The Strongest Shieldbearer (Chapter 40-41)

Chapter 14
The party of three looked at their mini maps which showed them still in the forest. “We must be underground, let's quickly get out of here and escape while the mages are busy” Hundred Arrows said.

They entered through a doorway labeled ‘1st trial.’ The door disappeared and they were greeted by a slippery cave wall-like slope. “Eek” Rain suddenly screamed. When Zed turned around he saw many sharp stalactites mounted to the place where they entered from. There were skeletons mounted between them with broken limbs and fractured skills. Dried blood could be seen on the jagged blades along with rusted, degraded gear.

RUMBLE

The wall started moving, closing in on the party at a slow speed. Some of the skeletons fell to the ground and were crushed into dust. “The only way to continue is forward” Zed said as the party followed him up the slope. When they looked back the stalactites were already moving towards them so they kept moving up. But the tunnel kept moving up with no end in sight. The party relaxed as the stalactites behind them got further and further away.

‘Wong’

The party could hear a glacier grinding against a cliff or maybe it was the sound of an avalanche. It started quietly but soon escalated to a loud roar. Then in the distance Hundred Arrows spotted something using his scouting abilities “Is that a boulder?” he asked.

The rock quickly came into view, rolling with heavy momentum at high speeds. It was the width of the tunnel. If the boulder crashed into them they would either be flattened directly or pushed into the stalactites for an even more bloody and gruesome end. “This is bad,” Rain thought. There was no way she could do anything against a boulder.

Hundred Arrows had a lot of confidence in the power of the bow but even if he used Power Shot, against something heavy with so much momentum it was like a fly on a car windshield. How could the rock be slowed at all?

Zed stepped forward and quickly gave orders: “I will block the boulder. The biggest issue is that the ground is so slippery there is no decent foothold. Do you guys have a way of solving this problem?” The other two looked at each other in confusion, still hung up on the words “I will block the bolder” and “The only problem…” They doubted Zed or any player could really stop that thing but as he was their only hope they took action.


Chapter 15

Hundred Arrows used a webshot on the surrounding walls along with various ropes to tie Zed fastly in place. The arrows punctured the walls making them difficult to remove. Rain casted support spells on Zed to buff his defense by 30% and make him resistant to physical damage.

Zed activated skin hardening with a higher concentration on his hands and prepared to face the bolder. Pieces of the boulder were rolling ahead of it forcing Rain and Arrow to dodge while Zed just knocked them aside.

The boulder suddenly clashed with Zed as he did his best to hold it back. The boulder didn’t seem to slow at all as it steadily pushed him back instantly destroying every web that held him in place, the skin on his hands was already rubbed off and the friction actually lit his arms on fire! He had no time to worry about this as he persisted with a constipated expression on his face. The other two party members however, were not in the mood to laugh.

They were panicking dodging rocks while putting out the fire, healing, desperately adding more webs (only Arrow). Zed shifted his weight and embraced the bolder with his entire body, spreading the friction and fortifying his position but Rain had a gloomy expression.

Since the start the bolder hadn’t slowed down at all…

Ground stomps, Palm Strikes!

Zed activated two abilities at the same time. He was desperately kicking at the surrounding walls to redistribute the load and kicking at the ground to create foot holds. On the other hand he was disregarding his HP as he furiously struck the bolder with every once of strength in his body. Every time he struck the bolder -50 damage would appear but Rain had already put out the fire and was ready with timely heals keeping him alive.

“It’s working” Rain screamed in excitement as she saw the boulder slightly slowing down. At this moment the stalactites accelerated leaving only 50 meters of breathing room. They were closing in fast.

50 meters, 40, 30….

‘I can only stake everything on one final move.’ Zed decided with resolution. He reached his arms to the surrounding walls and planted his feet as best he could as he charged at the boulder head first. “He actually headbutted it” Rain thought in surprise. At this moment, the boulder cracked and shattered.

The surrounding walls faded away with the stalactites leading the party to collapse out of exhaustion. “We made it”

System: 1/7 trials complete

Silence. That was only one of the trials? The party thought with disbelief. “This better be worth it” Hundred Arrows as Rain nodded in agreement. Zed was so exhausted he was just lying on the ground staring off into space emotionless.

The second trial was a lot easier. The system said to send forth a warrior so Zed was sent into a circle shaped ring surrounded by the void. The other 2 were still dizzy from the boulder when a iron golem appeared from the other side.

[Iron Golem] (Common Monster)

Level 20

HP: 1000

It was big and mighty, but compared to the boulder it was sort of cute how it mightily roared. The trial rules also made this round very easy for Zed. He could never beat the golem in a fight but all he needed to do was push the golem out of the ring and it would fall into the void, never to be seen again.

After a few palm strikes the golem was forced back. Although it had superior defense it had no technique which allowed Zed to push it out easily.

“RAAAaaaa…”

The golem fell into the abyss and the party was directly teleported to the 3rd trial. There was no time to waste as they had already wasted 20 minutes on just the 1st trial. “We're behind schedule, we have to go fast,” Zed said ironically causing the other 2 to look at him in amazement. They were surprised that he beat the golem in just a few moves.

 

...you should change the title became 'The Strongest Sumo Wrestler' instead...lol

 

Chapter 16

The third trial was a hallway lined with statues of mythical beasts. There were dragons, Pegasuses, serpents and lions. Zed walked forward when he heard a clunk and felt the ground falling.

He stepped on a pressure plate, which caused the beast statues to open their mouths/claws and shoot out hundreds of poisonous arrows from every direction. Zed quickly activated skin hardening and stepped back to mitigate the damage. -1, -1 The arrows/darts landed on his hard skin and barely got through but soon -5 started appearing above his head.


His skin started turning green, his face pale and his health bar turned green as well. “Poison!,

“It seems this trial is about using your perception skills to know where the pressure plates are and avoid them or use your agility to dodge the darts when you step on a pressure plate.” Hundred Arrows analyzed. “I don’t have any of that and we also don’t have time for that. I will directly force my way through, you guys stay back here. I will have to rely on Rain to deal with the poison.” Zed ordered. Rain gave him a nod. She felt nervous and worried that she was bringing the team down. ‘This is my chance to prove my usefulness’ Rain thought.

Zed activated Ground stomp as he walked through the passage at a steady pace activating every pressure plate in the trial as he went. Thousands of darts flew around him, many landing directly on his hard grey/green skin. The poison effect started stacking soon dealing over -50 damage per second.

Rain fumbled at first as she was an inexperienced gamer but she quickly caught on to how to better heal Zed. Initially she was worried about every little point of damage which caused her to panic and fail to cast her spells. Then she realized that as long as his HP doesn’t reach 0 Zed would be fine and it was the healers job to stay calm.

She prioritized big bursts of healing immediately after bursts of damage and developed a cold hearted attitude of almost not caring about the person she was healing. This was necessary to stay calm. ‘Holy light, basic heal’ she said while casting various skills. Holy light had a heal over time effect while basic heal was an instantaneous burst. She alternated between them to keep Zed up and as the trial possessed and the poison got stronger, she became more proficient with the two skills. She was training and progressing at an unbelievable rate. By the end, Rain was mentally exhausted but transformed into a fairly competent healer.

Hundred Arrows looked at Rain with wide eyes, amazed with her progress. Hundred Arrows was a very skilled archer despite his goofy, overprotective nature. Whenever they did quests he would always consult Rain, telling her it was okay if she messed up a heal and would slow their progress to compensate.

But later on in the trial, failing heals wasn’t okay. Failing heals meant Zed would die and they would all fail the trial. Zed didn’t yell at Rain when she messed up, in fact he didn’t even turn around or look at Rain, not even once. He just continued moving forward. There was no time to stop and wait for Rain to get her heals together. But by doing so he ended up being a better teacher than Hundred Arrows ever was, just by walking.

It frustrated Hundred Arrows to know that when Zed got to the end he just went to the next trial without saying anything. He wondered if Zed was even aware about Rain or anything else as he loudly stomped forward.


The 5th trial room looked like an ancient egyption crypt. Everywhere there were mummies covered in cloth. “This is sort of creepy,” Rain said worriedly. Then the mummies came to life!

[Drugar (lvl 10) (Common)]

HP: 300

[Ancient Drugar (lvl 10) (Special Elite)]

HP: 500

The mummies had rotting flesh that made rain scream hysterically. She kept casting purification on the mummies whenever they got close to her, causing them to disintegrate into a pile of ash.

It was very effective as they were undead and weak to holy magic.

Zed would palm strike the mummies rapidly, pushing them back. For hundred arrows the mummies looked more like practice dummies as they were slightly slow, staggering back and forth. He enjoyed landing consecutive head shots for double damage, deleting every ancient drugar. Like this the party breezed through the 5th trial with ease.


Chapter 17

The 6th trial was a dark room which put the party on edge. When the room lit up, they saw swarms of blood bats carrying arrows, flying all around them. These were not ordinary blood bats, they were somehow trained to be master archers. The bats circled them and started launching arrows down on them.

“Protect Rain, I will handle the blood bats somehow.” Hundred Arrows yelled at Zed as he readied his bow. His bow was made of wolf bones, carrying the spirit of the Great Wolf. Parts of it gave off a shimmering blue light.

“Howuuuuu~”

His arrow became ethereal, giving off ghostly smoke and lightning. He was using storm arrows.

[Storm Arrow]

Damage: 70% of a normal, full charged shot.

Cooldown: 20 seconds

Description: Rapidly fire arrows without having to pull back the arrow. Limited to 7 shots, can still
headshot enemies and use other abilities with each individual arrow.

[Scatter Shot]

Damage: 30% of a normal shot

Cooldown: 40 seconds

Description: One Arrow splits into tens of arrows upon contact with any surface. The arrows will bounce off walls up to 4 times before dissipating.

