Bab 34: Event Prep
Two weeks before the big event…
"Why are there three stages in this one event?" Morgana asked McCloud from her seat across the table. "Wouldn't that be overkill?"
"And unnecessary," Dani, the Ghoulie piped in from his seat on her left. "And put us way over the budget."
"Quiet, you," McCloud growled at Dani. Then he quickly reformed his frown into a smile and addressed Morgana's question, "We believe this is the best way to find out who really is cream of the crop among the current roster of players, right?"
McCloud looked to Bront, son of Brontes who was sitting to the right of him for help.
"Um, ye-yes," Bront answered quickly. "Each stage is designed to test players on several metrics — problem-solving, reaction response, battle strategy, and combat prowess."
"Factors they'll need most if they're going to raid the Death Knight's stronghold," McCloud finished.
Leo, who was sitting at the head of the table, leaned to the left toward Morgana, and said, "The top ten players in the tournament will form our raid team. It'll be their job to explore the stronghold and face off against the lessers inside it."
Morgana still looked skeptical. "A mere ten players against Maleagant's army sounds like suicide, Leo…"
"That's why we'll need the very best of the best… and we don't need them to win, but to gather enough intel on the stronghold for our follow-up attempts," Leo admitted.
Leo's brow furrowed as he said this. He realized that he was basically sending players off to their deaths, but he managed to rationalize his guilt away by reminding himself that the resurrection system was in place for this kind of situation.
However, his brain which was ever the rebel, brought up a thought that nagged at Leo's conscience, What if the system doesn't work inside another reaper's territory?
Leo's only response was, Shut up, brain! It'll work… I hope.
"Alright, Leo," Morgana gave in although her face still oozed skepticism. "We'll do it your way for now…"
---
Ten days before the big event…
"Gra~ah!" roared the shadow beast being led into its cage by the hunters who'd caught it.
"Oo~~oh, what big fangs it has," Morgana giggled in delight. "Wherever did you find such a creature, Crimsonback?"
The woman standing behind Leo and Morgana was tall and well-built with wild red hair that reached all the way to her waist. She would have looked more or less like a regular human if it wasn't for the fangs on her teeth and the sharpened-nails at the tips of her fingers. And the eyes, fiery crimson like her hair and wolf-like in the same way as McCloud's.
"As you know, my Wildling Hunt travels all over the Abyssal Plains in search of new prey," Crimsonback replied. "There are quite a few rare specimens out there that have evolved in rare ways to adapt to the hellish environment of the Abyss."
"Not that I'm not thankful for the assist," Leo piped in, "But aren't you one of the seven guardians of Adventour? And yet you're never around?"
"I'm there when Morgana needs me, human…" Crimsonback's eyes narrowed as she glanced over at Leo. "And I help your little experiment by making sure the big beasties never make it within sight of the town."
"Just like a guard dog then," Leo replied coolly.
He and Crimsonback had been at odds since Morgana brought him to the Abyss. The werewolf was loyal to Morgana, but she didn't like Leo because he took up most of Morgana's time now. It was a fact she'd once explained to him right before she bit him in the arm that first time he'd offered his hand in greeting to her.
"Play nice, you two," Morgana chided as both the Game Master and the werewolf were now staring daggers at each other, "Oo~~oh, what big eyes that next one has!"
A roar of another large shadow beast cut the din around them, forcing Leo and Crimsonback's attention to return to the task at hand.
"I assume you've managed to catch the number we asked for," Leo asked.
It was a while longer before Crimsonback answered, "Quite… way more than you can handle."
---
One week before the big event…
"No! No! No!" Agatha Christie smacked a hand over the paper she held with her other hand. "The line is, for I have seen the throne of Death and it was empty… not, the seat of death, the throne of death!"
Agatha raised her hand high in exaggerated annoyance.
"Again!" she commanded. "With feelings this time."
The lessers on stage began rehearsing the scene once more although many of them were in different stages of annoyance at this point. Leo could clearly see their frowns from his spot in the stands.
"No-no! The audience won't feel anything from such a sluggish performance! Again!" Agatha demanded. Then she turned a baleful glare at Leo and the maenad sitting beside him. "Where did you get these amateurs, Donatella?"
"You asked for the cheapest rates among my troupe, and so I provided you with our newest members," Donatella replied nonchalantly. "Blame darling Leo here, not me."
She turned a rather erotic glance on the Game Master who visibly blushed from the attentions of such a beautiful creature.
Leo, a man who for the past twenty-five years was solely driven on completing his dream, barely had any physical contact with women apart from those working for him, and even they barely caught his notice. This was most likely why he had little to no clue about how to act whenever a woman came onto him.
