It went without saying that those players were naturally the players from the PK Alliance that were taking part in the Main Story Quest.
They were able to get pretty high in the rankings because the content of the Main Story Quest was really suitable for a bunch of PKers like them. War was all about killing other people, so these PK Alliance players thrived in such a setting.
Each of them were menaces on the battlefield and some even earned rather notorious names for themselves as they completely dominated the battlefield with their vicious playstyle.
They hunted down players and reaped their lives as if they were harvesting grain. Sometimes they would even go for the exact same player over and over again until they forcefully logged them off of the game due to the death penalty.
It was a harrowing experience for many players who were on Maria’s side of the Main Story.
Despite all of the difficulties the players on the Dire’s side were facing, they were still coming out on top in most of the battles because they had the numbers advantage over their enemies.
Having 3 to 4 times the number of players and NPCs on their side, it was only natural that they would be the ones winning. It wasn’t like the players were stupid to always fall for the enemy side’s tactics over and over again.
The Dire’s forces adapted to the various strategies of their opponents and pushed on towards victory after victory until, finally, most of the areas of the Lycan territory outside of the core areas had been completely occupied by the Dire.
Once the players occupied a city or a town, Maria’s NPCs would immediately move in to commandeer the place and set up a stronghold for the players to rest and repair their equipment in.
While the battles on Vanargand were proceeding rather smoothly for the Dire, over on Eur, the first planet of the game, Mikael was currently doing his best trying to complete his hidden class change quest.
The quest description didn’t say anything about a hidden class, so despite all of his sister’s optimism, Mikael hadn’t expected much until all of Maria’s words came true.
When he returned to his quest giver and got to the next stage of his quest, things really did pan out as his little sister said they would. The next stage of his quest required him to find another NPC and that NPC gave him the optional quest of changing his class to a hidden class before he could continue with his original quest line.
The hidden class change quest was entirely optional and Mikael could choose not to do it and continue on with his original quest, but it was obvious that he was going to take the quest no matter what.
He knew the importance of a hidden class and, since he wanted to help his sister, who had been a huge help to him in the game, he needed to obtain the hidden class.
“Will you help me, sir? Boss Muilan recommended you to me, so I was hoping you’d help me recover the lost item of my late mentor…”
Once Mikael received the quest prompt, he tapped on the [Yes] button without hesitation and received the quest.
It had taken him a while to find this NPC because they were hidden in such an obscure place. The area he had to go to was one of Eur’s very few danger zones. It was the starting planet of the game, and there were very few danger zones on it.
For a planet with relatively few danger zones, this meant that the danger zone truly was dangerous, even for players who were 100 or 200 levels above the average level of the players on Eur.
If there was no level requirement for his quest and Mikael insisted on doing the quest at his previous level prior to him receiving his little sister’s help in leveling up on the Treasure Island, Mikael reckoned that it would’ve been impossible for a Bard-class player like him to travel through the danger zone he was in and successfully find the hidden class change NPC.
“It took me a while, but I finally got it…all I need to do now is complete this quest and class change into this Spectral Orchestrator class… I wonder what kind of class it is? It sounds pretty mysterious,” Mikael said to himself as he read through the description of his quest and looked at the reward.
“I hope it is a class that will allow me to help my family and friends even a little more in fights.”
That was the small hope he had for the class, but Mikael never would’ve expected that the Spectral Orchestrator class was a lifestyle battle class in itself.
It was similar to the hidden class of another lifestyle class player like him who people called the Wandering Chef. This person was able to fight using various cooking wares and even use his own food as weapons.
The class was really unique, but no one knew what it was called. The player who had the hidden class didn’t reveal much about himself, how he got the quest for the class change, and what the name of the class was.
People only knew the player’s name and his name was Gordon. Mikael had the fortune of meeting him during one of his quests, but this was a long time ago when he first started the quest.
Gordon had started at a similar time as him and now he was way ahead of him. He was currently on Vanhal already and was exploring the planet on his own. He did this with his own efforts, while Mikael was able to get to Vanhal thanks to his friends and brother helping him.
