Chương 9: Alliance

"So, what is this oath of existence business?" The pink-haired woman arrived after a few minutes as Zack sighed.

"You don't check forums, do you?"

"This is on the forums?" She asked with a surprised expression as the latter nodded.

"There are many posts regarding this but the main one is pinned on the forums."

"How did people know about this though?" She asked while tilting her head a little.

WolfHeart had never visited the forum since she had thought that it would be full of teenagers bickering around. Or at least that's what happened on the other forums she had seen.

If she had known that it had such important things, she would be opening and refreshing it every day.

"The game developers create alternate accounts sometimes and post the information there. They have mentioned that in an interview but not many people watched that. But those who watched it know that most of the stuff on the forums might be real and could be from their alternate account."

"Damn…" WolfHeart looked as though she was ready to slap herself for being this stupid but prevented herself from doing that because of being in the number one player's presence.

'This means that there will be many players who would be using these things to their advantage. How naive I was to think that the forums would only be full of teens.' WolfHeart thought with a sigh as she then looked into Zack's eyes.

"Then will you please explain to me what this oath of existence is?"

"It's an oath in which both the parties state some terms and they are then bound by their avatar's life. So if any of them breaks the terms of the oath, their avatars would get destroyed and they would have to restart the game. It's the best insurance you have in the game." After finishing his explanation, Zack waited for WolfHeart to process his words.

The pink-haired woman looked deep in thought as she was measuring the pros and cons of this. In the end, she decided that teaming up with the number one player on fair terms might be more beneficial.

"Then I only have three terms. You have to help me reach the top three positions and also make sure that I don't die. As for the last one, I just want to complete this quest and get a strong weapon alongside all that exp."

"Well, those are easy. As for my terms, I want you to give me cover in this place and also tell me about all the plans you overheard earlier. Also, if you become a top-three player with my help, you will have to stay in contact with me. We might help each other in the future." Zack then stated his terms as the pink-haired woman looked deep in thought.

But he couldn't see her expression because of the helmet she was wearing. However, she soon replied.

"I guess that's fair. I will send you a friend request right now." She muttered and seemed to open her system settings.

[ Player WolfHeart is sending you a friend request.

Decline ]

Zack chose accept as WolfHeart appeared on his friends' list. Now that the terms were set, they just had to shake hands to make the oath.

"Shake my hand and say, 'Oath of existence' together." He then extended his hand forward as WolfHeart extended her own hard.

'Soft.' She wasn't wearing any gloves on her hands so Zack could feel her soft skin. This came to show how hard Hikari's developers had worked.

Even the smallest touch with another player gave the same feeling as touching another human being. But whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, that would only be revealed later on.

""Oath of Existence.""

A blue light extended from their palms and went ahead to cover the rest of their body. After a few seconds, the light vanished and the oath of existence was placed on both of them.

"Let's go then," Zack said as the two of them then started moving towards the middle of the forest.

The dungeon boss was supposed to be at level 12 so Zack had to make sure that he was at least at that level before battling the boss.

WolfHeart on the other hand was five levels below him so he would have to push her up too.

On their way, they started encountering many beasts between level 5 to level 7.

"I will deal the first blow and you can then kill them. The one who deals the last blow will receive a little more exp than the damage dealer." Zack said as he took out a rare-ranked steel sword.

( A/N: the weapon ranks are common, uncommon, rare, super rare, epic, mythological, and legendary. The last two have similar power. )

He was not going to use Firerager at that moment and was only going to use it in a secret location inside the forest.

"Leveling up feels so easy now…" WolfHeart muttered as the two of them were taking a break.

After an hour of killing beasts, WolfHeart was now at level 8. She had passed the number three player named Lazy Panda and was now the rank 3 player. Honestly, it did feel as though everything was too easy.

But this was because they were still at the lower levels.

"Then what are we going to do now?" WolfHeart asked as Zack started walking again.

"We are going to visit a secret place in the forest."

"Secret place?"

"Yes, a secret place or rather, one that is hidden in plain sight. Try using your map to see whether you can find it or not." Zack replied as he opened his own map of the forest and marked their destination.

They had long since left the cherry trees behind and were now surrounded by oak trees. But the place they were going to was a little special.

After fifteen minutes of travel, they reached a swamp-like section of the forest.

[ Would you like to fight the dungeon mini-boss? Both party members must select yes to enter the mini-boss fight. ]

"Now how did you know that? There is no way the game developers released such an important thing." WolfHeart asked while carefully looking at Zack's face. But the latter remained extremely calm.

"If you check the map, you will find that this is the only swamp in the entire forest and unless it was intentional, why would someone put this in the middle of the forest. You just need to think it from a gamer's perspective."

"I guess you are right about that…" WolfHeart muttered as she chose yes. Zack on the other smiled and also pressed yes.

'Looks like I have become a master at bullshitting in front of others. Maybe I should hone my skills to the next level.' He thought with a smile as their bodies soon started to flicker.

With a blink of an eye, they vanished and appeared in the middle of a swamp. However, they were somehow able to walk on it.

"This feels weird and gross…" The pink-haired woman commented as she saw a bubble rising in the swamp.

"Well, the rewards would be worth it and it's not like we are standing in a real swamp."

"True."

As they were talking, a creature was looking at them from the bottom of the swamp.

[ Miniboss fight is about to start in 5 seconds. ]

[ 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… ]

[ Boss fight has now started! ]

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Chương 10: Zack And WolfHeart Versus Mini Boss

The moment the timer reached zero, a creature rose from the depths of the swamp and moved towards the duo.

Zack's senses immediately came into action as he realized that something was wrong.

