While Hecate was quickly making her move, Maria was on her way back to Dreyra. She was still on the boat and was keeping to herself in a corner with Raiju and Alexa. The 3 of them were wearing black cloaks with hoods over their heads so they seemed pretty mysterious, but since no one on the ship could use [Inspect] on them, the players believed that they were just NPCs.
Maria was silently meditating when her eyes snapped open after hearing the waves crash against the ship’s hull as she remembered something.
“Ah, that’s right. The island that Elizabeth said she found the entrance to the Underworld should be somewhere close by…”
She quickly walked over to the side of the ship and looked around. She naturally wouldn’t be able to see it since the route the ship was taking was quite far away from where the island was, so they wouldn’t be passing anywhere close for her to be able to see it.
“Uhm…how do I use the map again?”
Maria opened up her [Map] menu and quickly looked at the coordinates that Elizabeth had given her. She struggled to find how to input the coordinates, but she soon got it and her map showed her the precise location of the island.
When she looked at the indicators on the map, she noticed that the ship had almost passed the island’s coordinates. She contemplated whether to visit the island or not, but she ultimately decided that she would do it later since her business with Raiju was more important at the moment and she needed to return to Transylvania as soon as possible.
Maria wanted to invite her friends with her to explore the island since Elizabeth said that the island was dominated by unique monsters that were undoubtedly the Underworld’s monsters, since the Underworld Entrance on the island would spew out monsters during the island’s ‘eruption phase’.
Elizabeth called it the eruption phase because the Underworld Entrance–which was in the shape of a volcano–would literally erupt, spewing out various kinds of monsters unique to the Underworld. The island was currently teeming with monsters, so Maria thought that it would be good to invite her friends with her when she went to the island to clean the place up. All of those monsters were precious experience points after all.
Although she could hog it all for herself, Maria was the kind of person to share her blessings with her family and friends. Speaking about her family, she realized that this was the perfect opportunity to help her brothers level up.
Gerald, although not as bad as Mikael, had a pretty low level compared to the game’s top-ranking players. As a guild leader, his level was a little bit too low, considering that his guild, the Citadel, was a high-ranked guild. He was only level 290, which was unbefitting for him as the level was pretty low compared to the other guild masters that were leading high-ranked guilds like him. Most of them were at level 300 or above and the difference between levels 290 and 300 was extremely significant despite there being only a 10-level gap.
At level 300, one could perform their fourth class advancement, so with him being only level 290 at the moment, he was still a Third Advancement class player while his peers were already in their Fourth Advancement class, but he didn't make any excuses about his level and slow grinding speed even though he could.
As a guild leader, Gerald was extremely busy with guild related matters and, unlike his peers, he didn’t have a unique class, item, or skill that could help him level up quickly by increasing his EXP gain rate. He also didn't gather parties of his guild's players to help him grind EXP. This was something he was a bit stubborn about, but Gerald wanted to grind EXP and levels on his own or with his small party of close friends so they could go adventuring or raiding dungeons together.
He wanted to enjoy the game and strengthen himself on his own terms, which was quite respectable, but since he didn't have an item like the [Pearl of the Sea God] which Sky possessed that helped her with her leveling or titles that increased EXP gain like Maria had, he could only just barely keep up with his fellow high-rank guild masters. He was actually the most ordinary among the Heltania siblings. Even Mikael was doing better than he was–at least in terms of acquiring very fortunate opportunities.
Mikael started late and was only level 200, but he possessed a unique ability despite being similar to Gerard and only possessing a normal class. It didn't end there because he had also acquired a unique quest that wasn’t known to anyone else yet in the game, which could potentially lead to him gaining the first hidden hybrid-support class in the game.
At the moment, his unique quest had been put on hold because he needed to be level 250 in order to initiate the next step of his quest, so he needed 50 more levels and Maria planned on helping him get them. No one knew about Mikael’s quest, not even Gerald, or else he would’ve made a fuss about it the moment he and Mikael reunited with Maria. Only Maria knew about her eldest brother's hidden quest because Mikael had previously asked her to help him level up so that he could continue his quest.
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When she asked about what kind of quest he was currently doing that needed him to gain 50 additional levels to continue, Mikael wasn't hesitant in sharing the quest’s information and details with her and the moment Maria saw the quest window and read through the details, her instincts immediately kicked in and she knew right away that the quest would reward her big brother with a hidden class once he completed it.
Mikael asked if she could help him with his quests, but Maria decided against helping him with the quest directly. Those kinds of quests were always solo quests, so if Mikael asked her for help, he might fail the quest or get a lower grade reward because he accepted outside help, so she only agreed to help him with his level requirement problems and gear problems.
Everything else he had to do alone because Maria didn't want him to unfortunately fail the quest because of her or anyone else's meddling, so after declining and then explaining things to her big brother, she made Mikael promise not to let anyone else know about his quest's details. It was enough that only the two of them knew about it.
Maria was happy and excited to know that her big brother had obtained his lucky break, but her happiness and excitement didn't stop there, because when she learned from her big brother that the quest he was on was already on the 10th chain quest. This made her start reeling in excitement and shock.
Most hidden class change quests usually only had around 5 to 6 chain quests, but her big brother was currently on his 10th chain quest, which was obviously unprecedented. Maria now held great expectations for her brother's hidden class. She expected and sincerely hoped that her big brother would gain some kind of super-amazing hidden class after he completed the entire quest line. Since he was her brother, Maria would have another powerful ally by her side and this was something she very much welcomed.
Right now, Mikael was the weakest of the Heltania siblings, but Maria could see this changing in the near future once he obtained his new hidden class. Maybe in terms of fighting power he would still be below Gerald, but this was to be expected since his class was a hybrid-support class, so the hidden class would have something to do with the support class–mainly the bard class branch.
Maria could only feel a little bit bad for her other brother, Gerald, who wasn’t fortunate enough to receive any unique item, skill, or hidden class despite playing since the game officially launched and even being one of the game’s beta testers.
If Gerald finds out that he's currently the only one among his siblings who has yet to obtain a hidden class, he would probably be a little bit devastated, especially once he hears that Mikael's already gotten his lucky break despite spending way less time than he has on the game.
“Hmmm, big brother Gerald is a little pitiful, so let’s help him undergo an Awakening at least. I don’t have an Awakening Item, but I’m sure we can find one that’ll suit him. The world is vast after all!”
Maria had forgotten about it, but she actually had one in her inventory right now, and it was the [Dark Bloodline] awakening item that she had obtained a long, long while back that she meant to give to one of her friends. They all declined since they had obtained something similar to it already, so she had forgotten about the item and it was just collecting dust in her inventory all this time.
It wasn't like Gerald hasn't obtained an awakening item before or anything, but he was extremely picky with the type of awakening he wanted to go through. Since the awakening feature had been made known to the public, many people started experimenting on the types of awakening someone could go through and whether or not a specific awakening was best suited for a certain playstyle.
Thanks to the findings that were being shared over on the forums, players started getting more and more particular about the type of awakening they wanted to have since they needed to find a suitable one for the role they were playing in the game. Not to mention that each awakening had their own grades. The players had already categorized a few of the more known awakenings into grades ranging from the lowest E-grade to the highest S-grade.
Thanks to this awakening tier list, many players began comparing the awakening items they've obtained and while some got lucky and managed to obtain a high-grade awakening item, others weren't so lucky and only obtained a low-grade one.
Gerald didn't want to awaken to just any sort of bloodline, he wanted to get a powerful one that was also suited with his playstyle. It was why he had been postponing his awakening until he found the right one, but unfortunately, until this day, he never managed to get one that he was satisfied with. So, in his clique, he was the only one who hasn't even awakened yet and was constantly called out for being way too picky.