Maria was finally able to finish all of the things on her end the very next day and once she did, she quickly took Alexa and Raiju with her and began making her way north in the direction where the conflict between the player alliance and the PK Alliance was currently taking place. The conflict actually spread throughout the entire continent with skirmishes being held everywhere, but the north was where most of the conflicts were centered.
She had her people monitoring the events on the continent and noticed that there were more fights in the north than anywhere else and this was because the player alliance believed that somewhere in the north was where the PK Alliance’s headquarters was located. She didn’t know if this fact was true because there was no way to confirm it.
Despite being a pretty horrible organization, the PK Alliance’s structure seemed rather peculiar as only the extremely important members knew about their organization's plans while the ordinary members just listen to their commands and execute them. Since they didn’t know anything else besides the orders they were given, the PK Alliance was able to keep important information about their organization–such as the true location of their headquarters–from falling into their enemies’ hands.
Hecate had her own hideout, but that wasn’t the PK Alliance’s headquarters. The ones that have been slowly taking over her organization had figured out her plans somehow and they separated themselves from her and built a base somewhere in the north.
This was all Maria knew because one of her subordinates had managed to capture one of the alliance's least fortunate executives and 'politely' asked the information from them. Her NPC subordinates had their own methods of working around the system’s restrictions when imprisoning and questioning someone, so the information she acquired was reliable.
Maria was aware that some of the methods her NPC subordinates used on the players when capturing them wasn't exactly ethical, but since no one could trace those NPCs back to her, no one could actually complain about it. Of course, the captured players did issue a formal complaint to the game company, but since it was practically impossible to trace NPC activities unless the game's AI, Zeus, allowed it–which it didn't for some reason–the devs were helpless and could only issue some form of compensation to the unfortunate players that were captured by Maria's NPCs for 'questioning'.
Out of sight, out of mind. Maria truly embodied this saying as she didn't question how her people obtained such sensitive information. She did have a small inkling of what they did, but she wasn't going to question or reprimand their methods since they did it only to help her.
“Master, are you sure we’re heading to someplace interesting? Just where are we going?” Raiju asked. “I hope this isn’t going to be a letdown like before. I wasn’t really expecting a challenge or anything, since Master said that we were only going to attack the Lycan territories on the outskirts, but it ended way too fast. I couldn’t even properly stretch my arms and legs!”
Maria glanced at her and replied, “Just be a little patient, Raiju. The place where we’re headed will have plenty of fun to go around for all 3 of us. I still need to gauge the full extent of my new powers, so I definitely won’t be taking us to some random, boring event.”
“I’ll take your word for it, Master.”
“Big sis, is it true then that we’re going to confront the organization whose leader defeated you in the past?” Alexa asked all of a sudden.
Maria nodded and said, “That’s right. Although I didn’t personally lose to that person, I was forced into a corner where I had to use a technique that was aimed at killing both of us. I learned later that I was the only one who fell and, since I couldn’t properly wrap things up, I consider it to be my loss.”
“Huh? Mama lost to someone?” Cali, who was in Maria’s embrace, suddenly asked after she heard her mother’s words.
Maria smiled at her daughter and said, “That’s right, Baby. Mama unfortunately lost to someone, but don’t worry. I won’t lose to them again.”
“Cali will protect Mama!”
“Haha, I’m sure you will, Baby~”
Maria rubbed her face against Cali’s chubby cheek and giggled. Alexa, on the other hand, had a rather thoughtful look on her face before she asked after a bit of hesitation, “...Just how powerful is this person, big sis?”
“I couldn’t properly gauge her true strength during our fight since she seemed to be hiding most of it, but just from the power she revealed, I had a pretty hard time keeping up with her,” Maria replied after thinking for a bit.
When Raiju heard this, she began listening even more attentively while Alexa continued to ask, “Really?”
“Yes, it was like big sis was fighting in a quagmire. In the end, I only managed to land a single effective attack on her before she released a little bit more of her strength and fought equally or perhaps even better than me…in the end, I had to resort to using a skill I came up with on the spot that unfortunately led to my own defeat,” Maria said.
There wasn’t any regret in her voice. Instead, it was tinged with excitement. It was hard for her to find a proper opponent that could keep up with her, so Hecate’s presence was something a battle junkie like Maria was extremely grateful for.
“Heehh~ A person whom even Master had a hard time fighting. Too bad I won’t be able to have a crack at her since Master will want her for herself, but the battle will definitely be fun to watch,” Raiju said with great interest.
Alexa crossed her arms and said, “Hmph, with big sis’s current strength, I’m sure this time the battle will be in her favor!”
