“Why do I have to pay for your drink?! You have your own money to pay for it!”
The speaker who was complaining to their friend was an attractive young man in his mid-20s with unusually light-coloured, styled blonde hair. Pinned to his chest on his silver-grey suit jacket was a badge depicting 3 gold coins.
His friend shrunk down in the chair, looking sheepish. “Hey, you’re the impressive manager of a major Faction, not me. You had enough money to come to the Beast Realm for a holiday. Surely you can pay for this one thing, Efratel.”
‘Efratel’s’ companion had navy shoulder-length hair and attractive looks as well, appearing like he was in his late teens. However, he was dressed in a long ankle-length dark-blue cloak with embroidered silver embellishments, and a long grey staff with an amethyst gem dully glowing on top which suggested he was a mage or wizard.
Efratel glared at him. “Marellen. You’ve been gambling again.”
‘Marellen’ avoided eye contact. “No……”
“Marellen,” Efratel stated.
“… just a little?”
Efratel rubbed his temples with his hands, watching the man opposite him stubbornly inspect the floor, then groaned, exasperated. “Why?! Even if you’re from a branch family, you’re a literal noble! Any money you could pull out is ten times more than what a random commoner can, so how could you lose enough money that I have to pay for your 10-bronze drink when you have a monthly budget allocated to you!?”
Marellen watched the inn’s bartender on the left of the room scrub their bench with suspiciously intense fascination.
The sound of Efratel’s knuckles rapping on the wooden table quickly summoned an answer to Marellen’s mouth. “I wanted to see if my new theory on cause and effect would apply when the gambler in question didn’t desire a particular outcome and used another’s opinion.”
Efratel gazed at him wordlessly for a while, before asking the real question. “And who was this second opinion?”
“I believe he said his name was Marty Wilstime,” Marellen answered.
Efratel ran a hand down his face at the expected answer. “Marellen….. Marty Wilstime is the one who runs the betting ring here.”
“Oh... that explains a lot...”
The two men just stared at each other, one in a mixture of pity and consternation, and another in belated realisation. They both turned when they heard a muffled snicker from the table behind them. A dark-haired girl wearing a half-mask waved and walked up to their table.
“I believe you may have better luck testing out that theory of yours if your second opinion didn’t have ulterior motives in mind,” she said, smiling at them both. She turned to Marellen. “You could also try testing out your theory by using adults and children to see if more complex thought adds a layer of variables to the equation.”
Marellen’s eyes lit up and he held his chin in deep thought. “Now there’s an idea……”
“Please don’t support his weird experiments…” Efratel complained.
Lucy smiled brightly at him but said nothing. She looked at his badge. “What’s a manager from the Aurelian Commission doing in a frontier region?”
He smiled brightly back. “What’s someone who can recognise the badge of a manager of the Aurelian Commission doing in a frontier region?”
Lucille held her chin for a moment but eventually nodded. “That is a considerably fair point.”
Efratel took off his grey coat. “Well, I for one am here for a holiday with my penniless cousin to see the sights of the Beast Realm.”
Lucy smirked. “And I’m here to find my scaly friend to make another bond with after the last one ended.”
Efratel just looked at her. “A bond lasts 5 years. You become a User at 16. My inspection skill tells me you’re Rank-0, so you can’t be older than you appear.”
She nodded. “It’s a fault of time travel. Always makes people think I can’t blast them with a Grand spell.” She couldn’t, yet, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to.
Efratel shook his head wryly.
She looked over to where the inn owner, Marty Wilstime, had his System-channel open. A System-channel told people of the general announcements going on in other realms and was very good at attracting customers to the inn. Today was a special day. She turned back to the two young nobles. “As for me, I’m going to place my bets. It’s a particularly interesting day today.”
The two glanced at each other and got up from the table, looking curious.
“How so?” Efratel asked.
“Well,” Lucy began, “It’s the Astrologers' day of horrors.”
Efratel looked at her, confused, but Marellen understood and chuckled. “That was today, was it? What time?”
She told him it was at 9 in the evening, and he nodded.
“Day of horrors? What is this that Marellen of all people knows and not me?” Efratel asked them, growing more confused by the second.
