“Eden? Why is it called Eden?” asked Ian in a tone that was extremely disrespectful to one older than him...even though Eden looked like only a few years older when it should be decades.
“No idea, this was here when I asked and has been recently updated to the newest facilities and buildings” replied Eden not caring that much of the attitude that Ian had towards him.
Eden muttered a few more words and then started and walk straight ahead. The group, whom were looking around to see this new place followed Eden closely behind as he explained things to them.
“We actually came here quite early. You still have 2 more months until school starts” he said.
“Why did we come early?” asked Peter.
Eden chuckled and then said, “You all know that you will need to travel with Viv for 6 months in game right? That's a month and a half in reality and you will be pressed to even meet that with school hanging down your back.”
“Makes sense” muttered Hina.
“Another reason is that I want you guys to get used to this place since you will be staying here for a few years at least. Grace will be 18 and graduating from the secondary section if things goes right when it ends.”
“....”
Everyone shot their gaze at Eden.
“And everyone else would be in the University section of this school or rather academy. Calling it a school is so much easier for me. Plus there are lost of benefits on coming here. First there are no fees since everyone is sponsored by several governments. The second is that the lodging here is great. And third is there are lots of jobs later on if you came from this place even if you were expelled or only stayed for a week.”
“Why does this place seem like a gathering of suck up ass holes” muttered Maria with a sigh. Eden glanced at her and then said, “Well there may be some people like that. Most of them have a lot of pride since they are considered geniuses. Well since you guys got in, you count as one as well.”
“And...what are you doing...after this?” asked Grace.
Eden smiled at her and then said, “You will be seeing me soon enough.
They following Eden entered the first building they saw. Inside was extremely clean and white to the point that you would expect this place to be a lab or hospital.
The receptionist who was naturally a beautiful young lady no more than 25 based on appearance alone saw Eden with wide eyes and then said hurriedly in a number of different emotions, “Welcome to Eden Academy, please identify yourself” while at the same time shaking with fear or extreme respect to Eden.
xXx
Surrounding the group on all side with no way to escape the familiar bandit player said, “Give up and die” to them.
Sain simply smiled back at the bandits while the others were either worried or tense for the upcoming battle. Who was going to make the first move, them or the bandits? And then Sain said...
“Compress Magic Mastery Release!”
Compressed Magic Mastery has been released. Magic Strength +240%
His magic power increased by several fold and at the same time started the battle. A total of 22 enemies, all of which were higher level than them...in only levels and nothing else.
“Raven! You stick to Miriel and Serena” shouted Sain immediately giving that the priority. As for everyone else, they each split up and attacked in every direction.
Shadow moved to take care of the weaker foes while Lyndis moved in the more crowded area where her body would be protected by the enemy itself. Finally Luna moved around in a circle attacking to distract the bandits as much as possible.
At this point; Sain, Miriel and Serena were casting their spells to which the bandits knew was something extremely bad to them.
“Kill the casters!” the bandit player shouted directing 5 bandits to them solely.
Sain grinned and started rapid firing spells at every bandit he saw.
“Paralyse Shot! Poison Shot! Poison Shot! Paralyse Shot! Poison Shot! Poison Shot! Paralyse Shot!Paralyse Shot!”
Everywhere, bandits were either stunned for a second due to the paralyse effect or had a darken face due to the poison effect. Either way it was something that directly reduced the fighting strength of the bandits.
Sain concentrated and then mixed in 'Weaken' as well to reduce the damage the others took. Serena already had her hands full casting healing spells and 'Root Bind' to stop the bandits as much as possible.
Miriel on the other hand was doing as much as possible to kill as many bandits as she could. The other three were using their own skills to take down the bandits as well.
Just as Sain was about to now focus on attacking the bandits as well...
CLANG!
Sain barely managed to block a sword that was coming down on him. It was the blade of the bandit player. Sain looked at the other player there at the back who seemed like the leader. He wasn't doing anything....yet.
Two...three more times the sword came down and Sain lost some health blocking it. Fortunately he didn't need a staff to cast spells properly now.
“Mana Bolts!”
He chose the most effective spell at close range. While 'Magic Arrows' had more power normally, in close range, 'Mana Bolts' which outnumbered 'Magic Arrows' in projectiles fired as better in blowing the bandit player away.
Sain could tell that he shaved around a third of the bandit player's health with that attack. Magic was extremely powerful to begin with and his magic was boosted several times stronger than usual as well.
The bandit player retreated and then sent two more bandits to deal with Sain as he went to attack the others.
Using his spear work, Sain who wasn't that bad with the spear but rather the others were really good at their choice of weaponry. With some damage, Sain managed on his own while sending the occasional shot at another bandit when he could.
The battle rapidly continued for another 5 minutes with half of the bandits surprisingly dead. While the player bandits mostly lived since they ran away when their head was low, most of the NPC bandits with their low intelligence charged and were swiftly killed.