Back then, Gordon was just an ordinary lifestyle class player like him, but now he was well known to most of the player base as the Wandering Chef who had an eccentric personality.
“Haha, I wonder what he’s doing now. I should ask him next time if his class change quest was as difficult as mine!”
Mikael looked at his quest’s objective and quickly locked it onto his map and started moving. He summoned his mount, which was a donkey, and shot forwards with incredible speed. The donkey he was riding was rather unique as it was golden in color and the look on its face seemed rather smug and arrogant.
It was a unique class mount he received just after he completed his main quest’s previous stage.
The unique class mount was pretty fast as it gave him a 500 percent increase to his base movement speed if he was riding it and, as far as Mikael knew, there was no other mount that was as fast as his golden donkey.
Not only was it an extremely fast mount, but it was also a battle mount, so that meant he could bring it into battle.
For now, the mount was only temporary and the battle feature was locked, but once he completed his class change, the mount would be an additional reward and become permanently his.
This was another reason why Mikael thought that it was a no-brainer for him to accept the class change quest. With the enticement of the hidden class along with this extremely exceptional mount, it would be extremely stupid of him to decline the class change quest.
“Alright, let’s do this. I’ve spent a lot of time getting here already. The war on Vanhal might be over when I get back and it’ll make everything I did hear pretty pointless, so let’s hurry.”
With his golden donkey mount, Mikael was able to traverse deeper into the danger zone he was in without having to fight too many monsters.
The golden donkey had a buff that diminished all aggro from monsters while it was being ridden. Not only that, but since the golden donkey was extremely fast, Mikael could outrun all of the monsters that weren’t affected by the golden donkey’s aggro diminishing effects.
The zone he was in had monsters that were 10 to 20 levels higher than his current level and that was rather unsettling to him, especially because the place he was supposed to find the lost item was inside a dungeon in that area.
If the monsters were 10 to 20 levels higher on the field, then that meant the monsters in the dungeon were going to be of similar levels as well. That would’ve been fine and all if he possessed a combat class, but unfortunately, he didn’t.
Mikael didn’t know how a hybrid lifestyle class like him was going to clear this quest if he had to fight monsters so many levels higher than he was. The mobs were already pretty powerful, but a dungeon would also have boss monsters as well, and that was the least of his worries, because he had to find the lost item in an environment like that.
The NPC didn’t even tell him what the lost item looked like. The only information he received from the NPC was the location of the item and that he would know that it was the lost item when he encountered the lost item.
The latter piece of information wasn’t even information and the NPC was basically telling him that he’d know that the lost item was the lost item through a gut feeling alone. It certainly wasn’t much help at all.
This quest seemed to be impossible to finish, but after reading in between the lines, Mikael realized that all he had to do was retrieve the lost item and bring it back to the NPC.
He didn’t need to fight any monsters at all, which made him realize the purpose of the quest rewarding him with the golden donkey in advance.
“Alright, little guy, please help me complete my quest. After that, I’ll be able to name you,” Mikael said as he patted the golden donkey on its neck and stroked its mane.
The donkey only shook his head arrogantly before continuing to dash forward at incredible speeds.
It truly was a wondrous mount and, as a support class player, he saw how important it was to someone like him who needed mobility to avoid being attacked while on the battlefield.
As a lifestyle-class player, he didn’t have any mobility skills that could help him effectively dodge attacks or neutralize crowd control abilities. Most of the time, he would have to buff his teammates before the battle started and just wait until it was over.
He couldn’t actively participate in the battle unless he was certain that he was going to be well protected by his teammates.
Having a battle mount seemed to be the best solution to his predicament, but not all battle mounts were good. Most of them didn’t have as great mobility as the golden donkey, so all the more reason why he had to complete the quest and permanently have it.
Right now, it was only on loan and if he failed the quest, the mount would be taken from him. Having already tasted how great its utility was, Mikael was more determined to complete the quest.
