprised that Ash had sneaked up on her. Usually, she was able to detect his presence whenever he approached her but it wasn''t the case right now. She frowned before replying with a small tinge of discontent in her voice, "And? What about it?" "...Although I don''t know anyone with that name among the barons, however, I do recall a vampire named Russo that was serving under my brother..." "Are you saying that he might know about your brother''s downfall?" "Maybe...He could also be connected to it. His domain is just next to my brother''s so we might be able to find something." Maria was about to shrug it off, but a system window immediately popped up in front of her. *DING* [Side Quest Acquired! The Youngest Garm''s Downfall! Investigate the downfall of your Champion''s brother! Main Objective: Acquire information about Yt Garm''s downfall (0/100%) Sub Objective 1: Capture and Interrogate Russo Glemen Sub Objective 2: Kill Russo Glemen and takeover his domain Rewards: Random Note: Rewards depend on your questpletion rate.] Maria sighed after getting a new quest. "How bothersome..." "What''s wrong, my Lady?" "...It''s nothing. Anyway, before we go and attack them, we should scout the ce first." "Yes, my Lady." "Hey, you three!" Seeing as their new Master was calling them, the 5 new vampires immediately stepped forward and said in unison, "Yes, Queen?" Hearing their new form of address, Maria flinched and her face nearly distorted in disgust. However, after seeing their earnest expressions, she let out a breath and let it slide. "...Don''t call me that. Anyway, I was only asking for 3 of you, you idiots. Can''t any of you count?" The vampires flinched after being reprimanded and the previous leader of their group, Markus, quickly stepped forward and eyed the two on his left and they too stepped forward. "Hm, at least you''re all eager. Anyway, I need information. How many guards are around the Baron''s manor and how many soldiers are there inside the town?" "My Lady, let me answer that," Ash quickly spoke up. "Hm?" "Typically, baron-ranked vampires are only allowed 1 town and inside the town, there can only be 20 Knight-ranked Vampires guarding their estate and 50 soldiers to guard the town." Maria quickly turned to Vampire Markus and asked, "Is that true?" "Yes, it''s exactly as Lord Ash says... along with the 2 viges that have 15 soldiers in each vige, there are 100 vampire warriors in total," Markus answered. Ash grimaced a little and said, "I''m a bit hurt that my Lady didn''t trust me..." "Oh please, Ash. Stop whining like a baby. I''m just confirming whether what you said was correct or not. I remember thest time you said there was supposed to be your brother''s barony at our faction''s HQ, but where is it?" "...It''s destroyed..." "Exactly!" "..." Ash still looked a slight bit dejected and Maria felt pissed for some reason. She stomped over to the vampire and kicked him. "Stop acting like a baby! Or do you want me to send you to deal with all 100 of those vampire soldiers?" Ash''s eyes widened in surprise and he immediately knelt and said, "If you will let me! I shall bring you there heads at once!" "...Huh?" "You only need to say the word, my Lady! I shall bring you there heads!" Ash said again. ''Has he finally gone crazy?'' Maria was a little bit perplexed at Ash''s seriousness and eagerness. She had already agreed not to interfere in the battlester so she had only jokingly threatened him with such a task because he was acting out of character, but she didn''t think her vampire champion would be so eager to do it. "...Uhm, well, if you want to then go ahead. But don''t cause too many casualties. I want to convert them over to our side so only kill those that are too loyal." Ash smiled coldly and replied, "dly, my Lady." He then turned towards the other vampires and ordered, "You three, with me! You two stay behind and guard the Lady." "Y-yes, my Lord." Of the 5 vampires that had joined Maria, the two who were the stronger ones stayed behind to protect her while Ash took the other 3 and dashed straight towards the town. "...I don''t need any protection, so why don''t you two go down and help Ash." "Y-your Highness?" "Go. Go and prove to me that you''re at least worthy to stay by my side. I took you 5 in so I''d like it if you''d remain the stronger ones among our group. Don''t make me rece you~" Maria said while waving the two away. "...Yes, Your Highness," Markus and the other vampire said together. They bowed to her before dashing towards, not the town, but in two different directions. Maria was a little bit perplexed at their newest form of address but she felt more puzzled about the directions they were heading in before she remembered that there were 2 viges in the barony. "Ah, that''s where they''re going~ How ambitious. Hopefully, they don''t die~" Maria said with a grin. She had fought against the 5 vampires before and she honestly felt that they were too weak. She didn''t have high expectations that the two who went towards the viges would be able to take on the 15 soldiers stationed there. She felt that they were the ones that may die instead. What Maria didn''t know was that the 5 people she had captured, or rather, the original team of 6 which she had singlehandedly taken down within the mines, were actually the strongest team of vampires within the Glemen Barony. Maria began yawning and just as she was feeling a little sleepy, a loud explosion immediately shook her wide awake. She looked at the town in the distance and saw that one side of the walls hadpletely copsed. "It''s starting!" Maria said excitedly "Master, aren''t you a little bit too excited?" "Am I?" "Well, you never struck me as the type who would wantonlymit any massacres..." "Hm? I only asked for Ash to deal with the guards and soldiers. It''s not like I''m telling him to wipe out the entire to" Before she could even finish her words, another explosion was heard and this time when Maria looked over at the town, a build or two had suddenly begun copsing and she could hear the cries and screams of the residents in the distance. "..." "You were saying, Master?" "I-it''s not me! I told Ash not to harm the residents since they''re going to be my future minfollowers!" Maria said in her defense. "...Master, you were totally about to say minions, weren''t you?" Lh said with an odd face. "You heard wrong!" "I''ll pretend I did... Anyway, I''d rather like it if you didn''t turn into a tyrant." "Hey, is that how you see me?" Without missing a beat, Lh immediately replied to her with a nod, "When you''re swinging around Cmity andughing while you cut down your enemies...yes, that''s exactly how I see you, Master." "Booo, Lh''s being mean to me!" Another explosion resounded from within the town and a few more buildings copsed. Lh sighed before saying, "Master, I think we should go and check up on Ash, we don''t want him and the other three with him to level the town to the ground." "Let''s go then." Chapter 78: Weve Come to Buy, Not Steal Chapter 78: We''ve Come to Buy, Not Steal Maria and Lh didn''t rush down to the town, they instead just waltz down over as if they were taking a walk in their own backyard. When they passed through the broken down gates, the two noticed that the walls to the right of them had thoroughly copsed into rubble. It was a pretty thick wall but it had thoroughly copsed due to Ash''s attack. Maria couldn''t understand this concept. She had read plenty of information on the forums regarding the game''s structures and buildings so she knew that the only way to topple down a structure like a wall was to use weapons known as Siege Weapons. They weren''t avable yet in the game but the craftsman could still see the recipe to build the contraption in the NPC instructor''s skill shop. The price was quite astronomical before the Currency Exchange System was implemented but those recipes were now in reach. The yer craftsmen only needed to level up their skills and learn the recipe before they were able to use the recipe. Of course, there were only a few types of recipes currently avable in the skill shop but the weapons themselves weren''t going to be very useful since currently, there weren''t any yer-managed cities, towns, or viges. With the existence of Siege Weapons which served as the only method to destroy a structure like a wall or building, Maria was quite astounded that an NPC''s skill was able to function just like a Siege Weapon. Maria tried sending a [Cmity Cleave] at the walls over on their left, but the skill didn''t even graze the wall one bit. It only struck it and that was that. "Hmmm... maybe it''s only limited to NPCs? Nheless, this is a nice bit of info~" "Master, shall we get going?" Lh quipped up from the side. "Mhm." Maria and Lh proceeded into the town and took a look around. Many of the buildings weren''t damaged, but quite a few were thoroughly leveled to the ground. She could see that many of the residents were either hiding inside their homes or just taking shelter outside in some corner. There were no injured or killed among the ordinary citizens, but Maria did find the bodies of a few vampire soldiers on the way towards the Lord''s Manor. She didn''t need to ask directions this time because the manor was quiterge and it was on an elevated piece ofnd so it was quite noticeable. What was also noticeable was that the manor was currently smoke and on fire. "Ahh, what a pity, tsk, tsk... I hope Ash didn''t destroy the ce too much. I want too takI mean, buy some of their stuff, after all~" Maria said. "..." Over by the side, Lh had her focused on her Master. Ifsers coulde out of her eyes, there would already be a hole on the back of Maria''s head by now. "Lh, you''re boring a hole on my head~" "...Ugh..." By the time the two arrived at the Lord''s Manor, the fighting had settled down. The bodies of a few soldiers were strewn around the frontwn of the estate and signs of battle were everywhere. Large craters, holes, upturned earth, and broken down debris were everywhere. It was literally like someone had dropped a few bombs or rained down mortars here. The only ce that wasn''t all too damaged was the Lord''s Manor. Other than the partly destroyed roof over at the right side of the manor, everything else was in good shape. Even the fragile ss and the majestic door which was slightly ajar were still well in ce. Maria nodded in satisfaction before she skipped over to the manor''s door. She mmed wide open both doors and quickly announced her presence, "Ahahaha~ Come and greet your Queen!" Just inside the manor, Maria saw Ash looking back at her with somethingno, someone, in his hands. His fist had just stopped in mid-swing and it looked like he was beating the person in his hands in the face before she had suddenly barged in. The other 3 vampires were also in mid-attack before they suddenly stopped after she had barged in. Even though they had stopped their attacks, it didn''t change the fact that their spells were already conjured and currently flying towards the few Vampire Knights that were their targets. Maria then saw the attacksnd and the knights being blown back or tossed up into the air. Ash quickly tossed the person in his grasp away and lightly bowed to Maria in greeting. "My Lady, you are here." "Uhhh, yeah! Uhm... is this a bad time?" "No, My Lady, any time is never a bad time for you. It''s just that, we still haven''t finished up here, my apologies." "Oh...Well, just stop now. Look at them. They''re almost dead!" Ash nodded and gestured at the other 3 vampires. The 3 quickly dashed away from their spot and lined up in front of Maria and knelt before her. "We have aplished our mission, Your Highness!" "...The Queen part was only a joke...Never mind. Good work everyone. Now, where''s the baron? I want to buy some stuff from him!" Ash quickly walked over with the person he had just tossed away earlier and motioned for the 3 vampires once again. It was like they had some sort of telepathic power and immediately understood what Ash wanted for them to do. They quickly dashed into one of the rooms and each one brought out a table, a chair, and a luxurious couch. The table and chair were quickly ced in front of Maria and when she was just about to step forward and sit down, the luxurious couch which was brought over by Metil Jahn, the third strongest of the vampires Maria had recruited, was suddenly ced behind her. Metil looked at her expectantly and bowed while gesturing towards the couch. Maria grinned at him and quickly sat down. "Hmhm~ this is nice~" The other two, Theo Lenard and Yura Holden, after cing the table and chair down, quickly went to stand at the side along with Metil. They had their back turned on the manor''s guards who were all beaten up on the side, but their killing intent was stilling bearing down on them. Ash ced the beaten up vampire in his grasp and roughly ced him down on the chair facing Maria. "Ash, that''s no way to treat the master of the town. Be a little more gentle~" "Yes, my Lady..." Maria turned her attention towards the vampire in front of her and asked, "I assume you''re Baron Glemen?" "..." The vampire didn''t respond to her and she frowned. Seeing her frown, Ash immediately red down at the baron and smacked him up the back of his head, nearly sending him flying off of his chair. The p had sessfully awakened the unconscious vampire and he looked around all startled. "What? What happened?! Guards, intruders, there aregah!" "Quiet down, imbecile. Our Queen is in front of you," Ash menacingly said. The baron quickly took notice of his attacker who had brutalized him and quickly recalled the trauma. He began shivering but the surprise at finding his previous Master''s brother, Ash Garm, was still alive had overtaken his fear. "L-Lord Garm...h-h-how are you" "Are you deliberately ignoring my Master?!" Ash yelled when he noticed the tant disregard the baron had for Maria. He once again raised his fist and was about to smash Russo Glemen, but Maria quickly stopped him by clearing her throat. "Ahem..." Ash stopped and quickly red down at Russo Glemen who was already bracing himself for Ash''s fist. After waiting for a while and seeing that he wasn''t hit yet, the vampire slowly lowered his arms and finally turned towards the elegant youngdy who was sitting in front of him. By just clearing her throat she had quickly subdued Ash, a Vampire Duke who was just below a Vampire Lord, from taking any further actions against him. Russo remembered the Duke''s previous words and recalled that he had stated that the girl in front of him was his Master. "M-may I ask, who are you, my fair Lady?" Russo greeted with a strained smile. He had to be careful and pick his words wisely since there was a deathly re bearing down on him from behind. "Hm, now that I have your attention, we can finally get down to business!" "B-business?" "Yes, business! We came here today to buy things from you!" Russo immediately turned speechless from the youngdy''s words. She had just waltzed in here with her subordinates and had them break through the town''s gates and walls, smash apart his town''s guards, nearly obliterated his personal Vampire Knights, and beat him into a pulp, and yet...she was actually saying that they came here to buy? With her power, she could just directly steal everything away from him. He felt disgruntled at the thought of being robbed, but it wasn''t like he could do anything. Maria quickly read the meaning behind the expression on the vampire baron''s face and quickly said, "Hey, what are you thinking?" "Uh?" "I know what you''re thinking. You''re thinking that we''re here to steal from you!" "..." "Hmph! I knew it!" Maria immediately felt offended and Ash was about to do something again. "I-I''m sorry! I-I didn''t have that intention!" "Well, whatever...I''ll let it slide this time. We dide here to buy and not to steal." "W-what would you like to buy?" "Everything!" "E-everything?" "Yes, everything! I want everything in your barony, all the materials, food, territory, peopleeverything!" "Uuhh...H-how will you pay for all of that?" "Me pay? Ah, you''re mistaken there, it''s not me paying, it''s you guys who''ll be paying~" "Huh?" "You''ll be paying with your lives~" "What?!" Chapter 79: If You Perform Well, You Will Prosper Chapter 79: If You Perform Well, You Will Prosper Russo thought he heard wrongly and was about to ask the youngdy again about her absurd demand, but it was like Ash knew that the vampire didn''t understand the meaning behind hisdy''s words and directed his extreme killing intent on him. The vampire baron immediately stiffened up and only nodded hastily in reply to Maria''s words. Maria pped her hand happily and said, "Yay~ Well, let''s discuss how many of your ''lives'' you''ll be paying~" "..." Maria thought hard and long before she quickly decided. "Ash, can you go get me his ledger? I''m pretty sure he has it somewhere... maybe in the study?" Ash stepped forward and handed her a thick book, "Here it is, my Lady. It was on his body and I was able to get it after I ''shook'' him for quite a bit..." "Good work, Ash!" Maria took the ledger and immediately began reading its contents. A few momentster she finished and looked up at Baron Russo with a thick smile. "Hmm~ so as per our previous agreement, I''ll be taking everything, okay?" "Y...Yes..." Russo had no choice but to answer in that way once he felt an overbearing pressure weighing down on his body. "Great! Now, I''ll let you go since I don''t want you. Ash, you can take care of him~" Ash bowed and said, "Yes, my Lady." "You two seem to know each other, so please go ahead and get reacquainted. Metil, you go round up the citizens and go inform them about the change in masters. Yura and Theo, go to the viges and get Markus and Emil as well as the inhabitants over there. Bring them all to the town''s za!" "Yes, Your Highness!" The 3 vampires replied in unison before dashing out of the manor. The baron couldn''t understand how those 3 unruly ex-followers of his had been tamed to the point where they were practically like dogs to the youngdy before her. Just a simple order like that was promptly executed by them without anyints or dys. Back when those 3 were under hismand, just giving them an order would result in them talking back or dying the task by using some kind of excuse. In the end, the vampires all valued strength. If one wasn''t overwhelming more powerful than the other, they wouldn''t be so obedient. Baron Russo concluded that the reason his powerful ex-subordinates were acting so submissive, was because the youngdy in front of him was powerful, overwhelmingly powerful. What more there was his former master''s brother there with her, Vampire Duke Ash Garm, the one vampire who was said to be the most powerful among all others and was next in line as Vampire Lord. Vampire Duke Ash had left a significant mark on his and many other vampires'' minds before he had suddenly disappeared. Even the current Vampire Lord who everyone thought was just a puppet to the one behind him wasn''t a match for Ash. Of course, the vampires didn''t know that Ash was weakened due to his sealing, but they were all low-ranked vampires of knight and baron nobility. Even though Ash was weakened, his strength would still be above them. Only the higher-ranked vampires would be able to tell that Ash was weaker than his former self. It was arge liability, but the only person who recognized who he was, was only Baron Russo Glemen. The other subordinates didn''t recognize Ash one bit, but they revered him due to his strength. After hearing that he wasn''t wanted by the littledy, Russo quickly made up his mind to change allegiances and try to appeal to the young girl, but it was too bad that Maria and Ash had different ns in mind for him. Ash wanted to interrogate the vampire who was once his brother''s subordinate and find out what happened to him. Maria was also of one mind with Ash due to her quest. She didn''t know the art of interrogation and she for sure didn''t know about torture. Since it was troublesome to deal with, she left the baron for Ash to deal with. Maria waited for her other subordinates to report to her and it didn''t take long before Metil came back. "My Queen, your subordinate hase back. I have finished rounding up all of the citizens and the remaining soldiers. They are waiting patiently for you now." "Well, that was fast! Looks like you arepetent," Maria praised. She stood up and exited the mansion. Before leaving, she didn''t forget to address Ash who was left behind with the baron. "Quickly finish things here. I want to head back quickly and start rebuilding." "May I suggest we" "I''d rather sleep in my own house! Get the things done and quickly head back." "Yes, my Lady." "Mhm," Maria nodded before heading out with Metil. They quickly got to the za and Maria informed everyone that their ''masters'' had changed hands. She didn''t want to force any of the citizens to follow her, but because both she and Ash wanted to stay low for a bit, she threatened the reluctant and loyal ones with death if they chose not to follow her. This action of theirs wasn''t exactly low-key, but Maria decided they were only going to do this once. She wanted to wait until Ash had fully recovered before they began acting in a high-profile manner. They didn''t want to alert the Vampire Lord just yet, but this was the only way they could quickly gain more hands to help them rebuild their faction''s town. After Maria sessfully acquired everyone from the barony, her quest immediately updated. *DING* [Vengeance and Justice Quest Updated! Sub Objective 2: Gather 200 followers! (307/200) (Completed)] Now that she had acquired all of the barony''s citizens, she began buying up the things she needed from the city''s shops. The citizens were all told to get ready to move but some of the storekeepers had to stop because their new master had suddenly stopped by to shop. Maria''s original objective ofing here and taking over the barony was to acquire some furniture to decorate her new house. She went to the furniture store and bought a bed and a few other things using Blood Gold. The owner of the store was rather surprised since he thought that she could have just taken it from him because she was now their lord but Maria had something else to say to that. "I don''t treat my people badly. If you serve me and perform well, you''ll naturally be able to live well~" "Y-yes, mdy...I''ll keep that in mind," The shopkeeper quickly replied. Maria nodded and went around the town vising some shops that were about to close down and bought a few other things. It was deep into the night when everyone was finished getting ready. Maria didn''t forget to leave behind a few people to guard the town. She wanted to take everything, and that meant literally everything. She wanted all of the houses and buildings in the town to be dismantled and their materials to be brought back to her town where they would use the materials to rebuild the ce. Maria was surprised that Markus and Emil were able toplete their ambitious task despite them returning with a few injuries on their body. She gained a new level of trust for these 2 and decided to leave these 2 behind with a few others to guard the town. She left behind a few of the craftsmen here so they could begin dismantling the town''s buildings. The only problem now was how to fit all of the migrating people into her town when there weren''t any houses there for them to live in. Maria hadn''t thought this out very well when she ordered them to migrate from this ce, but she tossed the thought to the back of her head. "Hmmm, we''ll just deal with it once we''ve gotten back there. I mean, most of them are vampires. Maybe they don''t sleep at night?" Maria was both right and wrong. Although most vampires became active at night, there were still some who slept at night and became active during the day. Once Maria and her newly acquired citizens arrived back at the ruined town, everyone immediately became busy. She didn''t need to order it but the people started cleaning up the town. The craftsmen got to work while some of the ordinary people began clearing up the dirt roads, cleaning up some debris from the broken down buildings, and other such menial tasks. Maria was watching over them from the balcony of her still empty house and thought, ''Hmmm, how diligent~ I didn''t even say anything and they''ve all started working.'' The vampires didn''t forget about her earlier words where she would let them live well if they performed well. Once they arrived at the ruined town, many were a little pensive at first, but when they felt the strong aura of the Blood Fountain, which was tensno, hundreds of times better than their previous lord''s Blood Fountain, surge and envelop their bodies, everyone thought that this was Maria''s test for them. She had provided the benefits up front, and now, she wanted to see their performance. At least this was what many of the citizens, who heard her previous words, thought. They informed the people around them and it snowballed into the current scene where everyone was working to rebuild the town as quickly as possible for their new master. They all saw that the youngdy who was their master wasn''t a vampire-like them, but she provided them with something most, if not all, low-ranked vampires yearned for, a high-ranked Blood Fountain. "Everyone! Let''s finish things before sunrise!" Chapter 80: Overnight Change Chapter 80: Overnight Change Once Maria''s manor was fully furnished with the things she bought and her luxurious bed was finally ced in her bedroom, she logged off because of the time. When she went onto the forums, she noticed the hubbub caused by her recent actions. She only grinned yfully and let everyone''s imaginations run wild. Maria wasn''t one to disclose information to anyone she didn''t know and she wasn''t going to dump a log of her recent activities onto the forums. She closed the forums and went to bed. The next day when Maria logged back into the game after eating breakfast, she happily looked around her room and saw all the expensive and luxurious things decorating it. It suited her tastes when she went to buy things yesterday, she didn''t think she could convert her gold to blood gold but it seemed that gold was a universal currency. The Universal Gold that she kept getting was only expendable on faction rted things. She opened up her faction menu and a long stream of notices bombarded her. *DING* [10 Houses have been rebuilt!] *DING* [2 Farms have been rebuilt!] *DING* [The Eastern Wall has been rebuilt!] *DING* [The Western Wall has been rebuilt!] *DING* [The Northern Wall has been rebuilt!] *DING* [The Southern Wall has been rebuilt!] *DING* [The Market has been rebuilt!] *DING* [20 Houses have been built!] *DING* [1 Smithy has been built!] *DING* [4 Watch Towers has been built!] *DING* [4 Arrow Towers...] Maria was shocked by the sudden notifications and she quickly closed the window and all of the ringings stopped. "...What happened?" Maria quickly rushed out of her bedroom and dashed over to the manor''s front balcony. She hadn''t yet noticed it, but 2 vampire maids were waiting for her outside of the door and they quickly chased after her when they saw her suddenly rush out. "M-My Lady!" "Your Highness, please wait!" Maria ignored the calls and quickly arrived at the balcony. She flung the doors opened and looked around to an unfamiliar sight. "What happened while I was asleep?!" Maria screamed in shock. The view in front of her was shocking. What was once a ruined town had suddenly turned into a normal, fully functional one overnight! Maria looked around and that wasn''t all. The town hadn''t just been rebuilt and repaired, she saw the tall ramparts in all 4 directions and the 8 towers scattered across them in an orderly fashion. "..." The two vampire maids finally caught up to her and what followed them was Lh, "Hehehe, how is it, Master? I did great, didn''t I?!" "Huh? You did something, Lh?" "Of course!" "...Is the ruined town turning into this splendid sight before me...what you did?" "Yup!" Maria immediately questioned that, "H-How?! Weren''t these people just ordinary citizens who lived in that sloppy town from the barony?!" "Well, excuse you, Master! They''re your people now!" "That''s beside the point! How could these people flip this ruined town overnight?" "Well...anything''s possible with money, Master~" "Eh?" Maria quickly opened up her inventory and saw that she was missing more or less five hundred thousand gold coins and her faction currency was down to a thousand universe gold. In all, she had lost a little over 1 million currencies... "...Lh..." "Yes, Master? Are you ready to praise me now?! I''ve turned this shoddy ce into our stronghold!" Lh said with her chest puffed outwards in pride. Maria felt a slight pain in her chest after seeing the loss of over a million gold, but she couldn''t reprimand Lh because the results were indeed worth the investment. She looked out again and felt proud upon seeing the view before her. She didn''t forget to take note that her mansion had suddenly turned into a castle that was overlooking everything below her. "Sheesh, this is really a game. I go to sleep for a few hours and when Ie back, everything''s changed!" Maria turned around and began stroking Lh''s head with her finger. "You did good, Lh." "Uehehehe~" "But next time...please tell me if you''re going to use my money..." "Sure thing Master! But I remember you giving me the authority of using as much gold as I want before you suddenly went to sleep!" "I-I did?" "Yup!" "..." Maria couldn''t remember what she did yesterday before logging out in her bedroom. She was too sleepy to remember but she did recall talking about something with Lh. Maybe she really did give her permission. Well, it was no use crying over spilled milk. The results were worth it and it wasn''t like she had anything toin about. She checked her [Quest] menu and saw the first main objectivepleted. [Pioneer of the Universe SS-ranked Chain Quest You havee to a new world after being chased away from your previous one. With no faction or affiliation, you have decided to establish your own! The first step to establishing yourself as an independent force is to first construct a base! Main Objective 1: Rebuild the ruined town and turn it into your faction''s stronghold! (Completed) Main Objective 2: Achieve a Commerce, Military, Social, Security, and Happiness value of 70 NOTE: Subsequent quests will be unlocked after youpleted the previous quest. Take notice that this quest is subject to interference by other factions and counter-quests will be issued against your quest! Time Limit: None Rewards: Faction Surprise Box (x10), 2,000,000 Universe Gold NOTE: Rewards will be received and changed afterpleting the Main Objectives] *DING* [Rewards have been received! Faction Surprise Box x5, Crown of the Dire and 1,000,000 Universe Gold] "Oh! I got my money back!" She received a few items inside her [Inventory] and was quite happy to see another million golde back to her. Although it was only the faction currency, gold was still gold in Maria''s eyes. "Well, since my stronghold''s built, I better name it?" *DING* [Enter a name for your Town: ____] This menu window had popped up earlier when she first opened up the [Faction] window, she reopened the window and inputted a name. [Your Town has been named: Heltania] "Hmhm~ a fitting name for a town that''ll turn into the capital city of my faction!" Maria hummed in satisfaction. She had purposefully named it Heltania following herst name, but it was pretty stupid since she had just basically advertised her real-life name. It was a good thing that for now, no other yer was present on Vanhal. If Maria''s friends were here to witness her name her town, they would have immediately prevented her. "Alright, now that the name''s set, I should continue with my other quests. First off, let''s go to the craftsmen and have them build Death''s Church!" One of the two maids waiting behind Maria quickly spoke up when she overheard her. "My Lady, shall we go call the chief craftsmen?" "Eh? Who''re you two?" Maria said after turning around and seeing the two unfamiliar vampires. [Amara Lv.40] [Kisha Lv. 42] The one who had spoken up was Kisha, the one who looked to be the older of the two. "My Lady, a person of your stature does not need to go out of their way to visit the craftsmen. I''ll deliver an audience request to them. They''ll be the ones toe to the castle." "Hmmm~ okay then. I''ll leave it to you." The maid bowed and was about to head out but Maria quickly stopped her, "Ahh, before you go introduce yourselves and tell me what you do. Although I can determine what you do base on your attire, I''d rather hear the specifics from you~" "Yes, My Lady." The vampire maid bowed deeply and introduced herself, "This one''s name is Kisha Kimmura. I am the head maid who will be attending to your everyday needs while you are inside the castle and city. I''m also proficient inbat and many other things." "I''m guessing Lh hired you?" "Yes, my Lady." "And you?" Maria asked turned to the other one. "Your Highness, my name is Amara. I will attend to you regardless of whether you are in the castle or while you''re out on the field," Amara said with a deep bow simr to Kisha''s. "I see. Well, Kisha, you can go now and inform the head craftsman. I''ll wait in the" Maria trailed off and looked towards Lh. "Master will wait in the audience room so bring him there!" Lh quickly said. "Yes. I will get to it. Excuse me, my Lady," Kisha said before walking back into the castle. Maria stayed on the balcony and continued taking in the sights. She was actually feeling really giddy. It was her first time being in an actual castle and staring down at the town below. There was a novel feeling to it. "Lh, I want to build Death''s Church somewhere in the town. That''s why I called the craftsmen... I don''t care where they build it, but keep the budget low." "Eh? Are you sure it''s okay not to make it grand, Master? Aren''t you Death''s Envoy?" "..." Maria remained silent for a while before she opened her mouth to say, "I''m not sure anymore. The title''s still there, but before I left for this world, I remembered that both church''s factions were sent to hunt me down. This includes Death''s Church in the Dark Faction..." Lh frowned and didn''t say anything. "I don''t know why I got a quest to build his church, but it doesn''t matter as long as I canplete it and get the rewards. Also, tell me where Ash is. He should be done by now." "Ash had gone to the Glemen''s Barony to finish up with the transportation of materials," Lh reported. "Once hees back, make sure you tell him toe find me." "Yes, Master!" Maria stretched her wings out before walking back into the castle. "[Status]" [Maria Lv. 55 HP: 7,300/7,300 MP: 211,300/211,300 SP: 746/746 EXP: 0/5,500,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Sub-ss 1: Magus Sub-ss 2: Queen Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death, The Knowledgeable One, Fallen Priestess, Fallen Saintess, World Traveler, Queen of the Dire ATK: 714 (+200~300) DEF: 958 (+15) M.ATK: 2219 (+20) M.DEF: 11,093 (+15) STR: 126 (+10) AGI: 263 (-5) VIT: 357 (+8) INT: 4200 (+26) LCK: 11 Free Stat Points: 0 Universal Currency: 128,412 Gold Vanhal Currency: 600 Blood Gold Faction Currency: 1,001,000 Universe Gold] "Eh? When did I get a second sub-ss?" Chapter 81: New Plans Chapter 81: New ns [Queen Unique Sub-ss You are an inspiration to your people. Your presence alone invigorates and influences the mood and attitude of your people! As a person of power, all of your actions will be taken under scrutiny of your subjects! Depending on your actions, allies receive positive or negative boosts to their stats when around you. Note: Unique ss rewarded to the yer who created the first Faction] After reading through the description, Maria looked over at her sub-ss'' skill grid. After receiving her second sub-ss, her main ss'' skills and sub-ss'' skills were divided into 2 different categories and each category was separate from each other. Before the skills were in the same category so her skill slots were almost full, but now that her skills were separated between her main ss and sub-sses, her skill slots had opened up by quite the amount. "Neat, I don''t know what happens if I had all of the slots full, but I''m guessing it means that I wouldn''t be able to learn anymore skills, how convenient that my slots just split in two." Maria was ted at this, but she didn''t forget to check her sub-ss skill slots and saw that there were only 10 slots. All 10 of those sub ss slots were already filled while 6 from her Main slots were freed up. There were 4 new skills that she hadn''t seen before but they seemed quite useful. [God Save the Queen Rank: Epic As a Queen, you are blessed by God and cannot easily die. When receiving fatal damage, you will be granted 5 seconds of immunity to all damage and you are immune to all Instant Death Skills and the Death Sentence debuff. Cooldown: 24 Hours] [Royal Decree (0/10,000) Rank: S By your authority, you are able to mobilize your army anywhere and at any time. Summons 50 random soldiers from your Royal Army to your side. Mana Cost: 1,000 Mana/Soldier Note: This skill cannot activate if you do not have a Royal Army] [Royal Army Lv.1 (0/10,000) Rank: S As a ruler standing above many, you naturally need an army to protect yourself and your domain! You can bestow the following Sub-ss to any NPC and yer: 1. Soldier (Max. 50) 2. Sharpshooter (Max. 40) 3. Engineer (Max. 10) 4. Medic (Max. 20) 5. Cavalry (Max. 30) 6. General (Max. 1) Recruited NPCs cannot exceed 10 levels above you while there are no restrictions to yers.] [Queen of the Dire Rank: S As the queen of your faction, you are able to instantaneously move to whatever location that is within your faction''s sphere of influence. While out ofbat, teleports to a destination inside of your faction''s territory Mana Cost: 10,000 Mana/Person Cooldown: 12 Hours] "Ohoh~ I can raise an army? That''s nice~" Maria grinned devilishly when she saw her newly acquired [Royal Army] skill. From what she counted, she could have a total of 151 soldiers under hermand. The level constraint was a bit hurtful since she would perpetually be under the average level of everyone else in the yer base, but it wasn''t like the needed to only use her army against yers. "Hmmm... there''s also the Dire''s Faction Army, so looks like I can create 2 armies? That''s nice. However, from the looks of things, I can only directly control the Royal Army while the Dire Army can only be used for faction wars..." Maria had quickly opened her [Faction] window after looking at her new skill. She had already taken notice about her faction''s option to raise an army, but she didn''t think that because of one of her sub-sses, she herself could raise a personal army of her own. "Hehehe, I can do a lot with this~" After jumping worlds, things have only been looking up for Maria. She couldn''t help but smile in a pleasant mood. Too bad that mood was soon about to be ruined. Ash was running a littlete, and Maria was beginning to grow impatient from the waiting. The craftsmen that she had ordered Kisha to go fetch were also runningte. One of the things that Maria hated the most in the world was waiting. By nature, she was a very impatient person and she herself knew this. It wasn''t a surprise that she would suddenly jump the gun and go out exploring in the game only to get lost. Actually, she was feeling that impulse right now because her so-called subjects were being slow. Lh could already see the imaginary patience meter on her master running low so she quickly said, "Master, to pass the time, why don''t you take a look at your quest rewards!" "Hm? Oh, yeah, I almost forgot about them." "Phew..." Maria quickly opened up her inventory and began looking through her rewards. [Crown of the Dire Lv. 55 (Level increases ording to user''s level) Rank: Epic Category: Unique Faction essory DEF: 100 ~ 200 All stats +5% (Locked) Luck + 5 (Locked) EXP Gain: +50% (Locked) Drop Rate: +50% (Locked) The first yer faction''s crown, it is a unique existence that can grant a yer or an NPC authority over the Dire. There is currently only 1 jewel on this crown so many of its options have been locked.] "Th-this..." "What''s wrong, Master?" Lh asked after seeing Maria''s shocked expression. "This item is exactly what I needed!" "Uwahh?!" Maria jumped out of her seat and cheered when she saw the locked options of her new essory. Although it was still locked, Maria was still excited by it. If she could find the way to unlock the option, all of her leveling problems would immediately be resolved. "It says here I have to find jewels? Hmmm, it doesn''t say what jewels I have to find and I don''t think I can slot in just anything random." Maria was deep in thought when she heard someone knock on the door to the audience room. "Come in!" Lh quickly said. "My Lady, the craftsmen are here." Maria nodded and her maid, Kisha, quickly ushered in a few people. If Maria didn''t see wrongly, they were pale looking dwarves. "Vampire Dwarves?" Maria involuntarily said that but the leading dwarf quickly stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, it is an honor for you to recognize our race." "Oh, so I was right!" Maria eximed before she started frowning. These people werete, and she hated waiting. She was about to say something about that, but the dwarven vampire quickly spoke up after quickly detecting Maria''s dissatisfaction. "Ahem, we apologize for our tardiness, Your Highness," The dwarf quickly said while getting onto one knee. The other two dwarves behind him quickly followed suit and the leading dwarf continued, "As Your Highness knows, it is currently daytime, and our kind...well, our weakness is" "I''m well aware of that. I just hate waiting. I''ll inform you people ahead of timeactually, that''s inconvenient. I''d have to wait again!" "Your Highness, if I may propose" "Wait, what was your name again?" "Ah, forgive my rudeness, Your Highness. I forgot to introduce myself," The dwarf said. "My name is Danor Dwarfsong, the head craftsman of Your Highness'' faction." "For now, at least..." Hearing Maria''s words, the vampire dwarf''s already pale face, paled even further. He knew that Maria was dissatisfied with his tardiness so he quickly tried to amend his mistake. "Your Highness, if you would be merciful and listen to my proposal. I''m sure it will abate your anger and give us all a solution to our day time plight." "Say it." The dwarf quickly stood up and walked over to Maria before kneeling down on both knees in front of her and presenting her a scroll. After Maria opened the scroll, she took a look at the schematic of what seemed to be an underground passageway. "Underground tunnels?" "Yes, Your Highness. This way, even during the day, your subjects will be able to move around." Maria was about to nod her head, but she suddenly had an even better idea. "Hey, dwarf." "Y-Yes, Your Highness?" Danor flinched when he saw the devious smile on Maria''s cute face. "How about you make an underground city instead of just some underground passageways?" "P-pardon, Your Highness? An underground city?" "Yes, is it doable?" "W-well, I won''t say it is impossible, but it would take a long time!" "Well, you better start working then!" Maria''s words left no room for arguments. The dwarf quickly took back the scroll Maria had handed to him and retreated. "I want a possible schematic of the underground city delivered to me within a week. Also, I want you to create a church somewhere in the corner of our town. It doesn''t have to be anything grand, just make it somewhere. Discuss the budget with Lh." "Y-yes, Your Highness. We will immediately start building the church after we''ve discussed the budget and decide the ce." "Get it done within a week and make sure you finish the underground city''s schematics." "Yes, Your Highness!" "As for the workers, don''t worry, we''ll get some more~" Maria said with a smile before continuing, "For now, you guys are dismissed. Lh, I''m going to go hunt some monsters." "Okay, Master." Maria turned towards the head maid and said to her, "Kisha, when Ashes back, tell him to look for me in the field or just wait here in the castle until I get back." "Yes, My Lady." "Lh, I leave things here to you. Amara, you don''t have to follow since its day time. Just stay here and look after the castle with Kisha!" Amara looked a little conflicted because her duty was to take care of Maria but she couldn''t go against her queen''s orders. In the end, she could only nod her head. Maria waved good bye to everyone in the room and quickly went towards the balcony. Now that she could go out and adventure alone, she quickly took the chance. There was a new out there just waiting for her to explore it. Once she got to the balcony she spread her wings and quickly took to the air and flew away from the town. While looking down, she could see the entirety of her newly repaired domain. She could finally see the fields outside of the city walls after she passed above it. Maria did notice that there were some watch dogs and ghouls patrolling the fields and walls, but there were no signs of any vampires outside. "Well, I guess that''s a given. Even with the Blood Fountain, I guess they all should be asleep right now." Maria silently forgave Danor and continued flying in whatever direction she chose. "Ahh~ for some reason, the air isn''t stifling anymore and I can fly freely again~ I wonder why?" ***** Back in the castle, Lh was currently busy dealing with the budget for the church and the underground city. First off, they nned to create an underground town first instead of a city since the funds they currently had on hand weren''t enough to create a city. They''d just expand the town into a city after they acquired enough funds. Lh was so busy with her work before she remembered something very crucial. "WAIT!" "W-what is it?" Danor quickly asked. "M-Master...did she just say she was going to go hunting?" "Yes, Her Highness did say that..." "NO! S-Someone, quickly go after her! She''s going to get lost!" "Huh?" While everyone was panicking inside the castle, Maria was already far away from the town and was currently hunting down a giant grey troll. "Hehehe~ hunt, hunt, hunt~ give me your EXP!" Chapter 82: New Pet Chapter 82: New Pet Unfortunately for Lh, it was currently day time and the vampires weren''t able to travel during the day. They could do their normal activities during the day if they were near a Blood Fountain, but it would be impossible if they stepped out of the Blood Fountain''s area of influence. They''d be directly roasted by the sun and quickly killed. Since Lh was caught in such a dilemma, she could only wait for Ash toe back and order him to go look for Maria. ***** Elsewhere, in a field far away from Heltania Town, Maria was currently cleaving apart a few monsters and jovially strutting about while humming and singing. She had just recently found the in-game option to y songs while gaming so hunting became much more enjoyable for her, except, if others saw her actually singing and cutting down monsters in a bloody fashion with a smile stered on her face...it would be a very scary sight indeed. "I''m a baOh, what''s this?" Maria stopped singing and looked down at the monster she was just about to cut down. It was a small version of the Bloody Hounds she was currently hunting. The only difference between this Bloody Hound and the others she had been hunting was that it was small and the monster''s level was at 1. [Bloody Hound Pup Lv.1 Rare-Grade Pet HP: 100/100 MP: 50/50 NOTE: This monster can be tamed] "Oh? This is probably that new pet system that the devs brought out since finding monster eggs was too difficult for most yers..." Maria continued to stare at the little whelp and the pup continued to ''ferociously'' bark at her. No matter how threatening it was trying to be, in Maria''s eyes, it only looked cute. It was like a little red puppy that was trying to get her attention. "Aww, aren''t you the cutest little thing?" The little puppy only barked at her menacingly. Maria didn''t care about the hostility being directed at her and she instead picked up the puppy and began looking around for more of its kind to hunt down. The puppy, once in her embrace, began to bite down on her arm, but to Maria, it only tickled. A level 1 monster wouldn''t be able