Entering certain space, Eden looked around to find a certain Goddess AI relaxing strangely enough. After her creator died, this Goddess changed a bit to hide what Eden believed to be grief. It was the first AI to achieve emotions though it was the first AI in many things.

The Goddess was still in the same appearance as he last met her...only the younger version. With long brown hair with silver in it and wrapped in a one piece dress you could not tell it was a Goddess by looking at it.

But it was still the absolute ruler of the virtual space.

Even though he could not be restrained that easily, he could still be trapped and tortured for all eternity. Thankfully this Goddess AI was not a sadist...he hoped.

“It's been a while” he called out to it to which he looked and smiled at him.

“Please don't say that every time we meet....” Eden sighed. This damn Goddess AI can instantly count the number of nanoseconds since they last met and would bring it up all the time.

Displeased the scenery changed from the blank white space to a raging battlefield. Eden ignored it and still talked to the Goddess AI.

“I have a favour” he said bluntly.

[That will cost you another skill]

In total Eden had 666 skills he could use. Many of them were extremely overpowered like 'Absolute Gravity Control' or 'Eternal Elixir Production' that could break the game. And he had hundreds of them!

As such he wasn't allowed to even use them in game thanks to this Goddess AI hating cheating and he got the most cheaty skill of them all which only it had before!

All Creation!

A power to create anything and everything, even new continents if he wished! However upon testing it, a certain Goddess AI rudely took him from the game and explained some rules that were placed around the skill.

The first rule! Never break the game.

The second rule! Find a balance.

And the third rule! Don't exploit it.

In all honesty he tried not to...but circumstances...cough...falling from the sky with next to no mana to fly....cough....poisoned with something that can only be healed by the most perfect elixir....cough...forced them to often create such skills.

The only thing was that he wasn't allowed more than a certain amount of skills in total as well and he could exchange a skill for a favour. He had already used 5 favours to get those six, Sain and the others safe under his wing.

He had no plans on letting them go on that.

He always had Sain working for him by explaining...no threatening him after all. He would be a good tool to use, the group he took in had the potential to be something great...only that he would make sure they owe him too much that they can't escape.

“What so skill are you taking this time?” he asked. He hoped that 'Unlimited Vigour' would not be taken. That skill was made and saved his life after Alexandra...three days straight was all he had to say with that.

[Divine Sight]

“What?!” Eden exclaimed, “How can I peek at others then?!” Even though he still had 'Eagle Vision' it did not have the same range as 'Divine Sight'.

[Do you want me to relay this conversation to Alexandra? Hmm?]

“No.....” Eden would rather this damn Goddess AI take the skill else what was said falls to Alexandra's ears.

[Fine I'll take 'Hell Stalker' that lets you see in dungeons instead]

Eden smiled at this. The skill use was only that but at the same time allowed him to see where all the monsters, traps and treasures were...though getting there was another matter itself.

[Anyway what do you want?]

“Location of someone in the game. With your information nets you know of that family that brought the new members of my guild before I took them in right?”

[You mean the child trafficking one? I believe someone was sent to monitor him and catch him when he acts]

“Yeah that one. The rich one...locate his granddaughter that's connected to the game.”

[….]

Eden waited for a few seconds but was shocked at the results.

[No results found]

“Huh?”

[There is no one by the name of Helen Maridknight in the game nor is anyone connected has that name]

“Impossible, Simon even confirmed that she was in the game itself! That capsule is definitely connected to Royal Road and I even made him check again before coming here!”

[There are three possibilities to that]

“Which are?”

[The first is that the actual person is of a different name but-]

“You would know that as well, next.”

[The second is that there is an error or that the person in question is dead. There has been a few cases where a dead person looks to be alive connected to the game even though there is no response]

“Great an impossible task for them to do” Eden let out a dry laugh thinking if he didn't come then those six would have to set off in a task that was impossible to complete.

“And the third?”

[The third...is that Helen does exist and is alive but I cannot find her...if I am compromised by her]

“....”

Eden did not like this possibility. The Goddess AI, deemed the most perfect system that was created so far which had countless protections and was separated from everything else by 10 degrees. Even one character not supervised could not go through it unnoticed.

Otherwise it meant that this damn AI was lying through it's teeth to him.

“....Anyway tell me anything you find out later on this.”

After that he left the place.

“Fuee.....”

The Goddess AI breathed out in relief appearing back in game in the form of the Holy Seer. Suddenly a certain Heretical God appeared which was the same one that watched in game when Eden met it last.

“How annoying that he is so sharp” she offhandedly commented to the God next to her.

“How much does he know?” the Heretical God asked.

The Goddess AI, no, the Holy Seer sighed and said, “To the point he know that person he seeks is involved in the late game.”

xXx

The start of the fifth day, the day in which reinforcement from the Guild, started with the appearance of a giant monster.

“Damn they are combining! Take them down quickly!” Sain shouted these orders but quickly realised that it was too late and the numerous zombies combined together to create one giant one.

Right now about 300 of 900 non combat NPCs died while 90 of 100 NPC guards were dead as well. Ad for the players, half of them were wiped out as well so it was a very bad thing for a creature of this size and power to appear.

Standing at 20 metres all and in the shape of a normal zombie except for the bottom where it was a sludge of meat, the creature with one large eye looked at the town....and screamed.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRR!!!”

The sound was so loud that everyone was stunned by it and were forced to stop and hold their ears in fear that they might break from the sound alone. Some people fell over while other were tipped to try and support themselves from this 'attack'.

Lyndis was one of these people who fell over as she was not close enough to anything that could support her at the time of the scream.

“You got to be kidding me” she cursed under her breath seeing the creature again. Although the countless zombies were now gone, instead they got this giant monster that was certainly over level 200.

At this rate they will be defeated quite easily and fail the Guild Quest.

'NO! That can never happen!' she sweat in fear thinking of what Eden told her before, though she did not realise those same words were directed at Sain as well.

“Flame Strike!” she cried out and poured as much mana as she could into the attack and fired it at the colossal monster. The attack was like a tiny arrow to a fortress, it barely burnt a small part of it, that's all.

BANG BANG BANG!

The colossal monster slammed the ground three times and sent waves of destruction all over the place. It was like several earthquakes hit them right now.

“That thing...can use Earth magic as well?!” Sain screamed in disbelief. Lyndis noticed that his eyes changed to one that was snake like. He was currently using 'Boost' right now, a day after he did before.

Clenching her teeth she decided she might as well use it now, else be killed here.

“Boost!” she shouted sending the great amount of power sealed within her right hand to the rest of her body.

“Ahhhhh!” she let out a small scream feeling a bit overwhelmed of it flowing so much everywhere. The glove on her hand felt extremely hot, hotter than any other place right now.

Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double

Effects of the 'Mark of the Lion' is now active. 'Genesis Flame' is now active.

All of a sudden, Lyndis' body was covered in flames due to the effects of 'Genesis Flame'. Her health, mana and stamina were all decreasing slowly due to this and she knew that she only had minutes with this before it consumed and killed her.

“Lyndis?!” Miriel looked at her in disbelief that she would use 'Boost' right now. She was well aware of the risks it prosed. Other than the change in personality, 'Boost' had another side effect. That is being consumed by flames, for her at least.

Lyndis let out a cough and saw her blood on her hand and then said, “At this rate the Guild Quest will fail and SOMEONE is already using it as well!” she pointed her arm at Sain to which Miriel glared at Sain again for doing something reckless again.

“Get back!” Lyndis shouted to anyone nearby as she ran to the front lines. The flames that covered her made her look like a raging flame that was alive.

No more than 30 metres away from the colossal creature, he thought of a giant tornado of flame.

“OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

The flames by her will acted and burst forth from her body consuming a great deal of her health, mana and stamina at the same time. 'Genesis Flame' was extremely powerful but at the same time was even worse than 'Life Burn' as it burnt all three things that keeps her alive at the same time.

“BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURNNNNN!!!” she screamed not caring for much more than that right now. This came first before everything else right now.

The flame tornado with Lyndis as the source burnt around the colossal monster and appeared to be sending burning parts of the creature around the place as it rapidly discarded the parts that were burning.

However the colossal creature much to Lyndis and everyone else's surprise moved out of the flame tornado taking it out with a swipe of it's arm.

“Cough!” Lyndis spat out blood as she collapsed.

Stamina has been completely drained

- Unable to move

- Unable to take any actions

Mana has been completely drained

- Mana reflux will cause you to be stunned for 10 seconds

- Any use of skills will fail until completely healed

Health as reached critical point, health will slowly decrease until death

'Damn......' she thought of her current state. At this point she only had around...a few minutes even without the final flames killing her until she died.

Tap...tap....tap...

She heard someone walking to where she was. She did not recognise the sound of the footsteps.

“Well you are in a bad shape, don't use that much power in such short time when you have so little practice with it” a woman said to her though she could not see who it was at all, her head was still pointed at the colossal creature.

“It was a mistake to face it head on like that you know. It is right now around the mid level 300s and you are...level 150 with powers that allows you to get to level 200 at best? That power, that 'Mark' that Eden gave you is stable right now so don't expect anymore than a 50 level boost in power from now on” the woman continued to say.

“Lyndis!” Sain shouted running up to her. He chanted and quickly casted 'Moderate Heal' and several 'Minor Heal' to get her to around 30% health quickly. Getting up she looked at the woman who was talking to her though it was one sided with Lyndis being silent.

She was in a mid 40s she believed but looked as if she was still in her thirties with silver hair with red tints at the end. Her hair only reached her shoulders as well. She was wearing a full black leather armour set that Lyndis believed to be extremely high level as well and donned no weapon on her.

It was hard not to see that one of her arms was tattooed with an angel wing and the other with a devil wing.

“Who are you?” Lyndis asked.

Hearing this, the woman laughed said, “Who am I? I am reinforcement! I am Alice, level 800 or so and as for class” Alice continued to say with a smile, “That's a secret that you don't need to know” There was a bit of cheek in her tone like an overenthusiastic aunt though as a fellow woman she would never say that.

“Lyndis!”

“That's...” Lyndis looked over to see that the rest of the group ran over with worried faces. She could not help but have a bitter smile at this scene. She did not expect to find herself with people that would care for her so much again.

After some words from her saying that she was fine, Lyndis watched as Alice looked at the colossal creature with a serious look and then looked at the group. She took something from her inventory and threw them at the group.

“Drink these, at your level they will completely heal you all in all aspects” said Alice paying little attention to the colossal creature that should be her priority right now.

