When Alexis got up and got dressed, it was all business after that point. For a couple more day we grinded to get her level up to 30. We were already past the point for the curse, and behind the other players were ahead of us, might as well have a good chance against our boss. But first, it was time to log out for breakfast.

Mmm, I was looking at my kitchen, pondering what to eat, I was really feeling something sweet, but I needed to eat some eggs. Ah, I know, Cracking 4 eggs into a bowl, I added, 2 teaspoons of sugar, a pinch of salt, a dash of mirin, a dash of soy sauce and a tiny bit of oil. After oiling and heating my pan, this thing was rectangular, a gift I got when moving, I began to whisk the mixture til fluffy. Putting it in the pan it began to cook, when it was near done I began to roll the omelette. Taking some rice out from my fridge I put a small bit on my plate and served with the omelette, Oishii!

Logging back in we were currently heading towards the basement, the warrior’s levels had increased to level 34, but I was already above that, and Alexis was fine as a healer. I first started off stealing items of them, until they were helpless to fight me and Alexis. Upon defeating the warrior’s, they dropped super trash items, but we continued to the basement.

We had walked into a pantry of sorts, all the food was ancient and dried out, nothing here was useable. However the next room, was a wine cellar of sorts, 8 barrels were in this large room, inspecting them, one was larger and made of ebony, the rest mahogany. They had some interesting flavour text.

Sinner’s Blackmead Barrel.

The favourite blend of the sinner, tasteless to anyone without the blood of at least a thousand innocents on his hands. Legend has it, that the God of War descended to the mortal plain and killed an entire city just to taste it.

Due to being magical in nature and in a dungeon, it will slowly refill over time.

750L/750L

Can refill canteens.

(Sinner’s Blackmead)

No effects unless drunken by someone who has the blood of a thousand innocents on their hands.

Great taste.

Restores, health, mana and stamina.

Low alcohol content.

Enchanted Saint’s Bloodwine Barrel.

Created by the sinner for his wife, tasteless to any man, only women can taste this due to how it was made, the taste will change depending on her preferences and what she wants it to taste like. Legend has it, the seven elven elemental deities descended to the mortal plain to try some. Due to the wine they who were once enemies settled their differences, resulting in the creation of the high elf.

Due to being magical in nature and in a dungeon, it will slowly refill over time.

250L/250L

(Saint’s Bloodwine)

No effects unless drunken by a woman.

Taste changes to drinker’s preference

Restores, health, mana and stamina.

Medium alcohol content.

Well, they were clearly for me, shame I couldn’t taste it yet and worse was, I couldn’t stop anyone else from coming here for the women’s wine. I’ll just have to never tell anyone about this place, since my sanctum will be here too, sigh, first I need to kill a thousand noobs, and I'm already behind schedule. Touching my canteen to the nozzle on the barrel, I got a notification to change the liquid inside to Sinner’s Blackmead. Trying some of it, it was just like water, except the liquid itself was pure black, I guess I would really have to get the class before I could try it.

“Touch your canteen to the barrel, and try some of the Saint’s Bloodwine.”

“Umm, I can’t, can I? I mean, I’m underage.”

“Nah it’s based on regional laws, the age to drink alcohol is 4 in our country.”

“Wait what?”

“Don’t worry about it, try the wine. My mead is just like water currently, if you can’t drink the alcohol I assume it’ll be like that.”

“Okay, but I won’t drink too much, I think I’m weak to alcohol.”

She put her canteen to one of the other barrels, then she took it to her lips.

“Mmmm, it’s really good.”

“Oh that’s nice, shame it’s ladies only, what does it taste like?”

Her face lit up with a blush.

“Umm, well… some time ago my father let me try some really expensive wine, it’s like that and… umm…”

“And?”

Her blush reached her ears, she looked to the floor and started playing with her fingers.

“It umm… tastes like that wine and a hint of you…”

“What exactly is a hint of me?”

I raised my eyebrows at her.

“Umm, I can’t say it…”

“Hahaha, you’re so cute, I just want to kiss you.”

“Umm if it’s just a small one…”

She looked back up at me.

“But no more after that, okay?”

She really was too cute.

I hugged her with one arm and planted the promised kiss on her head.

“Let’s go find that boss then.”

“Mmn.”

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The boss wasn’t actually that far, at the end of the wine room was a staircase, following it downwards it went into a spiral, eventually leading to a really large door in the basement, behind it we found what we were both looking for, other than each other of course, the missing skeleton, and the necromancer.

