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Chapter 2
Separation of (one sided) Lovers
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The Kingdom of Thrall, home of the Tekz Race. A place where inventions are at its peak not only in use, but also in its ingenuity. The Tekz Race of players are somewhat the shortest of all the Races in the game and yet they are second next to the Maven Race when it is the number of preferred race which to choose from in a start of a career.
The Tekz Race are a race given a plus in the DEX stat in the beginning of the game. Most of the players from the Tekz are archers which their S-ranked players then becomes the fabled Gunslingers and even the legendary Shanks-class of players —which Samara belonging to the famous ones.
Even then, being an archer doesn’t mean that there is no more advantage. If one, their main advantage over the Shanks are their rate of fire and the versatility of a cheaper playing style.
Shanks not only use high maintenance weapons, they also spend a lot of money just firing one bullet. So in order to be a real Shanks player, one had to be like the purple Witch, Samara, who had a steady income in and outside the game. That’s how she can spend money to buy her magazine and refill her cartridges.
In the Kingdom of Thrall, since their King is a Tekz himself, all Tekz users had a bonus of 5% luck in their stats. This bonus greatly helps when hunting for better materials and equipments.
Thus, the reason why there are 50% Tekz users in all of the roving players in the dungeons and monster fields, hunting for resources and materials.
The sight of them from 2km high in the wide green fields was making the just logged on Siva smile.
Somehow, this day felt a bit more relaxing than the way he had guessed it. He’s been missing from the ship for the past few hours, almost half a day now. Siva had researched the information about the Kingdom of Thrall and he was reading it while glancing now and then to the hunters in the fields.
After a few moments, a ship wide announcement with the voice of the bearded captain of the Miranda echoed from the speakers.
[Attention all crew. We’re docking in the Walled City of Maria in just a few minutes. For the next day you are allowed to have a 12hrs break but are still required to attend your duties. That is all.]
The announcement died with a static from the speakers and Siva felt confused. Just then, Rafaela entered the room and she smiled, as usual, to Siva while wearing her usual seductive attires.
“This is how far you can go with the Miranda.” She said and teased him again with a straight approach to his lap without a stop.
And as usual, Siva was still powerless to resist her skill of monstrously neutralizing his struggle to go free from her devilishly tempting clasps.
“I will miss you so dearly but I think I will have to stay with my ship until tomorrow.”
“Good.” Siva retorted and Rafaela frowned. “I mean, I am…er…going to m-miss the…”
He wasn’t able to finish his words as Rafaela’s D-cup chests had buried his face in its midst.
“Oh I am so happy! I thought you wouldn’t miss me.”
“I…I…can’t..breatheeeeeee…”
“Oops, ah, hehe, sorry.”
“Will you stop choking me?!”
Rafaela pouted adorably. “But I wasn’t choking you.”
“You just did…well, anyways, thank you for the ride and everything. And I hope we don’t see each other again.” The last part was a murmur but Rafaela had somehow heard as she asked,
“What?”
But Siva smiled at her and he put a real honest reply.
“Really, thank you.”
That single act had made Rafaela blush as she hid her face on her palms and did not realize that Siva had just stood and was already on the door.
“H-Hey!”
“I’ll be going now.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be able to bid you off since I have to remain in the bridge and talk to the City’s Mayor. Are you sure you don’t need help on those things?”
“Naa.” Siva shook his head. “I can handle it. It’s just two freights anyways. Thanks again as always.”
On the launching bay where two trucks were ready, after they docked in the hangar, Siva immediately step on the pedal and the legged cargo truck that carried two freight containers filled with monsters he had hunted a day ago on their way here roamed free.
The head truck with spider legs pulled the hovering containers on its back as if it was a snail. The second freight cargo was colored red the first was a bright blue in a sky-ish glow.
He was wearing a mask, as always, the red lined black Domino he always wore. The impression he had looked like an opera actor who hid his identity with the mask.
While he was on his way to the Trade Center, he saw some players following the same fashion he had. With only the distinction that he was a cloaked man with long black hair and separated dignified aura with all his cargos on the back.
He sighed when he realized that he was getting the rest of attention from those men.
Somehow, he noticed that only the strong looking users are wearing those masks and they were all in their own unique sets of armors.
They could have been arrested by the NPCs but they aren’t members of the Masked Organization who wore a distinctive full faced white mask. So in this city, they are free to roam looking that way.
He reached the trading center for trading monster game for items and money. It didn’t take long because of the automatic system management settings. So when all his business were done, he proceeded on to the hangar bay port and looked up for available flights towards the city of Loire, in the east central territory of Thrall Kingdom.
And as usual, even though it was just a single flight to his destination, the money to be spent in a flight is still too much for him and so he walked out of the office and went straight into the market area.
He bought supplies and the items he now can’t live without. In his new fighting style, those items are now the vital elements of his survival.
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He can’t afford to die once. No matter what happens, he can’t die. He had to be strong. Strong enough that even against another dragon, surely, he could win next time.
But just then, he knew, even if his gears are all imbued with dragon scales and bone dusts, it was still a far off reach towards the equipment he wanted to have. If one, it was still a long wish. Being an S-ranked hunter now was also one of his worries. He had to be careful not to trigger the Killing Zone in places infested by A-ranked monsters or higher.
Even B-ranked ones are still proving to be a challenge to him. And with his skills that calls endless hordes of monsters hungry for his head, he just can’t afford to do that suicidal mistake.
He had to control his emotions from going wild in the battlefield. Even what happened in the War of the Two Powers, he had lost his goal to deliver the message on the TGG forces and instead slaughtered both Titans and Sylphs without distinctions.
And now that he thinks about it…
Out of all the items he had then, he hasn’t touched any of them until now. And their weights are somewhat the reason why he felt heavy on his shoulders.
Even though there wasn’t anything there, he could still feel this sensation of his loot inventory in full capacity.
It was a heavy sensation.
He had to look for shops that will be able to maximize the use of these loots. He could have melted them but he was saving the act to the old man Janus’s shop since he was the only person he knew whose skilled enough to save at least 15% of the original loot item.
Actually, what he wanted to keep intact the most was the hammer weapon he got from Cramer. He just found out that it was a Legendary Weapon named Mjφlnir.
And just as these thoughts made him think of the old man, his eyes saw a building in the far off side of the Market Area.
Item Trading Post.
He curiously remembered the old man again and so he entered the place, not knowing anything about it.
In there, he was greeted by a girl dressed in a sexy black and white themed maid dress with bunny ears and exposed cleavage and short skirt. It was a dress solely made for men’s eyes. And the girl wearing that dress had this blushing face on her that added to the appeal.
Thankfully, he’s been used to some worse clothing in his time in Miranda and frankly, he wasn’t affected by her adorable shyness. Well, maybe a bit. Since he had developed a habit of looking at women’s chests before looking away.
He looked away and the girl saw this while he murmurs the things, must not look, over and over in his mind.
“Wh-What can I do for you sir?”
She tried to be as polite as she can but she was really minding the short skirt and exposed cleavage.
She wasn’t as voluptuous as Rafaela and wasn’t really that thin either. If he had to put it in words, she looked like a person she once knew from the hospital.
Amanda.
She looked like her in ways that she was this shy about her appearance. He wondered where she was now or what she’s doing but immediately shrugged off the idea as the girl was pouting while waiting for his reply.
“Excuse me,” He told her. “I have no idea what this establishment do. Would you brief me about it?”
The girl, upon hearing it, frowned openly.
She had seen this man wandering the market from here and there, going into stalls, lifting items and not buying them. He also looked like a weak player since unlike other users who used armors and magical robes, this man was wearing clothes with minimal defense and just focused on fashion and not actually protection.
If she had to put her thoughts into words, he was still a beginner stage player that was in the middle of going through the tough times of frugality.
And the fact the he wasn’t with any other person, it was enough to put her disappointed thoughts into her face.
“This place is for advanced users only sir.” She said in a nonchalant voice. “We take high grade equipment and dismantle them. If the equipment is an A-ranked one or higher loot, we offer them a service of disabling the lock system for a fee. But of course, that fee is high and just from the look of you sir, you…”
“How much is that?”
“Excuse me?” The girl was cut off on her explanation as the man in front of her asked.
“How much is that lifting of the lock system?”
“Depending on the grade sir. For A-ranked or higher we offer from Z5M to Z7M. But on items that’s higher than that, it’s a flat Z10M, no matter if it’s rare, special, or even legendary or unique ones.”
“So it’s Z10M for Legendary Equipments then?”
The girl’s brows twitched as she heard the words. The man clearly sounded that he doesn’t understand just how much money that really is. For ordinary players like her, earning that much means hunting with a party for a month straight without going for a rest or going back to the city for supplies. It means they had to eat their game, wild grass, and take their breaks in the plains. It was an idea solely made for men.
And to think he just spoke those words without actually thinking, she felt her pride being stabbed since she herself was an A-ranked hunter and she was here in this inappropriately dressed job to earn additional money to also lift the lock on a weapon she had looted in the War of the Two Powers.
