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Volume 2 Chapter 4 – Marshal, CFOO, Spymaster
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Weeks flew by quickly, which meant many game months had passed. Rather then just two simple weeks as determined by the trio earlier, the appointed time to raid the Demon Realm was pushed back due to an event in RL. The school the trio went to, made some adjustments in its curriculum: to have a more target orientated study pattern. Instead of homework, the school opted for more testes and exams, which took place once every two months instead of bi-annually at once per semester.
The change was in its trial phase, but some over enthusiastic parents from the PTA had suggested the shuffling of the seats within the student-council, using the results of the trial examinations. Alan, the person behind the avatar Bunny, would rather die then being ousted from the Stu-Co. With the unfortunate turn of events, Bunny was cut from the team of Realm Explorers. As for Angel and Gene, who were also from the same school, neither wanted to risk their positions. This led to the inevitable delay.
Angel was stumped by the dense couple. Their school was the only one implementing such a change but the doltish duo did not even suspect anything. Bunny was openly grumbling over how her school was being unfair with Gene joining her protest because his school did likewise.
“This is so very obvious... yet... they can't even notice... We are in the same country, same timezone... We have schools implementing the same strange changes at the same time... Do they not wonder at the possibility that we actually go to the same educational institute? I am not even hoping for them to realize the identity of each other” Angel could only protest internally.
Although they were studying for the newly implemented testes, the trio did continue to game... just not as active as they wanted to be. During the study period, Bunny leveled steadily up to 182 by killing tens of thousands of giant slugs, over a hundred Myconid Spore Kings and uncountable fungi-men. The grinding also filled all her fingers with petty rings gain from the Spore King.
Other then levels, she had also improved her offensive capacity by mixing spells and having good offensive magic rotations. Her greatest spell was Ignis Gigantea which was created by channeling Fireball and feeding it excessive amount of air using Gust. The power would be comparable to Rain of Fire, one of the first spells a ranked-up Wizard could produce.
Contrary to expectation, Bunny was not able to become an all-time OP spells-caster. With mixed spells like Antipodal Fracturing and Ignis Gigantea, her magic damage went well above other spell casters of her level. However, while others would gain more power with a job change at lv200, Bunny had nothing to look forward to. She could only be OP until other magicians upgraded their jobs to higher tiers. The hurdle between a class specialized in Magic and her Breeder class could not be bypassed that easily.
On a brighter note, due to the ingenious ways of using spells, skill proficiencies went into up at a very fast pace. All her spells reached Intermediate Ranks while Elemental Mastery proficiency broke into Advance Rank giving her a great skill: Dual Cast. Being able to throw magic at a faster pace, Bunny could create even more powerful mixed-effect spells.
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Angelina the controller behind Priestess Angel, was less affected by the change in school curriculum. Mathematics was about practice, as long as she had grasped the fundamentals, test or exams at any time was fine. Also, unlike Alan, she only needed to focus on the results of her mathematics exams and not all the subjects.
Taking the role of regent, Angel governed the villages and ranches in the absence of Bunny. Other then money matter, since she was already in charge of the tax and commerce, Angel also took care of animal rotations making sure the combatants reached their level limit.
As a veteran gamer, seeing their personal dungeons under-utilize did not sit well with her, so Angel started another animal gathering session. Collecting many strays from Serabroug and its surrounding areas, she expanded the number to animals well past a thousand. Angel also used their joint funds to buy mana-filled items and mana-stones to evolve the key animals of their army. These included but not limited to more prominent animals like the Prize, Shillings, Meow and Nyaa.
The trio had met up during one of the Sundays to see how the 'catalyst' affected the next tier evolution. Using rabbits R1 to R20 as test subjects, they were fed magic-gear, mana-stone, fairies corpse, demon-spawn meat and even mithril. The result was a let down. Even though the animals gained the ability to talk and use magic, their personalities and elemental affinities were predetermined by their upbringing. The catalyst had almost no effect to their evolution.
After evolving, Meow and Nyaa grew slightly bigger again due to more leveling. They were already one size larger then other cats, mostly due to pedigree or breed, and with the advancement, they now bigger then ponies. Meow became Bunny's personal mount while Nyaa went to Angel. Gene was left out because he already had his bear for long distance travel. Prize, the Squirrel Overlord of Sera-Farm and Shillings the Racoon Foreman of Litvart Rest-stop, went back to their post. They both had become more efficient leaders as they were now able to communicate with both animals and humans.
