William Titan and the other 30 adventurers stepped through the glowing blue portal. The world shuddered around him as his location in space-time was warped using divine power, and within a second he exited the portal on the other side.
Despite using these portals hundreds, if not a thousand times in his life, William still wobbled slightly on his feet for a second.
William then curiously looked around and noticed a few other adventurers doing the same, while others quickly got into battle stances.
Despite his anger towards the immortals, William could not help but praise them for their sense of aesthetics. Utopia city is one of the cleanest cities in the multiverse but it's still a metropolis with huge glass buildings shooting for the sky.
While in Utopia, size is used to show prestige, here in Eden the level of detail in the architecture of the buildings seems more important.
Apart from the magic tower in the distance and the town hall behind him, no other buildings went over 2 floors high. Most of the buildings were made from marble or other white materials. They had elegant designs carved into their walls like some sophisticated form of graffiti.
Considering Eden has such limited land space, William expected towering buildings to maximize the usage of the floating islands but instead, they had wasted so much space just on this large open merchants square.
Beautiful marble buildings lined the square serving different functions. William's anger boiled once more when he saw many blue-haired couples leisurely sitting outside a cafe, enjoying the sun and a morning coffee. Chatting away and completely ignoring the group of adventurers as if they were made of thin air. William was not annoyed about being ignored but instead at their attitude. Did they not know how much destruction was going on outside? How many lives were being lost? Do they not care at all?
Just as I was about to march over and give them a piece of my mind a fellow S rank called Steve who was standing near me nudged my ribs with his elbow and pointed towards a building in the distance.
The many blue-haired couples also stopped talking and turned towards the direction and much to everyone's confusion they all stood up and bowed towards the direction before sitting back down and continuing where they left off.
In the distance, a small girl was timidly walking towards us from the entrance of an establishment with a sign saying 'Wisdom Inn'. William recognized the name and racked his brain for the information he had read before coming here. Little was known about the strength of the immortals but the owner of this Inn is known to be powerful.
[Old Man George]
[Affiliation: Wisdom Inn]
It is said he is always seen with a mug and a cloth. Except for mundane functions, it is said they also serve as powerful divine artifacts bestowed upon him by the almighty Xia.
Legends state the moment he stops cleaning his mug the only thing you can do is pray for your life as it is already forfeited.
He uses his mug to seal the souls of his enemies to doom them to an eternity of torment.
In the left hand, he holds his trusty old cleaning cloth which he uses to not only wipe his mug but also wipe his enemies from existence.
(Information provided by multiple S rank adventurers testimonies to the guild)
[Danger: SSS - Attacks only if provoked]
This little girl that exited the Inn didn't match the description, yet all the blue-haired residents had such respect for her. Is she more powerful than old George? Or perhaps has a higher status in the Eden society?
The little girl slowly approached the intimidating group of adventurers. Many had their weapons raised towards the girl and assumed battle stances.
"She looks like Alice but smaller!" One of the adventurers shouted. Many people nodded in agreement and tightened their grip on the hilt of their weapons. I could even see their knuckles going white in fear at the mention of Alice's name.
She is possibly the most famous immortal. Her name is passed down by our grandparents in stories where she is described as the Devil or with the nickname 'Pink Demon'.
"I'm not short! Daddy says I'm still growing, HMPH" the little girl that looks no older than 12 years old, with pink eyes and jet black hair, stomped her foot while crossing her arms showing her annoyance.
"Please leave so I don't have to fight you, if you stay I'll have to fight, otherwise Dad will be disappointed in me…"
The adventurers looked at each other and started laughing, what could a little girl possibly do before so many powerhouses? They all believed that only Xia, Alice, or George had the power to stop them.
***
Harley had been happily talking to Old George when many strong adventurers started coming through the portal. Old George seemed to be talking to my Dad to ask what to do since he had left him in charge.
After the call ended George gave me a weird apologetic look and told me that Dad wished for me to deal with it for practice.
Dad often takes me monster hunting to raise my level.
[Name: Harley]
[Race: Genetically engineered Human]
[Level: 102]
[STR: 72, DEX: 95, CON: 54, INT: 300, WIS: 238]
(Stats are reduced due to young age)
[Skills]
[Transform] (At no cost the user can alternate between their human and Nightwalker form, stats and skills are changed depending on the form)
[Cooking III](Food the user makes will taste better, less likely to make mistakes while cooking)
[Reading II](User can read at higher speeds and remember the contents faster)
As shown from my status page, even though I know I'm weak, at least in my human form, it's no wonder these adventurers laughed at me as I'm sure some of them used appraisal on me to find my lack of skills and low stats.
"You can do it, Empress Harley!" I hear some of the blue-haired immortal cheer for me. I give them a smile and a wave. My heart is very confused. I have the fear of being killed and making my parents sad but I'm scared of killing other humans. Dad always says they are just coin generators but I have no idea what that means.
The immortals surrounding the merchant's square start pouring their mana into an artifact that's embedded into the floor, sealing the entire area under a golden barrier to avoid damage reaching the buildings.
The adventurers start panicking a little, like animals trapped in a cage. Some also noticed that the portal had run out of Divine energy so there was no longer an escape route.
One of the adventurers saw the confusion I was having and took advantage of the situation, firing an arrow right at me. I notice the killing intent and spin my body causing the arrow to hit my shoulder instead of my organs.
I let out a loud yelp as the arrow smashes into my shoulder completely destroying my arm in an explosion of bone and flesh. That arrow was shot from an S rank while using many skills to try and insta kill me in one shot.
"AHHHHHHH" I scream out clutching my bloodied arm as my face scrunches up in pain. Fuck fuck fuck is all I could think, my mind is a mess. I let my guard down. Dad was right, these humans are shameless bastards.
Through the pain I manage to raise my head, only to see many high-level spells flying in my direction.
I grit my teeth and manage to mutter out through my tears and heavy breathing [Transform]
The adventurers watched on in horror, as before the spells even landed my skin, flesh, and organs melted away, as a toxic black sludge dripped from my bones. My skeleton without any support quickly collapsed to the floor turning to dust.
At this moment a hundred spells slammed into the ground and also smashed into each other causing a mini nuclear mana explosion that sent many adventurers flying hundreds of meters.
Once the chaos ended "Did we kill her?" They asked each other while many had horrified looks on their faces. Watching a small cute girl's body melt away like that was truly a horrifying experience.
Due to the steam cloud that surrounded the area from the explosion, the adventurers could not be sure of the result.
During the transformation process, I cast aside my human body and create a new body with mana. Instead of a small cute 12-year-old girl, I have become an existence that even sends shivers down my own spine.
I have become like Dad's true form. A Nightwalker.
Compared to my usual height of 1 meter I now stand at over 4 meters. Instead of my small delicate hands, only sinister metal claws greets me.
The undead skills start kicking in, my hunger from skipping lunch has vanished, the feeling of temperature has also gone. The warm feeling that I enjoy so much from the artificial sun over my head can no longer be felt.
My emotions and hesitations are being heavily restricted, instead a small voice in the back of my head is whispering to me: kill kill kill kill kill kill.
I then open my status page as a sadistic grin appears on my shadowy face.
[Race…]