THIRD PERSON POV
Blood splashed down on the black soil of the lost world. The golden ichor dripping from fair skin seeped into the ground hurriedly in an attempt to save its eroded soul if it was possible. Hildelith knew it wasn't.
The soil situation was as bad as her current one.
The situation was very bad. 'Just as bad as it had been when I was ignorant'. She frowned.
'It's a game. Concentrate, you're here to get over things. Face your fear and get stronger. Losing here will boot you out. You'll lose your kids and more' She criticized herself mentally. Her left palm was empty, the wolf fang lost in the skull of one of the countless beasts that had attacked her.
Hildelith had tried to keep count of how many Unknown had attacked her by now but gave up at twenty-five after an adolescent bit her between the abdomen almost severing her in half after she'd popped into existence.
That was where Wolf Fang had gone. The beast while not dead stalked the perimeter while sending in more infants to weaken her. Even as she slew them one by one her attention wasn't on them. Nor was it on the adolescents either.
No.
While her gaze jumped from one infant to the other and occasionally an adolescent her other senses were locked onto the creature that sat a few meters away. It was either lazy or didn't think she'd win.
Hildelith didn't mind for now. As long as it gave her time to grind these mobs then she'd get away long enough to heal and then think of a way to end that thing.
At that moment, she kicked the floor flying up and back just as an adolescent that had been stalking and waiting crashed into the spot she left.
Infant beasts were the height and length of normal Great Danes. With six limbs and six pairs of eyes that oozed the cold embers of divinity. Their skin was rough and their furs were prickled with thorn-like spikes in place of fur.
Then there were the abominations before her. Double the size of an Unknown. The same six eyes but with an extra smaller pair of limbs that looked more like arms making them seem like raptors. Jagged teeth lined their maws with two saber fangs jutting out the front.
Dangerous was the one word for them.
Their size didn't make them any slower. They were even faster than the infant Unknown. More relentless and worse, they were intelligent. She'd had a lot of close calls in this battle, more close calls than she could bear.
Her body dropping from the jump was close enough for the adolescent to not escape. She had timed the jump expertly taking off long enough to avoid the creature and also begin descent just before it could gain its bearings, flee, or find her again.
It still found her but it was too late.
Sword Beam Cut
Her sword turned purple from the nothingness coating it. Rather than unleashing a beam of nothingness, she buried the blade into the Unknown's skull, right between its six greenish eyes. She ignored its wails as blackish blood spilled out.
[Skill - Sword Beam Erupt - gained]
Unleash the nothingness energy coating your blade within or near the foe to erase affected parts.
She unleashed the nothingness that had coated the blade letting it spread and quake the Unknown's insides. It screeched in distress, eyes maddening as it felt pain, one unlike anything it had ever felt. Hildelith jumped away while pulling the sword with her. Black blood spurted out as the Unknown made to take her down with it, jaws snapping where she had been.
She struck the floor back first as she rolled and then flipped herself over with her left hand unto the balls of her feet. She couldn't believe how concentrated she was in this fight. Many knew how hard it was to focus and think in a fight.
[Nothingness Empowerment/5%]
Gauging an enemy and reacting to them. She could only be thankful for her Nothingness Empowerment and perception stat as she leaped away from a pack of Infants and swung her sword continuously unleashing beams of nothingness from the blade that diced and erased parts of the annoyances.
A red flash alert to the corner of her eyes gave her warning as an infant managed to nick her.
[NAME - Hildelith - Warrior One
TITLES - One of the Speakers, Ender of the Beginning.
FEAT - Creation's Witness
RACE - Nothing
BEING - Creator 79
LEVEL - 9(408/900)
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
HEALTH - 16/16(152/640)]
She grimaced at the sight of her health while leaping away and keeping her distance between her and the creatures. The running part of her plan suddenly felt like something she should do now but looking at the creatures surrounding her she realized that fleeing could be harder now if not impossible.
Thinking of the mission and quest she pulled both up.
[MISSION - RANK C
Lost world
A barren core of nothing that was forged from the embers of divinities fires. Still lacks life, maybe.
[Forge world]
[Destroy]
[QUEST
Scourge
The Unknowns, children of the Creator yet also shadows. Born from the coldness of divine embers. A scourge to life, jealousy ever-present. A lack of attention gives rise to depravity]
[Rank - A]
[Rewards - Unascertained]
[Failure - Death ]
Looking at both she realized there were no cancel options or end mission or quests in the panel. While in the quest's case, it showed failure as death for the mission there was nothing else.
It made her wonder if this mission would just keep dragging her down here to complete it or something. This was the issue with a completely new game, with unknown mechanics. 'Maybe I can't even return without completing it or some Debuff punishment'.
Creator Online had already shown that it was built differently which meant she had to do something different.
"What to do?" The game devs covered all the spots. Troublesome skills, put a boss she could definitely not beat and now she couldn't even pass the quest or cancel.
"I can't cancel the quest unless I die. Devs, those heartless beings love making things difficult but there's always a way. If not games won't be playable " She dived to the side and swung her sword decapitating yet another Unknown.
[Unknown slain]
[+18 Exp]
"Three points to consider." She palmed at an adolescent hard aiming for its chest. A Hand Blast erasing its torso. Spinning she soccer kicked an infant trying to sneak up on her away. Her head whipped down as a maw snapped right over her. Sword of Murre flashed up creating a shower of black liquid. " An unbeatable monster and a forceful suicidal quest".
Her gauntlets stopped the fangs of an adolescent just barely. Her eyes glared at it then back to the boss who still sat there.
