〈System Alert: You have been awarded 32,095 EXP〉
Loot Drop:
-x2 «Liquid of Silverline»
-x1 «Chaos Fragment»
-x3 «Concentrated Chaos Core»
-1 «Silverline Halo»
-1 «Adaptation Cape»
'The bosses of the Chaotic Dogma Realm sure are generous when it comes to the amount of experience they grant.'
Izroth looked through the loot that dropped from the Silverline Entity and the first two things to grab his attention were the two rare item drops. However, he ran into an unexpected surprise while checking through the loot, and that was a Chaos Fragment!
'Is it possible that Chaos Fragments only drop from boss monsters within the Chaotic Dogma Realm? Or is there simply a greater chance for it to drop?'
Whatever the fact was, there was now a Chaos Fragment at his disposal that would allow him to unlock the mystery behind the Sealed Chaos Essence that he picked up from the Earth Devouring Groundbull.
However, first thing was first, he had to divide the loot that dropped from the Silverline Entity.
'Oh? An interesting item. Too bad that it does not suit me.'
The item Izroth referred to was the Silverline Halo. It was a rare headpiece suited to magic users. However, even if he could equip the item, Izroth already possessed the Crystal Sea Head Ornament. Therefore, he would not have been greedy and rolled for it.
Name: Silverline Halo(Rare)
Level: 25
Type: Unknown
Requirements: None
HP: 300
MP: 500
MAG: 100
Silverline's Imprint(Passive): Copies and stores one active magic type skill that can be used instantly without the need for any cast time. The user is capable of storing a skill that they cast or a magic skill used within 20 meters of their location. The stronger the magic skill, the more MP it cost to store the skill successfully. This skill cannot copy the skill «Release» or a skill that exceeds this item's capabilities.
Release(Active): Instantly cast the stored skill.
Cooldown: 1 hour
While the skills attached to the Silverline Halo had a nearly infinite number of uses, it only allowed magic type skills to be stored. Izroth's current magic stat was zero and he did not plan on deviating from his original path. Also, the stats it provided were obviously for magic using classes.
Although, he would have been a little tempted if it could store any skill. After all, if he could store away one of his Baneful Swords, then it would make for a deadly item. However, this item would go to either Luna or Valentine.
"What a great item!" Guan Yu said with a bit of excitement within his voice. Even though he could not use it, the effects of the rare item were something he found incredibly powerful if used correctly.
"Too bad it only allows for magic skills to be stored inside of it." Zi Yi shook her head in disappointment.
"Luna and Valentine are the only two who magic casters. Therefore, the two of you will roll to decide who obtains this Silverline Halo." Izroth said.
Even though Izroth had known Luna for a longer period of time, Valentine had contributed to the fight as well. Therefore, he would be fair and allow the chance for both of them to acquire the rare item.
Valentine nodded as he smiled and said, "Sorry, Luna. But my luck when it comes to rolls is just too good." Valentine was fairly confident that he would win the Silverline Halo. He would always win the roll for good items in all of the other parties he was in, so this should not be any different.
Luna only gave a small smile as a response. She would like to acquire the Silverline Halo, however, she would not be disheartened if she was unable to do so.
Valentine used the party interface to roll a number from 1-100. It appeared on everyone's screen and they could see the numbers constantly shuffling.
Ding!
The system made a small sound when the rolling process finished. When everyone saw what number Valentine rolled, they were shocked. His luck was something alright, but it was definitely not good!
"Ahahahaha!" Halls and Guan Yu could not help but burst out into a loud fit of laughter.
"Indeed! Your luck knows no bounds!" Halls said as he continued his laughter.
"Aye, his luck is just too good brother! Enough to reach the apex! Ahahaha!" Guan Yu followed up.
Valentine had a defeated and gloomy look on his face. Usually, his luck was indeed very good! But for some reason, the number he rolled this time did not reflect that.
'Some people are just born under an unlucky star.'
First, Valentine picked the worst wooden door, and now he actually rolled a 1 for a rare piece of equipment!
Zi Yi had a slight smirk on her face, "Next time, you should not brag about your luck and maybe you'll have better fortune."