It was at this point that the bandit player leader moved in since it wouldn't be too good if more of them were wiped out.
xXx
Shadow saw that that particular player who seemed quite stronger than the rest was about to do something. He finished dealing with one of the bandits that was harassing Raven enough to get to the other two and moved to take out this one as fast as possible.
“Burst Speed! Backstab!” Shadow intended to finish this off in one go aiming for the neck of that bandit.
Moving along and dodging the other bandits, Shadow was about to strike at this particular bandit when...
A gleam of light that was a sword and yet faster than he could react came slicing at him.
“Become Mist!”
His instincts took over and and made his body into mist where the attack simply went through him without damage. Shadow's body continued to moved through and re materialise on the other side of the said bandit.
“Shadow Step.”
Shadow charged and yet moved in another direction to attack from that angle but the sword followed through and hit him reducing his health down even more.
Suddenly Sain shouted, “Shadow! Don't attack that one! Deal with the others quickly!”
Seeing that this bandit was much faster than him...Shadow complied and erased his presence in time to escape another blow before moving along to heal and attack another bandit attacking the others.
xXx
Serena was having trouble keeping up.
Yes, even though she was a healer she also had a movement restriction spell as well and as such needed to stop attacks before they hit the others while healing them when they do. It was a double task that was difficult enough without every bandit moving in to attack her.
“Root Bind!” she shouted for the nth time in a row using the vines to trip the bandits over at time or stop them for a split second for someone to escape.
While she wanted to help the others more, she needed to help Raven the most since he had to guard them and could only take hits. Furthermore Miriel had to take care of the ones Raven let through and Serena needed to stop the bandits from attacking her as well.
At the moment things became too hard for Raven to deal with alone, Miriel took out her whip and started attacking the bandits nearby rapidly.
'Ah...they are attacking here a bit less....' thought Serena in relief.
Seeing that she had more time to breath now though time was still short, Serena started to recover the health of the group a bit more.
“Heartbeat Healing!”
Party in range has been buffed with the spell 'Heartbeat Healing'
Health will regenerate for 15 points every second for 10 minutes
Enough time had passed for Serena to cast this spell for a second time in this battle.
The battle continued as Serena kept on using her 'Root Bind' spell over and over again aiming for those attacking the others first like at Shadow and Lyndis and then those who would attack those nearer to her like Miriel or Raven.
However since she wasn't in deep combat like some of the other...no at this point she was the only one to notice, the bandits were attacking faster and faster.
xXx
“Speed Strike!” shouted Lyndis as she cut three time in on go using her sword with great struggle on keeping this up.
Her body, under the influence of 'Sword Dance' for quite a while was steadily getting faster and faster the more she fought attacking and continuing to attack. However at the same time the bandits were keeping up with her.
'What the hell is going on? After half of them died, they suddenly stepped their game up' she thought as she was forced to back away after some skirmish against three bandits at once. She took quite a bit of damage thanks to it though it was rapidly restored thanks to Serena on the job.
To her left she could see that Serena, Miriel and Raven were fighting in a group with Sain not that far off and to her right, Shadow was doing his best on picking the enemies off but it wasn't going as well as before.
“If only I had my fire skills...” Lyndis muttered with a 'tch' under her breath as she charged straight back into the three bandits she was fighting before.
To count, there were originally 22 enemies. Now there were 10 of them with half of them being players. She was taking care of three of them, while Serena, Miriel and Raven were dealing with another three and Sain dealing with two at the same time. Shadow was trying to pin the other two but no success.
This left two bandits who weren't fighting but at the same time were acting suspiciously and was probably the source of Lyndis' bad feeling.
Using 'Speed Stance' she shouted, “Speed Strike!” along with her 'Sword Dance' boost to her speed and slashed at the bandits again. However at that moment, the bandits all blocked her strike at the same time.
“....”
'They are getting better at reading me...' she thought seeing that these bandits were clearly reacting to how she was fighting...but at the same time she was doing the same to these NPCs.
While in peril from dying by these bandits, at the same time Lyndis was happy for this kind of battle. A battle to prove herself and prove that she was can still move froward no matter what.
The three bandits moved and encaged Lyndis quickly intending to attack her from all sides. Using her experience with these kinds of battles, Lyndis motioned and swung her sword from her back froward and to the side rapidly attacking in all directions essentially.
This was something she practised quite a bit during this trip. A method to fight alone was as good or greater than a method to fight with others.
In this display of her skills, Lyndis felt that one of the bandits faltered and immediately took the 'Precision Stance' and shouted, “Power Strike!”
Her swing was swung down at that bandit to her right rapidly. The bandit with his skills blocked the attack but it broke due to the difference in quality of blade and to Lyndis' own strength when striking him. Lyndis managed to cut down the man and quickly with almost a leap got out of the way from several attack from the other two bandits.