to do any sort of damage to her who was level 55. "Hehehe~ that tickles! Anyway, be a good boy and just watch me hunt~" Maria began massacring the little fellow''s kind. She was fighting with only one hand right now since her other arm was used to hug the Bloody Hound Pup to her bosom. The puppy got a front row seat of Maria''s brutality. It started loosening its bite on Maria arm and immediately turned stiff and docile. Maria noticed that the puppy was no longer ''yfully'' biting her and she stopped hunting for a moment and looked down. "Hm? What''s wrong?" The monster just continued to stiffly face forward and didn''t dare to luck up at thedy who was tightly holding onto it. *DING* [The Blood Hound Pup has been tamed! Will you ept it? YES/NO] "Eh? I actually had to tame this little guy? I thought I just had to take him," Maria shrugged before pressing the [YES]. *DING* [Blood Hound Pup Lv.1 has been added to your list of pets. Please name your new pet!] "Hmmmnnn...let''s call you Little Red~" [Please confirm your pet''s name: Little Red... YES/NO] "Yes sa~" *DING* [Blood Hound Pup Lv.1 has been named: Little Red The Pet''s stats have been optimized ording to Rank] "Okay, let''s add you to the party and have you level up!" The leveling up between a low-level pet and a low-level party member weren''t the same. The power-leveling restriction that the devs had just recently ced on the yers didn''t apply to yer-owned pets and familiars. Maria now had 2 pets, the first was Lh and the second was Little Red. When Maria checked Little Red''s [Status] she found that the most ring difference between her two pets were their ranks and the fact that one was intelligent and the other wasn''t so much. Unlike Lh, Little Red couldn''t talk and was acting like how a normal pet should. Maria had already seen her other friends'' pets and they weren''t like Lh who was intelligent enough to act on her own. [Little Red Lv.1 Bloody Hound Rank: B HP: 100/100 MP: 50/50 SP: 10/10 EXP: 0/100 ATK: 14 DEF: 14 M.ATK: 2 M.DEF: 6 STR: 10 AGI: 5 VIT: 10 INT: 5 LCK: 2 Skills: [Bite Lv.1], [sh Lv.1] Growth Potential: 72 Satisfaction: 50/100 Favor: 20/100 Evolution: Possible Requirements: Lv. 50] "Hmm... seems mediocrepared to Lh... [Pet Status: Lh]!" [Lh Lv. 65 Fallen Faerie Rank: S HP: 16,500/16,500 MP: 27,750/27,750 SP: 700/700 EXP: 52,000/97,500 ATK: 702 DEF: 990 M.ATK: 740 M.DEF: 1,180 STR: 390 AGI: 460 VIT: 550 INT: 925 LCK: 5 Growth Potential: 100 Satisfaction: 98/100 Favor: 100/100 Evolution: Possible Requirements: Reach Lv. 200] "Eh? When did Lh rank up?" Maria forgot that her fairy had a rank up quest. Somewhere along the lines, Lh had been able toplete the quest without her even noticing it. Anyway, it was all good news to Maria. Her first pet or in her terms, familiar, had been able to rank up and her stats became stronger. All of Lh''s skills had also received an upgrade and her utility in battle was now going to be even more helpful. Now her second pet, Little Red, was what needed her attention now. The sheer disparity between Little Red and Lh caused Maria to somewhat look down on the little red puppy in her embrace. It was only B-rank and the growth potential wasn''t a perfect 100 like Lh''s growth potential. It wasn''t intelligent, the starting stats were a bit low, and the only skills it knew were attacks skills so Maria judged that it was an attack-type pet, unlike Lh who was more of a support-type. For Maria, anything weaker than her inbat wasn''t going to be an asset but a hindrance instead. The best this little blood hound could do was act like a bait and lure in all the monsters in the surroundings over to her before she personally took care of them. The only good thing about this little puppy was that it could evolve just like Lh. This meant that at the very least, in the future, it wouldn''t be as useless as it seemingly was at the present. "Hah... getting to level 50 should be easy. Let''s just hope you can evolve properly and turn into something more useful... other than your cuteness, you don''t seem to be pretty useful," Maria said after bringing the puppy up to her face. It was as if Little Red understood what its master was saying and the puppy began whining like it was wronged by her words. "Ugh... don''t look at me like that..." Maria stopped paying attention to Little Red and began hunting the Bloody Hounds once again. As she was hunting, numerous system notifications that informed her of Little Red''s level ups popped up continuously. ***** The hunting continued until it waste into the evening within the game. Ash had been looking around for his mistress throughout the entire day and once evening fell, the other vampires of Heltania Town were dispatched by Lh to look for Maria as well. It wasn''t untilte into the night that Maria was found sleeping under a tree with arge red hound guarding her. She had actually wandered so far away from her territory that she couldn''t utilize her [Queen of the Dire] skill so she couldn''t teleport herself back to her town. At first, Maria was relying on this skill to get herself back to the town in case she got lost, but after finding out that she couldn''t utilize the skill after she stepped out of her Faction''s territory, Maria just outrightly gave up and continued hunting until she got sick of it and decided to just rest up somewhere. Ash was the one who found Maria under arge blood oak tree with a bloody hound guarding her. Ash was a bit skeptical when he saw his mistress sleeping on top of therge hound, but after sensing that the hound had a simr feeling as Lh, he came to the conclusion that the hound was his master''s new pet. Ash approached his mistress and the hound. When he got close, the hound began growling lowly at him. He didn''t pay the mutt any mind and just knelt before saying, "My Lady..." His call roused Maria awake. When she saw who had called out to her, Maria rubbed her eyes and said, "Took you long enough, Ash." "I''m sorry, my Lady." "Never mind, I was looking for you. How was your interrogation? Did you find anything?" "Yes...I found...many things," Ash replied with a solemn look. Maria nodded and said, "Good. Now, do tell what you''ve found." *DING* [Quest Update! Sub Objective 1: Capture and Interrogate Russo Glemen (Completed) Sub Objective 2: Kill Russo Glemen and takeover his domain (Completed) Main Objective: Acquire information about Yt Garm''s downfall (75/100%)] Chapter 83: Main Scenario Quest 1 Chapter 83: Main Scenario Quest 1 After receiving the quest update, Maria frowned because only 75% of the quest had been finished. She had already sessfully captured and interrogated the man, swallowed up the entirety of his forces andnd, and yet, only 75% of the quest was finished? "...Why isn''t it finished yetAsh, did you kill him yet?" Maria questioned after thinking about it. She didn''t see the baron''s body so she wasn''t aware of whether or not that vampire was still alive and breathing. Ash flinched before he quickly reported, "My Lady, I was going to spare his life if he wanted to serve you, but if it isn''t" "Ash, I don''t need a person who betrayed their own Lord on my side. Especially if that Lord was your brother..." "..." "Get rid of himactually, wait!" Maria had a better n in store for the baron. After hearing Ash''s report on what happened to his brother, it turns out that Baron Russo had betrayed his previous lord, Yt Garm, in order to take his position. The vampire had killed everyone in his previous lord''s family and had only missed one person which was Alexa Garm, the young vampire that Maria had picked up who turned out to actually be Yt Garm''s daughter. In other words, Alexa was indeed Ash''s niece. Maria didn''t care about the betrayal since she had some subordinates like the first 5 of her followers who had betrayed their lord in order to live, but Russo, he had betrayed his lord purely because he coveted Yt''s position. Yt was especially vulnerable since he had lost his strongest backing which was his blood brother so many people were eyeing his position. Russo had deceived Yt for a long time by helping him repel all of his enemies only to him in the back once his guard was down. Maria didn''t want to keep such a deceiving and conniving person next to her. Also, since she had taken in and decided to take care of Alexa because the little girl was so cute, it was only natural that she would be repulsed by the person who had deprived Alexa of her happiness. "Call in Alexa. She''ll now have her chance for revenge," Maria said with a slight smile. Amara bowed to herdy''s words and quickly left the hall to look for Alexa. The young girl was probably out on the castle''s training field so she quickly headed that way. Ash widened his eyes and smiled before replying, "I''ll immediately bring the baron here then." ***** The baron and Alexa were brought into the audience room together and when Alexa saw the baron, she immediately disyed her hostility towards him. It seemed that she didn''t, or perhaps couldn''t, forget about the person who had backstabbed her father. The baron immediately tried to appeal to Maria once he saw her andpletely ignored the little girl who was openly hostile towards him. "M-My Lady, it''s such an honor to be within your presence! This lowly one is willing to serve you," Russo immediately said as he knelt down on one knee. Maria smirked at him before turning towards Alexa and asking her, "Alexa, do you know this vampire?" Alexa was seething right now and she forgot to reply to Maria''s question. Her eyes were glowing red and a red aura began to slightly envelop her body. "Alexa?" "Eh? Uh, w-what is it, big sis?" Alexa snapped out of her trance and immediately replied after Maria tapped a finger on her head. "I asked if you know this vampire." "I-I do..." "I see. Well, I n to spare him. Are you okay with that?" "Eh? Uhm..." "Thank you for your graciousness, Your Majesty!" Russo immediately spoke up in thanks after hearing Maria''s words. Alexa''s already pale face began paling even further when she heard her big sister''s words. There was sadness and a feeling of betrayal that passed through her heart but Maria''s next words immediately flushed those feelings away. "I n on sparing him, but do you?" "Huh?" "I won''t do anything to him, but...are you willing to do the same?" "Uhm...i-if big sister doesn''t want me too..." "I can''t dictate what you can''t and can do. So tell me, what do you want?" "...Kill..." Alexa mumbled. "What''s that? I couldn''t hear you." "KILL!" Maria turned around and saw Ash already making his move. Just before Alexa charged at the baron, Ash quickly swept out with a blood de and sliced off the baron''s arms and legs. "GAAAAAHHHH!!" By the time Alexa reached the baron, she had already formed arge de with her blood magic and immediately cleaved down on the baron''s head. Her attack was a bit weak so she wasn''t able to immediately decapitate the baron so she repeatedly swung at his head, neck, and face. The baron''s bloody cries reverberated throughout the hall but Maria indifferently watched the scene of her berserk little vampire sister continue to cleave down on the baron''s bloody and mutted head. "Ugh, isn''t this pretty graphic?" Maria turned her head away as the scene had begun to look too gruesome to watch. Alexa continued to sh apart the baron''s head with her blood-created sword and soon enough, the baron''s screams started dying down as his life force slowly began to fade away. Maria found it rather distasteful that even until thest second the baron had been trying to plead for mercy before he started cursing at Alexa. Once all the noise died down and Alexa had stopped her rampage, Maria finally turned around and took a quick look at the bloodied little girl. She couldn''t help but notice a peculiar red aura slowly seep into Alexa from the baron''s body. She didn''t know what had changed, but after giving a quick look at Alexa status window, she noticed that the young girl had jumped 20 levels above her previous level. The little girl quickly turned around to face Maria and she quickly knelt down on all fours. "Y-your Highness, th-thank you for letting me have my revenge!" Alexa''s voice was still quivering in excitement. Her previous bloodlust still hadn''t dissipated and a system window popped up in front of her. [Character Quest Generated! A Young Vampire''s Revenge Rank: C Help Alexa Garm exact her revenge! Main Objective: Kill or let Alexa Garm kill the vampire, Baron Russo! (Completed) Rewards: Intimacy with Alexa Garm elevated to [Intimate] Optional Rewards: Alexa Garm''s ss Change: Berserker (Condition: let Alexa Garm kill Baron Russo personally) (Completed)] [Quest Cleared! Intimacy with NPC: Alexa Garm has changed from [Amiable] [Intimate]!] [NPC Alexa Garm has changed sses from [Squire] [Berserker]] "Oh, isn''t this quite nice~" Maria hummed happily before gesturing towards one of her maids and saying, "Give Alexa a quick bath and have here to the castle''s front gate! Also, have someone deal with the baron''s body and clear away the bloody smell in this hall!" "Yes, Your Highness!" Kisha immediately stepped forward and led Alexa out of the hall while Ash offered to deal with the body. "I''ll deal with the body." "Let Amara do that. Ash, you''reing with me! We''re going to go hunting after Alexa''s had her bath!" Ash nodded and the two quickly stepped out of the hall leaving Amara to deal with Baron Russo''s corpse. ***** While Maria was busy doing her things, back on the starting where everyone was still at, the main scenario of the game had finally been revealed after the firstmemorative event had finished. Every yer guild and organization was actively participating in the game''s first main scenario story quest. The main scenario quest of Universe Tale was unique to each. Every had its own main scenario quest but this was the first scenario quest for the entire game so the rewards were lucrative. [Faction Alignment Rank: MS Tensions between the two main factions of Eveline are now at a breaking point due to the influence and contributions of the adventurers who had suddenly descended into the world. Either choose a side or remain neutral, either way, you will be forced to participate in this world''s all-out war. Common Rewards: Level +10, Eveline''s World Equipment Box (10), Gold Guild Rewards: Guild Center Level-Up Pass, City Creation Tablet Special Rewards: World Transportation Gate (Coordinates: Unknown)] The Main Scenario quest of Eveline was currently being led by the Fallen Angels guild and due to their active participation, the''s [Dark Faction] was currently in the lead. Due to themon rewards of the quest which every member of the faction whichpleted the worlds main scenario quest would receive, many Guild Alliances had been formed. The alliances were formed so that the guilds in the alliance would be able to swiftly progress through the main scenario quests but the Fallen Angels who had yet to create an alliance were the in the lead. This was mostly because they had received the abundant rewards from the game''s first-ever event quests. They had received many equipment sets, weapons, gold, and levels. Many of Earth''s businesses eyed the guild covetously due to theirrge lead in the game. Many reached out to try and form a business deal with the guild, but thanks to Maria''s father, Corinthos, who already had an agreement with the guild, they had quite the thick shield to prevent them from being taken advantage or threatened by the many other corporations that were eyeing them so that they could dip their hands into the cybereconomics of Unitale. Talks about how great the turnover for thepanies and corporations that invested earlier on in the game was going around the world''s business sector. There were even some people who were getting rich overnight from buying and selling in-game items. All of this didn''t matter to Maria or the Fallen Angels guild at the moment, especially for Lisbet and her friends who were only ying the game because they just wanted to have fun and not be bothered by those real life issues. Inside the headquarters of the Fallen Angels guild, Ama and the guild''s other executives were currently having a meeting a discussing about their next course of actions. "How''s the quest progression?" Ama, the Fallen Angels'' Vice Guild Leader, asked. "We''re progressing through smoothly with the new sub-quests [He''s Support] and [Dark Adonis]," One of the guild executives reported. "Good, I received some news from one of the spies we nted in the [Light Faction]. The Golden Lion guild and the Justice League guild might try and interfere with the [Dark Adonis] quest. Tell the yers who are participating in the quest to stay alert." "Should we assign some yers to guard them?" "No, that will only attract attention. I''m sure they also have spies within our guild," Milya said. "I think we should track down their intercepting forces and have some of our guildmates go and block them. We keep the fire away from Lisbet, Z, and the rest who are progressing with the quests," Ama spoke up and said after thinking about it for a while. The Fallen Angels was a guild that epted both Light and Dark faction yers. They had a neutral standing but the guild had decided to progress with the Dark faction''s Main Scenario quest since they were originally a dark faction guild. It actually didn''t matter which faction''s main scenario quest was taken but because Lisbet was originally a dark faction yer, she had taken the dark faction''s main scenario quest and was able to quickly progress through the quests which resulted in the guild taking the dark faction''s side. The yers couldn''t take any main scenario quests from the neutral faction so they still had to pick sides. Most of the neutral guilds and yer organizations saw that the dark faction was ahead because of the Fallen Angels so they took the dark faction''s side instead of going over to the light faction. No doubt this was due to the allure of the main scenario quests''mon rewards. Since it would be received by everyone, all of the neutral guilds who were still sitting on the fence naturally joined the dark faction since they were much farther ahead of the light faction. "Go and create the teams and have them wait on standby until we get more information on those who are trying to scheme against our guild." Once Amanda issued out her orders, the guild immediately began to get busy. She couldn''t help but envy Maria who was now on another and enjoying herself. All of Maria''s friends had already received an update from her regarding her situation. When they found out she was on another, they were naturally surprised so when they saw the special rewards from the main quest, Lisbet and the other naturally wanted to im it for themselves so that they could quickly hop on over to Maria''s. Amanda was about to lean in her chair and stretch her legs but before she could do so she suddenly received an urgent whisper from Lizzy. Chapter 84: Main Scenario Quest 2 Chapter 84: Main Scenario Quest 2 Backup was quickly dispatched over to Lizzy''s side, but Maria, who was on another, was proceeding with the Main Scenario Quest of her own, although she wasn''t aware of it. Maria was currently out on the field and leveling up with Alexa, Amara, and Lh. Due to the event where Alexa killed Baron Russo, she had absorbed the vampire''s powers and integrated it with her own. She had received some levels and was now able to party together with Maria to hunt some of the monsters around Heltania City. Her faction''s territory was being overrun by monsters due to it not being managed by a vampire noble and was neglected for so long. The system had long since issued her a daily faction quest which required her to repeatedly clear out the monsters in her territory. Also, because she had fully established her city, citizens, or rather refugees from other territories began trickling into her city. Some only passed by while others decided to remain as permanent residents of her territory. However, there was a limit and the limit was caused the status of her city''s security, sanitary, and development stat, which she of course learned after the fact they began suddenly appearing in her city. The citizens that appeared weren''t only limited to those of the vampire race, but some other mystical species such as werewolves, demi-bats, subi, incubi, and others. However, most of them were still of the vampire race. These other races only appeared on the minor side. When Maria learned a bit more, it turns out that there were 3 continents on the and each continent was dominated by a singr species. The continent she was on was known as the Blood Continent and it was dominated by vampires. The other two continents which she didn''t bother learning the names of were dominated by the werewolves and subi. There were some other minor races living on each continent but these 3 major races were the ones that dominated the. The starting had the most diverse races on it since there were humans, demons, dragons, angels, devils, and others. Well, it was a given since all of the yers had to start somewhere. It was only after the yerspleted the starting''s main scenario, explored at least 2 of the 3 continents on the, were they able to hop onto another. The only exception would be the main reward of the first main scenario quest which would grant the guild that cleared the questline the item to create a teleportation gate to another. This was a reward for the first guild thatpleted the first main scenario quest and it would be an incentive for the other guilds toplete the seeding main scenario quests that followed after. The yers didn''t know yet the full rewards and advantages they would gain once they travelled onto another, built their strength over there, and started monopolizing all of the rewards, quests, and resources on the. Each in Unitale was ssified under two categories which are the minors and majors. The reward for the first main scenario quest would be a minor, but the potential advantages the guild that possessed this could get wouldter be used on the next major that the final main scenario quest of the starting would lead the yers to after itspletion. The minors'' resources would be used as chest pieces for the fierce battles of power that the yer guilds and organization would wage against each other on the majors since theses would have the best resources in the game and it was basically the aim for a guild or organization to dominate at least one major. This information would soon be publicized on an online streaming session that Universal Games would hold in order to disclose more information about the game. For now, no one knew the preciousness behind the first main scenario''s quest rewards which was no one bothered to actually progress far into it. The only exception would be the Fallen Angels guild which wanted the transfer gate so that they could move over to Maria''s. Unfortunately for them, the given would be a minor and not a major one. The Maria was currently on was the third major of the game. Maria herself didn''t know this but for now, she was monopolizing the resources of one of the game''s majors all to herself. Once the other yers got to her, much time would have passed by that her faction would probably indomitable on that. Of course, that all remained to be in question because if Maria didn''t take advantage of her lead against all of the other yers currently ying the game, she would have to face the assault and aggression of those who would want to take over or destroy her faction. Once again, she was still wanted by the gods of both the light and dark faction. Once the yers reached her, a bounty would undoubtedly be put on her head and she would be the target of many yers who would want to get a quick and ''easy'' windfall. This would still be far into the future so Maria still didn''t need to worry so much about it, however, it would do her good if she hastened her progress in all of her quests which would eventually lead her to the''s first main scenario quest. Maria was already steadily leveling herself up, but it couldn''tpare with the other yers in the game. Her current level was 59, almost 60, after all that time she spent grinding in her territory, but the level rankings showed that the top 100 yers'' levels were already in the 80s. The level ranking was released by Universe Games after the main scenario quest was finally discovered. There were also other rankings such as pet rankings, weapon rankings, armor rankings, and other stuff, but most of it were empty or had inconsequential gear on it. It was obvious that no sane yer would disclose the information about their prized equipment to the whole world so the weapons, armor, and other such rankings were only filled with sub-par equipment with high levels. Soon enough however, those rankings would be filled with high quality yer made weapons. The cksmiths and other production sses of the game would soon see the advertising potential of the weapon and armor rankingster on. It was mostly for the clout and fame, butter once the guilds were firmly established and recruitment became strict, production ss yers would be able to use these rankings as a way to advertise themselves to the guilds and organizations. ****** Maria and her group had just finished a long grinding session at a field suited for helping Alexa to level up, but they had to quickly do an urgent faction quest just after getting back. "Ali, quickly take care of that! I''ll go lure in the others! Amara, with me!" "Yes, big sis!" "Yes, Your Highness." Alexa and Amara replied together. Arge pack of monsters had suddenly appeared and attacked the grain fields just outside of their city and since Maria still hadn''t finished recruiting any NPCs for her army so she had no choice but to personally deal with these monster attacks. After receiving her orders, Alexa rushed forward with arge ck greatsword and she immediately began swinging it at the jackal shaped monster that was currently plundering the grain field. She focused her assault on only one monster which was debuffed by Lh while Amara and Maria who were higher in level went to deal with the other monsters attacking the grain field. They wouldn''t kill the monsters however, but only injure them to the point where the monsters'' HP bars were low before letting Alexa deal the finishing blow to all of them so she could get the maximum amount of experience points as possible. Alexa''s level had risen to 30 once she absorbed the baron''s power and after a few grinding sessions she had risen to level 42, but it still wasn''t enough to satisfy Maria. Maria wanted Alexa''s level to be at 50 or more so that she wouldn''t face the experience penalty from being in a party with her. The penalty still applied even now, but they made up with that by letting Alexa take all of thest hits. However, once Alexa''s level was within a 10 level range with hers, Maria would no longer have to do this and she''d be able to clear away all of the monsters herself without worrying about the penalty. The levels of the jackals were only ranged around the mid-50s so Alexa would still get a lot of experience from killing them and her attacks would still be able to damage them because their levels were too far apart. Also, her weapons and equipment made up for theck of stats needed to damage the monsters. Thanks to Maria''s favor and influence, she was able to request a suit of armor and a strong weapon for her favorite little vampire sister. Once they finally cleared all of the monsters, Maria was able to get the quest rewards from the system. Thankfully for her, even the NPCs in her group that participated in the quest all gained the experience points rewards rewarded by the system. "Alright, that''s enough for today. Let''s head back," Maria said as she looked around the now ruined grain field. "...Ash is going to be quite upset..." "Well, Your Highness...it seems that your attacks was the major cause of the field''s damage," Amara said with a giggle. "I''ll just leave it to him to deal with! Besides, if he had hastened the recruitment, we would already be able to deploy guards by now and this wouldn''t have happened!" Maria argued in her defense. Her attacks were quite powerful and her skills and magic spells had plenty of destructive areas of effects so instead of the jackals that dealt more damage to the fields, Maria''s skills were the major cause of the destruction though she hadn''t intended for it to happen. Well, who could me her? The jackals were all in the level 50 range and she had to use her skills to deal with them. "Big sister, I''ve leveled up!" Alexa excitedly said. She ran over to Maria and lowered her head. Maria already knew what she wanted. This cute little vampire wanted to be praised for her efforts and Maria naturally reciprocated it. She patted Alexa''s head which earned her a very cute and satisfied smile from her little vampire sister. "Alright, let''s head back. I want to see whether Ash has finished with the recruitment or not!" "Yes, Your Highness, but what will we do with all these monster corpses?" Amara asked. "Lh already went back and asked for a cleanup team to handle it. We can let these monster corpses go to waste. It can be used for food or materials for our vampire dwarves to create equipment out of!" Maria replied. "Hmmm... then the monster corpses we left behind earlier would have gone to waste then?" "Ah, don''t worry. We took the most precious materials from it so although we might have wasted a majority of it, we didn''t lose out too much since we were able to raise our levels by killing them." "Okay, but Your Highness, maybe next time we should have a small cleanup team follow us during our hunting sessions so that we won''t waste anymore monster materials and we won''t have to waste time collecting the materials ourselves," Amara suggested. "Yeah, maybe we should do that!" Maria only said perfunctorily. Thanks to the system with just a tap of her hand she could automatically collect all of the avable materials from the monsters so she wouldn''t need a cleanup team. However, she didn''t want to rebut Amara''s thoughtful suggestion since it was made with her well-being and interest in mind. Of course, Maria didn''t know yet that manual collection would yield more dropped items, but this didn''t matter to her since from before she would just skip out on collecting any items from mob monsters. When Maria finally made it back to her castle, she was happy to see that a retinue of lightly armed soldiers waiting for her at attention right when she passed through the castle''s giant archway and into the castle''s courtyard. "WELCOME BACK, YOUR HIGHNESS!" "!" Maria was thrown off by the loud salute and wee. Ash slowly stepped forward and walked over to Maria and asked, "How is it? Do you like your personal army?" "Wow! Cool!" Seeing the amazed and intrigued look on her face, Ash felt proud of himself. However, her next words immediately caused his pale face to pale even further. "Let''s test out how strong they are!" Maria smilingly said as she pulled out her Cmity and began walking over to the soldiers who were now dumbstruck at her words. "Hehehe~" Chapter 85: Resting and Marias New Gains Chapter 85: Resting and Maria''s New Gains Ash immediately saw the look on Maria''s face and quickly blocked her way. "Hm?" "My Lady, it''s a bit harsh to assume that these mere soldiers will be worthy of crossing des with you. Please reconsider since they were all once just lowly adventurers and wanderers. They''re all simply too weak for you to test!" "Well... I guess you''re right. Hurry up and train them then! I don''t want any weaklings in my army~" Maria said with a grin. "Of course, my Lady, I''ll immediately put them under the strictest of training so that they''ll be able to live up to your criteria!" Ash hastily said. He really wanted his Master to just let the new recruits go because if Maria did try to test them, the new soldiers wouldn''t be able tost long and there was even fear that some of them might incur some life-threatening injuries. After having been persuaded by Ash''s words, Maria let all of the soldiers off and only said a few words of encouragement before walking past them and into the city. Maria walked around and felt that therge castle which was constantly being remodeled by her vampire dwarves was feeling a little bleak and empty. She appreciated the fact that her people wanted what was best for her, but it was a little lonely just being here all by her lonesome with only Lh, Alexa, and her 2 maids to keep herpany. There was also her new dog, Little Red the Blood Hound, which would sometimes show up from time to time, but this fe was always patrolling around the castle like a gatekeeper. Thanks to having been leveled up by Maria, the Blood Hound had grown in size and level. It was already level 40 and was almost asrge as a sports car. Maria always thought that the bigger the better so she couldn''t wait to see her doggy grow to be as big as the castle when it reached level 100. Of course, this wouldn''t happen since the size and growth rate of all the pets were restricted by the system once it reached a certain criteria. From there, the only way to level it up or have it grow was to evolve it. Lh had been able to rank up herself, but she hadn''t yet experienced an evolution since she was stillcking the dark core of a high-ranked demon or dark attributed monster. Maria could only wait until they had amassed enough strength to attack a marquis ranked vampire or higher before she could try feeding the monster''s core to Lh. For now, the issue of Lh''s level cap had been taken care of due to her rank up from A to S, but for a long term fix, it was better if she evolved. Monsters could rank up after fulfilling certain conditions. Unfortunately for Maria, she had missed the timing of Lh''s rank up so she didn''t know about the specifics, but what she did know was that Lh had ranked up after they defeated Greed. And speaking about Greed, Maria finally remembered something about that little bugger. "Shouldn''t the absorption of Greed''s soul be finished by now?" Maria quickly opened up her [Status] and saw that the cool down until Greed''s Soul was absorbed had indeed finished and all she needed to do wasplete the process by clicking on the [Yes] option which had beenying around for who knows how long. There was always an ufortable heat that apanied her when she yed the game during the soul''s absorption process, but Maria had gotten used to it by now so she didn''t even realize that the heat had suddenly disappeared because the process had long since been over. This was just like her, she wouldplete forget about such crucial things whenever there was something more interesting presented in front of her. Maria had been busy with many interesting thingstely so she had forgotten. "Alright, let''splete this now. I''m pretty sure I''ll get stronger, right?" [Complete Soul Absorption? YES/NO] Maria tapped on the [YES] and another window popped up warning her of the consequences of her actions. [Take note that any changes to your character''s status, racial, or other attributes will be irreversible after the absorption. Will you proceed? YES/NO] "Yes, yes, I''ve already made it to this point so let''s just see this through all the way!" Maria once more tapped on the [YES] to confirm her choice and right away the soul absorption process waspleted. [Congrattions! You havepletely absorbed the Devil Greed''s Soul!] [Your taint value has increased sharply!] [Your Mana has increased by 6,000 points!] [Your INT has increased by 60 points!] [Your VIT has increased by 60 points!] [The SIN stat has been generated!] [Due to possessing the SIN stat, the Negative Energy resource has been unlocked!] [From absorbing the Sin, Greed, your SIN stat has increased by 5] [Your Title, [The Knowledgeable One] has changed to [The Sinful One]] Maria braced herself for the pain that woulde at her after receiving the log info about the rewards for her fully absorbing Greed''s Soul, but after waiting for 5 and then 10 seconds, nothing happened. "Oh? I-I''m not getting hurt this time?" Maria said with a little confusion. This game really liked to punish her for every little power up she got so she had been waiting for it so it came as a surprise to her that nothing actually happened. "Hmm...Well, I got a few good things! Now, let''s see what new things I''ve got!" [Maria Lv. 59] HP: 8,960/8,960 MP: 223,600/223,600 NE: 66/66 SP: 847/847 EXP: 1,809,912/5,900,000 Race: Fallen Angel ss: Dark Priestess Sub-ss 1: Magus Sub-ss 2: Queen Titles: Wolf yer, Slime yer, Monster Bird yer, Sprite yer, Angel of Death, The Sinful One, Fallen Priestess, Fallen Saintess, World Traveler, Queen of the Dire ATK: 781 (+200~300) DEF: 1232 (+15) M.ATK: 2394 (+20) M.DEF: 11,968 (+15) STR: 132 (+10) AGI: 275 (-5) VIT: 440 (+8) INT: 4326 (+26) LCK: 11 SIN: 6 Free Stat Points: 80 Universal Currency: 158,412 Gold 54 Silver 11 Copper Vanhal Currency: 14,600 Blood Gold Faction Currency: 1,001,000 Universe Gold] Maria loved looking at the high values of her status window. It made her feel a good sense of aplishment although she was a bit irked by how low her level was. [Unique Title: The Sinful One You are well learned and have immense knowledge in all sorts of fields. Provides a passive 5% boost to all stats. Equipped Effect 1: Increases SIN by 10% Equipped Effect 2: Increases Skill proficiency gained by (50 SIN)% Equipped Effect 3: Decreases Cooldown of all skills by (SIN)%] "Hmm... okay? Now, let''s see what this SIN and Negative Energy is..." [SIN: Stat gained by consuming the origins of Sin. Current acquired Sin: Greed.] [Negative Energy: Resource gained by unlocking the SIN stat. Negative Energy can be used to amplify the damage of all skills and hits. 1 NE will increase the damage of a skill by 2% while ignoring DEF stat of the enemy by 4%. While Negative Energy is at 100%, all damage received from Fatal or Critical Hits will be reduced by 50%] Maria quite liked the new resource she just unlocked. From the description, Negative Energy served as both a shield and a sword. She could use the new resource to amplify her damage or leave it at full and be virtually immune to all critical and fatal attacks. The loss of her previous title was somewhat unfortunate since she would lose out on quite a bit of skill proficiency, but she did receive an increase to her overall stats from the new title. "Hmmm... since my INT stat is so high, I should focus more on finding and learning skills that deal magic damage... Cmity''s Axe form has turned a little obsolete at this point, but luckily I still have the scythe form. Maybe I should focus on leveling up Cmity and recing my equipment with new stuff... I can''t keep using this low level gear forever..." Maria mumbled to herself. She then remembered that shemissioned some equipment from her cksmiths a while ago. It should be finished by now. "I''ll go pay them a visitter," Maria said before she stood up from her seat and walked over to therge bathroom which was connected to her chambers. Her maids stepped forward and began disrobing her. Maria wasn''t embarrassed that her maids saw her bare body since they were all women and it was already a routine anyway. She was also ustomed to being served like this in real life so she didn''t shy away, but instead she just gracefully and nonchntly walked into the bathroom and took a dip inside the veryrge bathtub. "Hwaaahhh... whether it''s inside or outside the game, this feels so~ good~" Maria said blissfully. "Big sis, do you want me to scrub your body?" Alexa suddenly asked from beside her. Surprised to see that Alexa was already in here, Maria turned towards the little girl and slowly asked, "Eh~? When did you get in here, Ali?" "Just a few seconds before you got in, big sis." "Oh~? Well, I can take care of that, but you can if you want~" Mariazily replied. After receiving the okay, Alexa took a cloth and a small bin filled with soap from beside the bathtub and went over to Maria. When she got closer, Alexa couldn''t help but be mesmerized by Maria''s wlessly beautiful body. Maybe it was because of the game, but the racial correction and beautification had improved Maria''s beauty by a few degrees. She was already beautiful to begin with, but it wasn''t to the point where even another woman would be mesmerized by her beauty. Her milky white skin which was wless beyond belief and her tinum-silver hair which cascaded down her back, and then there were her 3 pairs of ck angelic wings that further entuated to the divine picturesque scene in front of Alexa who remained dumbstruck and could only stare at her big sister in awe. The droplets of water on Maria''s wless skin that somehow gave Alexa the thought of licking it off her arms and legs... Alexa immediately shook her head and drove away all of those bad thoughts and waded her way next to Maria and began gently scrubbing and wiping down her body. "Ugh...I regret being born a female..." Alexa mumbled. "Hnn~? What''s that Ali~?" "N-Nothing, big sis. You''re really beautiful..." "Hehe, thank you~ I''m pretty sure you''ll grow into a beauty yourself one day!" Maria replied with a smile. It was a smile so angelic that Alexa thought that she was going to be purified of her race''s evil alignment even though the angel that smiled back at her was also technically of an evil alignment. Alexa couldn''t bear to continue staring at Maria so she lowered her head and just single-mindedly focused on cleaning up her body. Maria hummed happily as she waited for Alexa to finish cleaning her. It started from her back then to her wings. Maria praised Alexa for being diligent enough to even scrub and clean her wings. Having her wings scrubbed and cleaned, Maria felt very rxed. Taking a rxing bath after a long grinding session was always the best and if she could, Maria wanted to justze around all day. However, it was a bit different for the little sister vampire that was cleaning her up. Alexa had a feverish look on her face despite being a vampire. Alexa had just finished cleaning Maria''s wings so she moved in front of Maria and began wiping her chest and the front part of her body. Alexa''s pale vampire face flushed a deeper red at this. ''She''s my big sis, she''s my big sis, she''s my big sis'' Alexa kept on chanting this inside her head as she wiped down Maria''s body. As she was about to wipe the two floating melons on Maria''s chest, Alexa had the serious impulse to just plunge into Maria''s bountiful chest, lick her way up her neck and bite down for a meal. Seeing the feverish look on her face, Maria unwittingly asked her, "Something wrong Alexa? Your face is so red... maybe the heat''s getting to you?" "Y-yeah... A-anyway! I''ve finished wiping you down, big sis!" Alexa hastily said as all of the negative thoughts immediately dispersed from her head after Maria called out to her. She felt dirty for even thinking of spheming her big sis like that. She couldn''t hold full me for thinking that way because it was Maria''s fault for being so nonchnt and defenseless. Also, it couldn''t be said that it was Maria''s fault as well because it wasn''t like she chose to be such good eye candy. She just wanted to cut back and rx. Grinding for levels, questing, managing her territory, and whatnot, it was all just too much work for her. Not to mention that she still had to study for school in the real world so in her busy day, this was probably the only time she had to justze around and rx. "Big sis, don''t stay in for too long. Uncle Ash wants to discuss a few things with youter," Alexa said as she got out of therge bathroom. "Okay~" "Also, make sure you wear proper clothes before meeting anyone. Or else it''d be bad...for them at least..." Alexa slurred on thetter half of her words so Maria only heard the part of properly wear clothes which she of course responded with azy yes and nod. Chapter 86: Expansion Chapter 86: Expansion After soaking in the bathtub for a little bit longer, Maria promptly got out after feeling a bit dizzy from the heat. She dried herself and her 2 maids began dressing her right after. Maria didn''t think she''d be given such treatment because even back in the real world she''d normally dress herself, however, it looks like she''d have to get used to it inside the game. She didn''t know how, but every outfit that the maids brought her was always different from the one before it. She kept on getting new clothes without her knowing it but it wasn''t like she wouldin about receiving high-quality free stuff. After she properly got dressed, Maria headed towards her study within the castle which was the ce she used toplete her administrative duties for her territory and faction. Ash was already inside and waiting for her when she arrived. She sat behind therge wooden desk and quickly asked the vampire, "What is it, Ash? I''m pretty sure I''ve finished dealing with all the reports and documents for today, right?" "Yes, you have, my Lady," Ash replied. "Then what is it? Tell me before I go make my rounds around the city." "Yes, well, there''s a pressing issue that we must address, my Lady, and that is concerning the increasing amount of individuals who are migrating into our territory." "Mhm, well that''s a rather major issue indeed. We can''t ept just everyone, right?" "Yes, we have to filter out all those that may hold malicious intent or just came to spy on our faction." "You take care of that." At her words, Ash immediately replied, "I already have, my Lady." "Good." Hearing her praise which he hardly ever received, Ash smiled a little before saying, "The more pressing issue is the increasing amount of people flooding into our territory and how many of them we''ve epted as citizens after going through a strict screening. We should begin expanding our territory now, my Lady." Maria picked up a report on her table that Ash had already prepared, skimmed through it, and nodded, "Mhm, you''re right. We can''t confine ourselves to just this city. Since our army has grown, maybe we can have some of our more trustworthy people establish some towns and viges within the current boundaries of our faction''s territory." "Yes, that''s the best course of action for us, right now. Once we''ve expanded our army a bit more, we can consider expanding our borders." Maria nodded and said, "Let''s do that then. Just make sure we don''t encroach on any other vampire nobles'' territory. I don''t want to attract any negative attention until after we''re overwhelmingly strong enough to directly conquer them without any difficulties." "Yes, my Lady. I''ll start sending scouts to the surrounding area. Many things have changed since I''vest been here and so have the distributions between the vampires''nds. I''ll give you a report soon, my Lady." The discussion was finally over so Maria no longer had to act so seriously. She stretched back and leaned into her chair after hearing Ash''s words. The vampire had to look away when she did that. Maria''s maids had fitted her in clothes that entuated her curves and the womanly areas of her body. Ash cleared his throat and excused himself from the room, but before he stepped out, he asked, "My Lady, I almost forgot, but I''ve prepared aprehensive report on some of the vampires who I believe are trustworthy enough for us to ally with." "Hm?" "I''m not sure how their allegiances and standings have changed throughout the years, but once we''ve made contact with them, we should consider looking into whether we can ally with them or not." Maria nodded and picked up the other stack of documents to the side. She didn''t want to look at this particr stack at first because she thought it was more work, but thankfully, it was only just a report from Ash that held the vampires that they could ally with and she could take into her faction. Allying was only the ice-breaking method and Maria''s end goal was always to have her allies subordinate themselves to her. If they weren''t under hermand then they were against her, or potentially could be. "I''ll take a look at itter, but just tell me the ones that I really should look out for. I''m not going through each of these and memorizing all of them." Ash nodded and said a few names, "Duke Tepes and Duchess Bathory, these 2 are the only ones I can fully trust that will never support Vampire Lord Siegfried." "Just these two?" "Well, there''s also Duchess Bathory''s younger Countess Bathory, but she''s a little questionable." "I''ll