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Volume 4

Chapter 18 That Night, Angry Forest Spirit

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There was a change in Terroa that happened nine or so months ago. It was a storm in the South Eastern part of the Terran map where an Exploration Guild came across an uncharted land.

Upon the sight of the land, there came another problem as unknown large monsters were seen walking off the shore and just stopped to stare at them.

It might have been okay if that happened at about a hundred or so meters away but the monsters felt their eyes on them in a hundred kilometers distance. These monsters all had wings on them, their appearances all looked like the drawings and sketches of the beasts of legends in old stories.

In the video taken, they were all discussing some things in the bridge of their exploration vessel when a strong and violent wind suddenly shook them off course.

They had nine ships in their fleet with anti-bad weather system engaged round the clock. But the strong gust of stormy wind formed like hurricane in their midst with no warning, wiping them off, making them collide with each other.

Some were lucky enough to have just been thrown off to the sea or was hauled higher than their normal height of operating altitude.

But to those who were unlucky enough to have caught the short straw, out of the nine, only two four survived.

And yet the catastrophe that befallen the Exploration Guild did not end there as flocks of giant winged beasts began to gather, controlling water, controlling air. In the seas and the sky, they flew in circles, beginning the attack as soon as the winds calmed.

The chaos of the attack killed everyone on the ships that survived the first strike and out of all the 6000 men of the entire fleet, a handful of survivors were lucky enough to see and record how they died.

Dragons that controlled the elements had attacked them and since then, the legends of the mysterious island had circulated the net.

In the Southern Continent side of the Official Forums, this certain gained a few attention but after a few days of talk and no update on the mysterious island, even if there is the video with Dragons in there, the fact that it was a dead topic became the reason why the issue died.

After that, the Exploration Guild tried to regain their lost pride and went after that mysterious island but the island itself was nowhere to be found.

Millions of Zentra spent to gain back their honor but what they received in return was just more shame. The thread post was deleted and the exclusive video was upload in the net.

And on his search for answers regarding his own quest, Siva came across this video. But…

“It doesn’t help with Zeta.”

He downloaded the video and dismissed the window on his vision. He glanced up to see the stars atop the few monsters he’d slain.

Then Siva looked down and jumped off the mountain of Predators, frowning, even though it can’t be seen, at the sight of his haul.

“Something’s changing.” He murmured and summoned his Portable Spider Cargo Truck’s item form.

He summoned a mini capsule, pressed the switch, and threw it in a distance away from his location.

POOM!

Smoke clouds exploded and a 10meter long six-legged giant spider truck with a cockpit at the front appeared.

To the place where its belly should be, was a lever that could only be seen on toe-trucks and a clip with anti-gravity pads to place below a single freight container.

A small port is on the side with the 1m large blue tinted SCV Unit on standby.

Siva pressed the switch and the SCV started moving, hauling his mountain of games towards the 15m long, 10m wide freight container.

When he watched his pile of games slowly decrease in amount, Siva frowned (invisibly) that it was not in the desired numbers on his standard. Call him conceited or just not getting used to it, but Siva’s usual game wasn’t this few.

“Gotta hunt more.” He murmured.

But although he declared so, Siva felt that there really is something wrong with his Killing Zone. It wasn’t at all a bad thing. But it was worth worrying.

—Since when did it expanded that far?”

«Killing Zone»

By training one’s spirit, one can summon great powers that will grant the ability to render the defenses of any foes down to nothing but paper. But with great power comes great risks as strong monsters will be able to smell the scent of danger coming from the user and will attack rashly to defend themselves from the crushing spirit.

Effects:

Absolute Aggressor

--Decreases defenses of all recognized enemies by 70%

Monster Magnet

--Every monster in the 500m radius of the user will be attracted to his direction and will attack without restraint.

The Gift of Stats

--Grants user random stat gifts depending on the mental condition of the user at times of needs. (Unique Ability holders only)

As far as Siva could remember, the initial distance that the Killing Zone could effect monsters started out at a radius of 100 meters from him. Also there was the fact that every monster he comes across, once the ability is triggered, will attack him regardless of their condition.

But now, he noticed that low ranking Predators, even the rare but very aggressive Aliens that scouts the land and forests before, was running away from him.

E-ranked to C-ranked monsters to be exact, have been avoiding him with clear intentions.

Once Siva started to manually become agitated, all the monsters in the vicinity would run away. He’s been in the forest for a few hours now, spending his time to get as much game as possible.

