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The Toys of the Fool
Vol.3 Chapter 7 - A Past Remembered(II)

Vol.3 Chapter 7 - A Past Remembered(II)

[p=center]There were many battles.

Battles were common.

But each time it would leave me less human.

What is a human?

What am I?[/p]

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Mater we cannot find this cave at all!” said Geomchi331 in a loud voice coming back from being lost for 3 days.

“I see...” Geomchi pondered for a second and then said, “If a few of us cannot find it, then all of us will search at once!”

“Yes Master!!!”

The group of 505 Geomchis were really bad at scouting out information. They did not realise if they asked they would be directed to Alexandra and then from there to the cave where Eden was.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Are there any signs of those Geomchis?” asked Alexandra in an unknown amount of time after she had the church send information to them about the incident including the fact there were many beautiful women captured as well and to talk to her if they wanted to know more about it.

“It seems that they took the liberty of searching for the cave on their own.”

“Do they have a source of information then?” asked Alexandra surprised that someone was willing to tell them about the cave. From what Eden told her, the only ones who attacked were from player guilds which meant a tight lid on information in a way.

“No.”

Alexandra was confused, if they didn't know where it was, how could they find it.

“Then do they have trackers?”

“From what we know, no.”

Once again Alexandra was confused. Other than the reliable source of information of other people, the next best way to get somewhere you heard of was to use a tracker to trace the location based on many things that only certain people can do due to their class, skills and instincts.

“Then why the hell didn't they come here then??? Won't they be lost this way?” asked Alexandra once again.

“It appears that they are trying to search but their efforts are eluded by the fact that they are all searching at once with no signs of cooperation for some reason. It looks like they are trying to get a one up from each other in saving the women first.”

“....”

“ARGGGGGGGGGG!!! Why is it so hard to make them come here?! Didn't you get someone to get them here as well?!”

“Yes but they refused the offer saying that they can manage on their own.”

Alexandra in a bad mood was letting out her aura unintentionally all over the place. She was seriously pissed off at the fact that there was so many thing that could go wrong and did go wrong at the same time. She also did not expect the Geomchis to be this thick and controlled by their lower body.

“Send a couple of people to tell them that a priest which is a woman....well basically describe me and tell them that I want to meet them.”

“That action will cost contribution point from you” said the priest that Alexandra was talking.

Send out a search party

- Action will include finding the group known as the Geomchis and informing them of the information they you want them to know

- This action will cost 17 531 contribution points

Current Contribution Points: 135 851

“Fine! I don't know why you ask when I have so much contribution points to begin with.”

The priest bowed to Alexandra and moved quickly and proceed with what Alexandra wanted. Alexandra sighed seeing that this was becoming more of a hassle then ever. If she had Eden directly teleport her to them this would be so simple...

But then Eden would had to track them down and then put in efforts that made it unlikely for him to even find them in a reasonable amount of time. Now Alexandra thought that was fine for what was happening now.

“Speaking of Eden....I wonder what he's up to.”

[p=center]xXx[/p]

At the same moment Alexandra said those words...

“Battle Aura! Crystal Palace of Reflection!”

Battle Aura is now active

Crystal Palace of Reflection is now active, mana will be drained as long this is skill is active

“Let the cries of Heaven fall as flames of purgatory. Hell Flames!”

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A large series of flames appeared like a tsunami pouring around Eden and rushing into him as the centre.

Eden's spell and skill moved in and protected him completely from the large red blackish flames that poured out of the mage that used that spell. His Crystal Palace spell auto reflected part of the flames back continuously essentially reducing it's power to a quarter while his battle aura negated the rest of the damage into nothing compared to his mana regeneration.

Due to him stacking up so many different skills that increased his regeneration skills for both mana and stamina as his mana also served as health as well; Eden was a living, moving fortress that could not be fell by any normal means.

You could say that only power on the level of a natural disaster was enough to damage him for a while until his 'Recovery Burst' skill auto repairs any damage he took.

Anyway while charging into the hell flames like a mad man to the enemy, he activated the blue flame that he got from Hades when he killed that God since it seemed like a top level flame that no one besides a few can face off at.

“Soul Devouring Flames!” Eden shouted pouring the flames over his aura and expanding it rapidly consuming the hell flames itself.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSH!!!

His own flames consumed the hell flames and turned the torrent that faced off at him as the new centre of his own attack causing the enemy to panic.

“What the hell is that?! Hell Flames are one of the top ranking flames you can get in this game!”

'Well this flame was used by the God of the Dead. A God level flame versus something that Demons made. Which one did you think would win?'

Eden smirked though hidden away by the massive amount of flames that continued to decreased in size until it was a set of small blue fireballs floating around him.

“I could get used to this. Though it does drain quite a bit of mana....no soul power which I need to convert my mana to which has a stupidly bad conversion rate. Definitely not useful enough. Sigh...and I thought this could be useful to me.”

Disappointed seeing that using soul power to use the soul devouring flames was a waste since the amount of mana Eden needed to maintain the flames like Hades surpassed the rate he could regenerate his mana even with all his buffs on.

“Well might as well use it until the end of this quest I got...”

Looking around he was underground. An underground base where Rebel forces lied. Unlike the ones with Ray Bard which he took our earlier and I really mean just earlier, they only had 300 people, a tenth compared to the other forces.

With these numbers, Eden didn't even need to use some of his more serious skills like the time with Ray Bard who actually forced him to use his 'Dragonic Release' skill though he didn't know that Eden had two skills that are a tier higher the last.

“Knights, charge in now! That amount spells cannot be maintained for long!” someone on the enemy side shouted.