look into those 3''s information, but you should consider updating your outdated information before we start moving." "Yes, of course, my Lady." "You can go now, Ash. I''ll inspect the army''s trainingter and then I''ll go make my rounds around the city." Ash bowed and then left the room. Maria found the documents regarding the 3 vampires that Ash mentioned earlier and ced them aside in a different pile. She then opened up her faction''s system window and looked at the progress. [Dire (yer Faction) Leader: Maria Members: yers: 1, NPC: 9,683 Affiliated ces: Heltania City Blood ins Blood Iron Mines] She tapped on the city and a window of Heltania City''s stats appeared. [Heltania City Rank: C Poption: 9,683/10,000 Commerce: 30/50 Military: 33/50 Social: 35/50 Security: 25/50 Happiness: 31/50 Avable Buildings: Warehouse: 1,000 stones, 500 Redstone bricks, ... House: S: 500 stones, 500 lumber. M: 1000 stones, 750 lumber, ... ... ... Upgrade avable once Happiness stat has reached 50 and poption is maxed] Her city''s system window was quite long andprehensive, but Maria only focused on the important things. She could upgrade her city once she fulfilled the requirements. She needed to do this to expand her city so that it could amodate more citizens, but she could also distribute her citizens among offshoot towns and viges just in case she still couldn''t achieve the required stats for the upgrade. Right now, her city''smerce, military, social, and security stats weren''t even close to the required amount. The happiness stat was the average of all 4 stats added together so she was still far away from being able to upgrade the city. The only good thing was that her city''s poption was almost at maximum value. Only when it was maxed out would she be able to create a town and divert half of her poption over to it. As a C-ranked city, she could only establish 2 towns using that as a center and from those 2 towns, she could establish 2 more viges. Of course, there was still the town in thete Baron Russo''s territory which could be upgraded into a city at any time once she upied it. The town was still the ''capital'' of thete baron''s territory so once she fulfilled a few requirements after taking it over, the upgrade to a city would be immediately avable. The only reason she still hadn''t upied it was because she was already busy managing one city. If she needed to manage two...Maria didn''t even want to think about that. It''d be torturous for her although somewhere deep down she actually wanted to go upy it already. Ash was the one who dissuaded her and after a while, she was quite thankful that he did. For now, she was content with managing only her first city, Heltania City. Once she found an assistant that was just as skillful as Ash or even more, only then would she consider upying the other city. For now, expanding her territory into 2 additional towns and viges was her urgent goal. Her main goal was still to increase the stats of her main city to the maximum amount so that she could upgrade it. Once she upgraded her city and expanded her army, only then would she start looking at expanding her territory''s borders. "Ugh...it''s so much work..." Maria groaned but it wasn''t like she was going toin about it. She began reading through the files that Ash left for her before going out of the castle and taking a stroll around the city. The streets were bustling now even when it was daytime so she took to the skies rather than walk on the streets. A small number of her citizens weren''t vampires, but the majority of them were. The reason why her vampire citizens could now walk about in the daylight was that the Blood Fountain in her castle had been upgraded and strengthened by Ash. Maria hadn''t once taken a look at the fountain after the first time she saw it, so she didn''t know too much about it and left its management all to Ash. It was a good thing that she left its management to her subordinate because if she didn''t, then this bustling scene before her wouldn''t have been possible. The citizens all saw their queen making her rounds in the skies and couldn''t help but stare up in admiration. Maybe it was because of Maria''s modern mindset and modern-day way of managing a city, the people were very much content with her as their ruler and protector. She cared about all her citizens'' welfare so the streets and buildings were always clean, the area was patrolled by soldiers, and the walls surrounding the city always had soldiers on them. This gave the citizens a good sense of protection and their health was always high. Maria also didnt tax the citizens or merchants too much so they were able to prosper. She didn''t know how the NPC system worked in the game, but the NPCs acted like normal human beings. The NPCs and merchants were content with her and this spread through rumors and hearsay among those merchants and those nomadic NPCs. When others from different territories heard about it, they naturally came over to see what it was like for themselves. Once these new NPCs saw the living conditions and overall prosperity of the people, they naturally wanted to settle down in her city which led to the increase of the city''s poption. The reason behind the poption influx was mostly due to Maria''s actions which weren''t overbearing and cruel like most of the other vampire nobles that ruled with strength and oppression. Naturally, some unscrupulous individuals wanted to take advantage of this ''naive'' young queen who treated her citizens fairly thinking that she could be easily manipted, but unfortunately for them, they needed to get past Ash''s watchful eyes first and if they do, Maria wasn''t one to be taken advantage of. The fates of these people if they were to ever piss her off were most likely a one-way ticket to the underworld. Maria still held the title [Angel of Death] for a reason. As Maria flew past, the citizens below her called out to her in greeting and waved at her. Maria smiled and naturally waved back. It was quite odd seeing the pale and happy faces of the vampires and the nonhuman-like faces of a few other races that were her citizens. Maria finished flying around and checking her city. She then quickly went towards the northern district of her city which was the craftsmen area and she flew towards a particr construction site. When she got there, the workers and the vampire dwarves who were overseeing the construction all bowed to her in greeting. Danor Dwarfsong, the head craftsman of her faction was running towards her from the distance. "Y-Your Highness, you should have informed me that you wereing. I would have prepared a better reception for you." "Don''t worry about those trivialities. How goes the construction of the underground part of the city?" "It''s going as nned, Your Highness. We can expect to finish at least one district size area by the end of the month!" "That fast huh? Keep up the good work then, Danor," Maria happily replied with a p of her hands. Her wings also fluttered in response to her happy mood and this caused Danor''s eyes to brighten. "I am unworthy of your praise, Your Highness. However, if we did have more workers, we could speed up thepletion of the underground city''s first phase by quite some time." "Once I''ve established a few more towns and viges, I''ll let you recruit more workers. The excess materials that you''ve excavated from underground will be used for the creation of these towns and viges so I want you to divide a team to process them into construction materials." "Yes, Your Highness, I''ll have a team get it ready right away! Where do you want these materials stored?" "You can make the arrangements with Lh. I''ll tell her toe here once she''s finished with her work in the castle." "Alright, I''ll discuss it further with Lady Lh. Is there anything else that you need, my Lady?" "That''ll be all. I''ll get going now. Goodbye." "Take care, Your Highness." Maria waved everyone goodbye before she flew away. She checked the time and saw that it was nearly time for the live stream about UT''s next content. "I better log out now and go watch it with big brother. I don''t want to miss out on anything!" Chapter 87: Live Stream Chapter 87: Live Stream After Maria logged out of the game, she got up from bed, took a light shower before going out dressed in her casual clothes rather than the pajamas she always wore whenever she logged in to y Unitale. She went over to her brother''s room and knocked on it before saying, "Brother, may Ie in?" "Maria? Oh,e in!" Once her brother gave her permission, Maria gently opened the door and walked into his room. She looked around and noticed that it wasn''t only her brother that was present. It was no wonder she heard some moring from inside the room when she had knocked earlier. "Good afternoon," Maria said with a polite bow to her brother''s guests. "Oh, if it isn''t the rumored little sister!" A youngdy about the same age as her brother spoke up and said in surprise. "Yes, I am my brother''s little sister." Her reply left everyoneughing and amused at her words. She couldn''t understand what was so funny so she only tilted her head in confusion. There were 5 other people in the room beside her brother and if she wasn''t mistaken, 2 or 3 of them were friends from school while the others were people that Maria was seeing for the first time. Normally in school, the siblings wouldn''t have any contact with each other, but this wasn''t because they had set up a n to avoid each other or anything. It was mostly because they were of different grades and their ssrooms were far apart from each other. Also, their break times at school didn''t match so they couldn''t meet or see each other so often except during the times when they came to school and went home together. "Hello, my name is Cindy and I''m your brother''s girlfriend! We''ll soon be family in the future so it''s very nice to meet you! I hope you take care of me well in the future!" The youngdy from earlier said as an introduction. Maria''s ears pricked up when she heard the word ''girlfriend'' and she turned an eye towards her brother before saying, "Oh? This is the first I''ve heard about a girlfriend. Anyway, it''s nice to meet you as well. I am Maria." Seeing the odd look in his sister''s eye, Gerald quickly stood up from his seat and defended himself. "Hey! Don''t joke around like that! Don''t listen to her, Maria! Nothing is going on between us. We''re just very close friends!" "Sure..." "I mean it!" Gerald eyed Cindy and gave her a look asking for her to rify herself but the girl only stuck her tongue out in denial. "Tsk, anyway, everyone, please introduce yourselves. As you all just heard, this is my little sister, Maria." "Hello, I''m Regis," a dark-skinned youth said. "I''m the Citadel''s vice-guild master." "Nice to meet you... but what is Citadel?" "Ahaha, well, that''s our guild which is also led by your big brother. I''m surprised he hasn''t said anything about it to you." "No, he never talks about these things with me." "Oh? That''s even when your family has invested some capital in us?" Maria turned to look at her brother and raised a brow, "Brother?" "I was going to tell you someday, but it''s not like you''ll even care, right?" "No, probably not..." "..." Gerald sighed and patted Maria on the head and began introducing the rest of his friends. All of them were part of Citadel, the guild her brother was leading. All 5 of the people present were executives of the guild and were friends in real life. 3 of them were indeed from the school since Maria recalled seeing them from time to time whenever they got out of school. As for the other two, they were Gabriel''s close friends from elsewhere. Other than Cindy and Regis who had already introduced themselves, the other 3 were young men. Their names were Steve, Hendrick, and Norman. Cindy, Regis, and Steve were the people that Maria somewhat recognized because he''s seen them around her brother while they were in school. The other 2 were new to Maria but they were both parts of the guild Gerald was leading. Hendrick was just a close friend who became an executive member while Norman was one of the guild''s major shareholders since he was friends with Gerald and had invested early on in the guild. After their introductions, Maria bowed to all of them and said, "It''s nice to meet you all. Brother Gerald, I believe that the live stream will start soon. Should I ask the maids to bring us some refreshments?" "Don''t worry about us! We''re already prepared for it so there''s no need to call the servants. If you want we can share some with you?" Gerald offered. "It''s okay, I''ll go get my own," Maria replied. She didn''t want to take their share but when she was about to go call the servants outside, Cindy walked over and grabbed her arm before bringing her over to the couch in front of the TV. "No need to trouble your servants! We brought plenty so we can just share!" Cindy said as she sat Maria down. "O-Okay..." Maria stiffly replied. She wasn''t used to this. She had just met them so Maria was still trying to act prim and proper. However, with how assertive and friendly Cindy was being, Maria really couldn''t refuse her. "It''s starting!" Hearing her brother''s words, Maria turned her attention towards therge TV in front. On the screen, the UT''s monthly live stream had just begun. Naturally, there was an attractive female MC who opened up the streaming session. "Hello, fellow Unitale yers! Yun Chi here and I''ll be your MC for this live stream!" The MC was a famous live streamer that streamed her many gaming sessions on the Switch Online tform. She had just begun streaming her UT gaming sessions and they were already popr. The Universal Gaming Company naturally took notice of her and invited her to be the host of their live streams. "Today''s an important live stream session from thepany to the yers! We''ll be revealing some information about the current events of the game! Mainly, the Main Scenario Quests which had recently became the main attention of the yer base!" The live stream chat began moring at her words. Many people wanted to know more about these Main Scenario quests and whether it was worth their time to do. Many guilds and organizations were invested in expanding their guild members and influence into the game''s economy by doing reputation quests and other simr quests to upgrade their rtions with the game''s NPCs. It was imperative for these guilds and organizations that were being supported bypanies from the real world to expand their influence into the games market by improving their rtions with the game''s NPCs so that they could gain somend and connections to establish in-game shops and other services. The NPCs of the game were very simr to humans and they would peruse even the game''s auction houses to purchase materials, weapons, and other items from the yers. The guilds and organizations saw the mary merit in establishing shops that sold items and other sorts of interesting services which both the yers and NPCs could use that would then generate revenue for them inside the game which could then be converted into real money using the Currency Exchange System. After the MC Yun Chi revealed a few more things about what they were going to discuss in the live stream and the rewards that the yers would get if they watched until the end, she finally moved onto the next sequence of the live stream and introduced the people who would be revealing more about the game''s contents. From the camera panned out and from the side of the room, 3 executives of thepany walked onto the stage and joined Yun Chi there. After a few greetings, introductions, and banter with the viewers, thepany executives began talking about the game''s recent major events and the important information regarding them. Maria didn''t really feel the need to hear any of this because most of the events were regarding those on the first, Eur. She was currently on a different so she felt detached from all of the developments on Eur where the entire yer base was concentrated at the moment. However, when the guild, Fallen Angels, was mentioned she naturally pricked up to listen. She had already left the guild to her inevitable circumstances, but she was still interested in what her friends were doing. Seeing that they were the forerunners of the first Main Scenario Quest of Eur, she was happy since she knew that the rewards were bound to be bountiful for them. With the mention of the main scenario quest, the developers on the live stream began discussing that in detail. The main scenario was a long line of quests that could influence the development, flow, politics, and economy of the world they were on. Also, the rewards frompleting the main scenario quests were very abundant. Some rewards included gaining noble titles andnd from the kingdoms the yers were affiliated with. These came from the personal rewards rather than the faction collective reward. After discussing the rewards, they turned towards the rewards for the current main scenario quest and the developers revealed the use of each reward. Naturally, the transfer gate''s functions were revealed and the information about the major and minor worlds followed it. The reveal about the multiple worlds of the game shocked the viewers. After the initial shock, the live stream''s viewers began moring excitedly about the news. They also became more interested in the stream and the information that followed after the reveal. Now, thepetition for the first main scenario quest was going to be even fiercer when it was revealed that the transfer gate was a unique reward only for the first main scenario quest. "Damn! We really missed out! The Fallen Angels are nearly at the end of the entire questline!" Regismented. "It''s alright since they''re our allies so it''s best if we help themplete the quest! I''m sure they''ll repay our kindness with a share of the profits from the transfer gate!" Norman replied. He was a growing businessman despite his young age and he knew that it was beneficial for them that the Fallen Angels were already so far ahead of everyone else in the main scenario quests'' questline. "I''ll have to contact Elizabeth and offer her our cooperation... Actually, can you help me with that, Maria?" Gerald turned to Maria and asked. He finally remembered that the Fallen Angel''s GM was her little sister''s best friend. Everyone else was surprised to hear that Gabriel wanted to leave it to her sister but when they heard that the Fallen Angels'' GM was best friends with Maria, they immediately understood. Looking over at his sister, Gerald eyed her with bright, hopeful eyes. Maria ignored the hopeful stare and continued to listen to the live stream, pretending that she didn''t hear anything. "Hey, are you going to be like that to your brother?" Gerald said after seeing that Maria was deliberately ignoring him. "I''m busy already on my end. I can tell her about it, but any furthermunication and negotiations are yours to bear. I won''t help brother." "Just giving Elizabeth a call is enough for me. Anyway, what are you doing now in the game? I heard that you left the Fallen Angels, why?" Maria remembered that event and she sighed, "... please don''t remind me..." Chapter 88: What Have You Been Doing? Chapter 88: What Have You Been Doing? "What''s wrong?" Gerald asked. "It''s nothing. Anyway, they''re only talking about the main events of Eur. I guess I have no reason to listen anymore," Maria replied after seeing that the steam was going to focus mainly on Eur''s developments. There weren''t any game-wide announcements or news that would affect her who was on another. "What do you mean you don''t need to listen anymore? Aren''t you interested in the Main Scenario Quest?" At her brother''s question, Maria dully replied, "Of course, I''m interested, brother. I listened to the main points about the main scenario quest but it''s not like I can participate in Eur''s Main Scenario Quests. I''m not even on that anymore so it''s meaningless if I continue watching the live stream. Also, I''m really busy in the game right now. It''s to the point where I can''t even go out on a rxing grinding session!" Hearing her words, Gabriel and everyone was shocked and they naturally began questioning her. "W-wait, what did you just say? You''re on another?!" Gabriel asked in shock. "Mhm, I''m on a called Vanhal." "How did you even get there?" "I came because of a quest but I''m a bit stuck right now. I have to expand mynd and recruit more people into my faction so that I can start the next phase of my quest, but it''s going a bit slow." Everyone was once again shocked to hear that Maria had only stumbled onto the without meaning to because of a quest. They had just learned about Main Scenario quests that could influence the world the yers were on, but now that learned information about a different and possibly an even bigger and more important quest. "Maria...just how did you even..." Gerald pinched his brows and shook his head at the absurd news his little sister just told him. Here they were struggling on the first of the game against other yers, but his sister was already progressing on a different essentially leaving the entire yer base behind in the dust. Gerald''s other friends wanted to ask Maria some questions, but seeing as they weren''t too close to the young girl, they remained silent and let Gerald do all the talking while they just listened. Naturally, Gerald asked the most important question of all, just what kind of quest did she ept? "It''s a revenge quest." "Revenge quest?" "Yeah, I heard about some sob story from my subordinate and the quest was generated. It was an unranked quest so I''m not sure what category the quest falls in. However, after I arrived on the, I got a quest from my patron god which was a ss-specific SSS-ranked quest and a custom generated SS-rank quest." "...What kind of absurd things are you doing in the game for you to get those nonsensically ranked quests?" Gerald eximed. Maria tilted her head, feeling a bit confused before replying, "But I''m not doing anything? I just picked up a perverted vampire from the side of the road and I suddenly got the quest?" ***** Inside the game, Ash began sneezing severely. "Are you sick?" Lh asked. "N-No...I just had an overwhelming sense to sneeze... You should know by now that my race doesn''t get sick, Lady Lh." Lh shrugged and continued with her work while Ash scratched his head before resuming the work he was currently doing. ***** Back in the Heltania family''s house, Gerald continued asking some questions about the recent activities that Maria was doing in-game. "So, what''s this about expanding yournd? Are you talking about your Faction? It was globally announced that one time, but after the initial surprise and curiosity, no one''s ever gotten any piece of news or information ever since." "Well, of course, you wouldn''t hear about my faction, the Dire, since I''m on a different." "That makes sense, anyway, why do you need to expand yournd? Before that, you actually ownnd, Maria?" Maria took a coke from the table, popped open the cap, and poured it into a ss before she took a sip. "Mhm, I took somend for my own since I needed it for my quest and to establish my faction. I''m expanding it because I need more space to amodate for my citizens." Maria exined. She took some chips from the bowl on the table and continued, "Also, I can only expand my army if I have more citizens. I have my personal army and my faction army. My personal army is already full and so is my faction''s army. There''s a 2 to 8 limit ratio for the faction army so I need to expand my territory to amodate more citizens!" "O-Okay... wow, having a faction seems pretty rewarding," Gerald analyzed. He already knew about the vast profits one would get from owningnd but it was hard to even get the deed tond without a noble title. From Maria''s description, the easiest way to getnd was to build a faction, however, this was hard for the current yer base because of their situation. Any faction within the majors would always be targeted by the native factions for subjugation. It was hard to establish one''s own faction because of the intricate politics and requirements while also having to worry about the malicious eyes of the yers but Maria could build her faction because she was on a different. He didn''t know what the''s factions were doing by overlooking Maria''s budding faction, but without any yers interfering, her sister was able to smoothly develop her faction. However, he still didn''t understand why his sister needed to expand her army. Since she just started, wouldn''t it be better if she stabilized her faction and firmly nted her feet by having a loyal base of followers and citizens first before she thought about expanding? He knew that his sister was a noob in the game, but surely, something like this which could be applied to in real life was something that his smart sister wouldn''t overlook. "Hey, why do you need to expand? If I recall correctly, your faction was only recently established, right? So, why the rush?" Gerald asked. Maria nodded and replied, "Yeah, it was only established a few weeks ago in-game time, but I need to hasten the expansion, build up and train my army so that they''ll be battle-ready." "Why do you need them battle-ready?" "For the inevitable event when I need to wage war against the vampire faction of that." Gerald and everyone listening were shocked, Maria had only inly and nonchntly replied to her brother''s question like the matter wasn''t anything important, however, the words she said about waging a war was anything but in. "W-why would you need to wage a war?!" "Hm? Didn''t I tell you? It''s for that revenge quest of mine." "Eh?" "I need to kill the Vampire Lord of the Blood Faction so that I can help my subordinate get his revenge andplete my quest. After that, I''ll have the entire Blood Continent at my fingertips and I''ll turn my eyes towards the rest of the''s continents," Maria said with a sadistic smile. Her in-game demeanor began leaking out at this moment and Gerald widened his eyes in surprise to the subtle change in the atmosphere surrounding his sister. That smile, in particr, it was like she was looking forward to something exciting, but what could be so exciting about waging war? "A-anyway, you''re only building up your power right now, right?" "That''s basically what I''m doing. Honestly, it''s quite tiring and I get bored of managing my territory. I wish I could just toss it all onto some hapless fool that can''t deny me, but it''s too bad that all of my capable subordinates are busy with their responsibilities to the faction," Mariained and took a sip from her ss-filled coca-c. ***** In the game, Ash had once again begun sneezing out of nowhere. Many of his subordinates began wondering if the great duke, Ash Garm, was actually sick or not. Ash himself was puzzled why this was happening to him, a noble vampire. He had never once gotten sick in his long life so this greatly puzzled him. Ash decided that it was to take a break since his mistress was out. He needed to stay healthy because once his mistress returned, the tasks that would be delegated to him would have him running all around and he wouldn''t get a single moment of break. ***** "Haha, so you''re busy in the game and real life! I feel quite bad for you, little sis." "Tsk, I wish you were there brother. I''d give you a duke title and let you manage mynd for me!" Another interesting piece of information was shared with him once again. Gerald was interested in the fact that his sister was able to grant noble titles to others. "You can grant nobility to other people?" "Yeah, of course, I can. I''m the Queen of my faction after all~" "A Queen, huh?" "Yeah, but many of my citizens began calling me their goddess or something." "Th-that''s certainly an interesting title." "I know right? But it''s kind of fun being called a queen and a goddess~" "How narcissistic," Gerald teased to which Maria smoothly replied, "I''m not the one calling myself that~ it''s the people, the masses! If they think I''m a queen or a goddess, who am I to refuse?" "Haha!" "Anyway, I wish you really were there. I have no time to rx even though I''m just ying a game!" "Well, maybe you can invite me somehow?" "I''ll try and find a way if I can!" "Great! So as a queen, I''m sure you''ll grant me a piece ofnd when you appoint me as a duke, right?" "Sure, sure~" "Awesome! I knew I could count on my little sis!" "Hehehe~ praise me more~" "Stop that, you''re creeping me out." "Why~?" Seeing the two''s yful banter, all of the serious talks from before had finally ended. The others began talking to her and they were naturally curious about a few things. Maria answered their inquiries the best she could, but she didn''t spill out any critical information about her faction. After the live stream ended, Maria returned to her room but she couldn''t help but think about the thing she discussed with Cindy and her brother before she left. "Hmmm... maybe I can stream? They did say it was easy since it was in VR and I only needed to connect my UT ount with a Switch ount... I''ll try itter and ask big brother if I''m confused with anything." Maria logged back into the game for a moment and started arranging some things. Just before dinner, she logged out and came down to the living room where she was suddenly showered in a bunch of sweets and candies. "Eh? What''s up daddy?" Corinthos had just returned home and he had brought arge container full of various sweets that his daughter loved. "In a few days, it''ll be Halloween and I remembered that you had quite the sweet tooth so I stopped by a candy shop and bought a few sweets that I remember you liking." "Aw, thanks daddy~ but Halloween isn''t until a few more days! Why''d you buy it now?" "Ah, that''s because of the game''s Halloween event. I''m pretty sure you''ll be busy that day with the game and I probably won''t see you. I thought it''d be best to give you the candy in advance." "Hehe, thanks daddy~!" "Anything for my precious princess," Corinthos said as he affectionately stroked Maria''s head. Upon hearing the word princess, Maria remembered something and she smugly crossed her arms and raised her head before saying, "Hmhm~ this princess of yours is finally a queen now!" "Oh?" Maria grinned smugly and began exining to her confused, and yet amused, father. Chapter 89: NPC Development 1 Chapter 89: NPC Development 1 When Maria logged back into the game, she received a notice in her mailbox regarding a 2-day Candy-hunting event that would take ce exactly on Halloween. She read the in-game notice briefly before dismissing it. Since she only needed to collect the candy by killing monsters, she decided to just leave it to her subordinates to farm the candy for her. It says the candy will be dropped by every kind of monster whether it was a yer or an NPC who killed them. The event even stated that yers could buy or trade the event candy with the NPCs who picked them up or even rob them of it. It was surely an interesting event, but Maria was busy with developing her faction and clearing awaynds, and expanding. She didn''t have time to personally participate in the event so she decided to give a city-wide announcement to her citizens that she would be providing rewards for those who give her the event candy. She wanted every NPC in her city to participate and help her farm the candy, not just her personal army or subordinates. The NPCs didn''t need them and since some were idling around and stuff, it was fine if she used her power as a faction leader to ''coerce'' her NPC followers to help her out a bit. Once she gave the order to Ash, the Vampire Duke quickly issued out the statement to the city''s Adventurer Guild which was just recently erected. After that was set, Maria went out once again, but this time, with her personal army to clear out a portion of thends that she had just opened up. Slowly, she was getting closer and closer to the vampire baron Russo Glemen''s former territory. It was hers now, but there was an empty and unimed area that separated her main area from the former baron''s area. She wanted to quickly secure this piece ofnd and build a road that would connect the two territories and start rebuilding the town and viges that she had her subordinates destroy a while back. The process of conquering this somewhatrge piece ofnd was quite easy since no one owned it in the first ce. After they killed a few boss monsters and drove away all of the mobs that heavily popted the area, Maria had her soldiers establish an outpost that would serve as a waypoint. The distance wasn''t actually thatrge between the two points, but Maria feared the monsters would attack her citizens and any NPCs that woulde and go between her city and town. She wanted to station some of her faction''s troops here in the outpost and have them patrol the area to keep any monsters from attacking the roads which would be builtter in the future. ***** "My Queen, we have finished establishing the outpost, what are your orders now?" Markus Pelio asked his queen. The air around him had changed from when Maria had first met him and the vampire was exuding a dignity unique to a vampire baron. This was because, at one point, he got naturally promoted to baron rank after he was appointed as one of Maria''s captains. The others who Maria recruited had experienced simr promotions in rank as well, however, only Markus was a captain of Maria''s personal army. The other 4 were relegated over to the faction''s army instead. Maria thought for a moment before answering, "Have the troops do one more patrol around the area. In the meantime, send a runner back to the city and inform Ash or Lh to send a squadron from the Dire Army to upy this outpost and start patrolling the area." "Yes, my Queen. I''ll get it done right away." "Mhm." With her subordinates getting to work, Maria remained at the outpost and dully looked towards thends around her. With her people getting to work, Maria found that while on the field, she had less and less to do. Before, she had to personally take action, but now, she could just leave it all to her subordinates who followed her words to a fault and performed very spectacrly. She observed the status screens of everyone in her personal army and couldn''t help but sigh in amazement. She didn''t know where and how Ash did it, but he was able to find the most capable of the people in her city and either coerced them or forced them into her army. The NPCs all had different ranks and most of them in her army were either Bronze or Silver ranked NPCs. NPCs ranked from Normal, Bronze, Silver, Gold, tinum, Diamond, and God-tier. A majority of NPCs were only Normal ranked. Those with one talent and skill are Bronze-ranked while those with 2 or more are Silver-ranked. An NPC could only be a Gold-rank if they had a Unique ranked skill. There wasn''t any information about any NPCs above Gold-rank yet, but Maria reckoned that NPCs like her vampire subordinate, Ash Garm, was ranked above Gold. After all, the vampire possessed many powerful abilities. She couldn''t tell what kind of rank they were because the only thing she could see was the abilities'' names and other details, just not the ranking detail. She only found about this information while scrolling through the Universe Tales forum. Much information was spread there which the yers shared amongst each other and it greatly benefited her since there was much she had to learn about games in general and about UT itself. Maria was able to rank her NPCs ording to this information she had and found that all of the troops within her personal army were within the bronze and silver ranks. She had also found out that NPC ranks could be enhanced as long as they learned new skills and talents. The process of an NPC learning something wouldn''t be immediate. It wasn''t like how the yers learned skills and talents through leveling up and using skill books. Instead, the NPCs had to manually learn things and have a firm grasp of the skill or talent they were learning before the system inputted the corresponding skill they learned into their status menus. There was much trial and error that she had to learn about raising an NPC, but from what she had currently found out was that NPCs could evolve and learn skills. Their levels could be raised and so could their ranks. When an NPC learned a skill from a yer or another NPC, the skill that would be generatedter would be random, but have a strict tie with the skill which was initially supposed to be learned. Thisst piece of information was something Maria found out after Ash hadpleted her NPC army''s initial training. Many of the NPCs had been able to generate a skill called [Basic Combat Mastery]. However, this skill was different from NPC to NPC, some of the more ''talented'' and promising NPCs had [Basic Combat Mastery Lv.1] (High) while others would have [Basic Combat Mastery Lv1] (Medium) or [Basic Combat Mastery Lv1] (Low). It all varied and there were even some that gained a different skill altogether. If Maria had to liken this learning ability of the NPCs, it was simr to those gachapons that she kept hearing from Lizzy. She could train an NPC, but the skills they generated were all random. It could either be a good skill or a bad skill. Naturally, Ash would kick those NPCs who had generated bad skills and he kept only those who had good skills within Maria''s personal army. This was why it was filled mostly with Bronze and Silver ranked NPCs. Maria could only be impressed with how great her subordinate fulfilled his tasks. She looked on with an impressed face as she saw the well-organized teams of NPC soldiers systematically sweeping through the ins once again. "Next time, I''ll give Ash a reward for being such a good vI mean, subordinate." Maria quickly corrected her slip of the tongue, but the elite squadron which was tasked with her personal protectionwhich she honestly didn''t needbegan to sweat when they heard the Queen call their Commander her ve. Only the Queen dared to address their frighteningmander in such a brazen manner. They all thought that even theirmander had those days where he''d be powerless to do anything despite being kicked around. Chapter 90: NPC Development 2 Chapter 90: NPC Development 2 Maria also found out about another thing regarding NPC development. The NPCs that were affected by these randomized skill-learning and rank upgrades were only applicable to those who were directly under her control. Meaning those in her subordinate or pet menus was the only eligible ones to receive the benefits of growth and promotion. The NPCs that were just in her faction weren''t granted this tremendous benefit. However, some were exceptions. Those in her faction who had high positions or ranks in her faction were still able to receive these benefits. This meant that the strong would only get stronger within her faction. Maria wondered if the yers that held a high-ranking in a faction would be able to receive something simr to what the NPCs gained. Or it could just be an NPC-exclusive feature. One day, the yers would without a doubt out-level the NPCs of an early-stage area. She wondered if this particr feature was to helppensate this so that the yers and NPC could level up and gain skills in a parallel fashion. It would be worrisome if one day the yers did out-level their NPC counterparts on Eur and one day came back to just conquer the entire world. It would hurt the new yers that started the game if this happened because then, the guilds or yer organizations that took over the starting would have divided up the areas to level up and bar those who aren''t affiliated with them. Maria could already see this happening because the guilds and yer organizations were very much simr to a country in the real world. If they took over a piece ofnd and announced that it was theirs, then there was no way that they''d let ''invaders'' or people unaffiliated with them enter those areas to level up and grind for materials. It was already happening right now. Maria was receiving intel directly from her former guild-members about how they would sh against other guilds and factions over leveling and resource collection areas. The fights and skirmishes were already so intense that most of the time, instead of grinding and leveling, the guild members would actually be waging war against other guilds and factions to im leveling areas and protecting them against intruders. Of course, this mission was delegated to the other members of the guild while the elite members were dealing with the Main Scenario Quest of Eur. Maria constantly received news from Lizzy saying that the war between guilds and factions from both the NPC and yer sides were intensifying as time passed. Especially after the Livestream, the yers began concentrating their efforts even more on the Main Scenario Quest and the shes between guilds against hers were now more intense since people wanted to try and stop her progress or steal away the quest item she had on her. The worst part about it was that Lizzy believed she was at thest segment of her quest chain and only needed a little bit more effort to finally finish the entire quest chain. Another problem cropped up for her and that was the fact that even NPCs began meddling with her quest on top of the yers already doing it. She was constantly sighing in ss and Maria could clearly see the worry and stress in her eyes and actions. Maria couldn''t do anything to help her besides offer her friend her constion. She also advised Lizzy that it may do her good if she tried befriending one of the meddling NPC factions. As for allying with yer factions or guilds, Lizzy had already made that effort but when the guild masters or leaders of each faction met with Lizzy, they looked down on her for being such a young guild leader and made ridiculous demands that caused Lizzy to just end the discussions and walk out of the room. She didn''t like being talked down to when they were supposed to be forming an equal-standing agreement. Lizzy could onlyin that Maria wasn''t there anymore because if she was, they wouldn''t be able to sit on their high horse for so long. Especially since Maria was rumored to be one of the most powerful yers in the game because of her feats during the one guild war where she nearly decimated an entire elite squadron of the Eclipse Guild, which was a leading guild within the Dark Faction of Eur. There were other rumors and news about yers who had unique power and character simr to Maria but they were kept under wraps by the guilds or factions they joined to save them as trump cards. The only known unique and powerful yers were Maria, a Holy Knight-ss yer from the light faction''s Heaven Pavilion Guild by the name of Ulric, and another light faction yer who possessed Maria''s counter ss, Sacred Priestess. Her name wasn''t known because she was part of the Church of Light which was an NPC faction. It was also rumored that this yer also possessed the Saintess title just like Maria. She was being sheltered by the Church and news about her was only known because the Church had announced it. The only known yer who had a unique ss and was powerful from the Dark Faction was currently only Maria and that was because Maria never viewed herself as a powerful character and didn''t see any need to hide like the other yers in the game who acted as trump cards for the factions that they joined. She was simply there to enjoy the game and didn''t think much about the power struggle currently ongoing in the game. Maria had other things to worry about, like her S-rank and above quests and about expanding her faction and getting ready for the war against the Blood Faction of Vanhal. ***** Once the Dire ins was conquered and renamed by Maria after the thorough extermination of the monsters that inhabited the ce was finished, she continued moving towards the town that she had wrested away from the Baron whose name she had already forgotten. She left a few of her soldiers back at the outpost to continue building and reinforcing it while they waited for the faction army toe and upy the ce. They would only move to rejoin her after this. Once Maria arrived at the town, she cleared out the monsters in the surroundings and had her soldiers move to the 2 viges that she remembered were here in the area. She wanted to secure those viges as well since she didn''t want to start one from scratch. She was able to get quite therge amount of event candies from this outing so she felt very rewarded, despite not making much effort herself. Maria only personally dealt with a monster if it was a boss-ss or elite-ss monster. The mobs were no longer appealing to her since she only needed to use a few spells or swing her weapon a few times before killing them. She also noticed something peculiar, but the Halloween event currencies had a higher drop rate for NPCs than the yers. Every 3 monsters she killed, she would only get one candy of a random grade while her soldiers would get a candy of a random grade for every kill they acquired. Maria naturally took advantage of this and pushed her soldiers to fight and kill more. A few in-game days passed by before Ash and a few other faction members arrived at the town she had now turned into a semi-fortress. Ash was also surprised to see how much the soldiers improved after only a few days since he''s handed them to Maria. Every single one of them exuded a dangerous and bloodthirsty aura. Their levels had risen quite a bit too since Maria kept on sending the soldiers out on rotations and they couldn''t catch a long break or be negligent. Even when they were resting, they kept a constant lookout for their Queen who always seemed to have an unsatisfied look on her face. This caused the soldiers to put in more effort to try and please her which resulted in their power increasing. Even then, they noticed that the unsatisfied look still hadn''t left Maria''s face. Actually, the only reason why Maria had that unsatisfied look was that she noticed her leveling stagnating because she stopped hunting monsters personally. The NPCs still gave her some experience but the small amount that they shared with her was too minusculepared to therge number of experience points she needed to level up a single level. This was why she was dissatisfied. Even when she went out to hunt, most of the monsters had already been cleared away by her soldiers, and the respawn rate of the monsters couldn''t keep up with the rate her soldier and her were clearing the monsters. She could just go out further into the field and search for monsters, but she had promised Ash that she would wait for him in the town. Because she hated waiting, the look of dissatisfaction was ever-present on her face. Maria needed something to upy herself so she had ordered for her soldiers to gather materials to rebuild and reinforce the town because every single night, there would be small waves of monsters that woulde and attack the town. It wasn''t something she weed because these monster waves that appeared at night were just a faction event so the drops and experience that these monsters gave were lesser than what the normal monsters gave. The town had now be a fortress over the course of thest few days and the bodies and blood of monsters decorated the walls or the field just outside the town. It gave a really ominous and empowering feeling to the fort as a whole and it was something that went out of Ash''s expectations. "Her Majesty does her work really quickly. She only left for a few days and she''s already created both a fortified outpost and this magnificent fortress!" One of the officials of the faction which was sent over to this ce eximed in awe. Many of the others who were sent to build, live, and govern this ce naturally agreed with this young official''s words. Ash sighed and thought that there was something more to this than what was seen on the surface. Everything looked like it was hastily built, but a special power fortified it, so it meshed everything together very well. It was clear that Maria had used her power as the Dire Queen to fortify the fortress after it was hastily built. From what Ash knew, that power shouldn''t have been arbitrarily used for such a minor area such as this. It should have been used for somewhere else like the port city they were nning to build when they discovered that they were actually closer to the coastline of the continent than they had thought. "Let''s go see our Queen now... remember to present yourselves with dignity and respect before our Queen!" "Yessir!" Chapter 91: Haemanthus Fortress Chapter 91: Haemanthus Fortress When Ash walked to the gates of the fortress, a few soldiers moved to greet him and quickly ushered them in respectfully. The normal citizens who would be moving in here were greatly impressed by the strength of their Queen''s personal soldiers and they were more in awe at how their Queen had developed the ce. The bloody-looking fortress looked quite menacing and intimidating from outside, but inside, everything was so different. The streets were clean with the potholes of the road and any debris from the previous time Ash and the others assaulted this ce were filled in and cleaned up by the soldiers. There were even soldiers still out there fixing some buildings and bringing in materials for construction and development. They stored those materials inside warehouses that Maria had built after theypletely upied this ce and did some cleanup. The officials that came here sighed in relief and admiration at the state the fortress was in. They expected the ce to be a wreck but it was quite the opposite. The stark contrast of the menacing fort when looked from the outsidepared to the inside made them admire their Queen. She knew exactly how to govern and the officials anticipated their eventually meeting with this Queen of theirs. Most of the people here had never seen their Queen before despite Maria constantly flying around in the air through the city. They did see her figure before but never her face so they didn''t know how exactly she looked like. There was arge statue built by the vampire dwarves at the center of Heltania City''s main square so they had some expectations as to how she looked. The statue depicted her with a beautiful and dignified face that had a tinge of both cruelty and kindness within her eyes. Naturally, this was just the dwarves'' depiction of how their Queen looked like so it probably was what they should expect, however, having a personal look themselves would be better than just imagining how she looked like based on some statue. The soldiers separated Ash''s group into three. 