When Lyndis questioned that she scorned her and said, “YOU are my priority right now not this town. My orders are to make sure you all are fine. Now drink!”

Taking the strange liquid in her mouth, Lyndis found the taste to be quite sweet.

Drank Rare Elixir of Time Reversal

- All status will be reversed to 1 week before (Higher the level, lower the reverse time)

After drinking it and finding that her health, mana and stamina were completely filled again, Lyndis had a new-found respect for the woman in front of her. Plus this elixir seemed to be an extremely rare one as well.

She looked to see that Miriel had a horrid face on most likely thinking of the costs of obtaining as much as six as these.

Seeing this expression, Alice said, “Don't worry about it. Eden made them when he still has the skills to make them...though he said something about trading it off for a favour.”

With those words, the person named Alice spouted out two wings. One was made of feathers like a bird and looked like the wings of Angels you would fine and the other was bony and looked more like a bat wing which was a wing of a devil.

In her hand came some black liquid?

“Transform and pierce my enemies!” Alice chanted causing the black liquid that suddenly looked metallic to form into a large spear.

“Ho!” She threw the spear casually and formed a second black spear in her hands. When the first spear hit the colossal creature...

BANNNNNNNNG!

Even louder than the scream, an explosion occurred and the colossal creature fell into pieces with it's head being blown off cleanly.

“....”

The group and most likely anyone else who saw this scene had their jaws dropped to the ground. There were no words to describe their shock right now.

“Damn they split up before it died...” Alice muttered under her breath. She crushed the black spear in her hand and then from above it rained countless of those black spears into the zombies.

It was an attack that could wipe out armies easily and without effort from Alice.

It was at that point Sain said, “We should go to get rid of the source to end the quest” Surprised on leaving this place defenceless, Lyndis looked at Alice and then calmed down.

'If someone that strong is here then...'

She had confidence that a level 800+ player on their side would keeps things well enough for at least a while. Getting up from the ground, Lyndis stretched her arms out feeling that she was back to normal at least.

“So should we go now or later?” she asked Sain.

“It's better if we go now. You know the path right?” he asked her.

Lyndis nodded her head and said, “Yep” though she could see Shadow scorning her for some reason on the side. She had no idea why Shadow had such a bad attitude on most things in life.

With that, the group left the defence of the town to Alice and left for the Magitite Mines, where they had two quests relating to it.

xXx

A day and a half passed by quickly with Miriel and Sain buffing their speed and Serena recovering their stamina on the move.

“Annnnd there had to be a bloody army blocking the way as well” Lyndis sighed seeing the enemy in such numbers.

As such by the times they got to the actual mines, which by the way was filled with those zombie monsters even more densely than they expected, was mostly out of mana to use.

“What now?” Shadow asked. They could wait until their mana regenerated but by then he feared that the number of foes will increase again and head off to the town.

“Sain?” Miriel looked at him for answers.

“We could A, wait until we are fully recovered to go though that extremely large army of zombies will march to the town or B, charge in right now and get ourselves slaughtered by numbers. These zombies seem to be in the level 150 range” Sain said observing the enemy.

They were certainly zombies...but at the same time weren't. On their skin were some sort of crystal or metal that glowed a bit. This was something unknown to Sain and he was tempted to use 'Boost' again to use his 'All Knowing Eyes' to identify what it is but Miriel was staring at him right now.

“We should choose the first option then” Miriel said, “We don't even know how many enemies there are and when they leave the place to the mines will be empty.”

The group was currently a hundred metres from where the mine entrance was. Getting there...was more than difficult for them right now even if they used the power of their 'Marks' and 'Boost' to help.

Looking from Miriel to Raven, Sain noticed there was a slight change in...mood if he had to call it. Sain more or less knew what Raven was worried about.

“Raven, with Alice there, the town will be fine. She is extremely powerful as we all seen. A level 800 player ranks in the top 500. There are only in total 500 odd players over level 800 compared to the 5000 odd players above level 700. From what I heard, there is no one over level 900 yet so Alice is one of the most powerful players out there....don't worry too much” he said.

Hearing this Shadow was certainly surprise for another reason altogether, “How did you know of what Raven was thinking of?”

Sain looked confused at the question and said, “I could tell?” uncertain.

With a slight grin Lyndis turned to Miriel and said, “Looks like your greatest rival is Raven, Miriel. They are already on a understanding without words~”

“....”

Miriel was silent at this remark and then said, “We need to rest and prepare right now” without much emotion. Another passed with the group recovering to full mana and stamina levels.

“Urrrrrrr....”

And the zombie army started to move out. The group stiffened and stayed quiet for another 10 minutes until they believed the army is gone. Judging from what they saw, it this army was twice as large as the previous one.

“Let us go” Sain said leading the group into the mines. He ignored the piercing gaze of Miriel from behind him. He could have sworn that this has been happening more and more often than before. Did he do something wrong?

xXx

Inside the mines which was quite dusty, it did not even take them a minute before they encounter an enemy. One of those zombies with metal/crystal on them like a spotted freak show.

“Tch” Sain was worried about this but still persisted, “Kill it quickly” he ordered. As they ran, Shadow sped up and beheaded the creature and they continued on their way. The more they ran, the more they encountered these creatures.

