Neo and Fate took a leisurely stroll to the door in the back, which was the indicator for the treasure room that comes after the final boss. After they had taken everything useful from Hiroslav’s corpse and desk, the treasure room had been unlocked. Along the way, Neo kicked random stones that were strewn across the floor. As he kicked these stones, a question appeared in his mind.
“Do you think players can make dungeons?” Neo asked this totally random question.
“What?” Fate returned with confusion.
“I mean, I was thinking that this dungeon was artificial, not naturally made. So, if this could be made by man, do you think that us players could make one too?”
“If it wasn’t just because of an individual's or multiple individual’s raw power and was instead because of artifacts or the like, then it is possible. I don’t see why not.”
“Hmm...”
“What, were you thinking of making your own?”
“No, I was just thinking that if I made a dungeon, I would be a complete dick and put a trap right in front of the treasure room.”
“Huh. What random thoughts.”
Fate commented as he reached for the treasure room door. Neo snickered as he thought of a person like Fate being tricked and falling into a trap thinking he had won. He watched as Fate grabbed the door handle…
… and the floor beneath them opened.
“Eh?” Fate reacted simply.
“A flag?” Neo guessed.
Neo had indeed guessed correctly. Following the course of events, he had raised and flag, and now the flag has been confirmed. Thoughts of how absurd the flag was appeared as they both fell into the bottomless pit beneath them.
“NEO YOU FUCKING FLAG SETTERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!” Fate roared in rage.
“THE HELL DID I DO?!” Neo retorted.
~The Worlds Gate~
On the shining arch that was The Worlds Gate sat a young girl of around 12-13 years of age. She had light blue hair that was just a shade lighter than the Gate energy that rose and touched her small, white bare feet. She wore a white one piece dress that was unblemished by stains and dirt. Her gray eyes stared down at the scenery below the Gate. Her eyes were lifeless, like a fish. She swung her legs back and forth, watching her feet catch wisps of Gate energy.
At the same time Hiroslav’s heartbeat stopped, the girl’s head jerked up. She quickly stood up and looked side to side. Seeming to be unable to find what she was looking for, a distressed look appeared on her face. Suddenly, she shivered and hugged herself and knelt down. Fear rapidly overtook the distress on her face.
“I’m sorry, please don’t hurt them, they did nothing. I was just worried, the person was killed, he was important, wasn’t he? Master, the children did nothing, it was not their fault, they did nothing wrong. Master...” The girl continued to ramble.
Suddenly, as if receiving an order, she stopped rambling. She nodded twice. The fear on her face faded and was replaced with sadness.
“Yes Master, this Lilia will do as you wish.” The girl -Lilia- replied to someone only she could hear.
She stood up and looked in the direction of Hiroslav’s Research Dungeon.
“I’m sorry, children.” Lilia whispered.
Her body leaned to the side and fell off the top of the Gate, plunging to the ground. She closed her eyes and the blue Gate energy wrapped around her body as she vanished.
~The bottom of the treasure room trap~
Neo Apollos the Supreme Fighter Lvl.223 123 110,00
Fate Avarice the Immortal Slayer Lvl.291 629 255,750
Neo and Fate were both badly injured, as proven by the red font the showed their current health. They had multiple broken bones and severe internal injuries. If not for the fact that they were both high-level and had most of the impact reduced by hitting a few outcroppings along the way, they would have most certainly died as soon as they had hit the ground. Both had lost consciousness after hitting one of the outcroppings that had saved their lives. Neither showed signs of waking up soon.
The bottom of the pit was a very bleak place. It had flat stone ground with a curved stone wall not too far away. Dotting the walls were small holes which held red glows of light. The only light source came from the boss room far above the trap tunnel connecting the two places. Not long after the two had fell, the red glows started to get closer to the them. As they came out of their holes, those red glows were not glows, but eyes instead. Those eyes belonged to weird animals that looked like dragons, but had fur instead of scales. As they approached the two, their statuses were revealed.