Marellen turned to him to explain. “We’re talking about the Millennium Chapter,” he said. “Common knowledge for members of the All-Aeon Athenaeum is that the Astrologers are incapable of finding out anything, and I mean absolutely anything, beyond the time of the Millennium Chapter announcement. Any predictions, such as weather reports to ‘arcane estimations’ are rendered ineffective,” he explained, shaking his head.
Lucy nodded in agreement. “And as soon as the Millennium Chapter is revealed, all their prediction arrays must be reset, their fate compasses need to be rewound, and they get millions of calls from people and Factions wondering how doomed they are for this Chapter. They hate it because they must do work rather than just sit in their lofty towers demanding fees while telling people they’ll die in a year.”
Efratel looked at them curiously. “Does this affect the Citadel of Fate as well?”
Marellen shrugged while Lucy continued thinking. Eventually, she shrugged too. “Sometimes. Most of their efforts are focused on the rivers of fortune in the present as opposed to the future. We all know how Prosperity works regarding the fortune readings of the Empire.” She shot Efratel a sly look. “They’d probably fit in better with your Faction than with theirs.”
Efratel rolled his eyes. “Yes, well, we all know what I’m mandated to say.” He placed a hand on his chest and another palm in front of him, gaining a far-off look like one who had read too many official documents on the subject. “Good Lady, the Aurelian Commission does not only have material benefit as its goals. Just because we are a union of merchants does not mean we cannot sympathise with the common folk and aid the talents of this generation in reaching greater heights, for we are also a community of families with like minds, and we - etcetera, etcetera, so on and so on. You get the idea; I’m not going to say it all.”
“You should hope there’s not a stray superior here to catch you flouting protocol,” Lucy remarked.
He laughed as they made their way to the betting tables of the inn. Marty, the bartender, innkeeper and local gambling organiser saw them coming and smiled at them. He had a bowler hat on his head and a leather vest over his white long-sleeved shirt. He tipped his hat in greeting and noticed Marellen standing with them.
“Why, hello again sir! I hope you found yourself in great spirits after your grand experiment!” he exclaimed, grinning.
Marellen avoided eye contact while Efratel sighed. “Please find someone else to trick out of their coin, Mr Wilstime,” he said wearily. “As much as he likes to mess around with useless endeavours, he is a Vadel and should Have. The. Dignity of one!” he added, punctuating his statement with three sharp jabs into Marellen’s side with his elbow, who was distracted and inspecting the different bets with intrigue.
Lucy walked up to Marty. “What are the most popular bets for the Millennium Chapter?” she asked, curious.
Marty let out a big toothy grin and showed them over to the largest table. “Well, the most popular one as of the present is the Tower Tournament. Most believe it will be stationed in the Heavenly Realm to let them have the Millennium Chapter twice in a row,” he said, showing them the chart.
“Like what happened with the Mystical Realm?” Marellen asked.
Marty nodded. “Gave them publicity. The Heavenly Realm has only been with us a thousand years, so it will help them get accustomed to the Tower quicker.”
Efratel leaned in to look. “Runner up is the Slaughter Festival? I haven’t heard of that one happening since before my great-grandfather was born.”
Marty rubbed his head. “Ah, well, someone spread the news that the monster population has been increasing in big quantities this millennium and the Slaughter Festival would be best to get rid of them. Plus, it’s probably a bit of patriotism leaking in as the only realm it ever occurred in was the Beast Realm.”
Marty showed them several others. The Transcendent Trials, The Islands of Ire, and the Abyss Crest were some of the more popular ones.
Millennium Chapters were themed Unique Events that occurred within the Tower every one thousand years. For these Events, the System offers the inhabitants of the realms special titles, items, and rewards in exchange for the temporary credits you could gain in the Event. As these Events were for the Factions, an Ascendant normally needed to join a Faction to gain the best rewards. The theme of the Event was also reflected in several other smaller Events in the Tower though, making it important for more than just the Factions. Eventually, they came to the table with the rules.
Lucy raised an eyebrow. “If they get the format and the realm correct, the winner takes all? That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? Won’t you lose money?”
