Chapter 13

Player Killers

"Phew, that was dangerous."

Player Killing, or PKing, is another mechanic in Freedom Fantasy that let players contest their strength against each other. Different from a duel, in which players are forbidden to use items, PKing is unrestricted by any rules, and as the name says, it would result towards character death.

Character death in Freedom Fantasy could lead to a decrease in player's level, and the disappearance of items in the inventory. For thelatter, it would be because of the Player Killer—or the PKer for short—took the item from the victim's inventory.

For skill collection classes like Lost' Monster Devourer, it is possible that the skills would be gone as well. Lost couldn't risk this, so he ran away.

"It should be safe here."

Lost stopped somewhere near Mirrond. He hasn't absorbed the Twilight Cat's corpse yet, he needed to get somewhere safe, yet free from any passerby's eyes. He was still keeping his class a secret, he couldn't risk getting seen by anyone.

It was an empty cave, which was suspicious, but Lost thought that there couldn't be any high leveled mobs in the area anyway, so he didn't care.

"If there's any mobs, I'll just kill it I guess," Lost said as he scratched his head.

"Now..."

He put down the corpse gently on the ground. He reached out his right hand as he equipped Ravenous Arm. He didn't need to, but he thought it would look cool. He plunged his hand onto the neck of the corpse.

"Greater Devour."

Greater Devour Active Skill

By using the Ravenous Hand or inserting the corpse of a monster into your mouth, there is a fixed chance to obtain the monster's skills and/or characteristics. There is a very small chance of absorbing stats.

Can absorb any skill under the rare rating. Once a characteristic is absorbed, you can choose to equip that characteristic at any time.

Cooldown: 5 Seconds

Cost: 1 Mana

"Your skill is mine."

[You have obtained the skill....]

"Huh?"

Lost was confused as he read the notification. It has never happened before.

[You have obtained the skill 'Unnamed_Skill_3120 '!]

The name of the skill was very unconventional.

"Did the devs get lazy in creating the skills for bosses?" Lost wondered, "Guess I'll check out what it is."

He quickly read the skill's description.

Unnamed_Skill_3120 Active Skill

Placeholder Text.

Axel, if you are reading this, that means you've found one of the secrets we hid inside this game. You designed Raven, remember? I hope by defeating him, you can feel a little relieved.

With love,

The Alexanders.

Cooldown: 0 Seconds

Cost: 0 Mana (First Usage)

"Mom... Dad..." Lost kept staring at the words on the skill's description.

"Wait."

"If I didn't have this class, how would I be able to read this?"

"Did they know I was going to get this class?"

He recalled of something from the past.

[The chain quest 'Hunger Awaits (S+)' has been permanently destroyed from the server.]

"What kind of quest was it?"

"Would there be other letters from mom and dad there?" He clenched his fist.

"Goddamnit!" He punched the cave's walls.

"Oh well, there's nothing I could do about it now..."

He read the description of the skill once more.

'You've found one of the secrets we hid inside this game.'

"How many more are there?" Lost looked towards the ceiling, "I'll find them all, mom, dad."

"But before that..."

"Unnamed Skill Three One Two Zero."

Hovering in the air, right next to his shoulder, was a purple sphere. It was glowing, and there was a purple nebulae inside of it.

"This is it? Isn't it use-"

Interrupting his speech, a Killer Rabbit jumped from inside the cave. It dashed onto Lost with its full speed. Surprised, Lost focused his eyes onto the white blur. Suddenly, the purple sphere flew like a bullet towards the horned rabbit.

It exploded the killer rabbit to smitherens. No corpse remained.

[You have dealt 9999 damage!]

Lost' was at a loss.

"That's a lot of damage."

[Unknown error occured.]

[Would you like to rename the skill?]

"Yes please"

[Please input the new name of the skill.]

"Big damage ball."

[Description has been automatically generated.]

[An Item has been generated]

Big Damage Ball Active Skill

Creates a magical orb that explodes upon contact with an enemy.

*Twilight orbs will hover until you command them to attack.

Cooldown: 0 Seconds

Cost: 250 Mana A Letter from The Alexanders: The Cat Letter

Axel, if you are reading this, that means you've found one of the secrets we hid inside this game. You designed Raven, remember? I hope by defeating him, you can feel a little relieved.

With love,

The Alexanders

"No cooldown? It's the first time I've ever seen anything like this. It does cost a lot of mana, though."

"Thanks mom, dad." He put his hand on his chest.

"By the way... when did I get this skill?"

Steel Fang Active Skill

Bites at an enemy, deals damage proportional to 125% of a normal physical attack. 100% chance of ignoring armor on that target. 25% chance of breaking a monster's part.

*Ravenous Arm can be used to bite an enemy.

Cooldown: 1 Second.

Cost: 75 Mana

"Did I ever fight a Steel Wolf or something?"

"That can't be it..."

"Could it be?"

[You have equipped the characteristic ‘Black Iron Body’.]

"Blood Gnaw."

[Usage of the two skills has activated another skill.]

[The skill 'Steel Fang' has been activated.]

"Interesting..."

Lost opened his skill list.

***

Big Damage Grenade Active Skill

Equips a small Big Damage Ball that has been sealed in black iron. Will explode after some time.

Cooldown: 1 Second

Cost: 50 Mana Big Damage Sticky Bomb Active Skill

Equips a small big damage sphere that has been sealed in black iron and coated in viscoscity. Will explode after some time. Sticks to any surface.

Cooldown: 1 Second

Cost: 75 Mana Big Damage Landmine Active Skill

Puts down a big damage sphere that has been sealed in black iron on a surface. Will explode after being stepped on.

