Short summary of the last chapter:

Spoiler :

Voice created a nice number of skills using the previously unused skill: Skill Dissembler. He even managed to fuse enough skills to Group Skill: Long Distance Inspection, to rank it up to level 100. He got the notice to do the master quest for it, and managed to completely destroy the bandits that tried to infiltrate his city.

Also, let me know if anything is wrong with the chapter! Be sure to comment and rate!

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I know I was intentionally putting the bandits off, but weren’t they a bit too easy to beat? I mean their average level was about 100. The saddest part was that I didn’t even get much exp from killing the group.

I decided to send EDI a message.

‘Hey, EDI. It’s Voice! I was wondering if you knew why it was so hard for me to level up? I mean I fight stuff way above my level but I get almost no experience.’

She didn’t answer. Well the message was there. I decided to go to the purifiers and sit down. While there I activated the special skill automaton. It let me log out but a bot would replicate my usual thought patterns.

I went into the white room, and decided to look the info up myself. Very few people knew that we could still use information from the outside without repercussions. I guess the people that did, didn’t want the others to find out about it.

Sadly there wasn’t any information on leveling up, outside of good spots to hunt between level x and y.

Since it was like that I could only make conjectures. They wouldn’t really be useful without testing them out though. So I gave up on that for now. I still had a few more battles before I could think on what to do.

I decided to look for a way to level up quicker after the battles. That way I would have a bit of extra time to deal with it.

It was at that moment when I got a message from Chao.

‘Voice. We are a bit ahead of schedule. You-Know-Who has decided it was time to fight a bit earlier than expected. He should be here within a week.’

Shit! That is a week ahead! Not a bit!

I had to wipe the bandits out soon. I wanted the people of this city to always be wary, so I was trying to sprinkle disasters around. If they were all just dumped one after another it might make too many of the NPCs choose to leave the city.

To do this I decided to be a bit more proactive.

A hunter was exploring the woods. It was a wood elf, so there was nothing odd about that. Unfortunately for the wood elf, the bandit camp was right in the path that said wood elf was exploring.

The wood elf wasn’t exactly quiet, but wasn’t overly loud either. The bandit leader was looking over the information that her subordinates had gained before dying. She was in a nice looking tent, with a wooden table and a single chair.

*Bang*

She hit her hand on the table.

“You mean to tell me somebody knew about our operation!? How! Erine! Did someone follow you?”

The bandit leader was an imposing woman. She stood six foot four, and weighed about 280 pounds, all muscle. By stacking the thick leather armor, she was able to cover the weakness of her flesh but keep her agility unhindered.

From head to toe, she was clad in the pelts of powerful monsters. Each one she had slain herself. She was adept at hunting monsters. Normally she wouldn’t have accepted this request from the guild leader, but the customer had asked for someone good with dealing with monsters, so she had to go.

Erine was the girl that had entered the city to look for weaknesses.

Grail, the bandit leader, slapped Erine across her face. Erine flew sever feet before falling to the ground. There were several strong people around Erine, but none did anything to help her.

“Damnit! I was told this was a basically a monster extermination! How am I supposed to get anything form ‘a black shadow killed me’ !?

“And none of you were killed the same way? Do you expect me to believe that! Get out! All of you get out! NOW!”

Everyone hurried to leave the room.

Grail sighed. She was tired. The trek here had taken a long time, and now her encampment couldn’t even figure out who was killing them! Someone had to know about their operations, how else could someone kill every single one of her men so precisely?

A small scuffle sounded outside. Just as Grail was going to vent some of her anger on the people that caused it, someone shouted from just outside of the tent.

“Leader Grail! A spy has been captured!”

Grail smiled sadistically. This fucker… hehe

A spy she could deal with. A spy she could get information from. She exited her tent, and had her subordinate show her where the spy was.

A wood elf was strung up. She activated Identify.

She had 20 levels into Identify, so she could see most of the information of the thing she looked at. It was actually exceedingly hard to level up Identify. You had to Identify new items all the time to do it. Even though she hunted new types of monsters almost daily and she was one of the first non-betas, she still only had a 20.

She looked at the wood elf. Ha! They sent a level 54 to spy on us? What do they think we are just some simple marauders?

The wood elf had already been stripped of all possessions. A simple wooden bow, a small quiver of arrows, and some very basic cloth clothing. He was in a desperate situation. Wood elves never had much hp, or natural armor, but this one took that to an extreme.

Within the few seconds that Grail had called, the spy had been beaten to within an inch of his life. His body was covered in bruises. It seemed even a simple punch would leave a deep bruise. A simple straight cut drew a deep gnash across his skin.

Is he really a spy? It would be a good disguise, but he really should have been more heavily armed.

She decided to call out.

“You! Spy! Why are you here? Who do you work for!”

The wood elf looked pleadingly at her. Of course this did nothing. She couldn’t care less for the plight of someone other than the regimen she had been put in charge of.

The wood elf spoke in broken Human speech.

“Please Ma’am! I not spy! I tell them! I tell soldiers! I tell them I not spy! Please save me!”

He looked so pitiful. Even the Nature Aura that wood elves were known for was even greatly diminished.

“I know! The soldiers say they try to kill king! I help! I don’t like king! He kill the forest! I help!”

Of course Grail wasn’t one to take anything to heart, at least not if it was said by one that was about to die.

“Kill him.”

She turned and walked away.

The other bandits smiled wickedly as they drew near the poor wood elf.

“WAIT! I KNOW SECRET PASSAGE!”

In a desperate attempt to save his own life he gave up a great secret!

Grail, “STOP!”

All of the bandits froze. It was one effect of her skill: Instruct. Instruct was at level 85 by now, so she had almost complete control over her men in all situations.

She turned back around slowly.

She stared an evil stare at the wood elf, and the bandits parted before her like the Red Sea for Moses. She drew close to the wood elf, and whispered in his ear.

“What did you say?”

The whisper was far more ominous than a scream filled with anger.

“I- I say that I know – I know a secret passage.” The wood elf began stuttering from fear. The imposing aura of Grail could even cow a small dragon.

Grail let the wood elf see her evil smile.

“You know what would happen if you were lying, right?”

The wood elf hastily nodded his head. “Yes, I know. I die badly.”

Grail showed a toothy grin. “Not just badly. We’ll keep you alive for days. We’ll draw out every once of pain and anguish we can.”

The wood elf obviously understood the meaning of her words. A tiny stream of water flowed down his leg.

“Cut him down.” Demanded Grail. “And for god’s sake give him his clothes back!”

If the wood elf turned out to be lying, they would just kill him, and only lose a day. She sent two people with the wood elf, and awaited their return. She ordered her men to get ready to move out, just in case the wood elf was telling the truth.

Within an hour the two men she had ordered to follow the wood elf came back. Minus one wood elf.

She got the details of where the secret entrance was, and all of then necessary information to use it. Then she asked:

“What happened to the wood elf?” She asked slowly raising her voice as she asked.

The bandits looked at each other, confused. Then angry.

“Ma’am. The wood elf tricked us. He said that you said that he was free to go after he showed us the way to the pass-“

Two heads rolled to the ground.

“Incompetents.”

Grail’s hand was in the shape of a sword, with all fingers extended. Her hand dripped in blood.

“Still, I did get the information I wanted.”

She turned towards the her men.

“Move out!”

POV Wood Elf

The wood elf was sitting in the woods, hidden from the people that might try to find him. He had tricked the people into letting him go after showing them the secret entrance into the castle.

“Cripes that was scary. I really thought I’d die!”

With a wave of his hand, the ‘wood elf’ dispelled his disguise skill. His face and body instantly transformed into Voice’s face and body.

The ‘weak’ wood elf was actually me with my debuffs on. Of course I also had my health buffed as much as possible. I still almost died several times though.

Over the course of the time between when I had killed the bandits, and the moment I disguised myself as a wood elf, I created a large intricate tunnel into my castle.

Of course the cave had a surveillance eyeball right at the mouth. That way I would know exactly when the bandits entered.

It wasn’t a long wait. Not even fifteen minutes after I got back to the observatory, I saw the bandits entering the cave.