Then, a group of 50 knights which was a sixth of the total forces came from all side from the holes that this underground base had and charged at Eden.

With his 'Crystal Palace of Reflection' spell active, all attacks would reflect by them the enemy even ranged attacks, At it's fully mastered state, it looked something like this.

Crystal Palace of Reflection (Mastered)

Creates small mirrors of crystal that is magical charged to move about in space and deflect all attacks that are coming towards the user. With this skill, the small crystal mirrors can only take a certain amount of damage before being destroyed however you can create several of these plates at once and will continue to be created as this skill is active. Mana will be drained as the mirrors are continued to be created.

Mirror Cost: 100 mana each

Number of times it can deflect attacks each: 5

Number that can be created at a time: 50

Other Effects:

- Chance of Mirror regenerating without cost when destroyed (5%)

- Critical Hit and Damage increase (15%)

- Can Set Debuff of Strength, Agility and Vitality (1%) on enemies

- Can Set Debuff of Intelligence, Wisdom and Stamina (1%) on enemies

- Curses can be reflected back as well

- Able to chain up mirrors to create a sturdy defence (Doubles deflect rate when active)

- Able to chain up with another defensive spell as well

- Mirrors can be used offensively and deals 1% of weapon damage each

Naturally as a skill that Warlic gave him on request, it was something extremely overpowered when used. If another player had this skill and mastered it, they would be one of the most powerful mages in the game.

As for a spell for Eden however, it ranked along with his 'Battle Aura' and 'Mana Shield' as one of his primary defensive skills and spells.

“Knight Charge!”

“Offensive Charge!”

“Flame Sword!”

The knights all activated their skills not even caring of the defensive spell that Eden set up. It looked extremely fragile to them. This was one of their biggest mistakes.

“Chain!”

When Eden shouted those words, the mirrors which were shattered about not doing anything all moved and stacked together line on line creating massive walls that flew and slammed in front of the knights causing most of them to hit and take massive amount of damage thanks.

Those who were unlucky enough to not get hit immediately, used their skills against the mirrors now walls to break though had the force of their blow plus a bit extra hit them back often killing themselves due to this.

Seeing this mayhem, Eden could not let out an evil smile thinking of all the things he could do to them later on.

“Multi Shot!”

“Arrow Rain!”

“Piercing Blow!”

The archers on the higher levels did not leave everything to the knights charging at him below. They did not seem so shocked that the knights failed. Was this some kind of rift between archers and knights going on here.

Either way it did not have anything to do with Eden with none of them leaving here alive.

“Golden Swords.”

With a wave of his hand, Eden rapidly created golden swords that floated in the air and shot him like bullets at the archers, often making a large enough hole in them that it looked like a cannon hit them and shattered their remains on the walls behind them.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG....!

Eden's rapid fire attack on all enemies not just archers now since they kinda ran out continued for a minute.

“Anyone alive~? Well I can just check using 'Soul Scan' after all...”

Eden scanned the area and found that there were some hidden forces somewhere far away from here. They only numbered around 10.

“Hmm....”

Eden walked to the location of these 10 souls and opened the door which was made from heavy steel. The kind that you would use for a vault to protect something. Was this the enemy general or something? Eden did not know. But he still opened up the door my force my bending it so whoever inside would not get hurt.

“Please don't hurt us!” cried a child from inside when he entered.

He looked around and found that this looked more like a child's room than anything else. Eden looked and there were 10 children here, all of them were dressed finely so they must have been the children of nobles.

'The children of the nobles that did not accept the new kingdom eh. Now should I send them somewhere to be raised, send them to the kingdom for them to handle or.....kill them all now?'

Eden's thoughts became dark and it showed on his face. He after all had the look of a seasoned fighter and children were generally sensitive to these kinds of things. One of them figured that they were about to die now based on how he felt about Eden and the fact that the ones who visited usually did not appear and there were sounds of battles just recently.

Quest: Eliminate Rebel Forces (II) has been updated

Children of the rebel forces were safely hidden away...till you found them. Decide their fate.

“You guys...” muttered Eden reaching out to them with his blood stained hands...literally.

The children backed away even more even though there were no more distance to back away.

Then he patted one of them on the head gently.

“I'll put you guys at the church of Freya so they can raise you...I am on friendly terms on them thanks to Alexandra after all....that damn old man still owes me a few favours.”

“....”

“What? You little brats expected me to do something bad to you? I never once attacked any children no matter what....something I am slightly proud of considering what I did all my life.”

Eden made a slightly sad face and then picked up all 10 children at once easily with a smile ignoring their struggle.

“Morata is a nice place you know...teleport!”

Later on, a certain high priest of Freya wondered if Eden kidnapped 10 children out of whim...though persuading more information of the circumstances, he thanked Eden in his heart since of the ultimate fate of the children if Eden did not decide to send them to him.

Quest: Eliminate Rebel Forces (II) has been completed

- Fame Increase by 2500

- Infamy decrease by 1000

- Contribution to Kingdom increased by 3000

- Intimacy to children related to quest increases

- Relationship to Church of Freya improved

- You have gained experience

- Unlocked Eliminate Rebel Forces (III)

Eliminate Rebel Forces (III)

Several of the main rebel forces have been destroyed. However there still remains some nobles and other rebel forces that were further hidden due to this incident. The Kingdom would like you to get rid of them as well.

Do you accept?

Veins were popping out of Eden's head right now. How much did this kingdom want to exploit him for all he got?

“Hell no! I have other things to do you know!” Eden shouted at the quest window in front of him.

