The two sides were in a stalemate. The man’s black hounds were repelled by the barrier but on the other hand we couldn’t do anything here either. 2 of us are non combatants while Stella can’t move a muscle. She just stared at the man.

“Serena.” The man then stopped just next to the barrier. Based on the visual effects of his attacks. He is at least lvl 200 or more.

“GYAA!!” Stella then screamed. She definitely knew him. She screamed like her life depended on it and ran towards another end of the barrier. Fortunately the barrier is two sided. She slammed her hands at the barrier in vain. She then turned again facing the man. She looked so different now. She was totally scared and screamed in hysteria.

“Stella! Stella! Calm down.“ I ran and grabbed her but to no avail. Her gaze was still fixed on the man in black armour. The man then raised his fist. Black fog gathered around his fist and he punched straight at the barrier.

#BOOM BLAAR! BANG#

Loud sounds of explosions could be heard. The barrier pulsed a bit but seemed to hold in place.

“Don’t worry. He will not pass this barrier.” Maria said reassuringly.

The madman keep pounding and punching the barrier with his fist. Each fist he sent was accompanied by a loud banging sound and explosions. His black dogs also circled around and tried to break through by ramming, biting and scratching at the barrier.

“H-h-help me.” Stella clung to me pleading for help with tears in her eyes.

“Hraagh!!” Ragnar shouted. He charged and swung his war hammer, the hammer hit bulls eye at the man’s chest area sending him flying. The hound reacted but it was chased out by Iris, Arknum, Hasega and co. Hector and Baran then came from the left flank clearing out the remaining enemies.

“Maria. Can you open the field again and let us come in?” Ragnar asked.

“Right away!” She then made a hole in the shield to let the group in.” In the moment Maria closed the shield, 10 black spears rammed the shield. The shield shook violently but it held still.

“Holy ****. Even Weed only managed to summon 1 of those spears. How strong is he?” Arknum commented while a speaking censorship activated (well, I just installed the censorship on a whim. It might get removed again depending on authors mood)

The 10 meter space is now a little tight with 12 people inside.

“Alright, Baran. Use the scroll.”

“But, it is so expensive.”

“Who cares. Do you want to be fodder for that guy?”

“Well, dying is worse. I might drop an even more valuable thing. All right. Hold on everyone.” He then took out a scroll. A magic circle then appeared below Baran’s feet. ”Everyone! come close to me!”

The crazy man was still knocking (violently) at Maria’s barrier. With a flash of blinding white the barrier and everything inside it vanished leaving the stage empty as Ragnar has pre-emptively ordered everyone including Tantalus members to run for their lives.

“Ouch!” I fell headfirst to the ground.

You took 5 damage

Quest failed

I looked around me. It was a tropical rain forest. Thick branches and trunk blocked sunlight from entering. Only flashes of light managed to penetrate through making a small pillar of light. After scanning through I found a bed with Stella dropped to the ground. All 12 people that were inside Maria’s barrier could also be found here and there hanging on the tree branches or sticking out their butt taking fall damage.

“Everyone. Round up!” Ragnar shouted an order and all of us then gathered at the bed Stella then quickly clung to me. Her behaviour completely changed!

“Alright, so, what happened?” Asked Hasega.

“Those moves, you are the Acolyte?” Said Iris

“Who is this?” Ragnar asked.

“Umm, he is the enemy commander that attacked the city of acolyte.” I answered.

Everyone then unsheathed their weapons.

“Relax guys. I am just a hired commander. A foreigner.” He raised both of his hands to surrender.

“Alright. there is nothing to gain by killing anyone here. And I assume you are above lvl 100 and a warrior?” Ragnar asked while putting his war hammer and shield back to his inventory.

“yes. I am a dual wielder using swords. A damage dealer one with decent defense. I can also tank several attacks though not as good as a shield user. I am lvl 120 with good equipment. I am called Iris” He unsheathed his swords while taking a stance and then sheathed the swords again. He wore a red flaming armor. From the looks of it, that equipment is close to mine in rarity, it must give several bonuses.

“Alright. Enough with introductions. Anyone who has an idea where we are and how to get back to Trisia raise your hand?”

5 minutes passed with no hands raised.

“I want to know what happened first. First of all, what is the spell that Baran used.” Hasega asked.

