“Hello everyone! Thank you once again for watching Twitch Live! First up in gaming news is the potential recall of the Accessor gear. Then next we’ll be featuring footage of the first town to be reclaimed! Lastly we have a very special treat! We’ve finally managed to find and convince the mysterious vampire who played such an important role in the battle for Morata to do an on set interview! Look forward to all of this on Twitch Live!”

*CRUCNH*

Kuromi absentmindedly ate potato sticks as she watched the internationally popular gaming news site. Twitch Live was

the offshoot of a popular streaming service that had originated in the early 21stcentury that had since grown to be synonymous with all things related to gaming online. The company had multiple sites devoted to anything from amateur gamer streaming to cheat code forums for old computer games, it even had a site devoted to teaching people how to develop their own games!

Because of its diversity, it was no surprise Kuromi would be watching its new service. It had been a few weeks since the opening events of New Roads and she relied on it to stay updated. Because school in Japan didn’t let out until July, she had been unable to constantly play. Even now she was getting ready for the last round of exams before summer break.

Her eyebrow arched in surprise as she heard the last bit of the overview on what the news site was going to cover that day. She had remembered seeing the vampire user in action. He had indeed been formidable; what’s more, her little sister had been fighting beside him for most of the event. While their older sister had teased Kaoru about the boy, Kuromi had been indifferent for the most part after an initial tease.

Her eyes lit up with a little curiosity though. Something had been bothering her ever since she met him, he had seemed familiar……....

She shook off the thoughts and sent her wheeled chair rolling across the room until she reached the other side. Then she knocked on the wall two times. It was part of a system her and her sisters had come up with so they could communicate without alerting their parents. The two knocks meant the recipient was supposed to come to the sender’s room. In a few moments a puzzled Kaoru walked in.

“What is it Anee?”

“Look! Isn’t that going to be your friend?”

Kaoru looked at the screen for a few moments before her face blossomed in surprise and excitement. It was like a little sun had risen when her normally emotionless face bloomed into a smile. It caused Kuromi to show a small smile herself.

“Should be a good show right?”

“Mmm!”

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Weiss sat atop the Training Hall and observed his surroundings. There was a tired and annoyed expression on his face. In the weeks after the beginning event, he had progressed his master plan quite far. With the Training Hall as the center point his newly designed city could be seen spreading out in all directions, but he had finally reached his bottle neck. He had come across a particularly destroyed part of Serabourg. Because of that he hadn’t been able to gather enough materials. What’s more, since originally there had been wooden portions in the buildings before and his now were made

entirely of stone, his consumption was too high. He had thus ran out of stone, many of the recent houses he had already

built didn’t even have roofs since he had long ran out of the slate that he had made them from.

He grimaced as he looked at what he had already done and what he still had to do.

“I was going to have to go to the quarry anyways. Though, I’m not sure if they are still there….”

His shoulders slumped at the thought that the quarry that had previously supplied Serabourg with stone was gone.

With a shake of his body, he hopped up and began walking in the direction of the walls. He already knew where the quarry was. His extensive research, almost obsession with Weed had given him that particular information when he had analyzed Weed’s building of the pyramid for the then king of Rosenheim. Thankfully, it was on the side that was under the influence of the ghosts. With any luck, their barrier extended out to the quarry or at least very close. Originally the barrier had already been touching part of the wall, and through his efforts it had expanded dramatically.

Eventually he reached the edge of the boundary; a mining pick that he had equipped was balanced across his shoulders as he looked into the distance. The land moved in a slight rise among the trees but he though he saw a glimmer of light at the very edge of his sight. He squinted his eyes and his mouth twisted to the side as he continued to look. Eventually he seemed to reason out what he was going to do as he impaled the ground with the pickaxe and began to move about the forest in the safety zone and began looking for certain materials to obtain.

After half an hour had passed he was back beside his pickaxe and starting a fire. Once it had been stoked to a strong flame Weiss pulled out a pot that had also been found among the things in the Training hall. He placed it on the fire and added water from his canteen. He had managed to secure a safe source of water by purifying the area around the closest fountain from the Training Hall, it had been the one Weed used during his four weeks in Serabourg.

Once it had begun to boil various items were placed in front of the fire. They were nature’s bounty! Multiple grasses, herbs, fungi, and even sap and raw honey had been obtained. Weiss scratched at the nasty welts that lacerated his left arm, the last ingredient had been hardly won. Various screens began sifting in front of his vision. Their depth and explanation of what could be done with the few ingredients he had, was enormous! Such was the power of the advanced level cooking skill!

