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The Divine Path
Chapter 5: New Allies, New Enemies

Chapter 5: New Allies, New Enemies

[A Farmers Worry]

-A farmer has recently noticed an increase in the amount of wolves around his farm. He is worried the wolves may become a problem and has tasked you with finding their leader at the top of Silver Wolf Hill. Slay the leader and bring back it’s fur as proof.

Sora went back towards Silver Wolf Hill while thinking of different strategies for fighting the wolf. In his previous life he didn’t know about the wolf and ended up missing his opportunity in fighting it. Since it was a quest boss there was only one that would spawn after the quest was accepted, meaning only one party could slay it. Once Sora came back to Silver Wolf Hill he noticed a group of people near the base of the hill. He snuck in as close as he could to listen in on what was happening.

…..

Blossom was standing within a circle of people with LeeLee close by. She kept looking back and forth to make sure nobody was going to launch an attack without her being prepared. She could see a troubled expression on LeeLee’s face as the group surrounding her started closing in.

“Hey hey hey, aren’t you cute when you're cornered. What happened to your feisty tongue?”

“Shut it! You scum have been following us since we left town haven’t you?”

“I have no idea what you're talking about little girl, I was simply strolling through here when one of my men told me that you looked familiar. Turns out you actually tried to scam him of his money?”

The man had blonde hair, green eyes, and a face that permeated an aura of ‘I’m too good for you’. It was the same man who had tried to start trouble for Sora while he was selling his fish. He was level 10 and he was accompanied by two level 9s and four level 8s. Although Blossom and LeeLee were both level 10, they were greatly outnumbered.

“Bullshit! That man was trying to pressure me into selling him all of my Black Wolf Hide for just one copper a piece. Your group is nothing more than petty con men!”

“Enough! You think you have the right to talk to me, Julius that way? Watch as I kill you and your friend there, and don’t you ever think about showing yourself in front of me again you ugly bitch! Men, GO!”

As soon as the order was given the 6 other people started to move. Blossom and LeeLee readied their weapons, preparing to try and take out a couple with them before they died. Suddenly a shadow bolted from the trees of the forest, standing behind Blossom and LeeLee with a weapon drawn. Blossom couldn’t react in time and thought that she was dead for sure, when suddenly one of Julius’ men stopped in place and lost a large chunk of health. After that man was stunned the shadow drew an arc with his offhand and caught another man's blade, throwing him to the side while dodging the attack of the last man.

“Mister fisherman?”

Blossom was in a daze as two attacks from the men in front landed on her, she quickly snapped back into focus and rammed her shoulder against one of the attackers, launching them backwards 3 meters. Sora’s eyes squinted for a moment as he recognized the skill as [Shoulder Bash], it was a basic skill that a 2-handed weapon user could learn to stagger their opponents. Blossom kept her momentum up as she pulled her shoulder up, swinging her greatsword into the other attacker.

Julius was infuriated when he saw who had helped the two girls, it was the same man who had humiliated him in front of so many other people in the town. A smirk appeared on his lips as he thought of how he would be able to kill this man right now to vent his anger.

“Playing the white knight will only quicken your death, idiot. Well I guess I should thank you for offering up your life so easily to me, it really saved me a lot of time.”

Julius started to laugh like he was watching the funniest thing he has ever seen. Sure he was level 11 but not even being level 15 could save him with the amount of people he had on his side. Or so he thought.

Sora quickly started attacking and parrying while Blossom and LeeLee also tried to hold against three attackers. Blossom felt bitter inside, she was thinking that Sora should have just stayed out of it, there was no reason why he should have to die with them. She kept fighting with all she had, killing one of her attackers but also falling very low on health, if not for the Constitution buff she had from eating a Roasted Flat River Fish then she would already be dead. LeeLee was tangled with one attacker and used her high agility to dodge desperately while looking for an opening to help Blossom. LeeLee was finally able to kill her attacker and was about to run toward Blossom to help her, when she looked over towards Blossom she could see a sword quickly heading towards her and her health nearly at the bottom. Just as LeeLee’s heart dropped a small dagger intercepted the blade and stopped Blossom from dying. Blossom had shut her eyes when the final attack was on it’s way and expected to see a message saying “You died please wait 24 hours to revive.” but instead she watched as a quick blade strike ended the life of her attacker and the body disappeared in a flash of white light.

Julius was beyond shocked, he didn’t want to attack to avoid getting the PKer debuff, that’s why he sent his lackeys to do the dirty work. Now all of his men have died, four of which died to just one man alone. He was lost for words and started stuttering while backing up.

