In a vast plain of tall, red-colored grass, a dimensional crack suddenly opened, and out walked a beautiful looking man. His hand was still inside the crack and as he pulled on it, a dainty arm emerged from the crack and soon a delicate lady with 6 black wings emerged from the crack.
The beautiful man bowed lightly and addressed the young lady respectfully, "My Lady, we have arrived."
"Oh...so this is your planet? Looks a little red, hahaha~" Maria said after taking a look at the surroundings.
The atmosphere and vibe of the new planet she just stepped on were rather dark and it was further enhanced by the fact that the normal colors of the plants, sky and other things weren't like that of the starting planet she was on.
The skies were red, the grass was red, and the ground was not a dirt-brown color but was instead black.
It wasn't just that. Many things were different totally different from the previous planet she was on. It was a marvel for her because she was a human who was trapped on a single planet called Earth, but she was now able to experience the novel experience of being teleported to another planet.
"Normal in those novels, wouldn't the hero get some kind of power or something? I, instead, get a task to destroy this planet..." Maria mumbled with a grimace.
She pulled up the quest that she just got earlier and sighed.
Quest: Death's Word Rank: SSS Description: As the envoy of Death, you are tasked with the honorable job of spreading his word and presence. Spread the word and faith of Death in the new world that you will descend upon Objective 1: Build a Church of the Death God on planet Vanhal
Objective 2: Acquire 2,000 believers
Objective 3: Establish an Altar of Death upon the main lifestream of the planet, Vanhal
Objective 4: Reap the lives of 100,000 inhabitants of Vanhal Rewards: Unknown Time limit: None
"Hmm, no time limit. I guess I'll just go kill anything in sight and slowly do this quest. Seems pretty easy enough since I only need to force people into believing in Death... I thought the guy would abandon me after I switch affiliations, guess not."
Maria shrugged and began walking in some random direction. She quickly pulled out her Calamity and began waving it around, cutting down the tall grass in front of her which was over half a meter taller than her.
"...Should I just burn this place to the ground?"
"M-My Lady, I advise you not to do that. If I'm not mistaken, we're in the Crimson Blade Plains. There are many powerful monsters here and I'm sure they wouldn't take it too kindly if you started setting fire to their home..."
"Strong monsters? Perfect! I needed to relieve some of my stress! I hate running away, but I had no choice earlier because those NPCs were stupidly strong!"
"Uhh—"
"[Fire]," Maria chanted before quickly flinging the large ball of flames in her hand in front of her.
"M-My Lady!!!"
"Nahaha~ Come out my precious exp bags!"
*****
A few moments later, Maria and Ash were currently dashing away from a large group of monkey and ape-like monsters. Most of the monkey-like monsters that were chasing after them were level 70 while the few ape-like monsters were level 80.
Blood-sucking Orangutan Lv. 72
Blood-sucking Orangutan Lv. 70
Red-back Gorillorc Lv. 81
Headhunter Gorillorc Lv. 85
Maria had a smile plastered on her face as she fled. She would sometimes throw her chain-attached Calamity back at the monsters and send a few magic spells and skill back at them which would only cause them to cry out in rage at her antics.
"Nahahaha~ this is fun!"
"M-My Lady, I thought you said you didn't like to run..."
"I'm not running. I'm just retreating while attacking them. This is a strategy! Don't you dare try to patronize me, Ash!"
"...Yes, my Lady..."
"Lilah, continue to stack debuffs on them and Ash, you better get busy before I kick you into that group of monsters!"
"Yes, Master!"
"...[Blood Wave]."
The three continued to kite the monsters in a circle while slowly chipping away at their health with their long-ranged spells and skills. Maria would sometimes recklessly dash towards the group of monsters and use a [Calamity Cleave] with her ax-form Calamity before slipping away by throwing her chain at Ash who would then pull her away from the monsters.
"Master, the Head Hunter Gorrilorc seems to be a boss! It's much stronger than them and it's always the one running ahead of the pack! I'm sure we'll get some pretty good stuff if we kill it!" Lilah said in anticipation.