Marty shook his head. “It’s a near impossibility to get both right. There are at least 300 formats as of now and 5 realms, and even then, most of the money I make is from the sale of beverages and food.”
Efratel narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, but you clearly feel the need to trick my younger cousin.”
The innkeeper gave Efratel a toothy grin and shrugged. “Treat it as a life lesson for him: don’t trust strangers. Besides, I don’t believe it’s as much as you think.”
Before the blonde man could ask Marty what he meant, Lucille walked forward with her brown drawstring Soulbound dimensional bag in hand. “10 silver crowns on Realm War.”
They all turned to her in mild surprise at the amount. Marty raised an eyebrow and scratched his beard. “Well now, I’m not one to say no to free money, but that is a rather odd choice. A Realm War…. now when did the last one of those happen?” He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled out to the rest of the inn.
“Anybody know when the last Realm War was?!”
Several of the people in the inn looked up, and one yelled back to Marty, “I think it was around 54 chapters ago!”
“Thanks George!” replied Marty, who turned back to the three of them and pointed a thumb back at the guy. “So, there you have it.”
The two cousins blinked, surprised at the answer.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Lucille just nodded. It was the rarest one for a reason. She looked over at the other half of the chart. “If it’s a Realm War, then it has to have more than one realm.” Some of the formats did the same, so there was a category for dual-realm location. “Another 10 silver on Demon Realm vs Mystical Realm.”
The noble pair looked taken aback, while Marty just chuckled, taking the silver, and loudly announced her bet to the rest of the Inn. “We have a confident one here! 10 silvers on Realm War and another 10 on Demon Realm vs Mystical Realm. Does anyone else want to join the bet to split her future reward?!”
The others just shook their heads and sighed, a few even mourning the wasted money. It was obvious they had no belief that she would win.
Efratel turned to her. “What makes you so confident?”
Lucy smirked as she moved back to her table. “Time travel. Also, watch your cousin.”
Efratel shook his head disbelievingly but noticed Marellen had pulled out a bag and was handing over coins to Marty behind him.
“Hey! Marellen, no! I thought you ran out of money!” he exclaimed, scrambling to take the bag off the navy-haired mage.
“But if I paid for the drink, I wouldn’t have as much money to do experiments! And besides, what if she really is a time traveller?! It would be another great experiment!”
“If she climbed into a fire dragon's mouth, would you?!?”
“All for the All-Aeon Athenaeum!”
“Marellen!!!”
Lucille shook her head wryly as she heard their exchange but walked back to her table and sat down. Around half an hour later, the inn doors swung open, and Darvis walked in with several other men, who she could only assume were members of the city guard. Marty spotted him and walked over to greet him.
“And what brings our grand captain himself to this establishment, especially after that little fiasco I heard happened earlier?”
Darvis grinned as his companions sat down at a table. He spotted Lucy wave in a corner and waved back, before turning to Marty.
“Well, it was troublesome indeed, but it’s all resolved now, and look! We have the source of my problems right here!” he said, allowing Marty to see that Lucille had walked over.
Marty stroked his beard as he raised his eyebrows in surprise. “It seems this young lady has a fondness for recklessness, for just earlier, she spent twenty silver crowns placing a bet on Realm War.”
“The Millennium Chapter?” Darvis asked.
Marty nodded.
Darvis turned to her. “I don’t think I can give you advice after what happened earlier, but you know what you are doing, right?”
She placed her hands on her hips and grinned. “I can afford it.”
Knowing she had just spent several thousand silver crowns at Everett’s shop, he shook his head. They made small talk for a bit, but eventually, they went back to their seats. It was around two hours before the Millennium Chapter would be announced when Darvis got up with a mug in hand and shouted to the rest of the inn.
“Attention folks!”
The other people turned around to look at him.
“There is something important I want everyone to know tonight, so please bear with me. I’m sure many of you have heard of the event with old man Everett’s shop that went on today.”
That got a few chuckles and nods of acknowledgement from the people in the inn. Most of them were veteran adventurers or frequent regulars of the inn, and so were a fairly close-knit community.