Hundred Arrows was focusing to the limit flicking his arm in all directions. It looked like he was shooting randomly but upon closer investigation Zed realized that he was doing this with a great deal of precision.

He would activate Storm Arrows, move his arm to a blood bat, fire, jerk his arm so it pointed to another bat, fire, until he ran out of shots. Except he was doing it at high speeds so he used up the storm arrows in a few seconds. Not only that, every shot he fired was a headshot! The bats were flying around randomly without rhythm or method.

This made them very difficult to hit but Hundred Arrows actually headshoted every time he fired. Storm Arrows was a basic ability but if you are able to headshot with every shot your damage goes through the roof. It is just that no one can do this as the ability is like a machine gun.

Who can get only headshots with a machine gun? People with aimbot maybe.

Aimbot allows you to win every gunfight except Hundred Arrows was doing this with his own skills. When Zed saw this he had one thought: genius. He is a genius with the bow. Occasionally Hundred Arrows would scattershot the ground and a few bats might be hit. He was also dodging the bats' attacks as he shot them down. He alternated using storm arrows twice then scatter shot. The blood bats fell down to the ground one after another.

Hundred Arrows was drenched in sweat and clearly having a difficult time. Even so he cleared the trial, leaving the ground covered in red wings. When the trial was over Zed moved to the next one without saying anything which upset Hundred Arrows but when he looked at the clock there was only 20 minutes left.

‘20 minutes should be enough for one trial’ Arrows thought when he realized that the last trial was probably a final boss fight that would be harder than all the other trials combined. Arrows and Rain followed to the final trial.

 

Chapter 18

In a goblin area near green town-


It was a full moon but the cloud cover made it hard to see clearly. A shadowy figure was leaping back and forth, cutting down every player in sight. As he passed players would be chopped up into pieces cleanly, leaving their limbs scattered on the ground.


“What is that thing? Some kind of advanced monster?, Ah, wai-” The swordsman was chopped in half, split cleanly down the middle.

The clouds parted revealing a berserker who was more beast than man. He had red eyes and was covered in blood. He gave off an intimidating aura and had a stare that could give his opponents immense pressure.


‘This feels so good’ he said as he kneeled down to a girl's corpse. Then he started eating the corpse…


Swords and Magic was very life-like. Your sense of smell, touch and pain were mostly intact. But this psychopath just started madly eating her as he ripped out her organs. From the methodical nature, it looked like this wasn’t his first meal either. This scene caused other players to be fearful.


System: The necessary conditions have been met. Secret skill unlocked: [Devour]

[Devour (lvl 1)]

Cooldown: 10 seconds

Description: Consume the corpse of fallen enemies to gain a part of their power.

Effect: Steal 1 stat point from the highest attribute of the target.

Seeing this, the berserker was overjoyed and let out an evil smile. ‘Killing 3 players if like leveling up once? This is perfect, if i can kill 100 players I just leveled up 33 times’

In the 7th trial of kings.

Zed’s party was transported to a dusty prison cell, except it had a shelf lined with mana potions and light spilled in from the bars of the cell door. To his surprise it wasn’t locked so he opened it and walked out. Rain grabbed the potions and followed. The party was instantly restored to max HP/MP upon being teleported.


When Zed looked around he saw a gladiator stadium from Ancient Greece. It was filled with undead spectators who were being extremely rowdy. They seemed to be cheering but it was hard to tell as they also sounded like zombies.


“Enough, enough” Said a drugar on a podium. The crowd went quiet instantly. The drugar was dressed in a fancy suit which seemed ironic compared to his rotting flesh. Zed noticed that above the podium he saw 7 thrones at the highest point. The mummies there wore crowns and had a heavy presence.


[Drugar King (level 100)]

HP:???/???

Description: -


“Don’t tell me we have to fight that? He could one-shot us by accidently breathing in our direction.” Hundred Arrows said calmly. ‘No reason to be worried if you have no chance of survival to begin with’ was his philosophy. Rain was trembling though.


“Our challengers hail from a distant land to bravely fight for honor and glory. And introducing the championnnn~” The host said.


A giant rusty gate on the other side of the arena slowly opened.

“RAHHHHH”


[Diamond Golem (lvl 20)]


HP: 10000/10000

A roar echoed through the arena as a diamond golem stepped into view. He was much bigger than the iron golem. Crystals grew out of his back, his legs were thick like tree trunks, his arms were big and his hands looked like miniature hammers. He was plated in symmetrical geometric armor.


When the party saw the golem they weren’t relieved at all. The golem was level 20 and had 10000 hp. It’s defense looked impenetrable and they only had 20 minutes. “Begin the slaughter” The host announced, causing the crowd to yell once again.


Chapter 19

“I can tank the boss for the most part. I can’t hold its agro but I can push him away, you guys will have to dodge his ranged skills. The key thing here will be penetrating his armor.” Zed ordered. Hundred arrows immediately sent a full power arrow at the golems head. It bounced off the golem's blue skin causing the crowd to laugh hysterically.


Diamonds are some of the hardest rocks in the world. They are formed by extreme pressure over millions of years making them very dense. Zed was reminded of this fact when he saw the golem scratch his head like he was tickled by a bug or something.


The golem charged at the party. Hundred Arrows shot webbed arrows at the golem, slowing him down. The golem swung his hammer high and smashed down on Zed. He activated skin hardening and raised both his arms in a cross formation to block the hammer.


Boom. The clash reverberated throughout the colosseum. Zed silently took the blow with his body. The impact spread from his arms to his body making Zed incredibly dizzy. The golem didn’t give him time to rest as it sent another hammer at his side with a sweeping motion.


Zed went flying. The party had never seen this before. Even when the boulder crashed into zed in the 1st trial it wasn’t enough to send him flying. Zed crashed into the side of the arena. Cracks formed around the point of impact. His vision was blurry.


The other two quickly ran away as they were scared of even the indirect damage from the golem. If they were hit directly... turning into meat paste was the only outcome. Rain casted heals quickly returning him to full hp.

“It turns out I can’t tank the boss. I have a new plan. Rain it is your job to tank” Zed said. The other two were dumbfounded. “You want the healer to tank? Are you out of your mind” Hundred Arrows yelled. Rain was very confused as well.


“Heals don’t matter when your tank just gets deleted. Rain will be the one who is getting the golem's attention. The golem is slow so she should be able to dodge, she just needs to heal herself when the shockwaves deal damage to her. My job will be to create cracks in the golem. Hundred Arrows will follow up on the weak spot once I create it.” Zed ordered.


This plan defied logic. Why would a healer become the tank? It seemed crazy but they had no time to argue. Throughout the trials they advanced by relying on Zed’s quick thinking and leadership skills. Although Hundred Arrows hated to admit it Zed had become their shining beacon of hope in the darkness.


Rain ran up to the golem who was approaching. She threw rocks at his head to make him enraged and lead him back to Zed.

The Golem smashed left and right but Rain was able to dodge every attack as the golem was covered in webs, slowing it down. Zed suddenly appeared in front of the golem and used Palm Strike. His hands were black as he concentrated skin hardening on only his hands.

‘Palm Strike, Second form!’ he thought as he lashed out. This time however he didn’t use his palm instead leading with his knuckles. A -1 appeared above the golems head.


Hundred Arrows squinted and saw a faint crack. “It’s working, keep it up” he yelled excitedly. The party lead the golem around and kept attacking it’s belly in the same spot. Zed would use palm strike, creating another crack. Then Hundred Arrows would shoot normally, followed by Spirit Arrows to attack the golem’s weak spot. Each spirit arrow did -30 but the normal shot did -40. He would then activate scatter shot and bounce it off the ground which only did -20 as most of the arrows missed but would confuse the golem and become a smoke scream for Zed’s next

Strike.


If the golem regenerated, there would be no hope of beating it in an hour, much less 20 minutes. But the golem didn’t regen and after 18 minutes the party got the golem down to 100 hp.


“YOU HAVE ANGERED ME ANTS” The golem said in a deep voice. The golem suddenly changed. The crystals on it’s back grew and its skin turned red. He shot crystals in the air creating a showering AOE attack. His defense increased and the weak spot started repairing.


“This is bad, he’s going berserk” Zed said. But with just 100 HP the boss didn’t last long and the regen effects didn’t have enough time to take effect. Zed took the front while Rain went behind the golem, Hundred Arrows kept sending arrows into the Golem’s stomach.


The golem’s HP reached 0 as it crashed to the ground. “We did it!” Rain shouted in excitement.
The party was exhausted but they beat the golem with 1 minute remaining, clearing the trails.

 

Chapter 20

The king in the center stood up and spoke: “You challengers have impressed me, take your reward.”

System: You are the first to complete a hidden trial, rewarding 50 reputation in the red province and 1000 EXP.


The party was transported to a library filled with spell books. The library was decaying and covered in dust like no one had set foot in it for thousands of years. They were teleported to a moving sidewalk when they heard the king's voice: “Each of you may take one thing, everything in this library is a precious treasure, try anything and I will crush your soul.”


The library had different sections for different classes: swordsman, archers, assassins, tanks, elemental mages and priests. Zed went to the tank section and saw so many crazy skills that his head started spinning. One red skill book called instant travel, allowed a tank player to teleport to a low hp ally but he didn’t take it because it had a long cooldown with difficult conditions to fulfill (they must be below 20% hp).


The skill books were mostly cc skills, taunts and defensive skills. Zed didn’t look at these as he was not too worried about protecting others or physical damage. Good teammates would just dodge ranged abilities and he didn’t really need to hold aggro if he pushed bosses back with palm strike.


Zed walked past many bookshelves and eventually found a white podium with a rainbow colored skill book. It said ‘magic resistance’. He picked it up and learned it without hesitation.

