"That will be five gold."
Jarvis confirmed the purchase and began to eat a kebab-like snack. He had spent the past few days exploring Ovaljue, it was truly a wealthy city.
The ground was made of neatly placed stone. The streets were clean and the buildings were beautiful. The whole place was pleasing to the eye.
Yet it carried a strange air to it. Jarvis could feel something off. Everyone's face was full of smiles and happy voices, but this were false. Everyone here had the same goal. Make money, grow their business, make more money.
Everyone was doing everything possible to make themselves shine brighter than their competition. To better customer service, to quality goods, to even lower prices. It was a war zone filled with money and greed.
Jarvis silently ate his snack while ignoring the calls of shopkeepers trying to draw interest. He was growing upset with the place. It was a good thing he would be leaving tomorrow.
BOOOM-!!!
~ ~ ~
Travis sat upon a cliff looking down on a city. He had entered First Stage long ago and was deciding on how to properly progress.
Once a player reaches beyond level 250, the opportunities to grow stronger broaden by a large margin. It was around this point that players would come into contact with War Sights and blessings.
Simply repeating quests for experience and obtaining stat crystals was no longer the way to progress. Whilst it was still available, it wasn't recommended to the slightest degree.
So Travis had considered his options. Improving his War Sight wasn't an option, for it reached its max potential. Blessings required a lot of time investing into it. Even then, most don't provide strong enough effects for him to be interested at all. Leveling was no longer a priority. Those who focused on leveling at this point were foolish. Though this won't be known for a while. Stat crystals were no longer worth anything to Travis. For he now wanted to focus on percentage bonuses.
So his answer for now was Titles. The few he obtained in the Abyss are fantastic. If he could obtain more of these his stats would increase even further.
Woosh~
An arrow sailed past Travis. He wasn't worried about getting hit. Ever since he killed the guilds he has been hunted due to the rewards for his death. Both from the guilds and the Player Killer Hunting Headquarters. So several have been trying their luck.
Travis focused his War Sight in the area the arrow came from. A thud sounded and Travis received a notification that he had killed a player. He sighed, those who hunted him weren't even that skilled. Killing them was easy.
He then looked at the city. He planned to obtain another Title here. One named City Flattener.
This provided damage increase to any AOE moves. Which the majority of Travis' offensive skill set is. To do so, he needed to break past the defensive barrier of the city and leave a crater in its place.
He knew exactly how he was going to do so as well.
'What are you doing?'
"Destroying a city."
'Why slaughter thousands of innocents?'
"Are you aware of what city this is?"
'No. . .'
"There are no innocents here. This is the City of Ovaljue. Where its residents care solely about money. Morals, opinions, common sense, even basic decency are all thrown away to make a few coins."
'So they are greedy, is that really worthy of death?'
"I do not plan on killing them all, only those who stand in my way. I will give them all a chance to flee. My sole goal is the city itself. First, I must shatter the barrier."
'Years of hard work, and you plan on destroying it?'
Travis sighed, "Abe, listen. This city was built upon greed and lies. Every brick placed, every spoonful of cement that glued it together. Every bit of it was placed with profits in mind. It's a horrid place painted with pretty colors to attract visitors. All so they could buy their wares. At most the economy will suffer slightly on its destruction, but most of the profits made here are invested to make more profits. I'm doing them all a favor."
'. . . Is this your goal? To rid the world of scum like this?'
"No, this is merely an excuse for my personal goals. I am aware of that."
'. . .'
Travis triggered his Berserk skill and began charging all his MP into his hand. Due to the effects of his Berserk skills his maximum MP was increased, whilst also increasing the damage output.
The main reason Travis targeted this city was because it would be a hotspot for guild businesses. As the guilds find a place for profits it eventually would become a money multiplier. Further increasing the gap between guilds and solo players.
Travis' MP depleted completely. He leapt into the air and pointed his hand towards the city. He smiled, "Power to the solo players."
BWOM~
. . .
BOOOM-!!!
The barrier that protected the city turned visible. Yet the moment it did cracks began to form across it. Quickly spreading over the entire barrier. The beam faded into nothing, then the barrier shattered into pieces.
"Who dares to attack this place?!"
"Don't they know who is protecting it?"
"Did the barrier get destroyed?"
Travis landed on the ground. He was pleased with his efforts. Ovaljue had a top tier barrier defending it. After all safety brought long term profits.
Travis drew his sword, now he had to deal with the guardian.
"Who are you?! How dare you?!"
A large drunk man appeared in front of Travis. His body bronze and built with dense muscle. Travis noticed them being drunk and found this outcome in his favor.
The guardian's name was Ryoj Rim. A man who's strength could rival the top First Stage existences. When drunk their strength would be increased, but in return they lose all sense of rationality. Essentially turning into a raging bull.
Ryoj threw down the bottle in a fit of rage, "I'll kill you!"
Travis leaned to the side, a fist appearing close to where he once was. His arm blurred and Ryoj lifted and arm to defend himself.
Travis sword slashed decently deep. Blood began to rush out of the wound. Ryoj retreated temporarily, seemingly snapping out of his drunken rage.
Ryoj turned to Travis and asked in a much calmer voice, "Who are you?"
"You can call me Dot. Also known as 'One Many Army' Dot."
"One Man Army Dot? I take down armies as an exercise, you shall be no different."
Travis compressed his War Sight onto Ryoj, "We shall see about that."
"This pressure-!"
Travis dashed forward, upon reaching range he thrust his sword forward. Ryoj turned with the sword and reached to grab Travis' arm.
Travis vanished Ryoj quickly snapped his head to the right, subconsciously raising his arm to defend.
Schlick-
Ryoj stepped back shaking, "AHHH!"
He held his arm, or what was left of it. For Travis had literally disarmed him.
"You-!"
Ryoj turned red, his eyes turned bloodshot. Travis raised his sword, truthfully he was a little fearful. Ryoj's battle sense was extraordinary. Travis' teleport left no traces or gave any signs. Yet despite that Ryoj was able to correctly estimate his location and guard accordingly. If Travis' didn't have his Berserk Skill on, he wouldn't have done so much damage to Ryoj.
Now, Ryoj was in his Berserk state. This essentially gave him the effects of when he is drunk, multifold.
Travis wasn't going to let his opponent transform. This wasn't an anime!
Travis triggered [Truth Twofold: Revealing] a spot appeared on Ryoj's body. Using his tokens he used as many damage buff skills as he swung his sword diagonally upwards. Hitting the spot directly Travis sword traveled cleanly through Ryoj. Splitting his torso into two.
Travis flicked his sword to clear the blood. After reading the notification prompt Travis walked towards the city.
The citizens who were watching grew fearful, "W-What do you want? Money?"
Travis shouted, "I am destroying this city, those who are in my way shall be cut down. I will give you two minutes to flee!"
The crowd seemed to fail in understanding Travis' words. Yet slowly people began running. Which lead to a chain reaction of more and more people running. Several screamed in fear.
The citizens of the city saw a large group fleeing. After witnessing the barrier shatter more joined the group in fleeing.
Travis began shattering buildings after two minutes. Many of the officials debated sending soldiers. Yet the soldiers also fled, for the guardian was killed easily. What chance did they stand?
Travis continued to destroy several buildings when a voice called out, "Hey, what's all this for?"
Travis turned to see who it was, yet he was shocked upon seeing that it was a player!
Players shouldn't have reached this place yet! He estimated that it would be a week or two before a singular player found this place. Yet one was right in front of him!