Unless one strings a killing blow with another attack, there will be an opening.
Lyndis remembered that from what Ron said a long time ago and put it into practise with expecting an attack when she did such a thing. Lyndis continued to clash with the remaining two bandits while the overall battle continued.
xXx
Raven clashed with the three bandits again using his shield to block the attack while using is empty arm or legs to attack them.
Without his spear his offence was near zero however that didn't mean that he couldn't stall for time.
'Health is at 45%...Serena is healing again' thought Raven almost too calm. Although sad, he was used to thinking clearly when beaten up though this time he could still breath well enough and did not have his limbs bound.
“Shield Parry!” said Raven knocking back a strike at him...no it was targeted behind him. These three bandits saw that Raven was not as a threat as the other two and thus moved to attack them if not for Raven directly blocking the way.
However Raven was not perfect in his defence. Sometimes attacks slipped through or he was forced to dodge a killing blow and they went through to the other two. But at times like that, those two had their own ways of defending themselves and as such Raven wasn't so worried of them.
Counting them, Raven had four skills he could use, three of them related to the shield and two of the four he couldn't use else the bandits would attack Miriel and Serena. As such he was limited to 'Shield Bash' which could stun enemies and 'Shield Parry' which could deflect attacks and allow him to counter-attack though he had no method of attacking.
Clang!
Another strike was bound off his armour which to Raven's surprise was more sturdy than he thought even after his repairing of it resulted in the reduction of the armour's maximum durability.
“Damn, his armour is too thick” said one of the bandits.
“I know, continue to attack, target those girls, they're the ones keeping him up” said another bandit.
Once again three blades tried to target Miriel and Serena and Raven moved to block them all. However one of the three attacks was too far so he couldn't so anything about it. Instead...
Snap~!
The arm of that bandit was hit and was forced to drop the sword. Immediately after, vines came and forced him on his knees to which a 'Ice Bolt' was shot and blew off his head in one go.
The other two bandits stared at this scene while Raven thought, 'Miriel is going onto the offensive now after gaining enough mana again.'
While the group had extremely large mana reserves especially Miriel and Serena, they could still run low or out of it after a while. In the beginning of the battle, Miriel especially used 'Ice Bolts' so many times that you did not expect it was possible for her to and hit, killed or at least distracted some of the bandits.
When Raven felt like they were really going to get through this fine, he heard a chilling voice.
“Such a waste of a pawn there. You guys are really too weak.”
The voice was deep, commanding and frightening to Raven. He looked to find that another bandit was in front of him but this time it was one of terrifying power. There difference of 100 levels was clear no matter the training.
“Die.”
One word from this bandit was enough to cause Raven to instinctive move for life. He leaped back while using his shield to block the blow...
BANG!
You took 1654 damage
'Spiked Edged Iron Shield of Attacking' lost all durability and thus broke
Raven was sent flying away and hit a tree stopping him. His shield broke and the blow even pierced through the gauntlet of his armour as well causing blood to pour out at that location. However Raven noticed that several bones on other parts of his body was broken as well.
He struggled but could not move properly but at this point he could not do anything. He could only look...
Serena was acting strange.
xXx
Before he realised it, Raven was sent flying away while he was distracted with this damn bandit player. With some rage he shouted, “Get lost!” kicking him several time in a combo, took out his dagger as well and rapidly slashed and slashed at the bandit player ignoring all damage until he killed him.
You have killed a player with the murderer mark rapidly, fame +10
Shadow did not even take 5 seconds to finish the bandit player off and ignored the message.
“Burst Speed!”
'Please make it...'
Although that bandit who took out Raven seemed slow to Shadow, he himself felt that he was too slow as well. That bandit's blade was already going down to Miriel as she moved to protect Serena...
“Backstab!”
Shadow moved even faster and dug his dagger into the back of the bandit but he felt that the armour this bandit had just barely stopped the blow from dealing critical damage to him.
In a frenzy, Shadow shouted, “Double Strike!” with his short sword and cut the back of the bandit causing him to cry in some pain.
The bandit's arm moved and elbowed Shadow causing great pain in the stomach where he was hit. His movements were to fast for Shadow to track perfectly but he could see that a punch was sent once and then another elbow strike was sent to his back knocking him onto the ground.
“Urr....” Shadow let out a groan. His health was low to the point one strike could kill him but he was still alive.
Ignoring Shadow now, the bandit moved to Serena and Miriel. When Miriel tried to cast a spell, her staff was knocked away easily. The bandit most likely as a player intentionally did this to prolong their suffering....and in the mist of this...
“AHHHHHHHH!!!”