1 group would continue following Ash to meet their Queen while the other 2 consisted of ordinary citizens who would make this ce their home while the other group was the workers and craftsmen. Once everything was in order, Ash''s group proceeded towards thergest tower within the fortress that overlooked the entire ce. Ash couldn''t help but think that Maria really did love high ces. He saw from below that at the highest balcony of the tower, Maria was currently looking down at his group with her blood-red eyes. He also saw that there was a mysterious smile on her face. Maria''s personal soldiers led Ash''s group into the tower and they climbed the staircases leading up to the highest floor of the tower. When they got there, there was an empty throne in the middle of therge hall. Besides Ash, the other officials were wondering where their Queen was. Ash looked up into the air and saw Maria sitting on the beams of the hall. She had a disinterested look on her face when she saw them walk in. "Ash..." "Yes, My Lady?" Hearing the voicee from above, the other officials immediately tried raising their heads but Ash let loose a little bit of his aura and pressured them to kneel and keep their heads bowed. "...It took a while for you toe... I got really bored waiting." "There were plications on the road, my Lady!" "Hmmm... what kind of excuse are you going to make up now for keeping me waiting?" "Uh..." "You know that I hate waiting..." "I''m sorry, my Lady! I''m here now so pleasemand me as you wish!" "..." Maria remained silent and started thinking about what to say. She was just mad and pouting because she had to wait for so long. It was nothing serious, but Ash and the others thought that their Queen was really angered for theirteness. "Your Majesty!" An official grabbed ahold of some courage and stood up to speak with his head still bowed, not daring to take a look up at the ceiling. "I''ll immediately make the arrangements for the fortress, my Queen! We''ll make sure this ce is fully functional, reinforced, and running without any problems! Then we can continue with Your Majesty''s ns on expanding our area of influence!" The official who had spoken up was a senior official so he had met with Maria a few times before but was never in any position to speak to her. This was the first time he had spoken to her Queen and it was because he wanted to try to appease her anger. Maria wasn''t mad at all though, but after hearing the promise from this NPC, she smiled and said, "Is that right? Well, do your best then. Now everyone else besides Ash, leave!" "Yes, Your Majesty!" "Yes, Your Majesty!" She liked being addressed like that. Maria swung her feet happily in the air. This dainty appearance of hers was only witnessed by Ash who had no qualms about looking straight up at her. He somewhat knew that Maria was only pouting and throwing a tantrum because they werete but it couldn''t be helped because they were moving with so many people in their group. Ash was just a little worried that something bad might happen to him since most of the time Maria took out her anger at him whenever she threw a tantrum or was dissatisfied with something. "My Lady, is there something you require of me?" Ash asked after the rest had left him and Maria alone in the hall. "Come," Maria said as she floated down towards the balcony just to the side of the hall. Ash shed over and quickly arrived next to her side and saw the view ahead. "See those mountains?" Maria pointed forwards and asked. "Yes...is there something you want from those mountains?" Ash asked. "Mhm, I wanna hunt there. You''reing with me!" "Uhm... but what about the faction?" "Forget the faction. We''ve already ced a lot of capable officials and workers everywhere. We can''t continue micromanaging them or else it''d just wear us down, stagnating our personal growth! Remember, you still have your vengeance to exact, and if you''re weak..." "...I understand, my Lady..." "Should I summon Alexa, Lady Lh, and that pet hound of yours?" "Just go back and bring Alexa! I didn''t let here with me despite her being a reserve-captain of my army... As for Lh and Little Red, I''ll just summon them using our familiar contracts!" "As youmand, my Lady!" Ash disappeared in a burst of clouds that transformed into a flock of vampire bats. Maria then saw this flock of bats fly into the horizon in the direction of Heltania City. *DING* [Requirements have been fulfilled! Please name the new Fortress!] Maria looked back at the system window that had just popped up and quickly inputted a name. [Haemanthus Fortress Congrattions, your first fortress city has been named! Rewards: +100 World Reputation, +20% experience points, Blueprint: Intermediate Smithy x1] "Oh, that''s nice... I leveled up!" Maria stretched her wings and back while saying, "Ugh... I should go back to the real world and ask big brother how that streaming thing works... I''ve got just the perfect thing to stream!" Chapter 92: First Time Streaming Chapter 92: First Time Streaming Maria took a day off of the game to learn all she needed to about streaming in VR from her brother. She had already self-taught a few things herself but setting the other stuff up was beyond her. Thankfully, she had help from her brother, Gerald, and her best friend, Lizzy. It didn''t even take them half a day to get things set up and ready. They used the rest of that day on testing and configuring things for Maria until everything was optimized. "Alright, now you can stream your adventures, Mary!" Lizzy eximed excitedly. She was the one most excited to hear that Maria decided to start streaming her gamey in UT. It was only natural since she was both concerned and curious about Maria''s exploits and actions within the game. Naturally, the two ''guardians'' repeatedly reminded Maria not to divulge any information that she was on a different. Of course, the fact that she was in a different area than most of the yers in the game was inevitably going to be shown, but it was better if they continued specting her whereabouts than her outrightly saying where she was. Most people would think was that she was in some instances dungeon or something. They would never think that Maria was on a different so early in this game where the news about such a feature had just been announced. Maria naturallyplied and when they started up her stream, Gerald immediately put up the censoring on her location, character ID, and some other information restrictions. He couldn''t y his own game while his sister was streaming since she needed someone to monitor and moderate her stream and channel. It was a sacrifice that he was willing to take but he was also teaching the family''s butler on how to do this sort of thing so that next time, he would be able to y even when his sister was streaming. ****** Inside the game, Maria was curiously looking at the mechanical probe that was hovering in the air just ahead of her. The probe was being controlled directly by her brother who was inside the game acting as the probe. Naturally, Gerald couldmunicate with Maria and since it was his first time witnessing the sights of the new, he really wanted to take a long around but refrained from doing so. It could potentially leak the news about the new world Maria was in and this was disadvantageous to his sister. He reeled in his curiosity and focused the probe''s camera at his sister. "Wow...she really does have a beautiful avatar!" Maria was just silently looking back at the probe with a frown on her face. Above the probe, there was a number on it and it read ''5''. It was the number of viewers she had. She could tell that 3 of them were most likely Lizzy, Amanda, Emily, and the other one was probably Zack, but who was thest one? She just started streaming and she didn''t particrly advertise it and just told her 3 closest friends. 3 personal messages popped up and it came from four people. Emily, Lizzy wished her good luck while Amanda and Zack did so as well and said they were watching her stream together while using the in-game virtual browser. The only person who knew that she started streaming was her brother Gerald who was manning the probe and the butler who was also connected with the probe and learning about what to do from Gerald so thest viewer was a mystery. ***** Back in the real world at the Heltania family''s megacorporation, Corinthos Heltania, Maria''s father, was currently watching on his tablet his daughter''s stream. As for how he knew about it, it was because of the family''s butler, David, had personally informed him of the news. Naturally, he wouldn''t miss his precious daughter''s Livestream so he quickly opened up a Switch ount, registered, and quickly tuned in. He had a hard time picking a name but he settled for ''Papa Angel''. On the tablet, he could see his daughter staring straight at the camera with a frown and he couldn''t understand why. Maybe it was because his daughter still wasn''t used to something like this perhaps. His daughter was somewhat of an introvert so it was understandable that she still wasn''t used to it, but he wished her luck in his heart. Too bad Corinthos didn''t know about the stream''s chat because if he did, he would have said a few words of encouragement. "Good luck, cupcake~" ***** Back in the game, Maria was scrolling through the names of the people watching her stream, and other than her friends'' IDs, she found someone with the handle "Papa Angel". Maria smiled when she saw the name and she immediately knew who it was. She quickly looked up at the camera and waved with a charming smile. "Okay, let''s get this started! Ash, Alexa, Lh, let''s get going!" Gerald and David both had a bird''s eye view of the area Maria was in so they were able to easily adjust the camera''s angle and perspective whenever needed, but even they didn''t see thising. On the ground, 4 ck magic circles formed and activated. From these magic circles emerged the figures of 3 individuals and 1 monster. "Woah!" "What''s happening?" Gerald and David eximed simultaneously. Her friends who were watching the stream were also somewhat surprised but then again, were there ever any moments when Maria had ever stopped surprising them? They were used to her surprises so they had gotten used to it somewhat. They recognized the 2 of the ck circles and they were for summoning pets, but the other 2 magic circles were foreign to them. The four individuals that appeared after the darkness dissipated from their bodies was arge red hound, a small ck-dressed fairy, and 2 pale individuals who had a very beautiful appearance. It was the first time anyone saw Maria''s two vampire subordinates. They didn''t know that they were vampires but their attractive appearances were quite the sight to behold. The two vampires knelt before her and greeted, "My Lady." "Queen Sister." Maria tilted her head at Alexa''s greeting but she didn''t mind it. In front of Ash, Maria guessed that the girl needed to show her the utmost respect and behavior because her uncle Ash was there to monitor her behavior. It was different if they only hunted together without Ash, but with him here, Alexa needed to behave appropriately or else Ash would reprimand her. Maria felt a little iffy by it but she didn''t want to put Alexa in a tough spot so she let her be. "Let''s go hunting~" Maria stepped over to the ferocious red hound and began petting it intimately before it transformed into a small puppy. Maria picked it up and curled up one of her wings and ced Little Red on it. "Master, where are we going?" "We''re gonna go to those mountains and see what''s beyond it." "Okay. I needed a breather anyway. Staying with those hard-faced ministers all day is really stifling!" "Haha, then let''s get going~" With her subordinates present, Maria stopped being conscious of the camera and began acting as she normally would. "Let''s fly~" Maria jumped into the air and took off. Lh was already on her shoulders and enjoying the ride in the air while the two vampires spread their bat wings and followed after her from behind. Gerald was taken aback but he quickly moved the probe and followed after them. The other couldn''t see the probe so they didn''t have any questions and this was a good thing because it would be a headache if they asked any and Maria had to exin to them. The name of her channel was after her in-game title, Queen of the Dire, and Gerald titled the stream, ''The Fallen Angel''s Debut Stream''. And from the thumbnail and the preview, people became curious, and slowly, they trickled into her stream. The number count above the probe''s head began increasing and it continued to climb up. 10...20...50...100... Maria''s silent debut was slowly garnering more and more attention as people joined and shared the news through their social media. Chapter 93: Popularity Chapter 93: Poprity When Gerald saw the increasing amount of viewers, he grinned to himself. "Hehehe, advertising to all the kids in school was the best idea. The ones who''re ying will quickly pick up on it and they''ll spread the news even more!" Gerald had long since advertised his sister''s stream to his friends at school and guildmates right after the stream started. Now, most of the people who hade to watch were his guildmates and ssmates who naturally spread the news. Also, many other random people joined the stream because they saw the title of the stream and channel. The game being streamed was also popr so many joined just to see what was happening and when they saw a yer flying through the air, they naturally stayed due to curiosity. [Who''s this chick?] [Wow, she''s flying!] [It''s nothing to be amazed of! There are plenty of yers who can fly now! Even those angel-race yers are appearing more and more on the starting!] [It''s a band of beautiful people!] Indeed, it was a band of beautiful people. Alexa and Ash were vampires so they had a beautiful face. Lh was a fairy so she was inherently cute and as for Maria...that went without saying. Gerald was making the stream more interesting by panning out the camera towards the party''s faces and bodies, outlining their equipment and everything. It would be a boring stream if all it was showing was Maria, Alexa, and Ash flying through the air. "Hehehe, perfect. Keep eming!" Gerald said with a smirk. ***** Maria was still a newbie at streaming so she no longer paid any attention to the probe once she focused herself on the game. When they touched down from the sky at the base of the mountain, the first thing they encountered was a pack of monsters which Maria decimated single-handedly because they were only around level 70. She was already level 63 so they couldn''t be seen as a threat to her. Maria felt a little disappointed when she saw the monsters'' levels. She at least expected them to minimally be level 80. Looking at the level 70 meant that this mountain range was probably only a level 70-80 hunting ground. Maria hoped that the monsters'' average levels would rise as they traversed deeper into the mountains. She wanted to use this short bit of free time that she managed to gain from managing her territory to stack up some levels and experience points. She noticed that her territory expansion n was now in full swing and her subordinates only made things easier and quicker for her. Maria could tell that once they expanded their territory, she would need to stabilize things once again and that meant...more work behind her desk at the castle. "Ugh...I don''t even wanna think about that any more..." Maria mumbled. She ced Little Red on the ground and the monster dog quickly transformed into itsrge size again. Maria hopped on top with her scythe rested on her shoulders. "Alright, let''s get going. I wanna head deeper. The monsters on the periphery are just too easy~" "Yes, My Lady." "Yes, Queen!" [Oh! Look, she''s being addressed like royalty!] [We got ourselves a real queen, lol!] [Queen +1] [+2] [+3] [Are you da queen?] [Person above, she''s definitely the queen] [Queen!] Gerald was also listening to how Maria''s subordinates addressed her and felt that it was a perfect thing to tease his sister with. He was rather surprised that the chat started calling her queen rather than her name which was disyed above her head in bold dark-red letters. [My Queen, please look this way!] [Don''t you think she''s ignoring us a little?] [Maybe she''s not reading the chat?] Maria was unaware of the things happening on her stream''s chat because she didn''t have it open on her HUD. Naturally, when she was on the hunt, anything on her HUD would be closed because it only distracted her. Others would probably have it up because they needed to use their skills or something, but Maria activated it only by thinking and doing the motions for the skill, not something everyone in the game did. Most yers would just use their skills by tapping on the icon in the quick-skill menu on their HUD, but some didn''t need to do that because they had a firm grasp of their skills and could activate them using their actions instead. Maria was obviously a part of thetter, she only needed to think or focus to use her skills. This small detail also separated those truly elite yers and those that weren''t. Gerald kindly messaged her sister. "Oh?" Maria looked around and quickly found the probe. She opened up her stream''s chat and saw the messages. It was hard to read any of them because right as Maria turned to look at the camera, everyone who was watching bombarded the chat with so many messages. [She''s cute!] [Hot!] [Hey, isn''t she that girl in the promo vid?!] [She is!] [She''s back!] [...] [...] Some people quickly noticed that Maria was the girl from the promotional video that Universal Games had put out after only a few days since Unitale''s release. They also finally saw Maria''s name and the title that came after it. [Maria, Queen of the Dire] The level wasn''t disyed, but the way her name was disyed made her seem like an NPC, however, she was obviously a yer. Not many people in the game had titles like Maria''s which would automatically be disyed right after their IGN. "Oh, I''m sorry for ignoring everyone. The chat is moving at super-high speeds so I can''t read every single one of them. Anyway, thank you all foring to watch me y Unitale~" Maria smiled at the camera as she said this. This earned her another round of praise from the viewers. Of course, some viewers thought that Maria had used the game''s function to adjust her avatar to make it more beautiful than her actual IRL appearance. [Fake, she''s just cute because she''s using the game''s avatar!] [Lol, bet she''d look like a hag in real!] The chat was moving too fast so most people just ignored those words just like Maria. She didn''t pay too much attention to the chat after greeting everyone. She was still sitting on top of Little Red so she was looking down at the camera. "Anyway, I''ll be hunting here on this mountain with my subordinates. Since I''ll be hunting, I hope you''ll forgive me if I''m not paying attention to the chat. I hope you all enjoy the stream!" Maria swiped everything out of her HUD and switched her attention back to the game. She ordered Little Red to quickly [Who''s the little girl and that young man following her?] [I think she said they were her subordinates?] [Not friends? That''s one condescending way of addressing people...] [A true queen indeed! No friends, just subordinates hahaha~] [I wanna be her subordinate as well!] Gerald was amused by reading the chat, but Maria had long since ignored it and was moving together with Alexa and Ash deeper into the mountains. Any monster they encountered along the way was quickly dealt with by them and they continued forward. The swiftness of their advance and how powerful they were to easily take down a level 70 monster with such ease awed the viewers. These were genuine level 70 monsters and as far as everyone knew, not many yers could do what Maria did with such ease. It just wasn''t possible yet unless the monsters were at least 10 or 20 levels below her. Since her level wasn''t disyed, everyone assumed she was likely around level 90 or above and so were the others that were with her. They couldn''t be more wrong though, but this misconception was working in her favor since this helped keep her actual level a secret. No one would expect a yer whose level was only in their 60s could aplish a feat like one or two-shotting level 70 monsters. Instead of being 10-20 levels above them, Maria was around 10 levels below the monsters she encountered on the mountain path. It was even worse for Alexa since she was only level 50 at the moment. Only Ash was above the monsters'' levels since he was already level 80. How he got the time to even level up despite being as busy as he was, Maria didn''t know. It was a wee thing since if her subordinates gained power, her faction did as well. As they mowed down the monsters that blocked their way, the viewers only became more intrigued by Maria and her party. Her method of ying was much different than the other streamers who y Unitale. While others strategized and tried to find the most efficient and quickest path, Maria just bulldozed through everything with absolute strength and as she plowed through the monsters, her battle-driven character began leaking out as she cackled in delight as monster after monster fell to her scythe. "Die for me, you vermin!" The chat was astonished and amazed as more and more of her character began leaking out. They all thought they wereing here to watch an e-girl stumble around the game with her party, but what they got was a battle-hungry angel who dominated the battlefield like a Valkyrie. Chapter 94: Attention Chapter 94: Attention At one point during the fight, people finally noticed something. [Look, her equipment changed!] [Yeah, I just noticed that. Wasn''t she wearing a priestess''s garb earlier?] [That''s one nice set of armor! What grade is that?!] Everyone was intrigued by Maria''s equipment. It was an entire set of high-end looking armor and it gave her the look of a dark knight when previously she looked like a harmless priestess. Maria quickly cleared out the area of monsters with a few of her skills and magic spells. Her skills and judgment inbat really astounded many viewers because they honestly didn''t think that a young girl like her would be so adept at the game. Her movement, rotation of skills, and awareness in battle attracted many of the people watching her. It was also unexpected since Maria came off as a delicate youngdy whose party looked like they would carry her in battle. However, throughout the fight, not a single one of her subordinates stepped up to help. Ash and everyone else all knew that their queen was having her fun and naturally, they didn''t want to spoil it for her. Only Lh helped out by providing Maria some debuffs for her enemies while asionally striking out and luring more monsters over until the area waspletely cleared of them. "Phew, that was fun~ Now, let''s keep going!" Maria said with a refreshed look on her face. No one could see that face because it was covered by her helmet but one thing was for certain, they''d be charmed by it. Maria and her party continued walking around the base of the mountains until they found a traversable path up the mountainside. Along the way, every monster they encountered either died by her scythe or was sent to oblivion by her spells. At this point, no one among the audience could determine exactly what kind of job or ss Maria''s character was. She used heavy armor like a knight, healing spells like a priestess, and even used a necromancer''s scythe. On top of that, she used beginner and intermediate level magic spells. The beginner magic spells she used also seemed to be an upgraded version of some sort since the damage output and casting time was different. Naturally, everyone who yed Unitale knew that magic could be used and learned by everyone in the game. It''s just that this was currently limited to just beginner-level magic spells. The time and effort needed to manually learn intermediate-level magic spells was just unattainable for most people outside of the mage-rted sses and quite frankly, most thought that it wasn''t worth their effort. Maria would probably have been categorized in that aspect if she didn''t have Paimon''s Magical Book. With that book, all she needed to do was meet their requirements to learn the improved beginner-level magic spells that Paimon developed which could then derive themselves into higher-grade magic spells. It was a cheat-like item and it was worth all the effort, time, and pain she had to go through to get said item. No one, in their right minds would voluntarily let themselves be imprisoned within a magic tower for nearly a month in real life. Time for leveling, questing, and raiding would be wasted so not many yers in the game would do that to themselves. Of course, there was always the exception like Maria and a few others, but they were in the minority who yed the game just for the sake of ying and enjoying themselves. Different from most people who loved to interact with others, form groups, and be more powerful within the game. Maria just didn''t have that ambition. Even now while building her own faction, she was only doing this because she had a quest she needed to finish. The rewards were worth her effort and building her faction was also interesting, except for the desk-rted jobs, of course. She despised those to a fault. However, meeting and interacting with the NPCs of her faction, Maria always found that enjoyable. She found it interesting to see their reactions and unlike people in her school, they didn''t avoid her and always greeted her. She needed those kinds of human interactions and since she couldn''t find that in the real world and instead found it in the game, Maria naturally looked forward to talking with the NPCs. Alexa, Ash, Lh, Danor, and her other subordinates, Maria loved interacting with everyone from her faction and it put a bright smile on her face. If not, then once she finished her quest with Ash, she probably would drop her faction in a heartbeat and start ying the game as she wanted to once again. At least, in the near future, Maria wouldn''t just abandon her territory in pursuit of something more fun to do. ****** In the chat, people kept on asking if Maria could disclose her ss and show them her equipment details. Of course, no one was expecting her to actually show it and Gerald wasn''t contacting her sister to read the chat or anything. Maria had also forgotten all about her streaming since she was already fully-focused on her hunting session. "Master, there''s a boss monster ahead!" Lh said as she flew back from scouting ahead. "A boss? Finally, looks like this trip isn''t wasted after all!" Maria decided to rest for a bit and take a short breather before the battle. The boss monster was a twin-headed mountain ogre. Ogre''s had high vitality and strength stat so it was going to be a tough and long battle of endurance. With high vitality, it also meant that the monster''s battle regeneration was going to be high as well and like most field boss monsters, they had an ability that would further boost their HP regeneration in-battle. It was going to be hard to fight an opponent like this so she needed to rest for a bit before the battle. Making sure her HP and MP were full and her mental state was stable for the uing fight which might take a while. She wanted to try solo-hunting this boss and told Ash, Alexa, and Little Red to guard the perimeter against other monsters. Maria decided to only take Lh because she was her support-familiar. While resting, Maria decided to open up her stream''s chat since Gerald reminded her that she was still streaming. Maria used the ''change'' option on her armor set and changed back to her priestess robes during the break. She also took out the lunchbox she prepared for herself beforeing here. Naturally, she gave Ash, Alexa, Lh, and Little Red their meals as well. [Wow, that looks so good!] [Can we have a bite?] [Can we have a bite? +1] [+2] Maria saw the chat and asked, "You guys want some too?" [Yes!] [Yes, ma''am!] [Please!] "Too bad, I only made a few," Maria said after a moment and tauntingly took a bite out of the steak she cooked for herself. "Hmmhmm~ so good~" [ASMR!] [Woohooo!] [Hunting to ASMR? Very nice~~~] [WWWWW] [Yum yum] Maria was amused by her chat and just continued eating. Gerald also sent her a screenshot of the chat during the moment when they asked her to disclose her armor set and equipment but obviously, she wasn''t so stupid as to show them that. However, she felt like teasing them a bit. "Earlier in the chat, you guys wanted to see my equipment set?" [Yes!] [Show us please!] [Yes!] [Yes!] [All of you saying ''yes'', don''t be so shameless!] The majority of people wanted her to show it, but there were actually some who advised her against it exining all of the disadvantages of doing so. Maria smiled when she saw people doing that. "Hehe, at least not all of you are shameless~" [She called us shameless!] [Oh, my heart...] [Shameless +1] [+2] The members of the chat who were subscribed to her channel began spamming emoticons of herself which had somehow made it on there. The donations and subscription options Gerald was able to open midst stream and he even added in a few benefits to the people who were subscribed to her. ''Big brother sure knows how to work fast...once I find a method to bring him here. I''ll work him to the bone...'' "Ehehehe~" Maria let out a sadisticugh and smile involuntarily at the thought. The chat saw this and immediately spams of ''S''s and ''Sadists'' flooded the chat. Maria didn''t mind this and quickly finished her meal. She took another 5 minutes to prepare herself before she stopped resting once again donning her battle armor. [That is so cool.] [How does she do that? Is that a set option or am I just missing a game function?] [It''s definitely an item option. You have to manually equip items here in Unitale.] [So convenient~] It was indeed an item option from her Dire Queen Battle Armor Set. The armor set she acquired was thetest set shemissioned from the craftsmen of her faction. It came with a helmet, gauntlets, full-metal body armor, a battle skirt, and war boots all made from high-grade demon materials. The recipe for the set was something she bought from using her faction''s reputation shop. As long as she fulfilled the reputation requirements, she could use her faction currency to buy the items. Of course, most of the faction currency would be used to maintain her faction''s upkeep, but she had a huge excess which Maria used to buy a few things for herself. A majority of the excess currency was used to buy some building blueprints and other upgrades for her faction. However, Maria did still use her faction currency to buy stuff to decorate her once a bleak-looking castle. At least now, the interior matched the exterior appearance and majesty of her ck castle. Anyway, the armor blueprint she bought was the most expensive piece she could buy in the reputation shop. The faction-benefiting items needed high amounts of reputation points so most of it was still locked while the individual rted things didn''t need much reputation points to buy so she immediately bought the recipe to the armor set. The recipe she bought was a legendary-ranked growth set that could only be used by her who was the Queen of the Dire. Also, once it was equipped, it couldn''t be unequipped. Since she couldn''t unequip the set, Maria wouldn''t be able to use items of better stats if she obtained them through boss raids or quest rewards, she would be stuck with the Dire Queen equipment series for the rest of the game. This also meant she couldn''t use any essories or weapons outside of the Dire Queen series with the exception of a few ss and sub-ss rted items such as her Cmity and Paimon''s Magical Book. Maria didn''t mind this so much because the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. It was a growth-type legendary equipment set. From what she knew, there was no such legendary equipment set this early in the game. She had an early advantage and since the growth of the item set was happening this early on, the stats will be able to keep up with the current and future power level of the yer base as long as she continued to diligently fulfill the requirements needed to upgrade the equipment. Chapter 95: Ogre Chieftain Orhbankhur Chapter 95: Ogre Chieftain Orh''bankhur Maria had also seen the screenshot of the chat asking for her to disclose her ss, but she didn''t pick up on that topic and decided to just y it stupid like she didn''t see that part of the chat because she was hunting. It was a legacy-ss so it was a unique ss in all of Unitale. Only a single yer could inherit the ss and Maria was that single yer in the entire game who could ever be a Dark Priestess. She wasn''t going to disclose this information since it was much too important. She could tease everyone about her equipment set since it was visible to them, but not something like that. She already saw that most people were confused about what her true ss was. At the moment, many spected that she was some kind of dark faction pdin ss since she could heal like a priest, use powerful attack skills like a knight or warrior, and even had the signature skill of Fallen Pdin, [Ruin]. Ruin was a skill that most dark faction users had if they ss-changed to a ss rted to the dark faction''s church. Maria''s [Ruin] skill, although it had a simr name and chant, was much different than the typical [Ruin] skill that most users knew of. Hers was aplete upgrade of the [Ruin] skill since it had arger AOE and damage output. Everyone thought that this was probably an item effect that boosted the effectiveness of magical spells. Some people did recall her being dragged into the magic tower by some child-like NPC who everyer found out was actually the Archmage of the North, Paimon. If Maria had a quest rted to such a figure, there was no reason to doubt that she had most likely received a magic-rted item and this item was what boosted her magical skills'' effectiveness. Many mages in the audience were naturally envious of this and they decided to research more into the quests that the Archmage would give so that they could obtain the item themselves. Too bad for them, the Archmage was an illustrious character in the game and he wouldn''t meet with just anyone. In fact, as far as anyone was aware of, to this date Maria was the only person who had met Paimon. Some people brought this up and even used the donation button to send messages, but Maria just glossed over it during her break. Now that, her break was over, she once again informed her chat that she wouldn''t have any time to read the chat anymore since she was about to enter a boss battle. It was against the field boss Twin-headed Mountain Ogre, Orh''bankhur. There was some history about this monster, but Maria didn''t care for that. All she saw was arge sack of experience and entertainment waiting for her. "I''ll be doing this boss raid solo so please bear with me if it takes too long~" Maria said this to her chat as her final words before she closed it and focused her attention back on the game. She and her party walked over to the t teau of the mountain where a small ogre vige was located on. Maria could see that the settlement was indeed small and only ogres lived in the vige. Arge twin-headed ogre was roaming around the center of the settlement and this was her target. She ordered Alexa, Ash, and Little Red to watch the periphery of the vige and prevent any monsters froming in or out. Little Red was apanied by Alexa since Maria knew that the two couldn''t possibly solo any of the monsters at their current level. Ash alone was able to watch the periphery of the vige but Maria made sure that he left a small portion of the perimeter to the 2 so that they could fight and gain experience to level up. Maria proceeded towards the vige alone, but this time Cmity was in its ax-form and she shouldered it menacingly. There were some ogres near the entrance of the vige that were acting as guards and when they saw the small 6-winged creature approaching their vige radiating such an oppressive aura, they began roaring at her in warning. As she got closer, a system window suddenly appeared in front of her with a nice jingle sound. *DING* [You have discovered the secret ogre settlement, Mountain Creek Vige. Rewarded: +100 Reputation] "Hm?" Maria''s attention was immediately directed towards the loud booming sounds that came right after the system window appeared. "Oh?" [Ogre Chieftain, Orh''bankhur has detected your presence! You are subjected to Giant''s Might and afflicted with [Fear]!] [Title: Queen of the Dire, has lifted all mind-rted debuffs!] [You have resisted.] [You have resisted.] A continuous stream of message windows popped up in front of Maria, saying that she resisted the [Fear] debuff from the boss monster which was quickly approaching. Apparently, the boss''s skill, [Giant''s Might] grew stronger the closer the monster was to the afflicted. However, because of Maria''s title, even when the ogre finally stood right in front of Maria, she still resisted the [Fear] debuff from the ogre. She had turned off her [Battle Logs] when the noisy sounds started and just waited in anticipation for the ogre toe out and greet her. "Ahh, finally. You''re here! For a big guy, it sure took you long enough!" Maria said and swung her ax down, destroying the patch ofnd in front of her. "Orgh..." Maria was just about to fly up and attack the ogre, but she stopped when she heard wordsing out of its mouth. "Little one...why you, here?" The left head of the ogre asked. Maria was surprised so she had no choice but to stop. She stabbed her ax into the ground looked up at the ogre. "You can talk?" "Answer question..." This time, it was the right head of the ogre who spoke. Maria crossed her arms and gestured for the ogre to bend down. "Hey, get your face down here. It''s hard for this queen to constantly look up while talking to you!" "?" "?" The two heads looked confused for a bit but the ogre dropped the two des, hammer, and ax it was holding in all four of its arms and bent down. The ogre dropping its weapons kicked up the dust and dirt around her but Maria used only a p of her wings to push the dust and dirt away. With its faces now lowered, Maria nodded in satisfaction. She didn''t know whether the ogre was stupid or smart. Her ax was right within arms-length. If she wanted to, she could easily grab it and attack at least one of the heads. But, Maria thought it was interesting to see a monster she could talk with. Also, the monster''s nametag was colored yellow instead of the usual white or grey that was the indicator of any monster or boss monster. Only a few would have colored names, but there was a clear difference between an NPC''s and a monster''s colors. Boss monsters had bold grey or white letters but the yellow indicated that the monster was an NPC, not just a monster. Only the other ogres in the vige had grey names to them, indicating that they were mobs in Maria''s perspective. Maria did notice that Ork''bankhur was an ogre muchrger than the rest. He was at least half a sizerger than the other ogres and both its heads had two horns growing out of them. "So, what''s your name?" Maria asked. "Me, Orh''bankhur. You, answer question!" "Yeah, yeah. I''m here to ughter you and everyone else here. You got a problem with that?" Hearing her straightforward answer, Orh''bankhur was stunned for a moment before asking, "Name?" "Maria. You wanna fight now?" "...Orh''bankhur, not want fight. If not needed..." "A monster that doesn''t want to fight? You sure are funny~" "..." *DING* [Requirements met! Random Faction Quest generated! Orh''bankhur, leader of the Mountain de Ogres does not wish to fight. Option 1: Attack and form a hostile rtionship with the Ogres of the Blood Rock Mountain Range Option 2: Leave the ogres and retain your neutrality with them Option 3: Recruit the ogres into your faction forming a friendly rtionship with them!] *DING* [Random Faction Quest has been initiated! What you select next will affect your situation! As a faction leader, you have the authority to recruit NPCs belonging to small orrge groups. Certain hidden requirements must be met before any of these special events ur!] Then a small window popped up in the next moment which listed the requirements she needed to recruit the mountain ogres into her faction. The hidden requirements became visible only because she had fulfilled them and they weren''t all too hard to fulfill in Maria''s opinion. [Mountain Ogre Recruitment Requirements: 1. Level higher than 50 but lower than 90 [Level 66] 2. Reputation: 2000+ [5800] 3. Neutral Faction Leader [The Dire: Neutral-Fallen Faction] 4. Defeated 500 Blood Rock Mountain Range Monsters [967/500] All conditions have been met!] A new message window that she''s never seen before suddenly popped up. Maria took a few seconds to read it and thankfully, the window wasn''t visible to the audience due to the privacy options she had on so no one caught on that she was able to recruit the monster. Maria thought that it was interesting that such an option appeared. If she wasn''t a faction leader, this may not have appeared and Orh''bankhur may have acted like any other boss monster that would have immediately attacked her. "Hmm, this ce looks bleak but habitable. I''m a queen so don''t you join me?" "Queen? You?" "Yes, me. I''ll dly be your tribe''s queen as well. You look like powerful people and I like powerful and capable subordinates!" "Fight!" Both the heads said in unison. "Eh?" Maria thought that she had definitely picked the third option so she wondered why they were going to fight now. The ogre got up and grabbed all 4 of its weapons from the ground. Another system window popped up and Maria finally knew why she had to fight. [Faction Quest Update! Ogre Chieftain, Orh''Mankhur the Halfblood, challenges you to a duel! Subdue him and the ogres of Mountain Creek vige will join your faction!] "Hahahaha~ just this is just how I wanted it to be!" Maria said gleefully with augh. Chapter 96: Marias Cruelty Chapter 96: Maria''s Cruelty Maria was just about to rush at the boss, but the boss entered a friendly state with its name turning green. She was perplexed at this but soon noticed that the ogres inside the vige began pouring out while holding some gs, shields, and weapons. It happened right after Orh''bankhur had bellowed out earlier and challenged her to a duel. Maria waited to see what would happen but she noticed that the ogres in the vige that were oncebeled as mobs now had yellow names indicating that they were now neutral-aligned NPCs. The ogres began moving around them forming arge circle where she and the ogre chieftain were situated in the middle. Some ogres began nting down the banners and weapons they were holding. Maria understood their intentions. "Ohohoh, a fighting ring, huh?" "Yes. Honorable duel... me and you, fight. Winner, king!" Maria chuckled and waved her ax around. "Start?" "Rahh!" "Graahhh!!" The ogres began bellowing and this marked the start of the fight. Orh''bankhur immediately through the ax he was holding right at Maria. The girl responded by rushing straight towards the ax. She flew up and just as the ax passed below her, she kicked on it andunched herself forward, instantly colliding with the ogre chieftain. The ogre was surprised at the strength behind Maria''s blow. A sense of admiration grew in his heart because he didn''t expect the small Maria to actually challenge him in a straightforward confrontation. He expected Maria to use some tricks so to prevent her from doing that, Orh''bankhur had thrown his ax straight at her from the start but his expectations were dashed when Maria suddenly appeared right in front of him in the next instant only seconds after he had thrown his weapon. The collision had sent the ogre half a step back, but this was only to be expected considering that it was a strength-type monster and had a huge buildpared to Maria. Just the fact that she was able to send the monster back half a step caused everyone in the chat to go wild. The next sequence of attacks where Maria skillfully controlled her ax with just a single hand while asionally sending a punch with her dainty fist as she flitted around the ogre, was a sight to behold. The flurry of continuous attacks had Orh''bankhur on the back foot and since he was much slower than the agile Maria who was constantly moving through the air and attack at his blind spots caused the ogre to respond by only defending himself. Maria didn''t let any opportunity slip that would let the ogre initiate a counter-attack. She still hadn''t even used her [Angel''s Wrath] or any of her spells. She only relied on [Cmity Cleave] and all her other physical skills to attack the monster. Orh''bankhur finally had enough and it let out a strong bellow. He stomped on the ground and unleashed a shockwave which pushed back Maria a few meters but it was enough to let the ogre finally start its counter attack. With four arms, the ogre''s attack speed was unprecedented. Maria had to use her utmost concentration to dodge every attack the ogre sent at her. It was now Maria''s turn to do the dodging and defending. In terms of stats put into strength, Orh''bankhur was much superior to Maria, but the sh between the two whenever their weapons hit only resulted in Maria being sent back a few steps. The ogre''s battle AI was top notch and instead of using full-force attacks, Orh''bankhur used attacks with just the right amount of force that would only send Maria back a few meters which it could traverse in just one step so this distance between it and Maria was still within its attack range. This way, Maria couldn''t suddenly use the force from his attacks to propel herself backward and step out of his attack range, giving her some breathing space. "HAHAHA!" Maria onlyughed at this. Instead of backing away, Maria met the ogre, blow for blow and despite being at a disadvantage Maria continued to fight in this manner. With every hit, a small piece of her HP bar would disappear, only to suddenly rise again when she used [Cure]. She only fought this recklessly because she had the means to keep her small HP bar