‘This is what I need, now I can resist water, ice, earth, chaos, poison, lightning, and wind magic in addition to being almost immune to fire. I would like to see what those mages can do now!’ he thought with excitement.


System: Magic resistance acquired, +30 magic resistance, +20 defense


Meanwhile Hundred Arrows was in the archer section when he saw a yellow skill book called “Rapid fire.” There were a lot of things to choose from but after he red the description he learned it immediately. The skill book just doubles the speed to pull back arrows. Basically you get half the effect of storm arrows without even using it while keeping the full damage of your arrows. For normal players it might be hard to aim so quick but for Hundred Arrows who could aim during storm arrows this skill was like giving a tiger wings.


Rain wasn’t sure what to get. After tanking the golem, she realized that she didn’t like just healing as it was too boring. Most of the skill books were golden with holy energy geared towards healing but in their midst one was black, giving off death energy. She learned it without looking at its description.


[Resurrection (lvl 1)]

Cast time: 10 seconds

Cooldown: 2 days

Conditions: Must be within 5 minutes of the target dying.

Effect: 66% chance to resurrect a player, 33% chance to curse their soul

Description: Heroes never die!


‘Such a long cooldown’ Rain’s first thought was that there were too many conditions for this skill to be useful. Also if the user screws up in the ratio of healing/death magic by even 1% the skill will fail. Even then you could get unlucky and curse your teammate. But thinking again she still thought it was good.


After all this was resurrection! Such a broken ability. How many times have healers failed to heal someone in time or your carry dies in the middle of a boss fight. With this ability you can bring that carry back and go against fate. It is truly heaven defying!


System: The necessary conditions have been met. Change classes to become a [Necromancer]? Y/N

She clicked accept.

Chapter 21

Back at the forest most of the tree monsters were cleared out by a tired group of mages.

‘Buzzzz’

Specs of light shined as three figures appeared in the middle. “They are our targets get them” A mage yelled. The figures were Zed, Rain and Hundred Arrows. They were completely surrounded.


Zed was inspired by the way the diamond golem stomped the ground. Every move it made would shake the entire arena, you would feel his presence in his bones. Zed was ready to reveal ground stomps second form: Earthquake. Of course he wouldn’t be able to evolve his skills without first mastering them to a certain degree. The way swords and magic worked was skills would not be given automatically, you had to invent them after you mastered a basic action first.

Rumble..

Zed stomped back and forth with a violent energy, creating tremors in the ground. -30 appeared over every mage's head. “Get him, we outnumber him 30 to 1. The other 2 had already jumped into the trees in the commotion of the Earthquake.


Fire, lightning, rocks, fire and ice danced in a chaotic barrage that ended at one point: Zed’s location. This was the attack of 30 mages. However, Zed was okay after a few heals from Rain. Magic resistance was just too good. After a few barages that looked like fireworks, the mages were out of mana.


“It’s my turn” Hundred Arrows said while he shot left and right. Everywhere he went he would put arrows in the mages' heads, they had no way to resist without mana while also staggered from the Earthquake. It was like target practice. At this moment, the mages regretted wasting all their mana on Zed. They tried to escape but Hundred Arrows was like a sniper who could calculate the fall of the arrows and headshot them from 100 meters away.

After clearing out all the mages the party met up once again. Zed was nervous. He was no longer focused on surviving and Rain looked like an angel with her blond hair and holy aura. “D d do you want to continue partying together” Zed asked with a crack in his voice. Rain blushed and responded: “I might be willing to follow you, if you start a guild with me.”

Rain’s words were normal but the way she looked at Zed, along with the intimate way she said those words drove Hundred Arrows into madness. He cursed and regretted not letting Zed die in the 1st trial. He also hated himself for not really hating Zed deep down, a complicated emotion.


Zed agreed and they named the guild ‘The 7 Kings’ and invited Hundred Arrows as the vice guild leader. Rain made Zed be the guild leader even though he didn’t want the attention. A tall tree attracts the wind. If Zed became a guild leader the other three guilds would throw away all pretense and send armies of hundreds of players to track him down.


First he took out Tyrannical Explosion’s assassin team, then Half-Moon Pavillion’s mage team. At this point they were willing to sacrifice everything to take him down, he had just made them too mad. There was no possibility of reconciliation or negotiation at this point.


The part continued the rest of their journey and arrived at Red City. At this time, Moon Goddess was so angry she was spitting blood. “I have never been humiliated this way before in any game. After I am done with you good luck ever being able to play Swords and Magic.” Moon Goddess said. She arranged a meeting between the guild leaders to plan a war against Zed and Rain.

 

Chapter 22
On the road to Red City-


Hundred Arrows was out scouting for enemies. Who knows when the 3 guilds will send some party of speedy assassins to intercept them? That left Rain and Zed alone together.

Zed looked at Rain’s blond hair as they traveled and felt a hole in his chest. It was awkward to travel without making conversation but when he opened his mouth no words came out!


He started to feel like the lava pillars from the volcano were not that hot compared to his current temperature. Rain noticed him spacing out while staring at her and lowered her head. Her ears were red and she was also quiet.


When they arrived at Red City, they saw a line of players in front of a huge gate. On the outskirts there was an old beggar. “Waa… Waterrrr….” the beggar said meekly. Rain tried some healing magic on the NPC but it had no effect. “Lets just give him water, it’s not that valuable anyway” Zed said, handing over water to the old man.

“Thank you, kind sir. You are my savior” the old man said and chugged the water down in 4 seconds! Then he turned to the line and resumed begging: Waa… Waterrrr….”

System: You have gained the Effect [Benevolent Samaritan].

Zed looked under the ‘effects’ section of his inventory and found the perk.

[Benevolent Samaritan]

Effect: Gives +1% exp for an hour.

Alongside it Zed could see the effects of the lifeforce armor, each piece gave him fire resistance and defense. Zed gave the beggar more water and was thanked but this time he didn’t get a second effect-nothing happened. ‘So effects can’t stack, is that what prevents players from equipping multiple armor sets for additional benefits?’ Zed speculated.


The gates were big and majestic, once the 2 stepped through they saw a bustling market. Both NPCs and players set up stalls in the street to sell their wares. “Mana potions for sale, you won’t find a better price anywhere in Red City” “I have Iron-ranked heavy armor for sale, come quick before I run out!”


Zed could see signs hanging for the various establishments: the blacksmith, alchemist shop, enchanting room, library and various NPC shops. At the end of the street was a large dome shaped building that seemed like an arena. Zed couldn’t see the adventurer's guild but it was probably in the middle of the city.


The crowds were pushing and shoving as this street was very crowded, it might have been wide but with all the iconic buildings on one street in addition to the stalls, there was no space to breath. This caused players to curse the architect who designed the city, calling him an idiot.


Zed was worried that his hand was too sweaty which caused him to hesitate. He swallowed his fears and grabbed Rain’s hand. They made their way through the ocean of people and escaped to the alchemist shop. It was filled with beakers and specimens of magic beasts.

It was organized in a neat, efficient way. To Zed’s surprise not a single player was in there.

“Haha ha ha”


When the two turned to the cackling of an ugly witch with green skin. “It’s you! How can you be here?” Zed shouted in surprise. “I can do many things beyond your imagination, to me you are nothing more than an ant, have you changed your mind about the experiments?” Said a little girl.

The witch changed her appearance instantly without a chant or spell. Then she became a woman in her 20s with big breasts and pink hair, her waist was slim and the tight fitting blue mage robes she wore failed to hide her figure. Zed inspected the robe closely.


[Advanced Alchamist’s Robes (Epic Rank)]

+1000 intelligence

Alchamest’s Blessing (passive): Potions crafted by the user are 2x as effective.

Blessing of the springroot lotus (passive): 25% of crafting a duplicate potion upon successfully creating a potion.

Years flow like a river (active): Accelerate time in a mixture. Effects vary depending on the mana used.

Cooldown: 2 hours

Ingedient Recovery: Recover the ingredients from a failed mixture from a potion of rare grade or lower.

Cooldown: 1 day


“Baka” Rain was still embarrassed from hand holding but she pouted and covered Zed’s eyes.


Zed just continued without reacting: “I need two of the cheapest potions you have. They must have the same effect.” The young witch narrowed her eyes with suspicion.“You can call me Eveyln. I have these failed potions from a batch of intelligence potions I recently made, but their effects are worthless, I will give them to you for 50 bronze coins.”


[Failed Intelligence Potion (Trash)]

Effect: Reduces intelligence by .1% for 1 hour.

They are worthless but you are still charging me 50 bronze coins? This is daylight robbery! Zed started to understand why this shop had no players.

Chapter 23

Zed paid her and chugged the first potion. The potion was brown and murky like swamp water. To his surprise there was no intelligence effect, instead his intelligence just became 1.001 instead of 1. He chugged the second potion and his intelligence became 1.002001 causing him to be delighted.

Even Rain, who was used to Zed’s crazy antics, was confused. He just paid for this nasty swamp water and is excited about basically 1 intelligence. His eyes were shining like he had discovered gold.


“Evelyn is there a potion that increases the effectiveness of crafted potions” Zed asked. “This type of information would usually cost you 50 gold but I will tell you for free because we are acquainted. I have heard of very rare potions that increase the success rate but a potion that makes created potions stronger is theoretically and practically impossible. The world is vast but haven't heard any rumors of one either.”


Not even rumors?! Zed was stunned and he became gloomy. “How about a potion that makes created enchantments more effective?” Zed asked after recovering. “Enchanting is simpler than alchemy. This is a more doable request. I can sell you a basic potion like this for 50 gold.” Evelyn replied. 50 gold was enough to buy a full set of rare equipment. Zed didn’t have 1 gold, much less 50. It was clear that Evelyn had a hobby of charging ridiculous prices and watching people drool with envy.


