The days pass with regularity. Despite the chaotic evil designation for the Red Sect, they had done little that screamed evil. Other than summoning demons into the bodies of their acolytes, the daily business of the faction was rather mundane.

None of the Red Priests took issue with his business with the players.

That's not to say they didn't notice. Koll could feel curious eyes on him when one of the odd players came to him with meat and stones. Seemingly giving the adventurers nothing for their offering.

In Cosmos, The NPCs view the players as "Immortal Braves". Odd phenomena that appear across the galaxy.

In the base game, the "Immortals" appeared for the first time in memory. In these early days, the NPCs saw no issue with the strange but weak players.

As the expansions were released, the early ambivalence towards the Immortals grew into trepidation and all-out hatred. This attitude had a lot to do with the basic nature of gamers. The toxic and often violent gamers grew into a threat to the established order on many worlds.

The chances of him being murdered by an aggressive player were too high.

While Koll had managed to attain a class and boost his stat points to some extent, he was far behind the players in Evolutionary Rating.

Boosting his G rank to F would have a qualitative effect on his power.

In his haste to get a well-rounded stat list, Koll had neglected to invest his experience points into his Evolution Meter.

[Evolution Meter: 0/750,000]

The amount he needed to accrue was relatively small at this level. But, it would cost him the option of investing in his stats.

Still, it was time to focus on the rank-up.

Fortunately, before the D rank evolution, he didn't have to perform a race quest to advance.

All these thoughts swirled in Koll's head as he took his spot outside the temple.

Wu Lan approaches him as he scratches at the surface of one of the stones brought to him by the players.

She watches him for a moment before speaking.

"Koll," she says. "I appreciate your dedication to your craft. But, don't you have any ambition beyond drawing on rocks?"

The woman was fishing for new lore and perhaps a quest.

Koll set his stone and knife down before looking at her.

"Have you heard of the 4 kings of corruption?"

Wu Lan perks up in interest.

"No," she says. "Please tell me about them."

Koll contemplates the lore.

"You know that Ruun was once a world ruled by the god of light, yes?"

She shakes her head.

"Well," Koll continues. "The god of light cultivated this world for eons, blessing its inhabitants with peace and joy.

"12 sovereigns ruled their domains and made sacrifices to the god of light.

"For a long time, the domains were in harmony. Each king owing his allegiance to their god.

"But, The Crimson God, our god, coveted the beauty of the god of light and his world.

"A seed was planted into the hearts of the kings of Ruun. Something even the supposedly omniscient god of light couldn't notice until it was too late.

"Each king slowly fell to madness. Their attention turned to the domains of their brethren.

"4 fell in battle, their territory and people claimed by another. 4, after much madness, saw the grain of corruption in their hearts and sought the power of their lord god.

"And, 4, the 4 kings of corruption, fell from their beauty and became lords of terror owing their fealty to the Crimson God.

"Before the Red Sect, the immortal kings found balance.

"A very tenuous balance."

Koll looked into the valley.

"Obviously," he continues. "Their immortality was lacking as their tombs are hidden in this valley.

"Anyways," Koll takes up his stone and knife. "That's all I can say for now. The 4 kings and their treasures are hidden in this place."

Wu Lan shows an excited face as she reviews his words.

Seeing her in such a state, Koll wills the quest he had prepared to be distributed to her.

[Quest Name: 4 Kings of Corruption]

[Description: Koll Luna has shared the sacred knowledge of the Red Sect. Search for signs in the Crimson Valley for the resting place of the first champions of the Crimson God.]

[Reward: 100,000 XP and +100 Reputation with Koll Luna for each tomb identified.]

Koll watches Wu Lan's eyes widen as she reads the quest and its rewards.

"Awesome," she says excitedly. "Ah, Koll, you're the best."

The man is taken aback by the comment but doesn't have time to process it before the young woman turns and runs off into the valley below.

"Wierdo," he utters under his breath.

It isn't long before word of mouth spreads throughout the player base of what could be a main storyline quest. Making Koll the target of every player in the Red Sect faction.

While Koll gives out lore freely, a gathering takes place on the upper level of the temple.

The Holy Daughter of the Red Sect stands by the window looking down on the scurrying figures at the base of the stairway. Behind her, a gathering of red priests and priestesses demonstrates the hierarchy of the upper echelon.

Were Koll present, he'd recognize the red dress, black hair, and moon-white skin of the Holy Daughter.

"My lady, the rumors revolving around the Immortals have been growing. They are disobedient and irreverent. We cannot allow them to run unchecked in our territory."

Other red priests nod in agreement.

The Holy Daughter doesn't seem concerned, her eyes on something far below.

"My lady, we should make an example for the immortals. I recommend using a number of them in blood sacrifice to our God. We can even do so repeatedly with their ability to revive."

