Yggdmillennia - Lunar Empire
Bright Sun Mountains
Coldwind was still inside the mountain valley slaying low HP Venomous Fire Snakes. Because this was a "high-level mob kill," he received a large bonus in experience points. For this reason, his training speed was incredibly fast, and he had been promoted to level three long ago. In fact, he was close to hitting level four.
Swish!
Coldwind easily knocked off the Venomous Fire-Snake's little bit of remaining health. At the same time, he glanced at his Experience bar and came to a decision—
"If I keep hunting for a few more hours, I'll be able to reach level four!"
Because he had the help of the Ethereal Mirage Guild's elite team of Magicians, coldwind was having a very easy time leveling up. He just needed to swing out his hand, and the low HP Venomous Fire Snakes would turn to sparkling dust, and he would receive experience for the kill.
However, leveling up from level three to level four required 1000 points of experience. This amount was more than the sum of experience points needed to advance from level zero to level three. Hence, leveling up from level three to level four took a lot of time, and it was a substantial milestone in the leveling process.
Just then, as coldwind was happily finishing off these mobs—
System Announcement: Congratulations to an Anonymous Player for being the first to complete a Super Grade Story Event. The player has received a system reward!
"What?!"
Coldwind was stunned and stopped in his tracks. He cut a sorry figure as he rolled away and put some distance between the Venomous Fire Snakes and himself, having lost all his motivation to continue farming them—
"A Super Grade Story Event? The First NPC Kill? How is this even possible!!!"
Coldwind almost suspected that his ears were playing tricks on him, and he roared internally:
"That's impossible. The first Super Grade story event should be the one at Luna Lake in the Starry Duchy—the story event related to the 'Underworld Slug'!
"How could things turn out like this..."
Coldwind was muttering to himself, but a moment later, he quickly came to his senses and contacted one of his subordinates—
"Onmoraki, stop all your activities at once. Don't continue your preparations for the Luna Lake event!"
"What! Guild Leader, sir, we're already fully ready..."
Coldwind cut him off and said callously, "You should have heard the system announcement too. Do I need to repeat myself?"
"Un... understood, sir!"
Onmoraki was well aware of his guild leader's temper, and he immediately went limp with fear. Changing tactics, he tried asking in a slightly placating tone, "Guild Leader, sir, since we're abandoning the Luna Lake story event, what would you have us do next?"
Coldwind was silent for a moment, and the terrifying, formless pressure he exuded made onmoraki feel like he was on a bed of nails as he waited for a reply. Just when he felt like his heart would stop beating from the stress, coldwind finally opened his mouth to speak—
"After this, I want you to devote all your energy to prepare for the 'Stygian Labyrinth.' After all, at midnight tomorrow, the Stygian Labyrinths in the Starry Duchy should have met their conditions for opening.
"Also, you should prioritize clearing the 'Aeacus Labyrinth' near Constellation City. I shouldn't have to explain this to you, but there's a Shard of Eternal Night inside the maze. I don't want to hear any more bad news about this—You hear me?"
As though he had been granted amnesty, onmoraki hastily replied, "Yes, Guild Leader. Please leave it to us, sir! We'll definitely complete this mission!"
"I certainly hope so."
With that, coldwind ended the call. Then, he took a deep breath, and after calming down, he raised his weapon again and walked slowly toward the Venomous Fire Snakes in front of him—
"It seems like I have no other choice now but to reach level five as soon as possible and get that 'first achievement reward'!"
Pitter-patter...
The sound of his footsteps audibly grew heavier and heavier.
.......
Starry Duchy
Qingmu Town, Central Spring
"Brave explorer, may the glory of God be with you."
Thors pulled back his palm as he recited the formalities. Then, once he finished, his face brightened up in a smile.
"Explorer - lacuna, are you willing to become the 'eyes and ears' of Adonis, and wait for his instructions?"
Ye Kong raised his eyebrows at this and sneered to himself—
"As I expected, Thors is planning to use this opportunity to make a move on Qingmu Town! However, he can't act immediately, since the 'Stygian Night Invasion' is still going on in other places. Based on what happened the last time, the next city Thors has to rescue is one of the Eight Great Acropolises, Yanan Town!