He didn’t even care about the potential hidden class reward, because he saw the mount as something more important than that.
Mikael safely arrived at the area that was marked on his map and started looking around for the entrance of the dungeon. It took him an hour or so before he finally found it hidden in a gap behind a large boulder and the cliff wall that was nearby.
However, despite finding the entrance, he couldn’t enter it because it was sealed. The door sealing the dungeon was rather unique because it had small white pebbles on it that were arranged rather randomly.
“Hmm…do those pebbles mean anything?”
It was definitely a clue to open the dungeon, so Mikael started trying to see if he could fiddle around with them. He soon noticed that there were also faint lines on the door that ran horizontally across it.
He didn’t notice this sooner because they were incredibly faint–almost nonexistent even if he didn’t run his hand across the door and feel the slight indentation they made.
“Lines…and these pebbles…Oh!”
Mikael took a few steps back and looked at the door again. He stared at the pebbles, but this time around, he looked at them while envisioning the lines as well.
“...It’s a music sheet. The pebbles are the notes and the lines are the staves.”
He quickly used his unique skill and summoned a phantom of his favored instrument, the piano, and started playing the arrangement that was on the door. The melody was rather rough because it was hard for him to see the arrangement, but after roughly playing through it a few times–with each time getting better and better–the pebbles on the door began shining before the large slab of rock split in the middle and opened up.
A dark corridor was revealed behind the large slab of rock and Mikael hopped back onto the golden donkey and urged it forward, “How neat. You have to open this spot by playing the melody on the door.”
Mikael knew that Unitale was a game full of nice surprises and he couldn’t help but feel that this dungeon was going to be one of those with plenty of nice surprises. Just opening the dungeon’s door was a nice surprise, so he believed that this dungeon was definitely going to be different from the typical dungeons that he was familiar with.
“I’ll remember that melody from earlier. It was a bit rough to play, but it sounded really nice to listen to, so if I refine it a little bit, I’m sure it’ll sound even better!”
He opened up his inventory, taking out ink, a quill, and parchment paper before copying down the arrangement from earlier onto it. He had a good memory, much like the rest of his family, so he didn’t need to see the arrangement again.
After he finished copying the musical arrangement onto the piece of parchment paper, he suddenly received a system notification.
*DING*
You have acquired the song, [Melody of the Earth - Part 1]! Please obtain the remaining parts to acquire the skill, [Melody of the Earth]!
“Oh?”
When Mikael saw the notification window, he was a little surprised. He didn’t think that transcribing the melody from earlier onto a piece of parchment paper would render this notification.
A smile appeared on his face as he now understood what lost item he had to find. Just like the NPC said, once he saw it, he would know if it was the item immediately.
There were a few more parts to the melody and the one he had right now was only the first part. Mikael reckoned that the rest was probably inside of the dungeon. He just needed to search for it and transcribe the rest of the melody he found.
Name: Melody of the Earth Rank: S Description: Increase the DEF, M.DEF, and RES of all allies within 20 meters of the user by 20% of their respective stats for 30 minutes and grant them immunity to [Stun], [Petrification], and [Root] debuffs for 10 minutes Cast time: 30 seconds Cost: 5% MP Cooldown: 30 minutes Note*: Immunity effects are applied only when allies are within hearing distance of the caster’s melody
Note**: Buffs can be stacked with other buffs of a similar nature
Mikael didn’t know it yet, but the buff was rather overpowered. It increased all defensive stats by 20%. The RES buff was the most important because it didn’t specify which type of RES it applied to, so this meant it was applied to all of the RES stats.
There were quite a few RES stats in the game. The 6 elemental RES stats plus the general RES stat that determine one’s resistance against debuffs. Speaking about debuffs, the [Melody of the Earth] granted immunity to [Stun], [Petrification], and the [Root] debuff for 10 minutes.
