Capítulo 4: C004
After completing the dungeons, we decided to go our own way.
Touch Me turned offline, while Mahito and I went to a city in Helheim that provides basic services to Heteromorphs controlled by the game itself.
"Scarlet, will you go to smithy or fiber works for now?" Mahito asked me.
"I need to get my tailor and crafting skills running before I go for smithing, so I will hold on to that." I replied.
"Okay then, I will be in the smithy. Tell me if you need something." Mahito said before walking in the direction of a building with an anvil as its symbol, having a few heteromorph players going on and about.
I then turned and walked to my destination. A building with a needle and thread as its symbol.
I entered the building and saw that there was only a single person, who happened to be a player here. There was no one else.
Not paying this any mind, since in the initial phases many production classes were looked down upon, I went to a work bench and changed into my [ELF] race.
Following this, my previous Victorian-era noble attire was replaced with a loose puffy shirt worn accompanied by leather pants.
I then sat on the workbench, and a menu appeared in front of me.
[Tailoring Workbench Detected.]
[Would you like to proceed <Manually> or <Automatically>?]
Both options had their ups and downs.
When you use <Automatic> as an option, you just have to place materials in the system menu and the item will be created, like in Minecraft. If making multitude of things at a time, time is saved tremendously but due to this, the chance to get better quality of same item decreases too.
And it's just opposite is <Manual> function. To use it, you have to do things exactly in the way they are meant to be in real life. As one would expect, compared to automatic function, this takes a lot of time, but if someone learns to do this properly, their chances of obtaining better items are increased by tens of times.
The manual function also causes people who do a particular handicraft profession in real life to get an edge and trains people who wish to do it. It was a function that was introduced by my own intervention.
In short, it is unique and rewarding.
Seeing the option, I chose <Manual> following which the tab disappeared and in front of me laid every tool a person who dabbles in the cloth industry needs.
Now, the thing I am going to make today is something based on a monster in Greek mythology. A titan to be specific.
Argus Panoptes.
He was a Greek giant who was loyal to Hera. His epithet was 'All-Seeing Giant'. His body was covered in eyes, which gave him ability to see everywhere, and getting a jump on him was next to impossible.
Keeping him in mind, I am going to make a jacket, fitted with [Eye of Arachne] to increase my senses. And the best part is, that this item can be upgraded endlessly. Just keep adding more and better eyes, and its power will keep on increasing. With this thought in mind, I took out a piece of cloth from my inventory.
[Cloth X1 (High Level)]
I got this from the elf that I got my [Elf] race from. She was carrying more of these in her bag. My guess, either she made them herself, or got it from someone. Though I think she made them herself, seeing that each of these pieces in the initial game costs quite a fortune.
Anyway, thanks to her, I have good starting material. Placing the piece of cloth on the table, I took out leather that I got from Lizardmen.
[Raw Leather (Low Level) X200]
[Raw Leather (Middle Level) X73]
[Raw Leather (High Level) X23]
I took out raw leather of low level, to practice my tanning.
With a skinning knife, I started to go over the procedures that I saw in TV. By the 7th try, I was able to get a passable product.
[Refined Leather (High Class)]
Low-level leather has a low chance of evolving into high leather, so I think I have a fair enough shot to get decent-quality leather. So, without hesitation, I began my work with the rest of the raw leather and refined them.
[Refined Leather (Legacy Class) X37]
The reason for this tremendous increase is due to my brain faculties, which have adapted to the refining process. However, to reach the level, I had to sacrifice quite a bit of leather, which only reached high class. A waste indeed. But paying it no mind, I began to use the harvested fibers I got and started to turn them into yarn.
[Mana Yarn (Top Class) X78]
Seeing the quality of the item, I produced, the quality of the cloth I got, and the quality of the item I am going to craft, I decided to just ditch the cloth I got, and make my own. The process of making cloth from yarn itself was quite tiring but worth it.
[Cloth (Top Class) X23]
Now that I had, leather, cloth, and the rest of the yarn left that I wove into threads, I began tailoring. The first thing was to take measurements and draw them on the cloth. Then I cut off the cloth in a way I wanted to, and stacked it upon the leather, creating a double layer of cloth. After stacking it, I sewed it shut. Then using my knife I carved a line. This line would serve as a mark to bend the cloth at specific points, to give it the shape of jacket.
Then it took about an hour to finish what I was making, and in front of me was a jacket.
[Leather Jacket (Legacy Class) X1]
Satisfied with my work, I placed the jacket inside the inventory and stood to leave the shop. Though I had crafted the jacket, it was missing an important element.
The eye itself.
Eye cannot be just knit like that, what I have to do is to convert into an artifact and then place it in my jacket. And for this, I went to a building that had a sign, showing a magnifying glass and a pen engraving on a slab of metal.
Seeing the building, I entered it, while changing into [Dwarf] to get more bonus doing the job. Same as before, I found a work bench and choose option <Manual> when it appeared in front of my face.
Then my eyes fell on the worktable, which had various things one would need for artificing. I without hesitation, took out the eye from my inventory and started to work on it.
This was a territory I was familiar with, so it did not take much time for me to be done with it. All I had to do is to process the eye, and turn it into a shining thing convex lens like shape with eye-like appearance.
The only difficult part was to turn something organic into sub-inorganic, but it worked. Then took the newly formed eyes, and placed the lens inside the metal cutout that I made from the mana steel that I got, making it look like a fancy handheld mirror.
Since the work of adding the eyes to the jacket came under artificing, I stayed here. Then all the work that was left was to create incision on the jacket and place the eyes is those incision and seal them with a mana thread. Following this, I entered the flavor text using data crystals.
The process took 37 minutes since the work was delicate but when it was done, I looked at the finished product and felt that it was all worth it.
[Jacket of Argus (Legacy Class)]
[A jacket made with the Greek Giant Argus in mind.]
[The jacket increases user perception by 10, along with agility by 5.]
While its flavor text was short, it was to the point. This jacket will increase my ability to take on multiple enemies at once. Also, it is equipment that is helpful for many races other than vampires, that work on agility.
To complete the set, I decided to make a mask as well that looks entirely black, with 3 eyes on it. On top of increasing my perception, this mask also will help counter a person using illusion to some extent.
As soon as they were completed, I wore the equipment, replaced my old one, and left the building.
Then my eyes drifted off to notifications, that I had turned off while I was making this thing, so as not to interfere with my work.
[Notification: 3]
I then tapped on it, causing the menu to expand.
[Message: Amanomahitotsu: Scarlet, I looked for you in the tailor building but you were not there, so I messaged you to let you know that I am going offline for today. Gotta' catch some sleep. Would you like to party tomorrow as well? We will be there, with 2 more members who could not come today. Message me if you want to, since both Touch and I are already in your friend list.]
[You are given Job Class: Tailor. Do you accept?]
[You are given Job Class: Artificer. Do you accept?]
I read the message, then looked at the other two notifications for which I selected no. If I am going to take a job class, it has to be at least a high-level one in the least.
Seeing that both Touch and Mahito were offline, I decided to focus on something important in Yggdrasil.
The Story Quest.
The world of Yggdrasil offers a story quest that is interconnected with everyone. The main end goal of the Story quest is related to the tree itself.
For Humanoids and Demi-humans, it is to save it, but for Heteromorphs who are perceived as no different from any other monster, our end goal is to destroy it.
While in the end, and somewhere in the middle, we will share the same quest, in the beginning, and for the most part of it, every story quest will be unique to the player unless they try to copy someone.
It will be decided according to race and the decision you take.
So, for me, my world quest would probably begin in a place where Changeling exists, but there is a problem there is no monster mob known as Changeling, so I look for the next best thing, a race like Changeling.
Spectral, soul-like races.
These types of mobs are found mostly in Helheim due to it being the place where damned souls reside. So, with that thought in mind, I left for the outer edges of the Helheim where chances of finding a World Quest for me increased substantially.
It was a journey, in which the level of mobs kept on increasing.
From a run-of-the-mill skeleton, mobs evolved into undead of sorts, but keeping in mind my goal, I steered clear of them and went into a direction where ethereal mobs increased. As I was moving through the area, I found a team of players. All of them were heteromorphs.
A vampire, a lich, and two insectoids. Seeing them, I decided to attack them and try out my new gear.
***
[3rd POV]
"Why haven't we found a single dungeon?" Cried the Lich.
"For the love of everything that is pure and holy, shut the fu*ing fu*k up." Vampire said tiredly.
"Both of you shut up." Insectoid said.
"All of you shut up." Said a hushed voice seemingly from nowhere.
"What? You shut u-! Wait, who said that?"
They all become alert, and huddled from back to back, looking for any sign of ambush. But there was no attack.
"How long are we going to huddle like this? Your fat bony as* keeps on rubbing on my back." Vampire said exhaustedly.
"How can I have a fat and bony as* at the same time?" Shouted the Lich in indignation.
"I don't know. I did not research in as*es like you did." Vampire bit back.
"That was one time." Lich said.
"That was one time that I SAW you checking your fu*king DOG'S AS*!!!"
"Sh-"
But as they were bickering, they lowered their guard down due to which they were not able to perceive the a seemingly harmless vial of red, above their heads. A vial exploded, causing all of them to take damage since they were huddled together.
"Sh*-"
But before they could curse, one of them was hit squarely in the chest with a dagger, that stayed there while the other dagger was plunged into its head. With this, the vampire vanished into light particles.
In this time, other players snapped out of confusion and like they should, attacked Scarlet King with full force.
Insectoid used magic while Lich used undead summoning.
Before he could walk away, the insectoid had already unleashed low-level spells with less cast time to chip King's health since he clearly was an assassin-type character. And as expected, the quick bolt of lightning could not be dodged, and hit the King squarely, stunning him in place, this chain was kept up until…
The King dissolved into blood.
[Clone defeated.]
Hearing this, they became vigilant, but before they could physically react, the puddle of blood left behind by the clone exploded, causing them heavy damage. Taking out one of the insectoids whilst heavily damaging the other.
Then suddenly a dagger came and hit the insectoid, effectively killing him. Then from the bushes appeared King, walking towards Lich who was standing still, keeping his summoning circle on, with his scythe in his hand.
"Not going to shout something along the lines of 'How dare you?! I will kill you'?" King asked.
"Bro, I ain't Chinese. Also, this is just a game. I don't have any rare equipment here with me, and my level is not very high. Even if you defeat me, it will take less than an hour to revert to my present progress.
So why would I cry like a b*tch?" He ended up waving his hand.
"Hmm…you are quite…sensible." King muttered.
"Hard to find, right?" Lich stated.
"Yes, it is hard to find people who play a game like a game." King complimented.
"So, what is race? I haven't seen any with such appearance." Lich asked.
"Racist are we?" I asked in a goading tone.
He just looked at me silently, with what I think was a deadpan his bony face could muster.
"Fine, this is a vampire." I said pointing at me.
"Ohh…Kira is going to be so jealous." Lich said.
"So, begin?" I asked.
"Before that, can you add me to your friend list? Really need to play with people who know the distinction between real life and game." Lich said.
"Sure." I sent him a friend request, that he accepted.
[Toriyama added to friend list]
Prompt appeared that I dismissed.
"Now, let's begin, shall we?" I asked.
"Sure." He replied
And then instantly, he died due to being impaled by the blood constructs.
***
[Diluc POV]
Well, isn't that something?
The fight in itself was quite easy. Thinking that since they are on the outer parts of Helheim, I got carried away and set up one too many traps. Not that I needed them, evidently, but it never hurts to be vigilant.
Seeing that my enemies were dead, I continued on my journey. I did not take Lich from my new friend for several reasons.
I already have multiple fighting classes that I have not touched yet. Lich in itself, is definitely not a rare race. It is quite common in fact. I am waiting for a better version of the race, in the form of a boss monster.
It took me several minutes until the mobs in my surroundings started to change into a wraith and other ethereal mobs. Seeing it as a good sign, I continued, until I was whisked away.
My surroundings shifted from a desolate eerie looking misty forest to a place with no sign of any tree. Up and down looked the same.
Then as I tried to move, I found myself floating instead.
Instead of my vampire form, I was in my ghastly Changeling form.
Seeing this, I opened the menu and found a prompt explaining the change.
[Only Spectral Races allowed]
'This explains everything.
Since I am in Helheim, which literally is hell for Norse mythology, only souls can exist in its specific places.
Hence, my unavailability to change into other races.'
With this realization, I began to move from the place, moving in this place, where few silhouettes hovered over the ground at a constant distance from me.
I chose to move in the direction where there was more concentration of soul-like being.
One peculiarity of this place is that any mob I have attacked, they don't attack back. They appear to be in a trance-like state. Forever still.