The he had to hear other people talking about him behind his back.

“Wow....anger issues.”

“A beauty...but insane. Too bad.”

“Still would like her to step on me.”

“....”

Even more irritated than before, Eden decided to cool off at the cave where there was literally nothing going on.

“Teleport!”

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Master! There are several forces approaching us? What do we do?” asked Geomchi2 who after the first Geomchi was the oldest of all of them.

Geomchi2 got some messages from his fellow brothers as something flew by them quickly as they were busy hunting. They did not know if it was a monster or something else to hunt.

The first five Geomchis gathered and waited for these forces to appear. They while masters of the sword hunted evil monsters throughout the continent did not attack those that did not do any harm to them or anyone else.

They were blunt in saying that they only live for the sword but also have the mind to not foolishly kill everything in sight. Unless it relates to food since their fear of starving to death is still stronger than their fear of dying in battle.

Eventually several people with light armour which was coloured gold and blue appeared in front of them. They also numbered five as well. They could sense that there were other Geomchis hiding to see what would happen and whether they would fight them.

“Who are you? We don't take meaningless request” said Geomchi in a harsh tone to the people that appeared. He knew their type well enough and hated them.

The leader of the other side stepped forward and introduced himself clearly to the Geomchis.

“I am an envoy from the church of-”

“Get on with it!” demanded Geomchi. At this rate the words that this man would let out would be sugar coated with lies and trickeries. The type that Weed warned him about not that the Geomchis realised how Weed used them many times as well.

“A benefactor of our church wishes to see you” the envoy bluntly said seeing that any other response would only make him even more angry.

“We refuse” replied Geomchi immediately. He and the others did not have time for petty things like that at all.

“Looks around 20 years old. Long blonde hair and was last seen in a low cut dress made of thin silk. Naturally this person is a female as well and is quite beautiful.”

““““Where is this person?!”””” demanded Geomchi immediately along with Geomchi3, Geomchi4 and Geomchi5. The only one to not do this was Geomchi2 because he already had somebody and could only sigh to this act.

The envoy smiled seeing this response. They would finally be able to do more useful things for the church that they belonged to besides searching for muscle filled men.

“Follow us and we will lead you to her.”

Already imagining the appearance of the woman in question, Geomchi shouted to the other Geomchis hidden away:

“RIGHT! FOLLOW THIS MAN TO THE BEAUTY!!!”

“YES MASTER!!!”

There was an extremely positive reaction to the request now. A group of 505 large muscular men ran across the forest as a group causing a minor earthquake as they ran.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Later on that day...Alexandra was waiting near the entrance to the church that she was staying at for a while.

Rumble Rumble Rumble...

“An earthquake?” wondered Alexandra not really caring that much since the Geomchis should be coming in a few days time. After all, it was only this morning since she sent those people to contact them.

“There's a large horde of something heading this way!” shouted a player running from the gate to inside the city.

“What?”

“Impossible.”

Other players shook their head since such a thing would be impossible to happen. However the same player pointed at the rising dust cloud that was quickly coming this way and shouted:

“Look!”

All people including players and NPCs watched the dust cloud come closer and closer.

“AHHHHHHH WE ARE YOU BEAUTY?!”

“Master, the city and church is that way!”

“Then we will go there no matter what! Even through hell and back!!!”

“YES MASTER! FOR YOU WE WILL GO ANYWHERE!!!”

Alexandra looked at the group of people rushing into the city at great speed. Equipped with crappy armour and yet good quality swords, the guards at the gate all rushed to get out of their way in fright.

“What the hell is this?! Weren't they suppose to come in a few days?” wondered Alexandra since her estimate should be right. The only way they could've come here in this amount of time was to rush at full speed without any sleep at all while enduring their bodies breaking down.

Alexandra did not realise that for a woman, the Geomchis would do that and more.

Looking at herself, she realised that she was still in that dress that Eden gave her. Figuring that this kind of appearance was not really the best thing to wear when meeting a group of large muscular men, she prompted to change into her usual armour but it was too late.

“Excuse us! We are here to meet the woman who requested for us!!!” Geomchi shouted in a loud voice that could be heard from a fair distance away.

'Does this man know not up an inside voice?'

With that thought and the fact that Alexandra felt that they would disrupt other people with their voices and generally large presence, Alexandra quickly got rid of the idea of changing and just went out with her current clothes.

However the moment she appeared before these Geomchi people, they all cheered for some reason.

“OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“My eyes are blessed!”

“I can now endure even a month of personal training from the masters!”

“....”

While Alexandra smiled in her outside appearance, she immediately sighed inside. She now met them and could fight them at last....though it seems that that idea was kinda pushed back a bit. She immediately sent some PMs to Eden about the current situation.

Alexandra: Eden you there?

Eden: Yes yes, damn you die!!!!

Alexandra: Huh?

Eden: Don't worry...taking care of a monster that....that keeps on regenerating! Screw this! I to awaken-

Alexandra: Wait, what the hell are you getting into again?!

Eden: Long story short, took care of some rebel forces for a while then when I returned, the cave was attacked by some tentacle monster. This isn't some Japanese H game! Plus it's the super regenerative type-ahhh where the hell are you touching?! Soul Devouring Flame!

Alexandra: …..

Alexandra: Need any help? I have 505 large muscular men for you here. We should be able to get there in a few hours if we rush.

Eden: Yeah, that will be a huge help.

Alexandra: Was that sarcasm? I really can't tell when I'm not looking at your face.

Eden: No! Hurry up and get here now! Damnit, it started to multiple now!