10 whole minutes of not being able to be stunned, petrified, or rooted. This was certainly a big deal, especially because crowd control immunity was beneficial for every player. The best part about Mikael’s skill was that it affected multiple players at once as long as they were within a certain range of him when he activated the skill.
Also, the buffs from Mikael’s skill could be stacked with other similar buffs. Buffs of a similar nature normally can’t have their effects stacked on each other as the one with the better effect would be applied instead.
This wasn’t the case for the [Melody of the Earth]. It allowed other buffs to be stacked on top of their own, so a Priest class player’s [Blessing of Fortitude] and [Blessing of Magic Fortitude], which respectively granted stat increases to ones DEF and M. DEF stats, could be applied without having the melody’s effects disappear.
The game was made this way because if multiple priests or shamans stacked those kinds of buffs onto a single player, their stats would definitely break the game.
Mikael didn’t know the great significance of his skill just yet and was more excited by the prospect of entering a unique dungeon to obtain said skill. He was more intrigued by the process rather than the skill itself.
“I hope there aren’t too many powerful monsters inside…”
He continued to head deeper into the dungeon, but to his surprise, he didn’t encounter a single monster at all.
Since he didn’t encounter anything, Mikael continued onwards until he finally arrived at another door inside of the dungeon. Just like the entrance door, this one had another musical arrangement inscribed on it.
Mikael took out the parchment paper he used earlier to inscribe the first part of the [Melody of the Earth] and transcribed the second part on the door.
*DING*
You have acquired the song, [Melody of the Earth - Part 2]! Please obtain the remaining parts to acquire the skill, [Melody of the Earth]!
He scratched his head in confusion because he didn’t think it’d be this easy, but after playing the melody and opening the door, he felt an ominous air flow from behind the second door and felt a little uneasy.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Uhh, maybe I missed something. Let’s turn back and search the first area again,” Mikael mumbled to himself as he patted the golden donkey on his neck.
The donkey shook its head before turning around and bringing him back to the entrance again. Mikael’s thorough and paranoid nature saved him this time. His sense of danger helped him escape from the monsters that were lurking behind the second door.
As a bard-class player, he didn’t have any effective way of fighting against monsters. He did have a sword on him, but it wasn’t like he had any skills to use. He only had his real-life fencing skills to rely on, and that was good and all, but it wasn’t enough.
Relying on normal attacks and real-life techniques could only bring you so far in the game, as you still need to rely on the game’s skills to properly do damage. Of course, you could create your own skill in the game using your real life skills, but Mikael didn’t know this.
He thought that the skills he gained from his expertise at playing the piano were only through coincidence and not something that was part of the game’s system. He had acquired many Bard-class extra skills on his own without having to spend time or money to acquire them through quests or purchases.
He just didn’t know that right now, but if he did, he probably would’ve at least created one or two fencing skills by now using his real-life skills for self-defense.
Since Mikael didn’t know that, he went back to the entrance of the dungeon and began combing through the area to see if he missed anything. Thankfully, he did this because, to his astonishment, he found a few musical arrangements inscribed on the walls and ceiling of the dungeon.
“I knew it! I did miss something!”
The lighting was pretty bad in the dungeon, so Mikael had to head out of the dungeon and go back to the nearby town where he met the NPC that gave him his current quest and went to the town’s store to buy a few lanterns.
Once he bought around 100 lanterns in bulk, he quickly returned to the dungeon and began placing them around the place. He only needed around 15 to completely light the first area up, but he bought more than he needed because there was still the rest of the dungeon that he needed to explore.
If the first area had some music arrangements inscribed on its ceiling and walls, then the other areas might have something like that as well.
He didn’t want to keep going back and forth to the dungeon and town buying lanterns every time he moved to a new area in the dungeon, so he just bought them all in advance.
Mikael had received a lot of gold from his sister as funds to help him get better equipment for himself, but there was still a lot left over from his purchases. He didn’t need to worry about the gold he forked out to pay for all the lanterns, since his pockets were deep.
After transcribing all of the musical arrangements he found in the first area and playing them once, a few system notifications popped into his vision.
*DING*
You have successfully learned the song, [Attack! Attack! Attack!]. You have unlocked the ability [Soundwave Attack]! You are now able to attack using your instruments!
“Oooh!”
*DING*
You have successfully learned the song, [Flight of the Dragoon]. You have unlocked the ability [Mobile Casting]! You are now able to play your instruments while moving around!
*DING*
You have successfully learned the song, [Whisper of the Dryas ]. The skill has been added to your active skill menu!
Name: Whisper of the Dryas Rank: B Description: Inflicts [Root] in an area for 10 seconds. Rooted enemies will receive 1,000 + (ATK*20%) DMG per second Cast time: 10 seconds Cost: 1,000 MP Cooldown: 15 seconds
The gains he obtained from the dungeon’s first area were really incredible. Previously, all he had in his musical arsenal were songs and melodies that could apply buffs to himself and his allies. There were no means for him to attack as a bard other than the rapier attached to his hip.
Now, with the first skill he obtained that gave him the [Soundwave Attack] ability, he had unlocked a way for him to attack his opponents using his instruments. This was big because no other bard in the game had an ability like this yet.
Most bard-class players doubled as archers, rogues, or warriors because they couldn’t use their instruments as weapons, so they had to use another weapon like a bow and arrow, crossbows, knives, or swords.
Mikael was eager to test this out, so he ‘aimed’ at a boulder nearby and played a few keys. He was surprised that a few musical notes suddenly shot out of his phantom piano and struck the boulder nearby.
When the notes struck the boulder, they burst into a small explosion of colorful lights as the sound of the keys he played earlier echoed into the air right after.
“This is really neat!”
He continued doing this a few more times and eventually played a whole song to see if something else happened. To his surprise, the effect and damage of his [Soundwave Attack] was actually better if he played an entire song rather than just playing random notes.
After testing it out a little bit more, he dismissed his phantom piano and took out a violin and started playing a few keys while moving around to test the [Mobile Casting] ability.
Just like earlier with his piano, a few musical notes shot out from the violin and headed straight for the boulder he was aiming at and they burst into a colorful spectacle that was accompanied by the beautiful sounds of the violin.
“I can move, but my movement speed is pretty low. I guess I’ll still have to rely on you buddy,” Mikael said as he patted the golden donkey on the head.
He continued testing the limits of [Mobile Casting] with his violin and played a few songs with it. The donkey seemed rather pleased with the songs and a notification window appeared in Mikael’s vision that showed the donkey’s favorability and affinity with him had increased by a few points.
Mikael smiled at the notification window before walking over to the donkey and taking out a carrot from his [Inventory] to feed him.
The donkey happily ate the food that was given to him. Mikael was about to start playing again when the golden donkey started nudging him on his back.
“Hm? What is it, bud?”
The donkey raised its head over to the door nearby and Mikael was reminded that he still needed to explore the dungeon.
“Oh, yeah! Thanks, bud! Let’s not waste anymore time and get going!”
Mikael hopped onto the golden donkey’s back and urged him towards the second area. If the first area was for him to acquire a means of attack as a bard, then the second area was the place where those newly acquired skills were going to be put to the test.
His sense of danger really saved him this time around. If he had walked into the second area without obtaining the skills he had just acquired, it would’ve been the death of him without a doubt.
Upon entering the second area, the first thing Mikael encountered was a swarm of large vampire bats lunging straight towards him.
The golden donkey’s aggro diminishing effects didn’t work on these monsters, so they screeched and lunged at him with their sharp claws that glinted even in the darkness of the cave while others shot supersonic wave attacks from a distance.
Mikael was caught by surprise but, luckily, the golden donkey reacted quickly and dodged out of the way.
“T-Thanks, bud!”
The donkey only grunted at Mikael before it started running towards the bats, to his surprise.
“Y-You wanna fight?!”
It let out a furious grunt this time to display its stance and Mikael quickly got its meaning.
“Alright, have it your way then!”