The Holy Daughter raises her hand to silence the gathering.

"What do you know of the 4 kings of corruption?"

The gathered priests blink in confusion.

"My lady..."

The Holy Daughter turns from the window.

"I'm asking if any of you have heard of the 4 tombs of the kings of corruption."

Her words hiss out with displeasure.

"My lady, there are no tombs of nobles in the valley."

Her amber eyes seem predatory as she gazes at the uncertain expressions on their faces.

"Fools," her words pierce those gathered.

"My lady, what do you mean?"

A look of contempt appears on the face of the Holy Daughter before she turns back to the window.

"The legends of the 4 kings of corruption are passed down from one generation's holy child to the next. None other than I and a few others should be aware of them.

"But, never in the legends was there mention of tombs in the valley.

"Tell me. How does a new acolyte possess knowledge of the Sect's greatest secrets?"

"My lady," one priest finds the courage to speak. "Are you referring to the acolyte who has been attracting the attention of the Immortals? The one who's always drawing sigils?"

"Yes," she hisses.

"Perhaps," the man continues. "We should interrogate this acolyte."

The concept of interrogation in the Red Sect is pure torture.

"No," the Holy Daughter says decisively.

The priest and his fellows show the confusion on their faces.

The Holy Daughter looks down on the almost inconspicuous frail man as he speaks at length with one of the Immortals.

"No," she says again. "I want to see more before taking action."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Far below, Koll is unaware of the potential dangers looking down upon him.

As the days progress, more and more players come to him looking for quests.

As he takes a portion of their earned XP every time they complete a quest, his strength is bolstered.

With his total stat points increasing, the daily pool of XP he can give out more than accommodates the growing population base.

But, as he invests every new point of experience into his Evolution Meter, he's reached a bottleneck.

Fortunately, the Evolution Meter is slowly filling up.

The 750,000 quota is relatively small and Koll only needs a little over 100,000 experience points before he can advance.

While the quest to find the tombs has drawn a lot of attention with large rewards, none have come back to him in success.

And, while the meat and stones quests are a good start, Koll feels that he needs to find something new for his patrons.

[Quest Name: Harpy Feathers]

[Description: Koll Luna has tasked you to procure 10 harpy feathers from the grotto in the southern valley.]

[Rewards: 5,000 XP, +2 Reputation with Koll Luna]

[Quest Name: Dragonflies of the Wetlands]

[Description: Koll Luna has tasked you with procuring 10 dragonflies at the extreme East of the Crimson Valley]

[Rewards: 5,000 XP, +2 Reputation with Koll Luna]

As he finalizes the quests, he waits for the opportunity to share it with the players.

As if on cue, the familiar Dancing Dagger comes close to Koll.

"Mr. Luna," the player says with familiarity. "It's good to see you this morning."

"Morning?" Koll questions, looking to the sky. The sun is well past its mid-day height.

Dancing Dagger chuckles, "Well, it's morning for me. I just logged in."

Koll nods his understanding.

Players often slip their real-world issues into conversations with NPCs. Confident that the mob characters don't understand their meaning.

"Well," Dancing Dagger says excitedly. "I had a premonition of sorts last night."

Koll raises an eyebrow in skepticism.

"And, what was this premonition?"

Dancing Dagger smiles smugly, "That you would have a new quest for me today."

Koll shrugs, "I do."

Dancing Dagger beams.

The young man has an honest and friendly face beneath golden locks. He's the sort of person that would easily make friends. So, Koll can't hold it against him that his premonition had come true.

With a thought, Koll shares the quests he'd worked on.

Dancing Dagger smiles.

"These are good. But, I was hoping you'd have something related to the Kings of Corruption."

Koll smiles a half smile.

"I have yet to receive any reports related to the tombs."

Dancing Dagger shifts his weight awkwardly.

"Koll," he says. "I've been meaning to ask. Who are you in the Red Sect? As far as I can tell, you're not a red priest. We've all been wondering why you give out so many quests and even one as big as the 4 kings."

Koll smiles as his vision becomes unfocused.

A moment later, he brings a single finger to his lips.

"Shh."

Dancing Dagger's expression changes from curious to anxious.

In his mind, Koll thinks that at times being particularly enigmatic can have a powerful effect on people. Particularly players.

The concept of secrets in Cosmos is what drew Koll so deep into his life before. Now he stands as gatekeeper to those who once would have been his peers.

In many ways, Koll has acclimated to his new life. He's given up on trying to petition the moderators for some sort of escape from the game. Besides, he's found a new enjoyment in the game that he'd been lacking in the latter years of his time as a player.

Dancing Dagger is quiet for a moment before a sly look comes over his face.

He nods and says, "I'll be back with your materials soon."

