"Did you know that we've been giving a name?. The people of this world started calling us adventurers." The voice of an old man says.
"Really now?. And your telling us this because?." The voice of a little boy says in a curious tone.
"Because it's high time we rename these things we called... level bosses."
"So then tell me Gigi, what should we call them from now on." A female voice asked.
"... High Elders." Gigi answered the female.
_
After defeating the snow princess Chang made her way to Ji-raya and Mystagun, as Chang got close to them a ice spear pierced through her back coming out of stomach. Chang started coughing blood, as she turns her head back she sees the snow princess completely intact. This shocks Chang and everybody else.
"Im... possible." Chang says as she being hoisted in the air by the snow princess with one hand.
"Is it really now?. Maybe you're right." The snow princess says as she swings her ice spear to her left, Chang goes flying and hits the wall.
"I must say I am rather impressed. I never knew you adventurers could be this... cunning."
The snow princess makes her way to Ji-raya and Mystagun, her eyes barely showing what her intentions are. As the snow princess walks pass the bodies of the other adventurers, a pile of bodies starts to shift as Style slowly emerged from under them, his face and most of his body covered in blood.
Style leaped up as he manifested an axe in his hand, aiming for her head. Style with all his might swings his axe.
*Clang!.*
Style's eyes widen, his attempted attack blocked by a ice version of the snow princess.
"So one of you managed to survive. It seems that you adventurers are completely different from normal humans."
"One of them?, no I'm not one of them. Well not in the literal sense." Style thrust himself off the ice clone's shield.
The ice clone dash to Style as they start clashing with each other. Meanwhile the real snow princess never once took her eyes off of Mystagun and Ji-raya. Ji-raya took the initiative and charge towards the snow princess, seeing this she readies herself to engage for a fight. While the snow princess is focuse on Ji-raya, she felt someones presence behind her. Though they didn't give off any ill-intent towards her, suddenly the snow princess is trapped in a binding spell.
"Incantation #72: Shikin kaban no rō (Prison of Four Golden Petals)" Matthew the one who casted the binding Incantation, smile at the snow princess.
"Wha... what is this?. I didn't even sense it" She then turned her gaze back to Ji-raya.
As Ji-raya is making his way to her, all the snow princess could do is accept her fate. Staring into Ji-raya's eyes a thought came into her mind.
'Am I really going to die this way. Killed by one of my own. Maybe this is for the best... I can finally be with you again.'
The snow princess closed her eyes as Ji-raya uses multiple sword techniques to defeat her.
Both the snow princess and Ji-raya are alone in a white spaces room. Both of them staring at each other not saying anything for a while.
"Tell me... what is your name?."
"Ji-raya."
"Ji-raya. Well I hope my powers will help you with your journey."
Everything went quiet for a few minutes before a female voice broke the silence.
[Congratulations on defeating the Snow Princess of Crystal Clove. EXP goes to Ji-raya of the Trinity Kingdom]
"It's finally over." Matthew said. He takes a healing potion and throws it at Ji-raya, he then heads to Maximum.
Ji-raya slowly made his way to Ju who is laying against a pillar. Seeing Ji-raya, a small smile appear on her face.
"It's a shame. Losing everyone like this." Style speaks while sitting down next to Mystagun.
"There's nothing we could have done. Everything in this world is unpredictable, the only thing we can do is try to adapt."
"We should get going." Ji-raya informed Style and Mystagun as he is carrying Ju Chang on his back.
"You guys can go without me. I'll stay here for a while." Style says to Ji-raya and Mystagun
"You're going to scavenge their bodies for items aren't you?." Mystagun questioned Style on what he is going to do.
Style turn to look at Ji-raya before looking back at Mystagun. A small smile appear on his face, though it isn't because of happiness but more like he had nothing to hide.
"Alright, look you caught me. But let's be real here, do you really think me taking stuff from dead is anything to be concerned about. When we're literally stuck in a world where we can die any time by anything."
Style is about to walk away but is stop by Mystagun, grabbing his arm tightly. There is an angered look on Mystagun's face. They stared at each other, almost like they are about to fight.
"That's still not a reason for you to take from the dead!. We should respect their bodies, even if they are no longer alive."
"Hahaha. Listen to me very carefully, each kingdom has their own set of way of surviving in this world. And this is the Spirit Kingdom way of surviving."
"Mystagun let's go." Ji-raya says as he is already leaving with Ju on his back. Matthew and Maximum are following behind Ji-raya, with Matthew helping Maximum as he still has an injury leg.
Mystagun reluctantly let's go of Style's arm. He gives Style one last look before walking away. Style walks up to dead body and starts rummaging through it. While he is doing his business, he feels someone's presence behind him. Though he paid no mind to them, showing no fear as he continued on to the next corpse. Suddenly the person behind speaks to him. His voice soft with years of experience.