But Zed ignored the price and bowed down to Eveyln yelling: “Please make me your disciple, I will do anything to learn the art of alchemy!” When Evelyn heard this she smiled the way she did telling players her prices, it was an evil smile filled with ridicule. She handed Zed a list, “if you can gather these items for me I don’t mind making you my apprentice.”


System: You have accepted the quest Witch’s Apprentice. Gather the materials in the time limit.

[Witch’s Apprentice (Epic)]

Ingredients:

• 50 one-eyed rhino horns
• 1000 slime balls
• 100 magic crystals
• 75 gallons of primordial killer-wasp honey
• A divine soul bear cub

Additional Condition: 50 intelligence

Time limit: one month

Punishment: Evelyn will deal with you

Hint: Evelyn likes to assign nearly impossible tasks, good luck!

When Zed saw the notification he was terrified. His thoughts surged like a storm- ‘An epic quest? I haven’t even completed a rare quest yet! What does it mean she will “deal” with me? What a terrible hint, it doesn’t help at all.’

 

Chapter 24

Zed wasn’t familiar with alchemy or magic at all so he didn’t really know if the ingredients would be hard to find or not. But when he remembered Evelyn's smile and saw the ‘primordial killer-wasp’ and ‘divine soul bear’ he involuntarily shuttered.


When the party left the alchemy shop the road was less crowded. They followed Evelyn’s directions and made his way to a remote corner of the city. Most of the buildings were old and breaking down but one stood out from the rest- It was a diamond dome that reminded Zed of the crystal golem. A sign was on the door-


‘Welcome to the Crystalarium’

When Zed got inside he saw book shelves all around him, It was like a maze! Zed followed the left wall and eventually made it to the center. He saw a mountain of books that were swaying up and down slightly.


“SHhiii, SHhiii…”


“Is that, snoring?” Rain asked. The two started dismantling the mountain of books. They pushed piles to the side, turned it into more of a flat ocean instead. Eventually Zed fished out a sleeping old man with a white beard. He wore mage's robes like Evelyn but Zed didn’t inspect them too closely for obvious reasons.


[Enchanter Syrus (lvl 200)]


“Wha- What, who are you people?”

Syrus was enraged after being woken from his nap. He chanted in an ancient language causing runes to fly out of the empty bookshelves around him. The books floated into the shelves and ended up neat and organized.


“Evelyn said you could help me learn alchemy” Zed said earnestly. Upon hearing Evelyn’s name the old man changed his tune. “Oh, so you were sent here by Evelyn. I can let you be my student, if you pass my test. I will tell you a story and you must solve the riddle hidden within” Syrus said.


Before Zed had time to interrupt the old man started his story: “Once upon a time, there was a powerful mage who lived on a hill. Every day he would travel down to the river to get water. Of course this wasn’t normal water, it was… it was.. What was it? Ah yes! It was spirit water from a spirit spring.” Syrus said.


Rain and Zed glanced at each other in confusion as the old man continued: “One day when he was on his usual trip he ran into an earth dragon who wanted to steal his spirit water. He didn’t want to fight the dragon so he asked him: ‘Oh earth dragon, the spirit spring is down the trail a bit, why don’t you just go collect it yourself?’ But in response the earth dragon laughed wildly, ‘Why would I take orders from a puny human? I could kill you in my sleep, you are like an ant that I step on by accident, why would I take notice of an ant and reach an agreement with it? If I did that the other dragons would laugh at me!’


When the wizard heard that he redied his staff and started casting spells, he instantly summoned some earth golems to guard him and coated himself in elemental armor. The dragon rampaged around, destroying everything in his path. The mage was very agile and he avoided the dragons charges while casting high level combination spells for a higher effect. However, none of the attacks he tried could even scratch the earth dragon, it’s defense was the highest among magical beasts. Besides that this particular dragon was insanely powerful, as they fought the mage started to sweat as he did everything he could to stay alive.


The mage was in trouble as he was about to run out of mana. The dragon charged with unmatched power, threatening to turn the mage into meat paste. And then just when it was about to end… Umm… I forgot the rest.” Syrus said.


When he got to the ‘I forgot the rest’ part Rain and Zed both dropped to the ground. Zed had been taking it very seriously, listening with bated breaths, determined to solve some secret riddle. As the story continued he became invested and then it just ended with ‘I forgot the rest.’


Zed didn’t know what to think. ‘What happened to the earth dragon? What happened to the mage? Why didn’t the mage just give him the spirit water? What is wrong with this NPC?’ Zed had a lot of questions.


“You two what are you here for?” Syrus asked. When Syrus said this it was like the final straw that broke the camel's back. Zed really wanted to slap this old man! Rain on the other hand, found it difficult to control her laughter. “He is here to become your disciple. Can’t you give us some sort of task and make us your apprentice if we complete it?” Rain asked, chuckling.


“Oh yes, I can make you my disciple if you bring me some soul gems, they don’t have to be filled but if they are it will be worth more points. You will need to cast a spell on monsters before you kill them to capture their souls. Higher quality soul gems will also be worth more points. Once you have enough points, come talk to me?” Syrus said. ‘THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST SAY THAT THE FIRST TIME INSTEAD OF WASTING OUR TIME WITH SOME STUPID STORY?’ Zed yelled in his mind.


System: You have accepted a quest.

[Syrus’s Apprentice (Rare)]

Task: Collect enough soul gems to get 1000 points.

Hint: Use ‘soul bind’ on a monster before killing it to fill a soul gym of the same rank. Filled soul gems are worth double points.

Reward: Become a basic enchanter.

Punishment: Syrus forgets about you.

Chapter 25

With the quest the party followed a wall and left the maze, exciting the Crystalarium. “Where are we going next, the blacksmith’s workshop?” Rain asked. The reason Rain was asking is some players discovered you can actually become a blacksmith without picking the starting class if you work hard enough.


Zed looked down the way and saw an iron furnace-like building. There was a dwarf pouring molten lava into an iron cast shaped like a sword. After he steamed it, he started banging on the molten weapon with unparalleled skill and strength. Every action of his carried dignity and a profound love of his craft.


Clank, clank, clank…


The weapon started to form, it was a beautiful scene that left Zed mesmerized. It was like watching a caterpillar hatch into a butterfly on a spring morning. At some point, Zed found himself wishing that he was studying under this dwarf rather than the senile old man or the sadistic witch.


But after considering it again, he simply shook his head: “I don’t need to be a blacksmith, I am trying to achieve something specific. For this, any garbage tier armor will work, but I definitely need to become an enchanter and alchemist. Rain do you trust me?” Zed asked.


Rain nodded her head and started blushing. Zed didn’t have time to think about this and said “Good, recall hundred arrows. The first mission of the 7 kings will be to collect these quests. We are going to be pinched for time.” Zed said. He knew that the 3 guilds would send people to Red City to kill him. At that time it would be impossible to go out to level, much less try to collect ingredients or soul gems. He had to act fast and complete the quests as soon as possible.

 

Chapter 26

Soul gems were found in chests and dropped by magical creatures such as elemental spirits. They could also be purchased from NPCs although that was very expensive. Zen’s plan was to conquer the alchemist quest first, then sell all the drops to buy soul gems.


Ingredients:

• 50 one-eyed rhino horns
• 1000 slime balls
• 100 magic crystals
• 75 gallons of primordial killer-wasp honey
• A divine soul bear cub
  

Zed didn’t have much confidence piercing the thick hide of a rhino-like creature and the 1000 slime balls seemed like it would take forever. “Why don’t we try the killer wasps? Even if a hundred of them swarm you, with your defense they shouldn’t be able to deal damage, this will be easy!” Rain said.

The party followed a quest marker to a sandy field when some players stopped them. A paladin that seemed to be their leader offered a friendly warning: “Hey, you don’t want to go in there, otherwise- AAHHH!” The paladin was interrupted as a wasp his size came from underneath the sand and impaled his throat. Then another wasp appeared and the pair carried him off his corpse into the sunset. “What, so easily!” The other players were in shock as their fearless leader who was proud of his cancerous impossible-to-kill playstyle was instantly deleted.


The ground started moving as several 5 feet sand mounds appeared around them. At first it was a few but 5 turned to 10, 10 turned to 20 and very quickly there were 50 sand mounds around Zed and the other party.


When the sand cleared, 50 player sized wasps surrounded the players. A green wasp with 6 wings came down from the group and impaled a healer, carrying it away. The other wasps wouldn’t be out done as they also started dive bombing as well. They took turns dive bombing with their stingers one at a time like they were playing with their prey. They eventually got lazy and stopped picking up the corpses but kept diving. It was like they were hunting for sport...


In just 30 seconds most of the party was wiped out. Zed was shocked. He thought the wasps would be small. He thought back to Rain’s previous statement about him being fine swarmed by a hundred of them. He pictured himself stabbed all over and poisoned to death. “I will summon some decoys and stall, you should go for the honey!” Rain said hurriedly.


[Summon Zombies]

Requires 100 mana

Effect: Allows the user to summon up to 10 zombies to fight for them from other player’s corpses. The zombies have good vitality but lack attack power.
Duration: 2 minutes

Cooldown: 30 minutes

Rain summoned some zombies and Zed went into a hole in a sand dune he found. He went deeper and deeper but couldn’t find any wasps. He passed through many tunnels eventually the tunnels converged into one big passage way. He jumped through the tunnel and landed in a slimy liquid. It was too dark to see clearly.

System: Honey located. Collecting...

Progress: 0/75 gallons


Chapter 27

‘That was easy’ Zed thought as he completed his quest and lit a torch. Suddenly he felt a heavy pressure bearing down on him. It was like the king’s pressure but the king was friendly so it didn’t affect him too much. The aura he felt now was different.


