Tanniv looked at the smoking ruins in front of him. Florianne had been his home city. And now, half of it was crumbled or lay crumbling. He wondered how this had happened.

They had been given sufficient time. Tanniv had arrived at Florianne with his team and so had the other champion, Tamara. They had warned the officials of the city regarding the oncoming attack and the city had prepared. Soldiers and holy knights had been mobilized. Tanniv and Tamara formed two groups of adventurers, a group led by each of them.

They did not know from where the demon lord and his army would be coming. They did know the number of demons going to attack Florianne. But they were prepared for anything. They had raised an army of over 1,000 units, a combination of normal soldiers, holy knights and adventurers.

And it had all gone wrong when the demon lord attacked. Tanniv still remembered the slithering demon lord.

Botis the Reconciler

Demon Lord, Level 100

Health 120,000 / 120,000

The number of demons also equaled the number of fighting units of Florianne. Then how did they lose so much?

The first attack of Botis had destroyed the initial defenses that they had set up. Botis and the demons had destroyed the Eastern wall faster than anticipated and had rushed into Florianne.

Tanniv and Tamara had engaged the demon lord with their teams killing off the demons, but it had still been tough. It should not have been tough for Tamara, but it had been. She was initially not doing as much doing to Botis as she was supposed to, even with holy attacks.

It was a random adventurer who had pointed out that Botis was being defended by enchanted armor. The enchanted armor gave him high protection against holy and light attacks. It was only after the armor was removed that Tamara and Tanniv had managed to kill Botis fast.

However, they were too late. Half of Florianne was lost in the battle. A majority of the citizens had been evacuated but there were still many civilians who had not left on time. The dead were many, not only civilians, but also the soldiers and the holy knights. The weight of their death felt heavy on Tanniv’s soldiers.

He wondered what Tamara was doing. He had observed her during the fight. She seemed to be enjoying fighting with Botis. Tanniv believed that she seemed to enjoy fighting in general at the cost of others. She was dangerous but she was also careless. And she was a champion of Una.

“We need to do better”, said a voice behind Tanniv.

Tanniv turned to look and saw Tamara standing behind him. He said, “Yes we do.”

“Many died today”, said Tamara.

Tanniv sighed and said, “And many more would have died if we had not stopped Botis and his army.”

Tamara came and sat down beside Tanniv. She had a bottle in her hand which Tanniv had not noticed earlier. She offered the bottle to Tanniv. Tanniv took a swig and choked.

Tanniv said, “Gods. Feliur constitution is strong but what the gork is this swill?”

Tamara gave a dark humorless laugh. She said, “It is elven rum. Very strong. Other species feel that elves only drink the soft stuff, stuff that has less alcoholic content. However, that is a myth. We can outdrink any other species in this world. And our alcoholic drinks are gorking stronger than alcoholic drinks of any other species.

Tanniv handed the bottle back to Tamara and she took a sip. She made a face as she gulped the rum but did not say anything.

They sat in silence for quite some time, drinking from the bottle.

Tamara finally broke the silence, “I am sorry.”

Tanniv raised his eyebrows, “For what?”

Tamara said, “I was careless. When I was selected as champion of Una, I did not understand the responsibility. I thought this would be a fun quest. Hunting demons. Killing demon lords. Exchanging stories with friends over the watered-down ale the inns served. I never expected this.” Tamara gesture at the destruction with the bottle spilling some of the drink.

Tanniv nodded, “I understood that the task would be challenging. I actually did not want to be the champion, but Lady Lightweaver convinced me. Now, fighting these demons, seeing the destruction, I wonder. Am I the right person for the job?”

Tamara said, “I became an adventurer to have fun. I did not sign up for this. I mean, am I the best person for this?”

Silence stretched between them again for some time. They did not have the answer for their questions. The bottle was soon over. They had drunk all the elven rum. Tamara frowned as she inverted the bottle checking whether it was really empty or not. Then she shrugged, tossed it away and got a new bottle from the inventory. She took a swig and offered it to Tanniv.

Tanniv refused, “I think I have had enough.”

Tamara said, “Have it your way.”

Tamara drank the second bottle and tossed it away too.

