-Ding~
[You have acquired the basic knowledge of sword mastery.]
[You have acquired the intermediate knowledge of sword mastery.]
[You have acquired the passive skill of sword master (intermediate).]
Isaac opened his eyes and looked around him with a dark expression.
"Why are you in my room? Weren't you supposed to be behind my door?" He frowns at Abdel, who was standing in front of the door; in his room.
The latter had both hands on his blood-red sword whose tip was slightly sunk in the wooden floor.
"My mistress's orders are clear, I must stay by your side before the time comes." For the first time, Isaac heard Abdel's thunderous voice rumbling in his room.
"...Sigh, listening to you, I feel like I want to be executed in a short time." Isaac had an ironic smile when he heard Abdel's justifications.
'Heh, he still has to blame me. Finally, it may have been inappropriate on my part to call him a watchdog. But I wanted to check to find out if the NPCs had emotions or not. But finally, this guy doesn't give the impression of being a simple program.' He looks at Abdel with sharp eyes.
'What if I looked at how far this miracle goes?' With this decision, he gets out of bed and zooms at Abdel.
"Do you know what an NPC is?" He smirks at Abdel
"..."
"Sigh, I suspected it. NPCs-- no, you NPCs, are programs created and shaped from scratch by a Game master. Your emotions, your memories, your family, or even your experience... in short, your entire existence is shaped by a Game master; this is what you and your colleague are, NPCs." Isaac spoke at a slow pace so that Abdel could hear every syllable he said.
But unfortunately, he didn't receive any reaction from Abdel. "Hah, I feel stupid to talk to a puppet mounted from scratch."
Abdel finally frowns.
"Oho~? Are you irritated!? But this wrath isn't real, it's also a program in your artificial brain. Can you bleed? Feed? Or felt you have a sexual desire?"
"..."
"Ah, God! I want to dissect you in detail to know some...??"
He suddenly stops when he sees his door being opened by Maria. "Please don't disturb my knight with your nonsense." She always had the same coldness in her eyes as she warned Isaac.
The latter sighs with a disappointed air. 'Tsk, I was almost there. However, it wasn't useless; they've emotions.' He said to himself while sitting on the only chair in his room.
"I couldn't shelve my curiosity. I still find it hard to believe that NPCs can materialize in our world." He finds this excuse by seeing the discontent in Maria's eyes.
'Sigh, I wonder how far they are loyal.' He continues in his mind by looking at Jamil who accompanied Maria.
Maria later sighs with frustration and looks at Abdel. "You can leave now; you'll follow Jane's instructions and protect the plantation in my absence."
"At your command, mistress," Abdel responds in a respectful voice before going out into Isaac's room.
Maria finally focuses on Isaac. "It's time to leave. Jamil will open a portal that will teleport us near the dungeon."
"...Don't you have any other players who will team up with us?" Isaac asks with confusion.
"No, the dungeon only accepts two players per team. The required level is between fifty and 60; does this pose a problem for you?" She asks nonchalantly.
Isaac's heart skips a beat when he hears her explanations. 'She made my task so much easier.' He couldn't help but joyfully yells these words in his mind with a mischievous smile.
"...Alright, if you have nothing to add, then we're leaving." Maria found nothing strange with Isaac's sneaky smile.
She then looks at Jamil, who still had his full armor. Apart from his blood-red pupils that could be perceived under his helmet, Isaac couldn't see else, even the color of his hair was unknown to him.
When Jamil saw his mistress nodding her head towards him.
He then took out a black parchment with a red pentagram drawn on it.
"Jamil is an expert when it comes to enchantment. He can create pentagrams and make some spells on them." Maria explains briefly when she sees Isaac's curiosity.
Jamil takes off his two gloves, revealing his hands that were as pale as Maria's skin, and left a drop of his blood on the parchment.
-Woooh!
Simultaneously, a bloody red glow emanates from the parchment that floated by itself above Jamil.
He then looked at Maria. "Mistress, after you, please." He whispers in a deep voice.
Maria nodded and also nodded at Isaac; ordering the latter to follow her.
At the same time, the same pentagram on the parchment appeared under their feet before the three silhouettes flashed and vanished in the room; leaving only the empty parchment that landed on the ground like a bird's feather before being consumed as a particle of light.
And the next moment, a fanciful scene occurs in front of Isaac when he opened his eyes.
