(Denzel's POV):
Around nearly a year ever since we got stuck in this hell hole.
And for the longest time I hid myself thinking. Should I say it? or should I hide it? What am I talking about? It's my psychopathy that I am talking about. Though it's pretty much fine here, but in real life? I don't think so. In fact, aside from Seymour and the others I don't think that the female camp would accept this.
I stood up and took a great view from the roof of the palace.
"Snow and Ice spikes everywhere..."
A strong presence is heading this way at a high speed. It's definitely Seymour
I channeled my mana around and started predicting the location...
"He's- going- too damn fast I can't!"
"Greetings Psychopathic Degenerate." - Seymour
"Oh, hey Seymour."
He showed up at my right side, scaring me a bit with multiple layers of dragon wings. After laughing off a bit, he states his business.
"Anyways, I have some business for you." - Seymour
"What is it about?"
"It's about the reports I have received. It seems some players are about to attempt to enter the dungeon by facing the guardian." - Seymour
"Skeletron huh."
"And, if you are willing to do this. Then, are you going to protect my base for the raid that will happen tomorrow?" - Seymour
"Who are the targets involved?"
"They are a thousand players, all aiming for power." - Seymour
"I see, any rankers?"
I instinctively asked about that since there could be some leeway.
"Yes, the one who leads them is the seventh strongest in the list." - Seymour
I became completely speechless. I lost my words and started hesitating...
"Denz, I know you have to protect Rika and the other female friends you have in there right now. However, you need to make sure that you are strong, whether you are in real life or in this game." - Seymour
"I know, it doesn't matter what would happen but. I have to stay prepared at all times. I won't have any of them die in this world."
"That's the spirit! Now then, I'll return to the castle, it's a little busy considering what is about to happen there. If possible, bring all of them in my place for now since it has maximum security defenses this time." - Seymour
Either way, I should use this chance to bring them to the castle, specially Rika.
I returned to my room packing up most of the stuff I needed. I contact the rest of the girls residing in my palace to come with me with all of their stuff.
Later on, we all met in the dining room. I arrived last only to see quite a spectacle.
Ashley, Bella, and May were interrogating Rika which resulting in the release of many secrets. Some parts are a bit crazy, and embarrassing.
I sat down and took out a bunch of papers handed down to me by Seymour. With that, it's time to explain the plan.
"Well, you guys may or may not like it but... All of us are visiting Seymour's castle, and we're staying there for a while."
Immediately after, Rika stood up and moved to my spot. Asking to be spoiled.
"Zel..." - Rika
I simply smiled and took her to myself.
"Now seeing Denzel being happy. Let's find our destined ones too shall we?" - May
"Then it'll be my turn to help."
"No, we didn't even help you when you fell so leave it as is." - May
"Fine! Anyways, let's drop that and talk about the visit now."
"Zel~" - Rika
Ah, this childish act...
I caressed Rika's head and kept spoiling her while explaining...
"In regards to visiting Seymour's castle, he said that it's the best place to hide for now."
"Why?" - Bella
"He said something about a large-scale raid will occur, maybe around a thousand players with a bunch of summoners summoning around twenty-thousand hostile creatures... So it will definitely be fun to hold the lines."
"What's your plan? Isn't it dangerous that we hide in Seymour's castle?" - Ashley
"Yeah, this place is more comforting." - May
"Yes, it is more comforting. However, Seymour's explanation that the one in charge of the raid is one of the representatives of the top faction."
Rika's face scrunches up, getting completely irritated.
"It's him right?" - Rika
"Yep, it is him, I'll probably deal with him if Seymour will allow me."
"He's so dead." - Rika
"Trust me he will die."
"So, why move to Seymour's castle?" - May
"Well the main cause is that the enemy will be very smart, considering that they might have a plan on ransacking branch bases while we are stuck on defending the main base. So all in all, if I leave you guys here, you will be kidnapped."
"There are a lot of better places to hide. So why in Seymour's castle?" - Bella
"Trust me, it's best if we hide in a place where you can be defended. The higher ups of the top faction will just go around and grab you. Of course, I don't want that..."
"Well, I understand now." - Rika
Honestly, I would be completely enraged once they get kidnapped. Which would be nothing but trouble. However, in this virtual world, I don't think that I'll let it happen that easily.
"How about we head there now?"