With that, the young man leaves to seek out the items for his quests.

Alone again, Koll stows his items and walks over to one of the general goods vendors.

The middle-aged woman who runs the shop gives him an appraising eye.

"What can I get for you?" she asks indifferently.

Koll looks through her supplies until he finds vellum parchment. Her stock isn't particularly large. But, the Red Sect sorcerors have enough need for the vellum that the supplies are restocked regularly.

"I'll take all of these," he says, placing the parchment down in front of her.

When the transaction finishes, he notes the +1 reputation with the woman. And, the not-quite-so-indifferent look in her eye.

Merchants in Cosmos only care about money when it comes to reputation. Pay them enough and they'll love you.

Walking away from the vendor, Koll feels that his work for the day is done.

As he walks back into the temple, on his way to his room, he feels his body stiffen. An evolutionary dread falls upon him as a woman in a red dress walks towards him.

Koll trembles before the woman. His eyes refusing to raise to the Holy Daughter of the Red Sect.

The woman stops right in front of him.

"What's your name, acolyte?"

Koll swallows the lump in his throat, "Koll... Koll Luna."

She waits for a moment as Koll feels his grip on the world slip away.

"Your demon is weak," she says plainly.

Koll doesn't respond.

After another moment of the woman's scrutiny, she walks away. The evolutionary suppression dissipates slowly. And, Koll regains control of his body.

Sweating, he hurries to the relative security of his stone room.

The room is mostly empty. But, now has a pillow and blanket to provide him some comfort.

Still fatigued from running into the Holy Daughter, Koll falls to the ground and binds himself with the pillow and blanket.

The days that follow pass quickly.

More and more players are starting in the Red Sect faction. And, Koll reaps the rewards for the players' hard work

[Evolution Meter: 750,000/750,000]

With the meter maxed out, Koll holes up in his room and activates the evolutionary process.

[Evolutionary Rank G upgraded to Rank F. Please select species designation.]

There's only one evolution option for Koll.

[Species: Terrestrial Human II]

Making the selection, Koll suddenly convulses and falls to the floor.

Intense pain surges through his body as his bones expand, dragging his changing musculature across his flesh at varying speeds and intensity.

Fortunately, his evolution is directly from the terrestrial human branch and thus not as intense and traumatic as some of the higher-level evolutions.

The process concludes in less than 5 minutes. And, the effects are fairly dramatic.

His height has increased by several inches. His muscles pop a little more dramatically than before. And, his hair is thicker.

Other, less observable, changes occurred within his body.

His eyesight and hearing. His lung capacity. His mental acuity. And, many other aspects of his body have grown stronger.

All these changes manifest as a numerical modifier of 1.1 being applied to all of his stats.

The boost to his abilities is dramatic even at the low level.

[Evolutionary Rank: F]

[Evolution Meter: 0/3,500,000]

If he were still a player, he would think it laughable to be happy at the F rank. But, right now, he's excited to be even a little stronger.

Breathing heavily, Koll wipes the sweat from his body before exiting his room and returning to the open forum below the temple.

Taking his usual spot, Koll receives resources and experience for essentially no effort.

The dragonflies are ground into a paste and mixed with water to create a unique ink. While the harpy feathers serve as quills.

A large number of quills serve him best as using them only once imbues greater power into the inscriptions he writes into the vellum.

Busy with his inscriptions, Koll pays little mind to the bustling activity of players running back and forth between the temple and the valley below.

Caught up in his own little world, Koll doesn't notice a familiar figure approach.

The woman watches him for some time as he sits on the ground drawing sigil after sigil into a stream of parchment.

The woman looks at the pile of harpy feathers discarded to his side.

"Koll," she says after a long time.

Startled out of his reverie, Koll looks up to see the figure of Wu Lan.

"Ah, hello," he says sheepishly.

She smiles excitedly.

"You're actually using what we're bringing you."

Koll nods, "Of course I am."

She hesitates, "It's just... you're the only NPC I've seen do that."

Koll pretends not to know what NPC means.

"It's just because I do it out in the open. Everyone works hard in their own way."

She looks at him for a long moment.

"Koll," she says. "I asked you about your ambition before. You said it was the tombs of the kings of corruption.

"It's just..." she hesitates. "You seem different. Are you a hero character?"

Koll thinks about her question.

Hero characters are story protagonists who carry the events in a localized area. They can be world bosses and at higher levels can influence the galaxy on a grand scale.

Koll shakes his head, "I'm not a hero. I'm just a person."

He plays off his ignorance. But, the idea that he could have a great deal of influence on the story of the Red Sect had crossed his mind.

Wu Lan cocks her head to the side and looks at the parchment again.

"Say, Koll," she goes on. "Would you be willing to sell some of your inscriptions? I'll pay what I can."

