Neverwinter waved an armored hand flippantly.
“Oh that’s no biggie, my lord,” the sword goddess said, gently rubbing her helmeted temple with her other hand armored hand, “you merely have to focus on your arcane cores first, this act ‘primes them.’ After that, you have to focus on the name of the spell or skill to actually cast it.”
Bryn nodded, an impressed look resting on his face. She had in fact read ahead, probably anticipating this moment probably as far back as The Cavern of Hallowed Heroes.
Flexing his jeweled wrists, Bryn cracked his neck and began to focus.
Retreating deep within himself, Bryn felt around for his arcane cores. He hadn’t yet attempted to reach out to his magic since his ascension, and therefore had no idea what to expect now. What he was not expecting, was two massive planetoids. Where there had once been two large orbs of energy, one purple, large sphere of purple lightning and one green and black, large sphere comprised of plague and death energy, were now comically massive versions of themselves that were both ringed with spinning golden energy.
“Wow,” the ranker whispered softly, “just… wow.”
Reality of his situation hadn’t quite hit him yet. Not even tumbling over and causing small nuclear explosions, nor his smart-mouthed sword that had apparently also become a deity, nor his new snake hair or green eyes had yet to disturb him the way he was now. None of that had effortlessly robbed him of any doubts of if he was actually a ranker now and no longer a regular human like seeing his new arcane cores did.
As his chest involuntarily tightened, Bryn for the first time, in the privacy of his mind, cried for what he had lost in such a short time. All that he knew and all that he would never know of that life. Silently he wept, and wept. But eventually, the godling wiped his ethereal tears away.
There were things to do, and his people would need their guildmaster. Their Fabled Storm Shaman. First, his new powers needed to be understood, his new magic thoroughly studied and battle tested. Though he was a teen, barely just having turned 19, the masked asshole was right. He was a leader of mages, a tactician, a warmaster turned into a ranker, a divine being. Not to mention the mother of all elephants occupying the room, there was still a war on the horizon. If all of humanity had truly been transported here, then there were at least thousands of people he needed to have secured and safely taken to the FatedWhisper guild base. He had around 657 guildmembers last he checked, and each of those people would have at least one family that were now… in Wizard’s Quest too…
In a game that had sadly become overrun by powerful rich snobs and their brat children, they vied for power against thousands of awful tyrants heading powerful guild conglomerates. However, both parties were still held in check by the scores of insane mental headcases that had cavedwellered the game so long, and grinded mobs endlessly to the point that many of them rocked some of the game’s rarest and most powerful gear and legendary titles.
The thought that so many people stood to die horribly if he couldn’t find a way to help them soon. Bryn shuddered as horrific thoughts filled his mind, ‘I need to save them… before power vacuums are filled and the initial shared mass confusion all of humanity is likely going through right now breaks down.’ His brow began to perspire as the ranker pondered his increasingly bleak future, ‘and the experienced VR players will likely take their inevitable chance to stake claim to all the new meat at their disposal,’ he thought with a deep sigh.
Bryn also realized glumly, though he had passively deduced that he was currently in the Deific Planes, he had absolutely no idea how to get back to the Mortal World where most of everyone else likely still was.
“Wait a minute,” he murmured softly to himself, “Alan’s still a Ranker, lv 820 too if I’m not wrong… He might know how to get back, or he might be at the base!”
The thought of a divine ally he could rely on like family, because he was in fact Bryn’s family, filled the haggard ranker with a tiny flicker of confidence.
“First thing’s first,” he reminded himself, slapping his cheeks to break himself from his involuntary habit of single minded war planning, “Igni and Modi, I need to see what them being tied to my Final Script is all about.”
Slowly, Bryn’s mental form raised both his hands, one directed at each of his massive cores.
“Come to me,” he whispered softly, “....please?”
Remembering the pinching motion he had done back when his cores were a much more reasonable size attempting to fly, Bryn attempted to do so again. Now, streams of power the size of large rivers came surging freely from both arcane cores and crashed into Bryn’s astral body. His deific, magical power began to swell in his body, ready to be brought forth.
Opening his eyes again, he saw Neverwinter staring at him from her rock, through a thick veil of green energy pillaring out around him.
“Very good, my lord,” she clapped earnestly, “that is very good magic control, especially for your first time.”
“Thank you,” Bryn groaned softly, swaying slightly under the pressure of all the divine power flowing forth from him.
Taking a deep breath and flexing his wrists, Bryn focused on the entry on the glowing green screen.
“Gem form?” he asked aloud.
Neverwinter simply pointed to the middle of the 3 black gems upon her breastplate.
“Ah,” Bryn murmured, “well ok then, enough stalling.”
“[Summon Familiar],” he whispered, “[Black Gem Summon Duo: Igni and Modi]... come to me.”
Bryn shut his eyes and braced himself for the gut punch feeling that had preceded Neverwinter’s transformation, but there was nothing. Breaking his concentration, the flow of green, divine power slowed to a drop and faded.
Slowly Bryn opened his eyes, a questioning look plastered on his face as he turned to face Neverwinter.
Reading his confused look, the sword goddess stopped massassing her helmeted head for a moment.
“My lord,” she began patiently, “take a look at the percentages next to the familiar slot.”
Bryn’s eyes immediately flew back to the stats page, lazily floating before him, almost as if it was taunting him.
As the ranker read and reread the skill entry, searching for an answer, his train of thought was broken by a sudden giggle.
Snapping his head up, glaring at Neverwinter, she giggled harder behind the armored hand blocking her green lips.
“My Lord,” she began apologetically, thumping her chest lightly as she softly coughed out the last few chuckles, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh, you just look so cute when you’re struggling to think.”
Bryn just grunted, folding his arms over his chest with a pout.
“Come on brainiac, when I summoned myself,” Neverwinter continued, “it invoked the Black Gems gifted to us by the Onyx Court through the masked dickhead. The cost of a Black Gem summoning isn’t just divine aether, or any other usual kind of energy, it also takes your stats to cast.”
Bryn couldn’t stop the gamer in him from forcing its way past the grumpy, ego bruised teen that was currently piloting his soul’s meat suit.
“What do you mean it takes my stats to cast?” he asked with an arched brow, deeply intrigued, hurt feelings forgotten.
“Well,” Neverwinter began, slowly, pondering how best to explain the concept to the new ranker, “if you could summon all three deific beings that are all each empowered by the black gems, all at the same time, that really wouldn’t be “balanced” now would it, my lord?” She made quotations with her armored fingers, emphasizing her point.
“Hmm,” Bryn thought, seeing the sword’s point, “no I guess it wouldn’t, especially given all the powers the black gems seem to be giving me even when they’re not summoned.”
“Exactly my lord,” Neverwinter agreed, giving Bryn an encouraging thumbs up, “so when you summoned me, given that I have my own stats, energy pool and magic, you gave up 50% of your total stats to summon me. To summon both Igni and Modi, you would need to sacrifice 90% of your total stats. And since 90% is greater than 50%...”
“I can’t summon them until I unsummon you first,” Bryn finished slowly.
“Megaloprepís, my lord!” Neverwinter clapped, giving Bryn a reassuring smile, “go ahead, return me to my sword form and then try to properly summon them.”
Bryn looked at the encouraging face of his closest ally and felt a twinge of guilt tear through him.
“Will you be alright though, you know,” he stammered weakly, gesturing to her head, “with the headache and all?”
Neverwinter laughed in her strange mix of Nordic and Mediterranean melodic voice, soothing Bryn’s worries.
“Don’t worry about me, my lord,” she replied, “I’m 90% sure I’ll recover faster in my sword form anyway.”
Bryn’s lips pursed for a moment as the ranker considered his options, his numerous fears were slowly abated by Neverwinter’s unceasingly encouraging smile.
Giving a slight sigh, he reconnected to his arcane cores, focusing on the spell, he said the first phrase that popped into his mind.
“[Release], Neverwinter.”
The gut punch feeling now felt like it was happening in reverse. As Neverwinter’s human-like body began to break down into particles of green light, Bryn felt the 50% of his stats that had been taken to create Neverwinter’s battle form crash back into his body like a mac truck.
While the Storm Shaman stumbled slightly, causing slight tremors to cascade through the ground a revelation forced its way into his mind.
“Wait a minute,” Bryn said, speaking aloud to no one in particular while slowly realizing the true depth of Neverwinter’s words, “the reason I wasn’t causing as big explosions when you were in your battle form, is because I was only half as strong as my full power?”
‘Correct, my lord,’ came the familiar psychic voice of Neverwinter into Bryn’s mind.
Where the sword goddess of death and storm had previously sat, was now a large crystal broadsword adorned with skulls and 3 large black gems, embedded into the rock blade first.
“So…” Bryn continued slowly, “if I summon you, then I get another deity ally with their own skills and spells, but to balance it out, I become weaker and can’t take hits as well?”
‘....correct my lord,’ Neverwinter admitted reluctantly.
Bryn gave a long sigh, hanging his head back and staring up into the weird, green and purple sky.
“Fuck it I guess,” he said, resigning himself to his new powers, “we ball”.
‘After all,’ he reasoned to himself, ‘there’s only one way to eventually reach the overwhelming strength I felt from the Storm Shaman vision on the green pillar, I need to use all of these new ranker spells to eventually master them. And judging by how much exp I need to just get to 801, I’mma be using these skills a lot.’
Keeping the steady, thin stream of divine aether pouring through him from both his divine arcane cores, Bryn again attempted the skill.
“[Summon Familiar],” he chanted, this time with far more conviction, “[Black Gem Summon Duo: Igni and Modi], come to me!”
A sharp pain tore through Bryn and he fell to the group wheezing. The pain grew and grew. He didn’t know when he started screaming but at a point it was the only sound he could hear.
He felt frail, so frail and… weak.
A passing thought that Bryn didn’t much enjoy reminded him that this was as strong as he’d felt after Neverwinter revived him from dying in the cavern.
He was back to being only as strong as a single max level celestial.
Degrading the massive difference in what Bryn had become accustomed to, even in only a few hours of having woken up as a god, shook him badly. To be brought back down to the level of power he used to champion proudly seemed like a cruel joke.
But nothing shook him as badly as the two tiny dragons that were suddenly licking his face, staring at him with concerned expressions.
Bryn stared back in shock.
Memories of titanic creatures manifested by his celestial arcane cores as a spell that had crowned him The Storm Executioner, flooded his mind.
But… what he was seeing was impossible. It… it had to be….
There was no way those two titanic monsters, The Virulent Storm Dragon and The Zombie Storm Dragon, could be the same as the two tiny dragons that were mewing for their master’s attention, nipping at his fingers to break him from his stupor.
And yet… the dragon that had the name icon Magni above its head, had the same rotting body and black, death lightning swarming inside of it as The Zombie Storm Dragon, and the one with the name Igni, had the same beautifully haunting pools of infinite darkness for eyes and plague lightning as The Virulent Storm Dragon.
