C003

[R-Edit/ Forums/ R-Industries/ Game/ Mystique: Yggdrasil]

A_Free_Ken: I played Mystique, and it was Legen…

Barbie_No_More: Wait for it…

All_Father: Daddy?

Sir_Dieck_Full: Dary!!!

Weasel_with_an_e: Legendary!!!

One_Eyed_One: Tell me about it. The amount of races available in it is too much, not to mention the gameplay.

FBI_CloseItUp: Yeah, my favorite part was the PKing heteromorphic player.

Scar_King_Let: My favorite part was PKing people who PK heteromorphic players.

Weasel_with_an_e: Because they are ugly?

FBI_CloseItUp: Sure, let's go with that.

A_Free_Ken: My favorite part was trying several small dungeons with my friends.

Barbie_No_More: Do those friends happen to be you playing with alternate accounts?

One_Eyed_One: Damn, right in the innards.

All_Father: Seethe…Cope.

Van_Dieck: Jokes aside, have you heard about that news from Helheim?

All_Father: What news?

A_Free_Ken: There is a heteromorph in Helheim that has killed a lot of PKers who went to kill heteromorphs there.

Dilusional_Man: Then he must be good.

Jim_Jam: He is no good, I fought him. He just aggros lot of mobs and leads them to you, while he keeps on stunning you as they chip your health.

Rin-Rin: Skill issue?

Jim_Jam: You were on my team!!!!!!

Rin-Rin: Never heard of you before.

Prisoner_of_Black_Leg_band: Did anyone find anything else?

All_Father: When I went to visit Helheim, I saw something that look straight out of Lovecraft's wet dream. It was a cloaked figure with so many tentacle-like appendages.

Chi-Chi-sama: Don't worry. It must have been some player who splurged money on cosmetics to take that look. There does not exist any mob with that appearance.

A_Free_Ken: Yeah, dude must be dirt poor now.

***

The game managed to sell 300 million copies yesterday. So, I made a very good amount yesterday.

The people at HQ were going mad with ecstasy. Seeing the good reception, they started hiring, which got more applicants this time, seeing the game. While all of that was going on, I was grinding. From my previous quest, I had managed to get quite a handsome quality of items.

[Name: SCARLET KING]

[Gender: Male]

[Level: 25]

[Race: Heteromorph]

[Sub-species: Changeling]

 [Class: Impostor (Level 5)]

[Changeling acquired Sub-species: (4/8)]

[Slot 1: Vampire]

 [Class: Bloodborne (Level 10)]

[Class: Noblesse (Level 5)]

[Weapon: Barothy's Dagger]

[Slot 2: Elf]

[Slot 3: Dwarf]

[Slot 4: Eldritch]

 [Class: Great One (Level 5)]

[Slot 5: None]

[Slot 6: None]

[Slot 7: None]

[Slot 8: None]

I got 2 rare classes from the previous excursion. Noblesse for Vampire, and Great One for Eldritch.

I also managed to get Barothy's Dagger that is a weapon tailor-made for vampires.

This dagger allows the user to cause bleed effect for few seconds when hits.

And when in possession of a Vampire, through synergy, causes the HP of user to increase with decrease in HP of opponent. It also increases rate of recovery of HP exponentially if the dagger is kept impaled inside a person.

Then my Noblesse class, whose acquisition is rather self-explanatory. I had to save and help someone as a vampire to acquire this class.

The effects of Noblesse entail controlling blood to make constructs out of it. At the higher level, it is used to call summons. It is like Blood Drinker that Shalltear had but better.

And lastly, the unexpected, The Great One. When I exploded the corpse of that Eldritch being, I quickly used Preserve at the last second, in hopes of safe keeping this fine specimen.

Though there was always a possibility that it will continue to live on through his lost member, but I had contingency prepared for it.

I had filled the capitals with blood from various corpses I hunted down, and mixed mine with it. Even if the blood from the moss were to disappear, mine would not.

Hence I could always kill it at the expense of the whole capital, but did not need to go that far.

