News articles about unknown group of players that Managed to clear such a strong dungeon started showing up on the net.
When Alexander woke up and finished his morning exercises, he saw these news articles and his chest swelled up in pride. Feeling a bit arrogant and also grinning mischieviously, he called Frederic and asked if he had seen the news article on the royal road official website.
“No, damn it! You woke me up just now.”
“Hmm. I don't feel sorry. That’s weird. Anyway hurry and look at them.”
“Leave me alone. I just want to go back to sleep.”
“Ok then never mind! Where are you guys currently?”
“ We met up with Benjamin and Liz and today at three we wanted to start our dungeon hunt. We’ll slowly move towards where Daniel is, since he seemes to be doing just fine on his own. It seems as if he has found a hermit in some mountain that has the same class as him and he seems to train Daniel to become even more lazy, if what Jonathan says is true.”
“Which dungeon are you guys going to?”
“It’s called ‘The abandoned mines of kaballon’. It's infested with demonic spawn at around lvl. 80 with the annoying ability to teleport and to pop up out of walls, ground or the ceiling. We found a water Mage to join us since the demonic spawns are mostly made up of fire element. She's a real looker as well. “
“Yeah alright. Go to sleep again!”
“Cya. Wait a moment now I’m wide awake, you s…”
He hung up with a huge grin plastered on his face and he contacted his sister next . When she finally picked up the phone after many rings:
“Who’zz it?”
“Hey sis. How are you doing?”
“Damn you, I should have known. Do u have any idea what time it is!!”
“It's already 6 am. So rise and shine!”
“I really hate you, you know that, right?”
“I love you, too.”
“So what is it that you wanted from me, l'il bro ?”
“Where are you currently in Royal Road?”
“Still Somewhere near Haven kingdom, I think. You know that I have your lousy sense of direction. But why?”
“I'm quite near to Haven kingdom right now and there is a dungeon I would like you and your boyfriend Raymond, I think was his name, to join me since it might be fun to see you get your a** kicked and show off my awesome skills.”
“Why you midget. Where is it? We will be there and ill show you how strong I have gotten. You can't even be lvl. 50 yet since it wasn't that long ago since you left the city and you are always travelling solo in games.”
“Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that. What's your level by the way?”
“I'm already lvl. 76, since I received help from Ray and his friends in the guild. What about you?”
“Not telling. See you later. PM me in game!”
“Hey you ....”
He had quickly hung up to not hear the angry tirade of curses from his sister and since he loved the angry reactions he got from hanging up in the middle of other people talking.
Logging in after freshening up and eating, he found himself sitting in the cave he and Shea had fled to when it started raining. He saw that it was already light outside and Shea had left the cave, probably to stretch a bit and walk in the fresh morning air or wash herself at the small lake a couple of minutes on foot away from the cave.
Stretching he stood up and started doing basic exercises, since the body in game has to keep in shape and stay fit just like his Real Life body, otherwise controlling it fluently might not work.
He was striking the wall repeatedly without stopping even though his knuckles on his fists were bleeding profusely The pain was much more bearable than in real life, due to his stats and also due to the game sensors reducing pain by quite a bit as well. When he had accidently hit a wall in anger once before it had raised his perseverance stat due to him hitting a sharp rock unwillingly. Since then he had stuck doing repeat practices of the same action. It also improved his first aid skill because he had to bandage his knuckles and also shins after doing kicking exercises against trees.
He had generated the skill ‘Rixa Mastery’ as well. It seemed to be an advanced form of the skill: ‘bare-handed mastery’, since it included kicking attacks as well.
He neither cared nor felt it and was so engrossed in his task that he didn't even notice the distinct sound of a sword leaving its scabbard being made behind him. Suddenly however he felt a great killing intent aimed at him and managed to swiftly jump to the side but his arm was nicked in the process and was now bleeding. Luckily it was a shallow cut and didn't take away much of his HP and didn’t cut through any tendons.
Looking at who or what had attacked him, Alexander saw a man who was wearing a very thin looking but flexible metal armor. His face was also covered by a helmet that only had a slit for the eyes and small vertical slits for air at the mouth. He had a thin rapier in one hand and a dagger in the other. Alexander didn’t know who this person was, but him attacking Alexander without any warning from behind meant he was an enemy. Lowering his stance, Alexander readied himself to react to the opponents attack, since he currently didn’t have a weapon at hand and summoning the soul weapon day-forms would cause an opening.
