Vol3 Chapter 6 Out of the Frying Pan_Tales of Adventure

In a quiet internet cafe, sat an older gentlemen no one seemed to noticed. If they knew who he was, the people around him would likely have a heart attack. Kim Han Seo, the creator of Royal Road, and one of the wealthiest, most powerful individuals in the world, did not like recognition. He went through great lengths to ensure that his face was not photographed and when he bought anything, he used cash to avoid anyone having to see the name on his credit and debit cards.

Vvvvvrrrmmm*

He picked up his cell phone and clicked it to stop the vibrating. The caller ID read that the text came from A.I. The A.I., also known as the goddess of Royal Road was the most powerful computer in the world. If he wanted, he could ask it to hack into every bank system in the world and wire the funds of every account on the planet wherever he wanted.

The text read, “A-RANK QUEST TO BE COMPLETED SOON.”

A most interesting development. He requested the A.I. to send him details about landmark events to show him the overall progress of players in Royal Road. The amount of B rank quests completed within the whole game amounted to a little under a hundred so far. He had not expected anyone to even acquire an A rank, must less complete one until at least the three year anniversary of Royal Road’s release. For it to come over a year early was unexpected.

Kim Han Seo got out and opened up his laptop. It instantly connected to the A.I., though not through the cafe’s internet, but through satellite uplink.

KHS-Show me the details of the A rank quest.

Kim Han Seo alone had access to all data within Royal Road, it was like a giant SIMS game.

AI-

To Hell and Back

Rank A

Roth's sword is somewhere in the fortress of the arch-devil Estrothus, break in, find, and return it to Roth so he can use it to open a rift in space between the surface and the Abyss.

Reward

A way out of the abyss.

Additional unknown.

After reading the details for the quest, Seo’s interest turned to irritation. This quest existed not within Versailles, but the bowels of the Abyss, and there was only one User who it could have been given to. However, that user was in an area where the weakest monsters could kill the current strongest users on Versailles. He half expected the kid to die fifty times and reset his account. The A.I. would not have reported that he was about to succeed in the quest unless the kid already had Roth’s sword in his possession and was on his way to return it.

KHS-Estimated time of quest completion?

AI-...3 hours

That gave him some time to look into this at least. He put on some earbuds and plugged them into the computer.

KHS-Show video of Crane after receiving quest

A video showed up with a young teenager and a woman who appeared to be a dark elf walking out of a cave tunnel.

The woman started shouting. "What were you thinking?! It would be easier to go through one of the four towers than it would be to break into an Arch-devil's fortress!"

Crane said, "It's not like we have to fight the archdevil." He continued, "Besides, I've done this kind of thing before. All we have to do is get the arch-devil and his forces out of his fortress. Then it will be a walk in the park to go in and get the sword."

The woman answered, "And how exactly are we gonna do that?"

The boy gave a wicked grin, "We're going to find an arch-demon.”

Seo paused the video and began typing.

KHS- Did he actually do that?

A.I.- Yes. Two weeks later he went to the Red Ridge Dungeon and met with the Archdemon Grivicious.

Seo thought to himself there must be some kind of error. No one without a team of fifty level 800 or higher veteran players could get past the first floor of that dungeon, much less make it all the way to the boss’s room to meet with the archdemon himself.

KHS- How did he meet with him?

A.I.- He sent him a letter.

KHS- That worked?!

A.I.- The letter requested a meeting, a lower demon found it and passed it on to Grivicious

KHS- Fine, what’s done is done. But adjust some programming to make sure that kind of thing can never happen again.

A.I.- Yes.

KHS- Show me the letter.

After a moment an image popped up of the letter, but this was the greatest shock yet. The symbols was not in any known language, nor was it anything that could be translated. It was demon text. In game, demon text could be read by anyone. Simply seeing the words would implant the knowledge of the content into the reader’s head. However writing in demon text required a skill only high level demons and devils could learn and use. The user was traveling with a Fey’ri, but Seo knew for a fact she did not have the ability to write demon text, nor would she gain that ability for many years.

KHS- Who wrote this letter?

The kid must’ve gotten someone with the skill to write it somehow.

A.I.- The User Crane.

What?!

KHS- Does he have the Demon Script skill?