Serena let out a scream that had no attachment to the word 'human.' The glove on her right hand fell off to reveal the mark of the warrior that was branded on by Eden so long ago was glowing bright red completely berserk.
xXx
Sain and while he was at it, Lyndis were dealing with two bandits each on their own. It was a long battle and either side could win. But at the same time both of them noticed that distress of their comrades and yet could not move to help them.
By the time Shadow was knocked to the ground like that, Sain tried many times to cast a spell to help them but the two bandits attacked even more fearsomely and caused him to be hit as many times as he tried to help the others.
But then everyone paused as Serena screamed...and saw that bright red light from her right hand.
Sain not only glanced at that but also his own right hand which was tingling as well as if in response to this phenomenon. There was no message appearing in front of Sain about this...perhaps his 'Party Scan' skill was too low for him to see what was going on with Serena on a game mechanic level.
“ROOT BIND!” shouted Serena shaking off Miriel who was trying to protect her.
Vines appeared around her in quantities that Sain remembered to be several times more than she would usually be able to make. However unlike before as well, these vines did not try to tie up the bandits but shot at them like arrows digging into them and pinning them onto the ground like that.
The four bandits facing Sain and Lyndis were incapacitated like that with the two...no five of them shocked at Serena.
However the same bandit that was in front of Serena retreated a bit dodging the 'attack'.
At the same time, the strange light in Serena's eyes...blood-lust did not disappear but instead increase with a green glow surrounding her.
The leaves on the ground and on the trees also glowed this colour as she shouted, “LEAF SLICER!”
At that moment, Sain did at a message from the game.
Party Member: Serena has generated the spell 'Leaf Slicer'
Leaf Slicer Beginner Level 1
A spell in which the user uses leaves as a base and powers them with mana to cause them to become sharp blades that will rip anything into pieces. The amount of leaves affected and sharpness, speed and toughness of the leaves are determined by the skills level. If there are no objects to imbue this spell with, the user can use twice the mana cost to still use this spell without it.
Mana Cost: 50
By the time Sain read the first sentence and thus was also distracted by the actual spell in place, countless leaves from around them turned into weapons.
There was no clear sound but the wind as the leaves that numbered over a hundred moved to kill everything in sight.
“Shit!” Sain could hear Lyndis say as she and Sain dodged and generally tried not to die by running out of the area effected.
Looking at the bandits bound by Serena earlier, they all died though that one bandit that was clearly stronger than the rest survived with cuts all over his body and rage in his heart.
“Damn brat! Die!” he shouted branding his sword at Serena. There was no one to protect the 'weak' Serena now.
But instead of running away, Serena moved forward and actually blocked one of the bandit's strikes using her wooden staff.
This came to the shock of everyone include the bandit but at the same time Sain could see that the rage in Serena's own eyes faded away as she returned back to normal...
“Shit!” Sain now shouted realising what was happening with Serena. At this rate she was really going to die.
Pondering what was going on, Serena did not react as the blade came down on her head again.
“SERENA!” shouted Sain trying to cast a spell to protect her as fast as possible but not fast enough. Miriel who also shouted at the same time also tried to do the same but without her staff at hand and those two too far away...
“Dark Arrows.”
Suddenly several black lights shot from the distance through that bandit and also player.
“Wa...” he had a look of shock and surprise as he died immediately.
Everyone at that moment looked at the direction of the person who was their saviour. There, looking more dignified than ever was a boy that was wearing a cloak and had an expensive looking witch hat on his head with his staff that was radiant at the edge of the forest.
“Well then...group healing needs to come first” muttered Viv chanting something that Sain could not hear. However in the next second his health and stamina filled up to full which was a surprise.
The injured Shadow and Raven also got up and looked at their bodies that seemed like nothing bad happened to them in shock. The level of healing was even on a completely different level from what they knew as well.
“Wow, I can't even feel the pain I had before” said Shadow patting his stomach and back to see if there was still any injury there.
“Of course there isn't any injury left. Healing spells work by restoring the body which means when your health is max out, it is unlikely you are to have an injury else you actually have one and need to get it healed to get max health again” said Miriel lecturing Shadow on how healing spells worked a bit.
“Umm...actually it's that healing does both at the same time...healing injuries are also part of the progress of recovering as well” corrected Serena.
Miriel looked at Serena and then nodded as if she corrected the information in her head.
“Come along” said Viv which was enough for the group to get up and follow him. In Raven's arms Sain noticed was the fragmented pieces of his shield.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
“....”
xXx
“We are sorry!”
A total of six people bowed down to them prostrating as much as possible to them. They were the ones they met weeks ago and gave out information of them to the bandits in exchange for their capture comrades.
Sain could see that both Lyndis and Miriel were enjoying this...to which Sain noted to make sure to not act submissive in front of them just in case.
After a few seconds where the group and the ones prostrating to them looked at him, Sain pointed to himself and said, “Huh? Me?”
