Nine eventually set the poor Undying loose in the city. If he was worth keeping, then they would see him again. If not, then their paths would never cross again.
As per the last report she received on him, he had joined the Adventurer's Guild shortly after being released and had gone out a couple of times to complete a few quests. Since he wasn't a member of Cosmos City, he wasn't allowed access to the under side of the city, nor would he ever learn about it unless he permanently made this his home grounds.
Nine left the city to do a bit of reconnaissance herself. Changing her usual clothes, Nine donned attire that was less likely to stand out, opting for a slightly more lowkey attire.
She took Nocturne as well as Shade and Seyton with her, heading towards the 'beginner village' as it was called by Valerius.
Nine wanted to see whether or not she could assign quests to more than one Undying at the same time, but mostly she just wanted to…mess with them. Well, it was all in good fun, and it wasn't like she was being malicious.
Nine and the rest strolled into the village casually, and should not have attracted too much attention, but once someone saw the four people walking in a group, every pair of eyes were drawn to them. In this game, 'Pride and Honour', one wasn't allowed to change their body nor facial features more than 10%, so if such good-looking players had been seen before, they wouldn't have forgotten them.
Simply, with a single 'observe' they could tell that these weren't players but instead NPCs!
"Oh my god," a female Undying whispered to her friend. "Look at those hotties! I think I can die happily now! It was worth it queueing eight hours to buy the gear!"
"Who are they?" someone asked, using 'observe'. "Oh my god," the Undying breathed out, for a completely different reason than the other female Undying. All four people had shocking levels of danger, scoring [Danger Rating: Extremely Fatal]. Immediately, the Undying stopped breathing, dodging behind another Undying, hiding himself from sight.
There was an entire score of lovestruck players, staring dreamily at the four who had come to the village. Was this some sort of event? Otherwise, why were such high-ranking people coming here? This was a small 'village' in the middle of nowhere, where there were only frail villagers and nothing much to attract tourists.
Maybe it was a hidden quest!?
One of the braver Undyings stepped up to greet them.
"Hello. Is there something we can help you with?" she asked curiously. The female Undying couldn't tear her eyes away from Nine. The other three were exquisite as well, but this person… was just out of this world. She had never seen such a beautiful person. The game designers sure knew how to make their characters!
Shade and Seyton's face darkened. As if scripted (it was), the two unsheathed the swords at their side, pointing it at the female Undying, who retreated a couple of steps back in sudden fear.
"Insolent!" Shade spat out, a look of pure displeasure on his face. "You aren't addressing His Highness properly!"
Similarly, Seyton, though maintaining his smile, gained a bit of a frosty edge. His eyes were devoid of any warmth.
Though the two of them were indeed acting a little, their feelings about this wasn't faked. These people weren't close to their Master, so what right did they have to address him so casually? Until proven otherwise, or unless their Master stated so, they would not allow this to happen.
Nine studied the female Undying's expression and body language, as well as getting a feel on her magic. She could deduce that she had likely lost a couple of relationship points with Seyton and Shade, which opened up a whole new avenue.
It seemed like they would be able to affect the 'game' even though they didn't have the System interface themselves. She assumed that it worked somewhat like real life, just that the Undyings saw the consequences of their actions written out in full.
"Shade, Seyton, stand down," Nine ordered calmly. She smiled slightly at the still terrified Undying, consoling her. It was her little compensation for using her to test out a theory. "My apologies. They're a bit overprotective. Are you alright?"
By now, the female Undying already had hearts in her eyes. "Yes, I'm fine," she said dreamily.
Nine nodded, directing attention to the numerous other Undyings in the area. "Leave, or prepare for battle," Nine said, the dominating force of her words causing one's heart to palpitate. "A monster horde is headed this way."
Nocturne was staring at Nine with shining eyes, subtly glaring at the numerous Undyings who were staring at Nine with less than pure intentions.
Instantaneously, all the players who heard Nine's words received a quest. Jackpot! Some thought to themselves.
Ping!
[Leave, or prepare for battle! Survive the monster horde and receive rewards beyond your imagination. Fight for a day and live to tell the tale!]
[Quest Difficulty: A]
[Quest Rewards: 10,000 EXP, ???]
[Quest Failure: Death]
[Quest Duration: 1:00:00]
Instantly, everyone who received the quest accepted it. They didn't even need to think. This was an A rank difficulty quest! Even if they didn't know what the rewards were, they would accept it first and complain about it later if it wasn't sufficient.
"Hey, call over the rest of the guild! Hurry up!" someone shouted to his friend. The stunned silence in the air broke, and instantly, there was a flurry of motion as the Undyings started contacting all their friends.
Should they die, they would lose a level, as well as forced to log out for a day in real life, but it didn't matter. They were willing to gamble on this slim chance. Besides, it was still the early days of the game, and no one was too ahead of anyone else yet. There was ample time to catch up should they lose a level, but this opportunity couldn't be missed.
That was a whole 10,000 EXP, not to mention what they would probably get from killing monsters as well. Whatever the special reward was, it was sure not to disappoint.
Half an hour after Nine issued the quest, the faint vibrations from the ground started getting closer. The ground trembled under their feet, and slowly, a dawning sense of horror crept up on the various Undyings. They had a feeling that they might have bitten off more than they could chew when they accepted the A level difficulty quest.
Soon enough, they could hear the various shrieks and roars unlike they'd ever heard before, scaring them out of their wits. Even if this was just a game, it was still rather daunting thinking that they had to face that many monsters all at once.
Whilst the Undying's attention was occupied looking in the direction of the monster horde, Nine applied stealth spells over herself, Nocturne, Seyton and Shade, hiding from the view of the Undyings.
They would spread out and look for any hidden potential in this mess and possibly boost their ranks with a few players that caught their attention.
Majority, if not almost everyone, would die here, leaving only those who truly excelled and gems in the rough. It wasn't that they were heartless, but there were only Undyings located in this little 'village', so it didn't weigh anything on their conscience.
In fact, they had seen Valerius 'die' days prior, from tripping at the wrong place and time… then receiving a flower pot to the head. It had stunned Shade, who had been watching over the Undying, who had promptly died in such a manner without giving Shade any time to react. They had, in fact, not planned to have him die that way. Shade was about to secretly assassinate him when he left for a quest, but before he could do so, he died by himself…
Seven days later, the Undying had shown up again, causing Nine confirm the speculation that the time ratio was roughly 1:7. Seven days here meant a day passed outside, thus the time lock for an Undying to return after their 'death' was a day.
The sounds of crashing wood filtered into the ears of the Undyings.
"Get ready! They're coming!"
As if on cue, the timer on the quest details started the countdown.