With an arrow aimed at his back, he had no choice but to proceed closer to the settlement of the dark elves, they walked for ten minutes before he could see first houses in the distance.
"Great, it still does not make sense why he is level six." Frei muttered under his breath, the first quest should not have anyone of level six, but it did not seem to be a glitch.
"Could it be?" Frei almost fainted when he remembered a technique some games used for balancing. The idea was quite simple. Many players complained that a game was not difficult enough and was for noobs, but when developers made it difficult, they began crying as well that the enemies had an unfair advantage and they lost even though they had more "skill". One of the solutions was to make the game very hard, but give players a way to grow stronger quickly as they kept dying. This way even an idiot could clear it after a few deaths and the "skilled" players could not complain about it being easy, as even they died at least once.
The problem was he did not want to die at all!
"The only solution would be to try and replay the content without dying after I complete a quest." There was also a possibility that he was completely off with his guess and meeting level six was just a coincidence.
"To the cage!" Something stung him from behind and Frei noticed that he had spaced out for too long. He saw a number of wooden cages in front of him, half of them filled with various races, the majority were beastkin races. There were no elves.
"Slaves? You have said I will be a pet." Frei protested, but was thrown into one of the cages by Iralion regardless.
"That is the same thing." He gave a ridiculous explanation while looking to the side at a cage with a beautiful beastkin who reminded Frei of a badger with typical black and white stripes on her hair, he remembered it to be one of the playable races. Frei was clearly no longer interesting and could only place his hands on the wooden bars of his prison and look around,
"Aaaah, I see, we will surely be rescued by high level players who would receive a quest .. " Frei stopped in the middle of his thought process. " . . or not."
Sitting in the cage, Frei had more than enough time to explore the dark elf encampment with his curious eye.
At first, he had thought that it was a village, but a short while of observation was enough for him to change his mind. There was too many tents and other improvised constructions that did not look permanent at all with only a handful of small houses that were made of wood and some even used the trees around them as parts of their foundations. Frei was sure that there was nothing older than a year or two. The wooden cages were everywhere, with many races but elves and dark elves in them. Based on a few conversations Frei overheard, it was clear that this was a slaver camp ran by dark elves that regularly sent slaves to a place named Waldorf that was at the border of human territory.
The next batch was in seven days.
Twice a day, they threw him something to drink and eat, but with the logic of this universe, a player like him would probably never die of thirst or hunger. Worse was the fact that he did not need to sleep, it even seemed that he was unable to do so, which resulted in an extreme level of boredom given his circumstances. It was hard to get used to the fact that the Fabled Universe did not care much about basic physics or biology.
He had to wait an incredibly boring seven days before something finally happened. He tried to entertain himself by casting Shroud repeatedly, but there seemed to be no levels for individual skills themselves and in the end, his stubbornly repeated casting of the spell amounted to nothing.
The seventh day in the morning the dark elves began to open the cages and chained all the slaves into a few long lines, preparing for a march. Naturally, Frei was one of them, but he was more curious than afraid, as the relative absence of pain and discomfort that would have been present in another universe was obviously dulled a lot for players, making it easy to assume the role of an observer, even if he was one of the slaves standing in the line.
He looked around and found out that he was not alone feeling this way, well, if all the NPCs could be called alive. If he looked into the eyes of other slaves of dark elves, it felt like they were just bad actors in a movie and did not take the whole situation to heart, as if it was all just a staged play. It felt incredibly weird and wrong.
Who would have expected that a universe created like this would not be fundamentally flawed?
Out of the blue, there was a sudden flash of bright light in the distance and Frei felt like an invisible wave swept through their assembled line. No, the effect did not seem to be limited just to their line. Slaves, dark elves, beastkin and an elf alike gazed at the bright light in the sky that was slowly fading ominously but,
. .. something had fundamentally changed and then.
[Contact reestablished with the Divine Universe]
Frei was about to suffer a heart-attack.
* A * Moment * Earlier * * Divine * Universe *
[Do you hear me? If you are purposefully ignoring my messages, there will be consequences!]
Gabrie'El was restless, walking around a beautiful tree with golden leaves growing in one of the gardens of Heaven. The project he had intended to sabotage had evolved into something he had not expected. He should probably assemble the others, but he knew that Samma'El would not agree with him and it would just prolong the much needed action.
It was crucial to move before the Arcane Universe, if they would really develop a method to strengthen themselves like this.. . he had no faith in the ability of the Divine Universe to defend against such balance-breaking means. He had to snatch the universe they had so recklessly brought into existence, preventing them from making another step.
"I will make my move now, it is already almost too late, when the others find out . . .Mikha'El will fall in line and Samma'El will have no choice but to accept the situation." Gabri'El nodded resolutely and spread his hands and wings wide, his body began to rise up, shining with brilliance, a glorious light that intensified with every passing second.
"Angels, I hereby decree by the will of El, the greed of the Arcane Universe will no longer be tolerated. Go, flood their lands with blood, blood they much desire to spill themselves. Protect what has to be protected and smite with righteous anger those who yearn to take what does not belong to them!" Gabri'El's booming angelic voice spread unnaturally through the Heaven and along with it, shining portals began opening everywhere, their destination one, the Arcane Universe.
The invasion had began.
In front of Gabri'El himself, a slightly different portal opened, leading to a different location than all the others, the Fabled Universe.
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He flew forth without fear, disappearing into the portal.
* * * * * * *
Samma'El sat comfortably on his couch with a book on his lap, when he sensed a great fluctuation of power. His head rose and he loudly closed the book in his hand.
"He would not dare!" His expression darkened and he stood up abruptly.