“Yes you of course! You need to decide on whether to forgive them or even punish them!” said Miriel firm on her belief on this situation. Sain noticed that she looked at them like trash and was edging at her whip.
'She...really wants to punish them doesn't she...'
Inside now, Sain was considering what Miriel wanted and the well-being of those who were ground in front of him. For some reason he was trying to consider both sides when it was obvious which side he should pick.
That is with Miriel of course for some reason...
“Fine you can-”
“No need to punish them anymore” said Viv interrupting at the right moment, “I...already dealt with them” he said in a cold voice which sent shivers down everyone's backs.
“Anyway I completed the magical contracts in which will bind you to follow the guild's orders” said Viv calmly as if this had nothing to do with him, “You will report in when we call and do what we wish even being used as a meat shield and dying countless times until you repay us full in blood. The only real way of getting out of this is deleting your characters and starting over though...we will track you down nevertheless.”
The six people on the ground had collars around their neck. It was proof that they were under the absolute command of another.
In other words they were now slaves to the guild and wore slave collars. Something that wasn't exactly popular...for one to wear but it still exist though rarely since the Kingdom long since banned such things.
Sain wondered how Viv managed to get them and more to the point why didn't any of the guards stop him on making six people slaves.
Perhaps this had to do with being part of an Independent Guild or it was just this guild, Sain didn't know but didn't question at the same time. He saw that Miriel was a bit disappointed in not being able to punish them.
Seconds later, Viv sent the six off to god knows where and now addressed the group after taking to an area in which there were less people staring at them.
“Good job on those bandits. Most of them were higher level than you and there was one that was even a level 200 mixed in there” he said in praise.
“Wait” said Lyndis suddenly looking pissed, “You KNEW there was one there and that we were getting attacked as well?”
Sain immediately tried to stop Lyndis saying, “Lyndis I don't th-”
“Of course” said Viv as if it was obvious with Sain sighing at the same time, “I knew from the very beginning that you were being attacked. I was wondering how you fare against them actually and how much you improved compared to the beginning. I only stepped in because I rather not have Serena walk back here for another 3 weeks.”
“So you knew and didn't do anything?” asked Shadow.
“You had to learn how to fight, human foes are only the easiest of enemies to kill. There are countless ways on killing humans but no so for other races” Viv said shrugging his shoulders again, “Plus this will help you cope later on when Eden isn't so kind and hand holding as he is to you currently.”
“....”
“Then onto the next thing I have to deal with.”
Viv flicked his staff and Lyndis, Serena and Miriel's wrist glowed a bit from the seal that Viv placed on them months ago disappeared.
He then said, “Since we're halfway on our travel, it's time to switch what direction you two are training at. Serena will no longer be able to heal-”
“What?!” retorted many of the group as a green light flashed and Serena's wrist had the same symbol on it again.
“Lyndis can use her fire skills but no sword-” Viv immediately stole her sword from her.
“Miriel is unable to use Ice magic this time-” The green light flashed again on Miriel as well.
“And finally Raven can't use a shield though it already broke and can only use a spear from now on” Viv threw Raven's spear which he took from before back to him.
“Wait how are going to get healing now” demanded Lyndis seeing this as unreasonable along with her sword being taken.
Viv pointed at Sain and said, “He can heal you.”
“But his healing is weak! So weak it long since couldn't even heal us properly!” shouted Lyndis.
Miriel at that moment whacked Lyndis on the head and said, “Calm down. We can deal with no healing in battle and Sain can heal us out of battle slowly. It'll be just like when we were forced to travel together” with a cold voice denying Lyndis on speaking anymore.
Sain thought about his healing spell...'Minor Heal' was at Beginner Level 8 and could heal 155 health at a time. Thankfully he could spam heal everyone when he needed. When the skill reaches Beginner Level 10, it would heal 185 Health and turning to the Intermediate Level would increase it to 250 Health healed each time he casted.
Moreover he would at that point unlock the next stage of healing called 'Moderate Heal' as well which cost more mana to use but at the same time would start at healing 500 health each time.
As such it wasn't so bad...as long as Sain continued to heal rapidly and increase his spell level as fast as possible. He was almost at Beginner Level 9 with the spell either way.
“Anyway do you guys wish to stay and rest here for a day or continue immediately? I believe you might be a bit tired after 3 weeks of walking on foot here.”
“I believe we should rest first” said Sain.
Viv nodded and then replied, “Then I will be waiting to pick you up tomorrow.”
With that Viv left the group to their own devices.
With Viv gone Sain could hear Miriel sigh, “What are we going to do....”
xXx
At an inn in the town that was crowded with people they somehow managed to get a large room to themselves. This town was located on a trade route in which many merchants and other types of players travel through this place to get to one place to another.
With part of the town being connected to the sea, there were many ships at the port. Most prominently was that there were several large galleons waiting for enemies to come to blow them to pieces.