“For those who don’t, here’s the summary: A young girl managed to trick Everett out of around 50 highly expensive magic items when he thought he was fooling an ignorant noble into purchasing ill-begotten goods. I won’t tell you how, but the long and short of it is that the girl managed to give us city guards a huge run for our money, and in the end, managed to get the Trade Reversal Call revoked. It was a pretty big embarrassment for us and not our most amazing of moments.”
The guards snickered a bit at that because they knew Darvis had been fooled just as much as they had, if not more so.
“But apart from showing us that Everett had an illegal basement, there was some other good that came out of this.” He pulled out the silver sword and shield crest from his dimensional skill, and the people who recognised it gasped, but quite a few looked puzzled at the item and the surrounding reactions.
“Many of you are more recent to this frontier city, and therefore wouldn’t know what this is beside the first-generation settlers, but that doesn’t matter. This here, is the crest awarded to the city guard when we passed the trials set by the System and was the result of our finalisation as an Ascendant city around the Obelisk. We got to design it and everything, and every day our little city guard felt proud at the fact we were able to slay that King-Ranked monster when we walked past it. Unfortunately, due to some… circumstances, our lack of magical items almost killed half the military force of the city, and so, as the highest authority at the time, I made a deal with Everett. In exchange for supplying us with magic items at a much lower cost, he asked for this in return.”
Most of the people clenched their fists when they heard Everett was responsible for the city’s problems again.
“Nobody begrudged me for my actions, as we were desperate, but it weighed heavy on our hearts every time one of us had to go by Everett’s shop and see this hanging above him. That brings me to today. It turns out that the ten items our thief did purchase happened to be items that had been scammed by Everett in the past and he had kept as trophies. This crest was the only item of that quality that was stolen. By the ‘thief’s’ request, I returned those items, and now I’m left with this,” he said, holding up the crest.
“And so, I have decided to hang it up in this inn where those who still remember it will be able to see it. But before that, I must thank the young woman on my right,” he finished, gesturing to Lucille, who rolled her eyes, “For daring to brave the dragon’s den and returning with his prized jewels!”
The inn’s residents erupted with roars of laughter and cheers, offering toasts in her direction. The frontier adventurers really, really did not like Everett, and so were very happy he finally got a taste of his own medicine. The spontaneous festivities continued in the inn for a bit longer, while Lucy ate her promised meal. It was quite a break from her normal activities.
...
Sometime later, two adventurers, one man dressed in shades of brown and green with curly brown hair, and a woman wearing a thin dark grey cloak and glossy black leather with her long black hair freely flowing around her, stood in front of the Inn door. Garthe turned to his sister.
“Why do you think guard captain McGarrod invited us to the inn? I thought he would be up to his neck in paperwork right about now.”
The older woman sighed. “How would I know? He just said there’s something he needs to give us.”
Garthe gasped in mock excitement and ran up to his sister to shake her. “You don’t suppose he’s going to buy us a drink? The one he said he would owe us if the girl managed to win?”
Larena brushed off his hands with a look of disdain. “You wish. He probably called us here to reprimand you. There’s no way a a Rank-0 could escape a city guard captain, not with his System-issued class.”
“You're just in denial...”
They stepped through the doorway to find themselves in a very loud and noisy inn, with many people shouting and cheering. There was an infectious atmosphere to the room and was not the sight of men groaning after a hard day at work.
Darvis saw them and raised a mug to them. “It seems I owe you two a drink.”
Garthe crossed his arms to stare at Larena with a smug grin on his face, while she just turned away and tried to ignore him. They both picked up the offered mugs and looked around the room in curiosity.
Garthe was the first to notice Lucy and excitedly pointed at her. “Look look! The one you wanted to filch skills off of!”
Larena sighed and pushed down his arm that was blocking her view. “I did not want to ‘filch’ skills off of her thank you very much,” she hissed, finally capable of seeing Lucy at her table.
Lucy looked up and waved at the two of them, inviting them to come over. Pulling up a chair each, they sat down with their mugs.
“Lucille Goldcroft,” Lucy introduced, holding out a hand in greeting and circulating mana through her palm. She had an unnaturally cold body temperature and wanted to make her hand feel warmer. They both shook hands with her. Lucy looked at Larena curiously. “Are you a member of the Black Hand?”
