It was impossible to replicate Maria’s skill and although attempts were being made thanks to the very flexible playstyle of the game that allowed skill creation through the attainment of some very complex hidden requirements, Maria’s skill can only be obtained if the players met with Odin and learned it directly from him. Although it was impossible to completely replicate [Shin-Zantetsuken], it didn’t mean that others―who were very adept in the way of the sword―couldn't derive a new sword skill based off of it.
At the moment, a rather large part of the community playing the game, whether they be casual players or those very hardcore players that saw the game as a second life or were just very serious about it, had transitioned into becoming sword-users thanks to Maria. The hype behind her skill and performance in the IGC still hadn’t let up and players from all over were inspired.
While the world was wondering where she was and what she was doing, Maria had just logged back into the game and was working together with Ash and the rest of her subordinates to calm the uneasiness that was slowly spreading in her faction due to her extreme actions for the past few in-game weeks. Although her citizens were loyal to her, her act of killing those that she deemed suspicious using nothing more than her judgment, or rather, her high-level [Appraisal] skill, was naturally going to cause unrest within her nation.
At this point, her faction had long since evolved into a nation. She and her subordinates no longer referred to it as a faction anymore as well as they all started referring to the Dire as a nation. Maria was the Queen of the said nation and naturally, she needed to act like one. Today, she was going to address the cause of the unrest and was currently in her queenly get-up that accentuated her grace and beauty. She was out on the balcony with Ash and Carmilla while Alexa was using a massive scryer orb to project their image to every settlement within the Dire.
Naturally, Ash had already prepared what she was going to say and all she needed to do was memorize the words and read them from the script that was prepared.
“My people!”
What happened next was actually worthy of an Oscar. If her friends and other players were present, even they would be moved by Maria’s heartfelt speech and they’d even think that this was a cinematic event that was actually part of the game’s storyline. Not only did Maria read off the script that Ash and Carmilla prepared, but she also improvised and even acted the part of a ruler who was aggrieved and in anguish after her own extreme actions.
“It was a necessary act, but I won’t deny that what I’ve done was quite extreme. However!”
She paused at this moment for a dramatic effect before continuing, “I’ve successfully rooted out all of the traitors, but it doesn’t end here…our enemies are taking us for fools! They’ve come to our lands and disrupted the peace that we all have tirelessly created! Will you all accept that?!”
Maria paused once more before wiping the tears in her eyes before her expression twisted into one of rage and anger, “I for one, will not accept this. Our enemies have conspired against us and are threatening our peaceful lifestyle! Will you accept this?!”
She was at her castle and a large majority of her citizens were gathered in her castle’s vast courtyard and outside of the gates. Some were still in the city tuning into her broadcast at the city squares and in unison, they all began shouting.
“No! We will not accept this!”
“We will follow, Queen Maria!”
“Show us the way forward, Your Majesty!”
The vampires and intelligent monsters that were under Maria’s rule were all blood-thirsty warriors in their own right and this was by default. Just because they had become obedient and somewhat peaceful after coming under her rule, this wouldn’t change their most basic characteristics as monster NPCs.
Their roars and cries for battle echoed throughout the city and the region. Maria could feel it, everyone knew what was coming next and what they needed to do to rectify this. Their Queen was hurt and they needed those responsible to pay. This was exactly what Maria wanted. She wanted to rile up her citizens with this speech and officially declare the start of their continental conquest.
“I hear all of your cries! You all know what to do next! We’re going to crush those that have brought harm to our lands!”
Requirements fulfilled! Generating quest... You have generated and initiated the World Quest: Blood Continent Conquest! Would you like to proceed? Y/N Caution: Initiating this quest will drastically change the effect of the future Main Story Quest and other players will be able to directly aid or interfere with your quest progression!
Maria didn’t even re-read the caution before decisively tapping the [YES]. The players’ influence on the quest progression was inconsequential to her. Whether they helped or not, it wouldn’t matter in the end because she had already planned and prepared for a long time to take over Vanhal. Although the war on Gaia had yet to begin, she was already going to start her own war on her home planet.
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World System Alert!!! World Quest: Blood Continent Conquest has been initiated!
Every player currently playing the game all heard the system announcement that heralded the start of Maria’s conquest of her planet. Nobody understood what it meant but seeing that it had something to do with the Blood Continent, everyone was immediately reminded of Maria.
“What’s this? After being quiet for so long, she’s finally doing something absurd again?”
“What’s this conquest all about anyway?”
“It could be the main story quest that’s part of the planet she’s currently on, right?”
Many people began speculating about this new quest that warranted a server-wide system announcement but they didn’t know that Maria and her army were already on the move. The moment her quest started, Maria’s armies which had been waiting near the lands of the monsters and vampire nobles that weren’t conquered by her, immediately started their attacks. While most of the attention had been directed on the acts of cruelty that she had been committing all around her territory, Carmilla, who wasn’t with her and Ash at the time, had been secretly distributing their forces all around their half of the continent in preparation for the war.
Carmilla had moved Maria’s forces to her lands before secretly moving them to their positions so now, once her speech was over, the broadcast immediately changed perspective to those that were holding smaller scryer orbs at the frontlines, and the screen was changed from Maria to a direct feed from the battles that were simultaneously being fought right at that moment. Her armies purposefully attacked those vampire nobles that weren’t too powerful and easily conquerable. The vampire nobles being targeted were only those in the Baron and Viscount ranks.
These vampires were powerful in their own right, but Maria’s armies had many soldiers of this power rank in abundance. Baron and Viscount-leveled vampires and monsters of the same level were only foot soldiers in her army. The more powerful commanders and captains had power ranks at least on the same level as a Vampire Marquis or Count.
Ash’s efforts in raising the Dire’s armies and Maria’s own efforts in raising her personal army hadn’t gone to waste at all. These monsters and Vampires that could be their own lords if they so chose to do so, were all under Maria’s command and they fanatically pursued to complete the mission their master had entrusted to them, which was to annihilate all of the obstacles in her path to completing her grand ambition of taking over the continent.
The vampire lords that were only of Baron and Viscount ranks stood no chance. They were cut down by the soldiers of her armies and were sent to oblivion for not surrendering. Anyone that didn’t surrender and submit to Maria was cut down with impunity and the battles fought were completely one-sided. It was a slaughter but no one watching felt conflicted.
Instead, they all felt their blood boiling as they too wanted in on the action. Their Queen had started the war but they were all here, adventurers, mercenaries, and free warriors alike, just watching. They too wanted to be out there on the battlefield to help with the war efforts and earn a bit of glory for themselves.
The scryer screen changed again as it showed Maria once again. She had a cold look of indifference in her eyes as she opened her mouth and said, “This is only an example of what’s to come to those that have disturbed us. I will not bar anyone from helping with the war efforts but you are to report to my administration to receive a badge of authority before participating.”
Faction Quest generated: Blood Continent War Efforts Players and NPCs may receive this quest from you or any of your direct subordinates that have been given authority over this quest Would you like to designate those to receive this authority? (1/5)
Maria immediately gave Ash and Carmilla this authority as well as 2 other NPC subordinates that were working in her castle’s administration department. One of the NPC subordinates would stay in her castle to receive quests while the other one would go to the city’s Guild Square and open an administrative desk there to accept quests. Since this was a quest that her faction generated, Maria was able to set the objective and rewards. She decided to distribute the quest in a rather unique way. Instead of giving the players and NPCs a long-term chain-quest, she instead decided to separate the quests according to a contribution ranking.
Each quest was repeatable and they would only have a simple objective which was to destroy this, retrieve that, deliver this, etc. Each quest would reward a certain amount of contribution points and reaching a certain threshold in contribution would unlock more difficult quests that would reward more contribution points. These contribution points would work as a currency that could be traded for certain rewards that will be provided by her faction. Naturally, the rewards Maria listed were all lucrative.
Gold and Blood Coins were naturally on the list, but weapons, items, and unique equipment were also up there. Skill books and construction blueprints were also there. Even rare pets and mounts weren’t exempt from this.
The only way Maria trained her armies was through combat so diving into dungeons and going onto the field to battle monsters was her soldiers’ main source of EXP. Thanks to Ash’s help, her armies never stopped fighting as well. Killing monsters and clearing dungeons naturally yielded monster drops and rewards. The things they obtained would immediately go into Maria’s treasury and the amount that had accumulated was…immeasurable.
She naturally wouldn’t be able to use any of this herself and most of them weren’t even compatible with her class and race so, with nowhere to use them, they had been sitting in her Dire’s treasury all this time, collecting dust. Many of the items were valuable and high-leveled so they were worthy of being used as rewards for those that contributed to her war efforts. Basically, Maria had opened her Dire’s Treasury to everyone that was willing to help her out with her war.
The more valuable items in her treasury required more contribution points to be traded and thanks to the system’s help, all Maria had to do was open her treasury and the contribution points would be automatically assigned to her items by the system without her needing to do anything like inspecting the item’s quality and use. If she had to do that by herself, it would take her ages to completely go through all of the items that her armies had accumulated for her.
When the list of rewards was publicly shown to her citizens and those waiting to accept the quest, everybody wanted in and couldn’t believe their eyes at how generous their Queen was being. Naturally, most of the items that were listed would mostly hold appeal to players but the rare crafting items and materials that were collected in abundance by her soldiers were what attracted the NPCs. Things like red ogre bones, a cyclops eyeball, vampire blood, rare monster meat, and the like were in abundance. Of course, the weapons and equipment did hold appeal but NPCs were more prone to creating their own weapons, equipment, and devices themselves so rare materials were what attracted them.
“Damn, the queen is actually willing to give away land dragon skin for such little contribution points?”
“There’s Mythril ore? I can’t believe it!”
“Wait, is that a harpy egg? I could use a new flying pet…”
“Damn this long line, I wish we got here sooner! I should’ve just watched the broadcast at the square!”
"Please, it was your idea to go to the castle since you desperately wanted to see the beautiful Queen in person!"