Login 23: Experiment

<<Crystal Mist Apartment Complex>>

Time 2:16 AM

It has already been way past midnight and Nico still hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. After all the caffeine intake that he had, he is now dealing with its consequences. His body is so tired but his mind is wide awake.

Turning his head to the side of his pillow, he was greeted by his moonlit apartment. He saw Jae sleeping peacefully, where his blanket covered his lower half, putting his perfect shirtless body on display.

Nico has always been curious as to why Jae always slept shirtless. So, one day he asked him, and the only answer that he got from him was "Because it's comfortable", which was completely valid, so Nico eventually let it go.

Tossing and turning on his bed, Nico let out a tired and frustrated sigh. Sitting up on his bed, he took his laptop from his night stand, before resting his back on the bed's headboard.

"Might as well be productive" Nico muttered to himself, turning his laptop on.

Nico initially wanted to get some work done for the showcase, but his mind wandered off and instead opened Rampage Online.

As Nico put his earbuds on, goosebumps covered his whole body. The opening thematic music of Rampage Online always has a way of transporting Nico to the game's world. The music of the game is one of the reason why Nico loves playing Rampage so much.

Nico has done so much research about how the game's music has been made, and it never ceases to amaze him. He told himself "One day, I will get to work on one music for Rampage, just you wait". And to this day, Nico still held on to the promise that he made himself.

Entering in his login ID and password, Nico's laptop's screen darkened, before lighting up again, transporting him to the interior of his workshop, where he last logged off.

<<Lumia: The Wandering Minstrel>>

2:40 AM, Philippine time | Asia Server

A system message greeted Nico, the moment his laptop screen lit up.

<<Welcome Back Sir. CherishedSong!>>

CherishedSong walked over the crafting bench and opened his inventory. Nico honestly actually didn't know what to do in game. He didn't even know why he logged on.

As he scanned through his inventory, his eyes completely halted and froze at a certain pearl grade item.

<<Essence of the Young Emperor, Zhang Qi Ling>>

"Hmm..... I mean, I haven't dipped my toes into that kind of crafting before... Hmm" Nico quietly mumbled to himself, his tried eyes studying the pearl grade item as his mouse hovered it.

After a moment of thinking, Nico's tired eyes shone with excitement. The wheels in his brain started to turn, as it started using its excess energy.

Nico took the Essence out of his inventory and placed into the crafting bench. A spherical orb lay on the crafting bench, emitting a faint glow, containing the life essence of the Young Emperor, Zhang Qi Ling.

Walking to the storage chest of his shop, CherishedSong opened it and took out a the following items:

5000<<Cherry Blossom Petals>>, 1<<Seed of the Spring>>, 1<<Yggdrasil Flower>>, 10<<Pitcher of Spring Rain>>, 1<<Equinox Mirror>>, and 1<<Mythical Dew Drop>>

In all the years that Nico has played Rampage, he's been hording a lot of items with the thought that he can use them in the future, which served to be a very great mentality for him. This action also dubbed him as the Wandering Minstrel by a lot of players, wandering across the world of Rampage, collecting items that are seen as useless by most players.

Once Nico has double checked all the items, the crafting has commenced.

He grinded out all 5000 <<Cherry Blossom Petals>> into a paste, which took almost an hour because of the delicacy of the petals. Grinding out the petals would bring out the full potential of the Ancient Item(Crafting material), extracting out its life essence. But grinding too much will effectively kill or mar the essence. Losing the life essence of the petals would definitely beat the purpose of using them, so Nico proceeded with caution and careful consecration.

Nico did a couple of trial and error before getting his desired consistency but still having the full potential of the cherry blossom's life essence.

After an hour or so, Nico filled out a marble basin with 10 <<Pitcher of Spring Rain>>, filling it up with glistening and clear water.

Nico carefully mixed the grinded out 5000 <<Cherry Blossom Petals>> to the water of the 10 <<Pitcher of Spring Rain>>, tainting the clear water pink. Again, Nico proceeded with caution, carefully mixing the paste with the spring rain water. The lovely scent of cherry blossoms started filling CherishedSong's workshop, as the paste slowly combines with the the spring rain water.

Who would've known that grinding cherry blossoms and mixed them to a filled basing of clear spring rain water could be so therapeutic. Nico's eyelids slowly started becoming heavy as fatigue slowly fills his body.

Not wanting to go to sleep without finishing his project, Nico powered through with crafting. Since all of the heavy labor is now finished, the next proceeding process takes little to no effort to accomplish.

Nico carefully dropped the 1 <<Seed of the Spring>> and 1 <<Yggdrasil Flower>> into the basin, letting them soak in the pink water. The purpose of letting the seed and flower soak in the pink water is to essentially let the water absorb their power and essence.