He placed his hand on his rapier by reflex before remembering that he could now attack using his musical instruments.
“That’s right!”
Mikael quickly pulled out his violin and immediately started playing a few notes to test out the damage his sound attacks could cause. The notes flew very quickly towards the incoming bats and when they struck them, they exploded into colorful lights.
-10,000 -10,000 -10,000 -15,000 -10,000
A long string of damage numbers appeared and Mikael was rather surprised by them. His attack power was by no means powerful and the damage numbers were low considering that he was level 250 already.
The damage he was putting out was something players at level 80 to 100 would be doing. Of course, it had to be taken into consideration that his class wasn’t a battle class, but a hybrid lifestyle class.
His attack power was supposed to be low, since most of his stat investment went into VIT and INT, because he needed to be tanky as a support player and he needed enough mana to use his skills.
STR and AGI were the last stats he would invest his precious free stat points in when he leveled up.
The damage wasn’t great, but when he started playing a song instead of just shooting notes at the monsters, numerous musical notes shot out of his instrument and flew towards the monsters like a wave that resembled a musical sheet.
The low damage numbers racked up in quantity and it lowered the monsters’ HP bars gradually.
‘Nice! I can actually do damage to these monsters! Let’s keep going!’
“Bud, I’m counting on you!”
Mikael’s golden donkey only shook its head as it started flitting across the area and keeping itself and Mikael away from the bats while he attacked them with his soundwave attack.
He even tried using his new skill, [Whisper of the Dryas], and was finally able to see it in action. When he played the melody for the skill, light green colored musical notes flew out from his instrument and struck the ground where the monster bats were about to fly over and large root tendrils shot out from the ground and started binding the monsters in place.
“Nice! It even works on aerial units!”
Mikael didn’t think the skill would work on the bats who were flying, but contrary to his belief, it actually worked.
Once bound, the monsters began taking damage from the skill while Mikael stacked more damage on top of it by continuing his soundwave attack by playing a new melody.
With him riding on top of his donkey, Mikael was able to kite the monsters around the area until the last of them fell dead on the ground. The kiting strategy was really good for him since he could just chip away at his enemy’s health until they died, so Mikael was planning on making it his main form of combat.
However, even though he was going to start fighting in a new way, he wasn’t going to let go of his rapier just yet. After all, his fencing skills were pretty good, so in the case of emergencies where he needed to act quickly, he could resort to using the rapier, since taking out his instrument required some time while his rapier was only on his waist.
Mikael continued through the second area, killing monster after monster with his new fighting strategy. It took a while for him to reach the end of the second area and arrive at the door which led to the next area, because firstly, the damage he was doing to the monsters was rather unimpressive, and secondly, he was paying close attention to the area he was passing by.
He didn’t want to miss anything important like he almost did in the first area. Unfortunately, however, he didn’t find anything important in the second area. It was just a straightforward path to the next door. There was nothing special carved into the ceilings or walls of this area.
Mikael even checked twice to make sure he actually didn’t miss anything and, since he couldn’t find anything after the second inspection, he decided to just move onto the next area.
He quickly transcribed the musical arrangement on the door and another notification window appeared. This time, it was showing that he had obtained the third part of the [Melody of the Earth].
*DING*
You have acquired the song, [Melody of the Earth - Part 4]! Please obtain the remaining parts to acquire the skill, [Melody of the Earth]!
Once the door opened, Mikael continued onwards. He was expecting something different in the third area, but it was almost the same as the second area. It had monsters he needed to kill just like before, but on top of those monsters, he also had to take measures to avoid the traps that were in the third area.
Avoiding the traps was easy. Even if he accidentally triggered them, the golden donkey would easily avoid it by moving back or rushing forwards.
The traps were literally useless against him. Of course, these were only the physical type of traps. There were still some magical traps that he had to be slightly wary of, but Mikael found a way to safely deal with those too.