"Um," Leo was having a hard time forming words at the moment, "budgetary concerns, I'm afraid… you'll have to make due, Agatha."
On Leo's other side, Morgana frowned, "Men…"
"Um, Game Master," McCloud interrupted in a way that made Leo grateful for the distraction. "Don't you think CGI would be best for this reenactment?"
"It would be," Leo sent Morgana a furtive glance, "But we're pretty much over-budget at this point… so this is all we can do."
Leo glanced over his shoulder to McCloud who was sitting behind him.
"Don't sweat it, brother… We'll get it right next time," he promised.
---
Three days before the big event…
"You think she has enough time?" McCloud asked nervously.
Leo's gaze scanned the nearby horizon and the lone figure in the stylish blue coat standing next to the giant pile of soul stones that looked much like three scoops of ice cream precariously placed on top of each other.
"McCloud, there's one thing I've realized since coming to the Abyss," Leo answered with eyes that were alight with wonder. "With enough energy, Morgana can do anything."
As he said this, the reaper girl raised her hands to the pile of soul stones and began the process of absorbing their energy.
His attention diverted to the other individual who'd left Morgana's side and was now walking toward Leo and McCloud.
Dani, the ghoulie sighed once he'd made it to Leo's side.
"I hope you creatives are happy now," he sighed again. "We're thirty percent over budget and we've used nearly twenty percent of Adventour's soul stone reserves just for this thing you want to build."
Leo patted Dani reassuringly on the shoulder then immediately pulled away as he remembered that the ghoul's rotten skin was poisonous with prolonged contact.
"Don't worry your calculating head over this, Dani. We're set to make a killing on tickets alone," Leo assured him.
"I suppose the sales from event-exclusive merchandise plus food sales could bring us back in the black," Dani agreed hesitantly. "I can only hope you made this event more interesting than the last one, director."
"You have a complaint about the Decapitator event?" McCloud growled.
"It underperformed on all metrics and didn't earn us nearly enough as advertised," Dani replied casually.
"Why you—"
Leo sighed as the two rivals bickered once more, and yet he didn't much care to hear what they were arguing about as the radiant form of Morgana had caught his full attention now.
She was floating perhaps two feet off the ground now with her entire form lit up like a raging blue bonfire.
Morgana raised both hands to the sky, and like Thor wielding his fabled hammer Mjolnir, she called the lightning to strike down the ground. And as she willed, dark clouds coalesced together in the sky above her to form the thunderstorm that she required for reshaping the land.
Crackaboom! Crackaboom!
The plains shook as bolts of lightning streaked down upon it and shattered the surroundings around Morgana. And like a maestro to a symphony orchestra, she twirled her hands here and there as she rearranged the environment into something that would certainly shock and awe an audience.
Blackened rocks rose from the ground to form the walls of the towering structure that was coming to life in front of Leo.
Like a razor-sharp chisel, lightning streaked across blocks of stone and slowly transformed them into detailed sculptures of warriors in varying positions of struggle.
Through it all, Leo could hear the distinct tinkling laughter of the reaper who seemed delighted with the task he'd set her, and in his mind, he thought about how thrilling it must be to wield such awesome power.
"Yeah, she can do anything," he whispered.
---
A minute to curtain call…
"Are you ready?" Morgana asked.
Leo nodded in an assuring way. "It's time to bring the shock and awe."
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
GD_Cruz
GD_Cruz Greetings, fellow reapers!
We're in POTENTIAL STARLET on the WEBNOVEL APP!!! In celebration of this momentous occasion, I have decided to publish another double chapter release. Hope you enjoyed this first chapter of the day.
That said, I'll have a short naming competition in the next chapter's author's thought, so please stay tuned for that.
One of my uber-cool readers recently asked in the comment about Morgana's power levels and how the system works... I can't really answer that as it would ruin the story but here's a brief overview:
Morgana has no need of an artifact. She is the power behind the system -- yeah, that's how powerful reapers are which you'll find out in this current volume.
The system was built months ago, and with it came the tools guys like McCloud need to interface and build on the system. So developer tools like software that allows them to create quests, events, items and the like. They no longer need Morgana for this as she's already built the system. Instead, they make use of the soul stones in the town's stone reserves which are accumulated from taxes, sales, resurrection costs, anything players pay stones with, to make these changes in the game.
If you'll remember, Morgana gets annoyed when these stones are used as she wants to drain them for herself eventually. Lol.
And yeah, everything devs do cost soul stones. And you'll meet the other members of each department eventually. Well, maybe some of them as there are a lot of members. QA has over 45 testers for example.
Hadiah
-- Hadiah diterima Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone