After hearing Maria's explanation, Lizzy thought for a moment before saying, “As I thought, it's bad...I really should report this to Gerald and Mikael.”

“What? What's bad?!”

“The fact that it's glaringly obvious who the father is! It's that god you serve, Death!"

Maria was immediately incensed when she heard what her best friend just said and exclaimed in anger, "Excuse me?! Death?! The father?!! You want me to hit you Liz? I've finally rid myself of that guy and you bring him up?!"

"Well, it's true! He was the previous owner of Calamity and you just decided to fuse it with your Ego Weapon, or whatever it's called, which–I'll remind you–was fused with your body, or soul, or whatever! So technically, it does make him Cali's father!"

"Over my dead body! Cali has no father! She only has me, her mother!"

"Tch, whatever, let's just go with that!" Lizzy didn't want to argue anymore and seeing that her friend abhorred the fact that Death could technically be Cali's father, she decided to just drop it. "It's better if you think like that anyway. I wouldn't want your brothers to think otherwise, or things could get messy for you... Anyway, I'm going to tell them now."

"D-Does it have to be now?"

"Trust me, Mary. You'll want them to know now rather than later when they finally arrive here on this continent."

“Oh? They’re not on Dreyra yet?”

“Yup, they’re both still on Vanargand. It's honestly a hassle that the system randomly teleports you like this. I still have quite a bit of guild members stuck on Vanargand. Even some of the guys on my elite teams are stuck there!”

“Hmm…I see... but please, don’t tell them.”

“No, I definitely will though?”

“Please don’t. They’ll come rushing over here the moment they hear about it. It’d be annoying either way.”

“I’m still gonna do it,” Lizzy said.

Maria smiled and replied, “Do it, and I’ll have my nation’s army hunt you down, Liz~”

“Waahhh, scawy~ and~ send!”

“Eh?”

"Eh~?"

Lizzy was only joking around but from Maria’s tone, she knew her friend really was going to do what she said she would, but still, she sent the message to both of her brothers anyway. If Maria did send her armies to hunt her down, then she could just add another thing to complain about to her brothers.

In the next moment, Maria's chat box was immediately blown up with a multitude of pings and messages from her 2 older brothers. She paled in fright after only looking at the first few words and she began shaking Lizzy while crying out, "Lizzzzzzzzzzz!!!"

"I'm sorry, Mary...it had to be done. It was nice knowing you..."

"You're dead to me, Liz!"

"It was nice that our friendship lasted this long...I'll definitely miss you."

"Stop acting like I'm going to die!"

"But, you are though? Ohohoho, I wonder what'll happen if uncle finds out?"

"LIZ?!"

“Hahaha! I’m only joking."

"It's not a joke anymore now that my brothers know!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Lizzy nonchalantly shook Maria off and she immediately started whining while looking at her chat box. Her brothers were constantly badgering her with messages and she was too scared to reply to any of them.

"Uuuuhh..."

"Tch, stop whining, Mary. Don't you think it's better if they found out now and only chewed you through the chat? Or would you rather have them scold you in person, hm?" Lizzy asked after giving her some very sound reasoning.

"I...I guess...?"

"Right? Anyway, your kid…she looks a little too similar to you. In fact, she looks EXACTLY like you...”

"Ehehe, I know right? Isn't she, like, totally adorable?"

"Much more than you, yeah."

"Hey!"

"It's really bizarre though. Even if she is your kid, she just looks like a mini you..."

“What do you expect? When there’s no father, isn’t it only natural that the child I mothered looked the same as me? She only has my beautiful genes after all~”

“...I guess? I don’t know. I’m not the one with a kid.”

“Isn’t she just the cutest? Ahhh, it feels very rewarding~”

“...Yeah?”

“I mean, I just finished conquering the continent and–”

Maria began boasting about her long conquest of the Dreyra Continent–the continent of blood where the vampires once reigned supreme–and after the long, tiring work, she was rewarded with her Second Class Advancement along with a daughter.

“Isn’t it great?!” Maria asked excitedly.

Lizzy was thinking deeply about it before she answered, “That’s good and all, Mary, but doesn’t it sound more like a hassle and a huge deal of responsibility? You have to take care of your daughter and your nation, y’know?”