A.I.- No.

This was making less and less sense.

KHS- What message does the text impart?

Since he was not in Royal Road, simply seeing the text would not allow him to know what it says.

A.I.

This message is to be delivered to the master of Red Ridge Dungeon, the Archdemon Grivicious.

My name is Crane. I am a human mortal who wishes to offer you something. Should I come to you, the demons of Red Ridge Dungeon will attack me and there will be death. If you are interested in what I wish to give, please meet me at the entrance to Red Ridge Dungeon.

Your loyal Servant, Crane.

Seo looks over the letter, both the demon script image and the translation. Demon script is not something you can simply copy from one source to another, each idea and message has its own distinct symbol with its own magic. Until Royal Road 2.0 came out and someone unlocked the demon race, no user should be capable of writing in Demon script.

He set aside his doubts about possibility for now, there were other matters.

KHS- Show me a video of the meeting.

Another video came up. The archdemon, an imposing figure straight out of the darkest nightmare walked out of the dungeon entrance where the kid waited. The fey’ri woman was no where to be seen.

Grivicious said, in a voice that would chill the very soul, “What is it, human that can write the demon script, that you have to offer?”

The boy did not shudder in the demon’s presence, an impressive feat considering Seo had a hard time not shuddering from watching the video in an internet cafe.

He answer, “The upper world and underworld.”

Grivicious raised an eyebrow in surprise, Seo almost spit out his coffee.

The archdemon said, “You offer me what you do not have human.”

Crane nodded and said, “Give me an army, and I will strengthen and lead it to take control of the world.”

The demon smirked. “Quite the bold claim for one so young. And what backs up this claim?”

“I can empower soul weapons.”

At what happens next, not even the creator of Royal Road can suppress and frightened shudder. He knew of course that the rationality of the archdemons was a paper thin covering over endless fury, hatred, and madness.

The air around Grivicious turned black, like the air itself was screaming in pain. He looked at Crane with eyes darker than the deepest depths of the Abyss and said, “It is quite prideful for a human to make such a claim. No enchanter of the upper world can make stronger a soul weapon.”

Crane remained almost perfectly still, he seemed to understand completely what position he was in. Yet he continued, “I am not an enchanter, I am a Rune master.”

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The air around the archdemon simmered down a bit. “Rune master?”

“Runes are the base of all upper world magic. They are compatible with demon magic, and by combining the two, weapons the likes of which have never been seen or felt above or below will come into existence.”

The archdemon raised a hand, and motioned for another demon to approach. Seo recognized it as a demon knight, a level 800 high class demon. Without a word, the demon knight produced a dark spear. The archdemon said, “Show me.”

The boy nodded and began working. After an hour, he said he was complete. The demon knight said nothing, but the archdemon knew it had worked.

Seo paused the video and begun typing.

KHS- Show me the stats of that spear before and after that kid changed it.

A.I.-

Demon Spear of Shadow

Durability 1722/2100

Attack 390-450

A Soul weapon forged by a veteran Demon knight forged from the darkness of a million corrupted souls and the essence of the demon’s heart. The one who wields it will gains power over shadow and darkness

Equips:

Strength +30% in darkness

Can use skill Shadow Strike at Advance level 8

Restrictions

Chaotic Evil Alignment.

Must have permission of the creator of this weapon to wield it.Demon Spear of Shadow

Durability 1702/2100

Attack 460-560

Equips:

Strength +30% in darkness

Can use skill Shadow Strike at Advance level 8

Damage increased by 160% when attacking the opponent’s shadow.

Soul weapon absorbs a number of bound souls of damaged target based on damage dealt.

Restrictions

Chaotic Evil Alignment.

Must have permission of the creator of this weapon to wield it.

What the hell is this? Is this child trying to break the game?!

KHS- Why does his skill have such a great effect?

A.I.- Demon magic works on a separate system than upper world magic. Two systems working in conjuction have a multiplicative effect, not additive.

Seo shook his head. It was like taking two drugs that did the same thing but did them in a different way. The resulting effect is far stronger than simply double the effect of either drug. A hybrid of demon magic and upper magic was not possible as far as he knew, but it seemed that Rune magic was an exception to the rule.