Tamara said, “What now?” She did not seem drunk to Tanniv even though she had drunk such strong rum.

Tanniv said, “I don’t know. My major quest shows that I need to report to Commander Love.”

Tamara snorted, “Commander Tanith Love. Commander of the Order of the Holy Sun for Florianne. You know, I had to read her last name at least three times to make sure I was reading it right.”

Tanniv gave a short laugh to that. He said, “Some of us Feliur do have some weird last names.”

Tanniv stood up. He said, “Come on then. Let’s go meet Commander Love.”

Tamara took Tanniv’s paw which he had offered and stood up. She said in a low voice, “We need to do better. We need to be one step ahead of the demons. And of the game masters. This is war. And there will be loss of life. Loss of non-adventurers. Ideally, I want no loss of life, but I will accept minimal loss of life.”

Tanniv nodded, “We will think of something. We are the champions of Una and we have experience in adventuring, you more than me. I have my girlfriend and daughter to protect too. We will defeat the demons. We shall save the people of Una.”

Tamara smiled as she said, “And have some fun while doing it too.”

Tanniv laughed and agreed. Slowly, the two champions started to make their way towards the commander. As they walked, they talked strategy. Tanniv smiled as he talked more with Tamara. Maybe, she was not so bad after all.

***

Leyda read the report on Florianne’s battle. She closed it, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It would not do good to get angry at Rauros. She knew he was under great stress managing the entire demonic invasion. She was supposed to be helping him, but she did not have the heart. Maybe she should help him to ensure that something like Florianne does not happen again.

Rauros had a bewildered look on his face. He said, “How the gork did this happen? I mean our champions were there. They had their team. They had an army. They had proper support. How the gork did they lose half of Florianne?”

Leyda said in a neutral tone, “I don’t know. Maybe they were not ready for such a large encounter. I have a feeling maybe they should have been eased into it. You know. Have them fight a few demon lords with smaller forces and then progress to fighting a battle with such a large force. They may be veteran adventurers, but they are not Generals. Not yet.”

Rauros nodded. He said, “What you said gorking makes sense. I am out of my depth here. I know you do not like the demonic invasion idea, but I wanted it to go well. I mean, my plan did not have this much loss of life. I mean, gork. Only a few non-adventurers were supposed to die. Not innocent ones but non-adventurers who had lived a good life or criminals. Gork. You know what I mean. I did not plan for this. I wanted a relatively safer demonic invasion. After last time, I had taken precautionary measures. Where did I go wrong?”

Leyda said, “You did not go wrong anywhere. The only problem is that you are doing the majority of things alone. I told you at the beginning that I would help you the least if you go forward with the demonic invasion. And I have been actively trying to thwart you. Maybe, us not working together has led to this.”

Rauros looked at Leyda with a look of concern. He said, “I know about your efforts. They are small and not easily noticeable. I noticed them though. After all these years I can tell when you meddle in my affairs. Even then, the damage should not have been this much.”

Leyda said, “Maybe the adventurers did not take the invasion thing seriously.”

Rauros said, “There are a lot of maybes and no concrete answers.”

Leyda said, “We can dwell on the past or move forward ensuring this does not happen again.”

Rauros nodded, “Yes. It will not do us good if non-adventurers die. After all, we did promise them protection once.”

“And that protection is forever, Rauros. Don’t you forget that.”

“I shall never.”

They kissed. Then Rauros said, “Now what is this about Opulential. I thought Cthulhu’s attack was postponed.”

“I signed the document delaying the attack”, said Leyda, “You did not.”

Rauros expression darkened, “Gork me. I gorking hate this.”

Both Rauros and Leyda looked at their copy of the file regarding Opulential with dread.

Leyda said, “They did not even have the champions defending them. Considering the attack started early, Cthulhu’s level should have been less, and the armies reduced too. However, I am not sure Opulential had sufficient forces to repel or defend against the attack.”

“Let’s just rip the gorking bandage off, shall we?” said Rauros picking up the file, “I am sure Opulential is still standing.”

They started to read the files. Rauros’ eyebrows rose and a look of surprise flitted across his face as he read the report. A small smile also played on Leyda’s face as she read the report. She had to read the report twice. She could not believe it.