“It is the teleportation scroll spell. It has the power to teleport anything within several meter radius. It was supposed to take us back to Trisia, but somehow something went wrong and we were sent here instead.“

“Spell interruption?” Fira asked.

“Well, the scroll is hard to use by nature. And when it activated, that guy’s action and Maria’s barrier might have disrupted the mana flow preventing us from teleporting correctly.” Baran explained.

“Alright. Any other questions?” Ragnar stopped then looked around. “If no one has any questions nor solutions then let’s do it the hard way. We split into 2 teams. Hasega, Dem, Fira, Arknum, Maria, Hector are group 1 while the rest is group 2. That is me, Iris, Victor, Riri, Stella and Baran. Both teams have foreigners. Communication between teams would be held by Fira and Riri. Well, most of us here are foreigners except me, Stella, Maria and Hector. I don’t think there will be a problem with communication.”

“Umm, I suggest we make a party.” I suggested.

“Good one. We can pinpoint each others location then.” Said Hasega.

“Well, that’s good. Do it. We will meet again here before sunset. We do not know the enemy so we cannot risk the 50% buff of monsters at night.”

While they travel south, we travel north. Ragnar actually wanted to split into 4 groups but after seeing we only have 2 healers he decided to go with 2.

“Stella? It is okay now. “ Stella was still clinging to me.

“Ahh. I am sorry. Just ignore me.” She said while clinging to me.

After walking for a while we met the first monster. A sabertooth tiger.

“Light bless. Single bless!” I buffed the party.

Unlike the assault in Sidinia, he takes a defensive posture this time. Ragnar and Iris circled it while Victor guarded the rest of us. Ragnar wanted to know the enemy’s strength so he prepared to take the enemy attack first.

The tiger then charged as expected. With a loud bang the shield and the teeth of the tiger clashed. Without further ado, Iris ran and hacked at the tiger while Ragnar followed up with a counter attack with his hammer. Baran also prepared a firespear spell to attack it. The spell then hit the tiger in its butt. After few more slashes the tiger disappeared.

“Umm so, how was it?” I asked while casting healing hand on him.

“Well, a perfect lvl 110 monster leaning to attack power. As long as we do not get surrounded we will be fine.” Ragnar said.

*Umm, Fira. Ragnar said that the monster is somewhere along lvl 110. The one we found was a damage dealer one*

*Roger. I found 2 already. This is a defensive one. Arknum and Hector said they were somewhere at lvl 100 too.*

“Ragnar, seems like the other team also has fought some enemies. They also said the enemy is somewhere around lvl 100 and a defensive one.”

“Alright. We can handle it then. Each team has about 3 members that are above lvl 100. As long as we do not get surrounded we can clear this place.”

The pace then quickened. At the end of the day I got 2 lvl ups for blessing and healing my teammates. Victor got several kills and levelled up even more.

“So, how is it?” Ragnar asked at our starting place.

“Well, most of them were alone except mutated boars that are in groups of 3. But they are a little weaker than solo creatures.” Hasega reported.

“Well, same here. We found some other creatures that were in a group. Most of them were defensive so they dealt little damage but were very sturdy. The armadillo for example.”

“well, let’s sleep. Let’s set a roster for a night guard.”

“We do not need that. I have a barrier that will sound an alarm if breached. They are weak but it can serve as an alarm” said Maria.

“Good. We can all sleep then.” Said Ragnar.

With that everyone tried to sleep while Maria set up a mark around our camp. It is set that if anything passes this marking, a barrier will hold up for a moment and wake everyone. The barrier itself is weak, but as an alarm it fulfils its purpose.

Just as the night came and the moon with stars were sparkling in the sky. The said alarm rang with a holy light and a loud explosion could be heard.

“What is that sound?” Ragnar jumped from his sleep.

“The barrier.” Maria said.

“Everyone!!” Without even Ragnar commanding, everyone readied their weapon.

A 1 meter long dragonfly rammed forward only to be met by Ragnar’s shield. The dragonfly was then cut in 3 pieces by Iris’ swords. It was a combo defense counterattack that Iris implemented this afternoon.

“That was easy.” Arknum commented. “Considering the night bonus.”

“Somewhere around lvl 60? Without night bonus.” Iris added.

“Well, if that is the case we are lucky.” Baran commented.

“Well, they are not alone I am afraid.” Hasega added. “Everyone, form a circle, we are surrounded.”

“What?” Ragnar looked around him. Red shining eyes could be seen between the darkness of the trees. Unlimited pairs of eyes filled our surroundings.

