Due to the countless betrayals that I have been getting in my life before, another worthless betrayal like this is too shallow. However, as someone who hated betrayal, again and again, I am no longer allowing tolerance of something like this anymore. They needed to experience who they are trying to mess with.
Teleportation stones that can be used anytime in the Tower Dungeons like the one they used are designed to escape on foes you cannot kill without dying. I didn't bring one because I am confident in my skills and escaping is not a real problem for me. I was also confident that most players carry these in case they needed to escape in the tower dungeon. Never expected they will backstab instead. But that is fine. That way, I already knew they are not to be trusted and if I saw them again, I will either beat them up or beat them up.
Since it took a little bit of time when we are fighting against the boss, I know that they are already further away from the tower dungeon but that doesn't mean they already arrived on town. After all, the portals are not yet activated until the second patch is applied.
There are many players around and although I wanted to summon Leona out for a ride, I will be gathering lots of attention from the people so it is better to go on foot. I know they only have to choices to go after the dungeon. The safest one for them is the nearby town since they will be in a neutral town and guards will capture you and put you to jail if two players fight except if they initiated a duel which is considered not a violation.
The second one is the traveling caravan merchant. If they are really in dire need to change the items they got into gold, this is their first stop. Based on the probability, they will be exchanging our loot with gold already in the traveling caravan merchant.
With the topography of the place already memorized in my mind, reaching the caravan in shortcuts is easy. After a few twists and turns around, I finally arrived on the caravan, and not too far from my location, I found those bastards that left us inside the tower dungeon to die.
I am a little bit far from them but that is not a problem. Activating the ability, [Stealth], I draw the Versatile Weapon and changed it to bow and arrow. Making sure that my range is good enough to avoid missing, I nock the bowstring and aimed into the squishiest member of them all, the female cleric. I noticed it earlier that she has a lower defense compared to the male cleric due to how fast her HP falls when some sort of attack fell on her compared to the male where it didn't fall much. That only means her armor is weaker compared to the male one.
[TRUESHOT!]
SU!
The swift arrow combined with the 100% critical strike attack once you attack while under stealth, arrived at the female cleric.
[You have attacked a player in a chaotic zone. You are now a red player.]
[You attacked Shino. CRITICAL! Dealt 10,000 damage!]
The damage is insane. Aside from level discrepancy, the armor she is wearing and the critical chance from the [Stealth] caused me to deal that much damage. It is overkill. Due to the amount of damage, the female cleric's head burst and her body fell to the ground. Her party members didn't expect everything to happen as they are busy chatting with each other.
"One down. No one is escaping my sight!"
The gore factor in this game is close to reality rather than censorship. If body parts were cut off in this world, they will be cut out and will not disappear. Decapitation and dismemberment are also not censored here so if they died that way, they will also appear that way until they resurrect to the Cathedral. There are some censorship settings available but I doubt many of the players here have turned that on unless they can't stand the gore level.
Her party members are now on high alert as they looked around at who attacked them. They haven't noticed me yet so before they can see me, I nock the bow once again, aimed at the male cleric, and shoot.
[Legshot]!
The male cleric who was casting [Revive] to the female cleric who just died screamed in pain as the arrow hit his knee. He took an arrow to his knee.
That alone reduced his HP to half and since the [Legshot] is meant for disabling enemies, I was surprised by how low their defense stats are. The next attack nailed the coffin on the male cleric and followed the female cleric to the cathedral. The swordsman panicked seeing the healer the two healers died.
"What is going on? Who is killing us?! Find the enemy!"
When the swordsman said that, I saw a player who was not part of the party earlier appear to be helping them. It was an assassin class player. It was rather weird why there is someone new to the group but who cares now? If someone new helps them, then I won't be merciful either to let them go.
The assassin nodded and immediately entered [Stealth]. When I saw my own [Stealth]'s cooldown has already finished, I also entered [Stealth] and changed my Versatile Weapon into a Katana because, why not?
My eyes already tracked the Assassin and I just waited for the right opportunity to strike. Based on the Assassin's movement, it was quite clear that it is a novice in this class due to the predictable movements of this player. An expert in the Assassin class will move fast and will never try to slow down like he is doing now. Surveying the surroundings is indeed a move you needed to do to find the enemy but as an Assassin, you needed to be quick on your feet.
He passed by on my position without knowing that I am here. Without making a sound, I unsuspectingly moved behind him and stab the Katana to his neck. His [Stealth] disappeared alongside mine but I managed to create a critical hit on the enemy. Aside from that, since I caught him by surprise, he was immediately killed as his HP melted to zero. With force, I pull the katana up, slicing the head of the assassin, sending him to the cathedral.
Picking up his dead body, I will now present myself to them. I don't want to dilly dally on this one. If I am late, their bodies will disappear and I can't perform my looting.
The swordsman thought the assassin earlier returned when he was stunned to see me and the dead body of the assassin.
"W-what? We left you behind in the dungeon! You shouldn't be here!" the swordsman pointed his sword in my direction.
"You all talk, just attack already," I mumbled before lunging myself to the swordsman. He managed to block the sword but I didn't bother much and kicked him on his balls before swinging the katana to his neck.
"[Decapitation]!"
[Decapitation]
1st Tier
Active
Cooldown: 3 seconds
Duration: Instantaneous
Mana Cost: 90 MP
Info: Samurai skill that can only be used if the intended target point is the neck of the victim. Deals 50% damage to human and humanoid enemies and has a large chance to decapitate the target, inducing instant death. Can be blocked. Monsters attacked by this skill will also have the same chance to decapitate the target but the damage will be lesser depending on the defense value of the monster.
Notes: You are cutting heads like vegetables! Honestly, that is creepy. You are a walking guillotine.
Tier 1 skill of the Samurai, [Decapitation] is a skill that can easily inflict large critical damage to human enemies. Aside from that, if the enemy is not prepared, you can perform a decapitation and do the kill in a really brutal way.
The swordsman who did not get to properly retaliate died after his head separated from his body. That was quite gruesome.
"DIE!"
The alchemist who was also one of the teammates of the swordsman throws the chain and hook on me. But that is a futile attempt to defeat me. Catching the hook he latches towards me, I immediately pull him towards my direction and once again performed the skill, [Decapitation]. Because the skill [Decapitation] is almost instantaneous with only a slight delay that will allow players to block it, the alchemist did not manage to react as his head separated from his body.
I turn to the other side and saw the Gunslinger who is terrified of what is happening. After dropping the body of the alchemist, I started walking towards him. Terrified, he aims his gun in my direction.
"Don't approach me! I will pull the trigger!"
When I heard his threat, I chuckled at how useless it was.
"No worries. Your death is painless. Not only that, I will make sure it is instant and you won't feel any pain. Aside from that, why get afraid of death? This is just a game. Once you die, you just needed to resurrect to the Cathedral. Just don't make me angry."
BANG! BANG!
He pulled the triggers on his guns but I easily deflected them using my katana. After all, it is not the first time I faced a gunslinger.
"I told you didn't I? Just don't make me angry and everything will be fine. However, since you already provoke me, I won't be merciful..."
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"
...
3 hours later...
I completely robbed them of all of their belongings, not even the underwear is spared. That will allow them to stop trolling on people and leaving them to their fates or backstabbing them. As for the bodies, I throw them to the nearby Lava Pit to immediately reset the waiting time for their resurrection time and they will immediately be awake on the Cathedral. But of course, they will face penalties like imprisonment due to exhibitionism. But that will be a good thing for them as they will be given the basic clothes again after imprisonment. They only have to find how to get their weapons.
After the incident, I checked the loot they dropped but I sighed as they all converted all the weapons they have acquired from the battle earlier into gold coins. Seeing the amount I got from them, I asked the merchant how much the group earlier earned after selling the items and he mentioned that they managed to get around 1,000 gold.
Greed does not do anything well. They have plenty of items in their belongings but most are nothing important for me, but for them, it is an important thing. The only valuable thing I found in there is a weapon with a rank of [Scrap] and an [Cook] EX Job scroll. [Cook] EX Job is the apprentice version of [Chef] EX Job. If you wanted to become a [Chef], you need to be a [Cook] first. As for this scrap tier weapon, it will be useful for my blacksmithing sideline.
Sending the half amount of money to Dolly, I returned to my mansion by riding on Leona. As I landed on the ground and arrived at my mansion, the system announcements rang out in the whole place. I can easily recognize it as Queen Titania's voice.
[Thank you for playing Alternate World. Please log out on the server within 5 minutes to avoid data and progress loss. We will be performing an update of the patch. Maintenance will last for 5 hours so please avoid logging in while the patch is ongoing. Rewards will be given out to all the players as compensation. Thank you and have a good day.]
So it was the update. To think the time for the first expansion will be released this early. Still, I am excited about it. Seeing that there will be new features available. I am looking forward to it.
...
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Alternate World where it was not yet accessible to all players, an old man appeared before the tree of Ygdrassil. The fireflies gathering around the tree started to flicker and a gather around the man like it was guiding it.
"How are you faring now?" the old man asked.
"..." the person he was talking with is a girl who was covered in a bright light, which is what making her hard to see what she looked like.
"Yes. I know the wait is over, your suffering will no longer continue. Just wait for a little bit more. It will happen soon."
...
A/N: Hello guys. Finally, the first arc is done and I am thanking everyone following this novel. Despite my slow updates because of some health issues, IRL problems, and other circumstances that delayed my updates, it was quite a sight to see many people still reading this even with plotholes as clear as day due to some parts that I forgot lol.
Anyways, for those old readers of the first unrevised version of Versatile, many of you might have already know what will happen but I will change a few things here and there. There will be new characters that will be appearing in the next arc. And yes, the revenge plot will now ignite starting in this arc. I just delayed it as long as possible since it is quite early to do it but now that I have established many points already, the ride will finally begin.