Now, initially I was half the mind to rid all of my races for any characteristic feature and keep my main avatar's appearance but did not do so for one simple reason.

The appearance needs to match with the race.

This was not solely for the sake of aesthetics, but something more important. Name, blood, and appearance are important things, from what I learned from Azathoth, and seeing that I had gotten an Eldritch Avatar, it is no brainer to think that HE had a hand in it.

So, I decided to give individual appearances to each race that suits my view of them.

Noble-like appearance for Vampire.

A Ranger-like cloth for Elf.

I gave Dwarf my main avatar appearance because the disparity in height did not sit well with me.

As for Great One, I chose a being made as if light bends around him, wearing a shadowy cloak, with tentacles of shadow flowing from the feet. After assigning the appearance, I took to dealing with mobs. A task that I am doing right now.

"RAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" Screamed the boss of the dungeon full of arachnids. When the mother of the den died, all of the other spiders started to die down as well.

[Dungeon Cleared: Cobweb]

[Reward: Data Crystals X20]

[Reward: Spider Silk Yarn X100]

[Reward: Eye of Arachnid (Accuracy +2) X7]

Seeing the notification, I left the dungeon.

Reaching outside, I took a moment to think and decided to make my way to the next dungeon that would give me materials for an item that I wanted to make, though it would lack in quality severely since we are limited to Norse Mythology, but I have some patch up work.

With this thought, I left for the next dungeon. At least I meant to.

"Hey, want to party up with us?" A heteromorph with a crab-like appearance said out of the blue. Previously, I ignored him since his race did not look like something that suited my taste, but now he got my attention, and my eyes hovered over his name.

Amanomahitotsu.

The Chief Blacksmith of Ainz Ool Gown.

Behind him stood his partner, a man wearing dulled armor, covering his head but from the armor-less zones, I was able to identify him as an insect category heteromorph.

Then my eyes fell on his name as well.

Touch Me.

'Hmm…seems like fate is at play.

Or more precisely, Azathoth at play.'

"Introduce yourself first, Mahito." Touch me chided the crab-like human. "Oh…sorry, where are my manners. I am Amanomahitotsu. You can call me Mahito, nice to meet you." Mahito said, bowing a little.

"My name is Touch Me. Nice to meet you." Touch Me said.

"My name is Scarlet King. Pleased to make your acquaintance." I said curtly.

"So…want to part up?" Mahito asked.

"Sure."

***

"So Scarlet, what is your race?" Mahito asked.

"Mahito, phrasing." Touch Me chided.

"Changeling." I said before the awkward apology series of Mahito began. Through the travel to the dungeon, I found that Mahito had problems properly wording his questions, leaving room for misunderstanding, and would keep on apologizing for 10 minutes straight.

"Changeling…doesn't it look like a floating rag or something?" Mahito added.

"Changeling is a race that has the ability to change into other race if certain conditions are met, so this is my vampire appearance." I said.

"That's too OP." Mahito said.

"It gains 8 times less experience than the other races."

"Sucks to be you."

"I used cash shop items to change the EXP gain to normal."

"Sucks to be me."

"Hahaha…"

Touch Me broke into laughter listening to our banter.

"How many Races can you get?" Touch Me asked.

"4 Slots are there by default. You can get more if you are willing to pay." I replied.

"This a good Race to choose in the long run, huh?" Mahito commented.

"If you are willing to spend money, then it is the best race, otherwise not so much." I replied honestly.

"So, which dungeon do you want to go?" I initiated.

"I want to go to a Golem dungeon to get minerals and material for my class, blacksmith and Touch here want to go someplace like this too to get better gear." Mahito said.

"What about you?" Touch Me asked.

"I want to go to a dungeon that will provide me with lots of leather or things like that, preferably a swamp." I replied truthfully.

"Then…you are not going to get much from Golem dungeon." Mahito added awkwardly.

"Don't mind, while I am trying to level up my skinning and tailor skills, I will also have to dabble in blacksmith due to my dwarf race sooner or later. So might as well get material for it. Maybe get a Golem as an extra race as well."

I said, putting his worries to rest. "Then that is good. Don't worry, I will help you in your Blacksmith class as well. We can rent out the forge for 20% off as well." Mahito added.

"Then we seem to have an accord."

***

We walked a little bit more, after which we were at the entrance of the dungeon we wanted to be at on Nidavellir, the land of dwarfs.

Along the way, we encountered several PKers, but we dealt with them, since as of now, no one was of high level yet. Everyone was trying to find their schtick, so it was not very hectic, as it would be months later.

"Should we go in?" Touch Me asked.

"Lets." I said, being crowned the leader due to my comparatively high level.

And then we entered the dungeon, following which a flash appeared in front of our eyes, and we were in a sizeable cave-like structure.

[Dungeon: Desolate Mine (Uncommon)]

[A mine that is left behind by the dwarves due to the large amount of monster presence.]

[This node is rich in minerals equal to and below Uncommon rank.]

"So, how do we go about this?

Should we mine first, and take care of monsters along the way, or do we kill the monsters first, and then mine later on?" Touch Me asked.

"Let's kill monsters first. This way, if we happen to get some better gear inclined for mining, then we can get mine with more efficiency." I suggested.

"Then let's do that." Mahito affirmed, while Touch Me just nodded in response.

And then we began the slaughter.

We were met with many enemies, namely small trolls and several golems but those were inconsequential since instead of minerals, they were made of rocks. Completely useless.

The main thing that was hindering our movement was traps. Traps were everywhere. But seeing that this place was once used by dwarves, it is to be expected. Everything was going fine, and then we met a different type of mob.

[Mini-Boss: Leyline Plant]

[A plant that was developed on a weak node of mana stone.]

The plant had a greenish hue, with faint blue lines glowing over its surface. It appeared to be a sunflower, with several chunks of blue glowing rocks at its roots.

"So who will begin?" I asked.

"Let me, I have to level up my warrior job and I don't want to trouble you more than I already have."

"Fine by me." I said, looking at Mahito, who replied as well.

"Don't look at me. I am just a blacksmith." He gave his affirmation in his own way.

"Thank you." Touche Me said, before launching himself at his enemy.

Throughout the fight, Touch Me was doing extremely well as compared to others, due to his job in real world. It took about 5 minutes until the battle ended. Touch Me took only a few hits here and there, nothing important.

"Huh, done." He said with a huff.

"Cool, now how do we go about the loot?" Mahito asked.

"Hmm…since Touch Me fought completely by himself, he gets to keep all fighting gear or anything combat-oriented we get from the chest. You will keep the nodes of mana stone or anything blacksmith-related. If there is any extra blacksmith equipment, I will keep it. As for me, I will take this monster's body."

"B-bu-t Scarlet, r18 acts are not allowed in thi-s game. And to do it with a mo-nster's corpse…" Mahito kept on rambling, to which I looked at him with a deadpan.

"Idiot, he is talking about assimilating and getting it's race." Touch Me chided.

"Oh…I thought differently." Mahito said sheepishly.

"Yes, you did." I said curtly.

"Anyway, this does not appear to any race available in-game, nor does it look like a playable race. It is just a plant rooted to the ground." Touch Me asked, wanting to change the topic.

"Well, it depends. If the race is a playable race, then assimilation will occur and I will get the basic race that a noobie will get if that particular race is chosen.

Now, if the race is not something, then a compensation of sorts will occur. The race will either be watered down to a new race not available to players, and meant to be used solely by Changeling, or it will give you a race that it can come closest to."

I answered honestly, walking up to the 'corpse' of plant life and using my spell assimilation on it.

Then I looked at the menu.

[Name: SCARLET KING]

[Gender: Male]

[Level: 25]

[Race: Heteromorph]

[Sub-species: Changeling]

 [Class: Impostor (Level 5)]

[Changeling acquired Sub-species: (4/8)]

[Slot 1: Vampire]

 [Class: Bloodborne (Level 10)]

[Class: Noblesse (Level 5)]

[Weapon: Barothy's Dagger]

[Slot 2: Elf]

[Slot 3: Dwarf]

[Slot 4: Eldritch]

 [Class: Great One (Level 5)]

[Slot 5: Dryad(7 hours left to assimilate)]

[Slot 6: None]

[Slot 7: None]

[Slot 8: None]

"So, what did you get?" Mahito asked seeing the corpse disappear.