“Maria!” Ragnar commanded.

“Umm, sorry, that one is still in cooldown.” Her words poured cold water on our hope.

“Maria, Stella, Riri, support us! Hasega and co, deal with one enemy at a time. The others may deal with 2 or 3 enemies at once. Don’t let them surround you!” Ragnar commanded. Just as the command ended another dragonfly charged forward which was pummeled into the ground by Ragnar’s hammer. It then vanished after the second hit.

“Light bless! Single bless!”

“Divine blessing, Goddess buff” Maria buffed the team. My stats increased by another 40% after her buff. Her buff is on different level from mine.

`The enemy began their assault. Iris relentlessly hacked them with his 2 swords. Blocking with 1 sword then counterattacking with the other, his fast movements were amazing. On the other hand, Arknum and Hector cooperated. After the dragonfly charged, it was blocked by Arknum, Hector slashed and the dragonfly died in 1 hit. Sometimes it was Hector who defended while Arknum attacked, they have a good chemistry. Ragnar worked alone as he is a defensive type warrior, he got the least amount of kills.

“Group healing”

“4 layered healing hand.”

Now I felt like I was competing with Maria here. Her healing was more than twice as effective as mine even though I got a boost from my cleric set. She also has more spells than I do.

Hasega blocked a charge from a dragonfly while Victor and Dem hacked it from the sides. Being 20 lvls lower has them at a disadvantage but the opponent was gangbanged by 4 people. They somehow managed to kill them.

“The dragonflies have some paralyzing status.” Ragnar said as he fell because of the dragonflies’ attack.

“I’ll do it” I said to Maria “Cure paralysis”

The battle continued for hours. Our stamina was depleted. We took turns to rest starting with Iris and Ragnar. Then came Hector and Arknum. The battle could be maintained but most of the time their HP went down to the dangerous red zone at a dangerous rate, Maria started to gulp her first mana potion bought by Hasega with my gold coins.

You have leveled up 11x

“At last they are dead.” Ragnar said while taking a break.

“It is more like they are retreating due to sunrise.” Hasega said while pointing at the remaining 2 or 3 dragonflies that flew away.

“Stella, I know what happened. But it doesn’t make sense that you carried it here. You barely helped at all except for healing. Even your magic fumbles a bit. It is not like yourself Stella.” Hector said.

“I-I-I’ am sorry.” Stella looked down.

“Hector, we can’t do anything about it.”

“We are not foreigners! If we die we die for real.” Hector shouted.

“I-I-I-I am sorry! Hixhix” She cried while hugging me. What’s with this sudden change of behavior?

“Umm, I think she is tired. So, she can’t use her spells well.” I tried to defend her. but even I knew that my words were not powerful enough. After seeing her power in Sidinia, even I have questions in my head about why she acted like this. If she displayed her strength like in Sidinia, the battle would be easier.

The sun then rose as we walked north. There is a mountain in the north and Ragnar hoped that we would get a better view of our surroundings if we got there. With a full group we were attacked more often, but as the manpower was bigger we could easily kill them.

“Those dragonflies are a mess. I guess here in Royal Road quantity beats quality huh?” Victor asked.

“Well, that’s not entirely true. We would be in deep trouble if the noon monsters attacked in a group of more than 10. But last night there were literally thousands of them.” Baran explained.

“I see.”

“The terrain affected us too. We were surrounded from a 360 degree angle. Plus above us as well. Luckily we could find some big trees to cover our back. Next time we should find a place like a cave so we can bottleneck the enemies. A cave entrance for example but if we do find a cave, we need to research its inside first, the monsters inside might be even stronger than outside.” Hasega explained.

“We will survive another attack. I got 10 level ups from the last one. Next time we will not be a burden anymore.” Said Victor.

“well, your group might only fight 2 at most. It would still be helpful though” Iris said. “Getting surrounded is different matter you know. An inexperienced warrior plus a disadvantage in levels or stats would only get himself killed by getting surrounded.”

“Is it that serious?” Victor asked.

“It is” Hasega said. ”Why do you think players can kill boss monsters?”

“I see.”

“There are several ways to avoid being surrounded. One of the basic ones is the bottleneck strategy. But it is not so easy to implement.” Hector said.

“The other would be circle defence like the one we just did. It is a handy tactic but it wears out our stamina.” Iris replied.