With that, the chat with Eden ended on a weird note. It seems that Alexandra needed to change the plan from saving people from a villain to saving Eden from a tentacle monster.

Looking at the Geomchis who were still staring at her, Alexandra said:

“Thank you for coming here on such a short notice...though I remember saying that to reach that cave you had to come to me for the information” Alexandra was clearly pissed off at this fact since it wasted a few days' worth of her time.

“However there seems to be something worse that occurred at the same time at the same location. A friend..yes friend should work; was attacked by a monster there with the other hostages after bravely defeating the villain that captured so many women and children. I will lead you there, so will you help my friend defeat this monster? There isn't much time left!”

“We all accept! No swordsman...No man could deny such a quest! Do you all agree?!” Geomchi shouted to the other Geomchis.

“YES MASTER!!”

'They are quite the spirited group....'

While thinking of this, Geomchi approached Alexandra and asked in a low voice:

“Is your friend a female as well?” hoping for the answer to be yes.

“Long black hair, thin body and has a face that is known as an Asian Beauty” Alexandra responded automatically. It had been a habit to introduce Eden to people who ask of anyone that she was close to. It was easy since people would flock to Eden instead of her and she would be entertained as Eden got rid of them in a rampage.

“Yes...maybe this time....” muttered Geomchi under his breath.

“Lead the way miss and we will follow!” said Geomchi with his eyes blazing with determination.

“In that case, I better get a horse. You guys need one each as well?” asked Alexandra to not be rude to them and force them to run quite a distance back as well.

The Geomchi all shook their heads saying:

“We can run on our own.”

“Such a trivial thing is merely training.”

“We can easily run for days if you want.”

“In that case, I'll case some stamina recovering spell on you all when you are too tired to continue. Now let us run there” said Alexandra with a smile.

Since the Geomchi said that, she had no reason to hold back right now

Bang!

Like an explosion, Alexandra ran ahead and was already out of the gate in a mere few seconds and entered the forest in the next. Some of the Geomchis realised this and immediately ran to follow using all of their speed and strength to dash following whatever trail Alexandra left behind.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

Moments before Eden was contacted by Alexandra...

“What the hell is this?” wondered Eden seeing a large shadow approach the cave...well to be precise a particularly large soul coming nearer. There seemed to be something...different about it. Something that made him not want to fight it.

For this reason, not wanting to risk lives and make him gain even more infamy since he only recently made it drop a bit compared to the massive amounts he still had, Eden went to where he captured those people and prepared to teleport them out of here immediately.

“Wall move!”

He commanded the stone wall he created and it slid away easily. Opening up, the women and children inside were kinda curious on what Eden was here to do now since the last couple of times were quite light hearted and even Eden felt that they were getting along...despite being the captives and the other the kidnapper.

Eden remembered there was some sort of effect that these kinds of thing had when you show kindness to people captured but couldn't remember the precise name. Either way, he needed to get them out.

He was quite sick of people dying because of him at this point.

So many innocents...towns....cities....friends and those he fought with and....

Risene.

A name that he did not want to remember much due to the memories. At that time he was....quite void of most emotions since he had to act with all knowing intentions of the consequences and how evil they were. But when he started to be 'normal' again, he slowly realised the tragedy he caused in the end.

But in the end he still decided it was a good idea to block those emotions as much as possible.

It was a long road that he walked on and will continue to be long the longer he lived.

He had only stayed in this world for seven years when the mana fragment incident ended and he was pushed into the underworld god slaying business immediately afterwards. That event took him 6 more years to resolve. It had been 2 years since then in which he relaxed for quite a while he must admit with a total of 15 years in game right now.

(Note that in the non-flashback story, Eden had been in the game for over a century.)

“What's going on?” asked one of the women clearly seeing the concern and somewhat fear on Eden's face not that he knew he had a face that could be filled with fear.

“Danger is coming and I don't want to risk anything. I'll teleport you all back to your village and our relationship ends there till we meet again. Gather in a group” Eden said with haste.

Though a bit disturbed by the rush that Eden was going through, everyone cooperated and gathered quickly a bit excited to see their other family again while a bit sad that the 'entertaining' Eden was going to be gone. He had created quite a lot of things for them while he took them captive.

“Teleport!” chanted Eden activating the spell.

Zaaaazi!

There was a small set of sparks made of mana flying around as the spell did not activate at all.

“?”

Due to the unstable influx of mana, unable to use teleportation spell. All spells which require precise handling will be too unstable to use and will fail

“....”

“The hell?”

Eden had never seem this message...often that is. He remembered this kind of thing happening before but never expected for this to happen at this precise moment of all things.

“Bad news....can't teleport you out. Plus there's a strong monster outside the cave....and I have to fight it now that we can't escape....wait a bit.”

Eden wanted to know of what spells he could not use anymore. Testing some basic attack magic, he realised that most of his attack spells require almost none or little precision in use. That or his precision of such magic is a lot higher than all his other spells.

“Flight magic.”

Eden tried to create the 6 golden wings on his back but when they kinda formed, they immediately shattered with the spell disappearing due to being too unstable.

“Okay...my other method of travelling quickly is gone as well....great. You guys stay here while I...deal with the issue.”

With that, Eden left them and closed to wall to make sure nothing gets in so easily. Using his 'Soul Scan' skill, Eden found that whatever creature was nearby...probably the same creature that prevented him from teleporting or use flight magic at the same time.

“What kind of creature could cause such a thing...? Even legendary creatures rarely have such abilities...”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

As Eden walked out of the cave in confront the enemy, what he saw shocked him.

“Tentacle....monster? The fuck?”

Several hours later he would be forced in a situation he rarely had even in his ridiculous past.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Lightning Bolt! Chain Lightning! Lightning Overdrive!”

Eden shot out a single lightning bolt from his hand, then proceeded to cause that lightning bolt to into several tens of smaller lightning bolts and finally caused those weaker lightning bolts to be charged back to the strength of several lightning bolt at once.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Squiggle Squiggle Squiggle Squiggle~

“Damnit, stop regenerating already?! I'm already in Magic King Drive and yet I can't erase you at all!”

Eden sent his aura out and caused the nearby tentacle monsters to explode into pieces with brute force. For some reason Eden felt like this was a never-ending battle where he will be stripped completely and violated in the end.

And that thought frightened him. Never once did he feel this level of fear.

It was different from the 'fear' he got before having to face against the near invincible Gods in battle. It was something like he will lose something important if he lost right now.

Squiggle Squiggle Squiggle Squiggle~

“Are they forming into one large one?”

In front of Eden's eyes, the near countless tentacle monsters which each individually resembled vines with a thickness of a fist, gathered together into one large, no massive creature which was ten metres large and was made of countless strings of those tentacles.

“This must be hell here....” muttered Eden shaking his head at facing this kind of creature.

Several hours passed since Eden...well Alexandra contacted him of meeting those Geomchi people. Surely they have done whatever fight they wanted and are now running this way to help him. The only problem was this thing in front of him.

Anti-magic as well as super regenerative type.

Eden only realised when he decided to teleport away to get some help that he couldn't use fine tuned magic anymore. Only the rough and cruel attack magicks were the things that he could do. It wasn't much of a problem but combined with the fact that he really didn't want a large number of people; entirely women and children to fall prey to this creature, Eden would've escaped already.

Another problem was that this tentacle monster shoots out acid that only eats away clothes and armour. Thankfully Eden was in his spare armour so it wasn't that much of a cost in facing this creature.

“How much longer can I endure....?”

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“Just a few more minutes until we get there!” shouted Alexandra back to the Geomchis that were running behind her, “Are you guys fine?”

“Of course!”

“This is nothing!”

“Just a simple jog.”

While they say that to Alexandra, it feels like they are on a long extensive training run with no end. Each and every one of the Geomchis were mentally strained due to running for days straight now. Their legs were breaking under them due to strain as they ran but was immediately recovered when Alexandra healed them.

“Hmm?”

From the distances, Alexandra saw that Eden was fighting some sort of large monster and was actually being pushed back. Taking out her prised 'Twin Beast Hollowed-Point Great-Breaker' sword which really has a long name, she leaped and swung it in the general direction of those two.

“Sword-”

Mana gathered in her sword in the extremes.

“Wave!”

Like a stream of light, her sword gave out a giant wave of power.

BANNNNNG!!

And everything including Eden and that monster was blown away by the force.

“....”

Alexandra slid down on the ground using her sword to stop herself from being fling forward. As she looked back, she saw that the Geomchis also stopped in their tracks as well. She ignored them for the moment and then went to search for Eden.

“Eden~! You there?” she shouted, with no worry in her voice. Something of this level wouldn't hurt Eden that much....right?

Bang!

A loud sound was heard as someone kicked off a lot of rubble from over them in one go. Of those Alexandra knew, only Eden would dare use such a rough way of doing things.

“Oh your alive” said Alexandra disappointed. For once she wanted for Eden to die in a 'natural' way instead of being stabbed and pierced by so many powerful weapons at once that he was more closer to an immortal zombie than anything else to die.

“Of course I'm alive! Why the hell did you attack me as well?!” screamed Eden in anger.

“Well...for starters you do have the defence to take a few of them head on since a long time ago.”

“Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt like hell!”

“Right, besides, what the hell is up with your appearance and what is that thing” wondered seeing a half naked Eden and a large tentacle monster appearing now as well though Alexandra piece together some things she knew and expected that this was the cause of all the trouble Eden had.

“Ah, that thing spits out acid that can melt clothes and armour.”

“....”

Alexandra looked at the tentacle creature. Why did she feel that this was the ultimate enemy of women that needs to be killed. However she did not want to get near that thing no matter what. Being stripped right now was a bad thing.

She looked back at the Geomachis who were standing there confused on what to do. On one hand, they were staring at Alexandra naturally with her looks and otherwise strong power she just demonstrated.

They also started at the tentacle monster in which they believed to be a strong enemy and was itching to fight it immediately. Annnnnd, they were particularly staring at Eden who was half naked with his clothes ripped and dissolved in many areas to the point you didn't know what to look at. Alexandra saw that those who looked at Eden were kinda red in the face.

“Why are you guys standing there tightening your tights?” asked Alexandra not knowing what that notion meant.

“DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!” they all shouted back at once.

Seeing that she didn't need to pry into it some more, Alexandra then looked at the tentacle monster which more or less regenerated completely now.

“So...what to do with that thing?” asked Alexandra to Eden now.

He sighed and said, “That thing is an extreme anti-magic super regenerative type. Otherwise known as my worse nightmare. Tell those guys to deal with it. I'm pretty sure it has a core somewhere...just need to cut it lots of times.”

Eden pointed to the Geomchi who seem to be rather excited to fight an unusual and rare creature such as the one they see now.

“You lot!” shouted Alexandra in a commanding voice that did not let one bit of disobedience to exist.

“Deal with that thing!”

The Geomchi under the glare of Alexandra could only follow her words. Though many of them wanted to fight the creature to begin with even though it seems quite unusual while the other, minor...no major thoughts of the group was to want to be stepped on by Alexandra.

