Chapter 70 – Hidden Challenge part 7, Phial of Luxuria's Bath Water

[Blood lust has been activated.]

Delicate streams of haze exuded from the wounds on the bodies of the players on the hill. I could sense blood, like a shark in water, and even see it faintly. However, the intense lust for blood that a vampire probably experienced wasn’t there, and I kept my mental facilities.

I never expected demi-human to be such a buff, giving me enhanced tracking capabilities as well as crowd control reduction. Good timing as well, because this kind of ability was going to have a lot of useful applications in the near future, now that Beelzebub bunny enacted Rule VIII, a rule that the lowest ticket count players were going to be personally executed by Bubs once the sun set, until only half of the contestants were remaining.

That new rule was the nail in the coffin to passive, conservative play. Any player with half a brain would recognize that they needed tickets fast, and would have to do whatever it takes to get them. The non-wolf players especially needed to accelerate their task completion to get enough tickets to stay above that 50th percentile execution threshold.

Remember what I said earlier about combat situations more often than not being time sensitive, and having no choice but to throw everything and the kitchen sink? That’s exactly the situation I was in now.

The archer that got [Backstabbed] to start this entire shitshow was leaking blood, and I dashed towards him to finish him off, ignoring all the other players fighting on the hill.

Before I could get there, the bandaged assassin reappeared behind the archer, who had less than a quarter health left, and performed the thief class’ signature move.

Backstab. Critical hit!

Sinking her dagger into his back, she finished him off and claimed his ticket bounty, ducking and weaving to dodge an arrow and a spell thrown at her in the middle of the chaotic free for all melee.

Shit. I was too late, and my prey got stolen right before my eyes. Not that I could blame her, since I was the one planning to steal her kill.

An orc player converged towards me from the left, swinging a massive wooden mace at my face. I sidestepped and dodged the blow by a centimeter. Despite having stellar dexterity, I needed more practice and combat experience to be able to sidestep weapon attacks effectively.

It was like giving an olympic skier’s body to a preschooler, and asking them to ski down a mountain at an olympic level. Just because you had the body for it didn’t mean that you could utilize that body to its full skiing at 80 mph and backflipping potential without training.

Whoosh.

Another fast mace swing, this time connecting with my mid torso due to my failed attempt to dodge to the side.

-240 health, critical hit!

Fuck. Not good. Orcs had extremely high strength, and this one I just noticed was level 86. I couldn’t afford to sustain damage like that.

Another consecutive mace swing headed towards my head forced me into shadow. In gaseous form, I searched frantically for a spot without belligerent players swarming it so I could lick my wounds and analyze the situation tactically.

The courtyard in the castle was my pick. Speeding down there, I checked my inventory one last time, scouring it for any potions or healing items or even buffing items. No dice on the healing items, but there were a few herbs that I recognized from the Natural History and picked from the bushes during the beginning of the hidden challenge.

Taking out a [Mangelava Leaf] from my inventory, I stuffed it into my mouth and chewed on it for a few seconds, before spitting it out. It tasted almost like sandpaper and chewing tobacco combined, which was not pleasant.

[Your base health regeneration has been increased by 20%]

To be honest, this effect was rather garbage. Base health regeneration was not great even for the beefiest of melee classes. Oh well, not like I had any other options here.

“Summon cat.”

Meat Shield popped out beside me.

“Hey, buddy,” I said. “Can you sense anything inside the castle? Four players went in earlier and said they found treasure, so I’m curious if they got chomped by a mimic yet. If not, that might mean that the castle interior is safe.”

“Hmm~,” my cat answered. “I can sense four players in there, but their life signature is faint. It’s like the castle is interfering with my sense~”

I mulled over that answer for a moment. “Do you think it’s safe in there?” Looking back at the absolute carnage unfolding on the hill, I decided to amend my question. “Or at least, safer than here?”

“Who knows~” Meat Shield responded while grooming her paw. “I might be wrong, after all~ Like inside the Forgotten King’s Tomb, I couldn’t detect the mimic~”

I groaned. “We’ll leave it as a last resort, then… and do you have any healing potions or items?”

“Not really,” Meat Shield answered nonchalantly. “But if you really want some, I can grab you a phial full of bath water from Luxuria’s Hot Spring Bath~ Maybe Rosalia’s body gives the water healing properties~”

…

……..

Something something gamer girl bath water flashed through my head. No comment.

Wait a second…

“You mean Rosalia’s in the bath?”

“Of course~ She’s been using it as a base to get Bjorn back to safety~”

“And she just re-entered about ten minutes ago~”

Jackpot. Access to Rosalia’s support would be a huge game changer in this challenge. Actually, just getting any ally would make this ordeal a whole lot easier.

I waved my hand through the air and opened the portal to the dimension room. Luckily, I was considered out of combat for long enough for it to actually work, and the pillars surrounding the courtyard of the castle were good line of sight obstructions for my escape. Stepping through the portal, I landed with a thump onto a familiar tatami floor.