He wanted to buy a decent Cyclone for personal use and even though he already have 160M Zentra in stash, he was still reluctant to spend it all as he it was his fund to raise Dragunov’s level next time he sees Janus.

Ever since he last saw the old man, he still can’t forget the last words he said when he gave him advice about his Dragunov.

[It’s one of the first official S-ranked Equipments in the planet so be proud. S-ranked weapons have a few very unique functions in them, one of which is that they can be assigned special abilities once completed. But be warned, there are a few certain weapon functions that once used, the weapon’s previous condition will never be reverted back. So choose carefully when installing them.]

Siva was aware that Dragunov is still an incomplete weapon. In fact, Dragunov wasn’t a real weapon in its entirety as its nature is like an armor.

He designed it to be ‘like’ an armor. The same way that Cassius Clay was designed, its focus is to protect his fists and limbs when he’s attacking and defending.

As RPG: Terroa is a game that allows a player to equip multiple equipments simultaneously, he decided to use it as an armor-weapon, like a shield, exploiting the fact that it was made from Dragon materials with superior durability compared to the rest.

But what he chose for its ‘special function’ —unique only to S-ranked materials, is the «Disintegration» that led him to the discovery of the «Raijin» Skill Set.

Then there was the sword. The «Black Ender». Siva is yet to find anything worthy to use its very special and very unique ‘special function’, «Integrate». He can only use it once so he was careful of using it.

In the Weapons Database, he bought the rights to read a certain «Fire Staff» made by a player from a rare «Fire Lizard Tail» he received in a C-ranked mission.

This certain Fire Staff is the very first A-rank weapon to be registered at the time. It garnered a lot of envy and attention ever since Gats, the strongest player known, decided to boast it in the net.

Siva’s purpose for reading it is because it was the first equipment to have been made from special materials.

In a book in the library, Siva remembered that not all monster materials can be merged with Nanotech. As said, Dragon materials, as rare as they are, will only be able to merge with materials on the same class.

As Siva checked the cost of ‘upgrading’ an A-ranked weapon like the «Fire Staff», he learned that it was an eye-popping price of 200M Zentra. Not only that, there is also a limitation as to how many times an equipment can be upgraded.

For the Fire Staff, it was twice.

What more is a rare S-ranked weapon like Dragunov?

It’s one reason why he was careful to spend his limited resources on things that he thinks are not essential. His 160M Zentra should be spent wisely because acquiring that sum in a short while was just his pure luck. If he had not completed that S-ranked Mission against the Cursed King, God forbid, he would have committed suicide right after because of guilt.

That’s why Siva did his best to hunt whenever he had time out of his investigations. Another reason for the hunt is to also cool down his unstable temper.

But seeing that it was not as easy as he had imagined, he started to wonder what had changed. The radius of the Killing Zone’s effect was described in the skill panel. Now that his «Raijin» Skills are locked, all the more he had to rely on his basic fighting abilities. And by that, stronger weapons and equipments are needed, thus needing more money and resources.

“Argh… Problems, problems…”

Siva could almost cry.

Why must this fate befall upon him and his family?

He felt depressed now. Siva’s shoulders slumped and his body felt tired and battered for that reason.

“No. I must force myself to stand!” Looking at the four sided panel again, he composed another frown. “So just how did its AOE increase? Urgh, how troublesome.”

According to his experience, when his rank is still in the low, the low ranking monsters attacked him with no restraint. Is it because he’s an S-ranked player now?

When this thought entered his mind, he grudgingly felt punching something.

He swiped another window in midair and checked the abilities he had in his arsenal…

Ability List:

1) Killing Zone (PASSIVE)

2) Telekinesis (-) (ACTIVE)

--------L-Leg Disintegration (-)

--------R-Leg Disintegration (-)

--------L-Arm Disintegration (-)

--------R-Arm Disintegration (-)

--------Phantom Mask (Half Down) (-)

--------Half Down Ring (-)

--------Half Count Armlet (-)

--------Half Count Ring (-)

--------Half Count Armlet (-)

--------Tier-3 Area Extension Earring (-)

--------Tier-3 Alteration (-)

3) Air Blast (4/4) (ACTIVE)

4) Shock Blast (ACTIVE)

5) Deva’s Path (/)Draw—(/)Spurn (ACTIVE)

6) Malevolent Aura (ACTIVE) [Locked]-[PASSIVE]

7) Pose of the King (PASSIVE)

