Leon sighed as he stared at the man wearing a black cloak. He had escaped death many times today. Was he finally going to die in the hands of the god of death himself? What was with his rotten luck? Leon wondered if he had somehow pissed off the goddess of fate.
But facing the god of death, the most dangerous NPC in legendera, Leon decided not to run away. Well, even if he wanted to run away, he couldn't. This was the god of death you were talking about not some random players or NPCs.
'Well, since Yama wants to talk with me, I'll entertain him for a while before he leads me to the underworld.' Leon thought.
"How does it feel to be hunted down?" Yama asked, his eyes were still on the red horizon, watching the sunset.
"You saw all that?" Leon was stunned to hear the question. How does Yama know about those battles from before? From when was he tailing me? And why was he following me?
"Do you know how those spiritlings in the forest feel? They feel the same as you now. They feel powerless. It doesn't matter how many times they fight back. It doesn't matter how many enemies they kill. They will keep getting hunted and robbed in their home and their land." Yama ignored Leon's question and asked, pointing towards a hunting ground in the distance.
"Those Gods of yours, sitting high up in their sky temples, only want to get rid of us 'evil.' They don't care about the children of the land getting slaughtered." Yama continued his monologue.
"Children of the land? You mean the monsters?" Leon asked. He could understand what Yama was saying. From time immemorial, these elemental creatures had inhabited these lands, and they were born from the mana of the world itself. So what Yama said was accurate in a sense.
"Monsters? Has any of these 'monsters' ever went out of their ways to attack you? They only defend when you encroach their territory.' Yama stated.
"They do raid towns! Don't they? And last month, didn't you destroy a frickin' city?" Leon queried, confused.
Usually, what Yama said was true. The common mobs or boss monsters never went out of their way to attack players. The same was true for dungeons. The creatures inside never ventured out. But every so often, these monsters, as if rabid, would attack all the nearby players and raid towns. These events, known as undead raids, were frequent. And players who helped fight these undead waves received handsome rewards.
The different temples of gods had declared that the temple of death had instigated these raids. And many of them have declared a war against Yama and the temple of death.
"Those attacks are not done by the children in their own volition. They were infected by the real evil that dwells in the dark. And as for me destroying the city, I had my reasons." Yama's usually expressionless face had a tinge of sadness and anger in it when he said this.
"Wait. So you guys from death temple aren't behind the undead?" Leon was even more confused now. It was common knowledge in LegendEra that the death temple was behind the undead creatures. And only the death of Yama would bring peace upon the world. This was the main reason why they were the 'evil bad guys' in the game and Yama the final Boss.
"Even I don't know how that story came about. Anyone who has an inkling of knowledge about the death temple would know that we wouldn't do something so disrespectful towards death."
"Life and death, light and dark, it is all part of the nature and will of the world. Creatures and humans die and reincarnate into other creatures. Only immortal descendants like you are allowed to resurrect. But the undead belongs to neither the living nor the dead. They ignore the rules of the world. How can the temple of death allow that?" Yama's face showed no expressions, but his voice had a hint of anger and fury in it as he said this.
The immortal descendants he spoke of were players. In the lore of LegendEra, players were immortal heroes sent to protect the world. Even after death, they would resurrect, unlike the NPC's whose deaths were permanent.
"Then who is behind it? Just who can go against the temples of all the gods?" Leon asked. He, just like everyone else, had always believed that the temple of death was behind undead creatures. It was common sense to think so. Who else would be able to undo death? Who else would provoke and rebel against the gods?
"I don't know that either. But I am going to find it out sooner or later. And that is why I want your help. You see, all my underlings are too busy collecting the souls of the creatures being slaughtered out there. We are so busy that even I had to come out to the field to collect them, so you will be helping me reduce the workload. And only then will we have the time to investigate the undead. "
Quest Accepted!
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Undead uprising - SSS rank.
Destroy the undead uprising and bring back stability to the world.
Leon was stunned that he got a quest at level 0, and not just any quest, an SSS ranked one from the frickin' god of death!.
Quests were ranked based on how hard it was to finish it. The lowest being D, the ranks were D, C, B, and A. Only a few lucky players were able to get the S ranked missions. In his entire four years playing the game, Leon had only finished a single S ranked mission. As for SS and SSS ranked missions, he was not even qualified to receive such quests in his previous character.
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"So, I have to help you collect souls of dead things?" Leon asked. Earlier, the system hadn't given him an option to refuse the quest. And Leon was not sure how hard this quest would be.
If Leon could finish an SSS quest just by running around and collecting some souls, he would be glad to do it. The experience points and rewards an SSS ranked quest provided was tremendous.