The Skeleton was tall, at least 7 foot, and other than its skull, it was encased in a full black plate armour. The plate armour was amazing, it was pure black and gave a slight shine, like obsidian on those stairs. It was gilded, on the outlines of every plate was a filigree gold pattern that looked like flowing rivers or clouds, adding elegance to the armour. Its right arm was hanging loose, and in its left hand was the sword I was looking for.

The sword, I could tell must have once been amazing, the hilt was broken in half, but the half that was left was more elegant than the armour. It was a similar colour to Shadow a darkness that let no light escape, except it was gilded with a patterns, spirals going up what I could see of the hilt, all sorts of patterns on the cross guard, I think I could see a wolf's head made from lines of gold on it.

The blade was also broken in half, but from what I could see of it, it was made of steel and it had a fantasy element to it unlike my swords so far, the blade started out quite wide and got smaller towards the middle, I’m sure it would have gotten wider before thinning down to the point.

Race: Minor Skeleton Knight (Unique) level 38

Health: 33,800 Mana: 0

[(Racial) Slashing/Piercing Resistance], [Insight]

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!”

Ugh a woman’s shrill screaming knocked me out of my concentration, I gave Alexis a quick glance over my shoulder.

“Don’t look at me, it was him.”

She pointed towards the necromancer, he was at a wooden table that had a skeleton on it, and surrounding him were the bodies of perhaps a hundred more skeletons, of all different shapes and sizes, some complete, others not. He himself was a short man, pale skinned and balding, perhaps in his 40s, his face was ugly as sin. He was wearing a full-body loose robe, dark grey in colour, at the end of his widening sleeves the colour changed to a light grey.

Walker (Boss) Level 30

Race: Human Class: Necromancer

Health: 18,400 Mana: 53,200

Skills: [(Racial) Progress], [(Racial) Versatility], [Deathly Aura], [Minor Raise Undead], [Necromantic Healing], [Raise Undead Champion], [Empower Undead]

“You, you.”

His voice was shrill and high pitched, it constantly cracked, his voice had the sound of someone who had seen death himself.

“How did you get past the army I built, dear Hades, please don’t kill me.”

“Uh, I mean skeleton knight go kill them!”

A bony finger pointed at me, the skeleton began its charge.

Well I exaggerate, it shambled towards me, it was painfully clear how incompetent this necromancer was, but I wasn’t liking the name of that last skill.

I also wasn’t about to underestimate the skeleton of a man who slew a true dragon.

Its first attack came at me, I had gotten used to parrying things stronger than me so I managed to receive it in water stance, but damn.

*Parry* -605 HP

The blow knocked me flying, straight into a wall, damn that thing had over 1200 attack.

+440 HP

“Regen coming in then I’m boosting reverence at the knight, you think you need the boost too?”

God, she really wasn’t just a pretty face and legs, I think I just fell in love all over again.

“Yeah, it’s no good if we keep the extra damage for reverence and I die, better safe than sorry.”

Knocking me so far back was working against its favour since it had to run up to catch me.

Mmm damn, checking the necro, he was casting and a grey aura was covering him, no idea what was happening, might be empower.

+375 HP

Aight that would happen every two seconds, as long as I could hold out 10 we’d get a good chunk of damage, but its gonna be a problem if I don’t get some aggro on the knight, mmm I got an idea.

“I’m coming for you, you damn necromancer!”

I shouted and began to ran towards him, the idiot interrupted whatever he was casting…

“HIEEE, don’t let him near me, skeleton kill that guy.”

Once again the boss knocked me back into the wall, but if I was right as a skeleton it shouldn’t disobey the order and attack Alexis. The battle went on, another two times I was hit back into a wall while parrying, this thing was harsh.

3 seconds until Alexis finished her, cast, the necro managed to get his cast off, damn, it raised one of the undead and it began shambling towards me at his command. The guy started casting again, surrounding himself with the same grey aura, well I couldn’t say if it was the same spell for sure.

This time when I took the hit, I positioned myself to hit the skeleton, as I went flying backwards I aimed my sword at it.

-800HP

You have slain an enemy.

I rolled to my feet, it was weak, but I didn’t know if without the damage from flying like that, I could kill it. Either way, it was coming after me and I needed to make the hit.

Instead of defending, I went into fire stance, and went for the strike on it, we both seemed like we would reach at the same time.

-8000HP

Target has been heavily consecrated.

Target has been immobilized for 7 seconds.

Mmm heavily consecrated that was different, but that stun was amazing, I nodded, Alexis knew my meaning. We needed to end this soon, more than a third of my health had gone, even with an elite healer like her, this thing was pushing us.