KHS- Before the 2.0 release, nerf that. Reduce the power of the hybrid effect to additive only.

Nerf was a term used to describe the lowering of the effectiveness of an element in a game. After it went through, the boy’s Rune smith skill would affect demon weapons just like any other, without overpowering them. However, this would not affect what has already been made. If he went through on his word, he really could destroy both the upper and lower world of Royal Road.

KHS- What happened next?”

A.I.- Crane spent two weeks enhancing 913 demon soul weapons. The archdemon Grivicious used the enhanced army to overwhelm and destroy the base of the archdevil Gartanos. After the execution of all the devils, the remaining demons joined Grivicious’s army.

Seo shook his head. The archdevil’s and archdemons had a very delicate balance going on, and this kid walks in and blows it all to hell.

A.I.- Crane requested to take part in the next battle. The next target was Estrothus. By this time, Estrothus and Nex had formed an alliance. The battle took place over the course of sixty hours. During which time, Crane broke into Estrothus’s empty castle and retrieved Roth’s sword. After which, he used Rune Smith’s second ability, to destroy the runes he had imbued. The soul weapons dispersed for a moment before reforming to their original state, though they each lost over 25% of their durability.

Seo let out a small sigh of relief, at least the kid wasn’t completely crazy.

KHS- And then?

A.I.- Estrothus and Grivicious were both slain. The demon armies dispersed and joined other archdemons. According to my calculations, due to the loss of two of the four archdevils, the devils will lose all power in the Abyss within a month, and the remaining Archdemons will gain control.

Seo let out another sigh. Thousands of terabytes of data having to do with devils was not useless. New programs would have to be generated and old re-written. The kid had cost the programmers at least a month of work.

KHS- How long until he gets the sword back now?”

A.I.- 30 minutes

Seo was a bit surprised. The battles of the demon armies was so engaging he hadn’t even noticed watching just the highlights still took over two hours. He did however have an idea. Since this kid messed with his game, he had every right to retaliate. Just a bit anyways.

KHS- Open the command prompt

Time to make some real time adjustments to Royal Road.

-------------------------------------

Crane flew at his fastest speed. A large group of Grivicious’s remaining forces knew well of Crane’s betrayal, and pursued him without end. But he would still make it to the White Halls before they caught up to him.

Onyx lead the way with the wind spirit Veres providing extra support and flight speed to them both. Were it not for the assistance of the wind spirit, the demon pursuers would have caught up days ago.

The white halls were just as Crane remembered them. Luckily the archons were not the type of mob that regenerated so they made it to Roth’s cave without trouble.

Roth seemed more than surprised when Crane entered. Immediately Crane removed Roth’s sword from his inventory and said, “We need to leave, now.”

Roth didn’t move for a second, then he turned to Onyx and said, “She is going to? But she is half damned.”

“She is leaving with me.” Crane replied. Onyx nodded.

Roth shook his head. “Sending you on your own is one thing, I can send you anywhere in the upper world, but sending you and a half damned is different. There are only a few spots that can received such a teleportation, and I cannot control which you will turn up in.”

Crane was almost speechless. Almost. “WHAT?!” This was almost exactly like last time, but just like last time, he didn’t have a choice. “Fine, but we will be on the surface right? Not the bottom of some deep dark dungeon?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“Alright, fine.”

“Please give me the sword.”

Crane handed him the sword.

Quest Complete: To Hell and Back

Through all odds you have retrieved Roth’s sword, and with it he can send you safely back to the upper world.

Fame has increased by 2,350

You have leveled up!

.....

Crane gained twenty three levels and a lot of fame. Unfortunately that merely balanced out the infamy he had gained from allying with an Archdemon and strengthening Demon soul weapons.

Roth held the sword tightly and it began to glow. After a moment he said, “Are you ready?”

Onyx and Crane answered simultaneously, “Yes.”

Roth nodded and activated his sword’s ability. A moment later, the two were engulfed in light, and Roth was on his own. As an NPC, he would remain there to give quests to other Users who wandered into the Abyss. Not that he minded, he was programed that way.

------------------------

Kim Han Seo smiled at the confirmation message he received. The kid wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

Vol3 Chapter 6 Out of the Frying Pan

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