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Chapter 243: Your Friends Are Barely Online
After a long sleep, Liam woke up completely refreshed. He got out of the bed, stretched his limbs, and then walked out to take a shower.
The apartment looked empty now, with his sister's room wide open and her game capsule light on.
"Those two must have logged back into the game." He chuckled and quickly finished his shower. When he came back, he surprisingly saw Shen Yue still in the living room.
She was sleeping on the couch and hence he hadn't noticed her before. "Why is she sleeping here and not in her own apartment?"
He walked over to her to wake her up, but when he reached near her, he dazedly stopped. Her beautiful face looked even more alluring while she was asleep.
Her red lips had slight moisture, her eyelids lightly moved perhaps because she was dreaming about something and her plump chest was pushed up revealing a lot of her cleavage because of the way her hands hugged herself.
The woman was sleeping completely defenseless as if she was in her own house. Even her shirt was slightly pulled up revealing her naked slender waist.
Liam's gaze silently traveled up and down the woman's body, dragging on as he took in the various delicious details.
Even when she was sleeping without any makeup or adjustments, she was extremely seductive and beautiful.
Of course, this wasn't a surprise for him, but for some reason, she looked more beautiful and alluring than normal today.
Surprised by his own actions, he stood there staring at her like a horny teenager. He could only barely control his hands that were itching to reach forward and touch her naked skin.
His eyes moved down from her waist to her long legs that were exposed completely for anyone to see.
She was only wearing a pair of short shorts that might as well have been panties. They covered nothing. Half of her round supple ass was hanging out.
Was this woman hell-bent on seducing him?
Liam bent down, his hands traveling on their own accord to touch the softness but at the last minute, he stopped himself and snapped out of the trance.
Retrieving his hand back, he instead picked up the blanket that had fallen on the ground and placed it on the damned girl.
"No wonder she managed to unlock the charm attribute." Chuckling wryly, he shook his head and moved away.
She was not a bad girl but he couldn't afford to get distracted by her. There was too much at stake and there were too many hidden forces and unknown factors.
He walked back to his room quickly, logging into the game without further delay. His figure appeared in Yleka city's inn and as soon as he regained consciousness...
Ding Ding Ding Ding…
Liam was completely caught off guard that he stumbled and fell back onto the inn's small cot, even breaking it in the process.
However, he did not look troubled at all. Instead, he was smiling like a maniac as he dusted his clothes and stood back up.
So many notifications! So many updates!
And every single one of them was either an experience points boost or a notification that he had leveled up.
Liam sat in the wooden chair in the corner of the room and quickly scanned through everything. He had actually managed to gain an entire level and another half while he had logged out!
Even for him, this was ridiculous! This was completely insane!
Especially considering that every level after 30 needed more and more experience points to fill up, this speed was astounding.
Not to mention, how he had gained this level by doing literally nothing. He managed to rest his mind completely while also simultaneously making progress inside the game.
Liam couldn't resist pulling up the leaderboard level rankings and taking a look.
He was sitting at the top with a high 45 and the next position was held by an anonymous player who was Level 34.
Seeing this, Liam slightly frowned. "I didn't know that this game was kind enough to allow a player to remain anonymous…"
His gaze then traveled to the rest of the list, seeing several familiar names. Just like him, they were also completely exposed without any choice in the matter.
However, the second rank person alone was somehow able to remain anonymous.
Liam stood still for a moment but he did not think too much about it. He shrugged and started heading out of the inn.
After all, even he only knew so much about this game world. He would only be conceited to think that his knowledge was exhaustive.
So instead of worrying about this, he moved on to the next main step of his plan.
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Though hiding a name was temporarily advantageous, in the end, everything would eventually be out in the open for the world to see.
At that time, only true power mattered!
Before leaving the city, Liam first made a quick trip to the auction house. Once again a series of notifications rang loudly, but this time he was prepared for them.
With a subtle smile on his face, he checked the total amount he had amassed. "20 gold coins. Not bad, but I need more. Maybe this time, I will also auction a batch of potions."
He opened his inventory and dumped another load of low-grade gear that he had collected doing miscellaneous things, mostly from the invasion missions.
He then checked the messages from his business partners but weirdly not many were there. "I guess the craze for the lava dungeon is already gone?"
He opened the dungeon records rankings and checked the list, but surprisingly it looked like the lava dungeon was still not yet conquered.