“Let’s optimize defense and health. Speed if at all possible…..or maybe strength…..better to go with strength!”

With the plethora of options he could determine what special effects he desired the meal to have. After selecting his idealized recipe he began to combine the required ingredients in the pot and let it cook! In the end he had a very goopy sludge like substance.

Created: Flora gruel

An unbelievably healthy dish created using the natural flora of the region it is in.

Special Effects:

+100% vitality

+80% endurance

+60% strength

All effects last for 1 hour

Weiss smile, pleased with his creation; because of the low quality ingredients he had not been very optimistic but it seemed that the highly ranked cooking skill had compensated quite nicely. But his nose wrinkled in disgust as he looked at the food.

‘This is what you get when you lack an Art Stat. Sculptures are fine because of the skill but I guess the same isn’t true for

food. It looks like one of Aunt Kate’s health shakes.’

He snickered to himself as he mumbled, “It’s all bout that green drank.”

He paused suddenly as he thought about what he just said.

‘I must be going crazy!’

He slapped his cheeks and stood up. He moved the gruel into the now empty canteen and consumed whatever was left in the pot. It was slightly too much and slightly too hot but he ignored it as he continued to consume it. He then proceeded to do some exaggerated stretches as if to fire himself up.

“Alright let’s see what this acrobatics skill can do!”

He dislodged the mining pick from the ground and sprinted out of the safe zone. He then swung the pick up and caught a

low lying branch. His forward momentum caused him to swing upward and allowed him to settle on top of the branch.

“Alright good start!”

With a grin he proceeded to move from branch to branch in an effort to reach the quarry.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Peter sat in the waiting room and shifted uncomfortably. While he had managed to talk his mother down from him wearing a shirt and tie to just a shirt and regular shoes, she had been adamant about no jeans. Hence he was forced into wearing a pair of chinos that his brother owned. While they were similar there was just enough difference that the pants were a little too small width wise. This further added to his frustrations since not only was he forced to be reminded of the fact that he was shorter than his elder brother he was also broader. He looked down at the cuffed pant legs and grimaced. While his twin may claim that it was fashionable he felt that he looked like an absolute prick.

He nervously poured himself another glass of water, careful not to spill in on his checkered shirt. He sighed as he gulped down the glass.

‘How did I get myself into this situation?’

He had been about to log off after hunting with Shiro around Morata when a very attractive user that looked to have the dancer class swayed his way. Though he hadn’t received a status update saying that he received the negative status he had certainly felt like he had. He was, after all, new to VR games so he hadn’t instantly made the connection that the Aphrodite like woman in front of him had probably just edited her appearance to look that way.

It had been downhill from there.

In the end he had somehow made an agreement to have a video-conference with a Twitch Tv representative along with his parents. His mother had been ecstatic thinking that it would be such a, ‘great opportunity’. In the end he had agreed to be flown out to one of their recording stations in New York City and do the interview.

‘The only reason this happened was because she somehow chanced upon me when she was going out to hunt……lucky her.’

He slouched back into the chair defeated. It was at that moment that the backstage coordinator walked in. He

immediately moved and sat up straight, his heart pounding a million miles an hour.

“Mr. Smith, you’re on in three, please follow me.”

“Ah! Uh…yes.”

Peter stood up and followed the coordinator through the door.

“----And man! That was quite the finally for the group that conquered that small village outside of Morata. 3 glacial Giants, which no one has encountered until now, as a final boss must’ve been difficult. And speaking of Morata, it’s time for our special guest! You know him as the mysterious vampire hero who led the users to victory in reclaiming Morata from the clutches of the darkness. Please give it up for….Pete!”

*WWWWOOOOHHOOOOOOO*

Cheers and thunderous applause could be heard from the audience as Pete made his way out onto the stage. He tried to give his best smile as he walked to his chair. This was the first time he was out in front of so many people. It was entirely different from in-game where that wasn’t him but a persona he created. The confidence he had as Pete the Vampire was non-existent, instead in its place was Peter the Human’s anxiety over what to say or do in front of so many people.

“Pete….Pete….Pete!”

“Huh? Oh!”

Peter had been so lost in thought he had forgotten to shake the outstretched hand from the host and had stood there

dumbly for a few seconds before the host brought him back to reality.