The group happily chitchatted about the strategies used in war. Like a diligent pupil, Hasega and co listened and asked questions about things they didn’t understand. After all, they were still inexperienced in group battles. They have never participated in a war and in group battle they were mostly overwhelmed by the enemies with higher levels and numbers. I just listened carefully to their speech while trying to grab the information that seemed important. Being a shy girl, I am a good listener.

“Well, why won’t Riri speak?” Iris said

“Huh? Umm, what do I speak?” I nervously asked.

“Well, in that condition. If you were surrounded by a bunch of dragonflies. What would you do if you were the commander of the army?” Iris asked.

“Umm, well, I would do like what Ragnar did. His orders are good.”

“Well, any other suggestions?”

“I think we should set up a roster from the start. But setting traps first is better however right now we don’t have traps. So, uhm. We might make a 2 bottle necked situation if we stand between two trees.”

“Well, that is the girl that beat me in warfare says. “ Iris complimented.

“Uhmm. But in that condition...”

“Well, Ragnar is a cool headed and awesome leader alright. Only a few could make a decision on the spot like him while getting surrounded out of nowhere. We are now in a relaxed situation that’s why we can think of various other scenarios better than Ragnar’s decision. But the field is different.” Iris explained “Well, the perfect reason would be when she launched a sneak attack on me. I totally thought we are about to lose back then. Haha“

“We have arrived.” Ragnar in front said. “There is a cave at the foot of the mountains. Let’s check it out. “

The cave turned out to be an empty hole about 10 meters long and 3 meters wide. It was like a miracle that we could find something like this, where only about one or at most three monsters could enter at the same time. A perfect spot for the bottleneck strategy. We then decided to stay here for the night. After Maria set up an alarm barrier at the entrance, we made a small fire in the cave.

“Whew. I am starving. Luckily we got several edible fruits from killing dragonflies and monsters.“ Said Arknum. “The meat is edible, but we have no cook.”

“Well, I can cook. But my proficiency is only beginner lvl 3. Plus we have no tools so if we do run out of fruit, expect a blandly cooked meat okay? As long as we have Baran’s identification skills, we should not get any poisonous food” Ragnar said.

The group then chitchatted a while longer. Mostly it was about climbing the mountain and group formations. The talk then changed to Victor and Ragnar bragging about how they killed their enemies. Unable to stand their bragging, Iris jumped in saying he was the coolest by slicing the enemy in half. Afterwards, they went to sleep. This situation was very much like a camping. There was a fire and some people sleeping together. The only difference between this world and the real world would be the animals in the forest. Most forests for camping were free from dangerous animals. No howling of wolves could be heard. No buzzing sounds of big dragonflies or snakes slithering around the forest.

“Are you awake?” Stella woke me.

“Huh? What is it?”

“Could you please come here for a second?”

She then brought me to the cave entrance. The fire had died down and the purple night sky with the crescent moon and a few sparkling stars could be could be seen.

“Hmm. The night is pretty, the air is a little bit cold though despite this being a rainforest.” She said.

“Well, umm, yeah.“ I answered half heartedly.

“Well. Umm. Soo. What do you think about me?”

“Huh? Umm. Well, I think you are wonderful that you can play so good while performing. I think you are also skilful because you can teach me like this and other unexplainable things.”

“Hmm. You must be disappointed.” She said still looking at the sky.

“Umm. Not really. “

“Why not?”

“Umm, well, you see. You are my role model. So, umm. Seeing some flaws in you made me feel that the hurdle that I have to jump is lower. Hahaha. I am a bad fan right? Praying that you have a flaw? I said honestly.

“I see. You might catch up to me faster than you think in Tantalus.” She laid her head on my lap.

“I have no intention to be famous or a superstar. I just want to be able to communicate better.”

“I see. Thank you” She closed her eyes. ”Well, don’t you have a question in your head.”

“Well, a lot of them.”

“Try to shorten it.”

“Who is that man?”

“Well, he was one of my fans. Back in the early days of me forming Tantalus with Ragnar. He also joined.” She said laying on my lap comfortably.

“That was one crazy fan.” I retorted.

“Well, yes. He was weird to begin with. But we just ignored it. After all, the rest of the group is no better.”

“Ah. It is normal to be weird in Tantalus right? The weird thing is being normal in that group.” I gave a dry laugh as I heard her comments.