When she was finished, she looked at her husband.

“What the Gork!” they both said together.

***

Timothy looked at the number of casualties. They had lost about 50 soldiers, 43 holy nights and 13 civilians. It was the loss of civilians that hit him the most. Another demonic army had attacked Opulential when he and others were dealing with Cthulhu. He knew that Cthulhu was a priority, but he was angered at his own foolishness. He should have left some adventurers at least back for the defence of Opulential. It would have helped.

It did help when adventurers died, resurrected in Opulential and fought the demons but Timothy wondered whether the loss of life would have been less if adventurers had already been present in Opulential during the attack.

Timothy rubbed his eyes. It seemed that Marcus’ information had not been completely. The demon lord Cthulhu and a part of his army had been summoned in the village Salinar. However, a major part of his army was summoned halfway between Salinar and Opulential. That army had immediately marched towards Opulential. They were lucky that they had decided to evacuate the villagers of Salinar to a town East of the village. If they would have been coming to Opulential, they would have been dead.

The citizens of Opulential had also been evacuating. As a result, most of the citizens in the Northern part of Opulential had shifted. However, there were still some stubborn stragglers who had finally fled at the sight of the approaching army. Still, 13 had died and Timothy was not happy about that.

Timothy had been talking with adventurers who had participated in the fight since morning. He had talked with everyone. He still remembered his conversation with Marcus and Kyrie and Marcus had not been happy regarding the summoning of the second army. He had asked Timothy regarding a specific dome spell and Timothy did not know the purpose. Timothy did however learn something from Marcus. The source of his information. It was a demon lord. And considering what Marcus told Timothy about the demon lord, Timothy had decided to keep the information to himself.

Timothy knew about Marbas. Timothy knew about his purpose and his imprisonment. Timothy also understood the reason behind the dome spell which Marcus had inquired about. And he was not happy about it. Marbas had come into play very early. Opulential was still not out of danger. Timothy needed to send another adventurer and get information out of Marbas. It would have to be a higher-level adventurer.

Timothy rubbed his eyes again and leaned back on his chair. He wanted to go to sleep but there was still work to do. The damage caused by demons had to be repaired. The village of Salinar was a mess and needed to be built from the ground up.

There was a knock on the door and his secretary walked in. She set a file on his desk and walked out. Timothy groaned. More work. He started reading the file. It was a report on battle with demons in Florianne. The more he read, the more he did not believe what he was reading. When he was finished, he looked up. He was in shock.

Dazed, Timothy stood up and walked towards the window from where he could see the sun. He then knelt and bowed his head, the rays of sun washing over his head. Timothy Candlewick, Commander of the Order of the Holy Knights of Opulential, wept.

***

“So, what are you going to do now?” Sylinine asked the adventurers sitting in front of her.

Marcus replied, “Go to this village Grush. Nice little fishing village. At the Southern coast of Umanahash. It is a rumored location for one of the books.”

Sylinine said, “And what about the major quest?”

It was Kyrie who answered this time, “The description says that we need to wait for some time. Wait for a sign whatever that means. That does not mean we have to wait right here. I mean adventurer versus adventurer has been suspended for a month. And I entered a new bracket. I was so hoping to reach rank 1 in it.”

Marcus said, “We know you are angry, Kyrie. Please focus.”

Sylinine smiled and said, “Very well. I cannot hold you. But please do remember, you will be needed soon.”

Marcus frowned at that. He said, “What do you mean?”

Sylinine said, “People are starting to consider your good investigative abilities. You are able to find stuff when others are not able to do so.”

“But. But. It’s so obvious”, stammered Marcus.

“To you”, said Sylinine, “but not to many.”

Marcus raised his hands in defeat. Kyrie said, “I understand you are frustrated, Marcus. Please focus.”

“Sarcasm does not suit you, Kyrie.”

“I do not use sarcasm.”

“Then what the fuck was that?”

“A fact.”

“It was not a fucking fact you-”

Sylinine let them bicker for some time and then interrupted them, “About your request Marcus.”

Marcus looked at her at that. Sylinine continued, “We can give you the book. The original copy. It would take about a week to transcribe it. Will you be okay with that?”

Marcus shrugged, “Alright. But it’s only about 200 pages. Will it really take that long?”