There were absolutely no records available for it.
"Hmmm…" Liam then checked the last message that Assassin guild leader Abraki had sent him.
[Your friends are barely online these days. Is there any other way to buy more potions from you? Also, do you have any anti-venom potions or invisibility potions for sale?]
"This explains it." Liam did not bother replying to the guy and closed the system interface. He then started finally heading out of the city.
"I wonder who it is that got the short end of the stick." He chuckled. "It couldn't have been her. I just saw her giving an interview and she looked… fine…"
"Hmmm… it should probably be the annoying redhead or that annoying guy. Seeing that I haven't gotten any retaliation from those three lately, maybe it's the redhead who is down."
In all honesty, it didn't matter to him who among them fell sick. He only needed one of the three to go down.
Then the other two would probably have no other choice but to come to him begging for help.
Fortunately or unfortunately they had met him.
Perhaps things would have turned out different for them if they had never crossed paths, but since they did… they only had their own bad luck to blame for everything.
As Liam weaved in and out of the crowded streets, becoming invisible amidst the masses, no one turned to give another glance at him.
No one would ever guess that this person was the number one player right now in the entire realm.
He quietly reached the outskirts and then jogged for a bit before whistling to call for Talon. The huge bird swooped down, having grown another size in the meantime.
He could now comfortably sit on its back, with a lot of space left, even enough for two other people to climb on.
Liam thought about calling the other three.
But he quickly gave up on the idea as Derek was probably logging in and out based on what time he had and Shen Yue and Mei Mei still lacked the appropriate combat experience.
So the two women would probably be of not much help. If he was just hunting down an elite, then perhaps he could have carried them.
However, he was right now on his way to deal with an inheritance or at worst a hidden class.
How could such a thing be easy?
Even Shen Yue's inheritance was a sure shot death trap if he did not possess the naga's pearl. The difficulty was simply off the charts.
As for calling the snake lady once again to help him out this time, it was best to forget it.
Instead of the enemy that wanted to kill him, the snake would probably kill him herself.
Other than these options, the only one who could have helped him significantly was Luna, but she was also MIA at the moment.
"You chose the wrong time to evolve, little fox." Liam smiled. "I should maybe pay the lava dungeon a visit soon to help you more."
As the huge wind ripper bird rose up into the sky, the city becoming a distant sight, Liam started looking ahead to the east where the thing that would probably decide his fate resided.
Even without it, he knew that he would be more strong this time around compared to his previous life.
But that was now no longer enough for him. The future was uncertain and he wanted to be as prepared as he possibly could.
Liam pulled up the realm's map and his gaze landed on the Gresh kingdom borders. He needed to go to the eastern border between Gresh and Thunderbolt.
He ran his hand along the back of the bird's neck, patting the sharp metallic feathers covering its body.. "Keep going east."
Chapter 244: Searching For Nothing?
After a few hours of journey, Liam and Talon finally arrived at the easternmost parts of the kingdom.
Soon, they would be landing in the border regions, the rough location that the King had talked about.
"He couldn't have lied to me right?"
The image of the beautiful trap king of the Gresh kingdom floated across Liam's mind, as he pondered over this possibility.
His problem was that all the areas in this zone were filled with high-level beasts and dangerous entities. Not to mention everything roamed around in groups.
If he accidentally aggroed one beast, then all the others would respond as well.
So Liam really hoped that the trap King had told him the correct information and not led him astray.
Otherwise, he would have to waste a considerable amount of time here, fighting beasts and monsters above his level.
Not that he couldn't win somehow and preserve his life, but it would simply take a lot of time to do so.
Normally, quests would be straightforward at least in terms of location. However, he was in this predicament only because this was actually not the location of his own kingdom quest.
Rather he had come here following the clues he had obtained about Kouske's kingdom quest.
During their conversation, because of Liam beating around the bush purposefully, the King had let slip this small nugget of information.
Somewhere on this vast stretch of borderlands between the Gresh Kingdom and the Thunderbolt Kingdom lay a cave, a hut, or a burrow that contained the necromancy inheritance or at least clues to it.
It wasn't much but it was enough to go on.
Liam whistled, signaling Talon to drop him off here and hide in the nearby area. Flying from here onwards was a bit dangerous. They would be shot down if they were sighted.
Just like the Gresh Kingdom, the Thunderbolt kingdom was also a human kingdom.