"Ugh..." Valentine groaned.
Luna rolled and received a perfect 100, the complete opposite of Valentine's roll. It appeared that Luna was the lucky one!
Izroth handed the Silverline Halo over to Luna, "It now belongs to you."
"Just a little luck is all." Luna said as she graciously accepted the item from Izroth and immediately equipped it. A silver halo formed above her head and emitted a very faint yet strong aura. Its appearance suited Luna who was a healer quite well.
The next rare item was one that everyone present was capable of using. However, the two who could use it the most were Izroth, and Zi Yi. Unlike all the other pieces of equipment, the Adaptation Cape did not have a type listed; not even as Unknown.
Name: Adaptation Cape(Rare)
Level: 25
Requirements: None
Adapt(Passive): Increases the user's highest base stat by 100 points.
Silverline's Life Essence Magic(Passive): Grants the user +3% «Lifesteal».
'A lifesteal item?'
Izroth was pleasantly surprised by the lifesteal passive listed on the Adaptation Cape. He had not come across any items which provided lifesteal within RML as of yet. He understood that although such items existed, they were incredibly difficult to obtain. Even without its Adapt passive, the lifesteal alone would make this item worthy of its rare item grade.
After a small discussion, Luna decided to forfeit her roll for the item. She felt it would be unfair to everyone else if she rolled and managed to obtain both rare items. If Izroth had chosen not to include her she would have understood. But, she had made her own decision which everyone respected.
Everyone, except Luna, rolled in order to acquire the Adaptation Cape.
〈System Alert: Player Halls has rolled 35.〉
〈System Alert: Player Zi Yi has rolled 76.〉
〈System Alert: Player Guan Yu has rolled 14.〉
〈System Alert: Player Valentine has rolled 99.〉
"I guess he was telling the truth after all!" Halls was surprised that Valentine was able to roll a 99 after his previous bad luck of rolling a 1.
Zi Yi sighed helplessly, "It seems like this item will go to the magic freak." She had hoped to get her hands on the Adaptation Cape, however, it seemed that lady luck was not on her side today.
"I told you, my luck with rolls is quite good." Valentine said in a cheerful tone with his gloomy mood no longer present.
The last person to roll was Izroth. Though the chances of him beating out Valentine roll were extremely low and no one really expected him to roll for 100. Well, Halls and Luna did have a strange feeling about something. They felt as though Valentine was going to learn the hard way that Izroth's fortune was not something so easily overcome.
〈System Alert: Player Izroth has rolled 100.〉
Valentine stood there silently staring at the number 100 as if it were taunting him. He did not know whether to laugh or cry at rolling a 99 just to lose in the end.
Halls shook his head and went over to pat Valentine on his shoulder. "Don't feel too bad. When it comes to luck, my brother is invincible."
Guan Yu laughed and said, "Aye, it seems like the only person who can match that invincible luck is big sis Luna! Ahahaha!"
Izroth gave a carefree smile before he equipped the Adaptation Cape. At first, the cape was without color. However, just a few seconds later it began to transform and match the color of his armor. Since Izroth's highest base stat was his attack, it was increased by 100 points thanks to the effect of the Adaptation Cape.
"You look even mightier than before, brother!" Halls said giving a thumbs up.
Izroth inwardly shook his head as he picked up the remaining items. Since he and Luna had already acquired two rare items, neither of them bothered competing over the Concentrated Chaos Cores. One of the items went to Halls, another to Valentine, and the last to Zi Yi.
Although they were not as valuable as a rare item, they would still fetch a good price due to being a reagent that was not readily available. Those tops guilds would love to get their hands on something like that.
When Izroth saw one of the last two items, the Liquid of Silverline, he immediately became interested in it.
'This is... Yes, that just might work.'
From the moment Izroth read the usage of the Liquid of Silverline, he knew that he had to acquire it. Of course, he would not just take it as he believed in fairness, but he would make an offer to everyone.
"For this Liquid of Silverline, I hope to obtain this for personal matters. I will not force you to give it to me for free, as I am willing to pay a fair price for it. Of course, if you still wish to roll then I will not discourage you to do so." Izroth said.