She was a mercenary Mage from the TGG at that time. If not for the high salary that this job gave, she wouldn’t even be here. And with the man, with that now common fashion of black mask, asking that question, she was really in the edge of her patience and was really offended.
“Yes sir.” She answered sarcastically.
“Good. That’s a good deal. And what about that other thing you said before? About dismantling the items? Is it different from melting them?”
“Sir.” Her tone was high. “Just from the name alone, it was already different. Melting loot items to acquire the parts that could be used only has a mere 10% chance of succeeding. And you aren’t even sure if you’ll get the item you want. But in this shop, sir, just like what I said before, is only for the advanced users where they spend money to get all the parts of a weapon or the very weapon itself. And frankly speaking sir, even the lowest costing service we had is still a lot of money.”
“Money is not a problem if it means I’d get every useful part in all of the loots I have. So how much is it?”
“Fixed price sir. Z60,000 per item, no grade limits.”
“I see. I will take your service.”
The girl blinked numerous times due to her unable to comprehend the daring words she heard. Somehow, though he’s not minding her sarcasm, she still felt that there’s a layer of truth in his words. And as if a robot, for the first time since yesterday that she went to work in this shop, her hands shakily moved to the counter.
A panel popped up in Siva’s vision and he scanned it as he read the information. The panel was prompting him to specify the items he wanted to be dismantled and the items he wanted the lock system to be lifted.
So he put all of the equipment loot on the panel and the Mjφlnir on the separate side.
The total cost was Z180M and frankly speaking, he was shocked to the point that he was about to puke all the blood in his body.
His savings, including all of the money he had when he sold the Forest Dragon and the two S-ranked monsters, the Lapis Lazuli, with all the money from the monsters he had just sold, and all of the money he had from his past hunts, amounted to Z230M that he planned to use for improving Dragunov to the next level.
But since he had to buy the expensive items that he had to live with no matter what to be able to fight strongly, he had reduced that money into Z190M.
Now if he had to proceed, all of those hard work and all of those near death experiences with all the pain he had to endure, will be gone in just one click.
“Sir?” The girl called since she was still to receive the transactions. “Are you going to proceed?”
Hah! I knew it! This guy is poor! Seeing the price is a lesson to you for being arrogant!
But contrary to her expectations, and thankfully that he was wearing a mask, she did not see his faltering almost about to cry eyes as he pressed the button that confirms the transaction.
And the moment the confirmation entered her side of the counter. It was then her turn to be stunned.
She gulped several times seeing the amount of money the person had. Cold sweat ran down on her face and spine as she studied the items and was utterly surprised to see that it was all ranking from B and above.
But, of all the names listed there, there was one particular item that shocked her more.
“This…M-M-Mjφlnir! Legendary Equipment! How did you get this item? This is from an A-ranked mission in the walled city of Melaka. Only strong…no! Wait…you looted this item…Fr-from who?”
“In the War of the Two Powers.” Siva replied to her with an indifferent tone. “I fought this strong guy with a colorful armor and defeated him.”
“Cramer.” The girl interrupted as soon as she realized.
“I think that’s his name. You know him?”
The girl gulped and couldn’t answer as she stared at his face and nodded on his inquiry. Cramer was a famous user and no aspiring warrior mage wouldn’t know his name, especially now, that his defeat was widely known in the internet as the greatest fight ever.
After all, another thing that confirmed this is that Rare, Special, and Legendary weapons, or maybe, even the still unknown Unique equipment, can be inscribed with their owner’s name in them.
That said, there was no doubt about it.
Black mask with red lining design, long hair, a striking presence, an elegant way of dressing and posture, this man is the famous person who defeated Cramer and his name is already on her mouth.
“Th-Th-The…”
Just then, another customer entered the shop and that one also wore a black mask. As soon as he entered the place through the push-yourself-door, the bells at the top of the door rang that stopped the girl’s voice.
Soon after, a prompt on Siva’s vision, popped up that indicated that his inventory cannot hold all the items.
Thankfully, the external storage (accessed with a fee) is also available in the shop’s menu so his wallet is once again opened to keep his items with a fee of Z500 per day.
Siva left the girl and bid his thanks as the man behind him glared at him murmuring.
“That’s not how The Destroyer dressed. Pft! What a poor loser.” And when the man returned his gaze back to the girl in the counter…
He was met with a hand on his mouth. “Quiet or he’ll kill you! That’s him in the flesh!”
And the man could only utter, “Oops.” wide eyed and trembling as he watched the man leave the place not caring what might happen later on.