“Y-you...how did y-”

“Oh hey, long time no see. Ah it’s actually quite a shame, if you had bought my Roasted Flat River Fish then you might have been able to give them to your men and take a couple of us down. Hmmm a shame indeed.”

Julius was livid after hearing that remark, mainly because it was true. If he had given any of his men an extra 100 HP they could have surely gotten a couple more attacks in and at least killed Blossom and LeeLee. Then they could have distracted Sora while he ran away. His face contorted and turned red. Sora smiled lightly before walking forward slowly. Julius started to slowly back up as he got closer.

“Oh, I know how about I give you another chance, I’ll sell you some Fish, of course the price will have to be inflated, I only have a few left...Hmmm how about 10 Silver per fish?”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”

“Now now, that’s not how you should talk to the person you are buying goods from. A proper way to bargain is to remain calm and collected, talk back and forth, and then when they have let their guard down-”

Julius was suddenly attacked from behind.

-160

It was an instant kill. On top of his corpse was a Level 10 -Vicious Black Wolf- glowing with a red aura. After Julius died the wolf focused on Sora. Sora fought the wolf like any other wolf, although it had an insane amount of damage it couldn’t even touch Sora. He danced around the wolf and finished the fight within 30 seconds.

[X1 Silver Coin obtained]

[X57 Copper Coin obtained]

[X1 Vicious Essence obtained]

-Used to enchant armors and weapons, increasing damage and buffing strength.

Sora collected his loot and turned toward Blossom and LeeLee. They both were pretty beaten up so Sora diligently defended them while they retreated to an open area in the forest. Once there they all sat down and started to rest to recover HP and Mana. Blossom kept opening her mouth wanting to say something but couldn’t quite find the words. Not only did Sora completely save both her and LeeLee, he was also already level 11 and had a superior fighting prowess. How did someone who she thought was just a simple fisherman become so amazing?

“Mister F-... Ethereal, I can’t even find the words to express my gratitude.”

“Hmmm? That little bit I did hardly deserves a thank you.”

“You saved both of us though…”

Sora walked over to blossom and held his hand out in a cupped form. Blossom didn’t quite understand what was going on, she started rummaging through her coins and inventory trying to find something to pay Sora with. Sora smiled gently.

“1,000,000 gold coins should be enough to cover it.”

“One...MILLION?! I couldn’t make that much money in my life!”

“Hehehe, alright since you don’t have enough money we will just say it was a favor this time.”

“But-”

“And it actually is possible to make 1,000,000 gold, in fact you could make a lot more.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“How?”

“Just leave that to me.”

Sora sent Blossom a friend request which she quickly accepted. After all Sora has done for her she felt greatly indebted to him, she was determined to be useful to him in the future. Sora suddenly turned toward LeeLee.

“What about you? Do you have 1,000,000 gold coins?”

LeeLee opened up her inventory with a serious expression and started counting her fingers, trying her best to find 1,000,000 gold coins worth of items. Sora couldn’t handle watching such an innocent girl try so hard to actually do something so impossible and immediately stopped her from counting any further. He sent her a friend request and began to chat with the two girls while they recovered.

…..

After a 30 minute rest all of the party was healed up and ready to go. They all shared a meal together, each one eating a Roasted Fish that Sora made, and began to pack up.

“Thank you, Ethereal. You really have been too kind to us and I will definitely repay you one day.”

“How about you take your first step to repaying me today?”

“Hmm? I don’t have much money right now…”

“It’s more like repaying me through work. I have a difficult quest I’m doing and I-”

“A QUEST?!”

“...Yes a quest. If it-”

“I wanna help! No wait- PLEASE let me help!”

Her excitement was understandable, the first quests usually only appear when you want to pick an order to swear allegiance to. If you swear allegiance to a warrior order, you do a warrior themed quest and get the warrior class as a reward. A healer would have to do a healer themed quest, a hunter would do a hunter themed quest, ect. If there is already a quest before anyone has even left the beginner village then it is surely a hidden quest. Blossom’s eyes were practically sparkling, even LeeLee came hopping out from behind Blossom and had a rare shine of confidence in her eyes. Sora added them to the party and shared the quest information. Each hidden quest can only be accepted by one person but it can be shared to a party unless specified otherwise. Each party can hold 5 people so each hidden quest can only have 5 people complete it, this was basically the rarest thing in game right now. If Sora were to sell the hidden quest then he could surely make a lot of money from people wanting to be part of it.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! Ahhhhh you're the best mister fisher- Ethereal!”