The 20 evolved rabbits were assigned permanent residence in Slug Land, using the Giant Monster to better their new found magic skills. Most of the rabbits only had a single elemental affinity with 8 Earth, 5 Water, 4 Air and 2 Fire. Only one had dual affinities of both Earth and Water. Unlike players who needed to either learn from spell books or taught by another, the rabbits gained innate spells which they channel through their horns.
Back in Sera-Ranch, Angel was not able to procure new animals as quickly as she wanted. To keep the the dungeons occupied, she took the 40 chickens which had been neglected by Bunny for leveling. The grounded birds lead by evolved rabbits quickly leveled till their limit. Angle had initially wanted them as an additional strike force, but things happened and plans were changed.
Approached by a representative of Exotic Vacations a tour-agency that pioneered vacations into the virtual world. The Agency bought those oversized chickens and repackage them as Chocobos. Priced at 1,000 gold per 'almost discarded animal', the 40,000 gold offer was difficult to reject. Debbie, the representative of the tour-agency, also had the unique skill Saddle which allowed her to change any tamed animal into a mount. This skill intrigued Angel into forming a more lasting trading relationship.
Debbie was given the distributor rights to sell unique mounts, while Angel stayed behind the scenes providing the supplies. Sworn to secrecy, Debbie could advertise about those giant animals but was not to disclose where she obtained them from. One was a dark-gamer with vast knowledge of game-trading and the other was experienced in real world buying and selling; The unlikely duo joined forces into a beautiful partnership, vacuuming money from the game into their purses.
From the Animal-Recruitment in Serabroug, the variety of animals increased. Skunks, Geckos, Frogs, Hamsters and Boars entered the fray. Due to their size when they maxed their levels, Angel even listed most of them as possible mounts... though she was not sure if anyone wanted to ride a skunk or a frog. There was also the elusive hedgehog, which she, once again, managed to find few of. Luckily unlike the previous time, there was at least one of each gender.
The last addition to the animal army by Angel were three dozens of pigeons. Angel noticed pigeon eggs on sale at the egg-monger when she was buying a cartload of chicken eggs to produce more Chocobos. It took less then a split-second for Angel to decide on buying them. With the pigeons, their animal army finally obtained its much needed aerial support.
Outside of the army, Angel gained an Odd Pelican, many thanks to a quest Gene did, and turned it into her personal pet. As a ranged damage dealer, the Pelican served her well by retrieving loot from the distant using its stretchable beak.
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Jeannie the one behind the avatar, Gene the Animistic Druid, had a different type of problem compared to her schoolmates. She was basically an addict to fiction stories, therefore due to over-reading, she sometimes mixed up various information. Her scores dropped when she first mistook Alexander III of Macedon for Geihar Von Arpen... or the time when she mixed King Duncan in Macbeth up with King Theodarren of Rosenheim. However, those belong to History and Literature which were not related to her Language scores, which floated alone at the top.
Language score was not something that could be improved in a short time, neither was it something that would deteriorate quickly. Due to the nature of this particular subject, most students would focus on and cram on other courses, which led to a little competition for Jeannie's position in the Student council. The increased in the amount of testes were offset by the removal of homework, so Jeannie had little changes in her gaming time.
With Angel running the Ranches and Baronetcy, Gene had little else to do. Instead of burying himself in the Library, which would cause fiction or in-game history to overflow into revision, Gene toured the country in search of beautiful accessories... Animal companions which would help in making him more powerful as well as looked cute in their accessory form.
The simplest way to chance upon rare animals was doing a repeatable quest given by Silva. The ancient rabbit-man kept track of almost all the animals that had naturally evolved near him. 'Near' was a relative term as Silva's range had a 500 kilometers radius, spanning more then the Kingdom of Rosenheim. Silva would give quest to people he trusted, to approach these evolved beings, so as to keep them healthy and away from danger. Adventurers had the tendency to hunt for and slaughter rare animals.
Gene's first animal companion, the red bear cub was yield from one of these quest. Meow and Nyaa, that were given to Bunny during her trial for the breeder class, were also descendents of an evolved wildcat Silva secretly owned. Gene had been doing the quest repeatedly to find suitable species as his new companions.
So far, Gene came in contact many weird looking creatures like a bobcat clad in a fiery coat, a pelican with canine teeth on its beak, a weasel with a sickle as its tail, a mongoose that had invisibility, a snake with heads on both ends, a yellow rat with zig-zag tail, a turtle using a metallic shell and even a pollywog holding a sword. Only the turtle was collected as an animal companion, while the pelican followed Angel as a pet.