Once another hour has passed, Nico has finally entered the ending phase of the crafting processes. Nico took the spherical orb containing the <<Essence of the Young Emperor, Zhang Qi Ling>> and carefully placing it on the bottom of the pink water filled basin, along with the 1<<Equinox Mirror>>. Once everything is set, CherishSong lifted up a vial containing the very precious <<Mythical Dew Drop>>. Uncorking the vial, CherishedSong carefully tipped the vial and let its contents merge with the pink water, causing the pink water to surge with life essence.

From that point on, it going to be a waiting game to see if the experiment is successful or not. Nico was thinking of waiting for about 10 to 15 minuets tops, but then his tired body came rushing down on his with a vengeance, making him unable to resist slumber any longer. Nico fell asleep in a seating position whilst his laptop is still on his lap.

Unknowingly, while Nico peacefully sleeps, his doings will soon cause the Rampage world to fall into chaos, as a System announcement suddenly appeared.

<<Congratulations to CherishedSong for being the first one to craft a Black Diamond Spirit>>

You can only guess how much chaos this single System announcement has caused to the whole Rampage world community. The second it appeared, it blew up all across the seven continents for the world.

[What the freaking heck! HOW?! *Soul-leaving emoticon*]

[Welp! He did it again! *Clapping emoticon*]

[*PogChamp* *PogChamp* *PogChamp*]

[*DeskChan* Ugh! How can I even catch up to that?! *DeskChan*]

[I didn't even think that's possible! *PogChamp*]

[I think you and the rest of the world are thinking the same thing, actually.]

<<***>>

<<Rampage Main Head Quarters | Los Angeles, California>>

Time: 11:52 am (PST)

"Sir, someone finally crafted a Spirit!" An employee shouted from his station, getting the attention of all his workmates and his supervisor.

"Show the details to the main screen!" The supervisor commanded with great urgency.

"Right away, Sir!" The employee replied as he began transferring the information to the main screen for everyone to see.

"Huh" The supervisor smirked unsurprisingly "Of course it's him" he said as he stare at the information on the main screen.

IGN: CherishedSong

Level: Level 80

Class: Minstrel

The whole office buzzed with excited conversation about the new feat that has been archived by CherishedSong. While the supervisor studied the information on the main screen and watched how CherishedSong created the Black Diamond Spirit, a call came on his phone.

Fishing his phone out his pocket, the supervisor's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw who the caller was.

Upon accepting the call, the supervisor cleared his throat first before saying "Sir?"

"Reward that player handsomely. Make sure to add in a few more boons to the mix of rewards. This player has archived an incredible feat. Make sure that he gets the credit and rewards that he deserves. Am I clear?" A clear and crisp voice said over the phone. The caller's tone was calm and almost lazy.

"Right away, Sir!" The supervisor said

"Very good." The person on the other end of the call said before hanging up.

"Alright! Mikey, head over to the rewards department and fetch me a few grocery list" The supervisor said handing over a folder piece of sticky note to the employee.

"Yes sir!" The employee said, taking the folded piece of paper and head over to the rewards department as fast as he can.

Notes:

<<The Wandering Minstrel>> - *Is the name of CherishedSong's workshop and shop in Lumia.*

<<Seed of the Spring>> -* is an Ancient Item(Crafting material) that is dropped by a specific Ancient Specter called <<Ver, The Guardian of Spring>>. Nico encountered this Ancient Specter purely by accident when he was aimlessly venturing the fields of <<Senbonzakura, The Field of the Thousand Cherry Blossoms>> a year an a half ago. Nico was able to defeat the ancient specter alone, since he's done that all the time, though he didn't come out of it unscathed. Ever since that day when he acquired the Ancient Item(Crafting material), it has just been sitting in his storage chest ever since. *

<<Senbonzakura, The Field of the Thousand Cherry Blossoms>> - Senbonzakura (千本桜) Literally means "Thousand Cherry Blossoms". It is a field map in Rampage inspired by Kyoto, Japan in Spring, in its ancient times.

<<Mythical Dew Drop>> -*is an Ancient Item(Crafting material) that could only be accuried through a series of harrowing chain quests. It is said that the "Quest of the Sugar Plum Fairy" is among the most feared quests in Rampage, causing a lot of players not to even attempt the quest. <<Mythical Dew Drop>> is the final reward of the quest, which costs more than billions in in-game currency and thousands of dollars in real-world money. The quest can be done multiple times once finished. Nico, being the player that he is, was able to complete the quest multiple times, which was why he had a whole stack of <<Mythical Dew Drop>> just lying in his storage chest. Nico was able to complete the whole chain quest within 2 weeks, give or take.

PogChamp - *refers to an emote, a small image used in chats on the video game streaming platform Twitch, used to express shock, surprise, or excitement.*

DeskChan -*Similar to PogChamp, DeskChan is a Gif emote used in chats on the video game streaming platform Twitch. (You can search of the actual Gif on google. Just search of DeskChan and the Gif should appear.