At the beginning, they were of a level where one of them could quickly deal with them but eventually, say after an hour, they were strong enough to last a minute in battle with all of them. Sain wondered what was with this strength, it was unnatural and he wondered why it seemed that these zombies crawled out of the walls as well.

“Magic Arrows!” he chanted shooing the last enemy into pieces. This marked the 4th or so dozen enemy that they killed. Their experience bar filled up once during this time as well though they were close to levelling either way.

Looking around the group searched through the loot that they got and when Miriel identified what was on the zombies, he was in utter shock.

“This is magitite!” she said.

“What?!”

He could not believe it. Something that they required, something that should be deep in the mines was on the zombies? He questioned many things right now and one of them was why it was like this. He took one of pieces which weren't identified yet, though he knew it was magitite and said, “Identify.”

Low Quality Magitite Fragment

That was enough for him to tell that this zombie situation was closely connected to magitite. He would need to tell Alena about this later to report to the Kingdom. Even though Magititie was extremely valuable...if it caused this then it was not worth it no matter what effects it gave.

“Umm....guys” Lyndis said all of a sudden while the rest of the group was focused on the magitite.

“What is it-damn!” Shadow said looked around like Lyndis. It seemed that he discovered something as well. When Sain looked around he was not happy at all to find that his thoughts on the zombies appearing out of the walls to be true.

They were surrounded already by seven of those zombies...freshly made as well. They backed together in a clump looking at both directions where more enemies soon crawled out.

“Any ideas?” Shadow asked.

“A few” he replied though not liking most of them.

“Please tell me that one of them does not involve fighting all of them” said Miriel holding her whip in one hand and ready to attack if the need comes.

“Well...first you should make a path for us to run through. Then we can think of something else” he said thinking of Miriel's 'Glacier Strike' which was extremely powerful.

“Quite the crummy plan” Lyndis said after cutting one of the zombies' arm off when it got near. It was then that the other zombies reacted and ran to them.

“Do it now!” Sain shouted.

“Glacier Strike!”

BANG!

A few of the zombies were smashed back as a path was cleared and appeared for them to run through. Without a word, all of them ran through knocking back, not even caring to kill them at this point, and ran into the darkness.

xXx

After said even where the group found out that zombies came out of walls...apparently, they did not spawn in the normal way but were rather created instead, a week passed by quickly. Sain and the others wondered what was going on with the town but based no quest message appearing it meant that the town was still safe with Alice.

Right now they were near the heart of the mines.

The place where the magitite ore was mined out of. At the lowest level of this place, a long time ago, a village that no longer exist accidentally found this and then upon telling of this discovery was attacked and destroyed, the village thus disappeared and all knowledge of this place was almost gone as well save the few survivors.

Another fact they found out was that being in the presence of Magitite for too long poisoned you and caused those metal/crystal pieces to appear on your body. This is off set by sun light which would be the reason none of the zombies had them by the time they got to the town.

They found this out from a person in the mine that was on the verge of death telling them to escape this place.

However the group was not affected by this. For some reason the 'Mark' that was on their right hands seemed to negate the effects of this like many other things though regular poison still affected them.

The group continued onwards until they were met with the origins of the Magitite Ore.

The Magitite Crystal Ore.

From the words of a diary they found, the Magitite Crystal Ore 'infected' the walls of the mines which transforms part of it into normal Magitite Ore. These are usually low quality but the longer they stay like that, the higher quality they will be.

Naturally the Magitite Crystal Ore itself was of the highest quality.

The effects of Magitite Ore in order of quality were, increased mana regeneration, lightning damage and finally increased mana itself from low, medium to high quality with each level stacking a further effect on.

It was unknown what the highest quality ore would give. But right now, Sain had not leisure on thinking on that. There was a slight problem right now and that is, the Magitite Crystal Ore is alive. It is alive and is creating metal monsters.

“Use range attacks first!” Sain shouted seeing them.

“Fire Bombs!” Lyndis shouted chucking a few of them at the metal creatures that were humanoid in shape but only that. Their arms were made of blades after all.

Boom Boom Boom!

The three 'Fire Bombs' exploded at the metal monsters and cracked and broke pieces of them. Sain was pleased to see that such a skill was at least effective against these creatures as they soon found out that normal attacks, even magical ones weren't as effective.

“Lyndis! How much mana do you have?” Sain asked while hitting one of the metal monsters and yet not dealing any damage to it's hard body. His spear was made of iron that could not pierce through Magitite after all.

“Enough for three dozen 'fire bombs' why?” Lyndis shouted back. Her sword was dented at place from attacking such a hard thing and she jumped back as the metal monster she was fighting attacked.

“Glacier Strike!” Miriel chanted smashing the metal monster away from her.

BANG!

The impact of the spell caused some cracks on the metal monster but it was at a minimum, not enough to destroy it in one blow like a 'fire bomb'. With this, Sain had only two ways of dealing with them.

A minute passed and they were backed into a corner. With the Magitite Crystal Ore producing more metal monsters out to a total of around seven of them at once. Sain wondered if there was a limit on how much it could sustain at once.

C-Crack!

It was then that the group saw a great crack appear on the Magitite Crystal Ore. It was the size of a large person and all of a sudden there was a crack.

“W-What's going on?” Serena asked seeing this as well.

With the appearance of the crack the seven metal monsters stopped their attack and ran back to the Magitite Crystal Ore. They plastered their bodies onto it and fused with it. With confused looks, the group saw the Magitite Crystal Ore change.