They were the Storm Executioner’s Twin Great Blades…
Bryn’s twin blades.
Checking his stats page again, Bryn stared in wonder as he confirmed his new stat reflections.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stats
HEALTH: 10,000,000/10,000,000
MANA: 10,000,000/10,000,000
CELESTIAL AETHER: 10,000,000/10,000,000
DIVINE AETHER: 1,000,000/1,000,000
WIS: 3,000 {100} :: 300,000 (WISDOM) [30,000]Modified
VIT: 5,000 {100} :: 500,000 (VITALITY) [50,000]Modified
INT: 10,000 {1,000} :: 10,000,000 (INTELLIGENCE) [1,000,000]Modified
STR: 2,000 {1,000} :: 2,000,000 (STRENGTH) [200,000]Modified
DEF: 1,000 {50} :: 50,000 (DEFENSE) [5,000]Modified
MDEF: 1,000 {50} :: 50,000 (MAGIC DEFENSE) [5,000]Modified
CRT: 8,000 {1,000} :: 8,000,000 (CRITICAL) [800,000]Modified
SPRT: 100,000 {10,000} :: 1,000,000,000 (SPIRIT) Unmodified
*------------------------------------------------------------------------*
“Huh… so my health and energy levels don’t go down, neither does my Spirit apparently,” the ranker noted, while he absentmindedly patted the two tiny dragons on the heads to a symphony of twin, happy chirps. “All my other stats are basically what they were like with full Fated gear before ascension.”
Bryns stared at his ranker body all over again in wonder.
“I’m pretty sure when I actually get some ranker gear, this summoning stat cost won’t even be as bad,” he gave a low whistle, “wow… without my ascension, SkeletonGrip would’ve really bent us over and fucked us raw.”
If this was how strong he was, even without any gear besides Neverwinter, then there was no way he would’ve been anything but a nuisance to Alan if two or, god forbid, three rankers showed up to the squabble. Even as a max leveled celestial with dual affinities in death and storm, and bearing a max leveled Final Script, he’d have been nothing but a bad joke to the rankers.
Looking at his Racial Skills page he noted that the [Summon Familiar] entry had changed slightly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
RACIAL SKILLS:
* Fabled Enhancement Lv 1
* Petrifying Gaze Lv 1
* Spirit Avatar Lv 1
* Summon Familiar Lv 1 {14%}
* BLACK GEM PRIMARIS: Neverwinter [SWORD FORM] {Currently Inactive} [50%]
*
* BLACK GEM DUO: Igni and Modi [BATTLE FORM] {Currently Active} [90%]
*
* BLACK GEM TRINITUS: [GEM FORM] {Currently Unbound} []
* [SOUL FORM] {Currently Unbound} []
* [SOUL FORM] {Currently Unbound} []
* [SOUL FORM] {Currently Unbound} []
* [SOUL FORM] {Currently Unbound} []
* [SOUL FORM] {Currently Unbound} []
* [SOUL FORM] {Currently Unbound} []
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Interesting…” Bryn noted, “[Summon Familiar] is increasing in skill experience just by summoning them.”
He looked down at the two dragons that curled up in his lap and had gone to sleep, snoring softly.
“So just summoning a familiar causes the skill experience to increase, does using my Final Script through them or making them attack enemies also increase skill experience?” he wondered aloud to himself.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
‘Exactly, my lord’ Neverwinter’s voice replied as it tore Bryn from his thoughts.
Her uncharacteristic period of silence to let Bryn acclimate to his new summons had led the ranker to forget his sword was still there, technically always watching him.
Blushing shamefully, he muttered a quick thanks to her before carefully nudging the two tiny, sleeping storm dragons awake.
“Time to go boys,” he said in a soft, fatherly tone, “we’ve spent far too much time in this crater, we need to figure out where we are and more importantly how to get back to everyone else.”
Both dragons stared up at the soft brown eyes and snake hair of their ranker, then nodded in compliance before each jumped from his lap to perch themselves perfectly on his shoulders.
“They can understand english?” Bryn gasped, mindblown.
‘They can understand any language you or I can understand my lord, since you are their summoner and I am their Primaris,’ Neverwinter replied, ‘they can also hear my voice too, hi boys!’
The dragons replied with happy chirps and tiny roars of pleasure at Neverwinter’s psychic greeting, confirming that she wasn’t pulling a fast one on Bryn.
Giving a low whistle of amazement, Bryn shook his head with an amused chuckle as Magni playfully pawed at some of his hair snakes while Igni sat stoically, watching for dangers. The mass of blue boa constrictors that now made up his hair lovingly and playfully licked at the faces of the small dragons in return.
Bryn slowly rose from where he’d fallen to the ground attempting to summon Magni and Igni, and made his way over to Neverwinter. Despite his stat debuff adjustment from summoning his Black Gem Duo familiars, Bryn removed the giant sword easily from the rock and hefted her, almost weightlessly over his right shoulder, comfortably resting next to Igni who nuzzled the crystal blade lovingly.
Bryn took a moment to contemplate what a strange new existence he had currently become accustomed to. Having a talking sword, two tiny dragons that held his most powerful spell tucked away in their tiny paws, and blue boa constrictors for hair had somehow become his new norm. Shrugging his shoulders, the ranker spread his large black wings wide.
“At least there’s one upside to being capped back to celestial level,” he admitted, “at least I don’t have to worry about accidentally shooting myself into outer space or something attempting to fly for the first time as a ranker. I have a feeling controlling my two planetoids of divine energy will be a lot different from celestial cores. I’ve already gotten used to flying using celestial levels of energy so this shouldn’t be too bad.”