"Dryad." I replied in one word.

"Makes sense I guess. Can you transform in it?" Mahito asked.

"Not right now, it will take 7 hours for complete assimilation.

But after that? Sure, why not."

"Seriously, I am jealous." Mahito said with a sigh, and started to mine. The node only, since it may lose its mana without the plant, and then we opened the chest beside the plant.

The chest was made of solid iron.

Inside chest were various things.

[Cold Steel Sword X1]

[Cold Steel Armor X1]

[Cold Steel Shield X1]

[Cold Steel Pickaxe X4]

[Mana Thread X17]

"Well, Touch Me, it seems you are in luck. A full armor set of a higher grade than your present armor." I commented.

"Huh, there is nothing related to blacksmithing." Mahito sighed depressingly.

"Don't lose hope. We have not been here for long. Not to mention it is a dwarf dungeon of uncommon rank. There must be something of apt quality as we track this cavern." I commented.

"Yes, he is right, we still have much to explore." Touch Me chimed in, trying to raise his spirits.

"Yeah, you are right. Anyway, I think Scarlet should take Mana Thread for his tailor class. I will take the pickaxe." Mahito said.

"Sure, so want to continue?" I asked.

"Yeah, let's go."

***

I like their company.

After all these years, I can confidently say that I like the company of someone. Not because they are once-in-a-lifetime friends. We have not been for more than a day, I cannot say something along those lines. I can enjoy their company because they cannot betray me. I am not a fool to notice how my assassination by my 'friend' changed me.

While I was cold even then, but not to this extent. Not to my only friend. But after that thing, I changed. For better or worse, only time will tell. When I transmigrated, I was pushed into a political environment reminiscent of my previous one. Where while everyone admired me, they wanted my possessions at the cost of my life.

But here, they don't know my inventions. These people only know me as a fellow gamer who is well-off. Something I can work with. Not to mention, playing a game such as this for so long without anyone to play with can make it become a job.

While it is true what I am doing right now is of immense importance, I want there to be moments of enjoyment, moments of calmness when I can let my guard down.

Moments like this.

"Scarlet, do you have a girlfriend?"

I take my words back.

"No." I replied.

"Huh, I guess even with all your money it is hard to find 'One' for yourself. Don't worry my friend, you will find someone who will love you for what you are." Mahito said.

Mahito is a person who can break someone's spirit without even knowing about it.

"Huh, never mind my love life-"

"Non-existent love life."

"What is the requirement for you to get a new job class you want Touch?" I asked Touch Me.

"What? You have requirements to get a new job class? I thought you could get it from leveling up." Touch Me said in an astonished tone.

"…"

"What?" Mahito said.

"It has been only three days, it is…acceptable." I said in defense of Touch Me.

"Yeah, you are right." Mahito said.

"Which job class should I pick?" Touch asked me.

"Well, it depends on the way you want to play the game.

Do you want to stay on the front line?

Do you want to learn magic or stick strictly to melee?

Do you want to only use a sword or other weapons?

Do you want to wear heavy armor or light armor?

Things like that will decide what class you should choose." I expanded.

"Hmm…I want to use heavy armor and would like to stick to melee, though magic would not be bad. I would like to use a spear or an axe from time to time." Touch added.

"Is that so…then at the top of my head I will advise you to get [Weapon Specialist] and try to evolve it to [Weapon Master], to be able to equip multiple weapons.

You should try self-augmentation spells that increase your speed or strength, maybe adding elemental effects to your weapon. For this you should aim for [Magic Swordsman] or something along those lines.

To get [Weapon Specialist], you should try to use multiple types of melee weapons, at least five, and get 50 kills from all of them. Increase the count of weapons and kills, then you will get [Weapon Master].

