It was early dawn, yet the Basic Realm's first-floor courtyard was still packed with people. Ever since everyone had Awakened, missions became less hard and more doable. Likewise, the survival rate had improved greatly as well.
Before the Awakening, not many dared to attempt [Normal] difficulty missions. But now, as long as the party's composition was well thought out, such missions could be cleared without taking too much risk. One could even hear rumors floating around that a party had managed to successfully clear a [Hard] mission.
There were three motivating factors that forced the survivors to become more proactive.
And those were [succeed in missions], [earn more silver coins], and then [purchase better abilities or equipment]. Everyone could see that they were visibly getting stronger through spending their silver coins, which led the survivors to be completely immersed in doing the missions.
"Yawnnnn~"
A middle-aged Night Elf man sitting alone, as if he's unseen by everyone, inside the first floor's courtyard opened his mouth wide and yawned loudly. He licked his lips and surveyed his surroundings as if he was waiting for someone.
The man lifted his head slightly when he heard the steady footsteps walking closer. His eyes grew a bit larger in anticipation as he looked up the staircase before resting his chin on his elbow as he studied the person who climbed down the staircase. The person walking down the staircase held a pair of warscythes.
Everyone knew who he was. The survivor sitting on the first spot, who also hogged all the spotlight after solo clearing a [Hard] mission. Of course, that was in the past. Two months had passed by since then, and now, people no longer thought of him as someone special.
Zevrad's actions barely made any sense. He didn't perform any real missions whatsoever. He only repeated the same basic training missions that yielded no rewards at all. It was only natural for everyone else to find his behavior rather odd.
Rumors swirled around Zevrad and his unexplainable ways, but even that lasted only for a little while before dying down completely. As he wasn't getting in anyone's way, people lost interest. Add in the fact that he had plenty of silver coins, to begin with, people understood that there was seemingly no reason for him to do anything.
Rebuking words and questions such as 'what's so fun about running all the time' we constantly asked as they now looked down on the man. But suddenly, some people realized there was a small change in the way Zevrad behaved today. Normally he'd rip the mission parchment for either jogging or practicing a technique with his weapons as soon as he got to the courtyard and disappear from sight. However, for some reason, he was standing around in front of the noticeboard as he inspected each available mission.
Zevrad finally selected a parchment and cautiously ripped it in half. He was gone the next second.
'The running mission isn't found on that part of the board, though? Could it be?'
The man resting in the courtyard got up. His eyes didn't leave the exact spot Zevrad was standing just now and ran there as if he'd grown a pair of wings.
'He took this one, here.'
The second row from the bottom, at the far right. The man took the mission parchment and took a look.
------
[Survive the Assault of the Fel Hounds! (remaining number of attempts: 2/30)]
Fight three Fel Hounds in the jungle and survive!
Difficulty: Slightly Normal
Success: +40 silver coins
Failure: Death
Cooperation possible (up to 2 people)
------
The man's brows creased up as he read the mission details.
"Hoh? Is he finally moving forward?"
***
The place Zevrad ended up in was a jungle full of twisting vines and large, sprawling trees that blocked the heavens above. He pulled out a small pouch from his bag. He lifted it above his head and shook it, causing a pinkish powder to spill forth and disperse in the air.
The name of the pouch was [smell of meat]. Sold in the stores of Basic Realm, it had the effect of attracting monsters. It was one of the things Ariana said he should buy. The thing was, in missions where one was asked to [Survive in the wild], it was actually faster to kill every beast and demons found in the mission area, instead of trying to avoid them for the next two hours or whatever the time limit may be.
Excluding missions that didn't feature any combat, such as [Find the correct path] or [Escape the maze], Zevrad was planning to at least try every single one available on the board. So, this [smell of meat] was an indispensable item if he wanted to speed up the clearing process.
While waiting, Zevrad emptied a vial of the [Potion of Accelerated Learning] down his throat. The ones he bought from the VIP store were already finished after two months so he bought a new batch from the regular store. He thought that four times the training efficiency was certainly better than nothing at all.