8) Parry (PASSIVE)

9) Blood Verse (ACTIVE) [LOCKED] [EXP: 1/1000]

10) --

Unequipped:

Hammer Blast* (--)

*Transcendence

Trispell (PASSIVE) [Locked]

Blazing Blessing (PASSIVE) [Locked] [EXP: 1/1000]

Kamaitachi (PASSIVE) [Locked] [EXP: 1/1000]

Attention (ACTIVE)

Channel (PASSIVE) [Locked]

Accessories:

12) Tier-1 Quick Draw

13) Tier-1 Quick Draw

14) Chalice of the Blood Dragon God

15) Skeleton Key

He can’t use magic. Telekinesis is considered as magic so he can’t use it while he was still cursed with the lock in the Malevolent Aura. He also checked his skin that made him frown (invisibly) again.

All his accessory slots are full with most of them used to boost the effects of the Telekinesis ability.

But now that he was in this cured state, Siva found no reason to maintain the current form and so decided to disband the current junction.

Ability List:

1) Killing Zone (PASSIVE)

2) Air Blast (4/4) (ACTIVE)

3) Shock Blast (ACTIVE)

4) Deva’s Path (/)Draw—(/)Spurn (ACTIVE)

5) Malevolent Aura (ACTIVE) [Locked]-[PASSIVE]

6) Pose of the King (PASSIVE)

7) Parry (PASSIVE)

8) Blood Verse (ACTIVE) [LOCKED] [EXP: 1/1000]

9) --

10) --

Unequipped:

Telekinesis (--) (ACTIVE)

Hammer Blast* (--)

*Transcendence

Trispell (PASSIVE) [Locked]

Blazing Blessing (PASSIVE) [Locked] [EXP: 1/1000]

Kamaitachi (PASSIVE) [Locked] [EXP: 1/1000]

Attention (ACTIVE)

Channel (PASSIVE) [Locked]

Accessories:

1) Black Phantom Mask (Half Down) (--)

2) L-Leg Disintegration (--)

3) R-Leg Disintegration (--)

4) L-Arm Disintegration (--)

5) R-Arm Disintegration (--)

6) Tier-1 Quick Draw

7) Tier-1 Quick Draw

8) Chalice of the Blood Dragon God

9) Skeleton Key

10) --

11) --

12) --

13) --

14) --

15) --

Unequipped:

Half Down Ring (--)

Half Count Armlet (--)

Half Count Ring (--)

Half Count Armlet (--)

Tier-3 Area Extension Earring (--)

Tier-3 Alteration (--)

After breaking the junctioned abilities and accessories, Siva studied his body and frowned again in discontent.

Instead of the black aura vanishing into nothingness, the swirling black sand in his body began to change to a single motion blur. From his feet, it now stopped in its initial motion of swirling around him, instead, it is now going in a straight evaporation from his feet up to his head. Like steam coming out of your shoulders after a bath, that’s how the black particles aura looked now.

The concentration of the black particles on the exhaust bore of his Flight Armor looked the same and when he alternated on the switch to turn it (ON) and (OFF), the black particles appeared to look like wings expanding and relaxing on a steady straight line.

“How annoying…”

Not only he couldn’t use magic, he had to deal with this irritating appearance of a black skinned demon.

From the day he started until now, he do remember that his Killing Zone doesn’t have any neighbors on the Ability Slots. Siva tried to experiment to remove all of the abilities and flew to monster locations to test the activation of the skill.

That’s where he noticed that there was no change in the effect no matter what combination he did.

“So how did it expanded then?”

In his mind, he knew it spelled trouble. If this is going to be the case, then the larger the AOE of Killing Zone, the larger the area it can gather monsters.

Also, as he was already an S-ranked Hunter now, all the more reason it is for him to feel disgruntled.

Siva slumped his butt on the rock he found to sit on, he crossed his arms and started to think. Then, within that train of thought, he realized…

“…!! Could it be?!”

He gasped and punched the rock without the Dragunov.

As pain seeped in his fist, he chew on the fact that he had realized it too late.

“Why did I just realize it now?! Damn it!”

Logic drilled in. The stronger the ability, the higher its price will be in the long run. He do remember telling himself that his gameplay would rely on long term type rather than the impulsive short-term build.

Isn’t that the reason why he became an Apollo Race?

Isn’t that the reason why he risked discovering Unique Abilities so that he can sell it someday?