I don't know about [Magic Swordsman] to be perfectly honest, but it will most probably require you to hit the targets by imbuing mana in your attacks.

My personal advice, use different weapons and keep changing them to get kills while using magic to get the job done quickly and efficiently." I ended.

"…"

"…"

Both looked at me quietly.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Nothing…just…nothing." Mahito said.

"Ah…thank you. I will do the magic bit, but since I don't have weapons other than a sword, I will put [Weapon Specialist] on the back burner." Touch said.

In response, I took out a spear from my inventory and threw it at Touch Me, who caught it by reflex.

"What is.."

"It is [Bone Spear], it has an effect of inflicting the enemy with poison when it hits." I said nonchalantly, interrupting Touch.

"I cannot accept-"

"Don't fret. It is a low-class item. Not to mention that it is a common drop in most dungeons of Helheim. I already of 27 of them.

Also, I don't have any race that I want to use a spear with.

I have already chosen Rapier and Dagger for Vampire, Bow, and Arrow for Elf, and Nature Magic for Dryad.

So keep it." I said to not prolong the conversation.

"Thank you." Touch said solemnly.

"It's fine." I waved my hand.

"Now that you two are done flirting, let's move." Mahito said.

'I want to just flip him on his back and see him try to get on his feet.'

***

"Ready?" I asked, looking at another boss room that we found.

It was a golem.

Not a rock golem.

[Mana Golem]

[Mana stone when oversaturated with mana, gains sentience and lumps together to form Mana Golem.]

Mana golem with blue mana stone shining on it, like a crystal.

I want it.

I will have it.

"Yes." They affirmed.

Then we launched ourselves at it.

Touch Me acted as the tank while dishing out the optimum amount of damage. I acted as DPS, with my main weapon being my claws since Barothy's Dagger is reduced to the mere blade of metal when in the presence of any enemy that is not made of flesh and blood.

A weakness that is well accepted for a weapon of a vampire.

So, this time I was focusing on raw power.

In all of this, Mahito was actually…mining…the golem…with an honest-to-Azathoth pickaxe.

And the funny part was…

"Hahahaha…this fu*ker doesn't stand a chance. It's HP is reducing like water."

…it works.

And under a minute, we managed to deal with the golem.

[Mana Golem defeated!]

[Dungeon: Desolate Mine (Middle Rank) Cleared!]

[Reward: Mana Stone X40]

[Reward: Mana Steel X10]

[Reward: Class: Blade Blacksmith (Golem Limited) (Base Rank)]

That was my reward from this dungeon.

"What did you get?" Mahito asked with stars in his eyes.

"Mana stone, Warhammer, and a bow." Touch Me said.

"Mana stone, mana steel, and a basic golem race limited blacksmith class." I replied.

"I got Mana stone, mana steel, Middle Tier Blacksmith hammer, and 4 blueprints related to blacksmithing." Mahito said.

"Hmm…guess luck shined on you today." I commented off-handedly.

"Hahaha, don't worry, as compensation for today, I will craft armor for both of you today." Mahito replied joyfully.

"I don't need armor per se, since I am going to wear leather armor for now, though I would prefer a rapier or bow and arrow, instead." I commented.

"Hmm…I will then help you with the rapier if I can, but I don't know anything about leather armor. But you what, let's try our hand at that one too. I need to learn it sooner or later anyways as a dedicated production class user." Mahito said.

"So, shall we go to a swamp dungeon?" Touch Me said.

"Hmm…?" I gave an inquisitive hum.

"I mean, since you helped in doing our dungeon, it is only right we help you in yours. Don't want to be looked like a leech." Mahito said.

"What he said." Touch chimed in.

How Touche.

"Very well then, let's go to the next dungeon."

I announced.

***

We were walking for some time, during which we began small talk.

"So, Scarlet, what build are you going for Dryad and Mana Golem?" Touch asked.

"For Dryad, I am thinking of nature-based magic, and staff for close combat, while for Golem, I am thinking of blacksmith. Though, why the sudden interest?" I ended.

"Nothing, just curious." Touch replied.

And then, we were at the entrance of the dungeon.