The Fel Hounds had highly developed olfactory senses, so they should arrive at Zevrad's location pretty soon. Sure enough, sounds of rustling bushes began tickling his ears not too long afterward.
The direction was to his side; Zevrad discarded the vial and held his scythes tightly. The thicket rustled softly a few times before two Fel Hounds slowly emerged from the vegetation.
Covered entirely in demonic spikes, the demons possessed quite a large with a hulking frame bulging with muscles, including its four limbs. Yet it was monstrously distorted as if some insane god had created them out of the depths of madness. With a face that resembles a cross-breed between both reptile and canine with tall sharp teeth originating within their long savage jaws. They had low-set horns that curled down and forward, their scaly hides were colored with a deathly crimson with their backs fluttering with a crest of wild and shaggy brown fur. Atop their backs thrust two long, whiplike, leathery tentacles that ended in tiny sucker mouths. Making them appear quite intimidating.
One of the two Fel Hounds positioned itself in front of Zevrad's view. The other one slowly circled around to his side in an anti-clockwise direction, as if he was tempting Zevrad to look at it. He swallowed his saliva while continuously glancing at the demons. His throat was getting clammy, and thick sweat drops formed on his forehead.
Zevrad hadn't felt fear when facing dozens of skeletons, yet he was now getting unbearably tense while facing only two hound-like demons. It was a noticeable change in mindset compared to how he was like two months ago. Even though he was feeling the heart-tightening anxiety, his brain never stopped working.
The demonic magic circulating through his body at the same time transmitted into the warscythes as well, and the weapon began to hum ever so softly in his hands.
'Do I need to wait for them to make a move?'
Zevrad remained vigilant as he weighed his options.
'No, I shouldn't. If left alone, these two creatures would soon form a formation that would be disadvantageous when they're in position. In that case, I might as well strike first.'
When Zevrad took aim with the warscythes, the leisurely-walking Fel Hound stopped in its tracks. Just before he moved, he regulated his breathing.
'Was it this difficult to take the very first step?' Zevrad was inwardly astonished. He wasn't even thinking of having a spectacular battle, like the ones he witnessed countless times in his fading dream. No, he only wished to fight accordingly to the training he received up until now.
'Let's do this.'
Zevrad got into the correct posture as his eyes gained renewed focus. The moment he made up his mind, his left leg pushed off the ground hard while he swept his arms out. The Fel Hound quickly dodged to the side and then, savagely pounced forward. The monster was keeping a close eye on the warscythes as well.
The warscythes would miss at this trajectory, without a doubt, but Zevrad wasn't going to wait around and wait for them to act. As soon as he saw the demon dodge to the side, he shifted the grip he had on the warscythes. His attack changed from the [Sweep] into the [Slash].
The slashing warscythes blade suddenly drew a sharp arc and sliced past the Fel Hound's throat. It felt like he was cutting through a hardened block of wheat. Seeing the blood spurt out from the wound, he swiftly jumped to his back; claws that tried to ambush him barely missed his waist and brushed past.
The Fel Hound's sneak attack failed by a hair's breadth; the demon slid across the ground before spinning its body around as if it was a drifting master, leaving behind claw trails on the dirt. Too bad, by the time it tried to look at the Night Elf, a sharp object was already digging into its head. The warscythes embedded itself deep into the demon's brain. Its body shook as it collapsed.
Zevrad had taken care of two Fel Hounds in the blink of an eye, but it was not over yet. He retracted the warscythes, now dripping with blood, and spun around like a cartwheel and slashed out.
**Slash!**
**Slam!**
The open maw of the remaining Fel Hound aimed at his back spew blood like a fountain in the air. The creature spun in the air a couple of times before landing head first on the ground with a heavy thud. It wiggled around like a dying worm, before eventually going completely limp. Zevrad looked at the dead demons with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He did guess that the third Fel Hound must be in hiding. Since it was written on the mission parchment that there were three of them, he suspected as much.
