Chapter 4

The First Hero

After two straight weeks of buffing parties, (with some logout time to prevent suspicion,) I have become one of the most popular party members to have in the goblin cave. Demand for me especially skyrocketed after my Enchant Dungeon spell could increase the experience of the affected area. When this spread around, the group that delved into the lower floors that contained Hobgoblins (Level 80~100) invited me and even offered to give me two guards throughout the raid to protect me. I declined generous offer.

The point of joining a party was not the experience, but the members. I tried to join the largest party whenever I could. It would have been nice if the largest party was the one that fought on the fourth and fifth floor, but it wasn’t.

At this point I should tell you that, in real world time, this game has only been available for four months. I first came in three weeks ago. Also, although there are many characters that have trained as much as I have, I am likely the only character who has yet to die even once. When a character dies, they lose a level and some percent of the mastery of all of their skills. When I log out I occasionally check to see what is the highest player level is and how many are in that group. The first person to reach level 100 did so about two weeks after the game came out. Right now the highest level player is a solo adventurer somewhere in the mountains, a level 194 warrior. There are currently about three hundred players out of Versailles that are between level 140 and 194. I said before that there were many mages that know the enchant skill and sell themselves as enchanters, most are a little over level 100.

By the way, I am currently level 41, and here is a list of my current skills and spells.

Enchant [8] 12%

Can learn and use enchantment spells.

Can stack up to 2 enchantments.Identify [1] 0%

Mana Cost: 30Enchant Dungeon [5] 67%

Cast Firelight Enchantment on Dungeon Area

Effects Available:

Change Monster Spawn Rate (10%

Change Monster Drop Rate (10%)

Change Monster Strength (10%)

Change Dungeon Experience rate. (10%)

Duration: 30 Mins

Mana Cost: 900

Additional: Occupants of affected areas have Health and Mana regeneration reduced by 50%Red Thorn Enchantment. Intermediate [2] 77%

Weapon Enchantment: Wraps target weapon in the magic of piercing thorns.

Mana Cost: 20

+21 ATK for 30 minsStatic State Enchantment. [9] 21%

Weapon Enchantment: Charges target weapon with electricity.

Mana cost: 22

+20~40 Additional Lightning magic damage. for 30minsWind and Water Enchantment Intermediate. [4] 10%

Body Enchantment: Surrounds the body with natural energy to move more freely like wind and water.

Mana Cost: 65

+44% Movement Speed for 30 mins

If you consider overall that I have not killed a single goblin, then my growth rate is quite impressive. Being in a party shares some of the experience of killing. I would say that 80% goes to the one who killed the monster, while the other 20% is divided up between the remaining party members.

One day after another long goblin raid was finished and I returned to the mouth of the cave looking for another party, a young swordsman I did not recognize came up to me.

“Excuse me, but are you the Scarlet Enchantress Curi?”

The name the Hermes guild have given me stuck it seemed. Not that I mind it.

“Yes, that would be me.” I gave a small introductory bow and a smile.

The young man blushed a bit. “Ok, I’m supposed to give this letter to you.”

I took the envelope he held out and opened it. The man stayed still. He appeared to want to get a reply off me.

The letter was basically from the Hermes guild stating that they would attempt a Boss Raid Party in five days, and wished to know if I would be interested in participating. Whoever wrote it seemed to know my preferences, as it stated that there would be forty-six members participating and that I would be provided with mana potions enough to enchant the dungeon and the whole party with everything I could. In addition, besides receiving a fair share of the loot, I would be paid 50 gold.

From an outsider’s perspective looking in, this was too much to allow for a nonguild member, even a high quality buffer like myself. However, it became known that my enchantments occasionally raise maximum weapon stats and I was the only confirmed character in the game that could enchant a dungeon and give several rooms within a bonus like additional experience for monsters killed.

This put me in very high demand.

However, just because the deal was tailor made for me, did not mean that I would accept it. I have my own agenda. That being said, this raid could have been exactly what I was looking for. Perhaps within I would find someone worth making into a hero.

I answered the messenger, “I shall be there.”

The young man nodded and said, “Ok, great. Please be here at 9 a.m. in five days.”

I nodded my head in acknowledgment.

Instead of returning to the dungeon, I took the road back to Aean. There were a few things I was in need of.

As one of the first available starting cities within Royal Road, the capitol of Haven kingdom was enormous and packed with users. It also had a large variety of stores to suit almost every need. I made my way to one such store after selling the accumulated loot I’d acquired and browsed the selection. This was a Magic book store where one could buy spells and the like.