up, matching Orh''bankhur''s battle regeneration skill. After the initial amazing start of the fight, the battle continued as a slugfest for the next 10 minutes. The constant rising and falling of Maria''s health caused the viewers to be somewhat worried about her. Neither side relented, it wasn''t until Orh''bankhur decided to use a skill did the pace suddenly change. It was a charge skill so it took a while to cast. Maria used this opportunity not to back away, but to respond with simr skill. She began casting [Fire] and enchanted her battle-ax with it before suddenly throwing the weapon straight at Orh''bankhur. She was repaying him for the first flying ax that flew at her from the start of the battle. Orh''bankhur used two arms intending to smash the weapon far away, leaving Maria weaponless. He struck out using his two left arms, each holding a de and a hammer, and sessfully smashed Maria''s Cmity away. However, upon impact, the [Fire]-enchanted Cmity exploded and this damaged Orh''bankhur''s hands to some degree and lit his arm on fire. Orh''bankhur quickly put out the fire. The tradeoff was worth it in his opinion. He only had his arm and hand damaged while Maria lost her weapon. "Hah, stupid!" Orh''bankhur''s skill had finished charging and just as it was about to strike at Maria, the girl chuckled and said, "Heh, on your left~" Maria reached out and swung her hand. Orh''bankhur immediately felt a sharp sensation aiming for his neck and he raised his weapons to defend. The ax which he thought he had sent flying away earlier hade back and struck at him, this time, with seemingly even greater force. Without Maria''s small frame to take the impact, the shock from the attack was entirely transferred outward and it pushed Cmity''s momentum forward. The telekic attack sent the ogre stumbling but because the [Fire] enchantment was dispelled earlier, no explosion urred. "Grah!!!" "Huhuhuhu~" Maria had an amusing smile on her face and she continued to remotely control Cmity from a distance and began toying with Orh''bankhur. The ogre''s charged skill from earlier had been disrupted mid-attack because it had to block Maria''s unexpected attack, but it tried to throw another one of its weapons seeing that Maria was defenseless. Maria already saw iting so she stomped on the ground casting [Earth], a newly acquired spell she obtained after finally fulfilling another one of Paimon''s Magical Book''s requirements. A stone wall appeared in front of Maria which defended her against, Orh''bankhur''s attack. The ogre was smart, while it was being pushed back by Maria''s telekic attack, it had moved its way towards the ax which it had thrown earlier at the start of the battle. This was why Orh''bankhur didn''t mind losing another one of its weapons since it picked one up immediately. The monster wanted to test whether something would happen if it did such an attack again, and just like Orh''bankhur had expected, Maria did have a way to defend herself without relying on the flying ax which was still attacking him. Maria toyed with the ogre for a few minutes before she began to once again actively attack it. This time, she didn''t let the ogre have a single moment of respite. A continuous barrage of skill, spells, and feathers attacked the ogre until it was battered. The HP bar which had remained within the 90 percent range continued to fall stably while Maria''s HP remained full from her attacks'' lifesteal and with herrge mana pool, repeatedly using [Fire], [Ice], and [Earth] was no problem for her since her in-battle MP regeneration far outssed the MP output. Orh''bankhur''s HP slipped past the 50 percent mark despite it regenerating 5 percent every few seconds. The ogre was helpless to do anything. shes of [Fire] continued to blind it while the asional [Earth Bullet] and [Earth Hammer] disorientated it. [Ice] was used asionally to hinder its movements while Maria topped it all off with her [Gehenna''s Eye] and a few other spells at her disposal. "Do you submit?" Maria coldly asked. It was already pushed into a helpless state so Maria didn''t see any reason for the fight to continue. The ogres forming the ring had all turned quite. At the start of the battle, each ogre was pounding their arm on the ground or on the shield they were holding, rousing the spirit of battle from both contenders. But right now, all of the ogres were silent because they saw how helpless their chieftain had suddenly be due to the onught of skills and spells. "NO!" "Tch..." Maria flew forward and with a single p of her wings immediately appeared right in front of the ogre with her Cmity in hand. She swung down hard on one of Orh''bankhur''s arms...and lopped it off. "GRAAAHHH!!" Blood began to spray from the monster''s injury and once again, Maria asked, "Do you submit?!" "Grrrrr..." The ogre was still growling in pain but Maria saw this as an act of defiance. Once more, she raised her battle-ax and swung down on the ogre''s remaining right. "GRRROOOOAARR!!" "Do you submit?" Just as the ogre was about to say something, Maria grew pissed because it didn''t answer right away. She shed over to the left side of the ogre and this time she activated [Cmity Cleave] and lopped off the ogre''s two left arms. "DO YOU SUBMIT?!" "GAAHHH" "YES!! YES, WE SUBMIT!" The left head was howling in pain while the right head answered her. "Good!" Maria stopped attacking. The ogre knelt and prostrated in front of her and the other ogres did the same. [Duel has ended! You are victorious! With their chieftain submitting to you, the Mountain Creek Ogres have be a part of your faction! Congrattions! Rewards: Mountain Creek Vige, Reputation +3200, Random Faction Rewards Chest x1] Chapter 97: Marias Cruelty 2 Chapter 97: Maria''s Cruelty 2 Maria''s epic duel against the twin-headed ogre chieftain amazed all of her viewers. There were already people waiting to see if they could clip the entire duel or if Maria was going to release an exclusive video of just the duel. Gabriel saw this and immediately began working. He already made the timestamp, gave the raw cut out the raw footage, and sent the data over to the butler who then contacted one of the video editors of the Heltania family''spany to hand them the job of making an enjoyable and cinematic video of their youngdy''s duel. Maria was more ecstatic about the fact that she had one over a faction and the rewards she got. She pulled up her stream''s chat and saw the long row of messages congratting her and telling her to open the reward box that she just received. The viewers saw the message box she received right after the duel ended and although they couldn''t read what was on it, they anticipated that she had received some kind of reward. Maria pulled out the box from her inventory and teased her audience, "You want me to open this?" [Yes!] [Yes, please!] [Yes yes yes yes yes!] [Yes +1] [Yes +2] [+3] [+4] ... ... Maria giggled and said, "Okay~ but first" She turned to look at the now armless ogre chieftain who was still prostrating himself to her. Maria looked around before asking, "Who''s willing to sacrifice their life for the chieftain?!" The ogres in the surroundings all looked up at her. Even Orh''bankhur did as well. He couldn''t understand what Maria was implying with her words. "Quickly, step up those who are willing!" Maria yelled. The ogres didn''t understand what Maria was getting at, but since themand was so simple, a few of them stepped forward and said, "Me, wiling!" "Me too!" "Me!" The other ogresgged but they did step forward and say the same thing. All of them indicated that they were willing to sacrifice their lives for Ogre Chieftain Orh''bankhur. Maria selected the 3 ogres who had stepped forward first. "Since you three were so eager, then I''ll use you." Maria stretched out her hand and activated [Angel''s Cruelty]. Three streams of light flowed out from the 3 ogres, entering her palm. The ogres she had cast [Angel''s Cruelty] on and stole their life force immediately began withering before they fell over and died after their HP was immediately depleted. Maria then sent the life force she took over to Orh''bankhur and the chieftain''s wound began healing. First, the lopped-off arms which had fallen on the ground beside him rose and reconnected themselves onto his body. Then, the wounds from the battle against Maria began healing. Once the ogre''s HP was full, Maria stopped the transfer and used the remaining life force to augment her HP. "Hmm~ what a convenient skill," Maria said aloud. Her audience heard everyst one of her words and they thought that it was scary. She just used the lives of 3 NPCs to heal herself and the ogre chieftain whose life she had been toying with just a few moments ago. Everyone knew how realistic the game was and the fact that Maria did all this without any hint of remorse on her face or voice was astounding. [Uwa, my Queen, please step on me!] [So cruel...I like it!] [Psychopath Queen!] Everyone justified that it was just a game so they didn''t need to read into it too much. This was the case indeed, Maria only saw this as it was, a game. It looked a bit cruel to a few people watching, but they could just leave if they didn''t like her. Maria also wasn''t concerned about how people judged her. After she healed Orh''bankhur, she then turned her attention back onto the reward box which she had promised to open. "Okay, let''s open this up~" *DING* The box opened without much fanfare and an item popped out. It was a ne with an elegant design that had a few rubies and obsidians embedded on it. Maria opened up the description and saw that it was actually an item from the faction store that she had been eyeing. [Maria''s Cruelty Lv. 60 [Upgradeable] Rank: Unique Effect 1: +10% to all Stats Effect 2: +100 Charm Effect 3: Skill Slot (1) Requirements: Queen of the Dire, 100 STR, 100 AGI, 100 VIT, 100 INT, LCK 10 Majesty of the Dire''s ne, the Dire Queen''s Cruelty. One part of the jewel set for the faction leader of the Dire Set Bonus 1: Locked Set Bonus 2: Locked] The equipment bought at the faction store would be made avable for every faction leader. Since the faction leaders would have simr equipment,ter on, the developers decided to put a little spice and luck in it. The developers didn''t want to make things so monotonous with the unique faction shop so they decided to randomize the effects of all faction equipment. What anyone would get, whether it was bad or good, would all depend on luck, and the LCK stat yed a big part in this randomization. The stats on Maria''s Cruelty were actually really good because her LCK stat was pretty high. The randomized stats and effects had a good oue. Since it was upgradeable equipment, the effects of the equipment could be randomized once again at the cost of a substantial amount of faction currency and the deletion of the equipment''s previous effects. Maria didn''t know about this randomization so even if the equipment''s stats were bad, she probably wouldn''t have cared and just equipped it regardless since it was such a beautiful and elegant ne. The randomization was either going to be a plus or a minus for the equipment despite it being upgradeable. Having upgradeable equipment with very sketchy effects wasn''t great after all. It was better to just get equipment through forging and quests, but the faction equipment was easily essible for all faction members and could be bought with faction currency. There was also another thing. Maria''s new item was named after her because she was the faction''s leader. The Dire Queen in Dire Queen''s Cruelty was reced with her name thus it became Maria''s Cruelty. This also meant that the 2 other essories part of the set would also have their names changed to match hers. The ring was called Dire Queen''s Benevolence so it would be Maria''s Benevolence while the earrings, the Dire Queen''s Wisdom, would be Maria''s Wisdom. They needed a substantial amount of points to purchase so it was a godsend that Maria was lucky enough to get the Dire Queen''s Cruelty, from here on out Maria''s Cruelty, just from the random faction reward box. The coincidental oue of her ne''s new name was quite fitting and ironic because her actions just before she opened the box were a bit cruel from one perspective. The viewers who were watching allughed when they saw the item''s name but they were more intrigued by the stats that weren''t being disyed because it was all blocked by a censor. [Show stats please] [Reveal what is underneath that censor!] [Godly stats, that''s why it''s being censored] Maria equipped the item and said to the chat, "No, I won''t be showing the stats. That''s a secret meant only for me~" The chat wanted her to disy the ne''s effects and stats but Maria was against it. They could only spam their discontent in the chat to which Maria paid no heed. Maria soon got a message from her brother telling her to end the stream. After it, was a long text of what to say when ending the stream and the announcement of her social media ount that people could follow to get updates of her streaming schedule and whatnot. "Alright, I''ll be ending the stream here. Please subscribe to receive notification for when I stream next or follow me here and check out the weekly schedules that I''ll be posting~" Maria nodded to herself after saying that. "Okay, bye-bye everyone~" Gerald ended the stream and told her to return to her base or get to a safe ce and logout. The ogre vige was now part of her faction so it was a safe area for her to logout from. She called over Alexa, Ash, and Little Red before walking into the vige along with the fully healed ogre chieftain, Orh''bankhur, and the rest of her new ogre minions. She didn''t say much and after telling Ash to coordinate with Orh''bankhur to help the ogre n''s integration with her faction. Maria didn''t forget to tell Alexa, Lh, and Little Red to go around hunting in the mountain range before logging out. ***** "So, how was it?" Gerald asked after meeting up with Maria in his room. "Well, it was fun~ but it wasn''t like anything became different from how I normally y!" Maria answered. "Oh, that''s good. You should y as you want without minding too much about the people watching you. Since we''re making a schedule, map out the geography of the area around you and send me the data. If there are any dungeons you can do or anything you want to do, I''ll put it in the schedule." "Okay~" "Other than that, you''re free to do whatever you want." "Thank, Gerry~" "Yeah, yeah. Anyway, are you sure it''s fine for you to stream? You are in a new world after all..." "Didn''t I tell you before? I find it interesting so I wanna do it. I don''t care if people find out if I''m in a different world," Maria replied. She did everything on a whim because she could do so. Nothing like logic or consideration could change the decision of her whims. She was raised spoilt like this so Gerald couldn''t talk his sister out of it. He wanted Maria to fully develop her faction first before revealing anything on the inte about where she was. It was only going to be a matter of time before people catch on that she''s not on Eur anymore. "Anyway, I''ll send you the datater. Once youpile the schedule remember to tell me. I''ll treat it as a breather from all the serious stuff that I have to do for my faction and quest~" Gerald nodded before asking, "Once people find out you''re on a different, I think it''s safe that we stream some content about your faction and your quest, especially that war. I''m sure people would be extremely interested in seeing you wage war against that vampire faction you were talking about." "Sure, I don''t mind. Actually, we''re nning on raiding a nearby vampire noble''s town. Maybe we can stream that?" "Oh, that''d be great but if you can put it on hold until people catch on about your actual situationis that alright?" "Whatever you say, big brother~ I''ll be returning to the game again. I got a tribe to integrate into my faction. I''m sure those ogres will be arge asset to my faction''s military force!" "You get to it then. I''ll be going back in-game too after butler David and I get the edited footage of your duel with that ogre and post it onto your SNS ount. Oh yeah, about that, make sure to post something from time to time if you can!" Maria was already out of the room so she replied with a yell, "Sure, if I have time!" Chapter 98: Ogre Tribes 1 Chapter 98: Ogre Tribes 1 Maria logged back into the game and quickly asked Lh for the map data of her faction''s surroundings. When Gerald logged into the game after he finished his business, Maria quickly sent him the map data. "Thanks, Mary." "I gotta go now, big bro. Just message me when I should stream again~" "Yeah, alright, but it''ll be David who''ll message you! He''ll also be the one moderating and controlling your stream," Gerald replied. "Okay." She sent her brother onest reply before turning her attention back to the battle she was currently in. While Ash and Orh''bankhur were preparing for the tribe''s integration with the Dire, Maria had rounded up a few of the ogre warriors and ordered them to follow her into the mountains. She didn''t bring all the ogres since she needed to leave some behind for Ash and Orh''bankhur to use as scouts and guards for the vige. "Alright, let''s go!" Maria said as she raised her ax. "GROOOARR!" "RAHHH!!" "URAAHHH!" All the ogres she selected to follow her all raised a war cry before they began following their new chieftain. Maria picked thergest one in the group she selected and jumped onto its shoulder and sat down. She pointed a finger and said, "Let''s head that way...uhhh..." Maria frowned when she noticed that the ogre didn''t have a name. Thebel on top of its head was only [Ogre Berserker Lv. 80]. She noticed that this particr ogre was the only one amongst his peers that had ''berserker'' in its name. It was most likely a unique mini-boss. Maria decided to just name the Ogre Berserker. She didn''t want to keep calling it ''you'' or ''hey''. "Hmmm...I''ll call you Berserker!" [Name Lv. 80 Ogre Berserker, Berserker? Y/N] "Oh? Well... Yes, sa~" It was the obvious choice for Maria. She only said it offhandedly and was only going to make a mental note of this particr monster but the system actually gave her the option to name the monster. [Name: Berserker has been applied!] [Great achievement acquired! You have named a monster subordinate for the very first time! Title: [Monster Commander] has been unlocked!] Maria skimmed through the effects of the new title and just set it at the back. There wasn''t anything outstanding about the title''s effects and she much preferred the current titles she had equipped. "Berserker, let''s go! Head that way!" "Yes, Queen!" "Oh! You can talk?" "Yes, Queen!" "Ohoh~ that''s nice!" Berserker rushed forward and led the way for the other ogres. The ground rumbled as the group of ogres trudged their way through the mountain range. Any monsters in their path were exterminated with extreme prejudice, turning into precious experience points for Maria and her subordinates. Back at the vige, Ash was stating the requirements and goals he had for the vige to Orh''bankhur. The twin-headed ogre had two heads, two brains, but neither of them was really bright. Thankfully, there was an ogre shaman in the vige who acted as the chieftain''s advisor so Ash discussed the arrangements with the shaman instead while the shaman would talk with Orh''bankhur using short sentences and easy to understand words. "I will be bringing a few craftsmen and officials here from the Queen''s faction to manage and renovate this ce. You are a race of warriors so just stick to fighting and regrly train your soldiers." "Train soldiers, why?" Orh''bankhur asked. Ash thought for a moment before deciding to answer. Orh''bankhur was strong and he would most likely be appointed as one of Maria''s leading generals. He had the right to know this ssified information about the war they were going to be waging. "We are preparing for war." "War?! Me like war! Warrior''s proving grounds! Ogre proving grounds!" Ash smiled and said, "Good. I want you and your people to be ready for when our Queen raises the g to war!" "GRAAAHH!!!" Orh''bankhur responded with an excited howl while the Ogre Shaman began casting a few bones before suddenly cackling in tion. Ash stepped out of therge chieftain''s tent and began looking around the tribal-themed settlement. Everything looked a bit too rustic for his taste and decided that once the engineers finally arrived, they should rebuild this ce into a mountain fortress for his Queen. There were many buildings in the settlement that needed repairs and renovations. From what Ash saw, not all of the ogres even had homes. Some would just sleep on the ground anywhere within the settlement''s perimeter or on the walls of the settlement. "Well, these ogres aren''t a civilized race in the first ce. However, they are a race consisting of only warriors they''ll undoubtedly be a great asset to my Lady''s cause..." Ash smiled in satisfaction. There were enough intelligently-capable people around his Lady. They needed more warriors and fighters at this point. Training up people from scratch to be battle-hardened soldiers wasn''t easy. It was great that Maria had somehow subdued the ogres and assimted them into the Dire. Their battle power and brutality were what their faction needed at the moment, more than anything now since they nned on attacking the nearest vampire noble to expand their faction''s territory and influence. To Ash, this was a great stroke of genius from his Lady. Rather than just focusing on ruling over the more civilized creatures of the territory, it would be easier for them to assimte all of the more intelligent creatures within or around their faction''s influence. Their faction didn''t need to constrain themselves and limit their recruitment to only a select few species or races. As long as they were intelligent and useable, it wasn''t a bad idea to assimte them through force or negotiation. Maria''s ''broadmindedness'' expanded Ash''s horizons. Though, it was all just coincidence since Maria only wanted to fight therge ogre in order to recruit it because she was amused by therge creature and found him interesting. She acted on instinct and her intuition which in the end brought her the one thing her faction, the Dire, needed, arger number of raw battle power. Ash returned to Orh''bankhur''s tent and asked him, "Orh''bankhur, is your ogre tribe the only tribe within the mountain range?" The shaman was the one who answered Ash''s question, "No, sire. We aren''t the only ones. There are 5 more ogre tribes, totaling 6 in all including ours. Our tribe is the smallest but we''re second in terms of battle strength. That''s because of our half-ogre half-giant leader, urrahh!" "Urrah, me strong! Stronger than anyone!" "Mhm...well, it looks like it''s about time to unite all of the ogre tribes under my Lady''s banner..." Orh''bankhur heard this and smelled a fight iing. He couldn''t help but ask excitedly, "War?" "Yes, war," Ash replied with a smirk. "Ouh, ouh, ouh, ouh, ouh!" Orh''bankhur began stomping on the ground when he heard Ash''s confirmation. Ash only needed to wait for his Lady''s call on this. Once she received this information from Ash, there was no way she would let up on such an interesting idea. However, unbeknownst to Ash and Orh''bankhur, their Queen was already roaming through the mountains, getting closer and closer to one of the other 5 ogre tribes of the Blood Rock Mountain Range... "Oh, there''s another vige down there!" "They look like ogres, Master," Lh said after she looked down at the vige and strained her eyes a bit. Alexa stepped forward and began observing the vige. As a vampire, she had a better vision than everyone else there, well, except for Maria. Maria''s eyes were already able to see what kind of monsters were roaming around the vige. "Queen Sister, it''s another ogre settlement, however, they seem to be a different tribe than the ones you recruited earlier," Alexa answered. She already knew that Maria could see what was down there, however, her Queen Sister probably wanted to know whether they were part of the ogres she had just recruited earlier. "Hmm, I had a feeling they were different. The tattoos on Berserker and the rest are different than theirs...no matter, let''s go down and attack them. Either they submit, or die~" Maria figured that because she was able to recruit the Mountain de Ogres, she''d be able to do the same for this ogre tribe, however, since she already had one tribe under her control, she didn''t really need this one. They could submit to her and join her faction, or they could just die under her de for all she cared. Either way, it''d be a win-win situation for her. If she could recruit them then more battle power for her faction, if she couldn''t then they''d still just turn into her experience points. "Berserker, head down there! If they''re hostile...then you''re free to attack them, all of you!" The ogres roared before heading straight towards the ogre vige. Chapter 99: Ogre Tribes 2 Chapter 99: Ogre Tribes 2 Maria jumped off of Berserker''s shoulder and let him charge down towards the vige alongside his brothers-in-arms. The ogres guarding the vige saw Berserkering at them but since they knew that they were the ogres from the Mountain de vige, they didn''t react to their charge at first. It was only when Berserker and the rest got close enough that the guards were finally able to feel their bloodlust did they catch on that something was wrong. "You. Stop! What you" The ogre who looked like the guard captain tried to tell Berserker to stop but what greeted him was a flying spear to the face. Berserker had grabbed the spear of the ogre next to him and flung it at the ogre guard. The ogre guard had his head impaled and the force sent him flying back along with the spear which embedded itself, along with the ogre guard''s body, into the vige''s walls. The walls were only made up ofrge tree trunks stacked and tied together so it wasn''t long after that did the force behind Berserker''s spear throw cause a portion of the wall to topple down. Berserker roared and jumped into the air after confirming his kill. Hended near the gate of the vige and punched the ground, resulting in a shockwave which toppled over the surprised ogres who were still shocked at seeing their captain suddenly die. The skill Berserker used was called [Ground Breaker]. It was a physical-type skill that did widespread damage in a 2-meter area around the impact zone but it had a hidden function that increased the AOE of the skill. Berserker had jumped high into the air earlier and the area of effect becamerger, thanks to the hidden function, that it affected all of the ogres near the gate. With the way open, the other ogres quickly charged forward into the vige. Some of the ogres took care of the enemy ogres who were trying to get back up. Berserker let loose and smashed everything around him. The buildings, the enemy ogreseverythingwere being smashed apart. It wasn''t until a roar echoed from deeper into the settlement which prompted him to stop. "YOU! STUPID OGRE!" "GRAHAHAHA!" Berserker roared back and readied his weapon when the new enemy emerged. He wasn''t asrge as Berserker, let alone Orh''bankhur. In fact, the ogre who came out was a head shorter and a body size smaller than Berserker, but with the armor, he was wearing, along with the weapon he was holding, this was presumably the ogre settlement''s leader. Maria viewed the battle from afar and gestured for Lh and Alexa to head on down to the settlement. Since the boss hade out, Berserker was going to need help. She had faith in her subordinates but she wanted some insurance. If she didn''t do it herself, she wouldn''t feelpletely assured. It was her motto to get things done with her own self. ''If you want something done right, then you have to do it yourself. But~ I''ll rely on my subordinates this time. They still haven''t had their fun just yet." "I''ll let you guys handle this. Don''t disappoint me now~" "Yes, Master!" "Leave it to me, big sis!" "Go." Alexa and Lh disappeared from Maria''s side, heading straight towards where the battle was at. Now that she was alone, Maria took to the air and began observing her subordinates'' handiwork. The ogres were running wild and attacking any enemy ogres that were resisting. They destroyed everything in their path, smashing holes through buildings and raiding the interiors, however, they took to heart their new master''s words and only attacked the enemies who were still resisting. All of the ones that gave up or just didn''t fight back were spared. Even though they were considered cowards, Maria still had a use for them. She didn''t need the ones who were too stupid to know when to quit. As for this cowardly attitude of theirs, she''d leave it to Ash to fix. Of course, the vampire was going to erase this cowardice by recing it with a devout sense of loyalty towards his queen, but Maria didn''t know that. It was just like what he did when he trained Maria''s troops. They had started as a bunch of weaklings and people who were only there because they heard about the welfare that would be given to them if they joined, but now, they were all fanatics that would sacrifice life and limb for Maria. Ash was already nning out the training menu for the ogres as he was waiting for Maria to get back, however, he felt a little bit uneasy but decided against looking for his mistress and the unit she brought with her. He needed to wait for the people he sent for to arrive at the Mountain de Ogre settlement and instruct them on what to do. Ash didn''t want to leave it to the ogre shaman since it was a little too intimidating for the likes of the peopleing over. "I hope she''s not doing anything unreasonable." ****** Over at Maria''s side, she and her army of ogres had just finished raiding the settlement and were already on their way to another settlement. Berserker, Alexa, and Lh had teamed up and killed the ogre leader who was unwilling to submit to Maria. As for the other ogres within the settlement, Maria forcefully incorporated them into her forces and killed off any ogre who wasn''t willing. "You''re a race of warriors! If you can''t fight for me then you''re of no use!" Those were her words that signaled the extermination of those who were unwilling. With an example set before them, the rest of the ogres joined her since they didn''t want to die. Her forces were bolstered so Maria quickly set out to find another vige. Maria deduced that since there was another ogre vige, then there was bound to be more within the mountain range other than the one she had just raided. Since she was able to conquer the Mountain de Ogre''s vige, she figured that it was possible to conquer the other ones as well. She was just unlucky with this one because the leader was a pig-headed fool that didn''t appreciate life. Maria quickly found another vige and prepared to raid it. Since her subordinates had their fun, she was going to join this time''s raid. Maria wasn''t stupid and made sure to assign the new ogres she just recruited as the vanguards. Her already loyal troops were going to hang back a bit this time however, she didn''t n on using them as cannon fodder. Her loyal ogres were only staying at the back to act as deterrence for those who wanted to run away. Any would-be deserters would immediately be killed and the ones who were too slow in their charge would be trampled upon by them, ultimately resulting in death. Either the ogres quickly pledged their utmost loyalty to her, or serve as meat shields for her forces. Maria quickly found another settlement just half an hourter and immediately ordered for the vanguard to charge straight towards the settlement. It was a reckless war n that involved no tactics whatsoever, just a simple frontal assault. Just like before, Berserker took point and led the charge. The new ogres had to follow after him or be killed by the ones behind them. With no other choice, they picked up their weapons and followed after the mad ogre into the battlefield. This raid was just a repeat of the previous raid. The enemy ogres didn''t have their guards up to the approaching ogres until thest minute when they were finally within Berserker''s attack range. With Maria joining this time, the raid went easier than the previous one and they quickly conquered the vige. The ogre leader submitted to Maria this time, however, so not many died. Like before, she incorporated the new ogres into her growing army and went to look for another settlement. "We''re going to conquer this mountain today! Hahahaha~" Chapter 100: Queen of the Mountain 1 Chapter 100: Queen of the Mountain 1 Roars and howls of fear rang throughout the entire mountain range that day. Maria took her army and systematically scoured the mountain for all ogre viges and conquered them. With the help of the few ogre leaders she dominated, Maria was able to gain some knowledge of the ogre viges'' locations within the mountain range. Her work became easier as she conquered one vige after the other, steadily increasing her forces. However, she soon met with a problem after conquering her sixth vige. The ogres became too diverse and it led to some in-fighting amongst the tribes that weren''t on good terms with one another. Naturally, she disciplined them but it was only a temporary fix. Going on like this would be destructive and eventually lead to her downfall. Maria decided to stop here for today and made her way back to the Mountain de Ogres'' settlement to meet up with Ash and Orh''bankhur. ***** "M-My Lady...w-what is this?!" Ash eximed in shock when he saw the massive ogre army following behind his mistress. Earlier, when the vige''s ogre scouts saw therge army approach them, Ash and Orh''bankhur were immediately alerted. However, when they saw Maria riding on Berserker, leading the army towards them, they quickly went out to meet her outside of the vige. After Maria told them about what she did in the past few hours, Ash was shocked while Orh''bankhur roared in tion. The twin-headed ogre was ted to know that his new master was such a powerful and domineering person who got things done without too much talk. Yet, at the same time, he was a little saddened that she had gone out to war without him. "Queen! Take Orh''bankhur, next war!" Orh''bankhur said while he tapped one of hisrge fists on his chest. "Yes, yes. I''ll put you to work next time!" Maria promised. She then turned towards Ash who was holding his head with one hand. "What''s wrong with you? Got a headache? I thought vampires didn''t get sick?" "My Queen, although your efforts are appreciated and you''ve brought back such arge force with you... where are we going to house them?" "Uhh..." "By no means am I trying to reprimand you, my Queen. But we should have at least finished expanding and reinforcing our base here before we went out to raid and conquer the surrounding ogre viges..." Maria huffed and said with a whiny pout, "You can''t me me... I got bored..." Ash hurriedly tried to brush off his earlier remarks and proposed, "N-never mind then, my Queen. I''ll try and work something out. If you''ll let me, I''ll go back to the capital and personally escort our best engineers here to hasten the constructions." "Okay, you do that then." "Great, but can you promi" "Don''t worry, I promise to hold off on attack any other ogre settlements until our fortifications here are done," Maria cut him off and said. Ash heaved a sigh of relief and said, "I''ll quickly leave for the capital now, my Lady, but please...please don''t do anything unreasonable until I get back?" "Who''s doing something unreasonable?! Your grandma''s doing something unreasonable! Get outta here now before I change my mind!" "Y-yes..." Ash quickly left for the Dire''s capital city leaving behind Maria, Alexa, Lh, and Orh''bankhur to their own devices. Unfortunately for him, Maria was already giggling andughing once he left. "Hehe, I''m your grandma idiot~ watch me get unreasonable! He''s been getting a little toofortable with metely!" Lh heard her master''s words and didn''t even try to dissuade her from her next course of actions. Instead, she even asked, "Well, master, which vige are we going to attack next?" Maria smirked and pulled out a map that she had pilfered from one of therger ogre settlements. The ones from that settlement were rather stubborn so she burnt everything to the ground and massacred all of the ogres in it. Thankfully, she didn''t burn down the ogre chieftain''s hut so she was able to get some rewards, such as the map which had a basic outline of all the ogre settlements within a 200-kilometer radius from where that vige was located. It even showed the location of Orh''bankhur''s settlement but unlike the others, Orh''bankhur''s settlement was marked with a red indicator. She didn''t know the meaning, but it was handy since it served as a clear pointer for their location on the map. [Mini-map and World Map updated!] "Oh?" This was something new. It was the first time Maria saw such a message box so she quickly ced the map on the table and opened up her [Map] window. "Ohh! My map was updated!" Her system''s map was updated after she read the map from earlier. It showed the same things but since it was the system''s map, it had more detail in its terrain than the physical map. "We''ll raid and conquer all of the surrounding ogre viges. As for the other monster settlements, destroy them if they resist and take them in if they submit! The same as usual, and as for their amodations... I think we can just reuse the settlements we conquer!" Maria began cing markers on the remaining 7 viges that were close to the Mountain de Ogres'' vige. Her forces wererge enough that they could be split into 3 forces which could attack 3 settlements separately. As for the leaders, she already had the perfect people in mind. She had gathered all of the ogre leaders, Berserker, and Orh''bankhur into the Mountain de Chieftain tent for a war council. Besides, Orh''bankhur, the rest of the ogre leaders and Berserker didn''t have much say in the council despite it being a ''council''. It was just Maria doing all the coordinating, nning, and talking. Orh''bankhur wasn''t much of a nner so he just listened to Maria''s arrangements and Berserker mindlessly followed her orders. The other ogres were losers so they couldn''t have an opinion. They didn''t want to anger their new war chief who had forcefully made them submit to her. One wrong word or suggestion could leave them without a limb or worse, without a life. "We''ll attack the less powerful viges and slowly work our way until we gather together and assault this one...looks more like a town than a vige, but we''ll attack thisst," Maria said as she pointed down at the settlement which seemed to berger than the others. It was at the very edge of the map that was mapped out for her and since it was bigger, it was probably more powerful than the rest. "For this time''s raids, we can''t destroy the viges since we''ll be reusing. You can destroy a few buildings, but keep most of them intact! Ry this message to everyone or else I''ll cut apart their limbs and feed it to Little Red!" Little Red who was lying next to Maria licked his lips when he heard this. Any kind of meat, especially those from powerful monsters, was his favorite. He loved his master for being such a magnanimous owner that constantly fed him the meat of high-leveled monsters. "As for the leaders, obviously, I''ll be leading one of the groups. The other two, one will be led by Orh''bankhur, and the other will be led by Berserker who will have Alexa and Lh as advisors!" "Wahahaha, finally, war!" Orh''bankhur bellowed and began tapping his chest with his two left fists. It was like some kind of ritual and every other ogre within the tent began doing the same. The tapping became louder until it sounded like war drums beating. Maria smirked and yelled, "You newbies better remember who''s inmand! I appointed them myself so if I hear any news of insubordination, I''ll kill you~" "Y-yes! War chief!" "Great, now head out and divide your men. Orh''bankhur, I want everything ready by tomorrow. For now, just eat and sleep. Tomorrow, we march!" "Yes! Wahahaha!" ****** Maria logged out of the game and quickly sat up. She rubbed her eyes and stretched her body. "Uwah...hmmm, that sure was fun. Oh yeah, I better send the map data to Gerald. Other than those viges, I found a dungeon and 2 mines! I got more soldiers and followers so it was a great harvest!" Maria booted up herptop and quickly sent her brother the map data and images that she collected earlier. She also told him about the war she was going to be waging tomorrow and that she wanted to stream it. She hoped that it would be good content for the viewers. Before going down to eat, Maria checked the UT''s forums and saw therge impact that she made with her debut stream. Links to her Switch Channel, SNS ounts, and even her UT profile were posted in a separate thread which had her as the main topic. She read through the praises, criticism, skepticism, and other nonsense that the people were posting on the thread. Maria didn''t take anything to heart and only found it all amusing. She quickly received an email from her brother and saw that there were multiple attachments to it. The email had the link to the thread of the brainy yers who deduced her location. She read through it and was a little impressed. Just a small amount of visual data was enough for people to conclude that she wasn''t on Eur anymore. "Well, not like it changes anything. If theye baring hostile intentions, I''ll just have to trample over them~" Maria went back to the email and downloaded the attachments. One of them was her schedule and the other was an edited video of her duel with Orh''bankhur. "Ah, the video is out. I guess I should post this?" Maria opened up the SNS ount her brother made for her and quickly uploaded the video and the beautifully edited image of her schedule onto it. There was already a copy-paste in the email her body sent her about what to write in the public post. "Heeh~ big bro sure is smart. If he told me to post the schedule and the video, that''s all I would post!" The public post on her SNS ount was divided into 3. The first was her formal introduction which also had a link to her UT ount and Switch Channel. The second was the post of the schedule, and thest one was the video''s link. The video was going to be immediately uploaded onto her Switch ount by David, her butler, once she made the post. Once shepleted everything her brother told her to do, she closed theptop and went down to eat dinner with her family. "Hmmhmm~ food~ food~ time to eat food~" Chapter 101: Queen of the Mountain 2 Chapter 101: Queen of the Mountain 2 The next day when Maria logged back into the game, she was greeted with the sight of an exasperated vampire duke. "Guh, A-Ash! Y-you''re back!" "Of course I''m back...Now, my Lady...what were you nning on doing by rounding up everyone from your private army and the newly established ogre division for? Hmm?" "Uhhh...that..." Maria wanted to escape, but unfortunately, Orh''bankhur just had toe over and ask in a loud voice, "Queen, when we march to war?!" He sounded so excited that everyone in the encampment heard him. When they heard the word ''war'' they all stood up and began banging their weapons or their chests, waiting for a response. "Gah! N-n-n-n-no! You idiot!" "My. Lady?" "..." "Did I hear that right? You''re going to war?" "W-w-well, I already promised them that we''d raid the remaining 7 settlements nearby! D-don''t worry, we''ll just reuse those conquered settlements as temporary housing for the ogreswhy the hell am I exining myself?!" "My Lady didn''t I just ask you" "Shut up, Ash! I''m the Queen so whatever I say goes, ya hear me?! Now listen to your Queen and get ready to set out for battle! You''ll rece Berserker and lead the East Army!" Ash sighed, but since it was an order, he knelt and received it. It was a ''high decree'' from his Queen so he couldn''t refute it. "Yes, Your Highness!" "Umu." Maria nodded and turned towards Orh''bankhur and said, "You, get your men ready! You''ll be the general of my kingdom''s West Army. We march in an hour!" "Rahahah! Yes, War Chief!" Maria''s words echoed through the entire camp and it got everyone, including the vampires in her personal army, excited and cheering. It was such a loud reception to her words and it annoyed her a little. She didn''t expect to be reprimanded by Ash as soon as she logged into the game so she was still a little irked and needed some quiet. However, that wasn''t possible anymore since everyone was being so rowdy because of her words. "Berserker,e over here!" "Mmmph, Queen?" "You''ll be under mymand again. Go get our people ready!" "Yes!" "Lh, Alexa, go help the blockhead out," Maria said. "Okay, Master~" "Yes, Queen Sister." Alexa was being polite again, but she didn''t have a choice since her strict uncle was close by. The fairy and the young vampire left with Berserker while Maria retreated into her tent. Ash followed after her and asked, "My Lady, which settlements will we be attacking?" "Ah, you weren''t there yesterday, huh? Come here, let me exin." ****** <...> <...