With a quick wave of his hand, a purple, elliptical portal opened in front of him and he stepped through it without hesitation. Normally, it would be unthinkable for him to directly enter Heaven without invitation, but he did not care about rules given the situation, although he knew that it was probably already too late to tear apart what had been united. He emerged next to a tree with golden leaves and looked at a bright portal that was slowly fading into nothingness.
"That fool!" Samma'El's eyes burned with anger.
Soon, another figure emerged at his right and he did not even need to look to know that it was Mikha'El. He looked at Samma'El's dark expression and tried to calm him down, as a serious fight between the three of El had to be prevented at all costs.
"He has prepared well to invade the Arcane Universe. The portals connecting us will not be lost to them, we will be victorious Samma'El, do not underestimate Gabri'El's strength."
"You do not understand, it is not about the Arcane Universe. He connected us to a crumbling universe! It cannot be undone!" Samma'El's body emanated dark light, signifying his anger, but Mikha'El did not seem to understand the situation,
He sighed deeply, it was for the best if Mikha'El knew the truth.
"He does not know the true nature of the situation. I have not told him, because he would have destroyed us all in his blind pursuit of strength. It is not in the power of even a god to create a universe out of nothing. What the fools of the Arcane Universe had done is universe division, not creation. The universe that they have created is like if you cut off a finger. It has a concept fueled by some soul power, but it can never be enough and such an universe would slowly crumble into dust."
Mikha'El stared at Samma'El absent-minded, not knowing how he knew so much.
"Watch." Samma'El extended his hand and a tall black flame appeared on the top of his hand. "See how pathetic it is? It is by a good fourth smaller than it should be as the moment Gabri'El connected our universe to the crumbling one, the universe hungering for souls had sucked a lot of soul power out of our universe, stabilizing itself. "
"You say that we are now weakened right before the invasion into the Arcane Universe? How can this be even possible?" Mikha'El straightened his back, alarmed by what his companion had told him.
"We are, but they will be as well. If I have good information, the rogue universe had been created by using both types of souls, the same thing that is happening to us will happen to the Arcane Universe, as we are now connected to each other. Even I do not know what will happen next, because I have seen this happen only with two universes, not with three or more. In general, the rules will start to overlap and blend together, but it is hard to tell to what degree. It can end quite badly, it is as if a tiger had cubs with a bear and a giraffe, as there are three sets of rules for only a single universe, because it has never been a separate universe in the first place!" Samma'El walked around the tree in a similar manner as Garbi'El not too long ago and thought of how to salvage the situation.
"I can go in and talk to him." Mikha'El moved closer to the portal that was still there, although his brilliance had mostly faded out.
"No! It is too dangerous to enter, Garbi'El should be strong enough to deal with whatever he encountered there." Samma'El lied, but Mikha'El did not know enough and let himself be stopped by his hand "We will focus on the invasion of the Arcane Universe, let the new place stabilize itself first."
" .. . and let Garbi'El be our disposable scout if he craves for conquest so much." He thought, but knew better than to say it aloud, honestly, he would love to see his reckless brother struggle a bit.
* * * * * * *
< © Galacron Corporation >
"What is this? Appearance? I am what I am, an angel!" Gabri'El was a bit disoriented by the rude, intrusive voice that began to speak to him suddenly.
"Uh," He sighed. " whoever you are, can't you see that I am an angel?" Strange, he wanted to spread his wings to demonstrate, but found his consciousness lacking any form.
What trickery was this?
Yet, the voice did not seem to care one bit for his confusion.
Name Gabri'El Level 1 Determines your overall strength. Increases by completing quests. Race Angel Race Stat Ratio 20 : 20 : 20 : 20 : 20 STR : DEX : AGI : INT : SPI Racial Traits [Very strong overall] ALL ATTRIBUTES + 100%, [Weak to Dark Attribute] Dark damage taken + 100%, [Righteous] - If you act morally wrong, all your equipment will turn to dust and you will forget all you spells and skills. Your level will also be halved., [Flight] You can fly using your wings. [Revered by All] All races look up to you except demons. Acquired Skills/Spells
Equipment Head Hands Neck Legs [Simple Angelic Leggins] Torso [Simple Angelic Robe] Ring Boots [Simple Angelic Boots] Ring Weapon [Simple Angelic Sword] Offhand Equipment Bonus Stats STR ; DEX ; AGI ; INT ; SPI 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 ; 0 Equipment Bonus Skills
"Gabri'El! Do not space out, it can be fatal in a fight! I know that you do not want to hurt me, but I am skilled with a sword. Just show me what you've got!" A figure of a shabby looking angel with a sword was challenging him to a fight, calling him his name like he had known him for ages.
How Impudent!
"Divine light smite you for your insolence!" Gabri'El extended his hand only to find out that nothing would happen. He stood there in a daze with his other hand holding an ugly, simple sword.
What was happening?! Gabri'El's heart began to beat faster when he realized that all his power had vanished like blown away by a gust of wind.
[Contact reestablished with Frei Galgani]
That one line improved his mood by a notch.
"There will be a century of pain for you, incompetent fool!" In his rage, Gabri'El made a quick mental command, but it was as if the fate itself had decided to stand against him.
[Your authority is not high enough to influence user Frei Galgani]
"Not high enough? Impossible!" He was shocked for a while, before he realized why he was unable to do as he pleased.
"Samma'El!!!" He shouted, but in the next second, a pang of pain in his head forced him to pay attention to his surroundings again.
"Gabri'El! Do not space out, it can be fatal in a fight!" The sorry excuse for an angel repeated like a parrot after he had dared to hit him in his head.
"I will fucking kill you!!!" Gabri'El roared and rushed out, waving his sword like mad.