What really took him by surprise, though, was his unexpectedly high attacking power. A battle that would've been impossible for him alone nearly two months ago, had now ended in an anti-climatic fashion. At the moment, he couldn't help but find it quite funny, thinking back to how he had to continuously encourage himself to take the first step.
'And they didn't even look that weak either. Didn't Area 2 fail because of them?'
Before he knew it, the surroundings changed.
It was a victory worthy to be called [Perfect], yet Zevrad wasn't satisfied with it at all.
'Was there a need for me to step back and then [Slash] forward?'
He replayed the battle in his head, step-by-step.
'When I was switching from the [Sweep] to the [Slash], I could have taken care of both of them at the same time.'
Ariana said that these missions were also a form of training. Basic technique training alone could not fill a certain gap and that it was now time to go through various types of combat situations. To earn valuable experience with the silver coins earned is a secondary reward.
'One more time.'
Zevrad picked up the last remaining mission parchment with an excited face and ripped it in half.
Finally, Zevrad was on his way to The End.
***
Currently, the survivor wielding the most influence within the Basic Realm was, without a doubt, Odelette. Not only was she a fancied holder of the [Vengeance] spec, but her initial starting silver coins of 7,500 had also given her a figurative pair of wings.
Odelette proceeded to purchase several abilities and equipment as soon as her Awakening was completed. Soon, she found herself being elevated to the status of the most talked about person in the Basic Realm. Perhaps befitting her personality, though, she then chose to form her own party rather than enter someone else's.
The survivor from the same area as her, Leorda Salvatore, and the area 6's Mao Kingmaker entered her party. Which meant that calling her group the elite within the Basic Realm wasn't an exaggeration. It was simply a fact, but then...
"Who?"
"That Night Elf... the top-ranked."
...Odelette was looking at the unusually-excited Leorda with an intrigued face. Just what could agitate him so?
"Ah! Was it since yesterday? I did hear that he began doing the missions again."
"But, that is…"
"Isn't it a good thing, though?"
"Huh?"
"I was expecting him to start making his move soon. In any case, I will personally go and talk to him. That man, honestly, he was the number one person I wanted to ally with."
Leorda could only feel a sense of frustration as he listened to the blueprint of a bright future coming from this still-naive teenage girl who hadn't figured out what was going on.
"That's not the issue here."
"Then what's the issue?"
"Two days ago, every single [Easy] and [Slightly Normal] missions on the board disappeared. Gone. That man cleared them all. Alone."
"Hmm… those two difficulties weren't much, to begin with, right?"
Mao muttered in between his cigarette smokes while leaning back on his chair, both feet on the table. He seemed to imply that there was no need to fuss about things. There was a total of 9 different difficulty levels found on the board.
[1. Basic]
[2. Very Easy]
[3. Easy]
[4. Slightly Normal]
[5. Normal]
[6. Slightly Hard]
[7. Hard]
[8. Very Hard]
[9. Impossible]
The remaining attempts available for missions rated [Very Easy], [Easy] and [Slightly Normal] were almost all finished by now due to the survivors flocking to clear them during the first month of their stay in the Basic Realm. Not to mention, the number of attempts was low, to begin with, so them disappearing completely was bound to happen sooner or later.
After their Awakening, the survivors were now flocking to [Normal] and [Slightly Hard] missions. However, it was still fine because their number of attempts had increased rather dramatically to coincide with the Awakening. The number of attempts available for the next tier of difficulty was far lower in comparison. Of course, parties attempting [Hard] difficulty were pretty low in number as well.
No, the real problem was...
"You see, one-third of the remaining [Normal] missions have disappeared last night, too."
"What?!"
Both eyes of Odelette shot up. If it was last night, she was in the middle of attempting to clear a [Hard] mission with her party.
"It's not only that. I personally went there and confirmed it. Even the [Slightly Hard] missions are decreasing at a frightening pace."
"What did you say?!"
This time, Mao had to lower his feet and sit upright.