Silva's quests were different from the normal 'grab and return' types, as they required the quester to ask the target if it was willing to leave. In event the target decided to stay at its habitat or move elsewhere, the related quest was still considered successful. This led to scenarios of successful quest even when the target joined up with Gene or his companions; Just like what the pelican and turtle did. Others either did not capture Gene's interest or wanted a stable life in its original habitat or at Silva's place.
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While traveling around, Gene had also been thinking of his in-game situation: Looking at his teammates gaining power while he remained pacing at the spot, Gene thought hard on his own possibilities. Finding new animal companions would, no doubt, improve his own combat potential, but was that enough?
The trio were initially blessed with hidden classes that were, by default, stronger then the normal ones. But both Bunny and Angel had transcend their initial classes and synergized their improvements making them beyond comparison. Even if they had much higher gaming experience, his pride would not allow Gene to simply watch them leave him behind.
Bunny was a breeder, but she was not restricted by her class and improved herself by learning magic. By doing so, she not only gained combat abilities, using the multicolored spells, she could better direct the animal army created by her original class.
Ancient warfare, consisted of throwing armies towards each other and the side that slaughtered their opponents wins. The only tactics to speak of were the prearrangement of soldier and the timing to release catapults, cavalries or some other surprise elements. More prominent historical generals made used of Trumpets and Drum that could be heard above the sound of battles to allow adjustments to their troops, giving them more wins.
Bunny was also able to perform such adjustments during the melee by using different spells. Although things were still on theory, Bunny had been training with the animals to allow them get used to such. Multiple Ice-spears barraged into enemy lines would indicate all out offense, while a massive fireball signified mass retreat. A lightning bolt on specific location, would signal the animals near it, to focus onto that area or target, whereas a earthen walls suggested avoidance... there were many other strategic usage of spells which exhibited the potential of Bunny's magus subclass.
Angel also had good synergy between her Priestess class and Archery. With her healing taking up most of her mana, she could use the lull between heals to contribute to dealing damage. By also taking the skill of a blacksmith and generous use of the Ammo Refill spell she had, her quiver only needed small amounts of really powerful arrows, which replenishes itself automatically with magic.
Initially, Angel only thought of using the Priestly Buffs from her original Church of Lu. With the self-blessed bonuses, she was able to temporarily strengthen herself to be as strong as any ranger. But given her special class which called upon powers of not one, not two, but three religious faction, she was effectively stronger then any other archers of her level.
Thinking deeply, Gene started to question himself. What was he?, What was his Strength, his Weakness, his Uniqueness. Reliving his time on RR, Gene tried to find an answer to a riddle only he could solve.
Was he a stealthy type?
The time spent with the minks on scouting was intense and interesting. He found much joy when infiltrating into the bandit camps, silently disposing the enemies without them even knowing. His nature was shy and his actions meek, being away from the sights of others made him feel at ease...
But he wanted change. Picking the opposite gender and spending time with strangers in the game was all because he no longer wanted to be alone. He wanted to share, wanted to talk, wanted to break out of his self-imposed shell... No! The stealthy types was in reverse to his goal.
Then what was his goal?? ...Alan!...
Being side-tracked, Gene pushed the mental image of the male student out of his mind. That image was important, but it had little to do with solving his current issues... But when idle thoughts entered a focused mind, it would not simply go away. Little things about Alan started appear: His always neat attire, his expressive face, his unorthodox means to solve problems, his unusual sense of humor...
“Why does these information that are not wanted now, crowding my mind!!” Gene grumbled.
*Ding* As if struck by a hammer, Gene suddenly found the answer he was looking for.
Information!
That was the key word. The meaning of his strength. As Gene was not a gamer, he was mostly behind Bunny and Angel in terms of unique thought. However, after being provided simple ideas, he could draft them into sophisticated plans. He was not some genius planner, rather, what he did was recreating scenes he had read before.
Reading was one of the things Gene liked very much. Having read over hundreds of thousands of books on a large variety of topics enabled him to have a very broad diversity of plans. Steps to setting up their Central Market was knowledge from a book call Age of Colonization which describe the early settlements and colonies of various European counties. Strategies used during various war encounters originates from Sun Tze's Art of War. Even the portal skill that led the trio trying to explore the Demon Realm was the result of his reading.