“Let's go!” shouted Geomchi leading the group into battle.

“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”

They screamed as they all charged in at once. It was like a wave of destruction that you could not block at all. There were simply too many of them and even individually they were quite powerful in their own rights.

“Hmm...how strong are they?” asked Eden curious.

“Fine though I still haven't fought them yet.”

“What? Then why were you so late?” asked Eden astonished.

“It's usual a 3 day walk here. We got here within 7 hours. That's fast no matter how you see it. You with your teleportation magic is screwing up your sense of distance.”

“....”

Eden nodded and then proceeded with another question.

“Why are you still wearing that? It's quite low cut you know.”

Alexandra looked down to only realise that she ran in this dress for over 6 hours straight. Her sweat caused it to be transparent at bits...and those Geomchi fellows saw everything...if not for the game mechanic to filter those things out for women automatically.

Kick!

Alexandra started trampling on Eden in sheer embarrassment.

“Ow ow ow, stop that! It hurts like hell!” shouted Eden trying to block her kicks with his hands. But the force behind each stomp was enough to deal a lethod blow to a normal person which made it extremely difficult for Eden.

An hour later, the Geomchi managed to slay the tentacle creature while most of their cruel armour was melted off. To this day they did not understand why the acid could melt armour and clothing but not weapons.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“What?! You wanted to fight us?” said Geomchi3 in a shocked voice. He did not expect for this outcome to be present like this.

Currently, the Geomchi group minus the 237 that were slain in battle against the tentacle monster all wore older patched up clothes while Alexandra while they were distracted and knocked out by the kicks changed back into her usual armour.

“Of course, why did you think I made Eden kidnap so many people to lure you out?” said Alexandra proudly at using Eden like that.

To this, Eden sighed but Alexandra ignored that.

“Ah.”

Eden realising that the 'hostages' at this point was still trapped in the cave with no way out. It would be bad if they all died in there. He immediately left and returned with a bunch of women and children with them that numbered around 50.

“OHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The Geomchis were extremely happy with the sight of a large number of women in front of them. Perhaps they could get 'close' with them as well. Of course seeing that they haven't changed on bit at all with dealing with women, they would fail if they tried.

Simply because most of these women were also mothers as well with husbands.

“Ho~ Why were there so many women in that group Eden?” asked Alexandra in a threatening tone.

“Less likely to rebel and cause trouble” replied Eden immediately now ignoring that demon behind Alexandra's back.

“....”

“I didn't touch them at all you know.”

“I know~”

Alexandra smiled but her eyes were completely void which scared Eden greatly. Rarely did this happen and every time he would get chills down his back.

“Anyway you get that duel while I bring these guys back to their homes. Teleport!”

Flash!

With that, Eden with 50 people disappeared in a bright blue light leaving Alexandra with the Geomchis.

Looking over, Alexandra asked, “So which one of you is the strongest?” in a sort of arrogant tone to them with a fierce amount of fighting spirit behind her.

The first Geomchi, stepped forward. He was an old man...even compared to the other Geomchis as well but Alexandra sensed that he was stronger than the rest of them and grinned seeing that she would have a good fight.

“As a swordsman, I will fight you to the best of my abilities” Geomchi said with no distractions in his eyes. Thanks to Alexandra wearing her armour, her attractiveness decreased a bit to the Geomchis and they were not completely distracted by the clothes that she was wearing though how little she did wear.

Right now, Geomchi was only thinking of the battle. As a proud swordsman, no other thought existed in his mind then and there.

Both of them took their swords and waited.

The other Geomchis seeing this paused and stared not wanting to miss a single second.

A second passed...

Two...

Three....

Wuuuuuuuuss!

Alexandra was the one who attacked first. She simply charged in straight using her extreme speed and swung vertically in a simple straight line with all her power backed into it. Seeing this, Geomchi was calm but was shocked in the speed that Alexandra had.

But it was still within his abilities.

Moving forward, not letting a step back, Geomchi met Alexandra's sword that was twice, no trice his own in size and motioned the blade to slide off to the side missing Geomchi narrowly.

BANG!

Alexandra's strike hit the ground and cracked it easily. But her attack was not over yet. Using her skills from all the battles she had throughout the years without end, Alexandra twisted her sword and swung a second time in mid air at Geomchi again.

Once again, Geomchi reacted though not perfectly this time and deflected the sword away.

Clang~!

Geomchi was blown away with the force along but took no damage at all landing safely while Alexandra's arm which she used to swing was slightly numb now due to the shock of the attack. However this only made Alexandra more excited.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

Alexandra continued to attack without end while defending using her armour to block the weak attacks that Geomchi would give once in a while. She thought this was easy, too easy. And she was right.

Suddenly she felt danger as Geomchi's sword burst in speed aiming for several of her vital spots at once ignoring her defence. Alexandra moved left and right rapidly as she dodged most of the blows barely. Geomchi went on the offensive and was easily pushing her back with pure skill and nothing else like how he was defending from her attacks earlier.

The difference in skill could be clearly seen.

However pure swordplay was not the only strength Alexandra had. She had gathered and trained many skills to grow this strong and was holding back on them to use her sword skills to test out the waters a bit. Now she realised that she was extremely outmatched in terms of swordsmanship. It wasn't that Alexandra's sword skill alone was weak, in fact she was one of the stronger one.

It was simply because even among the swordsman in this world and the real world, Geomchi was someone who stood at the top in both. His skill and talent was off the charts combined with endless training to hone it all.