‘Excellent mindset, my lord!’ Neverwinter cheered proudly, ‘truly you are the mastermind that fought for his place at the Seat of Peace that signed The Arcane Order of Conventions, he who led three armies comprised of 12 powerful guilds through the bloodiest battle of the Second Stellar War!’
“Yeah yeah,” he said with a chuckle, remembering fondly what could only be described as bloody chaos in outer space, “enough of your yapping sword. Now everyone, I’m still new at flying and I’m extremely squishy right now. Keep your paws, blades, and wings in the ranker at all times. If you fall, I might not be able to save you, you will be left behind. Now let’s go!””
With that, he blasted forward many meters into the sky. As kinetic energy continued to transition to potential, he began turning in a slow somersault at the zenith of his ascending motion. Figuring that all 4 of them were equally as lost since none of them knew where in the Deific planes they were, the ranker picked a direction at random and blasted forth with an epic thunderclap of 3 consecutive sonic booms.
***
Even though Bryn had been flying for hours at speeds of well over 2,300 miles an hour he had yet to see anything at all. That was very strange.
[All Seeing Eyes of The Gorgon] being a constantly active, passive spell made manifest by his snake hair, allowed Bryn an unnatural 360 degrees of vision. Yet even his many blue boas had yet to spot another lifeform. Not man, nor mob could be spotted as far as any of Bryn’s now deific eyes could see. The twin dragons weren’t having much luck either, Igni and Magni angrily chirped in frustration. Not being able to help their shaman was sending the summons into a state of deep frustration that was beginning to seep over to the Storm Shaman as well.
Bryn was about to groan aloud for the hundredth time in frustration, when Neverwinter, held fast in Bryn’s iron grip, began to vibrate and heat up, instantly grabbing the ranker’s attention.
‘Stop my lord!’ she cried, causing Bryn to immediately flare out his large, black wings, breaking his immense momentum in seconds with yet another loud sonic boom.
‘My lord,’ Neverwinter hissed quietly, but with palpable urgency, ‘there are two immense energy signatures barreling our way! Quickly, launch us far above the clouds and shapeshift into a large dragon.’
“A dra-”
‘NOW! QUICKLY!’ she screamed, disowning her attempt for subtlety.
Locking in, Bryn immediately tucked in his wings tight, and in one fluid motion, he instinctively connected two thick streams of divine power from both of his cores, and exploded towards the sky sounding and racing upwards like a rocketship. In moments, he focused on the memory of his skill page. Closing his eyes, Bryn saw a perfect mental image of the spell he wanted and the form he wished to take. Maintaining the link to his arcane cores, Bryn focused on the vision and said in his mind
‘[Shapeshift: Japanese Dragon].’
A feeling like a skin of cold, running water began to completely cover Bryn’s body as he continued to ascend at breakneck pace. Starting at his forehead, the feeling wrapped itself around him, coating him with green, watery energy, however it had a slimy, sucking feeling that left Bryn feeling deeply violated. As he was about to fully contemplate how much he hated everything he’d just experienced, the sound of his bones crunching and groaning began to crescendo all over his body, resounding in his ears.
And then his body began to stretch, and stretch. And Stretch.
Bryn felt himself involuntarily twist and turn. His organs change shape, form and location, and his body become bigger and more snake-like. The ranker’s nest of snake hair dissolved into a massive hide of black and green scales that covered the majority of his now very large body and two massive, blue feathered wings replaced his arms and black wings. [Shapeshift] was a unique passive skill given to those that mastered the Celestial Dragon Tamer class. It was meant as a way for Dragon Tamer Wizards to be able to be close to the training dragons the class forced players to raise as part of its mastery requirements, allowing them to also take on draconic forms. Mastering Shapeshift allowed the celestial to become any animal or mob they had previously defeated and eaten a part of. Bryn had long since mastered the skill and so had a private list of trump card forms he could transform into, and this form was one he’d long since mastered, his first form.
However… those were Axelrod’s forms.
Sure Bryn was always in the driver’s seat, but controlling a draconic form from behind a screen with keyboard clicks and mouse scrolls, was far different from actually becoming the dragon itself. Feeling every ripple of wind against every single scale he now had, was a sobering reminder that he was no longer in Kansas. He was in Wizard’s Quest now, a game with a vast litany of powerful enemies hiding being every crevice and cranny. But Bryn was a ranker now, and if he was going to survive long enough to try and save his people, he needed to learn not only how to behave like one.
He needed to also learn how to fight like one. And the new ranker could tell, his first experience was approaching.
“Neverwinter,” Bryn’s massive, draconic mouth whispered as they had finally crested far above the clouds, “what’s going on? Where is the danger?”
‘12 degrees North East, my lord,’ Neverwinter’s anxious and stressed tone returned, ‘look there.’
There were weirdly shaped red hills in the distance where Neverwinter’s coordinates had corresponded. Admittedly, this struck Bryn as incredibly weird, primarily because he had yet to see even a single hill before now in the thousands of miles he’d traveled. Sure there was the occasional mountain, but he hadn't seen any hills, he was completely sure if it. Secondly, the hills were rippling, rising and falling, almost like water.
Bryn’s confusion turned to horror as the sound hit his ears first before his eyes could reason what they were witnessing. A great and terrible rumbling and roaring sound, akin to the gigantic waterfalls he’d been surrounded by in The Cavern of Hallowed Heroes assaulted his massive, sensitive, dragon ears. Before he could even fathom a question to pose to Neverwinter about what was going on, the red hills, that were apparently racing towards them, began to look more and more like… like tidal waves of blood.