"You having fun there, Style."
Style didn't respond to him. Seeing this the person tilted his head a bit, a smile forming on the his face. He continues speaking though it's more to himself rather than to Style.
"You could've taken them you know, two of them were already injured, and as for the other three... well one is inexperience and the remaining two. I would have help you."
"Why would I need to do that?. Why waste my time fighting them, when there's a huge load of loot in front of me."
The man let out a chuckle at what Style said, though he knew he would say something like that. Getting items for free and stacking on them is how Style survived for this long. It's as Style himself said earlier, this is how adventurer who lives in the Spirit Kingdom survive.
The man looks around dungeon castle room, it's definitely evidential that there was a fight in here. But one would ever know because every time a high elder is defeated, no one re-enters a dungeon. As he continues waiting for Style to finish his little shopping spree, he starts to get bored that even Style can sense it.
"Jung-Soo, if your getting tired of waiting for me to finish, then you can head back to the black market. I'll join you guys soon."
And just like that Jung-Soo makes his way to the dungeon exit. Jung-Soo then starts to monologue to himself a bit loudly so that Style can hear him.
"Can you feel it, a new era up in the horizon. I wonder what this new era will have in store for us. Either way I'm probably not going to live very long to see it."
_
Days have gone by as the icy cold winter melted away, with Chronos seeing spring for the first time in 53 years. In those pass few days the adventurers from each Kingdom have formed guilds, some smaller guilds even merged together into even bigger guilds to stand a chance against the High Elders.
But the thing that shifted everything is the character system. Players started to become the characters they created, players who used to be shy or scared became brave or arrogant depending on the character they are playing as. Some male players with a female avatar started acting like their female avatars, same with the female players with male avatars.
However the biggest shift that cost the separation between the adventurers is the avatar class. There are two types avatar class, one being the hero avatar class and the second being the villain avatar class. This made the people of each Kingdom afraid of the villain adventurers, and this created a conflict between fellow adventurers. Some players went rogue while others were arrested by the king's of all the 6 Kingdom.
This made some adventurers realise that maybe the High Elders won't be there only enemy.
The Trinity Kingdom
In the bustling Trinity Kingdom people are entering and exiting shops and taverns. A group of children are playing with a ball, when one of them throws it a bit to hard as it when rolling away. A little girl runs after it, the ball rolls to a stop at someone's feet. The person picks up the ball and tried to give it to the little girl, but she becomes frighten as she see the persons face.
"Here." Ji-raya says to the little girl as he extends his arm to her.
Seeing that the little girl is still afraid to approach him, Ji-raya then decided to smile at her.
'Oh maybe if I smile at her'
Ji-raya put on his best smile revealing his sharp pointy teeth, this made the little girl more frighten as she quickly takes the ball from Ji-raya's hand then runs away.
"What the...?"
Behind him Mystagun is trying very hard to hold his laughter in but ultimately failing. Hearing Mystagun laughing behind him made him a bit angry. Throwing his arm around Ji-raya's shoulder Mystagun tries to calm him down by saying some reassuring words.
"Maybe... maybe try smiling next time. To show some kindness."
"That's what I did!, you try smiling with shark teeth!."
"Hahahahaha!. Come on let's head to the guild before we're late. And don't let what just happen lower your mood."
"You think the guild master will show up this time or not."
"I really hope she does, otherwise captain Minwoo will have to take over the guilds responsibility again."
As the two brothers are making their way to the guild, something very interesting is going on at the guild. Inside a very decorated room sit three guild members, discussing something between one another.
"Maybe we should send more members on some quest to gain more abilities." Seraphyx the 4th highest adventurer of the Union guild says.
"That would be a good idea if we had any quest on our quest board." Iver says while leaning back on his chair.
"If our guild master at least tried showing up at least once we might have some idea of what to do. What do you think captain Minwoo." Kasper looks at his captain.
A man wearing glasses and a white coat is sitting opposite from Seraphyx, Iver and Kasper a table separating them. Minwoo open the table drawer as he takes out 3 quest scrolls before placing them on the table.
"I've been saving these just in case of an emergency and it seems I was right to do so."
"So what do we do?." Kasper ask as he stares at the quest scrolls in front of him.
"I want each of you to takes charge of a group of our members. You can choose who you want in your team."
"Does guild master know about these scrolls?." Seraphyx looks at Minwoo as she has her arms folded under her breasts.
"No she doesn't."
Minwoo push his chair back as he walks to a window and looks outside. Minwoo stays quiet for a few seconds before speaking.
"These quests are destruction class level, that's why I'm putting the three as leader of your groups."