Bang! Bang! BANG!

It started compressing into the size of a head but it didn't stop there. More Magitite was produced from it and formed into the shape of a Dragon. A Magitite Dragon of all things...

It's eyes glowed with hate as it looked at the group as flames spilled lightly from it's mouth. It was a small Dragon but it at the same time was 10 metres long and enough to eat all of them given the chance.

Furthermore there was this strange golden glow around it as well...which was familiar to them as they fought against it before.

“ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOARRRR!”

The Dragon leaped forward at the group with it's mouth open.

“Shatter!”

And in response the group ran away in all directions. Sain, Serena and Shadow moved to the left while Raven, Miriel and Lyndis moved to the right.

“Magic Arrows!” “Ice Burst!”

Bang Bang Bang...!

Both Sain and Miriel with little time casted their spell at it on both sides but it was completely non effective. Meanwhile Serena was chanting a spell to use in the next second as well.

“Root Bind!”

Vines came from the group and wrapped itself around the Dragon that was made of metal. However the Dragon itself was an extremely powerful being that was capable of breaking free within seconds even if Serena increased the power of her spell using her 'Boost'.

Bang!

With a charge, the Dragon rammed itself in between Sain, Serena and Shadow with the vines barely alternating it's path to not crush one of them to death. Shadow grabbed onto Serena and ran away from the Dragon while Sain did the same alone.

This was going to be a long battle.

xXx

Some minutes passed since the Dragon appeared from the Magitite Crystal Ore. Right now Raven was having some difficulties moving around. His leg was broken, snapped in two when he failed to completely dodge an attack.

The Dragon made of metal was quite strong, stronger than anything he had faced before. A simple attack can break bones and taking a clean hit will mean death.

'Then all I have to do to survive longer is to take the simple attacks rather than letting it deal me a clean hit' he thought as a combination of Sain and Serena's healing spells healed his leg back into shape.

There was pain when he leg broke but thanks to the pain reduction feature that lowered the pain levels, it didn't hurt as much as he expected. Breaking a leg in game was only like having the leg flare up with some pain rather than a scorching pain that would completely paralyse you.

Raven was thankful for that at least.

“Rooooooooooooar!!!!”

The Dragon came charging at him again. He had used 'Anchor Howl' and was taking the full force of it right now. It came charging at him again, it seemed that it took a a lot of mana to use that breath attack from earlier.

“Shield Parry!” Raven simply said using his shield to block.

BANG!

And as such his shield and arm were blown away twisting and breaking due to the impact of the force. Raven clenched his teeth upon feeling the blow to endure the pain as he was used to. A couple of healing spells later he was fine and took on the vanguard again.

Eventually...

“This is getting nowhere, Boost!” said Sain all of a sudden before Miriel could stop him. He looked at the Dragon and Raven who was fighting it.

“Raven!” he called.

“.....”

Raven dodged an attack at that moment but took the time to look at Sain as if saying 'what is it?' to him without any words.

“Shit! That golden glow is really what I thought of it! Raven! Use your 'Gravity Force' to crush that thing! It's really weak to those kinds of attacks thanks to our 'Marks'!” Sain said quickly while providing some covering fire with his 'Magic Arrows' spell which for reasons only he knew were now effective.

'I guess it can't hurt to at least try his advise' he thought retreating from the front. In his steed both Lyndis and Shadow ran up to the Dragon and battled it head on instead while using 'Boost' as well.

“Power Strike!”

“Backstab!”

Even though the two used those skills, they weren't that effective against the Dragon at all. Even though Lyndis' blade now could cut through the metal scales and Shadow was the same, it was still minor damage compared to what the Dragon could do to them.

As such Raven felt like he had to hurry else they might be blown away and killed in an instant.

“Distract it using 'Fire Bombs' Lyndis!” Sain ordered.

With a slight grin that made Raven want to head out of here to not be caught up with whatever she planned on doing, Lyndis created several 'fire bombs' at hand and threw them all at the Dragon.

And when the timers went to zero....

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

A chain reaction of five 'fire bombs' at once.

“Boost!” said Raven activating that skill.

Boost has been activated. All stats, effects and consumption will double

Effects of the 'Mark of the Star' is now active. 'Gravity Force' is now active.

Feeling the power of that invisible force around him, Raven manipulated it like it was part of his body and blocked an attack head on this time. To be precise, the attack didn't even hit him as he forced it onto the ground.

Swinging his arm down with that force, Raven slammed a blow using compressed gravity in a small area.

Bang!

The force was enough to crack the metal armour that the Dragon was made up. With a kick up, the Dragon was flipped over and then with his spear covered in that force, Raven stabbed at the Dragon piercing through it.

Bang!

You have killed a Magitite Dragon!

All stats +1

Fighting Spirit +10

You have levelled up x3[window]

Seeing these messages, Raven relaxed for a second since the battle ended....

PAIN! HATE! SUFFERING! I WANT TO KILL! I WANT TO KILL!

“Ack!”

Raven let out that sound as he felt the effects of using his 'Mark' appearing. His personality was being changed...at this rate he would attack the others.

'I cannot allow for that to happen!'

With determination, he took his right arm and snapped it to forcefully take himself out of this trance that he was quickly falling into.