Everyone was a bit stunned that Izroth personally requested an item drop. They did not know its exact usage, but if Izroth wanted it then it must have been for a good reason.
"I don't have a profession so it doesn't really matter much to me." Guan Yu was the first to respond.
"I am quite interested in the item, however, as long as the exchange is fair I have no problems. After all, I simply wanted it for knowledge purposes, not anything else." Valentine said.
Everyone else also felt that Izroth deserved to be given face. If he said he needed it, then they would not compete with him for it. Most people in Izroth's position as the party leader who contributed so much would not even bother asking and just take it. They respected Izroth for being impartial and fair in his distribution of the loot.
Izroth nodded, "When I'm successful, I will reimburse all of you as promised." Even though most of them were willing to just give it to him, Izroth did not want to take advantage of their kindness. He would repay them properly when he got the chance.
Izroth grabbed the last item which he had been most interested in, the Chaos Fragment.
"This last item is something all of us can-" Just as Izroth was ready to speak about the matter regarding the Chaos Fragment, Valentine interrupted him and spoke in a hastened manner.
"Something's happening!" Valentine shouted. He seemed startled by something, but no one knew what that was.
"Hm?" Izroth looked over towards Valentine. He understood that there must have been a good reason for Valentine suddenly cutting him off. After all, Valentine was a lot of things, but he was not disrespectful.
Zi Yi looked around and noticed that there was nothing strange anywhere close by. "What's happening? I don't see anything."
"The black specks that I mentioned earlier are changing!" Valentine said, however, before anyone else could ask about it, black bolts of lightning suddenly struck down from the sky and hit everyone present. Everything occurred within the fraction of a second and no one had any time to react.
Ziiiiiiiiiiiit!
The spot that Izroth and his party stood in just a few moments ago was now just another empty space within the Chaotic Dogma Realm. Every last one of them had mysteriously vanished.
...
'What just happened?'
One second Izroth was with his party, but the next moment he had suddenly appeared in an unfamiliar location. None of his party members were near him as they had been just moments ago. He stood there with the Chaos Fragment still within his hand. Izroth set the Chaos Fragment into his inventory for now and decided to deal with it later.
"It's you!" A voice filled with shock sounded out a few meters from behind Izroth.
It was a voice that sounded quite familiar and carried a certain level of elegance to it. But it also currently had a hint of frustration drifting about in it as though the speaker was stressed out about something.
'It's her.'
When Izroth turned around, he saw the woman he met in front of the gates of the Amaharpe palace. It was Zi Yi's elder sister, Mariposa. However, she did not appear to be in the best state right now.
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〈System Alert: You have been affected by a Chaotic Shift.〉
"Where did you come from? Where are my sister and your party?" Mariposa was startled by the sudden appearance of Izroth. But, she was concerned that since Izroth was alone, Zi Yi may have met with some kind of misfortune within the Chaotic Dogma Realm.
During her time here, Mariposa understood the potential danger of this place. There were quite a few times when she believed that her party would suffer some kind of major loss. However, they had been fortunate and skilled enough to come out on top in every situation they ran into so far.
At least, that's how it was until they came across Silent Step and the other members of Fatal Touch. One of her party members was ambushed and killed without mercy. After that, Silent Step made some bizarre transformation and killed another member of her party.
Mariposa did not understand his reasons for doing so, but she did not care. In her mind, Fatal Touch was now a sworn enemy of her Sleeping Gardenia guild. While she would not purposely go out of her way to antagonize Fatal Touch before this encounter, they had made the first move and so she no longer cared about giving them face.
"I was separated from everyone else and was transported here without my knowledge or consent. As for your sister, I assume the same thing has happened to her. Where I came from... Well, that's something I'm unsure of myself. Though I believe it has something to do with being affected by what's called a Chaotic Shift." Izroth spoke in a calm and steady manner.