Within an hour or so they began pouring out of the cave. Of course I didn’t make this little trek easy for them. I had littered the tunnel with several powerful undead. They were dealt with fairly easily. It was a shame, seeing as I actually went through the trouble of putting those undead through the darkness mana purifiers. Of course it could have been that the undead only put up as much effort as I told them to.

The bandits were apparently trying to be quite about their attack, but that failed. One of the guards ‘just happened’ to walk past the exit to the secret tunnel. It was almost as if the undead had perfectly timed their own death to coincide with the guard’s perimeter check.

Heh.

As soon as he saw the fur clad people pouring from behind a bookcase, he blew his horn. Some archers from the bandits’ group shot him through the eye. He dropped to the ground in a moment. He was obviously dead.

Not that it mattered though. Player deaths didn’t really concern me. Hell NPC deaths didn’t concern me, except I might get flak from EDITOR.

The horn had already been blown though. Guards instantly started streaming towards that location, while blowing their own horns.

I was watching all of this through the eyebots. The leader of the bandits issued an order, and the bandits encircled two of their own people in a protective circle.

The two people began to summon up mana from within their bodies to cast a largescale spell. Of course I didn’t let them do what they wanted though.

By the time they had poured out of the tunnels, I had already made my way there. The leader saw me, and seemed to lock on to my person.

“IT’S HIM!” She shouted as she pointed at me. The people in the center of the circle continued to cast the spell, the others turned towards me.

With a wave of my hand I dispersed the mana they were gathering.

I chuckled, and amplified my voice with wind mana. “You think to best me with MAGIC! HAHAHA!”

I had summoned Tear out, just out of sight. Tear began to suck away the water mana. I had SparrowHawk add in a bunch of wind mana, and Drake add fire mana. They all were just above the ceiling, silently doing their tasks.

Eli and Golem were in their item forms. I was clad in the rustic stone armor, and had out my metal mana-coated staff.

I raised up a small stone wall between us, and began to cast a spell myself. The wall was about three feet high, and curved back my way.

The leader let out a roar and charged me. A few of the people guarding the circle also began to come at me. They easily jumped over the three-foot wall.

As soon as the group had passed the wall, I turned it into spears and shot it out at them. Two of the four bandits were hit, and instantly fell to the floor.

My buffs were almost all geared towards speed and damage, so I could dodge and attack easily. The bandit leader easily dodged the spear, even though it was launched from behind her. She sneered, like my attack wasn’t even worth her time to dodge.

As soon as she got to me, she began a furious series of attacks with her bare hands. I easily blocked most of them. The few that I missed bounced off of my armor harmlessly.

After the first series of attacks, her followers had caught up. I looked at one for a moment, and activated one of my skills: Mental Domination Connection. The order was: attack bandits.

He slowed for a moment before continuing to come at me. Although I couldn’t fight three higher leveled people on even footing, I could at least stall them. Analysis showed me the best places to dodge to or block.

I had gotten pretty good at following all of Analysis’ instructions. Analysis had gotten a lot better with the increased level. It even seemed capable of understanding my abilities somewhat. It only gave me advice that I could actually use.

After a few exchanges with the group, I managed to lay a deep attack on the bandit leader. The bandit leader backed off for a moment. During that time, Analysis showed me a perfect hit. I stabbed out with the spear tip of my staff, and completely sent it through the throat of one of the two bandits attacking me.

It did help that using Instant Analysis would slow time down dramatically. With my mind working at 10 times faster than normal, no tricks this group could think of would effect me.

His health dropped rapidly, and I sent a blob of pain water into the wound. He fell to the ground, clutching his throat.

I took the time to look at the bandit leader and smile. I shook my head as I worked around the other bandit to place him between me and the bandit leader.

The bandit leader had backed off to drink a potion, and was soon back into the fight. She attacker ferociously. Each one of her attacks were perfectly aimed at a vital point. Without Analysis I’d be done for.

The hallway was getting very hot now, hot and windy. The heat was so much that the smooth stone could burn one’s foot if they weren’t wearing shoes. The wind was so intense that even standing still allowed my hair to blow heavily in every direction.

