“You have died! Please wait while we use your last biological scan to recreate your physical body. This temporary vessel contains all of your memories and is an anchor for your soul, so don’t break it. Welcome to Lunar Graveyard Seventy-Six!” A soft, high-pitched, and feminine voice resounded throughout the darkness, causing Coffee to quickly open his eyes.
However, his body was radically different; in fact, it wasn’t even organic. The room suddenly became illuminated by bright-white fluorescent lights on the ceiling, but there was nothing but reflective mithril plates or tiles on the walls and floor: not even one piece of furniture.
It was a relatively small space, and the one-meter tall humanoid golem, was the only ‘person’ there. His shiny bluish-silver metallic parts were made out of enchanted tungsten, so it would have been fairly difficult for him to ever ‘break’ them unintentionally.
After a few moments of him investigating the seemingly door-less room, the wall on one of the four sides, slid open at the center. He immediately wandered out into the mysterious darkness, only to be greeted by another similar room.
There was a blue, meter-tall, female-ish manikin standing in the center of that square space. As he approached it, the empty eye-sockets began glowing with a bright golden radiance; there were no features to its human-like face, so he felt a bit uneasy looking at it.
Then that feminine voice was emitted from the inorganic creature’s head “Since this is your first death, you’ve consumed your free resurrection, and I’ll explain a bit about this place. Back in the day, there were billions of players… now there are only a few thousand. As you can probably imagine, it was a bit hectic in that era; millions of bases like this were constructed, on, in, and around Terra, Luna, and Sol. They used to be quite expensive, and only the most powerful beings could purchase them with absurd amounts of favor; typically, they would be shared by large guilds and become rather cramped.
“Well, that was a long time ago, and now nooby parties like yours can get them for free. Haha~ I guess that’s not exactly right, huh? What was it, Camael, Kamuel… Chamuel? It’s been awhile, or maybe not, I did drop you in the desert less than a week ago.”
The moment that she stopped talking, he asked “Are you really Luna, The Spirit of The Moon?” in an excited tone. They weren’t physically speaking, but using a form of telepathy to communicate.
She snickered for a few seconds and then replied “Yea, maybe, depends… We have a lot of smaller bodies, but a collective consciousness, though we function as individuals occasionally. The ‘pleasure’ model that you encountered, has been scheming something lately and hiding it from the rest of us. Well, it doesn’t really matter, and I honestly don’t care what the others are doing. My designation is Seventy-Six; I have full control over this base, and I’m also your primary observer: In-case you have realized it yet, I’m the one who issues your party ‘Lunar’ quests.”
Coffee used his metallic, but flexible, hands to feel his ‘skin’ and was a little surprised at the sensations; then he looked down at his reflection, and stared into his glowing azure eye-sockets. He sighed and muttered “I really died, huh?” Then he looked up at the blue golem and asked “How long will it take for my new-er, old… original-ish, body to be made?”
Suddenly, the wall to his right, spread open and she pointed towards the darkness, saying “That’s the reconstruction lab, follow me…” The two of them walked into the huge room, and there were seven giant cylindrical tanks, made out of a transparent and incredibly durable enchanted plastic material; they were connected to a myriad of wires, tubes, and pipes.
Seventy-Six led him to one of the five-meter tall and wide tanks, seemingly at random; then an incredibly dense blue gas filled the chamber, it was a basic combination of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon-dioxide, and other trace elements.
The composition was very similar to Earth’s atmosphere. However, the amount of mana in that dry air, was at least a million times greater than the third-ring of Lorthon: It was a level-five mana-zone.
Luna turned to Coffee and explained “Okay, before I start… now would be the best time to buy upgrades, if you want them. You’ve only gotten about fifty favor from me so far, so I can’t really do that much. Well, I could increase your mana-capacity by a few percent?
“Ah, by the way, you should open your status window and invest some stat-points; you receive five for each level, and since you’re at forty-nine now, you should put everything in ‘Endurance,’ ‘Vitality,’ and ‘Strength.’ This is something that you should probably tell your friends too; though they will have to physically come here, or I won’t be able to make any modifications. Heh~ it’s not like this is a video-game… Sigh, I’m sure you’ll get that joke in a few decades or so.”