Koll shifts on his feet. He had thought to sell them when he first started making them.

An inscribed vellum can store a spell for use by anyone holding the vellum. He'd made protection spells and attack spells. He even made several utility inscriptions like temporary invisibility and movement speed boosts.

He'd written off the idea of selling them early on in his crafting.

With the number of inscriptions he'd made and their potency, the entire dynamic of the Crimson Valley would change.

The reason he spent so much time drawing out the sigils was to boost his proficiency and gain both experience and potential points.

Koll shakes his head, "No."

Wu Lan frowns.

Before she can say anything more, Koll draws up a new quest.

[Quest Name: Just Dance]

[Description: Dance for Koll Luna's amusement.]

[Rewards: 0 XP, 0 Reputation with Koll Luna, 1 Inscription: Leader of the Pack]

The Leader of the Pack inscription allows the user to boost movement speed by 15% for 3 minutes.

Wu Lan's jaw drops when she reads the quest. Soon her face runs crimson as she looks around at all the other players milling about.

She grits her teeth and accepts the quest.

Her breath is tight as she once more looks around.

With a sigh, she begins awkwardly moving her feet and arms.

It can barely be called dancing. But, she endures the embarrassment and continues for a couple dozen seconds.

Coming to a stop, Wu Lan looks over her shoulder to see a few players looking at her oddly.

"Is..." she says anxiously. "Is that good enough?"

Koll enjoyed the whole display quite a bit.

"Yep. Good job."

The quest completes and the Leader of the Pack inscription is automatically deposited in her inventory.

Wu Lan looks at Koll with some resentment before pulling out the inscription and activating it.

Like a gust of wind, the young woman races off into the wilds.

Some curious players approach with anticipation of a new quest and ask Koll if there's anything they can do for him, like maybe dancing.

Koll feels a headache coming on as he passes out the quest and watches as several people all foolishly dance for him.

He randomizes the inscriptions that get distributed, allowing players a wide array of play styles.

Unlike the other quests, Koll locks Just Dance at 1 time per user. He doesn't need to be harassed every day by weirdos wanting to dance for him.

It doesn't take long for word of the powerful inscriptions to be widely known. And, the entire forum is filled with players dancing with varying degrees of skill.

If Koll could see the confusion on the face of the Holy Daughter as she looked down on the bizarre event, he might forget his terrible fear of her for a moment.

As stands, Koll has long hit the limit of his patience for the players and simply completes everyone's active Just Dance quest and moves quickly up the stairs of the temple to return to his isolation.

Despite his hopes that the dancing phenomenon would end with the quest, events told a different story.

From that day on, the players of the Red Sect found the joy of dance. And, Koll would continue to see dance-offs at all hours for many days to come.

Other than the joy of dance, the players each got a taste of the power of an Engraver.

Many used the inscription they earned, largely to great effect. But, a few took to buying the inscriptions from other players and hoarding them for personal use.

As the days progressed, the players became increasingly insistent that Koll give them new quests in hopes of receiving more of the coveted inscriptions.

Koll had quickly become the primary quest-giver of the region. With the red priests feeling somehow left out.

"Acolyte Koll Luna," a man in a red robe approached.

Koll looked up from his work.

"Yes?"

The red priest's eyes examined the inscription Koll was working on.

"Acolyte, you have not been attending your lessons. Do you consider your skill beyond that of your trainers?"

Koll could recognize a loaded question for what it was.

"No," he said. "But, I do not consider my skills compatible with the lessons. The Holy Daughter herself has noted the weakness of the demon inside me."

The priest nodded, "It is true that you have an exceptionally low aptitude for demonology. But..."

His eyes were drawn back to the inscription.

"In my opinion, you have an exceptionally high aptitude for blood magic."

Koll thought for a moment.

Blood magic was essentially soul magic, as blood is the medium of the soul. If he used the blood of powerful entities to inscribe his sigils, he could boost the potency of the magic in his inscriptions.

"You're right," he says after a moment. "I will be sure to attend lessons from tomorrow onwards."

The red priest nodded. "It is good that you understand. I look forward to seeing what you can accomplish."

With that, the man departs.

Koll thought for a moment about what he knew of blood magic. It wasn't as simple as slathering a few symbols with blood to get a great sigil.

The soul is inherently difficult to deal with. It carries a will of its own and often seeks to damage the blood magic practitioner.

Koll thinks about what he will need. It was pretty simple. He needed blood. And, lots of it.

Fortunately, unlike other NPCs, Koll had an army of players ready to kill for him.

He quickly drew up several quests to hunt local beasts and gather vials of their blood.

The rewards were the traditional experience points and reputation, with the addition of a random inscription per completed quest.

As the day was dying, Koll issued out a number of the quests and retired for the day.