However, unlike the Gresh kingdom, there were orcs that lived here along with humans. The humans living in these lands were also bigger, stronger, and barbaric.
People in other kingdoms, human NPCs, typically referred to them as barbarians and they ostracized and looked down upon the natives of this land.
The rumor was that the people living here originated from terrible brutality. In the past, when the orcs invaded these lands, they raped and plundered to their heart's content.
So the men and women living in this kingdom were considered as mixed-race and descendants of the orcs.
They also had stronger, taller, and thicker figures with several orcish features.
As the war continued on, slowly, the mixed-race community called barbarians started becoming more and the number of human beings reduced.
Eventually, some parts of these lands were occupied by the orcs and some by barbarians, and some sort of peace was established.
Afterward, a barbarian also managed to unify the different settlements, establishing the Thunderbolt kingdom. These people were powerful warriors and also nature brawlers.
They used nature magic like shamans to complement their physical strength and fighting methods. They were able to cast spells like mages and fight like warriors.
Their reproductive rate was also significantly higher just like orcs and demons so they had the numbers to boost their strength as well.
So using this upper hand, they managed to defend their kingdom all these years and held their own against several types of enemies.
And now Liam was near their territory.
Apart from vicious beasts in the borderlands between the two kingdoms, Liam also had to watch out for these barbarians. They were ruthless savages.
Because of his human-like appearance, if he ever got caught in their hands, he would be mercilessly raped and killed.
To make matters worse, they watched their borders like hawks manning both the land and the sky. They would never let anyone fly above their land and immediately shoot them down.
This was why Liam already dismounted Talon at a good distance and then started covering the rest of the land on foot.
He used the semi-epic ranked sword in his hand to cut through the thorns and brambles and traversed across the rough unruly terrain, searching blindly for any clues that could get him closer to the necromancy inheritance.
Liam had to admit. It was far easier to steal the fate of those who had stumbled upon lucky occurrences rather than others who had worked their way towards it.
Particularly this guy Kouske… He was like a leech, not letting go of what rightfully belonged to him.
Kouske had somehow managed to trigger the event, unlock the nether realm, and finally even got the kingdom quest.
The only thing that he lacked right now was overall strength and power which he would also inevitably obtain in a few days, sooner if he manages to capture a garrison as well.
He would then attempt this quest, probably with his team of super experts, and easily get the inheritance using which he will be able to command an army of undead.
He would once again stand at the top as he was destined to be.
Liam, however, had no plans to let him sail smoothly into the sunset to his destiny, becoming one of the great experts of their world.
He was determined to snatch away whatever belonged to Kouske. He had a perfect affinity to the nether, so if anyone was suited for this inheritance, it was him, not Kouske.
"I wonder what that guy's affinity is…" Liam quietly mumbled while his feet continued moving forward and his eyes searched the surroundings.
He had started at the far south of the borderlands and systemically moved towards the north.
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Once he reached the other end of the border, then he would again be moving to the south, searching the entire border between the two countries systematically in a grid-like fashion.
This grid started away from the Thunderbolt kingdom, first searching the zones within the Gresh kingdom, and then he would have to slowly encroach and search the lands of the barbarians as well.
As far as he knew, the inheritance could lie on either side, so he couldn't take any chances.
Thus, Liam continued the slow painful grind, searching the border area between the two kingdoms.
At times, he felt as if he was searching for a needle in a haystack but there was nothing that could be done about it.
Powerful inheritances and priceless treasures were as rare as virgins after a frat party.
Thankfully, the frequent notifications continuously chiming in, announcing the steady increase of his experience bar helped him not lose his mind searching in this vast wilderness.
Chapter 245: Follow The Rabbit Into The Hole
A dark purple long sword that lacked any luster whatsoever currently flashed in the sunlight shining brightly here and there.
Its movements were obscure just like the movements of the person wielding it.
However, every time the sword flashed, blood was spilled and bloodcurdling howls resounded in the empty dense jungle.
"That's the last of the wolves." Liam bent down to pick up the coins scattered around and a couple of wolf pelts.
These wolves were not the common dire wolves but level 50 green spiked wolves. However, Liam was still able to easily see through their attack patterns and cleanly finish them.
He could have dealt with them more quickly using the golems but the two giants were a bit too attention-grabbing.
So he saved them both for emergency and dealt with this small pack by himself. This was the fifth pack of wolves that he had come across.
