*****
"Leaving already?" The front desk lady asked her with an exaggerated sad expression on her face in an attempt to tease the young girl.
"I still have some things I need to deal with, I just needed some privacy for a little." Vermouth smiled at her and nodded.
"Shame. I was getting tired of these men, they're boring." She said with a slightly mocking tone as she looked at the men ogling her as they ate their breakfast. The men in question, both players and NPCs, looked away and acted innocent despite already being caught.
Vermouth chuckled before she headed for the exit. "I'll be back maybe later at noon. I'll have to log out later to eat lunch."
Contrary to popular belief, this nice lady was actually a player. Vermouth could tell by the floating grey ball over her head, something only players had. As for why this lady was playing hotel simulator rather than the action RPG that this game was supposed to be, Vermouth didn't know, and neither did she care enough to find out.
Leaving the establishment, Vermouth headed for the west gate of the city rather than the north like usual. She's headed for the other side of the Muryo Forest, the name of the forest she has been visiting, in order to hunt the other field boss roaming the monster area.
Muryo forest was one of the largest forests in all of Curleaf. Its dangers and the inconveniently large area it took as well as the large trees deeper into the forest has made it a large monster den. The Mayor of Lorden had used it to his advantage and established safe roads going inside the forest that surrounded his territory, guarded by his soldiers and employed guards and even offering them as escorts, the Mayor connected the other three major cities through his city and made it flourish through trading. Additionally, fighters who wanted to get stronger or prove their strength, or scholars who wanted to study monster ecology, gathered in his city in order to conquer the dangerous forest, further boosting its wealth through exporting monster materials and monster cores outside of the city.
Unlike the north area, the west area of the city was more heavily guarded due to how much thicker the forest is on this side. Navigating a large hunting party through this area of the forest is much harder and as a result of this, monsters who spawned here were not hunted, allowing them to grow stronger than other parts of the forest. Not to mention that this direction led to a mountain range where monsters were allowed to freely breed and grow stronger, chasing away the weaker monsters into the forest and making the place even more dangerous.
In other words, it is a mid-level area next to a low-level area, whereas the mountain range is the high-level area! All conveniently placed for faster early progression!
Vermouth stood in front of the worn wooden sign that pointed to the path leading to the more dangerous area of the forest, on it was written. "Main monster den of Muryo forest, beware… huh."
A couple dozen meters behind the sign was what seemed to be a camp, with half a dozen or so tents raised, armored soldiers and players frequently entering and exiting. Ignoring the camp, Vermouth continued to walk down the path and walked into the forest.
As the light slowly dimmed the deeper Vermouth walked into the forest, the more trees and bushes she had to navigate through, the dirt path already gone as it stopped just behind her. Upon finding a small opening slightly deeper into the forest, Vermouth silently waited for a monster to come and attack her. While she had researched the locations and appearance of the field bosses, she purposely ignored information on the other monster to keep playing still a fun experience.
After all, even if she's using this game to save her family from falling into ruins, she still wants to enjoy the process of it. Sure, she could be memorizing all the stuff in the wiki to progress much faster than her current pace with the use of her totems and skill, but if she does that this would feel like a chore and she will burn herself out.
She has her family to keep her motivated while playing the game and having fun will keep her interested. That way, with motivation and interest, comes passion. If she can become passionate about this game, she will be able to avoid stressing herself too much and keep herself mentally healthy.
Vermouth's thoughts were cut off when a dark figure descended from the trees. It fell to the ground before hopping and pouncing at her. Ducking down to dodge the attack, Vermouth shouts her spell, and her skin is covered in faintly glowing symbols.
Sighing in relief, Vermouth turns around to look at her assailant. "Now then, who's-"
Her words were cut off when a black knife passed through her neck and stabbed the tree behind her. She turned around to look at the knife, its edge coated in some grey liquid. "That feels rather uncomfortable, you know…"
Turning around to look at the man's wide-eyed expression, Vermouth sighs and silently mutters. "Can't believe a PKer is attacking me on my second day in here…"
The man, having collected himself, brandishes his dagger and dashes toward Vermouth's way, his knife passing through her throat. Vermouth simply stood still, staff in hand, as the man stared at his curved dagger with a dumbfounded expression.
He was cladded in black attire, wearing a baggy black cloak, his face hidden by the shadow his hood cast over his face. He wore a pair of metal black leather boots and a pair of leather bracers.
"It's not going to work, sir. Please just leave me alone, I just want to hunt some field boss." Vermouth explained with a tired look on her face.
The man only stared at her, his dumbfounded expression still present.
"If not, I'll just go ahead and send you back to your spawn point," Vermouth said as she pointed her staff at the man, looking at the red ball floating over the player's head, a sign that he had killed at least five players this day.
Recomposing himself, the man took on a defensive stance as he waited for the girl to attack.
"Bursting Lance." Vermouth calmly cast, a blue pointed lance forming at the tip of her staff and immediately taking off toward the surprised man's expression. Judging by her looks, he had expected the casting to be much longer, so he waited for that moment of vulnerability to strike. What he had not expected was for the spell to immediately take off and hit him in the torso.
The man was blown away as the impact made the pointed solid clump of mana explode, the back of his head along with his spine flatly hitting the trunk of a tree, stunning him for a moment. Long enough of a moment for his opponent to cast another spell. Before he could get up and avoid the spell, he heard chains suddenly fly his way, binding him to the tree, completely helpless to the whims of his supposed victim.
Vermouth cast Persistent Chains right after the lance launched itself towards the man, waiting as the casting time finished before the man could recover.
Frustrated at how easily he was bested simply because he was caught off guard, he curses at Vermouth. "F**k! What's a high-level player like you disguising as a newbie for!? Did you stupid f**kers from Chains of Astra get a sniff of me and prepare this trap for me, huh!? Was it because I was killing too many newbs!?"
Vermouth didn't understand what the man was saying. "What?"
"What do you mean 'what,' you little wh**e!? Come on! Where's your squadmates, I know you b***hes are out there!" The man frantically cursed and shouted all over the place.
"Is he trying to attract monsters to get away? Not a bad idea but it won't work on me, fortunately." Vermouth deduced.
"I don't really know what you're saying but bye-bye now." She shot lances upon lances at the man, making him groan despite not feeling any pain.
"F**k! I'll be back, just you wait!" He managed to shout out loud one last time before he turned into a puff of blue smoke. The chains binding him to the tree fell to the ground and shattered into motes of light before fading away.
"Totemist is really OP, huh?" Vermouth grinned, ignoring the notifications, for the time being, before sighing and leaning onto the tree. "That brought some unpleasant memories… oh well, time to get to work."
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And just in time, a pack of four black wolves jumped into the small opening she was in and surrounded her. On their rears were two long tails raised like scorpion tails, pointed right at her as they cautiously growled.
"Alright, big boys! Struggle as much as you'd like! Bursting Lance!" Vermouth cast, five lances appearing over her head before taking off, hitting two of the wolves while another was hit with the explosion as collateral, the last one being able to avoid the lances as it was the first to charge at her.
Multiple lances appeared because of the effect of the wyvern totem, otherwise known to her as False Dragon's Fruit.
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[False Dragon's Fruit] [Totem] [Rank 6]
"A totem created by [Vermouth] using the bark of the corrupted trent, Monotrent, and the heart of a false dragon, Wyvecroc. Holding onto the totem or attaching it to a staff will allow the user to instantly use the spell assigned without the risk of failing."
[Bursting Lance]
[Allows the user to summon forth up to four more lances.]
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Just as the description says, the new totem attachment to her staff lets her summon one to five lances at a time, depending on how many she wants. She had decided to assign her newly acquired spell Bursting Lance to this totem in order to have a powerful and insta-cast attack spell. While she expected the totem to amplify the spell's multiplier, she didn't expect it to outright multiply the number of projectiles instead. Not that she was complaining.
"Living Sword!" Three swords appeared over her head and swung at the charging wolf. To its credit, it managed to only get a scratch on its back after it ducked extremely low, before continuing to charge, leaving the swords chasing after him from behind.
"Oh, that was cool." Vermouth admired how the wolf dodged her swords and watched in amusement as it whipped its tails, magically extending and rapidly approaching Vermouth's right face and left torso. Grinning, Vermouth raised her staff overhead to avoid getting it hit and allowed the tails to pass through her body.
Shocked, the wolf jumped back into a retreat, only to get sliced thrice midair by her swords, having caught up after the stunt it did.
"There they go. Poor things. Oh, you're alive." Vermouth looked at the whimpering wolf on the ground not far from her. It was the one who got caught up in the explosion the bursting lances created. "Better end your suffering quick."
Vermouth approached the fallen wolf, enveloping it with the radius of her living swords. She watched in satisfaction as the aggressive swords turned the poor puppy into a puff of white smoke, leaving its drops like the rest of its dead brethren.
"Now then, time to loot!" Vermouth hopped her way to each drop on the ground, touching them and letting them vanish into her inventory. Wiping away imaginary sweat with her sleeve, Vermouth let out a sigh. "Phew, what an experience. To get ambushed by a PKer and then by a pack of wolves. If I was a normal player, I'd be dead twice now."
Alas, she was not. How unfortunate. For her assailants, that is.
"Now, to see what's up here." Vermouth opened her notifications and read through the long backlog, surprise slowly emerging on her face as she read that one single line.
[Casting has leveled up!]
[Magic Mastery has leveled up!]
[Chain Casting has leveled up!]
[Slayed Player BLCK, rewarded a random item from player BLCK's inventory]
[Received Veneno's Fangs from player BLCK!]
[For slaying a player 60 levels higher than you, rewarded x3 Random Tier Skill Scroll!]
[Level up x22!]
Ignoring the lines of monster drops, Vermouth stared at that one single line with growing shock.
"60! Then that means he was at least level 78! What the hell!? I killed someone like that!? No way!? Doesn't that make me too powerful!?" Despite her disbelief and wide-eyed expression, the grin on her face was stretched ear to ear as she leaned on the interface and stared at that line. "WAHAHAHA! What the hell!?"
Vermouth continued to giggle to herself as she checked her inventory to look at the item she got from defeating that man. 'Firstly, the fangs. A material? Or not…'
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[Veneno's Fangs] [Dagger] [Rank 7]
[P.atk 652] [M.atk 180]
[P.atk +35%] [Agi+75] [Movement Speed+25%]
[Poison Attribute +65]
"A pair of daggers forged from the smelted fangs of Veneno, the ancient viper. Due to the material's poisonous nature, this pair of daggers is the last weapon that the master smith Alzar has forged."
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"It was a weapon, not a material!" Vermouth shouted in surprise. "Too bad though, I don't really have a use for it. I'll put it up for sale later at the auction when I get back to the city, I guess. I spent quite a lot earlier after all."
Vermouth didn't even bother looking at its appearance by pulling it out of her inventory. She simply proceeded to ignore it and focus on the other thing that had improved, her stats.
"Maybe I'll start investing my points now. Glass cannon all the way!" Vermouth pressed on her status interface with a cheerful bounce on her finger every tap.
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[Vermouth] [Mage] [Level: 40]
[Base Stats]
[HP 2,100/2,100 | MP 38,500/38,500 ]
[ p.atk 750(+120) | m.atk 3,710(+3,606) ]
[ p.def 60 | m.def 40 ]
[Status Points: 0]
[STR 10 | AGI 10 | DEX 130 | END 10 | WIS 330(+85)]
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"Hehe, it's a little funny how huge of a difference there is between my HP and MP. Physical and Magical attack too, they're so far apart." Vermouth scratched the back of her head, chuckling. "Is this how mages in this game feel like?"
Indeed. For the high offensive capabilities of a mage, they have been given little survivability to the point that most mid-level field bosses and above as well as high-level monsters can one-shot them. Because of this, most mages require babysitting by their party tanks. They are a great source of DPS while needing the most protection. This is also why Mages are able to equip shields on their sub-weapon slot, to increase their survivability.
"Well, that doesn't really apply to me though. With Totemist, I essentially have 40k HP and invulnerability. Just the combination of my HP and MP is already busted, but with the intangibility, no wonder it's a tier 9 skill."