Burning blood.
Amid the apocalyptic scene playing out before him, Bryn eventually spotted two figures.
Even with his new, draconic eyes it was hard to make out what he was seeing at first, but the speed with which they were approaching while locked in deadly combat, removed that obstacle in a matter of moments.
Bryn felt his blood run cold. He felt his massive, mile long body shake with anticipation, fear, and primal excitement.
The two figures fighting… were a human wizard, and what looked to be a gigantic white serpent with a massive shining halo. The size of the snake, effortlessly and single mindedly continuing to pursue its target amidst the absurd amount of constant damage it was almost nonchalantly tanking from the Wizard was already a harrowing scene.
However, it was their name tags, hovering in blue above their respective heads, that made the ranker want to shit his now proverbial pants.
Above what he could now confirm was another ranker’s head, was the class tag Lv 812 Hellish Blood Emperor.
Though Bryn was beyond ecstatic to finally meet another human ever since the horrifying experiences he’d had over the last 26 hours, he recounted with quickly sinking enthusiasm, Hellish was a ranker class moniker that could only be obtained by those with awfully morally corrupt karma scores.
Though admittedly none knew how the karma scores were truly collected, graded, and calculated except, of course, the devs themselves, it was generally accepted that being a generally shit person in the game was the only way to attain a negative one. The game recorded every player’s actions, and so it was later agreed upon by the general player base that killing NPCs, griefing player’s homes and gear, stealing, cheating, racketeering, and slaughtering/ kidnapping a significant amount of unwilling players in PVP allowed zones, would bring one’s karma score crashing to the center of the earth. Whereas being a generally non-nuisance player, and only PVPing with willing participants in duels or Guild Wars that followed the rules of The Conventions, would keep a Wizard’s karma score in relatively good standing with the devs.
It was later discovered that if one with a completely bankrupt karma score managed to somehow kill Volrab and become a ranker, they would be forced to pick between either a Hellish or a Demonic class for their two ranker class options. Those with high karma scores however, picked between Heavenly or Holy classes.
The opponent that the Hellish Blood Emperor was facing, was little better than the psychopath assaulting it with burning blood. The massive creature made Bryn oh so more aware of the fact that he was currently 90% easier to kill now with a single one of their stray spells.
Lv 830 [Field Boss] Grand Devourer.
A painful, dry gulp tore its way down Bryn’s draconic neck. A ranker that would hunt him down on the spot and shake him for his pennies was one thing, a field boss that didn’t care what it attacked with its awesome power, including a ranker 30 sobering levels weaker than it, was a much worse option.
There was only one other thing that made this situation one Bryn couldn’t just fly away from.
One reason that made him crazily eye Magni and Ingi as they hovered nearby Bryn’s more massive dragon form, taking shelter behind his massive blue wings.
One reason that made him remember, he currently had access to his Final Script, divine power, and the element of total surprise.
The rest of the ranker’s name icon read: SkeletonGrip Deputy Master Dong Sang Wook.
Bryn had no clue who Dong Sang Wook was, but the familiar Skull and bones guild emblem tattooed on the ranker’s shoulder, confirmed his worst suspicions. Skeleton Grip, like all guilds, small or massive, had only one Deputy Master, an abhorrent asshole with tremendously powerful spells to boot, Ming Il Sook.
That rat bastard in particular was the one that had laughed down every single one of the 2 peace treaties and 7 diplomatic packages Bryn and Woody had painstakingly put together to try and avert a war over their guild territory. Ming Il Sook had been single mindedly instrumenting the instigation of FatedWhisper’s many enemies, turning a disagreement into a full scale war. After all, it was in his words that he had told Woody in a private meeting of Deputy Master’s,
“Tell your bitch guildmaster to come bow down to me and beg to suck my boots, and maybe I’ll allow him to give me his castle! Otherwise, it’s war! Hahahaha!”
Before, Bryn, Woody and Alan had to bite their tongues in the presence of the unwashed ape, since sadly Ming was not only a ranker, he was a lv 812 one at that. There were currently, to Bryn’s knowledge, less than 100 rankers in the entire world that had managed to get past lv 805. Alan was only lv 809 after almost an entire year of being a ranker. That wasn’t even considering SkeletonGrip’s lv 822 monster of a guild master who had been confirmed to own a VR Pod, or their rumored third ranker. At the time FatedWhisper absolutely couldn’t afford to offend Ming Il Sook in any way, the smallest slight would’ve likely set off the incredibly short, but incredibly brutal war.
But, now things were different.
Now, Bryn was lv 800, a ranker and not just that, he was no regular ranker, he was a Fabled Ranker, a Gem Monarch, whatever that meant. Pairing all of his new and old skills and abilities with his new divine storm and death cores, Bryn had a feeling that though he certainly couldn’t tango with either of the two more powerful deities, he could at least hit far harder than at least Dong Sang Wook, and likely as hard as the Grand Devourer.
The only problem was, Bryn had no idea if he should do what he was planning to do. He had no idea if death was even permanent now. But the sense of duty and a feeling that Dong Sang Wook was definitely a person who should never be able to acclimate to the powers of a ranker, especially given the ranker’s infamous ranker tool, tore at Bryn’s conscience. There was one question Bryn couldn’t shake. If he were to do this… to attack a person in cold blood that would never know it… when would be the best time to nuke the both of them with his Final Script…?