The television in the dimension room was set to KB broadcasting’s channel, with a news anchor covering the hidden challenge and other Eclipse current events, but I paid no mind to it and rushed towards that large granite door leading to Luxuria’s bath.

Opening it, I got hit with a familiar puff of steam and heat. Sitting in the middle of the bath with just a towel covering her body was a big breasted naked blonde girl with a large black star tattoo on her left breast.

“Oh, hi Spoon~” Rosalia greeted me cheerily. “Welcome back~” She looked me up and down and noticed that I was wounded.

[Angel of Luxuria has casted Luxurious Heal on you.]

+2 health

+2 health

+2 health

“Thank you…” I sighed in relief. “We can catch up later, but right now we have to work on getting enough tickets to pass tonight’s culling. How are you doing so far?”

“I have four tickets~”

“Wow, already? How?”

“It’s why I have to recharge my divine energy, haha…” Rosalia smiled. “Two guys attacked me, so I blasted them~ Did you know, necromancers are weak to holy magic~”

…

“Damn, really?”

“Yep,” she replied cheerily. “Don’t worry about this big sister, she can take care of herself~”

“Here,” I said, tossing her two tickets. “Let’s get through this round together in one piece. I’ll give you some of my excess tickets so you don’t have to overextend with too much pk.”

Meat Shield ran up the side of the female vase statue and rested on the top of it, one of her favorite spots. “That might not be so easy. You two can’t go back through the same portal, because you’re too far apart.”

“Agh, damn it.”

I was counting on adding Rosalia to my party and steamrolling through our opposition with our combined power, but this made things a whole lot more complicated.

“Rosalia, where are you right now in the hidden challenge?”

“Oh, um…” she tapped her chin. “I ran towards the forest after the challenge began to get away from that huuuuuge dragon, and then that necromancer and his friend ambushed me, so I killed both of them and then came here to recharge. So I’m still in the forest~”

I had a feeling that Rosalia was very strong compared to other players, but I didn’t really expect a healer class to effortlessly solo a necromancer and another player.

“Ugh. I’m really far away from you, then. I ran towards the open plains and ended up near a foggy castle. Either way, let’s focus on staying alive and collecting tickets so we can avoid tonight’s culling.”

“Sounds good~” she replied. “By the way, did you get some bonus items from the gold invitation? Something like dragonnip, stamp of judgement, and a white flower?”

“Hang on, let me check…” I opened my inventory to see.

[1x Dragonnip]

[1x All Purpose Campfire]

[1x Gravy in a Jar]

“That’s what I got,” I said after finishing reading off the strange bonus items. “I don’t really know what these are for or why we received different gold invitation items, but it seems like–”

Suddenly, a holographic mirage of Bubs appeared in the bath, hovering directly above the water. It seemed to be a pre-recorded message.

“Ahem… welcome, gold invitation holders,” he said while adjusting a pair of reading glasses as he flipped through what looked like flash cards. “I’m surprised to see two of you are already acquainted. Anyhow, now that you’ve opened your first goodie bag, let me explain some of the perks of the gold invitation.”

Maybe it wasn’t pre-recorded. In a world of magic, anything could be possible, so...

“First are the goodie bags. You’ll be getting one at the beginning of every round of the challenge. These bags contain items that can be very useful during the challenge, but it’s a bit of a lottery system so you might end up with treasure or you might end up with shit. Who knows.”

“Second are the perks. I’m here to grant you your perk for the first round. Your perk is called Weather Report. At midnight, I will give you insider knowledge on the main event for the next day. So make sure to stay alive till midnight for that insider scoop!”

“That’s all for the explanation. I’m expecting great things from you guys since you have so many bonuses. Now go out there and kill some idiots.”

His hologram disappeared into the steam after the message.

“That’s pretty nice,” I said. “Weather report is a powerful perk in this challenge in particular. And don’t forget that Luxuria tipped us off already. The lake is not safe at noon.”

“Yep~ Let’s try to find each other and then party up~”

We chatted for a bit longer, until it was time to venture forth on our own for tickets. But before that, Meat Shield hauled over some phials from the kitchen and dunked them into the hot spring. The phials bubbled until they were filled with bath water from the hot spring, and then she corked them and placed them in my inventory.

“What are you doing?” I questioned the cat.

“You’re missing health potions, right~ These will help a little bit~”

“I’m not going to drink tha–”

Meat Shield cat walked over to me and placed one of the phials in my hand. “Read the description~”

I reluctantly opened the item status.

[Phial of Luxuria’s Hot Spring Water]

Divine item

Upon consumption, grants a shorter duration version of Luxuria’s Hot Spring buff.

Restores 50 health.

Restores 50 holy power.

Restores 50 mana.

Has a mild cleansing effect on wounds.

“Rosalia, you should pack some too~ Just make sure not to throw out the phials, so you can refill them later~”