Feyre
She watched his cold corpse twitch slightly before sighing and walking past him. There were a few system notifications but she treated them like popup ads and ignored them. For the first time Feyre kind of felt bad for killing someone in this new world. She'd read enough manga and manhwa to know what the 'Betrayed Hero' cliché looked like. As she respectfully avoided stepping in his -now exposed- entrails littered across the floor from her [Devastating Slash], she peered into the darkness of the tunnel. This was the first time darkness had affected her so instantly she was on her guard again, magic had proven itself on multiple occasions and she knew from her time as a top 100 player that [Mage] builds were some of the strongest builds in Eurani. Obviously Feyre had played as a twisted version of it and made a [Spellsword] build more popular through her streams but the [Mage] build never quite left the Meta.
"You fought well Korot... I pray for [The System] to grant you a peaceful afterlife, if it exists..."
She laughed at herself. This was her problem with solo play. She often got far too into her characters when no one was around to stop her. She shook her head and gingerly walked into the darkness.
Whatever she was expecting it wasn't what she saw. The cavern she entered was vast. Impossibly so. The Darkness that had surrounded her dissipated and once more she could see. This cavern was full of life, foliage the ground creating some sort of faux forest. She saw many small animals that didn't look quite right... the rabbits looked too symmetrical, the bird song repeated every now and then, in the exact same pitch and frequency. This entire forest was just the embodiment of Uncanny Valley and, frankly, Feyre hated it.
"If this is an illusion I suggest dropping it before I start randomly swinging..."
She didn't expect a response but thought she might as well. So actually getting a response no matter how automated surprised her, if only briefly. Feyre paused in her steps as the voice rang out through the forest from seemingly all sides.
"Greetings intruder, it seems you have bested Korot. Well done. The next test in order to reach my treasury is an illusory forest. Not only is it filled with normal things to find but also 5 orbs. If you find all five orbs the illusion will shut itself down. Be warned, each orb is guarded by something as strong as Korot or stronger. Good luck..."
Feyre doubted that very much, Korot was a being who most would have been unlikely to match, but perhaps something stronger than him did truly exist. She suddenly had an idea and went back to Korot's body. She was not disappointed, finding 4 glowing coloured orbs.
"Ha! I knew it. Korot you were not just a good opponent but a useful one too. I shall bury you properly once I am out."
Feyre placed them in the bag she originally got the armour from and strolled back to the illusory forest and picked up a rock. She had decided long ago that [Strong-armed Throw]'s power was basically a bug. But what is a bug if not an unintended feature? Gently she threw the rock up and down as she walked further into the forest and listened out for a discrepancy between the sounds. Sometimes she wondered if she couldn't use something like [Strong-armed Throw] with her bow, not that she needed it since her bow was also overpowered to the point of nonsense. Not that
Eventually she heard it. A slightly ethereal snickering echoed around her. The surroundings got darker and Feyre felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. Her eyes narrowed and she slowed her breathing. The wrong feeling wasn't hers. It surrounded her like a miasma. She glared at where her instincts told her the laughter was coming from and wound her arm back with the rock nestled firmly. She whispered to herself mostly just for role play, why not keep up her act for any potential [Sages] or [Mages] keeping an eye on her?
"[Strong-armed Throw]..."
She launched the rock and it zipped off. The laughter stopped, Feyre looked at the remnants of what used to be a small green thing with linen clothing and a bone necklace. She assumed it was quite hard to laugh without a quarter of your torso and face. She slowly walked to its corpse and knelt down. If she didn't know any better and was any other fantasy game player she'd have said it was a [Goblin] perhaps a [Goblin Shaman]. Unfortunately for what was trying to trick her, she knew goblins in Eurani were not green, they were purple. Green things in Eurani were clones, often the weaker versions as well.
"Nice trick... So, what are you then? Reveal all that tries to hide, may the system provide me with the truth... [Universal Status]!"
She smiles to herself. Flavour text never hurt anyone, especially not in a fantasy world.
[System: Status Screen]
[User Preferred Name: Yannma Kickholler]
[User True Name: Yammna Holkicker (Clone)]
[User Level: 178]
[User Health Points: 0/8k]
[User Mana Points: ~734k/800k]
[System: Stats Screen]
[Strength: 17]
[Speed: 23 ]
[Intuition: 63]
[Charisma: 105]
[System: Abilities + Skills]
[Abilities]
[Survival Instincts: Lvl 5 (Max)]
[Superior Acting: Lvl 50]
[Mana Manipulation (Through Hand Gestures): Lvl 13]
[Hidden Strikes: Lvl 10 (Max)]
[Skills]
[Ultimate Stealth]
[Yammna's Multi-Clone of Magic]
[Grand Command.]
[System: Achievements]
[The One that Hides smartly: 500% better stealth if your enemy is stronger]
[Creator of Skills - 1: All skills get a 100% increase to efficacy]
[Founder of Self Sentience: All clones have 200% of your stats]
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
[Anti-Hero: 50% more damage to anyone with the Keyword Hero in their achievements]
Feyre froze. A charisma of 105 was simply stupid. If that stat was for any other stat she'd be having second thoughts about her plan. Unfortunately for Yammna and whatever other clones he has she wasn't in the mood to talk stuff out right now. Illusions were annoying and Feyre wanted out as soon as possible. If that meant slaughtering some extremely charismatic [Monstrum Parvum] and its [Clones] then that's what would happen.