Also, the EXP they give is meager, so I left them as it is, and continued my journey.
Then suddenly, a change occurred.
As I was moving, the sky that was dull black turned to eerie green, and ground that wasn't previously there appeared, with lines of red looking like bleeding veins.
Then as I turned back, there was a house in front of me.
It looked to belong to a well-off family at one time, but now due to winds of time, it had degraded. It had a rusted fence and a broken gate. Inside the gate was the 3-story house itself with broken windows.
The curious thing?
There was a women with elongated face looking a me with pupil less eyes. Not looking, glaring instead.
'Well, this is uncomfortable.
I need to talk to the people at HQ. Somebody may die of a heart attack due to this setting, which would be bad…
For company that is.'
I thought and moved towards it, and the broken door that was barely hanging opened with a classic creaking sound.
'How original, now the main gate of the house will open.'
I thought as I drifted towards the door that opened by itself.
'How unexpected.'
I mentally face-palmed.
As I entered the home itself, I found it to be covered in claw marks, and the pictures on the wall to be same as that 'woman' that was glaring at me, with the same elongated pupilless look.
'Now the eyes of people in painting will move with me.' I thought as I moved and eyes followed me as I predicted.
'Would it kill them to make something original?' I sighed mentally, checking the first floor of the house.
'Since it probably is related to the world quest, I have to think objectively. I am in a classic haunted house, which is no doubt filled with a spirit or two.
My objective here is to probably find the remains of the family, or something related to their cause of death. That thing that I saw, is the key.
According to what I saw, I should check the top floor, but according to common sense, I should go to the basement or cellar.
Since for some reason, spirits love dark shady space which made for a good jump scare.'
As I was thinking this, the 'thing' appeared in front of me, staring at me wide-eyed. Without any hesitation, I poked it in the eye which caused it to collapse on the ground.
'Might as well show me a picture of an old man twerking in a diaper, it would be more scary than this.'
I thought as avoided the lunge from the thing, who launched itself with a shrill cry.
"WRRRRRREEEEEEEE"
And then making that sound it vanished at breakneck speed through a door.
Glancing at it, I sat that it opened to the basement.
'Wow, I keep getting surprised.' Knowing the game of cat and mouse that was about to be initiated, I did something to break the norm.
I did not enter the basement. I instead went out of the house.
Seeing the plan was about to fail, the creature ran from the basement like a rabid dog. I was prepared for it. As soon as it was in my sight, I used [Tainted Fire] which hit it squarely.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!"
It shouted writhing in flames, taking advantage of which, I used my cloak-like figure to wrap around it and kill it via crushing.
Then, like a watermelon squeezed between thighs, the body of the thing burst, causing black smoke to spill from its injuries, which withered it away.
Upon its disappearance, a notification appeared in front of my vision.
[Since the Yggdrasil started to wither away, the flow of souls in Helheim became awry causing many spirits to wander aimlessly.]
[You Exorcised a Spirit and made it go to the afterlife using <Domination>]
[Rare Racial Class: <Soulmonger>]
[Do you accept?]
'Hmm…since I used an aggressive method, I got an aggressive class related to soul. If I had taken a softer approach, then I could have gotten some other. Well, this works for me. I can make the unwilling follow my will with this.'
I thought reading the description of the class.
[You who revel in the anguish of soul, who passes them onto the journey of the afterlife, not for pure purpose but for malice, is tainted as Soulmonger.
You can control the souls, and bind them to people and objects through your mastery over it.
But beware for you have pained the dead,
watch your back 'cause they may aim for your head.]
With this, the description of the new race ended.
Looking at its expanded sheet I found the true ability in-game, that was to summon the souls and use them to fight. Like a Necromancer who uses souls instead of undead.
But when the game will not be a game anymore, this class will truly evolve into something quite monstrous.
With this realization, I chose the class and added a few levels to it.
Upon choosing it, another prompt appeared.
[World Quest: Unbounded Soul]
[As a member of a spectral race, who has a semblance of control, you are tasked with the burden to free the souls who are kept away from the privilege you have.
Free them and put them to eternal rest, and Yggdrasil will remember your actions.]
And then, I was whisked away from the place, back to the dark, misty, desolate forest.
'Hmm…now I have to travel like this and find souls to exorcise them.'