Larena raised an eyebrow wryly. “Not everyone dressed in black is a member of the Black Hand.”
“So, you are a member of the Black Hand,” Lucille replied, grinning.
Garthe pointed at himself. “Hey, what about me? Why am I not included?” he said, pouting a little.
“It’s because you’re not dressed in black,” Lucy responded, nodding sagely.
Garthe clicked his tongue while Larena shook her head, amused. “Are you not scared of my identity?” the woman asked, curious.
Lucille smirked. “There are scarier things than dark knight wannabees with adrenaline addictions.”
That made Garthe burst out laughing and Larena had to whack him on the back of his head to get him to stop. She turned back to Lucy. “While he’s probably here to meet his new hero, I’m curious about that ability you used in Everett’s shop. Can I ask how you managed to lift the items without tricking the wards?” Larena asked curiously. “You didn’t seem to use mana.”
It was normally considered rude to ask about someone’s abilities, but because Larena wasn’t asking for the name or specifics, it was still socially acceptable. Lucille demonstrated her spiritual telekinesis by lifting the pepper shaker on her table. The two mercenaries watched it curiously as it spun around. “I’m using spiritual energy,” she answered with a smile.
Larena’s eyes widened slightly, and she gave Lucy and her outfit another look. “You’re a cultivator?”
Lucy shook her head with amusement. “Not every spiritual energy user is a cultivator. This time I’m actually not.”
Garthe almost went into a coughing fit as he tried to stop himself from laughing again, and Larena just gazed at him with a mixture of pity and derision, then turned back to Lucy once more.
“Sorry about him. I haven’t seen spiritual energy in action myself as the Black Hand doesn’t have much of a relationship with the Heavenly Realm, but I’ve never heard of spiritual energy acting like that before,” Larena said, tapping on the pepper shaker, and watching it spin again.
Lucy nodded. “Usually, you can add stats to spiritual energy when you reach Rank-3. As it governs the mind, normally mages and magic users find they already have high spiritual stats compared to warriors or such. Spiritual energy is what controls mana, but it increases with mana use anyway, so they only like to invest in the mental stat to increase their calculating ability and thinking speed rather than multitasking ability,” she explained, lifting her cutlery as well to demonstrate her point.
“This application of it,” she continued, “Is largely considered ‘crude’ or ‘unrefined’ by cultivators of the Heavenly Realm, and probably only hidden weapon masters would use this.” She noticed Larena was thinking deeply and decided to tell her more. “To use it like I do you probably need a SPRT count of 100 for the required spiritual energy sea size.”
Larena raised a thin eyebrow. “And you have that at Rank-0?”
Lucy gave her a wide grin. “I’m a bit special.”
Larena chuckled but leaned back and sighed. “The reason I’m asking is that having the ability to use skills without alerting an enemy would be an amazing combat asset for my class. I don’t think I can afford the stat loss though.”
Lucille raised an eyebrow and pointed a fork at her. “That’s a feature of charm. It makes mana feel less intrusive, so when you use it, it’s harder for others to pick up on it. Those who have high CHAR don’t reveal this because other people don’t normally appreciate the concept of skills being used on them without them knowing. The Obelisk Repository can tell you this.”
Lucy dropped the fork and tapped on her chin, before saying a bit more. “SPRT has more applications than most people realise. For one thing, if you tend to use a lot of debuffs in your skillset, you can keep them active much easier. It is also great for preventing your abilities from affecting allies. And,” she continued, “As long as you have a SPRT stat of 10 points or higher, and you set up a cycle of some kind that uses it constantly, you can gradually increase the stat without stat points. The stat gain from this decreases after the 100-point mark though.”
Larena nodded thoughtfully. “I can accept using 10 points on it.”
Lucy leaned back. “At least invest in it to gain the ability to sense your soul. That ability will be useful against soul cultivators from the Heavenly Realm. Soul injuries are very troublesome.”
That seemed to make Larena interested, and she nodded again.
Suddenly, Marty at his bar rang a loud bell on his bench, and the inn went quiet. “Could I please have your attention? The System channel is about to announce the Millennium Chapter in three minutes, so please keep the noise down to a minimum for this part! Thank you!”