I could see sweat forming on the bandit leader’s brow.

“What’s wrong?” I taunted while dodging another one of her claw attacks. “Can’t take a bit of heat? Well your subordinate must be in real trouble then.”

For just a moment she glanced over my shoulder in worry. In that moment I cast the biggest fireball I could. Sympathy for subordinates? A weakness.

The moment the fireball came into being, the huge amount fire and wind mana seemed to be sucked into the fireball. A huge boom exploded out. A giant torrent of flames blew down both ends of the hallway.

The bandits let out pained screams. Even though their pain was set between 1-25%, being roasted alive still hurt.

Though Analysis I knew the bandit leader was still in front of me. I unsheathed my two swords the moment I summoned the fireball. After hearing the words: ‘Can’t take a bit of heat?’, Tear covered me with the ample amount of water mana.

The water shield was as thin and dense as possible, and covered little more than my entire body. It was in the shape of an oblong sphere.

I stabbed out with my two swords at the same moment that I unsheathed them. Both were aimed for the most vulnerable parts of a human: the eyes. Of course I couldn’t be 100% sure I was hitting her eyes, but Analysis showed me I should be.

The roaring of the flames soon drowned out all sound. In moments the flames were gone. Two people stood in the hallway.

One was a man covered in a sphere of water. The other was a figure directly in front of him. She was slumped over, holding herself up with her sheer force of will.

With great effort she looked up, “You think… *Huff Huff* you’ve won? We were a distracti…”

She died without finishing her sentence, but my eyes went wide. A distraction?

I noticed I had gained two levels by killing her and her minions. They were high leveled after all. I also picked up the items they group had dropped.

I flew out of the scorched hallway after gathering my fairies again. Above the city I could see everything that was happening. Large groups of people were fighting off bandits in every corner of every arc.

The guards were only just holding their own. The bandits were both greater in number, and had more experience raiding than the guards had guarding. The random citizens were being cornered easily. A few bodies littered the ground, but it looked like the bandits had just infiltrated.

Shit, this is NOT how I planned this. Time for back up.

I enhanced my voice as loudly as possible. “Great Goddess Mar! Hear your Chosen! Grant me the power to help those innocent souls against the vile murders that threaten them!”

I didn’t actually think anything would come of it, but I always had to put on a show. I gathered up all of the mana in my body, and even debuffed myself. I went into meditation state to gain quicker mana regen. My 100 or so points a second could make a world of difference.

I was just about to go and slaughter some bandits when I saw something I couldn’t overlook. A girl, no more than seven or eight was watching as a bandit started to ravage her mother.

I felt my face snarl. RAPE. IS. NOT. OK!

Selfless Sacrifice

By sacrificing at least one level, you cause direct damage to all evil aligned targets around you. You deal full damage to all targets. The damage is equal to your total, health, mana, and stamina times the total levels you sacrifice. Health spent damages health, mana spent damages mana, and stamina spent damages stamina. If mana or stamina damage exceeds individual’s total mana or stamina, the excess amount will damage health.

Consumes 1 to 5 levels. You lose all health when this ability is used. The area of effect is enhanced by the amount of levels sacrificed.

An ability I had gotten a long while ago. Its area was directly proportional to how much mana, health, and stamina one sacrificed. I activated it while getting as close to the ground as possible. I sacrificed the maximum of five levels.

*BOOOOM*

My mind went blank as I felt the ground coming closer. I would later watch the effect from the recordings of my eye cams.

The buildings shook, and a huge white light spread out through them. My body was emitting a bright white sheen.

The bandits closest to my body were the first effected. Their bodies burst from the initial impact of the light. The ones further out turned to dust as the holy light touched their bodies.

Eventually the light weakened, simply aging and turning them to dust, then finally just cutting their bodies with a blade of holy light. The light spread over the entire city. Everything that was ‘evil’ was destroyed. Oddly my eyebots had been passed over, even though my undead had been killed the first time I used this skill.

Every bandit in the city, every single one of them was instantly destroyed. I tried to respawn right away, but got a message.