“Just call me mister fisherman…”

LeeLee came up to Sora and tugged on his sleeve.

“Th-thank you mister fisherman.”

“Mhmm.”

Then LeeLee ran back behind Blossom with a red face. Blossom was surprised when her companion who doesn’t talk to anyone except her did something out of her comfort zone. She had a huge smile on her face as the party went back towards Silver Wolf Hill. As the party started fighting their way up the hill, Blossom asked many questions about what Sora has done since he started playing the game. She was very surprised with how calculative he was with everything he did. Sora played it all off as having a similar experience when playing some other game. Blossom and LeeLee were slightly confused but didn’t pry any further about where he gets his ideas from.

“Mr fisherman, I forgot to ask but what was that weird wolf that killed Julius? It was glowing or something.”

“It was an enchanted wolf, specifically it was a vicious enchanted wolf that buffed it’s attack damage, that’s why it killed Julius in one hit. I fought another enchanted wolf that had the Hardened enchantment which gave it extra defense and when it died I ended up getting this quest.”

“Hehe~ I’m starting to like these enchanted wolfies.”

The team kept fighting their way up the hill until they were almost at the top. All three of them leveled up and decided to clear out some of the wolves near the top, this way they could move around more freely while fighting the boss. After 1 hour of killing they were finally ready to fight the boss.

…..

As soon as they reached the top of the hill the daylight turned into night and a moon was seen rotating randomly across the sky. The moon left a large silver spot on the hill that would sizzle as it swept along the ground. Sora frowned slightly as he surveyed the area. There wasn’t many places to take cover at and the light from the moon was obviously a damaging zone. They basically had to kite the boss around while also making sure not to step in the silver moonlight. Blossom and LeeLee gulped slightly as they looked at the intense atmosphere and the nametag above the majestic silver wolf.

Level 15 [Luna, the Silver Wolf] - Rare

Sora gently nudged Blossom to wake her from her daze, they needed to be fully focused or else the entire party could wipe and have to wait 24 hours to come back online.

“So the basics of this fight are going to be me kiting the boss while you two deal damage. I’m going to go in a complete circle around the hill and once I kite him back to this area we are at I want Blossom to take the aggro away from me while I recuperate. I can probably only take about two attacks so make sure you can take the aggro away from me. If the boss makes any large movements while I have aggro it will be up to Blossom to use a [Shoulder Bash] to try and disrupt his attack. If Blossom has aggro the I will use [Concuss] to stop the attack.LeeLee you just keep doing damage and make sure not to pull too much aggro, if you pull too much aggro just run until one of us can pull it back. Make sure you both stay out of the silver moonlight. Well, ready?”

“”Y-Yes!””

Blossom and LeeLee both seem extremely nervous, they haven’t even gotten close to the boss and they are already sweating. Sora started walking towards the boss as Blossom and LeeLee tried to find the courage to move their legs. Sora stopped and turned around.

“Let’s just do our best, ok?”

Blossom and LeeLee let out a deep breathe before finally stabilizing their emotions. They felt that they at least owe Sora this much, they feel that they have to be useful, even if it just means taking a few hits for him while he runs away. They have to try.

Sora ran up to the boss and attacked, the boss had a fairly long activation animation and everyone was able to get in three hits before his animation was finished. The boss turned towards Sora and started to attack. Sora was constantly moving backwards along the edge of the hill while continuing to attack, he focused mainly on parrying so that he could avoid taking unnecessary damage. So far everything was going smoothly. It had only been half a rotation and the boss had 20% of his health shaved off, once the boss hit 75% health it put it’s body into a pouncing position. As soon as Blossom saw it was about to pounce on top of Sora she used [Shoulder Bash] and pushed the wolf back a meter and a half, effectively disrupting the jump attack. Once Sora completed a full rotation the boss had 63% health left. Blossom started attacking while Sora focused on just defending until the aggro was pulled onto Blossom. Sora didn’t take a hit and didn’t need time to recuperate his health, he started attacking the boss as soon as the aggro was firmly held by Blossom.

Just as Blossom past a quarter of her rotation the boss fell to 50% health and started to do the same pouncing attack it did earlier. Sora used [Concuss] and stopped it from activating. With the ability stopped everything was progressing as it should, but then the silver moonlight started to come closer to Blossom, as Blossom was kiting backwards she noticed the light and started to have a worried expression on her face. Sora scanned the area as he kept attacking.