“Shadow, Kill!”

My summon burst from my shadow, he had been sitting there for when I needed him, he was already level 35 with 370 attack which wasn’t much lower than my own. Considering I was under geared, it actually wasn’t that good.

+350hp

Alexis threw in a heal, the power had really had gone down a bit, but we needed that stun for sure.

-788HP

-740HP

Damn heavily consecrated apparently gave double damage, with a shadowstrike and a continuous combo we beat down the skeleton, it was well under half health now.

Checking the necromancer he was surrounded by an incredibly heavy grey aura, it reached out for almost a meter, he had started charging the second he saw the skeleton get consecrated, if I had to guess one of his spells could reverse consecration.

But we had anticipated that, with no healing spells Alexis had run behind him, and clonked him on the back of his head, the aura disappeared, and he was silenced for a while.

How dare he underestimate the power of our bond!

He tried to attack Alexis, but she easily dodged his attacks and clonked him, she wasn’t getting much damage, but silencing him was more than enough, and she could still throw a heal every three seconds, but it was time for me to attack this skeleton.

It was a lot weaker now, its oppressive power was cut down, I guess consecration lowered stats as well, but it was still stronger than the warriors so far. Whenever I went for an attack it would just plain strike me backwards, all I could do was get my attack interrupted and hit walls. But just Shadow’s damage was enough, before the necromancer could regain his spells the skeleton was returned to eternal rest.

Oddly enough if a skeleton could smile, I’m sure it did. It fell onto its knees before me, it turned the sword in its hand towards me. As I grabbed the hilt, it began to disperse into small balls of mana and disappeared into the air.

But I received the sword in my inventory.

Ancient Sword (Unique):

Once one of the most powerful swords in the world, without its soul it was impossible to ever repair again. The creator used ancient ritual magic to grant it the power to fuse a demon’s heart with any weapon.

Use with demon’s heart on a weapon of your choice to begin the ritual of power.

Looking over at the necromancer, he was curled into a ball on the floor, a sobbing mess.

He looked up at us, snot dribbling down and mixing with his tears.

“Please don’t kill meeeee.”

Alexis turned towards me with slightly sad eyes.

“He’s so pitiful, do we really have to kill him?”

I sent Shadow to attack him, wouldn’t do any good to let him raise more undead.

“You finished your quest?”

“Yeah, if poss-“

“My quest is to kill him.”

“Is there no other way?”

“Afraid not, if I don’t kill him he’ll amass an army and attack people.”

She nodded with determination.

“Mm, Okay let’s kill him.”

After a couple of minutes of us beating him down the crying bugger finally died, being a boss gave him far more health than he should have had, but that didn’t help him skillwise. A blue triangle appeared indicating the loot had dropped, but before I could check it Alexis shouted.

“Zeke! Something’s wrong with your shadow.”

I looked behind me to check it, I had sent Shadow back when the necro was killed, my shadow was burning and it looked like. I gave him the command to come back out. Yeah something was wrong with him, he seemed to be in pain, he began rolling around on the floor while growling, a black billowing smoke was coming off him and he was getting smaller.

When it finally finished, he had…

Become human?

Due to being in your shadow for so long, Shadow has evolved into a Minor Shadowfiend Echo.

It stood up and looked at me, it was familiar, same height same build, same haircut, and the only difference was a silver light that represented its eyes.

“It looks just like you when you use Shadowcloak.”

“Alexis it’s not just him who’s changing, check your shoulder.”

A bright white light had been shining forth in the shape of a bird, when it finished, Branwen had grown into an adult. its third leg now prominent due to its size. Before it had been fluffy and the size of Alexis’ small fist, now it was a bit taller than her head. I went into the menu and checked what happened to him, he had 70 more strength and 35 more con, and two shiny new skills.

(Passive)Master’s Echo ~Max~:

The Shadowfiend will passively change its appearance to be identical to its soul bonded.

Natural Weapon Creation ~Max~:

Can form a weapon of dark magic identical in shape and size to the weapon its bonded uses. The Shadowfiend can use this as a natural weapon, the damage will change depending on the weapon formed and the natural weapon of the shadowfiend.

No cost.

I had him use it, and a sword identical to my own, except completely black, that same black colour that seemed to absorb all light. It’s a shame even with shadow cloak on my sword didn’t have that effect, smart players would be able to tell the difference. But in the heat of battle, it might not be so easy.

“Anything nice happen to Branwen.”

Alexis had a completely shocked look on her face.

“Yeah, she’s more powerful than me now.”