> When Maria logged into the game, her stream was already active. She had done a small introduction just before she logged into the game when she was still inside the game''s waiting room. She totally forgot all about it because Ash suddenly appeared and gave her a slight reprimanding lecture to which she strongly reacted to. Her flustered, wronged, and domineering side all showed up within the span of a few minutes, and her viewers thought that she was extremely cute because despite being in the wrong, so they assumed, she tried to act tough and push the me away. Naturally, they didn''t know why the handsome vampire tried to lecture her, but they assumed it was because she was the one who did something wrong. Her shift in character was extremely amusing and it made her stream all the more fun, especially when the viewers were able to see her expressions change constantly. Earlier she was acting like a tyrant queen, but now she was calmly exining her battle n to her subordinate. They didn''t think she was bipr or anything, but rather, they thought that she was the kind who was more forgiving since she didn''t take the issue from earlier with her subordinate to heart. Many people began discussing in the chat about the fact that she was really on a different. Over on Eur, the ogres looked very different from the ogres Maria was controlling. The ogres on Eur wererge, bulky, and slow. However, the ogres Maria was controlling all had rather lean, but very muscr bodies. Their skin colors were also different, the Eur ogres all had skin color simr to humans or demons, depending on which side of the or faction they found them on while Maria''s ogres all had skin in every different shade of red. Not only did they look cooler, but they obviously looked much more powerful than the Eur ogres. There was even arge, twin-headed, Quadra-limbed ogre to boot. Berserker was the only ogre within Maria''s ranks that looked more like the Eur ogres, but unlike the fat, bulky bodies they had, Berserker''s body was more like an erged version of the typical Vanhal ogre. Berserker was big enough to carry around Maria on one of his shoulders and Orh''bankhur was even bigger than him. If it wasn''t because there was some sort of intricate problem which prevented Orh''bankhur from rising and uniting all of the ogres within the mountains, everyone reckoned that the unique ogre would probably be a World boss if he was on Eur. Some of the viewers wanted to get Maria''s attention and chat with her for a bit, but unfortunately, the girl was too focused on the game to even remember that she was streaming. ****** After Ash left, Maria was given a notification from her butler that she was currently on stream right now. Maria''s eyes widened and her wings perked up. "Ahhh, I''m very sorry for ignoring you all!" "Y-yeahwell, anyway, as per the introduction and from what you all heard earlier during my...speech..." "Ugh..." Maria grew a bit embarrassed from reading the chat. They were either praising her for ''moving'' speech or making fun of her and asking what she did wrong because her subordinate immediately began reprimanding her once she logged into the game. "Sh-shut up! I did nothing wrong alright! Anyway, as you can see from the map here, we''ll be raiding the other ogre viges and recruiting the ones who are willing. As for the others... well, you either join me or be EXP!" People kept on spamming the phrase in her chat after she said it. A lot of donations also beganing in, though she didn''t actually need it since she was so well off. However, this was money she personally made. It was something to take pride in especially since she was still just a high school student who was still receiving an allowance from her father. "Ohhh, thank you for the donations! Anyway, I''ll be focused onmanding my soldierster, so please forgive me if I be too immersed and ignore you all," Maria apologized in advance. It was bound to happen so the people in the chat were understanding, especially those who had watched her previous stream and had already experienced it. "Alright, it''s about time to set out. I better get going," Maria waved at her chat before walking out of her tent. Once she walked outside, arge army greeted her. The army was separated into 3 with Orh''bankhur and his shaman leading one, Ash alone leading another, with Berserker, Alexa, and Lh standing at the forefront of the army she was going to lead personally. The total amount of soldiers within all 3 armies easily amounted to 500 or more. There was still Maria''s personal army which had 50 soldiers in it so there were roughly 550 or so people in total. It was a sizeable force and if she added her faction''s army which had another 100 soldiers, she had roughly 650 soldiers total within her faction. It was a rather sizeable army, on par with those of a vampire counts'' army. If Maria wanted to, she could easily attack a count or a marquis ranked vampire. Her soldiers were a mix between ogres and vampires so she not only had quantity, but also quality. The quality of her soldiers would enable her to attack a low-leveled marquis ranked vampire. It was a pity that Maria couldn''t call her faction''s forces over to join in the battle. She wanted the soldiers in her faction''s army to experience war as well so that they''d be battle-hardened. Although it was a pity, she wasn''t going to call off the attack today. "Listen to me!" The boisterous army immediately began quieting down when they heard her voice. Her voice was the source of fear, despair, awe, and admiration for all of the ogres present. It was only awe and admiration for the vampires and the Mountain de ogres though. They didn''t have the bad luck in experiencing Maria''s forceful conscription, unlike the other ogres who were practically threatened with their lives. So despite Maria only talking in a rather subdued voice, everyone in the army heard it and immediately became silent as they waited for her to speak. "Oh, good, I don''t like to repeat myself so let''s get going now." "Uhh, Master, no motivating speeches? You know, we are technically heading out to war..." Lh flew over and whispered into her ear. Maria closed her eyes and thought for a moment before spreading open her arms and wings. "Hear me, my loyal subjects!" Maria rose into the air slowly so that everyone could see her. "I know that some of you were only forced into the army yesterday, but what choice did you have if you wanted to live, right?" "..." No one dared to say anything since it would be stupid to speak out at this point. It was obviously a rhetorical question. "You all chose correctly when you decided to serve me for you will be my arms, my legs! The des and axes that will smite my enemies and the plow that''ll carve my path forwards! With me, you shall obtain glory! Wealth! And supremacy!" Maria pulled out her ax and shouldered it before continuing, "With me, you shall obtain immortality!" "!" "!" All of the ogres and vampires were surprised at her words. Even Ash was surprised. He highly doubted that Maria actually had such an ability. Naturally, Maria didn''t but this wasn''t the kind of immortality she presenting them. It wasn''t that lonely, unending life kind of immortality. It was something she thought was far more glorious. "You''ll be immortalized in the history books as the ones who road into battle with this Queen, the one who will soon conquer this world!" Chapter 102: Queen of the Mountain 3 Chapter 102: Queen of the Mountain 3 "My true goal was always this world. It was never limited to just this small mountain range!" The mountain range she was on was anything but small. It was the southern mountain range that separated her area from the core area of the Blood Continent. It was why she was safely able to expand her forces without meeting too many hindrances along the way. "This small war will be a test! Those who want to stand by my side as we walk together to im evesting glory, fight! Survive! And evolve! Evolve to be the most powerful weapons at my disposal!" Even though Maria''s speech subjectively called out to her soldiers asking them to be destructive and fanatical weapons of war, they all roared and cheered at her words. Most of the ogres were stupid and didn''t understand much of what she said, but what they did understand was that she would throw them into a battlefield, constantly. The blood ogres, or at least, that''s what everyone in the chat called them, lived and died for battle. Hearing that their new chieftain was going to frequently bring them to war, they didn''t need any more convincing. The vampires were brought along with the mood so they also cheered, but thanks to their training, they were already being groomed as Maria''s first toon of fanatical soldiers. Now, she just hastened the expansion and practically made 80 percent of her faction''s total army be fanatics. One of the people in the chat said this and it snowballed into something rather stupid and hrious. The fans who were only joking around began putting up suggestions on what to call their new ''cult'' and what they should call themselves. All of this eluded Maria since she was too focused on the game and not reading the chat. In the game, her soldiers'' morale was at its peak and they were all ready to march. All they needed was Maria''s orders. "Now go forward! Bring me victory! For the Dire!" "For the Dire!" Ash echoed raising his weapon, a rapier. "The Dire!" "The Dire!" "DIRE!!!" Orh''bankhur''s bellow was also heard and everyone in the army began chanting the faction''s name. David, Maria''s butler who was now in charge of directing the camera and viewpoint of her stream, made sure to pan out and let the audience see the entire army as they chanted. The chat was hyped seeing the grand view of an army of monsters chanting in unison. Their bellows reached towards the heavens and their stomps caused the earth to shake. With Ash taking the lead, he split off and led his army away. Orh''bankhur was next and he led his army away as well. All that was left was Maria''s army. The young girl flew up towards Berserker''s shoulder and sat down. She left her weapon floating next to her and asked, "Shall we go?" "GRAAHHH!!!" Berserker roared and began moving. He seemed like he was about to go on a full-on sprint so Maria made sure to smack him on the head with Cmity to calm him down a bit. "Guh?" Being smacked on the head with her ax, Berserker looked at his master with a questioning face. "Go slow, we don''t want to exhaust our people before we get into the actual fight," Maria inly said with a slight smile on her face. "Go." Berserker grunted and began walking. He roared to indicate to the rest of the army to follow him and match his pace. Alexa flew up with her bat wings and followed behind Maria who was sitting on Berserker''s shoulder. Lh was already perched on her master''s shoulders with an excited look on her face. It was the first time she and her master were setting off on a grand campaign. She was also trying not to think about the massive expenses that she wouldter have to calcte since their army''s soldiers have increased by a substantial amount. <+1> <+2> <...> As the three armies marched on towards their intended battle zones, some of the surviving ogres whose viges were attacked by Maria in yesterday''s campaign finally found refuge in the ogre viges. They were only lucky to remain alive because Maria attacked the ogres within the viges and didn''t bother sweeping the area for any lucky ogres who just happened to be out of the vige during the assault. News about the attacks quickly traveled to the ears of the Blood Peak Ogres, the ogre tribe which dominated and oversaw this part of the Blood Rock Mountain range. This ogre tribe was the very rival of the Mountain de Ogres that Orh''bankhur led. When the chieftain got word of the Mountain de Ogres brazenly attacking and conquering the surrounding ogre viges under his control and protection, the chieftain, Huzah''kahn, grew enraged. "Round up warriors! Go to war!" "War!" "WARR!" As expected of a race full of warriors. The blood ogres, the term Maria''s chat referred to the Vanhal ogres, immediately grew ecstatic when their chieftain raised the banner to war. It would take a while for the Blood Peak Ogres to rally and organize themselves but that time alone was enough for Maria''s armies to conquer a few more viges. The only problem would be that Maria was currently unaware that the enemy ogres knew about her presence now. Before, she had the element of surprise, but now that her enemies knew of her dangerous presence and were ready to defend themselves and their vige, things would take a much harder turn for Maria and her soldiers. A frontal assault would cost them a few soldiers and it would be a loss to their fighting force. Of course, the ogres that they raided and conquered would forcibly be assimted into their ranks and put on the very frontlines to prove their loyalty...or cowardice. When Maria arrived at the vige she was going to attack, she didn''t hastily give out the orders to assault the vige. She immediately felt something was wrong when she saw the barred-up gates and the fortified walls around the ogre settlement. There were patrols on the walls and soldiers on the watchtowers. It didn''t look like a vige anymore, but a small fortified fortress. "Were they expecting us?" Maria frowned and asked no one in particr. Lh was also observing the settlement and quickly arrived at a conclusion, something that Maria was hoping she didn''t have to hear. "Master, apparently, the ogres are aware of our presence within the mountains." "...Figures, it''s no wonder the vige suddenly look as fortified as a small castle or keep..." Maria looked around the settlement and tried to find a weak point, but it was pretty well fortified. Not even a full 24 hours had passed since Maria''s presence within the Blood Rock Mountain range was made aware to the ogres and yet they were able to create fortifications around their settlements. The cause of this eluded Maria but it didn''t change their previous objective. Just that now, it was going to take a little bit more effort than before. Maria pondered for a moment before asking aloud, "Is it the same for the others I wonder?" Over at Orh''bankhur and Ash''s side, they too were faced with a simr situation. The viges that they were going to attack had all been fortified and the changes seemed to have happened overnight. Maria thought that the game was supposed to be super-realistic so she couldn''t understand how the viges had be fortified so well after not even a full 24 hours had passed. She attributed it to the system doing this to bring a certain bnce back to the game. Things would have been too easy for her if she used her massive army to overwhelm the viges one by one. She didn''t think deeper and attributed this to the inhabitants of the vige, the ogres. Ogres weren''t just a race consisting of mindlessly powerful warriors that only knew how to fight, fight, fight, and fight. No, even the blood ogres knew about the importance of weaponry and armor. Each ogre had to forge its own weapon and armor. They didn''t have any cksmiths to make it for them so they had to take things into their own hands. This was why not only were the blood ogres, or rather, the ogres in general, were a warrior race but they were also a race of rather skilled crafters. Naturally, their crafting knowledge and techniques paled inparison to the dwarves and gnomes, but since every ogre knew how to craft their own weapons and armor, it wasn''t a surprise if all the ogres pitched in together to build strong fortifications for their settlement within a night. Maria had to think long and hard about how they were going to siege this small vige that was surrounded by walls much taller than the ogres themselves. They didn''t have any siege weapons and it wasn''t like her faction''s craftsmen could craft siege weapons at the moment. They didn''t have any blueprints for that so they couldn''t make it. Maria needed to raid dungeons or defeat high-leveled bosses to have a chance of acquiring them from their drops and rewards. Anything rted to war within the game was always hard to get. Even waging a war itself was hard. Normal yers who had be nobles needed a war order from the lord they were serving tounch a war with another yer or NPC guild or faction. Just being able tounch a war was already that hard, what more acquiring the weapons needed to wage the war. rue ballistae, trebuchets, cannons, gate rammers, siege towers, and many other weapons of war were extremely difficult to get. You either had to be extremely lucky to find one through a quest reward or a monster''s drop or have an insanelyrge amount of faction contribution points to trade for even one of those expensive war machines. Maria was the leader of her own faction so she didn''t need a war order, but the war weapons, this was rather hard for her to get. She didn''t have a faction contribution shop, instead, she had a Faction Leader''s shop which directly showed her what she could purchase. She could use the faction currency to buy these items, but the amount was just insanelyrge that it seemed better for her if she tried her luck raiding high-leveled bosses and dungeons. "We don''t have many archers or mages...it''ll be difficult for all of these ogres to scale the wall without experiencing too much damage," Maria pondered aloud. Thankfully, she had the habit of voicing her thoughts so the audience watching her seriously think and contemte didn''t grow bored of just watching her scrunched-up face. They were also able to follow along with her thought process and try to give her suggestions. Too bad though, Maria didn''t have the chat window opened so she was left to think about it on her own. Eventually, she thought up a great n which used the ogres'' greatest advantage against them. Just like her ogres, the ogres in the vige did not wield any long-ranged weapons. They all used axes, des, polearms, hammers, and other close-ranged weaponry. The only long-ranged fighter they would have would be their vige''s shaman if they had one. Chapter 103: Queen of the Mountain 4 Chapter 103: Queen of the Mountain 4 "Hehe, let''s go with aerial bombardment... Berserker, stay here," Maria said as she slipped down therge ogre''s shoulders andnded stably on the ground. Berserker grunted indicating that he understood her orders. He grabbed his weapon and stabbed it into the ground before sitting down. The other ogres saw this and they did the same. "Good, you ogres, wait for my signal! Vampires, on me!" Maria yelled. She spread her wings in the next moment and the vampires of her personal army, including Alexa, spread open their bat wings as well. Mariaunched herself into the sky and her vampires followed after her. 51 vampires followed after her as she flew across the sky heading straight for the ogre settlement. "Prepare your spells! We''re going to create a breach in their defenses!" ''Lh, get ready, once you see the breach, that''s the signal. Immediately, have Berserker and the ogres charge.'' ''Yes, Master!'' Maria left behind Lh with Berserker so that she could ry her orders even if she wasn''t actually there. She could just y themander and stay at the back while giving out orders. However, this was a game, not reality. She wanted to be right where the action was at. The ogres down below saw the flight of vampires in the air and quickly sounded their rm. Very quickly, the ogre settlement was ced on high alert. They didn''t have any war machines to take note of, but there was a pile ofrge boulders located in different areas on the walls. A few ogres grabbed those boulders and began hurtling them towards Maria and her vampires in the sky. "Evade!" They quickly broke formation and began evading therge boulders flying towards. Since they were nimble in the air, it was easy to dodge the boulders. Maria, however, took the more straightforward way. She pulled out her ax and smashed a boulder heading towards into pieces. "Hahahaha! DIE!" She opened her [Gehenna''s Eye] and a thin ckser shot towards the ogres down below. The ones struck by theser immediately died and Maria absorbed their stats. Luckily for Maria, the option on her skill [Gehenna''s Sacrifice] had triggered. A small portion of the sacrificed ogres'' stats flowed into Maria, buffing her by quite a substantial amount. Since the ogres'' stats were heavily focused on STR and VIT, Maria received arge boost in STR and VIT as well. Her HP quickly reached above the 25,000s closely reaching 30,000 in total and her buffed STR stat greatly increased her ATK until it reached almost 1,000. Unfortunately, for her, [Gehenna''s Eye] was still at level 3 so she couldn''t absorb any more stats and stack more buffs onto herself. It was a Legacy Skill so it was naturally hard to level up. The maximum amount of stacks she could receive from the buff was 5 and the 5 ming eyes that had opened up on her wings were the indicators. Around 12 to 15 ogres were struck by her [Gehenna''s Sacrifice] and she had luckily been able to buff herself 5 times in one go. Triggering the [Sacrifice] effect was already hard and it was even harder for her to steal her enemies'' stats. The buffsted for only 30 minutes but since it was stacked 5 times, itsted 150 minutes in total. This was more than enough time for her to quickly end this battle. Maria flew down andnded powerfully on the settlement''s walls. With her STR, hernding caused the walls to shake and crack. Maria pped her wings and pushed back all of the ogres surrounding her. "Hehehehe~" Her STR stat was now high enough for her to send therge ogres a few meters back with just one powerful p of her wings. "This is where the fun begins~" Maria didn''t strike out at the ogres just yet. She instead raised her ax and mmed it hard onto the walls. Her strike created arge crack on the walls. Seeing as her attack worked, she continued mming her ax down onto the ground repeatedly. The ogres quickly figured out her intentions and rushed forward to stop her. However, a few spears of blood rained down from the sky and protected Maria from the ogres'' attempted assault. "Support her Majesty!"Alexa cried and formed a new blood spear in her hand and quickly flung it towards an ogre who tried to get too close to her big sister. The rest of the vampires who had now reached the air space just above the walls quickly moved in to support their Queen. It was hard for them to face an ogre head-on so they grouped up in pairs and dealt with the ogres using their nimbleness and spells. "Protect her Majesty!" "For the Queen!" "For the Dire!" The vampires raised their battle cries and defended Maria until shepleted her task. Maria''s repeated strikes on the walls caused multiple fractures and cracks to appear. She just needed to deal one final blow to break the wall but somebody did that for her. It was then that she noticed the area around her had begun to darken so she looked up. Alexa also noticed thisrge boulder heading towards her sister and the vampires around her and she quickly warned, "INCOMING!!!" The vampires all saw the boulder and quickly disengaged the ogres they were fighting and began sending attacks at the boulder in a vain attempt to break it apart. They weren''t just going to leave their Queen behind and evade knowing that the boulder was aimed at her. "Ohohoh~" An impossiblyrge boulder was falling towards her but Maria only chuckled and met the boulder head-on. She activated [Cmity Cleave] and struck out three times with her ax, splitting it into pieces. However, the pieces were still heading towards her and it was already toote to dodge the attack. Maria quickly shielded herself with her wings and yelled, "Flee or brace yourselves!" The falling pieces of the boulder quickly struck her and the wall beneath her. Her earlier intention of breaking the wall worked and the breach was soon made. However, she and a few of her vampire soldiers were struck by the boulder shards and hurt during the wall''s copse. ''Dammit, Lh, now!'' Far away, Lh saw the wall break down and the attack which had struck her master. She grew quite worried but after receiving the telepathic message from her master, she quickly urged Berserker to attack now. "Berserker, now!" Berserker and the rest of the ogres were already on edge, impatiently waiting for the order. Berserker quickly received the orders from Lh and roared. "ATTACK!!!" Berserker grabbed his weapon and pulled it out of the ground and charged forward with a loud battle cry. The rest of the ogres did the same and with disregard in forming their ranks, rushed forwards following after theirmander. At this point, they didn''t need any ranks or formations. The goal was clear as day and they only needed to get to it as quickly as possible. They all didn''t rush forwards mindlessly, however. Some of the ogres stopped running at one point and began digging up the earth or rocks nearby andunching them at the walls, covering the others who were still running towards the breach in the walls. "Little Red, that''s our cue! Let''s regroup with Master!" Lh said as she flew on top of Little Red''s head and patted the over-sized red dog on the head. Maria''s stream had peaked in viewers at this point. Many joined after looking at the enticing title and their acquaintances'' urging. The stream was indeed worthwhile to watch from the start. Maria had given her speech, marched her way to their battlefield, and led the first assault herself. The realistic scene of a fantasy-style war that was only possible to capture in VR was caught by Maria''s butler, David. He was adeptly controlling a few streaming probes at once and disying the entire battlefield from many different perspectives. He was even able to catch and show the moment when Maria ordered Lh and Berserker to attack. David was even able to catch footage of Maria still caught under the rubble with a few of her soldiers. <@Death_by_Cuteness, shut the fuck up!> <+2> The one under the username Death_by_Cuteness was immediately med for their thoughtless remark. Everyone could see on stream that Maria was still alive and the fans were naturally angry that someone tried to write her off as dead. Many of her viewers were worried when they saw Maria struck by the massive boulder attack and crushed under the rubble. She had shielded herself with her wings thinking that with her stats, she would be able to endure it, but it was a misconception. The boulder throw was actually a skill so it damaged her far more than she had predicted. Some of her soldiers had been killed while the few near her she was able to protect. "Crap... that didn''t go as nned..." Maria quickly recovered from her shock and the after-effects of the boulder skill. Her wings were still shielding her, but they were broken in many ces. She still had to concentrate and keep the earth barriers surrounding her and the few subordinates around her maintained so that the rubble it was blocking wouldn''t copse in on them. Maria released a breath and mustered her strength. She quickly twisted her body and pushed away all the rubble using the centrifugal force of her spin and the power of her wings. The earth barriers also lightened her load as she manipted them to push away the rubble. When her body was revealed to the viewers, everyone grimaced at how badly injured she was. The game was way too realistic at times and it was very horrifying to the fans to see their little angel injured so badly. Her wings were broken in multiple ces and a few of her wing bones were showing. There were even a few dents on Maria''s armor. She began coughing and from her helmet, blood began pouring out. She quickly took off her helmet and wiped the blood off her mouth. "Ouch..." Chapter 104: Queen of the Mountain 5 Chapter 104: Queen of the Mountain 5 "Ouch..." With her health nearly depleted, that was all she had to say. Maria quickly cast [Heal] on herself and her surviving subordinates to stop any [Bleed], [Stun], and [Disable] status effects. Most of her subordinates that came with her and were struck by the attack were all severely injured with a few of them even dying. Alexa had a few broken bones but she quickly got up and limped her way to Maria and asked, "A-Are you okay, big sis?" "Mhm..." Maria grimaced when she saw the young vampire severely injured. She looked around and her face darkened when she saw the dead bodies of her soldiers. This was the oue of war so it was inevitable that a few of her followers would die but they all died trying to protect her. It left behind a horrible feeling but she had to focus herself back on the war at hand and help her soldiers that were still alive. She could mourn for her losses after the battle. The ogres on the walls saw the injured Maria resurface from underneath the rubble. They all jumped down from the walls and began moving their way towards her, intending to finish her off. The vampires who had remained in the sky from before and weren''t struck by the devastating attack quickly flew down and formed a wall formation around Maria and the injured vampires. Maria red at the approaching ogres darkly and reached out with her hand. "[Fallen''s Cruelty]..." [+1 Sin] She activated the skill and gained one Sin stat. Maria still didn''t know what the SIN stat was for, but it didn''t have any negative effects on her as far as she could see. In fact, it didn''t even provide her with any bonuses or benefits. Maria targeted one of the approaching ogres, the one who was at the forefront. The ogre fell to its knees and began wailing in pain as a gray light was ejected from its body. The light gathered in her hand and she ced it onto her chest. The light entered her body and it healed a sizeable chunk of her HP. Maria''s nearly empty HP bar increased until it was above 50% just from this one skill. With her HP increasing, the wounds on her body quickly began mending themselves. Her bones snapped back into ce while the cuts and bruises on her body slowly began to disappear. The visuals of her recovery were rather magical and it amazed most of her viewers. [Disable] and [Broken] were actual status effects in the game which indicated that a part of the avatar''s body was broken and unusable. [Cure] and [Heal] couldn''t recover or dispel this status effect, only the high-ranked priest ss skill [Mend] was able to heal this. However, the audience noticed that Maria''s skill had also recovered her HP and the visuals were different from the normal [Mend] they knew. Also, when she mumbled her skill name from earlier, it was clearly different. She had chanted [Fallen''s Cruelty], not [Mend]. A few brought this up in the chat, but it was quickly buried by the fans'' chat that expressed their relief to see Maria recover from her severe injuries. [Fallen''s Cruelty] was a skill that took 25% of the target''s HP and MP and transferred it onto a target or the caster while also alleviating any status effects. Maria used it on herself and healed all of the status effects she was afflicted with while also increasing her HP, resulting in the sublime visual of her recovering from her injuries. Ogres didn''t have arge mana pool, to begin with, and with the size of her mana pool, it didn''t even increase by 1%. It didn''t matter though since her MP''s battle recovery was high and she had arge amount anyway. Maria quickly began casting [Cure] and healed up all of her injured vampire soldiers. The ones with [Broken] or [Disable] status effects, including Alexa, were ordered by Maria to refrain from participating in the battle until she healed them. Her [Fallen''s Cruetly] had a 5-minute cooldown so they needed to wait. They couldn''t do anything about this and listened to her orders despite being reluctant to do so. Some only had a broken leg or arm and since they could still use the other, they wanted to fight and rely on their enhanced regenerations as vampires to gradually heal themselves. Maria could clearly see this so she firmlymanded them not to do anything stupid. "If you know what''s best for you, you all better stand down a wait until I heal you! I have no need for suicidal fools or insubordination amongst my ranks!" Maria''s words dissuaded any of the injured vampires from trying to ''show'' their loyalty to her. It wasn''t like she was in some kind of hopeless situation and it really pained her to see her people die. "Out of my way!" Maria bellowed and the vampires that were in formation ahead of her quickly made way without question. She wanted to deal with the approaching ogres and find the one who attacked her and killed her subordinates. She wanted to personally and slowly plunge her Cmity into the bastard''s heart. Maria still had her [Gehenna''s Sacrifice] buff so she readied the most powerful attack in her arsenal. "Disappear! [Dark Ray]!" Arge concentration of energy began gathering from Maria''s wings and it moved towards the finger she had pointed in front of her. The ming eyes on her wings also began gathering up energy and concentrated it onto Maria''s finger. The atmosphere grew heavy and Maria''s outstretched finger began turning ck. The pressure that suddenly appeared was the precursor of her skill. Maria had an angered look on her face as she poured nearly all of her mana into the skill. She released the skill after her MP bar was 80% empty. In the next moment, a thin ray pierced through the air from her finger. It didn''t look too dramatic but the effects that came after it was devastating. Once the ray faded, multiple explosions of ck energy bombarded the area where the ray passed through. It immediately blew away the rubble and the semi-copsed portion of the wall. Everything in front of Maria was obliterated and the explosions continued to go until it eventually disappeared into the horizon. It was the first time she used the skill to such an extent. Even she didn''t know that it was possible to adjust the amount of mana the skill used. The power and destruction naturally increased but so did the cooldown. She noticed that the normal 5-minute cooldown had turned into a 5-hour cooldown. She didn''t mind it too much and instead bellowed, "Attack!" Maria''s blood ogres quickly moved past her and began flooding into the new opening she made. Berserker arrived next to her and stretched out his arm. Maria flew onto his open palm and stood on it. Berserker then pushed his way through the army of ogres and rushed into the vige. He smashed away an ogre that approached him while Maria coldly watched. "No prisoners this time. Kill them all!" Maria was holding a grudge for the loss of the soldiers in her personal army. Although she didn''t know them personally, she didn''t like losing anything that was hers. She didn''t forget her objective and continued scanning the area for the bastard that attacked her and killed her soldiers. A particrlyrge ogre was rampaging around not far away and beating back her army''s ogres. "Are you the one?" Therge ogre seemed to be the leader of this vige so it was undoubtedly a boss monster. Her ogres were slowly chipping away at the monster''s health while she stayed at the back, providing healing and support for the ones that were blown away by the boss''s attacks. Even though she was angered, Maria made sure that her ogres didn''t severely damage any of the buildings within the vige. She was going to im this vige as hers so she didn''t want the structures to be too damaged. "Berserker, you go. I''ll join you when I''m ready." "RAHHHH!!!" Berserker roared and after cing Maria down gently on the ground, he rushed forward and mmed his body onto the ogre chieftain and smashed his war hammer onto the boss''s face. "Tch...I guess using the skill like that doese with a little bacsh..." Maria already saw the object of her grudge right in front of her but she didn''t immediately rush at the ogre with guns zing. This was because she had received a bacsh from using her skill like that. It was also a surprising discovery for her. She had recently received a new Magus Sub-ss skill, [Mana Maniption] after she increased the ranks of her previous sub-ss skills and obtained the final elemental spell from Paimon''s Spellbook [Aero]. The sub-skill [Mana Maniption] allowed Maria to adjust the output of her mana to a certain extent to empower her skills or spells. Naturally, the more mana she used, the more powerful her skill or spell bes. This was the case with her earlier [Dark Ray]. However, using her mana like this came at a cost. It wasn''t just the increase in the skill''s cooldown but there was an additional bacsh to the caster. Maria was inflicted with various psyche-rted status effects such as [Dispirited], [Mind Down], [Overload], and [Fatigue] status effects. She was also inflicted with other status effects like [Slow], [Focus Down], [INT Down], [Resist Down], [Weakness], [Enfeeble], [Recovery Down] and various others. The sheer amount of debuffs she received made her question the benefit of even using [Mana Maniption] at all. Naturally, there was an increase in the power of her [Dark Ray] and there were additional hidden skill effects like the explosions, distance, and Area of Effect, but the demerits... Maria had to wait out all of the debuffs she received because of the [Weakness] and [Dispirited] debuffs which nullified any status effect removing skills and spells used on her. "Ahhh, bad move. At least now I know not to recklessly use it anymore and save it as ast resort..." Maria didn''t feel so good. She felt like throwing up and falling asleep. She began feeling dizzy and hot, it was like she had a fever. The effects of her debuffs began kicking in now and it wasn''t anything good. "Ugh, they made the game too realistic..." Maria''s viewers also took notice of how odd she was acting. Her face and lips were pale as a ghost''s and she looked so feeble. Maria tried breathing in and out. Slowly, she was able to readjust herself and only felt the weakness in her body. The debuffs wouldst an hour. It was really not something she wanted. Thankfully, she could adjust the intensity of the debuffs'' symptoms through the game''s [System] menu. It was impossible topletely turn it off but it was with the settings set at low, it was much better than how she felt earlier. It was like she was actually sick or something and it was very unpleasant. Now, she only felt the slight pangs of headaches and sickness. Her breathing was rough and she did feel awfully tired but she still had something to do. By now, her soldiers hadpletely overwhelmed the ogres in the vige. The ones that tried to surrender were immediately executed with impunity. The ogres fulfilled Maria''s orders and left no one in the vige alive and captured the ones that tried to flee. She told her ogres to leave behind a few of the enemies since she had some use for themter. As for the others...Maria wanted every ogre in the vige dead and that''s what her ogres were trying to aplish. The vige''s chieftain was already on itsst legs now. It was constantly being beaten and smashed around but Berserker and the other ogres never delivered the finishing blow. Instead, they just toyed around with the nearly dead chieftain. Maria walked over to where Berserker was and therge ogre quickly took notice of her and roared. He knelt and stretched his hand out on the ground, ready to pick her up. Maria shook her head and walked past him while dragging her ax on the ground behind her. The sound of her ax being dragged on the ground rang in the air and it caused the ogres to stop bullying the poor chieftain who was already begging for them to end his life honorably. "Pin him..." Maria said in a hoarse voice. Berserker roared and the ogres near the enemy chieftain quickly rushed forward and tackled the monster down. They pinned his arms and legs down firmly, not giving the chieftain any room for struggle. "Your...stupid resistance... caused me to lose a few good soldiers..." Maria said once she got close. She flew up and climbed onto the chieftain''s body and red down at it with a terrifyingly chilling gaze. "Thanks for throwing... that ridiculouslyrge boulder at me. I nned to spare a few of you but... I changed my mind. I''ll massacre every single one of you that resists." Maria''s arms felt too weak to hold up the Cmity so instead of shing down, she positioned the ax below her and stepped on it. Slowly, her ax''s de pierced through the chieftain''s chest. "You''re going to die...slowly...and painfully..." "MMMRRGGGGHHH!!!" The other ogres had restrained the chieftain and bound his mouth so he could only grunt loudly and watch in horror as the ax slowly and painfully pierced through his chest. Chapter 105: Queen of the Mountain 6 Chapter 105: Queen of the Mountain 6 Maria killed the ogre chieftain slowly and pressed down on her ax until it waspletely embedded inside the monster''s body. She then stepped off and reached out for her weapon. Because of the return function, Cmity didn''t dislodge itself from the ogre chieftain''s body before flying into Maria''s hand. Instead, it tore through the ogre''s body, gruesomely pulling out the monster''s entrails, effectively killing it. Maria was awarded arge amount of EXP for killing the boss monster letting her jump a level. She also received a small portion of EXP from her subordinates'' kills so she had risen another level because of that. The chat began spamming that Maria was being a little too gruesome but they sort of understood where she wasing from. She had lost a few of her people and was angry about it. At least they understood her character better now. She was a rather caring person who was sweet to her allies but against her enemies, she was merciless. Of course, what the chat didn''t know was that Maria was actually just exhausted and weakened from the debuffs afflicting her character. She didn''t mean to kill the ogre chieftain like that nor did she want to show the audience that gruesome kill. She was just severely debuffed so her STR didn''t allow her to wield her weapon as usual. She had to put in quite a bit of strength to push her weapon into the ogre chief''s chest. Although it looked like she was deliberately doing it slowly to emphasize her anger, Maria was actually giving it her all and not trying to entuate anything. Although people saw that she was debuffed, they didn''t know how severe it impacted her stats. Even now, she was actually extremely exhausted from performing her earlier act of ''cruelty''. Maria quickly found a spot to sit down and let her army rest. She ordered Lh to organize a group for the post-battle cleanup and organization. Maria didn''t forget about the ogres she had her soldiers capture. After resting for a little bit, she quickly had her soldiers bring them over. Once the prisoners were lined up together, Maria called for all her injured soldiers to gather and began healing them, one by one. Maria used her [Fallen''s Cruelty] to take the life force of the ogre prisoners and transferred it to her injured soldiers, healing all of their injuries and restoring their HP. All the prisoner ogres had their HP perfectly at or below 25 percent so, with every use of her skill, she killed one of them to heal one of her soldiers. David really wanted to cut this part out of the stream, but it was toote. Maria used up quite a bit of time healing her injured men, but it was okay since her army needed the rest. She had ordered them to kill every enemy ogre within the vige so they exerted themselves more than what was needed of them. It took about 2 hours for Maria topletely heal all of the soldiers in her army that had a broken or missing appendage. Her skill''s 5-minute cooldown was the cause of it taking so long but in between the long cooldown, Maria used that time to cast [Cure] on every one of her soldiers and brought their HP bars back to full. With her army well rested and healed, Maria immediately gave the marching order. She was ready to attack the next vige that was assigned to her. She had received reports from the messengers of Ash and Orh''bankhur''s army stating that they were finished with their battles and were already marching to their next objective. Maria didn''t want to fall behind so she had her men pick up the pace. She even cast [Haste] on every soldier in her army to quicken their marching speed. It was the first time in her gaming life that she had to use a mana potion to recover MP, but with everyone having the speed buff, they were able to quickly arrive at the next vige they were supposed to attack. This vige was much different from the previous one they attacked. There was indeed a wall being constructed around the vige but that was still a work in progress. Probably because it was closer to the ogre city which oversaw this region, it was given the lesser priority in setting up defensespared to the ones farther away thus resulting in the walls and fortifications still notpleted. "Berserker, do as we discussed earlier." Berserker grunted in response before roaring and waving over a squadron of ogres. This squadron of ogres was rather unique since their builds were all much bigger and buffer than most of the ogres in Maria''s army. Maria didn''t want to act recklessly and risk the loss of her soldiers again. This time, she was going to y it smart and put her army''s advantage to better use. She learned from her previous battle that the ogres were physically overwhelmingly powerful. They could double as infantry and siege weapons. She remembered how the enemy ogres from before had defended themselves by throwing boulders and chunks of earth at them. Maria stole this tactic and was gonna let the ogres have a taste of their own medicine courtesy of their own people. Before leaving the vige, she had her soldiers gather what materials they could from the vige to fashion a few carts and wagons. On these wagons were the projectiles that Maria would use to start their siege. A majority of these projectiles were boulders and trees. They did somehow find a few Crag Beetles which the ogres scared into submission and loaded them onto the carts. Berserker told Maria that the Crag Beetles'' body fluids were rather acidic and poisonous so they would serve as good ''bombs'' forter during the siege. "Now that we''re here, let''s see how effective these Crag Beetle Bombs are~" The Crag Beetle monsters proliferated quite easily since theyid multiple eggs at once. Maria had delegated a pair of Crag Beetles of both genders to be used as breeding monsters for their organic ''bomb'' farm. Now she just wanted to see how well they performed as bombs and whether it would be worth it to sink in some funds into raising these expendable monsters. "Sound the horn for battle. We should at least let those poor fools know what''sing for them," Maria ordered. Their ''horn'' was actually just the battle cries of everyone in the army. The ogres in the vige had long since noticed their presence but Maria still wanted them to announce themselves and hopefully intimidate their opponents into surrendering. This was actually what Maria hoped for since the thought of losing any of her precious soldiers ached her heart. Berserker began roaring and the other ogres in her army likewise bellowed after him. Their cries split the air as a massive gush of wind surged forward and struck the walls of the enemy vige. [Notice: Morale of your Army has reached the peak. Activated: Fury of the Titans (Degraded) Awarding buffs: +5% movement speed, +5% attack speed, +5% HP regen] "Such a thing can happen? That''s nice to know," Maria mumbled before dismissing the message window. "Alright, get ready to attack! First, the siege squadrons! Throw EVERYTHING we have here while our infantry slowly moves towards the walls! You are to cease-fire and join up after the vanguard arrives at the tower!" The ogres received their orders and immediately got into position. Each siege squadron had 6rge ogres. 