"Alright. I already have a few people in mind who I want." Iver gets up from his chair as he stretches himself.
"Before we leave I do have one question. Why didn't you go on these quests, you are more than strong enough to go solo."
"Really Kasper."
Seraphyx finds Kasper question a bit unnecessary.
"No no it alright Seraphyx. Why...? While it is true that I could've done by myself, however these quests are more a group kind of quest where adventurers need to work together."
"Well you happy now Kasper. Alright let's go Seraphyx, Kasper."
As the three of them are making their way to the guild hall, Minwoo is smiling in the background.
Down at the guild center hall a female adventurer is leaning back against a wooden poll. Wearing white iron boots and gauntlets and a purple chest plate while following her arms. The bottom part of her hair is braided though her top half is loosely resting down.
As she's minding her own business a male adventurer approaches her, seeing the male adventurer coming her she lowers her head down.
"Hey there. I notice you standing here alone and was wondering if you like to join my group."
The female adventurer pointed down to a white wooden sign.
(I'm not looking to join any group, am fine by myself.)
Male adventure reads the sign but still tries to get the female adventurer to join his group. His persistent only makes the female adventurer more uncomfortable. So the female adventurer kicks the wooden sign to reveal another sign.
(I'll even pay you to leave.)
"Oh come on don't be like that."
The male adventurer is taking a few steps towards her but is stopped by someone. The male adventurer turns around as he sees a another male adventurer.
"Hey, I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to join your group. So I think you should just leave her alone."
"O-oh I'm sure. Sorry."
As the male adventurer walks away the other male adventurer turns to look at the female adventurer.
"You would've thought he would have gotten the message, but I guess not."
The female adventurer stayed quiet, looking down at the floor. Sensing her shyness the male adventurer introduces himself to her.
"My name is Zhuang. One of the 4 weapon heroes."
The female adventurer didn't respond for about 35 second before speaking in a soft and quiet voice.
"..."
"Hmm? I didn't quite hear you, can you say that again."
"Vixy. My name is Vixy."
"Oh Vixy that's a nice na-."
Before Zhuang could finish his sentence a loud male voice interrupt him. Everyone in the guild hall gaze up at the second floor of the guild, there is standing a man wearing sunglasses and a big and bright smile. Behind him are Seraphyx, Kasper and Iver.
"Hello every one of you beautiful people. Most of you know me and most of you don't, so I will introduce myself to those of you that are not familiar with me. I am Woo, Sun-Woo to be exact."
"Get on with it Woo." Kasper hinted Sun-Woo to hurry up.
While Sun-Woo is getting ready to announce why he called for everyone's attention, a few other adventurers enter the guild including Mystagun and Ji-raya. As their gaze are on Sun-Woo, he starts addressing his reasoning for his announcement.
"Captain Minwoo has given us some quest to do, however there's only 3 quest. That's why we're making 3 groups, all in charge by 1 individual. Seraphyx, Kasper and Iver."
The 3 of them step forward as they present themselves to everyone. The adventurers begin chattering between themselves at Sun-Woo's word.
"They will each pick who will be in their group, also those who are already in a group will all picked so as not to break their chemistry. So yeah, that's all I have to say and I leave the rest to them."
Iver is the first one to step forward as he begins calling names of the adventurers he wants in his group. After a while it's Seraphyx's turn.
"Zhuang, Çalhanoğlu, Hendrick, Noya..."
And finally it is Kasper turn to make his group. Though unlike Seraphyx and Iver he takes out a list with names written on it.
"... Vix, Sun-Woo, Mystagun, Fern, Rafe, Mugi, Wesley, Ji-raya, Lynn and Eclipso."
"Well those are all the group, didn't know I was going to in one but okay."
Everyone begins walking to the person that selected them in their group. Kasper descents down the stairs to the guild hall where the adventurers are waiting. As Kasper takes his last step from the stairs he looks at every single person, immediately trying to come up with a plan to complete the quest. It didn't take long before a white hair female adventurer with a elf avatar raised her hand.
"I have a question before we discuss anything, can we at least know what type of quest we're going on."
The rest of the group agree with her, they know that having information on the quest is very vital. Hearing the elf girl's question Kasper walks to a nearby table, taking a chair before sitting down. He clears his throat before explaining what quest their going on.
"It's a high risk high reward kind of quest. Meaning there's a 43% chance to some of us might not make it."
"So that's the reason almost the entire guild was selected." Mugi questioned, his arms folded over his chest.
Kasper didn't answer Mugi's question, at least not immediately. Kasper takes a minute to think before he opens his mouth to speak.
"I would say that is half the reason."
"So what's the other half." Fern the elf girl wanted to know. She stands there waiting for Kasper to answer her.
