บท 23: The Jet-Black Wings

(Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. Tried to wrap my head around how to portray this new complex character in a good manner.)

In the 6th Outer Zone of Vanahiem, Iron-Wood Forest.

Treech and Prince were cloaking in a [Perfect Unknowable] Spell and hovering in the air quietly observing a group of PKers a hundred meters away from them. They had surrounded another player who was completely equipped with cash shop item perks, gear, and cosmetics. Clearly, the greedy Pkers were surrounding this player to get his Cash-Shop item equipment drops.

Treech and Prince looked entirely different than before. They both had full sets of Divine Class items. They spent the last 3 and a half months farming data crystals and installing them inside their equipment. Treech made sure to use his [Temporarikly Increased Drop Chance] items he won from the Gacha while they farmed. Treech focused on mana cost decreasing mana crystals and defensive ones. To be specific, He farmed [Cosmic Mana] and [Nature Mana] crystals, reducing the cost of his specific spells by half each. The [Nature Mana] crystal was the hardest to get, but it applied, AGAIN, over his [Green Mana] racial talent which did the same thing. So his druid spells would cost 1/4 of their cost now due to this little bit of a bug. It wasn't the first time Treech has learned how to abuse some aspects of the game.

Treech also competed in the [World Champion] tournament because he was bored and he thought it would be funny if a magic caster showed up all serious-like. He only had the idea to do this after their clan had just finished farming a dungeon boss [Malikgark the Confused] who dropped an ultra-rare, but pretty useless data crystal: [Caster Swordsman]. It was a crystal that let a magic caster class equip a sword-type weapon as if they had the class swordsman.

Treech put that into a sword he made as a joke for Prince a while back and joined the competition. Don't get things wrong, he won because he put a few of the overpowered sword drop data-crystal skills into the sword and used them in the tournament. He wasn't expecting to win... it just seemed that the players were currently very weak compared to him and his raw stats overpowered them. The devs announced that this would be a reoccurring tournament and the [World Champion] class equipment would be taken back at the end of the year for another competition.

After he accidentally won the competition, he was a little speechless. He only joined to see if he could feel any excitement in his heart, but everyone either just wanted his autograph or was defeated, by not being able to do nearly any damage to Treech with his max-level Phy Def.

After the World Champion tournament, he got back to his clan tasks with Prince. Prince finally reached his endgame class and took a basic one, [Grand Transmuter Monk], at level 85. Prince had finally reached level 100 about a month later and to celebrate, Treech created him some Divine Class gear as well. He created a karate robe, linen undershirt, a belt, a set of metal encased boots, and finally, he upgraded Prince's brass knuckles, 'Tough Love' to Divine Class.

Prince now wore a purple karate robe, with golden-yellow trimmed edges. The belt he wore was black with silver specks of starlight. Underneath the robe, he had the basic cloth black linen shirt. It had a revolving animation of planet earth in the center, surrounded by the darkness of space and its stars. 'Tough Love' dangled off his belt on his right side and his boots looked even scarier. His feet wore completely metal-encased boots which were also a Divine Class special weapon he could wear on his feet.

Treech wore an assortment of black-wood engraved rings on each of his fingers. And he had a scepter for magic casting he had in his right hand, while Conqueror's Merit dangled from an improved, Divine Class, Belt on the left side of his waist. The scepter was not quite a staff and was about half the size of one, it had a cube spinning at the top of it and a cosmetic effect applied to it, where runic characters circled the staff.

Prince's purple karate robe had a blowing cosmetic effect on it, where it would blow behind him like there was some wind blowing at him. Prince stood in front of Treech as they watched the player they tracked become fully surrounded. Treech cast [Rabbit Ears] with silent casting to enhance their hearing range. Because it isn't an attack, it didn't break invisibility.

'Sensei, these players don't even have a single Divine Class equipment. But they are trying to PK a player with a full set. Did we come here to claim the Divine equipment for ourselves?' Prince asked Treech with a [Message] spell.

'No, remember Conqueror's Merit's 3rd use? This player didn't appear on its board, but the other players did.' Treech answered with an [Message] of his own.

Prince knew about the 3rd use of Conqueror's Merit by now. His sensei had explained it fully when he asked him about how he knew about the [Paragon Stone] World-Class item. He couldn't help but marvel at his sensei's ability to utilize things in a strategic way like this.

'So that means, that player is likely to have a World-Class Item on him!' Prince exclaimed in a [Message].

'Indeed. Or perhaps he has a special class that is given by a World-Class Item, making him immune to World-Class Item effects. Either way, he is worthy to watch for recruitment at the very least.' Treech agreed.

'Sensei, you are considering recruiting another person?' Prince questioned.

'Yes, we need at least one other powerful member before we can raid the end-game dungeons. I doubt we can manage with just you, me, and monster summons. ' Treech said.

'Are you going to test him to sensei?' Prince asked.

'This a good enough test as is. If he can get out of this situation on his own, I find no reason to ask him to prove himself in another way.' Treech narrowed his eyes as he watched the 12-player PKers squad close in confidently. He could overhear the conversations with the [Rabbit Ears] spell. He glanced at the surrounded players' status in his HUD.

========***++++***========

Name: Jet-Black Wings

[Race]: Dragonoid

Level: 95

Hp: 80

Mp: 60

========***++++***========

"Send us your gear in a trade and we might let you go, alright?" A member of the PKer players taunted.