It was violent and hostile, filled with killing intent. He felt like he couldn’t breath, his lungs could be crushed at any moment. His instincts told him to run but he still had to collect the honey.

1, 2, 3… ‘Dang it this is too slow’ He cursed. At this moment he saw it.


A hornet the size of an elephant was illuminated by torch light. It had fluffy yellow fur around its neck reminiscent of a bumble bee, 12 eyes, pincers and numerous feelers coming out its mouth.


[Primordial Killer Wasp Queen (High Lord) level 20]

Health:1000/1000


Then the killer wasp queen diapered into the darkness. Zed’s heart sunk. ‘Im dead’ It was a simple thought but it was how he felt. He activated skin hardening and used ground stomps in the honey pool creating waves. The honey was thick and sticky as it sloshed around.


It wasn’t really a strategy, he was just popping all of his abilities at once in a desperate attempt to survive. Then the queen charged at him from behind at an incredible speed for her size. When they collided, Zed felt as though he was hit by a truck as he held onto the queen’s stinger.

The stinger was inching closer and closer to his chest. Even with his strong defense, the queen was just too powerful. He was so focused on stopping the stinger that he didn’t notice as the queen neared him with her giant pinchers.


CLOMP


The bit his head off.


System: You died. Respawning at Red City. You are level 1 so no experience is lost.


Zed respawned at Red City. He saw Rain and the other adventurers. They had gloomy expressions. “An epic quest is just too hard, why don’t we try the soul gems first” Rain suggested. Zed wasn’t deterred as he calmly thought about how he could complete his objective.


Back when he faced the hobgoblin, he was completely outmatched. But even so he got lucky and beat it. ‘Killing the wasp queen was clearly impossible, but if it is just getting the honey…’

Zed was trying to come up with a plan.

30 minutes ago-


Back at Evelyn’s shop, she was eating popcorn watching something on a big screen in her pajamas. There was a crystal ball hooked up to a projector displaying a bunch of players being carried off by wasps.


“I want my mommyyyy…” A player shouted as they were carried off.


Evelyn was watching it like it was a movie. Then came the part where Zed was getting impaled by the wasp queen. Suddenly the queen bit his head off. “hahahaha” Evelyn was laughing like she had just heard the funniest joke in the world. ‘Now I guess that guy will have to give up on becoming an alchemist, he was interesting but you can’t become an alchemist before reaching a certain level. I am afraid it is still too soon for him.’ Evelyn thought to herself.

 

Chapter 28

Zed walked to the blacksmiths place. Because he wasn’t even a basic blacksmith any weapon he created would just be garbage. “Can I use the tools here to do something?” Zed asked the dwarf who was immersed in crafting. “Sure sure just don’t break anything.”


Zed poured molten lava into a long cylinder, around a pole he found. Before it hardened he removed the pole and with a few bangs of a hammer, he had a pipe. He was clunky and crude but it was good enough to make simple things.


Next, he took a stick and added a spade to the end, forming a shovel. Then he luckily found a mold for a drill which would be way too difficult for an amatuer to create. He finalized his creation with a small wooden handle.


Rain was off doing hunting undead for a necromancer quest. Because of her class, most undead were weakened, allowing her to farm them for experience. Zed returned to the dust fields except he went to the bottom of a cliff near the edge. He was in a slime infested area.


Zed started digging a hole, eventually it was 20 feet deep. He pointed the drill towards the wasp nest and formed a small tunnel. Then he inserted the pipe forming a difference in pressure. Soon honey started pouring out of the pipe. ‘Eureka’ Zed said. Honestly, he didn’t expect this to work as he knew very little about wells/craftsmanship.


“Such ingenuity!” Evelyn watched with wide eyes surprised that a player could come up with something like this. He was abusing the rules of the game to his advantage. What amatuer would be able to go into a blacksmithery and produce a pipe/drill in real life? But because the devs only considered weapons, average players could craft whatever they wanted.


The quest expected players to defeat the wasps but Zed just skipped over that and yoinked their honey. The honey was yellow and sweet.

Honey Collected: 75/75 gallons

System: Honey gathered successfully.


“You might have completed one of the tasks but let's see how far that brain takes you.” Evelyn snorted. The area Zed was in had giant green slimes. The problem with slimes was they were time consuming to deal with.


When damaged they would split into two medium sized and then to four smaller slimes. The small slimes would spread out. Collecting a 1000 slime balls normally would take months. Rain came over to find him covered in dirt and honey. “Rain do you think you can force all the slimes in the area to enter this hole?” ‘What do I look like a shepherd?’ Rain muttered under her breath but then she responded: “Okay hold on a second.“


Rain summoned a bunch of zombies who each chased a slime towards the whole, in a moment 20 green slimes were gathered in a circle. Rain forced them into the hole where they bounced around violently. A bunch of -1s appeared above Zeds head.

“Palm strike series: Spinning Top” Zed shouted as he spun around at high speeds. He had low agility but if he was standing in one place, agility didn’t matter. His arms pushed the slimes around him as he got faster and faster.

Pop


The first slime split. Followed by another. Soon there were 40 medium slimes and then there were 80 small slimes. Zed was like a cake mixer whipping batter as he mowed down slimes under the intense momentum. Soon all the slimes were dead and they dropped 80 slime balls. After 12 runs Zed was seeing stars but all 1000 slime balls were collected.


Evelyn had an ashen expression. She made the quest impossible on purpose so she wouldn’t have to teach a low level tank alchemy. But she miscalculated. Zed was too smart! The way he looked at challenges was different from other players.


But then Evelyn remembered the divine soul bear cub and smiled. She looked at Zed like he was already a corpse. “There is no way he can do this, I will believe it when goblins can fly!”


Chapter 29

The African Savanna. It was a desert where mighty beasts clashed. Who would win in a fight, a hippo or a rhino? Is it even possible for anything to take down an elephant? Zed had the hobby of looking up videos online of these epic nature battles. One time he saw an elephant get pissed off and flip a car with just its trunk. In another video, there was some hyenas trying to take down a baby rhino while it’s mother defended it. The hyenas would circle around at fast speeds, but the rhino would charge them down. If the hyena’s tried to go behind her to target her baby, she would double back and fend them off. He admired the rhino.


The savanna, a zone west of Red City was pretty much based on the African Savanna. Except there were dragon-blooded elephants and one eyed rhino’s. Alligators would lie in the mud and wait for adventurers to walk past. Then they would bite them by the neck and drag them underwater before rolling around. It was a dance of death.


Zed approached a few rhinos near the watering hole. They didn’t seem to think he was a threat so they ignored him. ‘Big mistake’ Zed thought as he sent palm strikes into the side of a young rhino, sending it flying. Zed couldn’t do any damage to the rhino but that wasn’t his objective.


One thing he learned from watching nature videos was that nature was a cruel place. Most battles were stale mates as the animals probed each other, waiting for any sign of weakness so they could pounce. Rhino’s were strong on land but at a disadvantage in water where they had low mobility.


The rhino got up but Zed pushed it back again. Finally, the rhino fell in the water. Hippos and crocodiles surrounded it and tore it to shreds. It took a long time, and the experience was abysmal as Zed did less than 1% of the damage, but he started collecting the horns. In a few days, he had slain 60 rhinos that most players would need a whole 50 man party to kill!


One eyed rhino horns collected: 50/50


‘Easy’ Zed thought as he collected the last horn. Rain had been busy the last few days collecting magic crystals in underground crypts. They were located throughout the game and her class made it perfect for her to explore. There would be traps shooting fire and ice at players. Rain nimbly made her way close and deactivated the traps by removing the magic crystals. She also found a decent amount of soul gems.


She met up with Zed. “Here are 100 magic crystals” she said with a proud look on her face. “You may praise me now”


“I would be lost without you” Zed said with a serious expression as he looked in her eyes. Rain blushed: “You don’t have to be so honest, sheesh!”

 

Chapter 30

The party assembled and made the journey to an underground cavern. The cavern had a high ceiling and was completely illuminated by blue lights that radiated from it.


There were blue and green mushrooms all over the ground that are useful for making stamina potions. There were also giant blue bioluminescent mushrooms. The cavern had incredible diversity, from just a glance Zed spotted 8 types of monsters There were soul spirits, giant scorpions and common goblins.


The mobs wandered around randomly but there was one place they all seemed to avoid- the deepest part of the cavern. The party gulped in anticipation as they made their way into a cavern lit by white soul crystals. “So many soul crystals!” Rain said as she shamelessly started stuffing them all into her bag.


System: You are over encumbered, setting speed to 1.


Rain who was zipping around taking crystals out of the walls got halted to a standstill. “Give them to me,” Zed said. Rain dumped not only the soul crystals but also many magic crystals and armor into Zed’s inventory.


As they continued deeper, the soul crystals got thinner.


“Rawr”

The party saw a small white bear playfully jumping around. It came up to the party with curious eyes that were completely trusting. It made Zed realize that this bear cub had never experienced any danger in its life.


[Divine Soul Bear Cub (level 10)]

HP: 700/700


Zed was slightly bitter that the soul bear had more HP than him but the party prepared to take down the bear anyway, it was not too hard. Hundred Arrows started off the fight by putting some arrows into the bear cub’s thick fur.


“ROOOAAARR”


The party heard a low roar coming from further down. “Oh no its mama bear!” Hundred Arrows reported. The bear was etheral and white, but had blue markings all around it’s body. It’s claws were bigger than Zed’s head. It was angry and charging towards the party.


[Divine Soul Bear (level 40) (Mama)]

HP:???/???

Skills: ??


As if Zed didn’t already know the skulls around the name clearly said that his party had no chance. There was also no way that they could walk away from this bear’s cub.


The bear opened its mouth with a roar, spirit energy gathering.

ZOOM!