The method was actually simple. Just use a sound attack to trigger the trap while he was a safe distance away from the trap. He still needed to find where the trap was located, but that was pretty easy since he just indiscriminately shot at the air, ground, and ceiling in front of him until he triggered the traps.
He continued doing this until he arrived at another door. Right when he arrived at the door, a system notification appeared in front of him.
You have acquired the skill: Reverberate
Name: Reverberate Level: 1 Rank: B Description: There is a 50% chance that a soundwave attack will reverberate and echo into the surroundings, dealing (ATK x 25%) extra damage to those within 2 meters of the echo. Cooldown: 3 seconds
Mikael was quite surprised that he had gained another bard skill. This skill was really good, in his opinion, since it gave him a means to deal even more damage. What more, it was a passive skill, so he didn’t need to actively use it like his other attack-type skills.
After confirming the effects of the new skill, he dismissed the skill window and started observing the door in front of him. This door was a little different from the rest because it was just a plain stone door that didn’t have a musical arrangement from the [Melody of the Earth] engraved on it.
“...Was the previous door the last door?”
This didn’t make any sense to him, because if the last door was the final door that held the last part of the [Melody of the Earth], then he would be missing one of the parts of the song. The first door gave him the first part of the song, the second door gave him the second part, but the third door gave him the fourth part instead of the third part.
He was still missing a part of the song, but since this was the last door and it didn't have the melody inscribed on it, Mikael thought that the developers might have made a mistake, though it was highly unlikely. However, now that he was at this door that didn't have an inscribed arrangement, he didn't know how he was going to open it.
Mikael thought that, like the previous doors, he had to play the part of the [Melody of the Earth] he obtained from the door to open the door, but since this one didn’t have it, he didn’t know how to open it. He went back to try looking for any clues in this area of the dungeon, but he came up short and didn’t find anything.
“Tsk, how am I supposed to open this thing?” Mikael mumbled to himself as he walked up to the stone door and knocked on it.
All of a sudden, the door started rumbling and it began splitting open in the middle. A gush of cold air rushed out of the crack and it startled Mikael.
“What the…”
A moment later, the stone door was ajar and Mikael stood before it with a dumbfounded look on his face. He sighed and slapped his forehead while saying, “I can’t believe I over-thought this too much…it was just a simple stone door unlike the others…”
He turned around and saw the golden donkey ‘smirking’ at him and it neighed as if it was laughing.
“Oh, shut up. Let’s go,” Mikael said to the donkey before hopping onto its back and urging it forward.
He and the donkey walked past the door and they found themselves inside a large atrium-like cave. The dungeon’s ceiling was gone and it was letting in sunlight from outside.
Since the dungeon was built inside a cliff and they had been moving through the dungeon at an incline, Mikael believed that they were likely near the top of the mountain that the cliff was part of.
“Hm?”
At the center of the atrium-like area, there was a large pedestal with a similarly large bird statue on top of it. The bird statue appeared a little worn, but the beautiful blue gemstones that were its eyes glistened beautifully as the sunlight shone on it.
“Woah, what a beautiful statue…”
He walked over to the statue wanting to get a better look at it, but suddenly, the area started rumbling.
The golden donkey started pacing back like it was agitated and the statue ahead started crumbling. The statue itself didn’t crumble, just the stone-colored part of it. Once the ‘statue’ shed its stone-like color, a blazing azure-colored bird now stood in its place.
The statue wasn’t actually a statue but a monster that was hibernating until Mikael startled it awake by approaching it.
“SKREEE!!!”
The colorful bird let out an irritated screech at Mikael as it spread its wings wide open. It was showing clear hostility towards Mikael and, for some odd reason, the bird’s level was revealed to him, which caused Mikael to panic even more.
Name: 6th-Cycle Azuri Condor Level: 600
“!!!”
It looked poised to attack the intruder that had disturbed its sleep, but the bird ‘frowned’ when it saw the golden donkey that Mikael was riding. The intimidating and hostile air it was letting out didn’t diminish as it let out another sonorous cry towards the heavens.