The customers went back to chatting at their tables, but they kept their voices down to hushed whispers. When it got to the twentieth second, they started a countdown together. It was almost time, and Lucy listened in carefully when it got close.
“10!”
“9!”
“8!”
“7!”
“6!”
“5!”
“4!”
“3!”
“2!”
“1!”
The familiar chime of a System notification rang, and an emotionless, genderless voice sounded out. Everyone looked at their System notifications that had popped up, with messages parallel to the voice appearing.
[System-wide Announcement: The Millennium Chapter]
[It is time for the Millennium Chapter to be announced. A Realm will be randomly selected as the Ascendant representative for the Tower]
[Realm Selected: Mystical Realm]
[A Rank-5 User will be randomly selected as the Ascendant Representative]
[User Selected: Supreme Archmagus of the Violet Order, Septian Hallestan Voudelare]
There were a few sighs of disappointment. Some had been betting on which realm and User would be the representative. A magical projection appeared on a blank wall of the inn where the System Channel, a radio-sized gadget, was kept. It showed a tall white pillar circled by a spiral staircase, and a sky-blue flame burning on top. A figure dressed in purple robes trimmed with gold and holding a staff could be seen walking up the steps. Judging by the size of the figure, the sky-blue flame was taller than a human. The figure eventually made it to the top.
Lucy knew of the white pillar as the System Beacon, as it is the only place the System would ever commune with the Tower’s inhabitants when they decided to ask a question of it. It was an occasion that only occurred after a Faction had won the Millennium Chapter.
The figure, presumably the Archmagus, placed a hand into the fire. On his open palm, a white-silver plaque materialised, and he brought it closer to himself to read.
[The theme of the Millennium has been decided:]
[DICHOTOMY]
[Just as chaos and order exist, everything that occurs must have an equal and opposite reaction. This concept continues further to describe fundamentally opposed forces. The theme of Dichotomy has been chosen to represent this natural phenomenon within the Tower.]
There were quite a few murmurs after this, and Lucy was not surprised. The System had never chosen the same theme more than once, even if sometimes there were similarities. ‘Dichotomy’ as a concept, however, was an issue for the residents of the realms within the Tower. That was because none of them had the word in their language. It was a term from Earth.
Language was a difficult subject for people of the realms. Magical beasts had no natural language, as they were born with telepathy that allowed them to communicate with every intelligent creature. Demons spoke the demonic tongue that only those with demonic blood could ever understand, but the language was also incomplete due to the many demon bloodlines having only part of the language within them, so they borrowed the Mystical Realm’s language for general use. Tartarus…. most of the inhabitants just killed every sentient creature they saw, but the intelligent ones usually came from other realms, and so spoke those languages.
Only the Mystical Realm and the Heavenly Realm had their distinct languages, but the Heavenly Realm’s language was mixed with using ‘intent’ and weird double meanings to communicate, so the Mystical Realm’s language was the default one. Every User’s Status had a translation function anyway, so there’s that too.
Of course, the Mystical Realm and its main language of Imperial Common had words like ‘Dichotomy’, closer to contrast, opposite, contradiction, polarity, and so on. But the System decided to use a new word, one from an unassimilated world unknown to the Tower denizens. And only Lucille knew why it had done so. Currently, all the inn residents could do to decipher what the word meant was to use context clues, so they quickly turned their attention back to the System-channel.
[To celebrate the new Millennium, 73 years after it begins, the System issues a Unique Temporary Event for the Realms to participate in. The Format will be chosen now.]
[Format:_________]
The space started flickering with different formats, speeding up until eventually, like a slot machine, it slowed down to reveal the word.
[Format: Realm War]
[Realm(s): Demon Realm vs Mystical Realm]
There was pin-drop silence in the inn as all the people who had been present when Marty had revealed the bet turned to look at the black-haired mask-wearing girl sitting at a table near the door. Their reactions made their friends who didn’t know about the bet turn to look at what they were looking at too, meaning everyone in the inn was staring at Lucy at this moment. Efratel and Marellen even stood up in shock.