When the enemy lunged, Alexander swiftly moved to the side and while the rapier was still in its movement moved forward, while twisting around the blade and thus he closed up on the opponent. Grabbing the arm holding the rapier with a quick grip, he let himself drop to avoid the counter slash the other man instinctively did with his dagger, breaking the elbow joint of the man in the process.
A few moments later, Alexander had subdued the other guy and was currently holding the dagger of this man at his neck.
"So what do u want from me? Why did you attack me?"
"I'm a pursuer of justice and have come to take your head for all the crimes you have committed."
"Oh a real role playing fanatic from the way you act. So that means you are a bounty hunter! Will you leave on your own or do I have to persuade you?"
"I won't leave until you are dead. "
"That's a real pity, since I don't really have anything against you and never killed anyone without reason before. Now let me try sth. on you!"
Saying that he concentrated and looked at the guy lying below him and suddenly his hand shot forward into the chest of the man and pulled out his soul.
----- Pov of Kronos -----
I have finally found the trail of the man who had killed hundreds of players in rosenheim. Killing him will gain me 20000 gold coins, making me the richest player in the game and a huge amount of fame due to the high bounty placed on that guys head, due to a guild having formed to specifically hunt and kill him and others like him.
The main reason he was following this guy however was because it was a quest the guard captain had bestowed upon him to see if he, Kronos, was really ready to give his life in pursuit of justice. And hunting and punishing this man, who at the moment was the worst criminal of all freedmen according to the captain, even though he hadn’t killed many natives, only those guards sent to hunt him.
The was currently resting inside a cavern leisurely and unaware of his presence. He had been following him for quite some time and had already confirmed that it was the right person with a spell scroll he was given by the guild that he had contacted after receiving the request and researching about the man. Sneaking up on him he wanted to kill him while staying unnoticed due to still being cautious and nervous in facing someone this obviously strong especially since it had been quite some time since the massacre in rosenheim and this guy was sure to have leveled up in the meantime.
He had been lucky that he had found this guys trail, which was wholly attributed to him finding the golden horn of the fairy of the lake as a random monster drop, which led to being granted a wish from the fairy.
Swinging at the guy with all the force he could muster he was instead met with no resistance and looked up in shock to see the man standing upright and unharmed a bit to the left of where he crouched before. He seemed to have been hit though, since his right arm was bleeding from a shallow slice.
He had to attack him now before this guy could equip his weapon, whatever it may be. Though he had been following him for a few days, this guy almost always fought with his bare hands easily defeating his opponents, but it also seemed that when he woke up in the morning to follow this man and his horse further, since they only moved during the day, he saw slashes all around the forest on the trees and also huge places on the ground covered in blood.
Stolen novel; please report.
Seeing these he was really spooked, since they were currently in a Lvl. 80 area, but these marks indicated dozens upon dozens of killed enemies, killed by some sort of blade and the only group in the area was this guy with his horse that at times seemed to be an unicorn, which must have been a trick of the light, due to the fact that unicorns are extremely good and pure creatures and generally believed to be untameable. The slashes and dead creatures indicated that this person used a bladed weapon and was extremely proficient in it.
So he attacked with a simple, but extremely fast stab towards this guy with his custom-made weapon, mixing a sword and a rapier, while holding onto a dagger with his left hand.
The next moment however he was lying on the ground with his own dagger on his throat. His arm felt as if it was broken and he didn't even see what had happened, which just showed how dangerous and fast this opponent was.
After a bit of talking the guy suddenly grabbed into Kronos’s chest and pulled something almost invisible out, which was immeadiately followed by pain!!
"Aaaaaargh. Aaaaa. Aargh "
He didn't know how long he felt that horrible pain, but he sure as hell knew that he never wanted to feel something like that ever again. After what felt like forever, finally blissful blackness surrounded him.
You have died!
Breathing heavily he stumbled out of the capsule and almost collapsed on the floor.
~That was just way too scary and painful.~
He thought while hugging his legs to his chest shivering even though it wasn't remotely cold.
~That guy was way too dangerous!~
----- Someone’s POV -----
Gained new 'Soul Reaper Set' skill: Grasp of the Reaper
Grasp of the Reaper Lvl.1: 0%
Pull out the soul of a living being causing unimaginable pain and damage but leaving yourself vulnerable at the same time.
Effect: extreme pain that disables the target from retaliating. 120% damage dealt/sec.
On own self: (-95% defense stat, toughness and -50% Str., AGI) for 10 sec.