"Didn't I tell you this already? The whole courtyard is in an uproar."
"Let's go."
"Let's go and take a look!"
Both Mao and Odelette stood up from their respective seats simultaneously and hurried to the first floor. Only to run into a spectacle she failed to understand right away.
Dozens of survivors were surrounding one man while whispering to each other. In the middle of that crowd, Zevrad was busy ripping a piece of paper in half.
"What is going on?"
Odelette became flustered as she saw Zevrad disappear. She was about to push the blocking bodies away and rush towards the noticeboard, only to stop dead in her tracks.
"What?!"
The teenage girl couldn't help but exclaim out in shock as Zevrad reappeared in the courtyard.
'Was that around one minute? It was definitely no more than two minutes, right?' She even felt scared after seeing the expressionless face he had as he walked up to the board and ripped up another parchment.
'What did he choose?'
When Zevrad disappeared again, she hurriedly checked the board.
------
[Survive against a Wendigo! (remaining number of attempts: 14/60)]
Fight a Wendigo inside a forest and survive!
Difficulty: Slightly hard
Success: +450 silver coins
Failure: Death.
Cooperation possible (up to 4 people)
------
"I just heard that this is his sixth time doing that mission."
Leorda was standing by her side before she had the chance to notice it. He shook his head as a bitter chuckle escaped his mouth.
Odelette counted in her head, 'one, two, three, four…'
When she counted to 57, Zevrad returned to the courtyard. The man then proceeded to choose another mission. Rarely did he attempt a mission only once; most of the time, he repeated it twice or three times before moving on. On some missions, he tried them well over five times. Before she knew it, even she became one of the stunned spectators.
Within the span of 20 minutes, Odelette got to hear the sounds of the parchments being ripped in half twelve more times. Each mission was combat-related. No matter how one put it, Zevrad was clearing each mission at a frightening rate.
Two men watching on from the lounge could only click their tongues in amazement.
"Wow… is that even mortally possible?"
"I dunno, but look, there he is. He did it again!"
"How envious, being special and all."
"Hah! And here I was, wondering why he hadn't done anything until now. It's like everything's a pushover to him, right?"
'Special? A pushover?'
Ariana snorted in derision as she listened from the corner of the courtyard.
'What a bunch of fools.'
These two could never see the light of truth, even if they were sent to hell and back. While they fell for Mother Malevolence's tricks and concentrated on clearing the missions, Zevrad alone had to endure an unforgiving training regime.
Did Zevrad not want to clear missions and earn silver coins? Of course not. He really wanted to clear them as well, but he simply endured. The skills and abilities he piled on for the past two months without complaining were finally bearing delicious fruits now. As if he had something to prove, Zevrad continued to appear and then disappear for a long, long time.
A soft, subtle smile floated on Ariana's lips.
***
------
[Break through the siege and survive! (Remaining number of attempts: 11/15)]
Survive the encirclement of the group of skeletons!
Difficulty: Hard
Success: +1000 silver coins.
Failure: Death
Cooperation possible (up to 6 participants)
------
'Finally.'
Zevrad mopped up the available [Slightly Hard] missions in the next four days, and now, he was about to attempt the first [Hard] mission. He already made up his mind which one he'd go for, so there was no hesitation. The place he was teleported to was the underground cavern. Staring at that low ceiling, a strange sense of deja vu flooded in.
"It's been a while."
Dozens of skeletons were glaring at him, just like before. Zevrad grinned slightly before the look of resolute focus returned to his face while his body shifted into the correct stance. The battle arena was small and confined; there was no room for retreat. The correct answer here was to not back off but push forward.
The moment the skeleton wearing the helmet at the back opened its bony jaw, Zevrad pounced forward like a leopard. When he powerfully thrust forward at the area with a large concentration of skeletons, dull cracking noises filled the cavern and shattered bits of bones flew about. He slapped away a blade trying to cut him from the side and thrust his warscythes at the exposed gap.