The two mercenaries at her table were looking rather bemused at the attention.
“I’ll shout you all a free drink!” Lucy said in response to their reactions. That got everyone chuckling as they were kicked out of their shocked states, and they all turned back to see the final part of the Millennium Chapter.
[Unique Temporary Event: Demon King vs Hero Battle]
[Rules:
* The Mystical Realm will pick the battlefield location within specifications.
* Any Faction from all Realms may side with either the Demon Realm or the Mystical Realm.
* True Demons and demon beasts gain 3x as many battlefield resurrections as other races. This does not apply to non-demon Demon Realm allies.
* Mystical Realm Factions may support individual ‘Heroes’ under Rank-4. Heroes gain support buffs and temporary stats. Factionless ‘Solitary Heroes’ can also exist.
* Demon Realm Factions may support individual ‘Demon Kings’ under Rank-4. Demon Kings gain support buffs and temporary stats. Factionless ‘Solitary Demon Kings’ can also exist.
* Factions gain ‘Aligned’ War Credits.
* Mystical Realm Factions will support the Heroes in conquering Event Demon Strongholds.
* Demon Realm Factions can have different ranking demon nobility who may occupy these Strongholds.
* Highest Leaderboard Ranking Hero will fight the Demon Emperor for the final battle.
Information:
* For the duration of this event, temporary ‘War Credits’ and ‘Aligned War Credits’ will be available.
* Receiving or using these Credits for purchasing will end one week after the final battle.
* ‘Dark Aligned War Credits’ are only gained by Demon Realm Factions, Demon Rulers and non-demon Demon Realm Faction allies for this duration and can contribute to their Non-Event Strongholds and Auctoritas.
* ‘Light Aligned War Credits’ are only gained by Mystical Realm Factions, Heroes and Mystical Realm Faction allies for this duration and can contribute to their Factions and Faction Authority.
* ‘Lesser’ and ‘Greater’ War Credits are also available for individual reward purchases.
* The ‘War Ceremony’ will be open, a neutral no-fighting floating island zone where War Credits may be used.
* Additional Information can be found at the Obelisks.
Time Until Event: 4 Years and 11 Months. ]
[System-wide Announcement has ended]
There was a short silence as everyone absorbed the information, and then there was a scramble as some went to sell their owned business shares, some went to buy business shares, some got prepared to save for when they’d have no business in their realm, some prepared to move realms, but most just wanted to make it to the Obelisk to find more information. Mainly rewards.
“The Pantheon is going to have a field day…” Larena murmured.
Garthe nodded and looked up at the roof. “For victory, for honour, for glory and Glory Pantheon…” he said, with a half-hearted fist raised in the air, punctuating his statement. They remained silent for a bit before nodding to Lucy.
“I’m happy we got to speak with you. You’ve given me a lot to think about, and I’ll check out that information about CHAR too,” Larena told her, getting up.
Garthe winked at Lucy as his sister left, and stage whispered to her, “They really are wannabe dark knights, aren’t they?” And he quickly jogged after his sister before she could get mad at him.
Lucille waved goodbye, and then, when she had a moment of peace, sighed, and leaned back in her chair.
The mercenaries were energetic people. She hoped they didn’t die in the coming years. There was a bit Lucy hadn’t told Larena about spiritual energy, however. Spiritual energy massively expanded a User’s senses. Currently, she was using a field big enough that she could hear every single conversation within this inn at once, and for many, knowing someone could see, hear and sense that much was highly unnerving and made them apprehensive. There was also the transmission technique. A spiritual energy user could have an entire conversation with another spiritual energy user while talking to you, and you wouldn’t even know it.
She was sure Larena would figure this out if she managed to add spiritual energy into her fighting style though. Someone who used dark and water affinities as she did would need the ability to prevent friendly fire. She distinctly remembered talk of a Black Hand mercenary who had lost herself when she accidentally killed her brother and ended up offending so many Factions in her grief that they gathered around her to kill her, but she didn’t die before she had killed every single one of her enemies on that battlefield.
And she only died because she ran her sword through her heart.
Well, that wasn’t Lucille’s problem anymore though.