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On their way to the north, Maria, Alexa, and Raiju met with a lot of interesting encounters. Skirmishes between players from both the player alliance and the PK Alliance kept on popping up in their way and those from both sides would attack her group.
Maria’s group easily destroyed these people since they were in her way, but for some reason, more and more skirmishes like these continued popping up along their way. It got to the point where it had become extremely annoying, so they began to avoid those battles when they could. They hadn’t even arrived in the north yet, but the players from the two warring factions were seen frequently fighting wherever they went. Maria had this odd feeling as if she and the others were being led around by their noses.
The constant conflicts that appeared in their path surely weren’t just coincidence. It had happened way too many times for it to be that, so Maria began thinking that someone was purposefully doing this, though this was merely speculation.
No one in Vanargand knew about her presence and the people she had imprisoned the last time seemed not to have said anything about her to the organization backing them. If they had, the game’s forums would’ve blown up by now with information about her being on the continent.
“Tsk, the battles are nice and all since we keep bumping into them, but they’re all a bunch of small fries. There’s no excitement in this! It’s just purely annoying!” Raiju complained.
“...Teacher, you complained that last time we didn’t get enough action, but now that we are, you’re complaining again,” Alexa said as she cast a spell to remove the blood from her mouth and equipment. "Can't you just be satisfied that we're able to do something now? Previously, we couldn't even fight at all!"
"I get that, but what's so fun about killing small fries? It's just like we're cutting grass and mowing our lawn! This is more of a chore than anything else. At the very least, they should fight back and make things more fun for us even though they are just grass!"
Maria's group had just dealt with another player skirmish by themselves again, though only Alexa and Raiju made a move this time around. After this battle, Maria was fairly certain that someone was trying to play tricks on her.
They had destroyed so many groups of players already, but there was no uproar about it on the forums. Normally, players would start gossiping or complaining about literally everything that happened in the game–no matter how small it was. What they were doing definitely wasn't small, as they had been massacring players nearly every step of their journey, and yet, there was no one speaking up about it in the forums.
There should’ve definitely been at least one such player among the large number she, Raiju, and Alexa had killed that wanted to voice their complaints at the unreasonableness of their deaths, yet she found no such thing on the forums. Having no news like this was definitely suspicious, so Maria believed that someone was doing this intentionally.
“Tsk, this is so strange… some idiot is definitely playing tricks on us…” Maria said to herself.
Raiju heard Maria say that and asked, "Really Master? Someone's purposefully getting in our way?"
"Is that true?" Alexa chimed in.
"Yes, otherwise, the battles that appeared in front of us wouldn't be so frequent. We've also been changing our direction constantly, so isn't it odd that more battles appeared 'coincidentally' in our paths?" Maria said as she explained her reasoning.
"...then doesn't that mean someone's been monitoring our every move?" Raiju said while looking around. Maria nodded at her deduction and said, "Precisely, but I don't know how they're doing it. I can't sense anyone trailing us, so it could be a unique skill or something..."
Raiju thought for a moment before saying, "If what Master says is true, then they're probably using clairvoyance or a farsight skill to monitor us. It's hard to counter those kinds of skills since we have to directly interfere with the caster whose location is not within our reach."
Maria clicked her tongue in displeasure before saying, "How annoying... when I find whichever idiot is doing this to us, I won't be letting him off easy!"
In a far away place that was safe from Maria's reach, the idiot in question began chuckling to himself.
‘Oh my, I’m being referred to as an idiot? I’m actually pretty hurt by that, kehuhuhuhu~”
Zhuge Lan was looking at Maria and her 2 followers cleaning up a battlefield through one of his familiars that he had dispatched to keep an eye on them. Even though they had disguised themselves, Zhuge Lan was able to accurately identify them despite their disguise and he quickly began moving forward with his plans. He didn’t expect Maria to bring any escorts with her, but it didn’t really matter that much.
The two escorts she brought were definitely powerful, but after a few adjustments to his plans, he proceeded with them right away. All of the battles that had appeared in Maria’s way were naturally his brainchild. He didn’t do this just to annoy Maria and her group, but to gauge their strength. Maria didn’t take part in the battles very often and only her 2 escorts did, but this was good.
Zhuge Lan needed to get more information about them and determine just how powerful they were. He didn’t need to find out Maria’s strength because he already knew that she was extremely powerful.
“Eventually, I’ll have to inform Master about them since she's definitely the only one who can deal with them, but for now, let’s play and have some fun," Zhuge Lan said while rubbing his chin. "Since they've figured out that someone's doing this to them intentionally, let's stop with all the gimmicks and confront them directly."