*Laughter*

“Now, Pete, why don’t you sit down?”

“Ah, yeah, thank you.”

Peter gave an embarrassed smile as he followed the advice of the host.

“Now Pete, tell us a little about yourself.”

Pete paused before saying anything, despite his panic he still had enough of a functioning brain to see all the potential

pitfalls of answering that question.

“What do you want to know?”

He attempted to give his most confident grin as he reclined into his seat.

“Ho ho! Sorry fan girls, doesn’t sound like you’ll be finding out where he lives tonight!”

There was more laughter from the audience as the host gave Peter a reassuring smile.

“Alright then Pete, how about you tell us how old you are. You look like you could be starting college soon.”

“Yeah, after this summer I’m going to be a Senior in high school.”

“Are you already eighteen then?”

“Why George, are you trying to find out if I’m legal or not?”

There was a distinct pause, it lasted for only a fraction of a second but that was the longest fraction of a second Peter had ever had in his life as he waited to see if the host, George, would take on his joke.

“Hahahaha, maybe, maybe. Anyways new question, how did you exactly become a Vampire so soon in New Roads?”

“Well, I can’t give a huge amount of details, I don’t want a bunch of other Vampires just quite yet. Anyways I managed to

complete a very special mini-quest that involved the Vampire Lord Tori owing me a favor as a reward. Then the rest is as

you can see from the Morata footage, I was about to die and I pulled out all the stops.”

“I see, I see. Well then next que-----“

After the rocky start, the rest of the interview proceeded very smoothly as Peter managed to lose his anxiety and gain some confidence.

By the end of the interview he had somehow managed to endear himself to the entire audience in the studio, and those watching all over the world though a certain small population of the audience disliked him. This small population would say things like:

-

Tch, he thinks he’s so cool because he has a cool race.

- Such a prick, did you see how cool he was trying to act after he fucked up?

-

Kid was trying way too hard.

However, there were also comments from those that supported him, mostly female.

- He was so cute! So nervous in the beginning

- Wow! He’s just as good looking in real life!

- Wait…..I think I know this guy!

It didn’t take long for certain people to begin claiming they knew Pete, though that was largely ignored as chatter from

people just trying to seem cool.

Peter sighed in relief as he sat down on the plane that would take him home. The interview was over, and he was headed

back home. He could’ve stayed in New York City for a day or two and treated himself to the courtesies of Twitch Live. However he just wanted to pocket the money and get back home. He had a game to get back to while there was still summer time.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Kaoru rolled in her bed laughing cutely, her snow white hair splayed out around her. She was squeezing her stuffed animal until it was fit to burst. The reason for her excitement was simple. It was the fact that the boy that she had begun to develop a crush on wasn’t some weirdo shut-in.

‘Unlike me’

With that thought her antics calmed down as she thought about the fact that she herself was someone that rarely went outside or socialized.

‘He’s so far away’

She hugged the stuffed animal tighter as more unpleasant thoughts filled her head. Such was the negativity of a shut-in.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

“I’m not sure whether this is good…or bad….”

Weiss peered from a tree down into the quarry. Its lower sections had been completely flooded. That alone wasn’t that much of an issue as there was still a bit of stone above the water line that he could use. What was concerning was the unnaturally blue color of the water. It reminded him of the time that he had been out visiting his Uncle Albert and Alexei on the west coast. They had taken him to see many of the amazing natural wonders out there, such as the giant

redwoods. However, one thing that stuck with him was when they had gone to a lake with a similar color. He had been enamored by the beauty of the water. Until his uncle had explained that it was due to a high concentration of arsenic in the water and that the water was then consequently extremely toxic to almost all living things.

That is what led Weiss to his current confusion. On the one hand it was good since that meant the chances of running into Banal Wolves or the spider creatures from before was reduced. On the other hand if he wasn’t careful he could fall in and die. Something he was desperate to avoid until the city was finished. This therefore severely restricted his

movements which would increase the already exhaustively long time it would take to harvest enough raw material to

get the re-construction of the city moving forward again.

“What to do, what to do….. guess a closer look.”

He hopped down from his perch and began to jog into the quarry, as he well and truly entered it, his steps slowed to a walk. His feet crunched through the gravel of the quarry as he followed the path deeper in. He had re-equipped the pick-axe but now held it in a more guarded position.