But Alexandra was also something similar as well. With Eden and Viv, she challenged so many strong creatures over time that she became something like a broken character like Eden with little that could face them. Finding someone like Geomchi was a happiness to Alexandra as with her raw strength and speed, she was able to defeat most foes easily. It is only when there is such a large difference in skill that strength and speed does not matter like now.

With blood covering her cheek where Geomchi scratched it using his sword, Alexandra grinned even more letting out a 'aura' telling everyone that she wanted to do more, fight more. Seeing this, Geomchi was astonished and laughed out loud.

“Hahaha, you are happy to fight right? You want to go all out and fight to your content right? Go ahead! We have long learnt a long time ago to use everything in battle while still holding onto our swords! There is no shame in using your full power! Fight, to prove that you are strong!”

Hearing those words, Alexandra wished that Eden and Viv were here to heard those words as well. Those words were....something that she did not believe someone to say to someone of her strength. Even now, Alexandra had the power and skill to match Eden as well as Viv.

But in the process, they became too strong and was isolated and feared since they had the power to level cities at will. The days of simple adventuring were over. But here was a man who said it was all right to let it all right and fight to the end leaving nothing else out.

With a shout filled with joy Alexandra activated her skills at once with her sword raised high in the sky:

“Holy Aura! Crusader Sprint!”

Holy Aura is now active

Agility will be doubled for 10 seconds

Her pure white aura was unleashed around her in a torrent of power. Her legs glowed bright due to the power temporary infused in them. With a shout, she attacked Geomchi who welcomed the attack with open arms.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!

Five time did Alexandra attack in a moment. Geomchi with his skill along blocked and diverted three of them while barely dodging the fourth and fifth with minor wounds that decreased his health more than he thought.

He had lose 20% of his health with two scratches. The difference in level and pure stats were immediately shown with this. However Geomchi did not complain at all; if that was the case then he would need to not get hit at all!

“Sword Dance!”

Her sword glowed and let out slight after images as she moved it along with her body as well. Alexandra attacked while Geomchi defended and counter attacked for the next 10 seconds in a fury of attacks on both sides.

“Incredible...Master is going all out and yet the other side is not falling behind at all” muttered one of the Geomchis.

Another Geomchi shook his head, “But those movements are part of a skill.”

Hearing this, Geomchi2 interjected saying, “Skills like that can only increase the movements of the body. The mind of the person however needs to be able to catch up to such movements in order to be effective. The fact that Master did not slay her immediately and her own precise movements to our eyes proves of her ability alone.”

The other Geomchis hearing this stood silent absorbing the words into their minds to not underestimate those who use such skills now. Trouble would come if they did not further polish their skills since there is a rising number of players that are strong with skills and also strong with swords.

“Incredible! So many exchanges and yet you still didn't die and better yet not even a scratch since that last one! To think I could find someone besides Eden who can fight on this level!” said Alexandra filled with adrenaline.

“I must also praise your skill as well. It is the result of fighting strong foes right?”

“Naturally! With Eden you are bound to fight one legendary creature like a Hydra or Phoenix and even Dragons often!” she replied with excitement to share a bit of her story at least.

Crusader Sprint wore off and her agility was back to normal, but that did not mean she did not have anything else up her sleeve.

“Divine Beast Shift!” she shouted transforming her body into one that was even stronger and faster than before.

Her appearance went wild with black lines tracing down her entire body being formed with the face of a great beast being formed on her forehead as well. Her Holy Aura was also increased in size as well due to the Divinity effect.

Seeing this Geomchi had a shiver of fear. Fear that he liked since this was going to be a good battle to the death. A battle with a monster that was stronger than anything he encountered to push his skills to the limit.

Geomchi did not use one skill in the battle so far but by observing Weed, he had learnt the use of powerful skills at moments like this that was enhance your own ability without dragging you down.

“Battle Frenzy!”

Geomchi used on the few skill he knew that increased his body's power and speed for a short while. Along with some basic sword skills like 'Thunder Strike' or 'Flame Sword', and some of the more advance ones like 'Heraim Fencing' or 'Stone Skin', he did not have many skills at all unlike Alexandra.

However he did have a skill that negated enemy defences no matter how thick that can negate the defence that Alexandra's Holy Aura and other skills gave thanks to mastering 'Sword Mastery' which was extremely powerful. Because of this, Geomchi was calm knowing that victory was still in reach.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang....!

The two without talking anymore shot blows and attacks from all directions at each other. The land in which they stood on cracked and was slowly being ruined as they fought. The range of their fight increased so much that the other Geomchis had to retreat a bit to not get caught up in it.

Geomchi had the advantage still. With Alexandra waving around her large sword even with her great power and speed, there were only so many motions and actions she could take to attack. Geomchi predicted these and acted in accord. This was the great disadvantage of using a large sword in battle.

While you had more power to deal with, it was useless if you could not hit which was what Geomchi was demonstrating right now though it was barely being able to do it since Alexandra was truly that fast for anyone normal to predict.

Even if it was Weed, Alexandra's pure speed would outmatch him instantly killing him with a strong unexpected blow. However even Weed admits that Geomchi was a better swordsman with a life time of experience in battle. Combine this with a proper battle class and he was a first class player.

Clang Clang Bang Clang Clang...!

Eventually...though slowly Geomchi was predicting what Alexandra would do with her actions and was slowly starting to parry her blows instead of simply dodging them. This naturally irritated Alexandra since her speed was suppose to be something that no many could keep up with let alone countered like this.

She had to step it up one more once again.

Leaping away quickly and taking distance to prepare in a split second, she called upon one of her most powerful skills.