There was no time to dodge. The bear shot an energy attack that insta-killed Rain and Hundred Arrows. Zed was left in critical condition. The bear swiped it’s paws which missed Zed’s body but the AOE damage was enough to kill him. This wasn’t a skill, it was just the bear's normal attack but because it attacked the soul, it did 20% as AOE damage. The mama bear had such high damage that this attack was enough to one-shot normal squishy players in a large radius.


Chapter 31

When the party respawned they found hundreds of players waiting for them, above the armies heads were three flags. They had a moon, a snake and a flaming skull. These were the three guilds from Red Town.


“It looks like today is your last day being able to play Swords and Magic” Tyrannical Explosion claimed confidently. “Now that you have made an enemy of us it is too late to apologize, two of you might already be level 0 but if we kill you a bunch of times your skills will lose levels and go back to basic skills. After that I think we will kill you for fun.”

System: Tyrannical Explosion has declared war on your guild, you will not be able to log out for 30 minutes. The losing guild will pay reparations according to the damage caused.


The archers readied their bows, the mages started chanting, the tanks and healers just stood around awkwardly. What were they supposed to do if the melee classes charged in they would just get in the way.


Zed stomped his feet back and forth creating an earthquake that knocked some players off their feet, Hundred Arrows followed up with volleys of rapid fire arrows, Rain summoned some zombies.


As soon as the war started hundred arrows had killed 30 players, but the enemy was 500 players strong. “Return fire!” Tyrannical Explosion shouted, hundreds of arrows and aoe destruction spells hit the zombies taking them out in a moment, Zed was hit too but unaffected as he was getting pocketed and had resistances.


Hundred Arrows was dodgin left and right but he was barely holding on. The situation was clearly in the 3 guilds favor. The arrows rained down unceasingly. The party was bathed in fire

and lightning with no way to resist. Abilities being used constantly made the battlefield incredibly loud. No one could tell what was going on as the magic was too bright and everything happened too fast.


“ROOOAAARRR”


The battlefield silent. Everyone stopped attacking and looked to the west.


A soul bear was standing there in all its glory, giving the armies a heavy pressure. “It’s back?!!” Zed said in disbelief. The soul bear opened its mouth and shot a line through the players, every player in the attack’s path was dead. “What is that? Why are there mobs in the city?” Tyrannical Explosion yelled.


The soul bear went on a rampage as it chased Hundred Arrows through the crowds of players. It would swipe its paw, 50 players dead. It would use charge, another 50 players dead. Hundred arrows narrowly escaped as the bear was slowed down by the guild’s players, who were in the way.

The army was in chaos as their formation was decimated. Hundred Arrows made a mad dash to the army’s backline while laughing wildly. “Tanks get in front, protect the healers” Tyrannical Explosion ordered but it was too late. All their healers were wiped out, the only survivor was Hundred Arrows.


The bear had 1000s of arrows sticking out of it’s back but it didn’t seem to care. It was burnt, shocked and poisoned, it didn’t care about that either. The only thing it cared about was hunting down hundred arrows for injuring its baby. Stuns wouldn’t work on the bear as it was immune. Nothing could stop it.


Then a player suddenly appeared in its path and hit it right in the nose, sending it back a few steps. “Shield kid!” “If we want to survive this we have to work together, afterwards I will let you kill me 50 times, how does that sound?” Zed spoke resolutely as he negotiated with the Tyrannical Explosion. “What? Why would you? Look out-”


The soul bear got up and slashed at Zed but because of the earlier death, he had some soul strength and survived it, he sent the soul bear back again. “It’s a deal” Tyrannical Explosions responded while amazed that Zed could talk in such an intense battle. If they were able to kill Zed they would save face, the main reason they went to war in the first place.


Chapter 32

The players came together with the city's guards and killed the bear. It took a long time but eventually the bear went down. “WE DID IT!!” They screamed a victory cry.


Zed allowed them to kill him 50 times, all his skills set to level 1. His palm strikes were no longer powerful or piercing. His earth stomp could no longer make earthquakes. After that Zed surrendered as part of the deal. “With this our debt is cleared but we have one this war, as for reparations, our guilds lost hundreds of players. Lets see, let's set it to 10000 gold coins.” Tyrannical Explosions said. “What, you dirty bastard! Say that again and I will turn you into a zombie” Rain sneered. Zed held her back.


System: Your guild has lost the war, you owe 10000 gold to the Tyrannical Explosion allied powers. Failure to pay the debt will cripple your stats.

Time Limit: 168 hours

“In that case, let me borrow 3000 coins.” Zed said. “What? You're in debt and you want to borrow such a large sum of money? Am I hearing this correctly? Maybe its a bug with my audio settings…” Explosions said. “Nope, you heard me, let me borrow 3000 gold.”


At this point, Tyrannical Explosions lost all his reasoning. He didn’t understand why Zed would allow him to kill him and surrender. He had thought that he made a clever scheme that would devastate Zed. Instead, Zed was calm, he wasn’t bothered by the reparations at all. Then he just requests more money, this was like digging himself a deeper grave.


“We can only get together 200 gold but you will have to pay it back with 80% interest, compounded weekly” Tyrannical Explosions responded. Players had just started, nobody was rich, 200 gold was already way beyond the liquid funds of super guilds. He was sure that this would make Zed be able to borrow money. “I really need 3000. There is a limit to how much each player can borrow from the ban. If everyone in your guilds borrow the max limit you could easily get 3000 gold. How about I pay 300% compounded interest compounded weekly instead?” Zed said.


Explosions stood there in a daze, he had no idea why Zed needed so much money. “This is our chance to make him our slave forever, also if he doesn’t pay the system will compensate us eventually, we should take this deal” Moon Goddess said. What really confused Explosions was how bad everything that happened was for Zed and how he was still calm. Has he gone crazy?


“Okay we will lend you the gold” Tyrannical Explosions finally responded. There was nothing but profit for him in this deal and the other 2 guilds were pressuring him, he couldn’t refuse. Deep down he was still suspicious, but with the system guaranteeing their gold, there was no risk and no reason to refuse.


“I can’t believe you let them kill you, and agreed to pay 10000 gold, we should just keep fighting them” Hundred Arrows said. “It doesn’t matter did you capture the bear cub?” Zed responded resolutely. It doesn’t matter? The 10000 gold doesn’t matter. Hundred arrows gave the bear cub to Zed.


System: All materials collected.

New Objective: Talk to Evelyn.


“Lets go turn in the quest” Zed declared excitedly.

 

Chapter 33

With 3000 gold in hand, Zed made his way to the Crystylerium where he found Evelyn. “I have gathered all the materials,” he said. “Yes, yes put them over there” Evelyn responded begrudgingly. She really didn’t want to teach this amateur alchemy but she had to accept him.


System: Quest Completed! You are now a basic alchemist, who is able to craft basic potions.


“I suppose you want to learn how to make a strength potion or something for meager profits. I will humor you and teach the basics” Evelyn said mockingly.


But how could Zed not be prepared?Everything he did was planned, he had already researched the art of potion crafting as well as the necessary ingredients on the forms. Ever since he came to Red City, he stopped going to the sumo dojo, instead practicing making concoctions at home. “I don’t need your lessons. I would like 160 pieces of solar essence, 320 quartz of holy water, 80 wilting nightshade petals. Also I need a rabbit's foot, giant’s eye, 100 ml of purified sugar, 8 giant rat hides, 40 poison bat wings and 74 grams of dusk powder.” Zed said.


Evelyn just considered Zed some noob who got lucky and completed the quest so she expected him to be fawning over every word, eager to learn alchemy. The idea that he would immediately rattle off precise amounts of ingredients that he needed without even letting her teach him anything. This was beyond her imagination. “I don’t know why you need so many ingredients but that would cost you around 2500 gold, do you have the necessary funds?” She asked. Zed handed her 2500 gold and took the ingredients.

System: You are over encumbered.


Each ingredient might only weigh half a pound but with so many of them, it was quite heavy. Of course Zed was always over encumbered and didn’t care. Next he went to the old man and turned in his quest.


“Who are you again?” Cyrus asked. “The one who took the quest to gather soul gems!” Zed said. “Oh, really? You have succeeded, you may keep the soul gems.” Cyrus said before returning to his nap.


Next, Zed went to the blacksmith’s forgery. “I would like to buy all the garbage tier armor sets you have,” he declared. “Why would you… Ok I will give them to you for 1 gold, here.” the dwarf replied. He didn’t question it as long as he could get rid of these worthless items taking up space. Zed accepted 100 armor sets.


Carry weight: 10000/400


Next Zed went to the crafting association and rented their best room for 499 gold, he got a .2% discount because he was a low-class noble. He got the title because of the reputation he gained after beating the trial of kings. His gold reached 0 and he was broke once again.


First Zed poured a gallon of holy water into the cauldron and waited for it to boil. Rain processed the solar essence by injecting mana into it, it wasn’t difficult. When the holy water boiled he threw in a piece of solar essence causing the potion to become a gold color. Rays of holy light escaped from the pot. When the petals hit the solution the yellow golden tint got corrupted by ink and turned black. It started emitting a foul odor so Zed threw in the second piece. The water stopped boiling and the liquid became a milky blue color.


Zed wasn’t really sure if this would work as he was just blindly following an online guide.


System: You have successfully crafted a basic enchanting potion. Alchemy progressed slightly.


[Enchanting Potion (Basic)]

Info: Increases the power of enchanted items by 15%.

Duration: 30 seconds


Zed took the potion and enchanted a set of garbage armor in 30 seconds. Enchanting was very easy and straightforward compared to alchemy. Zed took a filled soul gem off a mountain sized stack, slapped it on a garbage chest plate and “created” a chestplate of alchemy.