Sylinine simply stared at Marcus, and he sighed. Marcus said, “Alright. Alright. I will not pester you. Hopefully we shall be back from Grush in a week.”

Marcus and Kyrie left after that. Sylinine thought about the two of them. They had achieved much in their short time on Una. They already had three demon lords under their portfolio while the champions of Una had destroyed only one demon lord and that too with major loss of life.

Sylinine frowned at that thought. Something had to be done. She was sure the Game Masters would be working on it but The Librarians also needed to do something. She would talk with Timothy. An investigative network needed to be set up. The demons needed to be stopped.

***

Kyrie gave one longing look at the arena and then went back to the inn to meet Marcus. They were going to leave Opulential today. The portal was down for the moment, and it would be up after some basic maintenance. However, Marcus and Kyrie had decided to fly to Solaris. Then they would take the portal South from there to the town of Tilimore which was near the village Grush.

Kyrie would try to fight in adventurer versus adventurer and reach rank 1 again in Solaris but she was not sure whether it was active in Solaris or not. She would know once reached there.

Kyrie considered the experience gained from the battle. She had killed or assisted in killing 35 demons during the battle. That had given her 28,000 experience points. The defeat of Cthulhu had given her 5,000 experience points. She was in Opulential when Cthulhu had been defeated and so she did not get the full experience points for defeating him. She got 1,000 experience points in completing a part of a major quest. She felt this was too low considering what they went through. And finally, she had written and submitted her report on her adventurer versus adventurer experience in Solaris and Opulential, earning her further 7,000 experience points.

In total she had gotten 41,000 experience points and her level had skyrocketed. She was now level 48. It was a jump of 22 levels with 44 stats to distribute. She had already done that. She checked her status.

Name: Kyrie Shiningstar

Race: Water Nymph

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 2

Age: 83

Current Location: Solaris

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 48

Experience: 1,390 / 3,800

Strength: 15

Dexterity: 50

Intelligence: 7

Vitality: 25

Agility: 24

Wisdom: 7

Luck: ???

Health: 150

Mana: 114

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Fast Draw - Level 7

Precision - Level 10

Longbow Proficiency - Level 13

Stealth - Level 10

Water Proficiency - Level 100

Description: The outcast traveller from Tarados, flowing into Una, taking huge steps now and sweeping demons away is still enjoying herself by bashing other adventurer’s heads. She is the water nymph to watch out for.

Spells known:

[Power Shot] [Fade]

Spells Equipped:

[Power Shot] [Fade]

Spell Slots: 4

Physical Attack: 40

Magical Attack: 32

Physical Resistance: 17

Magical Resistance: 6

Critical Attack Chance: 12% (max 32%)

Critical Attack Damage: 38.00% (max 58.00%)

Status:

None

Social: 1,000 / 2,000 (Positive)

NAIF: 1,100 / 2,000 (Positive)

Solaris: 2,300 / 4,000 (Very Positive)

Nymphs: 4,500 / 5,000 (Hero)

Opulential: 2,900 / 4,000 (Very Positive)

Order of the Golden Sun: 1,500 / 2,000 (Positive)

She smiled as she checked her status. She walked to the inn to find Marcus waiting outside of it.

Marcus said, “Come on then. It’s lunch time. We leave after food. Good food. I am hungry. You took your fucking time saying goodbye to the arena.”

Kyrie accompanied Marcus into the common room. They ordered and waited for their meal. She had observed that Marcus got cranky if he got very hungry. After their food was served, and eaten; Marcus surprisingly cleared it in minutes, Kyrie said to Marcus, “Alright. Time to share statuses. We both levelled up well.”

Marcus nodded. Marcus had told Kyrie how much experience he had gotten. He had been responsible in killing and assisting in killing 11 demons. That was way less than Kyrie was expecting. However, due to his [Well Rested] perk, he had gotten 10,560 points of experience. As Marcus had been near Cthulhu when he was defeated, he got 19,200 points of experience. From completing the part of his major quest, Marcus got 1,000 experience points and submitting one of the books of the list to the Head Librarian gave him another 1,000 points. So, in total he got 31,760 points of experience. That was about 10,000 less than Kyrie. It seemed that [Well Rested] did not give him bonus experience points on experience received from quest completion. Kyrie checked Marcus’ stats which he was sharing.