Instead of completely agreeing with Maria, she said it was great but followed it up with a bunch of important questions. Being a country's ruler and a mother...that was a huge load of responsibility right there. She didn't know if her friend could handle such a thing, but thinking about it again, she's been doing fine all this time.

Maria replied that she knew about all of that. It was tiresome sometimes, but still fulfilling nonetheless. Ever since she had become the Blood Empress, her days were no longer spent going out hunting monsters and killing bosses. Instead, she was subjected to a lot of office work and all sorts of duties that were anything but fun. Even then, Maria still felt that all her responsibilities were bearable and fun, especially since she had a lot of nice people–NPCs–around her.

She was playing a game, but instead of gaming, she was working. It really took a toll on her motivation at times, but whenever Cali, Lilah, or Alexa came along and cheered her up, Maria would always somehow get back into the mood to work again. Heck, even when Ash or her 2 other vampire dukes came to hand her more work, she found it fun just complaining to them.

Despite working a lot of the time, Maria still managed to get some monster hunting and boss killing done. Her subordinates knew that it wasn't good to keep her confined to her desk, so they would always give her a few days off to let their Empress relax. Thanks to that, Maria was appreciative of her people.

“Okay, wow…” Lizzy couldn’t help but be amazed at her friend’s growth. Usually, her friend would always be complaining about things that were a big hassle, but here she was being so responsible. “Our little Mary grew up so fast.”

“Ew, disgusting,” Maria replied with an appalled face after seeing her friend ‘tear’ up.

“What the heck?!”

“I feel like I’m going to throw up. Stop doing that, please.”

“...I seriously want to hit you right now. Or should I tell uncle about Cali as revenge?”

"Hey! That's going too far!"

After a bit more banter, Lizzy led Maria to the temporary base she established in the area her guild declared as their hunting grounds. There, Maria met with the rest of her friends and they similarly had the same reaction as Lizzy when they heard that the child she was carrying around that looked exactly like her was her daughter.

Once the explanations were over, Maria’s friends began playing with her cute daughter while she went to ask Lizzy why they were taking so long with their quests and not going to the city right away.

“Well, you should know about it since you’re the one who issued the quests, right?”

“Is it about the booster card sets?”

“Mhmm.”

“Tsk, I knew it. Everyone’s been blowing the value up of those items on the forums.”

“They sell for a lot now. Half a million gold per 9 sets.”

"Huh? I thought it was per 10 sets?"

“It was, but the value keeps increasing...and it still is. Look, someone's trying to sell 8 sets for that amount,” Lizzy showed her the forum screen she was looking at and Maria shook her head in shock.

“What the heck... So, are you guys planning on selling yours?”

Lizzy shrugged and replied, “I won’t dictate what my guild’s ordinary members do with their card sets, but the elite team can’t sell theirs. We need both the EXP boost and the Item Drop Rate boost to grind for better equipment and levels later on.”

“Oh, so you haven't used them yet?"

"Of course not! Why would we use them in this low-level hunting grounds?"

"Yeah, I guess…but a word of advice from me. Maybe you should order all of your guild members to not sell their Drop Rate booster card.”

“Hm? Why’s that?”

“Just trust me on this.”

“...Okay, sure.”

Lizzy wasn’t going to question it any further and just agreed with her friend’s suggestion. She then posted in her guild’s chat and pinned Maria’s suggestion on their guild announcement board. She wasn’t going to enforce the order, but she said that those that fulfilled the order would be rewarded later. Since her guild was still busy at the moment with their quests, she couldn’t chat for too long without doing anything and just brought along Maria with her during one of her guild members' quest runs.

Thanks to Maria’s help, Lizzy and her team were able to complete their quests a little bit faster.

“Hey, Mary, I know that you’re the Empress of your country, but are you sure you want to pass up on those booster card sets? I thought you needed a lot of EXP because of your racial penalty?”

“Even if I could accept those quests–which I obviously can’t since I’m technically the one issuing them through the NPCs–I don't really need them.”

“Oh?”

“I have both those buffs permanently activated as long as I stay in my palace for a few hours.”

“What the–Ahh, so that’s why! Man, that’s such a cheat!” Lizzy exclaimed.