"Sure!" - Rika
Everyone packed up their stuff which took a long time, but they finally agreed to the prospect of safety that I was talking about.
In the meantime I was in the underground making some major tweaks on my equipment.
I opened one of my magic boxes and brought out my Omnitelum which I recently upgraded with demon stone. Using reversing magic, I generated heat through ice without much discomfort due to the incompatibility. As such, I generated frozen fire or blue fire. I set the frozen fire down the forge filled with coal to further build up its heat. After some time, the temperature rose up high enough which made the crimson ore that Michael gave me start melting slowly.
"If Michael was here this would've been a million times faster."
Michael holds very powerful fire magic. In fact, it's so destructive that we basically are rivals with different elements. Ice versus Fire, I can't remember the last time I sparred against him. All I know is that he hasn't returned from that giant hole in the jungle.
After some time I added more crimson ore to the heat. Causing them to melt and stay down in the cold fire. I generated multiple layers of magic circles that does the following in order: Reverse the magic once again to change the frozen fire into cold smoke, bring out the pair of gauntlets in a super precise spot of the heat.
Now, I took out a blue necklace in which I used as an amulet, and a large book with a skull mark on its cover page.
"Book of Death!"
I created this with Karl for spell capacity testing. It was a bullshit tier item that we had extremely bad trouble just with the creation. In the end, we asked Seymour for cooperation to this in which he willingly accepted without complaints.
Multiple pages start flickering and turning one by one at a high speed. It looks like it will end soon but it's actually made through a loop type portal mechanic. Currently, my copy of the book of death contains two hundred spells with each of them having a page.
Whenever the Book of Death is used, it would amplify the magic power of the spell itself, making it more potent, sturdy, or powerful. Not only that but, it also consumes less mana and does not need a chant. As the pages on the left show the full chant of the spell regardless of space. Lastly, you would be able to see a little easier its cost and cooldown.
The four step process has completed so I used my copy of the Book of Death to start the most exhausting process, or what I would call: "The trial and error" parts.
"Gear Switch!"
A pain in the ass route. Gear switching is a process of reforging on the game of Terraria, but there isn't a cost of money from the Goblin Tinkerer which hasn't showed up for the longest time.
To put it more into terms that Terrarians would understand: ��RNG Hell". There is a prefix in that was added in this game. Apparently, it was called: "Ultimate". It's like the "Legendary" prefix, but the former prefix has a huge percentage difference unlike the latter. Not only that but it also increases magical efficiency, capacity (or mana), and decreases cooldown. Overall, this is the top definition of an OP enchantment.
However, the chance of getting the enchantment is...
"0.5% chance here I go..."
Less than one percent. adding up the amount of mana it consumes, I have to be lucky just to make this kind of weaponry and equipment.
"Gear Switch!"
I continuously repeated the same spell until I got the prefix I needed. I spent almost an entire hour to get the prefix in around four hundred attempts.
Now I'm finally set.
After all those luck based work I closed the Book of Death and took a towel from my right.
"Phew, that took a while. I wonder how they are doing."
When I turned around, I saw Ashley watching through the glass.
"Do you need something?"
"Can I come in?" - Ashley
"Sure, watch your step though..."
Ashley opened the glass door and entered in the workroom...
"Denz, aren't you a bit hurt?" - Ashley
"What do you mean?"
"Emotionally, you really don't like what happened last time when Rika was being attacked by some random guy. Do you think you'd be fine with her?" - Ashley
"I know you're worried however, that doesn't mean I would hate her for it. Honestly, she changed, as if she's much more edged than the old her."
"I see, you really grew too. I couldn't believe that you were just some guy thirsty for both love and blood." - Ashley
"Ahaha! You got me there. Sometimes, changes are inevitable, so I just take the opportunity and create a change on myself."
"I remembered when I looked at you during your teenage years, you were really dark and isolated at heart." - Ashley
"But thanks to you all, my benefactors, I'm here, alive and kicking healthily."
"Aww, it seems that you have finished. Let's head up and leave this palace for a while." - Ashley
"Sure."
Me and Ashley went upstairs to the main room and met the rest of the group.
Rika fell asleep and didn't want to wake up. Which makes Ashley the most reasonable one to tell me.
"Anyways, let's head to Seymour's castle once again."
Everyone else nodded with a smile, whilst Rika is still completely asleep.