"Kuku, you utter fools. If I wasn't sealed to only 1% of my true power, you would already be dead." The surrounded player, Jet-Black Wings replied covering half of his face with his hand in a cringe fashion.

Jet-Black Wings had every cool set of armor that could be bought from the Cash Shop. It was called the [Berserker Armor]. He wore an edgy-looking gothic helmet that covered his face. On his back were two giant-sized swords, which were longer than his own character's height. He had them tied to his back, crossed over each other. He had a bunch of cosmetics equipped to make himself have a menacing red and black bestial aura. If someone had their game music turned on in their HUD, they would hear an edgy theme that was being played. It could be purchased in the cash shop.

"Aren't you a little old to have 8th grader syndrome?" A man scoffed from the PKer group.

"Kuku, utter fool. That's it. My Patience has run out. I can't wait any longer. As one last mercy, before you die, I'll let you taste the power of my [Dark Dragon Beetle Cannon]" He pulled one of his swords from his back.

The PKer groups were only slightly warry at this, after all the guy was acting like a total roleplayer.

"[Rank 9: Lightless Hollow]"

Jet-Black Wing's mana coated his blade and took on a shadow nature. It enhanced the sword so that it left an after trailing of shadow as he swung it. The shadow then stayed in there, like a painter's brush had passed through with black ink. The area was soon covered in these strokes in the air as he swung his huge sword around slowly. But... he wasn't hitting anything.

"Pfft, hahaha this is- this is the best joke I've seen this week! Hahaha," The PKers watch as he kept missing his attacks while he swung. It was very unskilled, bulky, and slow: The moves of a complete amateur.

"This is - this hahaha, so wait. All your gear was purchased and you have no basic skills in swordsmanship? Why...haha.. why did you choose that class then?" The PKers continued to laugh.

"I.. hey.. don't laugh... it's real... I am just sealed... it's true I swear it." Jet-Black Wings stopped swinging and started holding his head a bit. He mumbled to himself.

"Hahaha, alright alright alright... whew. That was great. I'm in such a good mood now." A Man from the PKer group said after he composed himself. He looked back at Jet-Black Wings again, but something was strange. He was standing absolutely silent as the laughter around him died down.

The man felt tension rise in his heart as if something was going to go wrong. He quickly raised his own magic staff and pointed it at him.

"Alright, no more jokes. Hand over your gear in a trade and we will honor our deal and let you go. No level loss for you." The man threatened.

But there was no answer from Jet-Black Wings as he just stood there silently. Suddenly, he sprung into action.

"[Rank 10: Death Knocks]"

A cold voice sounded from his Jet-Black Wings, it was like he was a completely different person this time. Black mana surrounded his body and the sound of a heartbeat's single thump was heard around them. Then his health started to deplete every second by 1.

The PKers panicked.

"[Grand FireBall]"

"[Rank 5: Wind Blade]"

"[Rank 9: Blaze of Heart]"

"[Dragon Lightning]"

Spells of all kinds burst through and hit Jet-Black Wings, but only 2 of them hit. He displayed none of the amateur moves he had earlier as he used both of his two swords to deal massive damage to the PKers. Killing them kin one or two moves from his sword attacks. His speed was impressive as well, due to what seemed to be a high dexterity stat. His health continued to drop until he had killed off all but 2 PKers on his own. His health was at 5 HP and in the next 5 seconds, it would bring him to 0 with his technique taking his life every second to boost his damage.

"Hidden Expert! You'll die anyway. [Maximize Magic: Grasp Heart]"

One of the two remaining players cast the spell and an ethereal heart appeared in his hand. He crushed it and Jet-Black Wings staggered. His HP dropped to 0, but he was still standing. His HP jumped back up to 1.

"What? What kind of skill is that?! Bullshi-" The man died leaving only one player left.

"[Maximize Magic: Nuclear Blast]" The man used a wide range, low damage dealing spell. He figured he would prevent the man from dodging and that he could finish him off. His life-saving skill wouldn't prevent him from taking twice and should be on cooldown.

The blast cleared, leaving nothing within a few miles radius, and all disintegrated. But Jet-Black Wings was still there. He had 1 HP still.

The player's eyes widened.

"You-you are cheating! I am reporting you to the gm-" He didn't get to finish as the man died before finishing his last words.

Jet-Black Wings just stood silently in place as he watched the man turn into specks of light. He silently put his two giant swords back onto his back and stared into space. After about 30 seconds of staring at nothing, it was like a switch was flipping in him. He started talking like a man with 8th grader syndrome again.

"Kukuku, I warned you not to push me. Even I can't suppress the Demon Dragon in my right arm all the time. This is the cost of your ignorance. Be grateful It was not me at my full power or there may not have even been your souls left, kukuku, "He clutched his forehead with his right arm. He started picking up the loot from the PKers silently as if this was a natural occurrence to him.

...

'Sensei, he...' Prince hesitated to fully ask his question.

Treech's eyes shined as he watched Jet-Black Wings pick up the items.

'He's perfect.' he thought.

(Author's Note: Alright, so there is the last character I wanted to add to [Dark Reunion]. It was a bit complicated to write, but it is a fun challenge. )

(Author's Note: For all you edgelord-loving readers, here is your character. You're welcome.)