The large bird’s body started expanding as it grew even larger than before. It started flapping its wings powerfully and kicking up a storm inside of the cave. It looked down at Mikael and the golden donkey one last time before letting out a screech and flying out of the open cave. Mikael was really nervous when he heard the bird screech at him.
The powerful windstorm that appeared after the monster bird flew out of the cave caused Mikael to topple off of the golden donkey. He braced himself for a fight, but thankfully, the monster didn’t come back after it flew out of the cave.
Once the windstorm subsided, all that remained in the cave was the pedestal the 6th-Cycle Azuri Condor was previously resting on before it had been awoken by Mikael.
Mikael quickly hopped back onto the golden donkey and urged it out of the cave and back into the previous area. He waited at the open door leading to the atrium cave while looking up at the sky, trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of the bird.
After a while, it seemed that the monster bird really wasn’t coming back, so Mikael re-entered the cave and approached the pedestal at the center, since that was all that remained in the cave after the monster left.
The pedestal was really large and, instead of a pedestal, it looked more like a large stone slab that was just in an erect position. A lot of dust had been kicked up earlier thanks to the windstorm the Azuri Condor had caused upon its exit, but Mikael was able to notice something glistening from underneath the dust and dirt that had stuck to the stone slab.
He quickly cleared it away with his hand and saw something really familiar.
“Oh! So this is where it was!”
There was an engraving on this slab of stone and it was the last musical arrangement of the [Melody of the Earth].
*DING*
You have acquired the song, [Melody of the Earth - Part 3]!
"The third door really did give me the 4th part of the song instead of the 3rd part…”
*DING*
You have obtained the last part of the [Melody of the Earth]! The song will be added to your skill list!
Name: Melody of the Earth Rank: S Description: Increase the DEF, M.DEF, and RES of all allies within 20 meters of the user by 20% of their respective stats for 30 minutes and grant them immunity to [Stun], [Petrification], and [Root] debuffs for 10 minutes Cast time: 30 seconds Cost: 5% MP Cooldown: 30 minutes Note*: Immunity effects are applied only when allies are within hearing distance of the caster’s melody
Note**: Buffs can be stacked with other buffs of a similar nature
Note***: When [Reverberate] activates, it increases the song’s effects by an additional 10%
Mikael smiled when he finally obtained the skill and right after it appeared in his skill window, the stone slab in front of him started cracking in the middle as a flute fell out and rolled onto the ground in front of him.
“Huh?”
He quickly picked up the flute and inspected it.
Name: Flute of the Earth Type: Quest Item Description: A flute belonging to the songstress of nature, the Dryas of the Evergreen Forests. The songstress has been looking for this flute ever since the person she gave it to passed away many years ago. The flute holds a great deal of nature energy
“Oh! So THIS was the lost item!” Mikael exclaimed.
His presumption that the [Melody of the Earth] was the lost item was completely wrong. The flute he was holding was the actual quest item. Now that he got it, it was time to go back and give it to the person who was supposed to succeed the item, though the item’s description felt rather off.
“The Dryas of the Evergreen Forests is looking for this…I guess that NPC from earlier is going to return it to the Dryas?”
Mikael hopped back onto his golden donkey and quickly left the cave. Once he left, a large shadow started approaching the cave again and the 6th Cycle Azuri Condor appeared again.
It flew through the cave’s opening and landed next to the broken stone slab. It let out a cry as azure-colored flames were ejected from its wings and landed onto the stone slab.
When the flames subsided, the stone slab was returned to its original condition and it flew up to land on top of it. The Azuri Condor closed its eyes as its body started to turn back into a stone-like color and it returned to its ‘stone’ form, going back into its hibernation.
Once Mikael exited the dungeon, the 4 dungeon doors that he had passed through closed shut and once he was far away, a landslide happened which buried the dungeon’s entrance underneath a very thick layer of dirt and rock.
Now, no one could go back to the dungeon unless they unearthed the debris that was blocking the entrance.