However at the same time from what Sain managed to piece together from conversations, the town was more full than usual. There was speak of another Guild taking control of this town.
For some reason Sain felt that he had betrayed Raven by allowing the inn keeper who looked like an old aunty feel him up to get a room for a low cost...
On the other hand Miriel was happy enough they got a room and for cheap as well.
“Anyway we need to talk about how we are doing things from now on” said Sain straight to the point, “With Serena being unable to heal...and everyone else having to switch their skills as well....have to go from a generally defensive style of fighting to one that is offensive in nature.”
Serena was now unable to heal which she tried just in case but no valid. However she could still use 'Root Bind' that new spell 'Life Slicer' and most importantly 'Blood Burst' which would all be handy.
On the other end, Miriel was now unable to use Ice magic which reduces her attack rating to near zero. In exchange her powerful buffing spell were now back and she can now create barriers again. Sain only wondered what she will be taught later on to boost this.
As for Lyndis, she was still mad that her sword was taken from her. She had spent a lot of work on fighting with only a sword but now she has to deal with using only the fire skills she had. She had precisely two fire skills that could be used in combat which were 'Burning Touch', a close range burning status effect inflicting skill and 'Flame Strike' which was basically a wave of fire being shot. Sain knew that Lyndis would have to make more skills to survive from now on.
On the other hand, Raven's situation was more...delicate. His armour has been in tatters since a while ago and his shield was in pieces, broken even though he got his spear back. After spending some time alone with him, Sain realised he was depressed about his broken shield.
“Anyway it seems like I am now the main and only healer in this group...Lyndis, how many bandages do you have?” he asked.
“Why are you asking the same question as Miriel? We have a couple of rolls” she replied.
Sain nodded and said, “When the time comes...no it's better for you to learn the actual skill. It will be useful when there is no one to use a healing spell” thinking of what might happen in the future.
“Also is it possible for you to create a AOE attack skill with fire?” asked Sain once again.
Lyndis thought about it and eventually said, “Yes...though it will take some experimenting. There are two possible ways I can do that...I suppose you want the one that doesn't kill you guys as well.”
“No, learning both of them are fine as well. Having more skills to use is still better than having less. Also you will be taking Miriel's place as the range attacker.”
Sain than looked over and said, “Next is Miriel...since I will probably not have enough time...I'm counting on you to buff everyone when the time comes.”
“That's what I can only do now isn't it” Miriel let out a sad laugh, it seemed that she enjoyed attacking enemies more than supporting the group.
Sain ignored that along with the recent time when she really wanted to punish people as well and went to the next point, “Raven you will be taking Lyndis' place as the melee attacker this time round.”
Raven nodded.
“While you are still depressed, you still have the other shield you brought from the store right? It'll just be a while until you can use it” assured Sain trying to cheer him up.
“Thanks...” Raven managed to reply.
“Anyway we need to get used tot his again...but first.”
“FOOD!” shouted Lyndis like a hungry beast.
“....”
The group was silent for a second before Sain said, “Yes some good food...just don't eat too much else we will sell your swords.”
Lyndis nodded with an affirmative to this suggestion focusing on the food.
xXx
The next day, the group met with Viv who was curious on what was going on at the port. The town they were located in was a pivotal point in which many players and NPCs alike go to to cross the gap between this land and the next.
To sum it up, it was at this town which people would travel to to get to the lands that connect the Western Continent with the Central Continent. And it was at this land that their destination lied which means they need to go through this town and cross using a ship to continue.
“What the hell is with these prices!” someone shouted.
“Rip off! Rip off!” another person shouted as well.
The crowd rallied up and started screaming so many words at the same time that every recognisable word was drowned away.
“What's going on?” asked Sain holding his head to the loud noises that was making him dizzy.
Viv replied with, “It seems that they are charging the price to cross higher and higher.”
“Why would they do that?” asked Lyndis this time though it was Miriel who answered, “To get profit of course! They are one of the few places that you can catch a ship from and to the Central Continent.”
“Hmm....”
Lyndis still wasn't so sure about this explanation.
“Basically this is a choke point where lots of people gather. By increasing the price, you gain more money easily. I wonder how much higher they jacked it up” wondered Shadow while explaining it to Lyndis.
“It was originally just 10 Gold per person which was quite high but now it's 100 gold per person” said Viv.
“1-100 gold?! That's super unreasonable! It'll be easier to just swim through!” shouted Lyndis in shock with the crowd who heard agreeing with her.
“I wouldn't if I were you” said Viv.
“Huh why?”
“There are many creatures in the sea that are more than capable of ripping you apart and eating you before you know it. Eden and Al learnt that first hand before when they decided to go deep sea diving.”
“Diving....where exactly?”