"There are only a little bit of his underlings left, let's take care of them first before we attack it," Ash advised.
"[Inspect]"
Name: Headhunter Gorrilorc Level: 85 Rank: Rare Field Boss HP: ???
MP: ???
Maria's eyes lit up when she saw the Rare Field Boss description on the monster, but she frowned a little when she couldn't see any of its other stats. She was only level 50 so it was a given that she couldn't get any information from a monster that was 35 levels higher than she was.
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"Let's hurry up and kill the others. It's a good thing that my attacks can pierce through their defenses and Ash is much stronger than before," Maria said before sending a [Ruin] spell at the monsters that were rushing at them.
A few minutes later, Maria was able to quickly kill off the smaller mobs and only the boss was left.
During the entire cat and mouse chase, the Headhunter Gorrilorc was the only one that kept throwing trees and rocks at them. It was also the only one that used a charge skill to quickly get close to them.
It was a good thing that Maria and Ash could fly away whenever it did this. Maria also found a peculiarity with this world. The gravity seemed to be much heavier here than in her previous world.
Whenever she took to the skies, she felt a heavyweight wash over her entire body and it caused her to struggle to maintain her flight. Maria calculated that at most, she would only be able to stay in the sky for 30 seconds before she grew too exhausted to continue flapping her wings.
Since it was hard to stay in the air, Maria and Ash decided to stick to the ground to fight the boss. From Maria's observations, the boss was rather stupid. She had been leading it around in circles for the past few minutes and instead of learning, it stupidly continued to chase after her.
"Ash, we'll kite this monster around and slowly chip away at its health. I just saw earlier that its attack power was pretty high. When one of its skills accidentally struck one of the mobs that was chasing after us and the skill was able to shave away over half of the monster's HP."
"It'd be dangerous if you got struck by one of its skills, my Lady."
"That's why I'll be using you as a shield if it ever sends a skill at me~"
"..."
"Enough chitchat, let's get the party started!"
Ash immediately struck out with a [Red Ray] and immediately pulled the aggro of the boss onto him. He pulled out a slim sword from his cape and began striking at the monster in a sword dance.
Maria's eyes lit up when she saw this and she couldn't help but ogle at Ash who was elegantly dancing around and striking the monster.
Ash was wondering why his battle-hungry mistress wasn't attacked so when he looked around and saw his mistress only staring blankly at him, he couldn't help but ask her in a somewhat loud voice, "M-My Lady...why aren't you attacking?"
"Oh~ right, right. Sorry, it looked like you and the gorilla was having a ball so I didn't want to interrupt~" Maria teased before she struck out with a [Calamity Cleave], [Gehenna's Eye], and [Angel's Rage] combo.
-3,454 -3,355 -3,603 -9,004! -900 -900 -900 -900
A long string of damage numbers rose from the boss as it was struck by Maria's skills and pelted by her [Angel's Rage].
"Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure I got that new skill... [Fallen's Cruelty]!"
Maria aimed the attack at the Headhunter Gorillorc and white wisps of light began surging out of the monster's body as it cried out in pain.
The wisps of light gathered on Maria's palm and the Gorillorc took a large amount of damage.
-200,000
"W-Woah!" Maria exclaimed in shock when she saw the large damage number.
*DING*
Taint Value has risen by 425
The ball of light remained on her palm and Maria was at a loss as to what to do with it. She looked towards Ash who had lost quite a bit of his HP due to tanking the monster and she sent the ball of light at him.
+100,000
"W-What the hell?!"
"Haha! Thank you, My Lady!" Ash exclaimed as his HP and stamina were quickly restored. He then rushed forward and began striking out at the Headhunter Gorrilorc with renewed vigor.
The boss monster had shifted its aggro onto Maria after her previous attack, but Ash was doing his all to keep the monster from getting anywhere near his Mistress.