The skeleton, with its head, split open, shook around comically before crumbling into a heap. Zevrad secured some space for himself in this fashion. Then, he proceeded to speedily kill the skeletons one by one as they attempted to rush to his position.
Zevrad's style of battle was simple yet effective. He first swatted away the incoming attack and relied on the [Slash] to shatter the enemy's head. If another attack came at him at the same time, he rapidly fell back, preyed on the timing when the attacks missed, and stabbed forward with a [Reap]. He only aimed at the skulls specifically.
The shift between the [Sweep], [Slash], and [Reap] was as seamless as a flowing stream of water. Zevrad's hand speed was genuinely quick as he continued to wield the warscythes non-stop. The experience gained through hundreds of missions was helping him to devlop even further than before.
In a blink, the frontline of the skeletons was decimated. And as the second line was getting pummeled into submission as well….
Just as he expected...
"ROAR!"
The undead with the helmet let loose a loud roar from the back. It grabbed a huge axe and began madly running towards Zevrad's direction. It was at this moment when his heart shook and cried out.
'How long…'
'...just how long…'
'...did I wait for this moment?'
The number of simulations he ran inside Zevrad's head amounted to several dozens. He was not going to make a single mistake here. He swept away the incoming attack of a small fry and took four quick steps back. At the same time, the helmet-wearing undead jumped in the air. The axe was pulled back and then, came down towards Zevrad's head. Right then, his eyes shone with a dangerous glint.
[Slash]!
The falling axe and the rising, spinning warscythes violently collided in the air.
**Clang!**
The ear-ripping metallic screech bounced around the cavern. The axe could not descend any further nor could the warscythes deflect it away. However, something had changed compared to before.
**Kiik, Kiiiik…!**
Sparks flew off as the axe blade and the warscythes shaft grinded against each other. A short competition of strength soon developed as Zevrad bore the brunt of the undead's attack.
**Woong!!**
The undead's great power, enhanced by its fall, dissipated quickly. However, Zevrad's [Pain] constantly bubbled up like a bottomless spring and supplemented his physical strength.
"Kuuuuuek!"
Zevrad successfully shoved the axe away and quickly seized the opening that was created. When a grandiose attack failed to connect, the resulting exposed gap would be equally grand. The undead fell from the air after losing its balance, and Zevrad swiftly stabbed his warscythes forward into one of the skull's empty eye sockets.
**Clunk!**
The helmet made up of bones flung away after the warscythes slammed into it. The undead began a drunken dance as it crumpled to the ground after more than half of its head was blown away.
"I did it!"
Zevrad seldom shouted, but he did now out of excitement. Annihilating the undead, the event he could only dream about pulling off, he'd finally done in reality as well. His complexion was filled with happiness as he eyed the heap of unmoving bones on the ground. The sense of accomplishment, a victory well earned, ballooned inside his heart. He thought that he'd never ever grown sick and tired of this joy for the rest of his life.
'Hang on a sec.'
Suddenly, he pondered on what might have happened if he chose a different method to counter.
'Since I was aware of the opponent using a jumping attack, couldn't I have tried something else other than [Sweeping] and [Slashing] and still win in a simple, efficient manner?'
Several possibilities continued to enter and leave his brain. Zevrad needed to try them out first to see what was what.
'One more time!'
The desire to quickly fight the helmet-wearing undead filled him up, so he quickly brandished his warscythes towards the remaining monsters. A joyful smile never left his face.
***
Zevrad continued to attack the encirclement [Hard] missions over and over again. He considered other survivors' positions and left behind enough attempts for other missions, but for this skeleton mission, the thought of being polite did not once enter his mind. Every time he defeated the helmet-wearing undead, he felt as if an unseen weight weighing down on his shoulders was lifting up.
Zevrad finally felt like he could breathe again.
Unfortunately, the unavoidable problem eventually reared its head. Since Zevrad was so enthusiastic about clearing the mission, the remaining number of attempts depleted quickly as well. There was nothing he could do as there were only 12 attempts left to be with. But he still wasn't satisfied. On the contrary, he thought that he needed to do at least 50 more times before he'd be satisfied.