"Chaotic Shift...?" Mariposa muttered to herself. Wait a second, Aegis did ask her before if she was capable of locating someone using her spatial magic. At that time, she did not understand why he had asked such a question. But, with the sudden appearance of Izroth and given the information he just provided, it most likely had something to do with this so-called Chaotic Shift.
"Then, I think you're in the same situation as him." Mariposa pointed over in the distance.
Cling! Crash!
Izroth heard the sound of fighting nearby. However, since it had nothing to do with him and he was speaking to Mariposa, he did not bother turning his attention to it immediately. But for some reason, he could sense two familiar presences. One of those two familiar presences were very vague as though he had only come across it once or twice.
But, the other presence strong as if he had come into contact with it for an extended period of time. Izroth could not help but to inwardly frown when he fully grasped the second presence. At first, he thought that maybe it was just because of the interference of the Chaotic Dogma Realm that he mistook the presence for something else, but now he was sure.
The second presence Izroth felt belonged to that of a Shadahi! How were the Shadahi linked to this place? Or better yet, how did they get into a place like the Chaotic Dogma Realm? Weren't they all sealed within the Shadahi Realm?
'This presence feels like that of a Shadahi, but it's a little off. It's as if the aura of the Shadahi has been diluted and the amount of dark cold energy present is nowhere near as powerful.'
When Izroth turned to look in the direction Mariposa pointed towards, he saw a humanoid figure with red skin and demonic red eyes. That humanoid figure emitted the Shadahi-like aura he had sensed. But when Izroth examined the humanoid figure, he was surprised to find out that it was not a monster, but rather a player!
'Why does a player have the power of the Shadahi?'
There was also something else that bothered Izroth. How did that player manage to get into the Chaotic Dogma Realm without his Shadahi ties being discovered? After all, the characters who were behind sending them into the Chaotic Dogma Realm were all legendary figures. They were not naive and would not just trust anyone to accomplish this mission.
Izroth felt uneasy and things did not seem right to him no matter how he thought about it. It all just did not add up.
'It seems the Shadahi has already found a way to start spreading their influence through players. Are things already starting to move into place behind the scenes?'
There was nothing Izroth could do at the moment but speculate the multiple possibilities. However, that would get him nowhere with his current set of circumstances. Right now, the most important thing was to regroup with his party members.
Izroth then turned his attention towards the other player who fought against the Shadahi-like player. This was someone he seemed to be running into quite often as of late.
'I didn't expect to run into him here. It appears he was also separated from his party through a Chaotic Shift, according to Mariposa.'
Izroth was referring to Aegis, who calmly stood before the Shadahi-like player with one sword in his hand. Although he looked completely defenseless at a glance, he had absolutely no openings whatsoever. It was the mark of a master swordsman!
"Do you know the two players fighting over there?" Izroth asked Mariposa.
Mariposa nodded, "The one with the red hair name is Aegis if I remember correctly. He is a member of the famed guild, Heaven's Law. Well, if you can call twelve members a guild. They are a group of extremely skilled and powerful players. No one knows their origins, but their power is the real deal." she explained.
Her voice then grew cold as she continued, "The other one is called Silent Step. He is the leader of an organization called Fatal Touch. You can think of them as mercenaries with no sense of honor, willing to do anything to further their own interest."
It was obvious from Mariposa's attitude that she did not think very highly of Silent Step.
Aegis felt someone else enter into his range of perception as he fought against Silent Step. He glanced over and saw Izroth standing there with a carefree expression on his face. "It's him... Did he also experience that phenomenon?" Aegis muttered to himself.
When Silent Step saw that Aegis had let his attention stray away from their fight, this angered him and he felt as if he was being looked down upon. "You dare to look away during a fight with me?!"
Who was he? He was the number one assassin! No one had ever dared to look away from him during a fight for fear of instantly regretting it. Being at the top for so long, he had gotten used to that sense of superiority and level of respect. He would ignore others, but not the other way around.
Silent Step vanished from the spot he stood in just moments ago. It was an empowered version of a rogue's Stealth skill called Vanish. Unlike Stealth, Vanish did not impede a user in any way and allowed for them to move almost freely throughout the battlefield.