"That's it, Ash! Keep it up! A little bit more and this thing's dead!"
A few minutes later, the boss collapsed onto the ground. Its body was thoroughly lacerated and the bloody wounds on its body repelled Maria from getting anywhere near it. Ash had gone overboard with his attacks and had been carving out its body little by little.
+991,578 EXP
"Ash, you go and get the loot. Ugh, that looks awful..."
"Yes, my Lady."
+120,000 Blood Gold +10 Hide of the Headhunter +20 Claws of the Headhunter +5 Gorrilorc Meat
Ash returned with the loot and Maria let out a pleased hum.
"Alright Ash, next is to go wherever this Siegfried is at! Let's go kill him!"
Ash frowned before replying to his Mistress, "My Lady, I think it would be better to build our power first before we go and attack Siegfried."
"Hm?"
"Strength, bloodline, and rank mean everything to us, vampires. Because of that, high-ranked vampires like Vampire Duke Siegfried would normally have many vassals and followers with him."
"So you're saying that if we want to fight Siegfried, it wouldn't only be against him, but his entire faction?"
"Yes, my Lady, that's exactly what I mean."
"So what do we do?" Maria asked.
"I've lost everything before, but it doesn't mean I can't get it all back. If we're going to fight that bastard, we have to do it in the vampire's way."
"Ah, so we have to go build our forces first?"
"Yes."
"And how do you propose we do it?" Maria lifted her brow and asked.
"Hmhm, with my Lady's charm and strength, I'm pretty sure we can quickly garner a group of loyal followers."
*DING*
Quest Update! Quest: Vengeance and Justice Description: To help Ash have his vengeance, you must defeat the Vampire Lord Siegfried! As a Lord, Vampire Siegfried has many subordinates around him and you can't fight him alone! Build your own forces on this planet and help Ash get his vengeance! Objective 1: Gain Ash's Trust (Completed)
Objective 2: Find a way to Vanhal (Completed)
Objective 3: Kill Siegfried (Progress 0%) Sub Objective 1: Establish your own faction in Vanhal (0/1)
Sub Objective 2: Gather 200 followers (1/200)
Sub Objective 3: Promote 20 followers to the rank of Baron (0/20)
Sub Objective 4: Promote 15 followers to the rank of Viscount (0/15)
Sub Objective 5: Promote 10 followers to the rank of Count (0/10)
Sub Objective 6: Promote 5 followers to the rank of Marquis (0/5)
Sub Objective 7: Promote 2 followers to the rank of Duke (1/2) Time Limit: None Recommended Level: Lv. 70 or above Rewards: ??? Warning: This is a solo quest! You are not permitted to form or join a party with any other players as long as this quest is active!
'Vampire Lord Siegfried? Does this mean that he's no longer just a Duke anymore?' Maria thought to herself inwardly.
She turned towards Ash and gazed at him worriedly before asking, "Ash...what happens if your nemesis is now a Vampire Lord and not just a Duke?"
"...It's possible. A long time has passed since my loss at his hands. There were only 2 other Vampire Dukes after me and him. Since I was the strongest and he was able to defeat me, albeit using underhanded means, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he was able to defeat the other two and ascend as Vampire Lord while I was away."
"...You don't seem too worried?"
"Why would I be? I'm sure that you, My Lady, would be able to quickly build a force that could rival or even surpass his! And once that happens, we'll be able to capture that foul creature, slit his puny little neck and push a stake through his black and putrid heart!"
"...Okay..."
Seeing the disgust written all over his Mistress's face, Ash quickly cleared his throat and recomposed himself.
"Ahem, my Lady, since I'm quite familiar with this area, I shall guide you to the closest barony."
"...Okay..."
"Hopefully, not many things have changed. What I remember is only things from a bygone era!"
"Whatever, let's just get going."
"Right."
While the two finally finished making plans for the future, Lilah was at the back counting the Blood Gold that they just acquired from the boss monster.
"Hehehe~ since we're going to recruit people, we'll naturally need money!"