'I can't beat you, Im not sure if there is a way to use my divinity, something tells me it won't be easy to use nothingness against you and the quest is a forced one, I need to complete it. '
Her eyes went to the floating text of the quest once more then willed information about it to enter her head that way she could still focus as she pummeled the annoyance of an adolescent with the hilt of her sword.
Her eyes locked to the still unmoved boss as the words of the quest rang in her head. Her gaze roamed over the massacre and then she froze as something finally clicked.
'Shit'.
Jumping back she dropped to her knees to avoid another attack then rose pure shock and disbelief etched on her pristine face. ' ... scourge to life due to their jealousy over the lack of attention given to them by who?.'
How the hell did children throw tantrums, by misbehaving right? A way to gain their parent's attention. Their parent who was..?
"Me".
The creatures were pissed at her. That's why the boss wasn't attacking and why the quest wasn't stopping it had no way to be stopped. It was one she had to complete. To either make amends with her children somehow or well, Hildelith stopped that part from registering.
'That's why it's not attacking. It probably doesn't want to kill me. It's just pissed at me and probably wants to make me suffer. Or am I overthinking and it's just like normal bosses waiting for their minions to get killed off'. The creatures were still rushing for her making her wonder what to do when a ding sounded in her brain.
[QUEST UPDATE]
[Scourge]
The Unknowns, children of the Creator yet also shadows. Born from the coldness of divine embers. A scourge to life, jealousy ever-present. A lack of attention gave rise to depravity.
[Rank - A]
[Rewards - Unascertained]
[Failure - Death ]
[Judgment]
The Unknowns' desires have been deduced, and their longing noticed. Yet is the choice to forgive or punish truly yours?
[RANK - S]
[Rewards - Unascertained]
[Failure - Death]
[YOU HAVE CLEARED QUEST - SCOURGE]
[RECEIVE REWARDS]
[Y/N]
'Yes'.
[REWARD]
[TOME - Divine Purity]
[Use Tome]
[Y/N]
Why Hildelith wasn't sure of what exactly the tome was as she didn't have time to read its description she figured it would be useful since the game rewarded it for the scourge quest completion.
With a sigh, Hildelith affirmed the use and shivered when the tome appeared in her hand before breaking into a thousand pieces of golden motes that melted into her skin. Rushing up like a stream into her skull.
[YOU HAVE GAINED INSIGHT]
[Insight - Divine Purity Attained]
The information that flowed into her head surprisingly gave Hildelith more understanding of the workings of one major thing in the game and also cleared a grand confusion. It also made her realize some things that she overlooked. Hilde shivered at the ingenuity of the devs once more.
"This just proves that not everything is solved by fists".
She realized that the devs made this quest into a trap, one that very few creators could escape. The trap wasn't even the pack of infant and adolescent Unknowns vying for their heads.
No. It was a run-or-fight trap.
Most fights were simple. Beat it, if unbeatable, run, grow stronger, and return. Attempt again. Like facing the higher-level boss of a popular dungeon.
Sure the creator players could win then but they had lost in hindsight. Hildelith was unsure of the possibility of getting this tome somewhere else. The severity of this fight made her think only this quest would reward it.
The devs wanted the Players to think out of the box. Something they'd hinted at from the very start since making them creators.
"This game is nothing like the others" she muttered as she accessed everything.
By fighting the Unknown Creator players were made to learn that the Unknown were just angered and abandoned children who wanted their love and attention. Failing to realize this and rather see them as monstrous disturbances would make the scourge quest incomplete keeping the second quest judgement hidden.
The reason for such a story was lost to Hilde but it didn't matter at the moment.
If the creator players killed the boss then there might be a backlash or something she wasn't sure about yet. The only way to know what lay ahead was to figure out the second quest.
It didn't look simple either.
First, she thoroughly scrutinized the information on Divine Purity learning everything about it as she rolled about, dodged, and weaved through the Unknown.
Even as she completely understood it she finally understood the rank increase in Judgement. How was she to face the boss while ignoring the Unknown now she knew that she shouldn't kill them.
Even worse was upon getting within a specific range of the boss she saw its description. This beast larger than anything rose its head and gazed upon her. Six eyes each a greenish glare locked on her, three to one side of the head and three to the other side.
Its rows of serrated teeth were terrifying to behold and in front four sabre-like fangs that were as tall as she was. The upper pair were terrifyingly longer than the lower pair.
A ripple of scales, black as the night with several spikes and bones jutting out from the top of its head and running along its spine to the tip of its tail. though shorter on that spot.
Large claws on five-fingered paws, limbs that unlike the unknown were only four. Two huge leathery wings with glowing scarlet veins barely noticeable running along it.
Its head turned as if to gaze upon her properly. And she saw its complete appraisal. Hildelith shivered as a realization struck her brain like thunder almost freezing her in the spot.
Games had a way of showing importance to NPCs, like Princess or Prince and even Crown Prince, Dukes, etc. It went to show the importance of titles. Yet Haero was called First of his Name. Hildelith had not been bothered to question the why. After all, he and she should have been the only existences at the time in the Star Rings. She hadn't thought it out much back then or even thought at all since she assumed it had something to do with being the first administrator or god. But now she realized how wrong she had been.
Before her eyes lay Molliwag. The Great Dire Dragon, Black Divine of Origin, and First Unknown of the Star Ring Universe. Yet even as she read the very last words, they quivered before her very sight broke and collapsed. The mists of the destroyed words "First Unknown of the Star Ring Universe" wafted up like waste being recycled and slowly it formed the true words she was meant to know from the very beginning.
[Firstborn of the Creator]