Dragon Rat Lvl. 200 Dragon Rat (Strudy) 100,000 100,000
Dragon Rat Lvl. 200 Dragon Rat (Agile) 98,000 98,000
Dragon Rat Lvl. 201 Dragon Rat (Strudy) 100,100 100,100
Dragon rats were dangerous creatures that held the bloodline of dragons. Though extremely diluted, it was still the bloodline of the strongest race in the game LOWG. Even in their peak conditions, Neo and Fate would still take some damage from these rats if they fought, not to mention their current states. If the dragon rats decided to attack these two, they would be easily killed despite their great power. Monsters would always attack humans, even if they weren’t provoked. Though Fate was a spirit that was in tune with nature, his ability to negate monster aggro would become useless if they get hungry. Even if he was ignored until he could escape, Neo would be nothing but bones by the time he woke up.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
Unfortunately for the two of them, the dragon rats were starving. If an easy meal was dropped right in front of them, why would they refuse? The dragon rats immediately rushed to the two near-death players, the ones with the [Agile] trait taking the lead. Due to the little area that this room had, the dragon rats were on top of them in no time. However, before the dragon rats could pounce, a shield of blue energy sprang up around them, making the dragon rats bounce right off of it’s surface. On top of the dome-like shield stood the girl Lilia. She stared down at the dragon rats with a hint of remorse in her eyes.
“Even though you all are just trying to survive, you all are not going to eat. I’m very sorry.” Lilia really did sound sorry.
Lilia waved her hand and the two disappeared, leaving the dragon rats to stare at the now empty space of where their food once was.
~The Worlds Gate~
Neo groaned as he came to. His eyes opened and he looked around, seeing both a giant arch with a blue film in the center and a large hill with lots of flowers. His eyes were blank and confused.
“Where...” Neo though aloud.
However, before he could say something, the pain that had been repressed because of sleep rebounded with twice the strength as before. Neo’s body instantly tensed up and started shaking. Neo nearly let out a scream, but the pain was too intense and he could only keep his mouth open as he tried to scream. His eyes opened wide as light returned to them due to the pain.
A few minutes later, the intense rebound of pain ended and he was left with a much smaller feeling of pain throughout his entire body. Due to the natural recovery that the bodies of players possessed, Neo’s body had been fully healed and his health returned to full. Because of this, he was able to stand up -though still unsteady- and take a more thorough look around. He spotted Fate who was laying just a few feet away from him, still unconscious. After finding Fate, he looked around and immediately recognized where he was.
“This is… The Worlds Gate?” Neo wondered.
Neo had been here twice, once in the beta of LOWG, and once more after LOWG became Ionis, which was the true name of the planet that he was on. The first time he was here was because he fought the final boss, the second time was when he had traveled to the Gate after absorbing enough Gate energy to get an incomplete [Worlds Skill]. Both times, he had gotten in contact with Gate energy. The first time was when he was healed and given the weapon he currently used. The second time was when he absorbed some Gate energy to complete his [Worlds Skill]. However, both times he had to get through many dangerous opponents and nearly die to get to this region. The strangest thing was, was that he and Fate were both at full health. Whatever had brought them here was missing as well.
“Am I… dead?” Neo muttered aloud.
“No, no you’re not.” A young, female voice came from behind him.
Neo whirled around, his hand going for his sword, but stopped midway once he saw who it was. It was a young girl with light blue hair a shade lighter than Gate energy. Her eyes were gray and resembled the eyes of a dead fish. However, underneath those dead fish eyes was a feeling of warmth and kindness. She wore an unblemished white, one-piece dress that fluttered in the wind. Her hands moved to behind her back as she gave a radiant smile to Neo.
“Who are you?” Neo demanded, not dropping his guard, despite the person being a child.
“I am Lilia, no last name.” Lilia said, unconcerned with Neo’s attitude.
“Well, Lilia No Last Name, what am I doing here?”
“Hehe! Your funny.”
“Could you answer my question?”
“Sure. I picked you two up at the orders of Master.”
When Lilia said the word ‘Master’, her eyes got sadder and her voice got lower. Even a toddler could tell that she did not necessarily like this ‘Master’ person. Determining that this person had no hostile intentions, Neo relaxed and sat down. Seeing his acceptance, Lilia sat down in front of Neo, her cheerfulness coming back. Neo stared at her, waiting for her to do something. ‘What’s a cute little girl like this doing out here? And who is this `Master` she’s talking about?’ These thoughts emerged in Neo’s head as he analyzed the girl in front of him.
Lilia the Mother of Ionis Lvl. ??? Gender: Female Occupation: Gatemaster's Servant Class: Worlds God
Her status baffled Neo. He had never heard of any classes, occupations, titles, or levels turning out a response like the ones he had seen now. The level was the thing that confused him the most. All creatures had levels in Ionis, from simple bunnies to Eternal Dragons, no exceptions. There was a way to manipulate how others see your level, but there was no known way to hide one. What made him even more astonished was the class of [Worlds God]. He could understand that this person had a unique class, but the name of the class itself was something to be worried about. To top it off, no person had even received a class that had the word ‘God’ in it’s name. Titles having the name ‘God’ in it, was acceptable, however. Making him even more confused, was the occupation of ‘Gatemaster’s Servant’. He truly could not understand how that could be a job. Though a person had got the ‘Gatemaster’ skill, it was impossible for someone else to get a job based on the holder’s skill, according to current knowledge. The final thing that made his brain receive great shock was the title ‘Mother of Ionis’, something pretty interesting. Even someone that was not good with making connections could tell that this person was probably someone that had a part in creating the planet. In other words, this person was much older than Neo, even though she had such a small body.