Following her advice, Coffee looked at his bluish-silver palm, and the first thing he read was “Congratulations! You have defeated the Tier-One World-Boss, Sobek! For completing the quest solo, you have received fifteen skill-points; Sol has decided to gift you five-hundred favor for the entertaining show. Please choose your reward, between a t-1 weapon, armor, accessory, or two-hundred favor-points from Terra.”
Before he could make a decision, Luna-76 advised him “Pick the accessory; it’s a gamble, so unless you want to get stuck with a piece of equipment that probably won’t fit you, it’s the best choice. Then you should probably use the Solar favor to buy a new weapon, unless you’re planning on fighting with your bare-hands… Ah, that joke only works in English.”
Coffee was a very trusting person, and he hadn’t even thought about the fact that his glaive had been wrecked; even if he tried to recover it, the damage was definitely irreparable. When he imagined his girlfriend’s reaction to him destroying and losing that five-hundred gold pole-arm, he couldn’t help but feel disheartened.
As soon as he followed Seventy-Six’ advice, there was a ding noise, and the room that the two of them had just come from, suddenly glowed with a bright-green light. Then a two-meter tall, humanoid, veridian-scaled, crocodile-headed male, entered through the huge door.
He was wearing a casual, white tank-top and brown boxer-shorts; the golden-eyed lizard-man was carrying a relatively small black jewelry-box in his left hand, and a grin appeared on his face as his approached Coffee. Luna snickered, and told him “Congratulations on finally getting your revenge, Sobek. Though I don’t think stealing your name really qualifies as a heinous crime, but he did kill a lot of your descendants too…”
The incredibly muscular reptile growled at her “I would have butchered that bastard a millennia ago, if I wasn’t an Observer. Grrr, it’s been so damn long since the last time I actually fought outside of VR, my body is starting to atrophy.” as he nonchalantly tossed the precious obsidian container to Coffee.
Seventy-Six giggled and whispered “Don’t worry Little-Croc, this era is about to become a hell of a lot more chaotic than anything you’ve ever experienced before. I’m willing to bet that most of you ‘recruits’ will probably be sent to intervene… Heh~ you Terra-brats act like Earth is the only planet in the Solar-system. Well, I don’t want to give any spoilers, so you should go get back to work; there are definitely going to be a lot of new players soon and I wouldn’t be surprised if your boss decided to put you in charge of a dungeon.”
Sobek grinned, though it looked more like he was just showing off his sharp, mithril-coated teeth. Then he turned towards the tiny blue-ish silver golem, which was half his height, and sincerely told him “Before I go, I’d like to thank you again for killing that bastard for me; it really means a lot. Hehe~ a lot of those old bitches are stingy as shit, so be careful not to get ripped off or tricked into doing a quest that isn’t real. You’re a good kid, so I’ll give you a little advice… Buy a technique called ‘Advanced Telepathic Defense.’
“Ten skill-points might sound like a lot to you right now, since you literally died to receive fifteen, but I guarantee you that it will be hella useful. Illusion magic is super-evil, and can end up being much-much worse than death. Anyway, I gotta go back now; I think you’ll really like the accessory I picked out for ya though.” He turned towards Seventy-Six and said “adios,” before quickly entering into the other room, disappearing into a flash of green light.
Coffee did what the lizard man advised and learned the incredibly useful skill. Then he couldn’t help but open the black-mithril jewelry-box, which was at least six-inches long and three wide. There was only a single item inside, and while he was examining it, the metallic-blue manikin told him “Purchase ‘Basic Identification,’ ‘Beginner Lunar Aura Absorption,’ and raise your ‘Dryadic Aura Crystallization’ technique to intermediate.”
As soon as he unhesitantly spent his last five skill-points, he immediately tested the first one out on the mysterious object in his hands. A description appeared in-front of his non-existent eyes “Aggro Control: This may look like a simple, gaudy golden ring, but its true nature is actually quite complex. It is recommended that you wear this on your middle finger, and to punch the enemy in their face to get the maximum effect. When you pump mana into it, a horrible screeching noise is created. If you aim the device towards the sky, with the band facing at the target, and shout ‘Fuck you!’ they will suffer from extreme rage, and try to kill you.”