***
Dong Sang Wook screamed in rage and frustration.
The dumb bastard snake hadn’t stopped chasing him, for the past 17 hours!
The 34 year old had woken up face down in a giant lake. It was how he subsequently learnt that he apparently no longer needed to breathe, and that he was no longer on earth.
“I knew I shouldn’t have threatened mom that I’d shove her in some forgotten nursing home on new years,” he had grumbled to himself while wringing his robes dry on shore. “Just my luck,” he whined aloud, realizing nothing around him for miles looked even slightly like the Gangnam region of Korea. It was where he lived in his aging parents’ basement, delivering mail parcels part time for pocket money which he used mainly for beer, cigarettes, and Wizard’s Quest rewards cards.
While he’d been wandering around for what felt like 12 or 14 hours trying to make heads or tails about anything that was happening and progressively wondering more and more about why he seemed to be dressed like his Wizard’s Quest character, a massive message appeared in the sky thundering with annoyingly loud trumpeted fanfare.
“The fuck is a gem monarch?” He grumbled angrily, “Volrab was crowing people? Since when? And there’s been 12 of them? Just my luck, everything good always happens to some other ugly faced brat.”
It was in the midst of his not quiet self pitying ranting and whining, that the tired and hungry ranker ran into the field boss.
More like, the field boss spotted him, emitted a tremendous, horrifying shriek, and instantly began hauling significant ass, despite its titanic size, to kill him.
Dong Sang Wook was eternally grateful for the great rivers of burning blood that had suddenly manifested while he’d been screaming for his life, hands outstretched in a futile attempt to block the rampaging boss snake. He had no idea where the flaming blood was coming from, but a growing itching feeling in his chest told him he likely had something to do with it. Though he figured it had to be his wizard’s two divine affinity cores, blood and fire, the ranker could hardly care, he just hoped and prayed it wouldn’t stop. The torrents of burning blood grew and grew as the field boss somehow proceeded to travel faster and faster towards the man.
The torrential rivers of burning blood were doing the lord’s work to whittle away at the field boss’ health bar while also attempting to abate the gigantic beast’s momentum by any amount, but they also clued him in to how desperate his situation was and was becoming as time went on.
And so, for the last 17 hours Dong Sang Wook had been doing his best to play cat and mouse with a creature that only seemed hellbent on ending his life, manifesting more innate hatred for the ranker’s existence the longer the chase went on. The burn marks and accruing scorch wounds across the Grand Devourer’s body from the ranker’s burning fire, probably weren’t helping to improve the field boss’ mood. The roars and screams of hatred and frustration confirmed Dong Sang Wook’s morbid thoughts.
Though the Hellish Blood Emperor still had no idea how to actually cast, which he desperately wished he could so he could send his [Divine Enhancement] amped Final Script barreling to the idiot snake’s disgusting, gaping maw, likely killing it for good, he was grateful that the blood hadn’t stopped manifesting. The sheer divine strength of a lv 830 field boss though, had still somehow managed to shave Dong Sang Wook down to 25% health as The Grand Devourer fired off volley after volley of divine spells resulting in some that easily tore through the rivers of divine burning blood, striking the ranker’s body mercilessly while he desperately tried to flee.
***
“Neverwinter,” Bryn asked from their perch high above the clouds, “why did you want me to shapeshift into my Japanese Dragon form?”
‘Because my lord,’ the sword replied grimly from her new form as a large crystal necklace around Bryn’s massive neck, ‘we’re going to attempt to kill them both, take their loot and their exp. If it goes south, at least the unwashed one will just think another mob is attacking him, not the now ranker guildmaster of the guild he’s attempting to burn to the ground.’
“You do have a point,” Bryn admitted slowly, “ok, I just need to wait for that Blood Emperor to cast something strong, the field boss will respond in kind. Then I can sneak in a [Fabled Enhancement] amped [Dragon’s Breath] to distract them both from Igni and Modi sending [Ride The Lightning, Executioner’s Calamity Bolt] crashing into them. If I can add fabled enhancement to my Final Script too, this might just be doable.”
‘Mmm,’ Neverwinter thought to herself, making a noise of impressed agreement with her Shaman’s words. ‘Misdirection is impressive, my lord,’ she replied, some of her fears abating slightly, ‘it definitely raises our chance to kill them both without being noticed, we just need perfect timing.’
Sending a slight nod of his massive head to the two, tiny dragons, Igni and Modi tore off, racing through the air, diving deep into the obscure blanket of clouds, setting up their assault locations.
Dong Sang Wook had been getting an itching feeling for the past half hour as he continued to attempt to evade The Grand Devourer’s many spells while constantly casting rushing rivers of blood at the boss. It was a feeling that reminded him of his classes’ ranker tool.
The Sanguinomicon that had cost him an eye watering 45 unobtanium.
Focusing on the feeling, rewarded the ranker with a heavy, solid feeling suddenly appearing in his left hand. His eyes fell for a moment to see what it was, they then grew in shock, wonder and delirious happiness, as the tired wizard beheld his beloved ranker tool. The Sanguinomicon was a powerful book of blood magic that gave Hellish Blood Emperors like him access to many rituals and rites that no other class would ever be able to learn or even cast, but the book also removed the need to open one’s status screens or skill screens at all to reference a skill or stat. All of a player’s data could be effortlessly found, much faster, with the tool. That wasn’t even mentioning its divine ability allowed the Sanguinomicon to automatically open to the skill or spell it felt would suit its wielder best even in extreme situations where the potential ranker Wizard would blank in the heat of fierce battle.