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Yammna
Yammna was enjoying a snack of roasted [Illusory Rabbit] when his clone died. Instantly a sharp fear struck him. If Korot had learnt how to see through his stealth he was in serious trouble. He started making some frantic hand gestures and activated his [Mana Manipulation] in order to cast a wide range search for Korot. What he saw chilled his tiny body to the core. Korot's corpse was not something he expected to see today... or ever... and yet, and yet there it was. The urge to scream rose instantaneously and only his overwhelming desire to not be found by whatever killed Korot made him suppress it. Another clone's life ended. Yammna looked at the orb that this murderer was obviously after.
"Stupid [Great One]... He said I'd become unbeatable... Now I am going to die because he locked me away..."
Yammna looked at his remaining 8 clones and silently willed them to all go find the threat and slow it down as much as possible. They all disappeared and Yammna sighs. He gets to his feet and walks to his armour and staff. He had no illusions that he could win this but his oath to the traitorous [Great One] meant he had to at least try to fight with his all.
He had barely armoured himself when all 8 clones connections cut off at once. He had expected this but it was unfortunate nonetheless. He felt it had been such a wasted life. A [Monstrum Parvum] of his skill could have been the king but he had wanted more... And that had led him to be indebted to the [Great One] and then that led to him getting this orb that Korot and probably the new threat wanted.
Not long after he had finished suiting up he jumped to the side and where he was standing less than a second ago was gone. All that remained was a hole. Yammna's head snapped towards the source of the threat and saw a humanoid in full enchanted metal armour. He tried using [Inspect] but was rebuked. The very System itself couldn't see what was going on with this metal monster.
"My my... You are a fresh face... may I ask what reason you have decided to come here?"
He asked but he half expected the threat to be some mindless automaton. Wasn't he surprised when he heard a woman's voice from under all that metal. Soft spoken and frankly a fanatic if he had anything to go by, definitely Iftani.
"Greetings heretic. You're currently in my way and unfortunately this is [Inquisition] business. Go quietly and be absolved of sins for your troubles."
Yammna didn't think that was a bad deal. With either option ending in death he'd much prefer going to whatever heaven this supposed [Inquisitor] believed in. She was definitely Iftani yet when he had last heard of them they were barely keeping hold in their small village, barely two [Inquisitors] at any time. He now wanted to find out what it was like out there. So he asked, hoping for a response, this time he wasn't disappointed, garnering a zealous and probably hyperbolic one.
"The [Iftani Inquisition] and the governing body are as widespread as the air! We have converted everyone in the empire to [The System] and we shall convert many more! unfortunately you are not one of us... too bad... death is your only salvation you pitiful soul..."
Yammna sighed. This one was as crazy as the Iftani he knew, so it probably hadn't changed it's views on [Monsters] and [Heretics] considering his [Anti-Hero] achievement that automatically made him an enemy of all sentient beings not subservient to the [Great One]. He readied his hands and started making a multitude of gestures. Without hesitation the [Inquisitor] attacked. Not fast enough though. Yammna got a notification from the system saying that he'd inflicted some curses on the [Inquisitor]. Then he got a [System Notification] which made him want to weep.
[System: Achievement [Anti-Hero] activated.]
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Feyre
She was quite proud of her acting as a zealot. It was almost perfect, all she needed now was to find out the actual beliefs and phrases. She felt a slight pain in her chest as whatever the [Monstrum Parvum] known as Yammna finished. The pain was irritating and not all that agonising so Feyre just played it off, doing that slow intimidating walk that the villains sometimes do in media. She felt quite exhilarated, grinning under helmet at poor Yammna who frantically struggled to cast spells which either glanced off of her or she just tanked because they did almost no damage.
"Pitiful soul... you could have been at one with [The System] if you'd just surrendered..."
Feyre raised her blade and decided to have some fun while role-playing.
"May [The System] grant me strength... May it grant this pitiful [Monster] a better body in the next life... The one who cleanses all, The one which cures the world, [Devastating Slash]!"
As she spoke she watched Yammna freeze up, it looked so small and insignificant as she stood on the boulder looking down at it. The sword she held high above her head fell down and Yammna was no more than a red mist. Feyre sighed, she needed to learn whether real [Inquisitors] ever took their armour off. If they did then she could clean her armour but until then she would just deal with the mess that seems to stick to her whenever she ends up in a fight.
"I knew it... trying to say an orb holder would be stronger than Korot was just to scare someone who only won through a great sacrifice or something."
Feyre knelt next to where the chunks of Yammna's remains lay. She looked for the Orb she knew he'd have had, eventually finding it under a piece of metal that probably used to be his breastplate. She picked it up and took out the other orbs from the bag. They all lifted out of her hands and started flying in a circle above her head, getting progressively faster and faster until they were one continuous blur. Then they all shattered, and so did the world around Feyre.