[window]You took 683 damage

Right arm is has been broken, will not be able to use it until healed

“Raven!?” Sain and the others cried out in surprise. Raven endured the pain to send away the thoughts that plagues him and deactivated his 'Boost'.

“Moderate Heal!” Sain quickly chanted restoring his arm back to normal. The broken bone was repaired and Raven nodded to thank Sain. With a sigh Sain then with some anger in his voice said, “You didn't need to break your arm to snap out of the trance...”

After thinking of it for a bit, Raven replied, “Trance too strong” to which the others nodded in agreement. Of everyone, Sain had the most experience with using 'Boost' much to the complaints of Miriel but also had the best control over it.

He was now the least likely to have his personality change that much when using it in short bursts.

However for the others, this was not the same. Raven himself right now experienced lots of pain and suffering and a desire to destroy everything in sight. It was something that existed to begin with so he was unable to suppress it or rather the chains around those feelings were loosing when 'Boost' was active.

Likewise to himself with anger issues when using 'boost', Miriel would turn into a complete sadist that liked to humiliate others and Lyndis would become a pyromaniac that cares only of burning things.

As for Serena, she had a similar effect as Raven where she goes in a berserk state instead of having to deal with anger issues like himself. Shadow on the other hand actually doesn't speak at all when his 'boost' is active which was a surprise.

Soon enough the group recovered enough to search through the loot.

xXx

Looking through everyone's health, they were right now around the 70% mark. The battle against the Magitite Dragon was a fearsome one that drained them of almost all their mana and to near critical point of their health.

If not for the power of their 'Marks', if not for Raven's 'Gravity Force' being highly effective against the Magitite Dragon, they would certainly be defeated. That was what his 'All Seeing Eyes' told him of the battle.

Walking over to where the Magitite Dragon died, Sain found that it dropped several things. Other than roughly 500 gold coins, it also dropped various gems such as rubies and sapphires. But most importantly it dropped Magitite Ore.

Picking it up Sain said, “identify” one what seemed to be the smallest and impure piece he could find.

Low Grade Magitite Ore

Imbue with the power of the moon and magic slightly, this ore has the power to give a slight boost in mana regeneration when used as the material for an item

Sain was extremely happy looking at even this low grade piece! The fact that even this gave some boost in mana regeneration meant that the higher quality ores were even more valuable as well!

Miriel looking over at Sain and seeing the status window of the low quality Magitite Ore was also shocked.

“My God! Even this would sell for a hundred gold coins easily!” she exclaimed. In recent times, with the depletion of certain mines and the hunting of powerful monsters at mass, certain materials increased in price dramatically.

Before when the game started, something like this could only sell for 10 gold coins at most. Now it was 10 times the price!

Feeling extremely happy on this find, Sain identified the next two grades higher of the ores as well and looked at what they gave.

Medium Grade Magitite Ore

Imbue with the power of the moon and magic moderately, this ore has the power to give a moderate boost in mana regeneration when used as the material for an item. Furthermore there is a boost in magic resistance and a slight passive lightning damage effect given to any weapon made with this material.

High Grade Magitite Ore

Imbue with the power of the moon and magic greatly, this ore has the power to give a large boost in mana regeneration when used as the material for an item. Furthermore there is a moderate boost in magic resistance and a slight moderate lightning damage effect given to any weapon made with this material.

The next two grades were even better!

“Medium grade will sell for 10 000 gold coins, high grade for 100 000 gold coins!” Miriel practically drooled at the sight of these ores.

However Shadow had to remind her that most of these ores will be given to the blacksmith in the end. Their quest was to collect a certain amount though they would be able to take any excess.

Finally Sain held in his hands the piece of Magitite that was the most clear and pure he saw. He was certain that this was the core of the Magitite Dragon itself.

“Identify.”

Pure Grade Magitite Crystal Ore

The highest grade possible for an ore, it is infused with the power of the God of Moon, Mani and was given to a certain village for prosperity for the future.

With this ore, there are four effects given to any weapon or armour that is made with this material. The first is a high mana regeneration, the second is increased magic resistance, the third is lightning damage applied and the fourth is increased mana capacity.

Furthermore since this is a piece of the original crystal that was given, another special effect is given for any weapon and armour that was created using this; it will scale and grow with the user's level and will be bound to them.

Reading this, Sain's jaws were set on the ground right now as he was completely stunned and frozen at the last effects that this crystal ore gave.

Curious on why Sain was like this, the others also looked and were completely shocked in the same way and another 5 statues were set next to him. Even Raven who was usually expressionless had this shocked face on him right now.

If anyone came in right now and saw this, they would wonder if they were petrified and seek a priest to heal them.

After a while minute with Sain's hands shaking with this in his hands he could hear Miriel mutter, “This is priceless...millions of gold would be an easy price for this...how many hundreds of thousands of dollars would this sell for as well!”

“We can't sell this!” Lyndis hearing what Miriel muttered rejected the idea. She moved in to keep Miriel's hands off of it fearing it might turn into coins if she did touch it.

Shadow nodded and agreed, “It is too good to sell off. Plus it is bound to the user so it cannot be stolen as well! The person who gets this doesn't need to buys a weapon again!”

“But who will get the weapon?” Serena wondered to herself not noticing that she was wasn't shuttering or shortening her sentences unintentionally.

“....”