Closing the interface, Vermouth focuses on her surroundings. "I was planning on hunting monsters to level up a little more before going for the field boss, but with that rouge's much-appreciated contribution, I'm more than ready. I'm about the same level as that monster now."
"Deeper in we go!" Vermouth shouted to no one, her staff raised forward as she dived deeper into the forest, leaving the small opening behind, swiping to the side bushes that got in her way.
Occasionally, packs of wolves and groups of bird monsters would strike her, only to pass through her and get brutally mutilated by her living swords.
The field boss she's going for this time is a bear-like monster named Ursa Minor. A far cry compared to its stronger version, the Ursa Major. Both monsters having been named by the same person, thus the name. Its splash art that was posted by the developers shows the image of a bear-like monster with extremely thick grey to black fur, a tusk similar to that of a saber tooth cat, and half-a-foot-long retractable claws.
It spawns in a small cave-like structure under the roots of a huge tree every thirty minutes after its death. It is always seen to be sleeping and seldom leaves its cave. Never was it ever seen outside its cave. Which makes one wonder, why is it running after a four-person party of players? And why are these fools running toward her?
'Aggro passing? Some PK tactic? Right after I just killed a PKer?'
"Hey! You mage over there!" The warrior in the party shouted at her, her voice sounding quite aggressive. "If you don't have a control spell, then either get to running or get out of our way!"
'Ah. Not PKers then. That's good, I would have been worried for the players' security if PKers were that common.' Vermouth mused. "The boss is catching up to you! If you promise to let me take all the loot, I'll help you!"
"Well damn, you're one expensive mage! Get it dealt with! Losing loot is better than risking losing an important item and a level!" The warrior replied.
"Alright, that's a promise," Vermouth replied as she started casting. "Make sure to get out of the way once the spell is done! Persistent chains!"
As the casting finished and the chains shot out from the magic circle at the tip of Vermouth's staff, the party of four dived to the side and dodged the flying chains allowing it to hit the charging monster and restraining its movements, stopping it from going any further.
With a feral roar, the field boss started struggling against its bindings.
"Phew! Damn, what a close call! Get to position now, sisters!" The warrior got up just like her 'sisters' did, the mage and archer standing behind the two tall warriors. The leader, Vermouth assumed, looked her way before shouting. "Accept the party invitation if you want to get some EXP from this thing!"
Right after that, a small interface popped on her side.
[Player 'Gale_Bish' has sent you a party invitation. Accept?]
[Yes/No]
Tapping No, the interface disappeared. Making the party leader look her way, upset and confused. "Why did you refuse? You don't want the EXP or something?"
"Oh, I do want it. But since I'm already taking the loot, you lot can have the EXP!" Vermouth grinned as she raised her staff overhead, the totems dangling. "If you can get the last hit, that is!"
"For someone wearing the starter mage gear, you're f**cking confident!" The leader grinned at her before looking forward and focusing on the monster, brandishing her shield in preparation for when the monster gets free, casting buff spells on herself. The other warrior held onto a huge axe, standing just behind their leader. A bursting lance much similar to Vermouth's flew overhead the two, hitting the boss, further aggravating it.
"What is the duration of those chains before they disappear?" The archer beside her asked, her hands moving to either shoot at the monster or cast a spell.
Taking a glance at the archer before returning her focus to the boss, Vermouth speaks. "Depends on the boss' strength. It doesn't really matter though because I'm killing it now."
"What?" The archer uttered, confused by Vermouth's words.
"Bursting Lance! Bursting Lance! Bursting Lance!"
To Vermouth's call, three waves of lances flew, each consisting of five blue lances purely made of mana, flying past the other players in the party. The archer watched with astonishment as fifteen bursting lances exploded on the boss quickly ending its life, making it puff into a large cloud of red smoke.
"How the f**k? How f**cking high is her DEX?" The leader uttered in disbelief, her party members all resonating with her shock as they silently stared at the girl.
Vermouth calmly walked past them and quickly collected her loot.
"See? I told you it didn't matter." Vermouth spoke, looking at the shocked archer.
*****