"Of course, the situation in Yanan Town is much better than the situation in Qingmu Town. First and foremost, the Plutus' Wealth Sect is much more powerful than Qingmu's Horticultural Church. Plus, Yanan Town's 'Stygian Night Invasion' event wouldn't have started early... Ahem. In any case, Qingmu Town is the most vulnerable city right now, which means it's the easiest and most suitable city for Thors to target. There's no way he'll let Qingmu Town slip out of his grasp!
"So it would seem that Thors wants to use me as a pawn in his plans, placing me inside Qingmu Town until the time is ripe to act... Heh, it's obviously the beginning of another story event!"
Thors intended to make full use of Ye Kong, so why shouldn't Ye Kong take advantage of him in return?
As such, Ye Kong nodded in acceptance and said, "I am willing to offer up my strength to the great god Adonis."
"Very good!" Thors said with a small smile. "I gave you a badge earlier. Hold on to it until it starts to shine. Then, look for Winter Army Guard Captain - Harry. He will tell you what you need to do next!"
After Thors said this, he turned to leave at once, leading a large group of elite armored soldiers back through the portal gate—Thors needed to hurry to the aid of the next city.
However, he also left behind some elite armored soldiers to replace the original Qingmu soldiers and take over their job of keeping the peace in the city. As for the political move regarding the Horticultural Church devotees... It would need to wait until Thors had some time on his hands to take care of them.
Patter patter...
Following the departure of Thors, the plants that had covered the sky also disappeared. Only ruins remained, bearing witness to what had happened in this place.
On the ground, some materials and equipment were scattered about, flashing brightly.
It was a pity that the Stygian mobs and a certain top tier player were all killed by Thors. Because of this, Ye Kong couldn't pick up the items they dropped. No other player could pick up the loot, either, and could only watch as they disappeared.
In the game, there was a protective mechanism in place with regard to "drops." Nobody other than the one who landed the killing blow was allowed to pick up the dropped items. Otherwise, Assassin class players could become "thieves," and then what would be the point of them hunting their own mobs?
Looking all around him, Ye Kong sighed:
"Ahh, there's no one else left."
At this moment, there were no other players in the entire residential district. Thanks to him, all the players had fled to the merchant street because there were more Qingmu soldiers stationed there, and they could help fend off the invasion a little bit longer.
Ye Kong didn't want to stay where he was anymore and turned to leave the area. The elite armored soldiers showed him goodwill as he passed by them, a far cry from their attitude toward him just moments ago.
Ye Kong paid them no mind. He walked until he found an empty, deserted alleyway, and headed inside to start taking inventory of the rewards he'd received—
"It's certainly a reward worthy of a Super Grade story event. It gave me 1000 experience points and shot me up to level three right away!"
Ye Kong looked at his Character Overview Window—
Player: lacuna (Human)
Level: 3 (Experience Level 970/1000)
Character Class: Swordsman (Dexterity-type Profession)
Health (HP): 55/55
Soul Essence: 2/2
Attack: 14
Defense: 4
Basic Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 14, Stamina 4, Intelligence 5
Distributable Stat Points: 3 Points
Equipment Slots: City Guard's Armguards, City Guard's Belt, City Guard's Headgear, Emblem of Potential
At this point, Ye Kong had three Distributable Stat Points in his Character Overview Window. Additionally, his Soul Essence maximum limit had increased to two points. According to the game settings of "Demon Realm," players would receive a +1 bonus to their maximum Soul Essence upon their promotion to level three.
Without hesitating for even a moment, Ye Kong once again put all three of his distributable stat points into Dexterity.
Once he finished, his Dexterity was now at 17 points. Even after losing the bonuses from the quest equipment, his Dexterity was close to the 20 point cap!
Then, Ye Kong equipped the "Twilight Shoes," and the four points of Dexterity provided by the equipment allowed him to go over the cap yet again, increasing his Dexterity to 21 points and his Attack to 21 points!
"The rewards I received from this whole chain of story events are really quite significant."
Ye Kong looked inside his backpack, and noted a couple of items lying inside it—
"One Skill Book for the Interrupt skill, the Honorary Token from Thors, as well as...
"The system announcement reward!"