“I think...it was called the most dangerous sea area where predators lived killing each other constantly...honestly I thought and still do think it was a horrible idea to go there to try to go fishing and then diving out of nowhere.”
“....”
“Let's me deal with this first and we can get on our way to the next set of land we have to cross.”
Viv moved through the crowd easily as if they were separating for him and an arrogant person looked at Viv with scorn and said, “What the hell do you want? 100 gold to get on the ship and nothing less.”
Viv looked at the symbol on the man's equipment and said, “So there was a change in guilds in this area recently.”
“Yes we now set the rules so get lost brat!”
For some reason everyone heard the sound of something snapping from Viv. Suddenly the place he was standing at was getting darker...and there seemed to be a strange pressure coming down at them at the same time.
“I decided to destroy your guild” said Viv plain and simple.
“....”
However the words coming out of his mouth came to be sudden and simply impossible for a young looking boy. The crowd was completely silent at this point as the guild that he was facing was struggling not to laugh at his effort.
Following with those words Viv moved grabbed onto the person's arm and flipped him into the air where Viv threw him again while falling back to the ground into the ocean water.
Splash~
“....”
The crowd stare dumbfound at this scene. Someone so small could throw someone so large.
But at the same time they all knew they were in a game and as such it wasn't that uncommon though unlikely.
“Buereueuuge Save me!” shouted the man who was thrown into the water. Several of his guild mates appeared and Viv said in a happy tone, “Oh! You saved me some time!”
He proceeded to throw the next three...four..five people from the same guild into the water as well.
Eventually a tough looking bald man with a giant scar on his face that would make all children cry I his presence appeared. With a large sword at hand the man declared, “Who the hell are you to attack my guild?”
Viv kindly introduced himself to the man with a bow, “I am Viv of the S.S Centre Independent Guild.”
There were murmurs when he said 'Independent Guild'. Every player knew that those who belonged in an Independent Guild were almost all elites due to the sheer difficulty in being in one and completing the 'Guild Quests' given by the Kingdom.
“Oh...so you are saying that you are one of the elite brat?” asked...no rather said the man, “As a Guild Leader I cannot let that go.”
“Go ahead” replied Viv not caring while giving this arrogant feel which immediately pissed off that man. In actual fact, if you looked hard enough, it was Viv who looked more pissed off.
With anger in his body, the man slashed at Viv who literally did nothing at all and took the hit.
“Wa...”
The blade was stopped as it hit the body of Viv. The man now more serious tried again time after time again but still his blade was stopped and Viv didn't even take any damage.
“What is this spell?!” demanded the man.
Viv looked confused and asked, “What spell?”
“Ahh....! Tempest Strike!” the man scream pouring mana into his blade and slashing with the fury of a violent wind.
Bang!
“Impossible.....” muttered the man with the crowd and even the group thinking of the same time.
No damage.
That was the result, an impossible result in front of them. The blade had clearly went for the next not hitting the cloak or other pieces of armour Viv had on but even his skin blocked the attack so easily...
“This level of power...I suppose around level 400?” wondered Viv touching the blade curiously and not bothering with the stiff faces around him.
“By now you know about the difference in strength between those 100 levels apart” Viv started to speak with everyone silent on him. He had an atmosphere for everyone had to listen or else.
“It is said 100 levels would make a 10 times difference in strength between two sides. This means someone who is 100 levels higher will have the strength of 10 men of 100 levels lower. Of course if one had the strength of 10 people this difference wouldn't matter. But what about 200 levels instead? Would it be a difference of 20 people or...100 people? Answer me this, how many hundreds of levels do you think I am above you for me who is a magic user, weak in physical ability to not take damage from you a level 400?”
“....”
There was silent. No one could answer. Even now, the average level was 100 and those who were level 200 were considered strong with those level 400 tilters. This was even more so for a level 600 but even a level 600 would be hurt by a level 400 if they were to be attacked.
“No answer?” Viv titled his head.
“....”
The man was shaking now considering what Viv said. Even if it was a buff and they were of the same level, Viv had managed to throw six people with little effort and even managed to withstand his strongest move without a scratch.
This person was a monster.
That was what he was thinking all this time as Viv bestowal judgement on him.
“Well I did say that I would destroy your guild. I believe you had members all around this town keeping check on things. Tracing those with the Emblem you wear now is easy for me. Piercing Root of Hundred Fangs.”
Viv uttered what seemed to be a spell and the ground rumbled and...
“Ahhhhhh!” someone from the crowd screamed...no several of them in fact. All of them were dragged up into the sky encaged by some plant life that had spikes on it as it went higher and higher. But this didn't only happen here, all over the town the same thing happened.
A hundred people...all from the same guild that only recently took over this town was captured and lifted up in the air.
“Let's see....what should I do with them? Crush them to death? Make holes in them? Or should I make them be eaten alive bit by bit?” wondered Viv aloud enough to cause the imagery in everyone's head shiver in fear.