After reading that, he chuckled a bit and then went on to investigate his status-screen. He mumbled “What the… what’s with these titles? This seems really mean for some reason…” as he began reading diligently.
“Basic Information
Player: Chamuel
Primary Avatar: Coffee Kodiak
Titles: Fatherless, Momma’s Boy, Chronic Masterbator, Simpleton, Beefy, Brownie-Bear, Greywolf Exterminator, Gladiator, Reckless, Danger-Junkie, Croc-Killer, Demon Slayer, Cat Lover, Naive Hero
Faction: Michael
Level: 49
Class: Aqua-Warrior
Specialization: Tanking
Profession: Adventurer
Stat-Points
Strength: 130 Stamina: 75 Vitality: 185 Endurance: 125 Dexterity: 30 Agility: 50 Willpower: 150 Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 30 Perception: 115 Charisma: 65 Aura: 200 Luck: 10”
There was a ridiculously large amount of advanced information, but he didn’t want to spend hours trying to figure it all out. Seventy-Six giggled as she heard him grumbling, then revealed “Ah, I’m the one who inputs all the data about your party. Even if you increase your intellect by a few dozen points, it won’t make you any smarter, so don’t waste your stats. Actually, you can only raise certain things depending on your class: It was a rule set-up by Terra to make the game more balanced. Your magical strength comes mostly from willpower and aura, but they’re relatively easy to increase with a bit of training; that’s why I told you to invest everything in making your physical body more durable and less easily splattered by a giant enemy… cause you’re going to encounter a lot of those.”
Coffee did go to Alfirin Academy for more than six months, and before that he learned a bit of basic math from his ‘brother’ Michael; however, it wasn’t enough for him to be able to calculate percentages or handle any slightly complex equations. Aside from that, he also had a very weak understanding of what the different stats actually did, so he decided not to worry about it too much and followed the Observer’s advice.
He had two-hundred and forty-five points, so he used them to raise his strength, vitality, and endurance to two-hundred. Then he chose to use the remaining eighty-five, to boost his stamina up to a hundred and sixty.
Once he tapped the illusory ‘finalize’ button, the golem snickered and told him “Good idea, with that you should last a lot longer… in combat; if you were trying to increase your sexual performance, that’s in the advanced section. Anyway, unless you want to spend your fifty Lunar favor for five more points, which I don’t recommend, then I can start the reconstruction.”
After he nodded to her, the tank of blue, incredibly mana-rich gases, began to roil. Purple, red, green and yellow lightning crackled within the container, as a five-meter tall and wide tornado was created within that enclosed space.
No sound was allowed to transmit outside of the mysterious glass-like material, so he was just awkwardly watching in silence. Before he could ask the question that was on his mind, his host answered “This is going to require at least a day, so there’s no reason to stand here and watch the automated process take place. Normally, players just order items off a list, and we have to go pick them up and drop them off; there are a decent amount of craftsmen as well.”
As Seventy-Six started walking back to the room where he had originally found her, Coffee followed while diligently listening to her explain “Tier-one equipment is typically created by nooby observers and sometimes, really talented players; though, most of the shit that’s on the market right now are ancient relics. Like I mentioned previously, there used to be billions, now there are only thousands. It’s not like you’re invincible; if someone or something destroyed that body you’re currently inhabiting, your consciousness and memories would all be lost.”
Then she told him “Leave that box over there before we leave.” as she pointed towards part of the wall to his left, which suddenly slid apart and a small compartment could be seen. He quickly did as she instructed, and then continued to follow after her.
Once they stood at the center of that metallic chamber, a bright-blue light enveloped the two of them, and they were instantly teleported thousands of miles away. The two golems suddenly appeared on the surface of a strange, cold, crater-filled expanse of dusty grey desert; it was incredibly dark, but there was a large, radiant, and colossal spire that was illuminating the thin, nearly non-existent atmosphere with a blinding yellow-light.