“Blossom, pull the boss further down the hill. We are going to aggro a couple wolves but it’s better than testing the damage on that moonlight. LeeLee when the wolves get pulled stop attacking the boss and kill off whatever wolves we pull aggro from, it will be a good opportunity to reduce your aggro on the boss anyways.

Blossom strafed down the hill a little more and ended up pulling two more wolves into the fight, Sora used [Slash] and [Concuss] on one of them before returning to the boss. LeeLee easily killed off the two wolves and returned to the boss, her aggro was basically reset so she was able to fully unleash her damage for a while. While Blossom was strafing back towards her original path she ended up taking a hit from the boss.

-92

She flinched slightly but continued on with the plan, right before her cycle was completed the boss hit 25% health and used the pounce attack again. Sora used [Concuss] but this time it was met with a message saying “Immune” before the wolf pounced on top of Blossom.

-170

Blossom was barely left with any health and Sora put out as much damage as he could to regain aggro, once aggro was under control blossom took a moment to recuperate by drinking a health pot and then went back to attacking the boss. One more trip around the hill and the boss finally let out long sorrowful howl as it fell to the ground.

[Level up]

-Server Announcement-

Player Ethereal has successfully killed the first Rare boss. +1 Gold, +100 Fame, +Skill has been awarded.

Player Sister Blossom has successfully killed the first Rare boss. +1 Gold, +100 Fame, +Skill has been awarded.

Player LeeLee has successfully killed the first Rare boss. +1 Gold, +100 Fame, +Skill has been awarded.

Blossom was so excited that she ran up to Sora and immediately hugged him without any warning. Even LeeLee got too excited and ended up clinging onto Sora for a group hug. Sora smiled as he immediately cleared his throat, waking Blossom and LeeLee from their excitement. Both the girls immediately removed themselves and faced the opposite direction with red faces. Sora checked the skill he obtained.

[Purge with Silver obtained]

Cost: 50 mana

Duration: 30 seconds

Cooldown: 2 minutes

-Infuse your weapon with silver moonlight, dealing increased damage to undead. At the end of the ability the moonlight will disperse into the nearest 3 enemies dealing 100% Damage or 200% Damage if target is undead.

It was a good skill, the cooldown was a little long and the mana cost was high but in “The Divine Path” there are many enemies who are considered undead, on top of that the end of the ability has a multi target attack. Any attack that hits multiple enemies are extremely rare at this stage in the game. Sora watched the faces of the two girls as they read their skills and they were smiling from ear to ear the entire time they were reading it. Sora walked over to the corpse of the boss and touched the corpse.

[x1 Silver Fanged Dagger obtained]

Rarity - Rare

Durability - 70/70

Damage - 45-55

Requires - Dagger based class - Level 15

“A dagger fashioned from the sharpest fang of Luna, The Silver Wolf. The blade is especially effective against undead and is extremely good at hitting vital points.”

+15 Dexterity

+10 Agility

+150% Damage Against Undead

Sora gave the dagger to LeeLee without any hesitation, as she held it in her hand she pulled it close into her embrace and almost seemed like she was about to cry.

“How could I take something like this from you? It’s too much…”

“You need to be strong for the next time we fight together.”

Sora gave LeeLee a reassuring nod before returning to looting the boss.

[x1 Silver Clawed Gloves obtained]

Rarity - Rare

Durability - 80/80

Defense - 13

Requires - Heavy Armor Class - Level 15

“Gloves made from the fur of Luna, The Silver Wolf. Claws have been attached on top of the gloves giving the gloves more durability and more defense.”

+15 Strength

+10 Constitution

+5 Defense

Sora once again gave the gloves away without any hesitation. Blossom happily accepted them before jumping up and down in excitement.

[Lucky Coin obtained]

-Use to permanently add 1 point of luck.

Sora finally took something for himself, and he was a lot more satisfied with this item than he would be with any equipment. He used the coin and added 1 point of luck into his attributes.

Ethereal

Level - 13

Damage - 47-50

Defense - 26

Mana - 100

HP - 200/200

Strength - 75(+5)

Agility - 10(+5)

Constitution - 10

Dexterity - 10

Endurance - 10

Intelligence - 10

Wisdom - 10

Spirit - 10

Luck - 1

Fame - 100

Faith - 0

The rest of the loot was just regular black wolf hides, the fur for the quest, and some silver coins, he divided them amongst everyone. Blossom and LeeLee refused to accept them at first but Sora decided to compromise by giving them the hides and keeping the silver using the excuse of not needing the hides. Now that the boss fight was over the party headed back down the hill, ready to turn in their quest.