The reason why the AOE of the Killing Zone became bigger is because his Hunter Rank increased. Perhaps it got stuck to 500m radius since he hunted his first Lapis which is an S-ranked monster.

At the War of the Two Powers, he do remember the total AOE of his Killing Zone to be in the 200m radius.

That’s because he was a B-rank hunter by the time. As he hasn’t sold the Lapis in the Miranda, the increase in rank wasn’t carried over yet.

Siva crouched down atop of the rock and let go of a howl as he screamed in agony of his cruel fate.

“Why?! WHYYYYYY?!!”

Dusts and dew was blown away as he also, reflexively, activated his Flight Armor’s boosters. But a peculiar sound of a click caught his ears.

KACHICK!

His gaze followed the direction it came from and saw ten players with low ranking armors kneeling down.

They don’t seem to be worshipping him, instead, they were all looking at him like he was some kind of beast.

“What…” He blushed (invisibly) and turned to face the players who took his picture. “What are you doing?”

Then one of the players approached him with food on his hand. As his trembling hand tried to give it to Siva, Siva in return just stared at the man.

“P-Please accept th-this offering.” His brows twitched with the sentence.

“Why would I do that?”

The player looked at his friends searching for support and a female player urged him and gave a signal. The player nodded and from him to the group, they kneeled down and lowered their heads.

“W-We are beginner hunters in this forest and we don’t want to anger its Keeper. This is all that we have right now, please accept this offering and let us go alive.”

If Siva hadn’t known better, they really did mistook him for a boss-mob NPC. He checked himself again and found the reason they did so. He had opened up the buttons of his Ryodan Polo, the black aura evaporating on his body looked intimidating, adding the fact that he had dark wings and dark skin.

He looked like an NPC monster. And as he could talk and ask them questions, it’s evident he was deemed to be a high priority-AI NPC mob. Smile beamed on Siva.

Now that he was in this situation, why not use it to his advantage?

A dubious plan sprouted on his mind with a grin.

He’s going to use The Destroyer’s circumstances to his own benefit. That’s the point of the plan.

“No! That is not enough!” The players shuddered and the women screamed in horror. “I am the Spirit of this forest and I demand you to be blood sacrifices!”

Siva summoned the Black Ender and players all looked stunned at the sight of the jet black sword.

With his fluttering open polo, he looked nothing like the elegant man he wanted people to see him. He is now the angry Forest Spirit.

“Please, give us some mercy!” Screamed the man who represented the group. “We will do anything you ask just please don’t kill us! I beg you! We just started our careers last week!”

“I thirst for vengeance!” Screamed Siva and kicked the air to slash at a nearby tree. As these players aren’t used to the advanced battles against fast opponents yet, they couldn’t follow his movements at all. “A certain group of hunters had taken a treasure of mine and I have awoken with fury and wrath! In fact, I smell their scent upon you lot! So I think I will have myself some meal…”

He added a hissing tone in the end phrase and it was the multiplier on the frightened emotions on Siva’s innocent victims.

The female players screamed and the leader not only bowed, he was already in a seiza position begging with his head going up and down. A Japanese player.

“Please! Please forgive—”

“SILENCE!”

“Kyaaaaaaaa…” “Waaa…”

“I cannot forgive those members of the Helium Guild for they have stolen my treasure! I have registered you all in my memory. If you don’t want me to hunt you all forever, find these people and give their information to my great follower, The Destroyer!”

After that, Siva knelt down and threw a Plasma Screen Grenade and fled as he jumped and stomped the air. A black wings so large expanded like an illusion, and his image flew up with incredible speed.

The wind circle parted the mist and the image of the winged spirit of the forest was seen pausing with the bright full moon as a background before he vanished to who knows where to spread the same horror of the angry Forest Spirit.

In the coming morning, on the same night in the real world, news about the Forest Guardian had spread like wildfire in the noob community. No newbie had dared enter that forest again and instead, all newbies in Loire teamed together to find these dreaded thieves.

The lure of the smell of a rare mission not only made the noob society very alive, this event also triggered for curious players to test and get the mission themselves.

And just then, in the Eastern Gates of Loire, a certain gun wielding player driving two Spider Cargo Trucks with two freight containers entered the city.

The newbies didn’t think twice to approach the man to give him a warning. But the moment they saw the skull mask he wore…

“S-Sorry sir. Please be on your way.”

Like the rumors said about him, the «Volume Hunter» is not an ordinary player. And from the cold silent look they received, a hunt like no other is about to unfold…

—or so they thought.