“But one day, he confessed to me. Well, I just thought of it as a joke at first. But when I looked at his face, I knew he was serious. I denied him in the best way to not hurt him. But he could not accept it.” She then hugged me still laying on my lap.

“Then, one day, he kidnapped me. Several Tantalus members tried to save me but they were killed in front of my eyes until eventually he retreated and I was saved.”

Her story has some holes in the last part. How she was kidnapped and what happened during the incident. She didn’t miss this on accident. She was hiding it so I dared not ask further. I guess this is why she was so hysterical over meeting that man again. In this moment I knew that this world was pretty only in our eyes. In the eyes of the natives, they feared death and humiliation. For us players we can just log out and delete our account. But they could not. As an audience of this virtual world, we only looked at the beautiful things this world offered us.

No other words came from her. She really fell asleep this time as I watched the crescent moon that shone upon us, I leaned on the wall and fell asleep.

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=350&t=3633&p=23195#p23195http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=350&t=3652

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author note

- here is chapter 15. what do you think about Maria? she is definitely useful isn't she?

- tell me about what do you think about Iris too okay?

- your names haven't come up until this chapter. just wait. they will appear soon.

- as usual, any suggestions, critics and comment are welcomed

- here is our MC stat as usual

Spoiler : Status window

Name Riri class performers

Health 2325 mana 1875 (+200)

Fame 200

Level 50

Title manager, the white rider

Job tantalus performer

Health regen/sec 7.3 mana regen/sec 23.6

Strength 73 dexterity 152

Wisdom 232(+4) intelect 71 (+4)

Stamina 260 vitality 93

Art 64 charisma 87 (+110)

Leadership. 80(+30) charm 95(+100)

Fighting spirit 70 faith 20 (+62)

Magic resistance

Fire water

Earth wind

Thunder ice

Dark 41%(E) light 41%(E)

Unused points 65

Bonuses

all stat +10 except dex and charm

Dex +50 charm +40

Stamina +40

Magic will be reduced by 90%. unless you meet normal requirement of 300 wisdom

weapon will be reduced by 90% unless have intermediate blacksmith

Leather armor will not be penalized

iron armor will have it’s movement speed reduced by 30% and increased stamina consumption by 20%. Only if you meet the equipment requirement

movement reduced by 30% (E)

healing spell increased by 41% (E)

While riding horse the movement speed increased by 10%

Bag 1

Water canteen

Rye bread (6)

Ring of mana(E) (Mana +200, charm +20)

Ring of leadership(E) (chr +30 leadership +30)

Staff of white cleric Int +40 Wis +40 Faith +20 heal,light,dark res+10%

Circlet of purity.Charm +30Char +30Int +10Wis +10Faith +20, heal,light,dark res+10%

White high heel shoes Charm+30Char+10Faith +20 heal,light,dark res+10%

White dress of purity Charm +20Faith +20 heal,light,dark res+20%

Autographed Beginner’s cloth

Beginner’s pant

Beginner’s shoes

Silver coin (10)

Gold coins (130)

Tantalus room

Blue noble shirt (E) (charm +50 lchr +50)

Blue noble pant (E) (charm +50 charisma +50)

Breastplate of the escaped prince

Royal Steel Sword

Skill list

Speed reading beginner’s lvl 2 (40%)

Manage beginner’s lvl 5(10%).

Magic mastery beginner lvl 8 (0%)

Acrobatic beginner lvl 7 (Movement 60%)

Multitasking beginner lvl 7 (80%) (Focus 4, intelect +20)

Sword mastery beginner lvl 4 (power 20% speed 20%)

Ambidextrous beginner lvl 2 (Dex +2)

Bullet deflector beginner lvl 8 (20%) (Dex +25)

Sneak beginner level 2

Horseriding beginner lvl 2

Sub skill

light blessing beginner lvl 6

phoenix regen beginner lvl 6

healing hand beginner lvl 7

Healing Area beginner lvl 7

Group cure beginner lvl 7

Expert cure beginner lvl 7

Single bless beginner lvl 5

Fireball beginner lvl 2

PS

by the way, i found some interesting facts.by seeing my post view, somehow the discussion topic and chapter names were left out with low view counts that is normal seeing most readers just read around like leeches like i do :grin: . the weird thing is, chapter 3,5 wolf cross bride is also left out. is it because it is just a side story? i have high hopes on that story though? any critics on chapter 3,5?