But Liam did not plan to take a detour. It was better to search the grid by moving around in the wolf territory rather than something else's.
And he was almost done searching the area.
After a while, he moved onto the next zone, searching around everywhere and turning over every rock.
He continued doing this for a long time but it looked like it was going nowhere.
"Tsk. Tsk. Do I have to go to the other side?"
Liam sheathed his sword back and then let out a small sigh before heading deeper into the jungle towards the other side of the border.
And just as he did, suddenly a small cry sounded from a distance.
Liam hurriedly dashed towards the source of the sound and from a distance saw a few rabbits hanging around the bushes.
"Hmmm… just rabbits." As he was in a hurry, he turned around to leave when he stopped in his tracks. "How are these things here in this zone?"
Only now, he paid more attention to the actual state of the rabbits. "These are undead rabbits?"
He moved closer, but the rabbits noticed him and started coming right at him without any fear.
Even though there was so much level difference, they did not hesitate at all and came straight for him without holding back. These were the common characteristics of the undead.
It only took Liam a second to deal with this bunch of rabbits, but he did not leave the spot just yet.
He had originally wanted to observe them and see where they go about but now that they were dead he had to find out things for himself.
He lingered around thoroughly examining the ground, trees, and everything around him.
This was the first undeads he had seen in this area and since he was looking for a necromancy inheritance, he almost camped out in the area.
He spent the next couple of hours combing this place upside down, even pulling out all the grass around and uprooting trees.
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And finally… when he stepped foot on a particular spot, his feet sunk and he felt the ground loose underneath.
Hiyuup! Liam grunted and started hastily slashing the ground, removing all the dirt and the rocks, clearing the path underneath him.
Soon, a huge hollow underground tunnel was revealed and Liam immediately activated [Stealth], jumping into the tunnel.
However, his stealth was immediately canceled as something prickled his skin. It didn't affect his health or cause any other injury so Liam continued moving ahead.
He no longer bothered keeping the stealth as he couldn't see properly and had to conjure a small wisp of flame.
It was more difficult than usual for some reason but Liam did not mind it and continued heading deeper inside.
The anticipation coursing through his blood was palpable. He was so close to it. This had to be it, right?
Liam continued walking when suddenly a groaning sound came from the side. He instantly increased the size of the flame in his hand, illuminating everything around him.
Whatever was around him, the groaning sound probably alerted them already, so he did not hold back.
Immediately the entire underground tunnel lit up and Liam couldn't help but gasp as he took a look around.
Skeletons! Bony Skeletons!
Numerous white dusty skeletons were present all around him without even a chunk of flesh left behind on their bodies.
Liam hurriedly unsheathed his sword, preparing himself to fight. However, the next second he sheathed it back because that was clearly not necessary at least for now.
The several dozens of skeletons lining the walls of the tunnel were actually chained to the wall and were unable to move, even though they tried.
"These are so weak. It's as if they have decayed or something." Liam squatted on the floor to observe one of the skeletons.
It could barely even move its arm towards him, only producing dull grating sounds of bones rubbing against each other.
"First the rabbits and now these skeletons… " Liam grinned as he stood back up and started walking further deeper into the tunnels.
There seemed to be an elaborate network of tunnels under the ground, each steeper than the previous one, inclined downward.
He was walking deeper and deeper into the earth as he moved ahead.
A thick moist smell of the earth along with the putrid smell of decaying skeletons together assaulted his nose.
But Liam scrunched his nose and kept walking as he knew that he was definitely in the right place. He might not even need a clue that led him to some other tomb or cave.
From the looks of how things were unfolding this was probably it!
He had a feeling that he almost had the necromancy inheritance in his grasp!
He just needed to walk down and take it!
The only thing that was a bit worrisome was the complete lack of traps or any other sort of beast or undead creature.
Was obtaining an inheritance really that simple? Was he just going to walk all the way down and get what he wanted?
Before even Liam could finish his thought, a loud rumbling sound echoed.
Chapter 246: Someone Is Already Here?
Gradually, the rumbling sounds started to get louder and louder.
"Hmmm…" Liam subconsciously reached his hand out to touch the wall, hoping that it was not the tunnel that was about to crumble and crash down.
He would then be buried in this mess and die a miserable death. Though it was a shameful way to die, it was probably worth the risk.
Liam chuckled wryly and looked around as the sound started to amplify exponentially.
"What the hell?"