[Chestplate of minor Alchemy (Garbage)]

Info: Increases the power of enchanted items by 32.25%

Durability: 10/250


‘Good thing I don’t need to use this in battle, it would break in one hit’ Zed thought. He made a set of armor and equipped it. Then he proceeded to continue the process. The enchantments got stronger and stronger with the potions. The improvements were exponential. Mana started violently resonating in the air, clouds gathered in the sky above the crafting building.


“What’s going on, is this some special event?” Players asked. A thunderstorm with purple lightning formed above the crafting building but the rest of the sky was clear. This confused players and a crowd gathered.


Chapter 34

Meanwhile…


System: You have successfully crafted a basic enchanting potion. Alchemy progressed slightly.


Potion of Enchanting (basic)
Info: Increases enchanting by 94783940e+07%

Duration: 30 seconds

The system still treated the potions as basic potions but these potions were clearly different from before. They distorted the air around them like heat waves in a desert. The concentration of mana was so high that purple lightning would occasionally surge out in the air, threatening to one-shot Rain, who was helping.


Godly Chestplate of Enchanting (Garbage)

Info: Increases the potency of crafted potions by 9847358+07%.

Durability: 9/250


‘Were out of ingredients? That should be good enough.’ Zed thought as he equipped the armor. Then he dumped the rabbit's foot, giant’s eye and 100 ml of purified sugar into the cauldron and mixed it like he was making batter for a cake or muffins. At high temperatures it hardened before becoming a clear liquid again. This was a ‘basic’ speed potion that was clear. It increased speed by 932743982+07% for 1 hour.


Winds started circling around at high speeds. “Oh no, hold everything down.” Zed said, clutching the bat wings. When he looked back at Rain she was off the ground! “I’m getting swept away…” She screamed like she was on a roller coaster ride. Zed chugged the potion and the air was still. Rain fell to the ground with a ‘thud’. He attempted to slightly move and he flew across the room in an instant, hitting the wall. “SO FAST” Zed exclaimed. 1 at 932743982+07% was still 932743982+07 speed… This was so fast that it would be hard to control.


Next rain helped Zed make 2 poison potions using the 8 giant rat hides, 40 poison bat wings and 74 grams of dusk powder. Throughout the process the po was corroding and the room was filled with a purple toxic gas that Rain had to stay away from. Zed had a problem.


He was too fast. He couldn’t control his body. Any small movement would send him flying into another dimension. He gave Rain a spare Enchanting potion to sell at the bank while he made his exit through the window!


“I wonder what happened to the tornado from earlier” “I don’t know but what is with those skulls made of purple gas. What is that? Are they smiling?” Players were amazed although they didn’t know why this was happening or what type of event it was.


Crash!

A window broke as a blur flew out and disappeared instantly. “What was that?”


Zed ran and ran until he reached the edge of the world. Below him was an empty void. If he took one more step he would fall in never to return. Then he heard a dragon's roar and a black void dragon appeared before him.


[Gruthgaarluv (Legendary) (lvl 1000)]

‘A named dragon!’ he said in surprise. He couldn’t see any information but he panicked and pulled out a bow he had and fired!


‘What is this puny ant trying to do? In fact how did this guy get here in the first place? Is he really a player?’ Gruthgaarluv thought. Then the wooden arrow bounced off his mighty black scales. -1 damage appeared. He could have dodged it but since he felt no threat he didn’t bother. Why would someone avoid a dust mite hitting their skin? Gruthgaarluv was in a similar situation.


But a second later he opened his eyes wide, “NOOO WHAT HAVE YOU DONE???” He howled in anger. He was confused and fearful.


-93298474302974e+07


Level up!

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System: You have slain the void dragon Gruthgaarluv. Awarding title [Dragon slayer].

System: You are the first player to reach level 50. Awarding title [Might of a hundred].

System: You are the first player to reach level 100. Awarding title [Might of a thousand].

System: Reputation with humanity has surpassed 10000, awarding king status. You may take command of any region in the game using resources and making laws as you wish.

 

Chapter 35


Zed got 300 points so he dumped all of it into strength, agility, vitality and defense. He didn’t really need intelligence as he wasn’t a mage.


‘I feel strong’ Zed thought.. This whole time he was so slow that he was playing in slow motion. Now he was flying around the map at mach 10! This whole time he would not be able to take initiative because he had 1 strength. The second he broke 60 strength he felt like a Greek demi-god. As he ran he encountered boulders but they were smashed to bits, he didn’t even look where he was going.


‘Oh no!’ He crashed into a stone wall at high speeds. But he was surprised when he found himself on the other side. He looked back and the mountain was covered in cracks and had a huge tunnel going through it!


Vitality controls resistances and health regen. Before, he felt weak like he hadn’t eaten in weeks but once he put points into vitality it was like he suddenly consumed a steak sending energy coursing through his body. With so many skill points there was no need to specialize in any one stat. He could just have the points in every attribute. Level 100 is truly terrifying.


ZU zu zu


Blue lights encircled him and he was teleported to a white room. He wasn’t restricted or affected by any stun but he still couldn’t move. ‘What’s going on?’ he wondered. He found himself trapped in a white box except there didn’t seem to be walls, as if nothingness stretched out forever.


“You’ve been a bad boy, haven’t you?”

Zed heard a whisper in his ear that made his spine shiver. He couldn’t turn around to look at her but soon a woman appeared before him. Above her head there was a name tag-


[The Admin]


He couldn’t see any other information. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” he claimed. “What a shameless abuser, I guess I have no choice but to delete your account. Your friends can’t be forgiven either as they helped you do this.” She said with a cold glare. She opened up an interface and data was streamed in front of her, millions of lines of code a minute.


“Wait! I was just understanding the game mechanics so I could use them to my advantage. Why is it my fault that your game is easily broken?” Zed pleaded. The admin analyzed him like a computer. She played with the interface as she circled around him amused.


“An abuser wants me to be fair? Aren’t you misunderstanding something?” She said with a perplexed expression. “I don’t have to be fair, I can do whatever I want.” After saying so she was silent. She browsed the data logs and looked at numbers, charts, screens of players, reports, browsed the forms.


Basically, she did whatever admins do. “Did you forget about me?” Zed asked hesitantly. “Ya I am just going to leave you there until I figure out how to deal with you!” the admin said. Hear this Zed was infuriated. He wanted to cry ‘Admin Abuse’ but he didn’t dare because like she said, she is the boss. She can reset him to level -100 if she wanted to or curse all his stats to stay at 1 forever.


Furthermore, there was no one here to listen! Except the admin of course. But saying that would make her annoyed and she might delete him.

 

Welp that concludes part 1 I guess, need some time to think about where the story is going to go from here.

 

....wat da...???

 

Chapter 36

Jiiiiiii


When Zed looked up he saw the admin staring at him intently. She appeared to be thinking very hard about something and was obviously conflicted.


Then her eyes suddenly lit up like she had an idea.


“Fine, I will let you go but I have one condition. You will work for me as a bug finder. You find ways to break the game, and I will even give you a third of the rewards after I nerf it. So you can be level 33 and have 100 skill points. Not a bad deal is it?” The admin


This was a step up from being deleted. The admin expected Zed to jump at the opportunity.


“I refuse!” he said.

“What?” The admin looked at him like he was crazy.

“I wouldn’t have been able to make those potions without my friends. I can’t break the game without them so I think it should extend to the whole guild.” Zed replied.

When the admin heard this she agreed and dropped him off at Red City. As for the 100 skill points he dumped them all into defense.

System: Defense has surpassed 100, Skill unlocked [Absolute Defense]!

[Absolute Defense (lvl 1)]

Info: Grants the defense of the user to his allies in a radius around them.

Cooldown: 1 minute

Flavor: A true shield is not only sturdy but also protects its user. You are at a level where you are a human shield, capable of protecting your team from all danger.


Rain was at the bank while Hundred Arrows was leveling. Zed realized he really didn’t know anything about Swords and Magic. What are people playing? Has a stable meta developed or are people still using random classes? He proceeded to check the online forums.


The hottest post came from a guild called Ariel Ace which was named after their guild leader.


[Recruiting in Red City]

Posted by Aerial Ace (leader) 30 minutes ago


Skimming through the post Zed found out that a minimum of level 25 and silver gear was required. This was the standard of most elite players. He went to the most popular and saw a series of posts where Aerial Ace broke the time records for dungeons. They turned out to be the most famous guild in the game because of this. Zed looked up and noticed a giant line that was clogging up the streets.


“If I could get into Aerial Ace I would be able to be superior to the high ranking elders of other guilds just by being a regular member”


“You make that seem easy. Why would they want a scrub like you? Have you even beaten a dungeon? Your better off wiping their toilets, hahah”


“What did you say?? I will screw your mom!”


“Calm down bro, how could he know anything about you, it's just trash talk.”


There were some players arguing, some with hopeful expressions but most looked depressed. The standards were too high and many players were only trying out with a “what if” attitude, not expecting to get in.


Chapter 37

Zed walked over to the line and noticed it led to a majestic granite building supported by golden pillars, the Aerial Ace guild hall!


He found a piece of cardboard on the ground and wrote the word “recruitment” on it. He set up a makeshift table and sat down next to Aeriel Hall. It was like the difference This triggered the whispers of other players-

“What is he doing? I get that you're recruiting but why here? Surely there are better locations…”

“Is he making fun of Aerial Ace?” An outraged person in line said.


Then the doors of Ariel Hall opened grandly for the first time. Out walked a man with sharp aura befitting an expert. He was a battle mage who specialized in close range sword magic. His great sword was the size of a surfboard, it was majestic as it was made out of fine steel but also rough and heavy looking.


It was vice leader Steel Sword.


“It is time to begin-” As he introduced he noticed Zed sitting by the side with a blank expression on his face. The corners of his mouth twitched.


The strongest guild in the game is recruiting and you decide to recruit right next to us.