Coming to these conclusions, Neo asked one question. “Aren’t you older than me?”
“That’s your first question?!” Lilia shouted in shock.
“That’s my only question.” Neo stoically replied.
“What?! How could that be your only question?! You appraised me, right?!”
“H-how did you know?!”
Neo being shocked was a natural thing. After all, appraisal is not supposed to be able to be detected by the person being appraised. The beginner skill was meant to be stealthy at first, which then got more complex as the skill leveled up. The stealth property was so high, even aggro could not be caught from using the skill. Detecting this was impossible even for the most accomplished researchers.
“Hmph! You appraised me, you should know!” The ancient loli retorted in a haughty manner.
“Don’t take that tone with me, you’re thousands of years-” Neo began to make a comeback.
“Don’t say it!”
“For an immortal god, you sure do care about your age.”
“Isn’t that obvious? I’m still a woman after all.”
“Ah, I see…”
“So, how is that really your only question?”
“No, now, it’s how old are-”
“Screw off!”
“...”
“Any serious questions?”
“No, I’m smart enough to guess who you really are.”
“Prove it.”
Lilia smirked and said arrogantly. Neo was unabashed and flipped his hair to the side. With a simple gesture, he jerked his thumb to The Worlds Gate over his shoulder. Neo gave a proud smile to Lilia, who looked at him with some shock in her dead fish eyes.
“Interesting… Tell me, how did you come to that conclusion?” Lilia asked in a playful tone.
“It’s simple really,” Neo spoke with pride. “There are three points. Looking at your class meant you were a god that dealt with multiple worlds, which are connected through The Worlds Gate. Your occupation solidifies this point when you think about it. The Gatemaster is the master of the Gate, and the opposite of ‘master’ is ‘servant’, ‘slave’ or, sometimes, ‘employee’. The third point was the title, which made me absolutely sure that you are the personification of The Worlds Gate.”
“The title? Please elaborate.”
“In the speech given during after the event 10 years ago, you said ‘children’ in a female voice. The mother is the female parent of children, so it was quite simple figuring that out. It doesn’t take a genius, but you just had to go get one.”
“Are you saying your a genius? That’s quite the arrogant tone.”
“What is a man without pride? I’d prefer to praise myself than admonish myself. Though if I receive exaggerated praise, I will refute it.”
“Heh, I like you.”
“You interest me as well. You do indeed make me want to know more about you.”
“NEO STOP TRYING TO SEDUCE A CHILD!!”
Fate, upon waking up, had heard the last two things said by the two. Feeling something off because of the childish voice that he had heard first, he immediately felt he had to say something after hearing Neo’s lines. He was even so worried about the well-being of the child he had stood up and taken his sword out without bothering to hear anything else. Although his opinion of Neo had improved in Hiroslav’s Research Dungeon, it was still far from ‘good’.
“Ah Fate, you’re awake.” Neo greeted him.
“Good morning.” Lilia followed up, returning to her previous child-like tone.
“Don’t you say that! I’ll make you pay for trying to seduce a child! Lolicon!” Fate roared in rage.
“But she’s legal.”
This comment from Neo stopped Fate in his tracks. Though he frowned heavily upon hitting on children, he had no qualms about hitting on a woman of legal age. He had done his fair share of flirting as well. Sighing, he sheathed his sword and walked over to Neo and Lilia. He sat down begrudgingly and stared at Neo, who then gave an uncomfortable smile.
“So,” Fate asked Neo. “How old is she?”
“Hey.” Lilia said angrily.
“Thousands of years.” Neo stated.
“Thousands?!”
“And she’s a god.”
“God?!”
“She also has kids.”
“Kids?!”
“She has someone in her life as well.”
“No… it can’t be… The mythical legal loli… already taken…?”
“Technically, I’m not, but...” Lilia tried to comfort Fate.
Fate jumped to his feet and shouted in joy. “Fate has not abandoned me yet!”
“Pfft!” Neo could not hold in his laughter at this quote.
“Hahahaha!” And neither could Lilia.
“What? What did I do? Was it something I said?” Fate wondered.
Truly, the world may never know…