But even when Leon asked the question, he knew that collecting souls or whatever would only be the entry to a chain quest. God only knows how many different things he had to do to succeed in this SSS ranked quest.
"Collecting souls? No, even if we had an additional member collecting souls, it wouldn't be enough. But I have a better method, one that you are pretty good at. You will be killing immortal descendants! Their souls will fly to the resurrection points, so we don't have to collect their souls. And as they will only resurrect after an hour, they wouldn't be able to kill anything in that while. If you do that, I'll at least be able to send a couple of my underlings to investigate the undead. And I'll have time to go for a vacation!" Yama said with a terrifying grin.
'And just when I thought you loved all creations and creatures.' Leon was stupified hearing Yama's proposal. So it was not that Yama loved the 'children of the land' and couldn't stand to see their slaughter. He was just a lazy ass who wanted a vacation. But Yama's line of thought wasn't wrong. A player would be able to kill off at least a hundred creatures in an hour. And when in groups, this number will only increase. If he managed to kill off ten players, the number of souls one had to collect would decrease by a thousand!
Before Leon could say anything to Yama, another notification rang out.
Quest accepted
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Kill a thousand immortal descendants.
0/1000 completed.
Main Quest - Undead Uprising.
Kill a thousand players? While Leon had killed a lot of players earlier, he wasn't sure he would be able to do it again. Many of the guild players had now reached level three, the level where they will be able to start learning skills. Even independent players would have reached level two. With his level zero, Leon would be hard-pressed in a fight against these people. As for killing some new players, even if it was just a game, Leon didn't want to kill players indiscriminatingly. But he was sure that if his fight with the guilds persisted, sooner or later, he would finish this quest.
The main reason Leon didn't want to kill players was that unlike killing mobs, killing players was not a worthwhile thing. Even if Leon killed players, he wouldn't get any EXP. He would not only fall behind in levels but also be a red player. Red players faced many restrictions. They couldn't enter safe zones, and many NPCs refused to trade with them.
Seeing Leon's distraught expression, Yama smiled and retrieved two items as if he had read Leon's thoughts.
"This blood crystal will absorb your blood aura, and this void mask will help you hide your identity."
The blood aura was the reason for the red names of the red players. And if he was to kill players, hiding his identity was of paramount importance. With the two items Yama provided, he now only had to worry about the EXP issue.
But as soon as Leon looked at the properties of the items, his worries disappeared.
[Blood crystal] - Relic rank, Special Item
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Crafted by the god of death from his blood, this crystal can absorb the blood aura of the user and convert it to EXP points. It can also remove blood aura from other users. Removing blood aura from other users does not reward any EXP.
Bound to Dark Lion
Can't be dropped.
Can't be traded.
[Void mask] - (Mask, Epic rank)
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Equipment Requirement -Nil
Equipment Skill: Masquerade
Change the user's appearance. Only saints or above ranks can see through this mask.
Bound to Dark Lion
Can't be dropped.
Can't be traded.
The ranks of the two pieces of equipment were what shocked Leon. One was an epic-ranked item. In all four years that Leon had played the game, the number of epic-ranked items he had got his hands on was only two. And he was only transporting one of those items. As for Relic items, only the guild leaders of top guilds had the luxury to use them. Even if an independent player had one, sooner or later, it will be snatched away by some powerful forces. Now, just after the new server has opened, he had obtained one epic item and a Relic item! And with these items, he was even able to kill players to level up.
"I'll be leaving for my vacation now. Find someone at the temple of death when you finish killing them all off." Saying this, Yama removed the scythe from his back and swung it in the air. With a deafening roar, the scythe tore open a black spacial crack as tall as a man.
"You wouldn't mind if I killed some spiritlings, do you?" Leon asked as Yama was about to step into the crack.
"Don't kill too many. Oh, even if you kill many, just make sure to kill a lot of immortals too." Saying this, Yama walked into the spatial crack, and soon the crack mended.
Was this the same guy who was preaching about not hunting spiritlings before? He just wanted to lure me into killing players. Smiling, Leon shook his head. But as soon as the crack disappeared, he heaved a sigh. Not only was Leon alive after meeting the god of death, but he had also obtained two priceless treasures.
Leon once again looked over the two items, and just as he was about to leave the hill to kill some spiritlings, he heard footsteps in the distance. Turning around, he saw ten members of Whispering venom. Three of these people were at level three, and seven of them were level two.
'Guess the grinding spot came to me. '
Seeing the EXP points lining up before him, Leon's lips curled into a smile.