The shop’s contents were expensive so two armed guards stood at the doorway to prevent thievery. The shelves were arranged by level and type, with low level spells like Fire Ball on the bottom and higher class spells like Fire Storm on the upper shelves. The front counter had books beneath glass casings, in a similar fashion one would find at a jewelry store. Spells in those cases were for advanced mage classes above level 200.

I found the section for Enchantments without difficulty. I knew from looking at the code that Aean Castle had about fifteen mages with the Enchant skill, six of which had come togther and set up a User run enchantment shop. There were also about fifty NPC enchanters or mages with the enchant class, though most were used by noblemen or royalty.

On the cover of each book, besides its name, was a number that represented the required Enchant skill level to learn the book. Many class skill books had such requirements. All spell books above a certain level require proficiency in a skill called Magic Mastery. Enchanters do not acquire this skill so they can only learn weak spells. I picked up three new enhancements to buy.

Bear’s Strength Enchantment.

Body Enhancement: Increases target strength.

Mana Cost: 100

Component cost: Bear’s Tooth

+5 STR for 30 minsMana Channeler Enchantment.

Body Enchantment: Opens body channels to receive mana

Mana cost: 220

Component cost: Mana Stone Dust, Fairy Hair.

Increases Mana regeneration by 10% for 30minsInfuse Strength Enchantment

Body Enchantment: Fuses power into the core of a target

Mana Cost: 350

Component Cost: Giant’s Toe, Troll blood, Ruby.

+3% Strength. Permanent effect, lasts until character dies

In case you didn’t know, increasing skill proficiency with strong enchantments is an extremely costly business. Most characters that Enchant professionally charge outrageous fees. These are for the cost of materials. Also, when a skill has low proficiency, it is possible to fail. I know for a fact that no one in this city has a Infuse Strength proficiency higher than level 4, because no one has an infinite amount of money to spend on rubys to use the spell over and over again. Until now anyways.

I brought the books to the counter. The clerk looked over them, impressed not only that I was a skilled enough enchanter to use them, (Infuse Strength requires Enchant lvl 8 to learn,) but that I was buying them at all. Due to how costly the spells are to strengthen, they were not popular buys. The price on the books themselves was also ridiculous.

“That will be 2130 gold, and 75 silver pieces.”

Ridiculous.

I paid the man what he asked for. This NPC did not enjoy haggling with first time customers so I did not bother. Besides, the cost did not matter. There are places to gamble in Aean and for someone with the ability to control chance, this was an unlimited source of gold. Not that I had aroused too much suspicion. I simply walked in, wagered every gold coin I had on one gamble, won, and left. This was not an uncommon thing (though the winning was,) so it did not raise any system flags.

I then went to a magic shop that sold magic components and homemade potions. I purchased a large amount of each of the components I required. Later I went to a jeweler and used my charm to persuade him to sell me a batch of raw uncut rubies too irregular for him to use. The total amount I spent for all of the components was about thirteen thousand gold. (More than half was spent on materials for Infuse Strength alone.)

I returned to the dungeon and quickly joined a party. I used my new enchantments free of charge. Though in truth I simply did not tell them that the buffs I was using cost money to cast. Thanks to casting the Mana Channeler Enchantment on myself, I recovered mana faster and was able to use more enchantments. I did not even charge anybody for the use of Infuse power. And since I could stack two enchantment onto anything, I cast two enchantments on each user, their weapon, and used Enchant Dungeon with two different effect activated. (Though to do so I had to cast it twice with a break between each cast because I did not have enough mana to use both casts at the same time.)

The time spent traveling, gambling, and buying supplies was about a day and a half. I used the remaining three and a half days to go all out with increasing my Enchanting.

Skill level up! Enchant has reached level 10 and becomes Intermediate lvl 1

Can now stack up to three enchantments.

Enchantment effect strength increased by 10%You have learned a new spell: Mystic Enchantment

A few hours before I was set to join the boss raid, I received a message. The spell was the same spell cast on the sword from the quest. It would permanently change the properties of a weapon to deal magic damage instead of physical. Since it was a Firelight enchantment, it didn’t require components, but it did have an effect of reducing the health and mana regeneration of the person who equipped it. The spell however was only at level one at the moment. The effect would likely only convert a part of the damage into magic damage and reduce regeneration by less than 10%. Not something useful now, but it could be trained easily enough by acquiring many weapons and enchanting them all.

The more useful effect was the Enchantment Stack increase to three. Professional Enchanters could stack up to four permanent enchantments on a weapon, (for a horrifying price). But none of them had a Enchant level above intermediate 6.

The group’s first party arrived around 8:30. I was already waiting at the cave’s mouth. I always arrive early.