It sounded as if several buffaloes were galloping towards Liam.
However, he didn't have to wonder for too long. The next second, loud cackling and roaring noises echoed and a horde of skeletons appeared in front of him.
They were only around Level 30 to 40 but their sheer numbers were alarming.
"That's more like it." Liam grinned and dashed forward.
Weirdly enough, this actually made him feel a little more at ease. Instead of some convoluted twisted mechanisms, he would rather take these guys and fight them head-on.
He lobbed the ball of fire onto the incoming skeletons and directly jumped into the middle of the fray. He swung his sword around, the sharp metal clanging with the dense bones.
Huge damage numbers started floating up, but weirdly the fireball he had thrown earlier did not do much damage.
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"Hmmm… So you guys have some mana resistance… I see… but that's fine by me."
Liam grinned and continued swinging his sword around, blocking and parrying the attacks but also sending some attacks in when he had the chance.
He did not look overwhelmed at all, rather he looked like he was having a lot of fun. With every move he made, dust and pieces of bones flew scattered, falling out left and right.
The dead and decaying skeletons were no match for the sharp sturdy metal of the semi-epic ranked weapon.
Liam did not even have to use its special effect. He was completely overpowered. In addition to this, another level-up notification promptly appeared pushing him all the way to Level 46.
"Were the undeads always this weak?" He grinned and continued cutting down everything around him.
As the last wisp of the fireball died down, a blanket of darkness enshrouded him and more and more skeletons rushed forward, roaring energetically.
These were visibly different from the skeletons Liam had seen near the entrance of the tunnel.
They had more fighting power and energy within them as if they were still alive. Some of them also had weapons.
Their levels, as well, were not that low and consequently, their stats were higher.
So it was a considerable task for Liam to evade their attacks. Though he had a powerful weapon for offense, he still lacked good techniques for defense.
But this only helped him hone his movement skill and dodging skill even further.
In between the fight, he also had to cast a fast fireball to light up the place ever so often.
While the skeletons were completely fine with fighting in the dark, he was unable to see anything in the dark.
Trying to fight in complete darkness would only prolong things so Liam still cast fireballs and barraged fire bullets everywhere to see clearly.
In this way, Liam continuously dealt with the onslaught of skeletons for the next few minutes when finally the last of the skeleton was smashed into bits and pieces.
"Was that the last one?" Liam shook his head, white bone dust flying everywhere. The tunnel no longer had the moist earthy smell. Instead, it now smelled like chalk powder.
Even the air was suffocating. Liam dusted himself and his clothes and then started walking further into the tunnel, heading deeper into the ground.
The tunnel was quite narrow and Liam thought about the number of skeletons that had poured out. "Tsk. Tsk. This is going to take too long."
He increased his pace to cover the long tunnel faster. He once again materialized a ball of flame to light up the dark ramshackle place covered with cobwebs and nests of small critters.
The next several twists and turns of the tunnel did not contain anything specifically and he continued moving downwards.
The only difference he noticed was that the air here was strangely thicker and heavier as if he was inhaling something else along with it.
He also had a small prickling sensation here and there that appeared fleetingly and disappeared the next second.
Other than that, nothing else seemed to be out of place and Liam continued walking in the never-ending underground tunnel that ran zig-zag down the ground.
"Am I going to the center of the world or what?"
After a few minutes, he was still walking endlessly, so Liam sighed and bumped up his speed further, now running.
He then churned his mana, moving the energy to his feet, and gave himself an additional speed boost to cover more distance.
However, as he tried to do this… the mana that he used wasn't getting replenished all that well. Liam quickly stopped conserving whatever mana he had left.
Only then did he notice that the mana in the air right now was actually very thin. It was almost not present.
But Liam did not stop. With a subtle smile on his face, he gripped his sword tighter and continued walking downwards.
Meanwhile… at the exact same time… several feet directly above him… a group of four players landed on the ground.
Unlike Liam, they had come here on a flying mount so it hadn't taken them that long to find the place.
"This should be your quest spot?" Madan walked around taking a look, only to come to an abrupt halt when he saw the huge gaping hole on the ground.
"DON'T TELL ME! Someone is already FUCKING here!"
He turned around, gasping, completely and utterly shocked. His big tummy jiggled as he stared at Kouske, wanting to see his reaction.
However, that guy was still rather calm.. He did not panic and simply walked over to take a look at the hole.