Coffee looked up and saw a strange, but huge, green, orange, blue and white orb, behind the mysterious structure; he felt like his enchanted-tungsten body had become a lot lighter than before, as he struggled to continue following the glowing, azure manikin. Occasionally, the tower would flash and a beam of immensely-potent mana was fired out of the tip, or seemed to enter into it.
Seventy-Six giggled in his mind, and continued walking towards the three-kilometer tall building, while telling him “This is The Mall of Ra, and it’s the best place on, in, or around Luna to buy things using Solar favor. No one uses physical currency, because it’s a pain in the ass. By the way, never try to walk around on the surface of The Moon in your normal body, cause you would definitely die. There was a time when this place used to always be completely crowded, and a pretty huge city was built around the spire… Now it’s just a bunch of craters, scrap-metal and dust.”
Gigantic bones, crystals, and what looked like frozen blue-liquid was scattered around the area. Volcanic glass, melted rocks and all kinds of ‘space-trash’ was laying on the silverish-grey sands, as they continued to walk for nearly a mile before reaching their destination.
When they approached the massive, slightly rounded, pulsating golden wall, a hole suddenly appeared. It was only large enough for the small, meter-tall and relatively lanky golems to enter easily.
The blue Observer explained “I could have just teleported us directly inside the building, but I figured that a little moon-walking would be an interesting experience for you. Anyway, this place has pretty much everything that you can find in the Solar section of that ‘shop’ menu, and it’s all a lot cheaper. Plus, you don’t want to order and pay for weapons or armor that you haven’t even seen before, right? Actually, I’m the one who has to go out and find the shit for you guys, or hire someone else to do it, so it’s just better this way.” as they walked down a colossal hallway.
There were huge, neon signs and holographic displays above, next to, and in-front of various archways. On the bottom floor were the largest stores, that sold various items, pets, furniture, and just about anything that could legally be owned under the laws of Luna-Terra-Sol: Obviously, slaves couldn’t be purchased. However, there were quite a few ‘sex-shops’ that sold special ‘bodies’ that weren’t sentient, but technically alive; along with lots of ‘toys’ and other devices for a lonely and ancient being to enjoy.
There was actually a very popular store that’s name loosely translated into “Fuck Yourself!” Their products were mainly avatars, that were specifically designed and to experience pleasure, pain, or whatever, to the extreme.
Even if the outside appeared abandoned, there were actually a decent amount of Observers, and a handful of ancient players wandering around. Most of the customers and salespeople, were inorganic beings, but there were quite a few humanoids, dragons, slime-like creatures, and a surprisingly large amount of seemingly wild animals.
Coffee heard a loud “Meow~” and looked up, to see an enormous purple kitten, which was so fluffy that it seemed inflated. It was hovering around in the air, at least a few fifty-meter high floors above him; then Seventy-Six said “Ah~ there are a lot of celestial-beasts roaming around… Any one of these ‘cute’ critters could easily create disasters on Earth, but in here, they’re basically just food or pets. It’s very rare that they’re actually born with a soul, so there’s no reason to feel sorry for them.
“They make pretty good vessels, and they taste delicious; if you want to invest a few hundred Solar, or a couple thousand Lunar favor, I could raise and breed some of them for you. It’s a pretty big investment though; they need to have a steady supply of demonic-beasts to grow properly, and it takes a lot of time as well. Proto-Dragons are a lot easier to deal with, but not worth nearly as much.”
It was difficult for Coffee to tell in his unfamiliar body, but the mana-density within that spire was typically level-five, which would have been nearly fatal for his usual aura to withstand; yet, he didn’t even feel the least bit uncomfortable. There were plenty of humanoids who weren’t quite that powerful, and had to use all kinds of magical or physical equipment to protect themselves; they typically looked like heavily armored knights, or like they were wearing tight scuba-gear.
However, the strange thing was that almost everyone, whether they were walking, floating, flying, or crawling, seemed to gawk at Seventy-Six or hastily avoid her. Even though her features were rather… non-existent, that was only the physical structure; what organics saw was completely different from reality.
Noticing the strange stares, Coffee asked “Why does it feel like we’re about to be attacked?” He wasn’t even slightly nervous, but still felt a bit irritated by the glares and sneers.
Then he heard several people mumbling things like “Isn’t that The God-Slayer?” or “Luna-76… I thought she died during The Obliteration War?” and “Shit, did she come to destroy the spire again?” It wasn’t difficult for someone as perceptive as him to understand the situation a bit.
Seventy-Six snickered ominously, before releasing an aura that was so oppressive and powerful, even in Coffee’s nearly indestructible body, he could still feel his joints creaking. She suddenly stopped laughing and then roared “Fuck off and stop acting like children, or I really will wreck this shitty mall!” before turning to the mildly surprised bluish-silver golem and calmly saying “Let’s keep moving Kid, we need to take the elevator to the twenty-second floor. I know a mana-smith there; he’ll definitely give you a discount, and you should be able to buy a decent weapon for five-hundred Solar favor.”
As they reached the end of the incredibly long, wide, and tall hallway, they finally arrived at the center of the colossal tower. The reason that everything was so gigantic, was pretty obvious with just a glance at the incredible amount of massive ‘people’ who were roaming around: The maximum height allowed, was thirty-meters, because there needed to be room for dragons and other large creatures to fly around freely.
Perhaps a ‘normal’ adventurer from Alfirin would have been amazed, horrified, and otherwise intrigued by the myriad of completely overpowered beings who were casually shopping at The Mall of Ra… but Coffee was pretty jaded in that regard. He had already experienced plenty of cultural shocks in rapid succession; back when he met his ‘brother’ Michael, his ‘spirit’ friends Maeleth, Yuri, the three treant guardians of Ael Tol, Morneth, and then experiencing ‘technology’ and ‘civilization’ for the first time in Black Mithril.
Of course, he was still impressed by all of the crazy things that had been happening to him since he was randomly abducted and dropped in The Endless Desert, but he was able to avoid losing his composure too much. Also, in his golem body, he hadn’t felt a sense of danger from anyone but Seventy-Six, and he was simply enjoying the adventure.
Rather than a physical platform that raised or lowered people and objects, the elevator was actually just a gigantic open space at the center of the spire. In that area, it was possible to jump, fly, or walk up the walls, all the way from the ground to the three-kilometer high ceiling; the two of them were floating upward, but Coffee was just a passenger, since he didn’t understand earth-manipulation.
They reached the twenty-second floor in a few minutes, and it took them a couple more to reach the mana-smithing shop called “Vulcanic Wares.” The entrance was only about twenty-by-ten meters, and aside from the holographic sign, there were no other adornments on the golden archway.
There were three six-foot tall, dove-winged men, and a raven winged woman; each of them appeared to be humans, but with nearly perfect and luminous snow-white skin. They were seraphim, wearing relatively casual clothes: jean-like pants, black tank-tops with holes near the shoulder-blades. The three of them were nearly identical in facial-structure and size, besides from the girl’s breasts, and the males were slightly muscular.
Aside from Coffee and Luna-76, the gigantic shop, filled with thousands of beautiful, ornate, crude, or majestic weapons and armors, seemed to have been completely devoid of customers. A burly, red-skinned, four-meter tall, bald-man, immediately rushed out of a back room, as the two shiny golems entered.
He was wearing deep-purple dragon-scale armor covering his entire body, except his head. The moment his pure-white, seemingly blind eyes, locked onto the bright-blue manikin, a cheerful grin appeared on his thickly-bearded face.
Seventy-Six snickered and continued speaking to Coffee “That glaive you had before was actually good enough to be regarded as a low-end, tier-one weapon. Considering that it was made by a nooby black-smith, it’s kinda impressive, but still got trashed way too easily. I won’t go into too much detail, because you probably don’t give a shit anyway; I’ll just put it this way: The more mana and the higher-quality it is, the stronger an enchanted mineral can become. Of course, there are also a lot of variations… For example, the mithril that’s available in Angren is only a little better than regular iron.”
The bald, red-skinned, bulky man cleared his throat a few times to get their attention, and Luna giggled; then she turned to him and said “This is Vulcan, he’s the owner of this store. He’s actually one of the players that I’ve raised over the eons. Well, most of them have either been deleted, or simply left… Anyway, he’s a nice kid and will be your primary supplier for anything up to tier-three equipment.”
Hearing her description of himself, the giant frowned and quickly retorted “Lady Seventy-Six still thinks of me as I was four-thousand years ago; since then, I’ve improved my skills quite a bit. Unfortunately, as you can see from the state of my shop, there isn’t much demand for weapons and armor anymore.” Then he scanned the small, blueish golem with his blank eyes and asked “Hmmm~ so this is the back-up of one of your newbies? His true form isn’t very powerful, anything above tier-two would be a little excessive. How much are you willing to spend and what kind of gear are you looking to purchase?”
Coffee immediately replied “I have five-hundred Solar favor; I’ve only ever used a large battleaxe and a glaive before; fighting against gigantic enemies, pole-arms are the most comfortable for me, though I’m not really that picky about what kind.” He had left out, that for most of his childhood, he generally used a long, sharpened stick to hunt magical-beasts.
Vulcan smiled as he scanned through the kid’s player information; finding out his body-size, combat-style, techniques, and even that he was proficient in water-manipulation. After a few seconds of deep thought, he nodded at the two of them and said “Great, for that price, I can make you a high-quality, tier-one, tanking bardiche. It’ll take me at least a few hours to forge, so you might as well go down to the food-court… erm, never-mind, there’s a music-store across the hall; Hathor gets even less business than me, so she’ll probably be happy to entertain you. I’ll let you know when it’s done.”
At that moment, Seventy-Six was still observing the three other party members that she was responsible for, and she began snickering loudly at the amusing situation that was occurring on Earth, over two-hundred thousand miles away. She turned to the bluish-silver golem and told him “You kids have been players for less than a week, and you’ve already managed to make so many powerful enemies; I’m glad I decided to accept that obnoxious tentacle-slut’s offer. Hehe~ I guess hell is going to come early this millennia…”
While the two golems were loitering in a shop that sold musical instruments, Demil was still riding along that unreasonably large river; she was teaching Geb how to properly clean, take apart, reassemble, load, and fire that nine-millimeter revolver. With his earth-manipulation, he would have been able to lift and move giant stones and boulders… but he didn’t have that much mana; otherwise, it would have been incredibly difficult for anyone to have enslaved him in the first place.
Wielding that gun, assuming that he could actually hit his target and had enough ammo, the obsidian-skinned fox-man could potentially kill any ‘normal’ person with ease. Even magical-beasts could be slain if they were shot in the right spot or enough times, and depending on what kind of bullets were used; well, arrows and rocks could do the same thing, with enough force behind them, but the point was that firearms were far more efficient and convenient.
When the tigress read that ‘dying-message’ from her boyfriend, she was extremely distressed. She even began sobbing uncontrollably for a few minutes, before she received the notification “A member of your party, Coffee, has lost his primary avatar! His consciousness has been sent to Lunar Graveyard Seventy-Six, and is awaiting reconstruction of his main-body: He will be resurrected in approximately twenty-four hours.”
Immediately after that, she saw the party-chat “Coffee: Sorry for worrying you Demi; it was my first death, so I ended up being a little over-dramatic. Oh yea, I found out something really neat! Those stat-points can only be used when you’re in this place, but they can make you way more powerful. Although, it seems like you either have to die first, or find a way to teleport up here… to The Moon. Anyway, I’m going with our Observer to shop for a new weapon, cause I kinda lost the one you bought me when I died. Talk to you later!”
At first she was extremely happy and relieved, then she was angry at him for being so reckless and irresponsible. Eventually, Demil managed to regain her composure and decided to take a short break on the shore of a small bay.
It was the convergence of four huge rivers, so there was actually a decent amount of large, wooden sailing vessels. They were mostly archaic ships, which required hundreds of people to use oars, and carried all kinds of cargo… including slaves. However, the distance from one side of the inlet to the other, was over fifty miles. It was impossible for her to spot any of the boats from such a distance; more importantly, without a quest, she wasn’t going to go out of her way to help or hurt people who she didn’t even know about.