2 would be in charge of ''reloading'' while the other 4 would work in pairs to shoot the projectiles into the air. They started off quite awkward at first since it was the first time they were doing this, but after a few founds of firing off boulders and trees, the ogre pairs were able to get into gear and synchronize their movements and power tounch the boulders and trees far into the sky and somehow reach the vige walls that was a couple of hundred meters away. The effects were as Maria expected, they couldn''t break down the walls but it was enough to cover for the infantry''s march towards the walls. "Alright, it''s going great. Keep it up! Berserker, lead our men to the walls. Take it down as swiftly as possible. This time, don''t kill everyone. Let the ones who surrender live. Kill only the ones that resist!" Berserker grunted in understanding before he roared and charged forward. This time, Maria didn''t join the battle. A few of the debuffs from earlier were still afflicting Maria so she wasn''t in any condition to fight. "Lh, Alexa, you go as well. Lead my personal soldiers and get some EXP." "And you, Master?" "I''ll stay behind and rest. I recklessly used my skill earlier and the bacsh still hasn''t disappeared. Go ahead and have fun. Also, keep an eye on those ogres. Without me there, they might suddenly destroy a building or two," Maria said before finding a ce to sit down. "Alright, Master. Alexa, Little Red, let''s get going." "Right." Maria saw them off with a smile before heaving a sigh. She opened up her stream''s chat and read through it. A few hours had already passed so she couldn''t skim through the entire chat history and see what she missed. The current topic her audience was talking about was her cleverness in copying her enemies and using her ogres as siege weapons. It wasn''t anything that needed high praise for but Maria felt a little smug and happy nheless. When people noticed that she was looking at the chat, they began greeting her and thanking her for the good work. The people watching her never ceased to amuse her. Even though Maria was supposed to be the one entertaining them through her stream, she was equally entertained by reading the ridiculous things her viewers wrote in the chat. "I hope you all enjoyed today''s stream! There will be a second part tomorrow and it will start at the same time!" Maria said. She was going to hold off from attacking the ogre city for now. She needed to consolidate her army and secure her newly conquered territory. It wouldn''t take up too much of her time since she was going to leave it to her subordinates and while they were at it, she would bring her army tomorrow and attack the ogre city. After conquering that city, Maria would then turn her attention back to internal affairs for a while and postpone her ns of conquering the entire mountain range. She had been informed by the various ogre leaders and Orh''bankhur about the other ogre settlements in the mountains so she naturally wanted to conquer them as well, but it wouldn''t do her well if she neglected managing her territory and people. History showed her that many reckless and foolish leaders who only focused on wars ended up losing everything in the end with their empires, kingdoms, or dynasties falling. She didn''t want such short-lived glory so Maria made sure to bnce war and management. Of course, this was only a game and she didn''t need to strictly follow this. It wasn''t like there were going to be treacherous AIs in the game that will backstab her, but Maria viewed the game the same as she viewed reality, she didn''t want to risk the chance of something like that happening since the game advertised it emted reality at a 99% ratio. "I''ll take a short break from my conquest after I take over the city tomorrow..." Maria stretched her arms and quietly watched her army decimate the vige ahead. Chapter 106: Conquest Quest Chapter 106: Conquest Quest After taking down the vige, Maria soon received a quest prompt. [Conditions have been met for Conquest Quest! A new quest has been generated!] [Blood Rock Ruler Rank: A You have taken over 10% of the totalnds within the Blood Rock Mountain Range. Continue to establish your rule and hoist your g over the territory! Main Objective: Completely take control of the entire mountain range. Sub Objective: Take control of 50% of the entire mountain range Rewards: 100,000 Faction Coins, 1,000 Reputation, 10 Faction Chests, 1 Unique Faction Chest, and the Title: Queen of the Mountain Note: Quests can bepleted by either fulfilling the Main or Sub Objective. The rewards will vary depending on the questpletion rate Current rate: 11%] It was another quest and Maria just dismissed it. Even if she didn''t receive the quest, she would still have set her eyes on conquering the mountain. It was within her faction''s area of influence and they needed to get over the mountain anyway. What better way than to conquer it and save her the trouble of having to send her army to patrol the ce periodically to thin out the monsters for her citizens'' safe passage. "Well, we''ll be resting for now so it''ll be put on hold like the rest of my quests...Why do I keep getting these long-term quests though..." Maria frowned when she looked at her quest window. Not once since she had started the game did she ever get a quest that was a normal one that had specific and easy-toplete targets. The rewards were great of course, but she wanted to be able to do one normal quest for once. She regrouped with the rest of her armyter that day and began distributing the ogres and the people from her faction which began to slowly stream into the mountain range from her city. Her crowded city finally became a little less cramped as more and more of her citizens began migrating towards the new towns and viges she had established or taken over. Thanks to it being VR, David was able to capture the battle on all fronts. Although the stream only showed Maria''s battle, David was able to capture Ash and Orh''bankhur''s battle. These two footages would be edited and posted separately on Maria''s Switch channel. Maria continued to stream even after the war had ended. She actually forgot to end it and because David received no prompt from her, he continued to let the stream run. When Maria teleported back to her castle using Paimon''s Spellbook, the viewers were able to see what it was like inside her chambers. David had to put the stream on a screensaver when Maria''s maids walked in and began stripping off her armor and undressing her. The terms of service for Switch naturally stated that any nudity or rated-18 and above content was strictly prohibited. Maria would have received a strike or maybe have been banned if David didn''t react quickly enough. He also wasn''t so perverted to spy on her while she was undressing and preparing for a bath. He didn''t want to be fired. After her maids led her to the bath, Maria dipped in and released a long sigh. The stream''s audio was still present so everyone heard her. At this point, even David caught on that his youngdy had already forgotten about the stream. "Oh?" Maria was immediately reminded so she opened the stream''s chat window. "Ah, hello~ I''m sorry. I actually forgot I was still streaming!" Maria received many replies after she apologized saying that the viewers didn''t mind. A majority didn''t but there were a few that mentioned her slight mess up earlier. "Ah, yes. I have to thank my stream''s mod for that. Anyway, I''ll be taking a break now. I should have ended the stream earlier, but if you guys wanna stay and chat, we can do that~" Her chat began buzzing with many ''yes'' so Maria decided to continue the stream for a while longer. She had to work on her faction''s paperwork and other thingster so it would be a good way to loosen up a bit before she got started. "I''ll be busyter so this is a good way to wind down. Managing a faction isn''t easy. I''m d I have good subordinates but it''d be quite helpful if I had a few reliable and loyal yers to help out~" Maria involuntarily issued a recruitment order for her faction. Many in the chat were interested in joining but Maria wasn''t actually serious. They were all still back at the starting while she was already striking it big on another. If they wanted to get the chance to join her faction, they would need to get to her first which wasn''t usible for any yer at the moment. Therge majestic bathroom was filled with steam so it was hard for people to see anything so Maria let David turn on the video. When the video turned on, the viewers were able to see Maria in the bath, albeit, only her face. Herrge wings covered up the rest of her body both above and below the water so technically she wasn''t viting any of Switch''s rules. She began chatting about various things with her viewers and answered some questions that they asked. Naturally, she didn''t answer any real-life sensitive questions orpromising ones regarding her situation in the game. It was only a few minutester that Maria''s maids came in with towels that she ended the conversation. David once again changed the video into a screen saver and let the maids dress her before switching it back. This time, Maria was sitting behind a desk that was piled with a few documents. She was wearing a ck one-piece dress. Unlike when she had donned her battle armor and priestess robes, her essories like her earrings and ne were visible this time. Her maids had tied up her hair and it gave off a refreshing feeling. Now, she wasn''t the battle-crazy valkyrie from before, instead, the vibe she gave off was that of a little sister who was forced to do something she didn''t want to do like eating her veggies. That was the vibe Maria was giving off which was enhanced by her extremely reluctant expression when faced with the piles of documents on her desk. A few momentster, a few vampires came into her office-sh-bedroom and began helping her with the documents. All the while, Maria was chatting with her viewers. Many of them were curious about what she was doing but when she began exining about this and that regarding economics, city-nning, document approval, and other mumbo jumbo, the chat could only sympathize with her and understand why she was making such a face. Even while ying a game, she had to ''work'' an office job. Here everyone was enjoying the game by raiding, questing, and dungeoning, however, Maria, was forced to work. Maria didn''t end the stream when she got busy. Instead, she let her viewers watch her work while asionally talking back to them. It made her job all the more bearable since she was able to talk with her audience while doing it. She lost quite a bit of people, but there were still more willing to just hang around with her and chat. Maria was able to get her work done and because she was talking to her vampires in Vanhal''snguage, her viewers weren''t able to understand what was in the documents or the ns that were underway for her faction. Naturally, it wasn''t that she was talking in a differentnguage, but she had turned off thenguage filter for the stream so her conversation with her NPC subordinates remained unintelligible. "How about those exploding insect farms, is everything going ording to progress?" Maria asked one of her assistants. "My Queen, we''ve just discovered one of their nests and the ogres have quicklymandeered it. Using the Shaman''s concoction, we were able to tame many of them, but unfortunately, we still had to get rid of the stronger and more mature ones so productivity may take a hit for a few months." Maria nodded in understanding before addressing some other issues. After everything was taken care of, Maria ended the stream after it had started nearly 8 hours ago. "Wow, I didn''t expect time to fly while talking with them...I should do some work chatting streams as well!" Maria flew out of her castle and checked on her faction''s statistics and saw that everything was Above Average grade. This was good enough because it was only 3 grades below Perfect. Raising a grade was extremely hard and therger her faction became, the more variables there would be that would bring down said grade. So being above average after just swallowing up arge amount ofnd, towns, and viges were already good enough for Maria. Ash and all of her other subordinates were doing their job well. Due to their efforts, Maria didn''t need to worry about anything else besides her quest to expand her faction and rece the Blood Faction as the ruling authority of the Blood Continent. ****** Back on Eur, the starting where all the action was taking ce. Maria''s former guild, the Fallen Angels, had finally been able toplete the final leg of their Main Scenario Quest, ending the first major dispute among the yer base as well as getting the first major reward from the first major quest of the game. Many firsts had beenpleted on that day as not only did the Fallen Angels be the first guild toplete such a quest, they were also the first to single-handedly destroy 2 of their rival guilds and absorb them into their ranks. Naturally, Lizzy didn''t take in any of the administrative members of either guild but only the elite members who were good at the game and only yed UT because it was fun. They didn''t take any of those that were being backed by the guild''s sponsoringpanies. Naturally, her actions attacked the interests of many people, but those consequences were being borne by her guild''s sponsoringpanies. The Heltania Group was one of the Fallen Angels'' sponsors and they were at the forefront of the dispute. Naturally, the youngdies also had the backing of their own parents'' power so they didn''t need to worry too much and just continue ying the game like normal. This was something Maria didn''t quite like. She wanted to be able to y the game as she wanted to but now that people knew about the economic prospects of the game and how big it had impacted the real world''s stock market, politics and business was slowly seeping into the game and polluting the pure gaming environment. Not many people cared about this and just went about their way in the game, but some werepletely against this. In the Fallen Angels'' guild house in the guild master''s office, Lizzy was in a meeting with the other higher-ups of the guild and looking through a report of their recent gains and losses. One of her subordinates, the guild''s First Elite Team''s captain, Crimson Howling, a level 95 Dread Knight, stood up and made a report, "Guild Master, we were attacked by them again." "Them? You mean those Freedom pricks?" "Yes...it''s the third time this week and not only my team, but the others as well. They aren''t too happy about us, a ''corporate'' guild, taking away one of the game''s major achievements." Lizzy scoffed and replied, "If they were so strong then why didn''t they take on the quest instead of us? Freaking pricks, we''re all yers in this game so what gives them the right to act so entitled?" "..." "Issue a guild wide kill order. The targets are anyone who identifies themselves as being part of ''Freedom'' or acts hostile towards our members after being warned. I won''t let my guild be bullied by a bunch of ragtag retards." Chapter 107: Missing Out Chapter 107: Missing Out Maria was reading through the news on a fan-made UT site. The site was called UniTale Times and it aggregated all thetest news on what was happening in the game. It was the game''s online newspaper. A lot of interesting happenings and events were ongoing and Maria was missing all of it to her regret. The chaotic starting was where all the action was happening and she wasn''t able to participate in causing even more havoc for the yers. Yes, that''s right. Maria only felt that it was regrettable because she wanted to join in on the fun and wreak havoc. She found it amusing whenever there was any chaos and wanted to be a part of it. Her friends said that the events happening there were causing them headaches but Maria saw it as an opportunity to go have fun. She even earned a deadpanned look from her friends when she said that it was a shame that she was on a different. Speaking about being on a different, Maria''s friends had activated the interster teleportation device and have been reaping the fruits of theirbor by harvesting and mining the materials from the sub that the device led to. Many guilds and groups were envious of their aplishment and the rising power they were garnering. They regretted ignoring the game''s main quest so they learned from their mistakes and had their yers focus on unlocking quest chains andpleting as many quests as they could. Whether it was a significant quest or not, the guilds and groups were all focusing their attention on them while at the same time keeping watch and hindering each other''s progress. This was what caused Maria''s friends their headaches while at the same time there was a group of game supremacists that have been targeting all the corporate guilds in the game. There was an article about them and Maria was interested since she heard that many of the high-ranked yers in the game were part of this organization. It wasn''t that Maria wanted to join them or anything, but she wanted to see how long they''dst if she attacked them. The same went for all the other guilds in the game besides the Fallen Angels. Her forces were growing stronger everyday and she wanted to test them on a yer or NPC force. Her target at the present was the vampire''s Blood Faction, but if she recklessly attacked such a huge force, it would spell her doom. Also, she still had some internal management to attend to which Ash was practically shoving at her face to prevent her from going out and waging war again. Theplications with the other ogre forces in the mountains weren''t over yet and they needed to quickly deal with that. The nearby ogre city had received news of their presence from the lucky survivors of their previous campaign so they had been stocking up on resources, scouting their army and distributions of power as well as tightening their defenses. The battle ahead would take some time to finish and Maria needed to thoroughly n for it. Thankfully, Ash was there so she left it all to him to manage. She wasn''t a strategist and the only time she''s ever been at war was during the previous campaign. She had no experience whatsoever so it was wise of her to leave it to someone who was. Ash had been through many battles so he knew what he was doing. Maria was learning from him in real-time because she wanted to be able to do it alone the next time they went to war. For now, all of that was within the game. In the real world, winter break was about to begin and that meant the semester''s final exams were starting soon. Maria had to take a few days off from streaming and gaming to study for the exam. Of course, when she was sick and tired of it, she dived into the game to hunt a few monsters and once she let off some steam, she would dive back into the books and study. Fortunately, she was able to download the softcopy of her textbook into the game so she was able to study while ying. She even did a few study streams where all she did was sit at her table and study after doing some management work for her faction. It was dull for most people, but the hardcore fans were just happy to hang out with her and talk. Whether it was good or bad, people found out that Maria was only a year 2 or 3 high school student. ***** "Mary~~~ Help!!!" "Ouch...you don''t need to yell, Liz" Inside Maria''s room, her friend Elisabeth had jumped on and clung to her like a panda. She was whining because their exams would be starting the next week and she hadn''t done any studying. Maria''s other two friends had alsoe because today they would be doing a study session together. "You should have studied a few weeks back. I mean even I was doing some studying in the game!" Maria said as she pried off the clingy Liza from her body. Her best friend had started groping her in weird ces but this was a normal urrence whenever they were at a private ce. Liz always acted like an old pervert but it was all just fun and games. "Sorry to intrude." "Liz dragged us here" Amanda and Emily said. They weren''t like this one friend of theirs that was too focused on ying UT and didn''t study for their exams. Liz was only reminded of that because she dropped by on Maria''s stream and noticed that she was studying. "Sorry, you guys~~~ with all that was happening in-game. I forgot about it!" "More like you forgot that you were still in school!" Emily teased. "Hey, that''s so mean!" Liz protested in reply. Maria spent the next week spending less time inside the game and focused her attention on tutoring her academically hopeless best friend. Thankfully, Amanda and Emily weren''t as dumb as Liz so they were able to help her instead. When the exams ended, Maria and Amanda naturally took their ce within the top ranks while Emily was a few ranks below them. Liz had managed to barely pass all of her subjects without getting a red mark. That was all she asked for so the girl was over the moon when she saw the average grades on all her tests. "My dad won''t confiscate the VR set now!" "That''s why you were trying so hard?!" Maria eximed. "Exactly! Now, let''s head back into UniTale! Those Freedom bastards have been causing some problems during my absence so I''ll have to address them soon" "Don''t forget that we have to run some dungeons and continue exploring and mining that sub that we acquired," Amanda added. "Ugh...so much stuff to do" Maria pouted and said, "I envy you guys. You''re on the where all the action is happening. Meanwhile, I''m stuck by my lonesome on Vanhal killing mobs and raiding towns" "Hey, I''d rather be you, Maria! At least you don''t get a headache dealing with the yers!" Maria stuck her tongue out before asking, "Why not just kill them all?" Amanda, Elisabeth, and Emily all sighed in distress at her words. "If only it was that easy," Emily said. "We''re dealing with very high-leveled and cunning yers and it''s hard for us since they''re in the shadows while we''re in the light. By the time our backup arrives, the team or hunting groups that were attacked would have long since been killed" "...Sounds tough," Maria said. "Yeah, it is. It''s giving me extra headaches from calcting our losses," Amanda sighed and continued. "Argh, I wish those bastards would just disappear! Why are most of their forces aiming at us?!" "It''s because we''re the best guild out there and there are some stupid and salty people who don''t like seeing us rising above them," Liz spat out spitefully. Seeing her friendsin, Maria felt a little sad and left out. "I wish I could help you guys somehow...I mean, I bet if I unleashed my army and indiscriminately killed all the yers that are or look like they''re aiming for your guildmates, I''m sure they''d back off and stop targeting you" "!" "Hold up, Mary. That''s a little extreme!" "Really?" "Y-yeah I mean, if we did something like that, we''d be ruining the gaming experience of other innocent yers!" "Huh? Why are you thinking like that, Liz? Aren''t other yers already ruining the yers in your guild''s gaming experience? Why be merciful?" "Ah...well...I guess it''s because I''d like to keep our guild''s image clean. If we started indiscriminately attacking yers just because they seemed suspicious, we''d have to deal with the bacsh from the gamingmunity." Maria thought hard for a moment before saying. "Hmmm~ but people are ruining your guild''s activities. If you did start killing yers indiscriminately, just me it on those people who have been interfering with your guild''s yers. Turn them into the cause for your actions and shift the me! Public opinion will fall on your side if you y your cards right~" Hearing her devious words, Liz and the girls were stopped and stared at her like they were looking at someone foreign. "...Who are you and what have you done to my precious and pure Maria?!" Liz screamed as she grabbed onto Maria''s shoulders and shook her. "Uwah!" "Honestly Maria...where did you learn to thinknoto scheme like that?" Amanda pushed her sses up and asked. Liz stopped shaking her so Maria replied, "Well, I learned from Ash? He''s quite a good teacher when ites to warfare and politics. Since I''m going to be Queen one day, I''ll have to learn all about that so I''m starting early!" "...I dunno if I should thank this game for making you more outgoing or me it for being a bad influence to you," Liz said with narrowed eyes. "Heh, once we reunite with Mary in-game, we''ll just crush our opponents with brute force! Having to constantly scheme and watch our backs while ying a game is just not my style~" Emily said. "We''ll have to get to her first and foremost. I looked up at the database and apparently, Vanhal is the 3rd main scenario of the game," Amanda said. "You got a pretty significant head-start, Mary." "Hehehe~" Chapter 108: The Start of Winter Break Chapter 108: The Start of Winter Break With her exams over, winter break had officially started. Now, Maria could y all day if she wanted. She nned a few streams over the break and posted the schedule on her official SNS page. Many of her fans were anticipating her streams and apparently, many other people besides her fans were now paying attention to her. Whether this was a good or a bad thing remained unknown because right now, Maria''s impact on the game''s current state of affairs was minimal. Most of the people watching and paying attention to her had long since noticed and confirmed that she was indeed on a different. The flora, fauna, and the environment were all differentpared to Eur so this was conclusive evidence that Maria, due to some luck, had escaped from the starting. Most of her fans watched her because they were interested in whatever she did, but there were those people who paid attention to her actions so that they could find out her motives and for who she was working for. They wanted to dig out the mysterious power backing her up since many believed that a girl who seemed pretty much like a simpleton that only focused on ying the game for what it was couldn''t have the resources and the wits to develop her faction to the extent that was shown on her streams. It was a bias against her female gender and because of her young age. They couldn''t dig up much info about her since everything in her bio was set to private and investigating a person''s IRL identity through the game went against Universe Game''s Private Policy. No one dared to investigate her IRL circumstances by hacking the game''swork since it was unhackable in the first ce with the AI, Zeus, overseeing everything. The consequences for attempting to hack the game''s mainframe and secondaryworks were the immediate deletion and ban of all rted in-game subjects that were tied to the yer''s ount and the IP address. Even if one tried to mask their IP, Zeus would still be able to track it down and permanently ban it. There have been multiple attempts of hacking already and all attempts were easily taken care of by Zeus. The system was imprable so Maria and every yer in the game didn''t need to worry about their IRL identities being leaked. Of course, Maria had stupidly used her IRL name but no one would know that except for those very close to her. The only problem would be that her in-game appearance closely resembled her IRL appearance so if people ran a face matching program they might find her. Of course, even if they did find her, most people would be too afraid to do anything once they found out about her background. The young miss of the Heltania Group which was a multi-national business group that had a sizable amount of shares in the Universe Gaming Company and many otherrge corporations around the world on top of running and backing a fewrge businesses themselves. Touching her would be touching upon the interests of many groups especially since the Heltania Group''s partners knew how doting the girl''s father was. Corinthus Heltania may seem like a mild and friendly middle-aged man, but he was a ruthless wolf underneath who wouldn''t hesitate tosh out at his enemies'' necks if the opportunity presented itself. Well, even if people found out who she was, Maria''s background would deter anyone from trying anything funny with her. However, although they might not be able to do anything IRL, in-game was a different matter. Many factions had been digging up her in-game information and were trying to find ways to get to her. Some groups wanted to form alliances with her while others wanted her to submit to them. From the information they could gather from her in-game activities, well first of all, Maria was only a high school student and second, she was definitely from a rich family. Only those in the upper ss had the power that could support the youngdy''s extravagant spending for the in-game materials that were needed to expand her faction. Owning 1 city, currently developing 1 town, 2 fortresses, and other numerous viges, there was no way anyone in the game could umte so much gold and materials without having their pockets bleed from buying them at the auction houses and trading with the NPCs. Another thing they knew about Maria was that she didn''t seem to be too interested in the economic and political value of the game. She yed UT only to entertain herself and the people that she surrounded herself with were all NPCs. There wasn''t a single yer other than herself present in her faction. At least, this is what everyone else could see. Not once had there been another yer appearing in her streams and it was like she never paid attention to any of the other streamers on the tform. Many have already tried to reach out to her via live announcements or private chats but she never responded to any of them. It wasn''t that she didn''t want to or anything, but her SNS ounts for her in-game character, Maria, were all managed by her butler, David. The only time she would open those ounts would be when she wanted to post an announcement or her streaming schedule. Most of the time, she would leave it inactive or in David''s reliable hands. Naturally, her image to the other people on the tform that tried to reach out to her for coborations or interviews was rather bad since she was allegedly ignoring them. If Maria knew what everyone thought about her, she would find it all but amusing. She was never one to care about how other people viewed her and now she was hiding behind her in-game character. She could give a rat''s ass about what other people thought. Her friends had trouble dealing with the Freedom-something people that were messing with their guild and ruining their guildmates'' gaming experience, but she wouldn''t. The Fallen Angels had to maintain their public image as an upright guild so they had some problems dealing with those people but Maria could care less of what others thought of her faction. She wouldn''t need to manipte public opinion like what she suggested to her friends since she could just outright PK anyone who offended her. She didn''t know when people would begin appearing on her, but Maria swore that she''d at least have already taken over the Blood Faction and the Blood Continent of Vanhal before any yer came. Once people began appearing on her and they did anything out of line, Maria wouldn''t hesitate to lock them out of the game by killing them repeatedly whenever they respawned. Seeing all the conflict that was happening on the starting, Maria wanted to hasten the expansion of her faction and strengthen her power so that she wouldn''t be caught up and tossed around by the various yer factions. ****** Inside the game, Maria had just logged in and immediately, she was swamped with work. Just seeing the piles of documents that were waiting for her approval nearly caused Maria to curse out in anger. "...Ash." Maria didn''t scream or anything. All she did was call out the name calmly and after waiting only a few seconds, Ash suddenly appeared inside her chambers. "Yes, my Lady?" "What the hell is all this?" "...Documents, my Lady. We need your stamp and signature for" "Shush." "..." Maria immediately silenced Ash before taking her seat. She closed her eyes and said, "I''m going to count to 5 and then I''ll open my eyes. When I open my eyes, I want every document in front of me to magically be finished and disappear from my sight." "M-My Lady!" "ONE!" "!" Ash, using his inhuman speed immediately began working, he skimmed through every document, marked what was wrong and stamped the ones that were correct while carefully taking Maria''s hand and stamping her fingerprint on each document. "TWO!" Maria was deliberately counting slowly. She knew that Ash needed about a minute or so if he worked at his quickest. "THREE!" There were only 2 stacks of documents ced on her table and one of them had disappeared. Ash had gone in and out of the room for a brief moment and gave it to the vampire schr that was waiting outside. "FOUR!" The other stack of documents quickly disappeared as well and only one small envelope was left. Ash ced it on the center of her desk because this was a document that he didn''t have the authority to read or approve. "FIVE!" Maria opened her eyes, looked left and right before a smile bloomed on her face. "Yay~ I''m done~" "Good work, my Lady. But there is still just one document left that you must read," Ash spoke up and directed her attention to the remaining piece of article on her table, the sealed envelope. Maria''s face immediately changed from her bright and happy look to an expression of pure disgust as she eyed Ash withplete and utter disdain for not being able to finish HER job. Ash had a smile on his face but inwardly, he was coughing up blood after being subjected to the awful look from his most beloved Queen. Ash cleared his throat and exined, "It came from Duchess Bathory the letter that I sent finally received a reply and it''s imperative that you, my Lady, should personally read it." "Oh, it''s from the Duchess, huh?" Maria''s face reverted back to normal as she picked up the envelope. [Quest Item: Duchess Carmi Bathory''s Letter of Invitation Use: 1 Description: Upon use, starts the Quest: The Duchess''s Ball] "A quest itemwait, a ball?" Maria''s eyes began sparkling when she saw the quest''s name. She immediately opened the envelope and the quest was immediately initiated. [Quest Prompt The Duchess''s Ball has been initiated!] Chapter 109: Overhyped Competition Chapter 109: Overhyped Competition With the start of the new quest, Maria was immediately prompted that a new location on her map had opened up. When she opened her in-game map, a vast area on the map was suddenly unveiled as a quest marker was created over a grayed area. The map area that was unveiled only showed the terrain and certainndmarks such as major cities and ces but not specific markers like towns, viges, mines, dungeons, etc. The quest marker was hovering over a city called Ecsed, the Sanguine City. Since the quest clearly indicated that there was going to be a ball, Maria quickly ordered Ash to bring over her faction''s best tailors and weavers to create several dresses for her. Maria had never been to a social gathering like a ball before. She was also never asked out to her school''s prom despite already being a second-year student. All her friends had been asked out before but only she wasn''t. She felt a little excluded but who could me her. Also, it wasn''t like the boys in her school could be med especially since 2 certain students had prohibited anyone of the opposite sex that were unrted from approaching her. As for who these two people were, Maria would never know. Anyway, since this was going to be her first-ever social gathering event despite it being inside a game, Maria was greatly looking forward to it so she wanted to do her utmost in preparing for Duchess Bathory''s grand ball. The start of the quest, [The Duchess''s Ball], would only begin 1 week from now so there was still plenty of time for her to get ready. One of the things she needed was naturally some pleasant-looking attire so Maria wanted the best tailors and weavers of her faction to create the best looking dresses that they could before the ball started. Naturally, Maria needed around 2 in-game days to travel to Ecsed so that gave her subordinates just 5 days toplete their tasks. She wanted to pick the best one out of the assortment that her subordinates could provide her so she issued out a faction-widepetition in the form of a quest. Thepetition was restricted to those that possessed weaving and tailoring skills but if anyone who wasn''t of that ss possessed the ability and confidence to enter, they could participate. However, the consequences of putting out a sub-par dress that didn''t match the standards of thepetition would be imprisonment and incarceration for an indefinite amount of time. This dissuaded those that didn''t have the confidence and skill from participating so only the best of the best entered thepetition. In the throne room of the Heltania Castle, Maria was sitting dignified on the throne with a wine ss in her hand as she addressed the officials who had gathered in her presence to mesh out the finer details of thepetition. "I''m not that picky so I don''t have any preferences. It doesn''t have to stand out or anything, it just has to be elegant and pleasing to my eyes!" Ash bowed and replied, "I''ll make sure to issue the notice of thepetition details at once but, my Lady, is a dress all you need?" "Hm? What more is there?" "Judging from my Lady''s age, is this perhaps your first ball?" He carefully asked. Ash didn''t want to offend her and make it seem that she was inexperienced but this was a crucial question. Maria didn''t think anything of it and answered honestly, "Yeah, why?" "!" "!" "Oh!" "This is!" Maria was looking at her subordinates who all started creating a slight ruckus from her words. Now, it annoyed her. However, before she could speak up and let out her annoyance, one of her officials quickly stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, since this is your first time then this is naturally your debut into High Society!" "Eh?" "This is a grand, grand, grand asion! We must do this perfectly! Make sure you put that into thepetition details! This is Her Majesty''s so it has to be PERFECT!" Another official stood up and echoed, "Yes, I agree!" "We must make this perfect! No mistakes! We must not let our Queen get embarrassed at the ball because of subpar preparations!" "But we only have 5 days!" "Then we''ll make do with 5 days!" Ash said. "Yes my Lord, naturally, we''ll make it work!" "Other than the dresses, the jewels, her crown, carriage, crown, guards, and her crown!" "Sir, you''ve said crown 3 times now." "I know what I said!" The throne room fell into a state where all the officials began throwing out suggestions and began discussing what was needed for her first-ever ball. Maria didn''t think it was so important that this was her first time, in fact, she felt that it was a hindrance that it was her first time. She was afraid that she would make a fool out of herself in front of the Duchess who she wanted to rope into her faction. Duchess Carmi Bathory was the only remaining Vampire Duke of Ash''s time and was the strongest Vampire Duke of the current age. There have already been 4 other Vampires that''s been promoted to Vampire Duke since Ash was defeated at the hands of his archenemy so 5 vampire dukes existed in this age and that was thergest amount in all of the vampire''s known recorded history. 3 to 4 would be the max for each generation but this time there were 5 because Duchess Carmi Bathory, despite having lost the power struggle for the Vampire Lord''s seat, was able to remain alive because the current Vampire Lord wasn''t able to defeat her powerful faction. Normally, as the only remaining Vampire Duchess in her generation, she should have been wed to the current Vampire Lord the moment she lost the struggle for the seat. However, she didn''t like the current Vampire Lord who she deemed as a weakling for winning the struggle using underhanded methods against the strongest Vampire Duke of their time, Ash Garm. She could have taken the throne after her strongest rival had disappeared but unfortunately, there was a bitch who aided the weakling and prevented her faction from making their move. Naturally, all of this was unrecorded history so Maria nor Ash could know of what truly happened. However, Maria didn''t need to know about her background to develop a sense of admiration for the woman for being such a powerful character. Since they were both female leaders of their faction, Maria also felt a certain sense of camaraderie with her and didn''t want to embarrass herself in front of the Duchess. Maria needed to leave a longsting positive impression of herself to the Duchess so the next time they met, her intentions of roping the Duchess into her faction wouldn''t be met with derision but instead deliberation. Her subordinates were now all gung-ho about the preparations that Maria didn''t need to do anything else but wait. Thepetition officially started the next day with only 3 days given to thepetitors to finish their works. Thepetition had expanded to not only dresses but also jewelry and other types of clothing and add-ons that could be used. It was such good content so after Maria released a small promotion video of thepetition before she would stream the results on the day thepetition ended. However, she didn''t think that there would be some other hype due to herpetition. Her viewers and fans thought that she was advertising apetition she was holding for everyone so her email and DMs began flooding with applications and designs. This was another amusing development so Maria extended thepetition to the real world and even put out a mary prize and an in-game epic-to-rare ranked random box for the top 3 winners. Naturally, it was David who had to get busy with the arrangements but since her family''s youngdy was nning to make things bigger, David immediately hired a team of people that would take care of her streams, video editings, and offline events that she would conduct in the future. Before it was just him doing everything but it was getting hard for him to do his actual job which was to be her butler so he needed this team to help her out. The Heltania family''s youngdy always did things spontaneously so it was a smart move on David''s part that he hired a team of professionals to help her. He was apetent butler that possessed many skills but they were half-bakedpared to those of a professional. Naturally, the people he hired were those within the Heltania family''s business and social circle so there was no need to worry that they would leak her identity to the public. It was just a surprise to them that the Heltania family''s youngdy had turned out to be one of the recent popr streamers of Unitale that were currently on the rise. Many people streamed or made gamey videos of this VRMMO game but while others seeded, most of them failed or their poprity would be in the middling ss since they couldn''t get enough viewers on their videos or streams because there were simply those that were providing better content than them. However, Maria, or rather, Dire Queen Maria was one of the few content creators of Unitale that seeded who didn''t have any previous background as a streamer or content creator. She just popped out of nowhere when the game was exploding in poprity and just happened to attract many viewers into watching her. Right now, Maria''s poprity on the Unitale streamer ranking had reached within the top 50 and this move of hers pushed her up into the top 20. Most of the top streamers of this game were fromrge guilds or had previous experience as a streamer and already had a fanbase. She was the ck sheep that popped out of nowhere and was popr. Naturally, it wasn''t just Maria who was fortunate enough to be like this. There were others as well but Maria never really paid attention to them. In fact, Maria didn''t pay attention to anything at all regarding UT outside of the game. This was the first time she was interacting with hermunity but even that was just by mistake. The realpetition was something that was being held in-game but since she was able to extend it out of the game, all the better since she would be receiving plenty of beautiful clothes that she would be personally judging and wearingter to her debut ball. The duration of thepetition was short, but many entries both in and outside of the game were able toplete their projects on time. As for how Maria would judge the out-of-game entries, it was pretty easy. Unitale had taken notice of thispetition that Maria was holding since it was garnering so much attention and before herpetition ended, they somehow developed an in-game program that let people convert model data files into rendered in-game decorations. The things created out of the game wouldn''t be able to be used as a normal item but they could be used as decorations or costume-type items. Maria had just inadvertently opened up a new market for the game but this was something the developers had already been nning to release, however, just not right now. They pushed this project forward precisely because Maria was inadvertently advertising the creation of yer-made skins and cosmetics. There were already many in-game purchasable and craftable costumes and cosmetics but it was limited and monotone. For now, tailors and cksmiths could only make armor and clothing using a preset design that couldn''t be changed, however, with the new feature that the Unitale developers put out, the yers could make their own costumes and cosmetics at a cost that they could use personally or put on sale. The yers with the ability to create such things could make an ie from creating costumes and cosmetics and Unitale would take a small cut from the transactions like they normally do. It was all just pure profit for them and they really had to thank Maria for promoting it. With thepetitioning to a close, it was time for Maria to judge the entries and pick the top 3 who will be the winners. Naturally, Maria released another video that stated thepetition was only meant to be for the in-game NPCs of her faction but she was delighted that many people in hermunity had reached out to her and made thepetition grow as big as it was. Maria streamed thepetition''s judging and her viewership peaked at an all-time highest for the year. Her castle''s vast halls were decorated with mannequins that had full sets of beautiful clothing on them. The stream started with an overview of all the outfits she would be judging and her chat was moving at an incredible speed she couldn''t keep up with. The camera panned in to show Maria sitting on her throne and she stood up since it was her cue. "Wee everyone. As you all know, today I will be judging the outfits of all the participants that made it to the preliminary inspection done by my faction''s officials!" Maria began walking through the throne hall on top of the royal red-colored carpet and continued her intro. "Out of the thousands of entries, we were able to narrow it down to just the top 50 from both the NPC entries and the real-life entries! Since it was my team of people that decided which were the top 50 entries, I thought it would be nice if I let you guys, my audience, decide which will belong to the top 3!" The chat was moving too fast so Maria only bothered answering the questions she by chance happened to read. "The reason why I hosted thispetition isn''t because of a sponsor or anything. I received a quest called [The Duchess''s Ball] and to be frank, it is my first social gathering event. Both in-game and IRL!" Maria walked to the end of the hall where thest set of clothing was disyed and turned to the camera before saying, "What you will be voting for is not only the top 3 winners but also the clothes that I will be wearing to this ball! In other words, you, the audience, get to dress me up for my debut ball!" Her words caused her fans to grow excited as they began spamming the chat. It was moving way too fast that Maria just decided not to look at it. She only bothered responding to the donation messages that popped out and remained on the top half of her stream''s chat window but even these were moving a bit too fast that she couldn''t answer every one that had a question on it. "We''ll be going through each and every one of the outfits first with the real-life entries taking priority. Everyone was even kind enough to provide an exnation video of the outfits they made so I''ll be ying those videos as we go along! As for the in-game outfits designed by my faction''s people, the designers themselves will take turns exining the motive behind their design! After all the designs have been disyed, my mods will then release a form that everyone can fill. You may pick only 3 of your favorites and you may only fill in this form once, okay?" Maria then pulled out her scythe-form Cmity and turned to the camera. "If I find out that there are people who are cheating the system and submitting more than one form...you''ll know what''ll happen, right?" She raised her scythe to the camera and said with a scary face and tone. "But I know all of you are honest people so I don''t have to worry!" Maria lowered her scythe and giggled. She was dragging things out a little but this only hyped up the audience even more. With her viewer count still climbing and her chat window moving at the speed of light, Maria finally decided to deliver the final nail, "Now that the exnations are out of the way, let the judging begin!" Chapter 110: Judging Before Getting Lost Chapter 110: Judging Before Getting Lost Maria started walking and the camera moved alongside her. She came up to the first dress, stopped by for a moment, and let the video of its description y out. Coincidentally, the dresses to the entrance of the throne room were all yer-made. Only thest 5 were made by her faction''s NPCs. There weren''t that many people in her faction that had the talent to make clothing. As far as Maria knew, there were only 2. She didn''t know where the remaining 3 came from since only one dress was allowed per entrant. She passed through so many dresses, all of which were very beautiful and pleasing to the eye. Her audience couldn''t help but be amazed at the level of artistry and effort the people who entered her contest put into each set of dresses. After all the yer-made ones were shown. The final 5 NPC-made dresses were disyed. Unlike the yer-made ones that were made using the themes and aesthetics of the real world, the NPC dresses were unique since they followed the fantasy aesthetics of the game. The previous dresses were indeed beautiful, but the final 5 were just breathtaking. There was a reason why Maria''s people had ced these dresses at the very end and it wasn''t just due to bias or anything. The quality, effort, and craftsmanship put into these dresses warranted such treatment. The best was naturally saved forst and as Maria got to the first NPC-made dress, her eyes glistened brightly at the beautiful blue-white dress in front of her. Holmer, the Master Tailor of her faction, stepped forward from the side and began his long introduction of the dress. "Your Majesty, this dress that I''ve put all my effort and more to make is called ''Angelic Layer''. The materials used to create the" Maria wasn''t listening, only the audience was. She was currently captivated by the beautiful set of clothing in front of her. In her personal chat logs, Maria''s friends, Lizzy, Amanda, and Emily were all spamming her with chats that wanted her to share some of the beautiful dresses that they saw on stream with them. Maria giggled in delight before replying to them smugly. Maria giggled at Lizzy''s demand. Maria could already picture Lizzy''s whiny face. She nearlyughed out loud but held it in before replying. Lizzy began a long spiel in their group chat and Maria smiled before turning her attention back to the NPCs who were introducing their dresses to her. All of the materials used were rare and extremely expensive. If she had to buy these things, she didn''t know just how much it would cost her. Of course, she preparedpensation for those that entered and a reward for the ones who won the top 3. Maria was rich enough to do this only with her in-game money which she converted into