“Cheat? It barely does anything! Also, I have a better buff too! Mine’s 2x the EXP Rate and 2x the Drop Rate, but thanks to my penalty, the EXP bonus just barely puts me on the same level as all you other players while the 2x Drop Rate is being influenced by my Sin stat.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

"Your Sin stat?"

"It's a unique stat of mine. Anyway, while the drop rate buff is still there, it makes the quality of the items that drop for me pretty trash..."

“Well, that’s good! Otherwise, you’d be way far ahead of the entire player base!”

Maria sighed and said, “Man, I wish I could be. Then I wouldn't have to work as hard as I do right now...”

"Chin up, the whole fun of grinding levels will get taken away if it's too easy."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense."

Lizzy was straight out lying through her teeth. It was fun seeing your level skyrocket, not seeing it stagnate. That was just boring! However, she had to say something to cheer up her friend because her case was just bad. The bonuses that all the other players enjoyed only served to bring her to the same starting line as the rest of them.

Maria, her friends, and the rest of the Fallen Angels guild spent a few more hours completing all of the quests in the village. Thanks to her help, things sped up quite a bit. With her [Mass Teleport] skill, Lizzy and her guild were able to cut down the time they had to spend moving back and forth from the village and the hunting grounds to turn in and accept a quest.

“When did you get this ability?” Amanda asked. She was the most curious about this because she had obtained a hidden class change item that allowed her to become a Void Witch.

The Void Witch class allowed her to use space-time magic spells and one of them happened to be [Teleport]. She could use it to move long distances without the use of a teleportation gate or a teleportation formation as long as she’s been there before.

Amanda had to reset her level after changing her class but thanks to the [Teleport] skill, she was able to quickly catch up to her previous level because she could move around places instantaneously, making her hunting all the more efficient and quick. However, being able to use [Teleport] on more than one person was something Amanda didn't think was possible, though she wished she did have such an ability. So, naturally, she was curious about where her friend obtained the [Mass Teleport] ability.

“It was a reward for achieving an overall 90 rating for my country’s various sectors.”

“I don’t know what that is, but good job!” Lizzy patted Maria on the back and commended her.

“There’s a restriction though. I can only use it in places I’ve been to in my nation and I can only bring a maximum of 50 people. I can't use it outside of my nation's territory, you see. I do have a similar teleportation skill thanks to my magus mentor, but it only allows me to teleport to places I've marked and it uses a ton of mana depending on where the destination is,” Maria explained before turning to Amanda and continuing, “As you’re a Void Witch, Ama, I’m sure you’ll probably gain a better version of my [Mass Teleport] spell in the future. I just got this as a perk for being the ruler of my country.”

“I'm still a little envious to see you do this when I’m the one who has the proper class for it. Jeez, I wonder when I can learn it~ Anyway, does this mean you’ve been to every place on the continent since all of it is part of your country?”

“Yup~ I spent a good few in-game months doing that and although I haven’t explored every place in great detail, I can say that I’ve already been everywhere on Dreyra.”

“Nice.”

“Oh yeah, I also compiled a lot of information on every possible hunting ground on the continent. I’ll give it to you guys later when we arrive in Heltania City. I left the documents in my office, ehehe~”

Emily walked over next to Maria and nudged her with her elbow, “Heltania City, huh? I wonder why you didn’t name it the Great Maria Heltania City?”

“Ugh…”

“Hahaha, just wait until your brothers arrive and they see the city’s name. They’ll probably have a good laugh at it!”

“H-Hey! I just wanted to name it after my family!”

“Sure~ I bet you wanted to name it after yourself but were too shy about it,” Emily said as she continued to tease her.

Maria’s face blushed with embarrassment and guilt because what Emily said was definitely true. She really wanted to name the city after herself, but her sense of shame overwhelmed her narcissism and stopped her from doing it. Thankfully, she did stop or else her family and friends would hold it over her for the rest of her life after they saw it.

Once all of Lizzy’s guild members who were part of the elite team had finished up with all of the available village quests and the hidden ones that Maria tipped them with, they finally decided to leave after getting their 4th [Recommendation Letter] from the village chief. They had gone through all the villages and from each chief, they received 1 [Recommendation Letter].