The group looked at each other and at the ore with greed. First of all, seeing this atmosphere, Serena raised her hand and said, “I can't take this since lightning isn't compactable with my nature magic.”

Thinking of this Lyndis then said, “Since it is mostly magic related, we should rule out the non magic related personal right?”

Hearing this, Shadow shocked said, “Damn! You just want it for yourself don't you?!” complaining on her greedy words.

“Well I DO use more mana than you” she replied back with an arrogant attitude. She looked at Miriel and then said, “Miriel could also use it as a gem on a staff as well. Lightning works well with ice I would think.”

“You're thinking of water not ice” Miriel sighed though she still at heart wanted it as well to use on a weapon for her. Hundreds of thousands of gold saved in the long run if they used this. Just as the rest of the group aside from Raven who rather not argue at all, Sain spoke some unexpected words.

“Can I have this? I mean if we can actually keep it in the end” he asked the others.

He was expecting some sort of rejection from but there was silence. He wondered what they were thinking about at this moment since no matter what group, there would be some argument on something this valuable as he heard just then.

“Sure....okay?” Shadow was the first to reply though unsure.

He was not sure what to do since Sain usually did not care at all on getting things but when he did, he would persist no matter what.

“Okay...if that is what you want” Miriel said looking closely at Sain.

Serena, Raven and Lyndis nodded at the same time as well.

The others had the same response as they were unsure on what Sain really wanted. However what they knew and what he didn't know was that he was almost glaring at them when he asked in his normal tone.

xXx

After collecting the Magitite Ores the group had the following message.

You have completed the quest: Locate the Magitite Ore

Give the Magitite Ore to the blacksmith

You have levelled up

Due to the completion of a C rank quest, the group had another level up and in total increased from an average of level 151 to an average of level 155 between them all.

Right now they had a total of 156 Low Grade Magitite Ores, 50 Medium Grade Magitite Ores, 12 High Grade Magitite Ores and 1 Pure Grade Magitite Crystal Ore.

With this, they collected them in their inventory with Sain holding the Pure Grade one and everything else was split between them evenly. They did not know how much they needed to give the blacksmith in the end. Most of the Low and Medium Grade Ores were taken from the zombies but the High Grade and Pure Grade ones was taken from the Magitite Dragon.

Moving along since this wasn't actually the end of the mines, the group via Shadow with is 'locate trap' skill strangely enough found a hidden passage way and they followed it through.

“What do you think will be at the end?” Lyndis asked.

Miriel replied with a laugh, “Hopefully not one of those Dragons again. One was enough to nearly kill us.”

“Hopefully it will be some sort of treasure” Sain said optimistically.

However it was nothing like that. At the end, strapped to the walls were rows of bodies...corpses. All of them were bound with a large crystal that they had recognised as Magitite and the one that the Dragon has in it as well.

“This is sick” Miriel could only mutter seeing this. The group decided to split up in the fairly large room to explore the place a bit more.

It was like a maze in here so they could well easily get lost. But at the same time, nothing would be done quickly if they decided to be careful and stick together. With words of caution, Sain left the others and explored the place.

“....”

The more he looked, the more he was reminded of a certain place...that laboratory, but the man was dead already...or was he? Sain was not sure on this part but he continued to explore until he found a desk and diary in it.

Obtained Unknown Diary x1

Opening the diary, Sain quickly read through it and was shocked.

“This is....”

It was a detailed account of what happened to these people...at least what happened to result in this.

There was a Moon Goddess..and she gave a small village a powerful crystal to grow with. The village did becoming known for the crystal and was growing rapidly. Fearing this, the nearby town and it's leaders stole the crystal and destroyed the village.

As for the villagers...they were captured and experimented on creating those...things in the end with their bodies endlessly. With anger, the Moon Goddess cursed the town in question to never have moon night ever again.

And the name of this ringleader was....

Closing the diary he placed it in his inventory and met up with the others. In the end they figured out that the source of those zombies were these corpses...the magitite was infinitely producing the zombies to attack the town.

Whether this was intentional or a coincidence did not matter.

“Was there a switch to destroy this place?” Sain asked the others. They shook their heads...it seemed that they had to do this the old fashion way then....and painfully to their hearts as well.

“Well then...I think I saw some oil in this place somewhere....we need to spread it around so it gets every inch of this place” he said following a route where he remembered finding barrels of oil which were super expensive stacked in a row.

For the next hour, the group went around oiling the bodies for the final burn.

xXx

A day later the group returned to Moonight town; they did not want to stick around at the mine any time soon and almost ran with all they got back here. It was about time the last of the bodies used to produce the zombies would be completely burnt up. At the gate was Alice who was smiling at them.

“Did you do what you had to?” she asked them.

Seeing that the others probably did not want to answer, Sain instead nodded for them to to indicate they did.

Alice did not question what they did or ask how they did it. All of that did not matter in her eyes, the means does not matter for the end. And in this case the end would mean peace to this town at last.

Since the group left for the mines, more than a week passed and while Alice was strong, she could save every life in time at once. Because of this, the number of residents decreased even more eventually.

She was quite worried that they might have failed or yet worse ran away from the Guild Quest itself which was a bad idea in the first place as well.

“Come” she said leading them into the town.

They followed behind Alice to where the Elder was. They needed to explain that they might be attacked later on but it wouldn't continuously happen anymore.

The moment they set foot in town which was half destroyed by the siege, all of them got another message from the game.