“Compressed Light Warrior!”

Her aura expanded several times forming a giant made of light which slowly but yet quickly compressed into an extra layer of armour for Alexandra making it look like ghost armour. Even her sword was extended with the aura now and was 10 cm longer in range due to that.

However before she could attack, Geomchi moved in with speed...no outside her reaction time and attacked with a risky stab. Thinking that her defence will hold out, Alexandra did not dodge that much letting the attack hit her since 'Compressed Light Warrior' was literally a thick layer of defence that blocked all but the most powerful attacks.

B-break!

Much to her surprise, Geomchi's blade was something like that. For reasons unknown to her but known to him, her sword broke through the extra layer of defence and pierced through her armour and into her shoulder.

“Ah!”

Letting out that sound not due to pain since she was used to pain now, but of surprise; Alexandra realised how much she was looking down on Geomchi just then.

'Just because I have so many strong skills does not give me the right to look down on people. I can only turn this shame into power to rewrite that with full force. The strongest state! The strongest skill!'

With Geomchi's sword still in her shoulder Alexandra let her rage and anger burst with the skill that even she didn't like to use often.

“Blood Destruction!!!!”

BANG!

Her aura turned violent and red, the force of the change blew away Geomchi and his sword out of her immediately. Her hair changed colour to blood red. Her aura turned to the same colour as well. And finally the markings on her body due to 'Divine Beast Shift' also glowed red as well. Even the armour from the 'Compressed Light Warrior' turned into a shade of red as well.

The descent of the berserk beast appeared!

But before she attacked...

“I'm sorry. I have to admit I looked down on you a bit there....that is why I will use my full strength without holding back with my most powerful skill!”

Alexandra's aura increased several fold in her sword. It grew and grew to a size that made it look like the weapon of a giant instead of a person. Spanning tens of metres in the air...even people from afar could see it. And the person who was wielding that power was Alexandra at her strongest right now.

“Blade of Judgement!”

The sword that was coloured red due to her current state descended down on Geomchi threatening to kill everyone and everything else in the area as well.

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!

The sound of the end was calling. But even so, Geomchi with a smile challenged this power directly without fear even if the other Geomchis were kinda scared of this giant blade coming down on them quickly.

Flash!

Eden appeared and was then immediately hit by the skill.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!

And was sent flying across Geomchi and smashed into a large rock digging deep a couple of metres.

“....”

“....”

“Huh?”

Alexandra was confused on what just happened.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“What the hell was that for?! I just came back and immediately I'm near life and death here!!!” shouted Eden complaining at Alexandra while coming out of the rock with his wounds healing right in front of everyone.

It had been a quiet and awkward minute where Eden was knocked out for a whole minute stuck in that rock.

Alexandra already deactivated all of her skills as well and was back to normal. Geomchi had his wounds healed by Alexandra as well. Naturally she did not even offer an apology to Eden nor healed his wounds as well. Especially to the one to his heart on being sent flying so suddenly like that.

In fact Alexandra was outright pissed at Eden right now.

“Who the hell said you could teleport right in front of me! Because of you my duel was stopped like that!” she screamed back at Eden in rage.

Not backing down at all; Eden retorted, “I can't know where the hell you were going to fight. That's why I chose a location that was reasonably far away from the damn open space you were fighting on! When and why the hell did this duel reach out so far away from where it started then?!”

“Then you should've teleported further away then!”

“How would I know that?!”

“Don't you have some peeping skills?”

“You..! That just makes me sound like a pervert there!”

“And you are not?! Last time I saw you, you were half naked for Gods sake and you changed in front of so many men!”

“Wha? I bloody changed clothes since they were ruined and plus you changed in front of them as well!”

“They were distracted with that tentacle monster!”

“I changed at the same time as you!”

“That makes you a pervert!”

“How does that make me a pervert if you changed at the same time as me?!”

“....”

The Geomchis watching this was very silent and afraid. Eventually Geomchi178 asked Geomchi2, “What should we do?”

Geomchi thought about it and replied, “A woman's anger is terrifying. Two women arguing is...even more so. Master, I suggest to leave before we are caught up in this as well. Master?”

“....”

Geomchi looked at Eden and Alexandra bickering. Eventually Alexandra attacked Eden in which he responded on using magic that blew away a large portion of trees instantly. Seeing this, he made up his mind quickly.

“Right, we are leaving before we die like those trees.”

“Yes master!” the rest of the Geomchi shouted in a more quiet voice not wanting to attract the attention of the two.

[p=center]xXx[/p]

“So....”

“What?” said Eden sharply with a glare.

“You know back then...when you got along with Risene well right? When she died....did you feel sad?”

“....”

Eden made a complicated face.

“At that time, I don't think I had any proper emotions. It's only after that....recently”

“Yeah, you were dragged into another ridiculous quest immediately afterwards.”

“....”

“You know, I was quite scared when I logged in and I couldn't find you anywhere...it was like you were completely gone. Did you ever had that feeling with me?”

“Sometimes.....like the time when I killed you....though there were a bunch of a lot of different things mixed in then...and even now. I feel that....I don't want you to disappear as well. I...probably won't be able to handle that in the end.”

“Good!”

Alexandra patted Eden on the back with a smack. She was smiling with a bit of joy. Happy that Eden thought of her like that. That she was important to him.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

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Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 9700~

- The first half of this chapter was kinda hard to write though the duel at the end was really easy to write. I fear that I couldn't get the personality of the Geomchi group in that well into the chapter....

- Well time to think of content for the next 3 chapters.