Maria didn't even know you could receive more than 1 letter, but from the looks of things, the final reward for the [Identity Crisis] quest might be upgraded since it was possible to get more than 1 of those items.

“Haha, thanks for the awesome tips, Mary! I didn’t think you’d go so far and add in a few hidden quests!”

“I just did it for fun…but maybe 1 hidden quest per village was a little too much…” Maria said with regret. For the hidden quests, she issued these manually with the system's assistance, but she didn't think that the system would go the extra mile and actually add a little something that went completely unnoticed to her. "I can't believe the system even generated a 5th hidden quest that tied all those hidden quests together and made us raid a dungeon that even I wasn't aware about before..."

“Hahaha! I guess that even though this is your nation, you don't know everything there is to it, huh?" Lizzy exclaimed with a laugh.

"Of course not! Do you know how big this continent is?"

"Hahaha! But wasn't it great?! I mean, you got to participate in the raid and even got a ton of experience for it!”

"Yeah, it really was great...but still, I didn't get any of the quest rewards!"

"Hahaha! Sucks to be you~"

Since the quests were classified as rare hidden quests, the rewards for their completion were leagues better than the normal quests that were normally available for the players. The rewards they got made Maria–the person who issued the quests–feel as if her pockets were bleeding.

“Ugh, all of that came from my country’s treasury…”

She had to pay a lot of her nation’s gold to generate those quests. The manually issued quests were naturally different from the system auto-generated ones. The amount of gold she had to pay to create the quests was pretty big and the rewards her friends got in return were so disproportionate to that amount. She had to pay 100,000 gold each to generate the quests and although it wasn't a large amount to her, it still made her cry a little after seeing her friends get 10 times the value she paid in quest rewards.

They were getting rewards equivalent to 1,000,000 gold for each quest, but Maria herself couldn't get them because it was impossible for the quest giver to receive their own quest, so Maria had to sit on the side and watch her friends happily reap their rewards. Rewards that literally came out of her own pocket.

When Maria thought about these hidden quests being found by other players in the future, she started to cry inwardly and prayed that no one would ever find them because, after a certain amount of time, she could terminate a quest if they weren’t ever initiated by the players for a long time and refund all of the gold she used to pay for it. Of course, she wasn't going to do this because that would be unfair and a complete abuse of her power.

However, she was going to set a restriction on the quest later to make it so that those who have already completed the [Identity Crisis] quest can no longer accept the hidden quests. This was cheating a little bit, but it had to be done because she didn't want the players that had already left the villages to go back there and cause another quest frenzy to happen which would definitely bleed her pockets.

Since she paid 100,000 gold to generate the quests, each completion required her to pay 100 gold which was a completely different story to the auto-generated quests that she didn't even need to pay anything to generate, but cost only 1 silver per quest completion. The 1 silver was fine even if Maria had to pay it hundreds of thousands or even a million times, but 100 gold? That amount of gold per quest completion was totally nuts and if Maria allowed for it to happen, her nation would be bled dry in a matter of days.

Just the 50 or so Fallen Angels players that she helped today bit off 5,000 gold from her. Imagine if it was 1,000 or 100,000 players instead? Maria paled at the thought and anxiously waited for the cooldown time to end, so that she could quickly edit the quest details. Of course, if her nation was allowed to continue flourishing, perhaps in the future 100,000,000,000 gold wouldn't be anything to her. However, that wasn't the case right now. She needed to quickly edit it before other players found out and completely ruin her.

'Dammit, why did I impulsively make those quests? I thought it would be cool, but dammit, this is just too much! The damned system didn't even explain that bit to me!'

“Anyway, with things finished over here. Let’s go to the city! I’m sure there’s a lot more goodies we can get there, right Mary~?” Lizzy said to everyone before turning to her friend with a devious smile on her face.

Maria’s face wrinkled when she heard that, so she replied, “There are a lot of goodies, but you have to find them for yourselves! I can’t believe I even entertained the thought of paying for those expensive hidden quests! I'm not helping you guys this time!”

“Hahaha! Give it up! Even without your help, now that we know, we’ll scour the entire city and turn it upside down until we find all of them! Get ready for your pockets to bleed, Mary~”

"Noooo!"