Though Dong Sang Wook had never been able to afford a VR Pod, he had begrudgingly been forced to use the smelly, expensive, older model Pods that were available to the public for renting in some of the more expensive PC Cafes. Whenever he could, he paid the blood tax with only minor amounts of entitled whining. To get the experience of Wizard’s Quest in fully immersive VR, was a chance that many, many millions of players would earnestly consider paying the absurd rent prices from time to time. And it was highly worth it. Dong Sang Wook had greater reason to try affording the luxury, as his own guildmaster was a dumb rich kid that owned his own damn model 3 pod!
Dong Sang Wook seethed with rage thinking about how much the little shit didn’t deserve to be a platinum spoon and instead deserved to have his pod stolen, but that hadn’t stopped him from realizing how much of a difference using his Sanguinomicon in VR was. Upon completion, Dong Sang Wook had named the divine book, “Beullaeg Lojeuui Nolae, ” Black Roses’ Song. The book shared a similar ability to all Sanguinomicons, automatically providing their ranker with the best skill for any situation, but only Black Roses’ Song was a Named Tool. First of the Sanguinomicons of wizard rankers, it had been blessed by the devs themselves just like that weak asshole Axelrod’s sword. This, paired with the VR Pods’ allowing him to react in real time, turned Dong Sang Wook’s ranker wizard Ming from just another early ranker, to one hell of a problem to deal with. Even for other rankers.
Dong Sang Wook made a mental note, if he survived this, he would definitely take that sword from Axelrod’s cold, dead hands if only as a war trophy to mount above his bed.
The gols clasps to the powerful, red and black grimoire burst open flipping through hundreds of pages. Dong Sang Wook stared down in shock. The skill Beullaeg Lojeuui Nolae landed on, made the exhausted middle aged man turned exhausted fearsome ranker, smile slowly with evil glee.
It wasn’t his Final Script sadly so he couldn't empower it with [Divine Enhancement], but it was an ultimate spell. Every ranker class had 5 ultimate spells though the unlock conditions for any of them were completely unknown. Although Dong Sang Wook had only unlocked this one so far, he figured it would have to do.
Hearing the rumble as the field boss eventually began pushing itself past the roaring, burning blood, Dong Sang Wook saw, as his heart crashed down into his stomach, that The Grand Devourer wasn't even slightly slowing down! Instead, the boss’s halo began to emit a sickening, purple light. Raising its massive, gaping maw, the same purple energy began to emit forth a glow heavily lacquered with cataclysmic energy. The Hellish Blood Emperor shut his eyes. Screaming with all his might, he focused on nothing but the name of the skill, he focused like he truly had never done before in his entire life. Dong Sang Wook raised a glowing red hand to meet the purple glow of the boss, yelling with all his remaining rage, frustration, anger and will to live, “[Sanguine Desecration: Shezmu’s Wrath]!”
The Blood Emperor felt a sort of yanking sensation forcibly tearing massive amounts of energy from his arcane cores as the spell seemingly forced itself forth from his body. The veritable lake of burning blood surrounding them, had now suddenly expanded to become the size of an ocean and had become a whirlpool of blood, fire and destruction, increasing by orders of magnitude in strength.
Bryn looked around in fear. From way up above in the clouds he stared, transfixed and horrified at the landscape as far as the horizon in every direction suddenly becoming an ocean of burning blood, all of which that shit stain Ming was definitely going to throw against the field boss no doubt.
“Jeez talk about a temper tantrum,” Bryn wearily joked in a failing effort to not lose his cool and escape the scene, running wildly and shamelessly for his life.
Both the energies emitting from the field boss’ mouth and the ocean of blood rang a cold hard truth in Bryn's mind. This clash of deities would surely, instantly kill him as collateral damage. A death that neither the boss nor the Blood Emperor would ever even be aware of except for maybe getting Bryn's ranker exp after his death. Even if Magni and Igni weren’t currently summoned, the massive gaping hole in his defensive stats caused by his storm affinity and compounded by his lack of any defensive ranker gear, made what he was currently attempting almost a surefire death sentence.
The blood began to coagulate into many billions of large, beautiful blood spears that began glowing with a vile gold energy. For a moment, all stood still, before the spears as one single force, turned themselves towards The Grand Devourer. Instantly, they raced forth to tear the boss to shreds, ending it permanently. At the exact moment, the mother of all beam attacks, dousing the entire area in a thick purple light that gatling gunned forth from the massive snake boss. Its tremendous force parted any of the sea of blood remaining in its way like Moses, while the attack barreled towards the Hellish Blood Emperor, spelling his doom if it hit.
Not wasting a moment further, Bryn screamed psychically to Igni and Modi , ‘now!’ he cried, anxiety and fear heavy in his voice, along with a subtle sense of unhinged glee, ‘[Fabled Enhancement] [Final Script: Ride The Lightning]!’
Opening his giant dragon mouth wide, Bryn's mind roared another spell, ‘[Fabled Enhancement] [Dragon’s Breath]!’
Dong Sang Wook barely had any time to contemplate why the sky had suddenly turned a deep emerald green in a single moment, nor why there was another gigantic beam, this time of green light barreling towards him down from the heavens. As the attack easily parted the thick veil of massive purple clouds high above in the sky in seconds, Dong Sang Wook could see the green beam was accompanied by the roar of a massive green and black dragon that bore an equally large green crown on its head. And the Hellish Blood Emperor had even less time to contemplate why there were two somehow even more gigantic dragons, that both looked eerily familiar, hurtling themselves towards him, radiating insane amounts of lightning and ranker energy.