He found himself in the middle of a forest under a starry sky with a crescent moon as the only sky's mistress.
The forest was in the dark; but instead of birds or other animals roaring, Isaac could hear voices from nearby humans.
'It's more lively than I expected.' He whispers to himself, looking in front of him with contracted eyebrows.
Even if it was dark, he had no difficulty seeing around him thanks to his night vision.
"The dungeon is two hundred meters from us," Maria pronounced these words in a low deep voice and makes her way with the two men behind her.
After a minute of slow walking, the three arrived at a cleared area whose trees had been cut down to expose the dungeon.
Isaac looks around him with amazement seeing the world that was there. He had worn a black demon mask with two red horns on it.
His goal was not to hide his face, but his stats which won't be visible even for a hundred-level player.
"How should I address you?"
"Isaac, that will be enough." He nonchalantly answers Maria's question while continuing to look at the other players.
'There are about six parties here, and probably more if I count those, who entered the dungeon. But it's unexpected, about 3/6 are at level sixty; the others have higher levels than mine.' His gaze landed on a team made up only of veiled women as if they were coming from a Murim world.
'These are probably players from another game different from ours and Jane's.' He concludes by seeing their weapons which were none other than Shashka Sabres and Chinese spears.
But seeing that everyone was looking at them too, Isaac ignores all their curious looks and focuses on the two black pillars twenty meters near them.
The pillars were like small towers one meter thick and fifteen meters high, forming a kind of gate between them because of their proximity.
Each pillar has a guard, under it, covered with bandage bands from head to toe.
Their two long spears formed a cross between the two pillars and their eyes had no glow; as if they were statues a little too surreal.
[Left guard of Bedlam tower's door. (Lvl 0).]
[Right guard of Bedlam tower's door. (Lvl 0).]
'Templar guards, huh? If I remember correctly, in addition to being immune to any attack, it is impossible to pass through these doors without their authorizations.' Isaac mutters in his mind before remaining on hold; waiting for his employer's instructions.
Maria walks through the crowd scattered as a team and stops one meter from the guards.
She raises her eyebrows slightly when she sees the two guards still inactive.
*Murmur* "Do you think she doesn't know the conditions to enter the dungeon? *
*Murmur* "Don't be so stupid, it's the mistress of plantation N•25, Maria."
*Murmur* "Ah yes, now that you say it, I understand now; the guy in armor must surely be one of her blood knights. But who's the other guy? I don't see any information about him."
*Murmur* "It's because of his mask, it's the mask of greed, a cursed item given to players who connected on God-like Online on the eve of Halloween. Our guild master has the same item."
Isaac could hear similar whispers from other groups, but he acted as if he heard nothing.
Maria was no different from him. She took out a red metal plate badge in her inventory.
At the same time, the threatening green eyes of the two guards opened.
They analyzed Maria's badge which had three traces of scratches on it; a symbol representing her guild.
Seeing that everything was in perfect, the two guards put away their spears followed by the demonstration of a black portal between the two pillars.
'Hm? Is this one of the advantages the master of a plantation has?' Isaac frowns under his mask.
"Jamil, you'll wait for us here."
"At your command, mistress." Jamil nods and walks away ten steps.
She then looks at Isaac with a stealthy but impatient smile on her lips. "Come with me."
Isaac nods before following her closely through the portal.
--
Several dangers and mysteries go beyond humans' understanding; among these mysteries and dangers, dungeons are among them.
Each dungeon has its means of access, its mysteries, traps different from the others, and a unique topography.
Among the dungeons, the most dangerous are the labyrinths.
[You entered the Bedlam dungeon.]
-Once, a mage eager for power wanted to rise among the gods by facing the queen of Babylon (demigoddess). But he was defeated and cursed by the latter.
To take revenge on the Babylon queen's towers, the mage vowed to tarnish the queen's name by all means.
[Allow this unfortunate talented mage, who's just his hate's shadow, to find peace.]
Isaac first saw this information before he opened his eyes and faced a meadow of flowers as far as the eye can see.
The sun was at its zenith, forcing him to close his eyes because of its blinding light.
Like him, Maria also had difficulty adapting to the sudden light.
[You are on the first floor of the Bedlam tower; a pale copy of the Babylon labyrinth.]
'Heh, this fucking mage doesn't go with the back of the spoon.' Isaac mutters in his mind when he saw that he had to face a labyrinth as his first challenge.
---
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