"To make more progress. Lately quests have been coming in fewer and fewer, meaning..."
"We've come to a stand still."
Ji-raya said from all way in the back. His arms folded as he's leaning against a wall. Kasper lift's his head, eyes widening before going back to normal. It takes Kasper a few minutes to collect himself.
"Yes pretty much."
"Then I suggest we gather more adventurers to join us."
"Now why the hell would we do that!." A man wearing blue armour argue with Ji-raya's suggestion.
All of the other adventurers are staring at both Ji-raya and blue armour. Ji-raya calmly pushes himself off the wall as he stands straight.
"Because like Kasper said this is a destruction class level quest. Also this is good way to bring in more members in to the guild."
"Hahaha. Well I must say he's got you beat there. I'm on board with his suggestion."
Slowly everyone else also agree with Ji-raya's suggestion, making blue armour admit defeat and agreeing too.
"Okay then, Mugi, Eclipso and Mystagun. The three of will try and get more members, while Ji-raya, Vix and Sun-Woo will go to the market and buy us some potions."
"And the rest of us?."
"Scouting."
__
The afternoon sun light covers almost every part of the west market, as it's becoming busier by the minute. Ever now and then people are bumping into each other and apologizing.
There is a tension at the west market as the Trinity citizens are giving judging looks at some adventurers.
"You know, we are very stupid."
"What makes you say that shark teeth."
"Sun-Woo if ever call me that again I will break your nose. And I mean what kind of potions should we buy."
"Hmmm, well I think we should buy some healing potions first then see what else there is."
As Ji-raya, Sun-Woo and vix are browsing through various of shops, something catches Ji-raya's eyes.
"I just realize something. Where a lot taller than the NPC's."
"Guessing the developers wanted us to tell the difference between players and NPC."
"Um... Guys. Everyone's staring at us." Vix hides herself between Ji-raya and Sun-Woo.
Everytime they pass by a shop or store they are getting glared at. That doesn't bother Ji-raya or Sun-Woo, however they both could see that Vix is getting uncomfortable.
"Don't worry. It's me they're staring death threats at."
"Why though."
"Cause Ji-raya is classified as a... Warrior of dead."
"I'm not dead if that's what they're worried about!."
Sun-Woo burst out laughing, lifting his sunglasses up a little bit to wipe a tear from his eye. A few minutes later everyone minded their own business again.
Vix lift's her head up to look at Ji-raya a bit closely, she wanted to know what the citizens see to make them fear him so much. Unfortunately Vix stared a bit too long that Ji-raya catches her looking at him.
"What?."
"N-n-no I wasn't- I was just-. I'm sorry."
"Ookay?."
Vix lowers her head as moves to walk behind Sun-Woo. The three continue on their way to a potions shop. After walking for 5 minutes they stop at a little shop with a big sign.
Welcome to Whatever you want I have shop.
They are staring at up at the sign confuse, blinking simultaneously before they down to the entrance.
"Well who are we to argue with the sign."
Ji-raya begins walking to the shop but gets stop by Vix as she grabs a hold of his hand. Ji-raya stops and turn his head over his shoulder in her direction.
"What?."
"You're not really going to enter that shop are you!?."
"Why not?. The sign say they have whatever we want."
"I'm wearing sunglasses, but even I think it's a bit sketchy. Plus not a single person has entered or exited the shop."
"Then let's go and see the reason why."
Vix releases Ji-raya hand as she and Sun-Woo follow Ji-raya in to the shop. As Ji-raya push the door open a small bell rings, sending a jingle sound through the small shop.
Once inside the temperature is rather cold then they expected. Looking around they see shelfs of books, glass bottle and other stuff. However for some strange reason they seem to be 3 in the shop.
"Where the hell is the owner?." Ji-raya ask as he walks to the shop counter.
They all split to a different section of the shop, observing. Sun-Woo crouches down to touch something when suddenly a voice stopped him.
"I would advise you not to touch anything."
"What the!. The fuck did you come from!."
Ji-raya and Vix quickly turn around as see a tall slim person standing over Sun-Woo. The slim person turns to face both Ji-raya and Vix, they are stun by how beautiful the person face is. His hair tied in a makeshift bon.
"Whoa, for a guy you're pretty beautiful."
"Why thank you. My name is Athena." Athena smiled at Ji-raya for complimenting him.
Athena then turned his attention back at Sun-Woo, he extended a helping to him. As Sun-Woo gets back on his feet Athena walks behind the counter.
"Alright, what can I help you with."
"Is it true what the sign says." Ji-raya lockes eye contact with Athena.
Athena remains quiet for a moment before his face shows a confuse expression.
"Huh??. What sign?."
Tips: Making your own healing potion gives more health, but it's very tiring and difficult.