Memories of arriving home severely inebriated on his scooter, before vomiting on his parents’ living room couch, then passing out on their floor, flashed before Dong Sang Wook’s mind.
‘Fuck,’ he thought, subconsciously resigning himself to his fate, ‘I just wanted another beer.’
And everything went white.
For a moment, there was nothing, then, in an instant the Grand Devourer’s spell collided with Bryn’s spells which then collided with Dong Sang Wook’s, and the mother of all explosions was brought forth.
***
Bryn's eyes snapped open. He couldn't see anything. Well, he might've been able to, if there wasn't a colossal blizzard raging around him. It's winds whipped around so fast and terribly that Bryn wondered if he'd somehow ended up in the middle of some freakishly large tornado. Yet all around him, gentle snow fell, hitting his skin softly, comically contrasting the massive winds of death whipping passively around him. He noted with silent amazement that he felt no cold, and the terrifying winds raging around him felt almost, loving in a way.
“Where the fuck am I?” he wondered aloud.
‘We landed on this mountain after the explosion, my lord,’ Neverwinter replied, scaring Bryn who hadn't realized she was still in the form of a crystal collar, clasped around his neck. Passively invoking his [Shapeshifter] spell to bring Neverwinter back to her usual sword form, he listened with rapt attention as she continued to recount what had happened.
‘In the moments before all hell broke loose, I determined we might not be high up enough to escape the worst of the explosion,’ she continued wearily, anxiety and stress heavy in the sword's tone, ‘I grievously underestimated the Hellish Blood Emperor, a thousand apologies my lord, I didn't know he even had an ultimate spell, much less that he would use it or even yet knew how. So when I realized we would actually be within the epicenter of a colossal explosion, much larger than one I had anticipated, one that would've surely killed my lord, I reacted the best way I knew how and summoned [Fimbulewinter] to protect us.’
Bryn's eyebrow arched with extreme confusion. “I thought Fimbulewinter was a purely offensive spell?”
‘Hehehe,’ Neverwinter chuckled deviously, despite the injured, exhausted tone her voice held, she replied heartily, proud of her ingenuity, ‘the god storm that easily carves up deities with reckless abandon when cast on our enemies, instead becomes quite a powerful shield when cast upon ourselves.’
Bryn gave a low whistle of amazement as her words sank in.
“No matter whatever I may say,” he started with a mind blown chuckle, “and I do say quite a lot of bullshit, I will always be eternally grateful to have you Neverwinter. If for absolutely nothing else, your ability to autonomously use both mine and your own skills on your own makes you a legit cheat code.”
‘Perks of being soul bound to a Named Weapon,’ Neverwinter replied with a laugh, taking on a haughty voice, ‘let these walking skill issues get their money up if they're jealous, ha!’
She heaved a heavy sigh of relief, her voice losing its forced bravado as she replied in genuine appreciation, ‘thank you, my Lord Bryn. I'm… I'm eternally grateful to have been soul bound to you as well.’
Bryn snickered despite the sharp pains that laughing caused in his ribs.
“Can you call off the storm now?” he asked wearily.
‘...As you wish, my lord,’ Neverwinter replied, albeit with a strange pause.
After the great winds finally broke apart and vanished, Bryn immediately understood her hesitation. For what looked like hundreds if not thousands of miles around, there was nothing but utter devastation. The beautiful jungle lands and wastelands of odd colors he had seen while flying, were completely gone. Any of the massive trees or rock formations that had persisted were deeply scoured and burnt beyond recognition.
Bryn said nothing for a while, taking everything in, before expressing his mix of utter shock, awe and fear in another, longer, low whistle.
"When gods’ play games, I guess,” his hurting brain attempted to reason.
‘Indeed, my lord,’ Neverwinter responded grimly.
Upon noticing that the majority of the mountain that hadn't been covered by the Fimbulewinter had also been blown away in the explosion, leaving only the ledge he was currently standing on resting precariously against a single remaining pillar of rock that was all what had once been a large mountain, Bryn immediately ran back away. He sure as hell didn’t want to test if he still had enough energy left to fly if he fell.
Slinking down to sit on the dirt and stone, his back against a wall of rock, Bryn started to look through the wall of status messages that had accumulated in his peripheral vision.
One in particular nearly made his eyes explode from his head.
“[CONGRATULATIONS!] For killing [lv 830 Field Boss: Grand Devourer] and [lv 812 Early Ranker: Dong Sang Wook] you have leveled up!”
Bryn numbly scrolled past a list of level up achievement alerts to finally see what the final outcome was.
“Holy hell…” he whispered, awestruck, “Lv 819? I’m level 819 now?”
‘Correct my lord, the vast amount of exp and levels we received is truly the only reason you still live. Every new health bar refill you gained in your level ups were instantly depleted to soak up all the damage you still sustained,’ Neverwinter answered sadly, ‘though you still are currently at the bottom third of your health. Also, you should brace yourself.’
“Why do I need t-” Bryn began before an awful pain tore through his brain, searing out his eyes.
Bryn fell to the ground screaming in agony. The last thing he saw before his vision clouded from the flow of blood blocking his eyes, was one lonesome alert page.
“[CONGRATULATIONS 12th EMERALD MONARCH!] YOU HAVE AWAKENED THE GLORY OF THE EMERALD COURT! HARK! THE EMERALD LOTUS SHALL BLOOM 9 TIMES! BEHOLD, THE [FIRST BLOOM]”