Naturally, Zevrad deliberated on what he should do. Then, on the last remaining attempt, he did something completely unheard of. He defeated every single small fry found in the mission super fast while leaving behind only the helmet-wearing Undead Boss. There were plenty of opportunities to kill it, but Zevrad made sure not to fatally wound it.
"Get up, you bastard."
Zevrad was glaring at the undead lying on the floor. On his hands, his warscythes, and the adversary's axe. He found this sight of the monster not to his liking, so he used the end of the warscythes to tap its skull a few times, trying to make it stand.
"Stand up straight, now."
When he kicked a bit hard, the undead noisily rolled away. Its helmet was missing and couldn't be found anymore. It was not hard to imagine the level of torture the monster had to endure simply by looking at the misaligned collarbones or several cracked ribs. The undead flinched and began to shuffle about. It tried to push off against the ground with its trembling bones and decaying flesh until it swayed about unsteadily on its feet.
Zevrad then tossed the axe over to it and strode away, widening the distance between them. His sour expression showed how unsatisfied he was, as he continued to glare at the undead that kinda looked like it might keel over at any second.
The idea of one-on-one he came up with was a brilliant one, if he could say so himself, to exact vengeance and ease his trembling heart. Now, he was able to continuously fight to his heart's content without the pesky remaining number of attempts handicapping him.
For the first thirty times they fought, the undead seemed to be humoring Zevrad's whims. However, past the 50th time, it felt like the monster began to desperately resist him. Past the 60th, it visibly lost all motivation to even put up a fight.
Zevrad had also made several mistakes adjusting his strength during the fight and ended up damaging the undead here and there. Even considering that, the disappointment he felt was hard to describe in mere words.
"Please, please! Just do one more jumping attack! You know, that jumping attack you do? Can you even understand me?"
It was unknown whether the undead was listening to him or not. It simply raised the axe but then, one of its shoulder bones snapped and fell. The bone finally gave in and broke after the repeated abuse it had to endure.
The undead froze on the spot; its empty eye sockets sneaked a quick glance in Zevrad's direction.
"Well, you still have your right arm."
**Clack, clack, clack, clack…**
The skeleton powerlessly clattered its teeth. No one knew what it was trying to say, but it still sounded like a plea.
"Come on, let's fight. Hurry."
In the end, the skeleton succeeded in grasping the axe as it squeaked and creaked noisily. It was as if it was forcing itself to overcome its limits. Although it was just a measly undead.
"Good. Come at me. I heard that an undead monster like you carries around unconditional hatred for all living things. So, show me."
Zevrad used his warscythes to beckon the monster.
"I'll end this after twenty more times, okay?"
It was then, Zevrad momentarily thought that he could see the exposed spine of the undead flinch. The monster standing around doing nothing finally moved its legs. It heaved the axe up high and began its rush. However, its attack had none of its former viciousness nor conviction.
No, it only looked wretched and miserable.
Zevrad licked his lips and readied the stance for the [Sweep]. And so, the undead unsteadily ran towards Zevrad, and lifted its remaining arm over its head. Just as he was about to get ready to swat away the falling axe…
...the undead simply let go of the axe as its arm fell down.
Zevrad's attention was stolen away by the axe that flew past him. At that moment he wasn't looking, the skeleton grasped the warscythes shaft as tightly as it could. Then, summoning whatever strength it could still bring forth, it slammed its own head on the warscythe's blade. The skull disintegrated, and the rest of the bones clattered to the ground. The way its remains piled up like that, one couldn't help but feel that salvation had finally come to the poor monster.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
[System Message: You have successfully completed a [Hard] difficulty mission.]
[1000 silver coins have been added to your system.]
[Current silver coins: 85,280]
Zevrad just stood there, his eyes blinking nonstop with mouth agape showing how dumbfounded he was.
"What the-?"