Information was a important... but timely information was even more valuable. As from the book Hidden behind the King, it had described that all great organizations would need someone collecting and organizing information. Apart from past knowledge, one needed to keep up with the present. Gene knew that what he had was only the former, what he needed was to obtain the latter.
To become a more valuable member, gaining combat potential was not the only way. What his team had overlooked was an information network that would allow them to know the happenings around them. The baronetcy was part of a the Rosenheim kingdom, but none of the trio knew anything about the political climate of the kingdom. In event there was a succession crisis or civil war, they could lose their lands without even knowing why.
Gene finally found a role that would fit himself nicely. Bunny was the Marshal, the commanding general of their army of animals. Angel was the CFOO, chief financial and operating officer, dealing with trades and taxes. Gene would take the undeclared role of a Spy-Master, by creating their own information network. This would be more then beneficial... It was almost crucial if they were to climb to greatness.
The animal companion he needed for his spy network was also decided. He had already met up with the creature long ago right after meeting Bunny. He had not made any contract with the creature then because it was considered an extremely weak species. A lowly Lv23 animal he had led the beginner rabbits to kill many times during his newbie days. The lowest leveled boss monster in the whole game, that was able to control minions to do its bidding. It was the Rat King.
Mice and Rats were found everywhere, in the fields, on the roads, in villages and towns, even within cities and castles. The rodents obey the Rat King just as citizens obey the King. By increasing the Rat-King's level and ability, it would also increases the sphere of influence the Rat King had. Using their personal dungeons, Gene could easily level this new companion, thus gaining masses of spying mice and rats. Putting thoughts into action, Gene set off to Sera-farm to use its sewer access.
Obtaining the Rat-King was easy with a cake of cheese. Leveling it up to 170 took time, but was not difficult with the help of the evolved Rabbits. With a level that was never achieved by any other Rat-Kings, the animal companion named Don was able to Mind-Link with almost every mice within the kingdom. The skill Mind-Link allowed Don to remotely share the senses of mice and rats within its domain. It could also issue orders, but limited to simple ones like 'go here', 'move there' or 'follow that'.
Given a personal room in the Manor-House, an endless supply of cheese and a clean fountain of flowing water, Don took its job like a Boss, spying in accordance to Gene's wishes. Even if the mice, at ground zero, could not understand human language, Don was able to do so with the Linguist skill it had obtained under specific instructions of its Master.
The greatest hurdle Gene had, when creating the spy-network, was teaching Don about human behavior. As a non-sentient animal, Don had difficulties understanding motives other then Eat, Sleep and Reproduce. With the patient coaching of Gene, it was finally able to remove meaningless gossips from valuable tidbits.
Just as Gene suspected, the current King of Rosenheim, Theodarren, was on his last legs. Sadly, even in his condition, he had not designated a heir between his two sons, creating a chance for civil war due to succession rights. There were two men at the center of a power game: Duke Kanus and Count Albrook. Of the two, Duke Kanus, who was in charge of the military affairs, was more powerful and he supported Archduke Winston, the first son of the dying King. This meant much as their Baronetcy was granted by the other Prince.
From the findings obtained while teaching Don about human thoughts, Gene had uncovered the identity of Rod, the youngster who conferred Bunny the Baronetcy. He was actually the other son of the Old King Theodarren. Rod's actual titled name was His Highness Prince Rodimus of Rosenheim. From the rashness Rod had exhibited in Soie Village, Gene was worried about the youngster doing something stupid.
Made sure that Don would keep an eye on Duke Kanus, Count Albrook and the two Princes, Gene went off to meet up with his teammates. He needed to update them on his new findings. Just like the time he uncovered the Demonic activities within the bandit camps, this time, he too was able to provide forewarning to the possible upcoming crisis.
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Bunny and Angel were both gamers. They easily prioritized their personal gains and gaming satisfaction above loyalty towards some data or pixels. Being informed by Gene on the possible civil war. They decided to take an extended vacation in the Demon Realm.
Their original goal was to simply farm Lv200 demon spawns near the portal, in a safe manner, avoiding traveling too deeply into the unknown. However, their adventure would now extend to combing the realm like an extremely large unexplored dungeon. With Don linked to Gene, they would know of any major event happening in the Kingdom, but they would not be reachable unless they wanted to be.
Duke Kanus and Archduke Winston had almost the whole military might of the kingdom within their grasp, which the trio had no intention of a headlong collision with. Their planned absences would simply prevent Prince Rodimus from having any stupid thoughts of starting a civil war. Missing from the event would also signify their neutrality to whoever succeed the throne.
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