[Thorn Swamp]

[A swamp that is overpopulated with aggressive plants and animals, that will attack on sight.

The environment will not be on your side,

even though you abide.

For these are the hollowed creatures of the night.]

'Well, someone's poetic.' I mentally snickered seeing the description.

"What the hell is this?" Mahito said.

"Nothing, just fancy way of telling you to watch your behind." I replied.

"Can't they just say that directly?" Mahito retorted.

"Evidently they can't." I said half-heartedly and walked inside the dungeon with the other two.

As we entered the dungeon, we were met with a marshy place filled with trees that were covered in algae. The flora was savage, looking for blood.

As far as fauna, there appeared to be a few small lizards scurrying around.

"They…did not have to make this place so real." Mahito complained seeing his leg submerged in a puddle of clay, and some remains of animals best not spoken aloud.

"Well, this was their job, but I can feel the sentiment." Touch commented.

"Let us begin then." I said, and Touch took the front position with me covering his back. In all of this, Mahito switched his weapon from a pickaxe to a double-handed axe.

'Why do I have a feeling he will mine the monster here for wood and leather before it is even dead.' I thought off-handedly.

And following this, we started to go through the dungeon. In between, I would find some plants for fibers that I would take note of, to harvest when coming back upon clearing the dungeon.

In all of this, we were also met with a few Lizardmen in groups of 2-3 at most. I did not assimilate their body because there was no reason for me to do so.

If I want to venture into a reptilian race, then I will try for a dragon or dragonewt. Maybe a Naga even, but definitely not a lizardman. They are weak beyond reason, can only fight in a straight fight, and even then have a high chance of losing. Not to mention, their Racial Class is nothing special.

Then as we were clearing the dungeon, we were met with our first settlement of lizardmen. Short as it may be, but it was a settlement nonetheless.

"Careful for any surprise attacks and don't let them surround you." I said before I laced my daggers with my blood, due to which they glowed in an ominous red.

"Got it." They said in affirmation, following which we attacked the settlement.

As we reached the entrance, they were already scurrying around to attack us, but before they could do so, I threw a glass orb filled with my blood in the air over their head and used [Blood Explosion] which caused heavy damage to their numbers.

But instead of gawking at it, I attacked the one closest to me with my dagger and sliced his head clean off of his neck. This was followed by me kicking the lizardman behind me and using him as a step, I attacked the other one, leaving a thin scratch over his neck.

Then I grappled the one closest to me and used him as a shield against the arrows coming from the outpost. When they were about to notch another on their bow, I shoved my hand inside my meat shield's body and withdrew my hand. Following this, I threw several needles made of my shield's blood at them, which while did not do damage itself, managed to leave a trace of my blood on them.

Then I used [Blood Explosion] yet again, which took out the outposts, and other lizardmen who I had sliced so that they could do more damage when they formed a huddle with others of their kind.

This action thinned their numbers even more, but I did not stop even then. Scrutinizing the structure of the settlement, I thought.

'There must be a chief or something along those lines here, most probably at the center.'

It only took me less than 1000th of a second to come to the conclusion and the direction of the said chief. Following this, I dashed towards the center of the place, killing whoever met my eye.

As I was right now, I was probably covered with blood from top to bottom, but right now none of that mattered.

Right now, what mattered was me and my prey.

***

[Name: SCARLET KING]

[Gender: Male]

[Level: 25]

[Race: Heteromorph]

[Sub-species: Changeling]

 [Class: Impostor (Level 5)]

[Changeling acquired Sub-species: (4/8)]

[Slot 1: Vampire]

 [Class: Bloodborne (Level 10)]

[Class: Noblesse (Level 5)]

[Weapon: Barothy's Dagger]

[Slot 2: Elf]

[Slot 3: Dwarf]

[Slot 4: Eldritch]

 [Class: Great One (Level 5)]

[Slot 5: Dryad]

[Slot 6: None]

[Slot 7: None]

[Slot 8: None]

PS: He will ditch Dwarf soon enough.

Word Count: 4600

How was it?

Leave a review and power stones.