While Maria and her friends had been busy working in Maria’s office for the past few hours, more and more players had finally finished up with all of the readily available quests in the 4 villages and acquired their [Recommendation Letters] to enter the city.

Since they turned in the quest, [Identity Crisis], with multiple [Recommendation Letters], the players were able to receive more rewards on top of the base rewards along with a good amount of reputation. The rewards were really great, but the reputation was the true takeaway of 'over-completing' the quest.

With the reputation, the NPCs acted much kinder towards them and were willing to give some information when the players inquired about certain things. This was certainly great because some of the information the players got from the NPCs also had hints to finding some quests in the city and the towns that were nearby. Some even eluded to the hidden quests in the city.

Thanks to that, some players found out that there possible hidden quests to find, but so far, no one besides Lizzy and her guild have obtained the villages’ hidden quests. They had Maria to thank for that, because those hidden quests were actually absurdly hard to obtain. It was harder to find the village hidden quests than the hidden quests in the city and towns.

Maria didn’t think about how odd their requirements were until after she personally tipped her friends off about them and got their feedback. Some of the requirements to unlock the hidden quests required players to talk to the NPCs in a certain order that was only slightly hinted at by their dialogues.

If no one read deeper into the NPCs’ dialogues, they’d never be able to find out about it and this hidden quest was actually the easiest to acquire. The other hidden quests had even more absurd requirements to fulfill, but even after finding out about how absurd they were, Maria still decided to restrict the quests to players who haven't completed the [Identity Crisis] Main Quest.

If a lucky newcomer managed to obtain even one of the hidden quests, Maria thought it would be funny to see the other players’ regrets when they find out that they’ve missed them. Of course, it was more likely that it wouldn’t elicit too much reaction, since the rewards from those hidden quests were only great at the starting phase of the new planet.

With there being more players in the city, the EXP buff that could be obtained from resting at the hotels and inns were quickly discovered by the players and the fact that the buff could be stacked on top of the booster cards’ effects which everyone thought was insane. However, since there was no buff for the item drop rate effect, that particular booster card became even more precious than the EXP buff card.

“Dang, Mary. Why didn’t you tell us about this before?” Lizzy asked.

“I forgot to mention it since I got that emergency call earlier from my subordinates. It’s inside the binder I gave to Amanda though, so you’d find out about it sooner or later even if the other players didn’t share it on the forums or completely missed it,” Maria replied.

“Will the buffs become better as we progress to the more advanced cities that you own?” Amanda jumped into the conversation and asked.

“Heltania City is the second-most advanced city, so the hotels in it have the second-best buff effect. Only the nation’s capital, Transylvania, has a better effect. If I recall, Heltania city’s hotels should have a 1.5 or a 1.25 effect, while the hotels in the capital have a 2.0 effect.”

“I see…that means the effects will only get better the more advanced your nation’s civilization level is, then?”

“Bingo~ that’s correct, Ama!”

“...If things are this good over here, I wonder how it is on the other continent?” Emily wondered. “That continent’s civilization should be less advanced than Maria’s continent, right? I doubt those werewolves would be able to implement the modernization that Maria did with her country, since they’re still stuck in the feudal age or something.”

“You’re right about that, Em. I’ve been looking through the forums and read through a few posts from players that are comparing the two continents. So far, everyone’s saying that Maria’s country, the Dire, is infinitely much better than the werewolves’ country and there's no reason to even go there.”

“What is the werewolf country’s name anyway?” Lizzy asked.

Amanda was about to answer when Maria interjected, “Does it matter? It’s going to become part of the Dire in the future.”

“...Eh?”

“Did you guys read the notification windows when you first arrived here?”

“Which one?” Amanda asked.

“About the one that talks about the background story of Vanhal. One side is seeking unification, another freedom, and the last one is just observing.”

“Wait a sec…when it meant unification, did it mean–”

“Yes, Ama, it meant unification of the world. I plan on taking over this planet and making it mine.”

Lizzy whistled while the other two remained silent before Emily spoke up and said, “How ambitious…but from the looks of things, everything is already set in stone, right?”

“If I was given another 3 in-game months, I would’ve already conquered the entire planet by now. However, with the players’ arrival, I’ve had to postpone any thoughts of conquering Vanargand in order to keep an eye out on things here.”

Amanda nodded at her words and said, “That’s understandable. If you proceed with your attack, some of our enemies might try to backstab us or take advantage of our situation.”

“Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m trying to look out for, but at the very least, I won’t need to worry about anyone from my country raising a coup or anything. They’re far too loyal and obedient for that and they’ve previously experienced the tragedies of war, so after experiencing this period of peace and prosperity, I doubt they’d plunge the Dire into chaos and incite another war again,” Maria said with a tired look on her face.

“...Seems like you’ve had it a bit rough, huh?”

“Well, conquering a continent wasn’t all just fun and games. It really tore at my morals after I saw all of the death and destruction I caused to the continent’s people…”

Lizzy seemed to have remembered something so she asked, “Oh, yeah, that video series you put out last time on your Switch channel, was that–”

Maria quickly cut in and said, “No, that wasn’t it. Like it said in the description, it was just another one of Death’s apocalypses ruining a planet. After I finished with my quest there, I just wanted to film the inhabitants’ struggles. Even though they’re NPCs, they struggle just like normal people.”

“You couldn’t help them?”

She shook her head and replied, “Unfortunately not. Otherwise, my quest from Death would’ve ended in failure. The God of Death truly lives up to his name with all the death-related quests he’s given me, though it’s because of that I’ve decided to abandon being his champion.”

“You did? I didn’t know that.”

“Yup. I’ve stopped being his agent of death for a while now, so I haven’t received any of those quests again.”

“Is that right? Then how come you still have Calamity with you? I thought you said that was a legacy weapon you obtained from being Death’s agent, right?” Emily asked.

“Ah, that’s because I cheated a little and kept Calamity for myself. There’s no way I’m giving up my long-time partner in crime!”

They bantered a little longer as they walked through the streets that had both monster and vampire NPCs roaming around it along with the occasional group of players curiously looking around.

“By the way, Mary. I know that the vampire race should have the disadvantage of not being able to stay under sunlight, but why can your vampires do that?” Lizzy spoke up and asked while pointing at the vampire NPCs that were going about their business in silence.

Maria stopped walking and pointed to the large red crystal that was floating up in the air right above the city.

“See that crystal?”

“Yeah?”

“That crystal used to be called the Blood Fountain, but after numerous upgrades, it's now called the Life Blood Crystal though I still just refer it to the Blood Fountain. It’s the structure that lets my vampires stay completely immune to the stereotypical weaknesses that they have as long as they remain inside of its area of effect.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“I see. So, what happens when they leave the crystal’s area of effect?”

“They retain the weakness immunity buff for half a day until they arrive at a new place that has a Life Blood Crystal or a Blood Fountain to recharge its effect.”

“Ahh, okay, okay.”

“The only ones that have complete immunity to their weaknesses are Vamipre Dukes, while Vampire Marquises have partial immunity.”

“Is it alright for you to be sharing this with us? What happens if we 'accidentally' leak this info or if anyone eavesdrops on us?” Lizzy asked with a devious look on her face.

“It’s nothing crucial. Even if someone tried exploiting my vampires’ weakness, what could they do to the rest of my nation’s citizens? 60-70 percent of my nation’s people aren’t even vampires. They’re all just intelligent monsters of varying species that don't have a vampires' weakness.”

“So it’d be meaningless, huh? We, or anyone else, would just gain your ire…”

“Exactly. So don’t force me to hurt you, Liz.”

“Why’s it only me?”

“Because if anyone wanted to play a trick on me, it would only be you.”

“...I’m offended.”

“And I’m offended that you’re offended.”

“Tsk, well, enough with this topic then! You said you were going to show us Heltania Undercity, so where is it and what the heck is it anyway?” Lizzy said as she cut this topic short.

“We’re almost at the entrance of the Undercity. We weren’t just roaming around the city for no good reason, y’know?”

“Ohh, okay!”

Maria and the girls soon arrived at a cordoned area that was heavily protected by soldiers. When the soldiers saw her, they immediately bowed respectfully before opening the path for her and her friends. Lizzy and the girls were naturally curious why this specific part of the city was closed off and Maria simply said that it was because of the Undercity’s entrance.

When they arrived at a building where the entrance was supposed to be, the girls met with a rather familiar creature. Amanda, Emily, and Lizzy were a little shocked to see this creature because it was humongous. It towered over all of them even though it was currently laying down and napping peacefully.

"M-Mary, this...dog...it's yours, right?"

"Huh? Don't you guys recognize Red?"

"Eh? This guy is Red?!" Lizzy exclaimed in shock as she pointed at the giant 3-headed dog, aka Cerberus, that was currently sleeping peacefully in front of them.

After her shocked exclamation, Red's ears began to twitch and the middle head was roused from its sleep. After raising his head to see who disturbed his nap, Red quickly saw his master and nudged the other 2 heads awake.