“Hmmm?”

“She got a stat boost, but it’s not just that, she has two skills, one gives me good amount of mana regen, the other…”

“Well apparently it’s the main ability of her unique race, here take a look.”

“Show skill Divine Intervention.”

(Racial)Divine Intervention: Beginner level 1:

Can either teleport a target (including support type pets) in range anywhere 20 meters around the crow.

No cost

20 minute cooldown

Or

Can select a target and make them completely invulnerable for 1 second.

No cost

12 hour cooldown.

“Mm, I am impressed Alexis, swapsies?”

I said in a joking tone, giving her a smile.

Alexis beamed back brightly and put her hands behind her back.

“Weeelll, as much as I wooouuld like you as my obedient pet…”

She disappeared in a bright flash of light, first it covered her, then shrank into a bunch several lines of light going upwards towards The Enterprise with one really long strand swirling around the bunch.

A giggle came from behind me, and a shove, since I wasn’t expecting it I almost fell, but I just about managed to raise my right leg upwards to land in a runners lunge. I turned around to see Alexis with a cheeky grin on her face.

“I wouldn’t trade Branwen for the world.”

She closed her eyes and poked her tongue out at me for a second.

“Now, stop showing off how sexy your legs are and let’s check out the loot.”

Ah, mi amor!

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So that new number 1, I was really surprised but, you know it was the fic right after my one. Mine is 1951, while his is 1952, and somehow, we’re so similar yet so different…

I feel like, everything I’ve written is gonna come off as too similar to it, whereas it’s not too similar for me to just drop the similar things…

Don’t worry though I’ll make up the difference with the amazing harem and other things I got planned out huhu.

Getting back to his story, his MC …

EDIT: just for clarity, I don't dislike the story, I dislike whiners and Slut-shaming while wanting something from women, the story is aight, but read ahead it's a good anecdote or I might just think that.

The MC is nothing new, shy introvert nerd, who goes pyscho with a completely different personality in situations.

But he’s such a whiny b*tch, and let me tell, I f*in hate whiners. I had a very similar situation Irl and handled it like a gentleman. Like this girl is constantly flirting at me, and looking for my attention, but I’m not looking for a relationship at this moment, cause mandem got major problems on his mind. This girl is your typical friend zoner, she has like 5 guys I know orbiting and that’s just those I know, I’m not interested so that makes her more interested.

Not gonna lie this girl was hot, like 8 or 9, she only didn’t have the body, she had squishy arts girl body. So anyways she starts dating one my friends (not one of her orbiters) just to get my attention. Like whenever she kisses him she looks over my way to see if I’m checking it, like announces she’s walking off with my friend and every goddamn day, she still comes to flirt and touch me.

Like I didn’t handle it like a b*tch, I didn’t wag out and call her a slut, which is hypocritical if you want a girl to express her sexuality and then call her slut, but certain types don’t get that. I didn’t make her the obsession of my life, like she wasn’t the first girl to talk to me, nor was she the first promiscuous (of sorts, they never sleep with the orbiters or throwaway bfs, and rightly so, how many of you would f your fat chick friend?) girl to talk to me.

Anyways I just casually dodged her advances, eventually she got tired of dating my friend to get my attention, and I think he realised it and stopped hanging out with me and my circle, but you gotta let a homie find out by himself.

Anyways I hate that whole, ‘omfg this woman is my life, I’m not gonna get over’, or ‘my obsession is gonna drive me type deal’, it’s so just, ugh. I will just say I hate that sort of plot device and yet the MC is so similar to mine it’s not funny, though I’ll make it up when he gets his magic sword style, I’ll drop the name as a spoiler, it’s called Steel Illusion Sword.

Anyways it’s an alright read other than the MC it’s sort of solid. The game system is a bit, but the author explains the inconsistencies away well-ish. Other than those two problems I'd say the story is well written, though I personally don't like the no paragraphing, but that might be an old way of doing things, line by line might be superior for web novels. I’d say do go read it if you got time on your hands.

I got the sequels for this planned out, each is a different style except the 2nd book which is also VR but in the future with focus on more grown up concepts (no not +18 though there will be plenty still) and sci-fi genre, each one after that focuses on a single story and a single heroine, before a final ending, gonna take forever but it’ll be fun, oh and each time the MC will have completely different abilities, for reference the 2nd book will have MC as a crafter.

Other than that just gotta up my game and get my laptop fixed.

Oh btw, smashed my first exam, went so well I took a post-coital (the cigarette you have after sex), fingers crossed for the next two.

Next chapter soon^tm.