Cooldown: 1 Second

Cost: 500 Mana

"Sometimes my genius is... it's almost frightnening." Lost uttered, as he let out an evil laugh.

"I got big bombs and I cannot lie~𝅘𝅥𝅮 "

"The landmine is really expensive to my tiny mana wallet, though."

"I'll have to be frugal in using these."

Lost was walking towards Mirrond. He was happy, he got a letter from his parents, and he obtained new skills. And these skills were somewhat familiar to him. Knives and Bullets, or KnB–the FPS that Lost used to play–had gadgets similar to these so that players could be more strategic in pushing a zone, guarding bombsites, et cetera.

"What are you doing!??"

"Huh?" Lost hear a voice nearby.

There was a group of people arguing. One was on the ground, a newbie Rogue with beginner's equipment. The other two looked decently leveled up. One was a Holy Priest, and the other was a Holy Paladin, wielding a greatsword that was pointed at the rogue.

"Just shut up, Freedom Fantasy isn't a place for noobs like you." The paladin said, planting his sword next to the newbie's face.

"You said you wanted to help me!" The Rogue argued, afraid for her life.

"Yes, and you've obtained your reward already."

"And our reward..," The Priest continued, "is you!"

The priest chanted the spell for Holy Smite, a standard spell for Holy Priests. But she couldn't finish it.

[You have equipped the characteristic ‘Black Iron Body’.]

"Speed Burst."

"Argh!" The Priest screamed as she was hit by a projectile. But it wasn't a projectile.

"A Brawler?!"

The priest flew away, and fell face first to the ground.

'Guess that's my disguise for now,' Lost thought. 'How convenient.'

"Why are classes from the Holy Church doing PKing?" The 'Brawler' said, warming up his fists.

"Präst!!" The paladin screamed as he saw his friend get knocked away. "You'll pay for this!" The paladin screamed once more, as he swung his sword towards Lost.

You must be shapeless, formless, like water.

Lost dodged the swords with minimal movement. As the paladin swung his greatsword, Lost simply stepped left and right.

Water can drip and it can crash.

He didn't strike back, nor did he block it. He just simply got out of the volume of space that the sword would occupy over the course of its strike.

When the paladin grew tired of the swings, Lost prepared his counter attack.

"Dragon Style,.."

Lost breathed in. He moved his arms in a circular motion, imitating the shape of yin and yang. He pulled his right hand backwards, as he moved his left forward. He didn't need to do all this, he just thought it would look cool.

"Exploding Fists!"

Become like water my friend.

-Bruce Lee

'Wait no that doesn't make sense, maybe I should've thought of a fire-based quote.'

As he punched the paladin in the guts, an explosion occured, throwing the paladin about 5 meters away.

How was this possible? Lost had used the skill 'Big Damage Grenade' and hid it inside his iron fists. He had to estimate the exploding time, as he never used the skill before. But since it was similar to the grenade from KnB, the illusion looked legitimate.

"Scram." Lost said, after pausing a bit to think what would sound cool to say.

"Yes sir!" The hurt paladin grabbed the fallen priest and ran away.

"Are you okay?" Lost reached out his arm to the fallen Rogue.

"Yes, thank you." The Rogue grabbed Lost' arm as he helped her get up.

"Be careful out there." Lost said, as he walked away.

"Thank you so much!" The Rogue said, bowing his head.

Lost waved, his back facing towards the Rogue.

'Shit, that was so cool!' Lost said in his head.

***

In the city of cuisines, Mirrond Town, it was getting lively inside of Hungry Panda.

"Hey Malec, this yours?"

Lost showed the teddy bear he got from the Twilight Cat to the small boy.

Malec showed a great smile, as he became joyful at the sight of his teddy bear Theo.

"Theo!" Malec huged the bear tight. "I thought I l-lost you.."

"Huwahh!!" Malec started crying. "Thank you so much, Lost!" Malec hugged Lost.

"There, there,"Lost caressed Malec's head, trying to calm him down.

[“Malec's Teddy" Quest Complete!]

"Thanks, kiddo," the man behind the counter, Rodzic, said.

"No problem, Malec reminded me of when I was little."

"Is that so?" Rodzic said. "Well, here's a thank you from me."

[You have obtained "Panda Clan's Insignia"!]

Panda Clan's Insignia Key Item

A wooden insignia to identify members of the Panda Clan. The letter Mo (貘) is inscribed between the carvings.

"What's this, old man?"

"It's a badge I received from an old friend of mine."

"Wasn't this meant for you?"

"Me and Malec are staying in this town permanently, kiddo." Rodzic said, patting Malec's head. "It's useless for me. But I'm sure you'll put it to good use."

"Alright then, if you say so.."

Lost left the Hungry Panda restaurant. He wanted to stay but there were something bothering him.

'Player Killers...'

Not just one, but he found three PKs in one day. Larron, Präst, and one Paladin he didn't know the name of.

Player Killers were common, but seeing classes from the Holy Church PK, now that was something extremely strange.

It is a widely known fact that in Freedom Fantasy, classes from the Holy Church are restricted by a lot of things.

'Protego. Ora. Saepio.'

Those words are the motto of the Holy Church in Freedom Fantasy. It means to protect, pray, and foster. This meant that they couldn't join in duels, or arena battles, let alone organize a PK. Their powers are given for them to protect others, not harm.

So the scene that happened earlier, meant that something terrible has happened.

Either they left the church—which was impossible, as the Holy Priest could still use the skill Holy Smite—or...

"The Holy Goddess is Dead."