Name: Marcus Blank

Race: Human

Designation: Adventurer - Rank 2

Age: 25

Current Location: Solaris

Adventurer Statistics:

Adventurer Level: 45

Experience: 2,350 / 3,200

Strength: 14

Dexterity: 25

Intelligence: 25

Vitality: 25

Agility: 20

Wisdom: 20

Luck: ???

Health: 150

Mana: 140

Active Effects:

None

Passive Effects:

Stamina Regeneration - Level 7

Well Rested - Level 3

Twinblade Proficiency - Level 10

Alcohol Tolerance - Level 3

Stealth - Level 4

Description: The anomaly has now become a better adventurer. With a little effort people may forget he is an anomaly after all.

Spells known:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon]

Spells Equipped:

[Enchant Weapon: Holy] [Whirling Weapon]

Spell Slots: 2

Physical Attack: 27

Magical Attack: 38

Physical Resistance: 17

Magical Resistance: 17

Critical Attack Chance: 10% (max 30%)

Critical Attack Damage: 19% (max 59%)

Status:

None

Social: 800 / 1,000 (Neutral)

NAIF: 950/ 1,000 (Neutral)

Solaris: 2,300 / 4,000 (Very Positive)

Nymphs: 2,000 / 4,000 (Very Positive)

Opulential: 2,500 / 4,000 (Very Positive)

Order of the Golden Sun: 1,500 / 2,000 (Positive)

So, Marcus was three levels below Kyrie. However, his stats were well distributed. Now they needed equipment according to their level. Both Marcus and her circlet were up to the mark. Her bow was also good. But Marcus’ remaining equipment needed to be upgraded. After getting the second book for Marcus, they needed to see what Opulential has to offer.

Marcus was concerned about the units. Higher grade equipment would cost units and they did not still have much. All this fighting, all these battles and they had still not earned many units. They had a long way to go.

Kyrie and Marcus stopped sharing their stats and stood up. They exited the inn and summoned their mounts. Kyrie grinned and joy radiated on her face as she mounted Nalana. She looked at Marcus who also looked happy. Marcus nodded at Nalana when he looked towards her.

“Up and onwards”, Kyrie said, “To new adventures.”

***

Marbas looked out the window of his room. He was currently in the ethereal realm, where all of the demons were trapped by the Game Masters, waiting to be summoned to one of the game worlds.

Marbas had it better than many of his fellow demons. He was given a room for his imprisonment, overlooking the empty darkness and filled with sufficient necessities and luxuries. He was given better treatment because of his nonviolent attitude towards the Game Masters. It could all change if the Game Masters thought he was conspiring against them.

Well, he was not currently conspiring against them but that adventurer, Marcus Blank, had changed the game. Marbas knew he would be the key, the key to his freedom. He just needed to play it right. A single misstep and he would be dead. And he liked being alive. He had so much left to read. So much knowledge left to gather.

On that subject he thought about the book which Leyda Lightweaver had read. He had not been able to read it as Leyda had not shared it with him after writing it. And he wanted to read an original copy of the book. Not a transcribed copy. The taste, the experience and the emotion of reading an original copy was something different, something unique, something which Marbas was not able to describe.

Marbas was sure he would get that copy soon considering the tidbit he had dangled in front of Marcus. It would take some time, but he was a patient demon. He smiled and picked up one of the books from one of his shelves. He had read it many times, but he was in a good mood. And this was one of his books to read when he was in a good mood.

As he sat reading the book, his gaze occasionally going towards the window, he felt a shift. Magic. Someone had performed magic. Someone had come to the ethereal realm. Shouts echoed from outside. The demons were shouting. Marbas could not discern what though.

The door of his room opened, and a figure walked in. An elf. Marbas recognized her.

Marbas bowed and said, “Lady Leyda Lightweaver. It is a nice surprise.”

“I am here for business Marbas the Knowledgeable”, said Leyda walking up to Marbas. When she was in his face, even though he towered at least a couple of feet over her, Leyda said, “We need to talk. About Marcus Blank.”