"Hey, pooch~"

Maria began patting the Cerberus's 3 heads and whispered something to him. Red let out a low roar before moving out of the way for them. Amanda, Emily and Lizzy were amazed that Maria's pet dog had somehow evolved into this mythical monster and Lizzy, being the most curious and straightforward of the bunch, quickly began questioning her how it was possible.

"Mary, how's this possible? How the heck did your doggy evolve into a Cerberus? Holy crap!"

"Hehehe~ that's a secret~"

"Aww, come on, tell me already!"

"Nope~"

"So mean!"

"Hey, I shared a lot of things already! This piece of info I really can't though or else Ash will get mad at me for spilling too many secrets!"

"Oh, fine then. Jeez, it must be an important secret if even your most loyal subordinate is willing to get mad at you over it!"

"Yeah, but anyway, let's go. The thing that Red, Redgard, and Reddison is protecting is the entrance to Heltania Undercity which is in that building over there!"

Hearing how Maria addressed her Cerberus, her friends had weird looks on their faces after they heard the names of the other 2 heads.

"Red..."

"Redgard..."

"And Reddison? You...really have a way with names, huh Mary?"

"Aren't their names cute? I made sure to think up of names that have Red in them, so they can all still be Red in the end!"

"Uh...sure... anyway, let's go!" Lizzy said with a strained smile.

The girls moved into the building that was behind Maria's Cerberus and saw a familiar contraption inside. Amanda, Emily, and Lizzy were incredibly surprised that such an advanced piece of technology had actually been built inside of the game and they exclaimed, """You have an elevator?"""

"Haha, yup~"

“Mary, what the heck? How did you even make this thing?!”

“Well, it’s a magic elevator and although its shape and functions are still the same, it runs on magic power, so it doesn't have all the complicated things that a normal elevator has."

"I-I see...still, it's pretty amazing though."

Maria smiled and opened the elevator doors before saying, "Anyway, I welcome you guys to Heltania Undercity, the ‘true’ face of Heltania City.”

Once everyone got in, she injected mana into the magic elevator and it began to slowly descend. The elevator had magically reinforced glass walls, so Lizzy and the girls were able to see the underground city that appeared after they got past the surface's thick earth layer.

“Holy S**t!” Lizzy exclaimed.

There was a smug smile on Maria's face and she asked, “How is it? Isn’t it awesome?”

“Yeah! Totally! What the heck is all this?! This is amazing!”

The city on the surface was very modern in all shapes and forms, but the undercity was a completely different beast. It had a futuristic theme that you'd only be able to see in sci-fi movies and all of it was only made possible thanks to the magic engineering that Maria’s vampire dwarves had incorporated into the city’s infrastructure. Large floating buildings, moving platforms, fast-moving floating vehicles moving on crystalline roads, and other magical structures were present everywhere throughout the city and, from the looks of things, the underground city was much larger than the surface city.

“Mary, is the underground city actually bigger than the surface city?”

Maria nodded and said, “Yup, it’s definitely bigger. I think my vampire dwarves said they were going to make it 2-3 times bigger than the surface city.”

“Dang!”

“Incredible…”

“Just how long did it take you to build all of this?” Emily asked.

“This is a project that I started the moment I obtained my faction’s first town. Not even the Dire's capital, Transylvania, has an underground city like this!”

As they continued moving downwards, Lizzy's eyes were darting around and she was using her racial ability, [Dragon Eyes], to get a better look at the underground city before she suddenly exclaimed in shock when she saw a few large magic cannons mounted on the undercity’s walls in the far distance.

“...What the heck, you even have those advanced-looking magic cannons here? Just why would you need those?!”

Maria looked over to where Lizzy was pointing and activated [Nephalem's Eye] to enhance her vision before explaining, “Ah, those are for the underground monsters that occasionally appear to attack the city. Unfortunately, the underground monsters are very strong and are leagues ahead of any monsters that could be found on the surface, so it's only natural that we need something incredibly powerful to defend ourselves.”

“Seriously? Are they that strong?”

“Yeah, and I think only the planet's deep ocean monsters can rival them.”

“...Will the players be able to come here in the future?”

“Yes, but very, very far into the future, because for now, I don’t want anyone else to come here besides you guys. As you can see, the city's still expanding and in construction. I'll only open it up once 90 percent of the construction has finished.”

“...This isn’t even 90 percent done?”

“I think it’s still around 70 percent or something? I’ll have to ask Danor Dwarfsong, my chief craftsman, about it again.”

“...”

When the elevator finally arrived at the bottom, Maria led everyone off of it and began giving them a tour around the magical underground city.