Another knight, this one one mid to late twenties, approached me and said, “You are Curi yes? You are as beautiful as the rumors say.”

He took my hand and kissed it lightly like a knight would a princess. I am many things, but I am not immune to flattery. I gave a quick smirk and said, “And what do these rumors say?”

“That an beautiful enchantress in a red dress dares the depths of these dangerous grounds and commands the world like a goddess come to earth.”

Ok, that was a bit much. Not that I don’t like the comparison, I just get antsy when compared to gods or goddesses because they might be listening.

I gave a light curtsy and asked, “And whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?”

The knight bowed, “I am Bard Ray, second in command of the Hermes guild.”

Was not expecting that. I looked over his character data. He was a level 159 Knight, which put him in about the top 50 of high level players in the game. It seemed that not only is he second in command, he was apart of the original group the founded the Hermes guild.

I could only give a genuine smile at his introduction. This man had outstanding hero potential.

The reason I was not expecting it was because the usual Ogre boss was about level 130. The Hermes guild sent a raiding party every month after it respawned, so this was just another raiding party like so many others. There was no reason for a high level knight, much less the second in command of the Hermes guild to come here, even for supervision.

I decided this man would be my first project.

Now, a bit of an introductory lesson in Hero making. Simply handing over Excalibur and saying, “Good Luck,’ is a very ineffective way to make a hero. They have to work for, earn it, and do so in a way that lets the whole world know it. Though I will say that Excalibur was in fact some of my finest work. I even took the time to look after that boy for a while posing as a skilled magician. I’m sure you’ve heard that story.

The first step is to make a trial they must overcome. I could not help but delight over the circumstances. This dungeon had a feature that no one but those who wrote the code knew about, and it was too early in the game for others to have stumbled across it yet. A one in a million chance event.

Without the others noticing, I walked up to the cavern wall and touched it. The dungeon as a whole is one piece of code, by touching one part, I could affect the whole thing. What I affected, was the chance rate of the dungeon’s rare event.

When I finished I smiled and returned to the group.

Bard Ray was coordinating guild captains into ordered ranks. When he had time he asked what kind of enchantments could I cast.

“Would you allow me to cast one on you?”

The knight smiled, “Sure.” Thus I was granted access to change his object data.

I cast Infuse Strength on him. The skill have leveled up to six, meaning it gave a bonus of +18% strength until he next died. (When people learned a Enchantress was giving out free permanent enchantments, people actually came to the dungeon looking for me.)

He read the buff message that appeared and said, “You use Infuse Strength?!”

It seemed he was familiar with the enchantment.

He continued, “How rich are you?”

I smiled again. He was looking at me differently now. Not as a beautiful woman, but as something that could be used. A tool, a weapon. Not that he was entirely wrong. I am a tool that chooses its user, and today I have chosen him.

In addition to increasing his Strength by 18%, the buff also increased his movement speed by 10%, his defense by 40, and fire resistance by 30%

This was a blatant use of my cheating abilities. I altered the buff I gave him to increase all of his abilities to meet the trial I had in store for him. He of course did not notice. Besides altering what the Buff gave, I altered what the message the buff showed him said. He didn’t know his entire combat capabilities had boosted to one of the highest in the continent.

Also, because I had not altered his object data but my spell’s object data, the system would not register it as a problem. Eventually he would die, and the buff and the evidence would disappear.

Since Ray understood the cost of Infuse Strength, he could not ask me to cast it on the other forty-five members of the raid party. (Though I could.) Especially knowing that I had just spent more on him than I would actually make for the whole of this raid party. (Loot+50 gold payment less than cost for casting that spell once.)

I was however asked to cast as many spells on as many men as I could. One hundred mana potions each capable of restoring 300 mana in an instant were brought for me to use. (Though I could not keep the extra at the end of the raid party.)

The heavily strengthened party easily made their way all the way to the fifth floor boss room without incident. Any who doubted the use of hiring an outsider Enchantress just for buffs understood my value at that point. Especially the spell casters. Mana channeler had reached level 8, so their mana regeneration speed was 80% higher.

Bard Ray opened the door of the boss room and lead the group in. I had already cast Enchant Dungeon to give this room more experience and more item drops. Though in truth I had also used it for to increase the strength of the monsters inside, increasing their levels.

When the group saw the throne at the end of the room, they stopped. It was not was they were expecting. Where a green ogre usually sat, was a red one.

This dungeon has a secret event that will occasionally produce a red ogre instead of a green one. When this feature is discovered in the future, the finding of a red ogre will be celebrated, for they drop exceedingly rare loot. But this was the first encounter since the game started, and no one knew what was going on.

