Vlad continued to stare in disbelief at the new quest that he was given. Or in this case, the adjusted quest. Due to unknown reasons, something interfered with Vlad and his friend’s quest regarding the Monster nest extermination, making it so only Vlad and whoever else was inside being the only ones that could complete the quest. It got even worse when the quest stated that no other players outside the warehouse quest could join, which meant that Vlad and his friends were stuck in the warehouse until they destroyed the nest. On their own, at that.
Then there was the biggest problem from this adjusted Quest. He and his friends needed to complete this quest in only one hour. This made the side quest next to impossible due to the issues that the group had to deal with.
“Vlad…” Chloe spoke up. “Why did the quest change?”
“Hell if I know,” Vlad grumbled, still glaring at the panel. “Though I’m assuming it had something to do with those Faction bastards. Specifically the Pantheon and Angel Faction.”
Just before the adjustments for the quest were done, it seemed that the Yggdrasil System was trying to combat against the interference. However, when the “Administrator Authority” was presented, the system couldn’t do anything after that and simply allowed the quest to be adjusted. And the ones that displayed the Authority were the Pantheon and Angel factions.
Not only that, but this wasn’t the first time Vlad heard about the Faction. He still remembered how the Factions from the other realms somehow learned about his existence and were instantly wary of him.
“The Pantheon Faction…” Arthur muttered, his eyes seemingly trained on his own panel that displayed the newly adjusted side quest. “Pantheon’s involved gods. More specifically mythical gods like Greek and Norse deities. We actually heard about these pantheons earlier when we first got back to Earth.”
“Really?” Vlad raised an eyebrow, immediately curious regarding this.
“Yeah,” Arthur nodded. “When we were teleported back to Earth, there was a panel that stated, “The Other Realms are monitoring you and your progress.” Then it told us about certain Factions like the Pantheon and Angel Factions.”
“Along with the Dragon, Beast, and Demon Factions, right?”
“Pretty much. Do you have any ideas on what they could be? These factions?”
Vlad pondered for a moment, before remembering his trials and the two specific gods involved.
“My guess, at least for the Pantheon Faction, is that they’re actual gods. Mythological gods like Greek and Norse Mythology.”
Hearing this, Chloe scoffed. “That’s impossible…” Though her face faltered as she thought about it. “Right?”
Vlad shrugged his shoulders. “We’re currently going through an apocalypse where we’re players and we kill monsters from Fantasy stories like goblins and lizardmen. I’m pretty sure encountering Gods isn’t that far-fetched at this point. As for the Factions, I have a guess regarding why the Pantheon Faction is causing problems.”
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“What?” Arthur questioned.
The vampire hesitated, not sure if he should even tell them. “Those bastards might’ve done this because of me.”
Both Arthur and Chloe turned to look at Vlad, their expressions filled with confusion.
“What do you mean by that?” Chloe asked. “Why would the Gods try anything with you?”
“Because of what I am, I guess,” He sighed. “When I first got back to Earth, the Factions became aware of my existence and some were even wary of me. And I think it might have to do with a Legacy I was given.”
“A legacy?” Arthur muttered. “You mean how you turned into a Vampire?”
“Maybe, I’m not sure. According to my Species description, vampires are extremely dangerous and powerful creatures. So much so, that they were banished to some abandoned realm, though I don’t know what that was. Anyway, these Factions might have some history with the vampire species, so much so that they’re super cautious of me. Maybe even to the point where they might want me dead.”
“Seriously…?” Chloe gawked, unable to process the stream of information she was receiving.
Although Vlad wasn’t sure, the clues were certainly there. The Factions are wary of his existence, the quest interference, and his species history with the Factions. Especially the Pantheons and Angels. Not that he thought about it, most of his weaknesses came from either Factions.
He was weak to silver, the sun, and fire after being cursed by the two Gods, Artemis and Apollo. He knew about Artemis because she was known as the Hunting Goddess in the trial. As for Apollo, he mostly guessed about his involvement since he was cursed by The Sun God during his metamorphosis. As for Holy magic, he was cursed by the Angels. However, unlike Artemis, Apollo, and Hades, the angels felt a little out of left field. Why was he cursed by beings from The Bible when he was playing out a Fable from Greek Mythology?
Then again, both Norse and Greek Mythology seemed to be connected, what with the Gods and the Yggdrasil System. Still, there were clearly more to the Factions and even the System itself than he could fathom at the moment.
In fact, he had bigger things to deal with. And he was on the clock right now.
“Before we tackle the existence of Gods among other things, we should probably prioritize getting out of here first. We have an hour before we fail the quest, which won’t end well for us. So we need to come up with a plan.”
“How?” Chloe questioned. “Most of us are too injured to fight. And we don’t have enough time to recover enough to do that.”
“Chloe’s right,” Arthur stated. “We’re way too weak after getting ambushed by the goblins. Not only that, but we lost the rest of our crew when we first arrived, so our numbers were too low to do this.”
They were definitely right about them being severely wounded. Not only did Chloe and Arthur have a lot of injuries, but they were also extremely fatigued after miraculously surviving a horde of goblins before Vlad stepped in to save them. Plus, Lucy wasn’t in good shape either. With his vampiric senses, Vlad could hear how faint Lucy’s heartbeats were. That and her shallow breathing displayed just how bad her condition was.
While staring at Lucy, the vampire suddenly had an idea.
“Hang on. Lucy has the Cleric Class, right?” He asked Chloe and Arthur.
“Yeah…why?” Chloe inquired. “Wait, you’re not suggesting that she use her magic to heal us, right? Look at her! She’s in even worse shape than us after overexerting herself casting healing magic on us.”
Vlad pondered for a moment, trying to figure out a solution before a light bulb lit up inside his head, giving him an idea. “Then we need to heal her first.”
“And how are we supposed to do that?” Arthur questioned. “Lucy’s the only one that has healing spells that can help us.”
“…Not exactly,” A sudden smile appeared on Vlad’s face, revealing his fangs. “I think I might have just the thing to help us heal Lucy.”
Arthur and Chloe couldn’t help but look at their friend in complete confusion. The pair even took a glance at one another before turning back to Vlad, their minds racing at the question of what exactly he had planned.
Whatever it was…he was certainly excited about it. Too excited, honestly.