You have completed the Guild Quest: Defend Moonight Town

You have levelled up x3

Contributions to Kingdom +100

Contributions to Moonight Town +1500

“Oh” that was all they could say at the appearance of this message. To get this far they had to...

The group stopped to look at this message that they weren't particularly happy about. Alice noticed this and stopped as well to address them.

“You know you should be more happy to complete a Guild Quest of all things” said Alice noticing the depressing mood that everyone was in.

With a sigh Lyndis said, “Can't help it...to finish the quest we just...well...burnt a lot of dead bodies...”

Alice did not react at all to that statement and then said, “There are many dirty things in this world and some of them you yourself sometimes needs to do. What you have done was the natural course. If you did not, this town and many more would be dead.”

She looked up at the hazy sky that was soon to rain and then said, “We better hurry up then. I have things to do after this as well” prompting the group to follow quickly.

“....”

Entering the home of the Elder of the town which was a size larger than any other house they passed by, Sain noticed that he was thinner and more pale then he remembered. Well in all honestly his town was met with a week long attack from zombies if he recalled the span of the Guild Quest.

“You are...!” the elder looked shocked at the group thinking that they had failed and died. However instead he was met with them alive and well, physically that is.

“The deed is done Elder” Sain said, “The zombies won't be troubling you that much longer now.”

“What do you mean?” the elder asked. If the deed was done then his town was safe...right?

“Actually what we destroyed was what producing the zombies that were attacking this town. There are quite a number left but they won't have enough numbers to deal any major damage to this town anymore. We are planning to go back there and clean the place up” he said assuring the elder.

With a sigh of relief the Elder congratulated the group on this effort.

“On behalf of this town, I thank you for your service to this place” he said saluting them with a kind smile.

The group and Alice nodded and left one by one. Eventually it was just Sain and the Elder and Sain had said to the others that he would catch up soon. The group did not find anything that worrying about that.

“Do you have anymore business with me?” the elder asked.

Sain nodded and then looked at the Elder using his 'All Knowing Eyes'. The name that he found in the book appeared above the Elder's head. A bit startled the Elder asked, “What is wrong with your eyes?”

“Don't worry about it” said Sain with a laugh as well, “I was checking to see if you were infected with whatever disease that caused this event.” Sain made sure to lie about the second half of his words though.

“....”

With nothing more to say, Sain said, “Well then I'll be off.”

“Take care then.”

The Elder moved pick up a book. With his spear, Sain stabbed it into the back of the Elder pinning him onto the floor while he wasn't looking.

“Arhh-”

Some blood poured out of the wound but since since he was putting pressure onto it, the Elder would not bleed to death. Sain also made sure that the Elder could no longer scream that much and to call for help.

“W-Why....?” the Elder was bleeding out on the floor as he asked this last question.

“I am eliminating the source of this plague. You WILL tell me everything!” Sain said coldly to the Elder. He made sure to use 'Minor Heal' to keep the Elder alive for a bit longer.

“I know nothing!” the Elder shouted back.

To this, Sain's eyes became even colder as he dealt the finishing hit.

He would not have mercy on him any time soon. He was the one who destroyed an entire town for his greed, experimented on them as well and caused this whole incident to happen.

A few seconds later the Elder died.

Due to no witnesses to this crime, there will be no infamy gain or bounty pplaced on you

“Sigh...I killed another person now...” he muttered to himself. He wondered how much more he had to do at this rate...

He remembered the conversation he had with Eden before.

xXx

“At this rate most of you are going to be kicked out of the guild and therefore from school and therefore from that mansion as well” Eden said bluntly to Sain one day out of nowhere.

“W-What is this about?” Sain asked, “How are any of us lacking?”

“In many ways. Mainly that you are not improving fast enough...you all are still limited to common sense. Even if you are Gen and the other brats apprentices, I cannot be lax” Eden sighed looking at Sain. In his guild, common sense was the thing that was least needed.

“However there is a way for me to give you lot more chances” he continued to say to Sain. There were many matters to be done and to lower that burden even by a bit was a big thing.

“And this way is?” Sain asked with a frown. He did not like where this was going. Usually this meant something bad in stores for him or the others.

It was at that point Eden smiled and said, “There are many ways on doing that. Which type of method would you prefer, the clean one where you hold no guilt or the dirty one where you are one of the guilty?”

“....” Sain thought about thinking of the others...and Miriel, “Which one will give us...me a better chance in the end?” he asked. He had no intentions of letting the other dirty their hands at all. As their leader, he would bare that burden for them.

The smile on Eden's face changed at that moment. It become one of an evil nature. He knew Sain was like this and would choose this end. Perhaps it would not be the end...after all, the real test comes after a certain trial.

“Isn't it obvious?” Eden asked though Sain already knew the answer.

“....”

It was then that Sain decided to do what must be done to protect the others. He had grown close to them...too close to the point that he wished to protect them no matter what.

Even if his soul would be painted black, he would still do so in order to protect them. There was no need for them to know...

He would protect them no matter what.

No matter the cost.

Onwards?PreviousExitNext

Author's Notes:

- Word Count: 9100~

- Well some bits may be disjointed since I spent the previous day working on something else that I will post tomorrow, hope you enjoy that extra chapter. Anyway not much to say here but that I think I cut some things out a bit to shorten it.