Are you serious?


“What are you doing here?” He beckoned loudly.

“Is that any of your business?” Zed snorted. I need players, the players are here so I came? Why would this guild with hundreds of applicants care about my stall?

Steel sword flew into a rage, he had always been respected wherever he went. Yet this random nobody treated him like an annoying fly! Let’s see if you can act like that after I’m done with you.


Steel sword walked over, arriving in front of Zed’s table.


Without looking up Zed said: “No need to line up, just fill out the worksheet with your stats.”


Steel Sword’s eyes turned crimson.


I'm not here to apply, I am beating you up! Can’t you tell?


He drew his massive sword and swung it straight towards Zed’s head, it was so fast it produced wind currents around it, sword qi split the air.


“He’s dead”


But in the next moment Zed caught the sword between two fingers completely halting all movement and yawned lazily. “If you're not here to apply, can you please leave? I am busy here!”


Silence. This was the vice leader of Aerial Ace and this random kid stopped his massive sword like it was twig. The sight shocked every player watching speechless.


Steel Sword gave it everything he had, trying to remove his sword. The constipated look on his face was adamant. But the sword didn’t budge.


Zed let go and the sword did a 180 motion crashing into the ground behind Steel Sword. A massive crater formed.


“How did you?” Steel Sword was baffled but after thinking for a moment he remembered something and laughed.

“You’re that shield kid who only has defense? Ok, I will let you stay here out of the kindness of my heart, you can have our leftovers, after all even third rate guilds need members! Hahahah”


“Thank you,” Zed replied.


Players watching were baffled. Wouldn’t you feel humiliated? Why are you earnestly thanking him? This goes beyond being thick skinned…


Steel Sword called a group forward and the recruitment commenced.

 

Chapter 38

Bank of Red City

A girl who looked like a fairy descending from heaven was nervously waiting in line.

“Hey, girl if you don’t have a party you can come with us.”


“Why would she go with a low level player like you? However if you join our party we will let you keep all healing equipment?”

Faced with so much enthusiasm the girl didn’t know how to respond. As such, she just apologized and moved on.


“We deal in all sorts of goods, from armor to spirit stones. Are you interested in buying or selling?” An NPC said.


“Selling, I have a pill here.” The girl said.


“Oh, so you forge pills too, what a genius. I can help you forge pills if you like” A player with an arrogant disposition said.


“Say the word and we will serve you fairy”


Many people paid special attention to the stunning girl and thought it was cool that she could forge a pill on top of being a healer. Of course, this wasn’t that impressive in itself, it was just that the spectators were already biased and fawning over her.


“That will be 92403580270e+07 gold. But as the bank doesn’t have that much, you can take our current stock of a 100 million coins.”


The clerk handed over a bag the size of a truck. Then she took out a closed sign and placed it on the desk.


Following that everyone burst into an outrage. Nobody was expecting this girls pill to be so fearsome. They thought she was just hot, not some elite pill forger.


“What kind of trick did she use? Do you think she found a bug?”

“We have to report this-”


The girl was of course, Falling Rain.


She looked at her inventory in confusion. ‘Only 33 million gold?’ But then that was still more gold than you could spend so she went to meet up with Zed.


Chapter 39


In a field


An archer was shooting arrows nearly vertically in the air while running around training zombies.


“What is that guy doing? Trickshots?” A player wondered.


But then the groups of zombies converged and a rain of arrows came down on them.


Level up


Level up


Grandmaster archer, this was a level of skill that many would only dream of but never reach.


Yet, hundred arrows calculated the angle and power level of each rapidly fired shot while dodging zombies. Progressively, he used less power so they all landed at the same time.

An elite member of Aerial Ace, Sky Shots, saw this sight and went insane


“I need to report this to the guild master immediately. No matter what we have to recruit this kid. If we do, we should be able to break our records again.”


Meanwhile Zed was at his humble table waiting for an applicant. Waves of people went into the hall and waves of people left disappointed. Few passed Aerial Ace’s high standards.


Since they had nothing to do, they wandered over to his table.


He told them to fill out the worksheet and upon seeing their stats would ask questions and give advice. If a player specialized in a lifestyle class, Zed would welcome them with open arms. If a player’s level was too low, he would tell them the best places to grind and tell them to find his guild later. Furthermore, he gave out all this Intel for free, which few players were willing to do.

“I am not very good at controlling my magic, is that a problem?” A girl asked nervously.


“Can’t control magic? I can’t even use magic, welcome aboard.” Zed responded.


‘But she’s a mage…’ The crowd thought.


At first the players didn’t take him seriously but after a while of standing in line, Zed had already won the hearts of the people. Meanwhile, resentment for Aerial Ace was growing steadily.


“You think I’m not good enough. I will prove you wrong when I PK you over and over!”


Soon, something magical happened. The line that was in front of Aerial Hall disappeared. It instead formed in front of the shabby looking recruitment booth next to it.


The 3 kings had gone from 3 players to several hundred in 30 minutes.


“Next”

 

Chapter 40

A man with a bow flew through the window. “Reporting to the guild leader, I found a grandmaster archer who is more skilled than me. We must recruit him at all costs” Sky Shots said. “Better than you? That is indeed someone we have to recruit, good job.” Ace responded.

Ace sent an assassin team to look for the mysterious archer after getting his description.


Steel sword called next but no player stepped forward. Confused he called out: “Whose blocking the line? I hope you're ready for the fury of Aerial Ace. But when he looked outside no one was there…


But then he saw the same line had simply shifted over. “What is the meaning of this?” Steel Sword yelled. If it was just ordinary players, so be it. But in addition, the elite players had joined the other line as well. Iron Fist Brock, Lightning Gale, Sword Dragon, Poison Daggers, Blood Fury Asura… All of them had rallied under Zed, a derpy looking player in garbage tier equipment.


This confused Steel Sword. He turned to his guild leader to apologize and request time to straighten out the situation.


Ace was a player with two black swords on his back. He was known as having crazy reflexes, reaction speed and skill when he wielded them. But even greater than his Pvp skills was his skill as a strategist. Aerial Ace was known primarily for their dungeon speed runs and this was all thanks to this one man.


Most people took on the dungeon with tanks, healers and dps. The tanks tank the bosses agro and stun to interrupt his big moves, the healers heal the tanks and also help with damage and the DPS can freely shoot the boss. But Ace wasn’t satisfied with this.


He advocated a strategy of using all DPS except for one healer. His team would dodge and use the environment to stay alive and because it was all DPS they would tear through bosses and set records easily.


And today after having his recruitment ruined by a nobody Ace was in a very bad mood. Initially, he was interested in the shield guy but now he just wanted blood.


“No need to handle it, I am going to deal with him myself.” Ace said as he darted out of the hall and made his appearance.


When Zed saw Ace he handed him a worksheet. “What is this?” Ace asked. “Fill it out with your stats, and I can work you in somewhere. I'm busy here so if you have more questions, my vice-guild leader will arrive shortly to answer them.” Zed responded.


When Ace heard this he was infuriated: “I might let you off with a light punishment if you did this unintentionally. But I wonder if your garbage guild dares to poach players from Aerial Ace knowing who I am?” Saying this Ace let a dark, sharp aura out. It was heavy and seemed to cut the very soul. The worksheet was shredded to pieces instantly.


Then he revealed his level- level 30. It was clear that this could only be achieved with efficient grinding against over leveled monsters. But taking on higher leveled monsters required skill and coordination of a well trained team. This showed the superiority of Aerial Ace.


Chapter 41

Seeing this the players shuddered but Zed didn’t seem to notice. The dark aura engulfed him completely.

“Achoo!”

“Excuse me, if my guild is trash than what does that make you, who is worse than trash? Pollution, no that’s not right. More like Dog crap.” Zed said nonchalantly. His words weren’t loud but they cut through the air so that every player could hear them clearly.


The other players stared at Zed in horror. What a lunatic. Ace was the most famous player in the game but he was treated as air by a country side bumpkin. After this offence they would surely go to war. ‘3 Kings must be doomed’ they thought.

“War would only bring about misfortune for both us, how about this: whoever can finish Hell’s Run the fastest in one try is the winner. Losing guild has to disband. After this bet we will really know which guild is dog crap.” Ace sneered while spewing fumes. Ace could simply crush the small guild under his foot but he also wanted the elites within it.


“Sure no problem” Zed agreed and the bet was recognized by the system. There was no going back now.


“Reporting to the guild leader, we found the archer. He is heading this way!” An assassin appeared and said. The archer was covered in wolf skins and had a bow infused with lightning energy.


“Friend, I would like to personally invite you to Aerial Ace. We will offer you many benefits. I think you are well aware of our reputation so I won’t bother with small details” Ace said a vague offer knowing the other party would recognize him. How could Aerial Ace be poor? Any conditions you have can be satisfied. He was very confident.


But the next moment he heard something that made him choke- “Why would I want to join a dog crap guild?”

Dog crap guild. It was one thing for the country bumpkin to say nonsense but hearing it from the mouth of an expert nearly made Ace puke. Aerial Ace had broken nearly every speed record yet you still call us dog crap? Your dog crap. Your whole family is dog crap.


“Vice leader reports to guild leader” Hundred Arrows said.


“Fine, you have some players but do you have funds? How can you offer benefits as a dirt poor, newly established guild? Without money you can’t equip your players and all skill is worthless.” Ace bellowed furiously.


The next moment a fairy appeared: “I finished collecting funds, I only got a fraction of the original amount but we still got 33 million gold” Falling Rain said. “That is within my expectations, good work.”

“...” Ace.

“...” The crowd.

 

I stopped writing this novel because I didn't like my characters. I just didn't put any thought into my characters or try to make them good before I started the story because I didn't realize how important that was. So sad.

 

try again, wit same concept but differ build?