However, while Silent Step may give many others a difficult time with his mastery of stealth-type skills, his worse possible matchup was Aegis.
The lemniscate's which formed Aegis' pupils began to glow with a faint aura constantly traveling along its lines. To everyone else, Silent Step was completely invisible and could not be seen at all.
But, in Aegis' eyes, he could see everything with great clarity. This was the power of a unique trait granted to him by the system when he first started RML. The name of the trait was the All-Seeing Eyes. Aegis was actually the very first player within RML to receive a trait from the system.
With the power of his All-Seeing Eyes, Aegis did not have any trouble leveling up or overcoming difficult battles. It was due to the amazing effects the All-Seeing Eyes bestowed upon him.
At the moment, Silent Step was closing in rapidly on Aegis. His movements were made in such a way that they limited the number of motions required and quicken his speed in reaching a specific point.
He held a dagger in his hand that was pitch black with specks of white aura floating around it. It appeared as though the weapon itself was also influenced by Shadahi energy.
Woosh! Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!
The four players that were a part of Silent Step's party launched a pincer attack on Aegis. Their goal was to occupy his attention while Silent Step waited for the perfect moment to strike. As they surrounded Aegis, Mariposa started to grow restless.
Although she offered to assist him, Aegis insisted that he could handle it alone. However, his current situation did not look very favorable.
'They won't touch him.'
Even though the players going up against Aegis were not weak by any means, the gap was still too large between the two involved parties. Izroth had a brief encounter with Aegis, but he was able to somewhat grasp his level of strength and skill.
The players who were performing the pincer attack had good coordination, but their individual skills left much to be desired compared to Aegis.
Soon enough, Aegis was locked in a fight of five against one. Though, one of them was hiding and waiting to strike. As the four players slashed out towards Aegis and threw out multiple skills, Aegis seemed to be able to predict their movements and always just barely avoid their attacks.
That was not all, he would strike out with deadly precision with his counterattacks and the amount of damage he dealt was not light.
Aegis' sword moved with such precision and grace that it almost appeared as if the sword itself was performing a type of dance. However, it was not a peaceful dance, but rather a waltz of death!
"Ah! No... All of my hard work!" One of the players who was attacking Aegis yelled out as Aegis' sword swept across their body and dealt the killing blow. Their character soon dissipated and experienced an existence wipe. Just like that, he had lost all the work he put into his character on RML.
The moment Aegis' sword reaped the life that player, Silent Step took the opportunity to commence his ambush from behind Aegis. After all, what better time to attack then when an enemy had a taste of victory? However, Silent Step had grossly underestimated Aegis.
Aegis gaze was locked onto Silent Step from the moment he appeared. This alarmed Silent Step and he wanted to fall back to try again, however, it was too late to call off his attack.
Swoosh!
Silent Step's dagger hit nothing but empty air as Aegis successfully side-stepped the attack.
Aegis swiftly struck Silent Step's body three times with his sword which caused him to be knocked back a few meters from the impact. This caused the other three remaining players to temporarily fall back.
By the time Silent Step regained his balance, he had an ugly look on his face. How was this guy so strong?! Even without this transformation, Silent Step was still a top tier player. Therefore, when he used this transformation no one should be able to harm him in the slightest. However, this guy was a monster amongst monsters.
Silent Step grit his teeth, "Retreat!" He decided that the best course of action, for now, was to temporarily retreat and regroup. After that, he would another time to deal with that member of Heaven's Law.
The three members followed Silent Step's orders without hesitation and immediately retreated. A part of them was terrified of losing everything just as two of their other members had already done. So when Silent Step gave the order to retreat, they were obviously relieved.
"Just you wait! One way or another..." Silent Step did not bother finishing as he soon disappeared and retreated along with his party members.
Aegis sheathed his sword and had an unbothered expression on his face. "Just a bunch of dogs that only knows how to bark." He then turned his attention towards Mariposa and then Izroth.
"Our paths seem to cross quite often as of late, Aegis." Izroth said in a carefree tone of voice.
"You two know each other?" Mariposa was shocked. How did Izroth know a member of Heaven's Law?
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