The ogre rose from his chair. “You have defiled my lair for the last time. .I will kill you all and eat your Corpses!” After this disturbing declaration, he faced the air and exhaled plumes of fire. This had a great intimidation effect on the group. Combined with the heavy sound of the door to the boss’s chambers closing shut with a loud bang, this also demoralized the troops.

Ray announced, “Stand Strong! We will win! To your positions!”

Three knights of about level 100 stood guard around me. I was asked if I could wait outside, (like a traditional Enchanter would,) but I said I had to be inside to activate Enchant Dungeon. For protection I was assigned some guards.

Hobgoblins were fighting with swordsmen and mages. Lightning, fire and arrows flew every which way across the room.

Four hobgoblins approached my guards and two moved to defend me. I used this opportunity to lose them.

I said before I can control sprite data, or the viaula part of an object as I wish. I can also disconnect sprite data. (Though I have to reconnect it quickly before the system notices.) I disconnected the sprite data for all of my equipment and my body. Essentially, I was invisible. But only to those that relied on sprite data, Users. Monsters could still perceive me because they didn’t know they shouldn’t.

I moved over to get closer to Bard Ray, who was fighting the Red Ogre with two others while supported by priests, mages and archers.

For a level 130 Ogre, this would be overkill. Bard Ray never intended on taking part in the fight. The red Ogre however was level 180. And within his own dungeon, he was stronger than any User on the face of Versailles. (Especially since he was strengthened by my Enchant Dungeon, along with the hobgoblins in the room.)

Ray was being pushed back, however he was still better off than the other two. They seemed to be a level 130 Warrior and a level 128 Spearmen. Likely the original captains of this raid party until Bard Ray took it over just to see me.

I could not make myself invisible to monsters, but whenever one saw me, there was a chance of it attacking or ignoring. I altered those chance to ignore me. That only works though when a creature at least has a chance of ignoring me. It also only works when close up, so if a goblin got out a bow and arrow and started shooting me from a distance I could not stop him.

The reason for ditching my guard and moving closer to the boss fight was to use my random chance control to give Ray the edge. Even with my super buff he was in a huge disadvantage. He probably noticed that his movement was far superior to what it should be, but I hoped he would attribute all of it to just the 18% increase in strength.

I found a safe place behind a pillar near the Ogre’s throne. I was close enough to effect chance.

Whenever Bard Ray attacked, I made sure it deal the maximum damage it could. When he was hit, I made sure it dealt the least.

The Ogre jumped back to put the three men fighting it into range. The other two had fought the boss ogre before, and were getting caught up in thinking this one fought the same. The red Ogre let roar a blast of fire that covered most of the area in front of him. All three leaders were hit, but Bard Ray was the only survivor. Though even if I had not reduced the damage from that attack to the minimum, had he not had fire resistance from my cheat buff he would be dead.

The others in the group continued fighting the hobgoblins. Because I strengthened them, the group had yet to finish them off and help Bard Ray. I needed him to mostly defeat the ogre on his own.

Finally the last blow was struck. I made sure the Ogre dropped its rarest loot, an armband that increased Leadership and Charisma by 40 points each. This would make any man a great leader. If the man was already a great leader, it would elevate him to the next level.

I left the cave without receiving any loot or money. This is because I remained Invisible the entire time. If I stayed the men would have likely begged insistently for me to join the Hermes guild, and I don’t think I would have been able to say no if Bard Ray asked in person. I was sure that is why he came today. So I stayed invisible and let everyone assume I had died.

Ray Bard had passed my trial. Sure I helped, but it would have been for nothing if he hadn’t made the most of it. The kid with Excalibur needed my help a lot of times too. The last part of making a hero was an easy part compared to finding a hero and guiding him through a trial without him knowing you set it up and helped him out. I just had to make sure everyone knew what he did.

NPCs have a Rumor spreading system that informs the masses and each other about interesting events. I simply walked all over the city and made sure that they would spread the word that a famous adventurer in a powerful guild defeated a Red ogre. I spread it to the merchants, the bar and Inn owners, the artists and bards. I took a walk along the Noble side of the city and made sure Bard Ray’s Adventure was the talk of the high society town.

It didn’t take long for Bard Ray’s reputation to overshadow the Scarlet Enchantress. Eventually he was known all over the city. Last I heard, one of the city lords offered him a knighthood. This meant that he would now have political power and influence. He had become a hero.

It is at this point I step away. I stay back and look for more heroes to make. I’ll occasionally check up on him now and then to see what kind of hero he becomes. Or if he becomes something else entirely.

Chapter 5

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