--The skill ‘Soul Eater’ can be used after using this skill. --
He had been extremely curious in the past, since no matter what he tried he never could use the skill Soul Eater, since he never got a hold off an actual soul, but rather it was always his Soul-weapon that sucked it inside. He was still holding onto the soul and didn't know what to do with it now.
How exactly did he use the skill: Soul Eater. He didn’t really want to bite into this wriggly, squishy and slimy glowing ball in his hand. He asked Shea who had come running back as soon as she had heard the screams.
"That soul is pure so eating it might improve stats and I think that is the only way to use the skill. The stat increase would be higher if your own soul was pure as well though. "
"Hmm. Ok then you eat it, since your soul is pure as well. And I can always have some in the future. "
"I can't eat something like a soul. It wouldn't be right. I also don’t have the skill! "
"Oh. You are worrying too much. What could possibly go wrong? So eat up!
And with that Alexander pushed the soul into the mouth of Shea who involuntarily swallowed it due to shock.
Suddenly Shea's fur started to darken and soon became a grayish tone.
"What happened ?? It seems I can use the skill to feed others souls as well."
"I gained a new class and some stat increases. I now seem to be a shadow unicorn."
"Hmmm. Does it carry any significance? Like not being able to return to your home?"
"How does my soul look like?"
Activating Soul-Sense he looked at her soul and was surprised, since the previously bright unblemished white of her soul now had a few grey whisks in it. Telling her what he saw, she just said:
"I see. Only pure unicorns are allowed to return home. "
"So what do you want to do now? And what do the grey/ black whisks in your soul mean?"
"It's death. The black color means death. Not my death mind you. Death is the opposite of life and thus black in color. Green is nature. Red is evil. Purple is divinity. I still intend to follow you on your journey and the only rule to be allowed to go back home was to stay pure. But the color of purity was never specified, now that I think about it. We will figure something out. We might as well try making me the first pure unicorn with a black soul. I just wish my fur wasn't this color. "
Using the Illusion skill he turned the fur white once more.
“Is this better?” he asked Shea.
“Yes, but for how long can you keep this much stronger illusion up?”
“Practicing it, will only help lengthen the time I can keep it up.”
Travelling together towards Haven kingdom, where he wanted to meet his sister, for the next month they encountered many different kinds of creatures and constantly were under a lot of pressure, since Alexander only had minimal amounts of mana for the fights, since he used the rest for the illusion on Shea. The new thing they both now did was to eat the souls of their enemies to gain strength that way. Though It seemed as if that skill was only useful once for each monster type. Other eaten souls still gave effects but these were drastically reduced from the first soul of the corresponding monster type. And the bonus kept reducing at each subsequent meal.
Shea's fur and soul however got darker and darker the more souls were eaten, which solved their problem of trying to get her soul pure once more. Alexander personally thought it looked amazing, even though Shea herself was always lamenting over losing her pristinely white fur.
The egg he had snatched from the spider lair still didn't show any signs of cracking but the spider inside was at least still alive, which its soul confirmed, and he also didn't know what to do with the pendent he had gotten from the spider queen either.
Some time during the journey he had also gotten the message, that his friendship with Shea had reached maximum, which was immediately followed by a golden light coming out of Shea's body which flew into Alexanders back. It gave of a pleasant warm feeling. It was accompanied by the message that Shea had soul-bonded with Alexander. The same thing happened the other way around for Shea as well.
Soul bond
An unbreakable bond between comrades. As long as one who is soul bonded is in this world the ones soul bonded to him will resurect in 4 days time after activation of hidden locked skill: resurrect soul!
Resurrect soul
Activate the resurrection of soul-bonded ones after four days. Must stay alive for four days otherwise the skill will be cancelled.
cost: -50% HP, -50%MP, -50%Stamina until resurrection. -1 Lvl. permanent.
If used on a soul not soul bonded. HP, MP=10 and for 1 week and -10 Lvl. permanent.
Additionally a mark had appeared at the spot where the light entered. On Shea it was a hooded man carrying a scythe and on Alexander’s right shoulder it was a unicorn. It was giving off a white glow.
Later on they also discovered that their souls were connected by a thin thread of light. This light would be very helpful later on, since it stayed connected no matter how much they distanced themselves from each other.
Then finally they arrived at a village. Asking around he gathered the information that this was the Askran settlement. It was a peculiar place with low-level monsters in the area and only trick dungeons. Dungeons with very few monsters but many traps, puzzles,mazes and repeatable quests.