‘For all I know….there could be an arsenic based slime……’

He quickly peered down into the large pool of arsenic laced water that had most of the quarry submerged. At the same time his walking came to a stop since he had already reached the end of the accessible part of the quarry.

Under the vibrantly blue water he could see what appeared to be well preserved stone.

‘The stagnant water here must’ve protected the stone from the other elements…huh…interesting.’

“Well better get what I can now! I’ll see where that leads me.”

Deciding that for now It would be fine to exhaust the top part of the quarry of all it stone, he began to swing his pick-axe

skillfully into the earth and was immediately extracting very high quality stone. This of course was due to the possessed skill. One of the ghosts that possessed him had been a miner and what’s more a level eight intermediate rank miner! His mining rate and the quality of the items he could mine was un-paralleled to anything any other player could possibly achieve currently.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Endurance + 1

Strength + 2

“ugh….”

Weiss collapsed and allowed himself to take a breather. He had been working in the mines for the past eight hours. At hour long intervals he would pause in mining to eat another serving of the flora gruel to keep his stats boosted. It was only thanks to this that he was capable of moving the blocks of stone anywhere after he had cut them into a shape recognized by the system as a material. Thankfully his stats had occasionally risen due to the brutal work he had been putting himself through. It had also happened occasionally when he was working on the city. But like then he didn’t bother to look at his status. To him it didn’t matter all that much, they’d just be numbers. What mattered was that each time his strength rose, the stones got just a bit lighter.

“Agghh….the sun’s about to set…what to do?”

He slurped down the last portion of gruel he had and looked up at the setting sun. The moon could just barely be seen in the darkening sky.

He suddenly slapped his forehead in surprise, “I completely forgot! Sensory Perception gives me night vision!”

With a happy expression he got back to work on mining and cutting the stones.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The trees trembled and quaked, the tall grass bowed in waves, small creatures hastily retreated from site. The wind gusted harder than it ever had in a very long time.

What caused this?

Bingryong!

The last dragon left powerful gusts of wind with each flap of its massive wings as he passed overhead. Bingryong had returned with the players during the Reclamation War event but he had not aided any party in reclaiming a territory from the darkness. His objective had been to find and protect the dragon eggs that Weed in god form had restored to Versailles.

However, Bingryong hadn’t found a single egg yet! An intact one that is……

He was able to weakly sense the location of each egg scattered on the Versailles continent but both of the two locations he had first gone to had already been overrun and the egg destroyed. With a heavy heart he rapidly soared through the sky in a desperate bid to find the next egg still intact!

“Come on, Come on! Move faster!”

He was pumping his wings with all his might, his speed was incomparable to what it had been in the past. However that wasn’t to say that nothing could keep up with his movement!

Bingryong quickly glanced behind, “Damnit!”

Behind him dark winged serpents shrouded in a gas like shadow cut through the air in pursuit of him! This also added to his desperation as he didn’t have time to fight these odd winged serpents since he absolutely needed to reach the next egg at all costs!

But It was proving to be difficult, since not only could these creatures match his speed, they also had a ranged attack, they could release a long stream of black flames from their mouth! While it only dealt a small amount of damage to someone of Bingryong’s strength over time it had slowly worn down his health. Still he pressed on, believing he would be ok until he reached his destination.

“It’s here!”

Below him he could strongly sense the egg that he had been searching for. Looking down he saw what appeared to be the ruins of a pyramid, close by there was the ruins of what appeared to have once been a large city. Also close by was what seemed to be an abnormally blue lake.

“It’s in that Pyramid!”

Bingryong suddenly wheeled around since he had reached his destination. His glacial body sported numerous chips, cracks, and slightly melted spots all from the unrelenting attack of the dark serpents. Though individually they were nowhere near his strength, as a group they formed a highly dangerous force that Bingryong had to deal with now that he had found the egg.

“Come at me!”

He opened his counter-attack with a massive blast of ice breath! And the battle in the sky commenced.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

WOOF! Thankgod finals are done and it's winter break! You know what that means! I'll actually have time to write! So thanks to all of you who have been faithfully following me. And hello to anyone who is reading this work for the first time! I'll try to really get those chapters out in the coming weeks so you guys can see something cool! As always please rate and review so more people see this work. Also please comment! They are even more preferred than cookies! A writer thrives on comments! so send em my way! Thanks for Reading!!! Advertisement Previous

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