I thought, as I transformed into a vampire, and quickly made my way to the nearest city in Helheim, to stock up on some items, and give proper attention to my other races as well.
Finding a place to take a seat, I sat down and opened my status screen.
[Name: SCARLET KING]
[Gender: Male]
[Level: 31]
[Race: Heteromorph]
[Sub-species: Changeling]
[Class: Impostor (Level 5)]
[Class: Soulmonger (Level 5)]
[Changeling acquired Sub-species: (4/8)]
[Slot 1: Vampire]
[Class: Bloodborne (Level 10)]
[Class: Noblesse (Level 5)]
[Weapon: Barothy's Dagger]
[Armor: Jacket of Argus]
[Slot 2: Elf]
[Slot 3: Dwarf]
[Slot 4: Eldritch]
[Class: Great One (Level 5)]
[Slot 5: Dryad]
[Slot 6: Mana Golem]
[Slot 7: None]
[Slot 8: None]
Hmm…it seems that I don't need to touch Vampire, Changeling, and Eldritch at all. All of them are perfectly built.
Now, between Elf and Dryad, which one should I keep?
Elf is necessary for what I am about to do, and I can main it with a bow, but dryad seems…unnecessary.
There will be so many races in the future that I can use as magic-focused races. Limiting myself with Dryad to only use nature magic is reductant, so I will delete it. I have also not used Dryad yet which is a plus.
Then comes Dwarf and Golem. Both of them are good for blacksmithing. Hell, a golem is a dwarf made for heteromorphs, so removing any will not be a problem.
Depending upon my plan, I only require an Elf or a Dwarf, so I am going to let it go in favor of Golem.
Now for the proper build, the vampire will be a melee fast assassin type that uses magic as well. The main weapon should be daggers, rapier, and maybe long swords for exhausting fights.
Changeling, it cannot wield any weapons and I am not too keen on keeping it weak since it is my actual race, so I will focus on summoning magic for it. It is best for it.
Elf will focus on the bow and twin spear. I will also integrate magic as well with it to increase its power.
Dwarf, nothing about it. It will be removed.
Eldritch, is a race that I am most confused about, but seeing its appearance it can wield weapons so it will be good to train it in a few. Its main abilities will shine when I am not restricted by the game, so it would be wise to train it in a way that I can have more lore-backed classes with nice flavor text to realize this race's potential.
Dryad, the same as Dwarf is out.
Golem will be a class focused on production only since I have a better build for close combatants in mind.
Deciding the changes, I tweaked my status and it was changed.
[Name: SCARLET KING]
[Gender: Male]
[Level: 31]
[Race: Heteromorph]
[Sub-species: Changeling]
[Class: Impostor (Level 5)]
[Class: Soulmonger (Level 5)]
[Changeling acquired Sub-species: (4/8)]
[Slot 1: Vampire]
[Class: Bloodborne (Level 10)]
[Class: Noblesse (Level 5)]
[Weapon: Barothy's Dagger]
[Armor: Jacket of Argus]
[Slot 2: Elf]
[Slot 3: Eldritch]
[Class: Great One (Level 5)]
[Slot 4: Mana Golem]
[Slot 5: None]
[Slot 6: None]
[Slot 7: None]
[Slot 8: None]
***
[Name: SCARLET KING]
[Gender: Male]
[Level: 31]
[Race: Heteromorph]
[Sub-species: Changeling]
[Class: Impostor (Level 5)]
[Class: Soulmonger (Level 5)]
[Changeling acquired Sub-species: (4/8)]
[Slot 1: Vampire]
[Class: Bloodborne (Level 10)]
[Class: Noblesse (Level 5)]
[Weapon: Barothy's Dagger]
[Armor: Jacket of Argus]
[Slot 2: Elf]
[Slot 3: Eldritch]
[Class: Great One (Level 5)]
[Slot 4: Mana Golem]
[Slot 5: None]
[Slot 6: None]
[Slot 7: None]
[Slot 8: None]
Word Count: 4381
How is it?
Leave Power Stone and review.
Next chapter will be on next Sunday depending upon the POLL that I will do.
Managed to get more than 15K words without any WORD COUNT CHAPTER.
I have also written a Haikyuu!!! X Gotoubun no Hanayome (Quintennial Quintuplets) fanfic. I will post when I have written more chapters.
Bye!!!
Estado de energía semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Piedra de
Poder