“P-Please Stop!” begged the man on his knees now. Viv looked like he enjoyed looking down at the man at that moment.
However Viv simply smiled at the man giving him hope for a few seconds.
And then crushed it.
“I won't.”
There was a sound...several sounds loud enough for everyone to hear of meat and bones being crushed and grinded up into pieces along with the visual effects. A large number of people vomited due to the scene or ran away.
xXx
“That is..completely sick” said Lyndis in a disgusted voice, “Why the hell were we shown this?”
Miriel pale said, “Well I think that man pissed Viv off quite badly and with attacking him....”
“Would someone get that angry over some words?” asked Sain. The others...in particular Lyndis, Shadow and Serena looked at him worried and shocked.
“Considering...” Shadow said before looking at Serena and hurriedly catching her before she fainted to the extreme scene of blood and gore, “Doesn't this game have a filter for those under 18 or something?”
“No filter” replied Raven.
Miriel shook her head and said, “I think that's only for those under 13. Serena is over that age so...”
“Hey, Viv is calling for us” said Lyndis very conservative in her words about Viv now. She had a feeling that Viv heard her words despite being so far away...
Walking through the crowd that mostly disappeared by now, Viv cheerfully said, “This man said he would let us go for free!”
“....”
“It looks like we will also be getting first class treatment as well so you all will be getting a room while having a large space to practise.”
“....”
“So what are you staring at? Let's go~” he said super cheerful to the point that they didn't recognise him. He was acting more like Alexandra for those moments there...
After boarding the ship with a very few others...Viv turned to the group and said under his breath, “Acting cheering like Al is hard...I noticed things were really grim so I tried that cheerful act but it didn't work...I suppose only Al can do that then.”
“Anyway you can ask anyone where your rooms are. I'm going to relax for a while now” he said leaving the group behind with a couple of crew mates moving the carriage and bull to a safe location.
“....”
“What was that about?” wondered someone.
xXx
In his own private room alone...with several counter-measures to stop people from listening in...which included on that made anyone who placed their ear on the door to lose it, Viv contacted Eden again.
“Serena also awakened yesterday” Viv said immediately getting to the point.
[Why did you tell me this yesterday then? I believe I did have some time to spare that day...]
Eden was a bit irritated that this information was a bit late.
“I tried 4 times to call you, all at different times then gave up. Besides that how are you dealing with this 'Trial of the Emperor' thing that Weed wanted you to look in?”
[Hmm...well there are almost no trace of what it is. Many times has stories said of the chosen Emperor needing to pass something and something else to be recognised. Most of it is utter bullshit if you ask me. Just trying to make themselves sound fancy. It's hard to find things out while concealing my intentions]
“And the parts that aren't?” he asked again.
[Who knows. They speak of at least some powerful foes coming. Alexandra will enjoy that at least]
“And idea how many?”
[I think...three maybe four? No enough information on my side. So what kind of abilities did Serena get?]
Viv remembered what he observed before he had to step in.
“Serena went berserk, her strength in both physical and magical abilities increased several fold but it didn't last long. It's either that her one doesn't last that long or there is still some stability problems with her Synchronisation with her 'mark'.”
[So Sain has increased thinking abilities of strategies in battle, Miriel has increased battle instincts with her sadist tendencies and Serena has increased combat abilities. Not exactly the greatest abilities to get but still not the worse. Well I wonder what the other three will get. How are they coming through?]
“Not sure. The 'mark' awakens under stress so it could be a while. Those three who have awakened it at least felt a strong responsibility for the others.”
[True true]
“Anyway, any idea what Al is doing?” Viv asked one last time.
[Hmm...I believe she said something about going south to explore some pyramids. Something to do with those 'Sun Authorities' again I suppose. It's quite hard to do things when we can't even fight at full power]
“You know as much as me that we are too powerful. Until the time is right we need some form of restraint.”
[Yeah but taking away Alexandra's Divinity was quite the shock]
“Didn't Al say she abandoned it?” even though he already knew the real answer....
[Nah....she was lying then to make us feel better. Anyway half way in the journey, have they gotten stronger yet?]
“Not good enough.”
[I see...I will be counting on you before they reach Alena]
“No problems.”
With that, the call was cut off and Viv was left alone in his room once again.
----------------------------------------
Author's Notes:
- Word Count: 8500~
- Well there are just two more chapters in this volume...
- Also with how the text in my chapters (To be precise last chapter) decreasing in size after a certain point...I have an idea what is happening. I noticed that everything under 'Heartbeat healing' was down sized...after I directly copied my chapter from openoffice so instead I copied everything first to notepad and then here...which solved the problem since notepad doesn't have those fancy options. There must have been some hidden thing that transfer via copying which caused the size decrease that I didn't notice. Well there shouldn't be a problem from now on.