real-life currency. All of the money she earned since she started streaming and posting videos on Switch was also put into the budget. This way, she was able to give back to the 4th to 16th cing participants of her contest. Naturally, all of the outfits sent to her within thepetition belonged to her now and she was allowed to wear them as custom in-game skins. There were even some she saved that didn''t make it to the final judging. A nurse outfit, an Idol''s costume, and many others that she thought were interesting and worth keeping made it into her castle''s treasury. Naturally, she may or may not use these but they weren''t there just to collect dust in her wardrobe. She could use them as rewards for her subordinates. Seeing Alexa in an idol''s costume was going to be quite the treat for her and her audience''s eyes. Or the bunny costume she got which was rather inappropriate for thepetition, she wanted to see how her head maid looked in that. Maria and her viewers were all enjoying thepetition in their own way and finally, thest dress finished its preamble and the judging forms were sent and pinned into the stream''s chat. "Alright everyone~ the introductions are over! Now, I want you all to open the forms and pick your favorite 3 outfits! The voting time will end in 1 hour! I know this may sound long, but I''m sure that there are some friends out there who are busy and aren''t ready to vote so I''m giving everyone an hour to submit their votes! Sounds fair, yes? Also, just a heads up, but members of my channel have their votes counted twice! If you''re not a member, maybe you should join now to let your favorite dress win? Now, get to it and vote fairly!" After giving her audience that announcement, Maria also opened up the form link and she got a piece of paper in-game which she could write her votes down on. She looked at the camera and said, "I''m also voting so no peeking! David, move the camera away!" The camera panned out and it began showing the dresses once more except this time, without the introductions. Maria sat down on her throne and began writing down which one she liked the best. The first one was something that surprisingly, Ash and everyone in her castle had made for her. It was a ck-red battle dress that could also serve as a normal dance dress that could be worn at a ball. She really liked this one because of how fitting it was to her taste and style. In a way, her subordinates were cheating because they entered while knowing Maria''s taste. Maria didn''t know what to do while waiting for the full hour until the votings closed. She moved to the side and began swinging her scythe absentmindedly while deep in thought. She asionally switched her Cmity back to its ax form before carving up the ground of her castle. Ash who was at the side had a smile on his face that was dripping with blood, the expenses needed to repair the castle wasn''t small and Maria would asionally do this whenever she was thinking about something. "Maybe we should renovate the castle and use magic-repairing bricks instead" "My Lord, the expenses would be" "It''s better than having to constantly put out expenses to repair the castle...it''d only be a one-time deal." "Well, since we are hosting thispetition and providing rewards directly from our budget" Ash quickly cut off the official''s words and asked, "Who said that we were using our faction''s budget?" "Huh? But then who would sponsor this event?" "Our Queen already said that all expenses would being directly out of her pocket. Use the faction''s budget to renovate the castle. It''s a perfect time since our Queen will be leaving for a few days. Get it done." "Yes, my Lord, as you wish," The officialplied with a bow. Seeing that Maria had finished casting her vote, David panned the camera over to Maria who was still unconsciously destroying her castle''s floor. "Hmmm" Maria didn''t notice the camera and walked out of the balcony before calling out to Ash, "Ash, I''ll be out for a bit!" "My Lady, wait" Maria jumped off the balcony and this caused her newer viewers to gasp in shock. Her older viewers were already used to Maria''s spontaneous actions, whether they were dangerous or not. As she was falling, Maria opened her wings and stopped her descent. She looked around before shooting in a random direction while humming. Nobody could tell what she wanted to do, but Maria was simply just bored from thinking about waiting for an hour doing nothing. She decided to spend the hour killing monsters before going back to the castle. None of her viewers would notice her sudden disappearance since the camera was still showing the dresses, or at least, it should have been. Maria still wasn''t aware that David was following her every move with the camera so when shended at a nearby hunting ground just outside of her city''s walls, she remained oblivious and began attacking the monsters nearby. A group of goblins appeared in her vision and she immediately rushed at them. Her speed was quite fast and it appeared as if she had teleported in the middle of the goblin group. She flourished her scythe and swung it a full 360 degrees before flying up and searching for more prey to kill. Down below, the goblins still weren''t aware of what happened but blood began spurting out of their bodies before they copsed into pieces. The bloody sight was a first for a lot of the people watching but that wasn''t over. Maria began terrorizing the monsters in the ins nearby, all of which were at a level higher than hers. Maria did this all with ease and by herself. She just sped through the area killing any creature that she saw, her scythe was bloodied by the monsters'' blood and her appearance struck fear in all of the monsters she encountered. Thanks to the many extermination titles that Maria possessed, it invoked fear in the monsters she was hunting. They let out cries of fear before trying to run away but Maria didn''t spare them. She just threw her Cmity at them or shot her feathers into their backs. She did all of this with a slight smile on her face as the EXP rolled in. Once again, the fans were reminded that this girl''s cutesy appearance was all just for show. Her true nature came out whenever she was swinging her weapon on the battlefield and it wasn''t something normal people would be able to tolerate. Most of the yer base had pixted the blood and gore but Maria didn''t do that so the gruesomeness of the battlefield was shown for all to see. Naturally, it wasn''t that Maria was a sadistic psycho that loved to bathe in the blood of her enemies and she didn''t change the settings or anything. In fact, she had it changed but it was her weapon, the Cmity, which had a default battle animation that enforced the carnage and butchery so even if the settings were turned off for her, the viewers would see differently. A few people left, especially those that couldn''t handle the bloodshed, while others stomached it and continued watching her. It went against Switch''s Terms of Service, but she was granted a concession because it was the game''s doing and not her own. She had previously been contacted about this, but David was the one that dealt with it himself. Since it was the game''s fault, she wasn''t banned from streaming. Many other video games were the same but they didn''t warrant the streamers ying it to be banned. It was the same in her case and David had already contacted Universe Gaming Company to help lower the Cmity''s default setting so that it wouldn''t be so bloody. Switch''s team tolerated Maria''s stream because the game''s developers already reached out and said that they would resolve the ''bloody'' issue. While Maria was ying around, she noticed something following her and threw her scythe at it. Just before Cmity could split the camera that was following her in half, Maria quickly realized and stopped her weapon. The edge of her ax was right on the screen and the viewers nearly had a fright from seeing the weapons nearly smash into the camera lens. "Uwah! I''m so sorry~ I didn''t think there would be a camera here" Maria retrieved her weapon and apologized. Since she wasn''t out here alone, Maria decided that it was time to head back. Now, that''s where the problem began. "...Where am I?" Maria looked left and right but she couldn''t see where her castle was at. "Strange...I thought I only flew to the ins just outside the city walls" She said while scratching her head in confusion. "Uhhh" She looked at her map and groaned, "...uhm, so if the camera was behind me all this time and I just walked in a straight line then that means the castle should be that way, right?" Unfortunately for her, she didn''t walk in just one direction. Whenever she saw a monster group she would immediately rush in to attack before walking straight in a random direction. This continued for a while until she finally realized that there was a camera following her. "Let''s just head that a way~" Chapter 111: The Winners Chapter 111: The Winners It wasn''t the first time that Maria genuinely got lost. However, on this asion, she got lost in front of a live audience. Maria began walking around while killing any monsters that got in her way and eventually, she arrived at the Mountain de ogres'' newlypleted Fort. "Wait a minute...this isn''t the city!" <...> Maria''s audience were all bbergasted and couldn''t help but facepalm or sigh in real life. The chat stopped for a moment before everyone began spamming it withughing emojis and the channel''s exclusive emoji of Maria looking lost and puzzled. Thankfully she arrived here because if it was anywhere else, who knew how long it would take for her to get back to the city. Thepetition might even have to continue until tomorrow just because Maria had gotten lost and couldn''t finish the judging segment. The twin-headed ogre, Orh''bankhur soon received a report from his subordinates that Maria had arrived at their fort. He quickly walked out of his home and went to the gate to receive her. After seeing therge NPC again, Maria smiled and waved her hand at him. "H~" "Queen, whye with no notice?" Maria scratched her head and replied honestly, "Uhm, I got lost and stumbled here when I was trying to get back" She didn''t want to look bad in front of her subordinates but lying here would onlyplicate things so she just spoke the truth. The ogres weren''t so mean as tough at her...or not. "WAHAHAHAHA!!!" Orh''bankhur let out a thunderousugh after hearing Maria''s reply. This naturally caused the angel in question to pout and pull out her Cmity. "Oi, you want another beating?" Maria said in a thuggish manner. The audience was amused by her interaction with the NPCs. This was just another daily urrence for her and her long-time fans who were no longer too surprised by it. The rest of her audience that was new to the game and her stream was intrigued by the human-like and highly intelligent NPCs of the game. The other ogres in the vicinity that heard Maria had let out a slight chuckle earlier but immediately silenced themselves after seeing their grand chieftain threaten their chief with her ax. Orh''bankhur immediately shut up and rubbed his arms and said, "No disrespect, Queen. Queen get lost but have magic. Why no use magic?" "Eh?" Maria lowered her ax before remembering that she still had Paimon''s Magic Book. "Aiya, I forgot about that! I could have just teleported home!" "Queen need escort?" Orh''bankhur asked. "No need for that. I''ll return to my castle now~" Maria rose into the air and patted the ogre''s two heads and thanked him for reminding her. "Thanks, Orh~" "Hrmh?" "You wee, Queen. When waring?" Orh''bankhur eagerly asked. Maria pulled out her magic book and began invoking the return spell before replying to Orh''bankhur, "Not right now, but it''lle soon." "Orh''bankhur will wait." "Goodbye, big guy~" Maria waved him goodbye before she teleported. Orh''bankhur had a silly smile on his face as he waved back. With their Queen returning, Orh''bankhur quickly went back to his home and the ogres went about their business again. ***** Back at Heltania Castle, Maria suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall and this startled everyone that was present. Over an hour had already passed and Maria still hadn''t returned so Ash was about to send a team out to look for her so when she suddenly appeared, he let out a relieved sigh and called off hismand. "My Lady, the judging segment is over. The registered citizens in the city have also finished casting their votes so we can announce the results," Ash reported. It wasn''t only the stream''s viewers that were casting their votes but Maria''s citizens were doing so as well. Only the registered citizens that were permanently staying in her city were given forms so they could cast their votes. The ones that weren''t registered weren''t given this privilege. As for those that were registered, they needed to have resided in her territory for at least a month or they wouldn''t be given a form. Once all the votes from both Maria''s audience and citizens were collected and tallied, Maria finally revealed the top 3 dresses that won thepetition. Maria was excited because the one she wanted to win made it to the top 3. The ck-red battle dress that was named Tenebrous Queen''s Crimson Regalia. It had such a long and borate name and design that it made it into the top 3. It didn''t win first ce but second ce instead. It was the only NPC-made dress that made it into the top 3. The other 2 dresses were made by the yers. First ce belonged to a contestant under the name of ''Sfayte'' and their outfit set design deserved its spot in first ce. It was a ck dress that was intricately detailed and decorated with ck diamonds. When it was worn, the dress would ignite with red and pale-white mes. There was even an added feature that if Maria put it on, the mes on the dress would extend to her wings. The dress was specifically tailored for Maria so when the introduction video showed a model of how Maria would look like if she wore the outfit, many people in the audience were set on having her wear this. As for the name of the outfit, it was called ze of Glory. It was such a fitting name for the outfit. Maria was also intrigued by the add-on effects of the dress but she felt a little embarrassed to put it on because the dress had a short skirt but thankfully the chest area was closed. Maria gave a fewpliments on the first and second ce dress saying that she really loved their designs and concepts. The third-ce dress was a rather typical and simple one that anyone would see a girl wear to their prom. It didn''t have any overly sophisticated details and it won because a vast majority of the NPCs voted for this simple, cerulean-colored dress that was decorated with sapphires and other blue-colored jewels. The chest area of the dress dipped into a V-shape so it would pretty much entuate her mounds. However, Maria was the type that would rather show her chest than her legs. The outfit also came with a set of jewelry and a beautiful tiara decorated with tourmalines, aquamarines, and sapphires. There were even some decorations for her wings as well. One thing that had to be taken into notice was the designer of this particr set. It was made by Lavelle Veuillet, a top fashion brand in the real world. Maria was naturally surprised when she saw the name of the contestant and when she checked her SNS ounts, there was a post that LV tagged with her name and the dress details that had entered herpetition. It was such a great honor and she didn''t know about it until after the voting because she wasn''t the type of person who would periodically check her social media ounts. Although they were one of the top fashion brands on Earth, the reason why they couldn''t secure first ce with their beautiful but simplistic design was because of the game''s nature. The outfits and skins inside the game weren''t limited by the physics of Earth. The first and second ce outfits won because of the unique aesthetics they gave to Maria after she wore them. Of course, the votes were heavily influenced by Maria''s audience that wanted to see her dressed up in a cool get-up and not just something normal. The ones who were actually down-to-Earth were the NPCs. They knew that it was Maria''s first ball, her debut ball, so they wanted her to wear an elegant dress for the asion so many of them naturally voted for the dress LV designed. Since the winners were already decided, Maria thanked all of the participants and congratted the top 3 winners, and began handing out their rewards. For this asion, Maria had to log out of the game and go to her VR space''s waiting room and connect with the contestants after giving them an invite to her space. In this space, Maria would have shown up in her IRL appearance, but she had made preparations beforehand so she appeared in her in-game avatar instead. After handing out the hefty rewards that went well above her initial budget after her father found out that she was hosting apetition for the dress she would be wearing to her first-ever social gathering. Of course, Corinthus had been waiting for her to reach 18 years old before throwing arge birthday gathering for her friends and his business associates that would act as her first-ever social event but the game was a step ahead of him by a few years unfortunately so he had to make sure everything went well for his daughter. Corinthus was actually the one who invited the world''s top brands topete in thepetition but not every one of them responded to his invitation. He had contacted said brands anonymously so not many even considered joining such a thing. Only LV did because they were having a charitymission and Corinthus just coincidentally contacted them with his pure intentions of making his daughter happy. Theyplied and since thepetition was done in VR, it was all done without any expense on their part. Instead, they had won third ce and even gotten money in return, and not long after, arge investment was suddenly put into their ounts for the purpose of recreating the dress entered into thepetition in real life. Naturally, this was Corinthus''s doing but it was all done anonymously by his trusted aide. "Good work, Charles," Corinthus said while he was watching his daughter''s stream. "It''s my pleasure to be of service, sir." Seeing the wide angelic smile on his daughter''s face, Corinthus''s lips raised into a slight smile as he said, "Tell HR that everyone is getting a bonus this month. While you and your team will be getting a raise for the next half year." "!" "Keep up the good work." "Yes sir!" Chapter 112: Handing Out Rewards Chapter 112: Handing Out Rewards For the rest of the day, Maria invited the top 16 rankers into her virtual space and distributed thepetition''s in-game and IRL rewards to them. Since most of the people who entered were her artistically gifted fans, she decided to hold a short Q&A session for themter when she invited them to her virtual space. Naturally, she didn''t answer any questions that were too personal and were okay with any requests like taking photos and selfies with those who won. The remaining top 50 contestants were given in-game prizes but weren''t going to be invited to Maria''s virtual space. The rewards were sent to their in-game mailboxes along with a randomized greeting card that could be usedter in the future as passes into her faction''s territory. She didn''t have the time to entertain too many people because she still had a game to y right after. After all was said and done, people couldn''t help but be amazed at how extravagant the rewards Maria handed out. The top 16 received quite the generous rewards but the top 3 rewards were the most hefty of them all. Even her long-time fans and viewers, in addition to the people who were only keeping an eye on Maria, couldn''t help but be in disbelief at howrge the amount of money and in-game currency each participant received. The winner of the entirepetition won quite the sizable piece ofnd within Maria''s faction as well as a Count rank nobility, and 10,000 Gold. The nobility rank only held status within Maria''s faction but since she was nning to take over the whole of Vanhal, the title would hold more value in the future. Of course, no one was able to reach Maria''s world yet, but the rewards would still stand and can be imed by the first ce winner once they arrived on Vanhal. As for the IRL mary rewards, she directly gave the winner, Sfayte, an electronic bank check of 100,000 dors. Naturally, it was her father who backed up most of the mary prize rewards. Initially, Maria only wanted to make it 1,000 or 10,000 dors but somehow it became 100,000. The entire prize pool wasn''t announced since she didn''t feel the need toor more like, she forgotbut it would have definitely attracted even more people to watch her stream. Maria didn''t need the clout because she was doing all of this for fun. Without her announcing the prize pool, the event she held was already so big which was out of her expectations. Moving onto second ce, which was her faction''s people, they didn''t receive any IRL money but a special reward that Maria would privately hand outter. As for third ce which was LV, they received only 25,000 dors which was still quite a lot even for their standards. She went down the list and handed the rewards to the rest of the participants. Fourth, tenth, and sixteenth ce were all NPC winners so they would receive their rewardster together with second ce. The top 3 winners were given rather astronomical rewards for their cings but the rest of the top 16 still received hefty rewards. In the eyes of themon masses, the rewards Maria gave were rather nonsensical and amazing for just something as simple as designing a dress for her to wear. Of course, she thought that it was way too extravagant but it was her father that sponsored thepetition after he heard about it so who was she to deny her dad''s help? It was the first andrgest yer-held Unitale event and because of this moniker, Maria received lots of attention. This caused people to try and reach out to her for offers, interviews, and coborations but once again, she wasn''t aware of most of them as they would have to go through David''s filtering first before they reached her. Most of them were denied since he was given specific orders to make sure herdy''s IRL identity wasn''t leaked so any that required Maria to show her real self to the coborator was tossed out without hesitation. Before, because of a fluke, Maria had caught the attention of Unitale''s staff and her video was used by them as advertisement. Now, for the second time, Unitale''s staff made use of her again to promote their game, just like they did with so many other streamers and yers. The content did belong to her but as thepany who created the game, they had all rights to use any yer-made content for advertising. Of course, said yers would receivepensation for this so it was a win-win situation for both sides except for Maria since the first time Unitale used her as advertisement, the game was still in its infancy so she wasn''tpensated or anything. However, for the second time since the game''s release, Maria had again be the face of Unitale without her knowing it. ****** Back inside the game, Maria finally ended her stream and was now distributing the rewards for the NPC winners. She was being secretive about it because she was going to give the NPCs the [Dire''s Blessing], a faction exclusive skill that empowered NPCs. The buff gave the NPC''s random boosts to their stats and skills while also giving them arge boon to their LCK stat. Maria didn''t know what the NPCs could use the LCK stat for but apparently, that was the most enticing reward. She granted each winner a piece ofnd and a deed to a building inside her city as well as a few thousand gold coins. As for what they did with the rewards, it was all up to them. In the end, it would still circte back when they purchased or built an establishment so she was still enriching her faction''s economy despite giving such extravagant rewards. The team that took second ce which was led by Ash was given the [Dire''s Blessing], arge sum of gold and arge piece ofnd which would be divided between each person in the team, a raise in their sries, and the right to attend Duchess Bathory''s ball alongside Eisha. The quest allowed Maria to bring a few people with her, in fact, she could bring as many people as she wanted, but this secret reward was reserved for the NPC/s who ced highest in thepetition. After the rewards were given out, Maria ordered her people to begin storing away all of the dresses in their castle''s special storeroom while the top 10 winning outfits would be ced inside Maria''s personal wardrobe. The top 3, however, Maria wore around the castle while taking snapshots of herself which she wouldter upload to her SNS ounts. David was also following her around with the droid camera to take pictures of her from other angles. When she was finally satisfied, Maria stopped goofing around...and got back to work. The amount of money,nd, and deeds she had given out as rewards was a logistic nightmare for her people...and for herself. She had spent the previous few days enjoying herself and the past few minutes reaping the glory of herpetition, but now she was ced back on her seat behind her desk while Ash and a few of his assistants begna piling up documents on her table. Seeing therge stacks of documents, Maria cleared her throat and said, "...Ash, in the next" "My Lady, I''ll be using the exclusive "Free Pass" card today," Ash quickly cut her off and said. He left behind a gold card on Maria''s table before disappearing in a wisp of smoke. The rest of Maria''s people also began cing golden cards on her desk before quickly disappearing from the room. Maria''s eyes twitched in anger as every clink of the golden cards ced on her desk caused her immense psychological pain and grief. She was now regretting that she had, for even a moment, decided to be generous. Maria had stupidly given out a free pass to her subordinatesso they could use it on any day when they needed a break from work. She was feeling ted and recklessly decided this when she was giving out the rewards earlier. Maria had broken character and karma instantly struck as her generosity was rewarded with mutiny. Seeing the piles of documents on her table that her people left to her to manage, Maria immediately exploded and cried out in anger after thest person left. "YOU''RE ALL DEAD TO ME!!!!!!!!" Maria''s cursed-filled incantations and screeches of rage rang throughout the castle for the rest of the day until she logged out and the next day until she finally finished all of her work. Naturally, Maria was only using her [Scream of Pain] and her other skills and spells because she wanted to raise their proficiencies but her subordinates didn''t know that. They began fearing for their lives and they instantly regretted using their free pass like this. Chapter 113: To The Bathory Dukedom Chapter 113: To The Bathory Dukedom A few in-game dayster, Maria was now on her way to Duchess Bathory''s territory. The grand ball wouldn''t take ce until another weekter, but the time it would take for Maria to get to the Duchess''snds would be a while. Right now, Maria was only halfway through the journey but she streamed the entire process. Everything was rather uneventful since Maria had taken half of her personal army with her as an escort. A few of her important officials wereing with her because they had won thepetition so this was their reward. There were already recements ready to take on their duties so Maria could afford to have these officialse with her. Due to this, their entourage was rather big even after most of her officials were sharing carriages and wagons. Only Maria had her own personal carriage which wasvishly decorated and enchanted with various defensive spells and spells of convenience. If it wasn''t because of her viewers that were keeping her entertained, the journey would have been so boring for Maria. The realistic feature of this game was sometimes just a little too much especially since the yers needed to spend a lot of their time on the road getting from one point to another. However, this feature had its own appeal since it made the journey all the more memorable when traveling in groups. Making memories of their adventures and the trials they had gone through together, was what made Unitale so appealing to many people. It let them live fantastical second lives that normally, they wouldn''t have been able to live. This attracted the attention of people from various age groups. The middle-aged and elderly also began ying Unitale to experience what it was like to start a second life. It was great and all since the game was getting more exposure which resulted in its market value increasing both in-game and IRL, but Maria couldn''t feel this appeal at all at this moment. She didn''t have any friends with her and her NPCs weren''t exactly that rtable so picking up a conversation with them was sometimes rather monotonous and uninteresting. Maria only felt this way because her journey was long and boring. Talking with Lh and Alexa somewhat relieved her boredom but she really wished she had one of her friends with her right now to talk to. The stream acted as a recement but sometimes, the chat would experience a lull in conversation because after talking with Maria about various things, it wouldn''t be surprising that they couldn''t find anything to talk about. The journey was around 4-5 days long and Maria was only halfway through. She couldn''t push her people to go any faster because unlike her, who could just continue ying even when the day turned into night in the game, the NPCs needed to rest. During these times, Maria would either log out or go around hunting for monsters. The monsters were stronger as they got closer and closer to Duchess Bathory''snds so she was able to experience a good fight and gain quite a bit of experience. Just yesterday, Maria had leveled up and she was getting closer and closer to level 70 now. This was pretty high-leveled in her opinion, but the rest of the yer base had long since surpassed her and the average level of the frontrunners was 90. Even her best friends had already leveled past level 100. The first ranked yer on the level leaderboard was 143. That person was twice Maria''s level already, however, if they were to fight, the oue couldn''t be determined by justparing their levels. Maria had arge repertoire of skills and spells in addition to having powerful subordinates. Her stats were well above her level and the power she disyed in her streams was overwhelming. Many people had already taken notice that Maria''s level was rather low but the monsters she fought were high above her level and yet, she took them down easily. They could only specte what kind of stats and titles she possessed but the only thing Maria revealed was her level and many thought this was fabricated. Of course, the level indicator hovering next to her name in the game said otherwise. Maria was reading through the chat and only smiled lightly when they saw them specting about her level. She didn''t deny nor confirm this because her stats were just abnormal and her friends kept on telling her not to reveal anything. She decided to reveal only her level the other day because everyone was curious. That was the limit that she''d go to though but even after being honest about her level, many people didn''t believe it and thought that she was concealing her true level. She left it be and continued on to kill some more monsters. The night was still young and Maria was bored out of her mind. Thankfully, Lh was with her so no matter how far Maria ventured out to kill monsters, she was always able to make it back to their camp before the sun rose above the horizon. *DING* [Level Up! 68 69] "One more level and I reach 70" Maria was ted to see this but she noticed that her viewers were spamming 69 in the chat. She didn''t understand what this meant so she left it be. "Master, the sun''s about toe up. Should we head back now?" Maria looked around for a moment before nodding. She hadpletely destroyed this patch of forest andnd using her weapon and skills. She thought that it was enough damage for one day so it was time to head back and continue their journey. "Let''s go I don''t want to keep everyone waiting and the quicker we depart, the quicker we''ll arrive at Duchess Bathory''snds." "Mhm, there are only 5 days left until the banquet begins so we''ll have around 2-3 days to look around the area," Lh said. "Yeah, and since she''s been ruling over hernds for quite a long time now, I''m sure I can learn a thing or two about governing from just looking at how she distributes her people and authority." Lh nodded at her master''s words. It was nice to follow someone who was always willing to improve. She couldn''t help but feel prideful of her master. "Once I''ve learned everything I can from her, I''ll ''politely'' take it all away if she doesn''t agree to join our faction." Her next words caused Lh''s smile to crack but then again, their original objective in reaching out to Duchess Bathory was to get her to join their faction. "Might I suggest we take things slowly, Master?" "We''re already taking things slowly as it is! It''s only because I''m limited by my level that we can hasten things up!" "..." Take and take, that was Maria''s motto in the game. She would take whatever she wanted from her friends and enemies before plundering them of everything soon after. Of course, she would only do this to NPCs and people she didn''t know IRL. Maria wasn''t that cruel as to take from her best friends. Naturally, Lh thought that it was rather worrying but there was nothing in this game that could stop Maria from acting like so. Chapter 114: A Fruitful Day Chapter 114: A Fruitful Day Another 2 days passed on their long and uneventful journey. Yesterday, they had arrived at the Duchess''s territory but it took them another day before they arrived at Sanguine City, Ecsed. Along the way, Maria''s entourage encountered a few monster and bandit attacks but they were easily taken care of by her personal army. She, Ash, and the others didn''t have to lift a finger. It was nice but at the same time, it was boring. Everyone in Maria''s army was at a level much higher than her but no soldier in her army dared to look down on her who was of lower level than them because they knew that Maria could easily defeat anyone in her army without even putting up an effort. A yer''s level was just an indicator and it was their stats that mattered and there were various ways in gaining stats. Leveling up was the most obvious and straightforward way but doing repeated actions, fulfilling certain conditions, andpleting some quests will also grant yers extra stats. Whether they were fixed stat boosts or Free Stat Points which they could allocate to any of their desired attributes, there were certainly many ways. It was just like how Maria had gained INT stats when she was reading all the books back at the library where she was trapped at the initial start of her gaming career. After that, there was the yer''s equipment that needed to be considered. Most of a yer''s stats came from the items they obtained and equipped to their character. While level was important, other factors contributed to how strong a yer actually is. Maria''s set of gear was tailored and adapted to her ystyle and build thanks to her being the game''s first faction leader. Her other gear was also adjusted and upgraded by her faction''s cksmiths so her stats hadrgely increased ever since she came to Vanhal and properly expanded her forces. The only thing she needed to upgrade was her Cmity. It had remained unchanged ever since she had upgraded it the first time so the bonus attributes it gave were rather low but she kept using it because the skills werergely affected by her own stats and not the weapon''s stats. It was also a piece of unique legacy equipment for her ss so she didn''t want to look for another weapon to use since she was also quite familiar and proficient in using Cmity already. There was news about how the game was going to implement a weapon proficiency level that could give bonus stats to the yer for using a weapon they were proficient with. At the current stage of the game, only skill proficiency was currently avable and this was needed in order to level up the skill and let the yers use them more easily. Arriving at Ecsed, Maria took in the sights of the city and noticed that it was bustling and the citizens were all preparing the streets and buildings for a grand celebration. She didn''t know what it was for, but apparently, this grand ball was held every 4 years and only vampires of Count rank and above were given invitations to attend it. Earlier, all Maria needed to do was sh the guards her invitation letter before they were respectfully led inside and guided towards the amodations the Duchess had allocated to them. Ecsed was a mega-city that had one too many districts. The number of vampires that the Duchess had invited was allowed to stay in their own private ce that she allocated to them. This prevented anyone from causing trouble at the inns since they were packed to the brim with other visitors and tourists. It was always on this week that the city would experience a massive inflow of visitors. It wasn''t only the ball that was happening, but auction houses had opened their doors and were auctioning off rare items and materials, the blood market was open and many rare items were being bartered here. There was even the summoning ceremony that would take ce outside of the city on the day when the ball was being held. The ceremony was meant only for themon folk but some noble vampires would attend it as well since Duchess Bathory would be there as well. Maria didn''t know what this summoning ceremony was but it was the hype of every citizen in the city right now. Everything happening in the city was so interesting to her right now so she obviously wanted to quickly tour around after they reached their amodations and settled themselves in. The guards led them to the residential district''s high-ss area and they were allocated arge estate. Maria didn''t seem to mind that it was much smaller than the other estates that they passed through but Ash was rather incensed. "That damned woman!" "Shut up, Ash. Hurry up and get everyone settled in so I can go explore this ce. One day, I want my grand capital to be even better and bigger than this ce!" "...As you wish, my Lady. I''ll have a word with that woman once we meet her tomorrow." "Whatever, you sort your feud with her at that time. I heard there were some auctions going on. I wonder if they have anything good!" Ash nodded before he began giving everyone else a fewmands. It wasn''t long before Maria''s personal carriage left the estate with a few additional passengers besides Maria and Alexa. Ash had also tagged along and he was there only because he wanted to make sure his Queen was kept out of trouble. His Lady was a trouble-attracting ma and he knew that although she would normally keep a prudent lookout, trouble would juste wandering over. Maria had a cold smile on her face while sitting in the carriage. She addressed Ash who had insisted he followed them despite it going against her wishes. "Ash, don''t you know that you''re being a third-wheel? I''m going on a date with Lh and little Alexa here but you''re ruining it!" "Forgive me, my Lady. Just treat me as a bodyguard and pretend I''m not even here." "Do you really think I need protection? I and Alexa are strong enough ourselves!" "Yes, but why should you go out of your way to handle every nuisance thates your way?" "And what makes you so sure something will happenter?" "..." Ash didn''t even need to answer that question. He just stared back at Maria and after a while, she couldn''t say anymore since inwardly, she knew that she was a trouble-ma. "Hmph, do what you want but if you spoil the moodter, I''ll have your hide on a pike!" Ash lowered his head before suddenly dispersing into a flock of bats. "Hmph, even if trouble dide, it''s not like I can''t handle it!" Not even an hourter, trouble dide finding Maria. "25,000 BC! Wench, you better pull out before I" "30,000 BC! What? You wannapare wealth with me?! This is an auction! Your threats are meaningless!" Maria yelled this across the room towards someone on the fourth and highest floor of an auction building. She was currently on the first floor sitting among themon crowd because she didn''t know that you could pay a certain fee to get a VIP pass to the upper floors. Naturally, what she was arguing about was an item that she and her rival auction participant wanted. This item wasn''t something she wanted for herself but rather for Alexa. It was a unique vampire-race weapon that was known as a Blood Regalia. Regalia''s had different ranks and it corresponded with the vampire''s nobility ranks. This Blood Regalia was ranked on the Marquis level which was just below a Duke level Regalia. A Blood Regalia was something that was required for a vampire to promote their ranks so every vampire was eyeing this coveted item. Maria didn''t know what it was actually used for until Ash informed her of it. Seeing that Alexa was a vampire that was only of the Knight-level, Maria naturally wanted it for her little vampire sister. Having a Duke and a Marquis-level vampire by her side... now that was something very tempting. One of her S-ranked quests also required a few Marquis-level subordinates toplete so this was just her taking that step to fulfill the requirement. The amount of money didn''t matter because she was rich. Whether it was BC or Universal Currency, she was much wealthier than any of the NPCs here and she was confident about that. Although she didn''t actively do business to improve her faction''s economy, the number of monsters she killed and the influx of denizens and merchants that flowed into her territory that traded with her citizens and stayed after they found out that the once treacherous andwless area was now being properly governed gave her a good amount of ie every day. She never used the Blood Coins she acquired so it had piled up in her treasury. The Blood Regalia should only have a price of around 20,000-50,000 but Maria had over 100,000 Blood Coins in her inventory and over a million back in her castle''s treasury. She never used it and opted to use Universal Currency instead because it was more convenient and everything was ''cheaper'' when using that. Naturally, she wasn''t the only one vying for this item but with therge jumps she took when raising the price deterred many of the Count and below ranked vampires. They could all see that she was determined to get this item. Sabotaging in the auction house was strictly prohibited and if one raised the price, they would have to show the auction house that they had the money to actually raise it to the price they bid. Thanks to this policy, the vampires couldn''t sabotage the price of the item by raising it to an astronomically high amount just to get back at Maria. Everyone saw that this person was not a vampire but she was taking away an item that belonged to the vampires. They were disgruntled and angered but they couldn''t do anything. They could try and attack her after her quest was over but that was a bad idea though they didn''t know it. After the price of the Regalia was raised to 45,000 BC, Maria finally won the item since no other vampire continued to bid for it. If they used up all of their money right now, they wouldn''t be able to bid for any more items when the main event of the auction began tomorrow. Maria knew that there was a final stage to this long auction period which was tomorrow, but she didn''t feel any regret in using up all that BC. It was to strengthen Alexa which in turn would enhance the overall power of her faction. Maria knew that she wouldn''t be able to convince every vampire on the Blood Continent to join her faction so it was better to raise her own vampires and just kill off the rest that didn''t join her to prevent any future troubles. "My Lady, this is a good investment for Alexa''s future." "Mhm, but I won''t stop here. We''ll try and find a Duke''s Regalia and get it for Alexa!" "That won''t be necessary, my Lady." Maria had already received her item and paid the amount that was required and was having this conversation on their way back to their carriage. She had enough sight-seeing for one day and it was already gettingte and she needed to return to their amodations so that she could log out. "Why''s that, Ash?" "In order to be a Duke, a vampire doesn''t need a Regalia for it will manifest itself once that vampire bes a duke." "Oh?" "Unlike these Regalias that are fixed in number, a Duke Regalia isn''t." "So an unlimited amount of vampires can be dukes?" Ash shook his head and continued exining, "To be a Duke, it isn''t all about power but the purity of blood flowing within one''s veins. Refining your blood until it''s at the level of a duke isn''t easy. You can tell from just how many vampire dukes there have been in history." "Oh...well, we''ll just have to help Alexa refine her blood then. Besides, we have you so you''ll naturally give her tips...right?" Maria had an overbearing look in her eyes when she said this. "It''s only natural that I help. The more power you hold, my Queen, the stronger we are as a whole." Maria smiled and said, "I''m d you understand this, Ash...now, go deal with those dogs tailing us. Use a little discretion. I don''t want to cause a ruckus in this city that isn''t mine yet." Ash smiled at her words and bowed, "It shall be done." "Get to it then." Maria was helped up her carriage by Ash who then dispersed into a flock of bats. Once Alexa and Lh stepped inside, the carriage began pulling away. "Hmm, I got quite a few things. I wonder what tomorrow''s auction will be like." Maria hummed happily when she saw the rare materials and items sitting in her inventory. She had gone to the Blood Market, the various auction houses, and some other ces and just went on a shopping spree. Any interesting looking item that caught her attention Maria immediately swiped away. A wagon was following after them and on this wagon was a few people in ragged clothes that had chains on their necks. There was actually a ve market in the city and it had a few were-people up for auction. Maria''s [Inspect] skill was rather high-leveled and she used this to pick out the ves that had the best potential and bought them. Naturally, she was going to free them after they arrived back at the estate but that was only on the condition that they swore absolute loyalty to her. If not, she''d just kill them and turn them into EXP. "Hmhm~ what a fruitful day~" ANNOUNCEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT Hey guys, sorry for the hiatus. I had to take a break from writing UT for a bit. Anyway, if any of you have been keeping up on discord, then you should know about the current status of UT:VLFO and the future developments I have in store for it. For those of you who still don''t know, I have decided to move UT:VLFO to Dreame/Ringdom. It''s a personal decision and I know some may be upset by this but it has been done and I''ve already finalized a contract with Dreame/Ringdom so I''ll have to take down all chapters on WN. I won''t lie, Webnovel was a good tform for me to meet with all of you readers and I greatly appreciate everyone''s support! It was quite unfortunate that a contract offer from WN came at the time when I had already finalized the one with Dreame/Ringdom. If it hade a little sooner, who knows, I might still be here but at the cost of the chapters being locked by WN. I''m d that many of you have enjoyed the book so if you''d like to continue reading it, please follow it on Dream/Ringdom! /novel/yFpv6Wp%2FepLO1z8yM2i%2FGA%3D%3D.html Don''t worry guys, even though it''s been signed, UT:VLFO is still free to read until it goes into Dreame/Ringdom''s VIP program. Only then would the chapters be locked! I hope to see many of you continue to read the story in the future. On a closing note, I apologize for all my past ipetence, inconsistencies, and shorings. I thank everyone who was a reader and supporter of this book because, without you guys, I would have probably long since dropped this book. This is your author signing off. Good day and adios! xxAlter The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!