"Jump to your right!" He shouted at WolfHeart and the two of them immediately jumped on their left and right side respectively.

The creature then appeared from below the swamp and jumped out.

[ Evolved Swamp Crocodile (Level 12): A crocodile hiding in the depths of the swamp slowly grew with time and evolved. Is weak against lightning and fire elements. ]

'Why is that thing at level 12?' Zack narrowed his eyes when he saw the level of the mini-boss. It was supposed to be at level 10 but here it was at level 12. But that wasn't that big of a deal especially since Zack had both the fire and lightning element.

"WolfHeart, try to hit the crocodile from far away and I will do the rest of the job." He ordered the pink-headed woman and took out Firerager.

The swamp crocodile was a monstrosity that was forty feet long (12.19 meters) from head to tail. It was a water and grass-type beast and its tail were enough to destroy multiple buildings at once.

One of its most formidable moves was the water earthquake which made the entire water shake area shake and create huge tidal waves.

However, there was a chance it would drop the skill book of the same move upon being killed. So that was something to look forward to.

Zack then dashed across on the water and jumped towards the crocodile. The beast opened its enormous mouth and Zack could see its sharp pointy teeth ready to bite his head off.

But he stopped his jump and the last moment and rolled across the water. He was now on the crocodile's right side and before the beast could make a move, Zack summoned the fire element of Firerager.

The entire blade of the sword started burning with bright orange flames as Zack brought it down on one of the crocodile's legs. He severed the right rear leg off the crocodile's body and jumped on top of the beast.

The beast could only scream in pain

Zack then sank the blade into the beast's back. The scream grew even more painful as the damage notifications went off in his ears.

< -1200 hp >

< -900 hp >

< -1500 hp >

Yet the beast only screamed in pain as blood came out of its wounds. Zack knew that the crocodile had a huge health bar but despite dealing so much damage, it stood straight.

Zack himself only had 400 health points and would have probably been wiped out numerous times. This came to show how unfair the entire system was.

But fortunately, some more balance changes would soon come along with the food pill so for now, he just had to slay the monster he was battling.

WolfHeart on the other hand was using her own bow to damage the beast. Her job class was a hunter so she was an expert at using most weapons.

Though her bow was only rare ranked and her arrows were uncommon ranked, she couldn't deal as much damage at Zack's blows.

But she was slowly chipping away the crocodile's health.

< -100 hp >

< -80 hp >

That was when an idea came to her mind.

[ Lin Fan, attack the beast's legs and I will aim at its eyes. That should buy us enough time to kill it. ] She told Zack using private messages and immediately notched an arrow while aiming towards the crocodile's right eye.

Zack on the other hand pulled Firerager out and jumped down towards the crocodile's left leg. But that's when the beast decided that it had enough beating.

Its tail immediately whipped towards Zack but he managed to avoid it. He then struck on the crocodile's left rear leg.

At the same time, WolfHeart released her arrow as it flew towards the crocodile's right eye and hit it. She shot a second follow-up arrow and before the crocodile could realize what was happening, it lost both of its eyes.

< Critical hit! >

< -1000 hp >

That was the notification that WolfHeart received yet it was lower than Zack's normal damage. This was the difference between the higher and lower ranked weapons.

[ The mini-boss: Evolved Swamp Crocodile is using the super move, tsunami-quake ]

'So that's the real name of the skill.' Zack then looked in WolfHeart's direction to see that she was already wary of this move.

Sadly, she wasn't going to see it.

"Fire tornado." He then activated Firerager's special move and summoned two fire tornadoes at once.

The two tornadoes grew up to be 15 feet tall each as they started revolving with the bright orange flames. They were so hot that the water of the swamp was evaporating which meant that the crocodile's special move would be useless.

Zack then controlled the two tornadoes and sent both of them towards the crocodile, one from the left and one from the right.

< -1200 >

[ Congratulations on being the first two players to slay a monster above level 10! ]

[ +1000 reputation in Eizenburgh kingdom. ]

[ You have obtained the Title: Baron of Eizenburgh kingdom ]

[ You have received a new skill book named 'Earthquake' ]

Alongside all these things, Zack also gained three levels yet he looked confused.

'The crocodile was clearly using another skill yet I gained something else.' He was about to check the things he received when he heard a system notification.

[ Personal alarm: Sis is getting discharged ]

'Looks like I will see things later on.' Zack then turned towards WolfHeart who looked shocked by the rewards she had gained.

"WolfHeart, I will be logging out of the game for now." He called out as she looked at him with a confused expression.

"But wouldn't that mean that you would be teleported back to the previous inn you were in?"

"Check the information about this place."

WolfHeart did what Zack said and was surprised to see the new thing.

[ Mini-boss stage closing time: 35 hours 57 minutes

- Nobody except those who defeated the mini-boss can enter or remain in the place during the stated time.

- Player/players can quit the game and their avatars would remain in the same place.

- No damage can be dealt to other players while being inside the mini-boss fight stage

- After the time is over, all players will be kicked out and the place would close forever. ]

"This means that we can log out and continue while the event still going on?" WolfHeart asked with a surprised look as she hadn't expected to find such a place.

Inside her heart, she thanked Lin Fan, which was Zack, for teaming up with her and bringing her to such a place.

"If you want, you can continue the quest alone. I will be playing the game at the same time tomorrow in case you want to play together." Zack added as the woman shook her head.

"Fighting alongside you is the better option. I guess I will see you tomorrow then." The pink-haired woman said with a wave of her hand before she logged out.

"I guess I will too," Zack muttered to himself as he logged out of the game and was ready to go and bring his sister back home.

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