"Morning…"
"Cy, did you just crawl out of bed?"
"What about you? Did you fall out?"
A new morning had arrived. When Cynthia arrived at the restaurant for breakfast, she saw that all her friends were already there. And not only them. A few people stayed at the guild house over the night and had also joined the others for breakfast. Thus, the atmosphere was unusually lively.
However, this didn't last long. Soon, it was time for everyone to enter the game. Silence fell onto the guild house. When Pastor Frey brought the people from the old community to eat something they couldn't help but gulp seeing all the unmoving players. The scene was somewhat eerie.
The players didn't think much about their bodies in the real world, though. When they entered Crunaboul everything felt like reality, incredibly immersive.
Liam and his friends appeared in Greypine Tower. After two days of relaxation, it was time to get back to serious work. Everyone knew what the plan was for the day. Silver Blade took the lead. She entered the teleporter and after a flash of light found herself in a cute little village. It was the old novice village located on the island Ventarra, part of Deavin Ocean, which bordered the flying continent Deaviny.
The friends arrived one by one. The scene in the novice village was still quite lively and Hotpot's appearance attracted some attention. Looking at this place where everything began the friends were in a good mood and humoured their fans for a few minutes before escaping on their mounts.
At the centre of the island was a towering volcano radiating a smouldering heat. Liam and his friends rushed along the narrow path and soon reached the top. As always there was a crowd of players gathered here, worshipping the angelic figure standing close to the crater. The party pushed their way through with their superior strength and swiftly approached the figure in a flowing white robe with large white and black wings behind her back.
"Your Holiness Lewriova! We have completed your quest!"
Cyclone took the lead, announcing their success with a bright smile while taking out the ominous void compass.
Lewriova turned towards the party. Her gentle smile was comfortable like the rising sun. She nodded, speaking with a mellow voice:
"Well done, adventurers. So, I take it this compass can indeed sense void energy?"
"Yes! We found a big, monstrous void dweller, a crazy mage conducting experiments, and a Deer of Life corrupted by a void shadow."
"Commendable! You did well and rewards are in order. Here."
Lewriova waved her hand and a prompt appeared in front of everyone.
[
[Evaluation: S]
[Receive 15.000EXP]
[Receive 3 Gold]
[Receive Land lease DBC0023]
[Receive Blueprint: Training Field]
[Choose one of three items as your reward]
[A small compass found in a dungeon's basement has such miraculous use. What role will it play in the history of Crunaboul?]
The rewards for this quest could only be called generous. The granted experience points alone were more than what one could get from most other quests. On top of that there were a land lease and a blueprint, which were rewarded to the party as a whole and one item for each individual.
However, perhaps because the party was somewhat slow during the quest they only received an evaluation of S. This affected the rewarded items the most, limiting them to uncommon items, which didn't elicit much joy from the group.
At least the other two rewards were quite generous. A land lease for a plot in Duabalis City was always worth a lot even if the plot wasn't in the city centre. However, the training field's effect at first sounded somewhat confusing as Cyclone posted its description in the group chat.
The training field was a building in which the designated owner could save all the boss monsters they had killed. The saved monsters could then be challenged again. However, there were no rewards for defeating them. The friends thought this sounded a bit underwhelming, but Liam convinced them otherwise. The training field was great to train the weaker guild members. Especially now that the NPCs gradually learned to dodge, combat skills were more important than ever. They, Hotpot, could forge ahead and defeat powerful monsters, which would provide training for the other teams.
Just as the friends were marvelling over the training field, a white light enveloped them. Their EXP bars had filled up and they made the last step, finally advancing to level 50.
Immediately Fortune's eyes lit up. She flicked her wrist and a tall, blue staff appeared in her hand, accompanied by the roaring of waves.
"Finally!"
[Staff of the jailed god +1
Category: Unique
Level requirement: 50
Attack Damage: 45-48
Attack Speed: 0,6
Intelligence: +15 → +18
Source: +21 → +23
Haste: +6
Effect 1: Every time you use a skill you have a chance of 40% → 44% to deal an additional 20% → 25% of the damage as water damage.
Effect 2: Every third normal attack recovers your mana by lvl*5 → lvl*6 points.
Effect 3: If your HP sink below half you free yourself of your shackles. For 60 → 70 seconds all your skills have their cast time reduced by 40% → 45% and the cost for flash step is reduced by half. (Cooldown: 300 → 280 seconds)
Effect 4: Once per day if your HP were to reach zero, a spark of vitality keeps you alive, saving you with 1HP and giving you immunity to damage for 3 → 5 seconds.
Restriction: Bound upon wearing; INT over 150
After Lekraxc had been confined by the emperor, his mighty staff had been confiscated. The dynasty's weapon makers were highly interested, studying the staff day and night. Eventually the emperor took the staff back out of respect for Lekraxc, but the weapon makers were able to forge this intimidation based on the original staff.]
When Fortune waved around her new staff, she sent the information to Cyclone in the chat just as the blond mage liked to do. Cyclone immediately felt envious, staring at Fortune with heated eyes. But before she could say anything, her Holiness Lewriova spoke first:
"Adventurers, your efforts deserve my respect. But this also result also reveals how serious the void's invasion has already become. There is no choice. We have to fight back!"
The friends immediately smelled a follow-up quest. They stared at Lewriova with burning eyes.
"Your Holiness, you can place your trust in us! Just tell us what to do. We are willing to be the shield protecting the innocent and the sword vanquishing the void."
It was Radiant Shield who spoke this time. His words seemed to resonate with Lewriova as she showed a kind smile. Behind the party a crowd of players was listening with bated breath. When they saw Lewriova revealing a smile it was as if an arrow had hit their heart. Some people became dizzy and almost fell unconscious on the spot.
Lewriova had either long become used to the crowd of players or was simply used to ignoring them as she continued speaking to the party:
"Your will to aid the innocent pleases me greatly. The world needs heroes like you right now. At first, I thought you might be too weak, but now I don't hold such concerns anymore. Please, let me show you something."
The friends watched curiously as Lewriova took out an inconspicuous stone key from her robe. She inserted it into an invisible keyhole and turned it, producing a low klick sound.
Suddenly a blinding light erupted from the stone key. Celestial music sounded out of nowhere. The light split into two proud feathered snakes which flew towards the left and the right. Their dozens of metres long bodies hovered in the air above the volcano, amazing the crowd of players with their splendour. One to the left and one to the right they spat out a thick, white mist which filled the space between the snakes, taking the appearance of a portal.
"Follow me…"
Lewriova waved at Liam and his friends before stepping into the mist. The party swiftly followed. Some quick-thinking players suddenly reacted and rushed towards the portal before it could dissipate.
"DAAAMN YOOUU!"
A miserable shout echoed from the volcano's walls as a player passed through the white mist and fell into the crater, landing somewhere in the magma.
Liam and his friends didn't know about this. They stepped out of the portal behind Lewriova and appeared in a spacious room. It was incredibly luxurious. The walls and floor where white, decorated with beautiful illustrations and golden embellishments.
To the right there was a tall window revealing a majestic sight. Lush vegetation grew on a meandering mountain range. Celestial lights travelled through the air, caused by the high concentration of mana. Gorgeous palaces were scattered throughout the mountain, each one rivalling the main palace of the Southern Light Kingdom. Beasts like winged snakes freely floated through the air, showing no signs of aggression. The paradisical scene could calm even the most restless hearts.
Liam glanced at the stunned faces of his friends and couldn't help but grin.
[Bleary Mirage: Welcome to Dea, capital of the Godspawn!]