*Attention*

You are trying to resurrect in a town while it is under attack. Please wait until the attack is over, or choose a new respawn option.

So I had to wait until the effect of the ability had its way. I was more than surprised to see the level of destruction it was capable of.

I mean, I was pretty pissed at the time, but I didn’t think it’d be that good. It passed the boundaries of the entire city for crying out loud!

It was only a few seconds later that I was told I could log back in.

*Attention*

You have killed a substantial amount of enemies at once. Auto-Loot function has been activated. All items will be spawned near Voice0fReason upon next login.

I logged back in right away. That thing wasn’t joking. A HUGE amount of items surrounded me when my character got back into the game.

The pile of gold and items was about as tall as me. I was in the ‘safe room’ I had crafted for myself. It had no entrance or exit. The only opening was the tiny set of hole that led to the outside, for fresh air.

The room was originally fairly large, but it was almost completely filled with stuff now.

*Congratulations*

You have leveled up. You are now level 46.

*Congratulations*

You have leveled up. You are now level 47.

*Congratulations*

You have leveled up. You are now level 48.

*Congratulations*

You have leveled up. You are now level 49.

*Congratulations*

You have leveled up. You are now level 50.

Boom! Just like that I not only gained back my lost levels, I even gained the two back from fighting the bandit leader.

Most of the bandits were very high leveled. With my low level it wasn’t surprising that I’d gain a large amount of experience. What was more surprising it I only leveled up five times. I mean I killed dozens of high level users. I had all kinds of exp boost items. Why the hell wouldn’t I level up more than just five times? Hell ShortDwarf had already leveled past 500!

I guess it’s time for the final phase.

There was still one scheduled attack on the city, but I planned to miss it. It was a basic one anyway. Just a hug horde of monsters coming at the city walls. With the bombs my favorite alchemist could make, my city would have no trouble defending against them.

They’d all have to climb the walls to be able to get in, but that wasn’t likely to happen. If any of them could fly, well I did have a certain reserve force to deal with that as well.

I sat in the room for about an hour. I sorted through all of the items. Since I’d be leaving anyway, I decided to make this room my secret armory. After taking a substantial amount of the gold, I left the rest.

It was time to set out for my next big adventure.

“Operation: Destruction; Start!”

Spoiler :

Stats WindowNameVoice0fReasonClassMana EnchanterRaceTrue ElfRacial ClassKingLevel 50Health: 100Mana: 3430[11,662]Stamina: 500Current Title: Chosen of MarHealth Regen: 1/sMana Regen: 52(48)/sStamina Regen: 5.9/sStrength83Agility50Wisdom260Intelligence343Endurance59Dexterity50Luck0Vitality50Charisma35Compassion105Leadership67Logic28Piety89Unused Stat Points64Fame1685

Skills WindowGroup Skill: Instant Analysis Expert Level 100 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Skill Mastery Adept Level 50 Exp 21.23%

Group Skill: Con Artist Novice Level 21 Exp 5.01%

Group Skill: Devourer of Knowledge Novice Level 20 Exp 15.61%

Group Skill: Automatic Nursing Novice Level 20 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Master of Alchemy Expert Level 75 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Tactical Survival Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Tactical Combat Training Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Magical Mastery Expert Level 75 Exp 00.00%

Group Skill: Breakdown Apprentice Level 25 Exp 12.64%

Group Skill: Crafting Mastery Apprentice Level 30 Exp 00%

Group Skill: Harvesting Mastery Novice Level 5 Exp 60.43%

Group Skill: Body Enhancement Adept

Group Skill: Task Master Adept Level 50 Exp 00.00%

Affinities WindowLight70%Water75%Wind25%Nature100%Metal75%Earth90%Fire35%Darkness100%

Purities WindowLight30%Water79%Wind30%Nature65%Metal30%Earth80%Fire30%Darkness30%

Well there you go folks! The ‘end’ of the war on death, at least from Voice’s perspective. The next chapter will start a brand new arc, and a minor time skip. I had been planning this for a while, but needed to iron everything out. The next arc is more… psychological than the previous ones.