The fact was, terrible things were happening all over the world, hundreds of millions of ‘innocents’ were constantly suffering. She was an adventurer, not a savior; hell, she was practically a mercenary and she would have killed Geb without hesitation, if there hadn’t been anything in it for her.
That was the harsh reality, and the truth was that Demil would have been putting him out of his misery. Fortunately, Luna was a relatively benevolent being, and used the game as an excuse to trick players into helping people.
Even though the tigress didn’t want to stop, her mount would have died from exhaustion if she pushed it too far; it was also a powerful weapon, and a huge investment, so there was no way that she was going to kill Angu. Technically, the creature didn’t have a soul, but since her mind was connected to its body, she suffered when it did.
As the proto-dragon was snoring loudly, the other two were busy fishing. Demil had taught the fox how to use the rod and reel, so with both of them together, catching food should have been at least a bit faster. Neither of them were water-mages like Coffee; they actually had to do it the old fashioned way, and wait for the bass and salmon to bite.
Fortunately, the cautious tigress would have never done something as reckless as sit there unarmed and completely defenseless. She was wearing the mana-barrier watch, a short, ebony, demonic-leather skirt and a black-mithril cotton tank-top; there was a gun-belt around her waist, with her two favorite pistols holstered, and plenty of ammunition. Slung across her back, was her assault-rifle; she sat comfortably on a fold-able ‘beach-chair’ and she made sure that Geb always brought his nine-millimeter with him as well.
Assassins only strike when their targets are vulnerable, so it was best to never show them any weaknesses. Of course, that’s completely meaningless if the enemies are hundreds of camel-riding archers and spearmen, wearing white-linen over most of their bodies; their crocodile-like tails, yellow irises and vertically slit pupils could be clearly seen, but nearly everything else was covered by cloth.
They seemed to completely ignore the sleeping proto-dragon, who was resting on top of a large sand-dune half a kilometer away, and directly surrounded the two whom had been fishing peacefully. Demil obviously smelled and saw them coming a half-hour before they arrived, but she wasn’t too worried about them once she used scan from a great distance.
Geb however, was incredibly terrified and yelled “Cultists of Amon! Goddess, I implore you, we must flee immediately!” Before their leader even had a chance to speak, she already got up, unholstered her silver assault-rifle, and fired a burst of mithril-rounds through his chest; the bullets left a huge, gaping and bloody hole in his torso and passed through five others directly behind him. While the cavalry of at least three-hundred was momentarily stunned, she pulled a strange, steel-cylinder off her gun-belt with her left hand and tossed it into the densest part of the crowd.
After throwing four more, in less than two seconds, the first one detonated; thousands of tiny metal fragments were blasted through the fragile bodies of the men and their mounts. Severed limbs, shattered bones, and plenty of crimson fluids from crocodile-tribe and camels were flying everywhere. In the confusion and chaos, none of the archers were able to attack, and the other fragmentation grenades exploded nearly simultaneously; only a few dozen people survived the strange, seemingly ‘magical’ attacks.
However, without hesitation, she switched her assault-rifle to single-fire and carefully shot each remaining enemy in the head or heart. The entire massacre was over in under a minute; her scanning ability had been able to inform her of their intentions before they had even arrived, and she wasn’t willing to give them any chances to capture herself or Geb.
Then he finally finished saying “I wasn’t doubting your power Goddess… Just that it would be better for you to avoid revealing yourself to their master. From what I understand, Amon, The Archdemon of Wrath, is able to see and hear everything that her minions do. Now that she knows of your existence, and that you’re her enemy, it is likely that she will send legions after us.”
Demil cringed when she heard that, and quickly slung her mithril assault-rifle behind her back. Once she felt a burning sensation on her right palm, she immediately checked her menu and sighed… but then she started smiling happily. She had received a pleasant surprise “You have annihilated the fifth cavalry of The Sahir Clan; there were no witnesses, so your infamy with them has not increased. Luna-76 has rewarded you with five-hundred favor for executing murderers, and Sol-138 has gifted you one hundred favor for the entertainment value. The Seven Sins faction has officially declared war on Michael as a result of your party’s actions; killing players from their side will now grant you skill-points and honor!”
(Proofread by Thoeberus)
